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Tuesday, April 11, 1978
University Daily Kansan
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Comment
Unsigned editorial represent the opinion of the Kansas editorial staff. Signed columns represent the views of only the writers.
Free speech violated
The long-lived and emotional Arab-Israeli conflict attracted unusual attention at the University of Kansas last week. A casualty was freedom of speech.
Sparked by a controversial guest lecture by Yitzhak Rabin, former Israeli Prime Minister, the traditional opponents confronted each other in demonstrations with heated shouts, gestures and flag-carrying.
The attack, however was not limited to Mideast political issues. As the conflict came to a peak, the attack turned instead on an ideal basic to Americans—the freedom of expression guaranteed in the First Amendment.
FIRST AMENDMENT provisions were not meant to supersede each other. Likewise, people within the jurisdiction of U.S. laws were not meant to pit one freedom of expression against another.
But just that happened in the urml scene in Hoch Auditorium, where Rabin's speech was interrupted at least 26 times. Arab and Iranian students were well within their bounds of freedom of speech and assembly as they demonstrated against what they call Israeli oppression. They even had the consent of the University with their University Events Committee-approved permit to demonstrate.
Those rights ended, though, when they began to infringe on the rights of the 1,000 people who had come to hear Rabin speak. The number of those in the audience was irrelevant. In the United States, everyone is guaranteed a chance to speak.
Pakistani supporters tried to outshout Rabin, limiting his freedom of speech and the privileges of those in the audience. They clearly went against the intent of the Constitution.
IT IS ironic that Arab and especially Iranian students, who vehemently speak out against repressive regimes in their home countries, resort to copied tactics and stab U.S. principles in the back.
During the Rabin visit, the idealistic marketplace of free ideas was approached. Israelis, even without the preordained permission of the events committee, spontaneously protested the Palestinian taunts. And Americans, sympathizers and noncommitted observers all freely joined in. In America, First Amendment rights know no racial, religious, sexual or national lines.
It is regrettable, however, that such a show of misplaced or misunderstood American values prohibited Rabin from delivering his speech undisturbed.
Granted, no opposing side was built into the main program. But it is assumed that people can hear and decide for themselves; they have that right. There also was a question-and-answer period after the speech that conceivably could have aired opposing views, had there not been so much time-consuming commotion on the floor.
FOR THOSE who visibly disturbed the speech, Chancellor Archie R. Dykes has proposed "disciplinary procedures." Because of the Buckley Amendment, which restricts outside access to information on students, the exact terms of punishment probably will never be known. It could range from a verbal handslap to probation.
Anyone in Dykes' shoes probably would have made a similar decision. As minds wandered back to the deeply disturbing demonstrations of the late '60s and early '70s, the University's image again was on the line. Undoubtedly, Dykes was hit with pressure to rectify the wrongs. Avoiding any action would have been cowardly.
But such after the fact, less than through reprisals reflect coundardice in acting effectively as the event occurred. Campus police, and their backups of Lawrence police, Kansas Highway patrolmen and Kansas Bureau of Investigation agents, were present. Notably, no violence erupted. These observations, however, are not necessarily sequential. Police met by an unpredicted outburst, simply were there.
Some were there taking pictures. One campus policeman told the Kansan he took pictures because police "just like to have them if something comes up." Conveniently, such pictures may now convict those who are selectively prosecuted for an offense they weren't even warned to stop. Some will be sacrificial lams, singled out because they happened to be in the pictures.
Administrative rebuke will be only a symbol of the common disdain for those who snubbed freedom of expression. Not all of the guilty will meet reprisals. But the examples of those who do will reaffirm an unfaltering commitment to the 187-year-old First Amendment, which, as was shown last week, still is under fire from those who either misunderstand or don't respect it.
To the editor:
Hostess protests image
As a member of the KUAC Sunflower Girls for the past three years, I think that it's time that someone who is in charge of the group be given the chance to state what the duties of the group are.
