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Tuesday, April 24, 1990 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
F. W. de Klerk
South African president promises little progress in fulfilling demands of Black South Africans
South African President F.W. de Klerk has created the illusion that he's moving forward when he's actually standing still.
forward when he is actually standing sum. Because de Klerk has to answer to a white constituency that will not stand for majority rule in the country, the dream of one man, one vote for South African Blacks most likely will not be a reality for generations.
Talks between the African National Congress and de Klerk are scheduled to take place May 24. Both negotiating parties have very different agendas. Consequently, the meetings probably will result in nothing more than airy political rhetoric by both sides.
De Klerk's problem is that he has too many people to pacify. He must listen to the ANC, but more importantly, he must answer to the white minority in South Africa and to government leaders who support him in the West, such as President Bush and Margaret Thatcher.
He cannot raze the walls of apartheid, nor can he neglect to show some progress toward multiraclical democratic rule in the country, because of the pull of polar forces. Economic sanctions force him to show some semblance of dismantling the pillars of apartheid, but the
threat of losing power and the support of the white minority forces him to make extremely small, if any, concessions to the congress.
Meanwhile, the ANC will want to pacify its members and be able to display some form of progress when its leaders walk out of the talks. It is more than likely that they will go in demanding equal representation and equal votes, but leave with, if anything, nothing more than slight political empowerment.
No matter what is desired by both of the negotiating parties, the truth is that each is answering to powerful forces that do not want to compromise.
De Klerk has said he does not support the one-man-one-vote form of democracy. He wants to share some power, but on his terms and those of his constituents. His agenda will be to preserve as much of the present power as he can for the whites while saving face to the leaders of western nations.
Let's hope the leaders of these western nations will not settle for apparent progress and settle for nothing less than the real thing.
Liz Hueben for the editorial board
Ralph Abernathy
King's civil-rights partner will not be forgotten
L"
'm alive, I'm alive, I'm alive for evermore."
Those were the last words of civil war. David Abergroth
rights pioneer Ralph David Abernathy, remembered by his daughter as he was buried yesterday.
Indeed, he will remain alive in the hearts and minds of all those who were touched by the courageous words and actions of Abernathy and his close friend, Martin Luther King.
Since King's murder in 1968, Abernathy often had been shunned by his compatriots because he disputed the way the record of the civil rights movement was being kept.
In an interview last October he said, "I have been left out for a long time. Many times on photographs. Martin and I were marching together, hand in hand; they cropped the photographs and left me out."
In fact, during his long, close relationship with King, Abernathy became known as his alter ego. The two were called "the Movement's twins."
Throughout the tumultuous civil rights era during which Abernathy's home and church
were firebombbed, the two marched together, ate together, organized together and went to jail together.
When King was murdered, it was Abernathy who cradled his bloody head as he lay wounded on the balcony where he was shot. Later, after making funeral arrangements, he delivered the eulogy for King.
Then last year Abernathy released his autobiography, in which he wrote of King's extramarital affairs. Many accused him of violating King's trust.
But Abernathy said he wrote the details to set the record straight; to show that heroes are mortals and that mortals from any station in life can become heroes.
And now we have more evidence that heroes are mortals. Abernathy's mortality came into clear view last Tuesday as his blood pressure dropped and his heart stopped beating during medical testing in an Atlanta hospital.
Abernatha's dying words will ring true and his legacy will be realized.
Richard Brack for the editorial board
EarthDay1990: A seedling takes root in a hostile environment
Book could help save planet
I looked down at my bottle of shampoo, the only item standing between me and the most ignorant cashier I had ever met.
is plastic O.K.?" she asked again.
I looked up. "No, I do not need a
".
"Oh, paper then," she said, reaching under the counter for a grocery bag.
"It's only one bottle. I don't need a sack." I thought that would throw her off, but she didn't let up a bit.
"But what's wrong with paper?" she asked. "Isn't that better for the environment?" I could tell she was asking, "Isn't that what this is all about?"
I went on, as calmly and slowly as I could, to explain that I did not need a grocery bag and that I could carry my bottle of shampoo home without the aid of either a paper or plastic bag and thus add one less scrap of trash to the county's local garbage heap.
She looked back at me and grimaced. Then, shrugging her shoulders, she said, "Well, whatever . . ."
Chris
Evans
Staff columnist
Described by one person as "50 Simple Ways You Can Be a Hippe Environmental activist and Annoy People," this fact-filled book would have provided me with the knowledge to put that cashier in her place.
If only I had known then what I know now. If only I had been carrying a copy of the hip-and-happening songs You Can Do to Save the Earth."
It would have told me that if every shopper in the United States took just one less bag each month, we could
Of course, I then would have been yanked off my self-righteous ego when I read that if I really did care, I wouldn't use grocery bags for even my largest purchases, that I could buy a cloth bag and take it with me every time I go to the store. Amazon products would have told me where to get that bag and let me know how much it would cost.
save hundreds of millions of bags a year. It would have told me that it takes one 15 to 20-year-old tree to make enough paper for only 700 grocery bags and that most grocery bags, they may be made of recyclable paper, rarely are.
"Fifty Simple Things" is an easy-to-read survival manual for everyone from the laissez faire environmentalist to the most ardent activist. In fewer than 100 pages, it addresses several modern day threats to the earth and complex problem the book's author, the Earth Works Group of California, suggests at least one way that just about anyone can help.
Each of the one-person solutions ranges in stress level from "simple things" to "it takes some effort" to tasks for "the committed."
For the beginner, the authors suggest things as simple as letting the
Mail Preference Service know that you don't want your name sold to mail list companies. This cuts down on the nearly two million tons of junk mail that people receive in a year.
For those who want to put forth an effort, the authors readers to do things such as recycle some of the 28 billion glass bottles and jars or some of the 66 billion aluminum cans that people in the United States use in a
And for the committed, the authors urge them to drive less, to eat low on the food chain, and above all, to help preserve a state of environmental conservation.
Most of the information in "50 Simple Things" is for people who may not be comfortable protesting at the local nuclear power plant but who feel a twinge of guilt when they throw away an aluminum can. It is for people who have no desire to know what a chlorofluorocarbon is but who realize that it is an inhibitant of this weapon doesn't act, the front page of Vogue someday may show a model sporting a gas mask rather than a French beret.
"Fifty Simple Things" costs $4.95, not too much to spend for the betterment of the planet. Everyone needs to buy this book in any way to start.
And by the way, "50 Simple Things" is small enough to carry in your jacket pocket. Point that out when the cashier tries to stuff it into a grocery bag.
Chris Evans is a Hutchinson senior majoring in journalism and French.
Student concerns
LETTERS to the EDITOR
A recent discussion in my Sociology 160 class concerning education opened my eyes to the failure of KU's "system" to provide an easy access to solid academics. Why should acquiring a good education be so difficult?
We're all aware of the elements of KU's failing system: grueling enrollment procedures, an abundance of closed classes, an excessive GTA to professor ratio and annual tuition increases with no visible returns to the students.
Do we, as students, not see that the system's inferiority hides behind a facade of winning basketball seasons and midwestern, small-town quaintness, or are we simply conditioned to accept and ignore it? Are we deaf, dumb, blind or just stupid?
How can a student population as active and supportive of such important matters as the protection of the environment and the awareness and prevention of STDs, sit idly and be robbed of its time and money, not to mention its right to an elite education? Unless efforts are made to voice our concerns, we will never be heard, and the "system" will never change.
John D.C. Moss
Olathe Junior
Richard Brack...Editor
Daniel Niemi...Managing editor
Christopher R. Raleton...Lia Moos...Planning editor
John Milburn...Editorial editor
Candy Nilmann...Campus editor
Roy O'Connor...Spotlight editor
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Wendy Morgan...Sales and marketing adviser
Business staff
be photographed.
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The year after graduation is for living
So I've been taking a year off. Actually, I've been taken a year off for about 10 months now; time's almost up. I finished my undergraduate work last July, and since then I've been hanging out in Lawrence and doing pretty much whatever I please, such as . . . But wait — who the hell am I? I mean, why would you be interested in what I've been doing? Right?
wen, you might be. Every spring on college campuses across the country, herds of graduating seniors entertain the idea of taking a year off. The problem is that relatively few do so seriously; for although the idea may be privately exciting, it is also, by and large, publicly unacceptable. (Admittedly, it is difficult to tell those who are truly concerned about your future that the only reason you have for the course is because you plan at least one day to speak in defense of taking a year off after graduation and, at the risk of sounding presumptuous, to offer some simple advice on transforming the idea into action.
First of all, let's get straight on precisely what I mean by taking a year off. When the phrase comes up in conversation, many people conjure images of the ultimate couch potato on some kind of glorified, post-graduate, 12-month vacation. That's not what I mean. For me, taking a year off after graduation is a meaningful and mature break from the collegiate, paper-chase rigors of the past — a break that, along with getting away from school, also involves staving off any career-minded commitments. The object is to relieve yourself from the stress and pressure of going to school and being
Ford Hoffman
Guest columnist
a good student without simply replacing all that with the stress and pressure of trying to get ahead in the U.S. workforce.
Also, I think that if you're going to be bold enough to go against the social grain and take a year off after graduation, then you should be independent enough to support yourself. Or in other words, don't disappoint your parents and then expect them to pay your rent. So unless you've recently inherited some money, you'll probably have to get some kind of job. But you can work part-time (or less than 40 hours a week) and still make ends meet — unless of course you're into having more money than other people and owning a lot of neat gadgets that you don't need. I, for example, have a job schipperling sandwiches. It doesn't pay much, but it's easy, causes very little if any stress, never requires that I take work home with me and, most importantly, leave plenty of time for me to pursue those interests and activities that never fail in making me feel happy to be alive.
And really, isn't that the point? There is so much more to life than laboring for someone else. To be sure, even during a year off the bases of survival
Even if you are getting by on your own, being productive and having a good time, don't be surprised if there are those who do not approve of what you are doing. Older citizens especially, I have found, tend to trow upon this taking a year off business. It is important its sustainability. Or so they say. An absence of approval, however, often speaks to an abundance of envy.
still have to be covered; the first thing to do is to make sure that you have a roof over your head and food in your cupboard. But just because that is what must be done first does not mean that what should come first, or consume the lion's share of your attention and energy. Taking a year off after graduation is a good way to make that point.
And that, understandably, can be pretty irritating. I mean, put yourself in their wingtips. There you are, strapped down with wife, kids, cars, a house that's only half paid for and a job that you've too damn long. And along comes some fresh, excited, top-o'the-World-Ma college graduate who isn't the least bit interested in being like you or what you have. Instead of entering the real world by joining in the scramble for ever more money and material goods, he makes an entrance that's full of life-affirming freedom, that speaks to wisdom well beyond his twenty-old years — wisdom that asks, what good is time if you can't enjoy it?
CAMP UHNEELY
I'll tell you, sometimes it's enough to make me
want to take a life off,
Bryan's a 1989 KU graduate and
Lawrence resident.
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