OPINION
July 11, 1984 Page 4
The University Daily KANSAN
The University Daily KANSAN
Published since 1889 by students of the University of Kansas
The University Daisy Kansan (USPS 650-640) is published at the University of Kansas, 118 Stuifer Fint Hall, Lawrence, Kanze. Daily during the regular school year and Wednesday for the summer session, excluding Saturday, Sunday, holidays, and final periods. Second class students are $15 for six months or $2 a year in Douglas County and $14 for six months or $2 a year in Douglett County. State student subscriptions are $3 a semester paid through the student activity fee. STERF. Send address changes to the University Daisy Kansan, 118 Stuifer Fint Hall, Lawrence, Kanze.
JAMES BOLE KAREN DAVIS
Editor Business Manager
SHARON BODIN JILL GOLDBLATT
Managing Editor Retail Sales Manager
JILL CASEY ROB LEONARD
Campus Editor National Sales Manager
CHARLES HIMMELBERG KRISTINE MATT
Editorial Editor Classified and Campus Sales Manager
MIKE KAUTSCH JOHN OBERZAN
News Advisor General Manager and
Sales and Marketing Advisor
Vision for reform
What America needs now is a new vision for prison reform. Hidden in the nooks and crannies of America are a few people who have a vision, people trying to do something about the atrocious state of our prisons.
Kansas is lucky. We have one man who has vision.
He is Fred Braun, Jr.
After serving on the Governor's Task Force in 1977, Braun decided to try to do something about prison reform in Kansas.
In 1979 Braun started Zephyr Products in Leavenworth, a program to help inmates learn a trade, and as Braun said, to help "make them productive citizens once they get out."
It took vision to turn the lives of people who otherwise might have been destined to idleness toward ones of productivity.
Not only does this kind of program benefit the inmates, but it helps the state recoup some of the cost of maintaining the prisons.
In effect, this program and others like it help everyone.
With programs like these, prison inmates have a chance to become tax-paying citizens.
come tax-paying citizens That's a plus
Unfortunately, not all Kansans have the vision that Braun had.
While he was busy trying to establish the reform program in Leavenworth, Lawrence and area residents were tearing at plans to build a prison honor camp near Clinton Lake.
But the attitudes of Lawrence residents are not unique; they reflect the inability of America to deal with the scourge of society.
No one will deny that for most people the thought of having prisoners nearby can be frightening, but it needn't paralyze them.
The time has come to start looking for ways to help integrate inmates back into the American way of life - productivity.
Also, it's not a matter of whether they deserve a second chance. That doesn't matter anymore.
If we can think of this problem in no other way, it's time to think of it in terms of dollars and cents.
The way the system works now, most prisoners end up returning to prison, doomed to a life behind bars.
Teaching prison inmates a trade and making them tax-paying citizens will go a long way toward keeping them out of prison.
All that is needed to keep the prison population down is to teach inmates how to be productive members of society, and we must spread that vision to other communities.
But first each of us must be willing to embrace this vision.
The China card
China is becoming more interested in the rest of the world, and the rest of the world is becoming more interested in China.
Changes in China's political and economic climates are leading it to develop closer ties with other nations. China has made significant changes in its economy, some of which are even capitalistic.
A healthy economy will not only benefit its people, but will also increase China's strategic importance. This should not be ignored or exploited.
The rest of the world, especially the United States, has developed a renewed interest in China. President Reagan and Gov. John Carlin have recently visited China.
They want to come to a better understanding of China's liaison with the free enterprise system.
Richard Nixon, who opened the door to China, recently said that the two countries were brought together not by common ideals, but by common interests. These common interests, today as in 1972, are economic cooperation and deterring Soviet aggression.
As China and the western world begin to establish closer ties, they will have to walk a precarious tightrope.
When walking this tightrope, stronger economic ties must balance military ties.
LETTERS POLICY
The University Daily Kansan welcomes letters to the editor. Letters should be typewritten on two sheets of paper, double-spaced and should not exceed 400 words. They should include the writer's name, address and phone number. If the writer is affiliated with the University, the letter should include his class and home town or faculty or staff position. The Kansan also invites individuals and groups to submit guest columns. Columns and letters can be mailed or brought to the Kansan office, 111 Staunfer-Flint Hall. The Kansan reserves the right to edit or reject letters and columns.
Walter Mondale sat in his suburban St. Paul living room and stared at the television. He had women on his mind.
"I haven't had this much trouble with women since I had to get a date to senior prom," Mondale said, mulling over the resumes of his vice-presidential candidates.
Mondale considers real women
Mondale's wife, Joan, just grimmed. "Honey, I don't want to get involved in this.
"Just remember, you could go down in history as Jimmy Carter's vice president, or you could go down as the first politician to open the door to true equality in this nation. But don't let me or the other 56 million registered female voters influence you."
