4A
Thursday, October 13, 1994
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MATT GOWEN
The Iraqi dictator's bid for a Persian Gulf redux would be comical if not for the innocent lives at risk.
'The Saddam Story' ready to hit the big screen
"Persian Gulf Conflict Part II "
Haven't we seen this movie before? In these days of assembly-line Hollywood sequest, not even "Naked Gun 33.3" or "Hot Shots: Part Deux" (pronounce dee-ooks, for any self-proclaimed Ugly Americans who might have tuned in today) could generate as much of a nationwide buzz as the Iraqi redux amassing troops on the Kuwaiti border.
This is significant since judicial heavyweight Lance Ito has knocked the Home Shopping Network (selling knife sets, for goodness sakes) out of the courtroom, making the "Naked Gun" films the only place besides NFL films to see O.J. in motion.
So Saddam Hussein, who achieved status here in the states by taking
time off from his busy schedule of terror and mayhem to help a supporting role in the two "Hot Shots" movies (starting a war is small potatoes in Hollywood terms), is at it again.
President Clinton is sending aircraft, firepower and more than 30,000 U.S. troops to do what President Dorge Mush should have done three years ago.
The sanctions imposed on Hussein's country as a result of "Desert Storm" in 1991 have cut his oil production from 3 million barrels a day to around 500,000 and have created hardships for the Iraqi people. So Hussein wants to taunt the United Nations and the United States, using threats to force us to get rid of the sanctions, when the very fact that he
and his military are alive and kicking seems ludicrous.
Hollywood could not have produced a better script. Substitute any movie, like "The Specialist," for example:
This time Saddam/Sharon is out for revenge. The UN/Miami underworld took his oil/killed her father. They took everything. Now Saddam/Sharon is going to use his unassembled army/her bomber friend Sly to get them back.
I will give him this: He knows, like
This would be downright comical if such a slobbering, rabid loser like Hussein wasn't threatening the lives of innocent Kuwaitis, and therefore the lives of our boys headed across the Atlantic to help.
Manuel Noriega did, how to push our buttons.
That's right.
Saddam is fully aware why we were there last time. Maybe it's just cynical of me, but one of the driving forces behind the previous Persian Gulf conflict was not human rights as much as black gold, Texas tea.
Kuwait sucks up 2 million barrels of oil a day, and Saddam knows that our dependence on oil can be exploited. We condemn him from afar until we can hear ourselves screaming, "Hey you! Get away from our gas bomps!"
Now Iraq's back is against the wall.
Saddam's threat of military action is a desperation attempt, a play to reduce the sanctions that are strangling his country. The curbs (not Kurds)
worked,it seems.And soon,we hope he'll join the ranks of the unemployed.
Maybe Disney could hire him to run his live-action film division; his cutthroat personality seems perfectly suited to the Hollywood-producer mold. He could finance his own biopic, perhaps a more heartfelt portrayal than "Hot Shots" or "Naked Gun 2." The director?
How about the man whose dictator-based "Noriage" (set to star Al Pacino) recently had its funding yanked? "Paging Oliver Stone. A Saddam Hussein's on the line. His assets have been liquidated, and he needs a hit."
VIEWPOINT
Matt Gowen is a Lawrence senior in newspaper Journalism.
Public school system elicits private administrative help
Several studies conducted last year said that a significant number of students in public schools lacked a basic understanding of
writing, reading and math skills.
Nobody understands the severity of this problem better than the Hartford.
then Gov. Bill Clinton, chairman of the leadership and management committee, made it clear that effective management can play a vital role
PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Putting the
during the management of public schools in the hands of private businesses would benefit education
Conn., community whose school system is plagued by high dropout rates and low test scores.
But unlike the rest of the country, Hartford has decided to embrace change instead of stagnation in an attempt to help alleviate our nation's growing public education nightmare.
education.
By a 6-3 vote, the Hartford school board recently became the nation's first city to turn over the management of all of its public schools to a private company. The company promised to revamp the school system by implementing effective management skills as well as increasing the students' scores on standardized tests.
This idea to improve school performance from the top down is the same ideology espoused by President Clinton.
In the Governors' 1991 Report on Education,
in reforming our nation's school system.
But the problem with public schools is that most
lack the qualified administrators needed to lead schools into the new era of reform.
In research reported by Clinton's task force it was found that public schools spend about one-tenth as much as private industry does in developing its personnel.
By hiring Education Alternatives to run its $171.1 million public school system, Hartford has taken a bold but necessary step to reform its education system.
Thus, many administrators, compared to their private counterparts, are underqualified to carry out administrative tasks such as organizing staff, structuring curriculum, distributing authority and using innovative ways to increase learning.
This is a step from which the rest of the nation could learn and possibly benefit.
LANCE HAMBY FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
KANSAN STAFF
STEPHEN MARTINO
Editor
CHRISTOPH FUHRMANS Managing editor
JEN CARR Business manager
TOM EBLEN General manager, news adviser
CAMERON DEATH Retail sales manager
JEANNE HINES Sales and marketing adviser
CATHERINE ELLSWORTH Systems coordinator
News ... Sara Bennett
Editorial ... Donella Heineau
Campus ... Mark Martin
Sports ... Brian James
Photo ... Daron Bennett
... Mellissa Lacey
Features ... Traid Carl
Planning Editor ... Susan White
Design ... Noah Mussel
Assistant to the editor .. Robbie Johnson
Business Staff
Campus mgr ... Todd Winters
Regional mgr ... Laura Guth
National mgr ... Mark Mastro
Coop mgr ... Emily Gibson
Special Sections mgr ... Jen Perrler
Production mgrs ... Holly Boren
Regan Overy
Marketing director ... Alan Stiglic
Creative director ... John Carlton
Classified mgr ... Heather Nishaus
**Letters** should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 200 words. They must include the writer's signature, name, address and telephone number. Writers affiliated with the University of Chicago have received this guideline.
