Page 4 Opinion University Daily Kansan, February 5, 1981 Black History a key February will be a busy month on campus. Lots of activities have been planned to draw attention to black history, all part of the celebration of Black History Month. Black history in America dates back before the Pilgrims; it was a year before the famous Plymouth Rock landing that the first "indentured servants" -slaves—were brought to the English New World. Black history spans centuries of slavery. And the years of freedom on paper only. And the struggle for real freedom—the freedom that comes from equality. But history isn't necessarily something hidden back in the cobwebs of the past. What's done today to promote the equality of blacks in all sectors of American society must be continued in the future. So let Black History Month not only be devoted to celebration. Let it also be devoted to the creation of jobs for unemployed blacks. Let it be devoted to the elimination of employment roadblocks. Let it serve to make real solutions to the problems facing many blacks. Remembering the past is fine. But it'll have even more meaning if this month—and the other 11—is a period of action as well as celebration. Lack of troops, officers plague U.S.forces abroad By KATE POUND Guest Columnist "Ma'am," the Air Force sergeant said, "I don't believe the Army's got a 404th here." He was manning the entrance of a U.S. base near Kaiserslautern, West Germany. He looked to be about 40, and from the stripes on his sleeve, obviously had been in the Air Force several years. I wondered two things: Why was a staff sergeant working as aentry, and how could someone so thick-headed have been made a staff sergeant? A popular word among military personnel describes the condition of the armed forces. The word, an Army officer friend explained to me, is dirtball. It has replaced GI as a nickname for a soldier. Spoken by enlisted troops, it can be a self-deprecating word of humor. "He's the guy who of you dirtballs go get pizza!" Add dumb, or even worse, dumbass, and it's an insult and a reflection on the ever-declining IQ of the average soldier. A tightening civilian job market and entrance exam results falsified by recruiters eager to make their quotas have meant that new enlisted recruits are less educated and less intelligent than the troops of ten years ago. "It's a scary," a medical corps officer said, "and he's running. The dumburd dirtburs. Someone's to suffer." It's scary, also, when one wonders who has their hands on the billions and billions of dollars. Who's in charge of making sure these weapons are secure and that no accidents occur? The problem isn't just a shortage of intelligent troops, it's a shortage of troops and officers period. Ten years ago, an Army sergeant could support a family; a captain in the finance office earned a salary comparable to that of the military salaries have not kept pace with inflation or civilian wages. And the military benefits, which once made up the difference between civilian and military salaries, are failing behind too. Men and women who once might be part of the military are leaving it as fast as they can get processed out at the end of their hitches. No one seems to care, either. Politicians during the recent campaigns spouted rhetoric about increasing military might. But no one seriously spoke about the problems facing the military forces and their families. The problems may seem small to non-military groups as a stage of medical care everywhere, or does it complain so much? And what does it matter if a military wife can't find baby food in the base commissary? And really, what is the fuss about the entertainment available to troops on foreign bases? They ought to be grateful for getting "Airport '79" and for that nice hotel alloy. But these problems are discouraging to military personnel and are serious symptoms of official neglect for the armed forces. Take, for example, when a girl in December, a military nurse was injured and sent back to the States for treatment. Her injury left one, one, surgery-qualified registered nurse to staff the operating room and is responsible for more than 200,000 Americans. "I'm going crazy," the exhausted captain told. "And I can never leave my mide, I can't even eat in it." Military hospitals overseas are frighteningly understaffed, but not because of a shortage of qualified people. One surgery-qualified nurse, in Germany with her officer degree, is available for seven months to get a job. There is no money to hire her, she has been told, over and over. And there is no money to offer soldiers decent entertainment; so they languish, bored, angry and a long way from home. The baby food needed by hundreds of military families may be off the commissary shelves for weeks. Each new shipment is snatched up, along with shipments of such things as corn chips, Dr Pepper, soap and hundreds of other items. No one can be sure when the next shipment will come; so they hoard. Yet our government expects the troops stationed in Europe to protect the Western world. They expect soldiers to be well-trained and disciplined. They expect military families to live happily, far from home, with friends and neighbors. But there is no way that even half the more than one million military dependents in Europe would be evacuated. The politicians who cry for more military spending have forgotten that weapons are no better than those who use them. If President Reagan and the new legislators truly care about military might, they must look first to people and then to hardware. Because, you see, factories can't build the people on whose shoulders rest that military might. Also the money isn't there to paint base buildings or repair base housing. Neglect might not be so bad if military officials didn't insist on controlling the lives of military families. A new regulation has limited the number of lights a family could have on their Christmas tree to 25. The official media for the military forces, Stars and Stripes, the television stations pump out official drivel. They are not worthy only for the amount of sports news they carry; otherwise, military families learn little about current affairs. Kate Pound is a journalism major studying in Ireland. Old Softy Nine-digit zip codes post difficulties All the zip we need! With the right kind of salesmanship, Americans have been known to buy pet