"Women," "Mondale muttered. He sat on the touchuchenizing over his decision, when the department gave him
"Honey, it's little Tommy from next door," Mrs. Mondale hollered. "Should I send him home?"
Little Country. Only 5 years old and the Kui
already had proclaimed himself Mondale's
neighborhood campaign coordinator, donating
the profits from his lemonade stand to the
Mondale re-election fund.
-
Probably just wants more "Mondale '84" bumper stickers.
“Hi, Mr. Walter. How's the interviews going?”
“Fine, Tommy.”
"I've been watching your press conferences from our kitchen window. Dad's getting mad because the reporters keep stomping on our petunias."
Tommy scurried into the living room, all freckles and red curls, carrying his Dukes of Hazzard backpack.
Mondale wined. Another lost vote. "I'll have someone take care of that," he said.
"Did you watch a Good Morning America' today,
Mr. Walter?" They said you won't have a chance
to watch it again.
Mondale clutched his stomach. The women were giving him an ulcer.
"After polling my entire 4th-grade class at
Tommy tossed the resumes aside and took some papers from his backpack. He climbed onto the coffee table and started to speak, mustering all the political power he could from his squeaky 9-year-old voice.
"Yeah, yeah, I heard that on 'Good Morning America,' too." Tommy said, sifting through the resumes. "Diane Feinstein — definitely qualified. Geraldine Ferraro — very capable. Martha Lavine Collins — she'd give you southern support.
"I am the first candidate in history to consider a woman," he declared. "Never again will the president be asked to change his mind."
North Oaks Elementary School," he said. "I've decided on some REAL women candidates who will help you demolish Ronald Reagan in November.
He handed Mondale a copy of the poll results, neatly printed in purple crayon.
heavy printed in parch crayon.
"First, Plan A. Spice up your campaign with some sex. Choose Christie Brinkley as your running mate."
Mondale's eyes lit up. "What about my wife,
Tom?"
"Just think how awesome Christie would look on the campaign posters. And you could even come out with the Monday-Brinkley presidential swimsuit calendar."
Not a bad idea, Mondale thought, but there was one drawback. "Sorry Tom, but the Constitution says any candidate for vice president must be 35 years old. Guess that disqualifies Christie."
"No prob. On to Plan B. Who are the two most visible women on television right now?"
Mondale shrugged
Tommy grabbed the cable remote control and clicked on the correct channel "Don't you watch 'MTV, Mr. Walter?' If you put a woman weevay on your ticket — Martha Quinn or Nina Blackwood — every music fan in America will vote for you."
"I don't know. I've always been a polka fan myself."
"Think of the exposure! You could be a guest veeajay. You could have the Go-Gos sit at your fund-raisers. You could rename the channel — MTV, MondaleTelevision!"
'Well, that Martha Quinn is kind of spunky,' Mondale said.
"Then try Plan C — Clara Peller."
"A come on, Mr. Walter. She originated the catch phrase of your campaign."
'Oh, the 'Where's the Beef' grandma I don't know. Tommy I appreciate you suggestions, but maybe I should be choosing the most qualified candidate, man or woman, instead of choosing a woman for woman's sake.
Dejected, Tommy tucked the results of his 4th-grade class poll into his backpack.
"There's still one more woman I think you should consider, Mr. Walter. Her name's Ethel Patterson."
"Don't know her. Is she involved in local politics?"
"No," Tommy said. "She's my mother."
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Dear editor:
Simplistic treatment
"Catch-21," your June 29 editorial against legislation to raise the drinking age, unfortunately emerged as a defensive and emotional response to a complex and controversial issue. Indication and simplistic assertions apparently have replaced substance and thoughtful, critical journalism.
There are many ramifications to the drinking age issue, and both sides have extremely valid points worth consideration. There are no easy solutions. Anytime the wants of many conflict with the wants of the few, there will be controversies. The point is not that the editorial position on the drinking age issue is correct or incorrect. Rather, the point is that effective editorial writing requires — demands the detachment to survey an issue with a critical but unbiased eye. No such detachment is evident here. Instead, the naive treatment of an issue concerning thousands of lives each year is astonishing.
As an example, the editor cited statistics in Kansas that showed a 26.2 percent drop in the traffic fatality rate last year, and pointed to tougher law enforcement as the reason. (In actuality, Kansas traffic fatalities numbered 488 and 403 in 1983, a reduction of 85 deaths, or 17.4 percent.) “Tougher law enforcement,” the editor asserted, “is the obvious solution to the problem.” Now there is a scoop. Has the editor passed this nugget along to the National Safety Council? They’ve been searching for years for a solution to keep 25,000 people annually from being plowed under by drunk drivers. And all this time the solution was “obvious.” What’s the matter with those people? Why didn’t they think of that? Maybe they should spend more time reading Kansan editors.
