OPINION
University Daily Kansan, February 27, 1985
Page 4
The University Daily KANSAN
Published since 1889 by students of the University of Kansas
The University Daily Kansas, USP$ 600-640, is published at the University of Kansas, 118 Staffer Flint Hall. Lawrence, Kansas 6043, 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 Lawrence, Kan$ 6043. Subscriptions by mail are $1 for six months or $2 a year in Douglas, County and $18 for six months or $3 a year in Kansaholm. Send Master's Student address changes to the University Daily Kansas, 118 Staffer Flint Hall, Lawrence, Kansas 6043
MATT DEGALAN Editor
DIANE LUBER SUSAN WORTMAN Managing Editor Editorial Editor
ROB KARWATH Campus Editor
LYNNE STARK Business Manager
DUNCAN CALHOUN MARY BERNICA
Retail Sales National Sales
Manager Manager
SUSANNE SHAW
General Manager and News Adviser
DAVID NIXON Campus Sales Manager
JOHN OBERZAN Sales and Marketing Adviser
Nuclear train
Every few months a train loaded with nuclear weapons rumbles out of a plant in Amarillo, Texas, and makes its way across the country to military bases in Washington, North Carolina and Maine.
Carolina and Maine. The heavily guarded train follows undisclosed routes and unannounced schedules. Often, the train passes through Kansas. Last week, it rolled through Topeka, where about 150 protesters waited in the early morning to voice objection to the weapons inside the train and to the senselessness of the arms race they symbolize.
arms race they symbolize. The protesters, some of whom were Lawrence residents and KU students, are part of a nationwide network organized by Ground Zero, a group based in Poulsbo, Wash. Poulsbo is near the Bangor Naval Base, one of the train's final destinations.
People living near tracks along the route watch for the train and alert protest groups when it passes by. Calls notifying protesters of the approaching train can come at any time, and the groups often have only a few hours to prepare.
But small bands of protesters in towns and cities across the country still arrive to meet the train. The protests are peaceful, although choose to be arrested. Last week in Topeka. 22 protesters were arrested.
Their actions are in the best tradition of nonviolent protests and civil disobedience. The groups receive little publicity, and the number of protesters is rarely high. Their message, however, is clear: Nuclear weapons are insane, and the arms race must somehow be stopped.
So soon forgotten
The crisis in northeast Africa has by no means ended. In fact, some recent reports suggest that the famine and drought are becoming worse. And although the situation is still sporadically covered in the news, attention and giving seem to be slackening.
The crisis has been developing for more than a decade from drought and overuse of land and water along most of the southern edge of the Sahara. Ethiopia has suffered the most because of extreme conditions and political manipulations.
Suddenly, last fall, when the situation became especially urgent, it also became big news. And the Western world responded. Governments, charitable groups, religious organizations and pop musicians helped with relief work.
This crisis strains the imagination of people who never experienced such needs. And still it goes on in Ethiopia. It has moved into Sudan, where the only running streams seem to be refugees pouring into swollen camps.
to give refugees passage through Maurice Strong, undersecretary general of the United Nations, reported last week that 1 million Ethiopian refugees are in eastern Sudan and that 600,000 more may follow them soon. Moreover, he estimated that each refugee displaces five Sudanese from their homes. And refugees are entering other parts of Sudan from Chad and Uganda.
The political machinations continue also. The United States, Saudi Arabia, West Germany and Britain are pushing Sudan's government to deal with longstanding debts to the International Monetary Fund. The United States has not curtailed food aid on that account.
People in the United States have the power, and therefore the responsibility, to alleviate African suffering. Giving at Christmas time may have felt good, but giving now may matter even more. There are a number of responsible private groups that have relief donations go fully to their intended use.
Congress and government offices continue to seek ways to help. Officials need to know that U.S. citizens remain concerned. They need encouragement to make our nation generous in sending food, humane in financial issues and insistent on its proper use.
The crisis is still far front over. We shouldn't forget so soon.
Fearing what lurks in the dark
Some time ago, I was walking across campus late at night when I noticed I was catching up with a woman ahead of me. She was awake and looking down from her chair, it was very quiet, and I could hear both of our footsteps clearly.
As I got closer, she started walking faster. As I realized why and slowed my own pace. Before long, though, I was gagging me again, and she once sped up.
"You're scaring this girl for no reason," I thought to myself. I turned off and took a different route.
I've thought about that incident often since then. Recently it was brought back to mind during a conversation with two female friends. The teacher then took them home from campus after dark. Their way is quite a bit longer than others, but it is the best lighted.
