4 Wednesday, June 16, 1993 OPINION UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN IN OUR OPINION County-wide ban needed to abolish nude dancing Some Lawrence residents addressed the city commission June 8 about banning nude dancing in Lawrence at non-alcoholic establishments. They claimed that the opening of Juicers, 913 N. Second St., would deteriorate Lawrence's image of a clean, family-oriented community, and that the city needed protection from the sexually oriented business. Lawrence citizen John Kincaid, 2515 Belle Haven Drive, presented a petition with 1,221 signatures to the commission asking the city to ban nude dancing. Kincaid said that the petition was a clear message that Lawrence's citizens did not want sexually oriented entertainment establishments in their community. Opponents of Juicers and other similar businesses that might open within the city limits claim that nude dancing will cause lower property values and an increase in crime. Jim O'Keefe, 1407 W. Seventh St., said the opening of Juicers would open the door for "every vile thing." Opponents of Juicers may have statistics to back up their argument that sexually oriented businesses can cause an increase in crime and lower property values. But they seem to forget that a strip bar has been open for 21 years a few yards outside city limits. Even though the Flamingo Club, 501 N. Ninth St., sits outside the city limits, it clearly is part of the Lawrence community. For more than two decades the club has offered sexually oriented entertainment, but opponents only now are claiming that Lawrence's family image is in danger by the recent opening of Juicers. Patrons of Juicers only have to go four blocks east and past the city limits to find another sexually oriented entertainment establishment if opponents succeed in getting the commission to ban nude dancing in Lawrence. If the concerned citizens of Lawrence truly are interested in banning nudity in their community, they also should attack at the county level. Otherwise their efforts are in vain. TERRILYN McCORMICK EDITORIAL EDITOR Clinton's appointment duties could be shared While President Clinton's advisers are struggling to recreate his sinking public image, too little effort is being put forth toward naming his top department heads. Monday's nomination of Federal Appeals Court Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg for Supreme Court Justice is a step in the right direction, but still, fewer than one-quarter of the 400 top cabinet appointments have been filled. Clinton still has no Secretary of the Army or Air Force, Ambassador to Japan or Israel or Federal Communications Commission chair. No private corporation would dare try to function without its top management team, and one would think that, especially after the blunders of the past few weeks, the Clinton administration would realize this as well Clinton has firmly established himself as a "hands on" president who wants the final OK on all top appointments. But with presidential preoccupations such as getting his budget through Congress and resolving the controversy over gays in the military, it is clear that something will have to give. In order for the Clinton administration to really get rolling, he will have to let loose the reins and trust others to make some of the decisions. VAL HUBER EDITORIAL WRITER UDK Brainless blockbusters raise mindless queries Movies confuse me, I seem to walk out of movies more confused than when I walked in. I'm not talking about movies that actually require thought like "JFK" or "The Russia House." I'm talking about normal movies like "Top Gun" and "Star Wars." Not coincidentally, people think I'm weird. They wonder why that when I meet them, I start asking them questions about why bad guys don't just aim for Batman's chin. Here are a few more examples. Wouldn't you think that word about James Bond's ability to escape death traps would spread around the crime world? It seems like the villains WANT him to escape. "Well Mr. Bond, despite the fact that you have wigged your way out of the most brilliant of death traps, I know that you won't get out of mine! But first, I am going to explain to you my evil plan to blow up the world. Then, before I begin to lower you into the alligator bin, I will clearly demonstrate how the winch works. I have taken the liberty to leave you with all of your possessions, for I know that your wristwatch, fountain pen, and umbrella couldn't possibly help you now." COMMENTARY I'm looking for a villain to say: "Goodbye, Mr. Bond," and squeeze the trigger, but it never happens. I'm also quite curious about "Top Gun." When the Top Gun students are in training in Miramar, Calif., they have to practice against the Top Gun instructors. In one scene, the control tower dispatcher announces: "This is Hop 19. The planes you are flying against today are smaller, faster and more maneuverable." If the instructors have these awesome planes for practice, why do they send Mavrick and Goose into battle in the big, slow, clumsy planes? Also in Top Gun school, Maverick and Goose get in trouble for flying below the "hard deck" set at 10,000 feet. I wondered why, if they aren't supposed to go below 10,000 feet, are they chasing each other between all these mountains. I thought that perhaps the hard deck was 10,000 feet above sea level, and the mountain range was safely above the hard deck. Unfortunately, a quick glance at a topographical map reveals that there isn't a 10,000-foot peak within 600 miles of Miramar, which adds to my confusion. "Return of the Jedi" also left me searching for answers. In this film there is this ultra-evil guy named The Emperor. He is the pinnacle of badness. He has all these magic powers and can rip a planet in half with just the movement of his finger. He resides in this neat, guarded observatory aboard the Death Star, the bad-guy headquarters. Here's my question: if this guy is such a powerful dude, why does he need those guards? Are they there just to keep hecklers out of that room? Why would there be hecklers aboard the Death Star in the first place? This confusion really gets in the way of my enjoyment of blockbuster movies. I should probably just stick to the less thought-provoking films like the "Missing in Action" series and the "Smoky and the Bandit" trilogy. John Paul Fogel is a Mission Hills senior major in Journalism. INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE Frenchman shot for Nazi crimes Four point-blank shots from a revolver were enough to erase a few pieces of truth. Rene Bousquet, who was facing charges of crimes against humanity for