OPINION
University Daily Kansan, April 15, 1985
Page 4
The University Daily KANSAN
Published since 1889 by students of the University of Kansas
The University Daily Kanaan (USP5 600-640) is published at the University of Kansas, 181 Staffer Flint Hall Law, Kanaan 600-645 daily during the regular school year and Wednesday and Friday during the summer session, excluding Saturday, Sunday, holidays and final periods. Second class postage paid at Law, Kanaan 60044 Subscriptions by mail are $15 for six months or subscriptions and $18 for six months or a year outside the county. Student subscriptions are $1 and $2 per month. The student address changes to the University Daily Kanaan, 181 Staffer Flint Hall Law, Kanaan 60045
MATT DEGALAN Editor
DIANE LUBER SUSAN WORTMAN Managing Editor Editorial Editor
LYNNE STARK Business Manager
ROB KARWATH Campus Editor
DUNCAN CALHOUN MARY BERNICA
Retail Sales National Sales
Manager Manager
Sales and Marketing Adviser
DAVID NIXON Campus Sales Manager
SUSANNE SHAW
General Manager and News Adviser
Reforming ASK
The Associated Students of Kansas will receive $24,000 from KU students next year. Ostensibly, this buys students a say in what issues the statewide student lobbying group chooses to pursue. In reality, however, it seems to buy them nothing.
If there is one issue in the Legislature that students care about, it is raising the drinking age to 21. Most students oppose the measure, although its approval seems inevitable. The bill has breezed through the Legislature and now sits on the desk of Gov. John Carlin, who has said he would sign it.
And yet, ASK did nothing in this legislative session to fight raising the drinking age.
Instead, ASK abandoned what in the past had been its key issue after Congress and President Reagan last summer enacted a law that would cut federal highway funds to states that refused to raise the drinking age to 21.
ASK figured — correctly, it turned out, — that Kansas would do the same. So they switched strategies and tried instead to make raising the drinking age as palatable and as painless as possible. They fought for 18- to 21-year-olds to continue to be allowed to handle liquor in restaurants and to make the jump to 21 a gradual one.
The decision is perhaps a tenable one, but it still is wrong. Raising the drinking age — no matter how inevitable federal pressure makes it — is still unfair. At 18, U.S. citizens have adult responsibilities; they deserve an adult's rights as well.
Perhaps the worst aspect of this ordeal was the lack of dialogue between ASK officials and KU student leaders before ASK made its decision. Now that it's too late, Student Senate officials are discussing what to do about ASK's change of strategy. Tomorrow they will meet to draft a report that may recommend cutting ASK's Student Senate financing.
Such a step is too drastic. ASK erred, but it still provides an important service by communicating students' interests to the Legislature. If the Student Senate disagreed with ASK's position on the drinking age issue, it should have acted sooner. Reform — not rejection — is what ASK needs.
Tax time, again
Perhaps April 15 should be a legal holiday. After all, it is the deadline for submitting income tax returns. A day off work would help a lot of people finish their returns. Maybe it would bring new respect to the Internal Revenue Service.
That kind of reform, however, is not what most people look for — if they expect any reform at all. And the chances of such respect are slim to none. Still, this year brings a better-usual chance for big changes in the tax codes.
President Reagan spoke Saturday in his weekly radio address of plans to concentrate on the issue in May. He is taking advantage of bipartisan congressional proposals, a non-election year and the initiative of the Treasury Department.
Tax reform is a laudable goal. Reagan is following the lead of other tax reform proponents — he wants to reduce basic tax rates and eliminate a variety of deductions. The administration and the Congress should keep the issue above partisan bickering.
The United States is far from being the most heavily taxed nation. Still, today is a good time to remember another idea about our taxes. When someone complains how little government we get for our tax dollars, think about how bad it would be if we got what we paid for.
Reagan said the tax system mirrored Washington, D.C., in the eyes of many people. Each has the image of "a complicated, frustrating, unfair mystery of legalistic gobbledygook and loopholes . . ."
He may be right, but on April 15, a lot of people would settle for reforming the tax system now and starting on Washington later.
GUEST COLUMNS
The University Dally Kansan invites individuals and groups to submit guest columns. Columns should be typewritten and double-spaced and should not exceed 625 words. They should include the writer's name, address and phone number. Columns can be mailed or brought to the Kansan office, 111 Stauffer-Flint Hall. The Kansan reserves the right to edit or reject columns.
LETTERS POLICY
The University Daily Kansan welcomes letters to the editor. Letters should be typewritten and double-spaced and should not exceed 300 words. They should include the writer's name, address and phone number. If the writer is affiliated with the University, the letter should include his class and hometown, or faculty or staff of the Kansan who also invites individuals and groups to submit columns. Columns and letters can be mailed or brought to the Kansan office, 111 Stauffer-Flint Hall. The Kansan reserves the right to edit or reject letters and columns.
Anybody who says that this country doesn't have a soft heart should be told the story of Rodolfo Mendoza-Diaz.
