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University Daily Kansan, July 28, 1980
Opinion
Registration unfair
Women's rights advocates should be pround of a federal court ruling that recently declared the draft registration law. And 20-year-old men should be even prouder.
The federal court's decision to stop registration because it discriminated against women, who did not have to register, and against men who did, insures more legal battles this fall. Continued debate is needed about men's and women's participation in any future United States military intervention abroad.
Draft laws have singled out men to shoulder the responsibility for fighting wars, but have unfairly excluded women even though they have been forced by social and economic necessity to participate at home. A few women worked in factories to produce the airplanes and artillery many of their husbands used overseas.
In reality, war requires certain services from both males and females, but the law recently enacted by Congress demanded that only men register and be drafted. The law-makers failed to recognize that war affects women too. Perhaps, the effect is
not the same as with men, but women should be liable to serve their country in ways suited to the limits of their size, strength and stamina. Indeed, in wars past, without women's help, success might not have been achieved.
Times have changed. Today no social, economic or legal requirement can fully guarantee that women will support the United States in times of war.
That is why more debate in the courtrooms will benefit both men and women. Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan Jr.'s rulings to permit the registration program to proceed on schedule insures that further appeals will be made to higher courts. Eventually, the Supreme Court will consider the issue.
War is a state of emergency for the human condition. No person, male or female, should have to participate in the destruction of lives, property and minds. But to force one segment of the population to be more vulnerable to the possibility is discriminatory and against the principles of the Constitution. How many wars have been started because one group in a population deemed itself more responsible than another?
No choice in draft
Selective Service is such an inappropriate name. Those who register for the craft under the Selective Service Act must have a valid hand of service they would give to the nation.
They register for possible required induction into the U.S. Army. No other choice is available besides aid to national defense. Selective Service operates on the narrow principle that the military is the only way for youth to serve the country.
Nothing is wrong with serving the country. We have a social contract in the United States that supposedly gives us freedom, at the price of electing and maintaining a government that will guard that freedom.
Part of the maintenance should include a willingness by citizens to devote some time to the government that serves the contract. The only selection of services could give
Not everyone wants to serve in the army because he will vote time to the human mechanism of war.
Instead of limiting Selective Service to the military, 18- to 20-year-olds for perhaps
one or two years could serve in government programs that would benefit the nation socially, culturally and
Young men and women could work in programs similar to VISTA and the Peace Corps.
All 18-to 20-year-olds could serve the country either through part-time military service or by part-time work teaching the poor and disadvantaged helping on projects to improve the cities or participating in environmental programs.
Required social service would benefit all of the parties involved. The poor would gain exposure to the youth of higher classes; poor youth would gain by having a chance to improve the problems in their own communities; the youth of the middle class would benefit from experiencing by confronting the real and tough social problems that face the nation.
Most of all, the country would benefit by bringing together its people of different backgrounds and by utilizing the services of professionals in foreign, but also in domestic problems.
MAGNETIC REPONSE NOMBRE LEAVER @PROBYCHKOBTRULE
Social SecurityAdmin.
Dear Mr.America:
Everyone gets chain letters from time to time, but this is not your standard chain letter... This one really works. And it's 100% legal. Not only that, but this chain letter is guaranteed to start paying you money when you retire. We promise.
Here's all you do: Every year you and your employer each put at most $1975.00 into an envelope and mail it to us at th
Social Security going to cats
My Uncle Herbier lives on only $450 a month—his paltry Social security benefit.
Ivstituted him last week and he began complaining to me about it.
"I'm having a hard time getting by," he said. "I don't know what the payments on the television and the stereo."
I said, "Uncle Herbert, I don't feel sorry for you. You don't rent. All your meals are free."
"It's the government. I can't get a steady job.
'Obviously wants to use my skills.'
SAVE YOUR SYMPATHY. Herbert uses his spare time to study law in a nearby legal library, although he won't be allowed to practice because he is married. He says the state bar is prejudiced against him.
"The government isn't giving me an even break," he said.
"A darn good plumber, too," he interjected.
"Yes, and you didn't spend any of your own
"You can always work with your hands, Urcle
Wayne. You're a certified welder and a plumber."
I said, "I don't pity you. Uncle. You've got a business degree. You've done most of the work for a master" in business administration. And so I told him to invest a cent of your own money getting educated."
