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Friday, September 16 1994
OPINION
UN I V E R S I T Y D A I L Y K A N S A N
White House crash reveals our vulnerabilities
MATT GOWEN
Whacko who crashed on White House lawn displays hole in security and hole in some Americans' heads.
I wasn't watching CNN on Monday morning. The information came to me from my friend Sludge before my 8:30 class.
"Did you hear? Some whacko crashed a plane into the White House!"
Whacko, however, is a very looser term. Who was this guy? It seemed like a pretty strange assassination attempt. Didn't the whole kamukaze thing go out with World War II? Besides, Clinton was staying at a government guest house across the street during recent White House renovations. I wasn't convinced it was intentional, so I asked Sludge what he thought.
"Probably some terrorist."
"Probably some terrorist."
Or maybe it was Castro. Could he be
was trying to make a lunch date with Bill to work out this whole refugee thing? Or Bob Dole, expressing his opinion on Mr. Clinton's health-care plan?
"I don't know who it was. All I know is I'd have somebody's butt for it."
I'm sure a lot of people's first thought, whether they're willing to admit it or not, was the same as Sludge's. After the World Trade Center bombing in February of 1993, we've become especially wary of the possibility of terrorist attacks on our own soil.
The truth wasn't nearly as sensational as an extremist infiltration from some foreign land that has a beef with the United States. Of course, which foreign land doesn't have a
beef with the United States?
"What about Botswana?"
"Id be down, too, if I had the name Frank."
Oh, I'm sure we covertly propped up some totalitarian regime there sometime, Sludge. But the pilot was not on a militant mission. He wasn't trying to kill the president, even though his stolen plane crashed two floors below Clinton's bedroom. It was, strangely enough, worse. His name was Frank Corder, a trucker from Baltimore, and he was just down in the dumps.
For years, I assume, most of the world has been living under the assumption that the White House is some mythic stronghold: indestructible and impervious to the outside
world. But no, our top government security experts have known for years that the White House was vulnerable to assault from the air but that there wasn't a thing we could do.
"anybody can strike at the president if they're willing to lose their lives doing it," a former White House security official revealed this week.
So some local nutcase who was depressed, divorced and alcoholic punches a hole in the White House coat-of-arms. He even talked to people about doing it beforehand. Although, about as many people believed him as believed Noah.
Maybe he wanted to prove to his ex-wife he could actually follow through on a promise.
It wouldn't be the first time someone took a crack at our priz to win someone's affection. Remember ol' John Hinckley, Jr., Jodie Foster's notso-secret admirer who shot Ronald Reagan.
"I thought it was because he'd just seen "Bedtime for Bono."
Neither Hinckley nor Corder were model citizens.
Regardless, Shudge, our leader was put in jeopardy by a guy who'd seen one too many movies.
When the debris has settled and the facts had been sorted through, we're sobered by the realization that we really need better protection from ourselves.
Matt Gowen is a Lawrence senior in journalism
VIEWPOINT
Clinton pivots 180 degrees on 'unwed mothers' issue
Bill Clinton's recent speeches propound "family values" are contradictory. In May 1992, Dan Quayle blamed the popular sitcom Murphy Brown for
trivializing the importance of fathers in the home.
The Clinton campaign sharply criticized Quayle.
ing rate of babies born to unwed mothers is a disaster. It is wrong. And someone has to say again, it is simply not right. You shouldn't have a baby before you're ready, and
FAMILY VALUES First Clinton decried that family values became part of the presidential campaign and now embraces the issue in recent speech.
saying that his comments denigrated single mothers.
you shouldn't have a baby when you're not married."
Clinton declared that family values ought not be a campaign issue.
Then, on Sept. 9, 1994 Clinton said, "The grow-
However delicately phrased, Clinton has waffled.
He suddenly agrees that family values is an important issue, and he has adopted Quayle's position on single parenthood.
ZACKARY STARBIRD FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD.
Whatever else may be said, Clinton's duplicity is clear and disappointing.
Clinton must define goals before an invasion of Haiti
The United States has been talking about invading Haiti for a long time.The White House even set a deadline last weekend.
deadline last Now, it is too late to back off the threat.
Haiti is most likely an easy task; keeping control after the invasion may not be. Also, the United States must acknowledge that for real progress to be
HAITI INVASION
However, if the United States does invade Haiti, it must do it right. We
to maintain order.
United States should learn from past mistakes in Somalia and outline exact goals for Haiti invasion to maintain order
should remember lessons from the past. Prior to the invasion, the United States must know exactly what it is going to do inside Haiti. Invading
The invasion seems to be
made, the United States may have to stay there for a longer time than expected.
seems to be inevitable now. The United States should define its goals and be prepared to carry out whatever is necessary to accomplish them.
