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Mondav. November 28.1977
University Daily Kansan
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Comment
Unsigned editors represent the opinion of the Kansas editorial staff. Signed column represent only the views of the writers.
City has right idea
City commissioners made a reasonable decision recently when they acted to authorize a marketing study on the business potential of downtown Lawrence. The study cannot possibly eliminate all of the city's growing pains during the coming years, but it might cut down on the confusion that accompanies urban expansion.
D
The study, being conducted by Design Build Architects of Lawrence at a cost of $2,500, focuses on the part of downtown that is bounded by Tennessee and Pennsylvania streets and the Kansas River and Seventh Street. The first phase of the study will be identified in March and is expected to identify sources of funding to renovate the area's evesores.
According to Lawrence Mayor Marne Argersinger, the study also will specify which buildings the city should tear down and which ones it should retain. Redevelopment, in other words, will be backed up by at least some planning.
THE NEED FOR continued planning of Lawrence's growth cannot be disputed. The city's comprehensive plans are outdated almost as soon as they are written; commissioners have not been able to use plans written for even 10 years into the future because the future rapidly renders the plans' predictions obsolete.
One study has ranked Lawrence 25th in the United States among metropolitan areas expected to have the fastest growth rates during the next five years. The projection makes it essential that downtown blights, such as the Brickrock property on site, be addressed for city building, be studied as soon as possible for whatever renovation or demolition.
One caution is in order about whatever the survey concludes. City commissioners, in making past decisions such as their initial approval of the Haskell Loop, have occasionally demonstrated a knack for authorizing studies that come up with conclusions remarkably similar to their own
IN THE CASE of the loop, an environmental impact study made for the city by a consulting firm proved out of touch with the people in the neighborhoods that the loop, a glorified roadway, would have destroyed. Only under intense pressure and big food groups did the commissioners finally back down and ask their consultants' study.
The latest study, for the time being, seems a reasonable effort to identify problems in the downtown and spell out possible solutions for them. The last thing Lawrence can afford to have is haphazard, laissez-faire expansion.
Crusades seem to be so popular these days that I think it is only fair that I organize my own movement to stamp out
Knievel's stunts familiar, boring
My overwhelming conviction is that Knievel is a bore. And there is nothing worse than he who gets rich by being boring.
Frankly, I have no compelling reason for my displeasure with Kniewel. His punching the author who wrote a critical account of Kniewel's exploits has made me. Themselves did the thing and he was considered macho for doing it.
Of course insanity and masochism aren't the principle fuels that feed Knevel. His main carrot is the $3 million prize he won for the jump. He says half will come from an unidentified sponsor and half from television rights. And he will get the money and spend it before he jumps, in the can't take it with you" spirit.
His latest in a career of stunts bordering on kamikaze-like lunacy is his desire to be dropped 40,000 feet from a B1 bomber into a haystack, conveniently placed, of course, near a shopping mall or casino, giving him the likelihood of many people being present and hence many bucks in return.
HE NEEDN'T bother By now Knieve's formula for sure-shot derring-do tricks are as
Black electoral clout uncertain
By FRANCES FOX PIVEN
N. Y. Times Features
The black urban lower class is slowly being destroyed. Large forces are at work, not the least being catastrophic unemployment. Very little withstands the corrosive force of worklessness—not the sense of individual self-worth, nor the stability of the family, nor the fabric of community life.
A large proportion of each succeeding generation in the ghettos responds by self-destruction—school failure, drug addiction, and other ways to social suicide are ridden and crowded.
This circumstance should instruct us about the nature of the American political system, for in democratic principle the destruction of the black lower class ought not be happening. Blacks now participate in electoral politics and should therefore be able to influence influence necessary to reverse the economic policies that are at the root of their plight.
BLACKS ENTERED electoral politics on a large scale in the post-World War II period, at first because migrants from the rural South could vote in the urban North, and then because the franchise was granted to those who remained behind. As the 1960s came to a close, the opportunity for integration in electoral politics seemed at hand.
