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Monday, January 31, 1994
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VIEWPOINT
PETA should not adopt illegal means of protest
Last week People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals raided the Calvin Klein office in New York City. Members plastered the walls with anti-fur stickers and graphic pictures, rendering the reception area unusable. While protest is necessary and worthwhile, at times PETA goes too far.
Calvin Klein is not the only company to feel threatened by PETA. Vogue magazine has had its main office stifled by vehement protesters who have splashed blood and used megaphones to demand that they not glorify fur.
But with its protests, PETA overlooks a few important facts. The first is that relatively few groups have used illegal means of protest to successfully shut down lawful businesses. The second is that by not exercising lawful methods of protest, some simply may label PETA as "radical" and easily ignore the organization.. Finally, if PETA would engage in only legal avenues of protest, it probably would increase credibility and mass support.
PETA should try an age-old approach to its problem: protest peacefully and consistently until the message is heard. PETA should invest its money in nationwide newsletters in lieu of fake blood.
Members of PETA obviously are dedicated to their cause. What they should be even more dedicated to is the United States Constitution. The Constitution guarantees groups such as PETA the right to express what ever they would like to, about any activity. But it does not give them the right to shut down legitimate businesses.
CARSON ELROD FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
U.S. promise to Russia should not be broken
Financial aid is vital to the economically unstable Russia. The United States has not followed through with its pledge to help.
In 1993, the U.S. government led a coalition of Western countries that promised Russia's government $28 billion in economic assistance to help Russia continue to pursue market reform. However, less than $5 billion has arrived in Moscow.
The Clinton administration has rationalized its inaction by claiming that Russia's government is politically unstable due to radical economic reform. But the cause of Russia's political instability can be traced back in part to the economic betrayal by the West.
Russia was depending on the Western nations' aid to cover their 1993 budget. So Russia had to print large amounts of rubles to cover their budget shortfall. This led to inflation in Russia. In turn, inflation led to devaluation of the Russian citizens' savings and wages, leading to widespread poverty and homelessness.
Whenever economic conditions become this destitute in any country it is likely that support for the government will disappear and political radicals, such as the Ultranationalists in Russia, will gain power. Thus in the recent Parliamentary elections throughout Russia, the Ultranationalist Party won a pluralistic majority of seats on a platform that includes reversing economic reform and expanding the borders of Russia.
J. J. ANDRE FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Perhaps some of the political instability in Russia could have been avoided if the U.S. leadership had followed through with its rhetoric. If we don't want to give economic aid to Russia, then we should not promise it.
KANSAN STAFF
BEN GROVE, Editor
LISA COSMILLO, Managing editor
TOM EBLEN General manager, news adviser
BILL SKEET, Systems coordinator
Editors
Assistant Managing Editor...Dan England
Assistant to the editor...J. R. Clairbone
News ...Kristi Fogler, Katie Greenwald,
               Todd Selfert
Editorial ...Colleen McCain
               Nathan Olson
Campus ...Joe DeHaven
Sports ...David Dorsey
Photo ...Doug Hesse
Features ...Sara Bennett
JUSTIN GARBERG
Business manager
JENNIFER BLOWEY
Retail sales manager
JEANNE HINES
Sales and marketing adviser
Business Staff
Campus sales mgr...Jason Ebery
Regional sales mgr...Troy Tawerre
National A & Co-sales mgr...Robin Kring
Special Section mgr...Shelly McConnell
Production mgr...Laura Guth
Gretchen Kottenleishinch
Marketing director...Shannon Beilly
Creative director...John Carlton
Classified mgr...Kelly Connelye
Tearehoots mgr...Wing Chan
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Affirmative action may cause more problems than solutions
During the last couple of weeks, I've been awake at 5 a.m. because of work. It's usually bitterly cold and lonely. It seems like it's the only period of the day when not a soul is around.
It's also when my dad gets up to go to work.
That's how hard he has worked for the past 26 years at his company. His boss knows this, and he has promoted my dad several times. My dad now is in charge of more than 500 people.
So when I heard one month ago that my dad was up for director, I had a congratulations card all filled out.
But there also was a woman up for the job. She didn't have the experience my dad did. But she did have two things: her gender and affirmative action.
She got the job. My dad's boss was straight with him. "We needed to have some women in some upper-management roles, see and, well,"
"Because, there was a time when women and minorities who were obviously more qualified than their white, male counterparts were denied leadership roles," he said. "This ensures that they get the jobs they deserve."
I was angry. I asked my dad why such rules exist.
He then said he was willing to sacrifice a little in order to ensure this. I admire that.
But something bothers me. If that woman was as qualified as my dad and was given the job, I could accept it. But she wasn't.
Doesn't this sound like the discrimination affirmative action was trying to solve?
My dad was denied the job primarily because of his gender.
Although I must admit I'm scared that all my hard work at KU may go to waste because of my race and gender.
I'm not worried about my dad. There is a happy ending to his story. He loves his job and the people he works with. His boss soon will create a new position to give him as much input and responsibility as a director would have.
I'm not too worried about myself.
No, I'm worried because those a little less open-minded may lose out on a job to someone less qualified. And that may cause them to resent or even hate those different from them. And then the great strides we all have made to combat racism and sexism may be shattered. I know of places where it already is happening.
And the real tragedy doesn't even lie with those denied the jobs. It's with those who got them.
How would you feel if someone told you that you were promoted? You would feel pretty good, right? Your confidence would soar. At least that's how I felt when I was promoted at this newspaper.
Now, how would you feel if you heard later that the only reason you got the job was your skin color? Oh sure, your boss thought you were pretty good. Not as good as some others, but good enough to fill that spot.
You would probably feel pretty bad,
maybe even guilty.
