University of Denver - Kynewisbok Yearbook (Denver, CO)

Page 29 text:

The evening of Saturday, July 19 was a festive one in one of Kansas Ci- tyls newest and most popular watering holes - the Hyatt Regency Hotel downtown. For a few weeks, hun- dreds of people had shown up on Fri- day evenings for the kind of old fashioned dances being held in the large, spacious foyer area. On the walkways above the dancers, crowds of people laughed, chatted, listened to the music of the live band and tapped their feet in time. Maybe that was what did it. All of a sudden the walkways started to give way. In a flash they were tumbling down, people and all, onto the dancers below. In a few seconds the hotels foyer looked like it had been bombed. Many people were killed in- stantly, others died after fruitless at- tempts to save their lives by the paramedics and other relief squads which rushed to the scene. The death toll was finally placed at 114. It was a terrible tragedy which took place on a warm summerls night. On Wed. Oct. 28, 1981, the US. Senate voted 52 to 48 to allowPresident Reagan to sell five sophisticated AWACS planes and other armaments to Saudi Arabia. The deal would earn the US. sup- pliers $8.5 billion over the next several years. More importantly, it signalled a change of attitude on the Administra- tionls part toward the whole Middle East power equation, and it was a politically divisive issue. Coloradols Republican Senator, Bill Armstrong, called the vote a lltribute to Reaganls leadership, while the states other Senator, Gary Hart, termed it a Denise Moore Wide World Photos, Inc. llfailurel, in the presidentls foreign policy. Reagan did change many minds on the issue, by maintaining that the deal would be good for Israel, since it helped Saudi Arabia to be less suspicious of Jerusalemls military plans. Or something like that. The harsh reality the administration was seeming to be accepting, however, was that Saudi Arabia was simply too powerful, oil-rich and determined to play second fiddle to Israel in Middle East-Washington rela- tionships. Early in November. Reagan said he partially endorsed a Saudi plan to peace in the region, which included the divi- sion of Jerusalem once again into two sections - one Jewish, the other Arab. Israel was not pleased and said so, whereupon the state department began to take back, or water down some of the presidentls comments. But clearly Reagan was trying to show that US. interests in the area could not best be served by support of lsraells point-of-view alone. With Sadat gone, the US. tightrope walk in the region became even more perilous and important. 25

Page 28 text:

tho ordinary American worker, student, or professional derives any benefit from the Support of murderous CIA activities abroad...we are convinced that the CIA has no right to recruit on the campus of the University of Denver. The CIA on campus and the growing move toward war are an insult and a mOrtal danger to us all. hlln this free and open competition of ideas, creationism has clearly lost. It has been losing, in fact, since the time of Copernicus 4V2 centuries ago. But crea- tionists placing myth above reason, refuse to accept the decision. . . Teachers must be forced to accept crea- tionism as though it has equal intellec- tual respectability with evolutionary doc- 1$ trine. - Isaac Asimov, article in the Denver Post, June 21, 1981. from a letter to the Clarion, Nov. 1981, signed by members and friends of INCAR llnternational Committee against Racismt. 11Who can now make sense of the surfeit of information? . . . The more people know the less they know. They escape the burden of theiranxieties by retreating into the magic shows of the national celebrity theater. - Lewis H. Lapham, ltGilding The News? Harperls, July, 81. uIt,s ironic that while people in Denver are choking, maybe dying, the Reagan Administration is making moves to repeal the Clean Air Act. That may or may not come to pass, but the fact remains that Denver air is the pits and wontt get better, especially if therets no Clean Air Act? - Mike Shay, editorial in Up The Creek, Dec. 81. 11 Each year, about 1.7 percent of British students and 1.6 percent of Americans become engineers. Productivity for the two nations grew 51 percent and 39 percent, respectively, between 1963 and 1977. About 2.3 percent of West German students become engineers, and industrial productivity is up 114 percent there during the same period. In Japan, 4.2 percent became engineers, and productivity went up 197 percent? - David G. Savage, article ttAre U.S. Schools Turning Out Scientific Illiterates?, itDenver Post, Sun. Nov. 15, 1981. ttThe reason we did it wrong -not wrong, but less than the op- timum - was that we said, Hey, we have to get a program out fast. And when you decide to put a program of this breadth and depth out fast, you ean only do so much. We were work- ing in a twenty or twenty-five-day time frame, and we didn,t think it all the way through. We didntt add up all the numbers? - OMB director David Stockman, quoted in article ttThe Education of David Stockman, by William Grei- der, Atlantic Monthly, Dec. 81. ttA week ago, a state of war was imposed upon Poland, a state of war against the Polish people. Under the umbrella of the military, specially trained security police began an un- precedented reign of terror. tt. . .I cannot be silent. I cannot have any association. . . with the authorities responsible for this brutality and inhumanity. - Polish Ambassador to the U.S., Romauld Spasowski, announcing his defection to the West, Sunday Dec. 20, 1981, in Washington, DC. 1tYou have no right to punish Israel. What kind of talk is this, punishing Israel? Are we your 'vass state? Are we a banana republic? Are we l4-year-old boys who get their fingers slapped when they dent behave? . . . The Golan Heightslaw will remain in effect. There IS ho power on earth that can bring 115 n? . Cance:lllfllstrlac:21i Prime Minister Menachig Begin. quoted in a Dec. 20 commitm- que released by his governmgnto a sponding to the U.S. suspenSlI signe strategic alliance agreemen tries. between the two court a motimhl msiotvelhdh pmalmiklttli t thrashedtottu lmdtathtll llihtalmlhj If ml the on a II

Page 30 text:

n Dec. 13, as Poles slept, the tanks rolled in, taking up strategic positions in the heart of Warsaw. The Polish peo- ple woke up to find themselves under martial law, all communications within their country and into the outside world cut or severely restricted. The army, under Communist par- ty head General Wojciech Jaruzelski, had begun their long-expected counterattack against a year of social unrest led by Solidarnosc, 0r Solidari- VVJ '!h 1 W'A; e1, 'llt W 1 1?. e 1., II f .. ty, the nationts first-ever officially recognized trade union. The erackdown caid the U.S., and two of Polandts highest-ranking Am- bassadors, was a direct result of Soviet pressure on the Polish puppet regime. The two Ambassadors resigned and sought asylum in the States; Ronald Reagan imposed sanctions meant to register Amerieats great displeasure. but he did not go as tar as he emild have. Amerieais European zillies were predictably more middle-oli-the-mtttl about the whole matter, sayttlg ngshi bad thing, but that the SOVIetS ie not necessarily be behln i wn. UMktwcxanwhile, the Pepe askaegaigg fellow Poles not to use Violenci1 isvheafl eaeh other. yet let it be knOWIt was with the broken tr Wuleszi was kept under houte nd co the short term, the army at munist party had won 11.1 tort. but the country was In hard period ahead. aetical W U for a 10H: