The Optimist (Abilene, Tex.), Vol. 72, No. 13, Ed. 1, Friday, October 5, 1984 Page: 2 of 22
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Optimistfriday oct. 5 1 984
A-2-
Opinion
Optimist
Wk ebdene Chretien uiwenty
Key Payton editor In-chief
Kathle Henry friday news editor
Max Mawhlrter-friday features editor
Julia DlHard friday features assistant
Ken Smalllng sports editor
Gary Patterson asst. sports editor
Byron Ellis friday chief photographer
Allsha Goldman friday copy editor
Cindy Patterson-friday design editor
Kevin Wegner stat services director
Rob Faublon ad sales manager
David Deeb ad production manager
Carmen Scarbrough ad creative director
Dena Edwards asst. creative director
Bill England ad director
Dr. Charlie Marier adviser
The Optitnist t0O3O-O6l tl published tvnce wwUjf except dunne
aim cm end teul emv by the lounutam end Mm
Commumcuion Dnwon d bjene Chnstwm University Abilene TeMS
7WK 5nd eddirn chenjel 10 the Optima AOI Stetlon. & l3
AMene Ii.?6
rdrtonel opeuons eppemnf. w the Oplmist e the views d the sufl
end do not necessenly reflect the ofhcul poky o( the AOI odmtnMtalioti
Snpwd columns represent the individuel nnrt of the Authors
TV Opt mm n eMwird with the Associued CoflegMte Pirn the Tews
InterconrtAJte Press Assoneten the Southwestern lounMBsm Conjresl.
thev Aswwted Press end the Rocky Mountain CoOeeiete Press
Aswutron
Corrections
. We regret these errors that ap-
peared in the Oct. 2 issue of the
Optimist:
i Several points in the story about
housekeeping services were in-
correctly attributed to L.D. "Bill"
(Hilton vice president for finance.
4 The actual final score of the ACU-
.Stephen F. Austin football game
Iwas 37-21 not 31-21 as reported.
Letters Policy
Letters to the editor of not more
than 300 woMs will be given prefer-
ence. For verification purposes the
jyriter must include his or her
rjame address and phone number.
All letters should be mailed to
Box 8203 ACU Station or be hand-
'delivered to the Optimist oice no
later than noon Wednesday for the
(Friday issue or 5 p.m. Sunday for
ffie Tuesday issue. '" '
.Staff resignation
To the editor:
Public disclosure.
i -It sounds ominous. It is ominous.
J It means doing exactly what I'm
doing now. Telling the truth the
whole truth and nothing but the
-truth so help me God and sticking
around to face the backlash.
I did the one thing a writer never
ever should do. I plagiarized. I stole
'another writer's words. "Steal" is
the proper word here because I
'took credit for another person's
vork. It's something not only
unethical and something I should
tbe concerned with as a journalist
land a professional but it's also un-
'.Christian a thing that affects my
relationship with God.
I could offer a lot of excuses for
my actions but in the end they
would be just that excuses. I let
my ego about not putting my name
on something sub-standard take
.precedence over my ethicality. I
want to take full responsibility for
.my actions. They're not something
I'm proud of. I'm still kicking
' myself for what I did and I'm
'paying for it- in more ways than
i anyone ever will know.
I'm not saying this for sym-
Jipathy's sake. Right now all I really
iwant to do is run away and leave
; Abilene far behind. But I don't think
.. 1 that's what God would want me to
'J do.
c So I'm telling the truth and hoping
: that my mistake will serve as a
'lesson to other Christians. It's very
"easy to make mistakes. What isn't
.easy is learning from them and
'letting yourself grow because of
t? them.
i ' My mistake was a public one so
fmy apology for and recovery from
.it must be public also.
put this public mistake is in-
dicative of deeper private
o. problems and I know other people
must be dealing with these same
kinds of problems. I want to plead
with you please.please don't make
the mistake of taking an "easy out"
from your problems. Pray about
them think hard about them and
then act. Dont make a stupid
mistake like I did because of
pressure.
