4a
Opinion
Friday, April 27, 2001
Perspective
For comments, contact Chris Borniger or Nathan Willis at 864-4924 or opinion@kansan.com
Bomb tragedy was covered up by government.
Today's headlines are dominated by the sad news of school shootings. The latest: on March 6, at Santana High School in Santee, Calif., a student opened fire, killing two and wounding 13 others. Americans search for answers as to why their children are being killed.
Fifty-six years ago this spring, however, there were no headlines or news stories to tell of the bombs that exploded in Oregon, killing five American children along with a young woman. Instead, this tragedy was an official government secret. Even today, few people know about it.
The bombs exploded on May 5, 1945, in the waning weeks of World War II. Germany would surrender in three days; Japan was
struggling to stave off defeat. In a desperate move, Japan released 6,000 balloons armed with bombs, which rode the s-shaped "jet stream" thousands of miles to the United States and Canada. Once over these countries, built-in timers caused the balloons to drop and the bombs to explode, igniting forest fires, destroying property and threatening lives. There was one problem, however: The bombs did not always explode.
Saturday morning, May 5, was sunny and clear in Bly, Ore., a small lumbering and ranching community. 'This was such a beautiful spring morning that Elyse Mitchell, five months pregnant, decided to join her husband Archie, a local pastor, and several Sunday School children on an outing. The children, four boys and a girl, were ages 11, 13 and 14. Archie loaded his 1931 sedan with fishing equipment and picnic lunches. It would be a wonderful day, he thought.
Archie Mitchell, however, had not anticapped the muddy roads he encountered as he motored through the Ponderosa pine forest. At an especially bad spot, Archie braked to a halt. Fifty yards ahead of him was a road crew that had just extracted a grader from the mudhole where it had been stuck. Archie asked the men about both road and fishing conditions.
Bill Tuttle
guest columnist
opinion@kansan.com
The road was impassable, they replied, and the creek was probably too muddy for fishing. Meanwhile, the rough ride had made Elyse slightly car sick, so she was happy to get out of the car to take the children for a walk. Archie started the car, and as he began to move it to higher ground, he heard Elyse call, "Look what I found, dear."
Stopping the car, he shouted back, "Just a minute and I'll come and look at it."
Richard Barnhouse, foreman of the road crew, had started the grader and was following Archie up the hill. He stopped, too. From his high seat, he could see Elyse and the children about 100 yards away in the woods staring at something. He could not tell what it was.
"As Mr. Mitchell stopped his car," Barnhouse said later in his official statement, "there was a terrible explosion. Twigs flew through the air, pine needles began to fall, dead branches and dust and dead logs went up."
Stunned, the four uninjured men rushed down the hill just as another, small bomb exploded. They were not injured, but the two bombs together seemed to eliminate the possibility that Elyse or the children had survived. The mangled bodies of the four boys were scattered around the bomb crater. The girl lived through the blasts but died later. Elyse was still alive, but her clothing was on fire, and she died as Archie struggled to smother the flames with his bare hands.
A bomb disposal expert guessed that somebody had kicked the bomb. The tragedy, of course, devastated the townpeople. Archie Mitchell accompanied his wife's body to her hometown, and a funeral for the four boys, attended by 450 people, was held in the neighboring town of Klamath Falls. Four caskets lined the front of the sanctuary, and the temple was crowded with students from the Bly public schools. Local Boy Scouts, fellow troopers of the dead boys, served as honorary pall bearers. To avoid panic, federal government officials prevailed upon the local coroner to conclude, "The cause of death, in my opinion, was from an explosion of undetermined source."
Sadly, more than five decades later, there is still a danger from unexploded balloon-bombs in the United States and Canada because, to date, only 369 of the 6,000 bombs have been found.
'NOW I REALLY CAN'T SLEEP!'
Steve Sack/TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES
Tuttle is a professor of American studies.
Heard on the Hill
What are your plans for the summer?
"I'm going home for a little bit and getting a job."
Patrick Bliven
Kansas City, Mo.
sophomore
"My plans are to go back home, hang out at the beach and not do anything." Julie McPhee San Diego freshman
"My plans are to coach AAU basketball, work as a baseball umpire and lift for football."
Brandon Lacy Edmond, Okla., junior
"I am going to take a class, work and go to the lake."
Angela Ruble
Great Bend junior
Perspective
Insincere music a result of shallow pop culture
Something is wrong with pop culture. There is no depth or sincerity. It's all about what's trendy and cool—as many a high schooler has said.
Will anyone out there confess that this mediaglorified entertainment is filling your head with a carefree attitude, thereby leaving you a brain
finitely more efficient than that of our country's leader? Or, are you just so consumed with this coolness that you are oblivious to the fact that there's nothing real about it, save that it's unreal?
Let me proceed with the truth behind some of our beloved icons:
Britney Spears. This girl's got talent in many areas; just ask her boy-toy, Justin Timberlake. She toured with N'Sync early in her length career when
Will Ferleman
Will Ferleman
guest columnist
opinion@kansas.com
she was Miss Innocently Sexy Underage Virgin. It's sad to see Brit waste her mind for good looks, cool moves, a private jet and Pepsi. But it's even saddder to see her fans believe she's the Goddess of Pop Music. Flaunt it baby, flaunt it — it sells!
