The Optimist (Abilene, Tex.), Vol. 75, No. 25, Ed. 1, Friday, November 20, 1987 Page: 2 of 8
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Opinion
I. Wednesday november 18 1987 page 2
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Optimist
Candy Hokombo
editor In chief
KrlstiBuchart
Wednesday edition editor
tulle Flttpatrlck
friday edition editor
Dawn Treat
features Wednesday editor
dndyUeper
frlday newt editor
Kerry Cole
copy editor
Jonathan Witt
editorial page editor
Kenneth Py bus
sports editor
Lance Fleming
assistant sports editor
Lynda Turner
R reduction staff
lary Wiley
technical director
Paul Haynes
graphics
The Optimist b published semi Weekly except during the summer Vacations and final examinations
by the lourrjalism and Mass Communication Department at Abilene Christian University Abilene Texas
79699. The Optimist is affiliated with the Associated Collegiate Press the Texas Interscholastlc League
Press Association the Southwest Journalism Congress the Associated Press and the Rocky Mountain
Collegiate Press Association.
Editorial opinions appearing In the Optimist are views of the editorial board and do not necessarily
reflect the official policy of the ACU administration.
Signed columns represent the views of the authors
editorials
What can
The administration apparently
doesn't want the student body to
know about the recommendations of
a committee set up to review ACU's
dress code.
The Optimist has tried for several
1 weeks to determine what changes if
any the committee suggested to Dr.
William J. Teaguc president of the
university and what Tcague's
response was to its suggestions but
we have come up empty-handed.
The administration has declined to
discuss the suggestions. Dr. Gary D.
McCaleb vice president and dean of
campus life gave several reasons for
withholding the information.
He said rumors will be started if
the information is made public.
Actually rumors would be
squelched. Only when something is
shrouded in mystery do rumors
Memories
NfiV Ofi. Ttinnlrcmirinrr Tatr ttrill Km
Nov. 26 Thanksgiving Day will be
five years to the day since Bart Cooksey
died in a gun accident on what then
was the Friday after Thanksgiving.
That probably means nothing to you
but to me it means everything. The day
stands out in my mind as if it were
yesterday yet that year seems like
another part of another world.
I was a junior in high school and life
for me revolved around church.
I taught Bible Hour each Sunday
evening supervised by my parents and
assisted a great deal by the other high
school students of the church. I design-
ed skits supervised the puppets and
taught the stories while the others
acted out the skits became the puppets
and reinforced the stories.
Because Bible Hour ws such an im-
portant part of what I did my sister
Tammy and Bart were incredibly im-
portant to me.
Bart's family had moved to our town
during my freshman year and im-
mediately he became almost a brother
to Tammy and me. We spent the next
two years arguing laughing and dream-
ing. Tammy and Bart did whatever I
asked of them and I asked some very
bizaric things Tammy was kind of the
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Cade White
photo editor
lohn Paul Brownlow
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assistant photographer
Thomas Graham
:
senior staff writer
lames BiOlngsley
ad production
Bryan Haddock
adproduction
Dr. Charlie Mar !er
adviser
M
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1.
we wear?
thrive. If the committee's recom-
mendations were brought into -the
light facts would replace rumors.
McCaleb said students already are
represented on the committee.
But the students are on the com-
mittee to represent the student body.
If the student committee members
are to represent their constituents
they must know what their constitu-
ents think.
And if the student body is to be
involved in developing a new dress
code then the student body must be
told the dress code recommenda-
tions. By establishing an open forum
through publication of the commit-
tee's recommendations in the stu-
dent newspaper students can react
to the recommendations and give
their views to their representatives.
of friend bring Thanksgiving blessings
urinrl Unnli tS T . U. .. a 1 -. t trn
wind beneath my wings. I was the one
in tne limelight the teacher and cre-
ator but Tammy was the one who
really kept things together.
Bart was my main man. As Moses he
led two or three other people through a
make-believe wilderness and finally re-
ceived replicas of the Ten Command-
ments. x
As Abraham he put a life-size doll
under one arm and a large stack of
wood under the other arm and in a
robe climbed a mountain I had built
out of tables and chairs.
I'll never forget when the mountain
collapsed in rehearsal and Bart fell to
the floor doll wood and all. He got
right back up and climbed the shaky
mountain again.
Bart also was my Superman. The
15-year-old would put on a shirt and
cape and became Super Christian
fighting crime and Satan about every
other Sunday. The kids loved him.
The fateful Thanksgiving began as
usual: family football and lots of food.
But the day after was anything but
usual.
The day began rather lazily. Tammy
and I read books as we ate a lunch of
leftovers my parents were at work and
my littlest sister had fallen asleep on
Good news fights pessimism
Tornadoes swept across more than
200 miles of Central and East Texas on
Sunday damaging scores of homes and
buildings . . leaving nine people dead
and at least 1 32 injured. '
- A Continental Airlines jet with 8 1
people aboard flipped on its back while
taking ofFfrom Denver's airport in a
snowstorm . . . killing at least 21 and
injuring 56 more.
A man whose attempted murder trial
was originally canceled because his at-
torney committed suicide was retried
this-week.
Residents of a quiet Panhandle town
boarded up windows that were blown
out Saturday when an explosion rocked
a chemical plant six miles away killing
three people.
Two Burleson men were killed when
their car went out of control 14 miles
south of Abilene.
Each of these paragraphs was a lead
to a news story in Monday's edition of
the Abilene .Reporter-News.