rocks and liquid gravity. Now the U.S. Postal Service wants to sell us on the nine-digit zip code and to assign expanded code numbers by next October. I've decided I don't want one. The government, though, doesn't want us to panic. The postal ayatollahs assure any why-bother individuals, is the same number of people as the police (the one that took you five years to remember). This is one less digit than your telephone number (including area code). And in most cases, they say, you will get just four numbers added to your old zip code. All you must do then, is know 28 digits in order to remain a productive citizen. The government says it is all voluntary and that it will be unnecessary to memorize code numbers for all your friends, great-aunts and third-cousins. Why? Because the Postal Service can introduce a handy, toll-free phone number you can call night or day to obtain any codes. Besides the ironic prospect of memorizing a 10-digit phone number for a nine-digit zip code, we all know about those toll-free government numbers. If people get a busy signal when they report child abuse, what can we expect from them destined to be an even buster switchboard? And how long will this buddy-buddy stuff last? We've already withstood an overdose of authoritarian finger-waving from Mr. Zip, the first zip-code pronaganda campaign in 1963. people still went nuts at times, looking for a particular zip code when they needed it. It seems the official directories issued for that purpose were not infallible. He carried a subliminal message of doom for those who didn't comply. And well-meaning Those books were as scarce and as hard to read as national security documents. They were PETER SOMERVILLE confined to central places and inevitably locked in someone's bottom drawer. How much more simpler it would be to have zip listings in the back of every phone directory? Those of us who exchange Dear John and Dear Joan letters, thank-you notes, apologies, recipes, family chatter, news about vacations, diatribes and personal tidbits that fascinate mainly ourselves and our five closest friends, are small fish in all of this anyway. We account for only 7 of our 80 million pieces of mail that go in and out of post offices annually. Businesses are the big mailers. But big business mailing groups aren't too crazy about the tremendous costs either—estimated at $1 billion—and the bother of converting their 8 million address listings. We can well sympathize, and though we may be minnows in the stream, the system still depends on the rest of us for heart and romance. We should not need to shoulder have something to say about this change. As the Postal Service explains it, the nine-digit numbers are needed to get maximum use of a 9-digit telephone number. fun, no doubt, for them, but not for us. They say increased efficiency will mean fewer rate increases over the years..even as they ask for an overall 28 percent increase. One senator, David Durenberger, D-Mim, told his colleagues that the issue really isn't automation, but how to make the Postal Service more competitive with private carriers, ad- vertising supplements and electronic com- mununications. I'm not so sure nine-digit Zip codes will accomplish that; maybe they should try more efficient delivery. We know first-hand the pain of automation. It isn't all the fault of the Postal Service when their machines gag on the bulky little surprises we slip into our letters. They must see, however, that the mail is one of the few places left where can relish acting out those small eccentricities that assure us we're still more than a flat computer and we can't afford to be standardized only so much before we experience an existential crisis. In this case, five numbers is enough. Letters Policy The University Daily Kansan welcomes letters to the editor. Letters should be typewritten, double-spaced and not exceed 500 words. They should include the writer's name, address and telephone number. If the writer is affiliated with the university, he or she should include the writer's class and home town or faculty or staff position. The Kansan reserves the right to edit letters for publication. KANSAN (USPS 650-640) Published at the University of Kansas daily August through May and Monday and Thursday during June and July except Saturday, Sunday and holidays. Second-class postage paid at Lawrence, Kansas 66045. Subscriptions by mail are $15 for six months or $27 a year in Douglas County and $18 for six months or $35 a year outside the county. Student subscriptions are $2 a semester, paid through the student activity fee. Postmaster: Send changes of address to the University Daily Kansan, Flint Hall, The University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS. 60405. Edition David Lewis Managing Editor Ellen Iwamoto Editorial Director Don Munday AD Manager Ben Schaud Campus Editor Scott Faust Associate Campus Editor Gene Myers Assistant Schaehlman Editors Ray Fermanek, Sian Snookerhead Assignment Editor Kerry Bertha Sports Editor Kerry Bertha Associate Sports Editor Trace Hamilton Entertainment Editor Shawn McKay Assistant Entertainment Editor Haim Gimpcraft Makeup Editors Cynthia Currie, Patricia Weens Wire Stabilizer Bill Gilligan Copy Chiefs Trace Hamilton, Janette Hess, Bob Padgett, Dan Schaud, Jeff Sievers Staff Photographers Ben Bigger, Soekher Boegh, Bob Greenspoon, Dave Kruean, Mark McBoulin, Rob Poole Artist Contributors Cynthia Currie, Jon Bell, Mason Herrell, Dan Tarchis, Judy Woodburn Cartridges Artist Kevin Mills, Jane Neufeld, Peter Somerville, Dan Tarchis, Judy Woodburn Staff Artists Margie Deeb, Brad Harrison, Greg Leibert, John Richardson Writers Dog Burson, Tom Grass, Fred Markham, Vilgin Borgnain Business Manager Terril Fry Retail Sales Manager Larry Leibengood National Sales Manager Barb Light District Manager Karo Brendle, Cynthia Currie, Mary Washington, Dan Tarchis, Judy Woodburn Production Manager Kevin Koster Classified Manager Anne Councel Transboundary Manager Jen Wardley Staff Artist Rink Buckley Photographic Manager James Hamaker Retail Sales Reporter Juliette Beeler, Telica Berry, Judy Caldwell, Salty Cowen, Bill Room, Donna Hench, Ann Hornerbinger, Marcee Jacobsen, Terry Knoober, Laura Hench, Howard Shulkin, Thaise Trainer, Todd Young General Manager and News Advisor General Manager and News Adviser...Rick Mussel Kanan Adviser...Chuck Cheating