Opinion
Kansan
Published daily since 1912
Lindsey Henry, Editor Marc Harrell, Business manager Dave Morantz, Managing editor Colleen Eager, Retail sales manager Kristie Blasi, Managing editor Dan Simon, Sales and marketing adviser Tom Eblen, General manager, news adviser Justin Knupp, Technology coordinator
Thursday, April 2, 1998
GOING HOME WAS AS GOOD AS A TRIP TO DC
Tina Connolly / KANSAN
Editorials
History books often ignore the real stories of women's struggles
The struggle for American women remains an untold tale, one that history textbooks fail to acknowledge all too often. Women's history continues to be sorely underplayed or altogether ignored even today.
History textbooks don't reflect the brutal truth buried deep beneath our altruistic notions about events in U.S. history.
For example, Kenneth C. Davis, in his best-seller Don't Know Much About History, revealed that some politicians viewed the women's fight for equality as nothing more than a joke 34 years ago.
Virginia congressman Howard W. Smith, an 81-year-old vestige of the Old South, looked for ways to shoot down the 1964 Civil Rights Act. One method was to introduce "killer amendments" that no one would dare ratify.
To the laughter of his colleagues, Smith added the word "sex" to the list of "race, color, religion or national origin." He
assumed no one would vote to protect equality of the sexes in addition to the other groups, killing the bill and halting further civil rights legislation.
Smith's plan proved to be a doublewhammy. When the bill passed in June 1964, women who would not have obtained any more freedom from the original draft now benefited just the same as African-Americans and other minority groups that Smith had fought so hard to oppress.
Women swamped the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission with appeals, even though the organization's director said the bill was not meant to protect them against sex discrimination. But that lame plea came far too late.
To date, women have filed more discrimination complaints with the EEOC than any other group. And because women had one foot in the door, the women's civil rights movement spurred
even more progress in the years to come.
even more progress in the years to come.
Many more stories remain untold in women's history. Textbooks touch on women's suffrage, but rarely do they tell of the struggle to make such progress.
Textbooks explain how women had enjoyed more employment opportunities after the industrial revolution and during wartime, but they often fail to mention that those women were paid about one-fourth of what men earned for the same tasks.
Examine your U.S. history books. Look for women's studies. If you discover inadequate coverage of women, write the publisher and demand an improvement in the textbook's quality.
The fight for equality never appeared to be a fair one in American history, and textbooks are a reflection of that equality. We would be better off knowing the harsh truth rather than possessing a slanted perception of U.S. history.
Tommy Gallagher, special to the editorial board
Back off smokers: It's our air too
A walk to class should not have to include a trip through a cloud of chemical-laden, cancer-causing secondhand smoke.
But for many KU students, especially those with classes in Wescoe Hall, it's unavoidable, thanks to inconsiderate smokers who are too lazy to walk 20 feet away from the door.
A state law prohibits smoking in public buildings. The University upholds this law, so all smoking on campus must be done outside.
Unfortunately, some smokers' idea of outside is inches from the doorway. They should walk farther. Their reasons for being inconsiderate stem either from laziness or unwillingness to stand in the sun, snow or rain. Believe it or not.
Smokers should smoke away from campus building entrances for the benefit of others
not, most nonsmokers and considerate smokers don't want to stand in a cloud of smoke any more than smokers want to stand in the elements.
Secondhand smoke is smoke that is exhaled and smoke that streams from the burning cigarette — with no filter cutting down on the concentration of 4,000 chemicals, of which 200 are poisonous and 43 cause cancer. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 3,000 lung cancer deaths and 37,000 heart disease deaths occur each year in
the nonsmoking population.
Pregnant women and asthma sufferers are affected by secondhand smoke in doorways. Everyone who walks through smoke-filled doorways is marked with a strong odor that lingers in clothing and hair.
If you're a nonsmoker or a considerate smoker who no longer wants to be forced to breathe contaminated doorway air, you should feel free to request that smokers grant you the common courtesy of not smoking where you must walk.
And if you are a smoker, please be more considerate of those who must walk by you on their way to class. If you must smoke, do so farther from the door. Let's take it outside. Weyoutside.
