UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN editorials
Unsigned editors represent the opinion of the Kansan editorial staff. Signed columns represent the views of
February 19, 1980
Tax could kill thirst
Summer 1980, Lawrence: A KU student in cut-offs and a pullover shirt claws his way up the hill, dragging his backpack behind him. It's 102 degrees in the shade and dust is collecting on the student's tongue as he hoists himself up the stairs to Wescoe Terrace Cafeteria.
He oozes over to a soft drink machine, inserts his 30 cents, pushes a button and waits in desperate anticipation for the can of cool, carbonated liquid that will only quench his pain but also revive his sensibilities.
He waits and waits and waits—nothing happens. Then some words above the coin slot light up and start flashing: 10 CENTS MORE REQUIRED DUE TO NEW EXCISE TAX.
The student stares in disbelief and starts to reach into his pocket. But, before he can secure that precious dime within his grasp, he is overcome with thirst and collapses into a dehydrated heap at the foot of the machine.
Ridiculous legislation has claimed another victim.
Rep. William M. Beezley, R-Girard, is sponsoring a ball in the Kansas Legislature that would levy state excise taxes ranging from 2 cents on a bottle of carbonated soft drink to $2 on a gallon of syrup used to make the drink.
Wholesale manufacturers and distributors supposedly would bear most of the burden of the tax, but opponents of the bill say consumers pay the tax through higher retail prices—the inevitable plight of the consumer.
How are the two things related?
The logic behind the bill is unreasonable and about as flat as a three-day-old bottle of leflower pop. Proponents say the excise tax can produce at least $20 million in revenue annually, which would be set aside for Board of Regents institutions' building projects and services.
Young people are the primary consumers of soft drinks—a fact that few would try to contest but that many try to exploit. Beeley says it is time for young people to start paying for their future educations.
Fortunately, opponents of the bill have pointed out to the House Assessment and Taxation Committee that the proposed tax would be much less than the current bill. They also said the bill could promote bootlegging of soft drinks in Kansas.
"Well, they drink the most of it, and they're the ones who are going to be using our colleges and universities in order to do their jobs," he well begin paying for it," he says.
Does that mean someone is going to keep track of taxes paid by every soft drink consumer in Kansas so they can be assessed against the consumers' future educational fees? Of course not. They have to go up attending school out of state would get their "pop tax" money refunded to them? Again, absolutely not.
If Kansas legislators think control the flow of "fiery" 3.2 spirits is a headache, just let them try to take the fizz out of soft drinks with an ice cube; they may have a historical reputation for being a dry state, but not THAT dry.
Registering for draft is first step to sadness
Guest Columnist
By BRAD GAUBATZ
"Draft? Wow, I never thought they'd really do it. Joe says it's just propaganda to us, and it doesn't work on abigail right, you know, we can't afford to the real war-what with all the nuclear weapons and all. I better go up now, my kids will be upset, you pick you up at a p.m. Love you, too."
"Hey Dad, I got a draft notice in the mail today. The class of 79 is gonna be the first to give if something crops up. I don't think much will come of it, though, with all the nuclear weapons and all. Just to change the subject, my grade card also came in the mail last week. I'll go to my semester. Thanks, Dads. I have to register for next semester in three weeks."
"They say it'll be six months to top, Mom. Besides, I's gonna get to see a lot of Europe on my leavers. They're calling it a police force, but they're not really military parade over here to show the Reds we really mean business. Don't worry, they'll send you guys to work and papers and paper us all home. You'll see."
All my love
Dear Diane.
"Joe, Hey Joe?" Guess where they're sending me for boot camp. Come on, just guess. Nope, Florida! Sun and surf, here I come. Diane! I haven't told her yet. I will only be down there a couple, three weeks. Then I will blow over how I heard the president announce nuclear weapons development! I don't see how the taxpayers put up with it.
I've been over here for three weeks now.
It's gone by pretty fast. We've had an all right time. They've been kinda heavy on the body, but I don't think we'll see any action soon, if at all.
Dear Buzz.
I got your letter today. I started crying when I read it. I can't believe we're finally going to do it. This is the happiest day in my whole, entire life. Me and Bev went to look at dresses today just for the fun of it. I看了一思我吧 I like it. I put on and Bev wear it. I望，我 you don't mind me sending to you. I will wait for you with all my heart.
I love you
Dear Mr. and Mrs.E.L. Gibson;
The United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps
Buzz Gossel was killed on July 29.
His herisman shall ... Enclosed is a letter
his herisman Dr. Dennis Buzz Gossel had not
received a note from the U.S. Navy
Again, we give you.
Brad Gaubatz is a St. Louis freshman majoring in architecture.
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FBI uses Abscam to abuse press
By BURKE MARSHALL
New York Times Special Features
NEW HAVEN -1 should be clear to everyone that the so-called Abscam—for American officials into the alleged susceptibility to bribery of government public officers involves not one but two shocking scandals.
