4
Thursday, April 4, 1974
University Daily Kansan
KANSAN commen Editorials, columns and letters published on this page reflect only the opinions of the writers.
Masochistic Shouters
The Jesus freaks, as they present themselves, are unquestionably pests. They interfere with the flow of consciousness, harshly disrupting conversation and daydreams, seeming to invite retaliation.
What they shout is probably without any strong current of religious appeal for most people. They offer, for the most part, sloganeering, prefabricated tedious drama straight from the dullest parts of the world. Their pat arguments and clichés suggest more bad faith and more exhibitionism than is healthy for their cause.
The Jesus freaks have taken root at the University of Kansas in such a way that it will be almost impossible to dislodge them. The University setting is their stronghold, in which they could easily afford to improve the manner in which they appeal to prospective converts. But they are masochists and choose not to do so.
There is an excellent reason for their enjoying an almost impregnable position. Over the past few years, there has been an increased academic tolerance of freedom of self-expression and nonconformity. It is not easy to forget the bitterness of people who say freaks, who say so little, are symbolic of so much, including the love that may act as an antidote to public apathy toward organized cruelty.
But they degrade themselves in public, disrupt lectures and collar passersby, whom they threaten to abandon forever in the featureless desert of a Bible salesman's smile. Few people are heartless enough to annoy them as much as the salesmen annoy others. Freedom of speech is an unquestioned value, interpreted tightly and legalistically, and so the game goes on. The Jesus freak successfully
The Jesus freak successfully
tests his mettle, and the public successfully tests its citizenship. The situation is symbiotic and self-perpetuating, offering everyone rewards—despite the continuing shortcoming of rather pointless noise. Everyone is a marty for a good cause and everyone has an opportunity to enjoy self-righteousness.
This shallow pop art game can go on for quite some time without the participants being aware of what they are actually doing. It certainly must be changed for the better; but this will only be brought about when the Jesus freaks face their behavior and alter it.
They might realize that, by offering love on the one hand and inciting impotent rage on the other, they aren't strengthening their message. They might make their issues more dynamic by expressing themselves with greater clarity and by creating less inconvenience. At present, an extremely undignified and bothersome situation continues to no real purpose.
The Jesus freak persists in casting himself in the role of the French beggar or the Indian untouchable. He is the public's "sweet-boy," and insatiable one, perhaps, because he isn't reviled enough.
—Jerome Lloyd
The Jesus freak, a masochist who cannot easily be punished by others, consistently offers the public sly little pleasures. Few passersby make light of him at any length; most people don't care to go against the grain of love or freedom of speech. The Jesus freak punishes himself by degrading himself. He is a scapegoat who doesn't make the public feel guilty at all. He therefore becomes, for some people at least, a great emotional delicacy.
Nixon Sets Records
Although he isn't listed in the Guinness Book of World Records, President Richard Nixon has earned himself a place there.
In his two terms in office, he has set some records that will be difficult for any other president to match or surpass.
RECORD No. 1: No other president has had his handpicked running mate resign from office because of impending prosecution.
RECORD NO. 3: Cabinet members have never changed under any other administration as much as they have under this one.
Nixon has had four attorneys general: John Mitchell, Richard Kleindienst, Elliot Richardson and William Saxbe; three secretaries of the treasury: David Kennedy, Michael Ransom, three secretaries of defense: Melvin Laird, Richardson and James Schlesinger; three
secretaries of Health, Education and Welfare; Robert Finch, Richardson and Caspar Weinberger; three secretaries of commerce: Maurice Stans, Peter Peterson and Frederick Dent; two secretaries of state: William Rogers and Henry Kissinger; two secretaries of interior: Walter Hickel and Rogers Morton; two secretaries of agriculture: Clifford Hardin and Earl Butz; three secretaries of the University: Hodgson and Peter Brennan; two secretaries of housing and urban development: George Romney and James Lynn; and two secretaries of transportation: John Volpe and Claude Brinegar.
RECORD NO. 4: No other president has had to face the possibility of paying $300,000 in back taxes and penalties.
It's possible that, in view of his past performance and records, Nixon may set one final mark—he could, and should be the first president to be impeached and removed from office.
—Linda Doherty
By REP, ROBERT W, KASTENEMIER
Newsmen's Shield Law Supported
WASHINGTON-Should Congress provide newsmen with the right to refuse to testify about their confidential news sources and information?
LF WIS.
