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Opinion
University Daily Kansan, February 6, 1987
Remedy for shortage
Is there a doctor in the state?
People out in the western two-thirds of Kansas ask that question a lot. There's a shortage of doctors out there. Around 2,000 doctors, in fact.
To help alleviate the doctor shortage, the University has been participating since 1978 in a program designed to encourage doctors to practice residency in the state. But now, state Sen. Mike Johnston, D-Parsons, wants to scrap the program, or, at the very least, substantially alter it.
Under the program, KU medical students are provided full or partial scholarships in return for their contractual promise that once they become doctors they will practice medicine in Kansas rural
areas. So far, 80 percent of KU medical students have participated.
It has been expensive. Since the program's inception, about $17 million has been spent by the state. But that might not seem so expensive to the towns and communities across the state that are crying for local medical care. It's hard to put a price on a nearby doctor when you need one.
For the sake of Kansas, the Legislature should ignore bills intended to kill or substantially alter the program. After all, the state has little to lose—doctors who decide not to practice in Kansas are required to pay back their scholarships at 10 percent interest. And it has much to gain—Kansas doctors for Kansans. That's a pretty good deal.
Make Year of the Disabled a year of human friendship
By FRED MARKHAM Guest Columnist
Guest Columnist
1981 has been designated as the International Year of the Disabled!
What effect does this have on the nation and world? I hate to sound negative, but I wonder how many people, after reading this, will remember this designation?
Except for the individuals involved with the planning of events for this occasion, or those who have relatives or friends who are handling this responsibility, you remember what this designation really means.
If this is the case, then one must ask himself. "Why have this year proclaimed as such a monument?"
In all fairness, I have no answer to that question.
But I have some suggestions that may lead to an answer to that question!
First, as with any other problem of society that has been long overlooked, any event associated with a problem will make at least a handful of people think and act upon the
This is the planned accomplishment of any group that is trying to open the eyes of the public to a concern. This can be accomplished among those who are concerned with the problem.
In the past, most organizations behind such promotion of social problems have been disappointed and frustrated at their hard effort to bring awareness to a social problem. I have no reason to believe that the individuals working so hard on the International Year of the Disabled will share the same frustration at the end of the year.
It not that others don't care and don't want to help. We all want to see people helped
However, in the fast going of today's
context, most things going on to go
quickly stop to think about them.
ooo often we think that the only way to help those in need is the "give at the office" method. We think that by giving a day's pay to a charity, we can community Chest Fund. We have done our duty.
This, of course, helps! But it is really an act of care and love? Have you ever taken the time to think about the reason behind your answer, for most of us, is probably no.
Then why give?
For some, the "giving at the office" is out of social and group pressure. "If I don't give, what will my colleagues think?" Or, we try to convince ourselves that we have a "good feeling" deep inside us when we give. But most of us don't have the slightest idea of
were our money is going. How can we feel
when we don't even know what we're doing?
even know what we're doing?
I have always believed that people are what this world is about. "Giving at the office" is not what it's all about! Loving and helping others with their greatest capabilities is what it's all about.
Knowing that you have assisted someone through a personal crisis or made a person laugh in some of their most difficult times in the most satisfying experience one can have.
I am severely disabled and am unable to take myself to the restroom. One day I had to relieve myself so badly that I asked a professor to take me to the restroom. I thought he would be afraid to even touch me, but he didn't. "Let's go!" And off we went to the nearest men's restroom. He was delighted to assist me.
One evening, I was without an attendant and didn't know what to do. I called a woman who was my school attendant for the summer semester. She knew I needed help and rushed over. She then suggested I come stay with her until an attendant could be found.
I was hesitant, but she convinced me that it was the best thing to do under the circumstances. I spent a couple of nights at her apartment and she had a friend come over to assist me to the restroom and help put me to bed.
I informed her I had no financial way of paying her for the food and other items I used
She then informed me that she didn't expect anything from me. She was just helping a child with her homework.
The first night, we talked about this kind of friendship and love until the wee hours of the morning. When it was time for me to leave, she gave me a miniature copy of the New Testament. Somehow, this feeling of warmth and friendship brought us closer and we really understood the meaning of "love thy neighbor."
In both of these instances, of the giving of love and understanding, you can see the point to be made. These individuals did not help me out of pity, because I was disabled. They helped me because I was a human being in need.
