University Daily Kansan / Friday, February 22, 1991
Campus/Area
3
VOICE anti-war rally draws large audience
Peace group dramatizes killing
By Patricia Rojas Kansan staff writer
Mike Stewart, a 20-year-old drafter, was killed on campus yesterday by a New World order soldier.
The real Stewart, however, did not die. He simulated his death during a brief performance in front of Staufer-Flint Hall.
Dan McCloskey, Lawrence junior,
wrote the script for the play.
The dramatization was part of an anti-war rally organized by VOICE, a campus group. About 250 people attended at noon yesterday for the event.
"I think that drama is an effective method to get people's attention," McCloskey said. "And that is what we need to be doing because people aren't paying attention."
Drama, however, was not the only method that leaders of yesterday's rally used to get the audience's attention.
Chance Smith, Overland Park freshman, carried a sign that read, "Bush: You bombed my family, thank you."
Smith, who is of Iraqi descent, said that he had many relatives in Iraq and that he was worried about their well-being.
He said he did not agree with Bush's reasons for waging war.
"Fighting for peace?" Smith said. "I can't justify death for purposes of peace. That is so contradictory.
"I feel like both of my worlds are fighting with each other. I'm taking
this peaceful stance for my relatives."
Some faculty members also took peaceful stances at the rally yesterday. They encouraged people to fight for what they believed.
Philip Schrodt, associate professor of political science, told people at the University of Chicago on Friday.
"Stay with it," Schrodt said. "It's critical to continue."
Many students who skipped class yesterday to attend the rally said they thought they had made the right choice.
Amy Stuber, a Kansas City, Kan., senior who skipped her Principles of Environmental Studies class, said she was about to be about the war than about school.
Stuber's instructor, Frank Denoyelles, did not seem upset about her
"I'll be only in school for six months," Stuber said. "But the teacher told me that she hadn't."
Denoyelles, chairperson of environmental sciences, said that about 15 percent of his students missed class yesterday.
"I think it's important for students to express themselves," Denyelles says.
Steve Lamar, a Kansas City, Kan.
juniper who also missed Denoyelle's
class, said he had strong reasons to
rally.
"It could affect my life," he said. "I'm an inactive reserve and could be called any day."
Kevin McKinney, Lenexa junior, portrays a gunman in a skit performed by the KU Kamikaze Guerrilla Theater during the International Day of Student Mobilization Against the War demonstration in front of
Stauffer-Flint Hall, yesterday
McKinney shot down contestants who represented words used by the U.S. government to describe actions that occur in the Persian guff.
Radical chic for its own sake is not chic, group says
By Justin Knupp
Special to the Kansan
They say there are too many protests. They say minority groups have become hypersensitive. They say guilt instead of discussion is the medium of communication on campus.
They are members of the Oread Society, the newest political organization at KU, and they think much differently than environmentalists, anti-war demonstrators and radical activists who have protested on campus in the past year.
Dung Brubaker, Ellinwood sophomore and member of the society, said he thought that Mr. Stern was a good teacher.
ances but that some people seemed to be protesting just to be radical.
"For example, protesting the senseless slaughter of pine trees for Christmas trees," Brubaker said. "Some people, it seems, will protest anything."
Members of the society said they would be writing letters and sponsoring lectures on campus. They have not ruled out conducting protests of their own.
"We are thinking about protesting protests with a protest," Bruhaker said. "This may seem hypocritical, but by being humourous we have prevented us from seeing the lynchy of some of the past protests."
Members of the group, who began meeting late last semester, hope to help solve several problems concerning communication and activism on campus, he said.
Bob Schaffer, Hoxie sophomore and a founding member of the group, said, "One of the main problems is the general breakdown of dialogue between the students, and between the students and the administration."
One way the members of the Oread Society hope to encourage dialogue is by starting a debate.
The group wants to allow some people the chance to express their opinions who otherwise might not get that opportunity, Schaffer said.
John Noltensmeyer, Paola junior, is a member who recently left KU to serve in the Persian gulf. He said one problem was the "politics of guilt" on campus.
