KANSAN.COM / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / MONDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2010 / NEWS
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Mennonite school will start playing national anthem
ASSOCIATED PRESS
GOSHEN, Ind. — For more than a century, there was no playing of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at Goshen College — a small Christian college with ties to the Mennonite Church.
That's about to change. For the first time in the school's history, Goshen College will play an instrumental version of the national anthem before many campus sporting events.
The decision to reverse the ban on the anthem is aimed at making students and visitors outside the faith feel more welcome, but it has roiled some at the 1,000-student college who feel the song undermines the church's pacifist message and puts love for county above love for God.
Since college President Jim Brenneman announced the decision in January, about 900 people have joined the Facebook group "Against Goshen College Playing National Anthem," hundreds have signed an online petition protesting the move and letters sent to administrators and the campus newspaper have overwhelmingly voiced opposition to the change.
"We're very aware that not everyone on our campus that's part of this community shares the same views," said college spokeswoman Jodi Beeyler.
John Roth, a Goshen College history professor, said Mennonites have historically avoided the song because its lyrics describe using war and military might to defend the country.
"The link between the national anthem and the military identity of the nation is made very explicit," Roth said.
Mennonites, whose church is rooted in a 16th-century movement in Europe known as Anabaptism, also believe singing a "hymn of allegiance" like the national anthem implies a deeper loyalty to country rather than to God, Roth said. However, Mennonite Church USA — which represents the largest and most mainstream group of Mennonites in the U.S. — does not specifically prohibit the anthem.
Goshen College officials say discussions about whether to change the policy began in September 2008 when the athletic department asked Brenneman to reconsider the school's stance.
Freshman baseball player Mike Milligan, a Catholic, says students and athletes can choose how much they want to participate. About 45 percent of Goshen students are not Monmonite.
"I don't think that everyone has to show their respect, but we need to at least have the choice to show our respect," said Milligan.
Basketball players at Goshen College say a prayer before the tipoff of their game with Spring Arbor University, Saturday in Goshen, Ind. Prior to athletic events "The Star-Spangled Banner" is not played at home games. That will change this spring, when the private Christian college rooted in Mennonite tradition plans to play an instrumental version of the national anthem before many campus sporting events for the first time in its 116-year history.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Feds pledge funds for lakes
Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa Jackson, left, makes a statement Sunday to unveil President Barack Obama's Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Action Plan. The plan would spend more than $2.2 billion for repairs to the lakes.
ENVIRONMENT
ASSOCIATED PRESS
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — The Obama administration has developed a five-year blueprint for rescuing the Great Lakes, a sprawling ecosystem plagued by toxic contamination, shrinking wildlife habitat and invasive species.
The plan envisions spending more than $2.2 billion for long-awaited repairs after a century of damage to the lakes, which hold 20 percent of the world's fresh water. "We're committed to creating a new standard of care that will leave the Great Lakes better for the next generation," Jackson said in a statement.
Among the goals is a "zero tolerance policy" toward future invasions by foreign species, including the Asian carp, a huge, ravenous fish that has overrun portions of the Mississippi River system and is threatening to enter Lake Michigan.
Others include cleanup of the region's most heavily polluted sites, restoring wetlands and other crucial habitat, and improving water quality in shallow areas, where run-off from cities and farms has led to unsightly algae blooms and beach closings.
Also promised is a strategy for monitoring the ecosystem's health and holding federal agencies accountable for carrying out the plan.
During his 2008 campaign, President Barack Obama pledged $5 billion over a decade toward fulfilling a Great Lakes cleanup wish list developed by a coalition of agencies, scientists and activists.
Congress last year approved his request for a first installment of $475 million. The newly released plan assumes yearly appropriations of the same amount through 2014, except for the $300 million Obama
requested this month in his 2011 budget.
The 41-page plan sets out ecological targets and specific actions to be taken by 16 federal agencies working with state, local and tribal governments and private groups.
Among the goals it hopes to achieve by 2014: finishing work at five toxic hot spots that have languished on cleanup lists for two decades; a 40 percent reduction in the rate at which invasive species are discovered in the lakes; measurable decreases in phosphorus runoff; and protection of nearly 100,000 wetland acres.
