OPINION
University Daily Kansan, April 29, 1985
Page 4
The University Daily KANSAN
Published since 1889 by students of the University of Kansas
A job well done
Gov. John Carlin and Kansas lawmakers have been patting themselves on the backs for finishing up a productive and cooperative session. And so they should.
This year's group of legislators tackled issues that have been haunting the halls of the statehouse for years, even decades. Instead of arguing all session long and ending up in stalemates, they sent a stunning list of proposals to Carlin and Kansas voters.
Due to the efforts of the 1985 Legislature, Kansas voters will have an opportunity in 1986 to vote on whether the constitution should be amended to allow liquor by the drink on a county-bv-county basis.
Voters will also decide the fate of another constitutional amendment that would allow different classes of property to be assessed at different rates. If approved, the amendment would protect farmers and homeowners from large property tax increases that would otherwise result from the statewide property reappraisal mandated by the Legislature this session.
Threatened with the loss of some federal highway funds, the Legislature passed and Carlin signed into law a proposal to raise the legal drinking age. As a result, those who turn 19 before July 1 will be the last people under the age of 21 to legally drink alcoholic beverages in Kansas.
The Legislature also passed, but Carlin wisely vetoed, a proposal that would have allowed the state to inflict death by lethal injection upon those convicted of premeditated, first-degree murder.
The Legislature handed Carlin a belated victory by approving the ban on the burial of hazardous wastes that he had proposed last year.
The University of Kansas and the other Board of Regents schools fared better than they did last year, though not as well as the Regents or Carlin had hoped.
Despite some of the legislative strides they made, Kansas lawmakers took only small steps when they dealt with faculty and classified employees' salaries. Faculty members will receive a 5 percent salary increase, and classified employees will get a 5.5 percent raise.
A Regents study has found KU faculty salaries lagging behind those at comparable schools. And classified employees are still seeking a pay plan that deals equitably with all.
Now that the Legislature has finished with the sticky issues of liquor by the drink, the drinking age and property taxes, perhaps faculty and classified employee salaries will receive the attention and financial support next year that they have always deserved.
End of round one
U. S. and Soviet negotiators in Geneva had their final session in the first round of arms talks Friday. The next round of talks about long range nuclear weapons is not slated to start for another month.
We do not know what went on behind the closed doors in Geneva because of a press blackout, yet we have heard an earlful from a variety of Soviet spokesmen during the interim.
First, in response to a solicitation from a group of private U.S. citizens, the Soviet Union has expressed its eagerness for a comprehensive nuclear test ban. This would commence August 6 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima.
Second, the radar system the Soviets built, which has been the target of U.S. criticism for the past several years and which until recently was just to "track satellites," is now recognized by the Soviets to be "a problem" under the current ABM treaty.
Finally, as Christians worldwide celebrated Easter. Mikhail Gorbachev announced that the Soviet Union would freeze deployment of nuclear missiles in Eastern Europe until November.
But although the above seem like significant concessions, indicative that the Soviets are serious about negotiating, one has to wonder. Take, for example, the freeze of missiles in Europe until November.
The Soviets have already deployed 414 SS-20 missiles, each mobile and carrying three warheads. These are targeted not only at Western Europe but China and Japan as well. By November the United States will have deployed a total of 200 single-warhead missiles in Europe. Simple arithmetic reveals that by November the Soviets will possess a 1,242-to-200 advantage in nuclear warheads. The reason for this move: The Netherlands is scheduled to begin deployment of missiles then.
Rough times lie ahead. We just have to trust that our representatives in Geneva want is best for all of us.
The Soviet Union accuses the United States of not negotiating seriously, but it is the Soviets themselves who need to re-examine their motives. Proposals for comprehensive test bans without on-site verification, a long-overdue admission of treaty violations, and the deceptive waving of an olive branch on a sacred day are serious? This is no more than a giant PR campaign.
Sandinista lies have created contras
The Sandinistas have betrayed the revolution. They are liars. These are facts.
Rewvolutionary forces overthrew Anastasio Somoza, dictator of Nicaragua, in 1979. Shortly before their victory, leaders of the revolution promised that the new government would have free and open elections and would respect human rights. (New Republic, Aug 4 and 11, 1979.)
