Indiana University - Arbutus Yearbook (Bloomington, IN)

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Landon Turner Summer news X ragedy struck lU basketball star Landon Turner when the car he was driving went out of control and crashed July 25 on Indiana 46 near Columbus. Turner and three friends were traveling to King ' s Island in Ohio. He suffered a broken vertebra and was left partially paralyzed in his hands and legs. Basketball coach Bob Knight, former Indiana governor Otis Bowen, and several of Turner ' s teammates visited him in Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis. Almost im- mediately, a loosely organized cam- paign formed to raise money to offset Turner ' s medical costs. It in- cluded benefit basketball games, a Landon Turner Night at Oscar ' s, and personal donations. Turner ' s accident, coupled with Isiah Thomas ' s decision to turn pro- fessional after his sophomore year, put frowns on the faces of many fans who were hoping for a repeat per- formance of lU ' s 1981 national oas- ketball championship. In mid sum- mer, Thomas, an All-American guard, signed a multiyear contract with the Detroit Pistons for an es- timated $400,000 a season. I srael ' s military force shined on June 7 when its jet bombers de- stroyed an Iraqi nuclear reactor. Israel officials justified the raid by saying that Iraq would use the plant to produce nuclear weapons for use against their country. The raid dam- pened U.S. envoy Philip Habib ' s nopes of convincing Syria to remove the missiles it had placed in Lebanon and aimed toward Israel. Critics claimed that Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin used the Iraqi bombing mission to draw pub- lic support in the upcoming elec- tions. Begin needed all the help he could get as his Likud Bloc party nar- rowly defeated the opposition Labor Party in parliamentary elections. In Iran, hundreds of supporters of ousted president Abolhassan Bani- Sadr were executed by the regime of AyatoUah Khomeni. Bani-Sadr had been stripped of his powers as presi- dent ana as commander-in-chief of Iran ' s armed forces because of his opposition to the dominant Islamic Party. He fled to France in exile. Bani-Sadr said the terror in Iran was worse than during the days of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. Khomeini, calling Bani-Sadr a criminal, demanded his expedition from France. After French President Francois Mitterand refused to return Bani-Sadr, Iranians began protest- ing outside the French Embassy in Teneran. French officials, fearing that hostages might be taken, quick- ly recallea its embassy staff. I n France, Mitterand, a socialist who was elected president in April, proposed nationalization of his country ' s banks and 11 major in- dustries. This caused panic selling on the French stock market, nearly causing it to collapse. Across the English Channel, Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer married in a fairy tale wedding in July. But not everytning in England was as rosy as the royalweddmg. Riots raged for nearly two weeks in the streets of London, Liverpool, Maid- stone, and 30 other British cities. Many blamed the rioting on Britain ' s poor economic conditions and high unemployment rate. British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher even- tually formed a task force to study