My "easy out" cost me my job
wj msE90F(mEmniiis is just a
pwffliwm miH6 immm mllee
AFFORDED ( LAIaMER YORTHE TRIAL...
Letters to the Editor
and seriously damaged my
reputation my Christian influence
and possibly my future career. Not
very "easy" was it? Remember
this when you're dealing with your
own problems.
I spent too much time building a
good reputation with the Optimist to
ruin it this way. I negated more
than two years of honestly-gotten
news stories and columns with two
ill-gotten columns and I'm sorrier
than you ever can imagine.
Please remember me in your
prayers in the coming days and
months. And I meant what I said
about not wanting sympathy. But
please don't forget to show me some
compassion. As the poster says
"Please be patient with me God
isn't finished yet."
Sincerely
Melody Townsel
Jesus' simplicity
To the editor:
After thinking seriously about the
subject we have decided to risk
calling Jeff Peterson an egghead
(or should we say "nerd"?) by
briefly criticizing his rather lengthy
column of Oct. 2. To begin we
kindly present the following :
"And Jesus said 'Who do you say
that I am?' And they said 'You are
the eschatalogical manifestation of
the ground of our being the
kerygma of all our interpersonal
relationships.' And Jesus said:
'What!?' r
Jesus didn't come to us speaking
in the code language of a third-year
seminarian or a professor with a
Ph.D. in theology. Nor did he come
to "lord it over" those less educated
than he.
Instead he revealed God's truth in
seemingly simple stories about a
boy who left home only to waste
everything he had; a woman
searching for her lost coin; and a
farmer planting a field.
He spoke in such a way that while
he confused those wise in their own
sight he taught the simple in a way
they could understand. The point is
that Jesus didn't go out of his way to
make things hard for us to un-
derstand and obey. Why should we?
(By the way Jeff a porpoise is a
dolphin.)
Don Carter junior
Birmingham Ala.
Charles Phipps freshman
Des Moines Iowa
Women's intramurals
To the editor:
In my time associated with the
university as both student and
employee I have yet to see even a
pretense of Optimist coverage of
women's intramurals. Oh the
results of the finals may be printed
in a small box in the corner with a
few names misspelled and the stats
if any are given incorrect but
nothing approaching the lengthy
coverage given to men's in-
tramurals. And true an occasional
photo appears usually highly
uncomplimentary to the girl(s)
involved with a cryptic basically
incoherent and inconclusive cap-
tion and no accompanying article.
No wonder freshwomen get fat.
They're probably unaware that
there is an athletic alternative for
women beyond intercollegiate
sports and watching men's in-
tramurals. And the Optimist cer-
tainly isn't too worried about
enlightening anyone.
I fully intend to continue to
support and participate in in-
tramurals but I hope to be able to
read about them as well.
Bitsy Roberts '84
Admissions Counselor
Two-party voting
To the editor:
Across the ACU campus and
indeed everywhere I go I see
people campaigning for and talking
about the upcoming election. The
one thing they seem to have in
common is that they all belong to a
political party. Even in the Op-
timist I read statements such as
"God is a Republican" and "A
Christian can still be a Democrat."
However the only intelligent voters
are those who are neither
Republican nor Democrat.
Although many people would tar
and feather me for my blasphemy I
strongly believe that our sacred
two-party system should be
abolished. It does nothing but
provide money for those candidates
smart enough to join up. Almost all
elected officials follow their party
platforms only partially and some
ignore them almost entirely.
One reason for this is that all
politicians are human beings not
computers and cannot conform
exactly to any platform written by
compromise. Besides no issue can
be neatly separated into only two
viewpoints so two parties cannot
represent the full scope of any
issue. Another reason is that many
candidates join a party just to get
elected. Those party funds can look
quite attractive to a candidate.
"Conservative" and "liberal" are
labels the news media love but
nobody quite knows what they
mean. They are obvioulsly not
substitute names for "Republican"
and "Democrat" because TV
people always talk about "Con-
servative Democrats." Some say
conservatives are resistant to
change while liberals are
progressive. But President Reagan
whom the press calls conservative
has proposed and adopted more
changes in government and its
structure than any President since
F.D.R. while Walter Mondale
wants to keep taxes and welfare
exactly as they are now. going up
every day. Several other ideas
exist such as "big government" vs.
