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Wednesday, April 13, 1988 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Brown proves his dedication by staying with the Jayhawks
He's staying.
He, of course, is KU basketball coach Larry Brown. And he is staying at the University of Kansas.
Everyone is surprised. Everyone is relieved. Everyone is thrilled, except maybe UCLA.
The shadow of rumors of Brown's leaving have haunted the University for the entire five years that he has been here. That shadow threatened to develop into a huge dark cloud of truth to wreck the revelry of the Jayhawks' national championship.
On Friday morning, it appeared that Brown was all but moved into a home in Bel Air. KU Athletic Director Bob Frederick believed it. The press ate it up.
But as Brown said in a statement Friday, "I'm committed to these kids; I'm staying. I don't want anything to take away from the championship. Like Dorothy said, there's no place like home."
Thank you, Coach Brown, for five great years and for the many to come.
Thank you for caring enough to stick with your team and the fans who clearly love you.
Thank you for showing devotion to a program that wants you and needs you.
Thank you for being a truly class act.
Thank you for being a truly class act. Body Dickson for the editorial board
TV viewers need Fawn Hall
Move over. Robin Leach, it's Fawn Hall's turn.
Move over, Rooftown Beach. It's Roofton Hall, Oliver North's former secretary, has been chosen to be co-host of an ABC-TV special fashioned after "The Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous."
Hall caught the attention of an ABC official when she testified last year before a Senate committee investigating North's role in the Iran-contra affair. That unwitting audition left a lasting impression on ABC, and Hall was chosen for the special
But who really wants to watch Fawn interview a bunch of boring rich people? Why not let her interview those she knows something about — North and his cronies. It could be called "Lifestyles of Those Facing Federal Prosecution."
Hall could take TV viewers on a tour of North's fabulous Virginia home, pointing out his high-tech security system and the new tires on his car. Then, maybe viewers could go along for a breathtaking ride in John Pondexter's Porsche.
This is what people want to see. No one cares about French fashion designers and Japanese computer chip moguls; the public wants vice, corruption and ill-gotten opulence.
Fawn Hall is just the secretary-turned-starlet to show America how its high-ranking defendants live.
America how its high-ranking defendants live. Alan Player for the editorial board
Alan Player for the editorial board
Editorials in this column are the opinions of the editorial board
Other Voices
k excess at the University of Kansas.
Fliving in bus driver was a good idea
The Friday issue of the University Daily Kansan, KU's student newspaper, reported that men's basketball coach Brown had the team's bus driver from Pontiac, Mich., flown to Kansas City, Mo., to shuttle the players around during their Final Four games.
How quath.
Let's analyze Brown's reasoning here. First, there's the safety factor. The driver obviously got the team around in Pontiac without injury, so he or she is apparently competent to drive a bus. Brown, after all, couldn't take a chance of a reckless driver injuring any of his star players.
Then there's the consideration of how well the driver got to know the team members and made them feel comfortable. Breaking in a new driver at such a crucial point could be potentially disastrous.
drive. And finally, for those who are just a little superstitious, perhaps the driver was a good luck charm for the team.
After all, look who won Monday night's championship game and made more than a wild Kidcats feel, in spirit, like Jayhawks.
Yes, Larry, it was a wise move to spend those hundreds or thousands of dollars to fly the driver to Kansas City and pay his hotel bill for five or six days.
You owed it to the team.
Kansas State Collegian Kansas State University
News staff
Alison Young...Editor
Todd Cohen...Managing editor
Rob Knapp...News editor
Atian Player...Editorial editor
Jason Rebello...Campus editor
Jennifer Rowland...Planning editor
Anne Luscombe...Sports editor
Stephen Wade...Photo editor
Richard Stewart...Graphics editor
Tom Eben...General manager, news adv
Business staff
Kelly Scherer ... Business manager
Clark Massad ... Retail sales manager
Brad Lenhart ... Campus sales manager
Robert Hughes ... Marketing manager
Kurt Messersmith ... Production manager
Greg Knipp ... National manager
Kris Schorno ... Traffic manager
Kimly Coleman ... Classified manager
Jennice Hines ... Sales and marketing adviser
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" IT'S NOT THAT I'M PREJUDICED, YOU UNDERSTAND... I JUST GOTTA THINK OF MY CUSTOMERS...
College promotes second slavery Education should come before athletics for those interested in learning
In my last column, I attempted to point out some of the behaviors that you may think are not racist but might in fact be actions based solely on the color of one's skin and nothing else. This column will identify more attitudes and behaviors that, on their faces, may not appear racist and may not be meant as racist, but only perpetuate the problems between the races.
The answer to the question, "Why is there such concern about color and race?" is two-fold. First, it hurts people. People of black and brown and red skin色 are not being treated as if they were created equal to others. Secondly, and the Supreme Court recognizes this, it's an immutable characteristic. Although sometimes with difficulty, you can change your religion, habits, dress, weight, beliefs, residence, job and many other things for which you can be discriminated against
- including gender. But you can't change the color of your skin.
And you can't change the pain of being avoided, looked upon with scorn or not included. I'm reminded of a line from Rambo in his answer to why he was sent on this rescue mission. "I'm expendable," he said. She asks, "What does expendable mean?" He replies, "It's like being invited to a party and when you don't show up, nobody notices you're not there."
