4A
Monday, October 21, 1996
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VIEWPOINT
Athletic department should increase benefits to students
For many athletes at the University of Kansas, learning is made easier by the Hale Achievement Center in Parrott Athletic Center. Computers, tutors and other resources at the center assist students in their academic endeavors. While giving athletes with busy extracurricular lives an edge in their studies is necessary and commendable, the Athletic Department should help provide academic assistance to the general student body.
The department has a budget of about $16 million each year, said Dean Buchan, sports information director. While much of this money supports the 16 varsity sports that generate no revenue, athletics already indirectly benefit the student body. For example, when the KU basketball team plays on CBS, each team receives a Chevrolet Most Valuable Player award. With this award, a $5,000 contribution is made to the general scholarship fund of each school. With six appearances on CBS last year, $30,000 was donated to the KU general scholarship fund. But more can be done.
The department should not be required to finance an entire academic assistance program. However, tutoring programs, more computers and academic and career advising should be provided at the same level for the general student body. All students could benefit from these services.
Athletes should be given extra academic attention because of the pressures they face in sports performance and the time they invest in practice. However, the academic support system should be replicated for the general student population. T-shirts or mini footballs thrown into the crowd are a far cry from what the department could — and should — give back to the University.
GERRY DOYLE FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
CIA operatives' drug ties need full investigation by Congress
In the past few weeks, stories have run in local and national newspapers about CIA operatives' involvement in the spread of crack cocaine in the United States. These articles don't implicate the CIA outright, but few attempt to explain that in the original article, which ran in the San Jose Mercury News, no explicit connection was made between the CIA and those selling cocaine in the United States. As a result, the cry for action against the CIA has arisen, independent of any hard evidence against it.
The article details certain members of the Contras in Nicaragua as possibly importing cocaine to drug lords in the United States — most notably in Los Angeles — to finance weapons sales. While the CIA could possibly, and indeed plausibly, be involved with these drug sales, an uninformed persecution of the agency is not the way to get to the bottom of the matter.
Perhaps the only way the situation will be resolved is if an outside investigation is conducted. This investigation will help restore some of the public's respect for the government.
While it is a sad commentary on American society that CIA operatives could be linked to such a culturally destructive force as crack, the situation must be viewed objectively. Until an investigation is started, some people may believe that a cover-up is going on. The only way to achieve closure is for an investigation to uncover what has occurred.
GERRY DOYLE FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
KANSAN STAFF
AMANDA TRAUGHBER
Editor
CRAIG LANG
Managing editor
MATT HOOD
Associate managing editor for design
KIMBERLY CRABTREE
CHARITY JEFFRIES
News editors
DARCI L. McLAIN
SARA ROSE
Public relations directors
Campus  Susanna Loof
Jason Strait
Amy McVey
Editorial  John Collar
Nicole Kennedy
Features  Adam Ward
Bill Petulla
Associate sports  Carlyn Foster
Online editor  David L. Teksa
Photo  Rich Devkin
Graphics  Nicholas Mauzer
Andy Rohrbach
Special sections  Amy McVey
Wire  Debbie Staine
KAREN GERSCH
Business manager
HEALY SMART
Retail sales manager
TOM EBLEN
General manager, news adviser
JAY STEINER
Sales and marketing adviser
JUSTIN KNUPP
Technology coordinator
Business Staff
Campus mgr...Mark Ozimek
Regional mgr...Dennis Haupt
Assistant Retail mgr...Dana Centeno
National mgr...Nate Kye
Production mgr...Heather Danes
Production mgrs...Dan Kopec
Lisa Quebbeman
Marketing director...Eric Johnson
Creative director...David Lowe
Sales manager...Shelly Wachter
Mass Impact mgr...Dena Piscotte
Internet mgr...Steve Sanger
Jeff MacNelly/ CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Presidential debates show emptiness in U.S. politics
HARTFORD, Conn. — I felt a strange sense of boredom as I sat in the balcony of the Bushnell Auditorium, which overlooks Capital Avenue in Hartford, Conn., on the night before the first presidential debate. Strange, because I was sitting in a place that millions would have given anything to occupy. The only sounds were the few cars that passed below and the silky sound of the flags moving in the wind. The sun was setting.
I went back into the upper level of the theater where the Commission on Presidential Debates had set up camp. The room was regally appointed, with beautiful wood paneling on the walls. It was the kind of place in which a treaty could be signed in 19th century Europe. Commission workers seemed to take
Inside the theater, built in the 1920s art decor style, the stage seemed wholly incongruous with the rest of the theater. So did the people. A man brushed past me muttering, "If they can't do it, we're screwed." A woman, part of a tour group, stood with her children and said in hushed, hallowed tones, "Look honey. That's where Dan Rather will sit!" A Secret Service agent glared in the corner.
What could I possibly convey to anyone about what I was feeling? My earlier anger had turned to boredom. The thought of shaking the president's hand seemed to grow less significant. The sun was gone.
A flood of lights shone on the streets. Not from the windows of the beautiful Bushnell, but from the electric buzz of the technodemocracy — the international press corps.
GUEST COLUMNIST
great pains to view the world on the street below with distant gazes and great disdain. The air was filled with toxic levels of haughty air.
Everything seemed wrong.
The media, the woman and her children, even the commission seemed to think that they, not the
candidates or the people on the street, were the main event.
On the street below, I met three women, all mothers and all ready to protest the omission of Perot from the debates. "This isn't a democracy," one of them said. Another, who, as it turns out, was from Kansas, said. "These people don't care about anything. Ross does." I responded that Perot was a lunatic. My patience was waning for those sily enough to think that someone rich enough to be annoying on network television every night was worthy of their support.