Illegal alien still in hiding - from trial
Rodolfo, 21, is a native of El Salvador. But, like many Salvadorans, he was not happy with conditions in his country. Especially when he heard that he was going to be drafted by the army.
To stay out of uniform, Rodello and two of his brothers left El Salvador, made it to Mexico and crossed the border into the United States.
sheltered by a church in Wilmette, III., a wealthy suburb north of Chicago, which isn't a 'bad place to be sheltered. Some people who have been invited to their lives have never even been invited to a cookout in a town like Wilmette.
In many countries, they would have been snatched up within days or even hours and booted out. But here they were taken under the wing of a pirate band of rebels viding sanctuary for illegal aliens from El Salvador and Guatemala.
Although what they do is illegal, the clergy and church members believe it is morally right to shelter it and run from oppressive governments.
They have kind hearts. Unfortunately, if this country took in everybody who wanted to escape an oppressive government or poor economic conditions, our population would grow quickly to 1 billion, and those of us who speak English would be considered a minority group.
Anyway, Rodolfo wound up being
Unfortunately, Rodolio seems to have a personality disorder. One day,
MIKE
ROYKO
Syndicated Columnist
a 10-year-old girl from the neigh borough was playing at the home of the clergyman who had taken Rod olfo.
Rodolfo, who had been mowing the lawn, put aside his motor and took the girl into the garage and molested her. "But that's what the girl told her parents.
The cops came and pinched Rodolfo and he spent a weekend in jail, but the kindhearted church members with $2,000 bond and he was released
Fearing that he might be deported.
which isn't an unlikely fate for an illegal alien who molests a kid, the church people stashed Rodoafa at Humboldt Park area of Chicago.
Last August, his case came up for trial. But Rodolfo didn't show up. The word was that he had skipped to Arizona. A judge forfeited the bond and put out a warrant for Rodolfo's arrest. Much to everyone's surprise; Rodolfo finally showed up seven months later. That's because a plea bargaining had been worked out.
And it wasn't a bad deal. Generous, in fact. All Rodolfo had to do was plead guilty to taking indecent liberties with a child and he would be deported. Not to El Salvador, but to his choice of Costa Rica, Honduras or Guatemala, which had agreed to accept him.
The deal was made a few weeks ago and everybody got together in the gym.
Except Rododo didn't show. It turned out that Rododo had decided he wouldn't be safe in Costa Rica, Honduras or Guatemala, etc.
the prosecutors, understandably irritated, asked the judge if they could go ahead and put Kodolo on trial. But the Circuit Court Judge Gera T.
Rohren said no, and continued the case to March 19.
That date came and everybody was in court again. But no Rodolo. And once again the prosecutor asked if they could try Rodolo in absenteia.
The prosecutor pointed out that the girl who had been molested was there and ready to testify and he mentioned her rights should be considered.
But the judge said that Illinois law doesn't recognize the rights of a victim, but carefully guards the rights of the accused.
And he again postponed the case, hoping, I guess, that Rodolito will find time in his busy schedule to stop by the courthouse.
Now, that is what I mean about this country having a big heart. Here is Rodolfo, not even a citizen or even an invited guest, and a child molester as well. And he has these big-hearted church people helping him hide out.
And we have Judge Rohrer, who is so big-hearted that he won't put Rodolo on trial in absentee, even because he is concerned for Rodolo's rights.
So don't let anybody tell you we don't have heart.
Now, brains are something else.
- SPEND BILLIONS (NO LIMIT)
- AMASS HUGE DEBTS WITHOUT WORRY
- LEAVE PAYMENTS TO FUTURE GENERATIONS
* ACCEPTED AT ALL MILITARY SUPPLY OUTLETS
UHLIG
Ordaining women not enough alone
A long stride forward, right? Well,
maybe.
It wasn't terribly long ago that U.S. Roman Catholics were arguing over whether to allow women behind the altar rail. Now the dispute is over whether to ordain them as priests
Certainly, the average post-Vatican II Catholic would say a woman's opportunities in the church have been exponentially in recent years.
But theologian Monika K. Hellwig takes a somewhat more farsighted and perhaps more pessimistic view.
Along with new opportunities to serve as men have served, have come new temptations to lead the church astray as men sometimes have done, the Georgetown University professor said in a recent lecture at Saint Mary's College in South Bend. Ind.
In fact, she argued, much of what the church has done correctly over the centuries can be traced directly to the fact that women have been
excluded from the priesthood and positions of power.
"To have access to bullying power is inevitably to be sorely tempted to use it." Hellwang said. "To be
DENNIS O'SHEA
United Press International
deprived of the power of domination is necessarily to be thrown back upon other resources."
Lack of power, she argued, traditionally has left women free from the preoccupations of power to pioneer unconventional new roles not dominated by men and thereby free to change the face of the church and society.
For example, Hellwig said, churchwomen — especially nuns — created what were in centuries past as care for the indigent sick and of care for the indigent sick and
schooling for orphans and children of the noor
Those initiatives, she said, laid the groundwork for today's commonly accepted societal goals of universal health care and literacy.