It also will help save species such as the lake sturgeon, a prehistoric fish that can reach 8 feet long and 200 pounds but is endangered because of overharvesting and habitat degradation. The plan promises to provide 25,000 young sturgeon for stocking programs.
Officials said the plan — combined with enforcement of existing environmental rules and the creation of new ones where needed — would help make Great Lakes fish
safe to eat, their waters suitable for drinking and swimming, and their native plants and animals thriving.
The lakes provide drinking water to more than 30 million people and are the backbone of a regional economy dependent on tourism, outdoor recreation, shipping and manufacturing.
"We now have a golden opportunity, even a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, to make huge progress," Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle, co-chairman of the Council of Great Lakes Governors, said in a telephone interview Saturday. "We've been talking about this for a long time. Now the federal government is putting some real resources behind it."
Jeff Skelding, director of the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition, which represents environmental groups across the region, praised the plan's commitment to long-range funding for the restoration but said Congress should boost Obama's 2011 spending request to $475 million.
CRIME
Two men charged in church fires
ASSOCIATED PRESS
TYLER, Texas — Two men who once attended church together were charged Sunday with intentionally burning down a church in east Texas and are suspected in a string of similar blazes, authorities said.
Jason Robert Bourque, 19,
and 21-year-old Daniel George
McAllister face one count of felony
arson for a church fire in
rural Smith County near Tyler,
about 90 miles east of Dallas,
said Tom Crowley, spokesman for
the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,
Firearms and Explosives.
Bond is set at $10 million apiece. They could face life in prison if convicted.
"Because they are charged with one doesn't mean they're not going to be charged with some of the others," Crowley said.
Crowley and Smith County jail officials said they had no information on attorneys for either men.
Bourque, of nearby Lindale, was arrested early Sunday in Van Zandt County, site of four of 10
church fires in east Texas this year that authorities believe were intentionally set, Crowley said.
McAllister was taken into custody in San Antonio, where Crowley said he had recently moved.
He said Bourque and McAllister used to attend First Baptist Church in McAllister's.
in Merkinser's hometown of Ben Wheeler.
The arrests were triggered by a telephone tip, although the suspects had been on the radar for several weeks, Crowley said.
Crowley said another New Year's Day fire not far away has been added to the list of 10 suspected arsons in east Texas. A fire in the central Texas town of Temple, brings to 11 the statewide total of fires authorities believe are attributable to arson.
One of the
Authorities have said the federal investigation kicked in after two churches burned Jan. 11 in Athens. Less than a week later, four fires in five days was reported. The two most recent fires included the one that result-
Authorities have said the federal investigation began after two churches burned Jan.11 in Athens, Texas.
One of the men was linked to the fire with DNA evidence, Crowley said. He said he had no other details on the DNA.
Officials declined to discuss a motive at a news conference Sunday. No injuries have been reported in the fires.
The outbreak started with a blaze at a church in Athens, and
ed in charges against Bourque and McAllister.
There were attempted break-ins at three churches in Tyler in early February, but those buildings were not burned, the Texas Department of Public Safety said in a statement.
NATIONAL
Austin plane crash victim identified
AUSTIN, Texas — A long-time Internal Revenue Service employee died this week when a pilot harboring a grudge against the agency flew his plane into a building in Austin, Texas, his family said Saturday.
Authorities investigating the crash have positively identified the remains of Vernon Hunter, 68, said family spokesman Larry
McDonald. Hunter had been missing and presumed dead since Thursday, when software engineer Andrew Joseph Stack III slammed his plane into the building where Hunter worked as a manager for the IRS.
Hunter's son Ken said he assumed the worst after not hearing from his father within an hour of the crash, which set fire to the black-glass building that houses offices where nearly 200 IRS employees work. Stack was
the only other person to die in the crash, which also injured 13.
Stack, 53, apparently targeted the lower floors of the building which houses offices where nearly 200 IRS employees work. He lashed out at the agency in a ranting manifesto posted on a website shortly before Thursday's attack, claiming the government and the tax code robbed him of his savings and derailed his career.
Associated Press