4 --- Friday, January 14, 1994 OPINION + + + + + UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN VIEWPOINT King's accomplishments deserve more recognition Monday is the official celebration of Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. This celebration, which has been a federal holiday since 1986, unfortunately is often neglected by people who view King only in his capacity as a leader of the African-American community. King's contributions go beyond race and have benefited all Americans. King is best known for his struggle against racial discrimination and legal segregation in the South. However, he also devoted a significant portion of his career to addressing social and economic inequality. Throughout his life he fought for freedom, justice, self-determination and equality for all people. The official observance of his birthday is an important holiday for all Americans to recognize. A variety of activities at the Lawrence Senior Center today are open to everyone. The scheduled events run from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and include a video, speakers and discussion groups. There will be a banquet, and television journalist Tony Brown will speak at 6 p.m. tomorrow in the Kansas Union Ballroom. Tickets are available at SUA and the Office of Minority Affairs, and the speech itself will be free to students. On Sunday, a Gospel Extravaganza will be held at 6 p.m. in the Lawrence High School Auditorium. The event will be free and open to the public. On Monday there will be a Memorial Observance Service, with the Rev. Frederick Sampson as the keynote speaker. This service is at 1 p.m. in the Lied Center and is free. The Ku Klux Klan has chosen to mark this holiday by sponsoring a rally at 1 p.m. tomorrow on the Capitol's south steps in Topeka. Students should honor and support what King stood for by attending a Martin Luther King Celebration, which begins at 11 a.m. on the Capitol's north steps. King's message was one of unity, not divisiveness. All students should participate in the celebration of his birthday. MARGARET BECK FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD Violence in video games calls for detailed labels Growing concern about the potential harm of violence in video games has led to discussions concerning a ratings system for computer games. A simple ratings system is inadequate. Game manufacturers should include information about a game's content on the game's package. The U. S. Senate has introduced legislation to pressure the video game industry to come up with its own ratings system. The system under consideration by the Software Publishers Association would grade video games by their appropriateness for particular age groups, which include all ages, children 12 and under, children 17 and under or adults only. This ratings system is not enforceable. Because it is a voluntary system instituted by private enterprise, not the government, retailers do not have to heed it. Because it is not enforceable, the system is worthless. Even if Congress were to draw up legislation that enforces these ratings, a ratings system is not enough. Parents are the best authorities to decide what is appropriate for their children — not the industry. Parents should and must be able to make informed decisions about what games their children play. Computer software companies should include a brief synopsis of the objectionable content of video games on the outside of game packages. Alerting parents to excessive violence, adult situations or other contents involves more than a simple, vague rating system. DAVID ZIMMERMAN FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD KANSANSTAFF BEN GROVE, Editor LISA COSMILLO, Managing editor JUSTIN GARBERG Business manager TOM EBLEN General manager, news adviser General manager, news adviser BILL SKEET, Systems coordinator Editorn JENNIFER BLOWEY Retail sales manager Assistant Managing Editor...Dan England Assistant to the editor...J. R. Clairborne News...Kristi Fogler, Katie Greenwold, Todd Sefert Editorial...Colleen McCain Nathan Olson Campus...Joel DeLoven Sports...David Dorsey Photo...Doug Nees Features...Sara Bennett JEANNE HINES Sales and marketing adviser Business Staff Campus sales mgr ... Jason Eberly Regional sales mgr ... Troy Tarvwater National & Co-op sales mgr ... Robin Kring Special sections mgr ... Shelly McConnell Production mgr ... Laura Guth Grotten Kochenholmftm Marketing director ... Amy Casey Creative director ... John Cartoon Classified mgr ... Kelly Connelys Tweetsheets mgr ... Wing Chan Letters should be typed, double-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 The Kanan reserves the right to reject or edit letters, guest columns and cartoons. They can be mailed or brought to the Kanan newsroom, 111 Stuart-Flint Hall. Great columns should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 700 words. The writer will be photographed. Allegations against Clinton are