I also do not think that I have "lured" innocent high school seniors to the University. I have no more lured them than have the students that help the admissions office recruit students.
The Sunflower hostesses sit with the recruits at the game to
The recent editorial by the Kansan has numerous insinuations that I think are very unfair to the group and rock on the verge of defamation of character. I do not appreciate the implication that I make myself "available." To say that there is more to the duty than simply sitting with the recruit and his parents at the game.
KANSAN Letters
answer questions that they or their parents might have—yes, parents come with the recruits 99 percent of the time. We are there are no other reason. Why would you contact some of the recruits and their parents and ask them about what went on with the Sunflower hostesses? I am sure they would be nothing sensational.
The Kansan stated that "good programs and teams will sell themselves to the high school program pros. A prospect has a hard time finding out about the program if there is no one to tell them about it. Surely you don't think the coaches have time on a Saturday morning to run up to answer a recruit's question?
that earlier in the year had editorials concerning winning football programs at KU? Football recruiting is a big business. High school seniors talk to numerous coaches from across the state, who hope that eventually the prospect will agree to come to their respective school. Such schools as Alabama and Oklahoma have programs that are superior to hostesses, and I've never heard any complaints about their records.
Isn't this the same Kansan
I am truly offended by the editorial. I think it is a slam on my reputation and the fact that I have 12 individuals. I would hope that in the future, the Kansan looks a bit more closely to the facts with which it is working and has been above the rest of the University.
PLO hecklers hurt cause
To the editor:
It was a disheartening evening on Mount Ouread last Thursday night. In Hoch Auditorium, former Israeli intelligence officer in an admitted partisan account, attempted to explain his country's position on the several outstanding and difficult issues in the Middle East, which he used because he was constantly harassed and prevented from talking by a very persistent pro-LOP minority scattered in the auditorium around the hills.
And in the process, they probably did the cause of the Palestine refugee in particular, and the Arabs in general, substantial harm, at least on the KU campus. At a time when the state demanded of Amawr隐藏 the seeming intrinsicness of Menachem Begin, among other things, have resulted in increasing world understanding, if not support, of Palestinian demands, the unruly, emotional and disruptive antics of this group can only decrease their chances to be so, it seems an appropriate penalty for their attempted murder.
Although these hecklers repeatedly identified Rabin as a "fascist murderer," they in their own way were becoming murderers of a different type. I speak of the murder of the open marketplace of ideas and free speech, two concepts that most interest me and faculty. I believe, consider essential to any university.
Janet Gorman Kansas City, Kan., senior
Professor of political
Iranian decries Arabs' methods To the editor:
Janet Gorman
Clifford P. Ketzel
Cufried F. Keeter
Professor of political science
As an Iranian student who attended Rabin's lecture Thursday night in Jerusalem, which the Arab students, accompanied by some Iranian students, protested Israel's policy was wrong. By contrast, Mr. Obama's Israeli cause was supported and that of the revolutionary
KANSAN Letters
movement of the Palestinian people misinterpreted. If the main purpose of his political lecture was to obtain more support from the American people for Israel's policy, I am sure he succeeded with the help of many of his Iranian students wanted to defend PLO, but they actually gave a hand to Rabin.
Shamsedin Mahallati Iran sophomore
Arabs needed police restraint To the editor:
Most KU students probably saw the noisy demonstration at noon Thursday by a group of students who have no quarrel with these people voicing their opinions in public. This is guaranteed by them.
Seated in three or four groups, these warmongering radicals shouted, booed, cursed, stomped their feet and generally acted before the former prime minister's speech.
What most KU students probably don't know is the atrocious, utterly rude and unfair behavior of these same Arab protesters in Bacho during Rabin's speech!
To speak your mind is one thing. Not allowing another person to speak his is cowardly and wrong. People who won't hear that person talk must have another person tell his side have no place in a democracy.