Black have surely participated, and with apparent success, if the measure of success is victories at the polls. Thousands of black officials have been elected, including mayors in several large cities. The presidential election of 1976 also revealed the importance of the black vote in national politics, acknowledged symbolically by
black appointments to a cabinet post and to a U.N. ambassadorship.
STILL, THE destruction of the black lower class continues unabated. The black leadership stratum complains bitterly and publicly, but is helpless to alter the policies that so afflict the mass of its constituents, and the policies that fail to stem unemployment.
The false promise of electoral politics is revealed in past struggles by the poor as well. The long and bloody struggle by the poor to afford bargain collectively is a case in point. However great their numbers at the polls, striking workers could not restrain their mayors, governors and presidents from demanding their state and state and federal troops against them.
As Eugene V. Debs said after the strike by the American Railway Union was crushed by the police,
"WE HAVE no power of the government behind us. We have no recognized influence in society on our side . . . On the other side, we have little influence in money can command . . . the press . . . the courts . . . the state militia . . . the federal government and all things on the side of the corporations."
Workers finally did win some workplace rights through the Wagner Act of 1935. But it was a long process that ended up with
The terrible travails of the Great Depression produced unprecedented waves of strikes that threatened Franklin Roosevelt's policies for economic recovery; these were momentarily briefly brought with business and, for a time, concessions were granted to workers.
In the post-World War II period, blacks also made some gains; like the industrial
workers before them, they too welled up in unprecedented waves of protest that took form in boycotts, sitt-ins, demonstrations and riots, threatened to split the northern opposition into two camps. Party. To ward off that threat, national Democratic leaders yielded the desegregation of public accommodations, the establishment of expanded public and private employment.
THE EXPERIENCE of the movements of industrial workers and of blacks are similar in another way as well. In the wake of a wave of electoral politics with comparable results.
Organized labor could not sustain by politics what workers had won by mass strikes; the provisions of the Wagner Act were slowly eroded, notably by the passage of the Taf-T harley Act in 1947 and by the subsequent spread of right-to-work laws that blocks emerged from the protests of the 1960s they too organized for electoral politics.
But blocks have not been able to sustain the employment gains that the turbulence of the 1960s produced: rates of black unemployment in the 1970s than at any time since World War II.
The historical lesson seems clear, although our credo blinds us to it. What the poor win in American politics, when they win at all, they win by mass protest, for the disturbances they create may force political leaders to respond.
If this lesson emerges from the struggle of the past it is only reaffirmed by the lack of struggle and the lack of response at this time.
Frances Fox Piven and Richard A. Cloward are authors of "Poor People's Movements: Why They Succeed, How They Fail."
But now his elaborate stunts have deteriorated into overblown buffoonery. They no longer thrill. We react with the mouth instead of the clutch of the heart and the grip of the hand.
When Knievel was a new marshal he was better than the old one. The Indy's inrepid drivers, death lurked in the corner of the driver who made the careless mistake, cause the battle was with himself
familiar and blase as Muhammad Ali's pre-fight shenanigans. May may be share of mighty accidents, but he has always managed to play with the deck stack decidedly
As a business proprietor, to be considered with as keen a hand that he has on the mechanics of his Harley Davidson chopper. He continues his spectacles because he knows there is an audience out there and pays good money to see them.
Dave Johnson
Editorial Writer
WHAT COMPELS Knielve to ride (jump,飞, skid) on is the same fear that 66-year-old men have who stay on their jobs past retirement age: the terror of idleness.
KNIEVEL WASN'T always the battered warrior. We wondered, Who is this guy? He was a junior and humbled 13 school buses lined up side-by-side. And our doubts about his insanity increased after time, his reckless jump him in a bed in the hospital.
For Knuevel, the prospect of retirement bears a special burden. If he quits he will no longer be the idol of every wheeled-popping, snot-nosed kid on a bicycle who imitates him by boaring through the air from behind. It is not avoiding boredom but it's postponing his lapse from the headlines.
