4A
Monday, March 6, 1995
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THE ISSUE: REGENTS LAND DONATION
Alumni donations important
generosity isn't that common of a thing. But Clay Blair III, a KU graduate, has proven that it is not a thing of the past.
Blair recently donated 20 acres of land to KU's Regents Center. The donation will allow the campus to nearly double its current size and leave room for future expansion.
And it will happen without a tax increase or a tuition hike.
This land will help the Edwards campus,12600 Quivira Road,Overland Park,meet the growing demands of the Johnson County area. Blair also donated the 16 acres that the Regents Center was built on.
This isn't like mailing a check for a couple of bucks to your favorite
Land gift to Regents Center is an example of the impact alumni involvement has on quality of KU education
charity. Blair's donations have been valued at over $1.5 million. That's hardly peanuts.
In the years to come many people will benefit from this donation. This includes the people who get a master's or doctoral degree there as well as the people whom they help professionally.
Blair is one of many KU alumni who help the University. Nevertheless, there should be more who take up Blair's cue to help the University as much as they can. Without KU, they wouldn't have the opportunities and lifestyles that they do now.
HEATHER LAWRENZ FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD.
THE ISSUE: STUDENT-VOTER APATHY
Blame students for not voting
The results of last week's primary leaves no doubt that Simply Equal is the only issue of any substance in this city commission election. Neither the candidates nor the present commissioners are to blame for the narrow scope of Lawrence politics. The supporters and opponents of Simply Equal, the proposed amendment to add sexual orientation to the city's Human Relations Ordinance, also are innocent of the simple-minded lack of depth that was registered at the polls last week.
KU students are the only ones who can be blamed. Everyone likes to complain about the way things are run in this town. But few bothered to voice an opinion at the ballot.
Students spend the majority of the year in Lawrence, yet most are too indolent to exercise the right to participate in the politics that control their lives: Lawrence politics.
City Commission candidate Doug Compton realizes this is a one-issue election. He immediately lost all concern for research into the feasibility of Simply Equal's proposal when the primary put him, a popular incumbent, almost in last place. The conservative turnout at the polls convinced him that he had missed the bus. Now he is playing catch-up. He wants the proposed amendment to the Human Relations Ordinance brought to a screeching halt before the election — with his vote against it.
Students will be ignored by City Commission until they stop griping and force candidates to face the real issues
With this one-issue election, Lawrence might not be seeing buses for another 25 years. Or what about Horizon 2020, the city's growth plan for the next 20 years, or the Wetlands?
We are letting Lawrence ignore the real issues in this campaign. We have let this campaign become a circus.
Students are the driving force that makes Lawrence a dynamic community. They also make up half the population. Students need to take that force into the bus that Doug Compton and the other City Commission candidates are chasing and drive it straight to the polls. Register to vote by March 20, and vote on April 4. If you don't, the City Commission never will take students seriously.
JOHN BENNETT FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
KANSAN STAFF
STEPHEN MARTINO
Editor
DENISE NEIL
Managing editor
TOM EBLEN
General manager, news adviser
JENNIFER PERRIER
Business manager
MARK MASTRO
Retail sales manager
CATHERINE ELLSWORTH
Technology coordinator
Jeff MacNeily / TRIBUNE
News...Carlos Tejada
Planning...Mark Martin
Editorial...Matt Gowen
Associate Editorial...Heather Lawrenz
Campus...David Wilson
Colleen McCain
Sports...Gerry Fey
Associate Sports...Ashley Miller
Photo...Jarrett Lane
Featureuse...Nathan Olson
Design...Brian James
Freelance...Susan White
Business Staff
Campus mgr ...Both Pts
Regional mgr ...Chris Branaman
National mgr ..Shelly Falevits
Coop mgr ..Kelly Connelys
Special Sections mgr ..Brigg Bloomquist
Production mgrs ..JJ Cook
...Kim Hyman
Marketing director ..Mindy Blum
Promotions director ..Justin Frosolone
Creative director ..Dian Gier
Classified mgr ..Lissa Kulesh
Attempt to pacify Haskell insulting and unjustified
ing as Native Americans in movies, even though the movies' portrayals of Native Americans are as stereotypical as ever. John Wayne's non-Indian actors, idiotically acting as Indians in those trend-setting stereotypical movies, never truly portrayed any Native American.
I guess those people who thought Haskell would accept a few beads for its land saw too many Hollywood westerns on the boob tube.
Even Kevin Costner tried to get the Hollywood Indian myth straight in "Dances With Wolves." But who was the hero? Who came to save the Indians? If you know the answer to that question, you win a free trip to Haskell's wetlands, all expenses paid.
Haskell's wetlands, spiritual sites and educational resources are at stake. Literally. A stake through the heart is death.
Placement of the South Lawrence Trafficway on 31st Street is projected to relieve congestion on 23rd Street, improve traffic routes to Clinton Lake and the University of Kansas and link K-10 and Highway 59. What about Haskell Indian Nations University? How would it benefit from the traffraffic there?
Is it so hard to understand why we don't want the South Lawrence Trafficway on 31st Street? Haskell is trying to hold on to its last 17 acres of sacred land, and the trafficway would take away 15.5 acres of that land. Put the trafficway somewhere else.
