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University Daily Kansan
Opinion
Tuesday, April 1, 1986
Imagine an impenetrable 620-mile-high hedge surrounding the United States, designed to defend against incoming missiles and bombers.
Participants must simply write up a "white paper" detailing a "destabilizing, unworkable or incredibly expensive proposal for how to make nuclear weapons obsolete."
Fool-ish proposals
Or imagine using simple genetic engineering techniques to grow gigantic Venus-sfiltraps and then placing the plants in space to intercept JCBMs.
These ideas may seem foolish, but that is precisely their intent. They are part of an April Fool's Day contest to create defense proposals that rival President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative.
The contest is being spon
sored by the Space Weapons Study Group, an organization of students and faculty at the California Institute of Technology, and its purpose is to add ridicule to previous technical objections to Star Wars.
Reagan's Star Wars defense system is so ludicrous, however, that a contest to ridicule it seems predictable. But the contest is designed more for fun than for a political statement, and it should at least provide some imaginative alternatives on a ridiculous theme.
In fact, perhaps Reagan should enter the contest with a proposal for a giant impenetrable peace shield to cover the United States. Who knows? He might win a set of Frisbees.
Also, the administration further undermined U.S. influence in the Middle East, which was already low. The U.S. naval exercise looked to many, including the Western allies, as a blatant act of provocation.
No winners in bravado
The mighty U.S. 6th fleet last week struck a blow at the tiny Libyan navy and claimed a smashing victory. But whether this latest naval exercise will prove anything other than the power of might is another matter.
Given the history of Khadafy's posturing with the United States, it seemed unlikely that Khadafy was humbled. He appeared on television as a hero surrounded by ecstatic fans as he alleged three downed U.S. jets as his own victory. The fact that the U.S. Navy seemed to have survived intact did not matter to Khadafy and his avid supporters. In this game of image building, truth is of little consequence.
Ostensibly, the point of the exercise was to demonstrate the right of innocent passage in international waters. Thinly disguised, however, was the underlying motive of teaching Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy a lesson.
In no sense of the word did Khadafy "lose" the latest round with the American giant. And for precious little gain, the administration risked unleashing the venom of the snake.
A look at the bright side
There is that proverbial "brighter side" to almost everything, and no matter how hard it may seem, that is the side KU basketball fans must try to see today.
For another, the action puts American tourists at risk to reprisals by terrorists by inflaming an already volatile situation.
It wasn't supposed to end this way. Time may have stood still in the Michigan State game, but no one made it stop Saturday night as the final 50 seconds ticked off the clock and the Jayhawks' dream season came to a sudden end.
But "what if" has no place on our campus.
The crippling disease of "what if" is running rampant on campus and across the country. What if three starters had not fouled out? What if Archie Marshall was not injured? What if Larry Brown had used one of his three timeouts to slow the bedlam at the end of the game?
So just what did the administration achieve in this latest exhibition of military strength? For one thing, Khadafy's prestige increases another notch in an Arab world that admires his stand against "Western imperialism," while not necessarily wholeheartedly lending him their support.
It's over. Plain and simple.
It's over. I can't ship.
It is easiest to remember the last game, but the entire season is what should be remembered. Brown set high goals at the beginning of the
season, and the team met them.
KU placed second in the Big Apple NIT Tournament, won the Big Eight Conference, the Big Eight Conference Tournament and won the Midwest Region of the NCAA Championship Tournament to earn a trip to Dallas for the Final Four.
The Final Four. It is an incredible honor for the team and the University that KU ended up as one of four survivors in the toughest tournament in basketball.
When the Jayhawk parade passes through town and campus today, let the players and coaches hear the same support they have heard in Allen Field House the entire season.
The team's seniors, Ron Kellogg, Calvin Thompson and Greg Dreiling, especially deserve the warmth and appreciation.
KU fans can always say "next year . . ." But those seniors gave it their all this year, and they deserve a hearty welcome home.