"Many women today are impatient to do something more creative, more revolutionary," Hellsing said. "We need a solution that was in its own time."
Helliwig's point is not to discourage women from seeking a greater role in the church — including the priesthood.
"Certainly it is sinful that we are excluded," she said in an interview. "To exclude women is against the law, and women become corrected only very slowly."
Hellewig insists, however, that little will be achieved if Catholic women gain the right to be ordained without institutional changes in church structure.
"I think I a sore disappointment to some people who are vigorously
campaigning for ordination of women," said Helliwig, who won the 1984 John Courtney Murray Award for achievement in theology.
"I think it's inevitable that it will come and I'd like to see it come peacefully," she said. "The tone of much of what is being done now is not very helpful."
More important, she said, are changes promoting a renewal of spirituality and compassion and reducing access to that "bullying power" now held by clerics.
Helliwig envisions a church modeled more closely on the early Christian structure. The clergy would function as ministers, teachers and coordinators rather than all-powerful prescribers of right and wrong. Power would be communal rather than hierarchical.
Ironically, she said, that sort of reform might eventually be the very thing that opens the way for ordination of women.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Many thanks
To the editor:
We, the members of the Student Senate Finance Committee, would like to thank the Kansas Union employees for their gracious cooperation and tolerance during our budget deliberations.
non-Senate member
James Book
James Book
of the committee
EDITOR'S NOTE: This letter was signed by 21 other members of the Finance Committee.
Lee's Summit, Mo., sophomore
Not in the Bible
To the editor:
By citing Scripture to support his anti-homosexual views, Joe Vusich (March 28 Kansan) would have us believe that his opinions are based on a reasoned reading of the Bible. I suspect, however, that the intolerance preached by Vusich and certain other conservative Christians is more emotional than rational and has less to do with divine word than with human fear and misunderstanding.
The kind of virulent reaction expressed by some Christians toward gays and lesbians could not have originated solely from the Bible. Jesus himself said nothing about homosexuality; he did, however.
speak out in the strongest terms against hypocrisy, yet no one campaigns to ban hypocrites from teaching in the public schools. Biblical references to homosexuality are few in number and vague in definition. The idea is repeatedly condemns greed, though, yet no Christian groups are up in arms against employment rights for the greedy.
It seems that these conservative Christians are being highly selective in their moral indignation. Obviously something other than Bible reading must be going on to explain this disproportionate treatment. If Vusch et al. are going to claim the Bible as the source of their antihomosexual views and expect to be taken seriously, they're going to have to be more consistent in their moral crudes.
At various times in history the Bible has been misused by Christians to justify popular prejudice against Jews, Muslims, women and blacks. Now it seems that gays and lesbians are having their turn. No Christian today would claim, as was done in the past, that the Bible authorizes burning Jaws at the stake or holding blacks as slaves. One can only hope that in time the use of the Bible to derogate homosexuality will be considered equally unthinkable to Christians.
Vusich also claims that gays and lesbians are more prone to depression and suicide than heterosexuals.
George Grohwin Pittsburg junior
Even if this were true, and no evidence shows that it is, such a finding would hardly come as a surprise in a society that treated homosexuals as criminals, perverts, sinners and psychopaths. The sickness here is in the society, not in the individual.
rooms merely by finding a similar key to fit that door. How would those individuals have felt if, instead of returning to a roomful of paper, they returned to find their television, stereo and wardrobe missing? In the future, residents returning to such a house may have the Kansas to blame.
Gays and lesbians are human beings and ask only to be treated as such. In the spirit of GALA week, I challenge Vusich and others to examine the true source of their intolerance toward homosexuality and perhaps think about how Christ would have wanted them to treat their gay/lesbian brothers and sisters.
To the editor:
Joke not so funny
It is not very wise to inform the 4,500 people living in KU residence halls that they can enter others'
On my return from Easter vacation,
I eagerly picked up a copy of the
Kansan on Tuesday. I smiled as I
wished to be addressed by his washing
residents on the front page
After reading the story, I must say that I am very disappointed with the so-called "news judgment" displayed by the Kansan editors. As a result, I want to consider your front page material with a little more responsibility.
I also find it disturbing that the Kansan would play up the "light" side of this story. There is nothing at all funny about stealing paper from a donation site. The fun-loving "punksters" made it trips to take pictures and performed people made the effort to save and took the energy to deposit.
The individuals said that the "victims" probably would return the papers. Think about it: If you returned home to a roomful of papers, would you be charitable enough to return them? And stuffing 93 bags with those newspapers and leaving them in the hall is a far cry from returning them. Furthermore, the gas wasted to transport 93 bags to the donation site makes a mockery of the very idea of conservation
It is sad that college-educated men and women are so unaware that they see the violation of privacy and more importantly the waste of our natural resources as a joke. It is equally sad to see that the Kansan editors view such thoughtless behavior as front-page material.
Elizabeth Soliday
Lawrence sophomore