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Friday, April 30, 1993
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
IN OUR OPINION
Revised census figures would help large cities
Every 10 years census data is gathered for congressional reapportionment. Federal funds for various projects are usually allotted to congressional districts according to population figures provided by the census.
The 1990 census has been shrouded in confusion and inaccuracy. There are many allegations that the census failed to account for many people who live in large cities. This could result in a decrease in much-needed federal funds. The Census Bureau revised their figures but failed to release them to the public.
A federal suit was filed when Robert Mosbacher, former secretary of commerce, refused to adopt the revised figures for federal schemes.
The judge in the case, Joseph McLaughlin, found that the Bush administration had acted with consideration and regard for the law. He refused to make the government adhere to the revised figures, but he did release the numbers to the public.
It was suggested by McLaughlin that if the plaintiff argued the case a second time, adjustments would have overturned the previous decision. Still remaining are 3 million to 5 million people who are unaccounted for. Most of them are minorities from urban areas.
An appeal should be made because people are not receiving fair representation or rightful federal monies to which they are entitled.
Federal funding is important to many localities in their budgeting process. Without all the funds they deserve, many communities and individuals will be denied the help they deserve.
T. M. KNIGHT FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Restraints offered at universities look like neo-nazi era solutions
Why aren't people absolutely up in arms about the cascade of neoNazi solutions to problems coming out of our universities? The last outrage was the effort to legislate against so-called "hate speech," a clearly unconstitutional idea.
Now, at the University of Virginia, some social scientists want to prohibit sex between students and faculty.
The nation is still awash in the immorality the academics unleashed in the 60s. We're used to it, and will never accept the restraints they are now proposing to undo that earlier damage.
Leonard Magruder
Lawrence
Right to arms dates back much further than writer says
Schuyler Laverent's comments in the April 16 Kansan regarding gun control displayed a remarkable ignorance of history, both ancient and recent.
Leveratz's contention that the Second Amendment was the product of the post-revolutionary period alone is patently false. The right to keep and bear arms dates back to 872, when Alfred the Great of England proclaimed that all free-born citizens were required to possess a weapon. The idea then,
as now, was that the government should be able to form a militia of armed and trained citizen soldiers to defend the nation against threats from without and within.
But it wasn't until the end of the Civil War that the full importance of the Second Amendment became apparent. When vigilante Ku Klux Klan ran rampant, slaughtering recently-emancipated Black people, the supporters of the Anti-KKK Act and the Civil Rights Act of 1875 affirmed the right of the people to bear arms against the state if and when constitutional rights were threatened.
Schupler, are you really contending that this is no longer a concern in our kinder, gentler nation? Has the Klan vanished? Does the government that conceived Garden Plot and REX-84 deserve the absolute trust of its citizens? Is universal peace, love, and understanding a reality or still just a dream?
Furthermore, if you get to know gun owners you'll discover that most of us support at least some sort of gun control. Nobody wants criminals and mental patients to have access to firearms. The question is how to best go about restricting access so that those of us with a right to gun ownership are not caught in the same net with lawbreakers.
And yes, Schuyler, the Second Amendment makes gun ownership a civil liberty just like freedom of speech. If you think guns are a bad idea, then don't waste time with ineffective measures like the Brady Bill. Go straight to the heart of the matter: urge Congress to repeal the right of the people to keep and bear arms.
Bryan Whitehead Kansas City, Kan. graduate student
Briton says KU treats young adults like kids
My year here at KU is almost over, and very soon I will be returning to the dark, dank shores of England.
STAFF COLUMNIST
It will be strange at first to settle down into the British lifestyle once again. Once I get home, the days of ordering cheap pizza by phone will be over, and watching four TV channels instead of 40 will be weird. I will have to get used to having a few token ice cubes in my drink instead of the usual ice-berg which seems to be the custom in the United States. As for ordering an ice tea in Britain? Well that would be sacrilege, which incidentally is the way it should be. Worst of all, no one will care a jot anymore if I say bathing costume instead of swim suit or Trakky bottoms instead of sweats, because everyone talks the same in England.