This Year of the Disabled does not mean a thing. I hope the time will come when we won't have to designate a year for any human cause. This can come about if we realize that the worst cases go, "People who need people are the luckiest people in the world."
(Fred Markham is a special student majoring in journalism.)
I've never met the Black Leaders
The other day, when I walked into the Kansan newroom to check my mailbox, someone tapped my phone. "Hey," I said. "I need a password."
It was an editor, and he sounded breathless and desperate.
"Vanessa, did you read the lead editorial yesterday?"
"No I didn't get around to it."
"Well you need to read it. It's about Martin Luther King and I think we’re in trouble. A lot of Black Leaders just came in and they're upset about it."
"Black Leaders?" I said, craning my neck to see past the editor. "Where are they?"
it was a futile attempt. The room was filled with humming typewriters and non-black reporters. As I scanned the newroom, I was struck by the emptiness. That my leaders had vanished without a trace.
After more than 20 years of being a card-
arrying black American, I have never seen a
Catholic.
in those 20 years I have seen many blacks whom I admire and respect-Martin Luther King, Vernon Jordan, Jesse Owens, Mrs. Johnson (a neighbor who reared 12 foster children and treated them as her own) and my grandfather, who survived 20 years in a segregated Army and still maintained his dignity. I respect the students who created groups like Scombe, BALSA and the Black Student Union.
However, I have never seen a Black Leader—an omnibeneant who is so confident quoted as saying, "I am a Black Leader."
Who are these Black Leaders?
What do they look like?
What do they look like?
When did we elect them?
And where are they leading us?
Obviously, the media could not have invented these people, could they? Therefore, my only guess is that the Leaders are periodically elected during meetings of the national Black Commu-
In those meetings, black Americans, who account for roughly 14 percent of the United States population, meet in a large convention hall. Or at least every black American except me meets
At the door, they are handed ballots that list the names of Black Leader candidates, and the issues that will form the Black American platform.
The items listed on last year's platform have
Germany hasn't forgotten crimes of Hitler
In regard to the spacious SUA film advertisement for "Our Hiltier: a Film from Germany" that appeared in the Kansan on Jan. 29, I felt that I had to express my outrage. About the film's wide success, the advertisement notes, "The film won many awards in Britain and Europe, despite being ignored completely by a Germany that has repudiated its entire pre-1945 culture."
Letters to the Editor
To the editor:
Because all us Germans have been burdened by the crimes of Adolf Hitler before 1945, that period of our history has inevitably been studied very thoroughly. This has been done not only to make us completely aware of our fatal mistakes in the past, but also to avoid a re-emergence of Nazism and to enable us to understand some people's reservation or even hatred against us.
I cannot deny that I had to read the second part of the statement over and over again to assure myself that I had not misinterpreted it. There may still be a certain ignorance about the Hitler regime among some mostly poorly educated people in Germany; but hardly on a larger scale than there is in this country about certain aspects of world or even American history.
Therefore the "pre-1945" culture is absolutely mandatory during ninth or 10th grade in all types of schools, and special emphasis has been put on the Third Reich. In fact, since official investigations proved a couple of years ago that there was still ignorance about that time, especially among students in the lower school types, decrees were passed to allot more time to
I can even remember that all students from grades seven to 13 in my high school were obliged to see Joacim C. Fest's documentary film "Hitler-a Career" with their teachers in 1976, after some history lessons had been exclusively used for discussing its content. Other films that the Allied troops screened when they arrived at the concentration camp during World War II have been tortured to death than expected, have also been widely shown in schools all over the country.
The percentage of Germans who watched the American television mini-series "Holocaust" was larger than that of any other European country. Following the broadcast of each individual part, hundreds of television viewers called or wrote about the responsible television program, a number of which were discussed for an hour after each showing.
those 12 years of German history and to establish funds for appropriate teaching material.
Tenure clarification
To the editor :
I do not know why Hans-Jurgen Syberberg's film did not find as much acclaim in Germany as it obviously did in other European countries. But I do know that it is not for the reason of "a Germanity that has repudiated its entire pre-1945 culture"—by any means.
Bramberg, West Germany, graduate student
Annelie Wulff
In order to clear up misunderstandings about
my letter to Rep. Joseph J. Hoagland of the State of New York, Jan. 28 Kansan J. kessl to summarize the letter.
