SPORTS: The Kansas volleyball team travels to Lincoln this weekend to take on powerhouse Nebraska. Page 11.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VOL.103,NO.40
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
ADVERTISING: 864-4358
(UPS 650-640)
NEWS: 864-4810
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1993
William Alix / KANSAN
Cartalk
Byron Edmondson, owner of Byron's Autohaus at 640 N. Second St., explains how an engine works to a group of KU students. The lecture — the first in a series of three — was sponsored by the Emily Taylor Women's Resource Center. The next series of lectures will be held in March.
Aidid sets U.S. pilot free after 11 days of captivity
Nigerian also gains freedom in Somalia
The Associated Press
MOGADISHU, Somalia — U.S. helicopter pilot Michael Durant, battered but buoyant, returned to freedom yesterday on a stretcher after 11 days as a captive of a Somali warlord.
The United States said no deal was made for the release of Durant, captured in an Oct. 3 battle between U.N. troops and Mohamed Farrah Aidid's fighters, or of a Nigerian peacekeeper captured in a Sept. 5 gunfight.
The freeing of Durant led to more calls from Congress for speeding the departure of U.S. troops from Somalia. President Clinton indicated he might be flexible on his March 31 deadline for withdrawal.
OUT OF HIDING: Somali warlord
OUT OF HIDING: Somali warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid emerges from four months of hiding to release two prisoners. Page 6.
Durant, 32, clenched his teeth, and his eyes teared as he was carried by stretcher from a walled compound and handed over to Red Cross representatives. He clutched a note from his wife and parents that the Red Cross gave him just before his release. He declined to speak to reporters.
Dr. John Holcomb of the 46th U.S. Army Field Hospital, who examined Durant, said the pilot suffered a broken leg, broken cheekbone and a fractured back but appeared to have been treated fairly well by his captors. The leg was in a splint but had not been set and was quite painful, Holcomb said.
"Mike is fine, basically," Holcomb said,
adding that Durant "cried a little bit — tears
of joy."
He said most of Durant's injuries probably were sustained when a rocket-propelled grenade blasted the tail off his helicopter, although Durant said in an interview while in captivity that he had been beaten badly by in captivity and stripped naked after his capture.
Officials said Durant would be flown today to a U.S. military base in Ramstein, Germany, and then taken to a military hospital in Landstuhl, where his wife, Lorrie, could join him.
The Nigerian prisoner, Trooper Umar Shantali, was released from the same compound as Durant. His left leg was bandaged, and he walked with a cane. In captivity for nearly six weeks, he appeared healthy and in good spirits.
He was taken to a Swedish relief hospital in Mogadishu.
Ministers, students banter at Wescoe
By Kathleen Stolle
Kansan staffwriter
"You're all going to be held accountable for what you've done, every one of you," he said.
Pacing atop the steps of Wescoe Hall, his face reddening with effort, the Rev. Rick Walters warned a student audience of its fate.
Walters and the Rev. John McDermott, both local pastors, explored religious topics from heaven to hell during an informal and sometimes lively exchange yesterday afternoon with students. Both men preach at Morning Star Christian Church, 2120 W. 25th St., and are religious advisers for the Jayhawker Campus Fellowship.
Todd Kindred, Lawrence sophomore, was among several students who challenged Walters. He asked him to explain "the logic of God" and how right and wrong were determined.
"Why would something create something else inferior to it and control it?" Kindred asked.
"He does not control people, he gives them a choice," Walters responded.
Kindred said that if hell was the punishment for sin, then it was not really a choice.
"In my opinion this is a waste of time, but something keeps me here to break him down," he said.
"You do have a choice," Walters maintained.
Kindred later said he thought some religious topics were beyond human comprehension.
"To go to hell?" Kindred asked.
"Sure you can," Walters said, followed by a light chuckle from the crowd.
John Dale, Leneka sophomore and a member of Walters' congregation, said it did not
bother him to see his pastor heckled because Jesus had been heckled as well.
"That's our lifelong goal — to be like Jesus," he said.
Dale said the group had visited the campus six times this semester. The purpose of the visits was to interest people in Christianity, he said.
Bill Arnold, associate professor of sociology, said field preaching like Walters practiced yesterday attracted students.
Religion often sparks lively debates because it touches on areas with emotional importance, such as morals, Arnold said.
"If you have taken a position, and you're sure your position is right, then you're also sure the other person's position is wrong," he said. "You fight to preserve yourself and your point of view."
"Our goal's to get campus on fire for Jesus," he said.
THE DREAM THAT CROSSED THE BORDER
A young woman struggles to fulfill her father's vision
A 9-year old girl ties sleeping in the back of the old van as it pulls up to the guard post at the border between Mexico and the United States.
"She is my niece," says the man driving the van. "Here are her papers."
Sandra Olivas had tried to memorize all of the information on the papers. The man had told her that the guard might ask her questions. She knows what she is doing is illegal and dangerous. If she is caught, she will be in serious trouble.
The man driving the van is not Sandra's uncle; he is a man Sandra's father hired to smuggle her back into the United States.
