4A
Wednesday, May 1. 1996
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VIEWPOINT
Senate homepage a good idea but it could be too impersonal
Do you know the names of your student senators?
Most of us never have received mail or been approached by and talked with the senators we elected.
It seems that student senators are visible only during election time.
Scott Sullivan, liberal arts senator, passed a bill for a senate online outreach program.
But when the outreach program begins, students who visit the Student Senate site will be able to leave their name and e-mail address. This will allow senators to send information directly to them each week via e-mail.
About 13,000 students have an e-mail account at the University of Kansas and that number is growing. It makes sense for Student Senate to take advantage of the World Wide Web.
Obviously, Senate is trying to find innovative ways to reach the public.
THE ISSUE:
Senate On Line
Senate is moving in the right direction, but senators also must try to find some way to communicate directly with students. Not every student has time to get to the Computer Center and surf the Internet. The page is a good way for students to learn what Senate is doing, but it does not allow for a more personal relationship with their representatives.
Senate has shown that it cares about communicating with the students and giving them a chance to find out about issues. However, senators should not just make the effort to inform students about what they are doing. They also should get to know the people they represent.
Whether by open forum or by suggestion box, there would be a connection established that previously did not exist.
DOUG WEINSTEIN FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
University should consider expanding use of Saferide
Students at the University of Kansas are lucky to enjoy free cab service in the evening.
Someone who needs to go home after dark can take advantage of Saferide. As a result, the risk of harm is reduced.
Students returning from a party do not have to walk home through dark streets and risk being assaulted. Those who had too much to drink can be driven home safely.
In addition, fewer drunk drivers would circulate at night. Safenide therefore is a useful service.
However, because Saferide cabs can take students only to their homes, this system puts itself in contradiction with the educational purpose of the University.
Although Saferide cabs can pick up people from any place, its drivers can only take passengers to one destination: their home. A student who needs to do research or type a paper cannot use Saferide to go to the library or the computer center. At the same time, drunk people who go home from a party can take advantage of a free ride.
THE ISSUE:
Saferide
Because Saferide cabs do not take students to campus buildings, Saferide has created an atmosphere that does not encourage students to study on campus.
If students know they can ride home safely from a party — as opposed to getting a ride to the library or another place they would like to go to study — this would make going to the party more appealing.
Changing the rules of the Saferide system so that free cabs could take people to the computer labs or the library would be a good solution.
No one should worry about overuse of this system.
The number of people who need a ride to the computer lab or the library probably would not exceed the number of students who are coming back from a party.
HENRI BLANC FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Jeff MacNelly / CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Sequel to murder case could best be ignored by audience
Bernhard Goetz, like a dull shard, rather clumsily and crudely has torn through the increasingly threadbare tarpaulin of obscurity. Eleven years after he shot four African-American youths who were trying to rob him on a New York subway, and nine years after a mostly white jury acquitted him of all but a weapons charge, Goetz is in court again. This time because Darrel Cabey — one of the four youths he shot and who is paralyzed — successfully has sued him for $43 million.
And for some reason, we are going to give this case the critical attention and the hurting momentum it doesn't deserve.
Admittedly, the Goetz case glistens and cuts. It jabs at our society's notoriously sensitive spots — race, crime and guns. Those in attendance at the new trial looked much like those at Goetz's previous trial in 1987, and like something from a TV docu-drama. There was the white man, twice-mugged, who in December 1984 came up shooting when four African-American teenagers surrounded him on a subway and demanded $5.
There was the African-American man, now 30, who at the time of the shooting already was facing a robbery charge, and whose gang chose Goetz from the subway throngs because he "looked like easy bait."
And, like then, the two men were accompanied by their Doppelgangers. There was the NRA-backed gunman who once said the only way to clean up the streets was to expunge the "niggers" and "spies." He also said his attackers'
GUEST COLUMNIST
mothers should have had abortions and admittedly took pleasure in hunting the hunters. And there was the tortured youth, his movements confined forever to a wheelchair and his thoughts garbled forever by a damaged brain.
mostly was minority, we were bound, once again, to make a judgment in this case and to find meaning in it. But oddly, the 1996 Goetz case seemed a barren place for such pursuits. Thrown into the somewhat hackened mix this year were a pony-tailed lawyer firmly clutching the "race card," a Broadway actor permitted to give a dramatic reading of testimony from a deceased 1987 witness, and a bunch of money that the plaintiff never will see.
Like the jury, which this time
Where, as we reflect upon the Goetz case, should we look for meaning among its ingredients, which resemble ballpark amenities designed to lure us to a game that no longer deserves our attention?
But we will look for meaning anyway, won't we? Our profoundly religious and lawyerly society will demand that we find the guilty and the innocent, the good guy and the bad guy.
And we won't accept the guy in between, will we? We will push him
and prod him until he squares is in our corner and staring directly across at his counterpart. We will be ironic, indignant and dramatic.