Special to the Washington Post
This is one of the most perplexing constitutional issues of our day, and one which my house judiciary subcommittee has struggled with over the past 18 months. A compromise bill with considerable support from the news community has now been forged, but faces ambition from both the political left and right when it moves soon to be voted on.
that forcing reporters to reveal the identity of confidential news sources and information would retard the flow of sensitive information to the news media, and in turn, harm the public's right to know. Although it is difficult to demonstrate this result empirically, the subcommittee is convinced that unbridled submission could cause certain news sources to withhold critical information necessary for an informed public.
The need for such legislation was argued by scores of hearing witnesses who claimed
it involves confidential news sources and information. This position causes the free press guarantees of the First Amendment to fall before other constitutional provisions requiring citizens to testify when they have relevant facts.
I AM WELL AWARE that some of my colleagues feel strongly that newsmen shouldn't be treated differently from other citizens. That is to say, when newsmen have to be compelled by the courts, they should be compelled to provide such evidence even if
On the other hand, there are others who believe that the free press guarantees of the First Amendment must take precedence over all other constitutional guarantees. To accomplish this purpose, constitutions should a reporter be compelled to divulge news sources, since such disclosure would restrict the flow of news to the public. The only dispute among those holding this point of view is whether the Constitution permits public comment and should be pursued through further
Poor Find No Oasis of Cheap Food
By WILLIAM RICE The Washington Post
"Rapidly rising food prices in 1737 had an adverse impact on the diet of the average American family, but the full extent that impact had—especially on the poor, elderly and low income—is obscured and may never be known."
-Report of Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs, February 1974
WASHINGTON—The American public has come to understand that the poor and persons on fixed incomes suffer most from the squeeze of inflation. It is no surprise that those who earn little pay a larger share of income than others. What is emerging from the complex pattern of food price increases during the last year and a half is startling and ominous.
Put in its most simple terms, the poor are forced to pay more to eat less. Despite the inconvenience, the more affluent Americans may still choose one path or the other by altering their diet or continuing to eat as before but restricting their intake.
Although middle class complaints have focused on such matters as the price of beef, the price of staples has been rising even more sharply. Statistics provided by one food chain showed that the cost of a two-course meal in December 1972 increased from December 1972 to December 1973. In the same period, at the same chain, ground chuck rose 33 per cent.
Traditionally, with prices up, rich and poor alike have been counted on more starch and other carbohydrates and have skipped in high-cost, high-protein food such as red meat. In the 1970s, however, an exploding commodities market reflects the extraordinary situation in this country. There has been ground, no, "cheap food" to retreat to.
According to a report on food price
changes by the select committee on Nutrition and Human Needs, all Americans reacted to the increases of last year by increasing the consumption and by changing eating habits."
For the poor, facing hot dog and ground meat prices of more than $1 a pound, meat came to mean fat back (salt pork). Furious consumers threatened as dairy products and fresh fruits and vegetables were sacrificed to meet the increased cost of more filling
Despite predictions of record harvests there seem little likelihood that the slightest drop in rainfall will occur.
This is due in part to the energy crisis. It has made fertilizer more scarce and more expensive, increased transportation costs and reduced supply. This has led to a distribution system and contributed to an
atmosphere of uncertainty which is impeding, normal functioning of the market.
young normal functioning of the market.
Another new factor, one that promises to become a major issue in national political campaigns this fall, is the Nixon administration's push toward government's determination to improve U.S. balance of payments through expanded agriculture exports has worked. It also has brought domestic stockages of wheat, rice and soybeans under control, thus that, in light of demand versus supply, lower prices seem inconceivable.
Hungry and undernourished Americans will be offered in evidence as the year goes on. They, and their spokesman, will contend that record agriculture production is a hollow achievement unless enough of what is reaped remains in the United States to feed the citizens at prices they can afford to pay.
court action, or whether it should be provided through federal hesitation.
UNFORTUNATELY, THERE is virtually no prospect that Congress will enact an absolute news shield bill. Instead of pursuing the illusory goal, the subcommittee has opted for a more pragmatic development of news shield legislation that offers the maximum amount of protection to newsmen and the public's right to know without infringing on the rights of a defendant and society to command under certain paramount circumstances.
The measure broadly defines newsman, and provides protection for news sources and information at both state and federal proceedings. The two-tiered subpoena protection is absolute in proceedings other than court trials, and qualified at the trial level.
