University Press (Beaumont, Tex.), Vol. 78, No. 26, Ed. 1 Friday, February 1, 2002 Page: 3 of 6
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URaditorial
University Press • Friday, February 1,2002 • Page 3
University Press
Editor...........................................................................Daniel Chand
Managing Editor..............................................................Tara Smith
The opinions that appear in editorials are the official views of
the University Press student management as determined by the UP
Student Editorial Board. Opinions expressed elsewhere on this
page are the views of the writers only and are not necessarily those
of the University Press student management. Student opinions are
not necessarily those of the university administration.
Editorial
Film Festival offers
students different
experience
There is no reason to say there is nothing to do
around here this weekend — especially if you love
going to the movies.
The third annual Spindletop/Lamar University
Film Festival 2002 will be held this Saturday and
Sunday, giving students, and others who are interest-
ed, the opportunity to do not just “something” but
something unique compared to the usual weekend
routine.
Even if that usual routine involves going to the
movies.
The festival will be showcasing independent films
by creators from all over the country — some are
homegrown and some are even students from Lamar
University.
Independent film buffs and novices alike will have
much to enjoy.
From documentaries featuring Star Wars fans that
camp out for six weeks in front of Mann’s Chinese
Theatre in Hollywood waiting for the release of “Star
Wars Episode I,” to adaptations of Ray Bradbury’s
“The Burning Man” and “The Wonderful Ice Cream
Suit” — there is no reason to stay home.
Attending the event will not only be entertaining,
but will show support for Lamar University’s film
program and encourage the University to continue
hosting the festival.
And not having much money is no excuse.
Screenings of movies cost only $5 each day.
Those wanting to get more involved can attend
workshops that will be held Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4
p.m. in the University Theatre. The workshops cost
$15 for students ($20 for the general public).
Screenings of movies will follow the workshops at
the University Theatre until 10:15 p.m.
Late night screenings will be held at the Art
Studio in downtown Beaumont, starting at 10:30 p.m.
and will include the viewing of the “Star Wars” docu-
mentary.
Sunday, beginning at 11 a.m. screenings will be
held at Tinseltown in Beaumont.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Individuals who wish to speak out on issues should send
a letter fewer than 400 words in length to Letters to the
Editor, P.O. Box 10055, LU Station, Beaumont 77710,
or drop letters off at our offices in 200 Setzer Student
Center. The writer’s name, address, telephone number
and social security number must accompany each letter.
Letters received without this information cannot be print-
ed. Letters may be edited for length, grammar, style and
possible libel. Opinions expressed in letters are not nec-
essarily those of the UP student management. Letters by
the same writer on the same subject will not be published.
Poetry, reprints, anonymous letters and religious debates
will not be published.
Chand
vs.
Donaldson
Sam remains champ — but only just
Being a young journalist myself I have
always admired Sam Donaldson.
This was the journalist who broke
through the wall of protection that
Reagan’s staff put around the president to
shield him from questions.
This was also journalist who gave for-
mer President Carter so many headaches
that he said one good thing about leaving
the White House is that he’ll never have to
deal with Sam Donaldson again.
So I was excited when I found out that
he was going to speak at the Washington
Center’s Inside Washington Seminar, to
which I was going, thanks to the talented
Dr. Terri Davis in the political science
department.
For those of you who didn’t read the
story in last Friday’s University Press, I will
just fill you in on a few details.
The seminar was a week-long event
for students from all over the country to
learn more about how things work “inside
the beltway.” There were also several other
famous media celebrities attending, includ-
ing Ted Koppel.
On Monday morning, I went to the
first meeting for all the attendees of the
seminar eagerly awaiting to hear the
keynote speaker for the day, Sam
Donaldson.
Donaldson arrived right on time and
delivered a fantastic speech. Just as on tele-
vision, he was extremely energetic and very
funny.
But something he said did not sit well
with me. Of course, I didn’t agree with
every single thing he said — or any other
speaker for that matter.
