OPINION
University Daily Kansan, June 20, 1984
Page 4
The University Daily KANSAN
Published since 1889 by students of the University of Kansas
The University Daily
KANSAN
The University Daykan, UMPS 605400 is published at the University of Kansas, 118 Staffer Flat Hall, Lawn, Kanonze, KAN 6005, daily during the regular school year and Wednesday and Friday during the summer session, excluding Saturday, Sunday, holidays, and final periods. Subscriptions paid by Lawn, Kanonze, KAN 6005 Subscriptions by mail are $1 for six months or $2 for a year. Subscriptions paid by Postmaster, Kanonze, KAN 6005 Subscriptions by mail are $1 a semester toward the student activity fee POSTMASTER. Send address changes to the University Daykan, 118 Staffer Flat Hall, Lawn, Kanonze, KAN 6005
JAMES BOLE
Editor
KAREN DAVIS
Business Manager
SHARON BODIN
Managing Editor
JILL GOLDBLATT
Retail Sales Manager
JILLL CASEY
Campus Editor
ROB LEONARD
National Sales Manager
CHARLES HIMMELBERG
Editorial Edition
KRISTINE MATT
Classified and Campus Sales Manager
MIKE KAUTSCH
News Advisor
JOHIN OBERZAN
General Manager and
Sales Manager, Advisor
Stem the flow
How does the United States curb the rising tide of illegal immigrants without inhibiting the rights of legal immigrants?
Verv carefully.
Recent reform of immigration laws has been savagely debated in both houses of Congress. The debate has crossed party lines. Special interest groups have clashed. Compromises over compromises have been made.
The Simpson-Mazzoli bill, which was passed by the Senate last May after much deliberation, is now facing similar discussion in the House.
The main part of the bill would make employers criminally liable if they hire illegal aliens. It would allow the courts to punish those who cold-heartedly exploit illegal aliens in the pursuit of lucrative profits.
The employer requirements to prove citizenship are not burdensome to the employer or the employee. And the benefits will outweigh some slight discrimination that might occur.
The bill will require employers to keep two simple forms of citizenship — such as a driver's license and a social security card — on file. This will allow immigration officials to spend less time pushing paper and more time hunting down smugglers and criminal aliens.
Stopping erosion
Legislation popularly known as the "sodbuster bill" was recently passed by Congress and signed into law. This is a good bill because it is aimed at the silent problem of soil erosion and will benefit future generations.
Soil conservation is a "non-urgent" issue. It is like a time bomb ticking away quietly, and for the most part, goes unnoticed by the general public.
Fortunately, legislators in Washington have had the foresight to confront this problem before the damage gets any worse. The bill makes provisions for identifying farmland particularly susceptible to erosion and establishes penalties for farming that land, such as making farmers inelegible for a variety of federal programs.
The productivity of American farmland is simultaneously a blessing and a curse. It allows the American farmer to be the most productive in the world. However, it also leads to overproduction, resulting in lower prices that later return to haunt the farmer.
In order to survive, American farmers must push the productivity of their land to its limits.
The sodbuster bill will be detrimental to the farmer's productivity in the short run, but contrary to what one might expect, farmers have supported this bill because they have the foresight to guarantee the prosperity of future generations. This is a laudable sacrifice by U.S. farmers, especially because the benefits will not be realized for many years to come.
Where's the beach?
For unsuspecting newcomers, the road to Clinton Lake is filled with promise. The sign that lures innocent beachcombers out of town says "Clinton — 3 miles," and the road glides like a super highway in another time.
The sign advertising Clinton beach only takes you to the outer limits. You have arrived at the "Visitor Information Center."
It's your last chance. The man at the center tells you to go to the other side of the lake. It's only 17 miles and the beach is free, but no, you are determined to continue because you have gone this far and because you rationalize that a beach that costs money must be better than one that's free.
Having paid the $2 fee to get into the park, you refuse to turn back.
You continue, to the spacious parking lot and modern bathroom facilities that entice you deep into the woods, down one stair, and another, until you have reached . . .
