4 University Daily Kansan Opinion Monday, March 24. 1986 Next stop: Dallas The Jayhawks will click the heels of their ruby sneakers and proudly proclaim, "There's no place like Dallas! There's no place like Dallas!" Maybe not, but it is certainly a dream now well within their reach. The lads from Lawrence showed class, talent and an amazing amount of resiliency in defeating North Carolina State yesterday to advance to the Final Four of the NCAA Championship Tournament. Thousands of exhausted fans breathed a huge sigh of relief as the much-lauded Jayhawks lived up to all of the incredibly high expectations that have been heaped upon them. The entire team has played some of the best basketball of the year during this tournament. Coach Larry Brown has accomplished all of his preseason goals; the rest will come as gravy. The Jayhawks now have nothing to lose, the pressure is off, and the fun should begin. Since the tournament began all of the University has pen- sively waited as the Jayhawks have overcome hurdle after hurdle. They lasted past the Second Round Jinx, outlived Scott Skiles and Michigan State, and soundly defeated the highly-animated Jim Valvano and his Wolfpack. The questions and comparisons will undoubtedly come, but neither should take away from the accomplishments at hand. The 15 extra seconds of the Michigan State game will haunt the team to the end. But even with the shot clock running correctly, it would have been, at most, a different game, not an automatic Jayhawk loss. The championship 1952 team also will be resurrected on sports pages across America. But how can two different teams of two different eras be effectively compared? Brown has said all along that he would like to see the Jayhawks win the title in red shoes, as they did in 52. Bring on the shoes, coach and ease on down to Dallas. Through a child's eyes Diplomats are getting younger all the time. Last week, an 11-year-old Soviet schoolgirl, Katerina Lycheva, arrived in the United States for a two-week peacemaking tour, which will include visits to Chicago, New York, Washington, D.C., Houston and Los Angeles. Katerina — Katya, to her friends — spent her first day in the United States with the sixth-grade class at LaSalle Language Academy in Chicago. She also has met with Chicago Mayor Harold Washington and has eaten her first McDonald's meal. The tour is being sponsored by a San Francisco group, Children as the Peacemakers, and was inspired by the late Samantha Smith's 1983 tour of the Soviet Union. This exchange of visits is a wonderful idea and ought to be continued and expanded. These children have the unique opportunity to have an active part in bringing peace to their future. During Katya's visit, like Samantha's to the Soviet Union, she will have the opportunity to interact directly with the individuals in the country she is told to hate and fear. She will meet the "enemy" for herself. And perhaps as Katya toures the United States, those Americans with Rambomania paranolia will realize that this Soviet child is very much like children here. When Katya returns to the Soviet Union and as she grows up, she may be able to influence others in her country to consider the people behind the propaganda. One child cannot change the stereotypes of generations, but she can begin to chip at the edges. And if more exchange visits take place, more understanding will develop between our two countries. If there is to be reasonable hope for peaceful coexistence between the United States and the Soviet Union, these young diplomats will lead the way. Uneasiness in Chile The clock is running for Augusto Pinochet, the autocratic president of Chile. During his 12-year reign, Pinochet has counted on support from the United States, support that recently has appeared less than reliable. He had to watch as the United States kicked the props from under Jean-Claude Duvalier of Haiti and Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines. Pinocheto faces a new wave of anti-government protests as the Chilean summer vacation ends and students return to the universities and to the streets. For the first time, the Reagan administration has pilloried the dictatorship for The rebuke from the Reagan administration must have been especially painful. Like Reagan, Pinochet is dedicated to ridding the hemisphere of communism. But Reagan has problems winning allies who are against the Soviet-backed Sandinistas, while the United States supports the right-wing tyrant in Chile. As in the Philippines and in Haiti, the next wave of protests will hit when the United States is hedging on its support. Pinochet may find that when the students and the unions take to the streets this time to demand democracy, he'll have to listen. News staff Michael Totty Editor Lauretta McMillen Managing editor Chris Barber Editorial editor Cindy McCurry Campus editor Sports editor Sports editor Brize Waddill Photo editor Susanne Shaw General manager, news adviser Business staff Brett McCabe ... Business manager David Nixon ... Retail sales manager Jim Williamson ... Campus manager Ecklori Lack ... Classified manager Carolina Irmae ... 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 The Kansan reserves the right to reject or edit letters and guest posts. They can be mailed or brought to the Kansan newroom, 111 Stauffer-Flint Hall. The University Daily Kansas (USPS 650-640) is published at the University of Kansas, 118 Stairford Flight Hall, Lawrence, Kan. 6045, daily during the regular school year, excluding Saturday, Sunday, holidays and finals periods, and on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., at 60044. Subscriptions by mail are $15 for six months or $27 a year in Douglas County and $16 for six months and $35 a year outside the county. Student subscriptions are $3 and are paid through the student activity fee. POSTMASTER Send address changes to the University Daily Kansan, 118 Strauter-Findl Haw, Lawrence, Kan. 664/45 Food crisis isn't over for Africa It is gratifying to know that some of the affected region is now free of the famine threat. at least for now, after good rains and abundant harvests in 1985 We all