Eminem. What's so controversial about a popular candy? He said this and he said that. So what? When did art become subject to rules and regulations? Art speaks of anything it wants, be it homophobia or misogyny. Not that it's right to believe these things, but Marshall Mathers is entitled to his annoying rants and occasionally brilliant wit. The true controversy should be centered on the parents who allow their kids to purchase or play his music. But it's even saddler to think people adore him simply because he's White, controversial and Dr. Dre's protege. How else could you explain why there are more guys with bleached hair than gals?
Papa Roach. This is the greatest band to come out of California since Warrant. They just relate with people, man. Broken home, all alone, I just wanna whine like a baby and moan! Just because they've toured their whole existence doesn't mean they're talented, and just because they can rip off Iron Maiden riffes and pull off the hip-hop vocal schick quicker than they can tune their instruments doesn't mean they're innovative. But the band must be good enough to abbreviate their name. Now it's P-Roach.
Limp Bizkit. Limp went from raw metal to Fred Durst, the rapper, superimposed on layers of guitar hooks. They can't even write lyrics or album titles now. Isn't it obvious that its most recent CD title. Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water, is a play on the Smashing Pumpkins' Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness?
I guess they've already achieved the amount of success and notoriety in their careers as the Stones or Zeppelin. It's sad to think rock is alive if bands like this are worshipped.
Metallica. This band went from *Kill 'em All* to playing with the San Francisco Symphony. They cut their hair and cut the metal out of their sound (that "Hey, Hey, Hey" song is amusing proof). Lately, they've decided it's easier to gain popularity through lawsuits and Lars Ulrich's big mouth than to actually record a new studio album. I don't blame Jason Newsted for quitting; the rest of the band quit a long time ago.
Sorry Fred, but the Pumpkins were creative musically and lyrically — they had depth. Who's the counterfeit?
These are just a few notable examples of how what is popular is usually either overrated or flat-out insincere. Otherwise greatly talented artists try to please the masses, who crave such happy-go-lucky mediocrity. It's sad when people choose popularity instead of sincerity.
Editorial
Senate election meddlers need to be punished
Ferleman is an Edwardsville junior in English.
The elections commission should have the power to fine noncoalition members.
The commission, which coordinates polls and punishes campaign violations, has little ability to prevent cases such as the lying flier from happening again. Senate should grant the commission that power.
Every year, Student Senate elections are linked with some scandal. This year, someone campaigning for Rob Kelly, a VOICE candidate for an off-campus seat, allegedly distributed fliers that claimed that if he won, the chancellor would allow alcohol at Memorial Stadium again.
Kelly said he wasn't aware of the fliers and had no part in posting them. He said it was someone else who wasn't part of the VOICE coalition. Nonetheless, this case highlights the need for the elections commission to have more power.
The commission should have greater ability to punish violators. It can't investigate a possible violation unless someone registers a complaint. Because Kelly didn't win the seat he was running for, that probably won't happen.
Even if he won, because a third party publicized the false information, the commission can't punish that liar; they can only punish members of coalitions. Student Senate should grant the commission the power to punish people outside of a coalition, too. If any student decides to involve themselves in an election — and the flier liar certainly did — they should be within the commission's jurisdiction.
Although it is unfortunate that this incident occurred, it does bring up some key issues that the University should look into further.
University should look for universities Not all information distributed by coalitions in a campaign is necessarily true. Although a candidate can't flat out lie, it's possible for them to embellish the truth, or at least obscure it.
The few people who do vote regularly in Senate elections must scrutinize the barrage of promises their candidates make. It would be easy for a passive student's vote to be swayed by false information, such as the filers supporting Kelly.
But more importantly intelligent, informed voters can help ensure an election's results are just.
for the editorial board
Mark Ingber
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Yeah, I'm calling because I'm gay, and every night when I pray, my God seems to accept me for who I am, and he loves me. So I don't know which God you Christians are talking about.
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I have far more sympathy toward the woman with four kids who has turned to cocaine than all the abusive men who helped to leave her in the situation.
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Ms. Schultes thinks those forum comments shouldn't have been in the paper? Why did she just publish them the next day? That's stupid.
To all those kids who voted Gap the best men's/women's clothing store for the Top of the Hill: Remember, the Gap uses sweatshop clothing. Thank you.
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Hi. This is KU Info, and we already know what's going on.
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To all the GTAs complaining about your salaries: If any of you guys read the evaluations at the end of each semester from your students, you'd understand why nobody wants to give you a raise.
Thanks to the incredibly uncomfortable and out-of-date chairs in the auditoriums in Wescoe, my chiropractor is a rich man. The seats are for midgets, and I'm a tall person. And I need to be accommodated and be comfortable. How can I be expected to do well at the University when my knees are in my chest? I don't know. Help me out.
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I went in to scheduling with 16 hours of class plans, and I left with fishing. KU's scheduling: Making today's college students into tomorrow's fishermen.
In response to the people calling Christians prejudiced and intolerant toward homosexuals, whether you like it or not, the campus ministers were standing up for biblical truth. It's a disservice to God when we pick and choose which passages to believe based on political correctness. I admire their boldness. Thank you.
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