University Press (Beaumont, Tex.), Vol. 76, No. 19, Ed. 1 Friday, November 5, 1999 Page: 3 of 6
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(IIEditorial
University Press • Friday, November 5,1999 • Page 3
University Press
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. Opinions are not nec-
essarily those of the university administration.
Editorial
Take a stand!
The contribution you make
could be your own
The era of free expression that we live in encourages
everyone to take a stand — voice his opinion.
With so many issues facing us today, we are forced to
choose a side.
Let’s see. We have the pro-lifers, a growing number of
political factions, all kinds of religious beliefs, racial equal-
ity groups, peace groups, animal rights groups — the list
could go on forever.
The point is this — choose a side and support it. Don’t
;be afraid to stand behind what you believe. We should all
have some issue or issues that we are feel ardently about.
We shouldn’t be so myopic that we ignore the issues
going on around us and be so oblivious that we have no
opinion on anything. We should study the issues, and
; then decide where we stand on these issues. We should
"not be afraid of being criticized for our stance. Everyone
who has ever accomplished something worth accom-
plishing has been criticized at one time or another for
what he believes.
And, too, we should be so convinced of our stance
that we don’t vacillate from one side to the other until we
have no creditability with those who know us or, for that
matter, with ourselves.
Take the plunge. Say what you really feel. And mean
it. Don’t be pressured into anything.
For example, know all the issues before you vote. Fmd
out where money is really going before you donate to
that organization that contacts you for a donation.
Educate yourself.
“I have no opinion” makes us look like a person who
hasn’t had a thought in about 20 years. It is not becoming.
#It is like getting to age 40 and not having a wrinkle in your
brow to prove that you have been a reactor — not some
kind of thoughtless vegetable.
There are so many wonderful causes to fight for these
days, so many ways to be involved. It is through involve-
ment that we discover our own individuality and find a
way to contribute to this world.
University Press
©1999 University Press
News
Editor.....................................................Shontta Stevens
Managing Editor..................................Christina Miner
Copy Editor..................................................Raj Kanuri
Staff Writers...........................................Sylvia Streeter,
Lori Gayle Lovelace, Jennifer Ravey,
Ashley Salter, Josh Cobb, Natasha Dailey,
David Ball, Daisy Hargraves, Jason Rahmani,
Kuntal Kotnis, Rajesh Subramaniam
Graphics...............................................Hruday Kamble
Photography
Photo Editor........................................Henrik Sands jo
Photographers......................................Rachel McCain,
Mukund Yallambalse, Robert Alvarado
Advertising
Assistants...................................................Amber Willis
Director..............................................'..Howard Perkins
Assistant Director................................Andy Coughlan
Advertising Manager..............................Linda Barrett
Letters to the editor
policy
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, phone num-
ber and social security number must accompany each
'letter: Letters received without this information cannot
be printed. Letters may be edited for length, grammar,
style and possible libel. Opinions expressed in letters are
not necessarily those of the UP student management.
Letters by the same writer on the same subject will not be
published. Poetry, reprints, anonymous letters and reli-
gious debates will not be published.
m YOU QUOUIPN’T m CA/ARIAN ECjCfc FPCM R&U10N M0PR6.
WA"//#//////.
Raising a moral child: School or home responsibility
Schools across the United States are
pushing to teach character and virtue in the
classroom more and more since the school
shootings that have taken place over the last
year and a half.
Since the Columbine tragedy, teachers
and students have begun discussing bringing
morals back into the school curriculum.
This is a great idea in theory, but students
learn best when taught the lessons and they
are reinforced at home and school.
Educators and psychologists, who have
addressed this issue, say parents need first of
all to be aware of the mixed messages about
morality that children may be exposed to on a
daily basis from the media, their peers and
other family members.
If parents want their children to become
responsible, caring, honest citizens, experts
say, they need to limit the negative messages
and do whatever they can to transmit positive
messages to counter them.
Parents and guardians can do this by
demonstrating sound choices to help children
understand morality, rather than lecturing
them.
The experts advise parents to praise chil-
dren regularly but without fanfare for any
good moral decision, no matter how small.
They should use daily, ethical dilemmas as a
teaching tool, show and require respect for all
members of the family, and emphasize that
values such as honesty are more important
than success.
Quick summation?
Parents should practice what they preach.
It doesn’t do any good to lecture children on
wrongs when they see parents committing the
same acts. If parents confuse the issues, chil-
dren will be just as confused.
Recent news reports show that the par-
ents of Dylan Klebold, “troubled” teen who
aided in the Columbine shooting, have filed
notice of their intention to sue Sheriff John
Stone.
They say he supposedly knew that
Klebold’s friend, Eric Harris, was a disturbed
kid, yet didn’t inform them. If he had, the par-
ents say, they would have forbade their son to
associate with Harris. Maybe the whole
tragedy could have been prevented.
The Klebolds seem to hold the sheriff
personally responsible for what happened,
but law enforcement officers say it’s the par-
ents’ job to know these things.
