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4A
Wednesday, October 5, 1994
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Carter's earned praise for saving lives, peace
DAVID ZIMMERMAN An open letter to former President Carter to thank him for caring about our relations in the world.
As a citizen of the United States, I want to thank you for your place in recent diplomatic situations. Our nation owes you our gratitude for your work in avoiding the loss of American lives and bringing peace to our world.
This summer, when I heard about North Korea's refusal to allow international inspectors into its nuclear power plants, I became worried.
We were going head-to-head with a long-standing dictator who has always held animosity toward our nation.
It seemed to me that in a couple of weeks, President Clinton would be
sending my college buddies over the Pacific for a second Korean war.
However, you and your team of diplomats went to North Korea against all the odds and worked out an agreement, thus saving our nation from another long, bloody war.
I want to also thank you for your involvement in the recent peace agreement in Haiti.
You once again entered a seemingly hopeless situation and came back with an olive branch in your briefcase.
For both of these examples, I have heard many people give you criticism. They seem to be disappointed that you didn't accomplish what you were initially sent for.
We have not yet had the opportunity to inspect the reactors in North Korea. Nor have the military leaders of Haiti stepped down from power.
The point is, we have satisfactory agreements at a cheap cost - without the loss of one American life.
I think they have missed the point.
I have no expertise in foreign policy, but it seems to me that to get what we wanted, we would have had to send our armed forces. If we would have sent in the troops, we would have lost some of them (by the very nature of a war).
It seems like it is worth saving American soldiers, even if we don't get the exact agreement we want.
Even though we didn't get what we initially wanted, your efforts were not unfruitful.
You postponed the potential violence to the end that it is again possible that a peaceful agreement might be reached.
Some have questioned whether we should even be involved in these issues. They seem to think the events in two other countries have no bearing on our lives, so we shouldn't be so wrired.
I'm glad you realize that peace is worth the effort. Thank you for realizing our moral obligation as a superpower to ensure basic human rights throughout the world.
When I heard the other day that Castro is now asking you to come to Cuba and talk peace. I was excited.
Let me encourage you to take advantage of the opportunity. Now is the perfect time for peace in Cuba. Cuba is no longer a threat to our national security.
Thank you, President Carter.
Additionally, we should act now before Castro dies and Cuba becomes yet another dangerously unstable nation in the Gulf of Mexico.
My support and prayers are with you.
David Zimmerman is a Wichita senior in communications.
VIEWPOINT
Graves political campaign borders on the deceitful
Last week radio stations began airing an advertisement for Bill Graves' gubernatorial campaign. Immediately Graves' opponent. Jim
Slattery accused the Graves campaign of unethical practices because the ads sounds like a news story and is delivered by a for-
knows, as long as he is no longer reporting?
The problem falls within the commercial's format.
Despite Matson's reasoning that the ad contained
GOVERNMENT'S RACE Whether a former reporter should be serving the Graves campaign is not the issue. The issue is: Are deceptive ad tactics acceptable?
mer Topeka political reporter, Mike Matson, who is now Graves' press secretary.
There are many problems with this situation.
First, Slattery has accused the wrong people of unethical practices. The Graves campaign, like others, has every right to produce any ad they like. The radio stations are required by law to provide equal air time to candidates without any control of ad content.
The only person who truly faces any ethical questions is Mike Matson. And although he has every right to choose what he does with his career, he made a poor choice in delivering this ad.
The ethics of Matson's decision to head up the Graves' press campaign cannot be challenged. Why should he not take an opportunity to work within a field he already
the traditional disclaimer at the end and an announcement that the "report" was from the Graves campaign at the beginning, the news format
of the ad is misleading.
This is not to say that the average radio listener is not smart enough to recognize political ploys for what they are, but the feeling is that the ad intends to deceive the listener.
News story formats in advertising do have the intention of deceiving the listener, if not about the content then about the importance of the ad. The format is designed to make more people take note of what may be important news. The use of any deception is not a smart way to run a campaign.
Matson should remain Graves' press secretary as long as that is the career path he has chosen but ethically should keep himself out of the ads. Furthermore, the Graves campaign should consider a more honest approach in its advertising.
DONELLA HEARNE FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
KANSAN STAFF
STEPHEN MARTINO Editor
CHRISTOPH FUHRMANS Managing editor
JEN CARR Business manager
TOM EBLEN General manager, news adviser
CATHERINE ELLSWORTH Systems coordinator
CAMERON DEATH Retail sales manager
JEANNE HINES Sales and marketing adviser
News ... Sara Bennett
Editorial ... Robbie Heame
Campus ... Mark Martin
Sports ... Brian James
Photo ... Daron Bennett
        Mellass Lacey
Features ... Traci Carl
Planning Editor ... Susan White
Design ... Noah Musser
    contact to the editor. Robbie Johnson
Editors
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 Michigan are required to provide their email address.
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.
OPERATION UPHOLD FOREIGN POLICY
Jeff MacNelly / CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Midterm anxiety is an unnecessary evil
My head is spinning. I'm beginning to panic. The time has come to prepare my brain for the mini-crisis that will inevitably draw near.
It's time to get into Midterm Mode. I can't believe that midterms are here already.
My tan lines have barely started to fade, and the semester is almost half over. I find myself wondering where all the time has gone.
Just last week I was thinking about everything I had to do at the beginning of October, but it seemed so far away. Now I'm saying to myself, "Wait a minute, it IS the beginning of October!"
It seems like Hawk Week was just a few weeks ago. Now, instead of talking about the beginning of the semester, people are talking about the end of it and what classes they'll take next.
I haven't even been procrastinating (like I usually do) and putting everything off until tomorrow or next weekend. It's just that this semester I have so much stuff to do.
So now it's crunch time, and I'm not looking forward to it.
Papers, tests and projects are piling
COLUMNIST
ERIKA RASMUSSON
up, looming ominously over my head like dark storm clouds. In a few days, those clouds will burst, and I will turn into an unbearable grouch.
This always happens when I get busy and sleep becomes a luxury rather than a necessity. For someone who relishes getting eight-plus hours of shut-eye a night, midterms present a serious problem. In fact, I've decided that they are hazardous to my health.
After all, what happens when you start studying for midterms?
You cram all night, drink too much caffeine and stay up too late. And then, five minutes after your test, you forget everything you just spent the
If find myselfthinking back fondly on classes where my professors canceled (or just didn't plan on having) midterms or didn't give comprehensive tests.
past 24 hours trying to learn. It's not a healthy process.
Why couldn't all professors do this? Wouldn't having several smaller, unit tests achieve the same results with less stress?
Maybe they consider midterms a sort of trial run for the final, but in essence, midterms are just finals in the middle of the semester. They count for a ridiculous amount of your final grade and cause enormous amounts of panic. I just don't think it is appropriate for one test to count for 30 or 40 percent of your class grade. Then again, no one ever said life (or college) was fair.
At any rate, I'll be happy when midterms are over. Then I can enjoy those few short weeks left before it is time to panic again — this time about all my finals.
Enika Rasmussen is a Mimetonka, Minn,
senior in magazine journalism.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Tutoring program too good to be cut
Cutting a budget is a nasty, albeit needed, exercise. In the end, the elements that survive are those capable of providing the greatest good for the greatest number.
the administration will soon decide the fate of KU's Partners in Learning program, a program that pairs KU student tutors with KU employee learners.
Some benefits of a program are obvious.
How the administration perceives its benefits to the University of Kansas, its students and its staff will determine whether this program will find its niche in the KU budget.
In this program's relatively short life, many employee participants have made tremendous strides. Some have learned or are learning to read for the first time. Some are now KU students. The Partners in Learning program has given these participants the unique and previously unavailable opportunity to pursue an education that is long overdue.
However, some benefits of a program are less obvious.
As a student participant, I was exposed to learning strategies and teaching methods I would have otherwise left the University without knowing.
This knowledge provided me not only with a better understanding of my own learning processes but also made me a better teacher, a role we all fill throughout the course of our lives.
Aside from the knowledge I acquired of the learning process, the program gave me an education in something I had yet to consider; civic responsibility.
For the first time, I found myself thinking about my role as a citizen in a society that has members lacking survival skills as essential as the ability to read and write.
For many living in the ideal and theoretical world of a university, this realization is never achieved.
The loss of this program would not only be a great disservice to the KU staff participants who are becoming more productive and efficient employees and citizens, but also to the KU student participants who, through this program, are afforded a much-needed exposure to the very real world outside the walls of KU.
HUBIE
Too many people in the KU community benefit from the Partners in Learning Program for it to be sacrificed in the name of fiscal conservatism.
Steve Wilson Lawrence senior
By Greg Hardin