A newsman, for example, couldn't be compelled to reveal confidential news sources at a grand jury or pretrial proceeding, or at a legislative or executive level. The Sixth Amendment right of the defendant's Sixth Amendment right the shield must afford some flexibility. A newsman could at this level be compelled to testify if the court found by clear and convincing evidence 1) that the information was not available, 2) that it wasn't available from alternative means, and 3) that there was an overriding and compelling public interest in requiring the disclosures. Further, the bill requires a reporter to testify in defamation actions against the newsman. The information would lead to persuasive evidence on the issue of malice.
THE BILL WOULD preserve a defendant's right in a court action to compel testimony from newsmen when such testimony is crucial and available from no other witness. It would avoid the protracted and costly litigation pursuit of a presumed testimonial privilege for newsmen in the First Amendment—a privilege which the Supreme Court has once rejected, "Coast" v. Clinton, and which imprisoned white court decisions took forward, backward and sideways steps toward the desired constitutional shield.
IT HAS SUBSTANTIAL and growing support of the news media including the Associated Press Press Editors, Radio Disney and National Press Photographers Association, Sigma Delta Chi, Authors League of America, National Association of Broadcasters, CBS, and NBC Television Networks and American Newspaper Publishers Association.
It has bipartisan support and a reasonable chance for enactment. And more important, it would prohibit a shower of frivolous barbring or malicious submissions from the public. It would be an important gain both for journalists and for the public's right to know.
Student Passivity Tires Teachers
BY COLMAN McCARTHY The Washington Post
WASHINGTON- In high schools and colleges, the final push to the end of the spring semester is beginning. In recent conversations and contacts I have had with some teachers, I noticed two themes in their comments; that the teachers are weary and the students are tired. This weariness is caused by the exceptional passivity of most of the students.
Some teachers described the passivity in terms of student unwillingness to stay intellectually alive; others said the young came into class with a take-or-leave-evident attitude, while some taught one teacher, if they don't care one way or the other about receiving them? All the teachers--about a dozen—were regularly forced to deal with such symptoms of bullying. Many teachers wrote reports that were first-draft efforts marred by basic spelling and grammar
Poor Leadership, Television Blamed for Boredom
Weird Names a Benefit or a Trial
The Los Angeles Times
By STEVE EMMONS
But the puns and sarcasm of an in-compassionate world have been too much for many others who seek relief in a formal name change.
LOS ANGELES—Il may never be known for sure why Mr. and Mrs. First decided to name their son Safety, but clearly the name he gave them was more than any name he made for himself.
"Every time I get a traffic ticket, I get a column in the newspapers," she said. "I've说 that you're hit or Not.") three times, my sister's only been in arrest (her name is June).
university of Kansas daily during examinations. Mail subscription rates: $8 a semester for $15 a year. Second class postage paid $8 a semester for $20 a year. Admission fee: $15 a semester paid in student activity fee. Advertised offered to all students without regard to gender. Presents are not necessary those of the University. Presents must be made by the University.
First has stuck with his name; he says he has never wanted to change it.
Muriel Wayne Wiley, for one, said he (yes, he) decided to change his name to St.
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errors, lack of interest in class discussions,
rare signs of imaginativeness.
James. The reason, he said, was that people confused Riggs with other common names like Briggs and Wiggs. He tossed in Adams as a new, first name, too.
A MR. BEELCHER changed his name to Beishay. It's really pronounced that way, he said, and the mispronunciations "w" constant source of embarrassment."
And then there is Judith Worshill. She had sent to the California Department of Motor Vehicles for personalized plates. They came back "Judy 13" because 13 Judys had filed before her. The first plate issued had no number.
Her solution may be unique. Stuck with the plates, she went to court and changed her name. Said the new Miss Judy Thirteen: "You have got to have a little bit of nuttiness to do something like this, because it's a little hard in serious situations."
Likewise with Mr. Peachy, an artist who preferred the name Pheche,
STUDENT BOREOM and apathy are old students, but the current wave of it is something new, the teachers insisted. They don't know yet how to handle early results of visible pressures the students grew up with, as if they were all in a control group in a scientific experiment and certain things were done to them—just like we did before, we were now receiving the first conclusions.
SOME BUSINESSMEN have kept unusual names that stick in the memory of their customers. Paul Butcher, for example, has been a veterinarian since 1940.
Howard Bonebrache says his name may be an advantage. Bonebrache is a dentist.
"Practically every patient says something about it the first time, never anything bad. I think it helps business," he said.
The lists of doctors is rich in appropriate (and inappropriate) names: Dr. Skinner (surgery) Dr. Lantz (general practice), Drs. Gumm and root ( Dentists ), Drs. Ding
and Dong (who, unfortunately, do not practice together).
