4A
Friday, October 7,1994
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Hiroshima exhibit lesson in portraving history
HEATHER KIRWOOD
History is not a matter of what is right or wrong.
It is a study of why things happened the way they did
We have weathered the fear of radiation, Cold War brinkmanship and the Cold War thaw. Now we are fighting nuclear proliferation.
Fifty years after the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, we are still struggling with the Frankenstein monster we created.
Even after 50 years, the scars run deep.
let the biggest battle may be dawning. Winning the hearts and minds of future generations may all come down to this: What will the Smithsonian's exhibit about the use of the atomic bomb on Japan look like?
The Smithsonian and veterans' groups have been feeding about how our bombing of Japan should be represented in one of our nation's leading
museums, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Veterans have accused the museum of making the exhibit too "politically correct." They complain that the display shows too much about what was going on in Japan during the war, that it is too graphic and that it does not include enough information about how the Truman administration was viewing the war.
The entire argument troubles me. History is not a matter of what was right or wrong or even who won or lost. It is a study of why things happened the way they did.
History may be one of the few fields where you can make two contradictory statements and both of them may be correct. This is because history
itself is a collection of contradictions.
The Smithsonian controversy is no exception.
Veterans are justified in insisting that information explaining how Truman came to make such a fateful decision be included in the exhibit. They must, however, appreciate the importance of the Japanese,perspective on the bombing of Japan.
Even though veterans point out that many lives may have been saved by the decision to drop the bomb and bring the war to an end, we must also understand what motivated Japan to keep on fighting with such intensity.
How the Japanese understood the war at the time is just as important as how we understand it. Such exhibits are refreshing in a world that has been
dominated by the "my country right or wrong" attitude.
Instead of worrying about the graphic depiction of the display itself Veterans groups ought to strive to educate the public about how graphic war really is. Perhaps if we were forced to look into the faces of those on both sides who paid the ultimate price for the decisions in our past, we will make wiser choices in the future. Who better to help the public see this reality than the people who were there?
There are seldom only two sides to any issue. It must be an incredible task for the historians at the Smithsonian to write a script for this exhibit. They have tackled the impossible.
However, everyone involved needs
to take a step back and evaluate why an exhibit like this one is so important.
The concepts of national pride or morality are in the past. The most important question that needs to be answered is why?
Why did our countries have to kill so many young servicemen and civilians? Why did it all come down to a B-29 named the Enola Gay, it's crew and one of the most famous payloads of all time? That payload was an atomic bomb named Little Boy that, on Aug. 6, 1945, ended a bloody war by starting a potentially more lethal one — the arms race.
Heather Kirkwood is a Wichita Junior in magazine Journalism.
VIEWPOINT
New military training proves separating sexes is archaic
The long-standing tradition of separating women and men during military combat training was broken last year by the U.S. Army
at Fort Jackson.
Last year a trial run basis was considered to decide the future of coed training possibilities.
taking what many consider to be a bold move.
In this case the military has set an example in battling discrimination.
WOMEN IN MILITARY
The military has discovered that there is no re a s o n women and men should not train together, and this could be the first step
Breaking the tradition of separating men and women during combat training was a military success.
It was a success.
This year the program is not only being continued but more people are participating.
in a very positive direction.
Based on the results, the program should continue to be monitored and possibly expanded to other military training units.
MARK YONALLY FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD.
Memorial stamp for Nixon doesn't deserve controversy
In keeping with a post office tradition, the U.S. Postal Service is planning to release a memorial stamp for President Richard Nixon next
40 years in politics.
Besides the individual.
Last week, however, U.S. Rep. William Clay complained to the Postmaster General that a stamp honoring Nixon
Few politicians this century have left a more indelible mark than Nixon.
NIXON STAMP
The title of presiden-
tas well as Nixon's
four decades in
politics merit the
recognition of a
memorial stamp.
would be inappropriate. Despite Clay's objections the stamp is a proper gesture.
the title of President deserves to be honored.
The 42 men to hold the office rightfully deserve to be commended for
their service to the nation. Bickering over the issue of this stamp does not do Nixon, nor the job, justice.
RICHARD BOYD FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD.
KANSAN STAFF
STEPHEN MARTINO Editor
TOM EBLEN General manager, news adviser
CHRISTOPH FUHRMANS
Managing editor
JEN CARR Business manager
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CAMERON DEATH Retail sales manager
Editors
News ... Sara Bennett
Editorial ... Donella Heanne
Campus ... Mark Martin
Sports ... Brian James
Photo ... Daron Bennett
... Melissa Lecey
Features ... Traid Carl
Planning Editor ... Susan White
Design ... Noah Musser
Assistant to the editor ... Robbie Johnson
Editors
Business Staff
Campus mgr ... Todd Winters
Regional mgr ... Laura Guth
National mgr ... Mark Masto
Coop mgr ... Emily Gibson
Special Sections mgr ... Jen Perrier
Production mgrs ... Holly Boren
Regan Overy
Marketing director ... Alan Stiglic
Creative director ... John Cartton
Classified mgr ... Heather Nielhaus
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 Texas at Austin must also provide their email address.
