4A
Friday, October 21, 1994
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Life is a road trip: hang on and enjoy the ride
EDITORIAL EDITOR
DONELLA HEARNE
Fun, sun, adventure and romance haven't escaped your grasp, they're hiding in the real world.
Do you remember that great trip you were going to take in high school? Just you and your friends, some chips and sodas and the open road.
Did you do it?
I didn't.
This was the plan: Tracey, Sheila,
Angie, Maria and I were going to buy
an old Volkswagen bus. We were
going to put gas in it, paint dazzles on it
and then drive it as far as it would take us. We were heading west for fun, sun,
adventure and romance. We were going to take our destinies in hand.
We were going to Hollywood to be
discovered. We were going to become
the envy of all our friends.
Instead, I worked at Olan Mills
hawking photo plans and hassling people on the telephone until I moved up to receptionist. Then I went to Germany.
OK, so Germany was a great adventure in my life. The problem? Security. I had too much of it. I had a host family to make sure I was wearing warm clothes, and I had a program representative to make sure that I wasn't trying to ruin the rest of my life in the space of a year.
Where's the super action in that?
Huh? Tell me, where?
Tracey, Sheila, Angie and Maria were all gone. Some got married.
some were just away at school. There was no great adventure. There was no fun and sun. There was definitely no romance. Instead, I had a string of bad relationships, bad jobs and bad luck.
But I didn't even have a fake I.D.
And the only road trips I took were to my folks' house to贮 the refrigerator. I was hopeless, downhearted and blue. If I had been legal, I would've gone to a honky-tonk bar and drowned my tears in beer.
Now, before this turns into a No. 1 country tune, I would like to say that I'm not calling my life a dull failure yet. I'm not going to jump in the Arkansas River with bricks tied to my feet. (Unless Mr. Big comes to collect on those gambling debts. I'm a Lotto-
holic) I don't have suicidal tendencies. I hope.
Even though I'm not the spry 18-year-old pup I once was, I'm still a young woman. I can still stay up all night every now and then.
And, damn it, I've been bitter for so long about that "lost road trip of dreams" that I forgot to enjoy the adventures of the present and those yet to come.
To hell with high school fantasies.
On to college fantasies. After the last day of finals I will embark on an adventure called the real world. I will meet new people, I will learn, and I will make minimal amounts of money and be happy about it.
I may not buy that Volkswagen bus,
and I probably won't go to Hollywood and break onto the big screen, but I will be happy.
I feel like my career is a kind of Volkswagen bus, and I'm just going to see where it takes me. My Hollywood will be a home where I am adored by my future husband and children.
I am positive.
There will be road trips.
There will be summers, many hope. There will be sun, adventure, romance and a lot of fun.
And if it doesn't work out in the next thirty years?
There's always retirement.
VIEWPOINT
Donella Heame is a Wichita senior in journalism.
Application for chancellor could be seen as too risky
In searching for a new chancellor, the University faces its most critical decision in years. However, under the current guidelines, the ability
to form a suitable pool of candidates may be hampered.
The Regents' plan to release the names of the
This is the same threat of failure that would scare away some potential can-
treated with distrust and his loyalty would be questioned.
CHANCELLOR SEARCH
The Boards of Regents should keep the
names of the five finalists secret so that potential applicants are not dissuaded.
five finalists for the job poses many potential problems. While it would be nice for the public to know who the leading candidates are, the plan discourages potential candidates who may not want to risk being identified but not selected.
The Regents need to change their policy and keep the five finalists secret. This would encourage the most wellrounded pool possible and would not deter any of the current applicants.
d i a t e s . Instead of attracting university presidents or other individuals in high positions, candidates with
If you think that revealing the finalists is necessary, imagine a hypothetical, not to mention frightening, case. Suppose Roy Williams was interested in coaching at Colorado. After an initial selection process, Williams was publicly named as one of the five finalists. However, CU decided to give the job to Bobby Knight instead of Williams. Back here, Williams would likely be
much less to lose would be inclined to apply.
Although the deadline for nominations was last Saturday, the committee could set a new deadline if it wants more applicants. Once the Regents change their plan, then a new deadline is vital. Without an opportunity to apply, changes to the "Final Five" policy are trivial.
While extending the application period would delay the eventual selection, there is no reason to make a hasty decision. Selecting a chancellor is not a quick decision. Chancellor Gene Budig was here for 13 years and most chancellors have stayed for at least 10 years.
There is no doubt that the Board of Regents intends to select the best possible candidate. However, the process that they intend to follow is inadvertently weeding out some of the best possible applicants.
