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Friday, April 10, 1987 / University Daily Kansan
Opinions
A new beginning
The race has ended, leaving a new beginning for the Lawrence City Commission and possibly an ending for the proposed downtown mall.
Former city commissioner Bob Schumm will serve a four-year term after his firstplace finish, and Mike Rundle and Dennis Constance will serve two-year terms after finishing in second and third place respectively. Incumbents Ernest Angino and Howard Hill finished fourth and fifth, and Ellis Hayden finished sixth.
During this election,
Lawrence voters' strong feelings about their city and their downtown came out. Those feelings brought more than half of Lawrence's registered voters to the polls to speak their minds.
The three commissioners elected opposed the mall and the voters overwhelmingly opposed it. The mall issue
ruled this election, and many voters probably voted for commissioners strictly on the mall issue. And although the city commission is not forced to follow the vote on the mall, commissioners should abide by the decision.
Also, the new commission should start picking up on issues that the city may have neglected because of all the discussions and decisions on the proposed mall. It is important that commissioners get back on track and take all of these other issues just as seriously as the mall question.
The three new commissioners who will replace Angino, Hill and David Longhurst have a chance to bring many fresh ideas and solutions to Lawrence's problems. The commissioners owe it to the people of Lawrence always to do their best and never to forget the people who elected them.
All-around Hall of Famer
Congratulations should go to Jim Hershberger for being selected to the KU Sports Hall of Fame, and to the KU Athletic Department for making it possible by using a special admittance clause to admit Hershberger.
Hershberger, 55, may best be known for his monetary contributions to the University, especially the track program. The Jim Hershberger Track at Memorial Stadium is named for him.
However, not all of Hersberger's contributions have been monetary. He anchored the winning 1951 Big Eight Conference Indoor mole relay team, won four Kansas Relays and Texas titles and two Philadelphia Classic championships.
Since Hershberger was not named AllAmerica, he was not eligible for the Hall of Fame, but a special admittance clause recognized
Hershberger's accomplishments.
Hershberger is the first member of the Hall of Fame to gain entrance by the special clause.
He has remained both active and successful in athletics. Hershberger has broken 25 world age-group records and captured 20 Amateur Athletic Union and United States Track and Field Federation national championships.
He also has remained active in his hometown of Wichita and is a member of the Wichita State University Sports Hall of Fame. He is also the first Kansan and oldest athlete ever to be featured on the front of Wheaties cereal boxes.
Hershberger has meant a lot more to the University over the years than just money, and it is only fitting that his portrait will hang along side other great KU athletes on the walls of Allen Field House.
Take a chance
Selling lottery tickets in the Kansas Union is a worthwhile gamble.
Although no definite decision has been made yet, Jim Long, director of the Union, said the University is considering the
The Union is just one of many sites throughout Kansas considering selling the tickets. A bill that established a state lottery was signed into law March 12 by Gov. Mike Hayden. It is hoped the lottery will promote much-needed economic development in the state. Dan Walstrom, lottery project coordinator, said the profits from the lottery "would not support higher education, except to finance university research projects on developing the state's economy." It is estimated that the lottery will earn about $30 million for the state.
feasibility and advisability of selling tickets.
It would be good for the Union to sell lottery tickets. Even though most of the money is not going toward the improvement of higher education, the profits from the lottery tickets will still bring much-needed money into the state. And what better market to attract than University students.
Opponents may argue that the lottery is gambling; that it is "sinful" and will lead only to corruption. However, the lottery is just like any other commodity - if you can afford it and want, buy it. If not, no one is forcing you to purchase a ticket.
Kansas already is taking a chance on the lottery. The University should as well.
News staff
Frank Hansel ... Editor
Jennifer Benjamin ... Managing editor
Jul Warren ... News editor
Brian Kaberline ... Editorial editor
Sandra Engelland ... Campus editor
Mark Siebert ... Sports editor
Diane Doulmeier ... Photo editor
Bill Skeet ... Graphics editor
Tom Eblen ... General manager, news adviser
Business staff
Lisa Weems ... Business manager
Bonnie Hardy ... Ad director
Denise Stephens ... Retail sales manager
Veli Scharer ... Campus sales manager
Duncan Calhoun ... Marketing manager
Lori Copple ... Classified manager
Jennifer Lumianski ... Production manager
David Nixon ... National sales manager
Jeanne Hines ... Sales and marketing adviser
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Soviet press tells world a whopper
Some people will believe anything.
I thought it was absurd that the National Enquirer expected its readers to believe that Elton John's wife
Brian
Kaberline
Editorial editor
the media in more than 60 countries.
might really be a man. But compared to the whopper that has been spread by the press of the Soviet Union, you ain't heard nothin' yet.
the need in more than two countries. Apparently, the Soviets have been somewhat successful in getting people to believe the story. This probably is because the army is operating a AIDS research laboratory on the same base that used to be its biological warfare development center.
A story that appeared in a Soviet weekly newspaper in October 1985 claimed that the AIDS virus was created in a biological warfare experiment by the U.S. Army. Since then, the story has been spread by
I can picture it now: A large color photo of an attractive man and woman in fatigues and come-hither eyes. In inch-high type, the headline reads, "U.S. Imperialist Pigs Unleash Dead Sex Weapon."
Scientists now think the virus might have passed to humans from African monkeys and slowly evolved into the menace it now is. Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health have even cloned the virus they think is involved.
After that, there is a long story on how the United States has plans to spread disease and death throughout the Soviet Union with a crack squad of paratrooper prostitutes.