"But all the studying gets boring."
"Yes, and you don't spend any of your own money for that training, either."
'I can't decide whether to become an affluent
accountant or a prosperous plumber. I'm leaning toward account."
"WHY?" I ASKED.
"I need to know how to manage my gambling winnings."
"Either way, Uncle, you'll be filthy, stinking rich, so why don't you quit whining."
"You're against me, aren't you? Everyone is against me."
Uncle Herbert always says that. He thinks nobody likes him just because he's serving 10 to
Columnist J.V. Smith Jr.
15 years in the federal penitentiary for armed robbery—two counts.
He thinks I hate him for collecting Social Security payments at his prison address. He thinks his fellow inmates hate him. He says they're ineous.
"it's not even illegal," he said to me. "Lots of people are doing it, even 'Son of Sam.'"
He looked entreatingly into my eyes. I did not commiserate with him, and I knew I was due for a
HERBERT SAID, "Well anyway, Walker still loves me. He's the only real friend I've got."
Walker is Herbert's cat.
cat to use the toilet. Imagine that. No kitty litter. No smell. Wonder cats are always being left alone.
You have to admire Herbert. Training a cat to use the toilet is quite an achievement, though probably not as spectacular as Herbert says—he ranks it among the monumental feats in Western civilization, fitting it roughly midway between Greek architecture and existentialism.
One could compare the bathroom education of cats with that other revolutionary human invention, Social Security, of which Herbert is a beneficiary, as I've said.
SOCIAL SECURITY was a great idea. too. It let people survive. it helped those who couldn't help themselves. it even tried to keep abreast of the rising cost of living.
Social Security embodied all the magnificently simple aims embraced in the toilet training of Warrior
"There's only one thing wrong with my cat's training," said Ucile Herbert.
"What's that?" I asked.
"Last week I accidentally knocked it into the water. Now I'm having a terrible time getting it back under control. It just won't forgive me for that dunking. Look at these scratches all over my arms, and you should see my cell. Worse, you should smell it."
Same with Social Security, Uncle. You've done the same thing to it—knocked it right into the porcelain bowl of government spending. And things will never be the same.
Kansans to pay for Wolf Creek loss
The two utilities that own the Wolf Creek Nuclear Power Plant are going to cost Kansans big bucks because of our friends at the Kansas Corporation Commission.
The utilities—Kansas Gas and Electric Co. and Kansas City Power and Light Co., are ailing financially and have borrowed extensively from the bank. The Creek plant. Budgeted at $1 billion and scheduled to be finished in 1982, the plant has $500 million in cost overruns and is a year behind schedule. To add to the headaches, the utilities' credit has run high on them without fonds to finish the power plant.
THE KANSAS ELECTRIC Power Center carries the utilities from the brink of financial disaster.
Letters to the editor...
To the Editor:
SUA unfairly attacked
I probably should not even bother to answer the latest and least lucid attacks upon the SUA and myself as SUA Film chairman. Anyone who made even a moderately serious study of SUA would conclude that the charges were almost totally false.
While I hammer a thousand opinions into a schedule, fight to get the best films for the best dates at the best prices, and prepare our not inconsiderable publicity, I find myself attacked by people who could lay claim to some grievances but make no attribution in distress. In my case, I might laugh off, but not because the SU filingo public deserves an answer.
To begin with, let us take one of the more serious charges—that the long-standing SUA policy of allowing certain people to check out films needlessly risk thousands of dollars. Actually, at most it might risk $800, which is a tidy sum, I agree.
Our security is very tight and we always know
In the current policy which I will present to the SUA Board in the fall, only trained projectionists may ever handle one of our films. These private screenings can be valuable in many ways. Often a teacher will screen a film to see if it would be worthwhile to show to a class.
where the films are. We have neither lost nor damaged a film since we implemented our security system more than 15 years ago. We are, in part, the safest schools in this regard in the country.