One concerns officials' honor; the other, containing elements of great institutional dangers that must be checked, concerns the conduct of the federal law enforcement establishment. For the causes of justice, fair play and respect for the process of law not been served—indicted, have been damaged—by the FBI's use of the press.
BY BURKE MARSHALL
law and professional responsibility. I has supposed—I had thought that any lawyer charged with any power over the public reputation of any person protected by law must be held liable for charges of violations of the federal criminal code would be made through the controlled process of law. That means that accusations of criminal wrongdoing would be made by a prosecutor, but not only after the accused parties had been formally charged and notified, and that any characterizations of the charges by the prosecutor related to summaries of the formal documents.
The process of federal criminal justice is controlled by standards of constitutional
I AM shocked that these elementary rules of fairness have been so flagrantly violated in the Abscavis investigations. No one, except one low-ranking civil servant, has been
charged. No evidence has been presented in official materials, some with years of public service and with records of enormous public value, have suffer permanent damage to their infrastructure.
One no one values due process should be unconcerned with these events. I am equally shocked by the indifference of the press and the radio and television networks to being uninformed of our own reputation. There is no other explanation for the deliberate, pervasive and uncontrollable spread of selective information about what now dominates the news as a national scandal than that the FBN has access to the press to make its case public.
can only be because the premature leak of these widespread accounts of alleged theft by officials in some cases, even before the attacks were announced—accused from attorneys charged with the responsibility of prosecution, a work of every standard of professional conduct.
IF THAT charge is unfair to the FBI, it
There is a smell of very dirty business emanating from the whole investigation, but no point. If our representatives in Congress want to local officials, our civil servants, willingly accept bribes for even ambiguous favors, they can be prosecuted with vigor and impartiality.
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But it is greatly unfair—it is outrageously unlawful, unprofessional and unconscionable—for the presecruces to be commenced by leaks to the press, for which legal response in the form of libel susses is not necessary. But if you although I do not really expect, that the news media would worry about their role in this enterprise.
ATTORNEY GENERAL Benjamin J. C丽文's office has now-belatedly—announced that the leaks are placed on the leaks. The limitations placed on the investigation, including that of granting in advance a protected sanctuary for those whose leaks were made, are troublesome.
It is especially disturbing that the announcement is not accompanied by any expression of concern by FBI director William H. Webster, whose agents would seem to be by far the most likely targets of an effort toLOCate responsibility for the leaks.
Long experience suggests that attempts from the outside to get any kind of information from the FBI on this kind of matter are apt to be unavailing.
Morality and politics can't be mixed
Accordingly, the public, and especially the legal prosecution, should watch with great care and attention the Justice Department out who is responsible and to punish them.
Burke Marshal, professor of law at the Yale Law School, was U.S. assistant attorney general for civil rights from 1961 to 1965.
Look out all ye who would transgress the moral boundaries of Kansas. Ye shall be smitten by the Legislature who would have you behave as it wills.
Ah, the land of Carriage Nation at it is again. Legislating morality and keeping Kansas safe from sin and sex. The state Legislature's newest attempt at controlling the system is armed at "palmistry," the division of property when unmarried couples split up.
State Seen. Wes Sowers, R-Wichita, authorized Senate Bill 802 with the intention of "removing the penalty for immorality." The bill would require married couples to sign an agreement about property division that should the couple split up, and intended to have a legal claim to the property.
the bill, Sowers has said, is a reaction to the hundreds of "palmim" cases that have gone to court since the landmark Marvin case. In that case, actor Lee Marvin was
kate
pound
COLUMNIST
sued for financial support by a woman who had lived with him for several years. The woman won the case and was awarded a prize. Marvin had earned during those years.
SOWERS DOEN't want to see such cases in Kansas court and says that his bill will prevent them. The bill also would force them to pay the costs their unmarried status. Sowers has said.
Sowers has said that he considers living together without marriage morally wrong. The woman is asserting that she represents the people or not, he has no right to attempt to legislate the lives of her children.
It may not have occurred to Sowers,but
some people don't consider living together wrong. His morality may not be the morality of the entire state, and even if the majority of the state's population agreed with him, he still would have no right to live together, nor the morality of those living together. The quote from one of the sources of modern American morality says it all:
"LET THOSE among you who are without sin cast the first stone."
Sowers, it can be presumed, is without sin. The Kansas Legislature years ago decided that the military could not be governed by outsiders. As long as people do not injure each other, or any one else, their actions are their business. Apparently, the Legislature decided that persons old enough to vote, pay taxes, and serve in the military could choose their own lifestyle.
sowers, however, seems to think that adults shouldn't have that right. His bill, he
has said, would “strengthen the family in public for profitals to be profited for life to be lived in an lan.” Is Sowell a priest? Judgment belongs in church; government officials should be more vigilant.