Eventually, we will embrace the financially and emotionally bankrupt victim, who is frank and disarmingly aware of his faults and who was pushed to the brink by dregs and criminals. Or we will embrace the physically and mentally bankrupt victim, who temporarily was misguided and was punished mercilessly for $5. And we will fix evil eyes on their assaults.
But doesn't it seem, as we struggle to separate Goetz and Cabey, that they don't belong far apart? Where is the space between a man who shot four teenagers in a fit of rage and racism and a man who now is using any means, including race, to collect $50 million from the man he tried to rob?
Should we not throw down our natural impulses and our emotions and bask in the peculiar serenity afforded by an indistinct presence or absence of virtue?
Maybe there is nothing important to be gleaned from two everyday low lifes in a Bronx courtroom. Maybe there is no reason for us to divide them and for them to divide us.
Maybe we should release this unfortunate sequel from our thoughts, and let the actors unite for one brief and final alley dance until the screen fades mercifully to black.
Scott Worthington la la Manhattan graduado astudent in Journalism.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Kansan portrays greeks negatively — once again
There you go again! In a Thursday column by Ian Ritter, I noticed one more in a long line of anti-greek positions taken by the Kansan. As long as there is a greek system there will be those outside of it who feel more secure by constantly attacking it. Ian, you have the right to join or not join a fraternal organization, but don't blame them for existing without you. Your opinions regarding a recent theft of building materials by several KU students who are members of a fraternity caught my eye. I have to agree with you that these acts are wrong and should be punished. I don't believe the fraternity sat down at a meeting and decided to steal materials for a party, but rather a few pledges thought this would be a cute stunt to pull. They were wrong. Like most
people, sometimes in life we make wrong decisions, and we need to pay the consequences.
But, lan, it is amazing to me that you and others at the Kansan always find room for every negative story about the fraternity system at the University of Kansas or anywhere else in the nation, but you can't find the space or interest to mention the thousands of good things that go on here. Last week end the Greek system at the University held a recognition ceremony to reflect a little on the great things it has accomplished this year. I must have missed it, but I didn't see one word about it in your paper.
More than 500 of the University's best students attended. They recognized the thousand of hours of time and energy given to the University and the Lawrence community by fraternities and sororities. They acknowledged that, once again, the
grade point average of greeks was higher than the GPA of all university students. They honored many individual students for their leadership, academic and civic accomplishments. They thanked Greek organizations that have raised thousands of dollars for local charities. It was a great night. I wish you could have been there! Oh, and by the way, they did all this without so much as a schooner of beer.
I know of no other student group that is more involved in all of the University's activities or volunteers more time to community organizations. Sometimes the members make individual bad decisions, but more often they make some really superb decisions. The University is better off with a strong Greek system. Try it, Ian. You may like it.
Gary Hawke KJHK general manager
Chain stores are replacing Mom and Pop establishments
Kansas City-based and independently owned, Whistler's Books announced last week that the store is closing its doors forever. Closely following the lead of Lawrence's Adventure Bookstore, I took the news more painfully than I had predicted.
It seems that locally owned bookstores are going the way of
STAFF COLUMNIST
soon-to-be extict Mom and Pop gas stations and department stores. It is becoming impossible for one person to battle for competition from the "big guys" — corporate chain superstores such as Border's or Barnes & Noble.
The frustration that culminates from witnessing the demise of so many quality shopping areas can be overwhelming. Why do people shop at the Plaza's Barnes & Noble? Granted, they do have a larger in-house stock, but they lack many fundamental qualities that a bookstore should be noted for: a knowledgeable staff, a personal feel and an environment conducive to browsing.
In one visit, I discovered that many of the Barnes & Noble's staff did not know who owned the store. Instead, it seems today's modern shoppers are content with fake marble wallpaper columns, fake wood print posters of pop-star quality authors and overcrowded conditions.
This concentration on the immediate shopping experience pales in the face of the true problem, however.
Many shoppers do not realize and do not care where their money goes.
If you write a check at Border's, a few pennies will remain at the store as employee salaries. The rest will go to the faceless head honchos at Kmart, the owners of the Border's chain.
Exchange money with the people at Whistler's, and the profits remain with that store.
The money then is exchanged again with another neighborhood business, such as a restaurant or a movie theater like the Tivoli.
Your purchase at the independently owned store stimulates the local economy, retaining jobs and remaining in the community.
Also going the way of independently owned businesses is neighborhood identity. Corporate-owned store stores rarely sway from the typical cookie-cutter layout that the executives choose.
They are void of individuality and atmosphere. And generally, they exist merely to serve their own greedy needs, neglecting the responsibilities of community members.
Unless we wish to face the doom of obtaining our culture from strip-mall quality businesses, we as a community need to join forces and refuse to shop from the devouring chain stores.
Lawrence is filled with locally owned stores, but they are feeling the threat that has obliterated the community-oriented stores of Johnson County.
Mega-chains such as Wal-Mart are difficult to conquer, but it is possible to take back our communities if we watch where we put our money.
Leslie Bowyer is a Lawrence senior in art history.