witnessed how the Western world was moved to heroic action by scenes of African famine, especially in Ethiopia. But for how long will this buoyant harvest continue in Ethiopia, Sudan, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, or even farther south from the Sahab belt in Zimbabwe and Mozambique? No doubt some of these countries still will need substantial aid in 1986. Presently, 24-30 African countries are drought-striken. Half of these are in the Sahel belt, which crosses central Africa from Mauritania on John Mbapuun Guest columnist the west to Ethiopia on the east. Interestingly, however, attention was exclusively on Ethiopia where the media cameras focused more world attention. One may see a double tragedy of civil war and famine sooner or later in Chad. This is why Western technological assistance in an effort to eliminate hunger, and in an acquisition of knowledge to obtain early warning against severe drought, is needed most. Obviously their reports would be biased. Finally, their reports would reach our governments and in export tone conclude that Africans are not capable of managing things for themselves. And so what? Scholars and experts have written and spoken about the shortage of water in Africa and how to tackle the problem. High-profile experts and observers flew to Africa from Europe and America to hold seminars and see things for themselves. But they stayed in their hotels, never daring to go to the hinterland. John Mbapuan is a senior in journalism from Gbako, Nigeria. There is a Chinese saying: Give a hungry man a fish to eat, you feed him; but if you teach him to fish, you end his hunger. I had an experience in Nigeria before coming to school here which I vowed to tell. A scantily-dressed Malian woman, 28, cuddled her baby as she looked up at me while she was soliciting on a street in the city where I lived. I asked her what caused her to solicit publicly. In a voice shaking with emotion, she said she came from Mali where she and her husband lost all their belongings in a long spell of drought The baby clung to his mother in a desperate effort to feed from her dry and wrinkled breast. Then, the child began to cry and the mother, too, started sobbing. Zanaib and her husband Mousa were the Malian couple whose lives in the remote village were a matter of just survival. They had realized soon that the crops they planted would not survive the drought for the third consecutive year. They had to choose between staying and dying or finding refuge somewhere. The anguish was vividly shown in the woman's eyes which had turned black and somber. This was my first-hand experience of the deteriorating condition of food in Africa, brought home to me from Mali. Today, the situation is almost the same in Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Chad, countries that share boundaries with Nigeria. Refugees began to trickle into Nigeria, and the trickle turned into a flood. The sub-Saharan Africa consisting of these countries is the only world region where per-capita food production has declined continuously in the last decade. If the trend continues, we can expect that in 2018 the area, the per-capita food production in 1988 will be the same as the drought year of 1984. In the past, the African experience of foreign aid often has been misdirected through lack of sufficiency and through self-serving initiatives by donors. The Reagan administration recently has sent in a $7.8 million contribution to join an agency of the World Bank especially created under the initiatives of its president, A.W. Clausen, to support revitalization in the depressed, drought-plagued sub-Saharan countries. The agency went into operation last July with money and pledges of $1.4 billion. Now with the American membership, American businesses will be allowed to compete with their high technology in the marketplace of ideas for the development in the sub-Sahal region through contracts. The money would be spent to buy power shovels, dredging machines, pipelayers and other equipment required in Third World development programs. This will go a long way to assist subsistence farmers of the subSaharan belt with the scientific means for producing more 'food. Mediocrity abundant in politics Some campaign seasons make you wonder whether our political system can survive politicians. There is little reason to wonder why voter apathy is on the rise. Citizens' assessments of the quality of their elected officials indicates a decline in most places in the United States. That is no surprise either. Three-quarters of the citizens of New York City told a public opinion poll the other day that they thought corruption was so widespread it had caused a significant decline in the quality of the services the city provided. California voters still are trying to figure out just what went on recently between two politicians in the Republican primary campaign for the U.S. Senate. Rep. Bobbi Fiedler of California briefly was indicted for allegedly attempting to bribe state Sen. Ed Davis to quit the race. They have so drapped each other in mud that they are now called "the gruesome twosome" in some political circles. In the three-ring circus of the California primary, anything is possible, but almost nothing is plausible. These clouds of venality and inanity that hang over the political process are contributing to cynicism and apathy in the public. The simple and visible fact to many Americans is that we have legions of candidates and hardly any leaders. Two phenomena in particular, it seems to me, contribute to this unhappy circumstance. The first is the dominance of television in the political process. The political parties are of declining importance. Candidates need not work their way up the ranks. They merely must do well on television. The second factor could be called "the Watergate backlash." No one has precise data on this phenomenon, but there is little doubt it is significant. Some otherwise talented people think the news media after Watergate made almost all elected officials seem suspect in the community's eyes. Running for office means running the risk of having your private life turned