News staff
News staff
Michael Totty ... Editor
Lauretta McMillen ... Managing editor
Chris Barber ... Editorial editor
Cindy McCurry ... Campus editor
David Giles ... Sports editor
Wilfred Lee ... Photo editor
Susanne Shaw ... General manager, news adviser
Business staff
Brett McCabe ... Business manager
David Nixon ... Retail sales manager
Jim Williamson ... Campus manager
Lorri Bckert ... Classified manager
Caroline Innes ... Production manager
Pallen Lee ... National manager
John Oberzan ... Sales and marketing adviser
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Prejudice experienced in classroom
Awareness week a sad necessity
Unfortunately, it is once again time for Gay and Lesbian Awareness Week. Unfortunately not because it is happening again, but because it must happen again. People do not learn quickly.
Call me old-fashioned, but I say it is unfortunate that people are still discriminated against, that they are shunned and spit upon, beaten up and killed, destroyed and driven to suicide by a country that prides itself on democracy.
People should be aware that gays and lesbians are no different in any fundamental way from anyone else. They don't want special rights and privileges, but the same ones everyone else enjoys.
They are, in spite of their sexual preferences, people too, just like blacks, the handicapped, native Americans and atheists and every other minority group that has been spat upon or ignored.
I might say that it is a simple matter to understand the plight of a group of people who only want to be able to hold the jobs they want, live where they want, love whom they want. But it isn't.
I don't believe it is so simple to understand until we have lived it and experienced the oppression and its effects.
Douglas Stallings
Guest columnist
Last spring I taught English 102, and I had the temerity to teach writers such as Walt Whitman (merely one of our greatest poets but, alas, a homosexual) and Tennessee Williams (a great dramatist and the same) and some others, also the same (great, but, alas, homosexual).
I had the gall to tell a student, who asked me, that Whitman was a homosexual, but his work was still great. I was foolish enough to write a letter to the Kansan in response to a homophobic bigot. I did this out of class, on my own time, and did not discuss the letter in the classroom.
And when class evaluations came back from my students, I was accused of spreading homosexual propaganda in the classroom. If teaching gifted authors' works and giving students biographical information about them is spreading homosexual propaganda, then I was guilty. Of course, that doesn't excuse childish behavior.
A number commented on how obvious it was that I was a "faggot," presumably because of my letter and because I would not denigrate the gay authors' works in the classroom and because I am a man. One student remarked, "He's a queer, you just can (he left out the apostrophe and made the comma splice) believe anything a queer says."
Mind you, my students made that assumption and, as another student in this particular class remarked, they thought they had to "do something about it." presumably get me fired.
God things are not done that way at KU. In fact, my supervisor tried to reassure me that everything was "OK." Of course, everything was not "OK."
Of course, I was not fired. Thank
Those evaluations hit close to home. I had given to my students — I take my job very seriously — and they打响了它 all back in
I might say that it is a simple matter to understand the plight of a group of people who only want to be able to hold the jobs they want, live where they want, love whom they want. But it isn't.
my face because I was a "faggot." not because I was a poor teacher. Ironically, many of them indicated on the forms that I was a conscientious and skillful teacher.
The viciousness of the accusations hurt me a great deal. I'm sure that most of them can't even today honestly know if they were right (or should I say "correct?") or not.
They judged me on some small amount of circumstantial evidence. Well, I have news for
them. About a third of all the English 102 instructors teach Williams, and more teach Whitman. Many of them are male, and most of them are not homosexual.
quite frankly, if English teachers stopped teaching homosexual authors, or other authors who are objectionable in one way or another to "polite society," there would be precious little left to teach, and the remainder wouldn't even include Shakespeare.
And now I know what hatred and prejudice feel like. Perhaps now I have some small idea of what it has been like for blacks and native Americans in this country, though I can never truly understand.
Prejudice is not something white liberals come across very often. And I can tell you from experience, now, that it isn't fun.
I'll keep teaching Williams, Whitman, Cather, James Baldwin, Henry James, Oscar Wilde, E.M. Forster, Plato, D.H. Lawrence and many others. Someday the students might learn that the worth of a work of art lies not in the artist's sexual exploits but in the work itself.
And someday, after many more Gay and Lesbian Awareness Weeks and Black Heritage Weeks and various other weeks, they will, perhaps, be aware that the worth of an individual lies in what the individual is, not in what the individual does.
Douglas Stallings is a Lawrence graduate student pursuing a master's degree in English.