This is something that most of us men don't think about often, and whenever it does come up I am always taken aback by the idea. Almost half of the University population suffers inconvenience and worry when going out after dark because of the possibility that some sub-human might be waiting in a dark corner.
True, some women think about it
more than others. Some say they hardly ever think of it at all. But I bet even most of those who never think about it still take the safest way home after dark. Whereas I, and most of my male counterparts, don't think about it and take the shortest way.
There are lots of places in Lawrence where an unaccompanied woman just shouldn't go at night.
HARRY
CROCKETT
Staff Columnist
Now why should that be a bothersome idea? When I lived in a big city there were lots of places where only an idiot would go during the daytime, let alone after dark. I didn't stew about it. I just accepted it and carried on, which is what most women do.
Well, it's just not the same. Not when the danger zone includes parts of your own campus, maybe your own neighborhood. And this is a safe town.
Most women I know can take care of themselves. I know women whom I wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley. But any one of them would be as helpless as a 12-year-old girl if she ever ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time. This is a concern that, at least here in Lawrence, even the wimpiest of males needn't be bothered about. It probably never will happen to them in their entire lives. Women, however, are anatomically trapped into the role of rape victim.
And, in a very small way, men are trapped too. The girl out walking by herself that night couldn't afford to think of me as anything but a puppetacker At first I was caught up in catching her, then I am her harmlessness. I even considered offering to walk her home. How would that have gone over?
Well, she might have screamed and run, or she might have slapped my face, but she just might have appreciated it. I still wish I had done it. I don't like the idea of having some innocent female think I a creep, but I like the idea of leaving that innocent female to walk home in the dark by herself even less, and if I'm ever in that situation again I'm going to take my chances. If she says, "Shove off, jerk, I can handle it,"
what have I lost? At least I'll know she wants it that way.
Really, men, that is the only thing we can do about this problem. Better lighting on campus will help but there will always be shadows and bushes for creeps to lurk in and behind. Women can and should learn self-defense techniques, go out in groups, stay in well-lighted areas and all that. But the only thing men can do is realize that the people who do such things are the lowest form of scum on two legs, and make sure that no female is out risking an encounter with one for lack of other choices.
Therein lies the best solution we have. Women who are with companions, male or female, are far less likely to be assaulted than if they are alone. This is why I salute Jaywalkers as the best idea I have heard of in a long time. Jaywalkers is the first organization in Oller woman who have organized and offered their services to any Oliver woman who wants someone to walk her anywhere on campus. No charge. I think it's a great idea.
Men, why aren't more of us joining and forming such organizations? Women, why aren't more of you using them?
The killing fields around the world
How many times must it happen for us to realize what communism is all about? How many people must die?
These were the questions in my mind after I saw the movie, "The Killer."
"The Killing Fields" is both documentary and propaganda. It depicts the holocaust that began in Cambodia in 1975, when U.S. forces pulled out and the Khmer Rouge took over. The movie is dramatic and chilling. Unfortunately for the truth, the movie depicts the Cambodian bloodbath as an isolated event, and it goes so far as to blame the bloodbath on the U.S. bombing and invasion of Cambodia.
The movie — based on a true story — follows a New York Times reporter and his translator, a Cambodian named Dith Pran. The pair stays in Cambodia even after the attack. The two captured along with other newsmen by the Khmer Rouge and its conquering army.
The Khmer Rouge lets foreigners leave the country, but only after all native Cambodians accompanying them are turned over. Dith Pran must join other residents of Phnom Penh on a march into the countryside The Khmer Rouge establishes agricultural camps at which the former city dwellers perform manual labor and are doctorinated into revolutionary thought.
Darth Pran witnesses murder after Dith by the security guards at the agricultural camp — thus the name, "the killing fields" — while the
followers of Marx and Lenin have left killing fields around the world.
VINCE HESS Staff Columnist
reporter, at home in New York City, appeals to international relief agencies for help in finding Dith Pran.
Finally, Dith Pran escapes to the West, but only after the reporter has had ample opportunity in the screenplay to blame everything on President Richard Nixon, who ordered the bombing and the invasion. You see, tricky Dick made the "poor li'l" of guerrillas more brutal when he ridden bombs on them.
For example, the government of the People's Republic of China admitted just last year that the "Great Leap Forward" of 1958-59 had resulted in more than 10 million people dying from hunger. Do you have any quotations on that, Chairman Mao?
However, a closer look at the real nature of communism shows that the
The Soviets often refer to the great suffering they underwent during World War II. They often fail to mention that Joseph Stalin's brutal policies were responsible for at least half of the 20 to 30 million Soviets who died in the war, including "Stalin's Secret War," tells about also their depravity of Stalin.