The United States and Britain are very different countries despite their more apparent similarities. The main difference that I found took the most time to adjust to at KU was the fact that the University has a tendency to treat its students like kids.
Students here constantly are being watched and monitored, not allowing any individual responsibility. Attendance is checked rigidly, and if students miss so much as two classes, then send out the troops! Their final grades are lowered, the whole world is against them and their academic careers plummet. Then what about the petty little tests that some graduate teaching assistants give their students every time a reading assignment is handed out? The aim obviously is to discover whether the students have read it or not, but surely we should be given more responsibility for our academic success rather than being hand-held all the way. If students do not do the work or turn up to lectures, then it is basically their own look out.
some people might not need to go to
all the lectures or read all the books to do well. Personally, I think these people should be shot, but as long as they can do the work then they should be responsible for how well they do it. On the other hand, those who do not up to classes regularly are more likely to flunk the course, which is their own fault. Maybe they will learn for next time. A final grade should be a reflection of academic achievement rather than an indication of how many times he or she missed classes.
I suppose you could argue that some people need to be prompted and molly-codied all the way through the University, but maybe if they were treated more like adults rather than untrustworthy brats, then they would be forced to fend for themselves and probably mature as a result.
In most British universities, students are not required to attend lectures. Not too much is said about attendance as long as we can prove that we have digested and understood the material. Most people actually turn up to the lectures, because it eventually gets boring staying at home all day long. And so much money is being invested in our education that most students are pushed out of bed by their guilty conscience.
Residence halls are another aspect of the KU machine which treats their inmates like kindergarten kids. On the back of our cafeteria menus, residents have pleasant little word games such as fill-in-the-blank or spot-theword games to wile the time away. I am an adult! I do not care whether aft er is an anagram of fat. I am studying for a degree, for pitty's sake.
KU's underestimation of the students is probably much the same everywhere else. In fact, this seems to be the United States' attitude toward the younger attitude overall. Look at the drinking limit. People under 21 are not considered responsible enough to handle a glass of beer, but they are old enough to fight the politicians' wars. Surely the solution would be to teach people the dangers of alcohol and instill in them a sense of responsibility rather than artificially remove the problem. And removing the problem does not solve anything. This only creates a mass of underage drinkers who glorify alcohol because it is illegal for them to drink it.
We recently had a hall-organized party at our residence hall, yet the disco music, fruit juice and midnight curfew made it more like a high school dance rather than entertainment for intelligent university students. But what could the organizers do? If politicians believe that the younger generation is nothing more than irresponsible simpletons, organizers have to work within the restrictions. I often wonder what politicians think the younger generation drink at house parties and in their rooms in residence halls — Mountain Dew maybe?
The United States should stop protecting its younger generation and start giving them more credit and responsibility for their actions. After all, if young people are trusted not to go into Wal-Mart, buy a gun and shoot the nearest person in sight, then surely they can be trusted to do anything.
Francessca Glyn Jones is a Ludlow, England junior major in American studies.
STAFF COLUMNIST
End of college career brings laughter, flood of memories
NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
It all started when I got my permit to enroll in the mail a few weeks ago. I laughed when I saw it, and tossed it on the pile of mail that I never open.
That thought brought to mind a plethora of experiences that I will not miss.
That same week, I heard people grumbling about the classes that they needed but didn't think they would get in to I smiled, relieved that I wasn't going through the hell of enrollment again. Then I considered the idea in another way. I'll never enroll at the University of Kansas again.
will take home paychecks for months while the imagined hazard is studied Wonder if anyone at the EPA ever has studied the hazards of pouring billions of dollars into overregulation?
Charleston Gazette
Charleston, W.Va.
I won't miss trying to stay awake in classes after pulling several consecutive all-nighters. I won't miss fee payment or paying more than my share of two months' rent for textbooks.