Olivas, adjunior in radio and broadcast journalism, is difficult to get in touch with. On some days she is not in one place long enough to answer the phone.
"Sometimes I just get so stressed out that I can't even sit up straight," Olivas said as she demonstrated the position in which she had taken her lax exam.
She said her instructor had become concerned because Olivas was slumped down in her chair and he could only see her eyes over the top of the desk.
She gets stressed because she is afraid she will not get everything done.
Olivas lives at the Chi Omega sorority house, where she is an active member. Hardly a day goes by when she does not find a Spanish paper on her desk to proofread, or a message that someone needs help studying for a Spanish test.
On the weekends she waits tables at Applebee's Neighborhood Grill and Bar in Kansas City, Kan. When she is not working there, she is teaching English to Hispanic students in the Argentine and Turner school districts of Kansas City, Kan.
And somehow — with all her classes, her job,
volunteer work, HALO meetings and an internship at KHK — Olivas finds time to maintain her 3.5 grade point average.
She has discovered that she can even read while she works out on the stationary bicycle or the stair stepper at Robinson Center.
And even when she does not enter her room until 11:30 p.m., she knows she has to keep studying and keep working. That was the reason her father had brought her to the United States. That is all he asks of her.
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Olivas was born on March 13, 1973 in Torreon,
Coahuila, a small Mexican village.
"I was born in a house," Olivas said. "In grade school everyone would have to write down where they were born. Sometimes I would think I should write down the same thing as my friends. I didn't want to just say 'I was born in a house.'"
Olivas' father moved to the United States three years before she was born.
Candelario Olivas said the only thing he thought as he crossed the border into the United States for the first time, was his family's future. He said he had believed then and still believed in the American Dream.
"If you work, you can get everything you want," he said.
Candelario Olivas is proof that his philosophy works.
He had gone to a technical school in Mexico. That training helped him get a job doing maintenance on machinery in a Texas factory. He saved his money.
He visited his family often. Getting into Mexico was easy, he said. Getting out was dangerous.
After three and one-half years, he decided it was time to have his family join him in the United States so they could have a better life.
The "visit" has lasted more than 19 years.
When Olivares was 7 months old, her father had sent for the family. A friend in the United States helped him arrange for temporary visas which would allow the family to visit.
The family moved to the west side of Kansas City, Mo., an area known for its low income level. When Olivas was in high school, her father managed to buy a house in the Turner school district of Kansas City, Kan. He thought that his four children would be safer if they were away from the gangs and drugs that had invaded the Hispanic community where they lived.
See AMERICAN DREAM. Page 9.
Sandra Oliva, Kansas City, Kan. junior, has been trying to gain citizenship for over 19 years. Oliva, an illegal alien, has had difficulty in situations that U.S. citizens would find ordinary.
STORY BY DONELLA HEARNE PHOTOS BY JULIA CLARKE
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Sculpting legends
Sculptor and KU alumnus Jim Brothers creates bronze images of Midwestern figures. Brothers may mold a statue of the late Kansas basketball coach Phog Allen for display in front of Allen Field House.
Page 5.
Slacker Award recognizes laziness
By Shan Schwartz
Kansan staff writer
What is a slacker?
Danny Keele, Overland Park sophomore, is a big slacker. At least that is the opinion of Matt Brown, Overland Park junior and Keele's roommate.
"slacker (slak' er) n. One that shirks work or responsibility," according to the American Heritage Dictionary.
Student Union Activities agrees with Brown. On Wednesday, it picked Keele as the winner of a Slacker Contest. The contest coincided with SUA's screening of Richard Linklater's debut cult film "Slacker."
"He shows lower motivation than a petrified sloth," Brown said.
SUA asked students to write a short paragraph explaining why they or someone they knew was a slacker. The deadline for the entry was Oct. 1.
SUA received 18 entries for the contest and picked Keele for "some committee-preconceived slacker requirements, humor and originality," said Don Morrow, Leawood junior and one of the contest.judges.
"The award was given to the laziest, sorriset person described in the entries," Morrow said. "Most of them were pretty funny, but a few of them were out of touch with the concept of what a real slacker was."
Morrow said most of the entries received were not written by the slackers themselves but by friends of the nominated slackers.
The prizes for the contest were a "Slacker" book, a script of the movie and "Slacker" posters.
"A typical day consists of sleeping in, missing class and whining about not having mom to make breakfast," Brown said in his entry.
"He watches the weather channel for hours at a time, or until I change the channel for him. Sometimes I feel like a servant when I dust him off and rotate his body position twice a week."
Brown wrote a page-long entry to describe how Keele was a slacker.
Keele agreed that he was a slacker but said that his roommate's nomination was a little exaggerated.
"I was shocked to find out all this stuff about me," Keele said.
Danny Keele, Overland Park sophomore, tosses a compact disc while he relaxes at his apartment.
Keele said that he did not know his roommate had nominated him for the contest but that Brown had given some hints.
"He made a riddle out of it," Keele said. "He said he entered me in a contest. Then we went to the movie together, and I saw the contest entry box. I put two and two together and figured it out."
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