In Cuba, strongman Fidel Cato took a clue from Stalin and imprisoned his associates in the revolution when they objected to his totalitarian
Then there the Berlin Wall, which was erected in 1961 and is still the site of killings when people try to escape to the West.
Let us be sure to remember Vietnam, a country that grew so bloody that people risked death on the seas to escape the killing fields. And let us be sure to remember
Europa, where the government prefers to spend resources on a military parade instead of on aid for its starving people.
The killing fields extend even into the sky, as the people aboard Korean Air Lines flight 007 could tell us, were they alive.
Some objections can be raised After all, the United States is hardly innocent. Nixon lied about U.S. actions in Cambodia, and the United States has given aid to military dictators.
Yet these were isolated events, whereas the record of communism is one killing field after another. Even worse, the communist governments, having decimated their own populations, try to export terror and death to other lands. This is now occurring in southeast Asia; the Khmer Rouge was overthrown by the Vietnamese communists in 1979 and is now battling the Vietnamese for control of the killing fields.
Ultimately, we can learn something about communism by pondering which direction Dith Pran and other refugees are running. They certainly aren't clamoring to enter the killing fields.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
The Solar Clocktower proposed to be built near Wesco Hall deserves our consideration. It accepts the essential reality of our need to know the time. Driven by sunlight, it would demonstrate the potential of new technological options. A clock that symbolizes our efforts to understand these options would be an appropriate element of this University.
To the editor
Some people suggest moving the clockhouse. Replacing one of the flags on Fraser Hall with a diagonally crowned clock won't work, a tower to the west of Wescos Hall would impede that splendid southern view and a tower sited north of Stauffer-Flint Hall would be screened off by trees. The proposed site provides the best visibility.
fuse Strong Hall and Wescoe Hall into one stylistic unit, nor would they expect the tower to hide Wescoe Hall. The primary concern here is compatibility. Certainly, several aspects of the design could be modified to harmonize further the tower with Wescoe Hall, but the basic design is congruent and, in my mind, beautiful.
No one would expect the tower to
DeLome Godsey Junction City senior
Farming troubles
Hooray for Bryan Daniel! Finally, someone is getting at the heart of the problems that the government causes for the farming industry. This situation has gotten irreovocably out of control, and it's time that the rest of the nation is shown the consequences of farming failures.
To the editor:
I personally come from a farming community, and have dealt first-hand with the problems that arise from a heavy debt load, low market prices, and unpredictable weather. As of yet, we are staying afloat, but the old adage concerning a duck is true: "If you have nothing to worry about, but were paddling like everything just to keep our heads above water."
It's not a pretty sight to witness the auctioning of everything a farmer has struggled for all his life; the look of despair, hopelessness and anger as the gavel declares the final purchase is unbearable.
All of this talk about how banks will be adversely affected by farm foreclosures may very well be true, but take a closer look. Isn't it all merely a smoke screen to conceal the real issue?
Beverly Finger
Rozel freshman
Think about it the next time you sit down to a meal. Then, imagine life without farmers. Pretty tasteless, isn't it?
Pro-peace institute
To the editor
I do not think that enough of us are aware that legislation establishing a National Peace Institute (The U.S. Institute of Peace) has been authorized by Congress and that the legislation establishing the institute has been signed by President Reagan.
The bill establishing the institute is part of recent legislation funding the Department of Defense. For fiscal year 1985, $4 million is appropriated for organizing and up a
The National Peace Institute Foundation is launching a program to increase visibility and public understanding of the procedures surrounding the establishment of the institute. The purpose of the U.S. Institute of Peace is to advance security and peace and justice justice development, and promotion of non-violent means of conflict resolution.
As the institute gains support and influence, more of our nation's and the world's resources should be converted from developing and building weapons to learning and using the means and methods of setting international and domestic conflicts without resorting to arms.
National Peace Institute, and $10 million is appropriated for fiscal year 1986.
The next step in starting up the U.S. Institute of Peace is the
appointment of a board of directors by President Reagan. My opinion is that the following individuals would be good nominees for the board of directors of the institute from this area: Sen Nancy Landon Kassebaum of Kansas, Rep Dan Gleickman of Texas, Rep Tim Scott of Missouri. All appointments to the board must be made within 90 days of Jan. 20, 1985.
Contact your legislators supporting the institute. Also, contact the National Peace Institute Foundation for information and to suggest nominees for the institute's board of directors.
The address is: The National Peace Institute Foundation; Robert J. Conlan, Executive Director; 110 Clinton Street, Suite 408; Washington, D.C. 20022
Sydney O. Schroeder Lawrence resident