4
University Daily Kansan
---
Opinion
Monday. April 28, 1986
Missing the point
The vandal who struck the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Kansas City earlier this month not only was wrong in defacing property, but he missed the point of the memorial.
The memorial, dedicated in December, lists the names of 369 Kansas Citians missing or killed in Vietnam. It is located in the Westport area.
Swasikas and slogans such as "Sucker's Memorial," "Red, white and blue is all you see, does it mean that you are free" and "World War III or world revolution" were written on the gray granite wall.
The vandal misplaced his anger in attacking a memorial to the soldiers who died in Vietnam. There's no sense in blaming veterans for the war, when
the real culprits were the successive administrations that pursued unwise policies.
In a way, the vandal has much in common with the Rambo mentality that is appearing in movies and the popular imagination.
The memorial is not intended to glorify the war. Instead, it is a tribute for those who fell in service to this country.
The Rambos hope to rewrite the history of the Vietnam War so that the United States emerges as the victor. The vandal seems to want to recapture the righteousness of those who protested against U.S. involvement in the war.
Both seem obsessed with trying to relive a war that most Americans are trying to put behind them.
Proud return
A genius returned to the country of his birth two weeks ago for a triumphant performance.
Unfortunately, his former countrymen were among the few people who were unable to witness the performance.
The only chance for members of the Soviet public to witness the performance was a dress rehearsal given the day before.
Vladimir Horowitz, 81, one of the most celebrated pianists of our time, returned to the Soviet Union to give a concert for the first time in 61 years.
His performance was broadcast live around the world except in the Soviet Union.
Hundreds of students at the Moscow Conservatory — the site of the concert — begged and cried for tickets to the rehearsal. About 500 of them broke through the door of the conservatory when they heard they might not be allowed to hear the performance.
Horowitz's performance — remember this was only the dress rehearsal — reduced some audience members to tears and brought the audience repeatedly to its feet as
students jumped and hugged each other.
Although their actions weren't surprising, one wonders what Soviet officials hoped to gain by keeping Horowitz off of Russian television screens. Such a move could only anger a populace that obviously still loves Horowitz and recognizes his genius.
Many students said Soviet officials had made few efforts to publicize the performance at the music schools.
Apparently they correctly surmised that it would not be conducive to good Soviet spirit to allow the people — especially young music students — to see a Soviet-turned-Westerner who has achieved such incredible success after leaving for the West.
The economic devastation of America's farmers makes them especially vulnerable to dangerous fault-finding, and extremist groups looking to export their politics into mainstream society are taking advantage of this vulnerability.
Seeking a scapegoat
Horowitz left the Soviet Union in 1925 for a European tour. After his New York debut in 1928, he settled there, gaining American citizenship in 1942.
But placing blame can be a dangerous weapon used to foster hatred for people who harm animals or humans and nected to the original problem.
It's a troubling characteristic of human nature that hardship and misfortune often lead to a search for scapegoats. Although finding fault is rarely accompanied by finding a solution, how comforting it is to point a finger and say, "Blame him."
It is sad that his own people have been deprived of the opportunity to enjoy the work of one of their own.
Somehow, groups such as the Populist Party and Posse Comitatus have decided that Jews are the perpetrators of the farm crisis. Through newsletters and at farm meetings, they preach of conspiracy — international banking families (Populist code for Jews) plotting to bankrupt American farmers and take
over their land.
Although unsettling, it's not surprising that such anti-Semitic views exist; vocal extremists can find pockets of irrational followers for just about any subject. What's frightening is that this filth is finding a growing audience among farmers.
Sheer economic frustration may be leading many of these farmers to fall prey to the insidious whispers of racist voices; in which case a counterattack by Prairiefire, a farm advocacy group, and others may stop the disease.
Most farmers blame Congress, bankers, the Reagan administration and loan agencies for the farm crisis, but a recent Harris poll found that 13 percent thought "certain religious groups, such as Jews" were to blame.
We must hope that the information and communication campaign waged by these groups overpowers the drone of racist fault-finders. Above all, it must never be forgotten that Hitler began by finding a scapegoat.
News staff
News staff
Michael Totty ... Editor
Lauretta McMillen ... Managing editor
Chris Barber ... Editorial editor
Cindy McCurry ... Campus editor
David Giles ... Sports editor
Wilfredo Lee ... Photo editor
Susanne Shaw ... General manager, news adviser
Business staff
Brett McCabe ... Business manager
Dixon Nikon ... Retail sales manager
Jim Williamson ... Campus manager
Lori Eckart ... Classified manager
Carolina Irinez ... Production manager
Pallen Lee ... National manager
John Oberzan ... Sales and marketing adviser
Letters should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 200 words and should include the writer's name, address and telephone number. If the writer is affiliated with the University, include class and hometown, or faculty or staff position. Guest shots should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 700 words. The
both digital spaces and less than 20 words. The writer will be photographed.
