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Wednesday, April 16, 1975
University Daily Kansan
KANSAN
Editorials, columns and letters published on this page reflect only the opinions of the writers.
opinions of the writers.
Guest Editorial
Conviction unfair
Is anyone going to say anything about the four women who were convicted in connection with the Lewis Hall incident?
Maybe you didn't know, or possibly it slipped your mind, but last week three women were each sentenced to 60 days in jail, a $250 fine and court costs for what Douglas County Court Judge Mike Elwell called "an all out attack on the Wastell sisters." Another woman received two 60-day sentences, to be served concurrently, fins totaling $500 and court costs for convictions from the incident.
I don't know just how that sounds to you, but having sat through the testimony, I could hardly believe the verdicts and sentences.
The inconsistencies in the Wastell's testimony were so obvious that it seemed Elwell was the only one in the courtroom unable to detect them. I can't remember whether the Wastell ever directly answered one question that they were asked by the defense attorneys. They were allowed to answer questions with questions and they even changed the subject when they wanted. In contrast, the defendants were instructed to answer the questions at the first sign of evasion.
These "helixes" victims of the "all out attack" were unable to positively identify any of the women as actually having struck them, numbered faces in the crowd and being surrounded by a flurry of arms.
It didn't surprise me to see Debra Wastell sit on the witness stand for 10 minutes while being asked the same question over and by a defense attorney. The question, which called only for a yes or no answer, was that Tanya Looney hit you as you are of the rest of your testimony?"
Her delayed answer was "yes." Charges against Tanya Looney were dropped after it was proven that she wasn't at the scene of the incident.
It didn't surprise me to see the Wastells say they were shocked when they heard the words "I'll kick your ass from one of the alleged suspects." They forgot that the Wastells also made derogatory comments and
that Debra Wastell admitted having made an insulting finger gesture at the group of women just before the incident.
As I sat there and watched Elwell overrule objection after objection made by the two defense attorneys, I thought I had seen everything that could possibly happen in a courtroom. Then I saw Debra Wastell avoid answering another direct question by turning to Judge Elwell and asking "Do I have to answer that question?"
Elwell's reply was "You don't if your lawyer objects." Then the prosecuting attorney promptly stood and said, "I object."
At this moment my instincts told me that Elwell had already made up his mind as to the verdicts.
I have tried not to turn this into a racial issue, but it seems that Elwell was either trying to set a precedent or was simply making an example of the race. I can't say, "We're not going to have blacks beating up on whites around here."
There are also the unproven accusations that political pressure was applied to the offices of the Douglas County Attorney and the KU Dean of Women. In addition, it has been said that many women have happened to be prominent people in Topeka, may have applied pressures to the University administration.
I must say that in the four years I've been at KU, I've seen some pretty funky situations occur. I've also seen defendants plead guilty to more serious offenses than bayer or battery and be released on probation.
But when I see four KU students, the oldest a sophomore, all first offenders, handed such harsh sentences for an act that evidence indicates they might not have committed, it is very evident to me that there is more to this case than meets the eye.
Next month the defendants will appeal the decision. Now I'll ask the question again. "Is anyone going to say anything about the four women who were convicted in the Lewis Hall incident?" If not, the next time such an occasion occurs, we may all be in for some surprises.
David Crockett
"That's Natty Bumppo. Boy do we need him now."
Bumppo-type hero is gone
By KENN LOUDEN
Contributing Writer
Who was Natyty Bumppy? He was the hero of James Fenmore Cooper's "literature-shooting Tales." They were a series of books, some blazed a trail through the wilderness and who helped conquer the land that is today known as America. Natty Bumppy was the epitome of all literature-filled and idealistic in these men.
It wasn't so long ago that a person could go to a movie and see a descendant of Bumpo. Back in the 1930s and early 1940s, his name was Dee" and "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" contained heroes who had the same virtues as Bumpo. These heroes repressed the American wars they were engaged, honest and down-to-earth.
MOVIES ALWAYS SHOWED good guys who always beat the bad guys.
NO MATTER what the odds were, the heroes always won. Jimmy Stewart would clean up politics and get Jean Arthur too. Gary Cooper would prove that a political machine couldn't keep all of us together to rescue a hysterical Barbara Stanwick in time to restore her faith in the American dream. Women didn't depend on the Women's Liberation Movement and Affirmative Action in those years. Davis could lick anyone on the basis of their merits.
Stewart and Cooper were actors who always personified what young boys hoped they would be and what older man secretly wished they were. Even a rich man could admire the simplicity and virtues in Cooper's portrayal of the doctor. Did he want money, or didn't need money and he didn't need education. He had ideals. And his ideals were the right ideals.
Cooper and Stewart also appeared in many Westerns. Stewart was at his best in
"Destroy Rides Again," and Cooper could match him in movies like "The Westerner." In the rare case, one was on everything but everything got straightened out before the end of the movie.
"Hombre" were good guys. Brando's character in "On the Waterfront" was undeniably a hero.