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other views
Quit criticizing
start imitating
Confused and lacking initiative the
Reagan White House is making too
much of Speaker Jim Wright's in-
volvement in the Central American
peace process.
Wright has not interfered. The
administration should be doing what
Wright is doing but it isn't.
One day last week he met with
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega
and Cardinal Miguel Obando y
Bravo who has offered to act as an
intermediary between the Sandinistc
regime and the Contras with Sec-
retary of State George Shultz and
candyland
candy holcombe
the couch.
The house was silent and when the
phone rang I got up to answer it.
My grandfather's voice came from
the other end; he was looking for my fa-
ther something about running elec-
trical lines in some house he was build-
ing. I told him my father was at work.
"Did you hear about Bart?" he said
just before I hung up.
"What about Bart?" I asked.
"I heard he had been killed" he said.
I told him I had heard nothing of the
sort said goodbye and hung up.
I stood a minute with my hand on the
phone thinking. I went back to my
sister and said "1 hat's weird"
"What?" she asked.
"Grandpa said Bart had been killed"
I said. We looked at each other and
then dismissed the whole thing
"Grandpa must have heard some
rumor" I told her. "Or maybe Bart
was driving his Dad's truck again and
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lullefitzpatrick
And these stories each of which tells
of devastation and turmoil support the
saying "No news is good news."
The news media have overwhelmed
our world. Sixty percent of the popula-
tion reads the newspaper every day.
Three fourths of the 80 percent of the
population that watches television every
day watches at least one news program.
From the news perspective as il-
lustrated in the above leads the world
is by no means pretty.
What chance do people have to
cultivate an optimistic mindset that will
enhance their quality of life and give
them security when the front page of
every paper and the first few minutes of
every news broadcast tell only of life's
- . a - .
then with Contra leaders.
Wright has helped to bring Ortega
arid Obando together to get the
negotiation process started.
If the Reagan administration was
more willing to help that process
along it would not find itself jeal-
ously criticizing those who arc mak-
ing a good-faith effort to do so.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Reagan say no
to bureaucracy
Excuse us but didn't a presidential
candidate by the name of Ronald
Reagan promise in 1980 to trim the
federal bureaucracy? Didn't he
pledge to eliminate the recently
hurt himself."
I was remembering a time a month
earlier when I had given Bart and his
bike a ride home only to have a
blowout a mile from his house. He end-
ed up giving me a ride home even
though he was younger than I and did
not yet have his license.
We went back to reading dismissing
the whole thing.
Less than 30 minutes later the phone
rang again. My mother was on the line
and she was crying.
My heart sank because I knew what
was coming what I had just refused
to even listen to from grandfather.
Bart had asked his parents if he could
remain at home while they and his little
brother went out of town to visit rela-
tives for Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving night Bart and a friend
had slept on the floor of the living
room and Bart had put a handgun
under his pillow for protection.
When they woke up Friday about 8
a.m. Bart was doing something with
the gun cleaning it or playing with it
or unloading it or something and it
went off shooting him in the side of
the head
He died before he arrived at the hospital
tragedies and despairs?
But there is an alternate news source
one that gives the truly good news.
The news is simply this: Jesus Christ
gave up his life so we could live eternal-
ly. This news story gives hope and op-
timism. It makes tragedies bearable and
gives life a purpose.
The story makes the world a better
place because it emphasizes the pure
and the clean.
It docs not deny the trials and tribula-
tions humans are forced to bear.
But it gives an outlet to frustration
and a realization that this life is but a
moment in time and somebody died to
provide us a safe eternity.
Wouldn't it be great if 80 percent of
the American people were told this
story?
Obviously the majority of the news-
fiapcrs and television stations aren't go-
ng to.
So who is?
created departments of education and
energy and hold the line on future
bureaucratic growth?
We're pretty sure that he did but
now comes news that the president
supports a plan to upgrade the Veter-
ans Administration to a cabinet-level
department. We're puzzled by the
contradiction between candidate
Reagan's words and Reagan's actions
but we're even more puzzled as to
how all this fits in with the suddenly
popular talk of reducing the deficit.
We have nothing but admiration
and respect for this nation's veterans;
without them this country would not
exist. But somewhere somehow
some public officials are going to
have to start saying "no" to these
kinds of proposals.
Port Arthur News
I can't remember a loneer dnv thnn
that Friday and in fact the entire
weekend. A host of thoughts went
through my head during that time.
I was very angry at Bart for doing
something so stupid and going off leav-
ing us and ruining all my plans. I
couldn't understand why God would let
it happen and I was angry at everyone
in the world who called during that
time to find out what had happened.
I kept asking the usual "why" ques-
tions and I wondered how in the world
anyone could be thankful under such
circumstances.
The answers to the questions never
came but the anger eventually
diminished and eventually I began to
see how one could be thankful.
AH it took was a little remembering.
How could anyone not be thankful for
the opportunity to have a good friend
and a lot fun even if it only lasted a
short time? All I had to do was think
back over the past two years.
God didn't put us on earth to see
how long we would live but to see what
we would do with the time he gave us.
Bart wasn't given much time but he
made good use of it.
He was one of the best blessings God
ever gave me.
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The Optimist (Abilene, Tex.), Vol. 75, No. 25, Ed. 1, Friday, November 20, 1987, newspaper, November 20, 1987; Abilene, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101426/m1/2/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Abilene Christian University Library.