Guest columns should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 700 words. The writer will be photographed.
The Kansas reserves the right to reject or edit letters, guest columns and cartoons. They can be mailed or brought to the Kansas newsroom, 111 Stauffer-Flint Hall.
Sean Finn / KANSAN
Creativity flourishes outside of work place
Society, teachers and Karl Marx have told us that we are destined for one occupation. This occupation will provide us with the money for our 2.4 kids, car, house and 564-piece Ghinsu knife set. Not so. There is an outlet for the creative side in all of us. This outlet's name is "Night Job". By night job, I mean any activity outside the primary job that serves to satisfy the artistic side in people.
Karl Marx believed that in a capitalist society, it was impossible for the average worker to be creative and still make enough money to get by. Karl Marx was on crack.
In almost any town there are clubs, poetry readings, associations and the like to make us feel that we have made a creative contribution. People should stand and sing praise to the night job as the invaluable outlet of creative energy. Go ahead. Stand and sing praise before returning to the rest of this column.
Allow me to illustrate: I worked in New York City last summer for a prominent stock brokerage house. The assistant supervisor of my department was a very busy fellow. He oversaw the work of 12 people, he was on the phone with other departments and he took 25-minute lunches
COLUMNIST
CARSON ELROD
to make sure that he finished with all of the things he needed to do. At the end of the day, he would walk up Wall Street to a record store where he would buy up to five records a day. Why? He did it because this proletariat had tried in his suit for a fully-equipped scratch board and was a D.J, at the Limelight, a club.
My supervisor put me on the guest list to go see him in action one Friday night in July. I walked to the 19th-century cathedral which had been renovated into what is now the club that New Yorkers call the Rock 'n' Roll Church. Standing at the door was a man dressed so convincingly as a woman that it made Ru Paul look like a fat man.
I journeyed through the cavernous
club until I found a room with scantily clad-women dancing frantically in cages suspended from the ceiling. There were hundreds of beams of laser light shot through the smoke-filled room in time with the pulsating music. I slowly made my way through the sweating masses until I could see the D.J. booth. The booth was propped up 10 feet above the floor. There, in a flannel jump suit and stocking cap, was my boss. His tongue protruded from his mouth while he mixed M.C. Search with the theme from "Good Times." He saw me and gave me a wave. I decided to stay, and I danced until dawn.
The whole episode struck me hard. Here was a guy with a New York high-school education who worked for a major company and still made money on the side doing something that he loves. The United States is a place where, if you have the drive and ambition, you can be what you want to be. If you put your mind to it, you can have the Ghisuki knives and make 2000 people shake their rumps. When you really think about it, we live in a beautiful place. Don't forget it.
Carson Elrod is a Tepeka junior in theater and history.
COLUMNIST
I love getting mail. Even junk mail.
And I was so happy to open my mail-
box last week to find that I assumed
was my first fan letter.
"Hmm." I thought. "No return
    Toonea postmark?"
Upon opening the letter, I found the reason why its author had not left an address. On a single piece of white paper book was the following: "Get AIDS, and DIE you sh--f-in fagot. DIE!" I was curious as to who my new mystery fan might be.
I was also a little excited, believe it or not, so I called a friend to tell her about it.
"I can only imagine," she said
"Guess what?" I asked.
"I just got my first piece of hate mail as an openly lady, Kansan columnist — and it truly is a work of art!"
I can assume that this person objects to something I have written. But I consider myself a moderate on many issues — I just use a lot of liberal language.
People warned me there could be some danger in coming out to the entire University, but I was brash and didn't care. I still don't. Yes, it must be admitted that my life flashed before my eyes for a brief moment when I saw those cruel (yet imaginative) words. I could be the victim of a crime!
And it's not that anything like this hasn't ever happened, it just has never come to my mailbox. And not that I didn't expect it. Actually, I thought it would happen much sooner. In fact, I felt kind of bad when people asked, "Haven't you gotten any threatening phone calls?" Nope, not even a heavy breather. Nevertheless, it arrived. I don't want you to go away from reading this thinking that I'm making some dramatic plea for understanding — okay, maybe you should try to understand a little bit. And the last thing I want to do is acknowledge whoever wrote the letter.
For those of you who may be wondering, my emphasis as a player on the opinion page has always been to try to donate space to erratic thinking. I've tried to try and add a little humor here and there, to tackle issues only when I can overinflate and espouse unfounded facts, and to add some clips to my portfolio. I have never wanted to assimilate, educate, propagate, mandate, redirect, empathize, moralize, generalize, equalize or exercise. Sarcasm aside, I never wanted to get AIDS and die. But I do appreciate the effort and the waste of a perfectly good first-class stamp.
David Johnson is a Coffeyville senior in magazine journalism.
Mixed Media
By Jack Ohman