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News

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the causes of social disorders. Meanwhile, there was turmoil in Northern Ireland, as members and supporters of the outlawed Irish Re- puolican Army went on hunger strikes in Belfast ' s Maze Prison. The hunger strikers were attempting to regain political prisoner status, something the Inatcher govern- ment refused to grant. As each hun- ger striker died — a total of ten by late summer — violence broke out in Belfast and other cities. There was also unrest in Poland as Solidarity, a free trade union formed in the summer of 1980, continued to raise eyebrows in the Soviet Union and throughout the world. The union, following its leader Lech Walesa, was striving to bring more democratic conditions to Po- land. Washington analysts feared the Soviets might intervene militari- ly to stop the flow of social freedom in this Eastern Block country. One of Poland ' s most honored citizens. Pope John Paul II, was recovering from a May 15 assassina- tion attempt. The Pope had abdo- minal surgery after bemg shot three times while performing a weekday mass in St. Peter ' s Basilica in Rome. He later came down with cytomega- lo virus, a dangerous viral infection. After a second operation to correct an intestinal bypass, the Pope was released in mid-August. His attacker, Turkish terrorist Mehmet Ali Agca, refused to appear in court for sentencing. He was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. Re Lonald Reagan won major con- gressional victories with his budget and tax cut plans. Vowing to defuse the budgetary time bombs set to explode in the years ahead, the president said he would balance the federal budget and reduce inflation. His plan called for major reductions in government funding of student loans, job training, transportation, agricultural price supports, and so- cial security Denefits. Reagan ' s plan also called for a 25- percent reduction in personal in- come taxes over the next three years. Although Democrats argued that the plan benefited the wealthy and hurt the poor, it sailed through Con- gress with relative ease. Reagan came under intense criti- cism at home, in Europe, and in the Soviet Union for his decision to be- gin production of the controversial neutron bomb. The bomb was de- signed to kill people while causing less material destruction than other nuclear weapons. The neutron bomb and a larger overall military budget, Reagan said, would deter the spread or Soviet influence in the world and help the U.S. catch up with the Soviet Union in military might. B. • aseball junkies around the coun- try suffered for 50 days without the national pastime as players walked off their jobs in May. The major issue in the strike was whether a team los- ing a player to the free agent system would receive a comparable player in return. Baseball ' s All-Star game, scheduled for early July in Cleve- land, fell victim to the strike. It was finally played on August 10, mark- ing the start of the second season. Teams started from scratch in the standings, but continued the 1981 schedule. As the players returned to the ball- parks, the nation ' s air traffic con- trollers shouldered picket signs. Among the controllers ' demands were a $10,000-a-year raise, a 36- hour work week, and increased retirement benefits. President Reagan declared the strike illegal because the controllers were government employees. He promptly fired all those wno didn ' t return to work. The Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization, the strikers ' union, picked up the sup- port of several European controllers ' organizations, some of which boycotted American flights. By the end of summer, air travel was nearly back to normal as nonstriking controllers, super- visors, and military controllers filled in. 17 or the first time since the Vietnam War, U.S. jet fighters shot down an- other country ' s planes. The incident occured over the Gulf of Sidra on the Mediterranean coast. It involved two U.S. F-14s and two Libyan Soviet-made SU-22s. The Libyans allegedly fired on the U.S. planes, which responded by destroying the aggressors with heat-seeking mis- sies. In Kansas City, 111 people were killed when a crowded skybridge — an above-g round walkway — col- lapsed and trapped people below under tons of concrete, glass, and metal debris. No one was sure why the walkway collapsed, though in- vestigations continued. In California, the battle went on against the Mediterranean fruit fly, or Medfly. The damage caused by the fly threatened to ruin Califor- nia ' s billion-dollar fruit industry. Gov. Jerry Brown was forced to order aerial spraying of infested areas after U.S. Agriculture Secre- tary John Block threatened to quar- antine California produce. In local news, W. Carl Jackson, former lU Dean of Libraries, dis- appeared at sea while attempting his second trans-Atlantic voyage. Jack- son departed on his 30-foot saO boat on April 12 from Oban, Scotland. (His first crossing, three years ear- lier, nearly ended in tragedy when his small craft was blown oft course, prolonging the solo trip to 60 days. The self-portrait below was taken then.) Jackson was scheduled to arrive in Florida on June 1 1 . On May 9, fisher- men discovered a boat submerged in 20 feet of water a mile off the coast of Spain. It was identified the next day as Jackson ' s craft. No body was found. It was not until June 1 that the U.S. State Department informed the W. Carl Jackson former dean ' s family, who still re- sides in Bloomington, of the boat ' s recovery. In late summer, Jackson ' s wife, Elizabeth, asked the Monroe Circuit court to declare her husband dead. Back in Washington, President Reagan fulfilled one of his campaign promises by naming a woman to the Supreme Court. Sandra O ' Connor, formerly a judge in the Arizona Court of Appeals, was nominated in August to replace retired Justice Stewart Potter. O ' Connor, unani- mously approved by the Senate in September, because the first woman Supreme Court justice in U.S. histo- ry- Rick Delvecchio