There were a couple other genuine heroes too. Humphrey Bogart always got the tough guy roles, but everyone knew that he was really right inside. As a hard-baked detective in "The Maltese Falcon," he was honest. He was an idealistic
Yet, something important was missing. They were impatient. They had ideals but they were trapped in an idealess world that couldn't be changed. Eventually, the heroes were no longer James. Heames Dean was pathetic in "Giant." Newman's "Hud" had no redeeming qualities. He was a bum.
Then came the late sixties
These heroes represented the American ideal. They were rugged, honest and down-to-earth.
editor in "Deadline, U.S.A." In "Sabrin" he discovered that love was more important than money. Even in "High Sierra" he had to talk about some of the better things in life. He had a touch of tragedy about him but he always ended up as a better man. In "Casablanca" he may have been more vain but he regained his ideals.
But things began changing in the 1900s. Bogart and Cooper made their debut in invisible rabbits and eventually quit making films. Gable died after making a hopeless, "Mashta," and "The Maffes." Good timing.
It appears that those were the days.
Clark Gable also was in that mold. Look at "Mutiny on the Bounty," "It Happened One Night," and "China Sees Blood." Butler Bettar to be a good guy if Gable was playing him.
The old heroes were being replaced with a new breed of antiheroes. Marlon Brando, who played for it while seemed that these heroes had the same ideals. James Dean in "East of Eden" was merely misunderstood. Newman's "Hustler" and
and the early seventies. The noble, rugged, Natty Bumpthrop type was gone. In his place was Dustin Hoffman as "The Man," who boyed and had everything and didn't know what to do with it. He wasn't a bad guy. He even seemed to be a bit of an idealist. But there was something better. If he lived, he didn't know what.
Benjamin broke the taboos of
Cooper, Stewart, Bogart and Gable have been replaced by Gould, Pacino, Nicholson and there isn't a hero among them.
Elliott Gould is completely without hope. He has no ideals. He is completely impatient. he is a mass of paranoia and scroophrenia. He destroyed the very image in "The Long Good-bye-horse" war in M-A-S-H. He may be insane. Who knows?
Al Pacino is either a loser or he is corrupt. "Serieo" was helpless against the system. In "Scarecrow" Pacino's idealism is broken. In "The Godfather—Part II" he is totally corrupted.
Jack Nicholson, who stands a head above the others, has no better luck. As a prototype of Natty Bumpo in "The Last Detail," he comes the closest to being Mr. Cunningham Fenimore Copper's novels. But his sailor has been captured by society. He must surrender and follow the orders of the U.S. Navy. In "Five Easy Pieces" and "The King of Marvin portrays characters who have dared to the cruelty of the world. Neither character has
Heroes still exist. It's just kind of hard to admit that one believes in them and even misses them.
society. Surprisingly, he won. And can anyone think of a better prize than Katharine Ross?
Unfortunately, Benjamin was a fluke—a one-in-a-million. It never happened again. Hoffen characterizes slowly because he never helpless—Ratso Rizzo, Harry Kellerman and finally the biggest loser of the decade, Lenny Bumper. Natty Bumpo won't turning in his grave; he will be anything but any plans of ever looking up again. Frankly, nobody could blame him.
any respect for himself. In "Chinatown," Nicholson starts out of full hope and ideals, but he also is impatient. He can't save the woman he loves, he can't change a corrupt society.
One might think that Robert Redford might be the answer to what happened to the old-fashioned hero. He isn't. Even the handsome Redford can't help but feel joyful. And yet he never fulfills his dreams. In "The Way We Were" Redford is the man who never realizes his potential. He is a lightweight who just gets by.
In "The Candidate" he is the pawn of more powerful forces. In some movies like "Downill Racer" and "Little Fauss and Big Halys", Redford is a plain bastard without any redeeming qualities. Redford was on the front line during the and Sundance Kid" and "The Sing," but the movies lacked sincerity. They were, at the most, camp. In "Jeremiah Johnson" Redford was Natty Bumpup, but instead of portraying a hero, he created a mystery. Johnson is in another movie — an ideal. Everyone came away from the movie talking about the pretty photography.
SO WHEN HAVE all the heroes gone? Maybe some are different, or whether any of those cardboard characters can gain the affection of the audience like Jimmy Stewart's Mr. Smith
Maybe we should blame it on Watergate. That's an easy way out.
Society has changed. No one reads Fenimore Cooper, Walter Scott or Robert Louis Stevenson who one no wants heroes anymore.
YET, SOMEWHERE THERE must be some people who feel a pang of something as Gary Cooper recues an ill Barbara Gaynor to see what happens at "Meet John Doe" from a collapse of ideals as well as pneumonia—who are happy when Clark Bake chooses a seat in how over a prism and proper Roslyn's chair. "China Seas"—who get annoyed when someone laughs during the death of Judge Roy Bean in "The Westerner" or drilling his final scene from "Higher Sera."
