OPINION
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
PUBLISHED DAILY SINCE 1912
CRAIG LANG, Editor
SUSANNA LOOP, Managing editor
KIMBELY CRAITTEE, Editorial editor
TOM EBLEN, General manager, news adviser
MARK OZMKE, Business manager
DENNIS HAUPT, Retail sales manager
JUSTIN KNUPP, Technology coordinator
JAY STEINER, Sales and market adviser
4A
Monday, February 10, 1997
Amy R. Miller / KANSAN
Editorials
Bar patrons should be courteous of scholarship hall parking lots
As cars line up at the entrance to the Alumni Place lots, tow crews are busily loading vehicles onto their tow trucks. It is 11 p.m. on a Wednesday night, so the scholarship hall residents who park in these lots are not surprised they have to wait for Quality Tow to vacate a few spaces. Wednesday evenings are busy nights for The Wheel and surrounding bars, and their patrons often park in the Alumni Place lots. These lots are 24 hours restricted, which means they are 24 hour tow zones for those cars without permits.
Scholarship hall residents pay $50 a year to park in one of these lots. There are two more Alumni Place lots, one in front of Amini Scholarship Hall, and one in the alley behind it. Unfortunately, on Wednesday and Thursday nights, many scholarship hall residents
Scholarship hall residents need their parking spaces at night, too.
can spend up to 30 minutes searching for a parking space, if they can find one at all.
This flashe, however, is not the result of an inep Parking Department, but of inconsiderate bar-hoppers. The tow trucks, which are hired by the University of Kansas to work on a 24-hour basis, often work past midnight on these nights, sometimes towing on many as 20 vehicles. When the University has a car towed, the owner pays only a $20 tow charge and a $15 parking ticket. According to Quality Tow, regular tow charges can be more than $60 for tows from anywhere outside of the KU campus.
Scholarship hall residents pay to live in their halls and they pay to have a parking space. When scholarship hall residents do not have parking spaces, they are often forced to park illegally, incurring parking tickets and a tow charge themselves. When other students not holding a permit use their lots, they are trespassing.
This problem can be illustrated further: no one would park in a stranger's private driveway because the owner would most likely call the police and have the car towed. Sororities and fraternities are also quick to tow those without permits in their lots. The same consideration should be shown toward scholarship hall residents. Do not park in a restricted space you have not paid to use.
Next time you go to the bars around 14th and Ohio streets, show some courtesy and park elsewhere. Or walk.
NICOLE SKALLA FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Black history isn't just for Blacks
Stoplights. Peanut butter. The pencil sharpener. Every day we make use of these simple but ingenious inventions, and they all have one thing in common. Each one was invented by a Black American.
From Sojourner Truth to W.E.B. DuBois, from Martin Luther King Jr. to Maya Angelou, black Americans have made many valuable contributions to American history and society.
In 1926 Carter G. Woodson introduced the idea of Black History Week to be observed during February, which in 1976 officially became Black History Month. He desired to give Americans a time when they could reflect on all that African-Americans have done on our continent and around the world. Just from those few examples above, it is obvious that Black Americans have made great contributions to history, and that is why it is
Everyone,not just Black Americans,should take part in events this month
important for everyone, Black and white,
to take part in Black History Month.
This month the Black Student Union is sponsoring a series of lectures, forums and activities to celebrate Black history. Covering topics from music to culture, the series highlights the triumphs of black Americans, the problems of today and hopes for the future. It is a chance for members of the KU community to gain understanding of themselves and their peers. Ernie Batsell, vice president of the Black Student Union, says there are other ways to understand and appreciate Black Americans. The University offers interesting and important courses
Remembering Blacks' impact on history is not the only value of February observances. By realizing the importance of African-Americans, and by understanding this history and culture, Blacks and whites alike can come to understand each other better. Black History Month is more than just a chance to remember black Americans, it is also a chance for us to see our similarities, to put aside mistakes of the past and to move on to a future free of prejudice, racial strife and discrimination and filled with unity and understanding.
pertaining to Black history and achievement in many departments, including history, American Studies and African-American Studies. These courses offer a better appreciation and understanding of Black Americans.