Mailbox
Reagan hypocritical
Since the United States decided to forge an attempt in the World Court, perhaps the legal question is not so important.
Reagan's military engagement with the Libyan armed forces is wrong. The Gulf of Sidra is enclosed on three sides by Libyan and only Libyan territory. Libya could make a strong case that these were indeed its historic waters.
Legalities aside, the U.S. Navy has no business in these waters except launching invasions, bombarding the shore, or terrorizing the Libyan people. What would be the purpose of a U.S. foreign fleet in the Gulf of Mexico?
The reason the Navy is there terrorism. Can you think of a single terroristic act sponsored by Khadafy? The best we can come up with is that terrorists sought asylum in Libya.
No, the evidence against Khadady is classified and, like Nixon's secret plan to end the war in Vietnam, can't be debated.
The real reason the Navy is in the Gulf of Sidra is to force Libya to change its foreign policy. Libya wants to unify the Arab and Islamic world. Reagan wants it divided so American oil companies can gain the control they need to buy cheaply abroad and sell dearly at home.
Reagan's condemnation of terrorism is hypocryst. The U.S. military carried out mass terrorism in Vietnam and sponsors it today in El Salvador. The contrasts are terrorists, and the United States sponsors and aids South Africa's terrorism against its neighbors
We don't need a pep rally for another Reagan victory over a small adversary with no nuclear weapons. A war psychology greases the slide to World War III.
Bob Mears math tutor
Columnist praise
I would like to express appreciation for the clear thinking and maturity so apparent in the March 24 guest column "Life is more than mere existence" by Mike Caulfield.
What a world it would be if everyone could analyze issues as deeply and express himself as articulately as Caulfield has in this column.
Chris Beggs
department of computer science navroll and records
Club owner responds
On Monday, March 24, a very sick person distributed at various locations on campus a ludicrous and libelous copy of one of our advertising flyers that had been grossly altered.
The ad was for our dime draws and a section of this ad used for upcoming specialists had been changed to read, "Whites only — no colored."
At the bottom of the ad was "KKK"
and a swaatika.
The Saractuary and its employees had no knowledge of this action and were disgusted with the insinuations
made. The Sanctuary has never practiced discrimination of any form against anyone other than patrons with improper identification, no membership, or those who have created problems before.
With the exception of Julia Mayben, every person that called or came by supported us completely, knowing that we do not practice discrimination and had nothing to do with the altered ad.
Ace Johnson Sanctuary owner
Also, Julia Mayben is not and has never been a member of the Sanctuary, so I don't know whose membership she is considering tearing up. The Sanctuary, its employees and I sincerely apologize for any mental aggravation or personal insult due to this incident.
IDI idea dangerous
The present state of apparent apathy toward a nuclear war in our
No amount of planning can ensure the prevention of the annihilation of a nuclear bomb once it explodes. JDI says that it is not a survivalist group. The idea of a campus shelter is survivalist in its assumption that there will be something to look forward to for those who are fortunate enough to have been safe in the shelter.
Recently, the Jayhawk Defense Initiative has called for an increased student awareness of the dangers and emergency preparedness in a nuclear war. Not only is this concept dangerous, but it is detrimental to a society in a precarious peace.
society is a necessary reaction to the acceptance of it. The more aware a people becomes of the imminent danger, the greater the risk of a paranoia state. I'm not saying that we should ignore the possibility of instant and total destruction, especially in delicate international politics.
My point is that paranoia of a limited probability can lead to a situation much more dangerous than apathy. The idea of a campus shelter with a limited capacity and resources could result in concern for the people of Lawrence, Kansas City or the entire state.
A society caught in this mindset would be so competitive and fearful it is unconceivable. Who determines who has a place in these shelters? At what point can you limit capacity?
The bomb shelter craze of the '40s and '50s is over. Let us live in apathy and peace in the '80s.
Eric Horstman St. Louis freshman
Thank you, 'Hawks
I would like to extend the basketbal team my thanks for an enjoyable season.
Not only .vas it a great season, but Larry Brown and his fine talented team gave a perfect example to the rest of the University units how with unselfish teamwork a unit can achieve much more than by "star" performance alone.
Robert Hersh program director human biology