The United States had withdrawn support from Somoza before the overthrow and promptly gave the new government more than $100 million in aid. (Speech by John Silber, president of Boston University and a member of the Kissinger Commission on Central America, Vital Speeches of the Day, April 1, 1985.)
Indeed, U.S. aid continued into 1982. (State Department report to House Foreign Affairs Committee. February 1984.) Nonetheless, the Sandhistas frequently say that U.S. forces must seek to them like Soviet Cuban aid.
The contras formed in response to Sandinista crimes. One group of contras gathered under Eden Pastora, who had been "Comandante Zero" in the revolution. He left his position and was soon realized that the Sandinistas were Soviet Cuban puppets. He is fighting for a democratic government.
The Miskito Indians formed another group of contenders. They rebelled against the United States.
A third band of contras is based in the Honduras and contains some former members of Somoza's national guard. However, Sen. Malcolm Wallop, R-Wyo., has noted in the Congressional Record that anti-Somoea civilians control this group. (Information about the contras from Washington Times, March 26, 1985.)
population relocation plan that was similar to plans in Vietnam and Cambodia.
Human rights have proved to be a problem for the Sandinistas.
VINCE HESS Staff Columnist
addition to relocation of the Miskites, another Sandinista plan is to replace the Roman Catholic Church with a national church. Huber Matos, who was an aide to Castro during the Cuban revolution but was later jailed by Castro for dissent, visited Nicaragua last year and wrote that some farmers had joined the Honduran separatists in threatening the government's attack on their religion (Wall Street Journal, Dec. 21, 1984).
Seeking to help improve conditions in Nicaragua, Pope John Paul II
inaugurated the "Bible Chapel" at St. Mary's Church.
the pope spoke to a crowd of half a million people, Sandinista hecklers yelled "people power" into the loudspeaker system. The pope re-posed with the shout, "Miskio power!" (Wall Street Journal, Jan. 8, 1985.)
The Sandistas have boasted about their literacy campaign. However, Robert Leiken, a researcher at the Carnegie Foundation and author of a Democratic response to the Kissinger Commission Report, found that many people who had undergone revolutionary education still could not read.
Moreover, Leiken reported, many Nicaraguans said their lives were worse under the Sandistas than those in Nowae (New Republic, 8.1984).
Even more lies accompanied the elections that were conducted last fall. five years after the revolution. The Episcopal bishop of New York said on Easter Day 1984 that the Sandimistas were merely imitating the United States, which had had no elections for the 12 years from the end of the revolution to the victory of George Washington as president. He evidently forgot about the Articles of
Confederation, which allowed for national and state elections.
Moreover, Geroge Washington had many opponents, none of whom felt forced to call for armed revolt afterwards (Silber in Vital Speeches) However, Arturo Cruz, leader of the democratic party, vowed to counter U.S. aid in Nicaragua, for U.S. aid to the contrasts. Wall Street Journal, Jan. 8, 1985.)
herbaps Cruz decided to support the contrasts because the Sandinistas had used bands of rowdy youths to break up campaign rallies of the opposition parties. The Sandinistas borrowed this idea from Soomaa. This tactic, along with press censorship, made a lie of the Sandinista promise of a free and open election. (Leiken in New Republic.)
Finally, let us consider the Sandinista military buildup. The Nicaraguan army has 60,000 troops and the country has a population of 2.8 million people. By comparison, El Salvador, also in the midst of a devastating civil war, has a population of 4.7 million. (Troop figures from New York Times, March 30, 1985; populations from 1985 World Almanac.)
Documentation is available in Leiken and Siliber for such topics as corruption among Sandistaff offenders and threat to the U.S. southern border
Long live the revolution! Down with the Sandinista tvrants!
Ribbon of highway drawn out, costly
Speaking of milestones and millstones, which many people are doing this year, let us not forget that 1968 was the first year the interstate highway system of the interstate highway system
If cost overruns on modern defense contracts strike you as unduly heavy, consider this:
In 1956, when President Eisenhower's signature created the Highway Trust Fund, construction costs for the interstate system were forecast at $27 billion.
That figure has now been boosted to $130 billion. And the 42,500-mile system ain't finished yet.
