OPINION
University Daily Kansan, January 22, 1985
Page 4
The University Daily KANSAN
Published since 1889 by students of the University of Kansas
The University Daily Kansan (USPK 650-640) is published at the University of Kansas, 118 Staffer Flint Hall, Lawrence, Kanuck 6044, 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, Kanuck 6044. Subscriptions by mail are for $15 six months or longer. Third class postage paid at Lawrence, Kanuck 6044. Subscriptions are for $3 and are paid through the student activity fee. POSTMASTER. Send address changes to the University Daily Kansan. 118 Staffer Flint Hall, Lawrence, Kanuck 6044.
MATT DEGALAN Editor
DIANE LUBER SUSAN WORTMAN Managing Editor Editorial Editor
ROB KARWATH Campus Editor
LYNNE STARK Business Manager
SUSANNE SHAW
General Manager and News Adviser
DUNCAN CALHOUN MARY BERNICA
Retail Sales National Sales
Manager Manager
DAVID NIXON Campus Sales Manager
JOHN OBERZAN Sales and Marketing Adviser
Hashinger ills
Almost everyone complains about residence hall food. Either they don't like it or there isn't enough or it isn't hot or it's greasy.
We are used to the complaints.
But it's the legitimate questions about the quality of the food that we should worry about.
food that we shouldn't worry about During finals last semester, 97 residents of Hashinger Hall reported becoming ill from eating the food. Maybe they weren't all sick from eating the meals.
Maybe they weren't all crying wolf, either. The residents seemed pretty sure that it was the food that made them sick.
Officials from the state Department of Health and Environment in Topeka said that it wasn't food poisoning. They interviewed residents and found that not all had eaten the same meal, and not all had become sick on the same day. The officials took food samples but never ran them through a laboratory.
How can they know anything about the food without testing it? That seems the logical first step. If nothing else, at least tests could prove conclusively that the food had not spoiled, and so out rumors to rest.
And if someone working in the food service had a virus and passed it around to the residents, that seems rather unsanitary, too.
Now, this isn't to point fingers at the University's food service. We know that each student is fed on about $3 a day. That doesn't go far. And the service has many employees and many people coming and going from the cafeterias. It does an admirable job.
Eating in residence halls doesn't have to be a gourmet experience, but at least it should be safe. With so many people living and eating together in a residence hall, a little extra caution might be in order.
Tough sledding
Cold weather is never pleasant. Snow and cold cause problems for many, whether it's starting a car in the morning or shivering in a poorly heated apartment.
The recent arctic blast has caused problems across the country. In the East, temperatures have dropped to record lows, and what was an inconvenience has become a dangerous, life-threatening situation. Schools have closed. Factories have shut down. People have died.
On campus the snow and cold weather have created another serious problem — walking. Some stretches of sidewalk have been cleared quickly. Others, notably the sidewalk between Watson Library and Fraser Hall, remain dangerous sheets of ice four days after the last snowfall.
Facilities Operations employees usually are quick to break up the ice and clear the sidewalks. Perhaps the sub-zero weather has kept them from their appointed rounds.
Whatever the case, the sidewalks should be cleared. A dangerous situation has continued for too long. Seeing students slip and fall has become an all-too-familiar sight on campus.
Not wasting time
Last year, Gov. John Carlin tried unsuccessfully to ban the burial of hazardous wastes in Kansas. His proposal was shot down by a Republican legislature more concerned with saving money than protecting Kansans from environmental disaster.
Last week, Carlin took up the fight anew, asking the legislature for a comprehensive package of environmental protection laws including a proposal to ban the burial of hazardous wastes.
Legislators reacted much the same as they did last year, saying the plan would be too expensive for the state and for industry.
Yes, the plan would cost money. Finding new methods to dispose of hazardous wastes and clean up old waste sites will not be cheap. But the legislature must realize that some problems transcend economics. Some actions must be taken regardless of the price tag.
Ensuring that hazardous wastes won't create a Love Canal or Times Beach in Kansas is a priority that can't be put off by citing high costs. Legislators are shortsightedly fooling themselves by thinking that rejecting the plan will save them money. In the long run, the price will be paid.
It's better to pay now with money than in 20 years with lives.
"No amount of money can replace tomorrow what we do not work to protect today," Carlin said.
The Legislature shirked its responsibility last year. Now it has another chance to help protect the state's future. It should act now and ban the burial of hazardous wastes before it becomes too late.
12th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade
Abortion not considering baby's rights
Jan. 22, 1985, is a day all of us should take note of. It is the 12th anniversary of the legalized abortion on demand up to the moment of birth.