I wrote citing AAUP documents and KU regulations based on them, to show that tenure does not shield irresponsibility and that orderly procedures exist for discipline of faculty (both tenured and non-tenured) who fail to meet those responsibilities.
I pointed out recent improvements in our procedures. Finally, I emphasized the importance of fair procedures to academic freedom as the concept of academic freedom has been interpreted over several decades nationwide. I did not criticize the action of the Committee on Tenure and Related Problems; that committee role has since been clarified as an ability extended, and new ones added, after consultation with state and local AAUP officials.
Perhaps the case that occasioned this dispute can best be decided now in court. Those of us who want decisions to be made, whenever possible, within the University, may need to make a plan and make everything in our power to make our procedures work in every kind of situation. The regulations we have made for ourselves are contingent upon power that has been delegated to us; to retain that power we must be able to show that we are in the best position to use it wisely, and that we do use it adequately.
William O. Scott
william O. Scott
President, Kansas Conference, AAUP
already been widely announced by the news media,
Reagan? Hate him. Sammy Davis Jr.?
Tolerate him. Miami? Atrocious. Palestinian
autonomy? Mandatory. Outlook for the 1980s?
Apprehensive.
At the meetings, in addition to the ballot, each
VANESSA
HERRON
participant is given a name tag for easy identification. (This is because all blacks...)
I am sure that these meetings take place because it would be the only way to justify the belief that all blacks know each other. Because all blacks know blacks seem to hold this belief, it must be true.
For example, a student politician once
women who supported a black
woman to a student Senate committee.
"Her name is Brenda," he said. "You probably know her."
Missing the black get-acquainted conventions puts me at a definite disadvantage. I don't seem to know every black person. And most importantly, I have to find out the official opinion of
black Americans in the newspapers, second band.
For example, two years ago, former U.N. ambassador Andrew Young made an important declaration. The black community and the white community engaged in a conflict about Palestinian autonomy.
Unfortunately, I had failed to read the newspaper that day, and I did not learn of the event.
I was disappointed. A Jewish classmate lived on the next floor and if I had only known about the declaration of feud, I could have done nothing. But when I meeting her bed or mentioning Vanessa Redgrave
The get-acquainted conventions are not widely announced, and we can't always rely on middlemen like Andrew Young to announce the latest black opinions. So the best way to stay in touch with Black Leaders will be through email or phone. A number of reporters who have been granted personal interviews with the Leaders, they must have inside connections.
I erupts the best way to meet a Black Leader will be to wait in the newsroom, by the editor's office door. So the next time a Leader stalks in with an outraged edict, I'll be ready. First, I'll ask for an autograph, then I'll ask for directions to the Black Sector.
I missed the boat entirely.
I hear it's lovely this time of year.
When those middle-of-the-day dolrums come around, I don't need a flat, mut-colored
Last week the vending machine operators took away the Diet Pepsi in the soda machine. They were surprised.
Excuses, excuses. The people who zealously guard our campus from the ravages of excess traffic have heard them all. Everybody needs to get a car on campus now and then, but not everybody has the slip of paper that allows it.
F
To, so demonstrate my affection for the permit-leased proletariat of this University, I've compiled a few of the more effective excuses I've heard. Remember that the people who
Pot Shots
Supposedly, the "cola" is being test-marketed at KU. Good luck, RC. In a town full of late-night students, a caffeine-free coal most likely won't go far. In fact, the protests have begun. One inate drinker taped on the roof of the building to get rid of the RC. It tastes like sewer water. Bring back the Diet Pepsi. I drink it for the caffeine."
drink. What I need is a quick shot of caffeine to help me make it through the day. I want a low-calorie, saccharine-saturated, caramel-colored soda that will guarantee cancer by age 30.
Judy Whedham
I wholeheartedly agree.
work in those little boots don't really know what goes on in all the buildings. Just say something fast and complicated, and you're guaranteed an in:
"I've gotta pick up scenery flats in Flint
that's the good friend who's always been willing to share."
"I'm a visitor and I'd like to see the cam-
lock or vice versa. You don't have a KU car
ticket."
Remove your shoe, grimace and say, "I've hurt my foot and must see my podiatrist, who has a special knowledge."
A word of caution: Don't act flustered and say you've absolutely got to turn a paper in by noon, because if there's one thing that doesn't work, it's the truth.
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