I hope that woman at my dad's company hasn't heard whispers that she got the job because of her gender. She
must be talented to get such a position in a large company. And my dad said that she had really risen to the challenge and was doing well. I would hate for her self-esteem to fall.
I'll be honest. I didn't want to write this. I didn't want anybody to think I was racist or sexist. I'm exactly the opposite. I have fought for civil rights for years. I've gotten into fights with my friends because of the things they have said. My dad is the same way. I think I'm fortunate to have been raised in such a healthy environment, one where respecting others' differences and learning from them has been so encouraged.
It's just that I don't want the racism that took place 30 years ago to come crashing on my life today. It's just that I wish people were promoted on merit alone. Maybe someday they will be.
I can only hope that someday my dad is given what he deserves at that company.
Despite the fact that he is a white male.
Dan England is a Lonexa senior in Journalism.
TONYA HARDING'S FUTURE?
Radiation: friend, foe and good fun
Radiation is a double-edged sword: It can be our deadly enemy, as when it leaks out of a nuclear reactor and harms innocent people; yet it can also be our friend, as when it leaks out of a nuclear reactor and harms Donald Trump.
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Another example: dentists use radiation, in the form of X-rays, to determine which of our teeth are still real, so they can grind them into stumps and cover them with improved spaceage materials costing thousands of dollars per ounce. Yet those very same X-rays, if we are overexposed to them, can cause us to look like Willie Nelson. I base this statement on my own dentist, Stanley Krugman. He is a fine person and a skilled professional, but he looks WAY too much like Willie Nelson for it to be a result of natural causes. When he works on my teeth, I'm always expecting him to burst into song: "...darlin' won't you come back soon, and spit mouthwash in my spittoon."
Recently received another example of bad radiation from alert reader Laurie Belin, who sent me a United Press International article that should be of grave concern to all those individuals who use furniture. The article, which I am not making up, begins "MOSCOW — A Russian businessman who died recently of mystere
No, seriously, your reaction is to be shocked, but also to be reassured by the belief that, while there might be
rious causes was apparently killed by his chair, which was found after his death to be highly radioactive, Russian newspapers reported Friday."
Your reaction to this article, as a compassionate human being, is: "How can I get a chair like that for certain people in my office, particularly the creatin who will not stop humming Gary Puckett songs?"
The article goes on to state: "Investigators discovered that the deadly office chair was the source of 1.5 million times more radioactivity than normal background levels. ... It was not known how the chair became radioactive, but there have been other incidents in Moscow where ordinary household items and foods have been found to be radioactive."
radioactive chairs in Russia, there would never be any here.
I wish I shared your optimism. I wish I could tell you that when I contacted the American Chair Council, a representative informed me that every chair sold in this country is subjected a rigorous radiation-testing process wherein an inspector sits in it for a certain period of time and notes, on a clipboard, whether or not he dies. But I'm afraid I cannot tell you this, and do you want to know why? Because there IS no "American Chair Council." And even if there were, I am way too lazy to contact it.
So we have reason to be concerned. But we should not panic. We should simply make whatever lifestyle adjustments are necessary to reflect the fact that every single object we come into contact with could kill us, and then we should put it out of our minds. Perhaps it will help if we remember that radiation also benefits mankind in ways that were never before possible. I am referring, as you already may have guessed, to microwave grape racing.
I found out about microwave grape racing from Greg Jacobs, a student at my alma mater, Haverford College. Basically, here's how it works: You put a thin film of sunflower oil on the floor of your microwave oven, and
then you line some grapes up against one side, with the holes pointing in the wall. Then you turn the microwave on full power, which heats the grapes' interiors until steam goes shooting out the holes, thus turning the grapes into little organic rocket engines that scoot across the lubricated oven floor.
WARNING: THE PROCEDURE DESCRIBED IN THE PREVIOUS PARAGRAPH IS NOT APPROVED BY THE AMERICAN MICROWAVE COUNCIL (IF THERE IS SUCH A THING).
My son, Rob, and I held some microwave grape races, after taking the standard precaution of making sure that my wife was not home. It was entertaining, although many of the grapes — and I blame the Clinton administration — lacked the Will To Win. Only a few grapes actually moved, and rarely in the right direction. Thus we see that radiation, if used wisely, can provide important benefits to humanity for many years to come. Although you, personally, might not see this come to pass, especially if you are touching this newspaper with your bare hands.
David Berry is a syndicated columnist with the Miami Herald.
NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
U. S. Postal Service made expensive mistake
when the U.S. Postal Service makes a mistake, it does it in a big way.
Jan.24
The latest goof involved African-American rodeo star Bill "Willie" Pickett, the originator of steer wrestling. Postal officials meant well when they chose Pickett to be a
subject for a commemorative set of stamps honoring famous personalities of the Old West.
Willie Pickett certainly was qualified to be in the company of Annie Oakley, Wyatt Earp and William "Buffalo Bill" Cody. A child of former slaves, he became nationally famous as a star of the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch Show. He earned a reputation as all-an-around cowboy of legendary abilities, but his claim
to fame was his skill at bringing a thousand-pound steer to the ground. His trademark style was subduing the animal by biting its lip.
The Postal Service had spent about $1 million printing 250 million of a planned 400 million stamps in the series, and about 104 million had been distributed to post offices nationwide, when Bill Pickett's great-grandson said "whoe." Frank Phillips of Silver Spring, Md, said
family photographs showed the portrait was Bill's brother Ben.
Now the Postal Service is recalling and destroying 104 million Old West commemoratives to maintain the integrity of its standards for accuracy.
Rodeo cowboys can't afford to be that careless.
The Sunday Oklahoman Oklahoma City, Okla.