Get out now, Evel, while the going's good. Let us remember you as the zany entrepreneur who, conned the world into believing it was going to be treated to a death spectacle when he revealed your Snake Canver Caravan. Don't go out as a hobbling stuntman who can no longer kick-start his motorcycle.
fascination for danger no longer excites us. What were once nerve tightening, muscle-griping, or merely provoke a lazy yawn.
Just as you know in your bones that Ali will somehow escape his next "bum of the machine" that Kunelve also will survive.
My advice to both Ali and Knievel would be to quit with their big bucks and nurse their wounds in retirement. Knievel's
Cheerleaders, for example.
There only are a couple that are real wooters. The rest are cute.
Their opponents last game, they cheered throughout the whole game,
kicking and dancing and laughing. They didn't even rest
them during what was doing. That's spirit, huh?
AND OF COURSE, I'm sure you've seen some college marching bands. They're really colorful. Really eye-catchers. And they don't wear masks, Wars," were pure crot, but they seemed to really enjoy playing
the yell leaders are pretty good too. And entertaining, they open up the whole second hit with entertaining and with gymnastics slumps like brannies, fronts and back layouts, their antics, coupled with the mascot Jayhawks who usually kept the crowd's attention.
SUA tries to put on good show
Anyway, you wanted to know about the football program at the University of Kansas, so I'll teach them how to really important. They really pack them in. As many as 50,000 people sometimes. And, it's exciting. There's so much going on that you'll keep your mind on the game.
To the Editor:
Sorry I haven't written sooner. I've been really busy all my freshman semester. I know, I know, that's no excuse for you who's about to graduate from high school, but well it's true.
As for ticket prices, this show conveniently provides our
Rick Tbaemert Editorial Writer
As an SUA board member responsible for special events (concerts), I was disappointed to read the final three lectures of our course on otherwise good review of the Steve Martin show. To allege that "SUA tried hard to ruin a good show" is both erroneous and knowledge that it was solely through the efforts of SUA that KU obtained the exclusive date in the area and was able to offer this show to our campus. Nor was it possible to have most active major concert program of any state university in spite of having to contend with a volatile, changing Kansas City market. I view this as a missed opportunity to a cheap shot that reek of journalistic negligence.
IT'S ALSO exciting to watch the medics. About once every game, someone drops like a rock—the victim of a heart attack or a stupron. That always causes a commotion. Last game, I
them anyway. They played whenever they had the chance. There was always some kind of help to help fill in lulls in the game.
Being an old baseball pitcher, you'd enjoy the cup fights during the game. Everything seems normal, when all of the cups are on one another, it really looks cosmic, cups飞ying everywhere. Some still had drinks in them. One guy tossed an empty booze bootle. It hit a cup. Okay, it was a wild date. Okay it was a wild date. It's usually so wild but everybody gets raked at games. It's really easy to sneak liquor into the games in hand lotion to stand around your body. The cups stand around your body. The violators, but they rarely catch anyone. In fact, that's another fun part about games. Everybody likes to tease the cops. They always get booed and dumped or drunkard or chase people carrying painted signs.
Dear Frank.
Football games like three-ring circuses
There's all kinds of other stuff going on at games. Monkey business is big business, of course. People making fools of themselves and the like. I could watch them all day. We always manage to pass some girl up and down the aisle. Or, we have to handle the balloons or the balloons they hand us for spirit. They usually end up as people-beaters or stirrers, though.
There's always team spirit.
missed a touchdown when some girl in front of me took a dive. Liguor-wise, it was a big day.
too. I guess. Everybody like to scream and yell and tush conffetti and toilet paper. Most people seem to exaggerate though. You know, yell follows at the referee or boo the opposing team. Un-sportsmanship isn't paranoid enough for reason, it a lot of run to really cut loose and yell, 'Make him a eunuch.' It's invigorating. A good tension release. I summos.