I won't miss the buses. I admit they are convenient, and I have read that they are environmentally prudent. I doubt this very much. Have you ever stood on the sidewalk near the back end of a bus when it pulled away? And God help you if you should get stuck behind one in traffic.
I won't miss Kansas weather. Specifically, I won't miss the fact that Kansas weather has a total disregard for what we in the Midwest know as seasons. I won't miss going from 80 degrees and sunny on Monday to 50 degrees and rainy on Tuesday.
I will never miss the arduous task of attempting to park a car anywhere near campus after 8 a.m. And I certainly won't miss the Parking Department, whose representatives have an uncanny ability to track down and ticket my car if I even think about parking illegally.
But for every experience that I will not miss and will forget about quickly, there are hundreds that I will remember fondly for a long long time.
I will always remember how beautiful campus is in the morning when the sun is out and a slight breeze is blowing and the birds are singing.
EPA spends dollars on frivolous projects
I will never forget some of the classes I have taken with professors whose knowledge and enthusiasm have made the learning process a joy rather than a job.
I will remember Joe's runs, downtown, Clinton Lake and winter nights spent cheering our basketball team in what has to be the greatest field house environment in the country.
And I won't soon forget the late nights and long days I have spent in the Kansan newsroom. They represent both some of the hardest and best times I've had here.
Apparently there are not enough hazards to go around. The nice folks your tax dollars pay to protect you from the dangers they define are searching for job security.
But what I will remember most are the people; best friends and boyfriends and everything in between. People who have changed my life, some in positive ways and some in negative ways, but all in ways that have enriched me as a person.
I have watched some relationships fade away, but I have developed some that hope will last forever, and these people make up some of my best memories.
Environmental Protection Agency officials have launched a new study to assess the risks of — brace yourself — taking showers. Becomes some of the most people might be injured by inhaling water sap while taking a shower.
This column represents another last, and I want to use it to thank my parents, whose continued support — intellectual, emotional and financial — has made all of this possible.
Thanks for the memories, Mom and Dad.
KANSAN STAFF
Doubtless, several bureaucrats
June Wasson is a Springfield, Mo., senior majoring in political science and journalism.
GREG FARMER
Editor
GAYLE OSTERBERG Managing editor
BILL SKEET. Technology coordinator
TOM EBLEN
General manager, news adviser
Asst Managing ... Justin Kluhn
News ... Monique Guilain
... David Mitchell
Editorial ... Stephen Martino
Campus ... KC Trauner
Sports ... David Mitchell
Photoshop ... Mark Rowlands
Features ... Lynne McAdoo
Graphics ... Dan Schauer
STEVE PERRY
Business manager
MELISSATERLIP
JEANNE HINES Sales and marketing adviser
Business Staff
Campus sales manager Bradron Brenner
Regional sales mgm Wade Baxter
National sales mgm Jennifer Perrier
Co-op sales mgm Ahsley Hessel
Production mgm Ashley Langford
Marketing director Angela Clevereng
Creative director Holly Perry
Jersey mgm Garcia
Art Director Dave Habler
Business Staff
By David Rosenfield
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Mystery Strip
"SHE BEGAN AS MOST CHILDREN DO,
BY SCRIBBLING IN HER SCHOOLBOOKS,
FUNNY PICTURES... HER DRAWINGS
WERE ACCEPTED, AND HER PRIDE -
ALWAYS REPRESSED BY A SENSE
OF THE RIDICULOUS FIGURE SHE
WAS CUTTING - WAS A REALLY
GORGEDUS THING TO SEE.
NO SUCCESSFUL ARTIST EVER DRANK
A DEEPER DRAFT OF SATISFACTION
THAN SHE TOOK FROM THE
LITTLE FAME HER WORK WAS
GETTING AMONG HER SCHOOLFELLOWS.
WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE
WRITING ABOUT HIS
DADGHT, MARC, MARY
DIED AT AGE SIXTEEN
IN A BIRD ACCIDENT