Kansan endorsement
In the past few years the Kansan has chosen not to endorse candidates for student government. This policy was made for a number of reasons, not minor among them the fact that the elections are little more than popularity contests for a bunch of inane semi-political hacks.
In this, the year of the Senate Code, the election has taken a new note, one that can and might affect every member of the student body. The Senate Code, if effectively administrated, can provide the needed communication between student and administration and if this communication can be met, the type of confrontation that has plagued other campuses can be avoided at this University.
For these reasons, the Kansan has chosen to endorse a student body presidential candidate. The decision was not any easy one but it came after carefully analyzing the strong and weak points of each candidate and his platform.
The party that, in our opinion, can best implement the provisions of the Senate Code and make it a force in the University seems to be the Independent Student Party.
ISP's candidates, David Awbrey, Hutchinson junior for president and Marilyn Bowman, Merriam junior for vice president, have run a very energetic campaign, one that has set most of the issues, forcing the other candidates to answer rather then initiate.
While the candidates seem to agree on most of the issues, ISP has set the pace for the campaign and its important issues. But, the important indication in the campaign is the energy Awbrey, Miss Bowman and their workers have generated.
This energy is going to be essential in the administration of the new student government during its initial year. Without that energy, the Student Senate will return to the extra-curricular activity the old ASC was. This is not what is needed.
But, to be realistic, Awbrey is not the sure-fire answer. He is, by his own admission, an idealist. Idealism and politics, to say the least, have not been the most compatible of bedfellows. However, after dealing with government for a short time, this idealism can be channeled into effective progress.
The ISP has taken some stands that seem irrelevant to KU, especially concerning Vietnam and some others that have been associated with radicals throughout the country. The radical element of the party itself, may seem to be a detriment to responsible student representation. The element is there, there is no doubt, however, its opinions are mirrored in the statements of other canidates. Radical members of ISP too can provide the energy needed.
Energy is what is needed to make the Senate Code work and the Awbrey-Bowman ticket has that energy.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN An All-American college newspaper
Kansan Telephone Numbers
Newsroom—UN 4-3646 Business Office—UN 4-4358 Published at the University of Kansas daily during the academic year except holidays and examination periods. Mail subscription rates: $6 a semester, $10 a year. Second class postage paid at Lawrence, Kan. 60044. Accommodation packages, and employment advertised offered to all students without regard to national origin. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the University of Kansas or the State Board of Regents.
Executive Staff
Executive Staff
Editor-in-Chief Ron Yates
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Keeping score
The United States is a gaming nation.
By MIKE SHEARER
No where is this thirst for contest more apparent than in the columns of America's great watchdog—the newspapers.
the columns of America's great watchdog—the newspapers.
Before the Pentagon decided to stop releasing the count of Americans killed in Vietnam, Americans looked forward to the daily or weekly scoreboard; "14 VIETCONG AMBUSHED: ONLY 2 YANKS KILLED," with the same ethusiasm as they would muster for the sports page scoreboards, or the finance page scoreboards.
The game of war, and newspapers and television are largely responsible for the game status, is much more tolerable than war itself. Yanks-2, Cong-14 is very similar to Yanks-2, Pirates-14.
One of the difficulties American newsmen have had in covering the Vietnam War has been that it is often difficult to attribute the "players" to any one team. To simplify matters and comfort Americans, everyone slain in Veitnam has very carefully been categorized into "allied" and "communist" camps, despite the fact that from the very origins of the war, many of the South Vietnamese rebels have been nationalists and not communists.
For convenience, American newsmen use the terms "enemy," "reds" and "commies" for an assortment of slain individuals who do not actually fit the titles. American newsmen have found several "teams" on the diamond and have simplified the game and its rules; if they have found Denny McLain playing with the Mets, they've called him one of the Mets.
Is it impossible or impractical for pressmen and newscasters to refer to the dead in Vietnam as "opponents of the Thieu-U.S.A. forces"? It's certainly a good way to complicate what has been a simplified, but not simple, system.
Sydney J. Harris, Chicago Daily News columnist, has referred several times to the American mania for making a game out of war and scores out of death statistics. "Apart from the vulgarity and bansality of listing such figures, there is the psychological impact upon the public. After a time, we no longer regard the contending soldiers as human beings; they are numbers, just like the numbers galloping down a football field. But the Viet Cong are not just numbers, any more than our soldiers are numbers. They are boys, no better and no worse than our."
While proud of the critical coverage of the war which the news media has offered, a journalist must feel some pain over the shortcuts which have been taken, shortcuts which distort the war's image. He can't help but feel that Dizzy Dean is editing copy somewhere between Vietnam and the presses.
You know, don't you, sports fans, that in the next world series both the guys in white hats and the guys in black hats might lose?
Readers' write
To the Editor:
Since the UDK deemed it necessary to recognize the efforts of Terry McClain in his person-to-person campaign to inform the white community, that community should realize what he stands for. His veneer of moderation rapidly deteriorates when one realizes that he has stated, "You have to be able to hate blacks. You have to be able to kill blacks."
He sees no hope of reconciliation between black and white, only an increasing level of open strife. Therefore, he believes he has no alternatives but to organize and arm a group of vigilantes, fashioned after the Minuteman organization, who would be prepared to physically defend the present white power structure. Once the white community comprehends the danger inherent in such activity, we hope it will give this movement the respect it deserves.
Stephen C. Glover Don Loncasty
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