deporting Jews to Nazi death camps during World War II, never made it before a judge. Someone preferred his silence. Instant justice substituted what could otherwise have been a collective examination of conscience. Fifty years after it ended, France's collaborator Virchy regime is still the most troubled period in French history. Illuminating that period through Bousquet's testimony could have been a useful and instructive exercise. But Rene Didier, who admitted shooting Bous- Some say the only fault of the Vichy regime was to avoid useless sufferings for France. But even this interpretation of the Vichy government is forgotten and forms part of France's unconscious desire to ignore the past simply because it is stained with shame. quet, decided otherwise. Perhaps he expressed France's most intimate desire: that of forgetting Vichy. II CRIER DELLA SERA MILAN, ITALY Somalia deaths raise questions killers. The reaction is understandable but does nothing to solve the problem of how to keep the peace more effectively and without unnecessary loss of life. The first question should come from the relatives of aid workers and peacekeepers who have lost their lives in Bosnia. How can the Security Council order in the heavy armor to Mogadishu within hours while the U.N. troops in Bosnia are inhibited from firing their guns even when directly attacked? Why did U.S. military helicopters have no problem bombing General Aidid's arms dumps in Mogadishu, while air cover to defend U.N. operations in Bosnia has only just been approved? The deaths of more than 20 U.N. peacekeepers in Somalia have been swiftly answered by the U.N. Security Council with the threat to use "all necessary measures" against their THE GUARDIAN LONDON EDITORIAL EDITOR Abortion pill could offer U.S. women new choices Greater freedom due to greater choice is what RU 486, the abortion pill, will give women in the United States. The pill will present women faced with making the difficult choice of abortion another option. And more importantly the pill will change the face of the abortion war as we know it today. Presently, a woman's only option is a surgical abortion, which often requires the added trauma of passing through protesters that target abortion clinics hoping to persuade women not to have an abortion. No longer will a woman in the first trimester have to endure a surgical operation to eliminate an unwanted pregnancy. If the pill is approved, an abortion can be done with just two visits to the doctor and the consumption of a few pills. However, the pill will not allow bedroom abortions like the opponents claim. A woman who decides to use the pill will be required to take the pills in the presence of her doctor, and she will return for a check-up visit after the abortion. She still will be faced with the reality that she is having an abortion, not just popping pills to cure an infection. Most significantly, the introduction of RU 486 will hopefully put an end to the ongoing argument between the anti-abortion and pro-choice factions. The pill would put abortion exactly where abortion belongs - in the privacy of a woman's home. Women faced with decisions related to an unwanted pregnancy can choose abortion knowing they will not have to face the protesters. The thought of being confronted with a protester holding a dead fetus, or a child carrying a s sign saying, "They almost got me," is often enough to discourage a woman from abortion. Clinics would no longer be an open target for anti-abortion activists to harass both the women who have made the difficult decision to have an abortion and the doctors who perform the operation because they believe it is a woman's fundamental right. What stands in the way of the pill becoming a real option to the women of the United States is FDA approval, a process that will not be easy. The opponents of abortion realize that the pill will severely affect their ability to influence abortion choices. Therefore they claim they will target the FDA, any company willing to manufacture the pill and physicians willing to distribute the pill. Joseph Scheidler, author of "Closed: 99 Ways to Stop Abortion" in a *Time* interview said the anti-abortion activists would find out which doctors were distributing the pill. He said they will send women to doctors asking for the pill and then target their office, offices and hospital. A large number of doctors must make the pill available to women, to make it impossible for the opponents to target them. Although the pill will not end the abortion war, it gives women one more choice. Considering the state of women's reproductive rights today, one more choice can make all the difference. Tertilyn McCormick is a Kansas City, Mo., senior mentor in journalism. KANSAN STAFF DAVID MITCHELL DAVID MITCHELL Editor JAY WILLIAMS Managing editor TOM EBLEN General manager, news adviser Copy Chief BILL SKEET, Technology coordinate Editorial Terrilyn McCormick Campus Planning Jess DelaVaven Campus News Will Lewis Prints Melissa Lacy Graphics John Paul Fogel Copy Editors Lisa Camillo Katie Greenwald Todd Puntney Jennifer Swan Caitlin Tollett Reporters Christy Corder Gennifer Leaves Taritlh Mccormick Beth Randolph Jim Reese Photographers Valerie Bontrager Doug Hesse Tom Leininger Angle Lower Heather Loffin Jille Richardson Brian Vandenviert James Wilcox **Letters** should be typed, doubled-spaced and fewer than 200 words. They must include the writer's signature, name, address and telephone number. Writers affiliated with the University of Kansas must include class and hometown, or faculty or staff position. **Guest columns** should be typed, double spaced and fewer than 700 words. The writer will be asked to right to right or edit letters, guest columns and cartoons. They can be mailed or brought to the kansas newborn, 11:11 Shatter Ford Hall. JENNIFER BLOWEY Retail sales manager JOHN CARLTON Business manager JEANNE HINES Sales and marketing adviser BILL.THOMAS Production PATBOYLE Accounting Business Staff Retail Account Executives Production manager Robin Kring Creative director Brian Funco Classified manager Brenda Duubert Photographer André Annose Retail Zone Managers Kate Burgess Regional Zone Manager Cathy McWilliams Regional Zone Manager Dale Van Sickle Regional Zone Manager Della Van Stoks Promotions Josh Hahn Ilene Brenner Jean Gordon Kathy Kelly Keela Lanson Shannon Reilly Jenny Scherzer Julio Suerez Jennifer Zerbe Regional Account Executives Arvile Crawford ...Franklin Williams Campus Account Executive Rick Kelley ... Paulus Probowo ... Creative Staff Danielle Green ... Shanda Kunto Chad Tunget ... Wright Shawn