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Wednesday, March 25, 1987 / University Daily Kansan
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
No debating its value
For 119 years, the KU debate squad has given students an opportunity to match wits and rhetoric, but now the club seems to be losing the biggest debate of its existence.
The debate is with the Student Senate, which has denied the group revenue code status for the first time since the revenue code system came into use at the University. Members of the Student Senate Executive Committee said the decision was made because they thought the squad was not a service organization and only benefited a small group of people.
Opinions
The squand not only is open to all students, it does serve the University by enhancing the academic reputation of the school. The National Debate Tournament committee now has KU as the top-ranked team in the nation. Since the national tournament began in 1947. KU has won four times and has sent more teams to the tournament than any other university.
It would be a shame to essentially dismantle one of the finest debate clubs in the country and a visible sign of this University's commitment to academic excellence because of a budget squabble. Somehow the Senate needs to work out a plan that either will reinstate the revenue code status of the debate club or else find another acceptable source of financing.
Steve Ellis, president of the club, said the reputation of the squad also helped the University draw top-notch communications students and faculty.
Excellence in any field is hard to come by. Let's not squander it in this case.
Handle with care
It often is said that Kansas lags behind other states in actively seeking progress for the state. But in a debate that Kansans now are involved, in lagging behind would not be such a bad idea.
The debate is about the location of a storage site for dumping low-level radioactive waste. The Central Interstate Low-Level Radioactive Waste Compact Commission must decide on a site in Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Arkansas or Louisiana by Jan. 1, 1988. Because Kansas is mentioned as the most likely site, residents of the state have been especially vocal in their opposition to the selection process.
But Kansans may be fighting an even bigger battle now. A proposal was made that the state would take the radioactive waste site if it might gain some leverage in getting a $4.4
billion superconducting super collider located in Kansas.
While the state could benefit greatly from the project, the two are separate issues and should not be considered together. Kansas is in desperate financial trouble, but that is no excuse for carelessly selling short the concerns of one group of citizens to benefit another.
The super collider would be the world's largest nuclear accelerator The project would provide jobs for many Kansans and pump desperately needed money into the state's economy.
Caution should be emphasized in selection of the waste site. If citizens of the state have arguments against locating the site in Kansas, the state and the site selection committee have an obligation to hear and fairly consider them.
Carter no longer 'official'
Jimmy Carter is keeping the United States in suspense about his intimate conversations with Syrian President Hafez Assad.
But other than that disclosure, Carter's lips are sealed, at least for now.
Carter has whet the public's appetite with a disclosure that he has urged Assad to act for the hostages who are being held in Lebanon.
Carter had grave concerns about conditions in the Middle East during his presidency. His concerns for peace in the
Syria was Carter's third stop on his five-nation tour of the Middle East and North Africa. He already has visited Algeria and Egypt and will end his tour with trips to Jordan and Israel. He has emphasized that he is not traveling as a U.S. official or representing the government in any way.
Middle East still exist. Carter is not out of place because he is touring other countries and trying to put in a word for the hostages.
However, he must be cautious with his actions and his speech because he is, in a sense, representing the United States. He should play the role of a concerned citizen, not of a government official. This is especially important when he speaks of sensitive or controversial issues.
Carter has been slow to reveal any details to the public about his trip. He described his first meeting with Assad as "pleasant" and "broad-ranged."
Carter should keep a couple of things in mind during his tour. He should watch his step during his travels. And after they're over, let's hope that he shares his secrets.
News staff
News staff
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When a tragedy is really just vanity
I've received my first phone call from a teenager who indicated that she was interested in the job.
Actually, she didn't call to tell me that. Not at first. She opened the conversation by asking if I knew the phone number of any suicide hot lines.
Mike Royko Columnist
I told her that I didn't, but suggested that she call information to see what they had listed under "suicide."
"I have to talk to someone," she said.
"Why? Are you thinking of killing
you?" I asked.
The woman's face. I've been
yourself. I asked
him. Maybe, Maybe. I've been feeling depressed."
"That's too bad. Try the information operator."
"If you kill yourself? Yeah. I don't think you should do it. It's kind of a dumb thing to do. But if you insist on doing it, it's not going to affect me one way or the other. That's about all
"Well, thanks a lot," she snapped,
and she hung up the phone.
I can tell you."
"About what?" I asked.
"Oh things. Just things."
Her voice, which had sounded flat and dull, suddenly became shrill, and she said, "You don't care. You really don't care, do you?"
Now I feel bad. Not because I didn't sound deeply concerned about what she might do, because I'm not. But I should have taken the time to tell her why I wasn't deeply concerned.
There is this old man I know. When I first met him, many years ago, he was tall, handsome and proud. He worked hard as an electrician, had a sweet and intelligent wife, a tall son and a beautiful daughter. They were a close, loving family.
When his wife was in her late 30s, she was stricken with multiple sclerosis and spent the rest of her life in a wheelchair. It was a tough break for both of them, but they made the best of it. I never once heard either of them complain.
I saw this man's grief when his only son, at 46, was buried after a heart attack. I was with him at the funeral of his daughter who died at age 44 of a stroke. I also was there when his wife could no longer keep up her brave fight against the ravages of her disease.
The old man suffered and wept. But he never once said, "Pity me, oh please, feel sorry for me."
He didn't say it during those terrible times and he didn't say it when he woke up with him in the doctors had to cut it leg above the knee. Then they cut off the other
He told one of his grandons,
"Well, now I guess you're the tallest
in the family and I'm the shortest."