RICHARD BOYD FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
KANSAN STAFF
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Letters should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 200 words. They must include the name, name of instructor, name of student, affiliated with the University of Kansas, institution of study, nonacademic, or faculty or staff position.
The Kansan reserves the right to reject or edit letters, guest columns and cartoons. They can be mailed or brought to the Kansan newsroom, 111 Stauffer-Flint Hall.
Guest columns should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 700 words. The writer will be photographed.
Matt Hood / KANSAN
Journal-World article misses on correctness
"In the beginning was the word."
(John 1:1). I love words, and for years I have pondered over the semantics of this sentence. I pondered over it more after I read an article titled "American values are baffling." published in the *Lawrence Journal-World* on Sept. 2, 1994. The article's author, Russell Baker, wrote, "What an amazing country. We crossed 434 miles of it by land and sea the other day and ended in a hotel room for the handicapped, who are not called handicapped anymore. Amazingly, almost everything is being renamed. In Connecticut, we resisted a chance to visit a new gambling hall where Indians, recently renamed Native Americans..."
Yes, what an amazing country indeed, and what a baffling set of values! But what is more baffling to me is the dogmatic, authoritarian, reactionary and contemptuous attitude that Mr. Baker manifests in his column.
The fact that Columbus made a mistake in 1492 when he found himself in the continent we now call America is no secret. He thought that he was in India, so he called the inhabitants of these lands "Indians." Our mistake, 500 years after the fact, is continuing to make the same mistake he made.
GUEST COLUMNIST
NDOMBY FHUNSU
I will not go to the extreme and advocate that a group of Navajos or Cherokees, who have never heard about Spain, Portugal or Italy, go to Europe and "discover" those lands and rename their Navajoland or Cherokeeland. My proposition is more modest: Amistake was made, so let us correct it once and for all.
When Columbus traveled to these shores, the land and the people already existed. So had their names. Why they were renamed according to the taste of the "discoverers" is another thing that baffles me.
Another part of the column states,
"It is amazing how quickly politicians
issue tyrannical decrees under the
influence of panics." "What Mr.
baker calls "tyrannical decrees" is perhaps the awareness of the fact that our past thoughts and feelings toward our fellow citizens have been harmful. What he calls "panics" are the cries of the many individuals and groups that our language has negatively affected such as those we insist on calling American Indians, niggers, faggots, handicapped, etc. Panic, I think, is the fear that pseudo-intellectuals feel when they are forced to learn the language of love, compassion and goodwill, a true "foreign" language for a class of people who casually consider themselves "the measure of everything."
The values of those who pass for intellectuals in any ideological age are baffling indeed. They know that learning and growing involves constantly revising one's intellectual bagage, but their hearts are too complacent to want to make the necessary revision. They know that as we grow in awareness, the language used to express that awareness grows as well. However, for some reason, they insist on maintaining the status quo as they talk about progress.
Ndomby Fhunus is a Kinshasa, Zaire senior in French, Spanish and English.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Clinton plan bad for health
As usual, Zackary Starbird hit the nail on the head in his latest editorial (Oct. 14). Thirty-nine million Americans without health care insurance seems like a big problem, but as in most cases, the big-government "cure" would have been worse than the problem itself. Clinton's proposal would have had healthy 20 year olds paying the same insurance premiums as allying, alcoholic, chain-smoking 80 year olds, and it would have had unelected, unaccountable health care boards deciding who would get what, if any, health care treatment.
If Congress was serious about health care reform, it could begin by ending the economic hypocrisy whereby health insurance payments made by companies are tax-deductible as a business expense, and health insurance payments made by individuals are taxable. This is the fatal link between employment and health care coverage. Also, Congress could set a limit on doctors' malpractice liability, thereby eliminating the need for so many expensive, unnecessary diagnostic tests. And Congress could reduce the number of hoops that pharmaceutical companies must jump through before they may bring a new drug to market.
Obviously, there is much that our politicians could do to reform our current health care system without nationalizing it.
Dan Drees Hays Graduate Student
Exhibit sensitivity by setting example
Referring to someone whose ancestry originated from the continent of Asia as an "oriental" is comparable to calling a Black man a "negro" or a Native-American an "Indian."
However good a person's intentions are in using such a term, they cannot make up for nor erase the historically racist and xenophobic ramifications inherent in its use.
These are all terms invented by European colonists to categorize and de-value groups of people different from themselves.
Asian-Americans cannot prevent people from continuing to use such terms, nor should we desire to. This would be merely resorting to censorship.
However, we can choose to stop using such terms ourselves and to educate those who are willing to listen.
This has nothing to do with "multiculturalism" or "political correctness." This has to do with self-empowerment.
Randy Chen Wichita junior
HUBIE
By Greg Hardin