Amy Rush, special to the editorial board
Kansan staff
Paul Eakins ... Editorial
Andy Obermuerler ... Editorial
Andrea Albright ... News
Jodie Chester ... News
Julie King ... News
Charity Jeffries ... Online
Eric Weslander ... Sports
Harley Ratliff ... Associate sports
Ryan Koerner ... Campus
Mike Perryman ... Campus
Bryan Volk ... Features
Tim Harrington ... Associate features
Steve Puppe ... Photo
Angie Kuhn ... Design, graphics
Mitch Lucas ... Illustrations
Corrie Moore ... Wire
Gwen Olison ... Special sections
Lachelle Rhoades ... News clerk
News editors
Kristi Bissel . Assistant retail, PR
Leigh Bottiger . Campus
Brett Clifton . Regional
Nicole Lauderdale . National
Matt Fisher . Marketing
Chris Haghian . Internet
Brian Allers . Production
Ashley Bonner . Production
Andee Tomlin . Promotions
Dan Kim . Creative
Rachel O'Neill . Classified
Tyler Cook . Zone
Steve Grant. Zone
Jamie Holman . Zone
Brian LeFevre . Zone
Matt York . Zone
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"Everyone would like to behave like a pagan, with everyone else behaving like a Christian." —Albert Camus
Leters: Should be double-spaced typed and fewer than 200 words. Letters must include the author's signature, name, address and telephone number plus class and home-town if a University student. Faculty or staff must identify their positions.
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All letters and guest columns should be submitted to the Kansan newsroom, 111 Stufer-Flint Hall. The Kansan reserves the right to edit, cut to length or reject all submissions. For any questions, call Paul Eakins (eakins@kansan.com) or Andy Obermueller (andyo@kansan.com) at 864-4810. If you have general questions or comments, e-mail the page staff (opinion@kansan.com) or call 864-4810.
Witness to student's death describes tragedy
Perspective
This morning I learned another one of those important lessons that I will carry for the rest of my life. As I sit here typing this in my apartment near the intersection of 14th and Ten
nessee Streets, the police, who have been in front of my house for the last five and a half hours, are trying to recreate the accident that happened here this morning. It was the most terrible thing I ever have been witness to in my entire life, and I hope I never have to experience something like it again.
John Colbert
opinion@kansan.com
It was almost midnight and I was watching the end of Jerry Springer when I heard a few drunken people leaving
Bullwinkle's. As I usually do, I went to the window to see what was going on. They looked like any other group of drunken bar patrons walking down the street after a night of merriment. I remember seeing them walk toward the street, and I thought that it wasn't a cool idea to play in the street — especially when one is intoxicated. I also remember thinking that I hoped that there weren't any cars coming because one of the bar-goers might get hit.
What happened next I still can't believe.
I felt horrible as I watched this spectacle unfold. I remember standing on my front porch trying to avoid looking at the car. Instead I watched the paramedics urgently unloading equipment from the ambulance. It was hard to imagine that 10 minutes ago the same girl who now was dying under this car was drinking, having a fun night out without a hint in the world about what fate had in store for her.
As I turned away from the window to go watch the end of Springer, I heard tires squeal. I turned and looked out the window just in time to see a girl either fall or dive from one lane to the other in what looked like an attempt to avoid getting hit. Instead she wound up directly in the path of the oncoming vehicle that was going at least 30 miles per hour. The girl basically just disappeared under the front of the vehicle.
After awhile the police gathered what few witnesses to the actual incident they could find, and took us all down to the police station. Although the police station is only a few blocks away, it seemed like the longest and quietest car ride of my life. It was obvious that the officer was pretty shaken up by the evening's events as well. I hate to think what it must have been like in the other police car that carried the girl's friends.
I immediately called 911 and then went outside. People were running around, screaming and crying, and the driver of the car was running around in hysteresis screaming "Don't die" again and again. I just remember seeing about a hundred people lining the street looking on at the girl's lifeless body wedged under the vehicle. It seemed to take forever for the paramedics to arrive, but in reality it couldn't have been more than two or three minutes.
When we got to the police station, I was taken into an office and told to write out exactly what I saw. The girl's friends were taken into another room. I remember that when I was signing my statements the officer informed me that the girl was currently in critical condition, and it didn't look good. The ride home was even worse than the ride there.
When the officer dropped me off it was about 1 a.m. — just about an hour after the accident happened. Other officers now were measuring the street, drawing diagrams and filling out the endless amount of reports that are required after such a tragedy. The crowd was gone now. A few of the officers stayed, examining the scene most of the night. About 20 minutes ago — 5:30 a.m. — they informed me that the girl had in fact succumbed to her injuries. It was what I had expected, but I still can't believe that all this happened around me.
