THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2007
NEWS
SPEAKER
7A
MLB Umpire overcomes paralysis
Speaker never gives up after being shot helping stop muggers
BY JEFF DETERS
jdeters@kansan.com
In the dark, early morning hours on July 7, 1991, Steve Palermo's life changed forever. A bullet pierced through his kidney and abdomen and cut through his spinal cord and vertebrae. Palermo fell to the ground, instantly paralyzed.
"Oh, boy," he thought to himself. "Do you know what? Something just got taken away from me that I don't know if I'll ever get back again."
she said.
Palermo, 57, a former Major League Baseball umpire and now a motivational speaker, will give a speech about overcoming adversity at 7 tonight in Woodruff Auditorium in the Kansas Union. Free vouchers for the program are available at the Student Union Activities office.
The fifth shot hit Palermo in the back at the waist level as he tried to get people down to the ground. He remembers the searing hot pain.
J. I. O'Toole-Curran, Memorial Unions program director, said Palermo's speech should resonate with students.
On that July night, after
umpiring at third base during a
California Angels-Texas Rangers
game in Dallas, Palermo and a
few friends went to a restaurant.
At about 12:45 a.m., Palermo
and friends were eating and
winding down from the game.
That stopped when an employee
yelled out that two women
"He has got a message to send."
were being beaten and mugged outside. Palermo and his friends rushed out to help.
"Look out! Here they come!" yelled one of the
attackers. Two muggers sped off in a get-away car. Palermo and a friend chased after and took down the third assailant. Another friend dialed 911 in a nearby convenience store.
As they waited for police to arrive, the car that sped away returned. Palermo could see the .32-caliber gun emerge from the car window. Several shots were fired at him and his friends.
One of Palermo's friends was shot three times, in the throat, arm and leg. A fourth
shot missed and hit a wall. The fifth shot hit Palermo in the back at waist level as he tried to get people down to the ground. He remembers the searing hot pain.
"It felt like there was a rock underneath my spine," Palermo said.
Palermo was rushed to Parkland Memorial Hospital in
Dallas, lucky to be alive. His wife, Debbie, got the phone call a short time later and made it to the hospital at 8 a.m. Two days later, the neurosurgeon told
Palermo
"I'm going to prove you wrong." Palermo told him.
her that her husband would never walk again. The surgeon then told Palermo at his bedside.
After four seemingly endless months of rehabilitation, Palermo, who was once confined to a wheelchair, returned home to Overland Park and continued therapy there. He learned to walk again, but he had to use a cane to do so.
"It doesn't look like an oil painting." Palermo said.
In 1994 Palermo was appointed special assistant to the commissioner of Major League Baseball and in 2000 he was appointed as a supervisor of umpires. But that's not enough for Palermo. He wants to be an umpire again.
"That's a goal I haven't reached yet," he said. "That was taken away from me, and I'd like to regain that."
KU baseball coach Ritch Price said that seeing Palermo back on the field again would be great, and not only for baseball.
"He serves as an inspiration to anybody in any walk of life," Price said.
Palermo also has an endowment fund for spinal cord research at the University of Kansas Medical Center.
"I just want to find a cure for this," he said.
Palermo said progress was being made every day in spinal cord research, and he offered advice for anyone who has a goal they want to achieve.
"Always follow your dreams," Palermo said. "Because it is possible that it can become a reality."
Edited by Jeff Briscoe
》 ACTIVISM
CAMPUS Air Force ROTC students to practice navigation
CRIME
6 p.m. today at Robinson Field. This is one of several activities AFROTC holds each year to help students gain survival skills.
Courtney Condron
The KU Public Safety Office gave the following tips:
• Lock doors at all times.
• Record the serial numbers of valuable items.
• If you're at home when a burglar enters, do not confront the burglar.
STAND is a student anti-genocide coalition with more than 700 high school and college chapters throughout the nation. Sean Redding, communications coordinator for the national chapter of STAND, said students had been instrumental in bringing genocide to national attention.
Air Force ROTC students will be completing land navigation training today by finding their way from one point to another with only a compass and a man
D.C. conference puts Darfur in the spotlight Local organization promotes awareness plans to bring national speaker to campus
"This is a skill that everyone in the Air Force should possess if they ever do get lost," said Stephanie Langley, AFROTC public affairs officer.
CRIME Student reports burglary Sunday at Oliver Hall
BY SASHA ROE
sroe@kansan.com
Freshmen and sophomores will be participating in the event as an introduction to the school. The event will be held from 4 to
Redding, a sophomore at George Washington University. said when students lobby it made an impression on elected officials.
of the KU Public Safety Office said there were no suspects and that the investigation was ongoing
Skoglund said that although no students from the University of Kansas were going to Washington, D.C., he hoped to send students to other STAND conferences.
Students who can't travel to Washington, D.C., this weekend can get involved in the campus organization, Fight Ignorance of Global Humanitarian Threats. Mark Skoglund, Olathe junior and president of FIGHT, said the group had a partnership with STAND and he was interested in following the conference because of the work the groups did. Skoglund said an important part of the conference would be the networking skills students could use to mobilize other campuses and to make future efforts more successful. He said the knowledge students learned at the conference would help them in future lobbying.
Someone stole the student's laptop, valued at $1,000, from a fourth-floor room while the student was sleeping, according to the report. Capt. Schuyler Bailey
A student reported an aggravated burglary at Oliver Hall Sunday, according to police reports.
Mark Dent
More than 400 students will travel to Washington, D.C., this weekend to tell their elected officials that this is the year to end genocide. The group, Students Taking Action Now: Darfur, is holding its first national conference from Saturday to Monday.
"It's mostly an impressive factor," Redding said. "They notice students because they act to get it done."
Redding said the STAND conference was an opportunity for students to learn more about the situation in Darfur and to speak to politicians on Capitol Hill.
During the first two days of the conference, students will attend workshops led by Darfur experts, genocide survivors and STAND's national leaders. Redding said the organization was excited to have human rights activist John Prendergast speak to students. Prendergast worked in the White House and State Department under President Clinton and also co-founded ENOUGH, an anti-genocide organization.
On Monday, students will put their knowledge to work as they lobby on Capitol Hill. Redding said students would split into groups and attend meetings with their representative's foreign policy assistants to push for Darfur legislation.
Karac Vander Yacht, Salina Junior, said FIGHT had held successful demonstrations. He said last year's "die-in" got a lot of attention when students lay in front of Strong Hall to represent those who died in Uganda, Darfur and other regions of Sudan. Vander Yacht said this year the group hoped to hold a "Nothing but Nets" benefit for countries with malaria and was working to bring John Prendergast to campus.
Redding said the STAND conference had filled its capacity of 400 participants, but encouraged students to register on the waiting list because spots could open up.
For more information about STAND, visit www.standnow.org FIGHT will meet at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Walnut Room in the Kansas Union.
Edited by Elizabeth Cattell