SOWERS' BILL oversteps the rights of the Legislature to interfere in private lives. No legislator would dare consider a bill that would give them greater control between business associates. Couples together have the same right as businessmen to conduct their affairs without interference. Sowers' bill shows a desire and a lot of self-righteousness.
Bills such as 902 are a waste of valuable time. The Legislature has more important bills, and the legislators have settlements unmarried couples. If Sowers is so terrifying concerned about morals, perhaps he ought to take up a pulp, or his asex, but outside the Legislature.
To the Editor:
Kansan overlooks Afghan tragedy
as the horrors committed by communist governments, in their efforts to give history a multiply- the seaward expulsion to probably 500,000 people in Vietnam, the genocide by execution and later by starvation of the Andean peoples; the inability of the dancers - the ability to be shocked by each new brutality decreases. Sill it is hard to understand why such an attack should be commented editorially, on the most recent
KANSAN letters
revelation of Soviet brutality; the massacre of more than 1,000 men and teenage boys of the Afghan town of Kerala.
The story, reported from Pakistan refugee camps by correspondents of the American News Corp., two Western newspaper papers, carried by AP, UPI and the New York Times services printed on Feb. 5 in both the Kansas City and the Topeka Daily Capital, as is follows:
On April 20, 1979, 200 Arabian soldiers,
accompanied by 20 Soviet advisers,
supported by tanks and a Soviet helicopter,
surrounded the town which was suspected of
their presence. All the Soviet-backed Afghan regime had
forced to assemble in a field, and ordered to
cheer the government. Instead, on orders of a
God's great." Thereupon, on orders of a Soviet advisor, they were forced to kneel
and stand with their hands, some still
moving, were buried in the mud.
A senior Soviet adviser, watching the women who vanity attaches to get past a male model, told me that he commented cynically to one of them: "We'll make sure that next year's potato crop will be a good one."
That night Kerala's women and children, and those men who had escaped the massacre, fled to Pakistan, from where the account reached the outside world. The group agency Tass, of course, denounces the story as "monstrous misinformation."
When an Afghan professor visited KU last Friday to give a well-advised talk on the plight of his people at the Kansas Union, at most a dozen Americans were in the country. The United States failed to send a reporter to account of a most tragic and eloquent address.
Professor of political science
Carl H. Lande
Shankel applauded for aid to students To the Editor:
I am writing to publicity express my great appreciation for the job Del Shankel has done in leading this project. I hope his leaving that post does not go by without the students of this University.
Many, if not most, of the major accomplishments of student government during my term as student body president were gained through the strong support of the University board, budget, program, and facilities of the recreation program were achieved with his help and advice—and his active involvement to cut through the University budget. He has seen seemingly endless delay. He kept an open mind about our proposals to add a legal services program to the campus, allowing the idea to develop into a workable program without our having to worry about it being deemed appropriate by a premature decision of the administration.
But his most important attribute is his personality. Everyone I know who knows Del Shankler trusts him. We know that if we take a reasonable proposal to him, he will do everything in his power to see that if it goes forward, and he will also try to reconcile it with the members of the University community when that's necessary. He listens. He cares.
He will spend hours with individual students, something we have no right to expect from the top official responsible for managing our students. He spent many hours on several occasions with
a foreign student who was having personal problems. The student needed help, and he would be very grateful to be someone he was comfortable with, someone he could trust. Shankel would have been very happy.
Shanker's influences on the University are often subtle and unknown to the public. The newspaper articles on his departure did not mention his accomplishments, unlike the annual articles of the university rightly so, list his accomplishments. But Shankel had had great influence on the University in many ways. For one, he has been a powerful force for TITLE IX and oftentimes advocated for it.
I have yet to meet anyone for whom I have greater admiration and respect. I will wish his successor well when he or she is chosen. I should ask the Del Shankel could ever be replaced.
51. Leben
El Dorado first year law student
has decided to leave his administrative post in June.
Shankel a master at resolving disputes
To the Editor
During my years as a KU student, one of the persons I came to admire most was Executive Vice Cancellor D Del Shankel. I was therefore disappointed to hear that he
As one of the many students who graduated during Shankel's tenure in Strong College, I have been eager to improve student experiences at KU. Moreover, I hope KU students will join me in expressing gratitude that Shankel is both scholarly endevours as part of our university.
In my dealings with Shankel on behalf of the student body, I found him to be a true friend. He was an avid reader and with Student Senate positions, but he treated student opinions with respect and often helped us formulate positions that could influence acceptance in the University-community.
Shankel's first year (1974) as executive chancellor coincided with my term as president of the university, and I know him while he was learning the ropes of his difficult job. From the outset, he worked diligently on the design in an administrator-perceptive responsiveness and creativity. But Shankel's most important role is the assumes a mediator role. He is master at gently reconciling the seemingly insoluble disputes that arise between the divers interests on the KU campus.
John Beisner
Former student body president
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