4
University Daily Kansan/ Monday, September 30, 1991
OPINION
NABBLY Chicago Tribune
Gulfconflict
Saddam must give up, comply with U.N.
Onceagain, our old friend Saddam is in the news. After being dealt a humiliating defeat in the Persian Gulf War, after watching his country become a heap of smoldering concrete, after all this, Hussein has been disobeying U.N. regulations. Some people never learn.
Whatever the rightness or wrongness of the gulf war, the United States and other U.N. members have a duty to see that Iraq does not ever develop nuclear weapons. To allow that to happen would invalidate the reasons for having the war in the first place. Obviously, Saddam does not recognize this determination among his former enemies; he is acting as if Iraq is completely free of the censure it earned from the war.
It is outrageous for the Iraqi government to accuse the U.N. team of being "CIA spies." What would the so-called spies have to report? "Well, sir, we think that pile of rubble over there may be concealing some important secrets." And everything else, namely the plans for nuclear weapons, is covered under the U.N. resolutions.
It is terrible, though, to be suddenly faced with the possibility that the gulf war may not be over. Most U.S. citizens thought the matter was put to rest when Iraq asked for a cease-fire agreement. But it isn't over for Saddam, although he wisely has allowed U.N. monitors to fly over Iraqi territory. Perhaps when Iraq becomes a minor U.N.-managed colony
and Saddam is reduced to managing a convenience store in downtown Baghdad, the entire business will end.
Saddam, however, is nothing if not good copy. With his penchant for exaggeration, he has become a caricature of his former self. He has proven that he cannot be trusted with even the simple task of complying with clearly stated resolutions. He doutbless will be punished eventually. But for now, pity the Iraqi people who must contend with such a man, because even at this point, he still is fighting his "mother of all battles."
Kevin Bartels for the edited board
Missing women found
Religion sparked students' disappearance
News must be more exciting when it's sensationalized - or at least more profitable. It is sad commentary on the media and on the people who watch, listen or read the news when compassion loses out to the reporting of what seems to some be "freakish" behavior.
The result was a misguided concoction spiced with a few drops of eschatology and overpowered with Spielberg. It went down hard, complete with bad taste.
Almost three weeks ago, Sonya and Stephanie Brock were reported missing. Last week, their story was on tabloid television.
The facts indicate that these women left under their own volition. In 99 percent of disappearances associated with religious groups, no foul play is
involved. The overwhelming majority of people who vanish with apocalyptic expectations return when the day of reckoning has come and gone. A lack of resources, homesickness and embarrassment is what they will face when they return to Kansas, and hopefully, the University.
Jayhawks, these are two of our own. They require our support, whether they make the courageous move back to Lawrence or to Russell. Though it may be a different path than most of us follow, when it finally leads them home, they don't need to hear us humming the theme to "Star Trek." They will face challenges and prejudices far beyond anything that their exercising of religious freedom warrants.
It is essential to remember that these women have done nothing wrong. Students have dropped out of KU for reasons less justifiable than a genuine belief in the end of the world as we know it. Sonya and Stephanie's journey seems quite a bit less harmless than Robert Tilton's television ministry, which robs people worldwide with promises of salvation. The girls are getting a bum rap.
The producers of "Inside Edition" need some History 101. The United States, the very country to which they beam their mindless crap, was founded by people who disappeared from Europe nearly four centuries ago. It seems religion had something to do with that, too.
Michael Dick for the editorial board
LETTERS to the EDITOR Cut military aid to El Salvador
A comparison of the Nazis to Salvadoran death squads may be viewed as an aggregation in that 6 million Jews were destroyed by the Nazis, but "only" 75,000 have been tortured, illiterate or brutally murdered in El Salvador.
The anomaly is numerical, but the comparison is no trivialization of the Holocaust. Death squads, right-wing paramilitary extremists, and govern forces work together to produce roadside displays of mutilated, unburied corpses, intended to intimidate dissidents.
Four billion dollars in U.S. military aid has resulted in U.S. arms fighting both sides of the Salvadoran conflict. The big winner in this scenario is the Army, which is complex, as our taxes in the form of military aid go to defense contractors.
A response to my statements on El Salvador in the Sept. 18 Kansan inferred that Latin American Solidarity maintained some hidden agenda of dubious intent. This could not be further from the case.
L. A.S. is devoted to the spread of protection for human rights in this hemisphere and works toward this goal by donating medical aid to Latin America. At 6 p.m. every Thursday of the month in the Ecumenical Christian Ministries building, we organize rice and beans dinners as a forum for speakers, presentations and discussions of Latin American topics. All
are invited.