JUAN VARGAS FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
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Letters should be typed, double-spaces and fewer than 200 words. They must include the University of Kansas must include class and hometown, or faculty or staff affidavit with the University of Kansas must include class and hometown, or faculty or staff affidavit.
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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letter is a denial of objective truth
Matt Hood / KANSAN
This letter is in response to Andy Carter's letter, "Bible doesn't tell him so," in the Sept. 9 Kansan, wherein he states that, "...in turning over one's life to religion it seems commonplace to also relinquish one's thought and reason..."
I respectfully find fault with his thought and reason. For one thing, he strongly implies in his letter that there is no objective truth. Clearly, this point of view is void. An electron in the presence of an electric field will be accelerated; there is one right answer for your checkbook balance, and if you get into the shower, you will get wet. These are facts, objective truths, and no amount of sophistry will change these facts. There is also objective spiritual truth. Either people have immortal souls or they do not. Jesus rose from the dead or he did not. Let's not have any more of this philosophical fluff that concrete answers do not exist.
I would suggest that it is the one who refuses to grapple with issues of eternal truth who has cheated on the test of life. It is pure spiritual and intellectual laziness to refuse to attempt to determine the truth of "religion" under the chicane that no answers exist.
Joe Heikes Lawrence graduate student
Joe Heikes
Mexican Independence Day acts as reminder of culture
Today is Mexican Independence Day. *El diez y seis de septiembre.* Now, that's a little harder to say than Cinco de Mayo, which is another important day in Mexican history.
Most people associate Cinco de Mayo with drink specials at Carlos O'Kelly's or Dos Hombres and are unaware that it commemorates the Battle of Puebla in 1862. So because of pronunciation, the 16th of September is forgotten. A although for me, the 16th of September has always been a very special day.
From the time that I was a young boy, my mother told me stories about Padre Hidalgo and how he climbed to the bell tower to issue his "Grito por Dolores," which signaled the start of the Mexican revolution. Thus, not only was he the Mexican George Washington, he was also its Paul Revere. As a young boy, I looked upon Padre Hidalgo as some kind of super hero. He was the mythic, larger-than-life figure that symbolized all that was good about Mexico.
COLUMNIST
Although I did not grow up speaking Spanish, I consider myself a Chicano, or Mexican-American. Mexico was all around me growing up. From the
Mexican music of Vicente Fernandez, Lucha Villa and Little Joe, to the smell of freshly made corr tortilla shells, to the various depictions of La Virgen de Guadalupe, I was immersed in the culture of what my mother called "the old country."
My upbringing was steeped in traditions I associate with my Mexicanness, my mexicanidad. Christmas Meve meant tamales for dinner and midnight Mass at Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish. At the start of Mass, my mother would turn to me and wish me happy birthday because I was born on Christmas day.
When the church would start to sing "Las Mananitas" to el nino Jesus, I knew my mother would also be
singing "Happy Birthday" to me.
Nearly every Sunday after Mass, my family would make its weekly visit to see my grandpa, the family patriarch.
He would talk to us in Spanish, and all of us children would struggle to understand. We learned respect for our elders from those visits. My mother would tell me how my grandfather single-handedly brought himself and his younger brothers and sisters to America. She told me how my grandpa learned to speak English all by himself. In short, my mother filled me with a sense of pride in my family. She taught me the importance of history and remembrance.
When I celebrate the diez y seis de septiembre, those are the things that I celebrate. I celebrate the richness of my cultural heritage. I celebrate tie profound reverence that Mexicans have for La Virgen de Guadaupe and the Catholic faith.
I celebrate the diversity of music that is found in Mexico, the love of the Mexican family and the respect for the elderly, los viejos.
I celebrate the history of the Mexican people, a long history filled with moments of triumph but also with its
But today is not a day to argue; today is a day of celebration. So for all you mexicanos and mexicanas out there, and for those who want to be Mexican for a day, I say:
share of tragedy. I salute the bravery of the many heroes of Mexico, such as Padres Hidalgo y morelos, los ninos de Chapultepec, Benito Juarez, Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata. I also celebrate the exploits of such Mexican-American heroes like Joaquín Murrieta and Gregorio Cortez. I pay tribute to the tenacity and vision of Cesar Chavez and others who joined in his fight for justice.
Viva Mexico, Viva la Virgen, VIVA LA RAZA!
Finally, I salute the hundreds of thousands of immigrants who have come and are still coming to America in search of a better life. And I celebrate the rich and long Hispanic and Mexican heritage of the United States, while at the same time lamenting the racism and prejudice that allows Mexicans and Mexican-Americans to be viewed as "foreigners."
HUBIE
Nicolas Shump is a Lawrence senior in comparative literature.
By Greg Hardin
STRIP AGAIN ON TUES THE 20TH TO GET A CLEAR CHRONOLOGY! SORRY BUT THIS STATION WAS EXPRISEING TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES : - O