UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN editorials
Unsigned editorials represent the opinion of the Kansan edison staff. Starged columns represent the views of only one editor.
April 21.1980
Ruling cools oil use
After what really was a relatively mild winter, warm temperatures finally seem to have arrived in Lawrence for the spring and summer seasons. And although most people are understandably glad to shed their winter coats, many people those who spend a lot of time in public buildings probably will soon long again for the days of frosty, 40-degree temperature readings.
Last week the Carter administration announced its decision to continue its program of air conditioning and heating restrictions. These restrictions allow for a maximum temperature of 68 degrees in the winter and a minimum temperature of 78 degrees in the summer for all public buildings except hospitals, motels, hotels, nursing homes, nursery and elementary schools and doctors' and dentists' offices.
According to the Department of Energy, last year's application of the restrictions, which began July 1, 1979, was considered a success. More than 20,000 buildings were inspected during this year, and the average rate of 75 to 80 percent—not bad for a program that relies on voluntary compliance.
Last year's restrictions carried a $10,000-a-day penalty for persistent violators, but the Department of Energy reported that no one had been prosecuted or fined for violating the law. The United States has enlisted on President Carter's order.
Synfuels corporation must heed criticism
Although Carter is having trouble gaining support from the public in other areas, he apparently has received a warm—and cold—responsory to his somewhat controversial temperature control program. And why not? Maintaining the temperature of a room at 68 or 78 degrees, depending on the season, is a quite painless and, in fact, almost passive way of showing at least a little energy conservation consciousness.
The Department of Energy estimated that by firing up air conditioners less in the summer and cooling off heaters more in the winter, Americans saved the equivalent of 300,000 barrels of oil a day.
Admittedly, most Americans probably won't realize any immediate or evident benefits from this cut in oil consumption. The offsetting influences, such as increasing foreign oil prices, are too overwhelming. Nevertheless, 300,000 barrels of oil a day is hardly split milk.
By JAMES C. ROSAPEPE
WASHINGTON—With Congress winding up its work on a multibillion-dollar program to develop synthetic fuels such as shale oil, the U.S. Department will shift to how to make the effort succeed.
If congressional debate has been any guide, questions about the proper roles of government and industry are likely to come up. If the government industry will, understandably, push for maximum benefits with minimum interference, while many of its critics will seek a larger government role. These issues can be given more attention than they deserve.
The last time the nation decided to invest heavily in a new energy technology, the effort had both government and industry side up. But now in deep trouble, was created after World War II with perhaps unprecedented government-industry cooperation. The US National Research Council's Department of Energy) owned nuclear processing plants. Billions in federal funds subsidized nuclear research and development. This helped set between the public and private sectors.
A "MAJOR REASON for the persistence of eactor safety critical technology in the book "Energy Future: Report of the Energy Project at the University of Illinois," is the introduction of water technology managed by American industry and government. A cavalier attitude toward the new technology was evident.
AND NOW, faced with rapid increases in utility rates and recurrent safety problems, the public is tightening the political noise against nuclear energy by urging nuclear energy's future less certain status debates over industry vs. government roles in nuclear power, which were waged with some vigor during the industry's early days, seem in retrospect somewhat beside the past.
The key lesson that the promoters of synthus can learn from the nuclear industry's experience is the folly for both the manufacturer and adopting a "damn-the-torpedoes" attitude.
... Their impatience with questions from outside the club surely contributed to their critics' sense that they were hiding something."
It is increasingly clear that questions about design problems, waste disposal and disposal issues are not new. Today they are raised on the basis that they are 20 years ago, they were asked behind the curtain.
constituencies, critics were generally ignored.
THE MANAGERS OF a new syntuphy program could take the same approach. Paying more attention to their own work and "removing bureaucratic roadblocks," the projected Synthetic Fuels Corporation could be run like the Atomic Rocket, which would enable industry could mean freezing out other interests. Serious economic, safety and environmental issues with syntuphy could be dismissed as carping.
if it takes the AEC route, the synfuels program by 1985 will have won several of Ben. William Proxmire's "Golden Fleece Awards" for mismanagement and waste. Environmentals governers and governmental General Accounting Office will issue reports with titles like "Why the Synthetic Fuel Program Has a Poor Job Safety Record."
A KEY TO AVOIDING this familiar pattern would be a decision by a Synthetic Fuels Corporation to take its critics seriously from the start.
That would mean a kind of openness and accountability that neither private nor public bureaucracies are comfortable with. For example, the interests of the firms of symfysu and environmental questions about water, emissions and waste disposal explored before huge investments have been made, not after. Better for the operators of symfysu than it is to pursue to dangerous chemicals and open those records to the unions than to discover too late a new Kepone or asbestos disaster. Why not work with the communities that will bear the burden of rapid population growth? And public needs from symfysu development?
NOW IS THE time to consider the impact government subsidy funds on companies that supply products in any, will independent producers and play? Will minority businesses be frozen or encouraged?
Unless these kinds of concerns are built to the structure of a Synthetic Fuels Committee, they can be given adequate attention. One does not have to believe the program's managers know what is being produced and that in the push for production, reasonable questions may go unanswered and reasonable crises may be ignored. The program must be consistent with common sense, indicates otherwise.
James C. Rosapea, a member of a consulting firm that deals in energy policy, is a member of the Department of Energy's National Petroleum Council.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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Last semester, Blacks in Communication founded the Criterion, a minority-staffed newspaper that deals with minorities issues. The Criterion is a resource for an attempt by minorities to divorce themselves from the community and to give themselves a place to hide. But let it be known that Blacks are not designed to enlighten, not elude, the white community and its newspapers.
Criterion aids racial understanding
And to be sure, no one is hiding.
The birth of the Criterion illustrates a problem that has befuddled the University Daily Kansan and every newspaper in the country: a lack of bread for minority issues. To combat the problem, newspapers have launched a campaign to hire more minorities to measure represents significant progress, an important spark is missing.
Newspapers still don't understand minorities and issues confronting them.
INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING has tended to light the minorities. Metropolitan newspapers sometimes ignore important housing issues relevant to minorities.
COLUMNIST
david lewis
Kansas and other medium. The Criterion Criterion staff members are encouraged to work on the Kansas. The presence of the Criterion is certainly a healthy influence
Sometimes, newspapers have been guilty of deeming a minority issue too sensitive and of solving the problem by ignoring the issue altogether.
As it stands now, minorities at KU must confront academic programs in virtually an all-white world. Given the attitudes of the majority, this obviously is not an easy task.
The Kansan certainly has overlooked some important minority issues, too. For example, the Kansan Recruiting, Motivating and Educating Minority Engineers had its budget whittled down to less than $2,000, the Kansan only having $50,000 unanswered. How did this cut affect the community? Will SCORBE survive the community? Will SCORBE survive under right ones' one?
ONCE AGAIN, all newspapers have been guilty of misunderstanding or simply not understanding the minorities and their problems.
The Criterion, in its sixth month of existence, has served a useful purpose. The Criterion has been an excellent journalistic training ground for blacks and other minorities in Kansas. Minorities have been able to observe their otherwise may not have obtained.
MINORITIES not only face an academic challenge, but also a "fitting-in" challenge. The Criterion is one way to make the difference. When people understand why minorities have inhibitions about working in a society controlled by the white community. Whites and majorities have vastly different cultures and reaching an accord has not been and will not be an
Perhaps confidence is the most important minorities need. Blacks, for example, must live with stereotypical and often negative attitudes from the white majority. Everyone, including minorities, is tested by race. The condescending attitude taken by whites toward blacks has only begun to break down after many generations.
THE ATTITUDINAL problems remain prevalent and thus the Criterion will remain a strong force for a long time. However, the Criterion does not serve to compete with the
The Criterion, more than anything else,
has made the white community more aware
of its attitudinal problems. Only when
it is clear that we have problems
cannot it begin to resolve them.
Positive outlook valuable to athletics
To the Editor:
In the past, it has appeared that the Kansan would rather dwell on the negative aspects of our athletic department and fortunate happens to our athletic department, the news is covered. When something great happens to our athletic department, the coverage is not always there. For example, the results of our women's cross-country season last fall were hardly ever in the newspaper.
I am not a negative person and would like to tell you that
Our athletic directors, Bob Marcum and Phyllis Hollaw, have been very supportive of me as a coach and of our women's cross-country and track teams this year. The team's coach, Joe Zinni, is Phyllis. On the contrary, they are people who care about the athletes, coaches and
here four years and actively recruited for the University.
I have tried with all my heart and soul to build up the KU women's track team. They have become my family and I care very deeply about them. So see what I have seen, keep them from growing and becoming less of a national power than they are now. After you have spent four years of your life to build something, you do not want to see it stop growth. I love KU and always
Terl Anderson Head women's track and cross-country coach
Marcum's remarks misrepresent coach
To the Editor:
people involved in sports. There is no battle between us. We all want what is heat for K1!
Anyone who knows anything at all about Teri Anderson, who recently resigned as women's track coach, would realize that
UNIVERSITY DAILY letters KANSAN
We at the University can raise support for our nonrevenue sports by helping fund them through Senate Student. We can support our revenue sports by packing the football stadium and basketball arena with crowds. We can make the public aware of our need to sponsor these sports, support for the nonrevenue sports such as trac, swimming, softball and baseball.
I must admit I am concerned about next year's national fund budget, but I am not against KU, the administration or our football and basketball teams. I want only what is best for our athletic department, and we are not in cross-country teams. Instead of attacking our administration and our revenue athletic teams, the paper and the public need to be aware that we are in financial difficulty for next year. And, instead of being negative, we need to get out and do something to improve our conneciveness as well as our revenue sports.
I am leaving KU for another great academic institution and athletic program. I don't know how to handle the stress we have to worry about whether my athletes will have the money to go to nationals if they qualify. But I do not want to leave on a campus where it was a great school. I could not have stayed
grandstadt "martyrdom" plays are not style. As an outstanding athlete and a truly fine human being, Teri did not deserve the Macy's honor. She did by Boh Marcum in last Tuesday's game.
Just about a year ago Marcum complained that he was being unfairly criticized. He said he should not prejudge when we did not yet know what he would do when the responsibility for the women's health was now. Now, unfortunately, we know all too well.
Associate professor of classics
Elizabeth C. Banks
Unborn child's life is vitally important
To the Editor:
I would like to respond to the April 15th letter by Louise Farnham on abortion, in which she requested responses from female anti-abortionists. I would like to give three reasons to think the life of an unborn child can be more important to a woman than her own life.
First, I believe that an unborn child is a human being. This issue, of course, is very important to me, because having been pregnant it was easy for me to realize that what was inside my
body was alive. I think common sense tells us that a fetus is alive, but seeking to preserve our own liberties, we try to convince ourselves otherwise.
As a human being, an unborn child therefore has rights. Farnam stated that the fetus is not innocent and should do with her body." Granting this position, I still question abortion, because the child inside a woman is not a part of her body. The fetus is not necessary for her continued development. If the mother's implication of an abortion is not simply, "I have a right to decide about my body," but more accurately, "I can decide about this person," then my life is more important than his or hers."
Second, an unwashed child need not run a person's life. Of course the child will have a great effect on the woman, but even an unwashed child can be normal again. Many women suffer guilt pangs for the rest of their lives after having abortions. Are these guilt feelings so much better than the frustration of being told to abort? Or do the emotional difficulty of having it adopted?
Third, I would like to discuss responsibility. My main point is this: We all responsible for our own actions. I realize that when we choose to be by choice, but the majority of women who become pregnant against their will have done something to cause it, even if by choice. They are not on the men. Should the women "ride off of the distance" leaving their responsibility for the child's well-being, do? One problem I see in modern society is that we all want freedom without their corresponding responsibilities. We want a responsibility to take care of us; we want without any costs or consequences.
Another reason we need to act responsibly in the area of abortion is that there is a God, and we will all have to explain to Him what we have done during our lifetimes. The non-religious believe this, but the fact of his unbelief in the judgment will not prevent its coming.
We all discuss one another's views on abortion, but do we seek to know God's will for it? We can find what will carry weight in the end. We can find out what He thinks about abortion in the Bible. And then, when we have found out, we have made up our own laws, or laws, make up our own.
Were a woman to choose not to abort an unwanted child, she would go through many challenges. It was hard for her, but it could become a source of joy and fulfillment for her to raise and grow to love someone else.
To the Editor:
happy, happiness often eludes us. I believe that a person will be much happier by doing what is right in God's eyes than by trying to be happy.
I have been riding a bike around campus (as an adult) since 1969. So, I found the article on the front page of last Monday's University Dial Kansan quite interesting.
Diane Tehan KU graduate
Bicyclists and cars are equal on road
It was unfortunate that the piece was written from the point of view of non-hike men, not women. It was whites about blacks, but women about women, and by heterosexuals about guys. That is, it is more accurate to say that it is white.
Note the phrase, "all of the rights." This means that when a car passes a bike, it must 1) signal, 2) move to the left lane, 3) stay on the road, 4) stop and 5) move back into the right lane (page 25, same source). NO ONE, not even campus police, ever obey this part of the law. Instead, they pass without signaling and are given a passing very close to him the same lane.
For instance, as the Kansas state, it is true that "motor vehicle laws are also applicable to bicyclists, who must yield to pedestrians on crosswalks, signal when crossing intersections and follow traffic Rules. However, here is the full quote taken from the Standard Traffic Ordinance for Kansas Cities: Article 15, section 120. "Every person riding a bicycle upon a roadway shall be granted all of the rights and shall be subject to the motor vehicle applicable to the driver of the vehicle."
It is also illegal to pass a bike on a hill, such as 12th or 13th or any other hill onto the main campground (page 27), or anywhere in the area without intersection, railroad track, or bridge (page 27).
but it is legal for bike liders to travel two abreast (page 50), although drivers on Tennessee and Kentucky streets would probably run us down if we tired.
In short, it is arbitrary and unfair to place the brunt of the responsibility of bicycle theft above that of the burden must be borne by car drivers. And the police must accept the responsibility of enforcing all of the laws impartially, not just as they favor oil-consuming, air-borne vehicles.
Michael Bryan Kelly
Lawrence resident and KU graduate