Not quite. It's more like a mud hole, actually.
After all the money they spent on the previews, why didn't they follow through on the main attraction?
The beach?
LETTERS POLICY
The University Daily Kansan welcomes letters to the editor. Letters should be typewritten on two sheets of paper, double-sided 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 includes individuals and groups to submit guest columns. Columns and letters may be mailed or brought to the Kansan office, 111 Stauffer-Flint Hall. The Kansan reserves the right to edit or reject letters and columns.
They call her 'Sun Goddess'
She lies on the plush beach towel and smooths her shoulders with coconut oil, occasionally getting up to eat. She's bronze since January. She's been bronze since January.
At the pool they call her the Sun Goddess. I call her Human Bacon, sizzling her skin away in the scorching sunshine.
Maybe I'm jealous. After all, I was born with that repugnant birth defect known as a fair complexion. My nose turns pink during the three-minute walk from Stauffer-Flint to the Union. And when I was 6 years old, I got a severe sunburn during a family vacation in Colorado — sitting in the back seat of the station wagon on the drive home.
But I've never understood how the glamorous myth of sunbathing got started. Look over there, next to the Sun Goddess. Do you see her?
At the pool they call her the Great White Elephant, the not-so-beautiful bathing beauty who has somehow squeezed her winter chubbiness into last year's bikini. The flies buzz past her ears, the salty Copperpontone sweat streaks from her forehead. She'll peel all summer long but will end up the same pallid shade in August she was last January.
shield you from ultraviolet radiation. They just keep your skin nice and greasy. You need a sunscreen with a high SPF "
"SPF — that's sun protection factor," I said. "The number indicates the multiple of time it takes for the sun to produce a certain effect on your skin. Let's say you use a sunscreen with SPF 4, the recommended coverage for medium skin. That means it will take at least four
You call this glamour?
"Huh?"
In recent years, the dangers of overexposure to the sun have been detailed in a variety of publications, from the American Medical Association Journal to Mademoiselle. Too much sunlight can premature aging, skin cancer, cataracts and even a deterioration of the body's immune system.
"Sure, it's a psychological thing." The Sun Goddess explained to me at the pool the other day. "But I bought the cutest pair of pink blalder Berbers last week, and I just won 't feel it until then until I've got a great tan."
And yet there we are, beach towel and bronzing gel in hand, summer after summer after summer.
The Sun Goddess became silent, squeezing a stream of coconut oil on her leg. "You want some of this? It's great stuff."
"No. Coconut oil, baby oil, cocoa butter — none of those thoroughly
"But what about the damage the sun's ultraviolet rays will do to your skin in 20 or 30 years," I said. "Think of the texture of the ballasket have the texture of a baseball mitt."
times longer for your skin to burn with the sunscreen on if you had left your skin unprotected."
"Multiples, protection factors, it all sounds so confusing," the Sun Goddess moaned. "I never even made it past geometry in high school. Besides, if I just jump in the pool I'll be safe, right?"
"Wrong. Ultraviolet rays are
sneaky. Even when it's cloudy, as much as 80 percent of the sun's rays can filter through. They'll penetrate your skin when you’re swimming, when you’re under a beach umbrella or when you’re wearing a T-shirt over your swimsuit."
"I don't care — it's worth the risk," the Sun Goddess said. "Summer just wouldn't be summer if I couldn't go to the pool and read my Harqueb Romances and lighten my hair with lemon juice."
"Look, you are huckier than most people because you're skin is naturally dark." I said, "but the sun's effects are cumulative. The ultraviolet rays damage the elastic fibers in your skin, allowing it to sag and
The Sun Goddess wasn't listening,
only squinting into the distance at
the lifeguard and mumbling. "Gosh he is
so dark..."
She put her forearm next to mine and frowned.
"You know, you look awful pale" she said. "You really should get some sun."
The new experts on economics
Attempting to analyze the economic problems of America is a humbling proposition for all but arrogant intellectuals and upiotian dreamers. Brilliant economists devote lifetimes of study expecting to grasp only narrow channels of economic thought.