Abortion is not merely a religious, philosophical or sociological issue — it is a civil rights issue.
If a woman kills her baby the very moment after giving it birth, it is considered murder. But if a woman has a doctor kill her baby the very moment before giving it birth, it is called abortion.
Yet, is it still not murder, really?
Of course it is. Indeed, who can say at what point before birth abortion is justified? No one because science has revealed the fact that human life requires fertilization, when sperm meets egg.
Although honest pro-abortionists admit that life begins at fertilization, many still dispute this fact and then say that since no one else is sure when life begins, abortion should be allowed up to the moment of birth.
Even if there were a legitimate
device out there, we might,
should err, be the side of life.
BRYAN
DANIELS
Staff
Columnist
we should assume that the unborn is a human being until he or she is proven not to be.
Planned Parenthood calls its pro-bortion stance "pro-coice." It should be called "pro-death" because pro-choice is no choice for the unborn; it is a complete human being biologically and who can feel intense pain.
Indeed, the baby does feel intense pain when it is forcibly removed from the mother's womb. He might be: 1) vacuumed out in pieces by a suction machine; 2) cut into pieces by a hook-shaped knife, then scraped, out; 3) burned alive by having a concentrated salt solution injected into the amniotic sac; 4) killed by a hormone drug injected into the amniotic sac that causes premature birth, or; 5) killed by a hysterotomy, whereby the baby is removed as in a Caesarean section.
Roe v. Wade, (1973)
On Jan. 22, 1973, the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 to legalize abortion, saying that the decision to terminate an unwanted pregnancy was up to a woman and her doctor.
In writing the majority opinion, Justice Harry Blackmun said that the rights of privacy granted under the Ninth and 14th Amendments were violated by state criminal abortion laws.
The justices defined three stages of prenatal life, each with its legal aspects:
- During the first three months, the Supreme Court ruled that the right to have an abortion was entirely up to the woman and her physician. The state's sole legitimate interest was "in seeing to it that abortion, like any other medical procedure, is performed under circumstances that ensure maximum safety for the patient."
- During the second trimester, the court said that "the state's important and legitimate interest in preserving and protecting the health of the pregnant woman" begins to intrude. During this stage, the state law requires that a doctor perform necessary tests must be done in fully equipped hospitals rather than a doctor's office.
- The final trimester presented the problem that people still argue about. The Supreme Court ruled that at sometime during these last weeks, life begins. At that point, it is the state's right to protect the new life. The right of the unborn child to live outweighs the right of the mother to have the child aborted, and the state "may go so far as to prescribe abortion . . except when it is necessary to preserve the life or health of the mother."
And of course, some babies will survive the initial attempt to kill them. Then, they must be strangled, starved or drowned to death, or in some other way, "disposed of."
We should note Jan. 22 because since 1973, 15 million people have been brutally murdered by abortion. Currently, 1.6 million people a year, about one every 20 seconds, is dying as a result of this barbarism.
Better options sex education contraception
This year the debate has taken a violent new turn with the rash of attacks in New York.
Twelve years ago, the Supreme Court legalized abortions in its famed Roe vs. Wade ruling. Since then, the issue has not left the public arena.
Politicians, as a rule, avoid the issue of abortion. There are too many enemies to be made. Perhaps this is why it has remained an issue for so long. More likely, however, its durability comes from the strong emotions it evokes. Few remain neutral.
As an issue, it often transcends ideological boundaries. Unlike many social questions, it is not as simple as a match between personal liberty and the good of society. It involves the personal rights of two children in a child welfare child. The two must be balanced in any decision on the issue.
There are no easy answers. Abortion is an unpleasant choice. But so is denying the right of women to control their bodies and their lives.
The only logical way to approach abortion is by trying to reduce the number of abortions.
MATT
DEGALAN
Editor
schools needs to be improved. Contraceptives must be made more available.
It is here where anti-abortion supporters often err. They oppose abortion and at the same time oppose contraceptives, when contraceptives easier to obtain.
It's as if they wish to leave people with no option except their own strict moral code of conduct. With simple minds they seem to wish to return to simpler times. But abortion is not a simple issue.
Its complexity and its emotionally
make it make us our most
difficult social issues.
But there are more than two choices. Abortion on demand is wrong, but hardly more so than completely banning it. It is, on the other hand, necessary. The key to reduce these occasions through education.
Reagan-getting another stab at goals
Peace and prosperity have been the goal of every president. But too often something happens that makes twin objectives impossible to attain.
New President Reagan, with lots of dedication and a little bit of luck, has a chance at making both a reality. Not forever, of course, because life doesn't work that way, but within this waning century.
