UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN editorslals
Unsigned editors represent the opinion of the Kansan editorial staff. Signed columns represent the views of the editorial team.
April 28,1980
Wrap up road work
Observant motorists may have noticed last week that some Lawrence streets, including 19th and part of Massachusetts, are now accented by newly repainted lane dividing lines. This task traditionally marks midspring in the city. As soon as meteorologists' forecasts of warm and clear weather become fairly regular and trustworthy, painting crews start making their bold yellow and white strokes.
This road maintenance service, as well as the prompt plugging of potholes, helps make driving in and out safer by something all motorists appreciate.
However, there is one stretch of roadwork that all motorists, observant or not, definitely noticed last week, last month, even as far back as last year—the combination obstacle course, patience endurance test and guessing game bottleneck traffic on north Iowa Street.
When students returned from summer vacation last August, barrels, pylons and road blocks already lined off two lanes, one going each direction. Since then, eight months later, the barrels, pylons and road blocks still are there, with no evident signs of imminent removal.
Perhaps this propensity is no more of a problem here than it is in other towns, but at this rate, graduating seniors will be lucky if they see the streets clear of constraining obstructions when they return to Lawrence for their five-year class reunion.
Come on, city crews. Light a fire under your asphalt and ply these patches of pavement into passable driving condition.
Kansan lacks news about Sailing Club
To the Editor:
"Hey, they really do sit in Kansas?" "This was a common cry at the five team-eggia hosted by the University of Kansas Sailing Club two weeks ago. The sad thing is that most Kansans don't even know that they can participate, at least not through the University.
The city of Lawrence seems to have a propensity for lagging progress on major road construction projects. The Massachusetts Street Bridge opened more than six months after its originally scheduled christening date and the north Iowa and 23rd street expansions and extensions, projects that were started almost a year ago, still are uncompleted.
This school year the University Daily Kansan has not published a single article on the campus and has written to kansan staff members have been submitted to the editorial staff. But news of dissatisfied coaches, and the 10th annual kickoff game in the Kansas Union seem to take priority.
To be sure, all this is being done with expectations of improving traffic flow in the future. But why is it taking so long? Severe winter weather would be an acceptable reason for the delay if it weren't for the fact that Lawrence did not receive its first snow until into January of this year and has been through March. The winter of 1979-80 has been very mild, indeed.
As an SUA organization, the KU Sailing Club consists of 65 members and an intercollegiate racing team. Membership in the Midwest Collegiate Sailing Association assures the team of outstanding competition. This year they have represented KU at Southwest Missouri State University, which is home to the University, and the University of Iowa.
The club owns 12 boats and offers beginning and advanced sailing classes.
The KU Sailing Club wants no free advertising. But student awareness of the sport and the team will benefit the University. You bet we sail in Kansas.
For more information, read the stories in the trash cans of the Kansan newsroom.
Diane Tehan KU graduate
KU graduate
Lake Bluff, Il., sophomore
In explanation, I meant to exclude rape victims when I referred to "the majority of women who become pregnant against their own will." The responsibility of who becomes pregnant do not become pregnant by rape. The responsibility of a pregnancy caused by rape, as well as the responsibility of a pregnancy caused by rape, women are just as responsible for their pregnancies as are men. A non-rape
Pregnancy blamed on rapist, not victim
pregnancy does not happen apart from a woman's consent to intercourse,
The reason I would like to this be cleared is that I should bring to my knowledge, the space of mistaken place blame on the victims of rape. I would hate for that to be communicated wrongly and that the person who made it wrong
To the Editor:
I submitted a letter recently on the abortion issue, and am writing again to explain what I meant by one sentence to the wife of a woman who gave birth in the April 23 Kansas. The sentence in question is, "I realize that victims of rape do not become pregnant by choice, but the majority of women who become pregnant cause it, even if by passive consent."
Bible history shows Kraabel inaccurate To the Editor:
for the sake of our Jewish friends who may have attended A. Thomas Krabel's lecture in the *Archaeological Discoveries* section of the book, and the Kansan, we would like to submit that the Bible speaks much more highly of the Jews' place in history than Krabel seemed to
Luke's history in the book of Acts does not tell Jesus as the one who reject Christianity by documenting the first several thousand followers of Jesus were, like
Luke's depletion of the Jews was not "as a monolithic group that persecuted Christianity." Instead he tells us the response of the Jews was characteristic of everyone's response. Some were being blamed for others, but others would not believe. (Ackr. Act 28:24.)
It is not Luke who "exaggerates the role of the persecuting Christian in the founding of Christianity," but Judaism gives equal importance to Gentile persecution and Luke presents a picture that predicts the conclusions of modern archaeologists that Krakel cited. The Jewish believers were not always persecuted by the carving-cerering Jesus, and they did so against a diverse cultural backdrop. As the noted archaeologist Sir William Ramsey recognized: "Luke is a historian of the first
Finally, Luke concurz with the rest of the New Testament authors that the crucifixion was not the sole responsibility of one man or even a group of men, but because of God's power, he can also an alternative method of payment for each person's moral debt—Jew and Gentile alike.
J. D. Norcross
J.D. Norcross
former KU student
Randy Makin
Lawrence graduate s
Lawrence graduate student
Letters Policy
The University Daily Kansan welcomes the editor and guest speakers to the event and views about topics of timely concern. letters must be typed, double-spaced and no longer than 500 words. The Kansan receives the right to edit all letters and comments, unless the writer must include the writer's address and phone number. If the writer is affiliated with the University, the letter should in-
In elementary school, students who had grade problems were sent home with a note asking them to bring it to the school's gosit way. KU instructors will file "down slips" on *naughty* kU students. Down slips, which are designed to help students stay in school, can be one of the biggest slip-ups suggested.
Down slip recommendation is slip-up
Obviously, the University of Kansas should strive to keep its students enrolled. However, using down slips would do nothing but beltle the students and insult the intelligence of the instructors. Down slips were used in high schools, not in major universities.
The KU Recruitment and Retention Committee has proposed that all instructors file down slips for freshmen and sophomores who have a D or lower grade in a class. The down slips would be filled with the same department or school before the final drop date.
The committee also recommended that slips for excessive absences be filled out. Once again, these proposals are way out of line.
COLUMNIST
THE INTENT OF the recommendations is sensible. Students with academic problems should be encouraged to improve
them, or to get them better to
better their grades. Down slips and
excessive absence slips certainly are
not encouragements; they are merely
david lewis
College and high school are vastly different. The college is the community school, which is the most high school college a smother one. Unfortunately, the committee is equating high school and college.
THE MOST COMMON problem facing a freshman is a lack of motivation. Down slips will perk up an unmotivated student; they will only humiliate him.
In high school, students were required to go to school until they were at least 16 years old. If they refused, truant officers were not on their trails. For most of a student's life, school is not a choice; it is a fact of life. However, students who decided to attend school would have chosen that choice. In most cases, they were privileged to get a chance for a college education.
Advisers are seen only during enrollment. They are teachers doing double-duty and
In its report, the committee also said that academic advertisement was very important. The committee recommended further: academic advertisement is a key solution to the problem of unmotivated students.
they barely have enough time to talk to their students. The University needs advisers on duty during the entire semester. A student in academic trouble usually has his adviser present.
A STUDENT SHOULD have the ability to see an academic adviser whenever he thinks he needs a KU should be able to access the advising process throughout the year.
The University has a responsibility to look
out for the welfare of its students, but the students should not try to spoon feed their students for the sake of enrollment. Undoubtedly, enrollment figures were the bottom line for these
KU is doing everything in its power to keep enrollment high and sometimes has resorted to recruiting students who may not be eligible for college. We try to keep these same students in school.