Yet the U.S. Catholic bishops appear undaunted by this slippery task of identifying cause and effect relationships in the American economy.
Still giddy from the attention attracted by a recent letter on nuclear war, the bishops are now planning to issue a pastoral letter entitled, "Catholic Social Teaching and the American Economy." Catholic social teaching is a subject on which bishops can be expected to shed light, but the American economy is a subject on which even
economists are unlikely to shed much light.
Economic planning, creating unemp-
ployment, poverty and welfare,
and international trade are the four
areas targeted for discussion by the
bishops. The fact that the bishops are venturing into such a high technical and secular realm has inspired the private formation of a group of 27 prominent lay Roman Catholics in the United States.
This group's primary concern, unfortunately, is not that they fear the bishops are in over their heads, but that they fear the bishops' letter will have a liberal tone. While this is true, many of us quarters, the truly unsettling fact is that the bishops would consider issuing economic guidance of any
Novak, who authored a widely circulated critique of the bishops' letter on nuclear war, said the purpose of the group is to "direct the concern of realists and practitioners to the urgent task of bringing goods and services to all the world's people."
kind, liberal or conservative
Millions of Catholics, as well as members of many other religions, place their faith in the Roman Catholic church for moral and spiritual guidance. For Catholics, this is a proper role of the church in society, as it always has been. But it is dangerous to risk blurring faith in moral teachings with faith in secular teachings such as economies
Economics has been likened to astronomy in the sense that both rely heavily on observable data and theory. They are also both fields in which great advances have been made and remain to be made. Up until recently, however, only astronomy had enjoyed the dubiousdiscussion of a history of close association with the Roman Catholic church.
Americans disfavor writing 'favour'
William Simon, former treasury secretary, will chair this group, and Michael Novak, a prominent neoliberal economist, will serve as vice-chairman.
For the first time in U.S. history, an official language may be picked for the nation. The novelty of the idea may thrill a few, but to most it will be unfamiliar. Americans will continue to speak the language as they always have.
When it comes to good English, it might seem as if I splitting hairs, but many international residents speak better English than native Americans. One never hears a foreigner say "I want out of this place." Not only is it wrong, it's appalling to hear somebody say it with such callous disregard for grammar and construction.
How can something "crack you up" or "gress you out?"
Colloquialisms aside, I have weathered many a criticism about the spelling of words which are considered correct by the British.
Professors do not "favour" seeing a "u" sandwiched between the "o" and "r"." the "r-" It 'colours' their opinion of my writing skill. I am penalized, therefore, for an inexplicable crime - spelling right but spelling wrong
Occasionally welcome relief comes in the form of a professor who makes allowances for my "Briticisms." But what the heck, when in America, spell as Americans do.
I must confess that my former English probably drove some people up a wall while trying to understand the essence of my statement. When I was looking for a "flat" to share, I was actually lookin' at an apa in my text. But did I was "tonging" class, it meant that I was going to skip the class.
So these days I 'meet with' somebody whereas I used to just "meet somebody."
Australians would just call that being "up a gumtree."
people who hear foreigners range from comprehension to incredulity. These faces should be preserved for all to see.
The expressions on the faces of
Now, having spent two months short of two years in the United States, I find that my life is no different. Occasionally a Briticism slips out but comprehension is no problem.
quaintness of expression. A friend who was expressing his preference for one thing over another once said
When I come into contact with other foreign students, what pleases more than irritates me is the
On another occasion, amidst tedious explanations of his country, a foreigner whom I was interviewing told me that he and said "I will tell you that who."
When does a foreign word introduced in a sentence ever receive a blank stare from a listener? Even if a person doesn't understand French or German, or however Greek a word sounds, one usually feigns comprehension, then later thumbs through the dictionary in the privacy of one's bedroom. Let's face it, the more foreign words you use, the more well read and knowledgeable you will appear to be.
So, maybe we can just say "ola
mstead of 'hello' and 'adios'
mstead of goodbye the next time
to meet the words and
the bilingual syndrome
11