But one thing he said made me won-
der: Would the great Sam Donaldson real-
ly believe something like that? Is Sam
Donaldson, the hard-nosed, tough-as-nails
journalist getting soft in his old age?
I had to find out.
A question-and-answer period fol-
lowed the speech.
“I invite anyone of you to challenge
me on anything you wish,” Donaldson said.
Here was my chance. I had to find out
the answer to this nagging question. After
all, Donaldson was basically daring me to
Commentary
Daniel Chand
UP NEWS EDITOR
put a tough question to him — the way he
has grilled other people for years.
I got up and rushed over to a micro-
phone as fast as I could, but I wasn’t quick
enough. Several other students beat me to
it.
Donaldson was the first and perhaps
most famous speaker at the week-long
seminar. Every one of the more than 150
students at the event was ecstatic to see and
hear him. Consequently, a lot of people
wanted to ask him a question.
There were about six people in front of
me, and despite his invitation, no other stu-
dents decided to challenge him.
Most of the questions were along the
lines of, “What is it like to work with Cokie
Roberts?”
One student asked Donaldson if he
thought there was any bias in media cover-
age, but that was the closest thing to a chal-
lenging question he got.
Soon enough, however, I was on deck.
Only one more question, and then it was
my turn. It was Donaldson and me —
mano a mano.
Just before I could get to the mike, the
emcee stood up and announced, “We have
time for one more question.”
One more question, what luck. I got
the final question. I stepped up to the mike,
“Daniel Chand. Lamar University.
Beaumont, Texas.”
All questioners were required to state
their name and where they were from
before they asked a question.
“Mr. Donaldson, you said in your
speech....”
“You call that a speech,” Donaldson
interrupted. “I call that a long-winded rant
by an angry old man.”
The audience began to laugh.
A normal student might have been
shaken at this point, but I persisted.
“Well Mr. Donaldson,” I said, “you
said in your long-winded rant...” (the audi-
ence and Donaldson started laughing
again) “that you believe former President
Bush sent troops into Somalia for truly
humanitarian reasons.
“If that were the case, then why did he
(Bush) wait ’til the end of his administra-
tion to send troops into the country? Was it
just to give incoming President Clinton
another problem to handle?”
For a moment, there was only silence.
Donaldson just looked straight ahead,
as if to say, “I can’t believe this kid just
asked me that. I can’t believe one of them
took me up on my challenge.”
Then he began to answer, “Well...(he
paused once again)...I guess that’s a posi-
tion one could take.”
Donaldson was still not too quick to
give the rest of his answer. He looked much,
like a heavyweight champ who had just
taken an unexpected hard shot from some
no-name challenger.
But just like the champ he is, he pulled
out of his daze.
“I can’t speak for his political motives,
but I will say this: Every last budget by a
president is set up to embarrass the next
guy,” he said.
“And I think it is understandable to
wonder why didn’t he commit to this
course of action before. After all, things
were bad over there long before he sent
troops into the country,” he explained.
“But if you look back, there was a pro-
gression of events that led to an even
worse situation.”
“After all,” he said, “that was the
answer he gave, and I am willing to except
his word.”
He pulled it off, making a great save.
OK, maybe I didn’t make him sweat
and squirm as bad as he has made intervie-
wees for years. Although, to be fair, I was-
n’t allowed follow-up questions.
But for a moment, even if it was just a
small one, I had him on the ropes.
And for those few seconds, Sam
Donaldson knew what it was like to be in
the hot seat.
One more Enron woe: A1 Sharpton and company
WASHINGTON — As if the
bigwigs at Enron didn’t have enough
on their plates, here came the Rev. A1
Sharpton.
And, a day later, the Rev. Jesse
Jackson.
There was A1 Sharpton, each
hair of his magnificent pompadour
immaculately in place, striding up to
the microphones to talk to reporters
last Wednesday outside the Enron
building, also known as “the scene of
the crime,” in downtown Houston.
Sharpton chastised the govern-
ment for failing to protect Enron
investors from the company’s down-
fall.
