The Current Online

Substation under construction near Longview Lake, College

by ZAHID AWAN

By June 2002, Utilicorp United will be able to fulfill the energy demand of 14,000 new residents of Lee’s Summit and Kansas City. The construction of a new electric power substation (EPS) has already started in the Longview Lake area.
The Kansas City-based international energy merchant is investing $5.4 million in the project in Lee’s Summit. Utilicorp has total assets of approximately $12 billion and annual sales of $40.4 billion worldwide. It also operates in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. It’s subsidiary, Aquila, is one of the largest wholesalers of electricity and natural gas in North America.
The size of the substation is approximately 300 by 360 feet enclosed in a metal net fence topped with barbed wire. According to Tim Parker of the Lee’s Summit City Development Department, four different electric power lines will join to the substation.
An EPS works just like a big AC adapter. It collects high voltage electricity from a power line and converts it to low domestic voltage. This procedure reduces energy losses due to wire resistance. High voltage electricity is efficiently transportable but cannot be used in our houses. Low 110V electricity cannot travel for long distances without huge dispersions.
A typical EPS is just a concrete platform with huge glass poles and big noisy transformers. Now, a concrete platform with noisy transformers is under construction near calm and cool Longview Lake. The proposed site for the EPS has been a part of the protected Longview Lake zoning area, which is a separate zone classification from the surrounding area. It was created to protect the lake and the wildlife that populates the wetland around the lake. The zone is suppose to ensure that this major public facility would continue providing recreational, landscape and hydro-geological services to the community.
On August 15, 2001, the Planning, Zoning and Economic Development Committee of the Kansas City, Missouri City Council approved the change of land use. Pat O’Malley of Utilicorp told the committee he had meetings with both the councilman from the sixth district and various neighborhood groups and had received no objections.
Bruce Reed of Missouri Public Services said, “each EPS should serve an area with a radius of two miles.” That means in areas with dense population and high consumption of energy, there should be at least one ESP every four miles.

Effort to improve America’s image with disinformation proves detrimental

by ZAHID AWAN

The Pentagon is planning to launch a new media war targeted at both allied and hostile countries. To change the opinion of the war on terrorism around the world, Pentagon officials have proposed a plan to place both true and false news stories in the world media.
The Office of Strategic Influence (OSI), created after the September 11 terrorist attacks, was proposing to expand the information warfare mission against antagonistic and friendly nations in the Middle East, Asia and Western Europe.
The Pentagon had hired the Rendon Group for $100,000 per month to assist OSI in the propaganda war and covert operations. Head of this firm is John W. Redon, Jr., who was a campaign aid to former President Jimmy Carter and worked closely with the CIA, the Kuwaiti royal family and the opposition groups that were trying to eject President Saddam Hussain.
Donald H. Rumsfeld, secretary of defense, strongly supported OSI and referred its proposals to the Pentagon’s lawyer, William J. Haynes for review.
The New York Times broke this story and led the worldwide media bombardment of editorials full of criticism of OSI’s proposals. As a result, the Pentagon announced that the OSI is shutting down. Rumsfeld blamed media for making agency’s functions impracticable.
“While much of the thrust of the criticism and the cartoons and comment has been off the mark, the office has been damaged so much that it could not operate effectively,” he said. He assured that the Pentagon has not engaged in spreading lies and would never do so. President Bush also reiterated, “We’ll tell the American people the truth.”
Rumsfeld contradicted his own statement when he said that the Pentagon would continue its efforts to deliver its word to abroad, without using OSI. The Pentagon closed the new office but not its operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Asia, Africa, Europe and Middle East. He also mentioned that the Pentagon might be continuing its strategic or tactical deception, which help to deceive enemy strategies during war as it has been done in past. Strategic or tactical deception means to divert enemy’s defensive schemes by planting false news reports in foreign media about U.S. troops’ maneuverings.
The United States of America is the primary leader of the world community. Helpless people around the world look to America for help and guidance in peace efforts. If America compromises its credibility by spreading clouds of doubts and disinformation, then where will the world community put its trust?

Nobody will be able to see the difference between truth and lies. In short, everything said by Washington would be looked at with doubt, making it almost impossible for governments and officials to formulate their responses.
Worldwide journalists are questioning the ethical and moral standards of a country that would deliberately promote skepticism rather then establishing trust and goodwill.
We are a nation that pledges to be “… one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.” To intentionally mislead and lie to our own people and the world is sacrilege to that pledge.
We should not let the rest of the world question our credibility, morality, ethics and standards. I couldn’t understand President Bush’s pledge, “we’ll tell the American people the truth.” Will we tell the rest of the world lies? If we tell our own people the truth, then how is it possible to hide it from others, especially when the world is like a small town? Bush should extend his pledge by saying that the government will always tell the truth to Americans and every nation in the world. If our government will keep hiding the truth like the Enron administration did, the result will not be any different.
Planting false stories in local or world media should be considered a criminal act and those who commit such crimes should be taken to task under criminal law.

Mel Aytes has been named recipient of the Glynn E. Clark Distinguished Service Award 2001 by the Missouri Community Colleges Association. The Missouri House of Representatives also recognized him for his achievements upon his recent retirement. Aytes is the only legislative coordinator to ever receive this honor.
Aytes proudly said that the community college system is an American creation. These community colleges have played a vital role in delivering education to the doorsteps of the people and are one of the biggest factors in recent economic advancements in America, he said. Americans have improved their lives, skills and trades by getting education through community colleges. Aytes has always felt proud to be a teacher in the system and a lobbyist in Jefferson City.
MCC states that over the past 32 years, Aytes has been a major influence on community college legislation. Aytes’ lobbying efforts have pushed community college issues to the legislative forefront and have benefited not only MCC, but community colleges statewide. In the late 1980s Aytes was a key in getting legislative support for a job-training bill that brought 25,000 jobs to Missouri. He has also worked to secure customized training funding for all community colleges in the state.
Due in part to Aytes’ efforts, MCC was able to secure over $5 million in state funding and $1.4 million in federal funding for the Western Missouri Public Safety Training Institute. The law enforcement academy opened at Blue River Community College in August 2001.
Aytes’ efforts have also helped MCC secure funding for capital projects at Penn Valley, Longview and Maple Woods Community Colleges as well as the Business and Technology Center.
Rep. Sam Leake, former state representative and current director of the state tax commission, suggested a reason for Aytes’ success. “Mel Aytes is a legislator’s lobbyist. He is always available to provide information and he always has a plan to fund projects, as well as pointing out the economic and educational impact for the state,” he said.
Aytes has worked at MCC for the past 38 years. He began in 1963 as an instructor of political science and later became president of the MCC academic senate. He took on the role of director of governmental relations in 1970 and taught at Longview Community College until 1995, when he retired from classroom teaching.
” I think Mel really believes in the mission of community colleges. He’s not just a hired gun to carry the message. He is an effective force for the community colleges,” said Mark Richardson, state representative from Poplar Bluff.
Aytes and his wife Kathy live in Lee’s Summit and have two children, Jason and Teresa. In addition to his lobbying duties, Aytes serves as the chair of the Lee’s Summit Public Safety Advisory Board and recently chaired the Lee’s Summit Redistricting Committee. Aytes also serves on the Lee’s Summit Senior Center board of directors and is the past chair of the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, Missouri State Affairs Committee.

by ZAHID AWAN

This whole world is a peace-loving family but a few black sheep are preventing us from making peace.
They build walls of doubt, distrust and enmity, dividing humanity into racial, religious and political conflicts. The troublemakers seek power and recognition at the expense of innocent lives around the world. The atrocities they commit are crushing millions of human lives that relate in no way to the killers’ agendas.
Meanwhile, millions of apathetic people are just sitting in their living rooms, watching the news and doing nothing to stop it. They believe that it’s not their business to get involved.
How long will we keep on being the audience? It’s time to wake up and fulfill our responsibilities as citizens of this planet.
We, as students, can contribute to bringing change in this world. The majority of the students around the world have the same dreams. Our cultures are different but our hopes are the same. The taste of the food may be different but after eating, everyone desires peaceful sleep. No one enjoys seeing brothers, sisters, mothers or fathers killed or threatened. No one is born a killer.
We are all human beings, arranged as a giant, colorful bouquet in an enormous vase. We should spread our fragrance of freedom, happiness and joy everywhere. We have to stand up, break down walls and communicate with the rest of world directly. We should not make our judgements about others by only watching electronic media because sometimes media don’t show both sides of the picture.
We have the gift of high technology and via the Internet we can talk, see and communicate with anyone, anywhere in the world. We can share our pain and sorrows and exchange the beauty of our cultures. We have to stop listening to the hatemongers.
We should start a campaign at this college as a family today to make a new friend from a different culture without discrimination of race, religion or ethnicity. When we bond as a college family, we expand our message across the world and hold out hope to bring the lost ones back to the fold. With love and an open heart, we can remove the doubt, distrust and enmity created by the black sheep. If we plant the seeds of peace and love on this planet today, our coming generations will play with joy and happiness under the tree of our creation.