cheap shots in the dark A piece of coal was dropped in Bill Clinton's Christmas stocking last month. The perpetrators — two money-hungry Arkansas state troopers, a Republican attorney, two Los Angeles Times reporters and the January issue of the American Spectator — accused the president of wanton sexual misconduct. Not to be outdone, Sen. Bob Dole called for an independent investigation of Clinton's supposed involvement in a shady land-development scheme. Hillary Clinton declared that both controversies arose from the same impulse: a desire to discredit a president whose job approval ratings are on the rise and who has presided over a successful legislative program. These Yuletide rumors of scandal are feeble. The state troopers' tale of how Clinton tried to buy their silence concerning his alleged habit of sneaking women into the Arkansas governor's mansion is a choice bit of tabloid trash. It has been effectively demolished by New Republic columnist Michael Kinsley, other troopers who served in Clinton's entourage and the women who supposedly participated in these trysts. Dole only succeeded in resurrecting old stories that were-rejected by the press and the voters during the 1992 campaign. His call for an independent investigator to examine the charges have a hypocritical ring, coming as they do from a man who consistently denounced the use of investigators in probing Republican scandals like the Iran-contra affair. And Dole's repeated dark allusions to Watergate during interviews on "Meet the Press" and CBS "This Morning," are simply absurd. CNN quoted Justice Department representatives who stated that it is highly unlikely that criminal charges will result from this episode. Dole stirred this new controversy with no other apparent motive than to wreck Clinton's credibility, and he should be ashamed of himself. Clinton wearily denied all the accusations but otherwise said very little. Good for him. For it is the accusers, not the accused, who should answer some hard questions. Why have some Republicans and conservatives declared open season on this president? I think it is nothing more than simple nostalgia for the good old days, when Republicans ruled the White House. It began in 1980, when President Ronald Reagan fueled suspicions that Washington was an empire little less evil than Moscow, accusing the national government of being hopelessly corrupt. Republicans' calls for "getting the government off the backs of the people" resonated with a disillusioned electorate and made the presidency a Republican enclave for more than a decade. Still besotted with this Reagan-era rhetoric and bitter about their loss of the White House in 1992, some Republicans nowadays assume that any attack, fair or foul, on federal leaders is bound to gain them votes. They see no difference between a healthy desire to reform our topheavy government and indiscriminate mudslinging at a president with whom they happen to disagree, nourishing the powerful signs of American apathy and cynicism in the hope that doing so will recreate the golden days of Republican power. But few Americans want to see cheap shots leveled at their president. If there is deep despair concerning government in this country, there is an equally deep desire to see our leaders succeed. Most people want to see Clinton do well; that is why he was elected. I suspect that Americans will, in the end, look none too kindly on those who wish to extinguish hopes for a better future in their need for power, still less with means normally resorted to only by the most shameless supermarket rag. Those Republican and conservatives who utilize such tactics may someday find that the voters have dropped coal in their stockings. Brian Dirkel is a Conway, Arkansas graduate student majoring in history. Flight attendant overloads on cheer You've got to love flight attendants. In general, they are a very helpful group. In general, they are also an intensely cheerful group. The cheerfulness I could do without. It's not that I don't like cheerful people or anything, it's just that flight attendants tend to take this part of their job in an extreme that is sometimes painful for the passengers. Take the flight attendant I had the immense pleasure of being exposed to on a recent flight to Kansas City. As I boarded the plane, I was immediately and mercilessly pounced upon by this extremely happy man who offered to take my bag for me. At first, I was impressed and pleased by his helpful actions. I was so impressed that I barely even took offense to his overly joyful attitude. I gave him my bag and thanked him for his help. Then I began to make my way to my seat. "No problem, SWEETHEART," he oh-so cheerfully chirped. I'm not a raging feminist or anything like that, so the fact that he had Sweetheart? I stopped short in the aisle. The flight attendant had called me sweetheart. This was very bad. referred to me in a condescending manner barely phased me. However, I can't