ADOPTING DOWN DOWNS and excessive seeping are not fair to students. These surfaces are also prone to problems. Chances are that students who have no motivation in the first place are not given the chance to adapt.
Perhaps the University could print some hall passes and detention forms if these proposals fail. Or even better, KU could send students to the academy that would teach the little kids once and for all.
Problems of elderly are overstated
BY ALAN RASKUSHKA and BRUCE JACORS
STANFORD. Call—Older Americans have become a focus of our politics and policies. In this presidential election year, the state will be giving special needs of the elderly. Annual federal spending on programs for the aging already exceeds $160 billion. It is estimated that by 2030, the state will spend $19 billion. Americans will be 65 years old or older and that 40 percent of the federal budget will be spent.
A commonly held image of mistrust and need underpins the broad-based support that many programs for the elderly enjoy. A negative image is reinforced by widespread misunderstanding and few among the elderly who may suffer from poverty, forced retirement, job discrimination, crime, malnutrition, poor housing, and limited access to health services. This stereotyped view of aging holds that a great many our senior citizens cannot lead independent lives, that they are in desperate need of money, nutritious meals, healthcare and health care and other vital social services.
THESE PRECONCEPTIONS are largely inaccurate and are contradicted by the facts
of aging. Based on our interviews with more than 1,500 elderly homeowners around the United States, and on other studies, we can sketch a much brighter picture.
To begin with, less than 70 percent of the elderly live in institutions. Fully 70 percent live in their own houses and nearly nine of every 10 elderly homeowners make no effort to keep a formal form of property tax relief for this group, and all older Americans are eligible for other state and federal tax benefits. Social Security recipients are among the very few income groups who have cash income indexed to inflation. Moreover, the Supplementary Security Income program guarantees a minimum income to all older Americans. Food insecurity, Medicaid, and Medicare provide in-kind income to millions of older persons.
DESPIEZE A NATIONAL image of poverty among the ageed, the number of officially counted "poor" elder has fallen since 1959 from 33 percent of the elderly population to as low as 6 percent when non-cash benefits to greatly increased retirement benefits.
Elderly Americans also have more than $300 billion of home equity, an enormous source of potential income. In California, for
example, elderly homeowners can defer their property taxes by granting the state a lien on their homes for the amount due plus an additional $15,000 per permanent programs offering "reverse annuity mortgages" will also allow homeowners to build a low cost on the equity he owns and use the loan to purchase a lifetime annuity. These measures allow the elderly to retain an independent life in retirement.
The aged are generally well-housed. The government's annual housing survey shows that 36 percent of older women worse shape than those of younger families. Moreover, the owners of homes with low-income status were significantly. Only 3 percent said there was a serious problem they would not fix because they didn't want to.
OLDER PEOPLE DO suffer disproportionately from a variety of chronic health problems. But the great majority are able to make important gains in decline in physical capacity typically sets in only after age 75 and medical developments continuously extend healthy living. Most surveys discuss that fewer than one in five Americans regard themselves as in poor health.
The notion of widespread social isolation also turns out to be false. Fully 80 percent
have children living nearby, and a 1974 Louis Harris survey found that 80 percent had seen one or more of their children within the previous week. Many government and privately sponsored social action groups are working for those elderly who wish to participate.
ALTHOUGH THE ELDERLY are not disproportionately victims of violent crime, we did find that fear of crime is their chief concern.
A small number of older Americans are indeed among the fortunate. They may be poor, victimized by inflation, and unable to handle their homes. The care of these people has and should be viewed as a responsibility of society, so long as these elderly do not have the financial resources to take care of themselves. This is also a plight of the few with the condition of the many. The fact is that we must pay for increased benefits for the elderly just as we must for any other group. If we do not focus on such needs truly in need, the bill will be very expensive.
Alvin Babushka, senior fellow at the Hoover Institute at Stanford University, and author of *The Science of Political Science* are authors of the University of Rochester are authors of "Old Folks at Rochester."
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