As for the repetition of films, and I do grant that the figures quoted are mostly correct, we have had such a large film program for so long I am surprised there are any films left. Nevertheless, I would relate the following as distinct examples: "The Confession," a little known films; "True Confession," a Carole Lombard comedy unavailable since the 1940s; "Dona Flaor and Her Two Husbands," one of the first Brazilian films shown in the Midwest; "Dead of Night," a British film that is now shown for the first time in the United States; "Hyde," a French film from the 1932 version, unavailable since 1941; "The Lacmeraker," one of the first Swiss films ever seen at KU; "Rich Kids," "Fedora" and several other recent films which have not played theatrically in Lawrence; "Oresthe Rehearsal," Federico Fellini's new film; "Royal Drama," Federico Fellini's released in the United States; and new versions of films such as "Seven Samurai," "M," "A Long Day's Journey Into Night" and others.
In particular, I would mention "True Concession," since it was formerly considered a loaf of fry bread. (It's really fry bread.)
theatrical print in existence, specially made from the rediscovered 35mm negative.
I would be glad to present any arguments to the SUA Board. I can think of a hundred different ways to spend that money, but until then, it has to be money, and that money in a hundred other wonderful ways.
Personally, I see little difference between SUA Films spending that money to bring a speaker and SUA Forums doing the same thing. Actually his speaker would probably be more interestl
I really have little to say on the tiresome subject of money. If you feel it is unfair that SUA Films is expected to realize $4,000 to support the rest of SUA, fine.
And as for the charges of Evelyn Gelhaus, the classical series co-chairman whose charges are better grounded than most, yes, I asked her to change her schedule. Her original schedule represented her own tastes, leaning heavily toward British and French films.
I suggested a more cosmopolitan selection of German, Italian and Russian films as well as the British and French films. One charge that is quite untrue is the one that I fostered numerous times in my life. The films and the best of her replacement films, only two had ever been mentioned by me. Her rerums are her own.
Michael Gebert
Michael Gebert
Wichita sophomore
SUA Film chairman
percent interest of the Wolf Creek plant. When KEPCo then becomes a generating utility it will qualify for $200 million in federal and private loans to be applied toward finishing the Wolf Creek plant, Kansas Legal Services, Inc. of Toeka has estimated.
But before KEPCo becomes a generating utility, the KCC must approve the 17 percent
Columnist Kathy Kase
purchase. If approved, the situation could not
be orchestrated by utilities they have or-
chestrated themselfs.
Now that is a thought, especially when you look at KEPCo.
Supposedly, KEPCo was formed to help the 26 Rural Electric Cooperatives it represents buy cheaper gas and electric power. Instead of 26 RECs buying power separately, KEPCo would buy power for all of them. Because KEPCo was buying energy in great volume, the rates would be cheaper than those the seaparte RECs could get.
SEVERAL POWER PLANTS offered to sell KEPCO power, but apparently that was not good for the company. The company is expensive type of power—nuclear. This move to generating capacity could cost each KEPCO customer—the are $9,000—an additional $3,000 over the 30 years, according to the Kansas Energy Department.
KEPCo was created to watch out for the little guy's interests, but it obviously has not done anything.
However, the KCC says the real issue is not KECPo buying into Wolf Creek. The real issue is whether the state even needs the power the Wolf Creek plant will generate.
According to the KLS, we have and will continue to have an electricity surplus in Kansas. The KLS is not alone in its assertions. Rep. Bob Mollier, R-Wellington, chairman of the commission, has announced his charges. Commission has said that this electricity surplus would test for the next 10 to 15 years.
AMAZING. Planning for Wolf Creek began in 1973 and now, seven years later, we find out that Kansas has an energy surplus and does not need to be powered by wind or water, approved the Wolf Creek plant's construction?
Ultimately, the KCC must decide whether to save KCP&L and KG&E from financial disaster or let the whole Wolf Creek project go down the drain. And no matter which the KCC decides, the consumer loses by paying higher energy bills or by increased taxes.
If the KCC lets KEPCo in wolf Creek, the utilities are expected to ask the KCC for unilateral rate increases to pay the loans and finish the plant. The only way a utility can raise rates is through upgrades, or also the KCC could grant the rate increases and we will all have higher gas and electric bills.
If KEPCO is buried from buying into the plant, KC&P and KG&E may go under. Our state taxes could rise and the legislature might have to bail out the bankrupt companies. And the bank will aid the utilities because it is easier to save the companies than ramp up the system.
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Unsigned editorials represent the opinion of the Kanaan editorial staff. Signed columns represent the viewpoint of the writers.