The Karanzee receives the reply to email or edit newsletter. The one
The Kansan reserves the right to reject or edit letters and guest shots. They can be mailed or brought to the Kansan newsroom, 111 Stuart-Flint Hall.
The University Daily Kansan (USPS 650-640) is published at the University of Kansas, *118 Staffer-Fint-Hall* (Lake, Kansas, Kan6045, daily during the regular school year, excluding Saturday, Sunday, holidays and finals periods, and on Wednesday during the summer session Second-class postage paid at Lawrence, Kan. *606-623* subscriptions by mail for $15 for six months or $27 a year. Subscription prices are $10 and $18 per student and $35 per student. Student subscriptions are $3 and are paid through the student activity fee.
POSTMASTER Send address changes to the University Daily Kansan, 118 Stauffer-Fitt Hall, Lawrence, Kan. 66045
501006
Most choose to blame someone else
A month ago, I was watching this drunk guy at a party. He was trying to put the moves on an equally intoxicated female. After failing, he became bellicose and vicious to everybody within striking distance. He became very ugly. The next day he held his head and repented, swearing that Jack Daniels was to blame.
Three years ago, a Lawrence man murdered his boss. At the trial, the defense lawyer sword the patient was temporarily insane when he killed the murder, and hence not really responsible for his actions.
The Rev. Ian Paisley recently was spewing hatred from a pulpit in Belfast, Ireland. He was convinced that Northern Ireland would be reunitied with free Ireland. He said murder was indeed "a bad thing, and that it was all Margaret Thatcher's fate..."
A lawsuit is underway in Topeka against a gas station. Some fool poured gasoline on his charcoals and burned himself. He is suing the city for the gas in an unmarked container. It said it was the gas station's fault.
Well I am sorry, but I cannot buy any of the above sophistry. It stinks. It is systematic of a society that retires to accept any responsibility and action we look for people to blame in our care at our parents, our heredity, the environment, teachers, peers, Ford Motor Company, ridad dogs.
Tim Erickson Staff columnist
Franklin D. Roosevelt, the television and fluoridated water — anybody but ourselves.
Some of the blame may legitimately be placed on the shoulders of those who went before us. But finger pointing becomes irrelevant when your life is on the line.
For example, a good friend used my parachute a few years back. He carefully packed it up and I would have assured me it would work. It didn't.
But hurting toward the earth at 120 mph was the wrong time to abdicate responsibility. It was the wrong time to blame Bob. It was an inappropriate time to shift responsibility to somebody else. The only prudent thing to do was to take matters into my own hands and save myself by pulling my reserve ripcord.
Then there was the time I was thrown into a Mexican jail deep in the interior. My friend and I were truly innocent of any wrong doing. But we spent little time quoting the Constitution and crying foul. Instead, we bribed our way out of jail and saved ourselves.
It is only logical that I take personal responsibility for my life. By
We point fingers at our parents, our heredity, the environment, teachers,peers... anybody but ourselves.
and large, no one else cares if I live or die. And it is assured that if I don't look out for myself, I will eventually end up in deep trouble. I am responsible for all my accomplishments of which have consequences.
This seems to be a basic, easily understood premise of human behavior. But you wouldn't know it by looking at the world we live in, creating chaos by refusing to address responsibility for our behavior.
Paisley strikes me as the most obvious example of this school of thought. He is a Protestant who dearly loves mother England. He also is a minister who, in theory, preaches love and forgiveness. Yet his message is filled with hatred and malice. He is poisoning people from his pulpit and blaming Thatcher for their hatred.
The other side of the camp fares no better. The Catholics have deplored the Irish Republican Army for the murder and mayhem
that has become an intrinsic part of Northern Ireland. Yet they condone this murder with their silence and placing blame on the Protestants.
As a result, Northern Ireland is in a state of anarchy. Armed soldiers walk the streets of Belfast, and the city center is surrounded by guards, barbed wire and bomb disposal squads. Industry must be propped up with massive infusions of capital and most every building of historical significance has been blown up.
We may not bomb buildings, but it is not so different here. Our legal system is packed with lawyers looking to affix blame. They are the natural product of a society that uses shift blame to somebody else.
If this trend continues, we will all be able to commit murders and blame somebody else. We will be able to beat our spouses and claim self-defense. We will be able to get drunk and blame the bartender. We may even be able to fail in life and blame our genes.