Now he spends his days and nights in a bed in a nursing home. If I've ever known anyone who would be justified in swallowing a handful of pills, it's that old man.
leg
But he hasn't done it, because if he did, he wouldn't see his grandson's anymore. After all that he's lost, he still has them. His grandsons, as well as his courage and many wonderful memories, are enough to keep him going.
So I'm sorry, but I can't get weepy when those who are 17 and healthy say that they can't go on after being jilted by a boyfriend. life is too painful. Or they aren't popular enough in school: life is too painful. Or their parents don't listen when they talk: life is too painful. Or they are depressed because their best friend is depressed: oh, life is too painful.
Don't tell me that pain is relative.
Like hell it is. There's a big difference between a pin prick in the finger and a knife to the gut.
However, if someone out there insists on going into a garage, turning on the car and fading into obliviousness and yourself about what you're doing.
You probably fancy yourself a tragic figure and believe that others
will, too.
Forget it. Few people will care.
They have their own troubles. Just check out the obit pages or the hospitals.
Oh, some strangers will glance at the TV or newspaper and wonder why you did it. A few alleged experts and TV babblers will even say we have a national crisis, which is nonsense.
But most people will give your dramatic gesture about five seconds of thought, if that much, then forget it.
Your friends at school? Sure, they'll spend a day or two striking melancholy postures. Then they'll get on with their own lives and you'll fade. Just someone they knew once. One of the many kids they know.
One of the many kills they knew once And this might sound harsh, but that's really all you deserve, because what you'll have done is nothing more than an act of vanity, selfishness, weakness and stupidity.
Of course, you'll cause considerable grief for your parents, sisters and brothers, which might be your reason you could stick around and do that.
So that's why I didn't spend much time trying to soothe the young woman who called me. Most of us, except for saints, have only so much compassion stored away
I prefer to dole mine out to the truly deserving.
Distributed by King Features Syndia
Mailbox
No debating value
The Student Senate Executive Committee made an impartial, conscientious decision when it denied revenue code status to the University of Kansas debate team. It failed, however, to appreciate the value of KU Debate to the University community.
Marilyn G. McGinnis Lawrence graduate student
For centuries, debate teams have occupied an important part of University life in England and the United States. The University of Kansas' participation in debate is long-standing and its record is illustrious. Those of us who do not participate directly can honor and enjoy a tradition that has honored this University.
The Senate has supported this tradition for many years. It should continue to provide financing for travel expenses, at least on an interim basis. In this way, the Senate and other financial supporters will have back-up policy and financing restrictions without jeopardizing KU Debate.
Hoping for end to oppressive rule
It was early the morning of September 11, 1973 when Salvador Allende, then president of Chile, was murdered in a coup d'etat, and Gen. Augusto Pinochet came to power.
Carlos Chuquin Columnist
Since that day, the Chilean people have endured 13 years of tortures, deportation of anti-Pinochet people and censorship of the press.
Whenever Pinochet decides to leave the presidency, his life will not be pleasant. Last September, he was freed from an assassination attempt.
It was in 1973 that Pinochet promised the Chileans to restore order and stability. During the first nine years of his dictatorship, opposition was practically nonexistent. Even in 1980, more than 67 percent of Chile's voters ratified a Pinochet-backed constitution that allowed him to stay in office until 1989 and to run for another eight-year term after that if
he chose
The constitution gave legal backing to many of Pinochet's abuses: press censorship, limits on free assembly, abolition of political parties and congress, the jailing of people without charges and the banishment of political enemies.
The Chilean people who voted for Pinochet in 1900 thought that his policy would restore the country's economy. Instead, Chile's economy changed from a socialist type to a free market. With this change, multi-national corporations that were supposed to pump money into the economy, instead sent profits out of the country and the country's foreign debt soared.
Today, Pinochet still has some support. The wealthy have profiled during his 13—year reign, and some of the middle-class see him as perhaps the only alternative to a communist takeover.
But according to a recent poll, only nine percent would vote for Pinochet if a presidential election took place
Even after the assassination attempt, Pinochet is in firm control of Chile. He will continue to tell his people and the world that he is the only alternative to communism and
therefore, he stands between order and chaos.
The future of Chile ultimately depends on one thing: Will President Pinochet voluntarily yield power? He undoubtedly trembles when he sees the disgrace and humiliation of Ferdinand Marcos and the exile of Jean-Claude Duvalier.
Would Chile's military give Pinochet a place of prestige and protection even if they decided their own interests required his departure? Finally, would the Reagan administration give him refuge in the United States, where he would be immune from extradition?
Before 1973, Chile had been a democracy for 150 years, with only a few interruptions by authoritarian regimes and most democratic traditions in the world.
Today, the people in Chile have limited options in the quest for a new government. Thirteen years of intimidation and brutalization have made millions frail to cry out in protest or even to raise their voices. All they have to look forward to is the inevitable dramatic confrontation when Pinochet must face the electorate in 1989.
BLOOM COUNTY
- 1987 Washington Post Co.
BINKLEY HAD THEM THERE. THEY COULDN'T. HENCE, IT MAS VOTED THAT, AS OF NIGHT, THEY WOULD ALL BE NON-LEATHER - WEARING VEGETARIANS.
by Berke Breathed
AN EXPOSUS OF ANIMAL
PRODUCTS IMEDIATELY BEGAN.
THE DEADLINE APPROACHED AND
COMPLIANCE LOOKED GOOD.