NEWS EDITORS
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BEN SHOCKEY FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
LATINA SULLIVAN ... Associate Editorial
KRISTIE BLASH ... News
NOVELDA SOMMERS ... News
LESJIE TAYLOR ... News
AMANDA TRAUGHBER ... News
TARA TRENARY ... News
DAVID TESKA ... Online
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GINA THORNBURG ... Associate Sports
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LINDESE HENRY ... Campus
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Columns
We can't believe all we've been taught
We've been lied to.
We've been duped.
We've been bamboozled.
And the worst part is that it's been by our own teachers, our leaders, our friends and our families. Many of them don't even realize that they've lied to you, because they've been lied to as well.
We've been told lies about our history and our country, and what wasn't a blatant lie was a small exaggeration.
We've been told great folk tales of George Washington — fighting for the rights of all men. But he enslaved his fellow man.
We've been nourished on Thomas Jefferson's ideas of equality, although he wrote often of the inferiority and laziness of slaves and the necessity of slavery. We've
heard tales of his bravery because he truly believed in death in the name of liberty, unless it involved his own life.
Let's not forget the mighty emancipator, Abraham Lincoln, who was also the great vacillator. He produced an Emancipation Proclamation, but only when he was on the verge of losing the Civil War. We've been brought up on the patriots that fought the Civil War not for freedom but money and sectionalism.
I can't help but think back on a childhood of hearing the praises of such great men, then becoming utterly disappointed to find out one by one that they weren't great by very high standards. How can one not feel betrayed?
How can you not learn this about your home and wonder what else is really truthful? But we do. We live in a country that, despite our history of racial division, actually acts surprised when a riot breaks loose in a city. Or maybe we just don't know.
dedicated ours to symptoms such as the O.J. Simpson case, Michael Irving, the Montana militias, the deaths of the JonBenet Ramseys. We've become controlled by hate for our welfare system, our poverty, our taxation. We've become so obsessed that we've completely missed the point.
We've become so obsessed with the symptoms of our country and not our real problems. We've
I know it's true because none of our solutions have worked. When you look at the history of our country we seem to be dealing with so many of the same problems.
So many people are angry about O.J. Simpson winning his criminal trial when our court system hasn't worked since the day Dred Scott was told that he was property and unworthy of the rights of the Constitution. And O.J. Simpson was not the first man to buy his own freedom by any means.
So many people don't understand what has become an every-other-month resurgence of violence in urban America, when racial disharmony has existed since the first slaves arrived. The solutions we have only seem to temporarily ease our problems.
I find it scary that the last three major bombings that have taken place in this country were done by people who live in this country.
If our solutions are only temporarily solving problems, then we must not be dealing with the right problems.
When I pick up the paper, watch the news, go outside I can't help but wonder how much of it is really true and not just a fad. The death of JonBenet Ramsey is a fad because some upper class family lost a child. Children her age die quite often in this country of homicide, but now we make an issue of it. We'll watch some news clips on the evils of beauty pageants, begin a few protests and then fall back into our lives until something new comes along.
The O.J. Simpson case is a fad that gave us court TV and lots of news shows that deliver court room sketches to our homes.
Rufus Coleman is a Dallas Junior In Journalism.
Reasons for volunteering don't matter;efforts do
Since I returned to school last spring, I have attempted to maintain the rather stoic, compassionless, ultra-conservative demeanor I so successfully created during my time on Capitol Hill. I returned with a burning desire to slash all welfare programs, eradicate all social services, destroy all assistance to anyone in any form. I despised tree-huggers, chastised animal lovers and harried monkeys.
Unfortunately, living with a couple of save-the-world liberals has softened me a bit. Compassion has chipped away a tiny bit of the carefully cultivated callousness that I was so proud of. Fear not, for I have not let go of all of my ideals. I still wish for a complete restructuring of the welfare programs, and I hope to see government services in general scaled back drastically during my lifetime.
SABRINA STEELE
Therein lies the gist of my transformation.