Aid to El Salvador is once again before Congress. A peaceful negotiated settlement can better be reached by the Salvadoran themselves without U.S. weapons.
John Fullerton Lawrence graduate student
Claims of book are unfounded
I am responding to an ad in the Sept.
20 Kansan that I am afraid may cause
unnecessary fear among readers.
1 I personally six people with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, one of whom is my husband. Not one of their spouses, children or other intimates has come down with either CFS, AIDS or HIV. All three have had CFS for a number of years.
Gilda Radner, the title subject, died of ovarian cancer and was never diagnosed with CFS or AIDS by anyone other than the author. Her widow, Lois, is in good health and has recently retired, two years after Radner's death.
The advertisement is for a book titled "What Really Killed Gilda Radner?" The book claims not only, as noted in the ad, that AIDS and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome are "part of the same epidemic," but that the condition (single) is highly contagious and leads to cancer.
This book is obviously unreliable. Let us not allow this type of scare tactic to interfere with our education because such tactics are both serious, but very different.
Anne Haehl Lawrence graduate student
Standards must be set for KU's student leaders
What does a student body president have to do to be removed from office? How violent does the crime have to be? If the woman had received multiple contusions or permanent disfigurement, would we then have a unanimous call for his removal? The woman herself hopes Fulcher is not damaged by the afterfacts of his crime. Since when did the victim's forgiveness become a basis for pardoning a crime? If I shoot a man, and right before he dies, he forgives me and says that I should not be punished. I am still guilty of murder and still face the consequences.
Some people say it is a private matter, and that we owe Fulcher an apology for meddling in his private affairs. The records of Fulcher's court proceedings are public domain. In regard to the exposure of the matter by the press, what did he expect of life as a public official, as the representative of nearly 30,000 students? Others say that the Kansan is wrong for stirring up controversy, especially because it does not prerally expose exposing Chancellor's follies in calendual activities. Does this mean the paper should do the same thing in this instance? If we accept it as wrong that the stories about Budg were not run, then why do we criticize the Kansan for correcting its mistake?
The most erroneous and frankly disturbing argument proposed by the supporters of Fulcher is that white political leaders have seized upon an
I am not a racist. However, I deeply believe that every person who supports Fulcher would quickly denounce a white student body president who pleaded no contest to a charge of battering his girlfriend. I believe that the African-American who support Fulcher now do so because they want an African-American student body president and are willing to overlook a white student being elected. The whites who support Fulcher have jumped on the growing bandwagon of support-minority-rights-even if it-is-not-right.
Russell Abbott
Guest columnist
innocuous event to discredit and oppress an innocent African American. Cedric Lockett's Sept. 19 guest column describes whites as vultures constantly looking for opportunities to "destroy African-American leaders at every level." This argument is frightening for two reasons. First, it displays a high level of paranoia, and when used by African-American political leaders, it appeals to African-Americans to lump all their frustrations about legitimate discrimination into one force and then gives that range an undeserved target. Second, they argue against African-Americans to protest any punitive measures as manifestations of racism. African-Americans are subject to the same rules that constrain us all, but using this argument, they have an unfair, but unfortunately effective, way of circumventing these limits.
Some say that in losing Fulcher, we would be losing a valuable asset to the student government. That may well be the case, but lose him we must. Richard Nixon was a great president, and in losing him, our government suffered. We must not allow the standard for those who would fill public office to slacken. Anyone who thinks Darren Fulcher is the only person who can champion the just causes he supported, that the student government can afford. The student government damaged without Darren Fulcher is incredibly wrong. We can find plenty of capable leaders who will work toward the same goals as Fulcher did, but who have never been prosecuted for battering anyone.
Russell Abbott is a Tulsa, Okla., senior majoring in English.
KANSAN STAFF
HOLLY LAWTON
Editor
JENNIFER REYNOLDS
Managing editor
TOM EBLEN
General manager, news adviser
Editors Business Staff
News ... Erik Schutz Campus sales mgr. Leanne Bryant
Editorial ... Karen Park Regional sales mgr. Jennifer Claxton
Planning ... Sarah Davis David McNeillman
Campus ... Eric Gorks Co-op sales mgr. Laia Kelner
Photo ... Michael Schoen Marketing director. Wendy Stertz
Features ... Brian Schellen Mike Behee
Graphics ... Tiffany Harness Creative director. David Halberger
Graphics ... Maloney Unterberg Jennifer Jacquintol
KATIE STADER
Business manager
RICH HARGHARBGER
Retail sales manager
JEANNE HINES
Sales and marketing adviser
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 Kansas must include class and homeown, or faculty or staff position. Letters 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 Sawyer Flint Hall.
Last Hurrahs
by Mike Romane