“Somebody must stand up” for
the investors, he said, and called on
the government to find money to
help those who lost their savings. If
the government can afford to bail
out airlines and other struggling cor-
porations, Sharpton said, “they can
certainly find money for victims who
would not have been victimized if
the government had protected
them.”
Of course, it’s not clear that gov-
ernment can afford to bail out the
Commentary
Clarence
Page
Tribune Media Syndicated
Columnist
airlines or that it should. And, even if
it were clear, it wouldn’t necessarily
mean that the government should
bail out the stockholders of col-
lapsed companies.
Enron was only the largest
bankruptcy filing in history, not the
only one. Last year alone, 255 pub-
licly traded companies filed for
bankruptcy, according to Bankruptcy
Data.com, a Web site that tracks such
things. Should government bail out
those who lost their shirts on those
tragedies, too?
Such reality checks don’t matter
much in the world spun by political
rhetoric; such a false comparison is
known as a “Man-on-the-Moon”
move. You hear it whenever you hear
someone say, “If we can put a man on
the moon, we ought to be able to (fill
in the blank with whatever you’re
trying to get).”
The “Man-on-the-Moon” move
is getting old these days as a new
generation too young to remember
humans walking on the moon has
come of age.
Since 9-11, of course, the “Man-
on-the-Moon” move has been
replaced by the “We must (fill in the
blank) or the terrorists will win”
ploy.
You hear that one on Capitol
Hill when every pet project from
music museums to buffalo farming
must be funded “or the terrorists
will win.”
Maybe now I can tell my 12-
year-old, “If we can afford to bail
out the airlines, you ought to be able
to find time to wash the dishes.”
Ah, but Sharpton is on the soap-
box circuit where great promises can
be made without concern as to how
they’re going to be kept. He is on an
“exploratory campaign,” he tells us,
for a possible presidential run in
2004.
Something tells me George W.
Bush is not quaking in his boots over
that possibility.
Some observers found symbol-
ism in Sharpton’s arriving in
Washington a day before Jackson.
Getting the jump on his role model?
Sharpton did nothing to discourage
that notion. He’s made no secret of
his desire to replace the Rev.
Jackson in the national spotlight,
even if it seems to be a shrinking
spotlight.
Still, I wonder, are there really
so few inequities or injustices
around that these two have to para-
chute into the Enron case?
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not a
Sharpton or Jackson hater. There
are plenty of other pundits around
to fill that role. I’m another kind of
critic. As someone who agrees with
many of their positions, it makes me
wince to see them become parodies
of themselves, which seems to be
happening more often these days.
The approach taken by the two
old-school civil rights leaders seems
particularly ill-timed during a week
when Newsweek magazine was fea-
turing three black CEOs of Fortune
500 corporations on its cover as
“The New Black Power.”
At a time when Stanley O’Neal
of Merrill Lynch, Richard Parsons
of AOL Time Warner and Kenneth
Chenault of American Express are
coming to power in the sort of com-
panies where blacks once could
barely get jobs as janitors, Sharpton
seems about as anachronistic as
bell-bottoms, nylon shirts and mut-
ton-chop sideburns.
But, there’s always a danger
fashions of the ‘70s will return,
isn’t there? Similarly, the danger is
always present that African
Americans, the poor or just the
ordinary, not-very-powerful people
of any race will be wronged.
Such wrongs create causes
around which old-school civil
rights leaders like Sharpton or
Jackson can rally.
But, while they run off to chase
the next headline, somebody has to
stay behind to provide the leader-
ship that brings long-lasting
rewards. That’s the kind of leader-
ship all Americans need in politics
— and in business. It’s too bad
Enron didn’t have more of it.
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Chand, Daniel. University Press (Beaumont, Tex.), Vol. 78, No. 26, Ed. 1 Friday, February 1, 2002, newspaper, February 1, 2002; Beaumont, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth500851/m1/3/?q=Lamar+University: accessed June 7, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Lamar University.