4A
Friday, December 2, 1994
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VIEWPOINT
Competition would help Postal Service improve
Wednesday, the U.S. Postal Rate Commission
endorsed raising the price of first-class stamps from 29 to 32 cents. The rate increase surprised no one and was likely needed to maintain services.
This occasion is an excellent opportunity to present an issue that has fallen on deaf congressional ears. Decreasing quality and services, poor worker morale, ineffective management and rising costs at the post office means the time is right for Congress to allow privatized first-class mail.
By law, the Postal Service is the only organization allowed to deliver first-class mail. In past years, there have been attempts to allow private companies to deliver first-class mail, but Congress has stood firmly behind the government's monopoly. With all the changes on Capitol Hill, this could be an excellent chance to give the post office some competition.
The Postal Service, like any monopoly, is wasteful and inefficient. Anyone who believes that the
PRIVATIZED MAIL Competition would be healthy
Postal Service will lower costs, improve service and reduce on-the-job shooting incidents without any competition is either the ultimate optimist or doesn't understand the inherent flaws of monopolies.
The idea of privatizing mail does not mean eliminating the Postal Service. The idea means that private companies, such as Federal Express or United Parcel Service, would be allowed to deliver mail.
Competition would be healthy for the post office. Federal Express, UPS and others have forced the Postal Service to improve their express and bulk mailing services. The same type of competition would work for first-class mail, with the biggest winner being the customers.
It's possible that firstclass mail isn't profitable enough for the private sector to get involved,but the free market should make that decision and not the government.
RICHARD BOYD FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD.
Male sexual harassment a reality in the workplace
A Boston case in which eight male employees of Jenny Craig said they had been sexually harassed demonstrates a disturbing idea: that both men and women in positions of power have felt that they could take advantage of others and their sexuality.
Saying that a man would either have to have a sex change or a push-up bra to advance is equally as wrong as suggesting that a woman should have sex in order to be eligible for a promotion.
Either way, both the harassed employee and his or her co-workers are affected. Studies have suggested that the level of comfort, as well as the amount and quality of work, drops in the workplace when harassment of any type
MALE HARASSMENT
Each gender at risk
occurs.
But for sexual harassment to end, society must reject the misconception that the victims in some way provoked the incident. Even a previous relationship with the offender does not warrant sexual comments or forced actions.
Male sexual harassment isn't just an interesting twist in novels or movies, and it's doubtful that the Jenny Craig incidents were the first of their kind. Sexual harassment is a scary problem for men and women alike, and the only way to overcome this problem is to realize that business power does not include sexual power.
A former college classmate of mine says she's lost 1000 pounds in her life but still weighs the same. The problem is, she regains every pound she loses.
This woman constantly is embarking upon some new fad — like the rotation diet, the one-meal-a-day diet, or the liquid diet.
Women starve for unhealthy goals
Looking in the mirror fills her with shame and guilt - and drives her to stop eating. It's a desperate, endless cycle, and she never sees anything but imperfection.
This is what I call the tyranny of thinness obsession.
ROBERTA JOHNSON FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD.
Feeling remorse about something as harmless as a late-night pizza break or only nibbling a holiday meal. Cruelly criticizing each imagined flaw in the mirror. Buying clothes a size too small. Never really feeling good about oneself.
The tyranny of thinness obsession is mainly a problem for women, created at least in part by the socialization of girls and women to be beautiful above all else.
I'm not only talking about the 3 to 4 percent of women who develop serious eating disorders but a much larger group: those women who constantly feel guilt and even shame about their appearance to the point of chronic dieting. These are the women who slip through the cracks of studies and surveys. They are the statistically invisible millions living in denial—severely neglecting their health needs while harboring unrealistic expectations of their bodies.
Studies show that about half of American women believe they need to lose weight. Often these feelings develop early – when we're still carrying lunch boxes to school - and continue for a lifetime.
The consequences of continuous dieting can be unhealthy. By neglecting nutritional needs such as calcium and iron, obsessive dieters increase their risk for problems such as osteoporosis and anemia later in life.
Continuous dieting is also associat
ed with dangerous and severe eating disorders.
GUEST COLUMNIST
DONNA E. SHALALA
Anorexia nervosa, a refusal to eat leading to extreme weight loss, can cause yellowing skin, dehydration, excess body hair, gastrointestinal problems, irreversible osteoporosis and even death.
Bulimia, a cycle of binge eating and purging through vomiting, using laxatives, or exercising excessively, can damage teeth and cause stomach lesions or tears in the esophagus. Those who use drugs to induce vomiting or frequent bowel movements can
eventually suffer heart failure or permanent damage to their intestines.
Fortunately, as public awareness increases, more people with bulimia and anorexia nervosa are seeking help from health-care professionals. Research shows that early treatment improves one's chances of recovery, but it is essential to get professional treatment.
The tyranny of thinness obsession is something that all of us can work together to prevent, especially on our college campuses. We have to shift the focus from thinness to health, from the loneliness of helpless binges to the joys of healthful eating, hanging out with friends and doing well on exams.
That means that if you see a friend eating only celery and carrots for the second dinner in a row, ask him or her, "Isn't there another way?" It means that if you are having a problem, seek help for yourself. It means refusing to allow cultural stereotypes about women's bodies to remain unchallenged.
The roots of thinness obsession and
Matt Hood / KANSAN
The reason for the season: spurring economic growth
The Christmas season always brings out one of my favorite Arkansas jokes. Stop me if you've heard this one.
Why wasn't Christ born in Arkansas? They couldn't find three wise men and a virgin. It makes me think of stale cigars and loud old men with a million of them to tell. Free association will cause one to pause.