Conceptually, it is an easy out to blame somebody else. But practically, this trend will destroy society's cohesiveness. It will spread the idea that nobody pays for their choices. And it will foster animosity because everyone will be violating everything and blaming somebody else for something they had no control over.
Divestment only part of S.Africa issue
help destabilize South Africa has become a significant fashion trend of this season's socialist activism. In view of the continuing record of reform and the sanctions our government has imposed, it seems reasonable to ask why divestment and why now?
The left has gotten its way on most key issues. We've provided millions of dollars to communist juntas in Angola, Mozambique and Ethiopia. For 10 years we've turned our back on UNITA.
Why do they want more pressure on an important noncommunist government in the area? How will the deliberate sabotage of a noncommunist state further the cause of freedom?
The so called "issue" of investment as a means of protest is, in reality, nonexistent. If group A sells its investments to group B, has there been any divestment? No, there has merely been a transfer of title.
Divestment is a tactic, and its obvious goal is to undermine the investment climate and, indeed, undermine reform, achieving effective divestment through economic crisis. Reforms such as the Sullivan prion framework can also facilitate total divestment is, in essence, a program of revolutionary socialism
It is difficult to imagine anything more advantageous to the cause of communism than for the free world to engineer a self-inflicted economic crisis. I don't really want the fantasies of the rank and file notwithstanding), is not
This is implicit in the denial that economic progress, or stability, is necessary for social or political progress. It is not by mistake or oversight that divestment advocates overlook the importance of economic progress and that their concept of progress is that of "building socialism."
Ben Casad
Guest columnist
an end to apartheid, but an expanded civil war and the overthrow of the South African state.
To say that there is a struggle with both communism and apartheid in South Africa is not righting paranoia, but a statement of the most elementary facts. It is the left that continues to exploit the propaganda gold mine of apartheid by describing the struggle as black vs white, or freedom vs slavery, instead of ad hominem. The argument is characterized by black and white moderates vs extremists on both sides.
Frankly, it is quite impossible to discuss divestment without referring to a problem far more difficult than aparteid and that is the failure of many elements in the free world to accurately understand the nature of the struggle — the struggle for peace, as the Kremlin is fond of calling it.
The unfortunate truth is that the totalitarian nature of communist demands has dramatically undermined the possibilities for social progress within the context of the security of freedom. Communist aggression in political forums across the world is a permanent factor.
Civil wars definitely have geopolitical implications that we must face responsibly. To paraphrase Whittaker Chambers, the war will be the end of the 20th century and the end of countries, not between them.
The reasons for the illusions, double standards and hypocrisy in the West are complex and difficult. I find the thesis of Paul Hollander to be as concise a statement as is possible here.
It is difficult to imagine anything more advantageous to the cause of communism than for the free world to engineer a self-inflicted economic crisis in South Africa
He says a main reason is to be found in the alienation of many western intelligence from their own societies. Modern humanism has accepted the basic assumptions of the revolution, namely, that our justification and dignity as human beings derives from society.
Alienation results from a need for personal justification, which they have not found in the values that have built western civilization.
In other words, "apartheid" or "peace" is only a partial issue. another issue is alienation mother issue is form of dissent on a wide range of issues.
Lenin called the bourgeoisie and leftwing socialists "useful idiosis" and their politics an "infantile disorder."
Our progressive elite really don't care about blacks in South Africa any more than they care about people in Ethiopia, Kampuchea, Afghanistan, the slaves in the Soviet gulags or, in the case of communist tyranny
This is why many of the alleged progressive schemes must not be implemented — because they are not consistent with a commitment to the goals of the movement, therefore not progressive in any credible sense. Reduced to elemental
forms, some strains of progressivism are a kind of fetish worship of the ideal society — a sort of geopolitical socialist anarchy with peace, love, justice and our mother the earth reigning supreme.
A basic issue involved in struggles all over the world is what is real social progress. For the free world to adopt variations of the communist program is not only absurd, it is dangerous.
Needless to say, communist propaganda encourages such infantile delusions.
The free world has a viable and effective program for social progress — peace through reconciliation and reform, not revolution.
An end to apartheid is inevitable. The rise of democracy and freedom is not.
Our search for solutions to world problems must not include the abdication of responsibility or the adoption of hostile language in an alien or hostile to the free world.
Ben Casad is a Lawrence part-time history student.
Mailbox
Historic elections
In the article on University Council Elections your reporter failed to note the most historic aspect of the process. The new SenEx has four
they are Sharon Bass, associate professor of journalism; Betsy Bergman, Prairie Village junior; Sharon Brehm, professor of psychology; and Evelyn Swartz, professor of curriculum and instruction.
It was a very good day and deserved to be fully reported.
associate professor of classics