Well, how would Haskell benefit? Did any of the trafficway decision-makers think of giving Haskell a role in a process that would make a drastic impact on the Haskell community?
Well, how would Haskell benefit?
Douglas County officials lament that they are losing millions of dollars in the delay of placing the trafficway on 31st Street. Baker University said it does not want the trafficway on 35th Street because the wetlands are important to the citizens of Douglas County. Haskell does not want the trafficway on 31st Street because it would impact its wetlands, spiritual sites and educational resources. Who is to be believed?
Should I feel a bit of compassion to hear that the delay is costing Douglas County millions of dollars? I doubt it. If Haskell had been included in the first environmental impact statement, maybe Douglas County would not now be losing
GUEST COLUMNIST
Bessie James is a Carnegie, Okla. junior in journalism.
those millions of dollars.
Should I feel sorry for Baker if it loses a small part of its wetlands? Yes and no. Yes, because Baker values its wetlands, and Baker's wetlands once belonged to Haskell. No, because Baker offered a few acres of land tc
Haskell to convince Haskell to move its spiritual sites to the offered land. Who gave Baker that bright idea?
It is unfortunate that Baker and Haskell have been forced into opposition.
Perhaps part of the problem is the common misconception about Native Americans, perpetuated by popular entertainment and the media.
Is it so amazing that Native Americans are educated? Native Americans are doctors, lawyers and police officers. They sit on city councils and work in the media. Will wonders ever cease?
Native Americans actually are act-
—Kansas mens basketball coach Roy Williams, on the history and legend of Allen Field House.
—Kansas women's basketball coach Marion Washington, after senior forward Angela Aycock was passed over for the conference Player of the Year award.
"I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS HAS HAPPENED. THIS CONFERENCE SHOULD BE EMBARRASSED."
"I'M RIDING TO ST. AUGUSTINE."
"THE CROWD MAKES THE TRADITION. THE REAL REASON KANSAS BASKETBALL IS SPECIAL IS THE FEELING PEOPLE HAVE FOR THE TEAM AND TEAMS IN THE PAST."
—Joe Spradlin, a retired KU scientist, to a Florida Sheriff during his 35-day bicycle trek across the United States after he was asked why he was on the interstate.
QUOTES OF THE WEEK
"IT'S SUCH A RUSH THAT IF YOU COULD PACKAGE IT OR BOTTLE IT, YOUWOULDN'T HAVE TO DO DRUGS."
—Randy Weinstein, Skokie, Ill., sophomore, on the rush of being onstage during Rock Chalk Revue.
compiled by Kansan staff the week of Feb. 27
March Madness is the fiction; 'Hoop Dreams' is the reality
March Madness. What does it mean to you?
Last Saturday, I saw "Houp Dreams," the movie we is talking about as this year's "Should've Been" at the Academy Awards. Everyone is talking about it because it didn't get nominated for best documentary.
STAFF COLUMNIST
In short, see it.
This show is actually worth the price of admission. It's even worth the two bucks you'll cost you to get a shot-glass-sized Coke.
"Hoop Dreams"
follows two
young Chicago
boys and their
NBA dreams
from grammar
school graduation until just after their high school graduations at age 18. The boys — Arthur Agee and William Gates — are real, not fictional, as are their families, coaches, teammates, girlsfriends and friends.
Most movies, even good ones, are easy to forget. They're just stories. They fade as, year after year, new Hollywood tales come to the theater to replace them. "Hoop Dreams," however, has the added etching force of reality. There is no necessary illusion to the story of Arthur Agee and William Gates. Their lives become windows into the real life of the inner city and the real soul of sports, race and education in America.
Reality is something we lack in our view of sports in general.
Indeed, we probably flock to the field house and surround our televisions to escape the drabness and lack of decisive victory in our own real lives.
But to paraphrase Bob Costas (a surprisingly thoughtful sport-caster), sport shouldn't be seen either as insignificant or all-important. Like everything else, sport has a frame within the rest of human activity.
"Hoop Dreams" shows how that lack of perspective has mutated into more virulent forms in America. Young men can be blind to possibilities outside sport. Fans and coaches reify those same young men in the name of winning.
In other words, sports aren't their own reality or separate from it any more than other cultural activities such as opera, painting or music are separate.
That's not to say, of course, that there aren't exceptions. Kansas men's basketball, under Roy Williams, is so immensely popular precisely because of its dignity.
But sports — arguably today's most popular form of culture — seem to be regularly glided or vilified, depending on who's talking. The predominant intellectual take on sports is that being ostensibly only physical, they lack the dignity of higher forms of culture. True fanatics of sports, on the other hand, seem to revel in that same brute physicality and put rationality aside while they yell, scream, holler, and paint their faces blue.
I'm not sure what all this means other than it seems very easy and very common not to think about sports and their proper perspective. It's all too common for fans, alumni and young kids to idolize sports stars and crave winning as if it were a drug.
Still, it's something to think about. March Madness isn't necessarily a good thing.
MIXED MEDIA
Chris Reedy is a Topeka junior in English and philology.
By Jack Ohman