OTHER PROFESSIONS have their share. Would you prefer to be arrested by L. Lynch in Long Beach or L. Justus in Anaheim? What better man to try the case than Judge Law in Santa Ana? (If he's not available, nerths Judge Judge will sit in a.)
Common law grants any adult the right to adopt any name he wishes as long as he is not trying to defraud anyone (such as escaping debts) or is not using it for unfair competition (such as naming himself Sears and Roebuck and opening a store).
enthusiasm in watching TV characters have
their own personality is the child's fun and
creativity that is crucial.
Did Mrs. Harry G. Posthunan join the U.S. Daughters of 1812 because of her University of California at Irvine biologist, to take charge of the University's San Joaquin Marsh? What makes Betsy Ross Pig of Garden Gove sew flags and collect historical documents?
At Dara Hall High School, did Katherine and Karen Tougge get a straight A because
IRONICALLY, FEW of the outstanding unusual names make it into court for overhear. By far the greatest number want to exchange one ordinary name for another, usually assuming the surname of a stepfather and returning to the name of a natural father.
One of the "control group pressures" has been the quality of American political life in the last 10 years. The only awareness of leadership that high school and college students have comes from the values and standards shown by Lyndon Johnson and Martin, the two presidents of the 10 years when the students were maturing socially.
There is no hard, unargument proof that the values of Johnson and Nixon—more so in the early 1960s than later—were correct.
Other reasons vary—women wanting to return to their maiden names after a divorce, parents changing their minds after a divorce, and women wanting to simplify spelling and pronunciation.
Just as Watergate has corroded trust and respect among the young, television has also made its contribution. A study done at the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration reported a growing cynicism that appears even before adolescence. When asked why commercials tell the truth or do not tell the truth, 24 of the 33 older children—age 9 to 12—said that the commercials untrue because the commercials were suspect—they just wanted to make money.' To be cynical at so early an age can only cause great strain, a kind we haven't begun to deal with.
In "Beyond Black and White," James Comer writes: "We live in a society that makes trust and respect difficult. Our social system produces too much uncertainty, fear and anxiety for students, that America has a defect in its executive or leadership structure. In a fact, the behavior of too much of our leadership group resembles neurotic patterns in individuals lacking from responsibility, helping to face up to reality, self-destructiveness."
That was written before Watergate.
THE MATURE AND the seasoned can build emotional defense systems against attacks made by the shames and absurdities of a Watergate, but the young are unable to do this. As a result, trust and respect suffer.
six years of our national life—has affected the young this way. But it needs to be wondered whether the current passivity would affect so many if, for the past six years, we had had a different kind of president.
For now, the teachers are grateful that the school year will soon close, and some of the bored and numb students they've endured since September will be washed off by graduation. It is waste enough for the schools' training facilities for growth, imagination and feeling, but it is compounded by their never belet near those opportunities in the first place.
WHAT IF WE had had a leader who truly was a leader, who gave the country a sense of security, not a sense of dread, whose honesty was above question, who sought new ways to get among the people, who shifted to hide from them, who showed some sense of caring for the old, the poor and the children, and who conveyed a feeling of warmth and humor about life? Perhaps that is too sentimental a thought, but it is hard to imagine that the president, or another center figure became of such a president's example, rather than limitely retreat from it.
NOPSECULATION is involved in another fact: the two to three hours a day spent before a television set—the general average for children—is two to three hours of not only time but also the resource of childhood. Unlike muscles, which can be returned to normalcy after long periods of nausea, the imagination is not so easily revived. It is either highly developed or remains undeveloped at all. The better part of a child's imagination is erudition, where is the
One of the other causes suspected by teachers for student passivity is television. Some repeated the commonly heard phrase "Don't just sponose in class or they wouldn't stay interested in a teacher's presentation unless it was highly entertaining. In the absence of hard proof that a direct causal relation exists, teachers and passivity, the teachers are only guessing.
WHAT WILL BECOME of so many the young who have been victimized by the only presidents they have known, by the dupings on television and by the attacks that are hard, except to note that passivity among the young happily reassures those who have been benefiting by a public that is adjusted to gracelessness. This is why we guarantee their continuance. As for those who refuse adjustment, let them be typecast as activists. This not only labels them as hotbloods—easier to handle an as act than a passive one, but also confers normality on the passivists.
Griff and the Unicorn
HARVEY MERLIN THE WIZARD
MAGICALLY SENT ME ON A
VACATION TO A SOUTH SEAS
ISLAND PARADISE...
by Sokoloff
SokeLoFF