Persons 16-24 represent just 20 percent of all licensed drivers, but they represent 42 percent of all drinking drivers in fatal accidents, according to the National Safety Council. That's a two-to-one ratio of percent of drinking drivers to percent of total drivers. No other age group comes close.
Drunk driving is the leading single cause of death among 15 to 21-year-olds, according to the National Council on Alcoholism.
Then again, maybe they would find that the editorial had overlooked a few pertinent statistics, like:
Teenagers are two-and-a-half to three times more likely than older drivers to be involved in a fatal accident caused by a drinking driver, according to the National Safety Council.
All of this is occurring despite the fact that nationally, arrests of teenagers for driving under the influence have increased by 400 percent — 400 percent — since 1960. Is a 400 percent increase in
Yet, your editorial chose to take the paradoxical position of admonishing one government entity for trying to address the problem, then, as the "obvious" solution, you turn to another government entity, the police. Again, indignation falls quickly to scrutiny when it masquerades as considered editorial opinion. Nevertheless, I look forward to your next editorial treatment of the drunken driver problem.
It may very well be that new legislation is not the answer. Perhaps the government is intruding too far into moral and social choices that rightly belong to the individual. On, but on behalf of your sub-21 constituency, how about taking a little responsibility for a problem that 21-and under drinkers have largely created? Why not offer some viable suggestions and solutions for the problem. If the members of the sub-21 age group, as individuals, were willing to recognize their responsibilities as drinking drivers, there would be no need even to discuss such extreme measures as raising the drinking age limit.
Lawrence graduate student
'Are you for real, Dan?'
arrests classified as "tougher law en-
forcement"?"
Dear editor:
I am writing in rebuttal to Dan Parelman's column in the July 6 issue of the University Daily Kansan.
In reference to Parelmal's style, to paraphrase a folk song, "are you for real, Dan?" From which tavern did you learn your "bar-room intellect" politics, Parelmal?
Let's put aside "God awal" nuclear weapons talk and discuss a few fake. wwim issues. Dan.
Have you gone job hunting late? Mr. Parelman? I have, and it's not a pretty job market out there. Take a tip from someone who's been out of school recently. Think about the interest in anything dealing with automobiles, steel, schools, social work or the arts. But I guess those are wimp jobs anyway
How about those interest rates, Dan? Planning on buying a house in the near future?
We'll just skip over the fake deficit issues.
We'll just skip over the fake drenn issues.
I could go on about the environment, Social Security, military spending, ERA, and cuts to practically every social program, but I'll leave these fake issues for Walter Mondale's wimp rhetoric.
Let me just summarize, Dan, by reminding you to be thankful you weren't born a minority, a woman or poor. Such a background could make your "bar-room" political ideals rather hard to swallow.
David Taylor Lawrence
'NOT-SAFE' is protecting you
Maybe I'm being unduly fainthearted about the perils of the open road, but studies of this sort tend to make me nervous.
An auto company recently published some test results purporting to show that automatic seat belts and air bags aren't really needed in the cars of today.
In a recent series of alerts, it pointed out that motor vehicles are by no means the only conveyances that have a potential for hurting the conveeves.
"Many of the 518,000 bicycle injuries occurring last year could have been prevented if bicycles were required to have air bags, seat belts and flashing tail lights or turn signals," says a NOT-SAFE press release.
I find myself deriving more and more comfort from the proposals of NOT-SAFE, a California organization dedicated to "protecting everyone from everything, at any cost."
No government I know of has seen fit to make bicycle air bags mandatory. It was good of NOT-SAFE to call attention to this deficiency.
Hear! Hear!
Auto and bicycle accidents are by no means the only dangers that wait to assail us, however. Each
DICK WEST
Syndicated columnist
year, NOT-SAFE notes, quoting statistics of unnamed origin but with which I have no quarrel, there are 480.00 baseball injuries in this country.
"All spectators should be required to wear protective face masks and padded bodyguard clothing," it insists, and I heartily endorse that concept.
Although the press release cites no figures for the athletic world as a whole, the number of sporting injuries during an Olympic year must be truly staggering.
No wonder the Soviets are boycotting this summer's Olympic games.
I say there should be a greater effort, such as building a plexiglass wall around the grandstand, to protect spectators in Los Angeles, which is practically in NOT-SAFE's backyard.
As for autos, NOT-SAFE wouldn't stop at mandatory air bags and automatic seat belts. It further proposes equipping cars with roll hats, suspenders and seatbelts holding one gallon or less "to reduce fire hazard."
Likewise noted is the possibility that car radios can cause "mermont brain damage."
"It might be a good ideal to require all music listeners to wear a set of protective earplugs," it says.
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