say that I like to be called sweet-heart by anyone, let alone a perfect stranger who happens to be an obnoxiously cheerful flight attendant. I let it slide and began again to make my way to my seat. I settled in and decided that sleeping through the flight would be a good way to avoid the psychotically happy flight . . .endant. I soon found this was not to be. As the flight attendants began the standard safety/instructional speech that is given at the start of every flight, his voice came over the loudspeaker. He was to be the narrator for the speech today. Just my fck. Happy man began to tell us all about the features of the plane as the flight attendant in front of me went through the motions that illustrated the speech. Something was different about this attendant though. The depressed flight attendant accompanied her co-worker's monologue with the necessary motions, the whole time with a mild look of displeasure on her face. When the happy flight attendant began to refer to the emergency air mask as "the little margarine jar," the displeasure turned to full-blow annoyance. Instead of the "I'm a flight attendant" terminally happy grin slapped across her face, she looked a little unhappy. In fact, she looked down-right depressed. I felt sorry for her. I would only have to tolerate that fool's stupid antics for one afternoon. She had to do it all the time. No wonder she was depressed. The attendant ended his speech The psychotically happy attendant was turning the safety/instructional speech into a monologue. He thought he was the funniest thing to hit the scene since David Letterman, and we were his perfect audience. We couldn't leave. with a great joke about smokers being welcome to have a cigarette out on the wing or something. At this point, I was lucky enough to fall asleep. After we landed, I started to make my way toward the insanely happy flight attendant. He had my bag, so there was no way I was going to be able to avoid him. When I got to the front of the plane, he was standing at the exit with a big, cheesy grin on his face. He was saying goodbye to everyone in flight attendante. You know, a continuous stream of goodbyes that are customized for each passenger. "Bye. Bye-bye. Bye now. Goodbye. Ba-bye. Bye." He was very good at it. I asked him for my bag and readied myself for what I was sure was going to be a cheeriness overload. He handed my my bag accompanied with that grin. "Here you go SWEET-HEART! Have a good day!" he said to me in a-song-sy voice. Sweetheart? Again? Like I said: flight attendants, you've got to love 'em. Danielle Raymond is a Wiltlett, Ill., junior majoring in journalism. Violence is real threat to Lawrence community Re: the Jan. 11 story, "Citizens not worried about guns." I'm not sure if the "citizens" interviewed are living in the same city as me. Maybe those involved with this story have selective memories. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Four days later, Lawrence police arrested a 23-year-old man after the man reportedly tired several shots from insist he apartment with a .30 caliber M-1 Carbine rifle. On Dec. 23, 1983, a 20-year-old Lawrence man shot and killed his 19-year-old girlfriend before killing himself minutes later. And don't forget the car jacking at Riverfront Park, which ended with the murder of a man in the presence of his girlfriend and her children. Although Lawrence's nine homicides in 1939 pale in comparison to 153 in Kansas City and 52 in Wichita, citizens of Lawrence are worried just the same. If the Kansan was searching for the pulse of the community, it should have ventured further than the end of its own arm. According to my observations, the pulse of this community has, at times, come close to stopping. Greg Thonen Kansas City senior Leaders play on fears in attempts to ban guns A lust for political power motivates those in charge to chip away at America's constitutional right to gun ownership. These leaders play on their followers' fears of crime to advance a cause that would see average citizens powerless to defend their basic rights when faced with an armed government or armed criminals. The Brady bill is a first step, but it has nothing to do with crime. It is a first step in the battle to keep guns out of the hands of aver- Americans. Like many other items of personal property, from automobiles to kitchen knives to spray paint, death and injury can result from the irresponsible misuse of guns. Like those items, guns give many responsible people much enjoyment — not just from hunting but from target practice and collecting. But an even greater benefit of gun ownership is the added protection it gives to individual liberty. If only the citizens of Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia had been armed well enough to fight their governments' assorted atrocities, we might not need to worry so much about what well-armed governments can do to an unarmed citizenry. Joe Suber Tobeka sophomore