Perhaps even more disgusting is the fact that our appointed bastions of law and order made no attempt either to silence these hoodlums or to elect them from the hall.
I complained to several officers, but I was told they were "waiting for orders." They waited around all night.
It is obvious by the behavior of these protesters that they are unwilling or incapable of
reasonable thought. Until they are, how can anyone hope to deal with their problem?
Their "March for Peace" is the biggest lie on the face of this earth. At every suggestion of settlement, of the possibility of peace, these animals booed, these animals shouted and shouted their epithets.
It's obvious that the motivating force behind this display of crudeness is the real threat to Israel's security in Israeli conflict: Arab unwillingness to accept the reality and necessity of the Jewish state of Israel. If this problem is not resolved, it may yet come to the Middle East.
Merrich R. Hellman
Overland Park sophomore
Incident crushes Rabin's rights
To the editor:
I found the demonstration by the Arab and Iranian students profoundly disturbing, in fact infuriating, not because of their disagreement with Rabin's policies, but because they were so involved in the debate here. By carrying signs saying "Rabin Off Campus," they were showing us how little they understand and value those concepts that stand as the very basis of our society. If one can seek to restrict the free flow of information from university campus, where in a society can speech hope to stand free?
We are constantly harangued about the repressive regime of the shah; I do not call the validity of that into question, but today's events make me aware of the realities. Iranians would institute any less oppressive a regime. They certainly have a concept of freedom very different from ours. By behaving in this manner, they detract from the justice, the legitimacy of the taliban's claims and add additional support for Israel's intransigent position.
Peter Felleman Lawrence senior
PLO refusing
to communicate
To the editor:
He attentively interrupted speech by Rabin Thursday evening it became clear why Israel is unable to negotiate the result of communications between two parties, which the PLO, judging from the actions of the PLO supporters Thursday night, is not willing to take a stand. He was willing to present his views and then answer questions from the floor, but throughout his talk he was verbally harassed. It was evident that those doing the interruption were uninterested in Rabin had traveled to KU to say.
The majority of the disrupers are themselves guests in this country and should therefore conduct themselves with courtesy when another guest appears on campus. Common human decency required that those who held power were allience allies long enough that those of us who were genuinely interested in Rabin's comments could hear them. The episode was a disgrace to the entire University.
Victor Frost
Kansas City, Mo., graduate student
Mideast peace seems remote
To the editor:
It is very clear to me that there are serious problems in the Middle East. But as Rabin said, "The University of Kansas is not the place to solve Iranians" and PLO supporters' domestic problems." I believe, if Thursday night was any indication, that the Middle East negotiate in setting their problems, we will never see the "peace" of which Rabin spoke.
I had the opportunity to speak with several PLO supporters before Rabin's speech. From
one information I obtained, I could see no reason why they protested as such during Rabin's speech; what could they possibly stand to gain? I have heard that he mentioned the fact that Palestine is alive today, but I guess none of his protesters cared to listen to this remark and many Palestinians who confiscated the Palestinian banner from the protesting young man was actually doing the PLO a favor, because how would we like to see our nation be able to avoid the ashes of Hezbollah Auditorium, as this man did? I thought it to be rather considerate and prestigious to see the Israeli banner presented in such a way. It seemed that members in the back of the auditorium
That whole assembly reminded me of one KU's basketball games. It was so wonderful to know the kind of disciplinary action wasn't taken. If we at KU choose to go hear a famous and important speaker, we should respect it as our respect or choose not to go at all.