" limited government" rich vs.
poor and military might vs. social
programs but none fit the views of
all candidates who are supposedly
conservative or liberal. As tar as I
can tell nobody knows what these
terms mean in politics but we are
all very quick to hang these labels
on people.
I urge all ACU students to be
intelligent voters. Consider all the
candidates carefully and vote ac-
cording to their opinions not their
party. Personally I plan to vote for
several Democrats and several
Republicans this Election Day. A
straight party-line vote can mean
voting for two opposite viewpoints
at the same time. Voting all
Keynotes
key payton
JmE
The editor-in-chief's job is sup
posed to include difficult situations
but this week it has included an
especially difficult one.
Melody Townsel Tuesday newsP
editor confessed Tuesday to
plagiarizing materials word for
word from columns in the Dallas
MornlngNews (seepage A-l).
When she submitted her
resignation we immediately ac-
cepted it because what she had done
was of such a grievous nature. But
we did not accept it eagerly. Melody
will be missed for her technical
competence for her quick wit and
for her ideas for improving the
Optimist. A
But she had to resign and wew
had to accept her resignation
because she violated a cardinal
ethic of Christianity and of jour-
nalism and brought the Optimist's
credibility into question.
None of us claims to be perfectly
accurate or perfectly original in all
that we write; we know unintention-
al errors in perception or judgment
do crop up in our stories and that
our opinion ideas are built upon the
ideas of others.
But Melody's error was in-k
tentional a blatant theft oiw
another person's finished product.
' We do not want to cast a label on
Melody for life. We have forgiven
her and we intend to treat her
.warmly and with godly en-
couragement in her endeavors.
We want you to be able to believe
in the Optimist's credibility; we
want you to keep working with our
staff. We assure you we try to
report facts correctly and try to
ensure that our opinion columns are
the staff's original works. 4fe
Be assured that intentionalw
deception in the Optimist is con-
sidered deplorable and is rooted out
as much as is within our power. Our
desire is to be a newspaper you can
trust.
Democratic or all Republican is the
most foolish vote one can make.
Sincerely
Mark Mullins
ACU Box 6847
School rules
To the editor: A
I would like the opportunity to
reply to the Sept. 28 letter by Jack
Welch.
First I would like to point out that
absolute freedom is a possibility. If
we wanted to we could do away with
all the laws in the United States
and likewise we could do away with
all the rules at ACU. The question is
whether or not this is a good idea.
Secondly I agree that in a free
society one can choose to be a part
of an organization and submit to tht
regulations of that organizatiortH
therefore becoming a volunteer
slave. ACU could be such an
organization except for one
problem. It professes Christianity
and Christianity is not a union a
society or just another religion. It
is a way of life. It is not a certain
atmosphere or appearance it is a
commitment to serve God.
I submit that we should have
secular laws in the United States
that limit our absolute freedom.
However we need to do away witlw
the rules on this campus which lima
our religious freedom because
these rules encourage us to look to
men for spiritual guidance instead
of God.
Who is the spiritual authority on
Earth? See Matthew 28:18. When
deciding how to behave should we
obey God or men? See Acts 4:19. Is
it acceptable for one Christian to
control another person's life? See
Matthew 7:3. Also read Colossians
2:8-23.
One cannot serve two masters. A
Christian cannot obey God and thS
doctrines of men. He must choose
one or the other. "It is for freedom
Christ has set us free. Stand firm
then and do not let yourselves be
burdened again by a yoke of
slavery" (Galatians5:l).
Sincerely
Christopher C. Nystrom
San Diego Calif.
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The Optimist (Abilene, Tex.), Vol. 72, No. 13, Ed. 1, Friday, October 5, 1984, newspaper, October 5, 1984; Abilene, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101409/m1/2/: accessed May 6, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Abilene Christian University Library.