The sun is starting to come up. I can see the skid marks from the accident and from where the police have tried to reenact it several times. This morning I learned that you can go from having the time of your life to having one very bad day in less than a second. Furthermore, I have learned that you truly don't know when fate might strike you down. God be with you, Lisa Rosel.
John Colbert is a Lenexa senior in engineering.
Kansas should not amend affirmative action programs
affirmative action, or the extension of preferences to correct for an uncontrollable variable, is the basis for many of America's social programs. Race just happens to be one variable. When one considers whole program affirmative action — Medicare and tax breaks, for instance — there's no disputing we like it. But we fail to provide fully similar insulating programs for people of color.
A bill in the Kansas Legislature would end race-based affirmative action in Kansas, and it must be stopped. Affirmative action is too important to Kansans and all other Americans.
Matt
Bachand
opinion @ansan.com
Affirmative action is practiced in many areas of our society — not just for leveling
Discrimination denies minorities access to certain in-groups while race-based affirmative action allows equally qualified minorities access to these in-groups. Look at society and you will see that the whiteness of the corporate world is what is unnatural. Before the Civil Rights Act, purely racist quotas achieved many of these unnatural, white-preferential advantages: "We hire 0 percent African-Americans, Asians, [you fill in the blank], and 100 percent white people." Quotas are prohibited by the 1964 Civil Rights act and are always the last resort in race-based affirmative action. The courts only institute quotas when litigation
Historically, hiring is done through in-groups, such as the same companies and schools. White men outnumber everyone else in many high-power jobs, but women and people of color outnumber white men in society. This is the result of white male in-group hiring. The people who comprise these in-groups may or may not be conscious participants in these discriminatory hiring practices, but the end result is the same — white men maintain a disproportionate advantage in employment.
the playing field for people of color. There are hiring and recruiting preferences for veterans, women and the children of alumni of many universities. Many of these discriminatory practices have resulted in the over-representation of white people of certain class backgrounds in universities and well-paid jobs. Why don't we question these preferences, which favor white people?
against a discriminating employer is successful: You have to be too racist to institute your own diversity standards to have quotas imposed on you. Quota-free affirmative action aids natural diversification by expanding the group you have hired to reflect the natural diversity of society.
Call your state representatives or get their email addresses from www.ink.org. Sign up in the Office of Minority Affairs in 145 Strong Hall to act against discrimination. Defend affirmative action
Bachand is a Yorktown, Va., senior in English and East Asian studies.
No one can pick their parents, control the weather, or control market forces, but we insulate society from these variables with social programs. If we repeal all affirmative action, then housing subsidies, tax breaks for small business owners, and the G.I. bill will all end. Tax deductions for dependent children and veteran's administration hospitals will all disappear. But the current legislation only will prohibit the extension of affirmative action to hiring minorities, which is racist. One generation of race-based affirmative action will help do for minorities what the New Deal did for our white parents and grandparents, what the G.I. bill does for veterans, and what the Farm Bureau does for farmers. Affirmative action is a reality and we all benefit from social programs that protect us from things beyond our control.
This goes for all people, but crime among people not receiving affirmative action — in the form of any social programs — is higher. If we cannot stand up for the least of us, we will be powerless when someone comes for the best of us. Ask yourself what benefits the best of us received that helped us rise up, and which of those same benefits are denied to the least of us, keeping us down. Think about the social forces that deny the logical extension of these benefits to minorities and you will see racism.
By extending affirmative action to minorities and women we can empower those who have been left out of the social safety net to do what all people want to do; pull themselves up by their own bootstraps and better their lives and their communities. We either can help in a positive way with race-based affirmative action, or we can pay more in welfare and suffer more crime at the hands of those we neglect. Then we can pay much more to prosecute and imprison the neglected, all because we fail to provide.
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United Way thanks Revue participants
Two weeks ago students at the University of Kansas participated in the 1998 Rock Chalk Revue. The United Way of Douglas County, Inc., was again selected to be the recipient of the Revue's proceeds and received a $43,000 contribution to the 1998
99 campaign.
On behalf of the Board of Directors of the United Way of Douglas County, Inc., we want to express our appreciation for the contribution and the committed involvement in our community.
Financial support is only a single example of the generosity of the KU students. This past year students contributed more than 34,000 volunteer community service hours in Douglas County. Each year this commitment increases and reflects a focused and unique perspective to education at the University.
Barbara Carswell
President
Hank Booth
1998-99 Drive Chain