Imagine how that feels. Nobody thought to exclude you from the party. It's just that when all the invitations were being written, nobody thought to include you.
So you argue that things are equal now, right? Guess again. I heard an analogy to affirmative action that I felt was pretty accurate. Imagine a distance race. Let's say a mile. And for 200 years this white male has been getting ready — running in practice and races, eating and sleeping well, having familial support and coaching. But for the same 200 years, this black male has been working the plantations and digging ditches, not eating or sleeping as well and beaten he. He has been denied the right to vote, read, get a proper
Richard Felton
Guest Columnist
education, and has even seen his family or has been sold himself.
Now, after 200 years, he's allowed to run this mile race. Who do you think is going to win?
For example, at present in a hypothetical university, the only minorities are children of "upper-class" blacks, Indians and Hispanics. Now this university decides to open admissions to a larger number of historically disadvantaged groups — my Native American brothers, blacks and Hispanics. However, few have the prerequisite education needed to get in, much less to stay.
he education needed to get into football.
There are others ways to get in: football, basketball and track. This is what I call part of the second slave. The recruiters (slavers) from universities (plantations) around the country barter for possession of your body for four years, five if you redshift. You'll be lucky if you receive what everybody else is getting out of college: knowledge. And in the meantime, the college will make money; the coach will keep his job.
education came first. That's mainly true for nonrevenue producing individual sports like wrestling, swimming, gymnastics, tennis, and somewhat true for rugby, lacrosse and soccer.
But at many schools, that's not true for team sports that make money. And when your college career is over, no one cares if you have a degree, much less any knowledge. Then, it's on to the pros, if you're good enough, where they buy and sell you at higher prices — so others can make money.
The money is from ticket sales, television, NCAA playoffs, alumni contributions, concessions and parking. I am not maligning college athletics. I myself wrestled for three years as an undergraduate. I lost 6 pounds every day during practice, which started a week after school began and lasted until just before finals. Then there were summer tournaments and camps. I wrestled an Olympic bronze medalist, a World Games champion, two NCAA champions and a runner.
Do you know why there's emphasis by the NCAA on grades now? Partially because an English professor at the University of Georgia was fired because she refused to pass athletes flanking her remedial English class. She won a $2.5 million lawsuit and set a precedent for student athletics with epirusi. Partially because learning is what universities are about in the first place.
And it extends further than collegiate and professional athletics. Black actors and entertainers — Bill Cosby, Eddie Murphy, Michael Jackson, Prince and Lisa Bonet, for example — make lots of money and have garnered the attention of the world. And there's nothing wrong with that.
However, it perpetuates the stereotype that persisted during slavery; blacks can sing and dance and use their muscles but not their brains. Do you know of any black lawyers, doctors, pharmacists, teachers, merchants or businessmen?
But we could miss practice for a lab, class or paper we had to do. Athletics was for fun; our
You see, both blacks and whites are caught up in this second slavery. They both believe that the Cosby Show family isn't real, that the McDonald's and other commercials and videos showing blacks rapping and dancing are real. Blacks on television are the major source of exposure to blacks that whites have, and the major source of blacks with money that blacks have.
Tomorrow, the effects and solutions.
Richard Felton is a second year law student.
Forum taught much
We are writing in response to Craig Krueger's letter of Friday, April 1. First, we fail to understand how feeling guilt and regret for the tragedy of the Holocaust is hypocritical. Should we not feel guilty? Should we not regret the needless deaths of millions?
Second, we sincerely doubt that Mrs. Waterson came to her forgiving attitude without considerable pain. That she can forgive and that she can sit next to a former Nazi is a testament to the incredible strength of the human spirit, a testament to the good that we are capable of expressing.
Fourth, Alfons Heck spoke so we would know how easily an ordinary person can participate, without really thinking about it, in something horrible. He explained his lack of mercy for the Jews and his refusal to question Nazi ideology until the Nuremberg trials in order to show us how tenaciously we can cling to beliefs, no matter how wrong, if they are all we have to give meaning to our lives. Also, he is not "this Nazi"; he is a former Nazi.
Third, Mrs. Waterford has quite obviously not forgotten the Holocaust. If she had, she would not bother to travel the country talking about it. The woman is retired. The $2,800 we paid her pays for plane tickets and hotel rooms, true. But even if she speaks as often as once a week, it is highly unlikely that she makes a living at it. She came here not to make a profit but to impart a serious message. (Incidentally, that $2,800 works out to about 11.3 cents a student on the Lawrence campus.)
We are sorry Krueger chose not to understand the forum. We personally feel our 11.3 cents was well spent.
Fifth, why should Heck be punished now? Will you take a man who willingly subjects
nmself to hatred in order to educate people and punish him for that? Are not his actions in themselves a punishment? Is not the information he gives us more useful to society than his incarceration or execution would be? Futhermore, Heck never participated in the operations of any extermination or work camps. His government did, true. But will you hold every soldier responsible for all that his government does? Will you hold everyone who knows about an atroction responsible for it? If so, then be prepared to punish the many Allied leaders who knew exactly what was happening inside Nazi Germany.
Rachel S. Land
Topeka senior
Darren A. Dennis
Topeka senior
BLOOM COUNTY
by Berke Breathed