His opportunities are golden, starting with the fact that he does not have to seek re-election. He can have teachers to rock more boats with impunity.
Peace is the essence for all mankind, and there is no better place to start than a new rapprochement with the Soviet Union.
For those who think that superpower accords are impossible, or are not worth the paper they are written on, any exercise may seem futile. These tasks have the headlong arms raised to enact the humanity's coffin, all attempts to talk, to negotiate, to seek understandings and are positive steps, particularly when one considers the alternative.
The president appears to be moving toward a more moderate view of the Soviet Union, not dismissing its aggression in Afghanistan but making stable spots but making an effort to determine there is a chance for peace.
There is never a point of no return until conflict breaks out. Reagan seems to be taking a new look at the
HELEN THOMAS
United Press International
possibilities that have opened up with the successful outcome of the U.S. Soviet talks in Geneva. No one assumes that the slight breakthrough portends the end of the road.
But clearly both sides agreed to agree — at least on talks — and that is what made the difference. In fact, it is apparent that both sides were intent on not letting the get-together between Secretary of State George Shultz and Soviet Foreign Minister
Andrei Gromyko fail. The stakes were too high for all involved.
And so with not too much to lose politically and a lot to gain in terms of his place in history, the president has opted to try to find common ground with the communist adversary. At the same time, he has not moved far from his dream of a so-called Star Wars, or Strategic Air Force, despite its importance it would provide the ultimate shield against missiles. But that seems far-fetched, even to scientists involved in the research.
So the pursuit of peace, at least by talking to seek a reduction of massive nuclear arsenals, remains at the top of the agenda.
As for prosperity, the president also has different roads to travel, and his decisions are subject to revision by Congress. He thinks that growth will solve the problems of the deficit and keep the economy on track.
He also thinks that by loosening the regulatory powers of the government, business will have a free rein
for expansion and economic independence.
As a president who has questioned the need for most federal programs, Reagan still finds his hands are tied when he would like to make deep slashes in the government bureaucracy.
Bucked by Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, Reagan has handled the Pentagon budget with kid gloves, refusing big cuts as recommended by Republican congressional leaders.
Reagan also remains adamant against a tax increase. But he appears to be giving some ground on freezing Social Security benefits if Congress gives him the go-ahead, which does not seem likely at this point.
So the goals of peace and prosperity are the dream of every president. They are tough to attain, but worth a trv.
At this point, as he embarks on his second term and four years in the powerful White House, Reagan seems to think so too.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
To the editor:
There is a looming, increasing problem of which few seem to be aware. It is far below the basis of all economic conditions. It is the basis of industry, of farming, of society, of life itself.
A developed nation like the United States doubles its increasing need for water every 20 years and pollutes untold amounts of surface and ground water. All of the easily accessible sources of water have been tapped in developed countries. Where is the additional water coming from? Where are inventors to create new ways to obtain additional sources of water perhaps should be of the highest governmental priority.)
About 1975, U.S. industry annually employed nearly 52 percent of all water used in the nation. Of the 140
billion gallons daily employed by the U.S. industry, approximately 35 million gallons was permanently removed from the water system through chemical combinations, etc. The conditions have already begun to affect drier states and will affect the flow of America within 10 or 12 years.
The increasing water problems for the U.S. are made even worse by Mexico and Central American countries. As conditions grow worse with their water problems, some of their citizens migrate to the U.S. But the documented fact is that a third world country like Mexico doubles its water needs every 10 years. It seems to be an inevitability that after 10 years, they may need immigration to the U.S. This will enhance U.S. water needs, perhaps causing the nation's water needs to double each 19 years or so.
The examples I chose from documented facts can be eased,but, in my
It's our move.
Raymond Harley Smith Larned, Kan., inventor
opinion, never completely overcome by inventors and others. I hope we don't have to tell future generations that an economic and natural disaster might have been avoided.
Whistle pollution
To the editor
THE WHISTLE! All racket, wrong image, no class. Now that it's broken, let's leave it broken.
Edwin Martin professor of psychology
Tradition? We've given up the traditions of slavery, packing a six-shoe, not educating women and so on. Let's give up a tradition of noise pollution. Our Lawrence neighbors might like a break, too.
To the editor:
Science library
So far, no one has really presented a good reason why the science library must sit between Malott Hall and Hoch Auditorium rather than, say, across the street from Haworth Hall.
Thursday's University Daily Kansas句录 administrators as saying the favored site is "best suited to serve" science students and faculty. But what is best for these people will be at considerable cost to the beauty of the campus. If the library were across from Haworth, users would not have to walk further than, for example, humanities faculty must walk from Wescoe Hall to Watson Library.
1
Richard F. Hardin professor of English