KANSAN Letters
Anyway, the football games are great fun. They're like three-ring circuses. There's always something exciting
In fact, I don't even know the score of last week's game. I didn't watch much of the game after the first quarter. I was having too much fun. See you soon.
going on. That's good too, because our witchbone offense has really been boring this year. Most of the games have been the same way. If it weren't for all the pageantry, I don't know. Most of them up. Most of them seem to lose interest after the first half.
Your friend Smoot
reviewer the chance to further cloud the serious concerns that are currently being expressed in this regard. The review does nothing but point out a problem and offer any solution to the problem.
To blame the SUA for high ticket prices is similar to blaming the corner gas station by exposing it to the city. We cannot expose the real villains the performers, short of boycotting concerts, one possible solution would be to subsidize concerts through student fees, thus reducing the prices similar to the program employed at the University of Missouri. This would require an annual outlay of between $10,000 and $12,000 benefit only those who participated in those programs.
On the discussion concerning general admission shows and the problems they present, I can only agree, as can anyone else. We are in a madhouse for the opening moments. This was augmented by the fact that the show had been sold out for over a week before it opened. Many who were not holding tickets. It is unfortunate that adults are unable to stand in line without pushing, shoving or stepping into fellow humans. However, this was not the case. It is difficult to accept full responsibility for a crowd's actions, however, point taken: it is a situation to avoid and reserved seats are the answer.
I would now like to transcend the review and 'Bronx cheers' and speak in defense of all student organizations whether they be the SUA, the Kansas, KJHK, or the bestseller. Student organizations can service to this campus and, most importantly, provide the students with a practical learning experience. Implicit in this learning experience is inexperience, and when coupled with the support of an organization the results are at times painfully evident.
Mistakes are simply an extension of our learning experience and we should all try to benefit from the insights they provide. What critics fail to realize is that behind these mistakes, people like you and me, performing, for the most part, thankless jobs. So as a closing note I'd like to thank all those
Mark Woodman SUA special events
people who have given of themselves to make this fall's concert program the success it would not have been possible.
Not with bang but in Watson To the editor:
I have found out how the world will end! Someone who is about to discover the only way to get us off the path to destruction will be sitting in Watson Library. The lights will go out and someone will announce a leave. Too bad, Last chance. We are conserving energy this year.
Charles L. Betros
Charles L. Betros Lawrence graduate student
Think logically, don't ban bikes
To the editor:
Rick Thaemert, in his editorial of November 16, states that bicycles are "intrinsically dangerous," and should be handled with care. But that this editorial is inherently asinine, and should be refuted.
Theaertem's big grips against bicycles seem to be that 1) they have something to do with 'lawlessness,' by which I think he means speeding. 2) the bicycles are quiet, and hard to see; and 3) bicyclists can enter campus at any time and don't
have to pay for parking permits, unlike the student driving a car or this he writes a four-column editorial?
Yes, Rick, some bikers are careless or rude and deserve a ticket, or at least a lesson in bicycle safety. But there are many other who pay attention to safety and are genuinely nice people. I might also point out pedestrians walk out between parked cars (as we were taught not to do back in the first grade) without giving the bicyclist ample time to answer the courtesy would be a welcome change for walkers and bikers alike.
His second complaint is undeniable. Bikes are smaller than cars, and quieter than buses, and smell like neither. He deals with these problems by attaching plastic straws to her spokes, horns on her handlebars, and by throwing smoke bombs to warn oncoming pedestrians of her approach. The possibilities for making oneself more noticeable are endless.
The final complaint is more insidious, implying that bikes and cars are very similar and should be treated as such, when they have little in common beyond their use as transportation. Theaert produced no good reasons for excluding bicycles from the road, but twelfth part of his piece was that it was followed by Bernard Brown's thoughtful and factual bikepath proposal, which is certainly more positive and anything theaert mentioned.
Laura Patterson Lawrence senior
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