Perhaps these people are hiding. Maybe they are part of the ever-elusive silent majority, but maybe they are not there are no more heroes. But they are just a little too sure of themselves. Heroes still exist. They cannot be to admit that one believes in them and even misses them.
Vietnam marks West's decline
What will another Gibbon say of our own times, when 200 years hence he chronicles the decline of the West? He is likely to conclude, as the first Gibbon did, that history is indeed "little
more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind."
Crimes, follies, and misfortunes! In the matter of Indochina, these are precisely the
"CMON---1 KEEP FORGETTING YOU'VE NEVER SEEN THE BEGINNING OF THIS TUNNEL!"
U.S. foreign policy questioned
DUBLIN (AP)—The United States' major European allies are worried about recent setback in the eurozone, especially in Southeast Asia and the Middle East—but they indicated at a weekend meeting of Common Market foreign exchange governors that Europe was their first concern.
By CARL HARTMAN
Associated Press Writer
In London, Israel Foreign Minister Vignal Allon reportedly expressed concern about the increasing security guarantees. Senior diplomats said, after Allon met with Prime Minister Harold
On the other side of the world in Manila, U.S. Ambassador Bassam Gawas assures that the Philippines "best foreign friend is still the United States." This came one day after the Philippines announced a review of its mutual agreement with the U.S.A.
Wilson on his way to Washington, that Israel was passing its concern to friendly governments.
Henry A. Kissinger's recent peace shuttle between Egypt and Israel and the move to the Turkish military government.
An authoritative source, who refused to be identified, said the nine foreign ministers shared concern and anxiety about the international situation of the United States. He said they wanted to help but he didn't give any specifics.
timed. At Britain's suggestion, Ford agreed to upgrade to a summit the regular ministerial meeting of the North Atlantic organization, which was scheduled for May 23-30 in Brussels.
The ministers agreed that the summit by President Ford and European leaders would have to agree on how to show that the alliance can work.
As one European diplomat said before the meeting, the Atlantic alliance goes on, and American interests in Europe than American interests in South Asia. But on the other hand, the
The ministers also agreed to get together on humanitarian aid to Vietnam, North as well as South.
U. S. government is showing signs of self-doubt, and the Europeans have to look at the situation in their own interest.
Sullivan, a former U.S. ambassador to Laos, told a gathering of Philippine diploma's that the Philippines last year because of the military presence in the country, notably at Clark Air Base and Subi Bay Naval Station. He said the bases gave influence and presence in the region," to keep the balance of political power.
elements that have brought us to the bleak and bitter hour confronted by the President Thursday night.
The crimes that figured so importantly in the last chapters of the story are the crimes that recently have been pushed to the back of our minds: The crimes of Watergate. It is curious that the Watergate connection has been so little explored since the moment they were the crimes that influenced history. For whatever the story may be worth, it can now be told.
The Paris peace accords, it will be recalled, finally were signed and announced toward the end of January, 1973. The wintake Watergate trials were just winding up. Richard Nixon was on his way to the oak and pine half months earlier, he had won his triumph re-election. Nixon was sitting on top of the world.
BUT ALMOST IMMEDIATELY—by mid-February—the North Vietnamese began to test the agreement. By early March, the Communists were moving troops and truck convoys toward the south in contemptuous violation of the accords.
As it transpired last week, Nixon had assured Saqian that he would "react vigorously" to North Vietnam's invasion and that his top military advisers. A decision was reached to resume saturation bombing for a limited period. The unsettled question was whether the country should or for seven. During the conversation, Nixon acknowledged
Meanwhile, on February 28,
Nixon had engaged John Dean
in an uneasy conversation. On
March 10, he met R. Haldeman
had talked more of Watergate.
On March 21, Dean cleared his
that Congress and the press would be outraged, however, his victory over McGovern had left him euphoric.
By James Kilpatrick (C) 1975 Washington Star Syndicate, Inc.
Nixon's untouchable authority began to crumble. The bombing decision was postponed, the postponed attack abolished moment for "vigorous reaction" passed, never to be regained. With increasing boldness, the Communists upheld the Constitution Congress in midsummer specifically prohibited military intervention in the name of enforcement. The leaders of Hanoi looked appreciably away and saw they were home free.
threat: "In our conversation, uh, uh, I have, I have the impression that you don't know everything I know." On March 23, the date set for sentencing in aggregate defendants, Judge Sirie Cox in an open court that James W. McCord had begun to talk
In this sad register of history,
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
the crimes of Watergate followed the follies of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. These blunders compounded the misfortunes of the South Vietnamese, who found themselves cursed with a brutal torture, which Deprived of American crutches, weakened by years of invasion, destruction and bloodshed, the
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South Vietnamese now yielded to panic and to despair.
Carlyle and Emerson saw history mainly as biography, and their view supplements men's stories. Men—Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Kissinger and of course Ho Chi Minh and Nguyen Van Thien—made all the difference. Their character, temperament, and weaknesses, shaped the crimes, the follies and the misfortunes. This is history, written now in blood and tears. If we learn all their strengths and weaknesses from its lessons, in time we surely can do better.
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