The time overrun may be even more severe than the cost overrun. The original act of Congress envisioned completion in 1970. It probably will be 1980 before the last slab of concrete is poured
DICK WEST United Press International
Road contractors responsible for the overruns at least can claim service-connected disabilities. With adequate signage, it is easy to overlook the fact that the
official name is the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways.
Moreover, some Pentagon planners regard it as inadequate for defense needs.
Having to share our highways with civilian trucks and autos — not to mention the 55 mph speed limit — is bound to hamper military convoys.
We also sometimes tend to forget that it now is possible for those convoys, trucks and autos to travel from coast to coast without encountering a single traffic light.
**out.** 1 submit, is quite an accom-
pishment, even though 15,000 miles
passed on a daily basis.
After Eisenhower signed the legislation, there were computer studies showing the number of jobs the largest public works program in history would create. Although these predictions may have come to pass, the computers apparently did not measure the impact of exit ramps.
It has been pointed out that the interstate system links 90 percent of U.S. cities of more than 50,000 fostered entire new business centers.
I predict that eventually interstate owns with fewer than 50,000 inhabitants will be identified by number rather than name.
Bars deserve no glory, readers write
Sometimes it surprises me to learn what a heartfelt response people can say.
The reason for my column was that a friend of mine had mentioned that I was falling into that habit — that I was writing a lot of stuff about incidents in bars. I protested that I didn't think I did it so much, but she said that I had done it enough that she had noticed.
A couple of weeks ago I had a column about newspaper columnists' tendency to write about people they had met in bars, about conversations they had had in taverns — columns related to bars and alcohol.
In the column that followed, I said that she probably was right, that it is harmful and wrong to glamorize and glorify alcohol consumption by constantly mentioning bar conversations and tavern talk in newspaper columns. For some reason there is a hole in the story, doing just that; letting the world know how much time they spend in bars and how colorful bar life is.
I said that, with the growing national awareness of the problem of alcoholism, it probably didn't make too much sense for columnists to keep on writing so many bar columns. I said that, from that day
on, 1 planned to cut it out — that 1 planned to excuse bar references from my columns.
The response from readers amazed me. Apparently the alcohol problem in America is deep-seated that I can't help but smile, angry, all the time. The letters I
BOB
GREENE
Syndicated
Columnist
read told me that alcohol was destroying lives and families every day, causing more frustration and grief than I could have imagined.
To a person, each of these writers was resentful about the very thing he had written about: the tendency of newspaper columnists to make bar-bopping sound like a funny, happy, great American institution.
As I pointed out in the column, I think that television and the movies have a far greater effect on the way people view life than newspaper columns. do I wasn't pretending that cutting references to bars out of my
columns was going to have any real influence on things
But letter-writer after letter-writer told me how furious they were every time they picked up a newspaper and read yet another story that came out of a barroom. Their own lives were in tatters because of the effects of alcohol — and here their newspaper was telling the world what a great thing it was to hang out in bars.
The individual stories will stay with me:
The woman who told of growing up with a father who spent several hours in bars every night — and of feeling, throughout her whole life, that she never truly understood him or knew what drove him.
The widow who wrote of her husband dying, and of her realizing that for the last 10 years of their life she was a victim of him because of his alcohol abuse
with me, too. Several writers said that I had gone overboard — that for every alcoholic, there were many people who enjoy a few social drinks in bars and who have no problems with it.
The divorced man who wrote of feeling alone and lost without his wife and children — but knowing that the reason the marriage had ended was that he had devoted more time to pursuing the "pleasures" of alcohol than seeking the pleasures he might have found at home.
There were letters that disagreed
Those writers said that there were increasingly few relaxing pleasures left for people today, and that a couple of drinks with good company was a harmless activity for men and women to engage in.
I'm sure that those people have a point. There are lot of folks who enjoy hitting a bar for a drink and some conversation, and who are able to maintain the equilibrium of their lives with no problems.
But the overwhelming lesson that I learned from the majority of the letters is that there are so many people out there who feel constant anguish because of what alcohol has done to their lives. Every time they experience it, as a symbol of happiness and fun, it makes them feel like screaming.
If you are one of the people who can stop off for a few hours of drinks and have it just to be a casual, humorous part of your evening, count them. Most mail tells not that there are many unlucky ones among you at the bar
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