I've had that joke bobbing around the flotsam in my brain for a few days now, well, since the first jingle bell rock muzak ditty whipped me upside the head.
But I need a new one for the holiday season. Try this out. When did Christmas stop being Christmas and become a secular holiday bigger than even Independence Day? Don't hold your breath for the punch line.
Somewhere deep in America's collective conscience — the same place that nurtured both Thomas Edison and Aaron Spelling—we managed to turn the celebration of the birth of Christ into a material possession ory so colossal that "We Be Toys" can sell, in a frenzied day or two, the equivalent of the Gross National Product of Honduras.
What do people get at Christmas that they don't already get or give any other day of the year? Can you really tell me that the Jones family holds off on the cable-ready VCR for six months until Christmas? No way.
GUEST COLUMNIST
JOHN MARTIN
Christmas comes and so does the new Jones Family semi-automatic CD disc-o-matic with remote.
This isn't about a race, class or other-side-of-the-tracks thing either. I've played hoops in some "Rescue 911" neighborhoods where kids without change for a Coke in their pockets jangled some spankin' new $135 footwear at eye level as they threw down on my head. Air Santa does not come in June.
It must be patriotism. Without all of us spending our fair share this (national) holiday season, we wouldn't be supporting a retail economy that sells a major chunk of goodies every December. There is the jobs! And there is the recession!
So why is the Christmas consumption on such a grand scale?
Holy sinking ship, Batman, grab your Batcard and head to The Gap for
some groovy navy blue tights. I suspect that Santa Claus and Alan Greenspan are one and the same. If Greenspan can pull off a good St. Nick, couldn't a pyrotechnic-less, economic growth policy Independence Day make a decent so-called Christmas?
I know, the whole birth of Christ thing has fallen out of vogue. Sure, it’s a good story with strong plot development, a strong cast of characters and a super birth scene at the end. But it doesn’t hold us quite like two-for-one bras at Victoria’s Secret.
In the end, Christmas is a time to be thankful, for our loved ones, the clothes on our backs and roofs over our heads.
And we can be thankful we have enough money or credit to buy all those gifts.
Whatever you do this Christmas, don't do anything rash or foolhardy such as volunteering some time, visiting a loved one or reflecting back on your last year and its meaning. Doing any of those things would not only waste your valuable shopping time, it would also leave you a pitiful, lost, unpatriotic soul.
Don't do it to yourself.
Don't do it to your country
John Martin is a Lawrence first-year law student.
eating disorders grow in the soil of powerful media messages to women that we must be beautiful above all and that large women are unfeminine. Fortunately, women are learning to reject these false messages and striving instead to be healthy, strong, outspoken and competent.
It's a lot more healthy to play intramural soccer, take long walks or become a Big Sister than to waste time worrying about the scale. Women need to feel powerful because of our minds, our health, our leadership and our ability to be happy.
Being thin and being healthy are not necessarily the same thing. We all must realize this and free ourselves from starvation diets and lonely binges.
Donna E. Shalata is the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Graduate student says math a must
Every single undergraduate student at KU should study mathematics. No matter what his or her major is, mathematics should be a required course on the following premises: 1) mathematics, just as philosophy, is a field dealing with logic and critical thinking, also known as one of the fundamental fields in Liberal Arts; and 2) mathematics is a practical discipline directly related to our daily lives.
History supports the validity of the relationship between mathematics and philosophy. Rene Descartes and Braise Pascal, the legendary French philosopers, were in fact mathematicians. Both disciplines are based on logic and analytical thinking
Especially for college-educated people, the ability for logical and critical thinking is extremely important. Students must understand that mathematics is not about $1+1=2$ or $X+Y=Z=20$ but about the acceptance of a body of knowledge based on logic.
Throughout the centuries, the concept of a college education has been constantly adapted and modified; accordingly, the concept of requirements for college students have changed. It would seem that today's college education emphasizes the practical or functional aspects of the achievement of knowledge. For instance, an English major would not consider taking college algebra as an appropriate enrollment choice. However, that idea is not practical, but retrogressive. Deciphering the unknown cannot be done without learning logic and analytical thinking.
Thus, every single student in higher educational institutions should continue his or her study of mathematics.
■ Iijoo Koh
Graduate student,
Music Therapy
Editors
Associate campus ...Dentse Nell
Associate editorial ...Matt Gowen
Associate sports ...Gerry Fey
Assistant to the editor...Robbie Johnson
News...Sara Bennett
Campus...Mark Martin
Editorial...Donella Heare
Sports...Brian James
Photo...Mellissa Lacey, Daron Bennett
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Karla Nelson    Joe O'Brien
David Stuber    Trevor Wood
Casey Barnes ...Jenni Carlson
Jamie Evans ...Chesley Dohl
Kent Hohfeld ...Matt Irwin
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Nate Olson ..Carlos Tejada
David Wilson
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Classified assistant...Erin Wiggis
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Justin Freesolone ... Martin Ropp
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Dana Calderone ...Kelly Connally
Matt Dorsett ...Carrie Gabbard
Kelly Gregory ...Meredith Henning
Kim Hyman ...Julia Klinock
Lisa Kulszik ...Beth Pols
Dan Reed ...Darin Reid
Tracy Riff ...Matt Shaw
Steven Hewitt
Chria Brenaman...Dean Hovind
Shad Huncker...Aaron Kirby
Chad Girard
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Editor
CHRISTOPH FUHRMANS
Managing editor
TOM EBLEN
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WILLIAM THOMAS
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...Sarena Wallack
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Krista Warmi