The method by which I would like to see government altered has theoretically changed, thanks to an intriguing political theory class I took last semester and a recent conversation with friends.
An astute roommate pointedly commented that volunteerism is the essence of the Republican party. Good grief, could this be true? My experiences with volunteering in the past were done purely for selfish reasons. I wanted to lose my fear of hospitals, so I became a candy striper. I enjoyed spending time among the monuments and the Reflecting Pool, so I became a guide at the Vietnam Memorial. I adore reading, and it is disturbing to think of those who are unable to partake of the printed word, so I became a volunteer at Audio-Reader. I engaged in these activities purely for my benefit, for my pleasure: me, me,
me. The possibility of improving, assisting or otherwise helping others was secondary, almost menacing.
However, the goals of traditional conservatives include the preservation and development of myriad voluntary organizations. These groups should be designed to fulfill the functions of the government programs I would like to eliminate.
Alas, I shall concede that my desire to volunteer at Audio-Reader, at the Memorial and at the hospital may have stemmed from a tiny seed of compassion buried deep within. It was a greedy sense of benevolence nonetheless. I enjoyed the feeling I got when I would help a patient or comfort a visitor to the Memorial. I particularly relish the feeling I get every time I go into a studio. The power of bringing the printed word to people who otherwise would not be able to enjoy it is intoxicating.
A small government is a good government. People need to pick themselves up by their own bootstraps and work. However, some people need a little help grabbing their bootstraps. A small government cannot do everything. A strong country needs a strong volunteer force.
However, my volunteer efforts are clearly done not out of a joy of giving or helping. Rather, my twisted sense of greed and self-satisfaction drives me to it. I suppose it is ultimately irrelevant why people become involved in volunteering, but it is still essential that we do. I would venture to say the average human being does not act purely out of an innate desire to help others. Rather, it is the potential reward that provokes us to action. Apparently the compensatory self-satisfaction was enough to move even this cold-hearted soul to help others. Just don't tell the GOP. I'm not willing to give up my membership yet.
Sabrina Steele Is an Overland Park senior in political science.
Letter
Columnist should have looked for the facts
As I read Andy Obermueeller's musings the other day, I couldn't help but have flashbacks to the ill-fated editorial last semester by Phong Hu about my dad, Congressman Jim Ryun. I wondered if the writers for The University Daily Kansan do any research before they write or if they just write what they want whether it's true or not. As my brother proved, Hu's editorial was riddled with errors, making it clear that Hu had done little, if any, research about my father. It wouldn't take that much. A simple phone call would have sufficed.
It seems the same problem it attached itself to Obermueler. He writes that the new Kansas delegation was sworn in on Jan. 7. My dad was sworn in Dec. 13, an important fact because he is now ranked sec-
our five resiliant class:
Obermuller also wrote that Jerry Moran was the only legislator among the new Congressmen with experience. Whatever happened to the years Vince Snowwher served in the Kansas House as Majority leader? Certainly those count for something when it comes to being a stellar legislator.
ond in the freshman class.
My dad had a job. In fact he won the William Randolph Hearst Foundation Journalism Award for his photographic work. He was on the staff for years at the Topeka Capital-Journal as a photographer and
It is the last error, though, was worse. Andy wrote that my dad has never held a real job. As a famous athlete, it is often assumed that guys like my dad have never held real jobs. People often forget that my dad's peak was in the 1960s and 1970s when amateurs in track and field couldn't take prize money.
he has been on assignment for such magazines as Sports Illustrated and Redbook. In recent years, as a man who is hearing impaired, he has worked on behalf of deaf children. He is a motivational speaker and a humanitarian in the truest sense.
What defines a real job for Obermeyer? Surely, it's not sitting behind a desk writing down one's thoughts for the Kansan.
one's thoughts for the Kansan.
It doesn't take much to do investigative research. Maybe it's a phone call. Maybe it's two phone calls. That's what newspapers should be all about — finding the truth, even if it is just a few, simple facts, and then reporting objectively. The sooner newspapers, even the Kansan, and their writers realize this, the better off they and their readers will be.
Drew Ryun
Lawrence freshman