"An attitude has developed that if you don't totally support a particular group's grievances, then you are against that group." Noltenmeyer said before he left. "Because they are afraid to voice their opinions about many of the groups trying to make changes."
ate student who does not belong to the group,
said he hoped the group would symbolize not
to believe in religious extremism.
"I hope that this type of group signals that students are willing to try and address campus problems in a new and different manner," said presi- tors KUIs Black Student, Under 19.
Anten Gilgen, professor of political science,
said the group reflected a changing attitude
"There is definitely a feeling that people are tired of all the radical protests," Cigler said. "It simply remains to be seen what the public response will be."
Princeton professor explains how race influenced authors
By Lara Gold
Kansan staff writer
How race affected the lives of four African-American writers was examined in a speech by a PhD candidate.
W. E.B. Du Bois, Langston Hughes, Zora Hurston and Richard Wright's writings were influenced by their race and role in society, Arnold Rampersad last night to about 50 people in the Spencer Art Museum.
"White writers are never talked about in terms of race, and they should be," he said.
However, African-American writers are analyzed in terms of how their race affected their lives, but the research has been limited.
"Race should be looked at as a science, as a truth and as a fact." he said.
For Du Bois, white culture was the dominant culture because only white history was taught to him in school. He believed that "white people are
African-American history was glanced over in Du Bios education, and that is revealed in his literature. Ramper
The said Langtang dignities, on the other hand, found in
the human manifestation his race and the universality of the
human predicament.
"For Du Bois, only African-Americans working together could bring about change in society," he said.
"Llangston Hughes as compared to Du Bois has no overt interest in racial theory," he said.
Rampersad said Hughes "saw the world where people
Arnold Rampersad speaks about racism.
After the speech, Jennifer Newlin, Lawrence resident,
said she realized how the writers' race had affected their words.
"What was most interesting was going through the perspectives of these Black artists," she said. "It was interesting to see how they felt about it."
come together in a brave new society."
Zora Horstina's world was concerned with the role of 'he African-American woman in society,' he said.
racism, Rampersed said.
"In 'Black Boy', Wright captures the bleakness of male
Richard Wright experienced this separate culture as racism, Rampersad said.
Matzeliger changed shoe industry
Bv Eric Nelson
Kansan staff writer
Like many inventors before and after him, Jan Matzeliger is all but forgotten.
The legacy of his invention,however,innovated and quickened shoe production while creating thousands of jobs.
Matzeliger was born Sept. 15, 1852, in Paramaribo, Surinam, in South America. His father was a Dutch-born engineer while his mother was a slave on a plantation outside the city.
In 1855, he moved to his father's home, and at age 10, began to work as an apprentice in a machine shop run by his father.
At age 19, he sailed to the United States and eventually settled in Lvnn. Mass.
Matzelier took a job operating a McKay stitching machine at a shoe factory. He went to night school to take an art course, but eventually became a U.S. citizen.
Shoe production at the time had improved in speed and overall production, but one important operation still had not been mechanized. This was the lasting, or fastening, the upper part of the
shoe to the inner sole.
Advances in the mechanization of lasting were attempted at the cost of thousands of dollars by Gordon McKay, inventor of the mold. But innovation was not realized until Matzeliger's discovery.
By 1880, he made a non-working model of a mechanical laster, made of wooden cigar boxes, elastic and wire.
Working on a metal model, Matzeliger got a job at the Beal Brothers Shoemaking factory.
He cut down on his food consumption in order to save money that could be used toward his model. He worked part-time jobs, including sweeping floors at a restaurant where he was paid with food.
After two uncomfortable years, his second model was complete. It was far from the final version, but
he filed for a patent in January 1882.
Officials at the patent office were so confused by Matzelier's text and drawings that an inspector had to visit him for further explanation.
Needing more financial support, the Consolidated Lasting Machine Co. was created. The organization began to manufacture the creation of a mechanized lasting machine could be produced 130 to 700 pairs of shoes a day.
Matzeliger died Aug. 24, 1889.
less than a month before his 37th
birthday.
He never lived to see the impact of his invention.
Matzelier created a boom in the shoe industry and decreased the price of shoes by half. After only 40 years, practically every shoe company had at least one of Matzelier's inventions.
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