So, who is responsible? Who’s fault is it
when a child becomes “disturbed or con-
fused”? Who should have been making sure
he received moral or ethical guidelines by
which to live?
In truth, everyone is responsible for
teaching morals and providing others around
them with information if they see a problem
with a child.
It’s hard to accept the fact that a child
could commit these types of horrible acts, but
there is a lesson to be learned.
The truth is, people can’t spend their time
pointing fingers, waiting for someone else to
take responsibility for teaching morals.
Ethics, morals, basic rules of human
decency. Whatever you choose to call them,
they should be taught at home and continual-
ly reinforced there as well as in school and
work environments.
It is everyone’s responsibility to strive for
the best interests of students and teach moral
values.
Payton may add ‘sweetness’ to organ donating
WASHINGTON — In the end, doctors
say, a liver transplant would not have saved
former football star Walter Payton.
Nevertheless, the impact of his announce-
ment months earlier that he was seeking a
liver transplant has had a positive effect.
It put a familiar and beloved face on a
continuing crisis, the shortage of available
organs for those who need transplants.
More than 66,000 patients are waiting for
a donor organ, experts say. About 5,500 organ
donations were made last year, but 4,300 peo-
ple died while waiting for a transplant.
It was heartbreaking to watch Payton
admit that he was “scared” and see him burst
into tears while announcing to the world that
he had been put on the waiting list for a liver
transplant.
It was particularly heartbreaking for
those of us who cheered Payton’s glory days
as one of the greatest running backs in foot-
ball history, especially in 1986 when he helped
take the Chicago Bears to their only Super
Bowl championship.
Remembering the heartbreak in my own
family when my mother died of kidney fail-
ure, I silently hoped and prayed that Payton’s
family would not have to go through that. I
am certain that I was not the only onlooker
who hoped for a Hollywood miracle, the last-
minute appearance of a liver from some
thoughtful donor who would save the day.
It was not to be. Payton died Monday
without a transplant. He had been taken off
the waiting list when the doctors discovered
his condition had worsened into liver cancer.
In that condition, experts say, the anti-rejec-
tion drugs needed to help him keep the new
liver would have lowered his immune system
and hastened the spread of the cancer.
Nevertheless, Jack Lynch, who heads
community relations for the Regional Organ
Bank of Illinois, tells me that another miracle
of sorts may have occurred: Organ donations
took a sharp upturn after Payton’s press con-
ference.
“Up until that point, organ donations had
dipped very low,” Lynch said. “Since that
time, our rates in Illinois are in a banner year
and nationally we are up about 5 percent. I
attribute that Walter.”
The organ donation gap is particularly
acute for those who are, like Payton, Lynch
and me, of African descent.
In a sad paradox, black Americans
require organ transplants at a much higher
rate than white Americans do, yet have a
much lower participation rate in donation
programs.
African-Americans need 30 percent to 35
percent of the organs donated, according to
transplant experts. Yet we comprise only 14
percent of donors, compared to white
Americans, who make up close to 76 percent
of donors.
As a result, most black recipients receive
organs from someone of another race, which
does not help the odds of acceptance by the
new host body.
African-Americans give a number of rea-
sons for our lower participation rate. Some
cite religion. More of us are simply paranoid.
Many of us just want to leave the world with
everything we came in with.
Since the notorious Tuskegee experi-
ments, in which a federal program used black
men as guinea pigs in a syphilis study earlier
this century, many blacks are suspicious of
any unusual medical procedures.
Now a new batch of surveys shows the
leading factor in determining whether you
will consent to donate your own organs or
those of a loved one may be how you feel
about the way you have been treated by the
health-care system.
African-Americans, for a variety of his-
torical reasons, have more complaints about
how doctors, nurses or hospitals have treated
them. If they think they have been treated
badly, refusal to donate may be their way of
striking back at the system, especially if they
think doctors or nurses are being nice just to
get their organs.
Attitudes count, according to a new
national survey unveiled in an organ-donor
research conference in Cleveland earlier this
week.
Nurses were found to be more successful
than doctors in persuading families to donate,
for example, perhaps because nurses tend to
be less rushed and more empathetic at this
highly sensitive moment.
Shortly after his news conference, Payton
met privately with Lynch and others at the
Illinois organ bank. Payton wanted to know
about his chances for survival, Lynch recalls,
but “he was more concerned about whether
his coming out would have a positive effect on
the donation process.”
Maybe it already has.
Just as baseball star Mickey Mantle
brought badly needed attention to transplants
and the ethics associated with them, I hope
Payton’s ordeal will help minorities, in partic-
ular, to make informed and rational choices.
If so, it could be the sweetest gift that
“Sweetness” has left behind.
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Stevens, Shontta. University Press (Beaumont, Tex.), Vol. 76, No. 19, Ed. 1 Friday, November 5, 1999, newspaper, November 5, 1999; Beaumont, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth500862/m1/3/?q=Lamar+University: accessed June 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Lamar University.