The U.S. military's goal was to spread the disease so that everyone
either died or was afraid to reproduce. Either way, the Americans would be able to waltz right in and take over the country in 20 years.
Sounds credible to me. Of course I still believe in the tooth fairy and that bus drivers on this campus will yield the right-of-way to pedestrians.
The lesson in this whole stupid mess could be that people will believe anything they don't fully understand. It also could be that no propaganda ploy is too far-out for the Soviet Union and the United States. Then again, it may be that if any Soviet "journalists" choose to defect, the National Enquirer is keeping a space open.
Actually, I'm not sure who is more foolish, the ones who believe the story or the ones who made it up. The geniuses needed to make up a story like that don't grow on trees, you know (although they might swing from them). I mean, these people not only expect people to believe that the states considers a usually sexually transgender person, they have to refute the legitimate scientific speculation on the origin of the disease.
By the way, have you heard the latest about Mikhail Gorbachev's wife? . . .
"The Lord works in mysterious ways." OR, GOD'S THREE STOOGES:
'I'm sorry' not common in U.S. vocabulary
WASHINGTON - U.S. citizens find apology the most difficult type of communication because making excuses is the second most important feature of capitalism, and forgiveness is not a U.S. trait.
Anne Saker UPI Commentary
In business, in politics, even in religion — as the current jihad among television evangelists demonstrates — apologies become currency, barter for a better deal. I'll say I'm sorry if you promise 1) not to sue; 2) to vote for me; 3) to keep sending these love offerings.
The nation has been injured to the deal-making. Because apologies are so expensive, U.S. citizens usually will forge them because they don't want to pay the price, even for the satisfaction of hearing somebody say, "I'm sorry."
The Pilgrims, full of divine fire.
landed on the New World's rocky shores utterly certain of their providential deed of trust. Such absolute purpose was born from the belief that the Old World was warring, oppressive and bloody because it was constantly apologizing to heaven for its mass of human frailty and suffering.
A magazine cover story recently
Apologies were unnecessary when godly people were carving out a city on a hill from an untractable wilderness. That article of faith got the Pilgrims through hellish winters, and though by time alone was made slightly more complex, that belief rules U.S. life now.
The U.S. nation, however, was founded on the tenet that believers could have a wholly correct and unerring contract with God — a belief that has not changed radically in tenor since William Bradford wrote to his spiritual cousins in Europe that deliverance was available upon arriving in the New World.
waited at the decline and fall of cando U.S. service.
A plane is an hour late for takeoff because a rear door cannot be closed. No one says, "Sorry for the delay, folks." Instead, the pilot blames Federal Aviation Administration regulations, which apparently require that all airplane doors be closed in flight.
Politically, apologies force reassessment of motivations and goals, something to be fervently avoided. Those who wait, candle in window, to hear from Richard Nixon or Ronald Reagan in this regard keep a lonely vigil. As a signal demonstration of U.S. political weakness, an apology is tops. Say anything else — communism had to be stopped, future presidents needed protection, mistakes were made — but for a U.S. politician, apologies are anathema.
The squabbling among the television preachers offers the most intriguing current study of apologies. The
Only a few days passed before his act of contortion took on the unappealing taint, in the current argol, of a hostile action to fend off a hostile takeover.
Rev. Jim Bakker's confession of infidelity seemed at first a bracing display of humility from a person who makes a fine living telling people to make right with God.
To extend the metaphor, the Rev. Jerry Falwell rode in as Bakker's "white knight" to save the "PTL Club," adding a delicious little twist for those who have watched Falwell's career with perverse fascination.
In the United States, apologies are a means to a foreseeable and attainable end, as much of the fabric of commerce and politics as money. Forgiveness, as a result, is drawn into the exchange as a matter of trade. Simply saying "I'm sorry" with no strings attached is a singular act of humanity, a gift from one spirit to another and, apparently, becoming rarer by the day.
Mailbox
An embarrassment
The University is to be commended for providing us, Tuesday evening, with a lecture by an internationally known and respected scientist, Steven Jay Gould. His presentation was animated, stimulating and intellectually engaging, making an embarrassment for the University community for the following reasons.
1. The heat in Woodruff Auditorium was excessive and surely could have been corrected by a little forethought about the consequences of filling the place with hundreds of warm bodies.
throughout the lecture was inexcusable, deplorable and rude.
David Parestky professor of microbiology
Lawrence Bradford Atchison graduate student
2. the behavior of those people who chose to depart at various times
Michael Wuenscher St. Louis graduate student
A big risk pays off
This letter is in response to the letter written by Darin McAtee. Darin, I am happy that you wore your blue jeans "because you refuse
to let the activities of a minority group govern the style of dress of the entire campus."
I think you are correct when you say that homosexuals are different regardless of the clothes they wear, as are other people. So, you ask, "Why are they so adamant about proving their similarity, anyway?" This is a good, rhetorical question, but one that I hope to answer anyway.
I wore my blue jeans (actually they were black) so that everyone would think that I was a homosexual. I thought, on this day, I would be one of them. I would be free to speak openly
without fear of losing my life, family, friends and job.
I sat down in the Kansas Union across from someone that I didn't know on purpose. Suddenly, I was afraid. I knew that I was different. I realized that I could lose everything because of my jeans. I wanted to go home and change, but just as I was about to leave, the person across from me asked, "Are those pre-washed or shrink-to-fit?" Thank God, not everyone is like you. I mean, we're all human, right?
Tod Estes Topeka senior
BLOOM COUNTY
by Berke Breathed