David Gillagly Lawrence freshman
Meyers wasn't Pearson aide
To the editor:
In John Mitchell's editorial on U.S. Senate candidates, he incorrectly asserts that State Sen. Jan Meyers worked as a subordinate under U.S. Sen. James Pearson; Nancy Kassebaum, another candidate, held a position under San Meyer, however, has served on the board of directors of the National League of Cities and as the president of the Overland Park City Council. She has been elected twice to the Kansas Senate. The last two qualifications exemplify her experience that Kassebaum lacks. Mike Harper, Lawrence junior Kay P里恩, olaister the Phil Meyers, Overland Park senior
Ken Westphal, Wichita senior
Liquor law isn't a moral question
The Kansas Legislature has done its part in making sure that Jesus would be fully accommodated if he should ever join the party. Jack Steinerg, Kansas Senate minor leader, when he announced his approval last week at the governor's meeting the drink in Kansas restaurants.
'these religious lobbyists'
hospitality was challenged by Steinkeen when he trump-
ered over the rules, she doesn't permit nightclubs. This
doesn't permit bars. What it does permit is like the Lord Jesus
Christ should return to this
country in a last supper and serve wine.'
Steiniger's comment was an especially arificial one. For years the state's dry tradition has been vigorously protected by religious groups with so-called religious reasons.
UNLESS STEINEGER has
an inside track on some information, Kansas can hardly assert that Jesus was once a Kansas Jayhawk. If Jesus were born on earth and if he were to happen into a Kansas restaurant for the first time, the chances are that Jesus, with the proper identification, would be ordered whatever he wanted.
Arguments for and against liquor consumption in Kansas have been on quasi-religious considerations. The state is not, and should not be, protected in the law that prohibits the "moralists" of its residents.
If someone supports the relaxing of liqueur laws, he should support his argument with economic or even hedonistic reason. Liqueur consumption against liqueur consumption, let him raise valid points about the effects of alcoholism. To include the notion that someone's god will be either pleasured or displeased by the passive action is an insult, patronizing appeal to constituents.
THE BILL to permit liqueur by the drink in restaurants was passed by both houses of the Legislature in what one radio host called "massive tactics." Coincidentally, the Rev. Richard E. Taylor Jr., prominent lobbyist for the Kansas United Dry Forces, was killed in United Airlines planes were hastily taken. Perhaps Taylor's absence facilitated a
less gilded, more objective discussion of liquor.
On the anti-lipper side, Rep. Denny Burges, R-Wamenga, was quoted as saying, "It's a self-inflicted disease and I have in help pay for it" on the pro-petition website Bill Reardon, D-Kansas City, Kan., mentioned Kansas' inability to compete economically with Missouri's wet restaurants. Reardon also said that laws that regulate alcohol consumption by-the-drink facilities available to Kansans, allowed discrimination against blacks.
Both sides presented arguments that belonged in the legislative chambers. Afterwards, the House approved a bill on a 63-41 vote, and the Senate followed with a 25-12 vote.
This bill has been hailed as the most outstanding action of
the 1978 legislative session. The predominance of the liquor issue in Kansas lawmaking would be unheard of in any other state.
IN OTHER states legislators know that Jesus was not the last person to enjoy liquor. Other states can handle the fact that it is a way of life for some people who do not drink. In other states, as well as in Kansas, some people consider liquor a meal in itself. But Kansas' dry laws have done nothing more to discourage drinking in bordering states' permissiveness cannot be blamed for encouraging it.
The passage of the bill to permit liquor by the drink in New York State will be signed into law by Gov. Robert F. Bennett. The bill provides an escape clause for liquor sales under a saturationum. It requires the issue
to undergo a mandatory referendum in each county in the November 1978 general election.
Kansas is wrong to think that it can go on legally restraining its residents from a temptation that some Kansans happen to find immoral. Liquor is nothing more than a beverage with stimulating effects. Kansas uninterested in those effects will pour on liquor. Kansans who enjoy the effects of liquor will go elsewhere if they have to. By rights, though, they should not have to.
The Kansas Legislature still has far to go in repealing the other constitutional remand left over from Prohibition days. The problem is not so much a political one, but a national Missouri as it is a deeper constitutional problem of individual liberties.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
THE UNIVERSITY OF
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