Guest columns should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 700 words. The writer will be photographed.
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.
Jeff MacNelly / Chicago Tribune
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Cadillac Ranch poster offensive
I would like to draw attention to the recent advertisements I have seen on the University of Kansas campus for the Cadillac Ranch. I just took down a poster which proclaims in bold print, "Drink Like You Mean It! Think You Can Handle it?" I was appalled that with all the statistics on alcohol-related deaths, accidents and abuses the Cadillac Ranch is supporting irresponsible drinking. Not only that, but on one of the posters the above sentiment was aimed toward women for its "Ladies Night" celebrations. What exactly is the Cadillac Ranch trying to say to women? Are we as a group supposed to be competing with men for the who-can-get-the-drunkest prize? Can we, women, "handle it"? Or is the Cadillac Ranch trying to persuade women and men that the only way to have a good time is to "drink like you mean it?"
As a person who has had to deal with drunk drivers, I find it totally unacceptable that the Cadillac Ranch endorses free-for-all drinking for any group. If this establishment wishes to promote itself in this way, the least it could do is make an addition to the poster encouraging designated drivers. I am an avid supporter of free speech but not to the detriment of others.
Chervl Kirbv-Stokes
Undergraduate Secretary Division of Biological Sciences
Priorities wrong in delaying event
My father was always excited about KU athletics. He worked in a small town in which the majority of high school seniors decided to attend KState but that did not stop him from boasting whenever KU won.
In the fall of 1992, my father was diagnosed with esophageal cancer, one of the rarest types. He chose to attend a KU football game two days before he was admitted to the hospital. My father died less than three months later, without ever leaving the hospital.
In March, the Chi Omega sorority and the Alpha Kappa Lambda fraternity reserved Memorial Stadium for Oct. 2, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., for their Wheat Meet charity event. On Friday, Sept. 30, one of Chi Omega's Wheat Meet chairwomen called Darrin Cook, of facilities operations, to confirm last minute details concerning the event, which benefits KU cancer research. During this conversation she was told in a "by the way" manner that KU football coach Glen Mason wanted the stadium on that Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m. for practice. The chairwoman spent most of that Friday being told to contact somebody else because no one wanted to deal with this conflict.
Why did Mason so desperately need to practice that afternoon? Why couldn't practice be at 4 p.m. after Wheat Meet, or at 6 a.m.? No, Mason picked his time, and all of Wheat Meet's participants had to take a four hour break and reschedule what had been planned for more than six months! Then, if that was not enough, Mason and the football team remained on the field for an extra 30 minutes while everyone involved with the philanthropy was locked out of the stadium.
It is frustrating for the students who pay to attend the University, who pay to attend the football games and who are trying to raise money for a worthwhile cause to then get brushed aside as if their plans mean nothing. Well, they do mean something. They mean a lot. Most people will be affected by cancer at some point during their life, if it has not already happened. The money raised at Wheat Meet will help KU to continue in the search for answers, and possibly cures, for cancer.
Even at my father's funeral people were mentioning his devotion to KU athletics. What did KU football do to help save his life?
Tricia Milsap
Wichita senior
DONELLA HEARNE
Free speech should value human beings
I have mixed feelings about free speech.
Now is the time for you to look down to the bottom of this column and ask that question, "Isn't she a journalism major?"
Why yes, I am a journalism major. I believe in a free press that is able to print the news, facts and opinions of our world without anyone telling it what is or isn't proper.
That's why I have mixed feelings.
Enjoy free speech, but sometimes I wish it could be restricted to those who also value the rights of others. Especially, the right to live without running into prejudice or violence at every turn.
I was driving home from the Kansan recently when I noticed the bumper sticker on the car ahead of me. It wasn't particularly offending. It was simple.
FIGHT CRIME, SHOOT BACK
It invoked terror in me. My immediate reaction was to feel pity and contempt for the idiot who believed that enough to put it on his bumper.
Even worse than the fact that it made me think about the violent nature of our world, it reminded me of yet another incident where free speech made me sick to my stomach.
At a highway-side Dairy Queen in Indiana, I saw a man wearing a black T-shirt with a burning cross on it. I could only hope it was a concert shirt. I couldn't.
The back of the shirt read: WATCH OUT NIGGER, THE KLAN'S GETTING BIGGER.
He was not too stupid to make it rhyme but stupid enough to come up with such a horrible verse and free enough to put it on a shirt and wear it on his back.
So, you see why I am confused about free speech. The love of it is ingrained in everything I do. The hatred for it is in many things I see.
But, before all of you who also believe in free speech think that I would advocate limiting that freedom, I would like to say, "Every human being is entitled to his or her opinion and the right to voice it."
And I stand firmly by that.
I do not advocate infringement upon rights. I advocate education, responsibility and compassion for those people with whom we share our world.
I am taking a stand that is both conservative and liberal, yuppie and hippie, and I'm not really sure how I feel about that either. But I do feel comfortable with these last instructions:
Do not make the signs of our times signs of hatred.
HUBIE
Donella Hearne is a Wichita senior in journalism.
By Greg Hardin