upside down. Ask Geraldine Ferraro. The consequence of all this is that our system seems to be operating with an overly generous portion of mediocrity. It has been a long time since we heard from a politician with the intellect of the late Adlai Stevenson or the experience of a Dwight Eisenhower. The consequence of all this is that our system seems to be operating with an overly generous portion of mediocrity. It has been a long time since we have heard from a politician with the intellect of the late Adai Stevenson or the experience of a Dwight Eisenhower. The late Sen. Roman Hruska must be smiling from the great beyond. Hruska was laughed off the Senate floor for a remark he made about mediocrity. He was defending former President Nixon's unfortunate choice of G. Harrold Carswell for a seat on the Supreme Court. Readily acknowledging Carswell's shortcomings, Hruska nonetheless argued for him. Why should only brilliant people be appointed to the court, he said. It's time to give the mediocre a chance. Little could he have guessed the degree to which his wish seems to be coming true on the national political scene. We have a Congress and an administration so unwilling to make hard choices that they are willing to countenance bureaucrats and computers doing the job they were elected to do. The Gramm-Rudman-Hollings amendment really should be renamed the "Roman Hruska Memorial Amendment." It does for mediocrity what the hot dog has done for baseball. They belong together. The mediocritory would be bad enough, but the thievery being disclosed in municipal government is turning off the public even more. All the mayor's best friends in New York appear to be indicative in a parking fees scandal. New York Mayor Edward Koch is not alone in his misery. The former best friend of the mayor of Washington, D.C., just went up for seven years for embeblement. The former mayor of San Diego and some of his friends may be doing time are long. With that image of the public servant vivid in the public mind, it becomes a little easier to understand why Americans are becoming less and less enamored of the political process. Sadly, no one seems to know a way to attract better leaders. Mailbox Poor Crew coverage Normally, we find your sports coverage fairly complete as well as adequately interesting. However, concerning your March 18 issue, we found the three-sentence mention of the excellent performance of the Kansas Crew Team in Austin, Texas to be far from acceptable. Not only did KU win eight of the 13 events that it entered, but it won both the overall women's trophy (five of the eight firsts were by the women) and the Jester Cup, which is the overall team trophy, University of Cincinnati. In addition, KU took four second places, one third and two fourths. KU won the regatta with 283 points over the second-place team, which was the University of Texas with 215 points. Also competing were the Austin Rowing Club, Colorado State University, Dallas Rowing Club, Kansas State University, Topeka Rowing Association, Washburn University, Tulane University, Wichita State University and Xavier We're not asking that you give Crew the half-page articles that you give our Dallas-bound basketball team (good luck, guys!) but the hard work and well-earned ac-complishments deserve more than three sentences. Donna Reid Donna reid Manhattan senior Theran Adamson Albuquerque, N.M. freshman Pete Thomas Hodges Leavenworth sophomore Life is more than mere existence Is it wrong to prevent a cell from developing into an unwanted, unloved, uncared-for being? Do the lives of those who aren't born take precedence over human beings already enjoying life? Most anti-abortionists would answer yes to both questions. One only has to read about the fanatics who bomb abortion clinics or those who shove posters of agonized fetuses in the faces of the undecided to realize the dismisseance of their stand. Many anti-abortionists are hypocrites. They laughingly call themselves "pro-life" in a society already overpopulated with malnourished, unloved, abused children. Perhaps "pro-choice" people should walk around with these kinds of posters. People seem to ignore the drug addicts, alcohol abusers, teenage runaways and juvenile delinquents who have become the way they are because they are unloved or unwanted. Is this the life we should give our kids? Mike Caulfield Parenting should be a loving commitment, not an accident. If you are Guest columnist not willing or able to give the best of yourself for your kids, anti-abortionists would tell you to have them anyway. They want you to ruin your life because of an unfortunate mistake. Being happy, living effectively and loving others are far greater goals. Our mistakes should bring about growth and change, not hinder and infringe upon our happiness. It's time we started defining life in terms of quality, not mere existence. Life without love is a life not worth living. Anti-abortion adherents should concern themselves with their own happiness. Giving love to others depends on how much we love ourselves. Some people are fanatically obsessed with using religion and guilt to manipulate others. But love shouldn't be based on the guilt and worry of an unwanted pregnancy. Also, it's time to stop treating unwanted human beings like strays dogs by carting them off to the nearest dog pound adoption agency, hoping the babies will somehow get by. Abortion is a woman's right, and that right should not be stripped away by the thinkers from the dark ages. Women have learned to stand up for their rights. Furthermore, a woman's self worth and decision is determined by her, and her choices need not be explained to anyone. She doesn't need public approval. It is her own private business. If you are "pro-life," maybe you should be more devoted to getting sex education required in public schools. Although abortion is not a form of birth control, it's a means of survival from illegal abortions, and it gives couples an opportunity to plan their parenthood and give their children the best of themselves. Those are the days worth living for. Mike Caulfield is a Kansas City Mo. junior majoring in advertising.