The reality of modern America is this: Much is said and nothing is done. Clarity has been sacrificed for expedition. It is ironic that in the "information age," no one knows anything. The sun will rise tomorrow. No one wants the light.
"Poverty is really overrated." That was a comment I heard the next day at lunch. "I don't know why all these politicians keep talking about it." No. No one of any real consequence said that they were sick of all the "poor talk." It was merely the occupant of the seat across from me. The lunchtime conversation was poor. It was dull, dumb and devoid of the kind of discussion one would hope to hear on the day of a presidential debate.
attended a reception given at the ITT Hartford building. On the 22nd floor, I ate the best food and had a glass of expensive wine. I looked down on Hartford. From on high, I saw the slums that from 22 floors away seemed isolated. Hartford is like most American cities — it looks better from a distance.
The evening of the debate, 1
A charter bus took attendees of the reception to the debate. While waiting in line to get into the Bushnell, I saw a group of anti-abortion activists. Perhaps the most poignant memory I have is that of a small boy, he could have been no more than 5 or 6, holding a large picture of a dismembered fetus. I felt as though I had stepped into a slow-motion video edited by Oliver Stone.
Walking from the bus to the debate, I had the opportunity to talk with novelist Jeffrey Archer. Inside the hall, I met and talked with former U.N. Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick. Then the "debate" started.
"I like and respect you, Mr. President, but you are an immoral hillbilly." That was the substance of Dole's attack. "Thanks, Mr. Dole, Dole you, too. But you are a prince in a suit," was usually Clinton's rebuttal. I longed to hear just one well-structured attack. But who am I kidding? Modern politics begets no logic, only semantic silliness.
Tom Moore is a Lawrence senior in history, journalism and Russian.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
'Being gay and greek headline inaccurate
A headline in the *Kansan* on Oct. 14 unfortunately reads, "Being gay and greek 'not OK.'" This headline poorly represents the gist of the program "“Coming out as gay in the greek system”—or the article on it. As the article itself reflects, the program was not nearly so simplistic. Only one panelist said her sorority, on the whole, treated her badly after she came out of the closet. Two panelists, on the other hand, said peers continued to support them,
overall, after they publicly confirmed statements about their sexual orientation. Other attendees, who were experts on Greek organizations, said that both homophobia and support tend to characterize what happens when someone in the Greek system announces that no, they are not straight. The gist of the program was that being gay in the Greek system is largely more OK than "not OK." Moreover, it's much more OK than most readers might expect, and thus, it would be much more newsworthy for a headline to say that "Being gay and Greek is sometimes OK" One
main point of the discussion at this program was how to help all greek organizations learn what the best of them know fairly well; how to support all participants.
Just as a few other campus agencies, the Multicultural Resource Center is featuring crucial programs on sensitive topics. The Kansan is doing a much better job of reporting these. Thank you! Please continue to improve — especially on the headlines.
Evan Heimlich program assistant, Multicultural Resource Center
FATE
SAYS HERE THAT DUE TO A DECREASE IN BUSINESS AFTER ALL THIS BAD PRESS, THEYVE DONE AWAY WITH THEIR STRICT MEMBERSHIP RULES
Descending on the National Mall from communities across the country, families, friends and lovers courageously celebrated the lives of those lost to AIDS. In nearly 40,000 panels, the diversity of the human
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Under the filtered sun of an autumn weekend, the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt Display testified to the awesome ability of humanity to mobilize good will and resistance in the face of AIDS.
AIDS quilt holds tapestry of love,unity
experience is brought to life, all of those lives ending with a similar fate. However, allow me to leave to the panels themselves any attempt to share the pain and celebration the quilt stimulates.
GUEST COLUMNIST
"Losing love is like a window in your heart ... Everybody sees your pain. I love you, Mother."
The statistics on AIDS are discouraging, and its impact is growing. Is America "lost" to AIDS? I refuse to believe so. However devastating an existence with AIDS may be, the quilt asserts the ability of humanity to unite; it is an affirmation of life. Through this demonstration of fellowship and compassion, I believe we will survive.
"Lost."
AIDS may spread its wrath to more friends and families, but the quilt is quietly preserving accomplishments of thousands in panels decorated with love, laughter, anger and survival.
Jeremy Lind is an Overland Park Junior in environmental studies.
Rudolf Nureyev, Anthony Perkins, Ryan White, Pedro Zamora, Freddie "Mercury" Bulsara. These individuals represent only a few of the nearly 320,000 deaths related to AIDS in the United States as of Dec. 31, 1995. Our lives have been enriched by their accomplishments; the horrible loss of humanity suffered by our society becomes alarmingly evident.
"The presence of that absence is everywhere."
The quilt is a medium through which families may release their anguish constructively. In the struggle to accept the declining health and the approaching death of a loved one, families are denied the opportunity to commemorate a life cut short by tragedy. Creating a panel for the quilt keeps a loved one's spirit and energy alive and allows families to return a love not forgotten.
Ask people who have lost someone to AIDS, and they will attest to the incisive wounds remaining long after death. Feeling empty and cheated, they have feelings of unfinished love and admiration that are unbearable in many instances. The unconquerable feeling of loss is easier when you infect a fading friend with the eternal grace of your love.
"Love 'em while they're here, Love 'em while they're near, tears don't mean nothin' when they've disapeared."
"Metal hard and cold ... beaten — our anger about AIDS ... untouched — free silences."
With a blank gaze and a somber expression, 1 shared in this resentment as I captured my reflection in one of many metal squares decorating the panel.
It is a disgrace to our society that many people with AIDS are neglected by friends and families, discriminated against in insurance, housing and jobs, and emotionally and psychologically abused by an ignorant public. AIDS education must be expanded drastically to combat these injustices because awareness ribbons may win a battle but not the war.
By Shawn Trimble