OPINION
The University Daily
KANSAN
April 27, 1984 Page 4
April 27,1984 Page 4
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The University Daily KANSAN
Published since 1889 by students of the University of Kansas
The University Daily Kansas (USP$ 60,600 is published at the University of Kansas, 118 Stauffer FIth Hall, Lawrence KS 60043) daily during the regular school year and Monday and Thursday during the summer session, excludes the following dates: May 25 through June 22; July 17 through August 24; September 9 through November 24; by mail are $15 for six months or $2 per year in Douglas County and $18 for six months or $3 for a year outside the county. Student subscription is a $14 semester paid through the student activity fee *POSMSTAR*. Send address changes to USP$ 60,600, 118 Stauffer FIth Hall, Lawrence KS 60043.
Editor
DOUG CUNNINGHAM
DON KNOX
Managing Editor
SARA KEMPIN
Editorial Editor
JEFF TAYLOR ANDREW HARTLEY
Campus Editor News Editor
PAUL JESS
DAVE WANAMAKER
Business Manager
FAULTLESS General Manager and News Adviser
CORT GORMAN JILL MTICHIELA
Retail Sales Manager National Sales Manager
JANICE PHILIPS           DUNCAN CALHoun
Campus Sales Manager      Classified Manager
As this semester began, the United States already stood at the door of another unjustified war, this time in Central America.
The door of war
Since then, the Reagan administration clearly has demonstrated its intent in the region by acting with reckless abandon.
In January, world attention drifted away from Lebanon, where Reagan's military solution eventually failed, and to the ever-present right-wing death squad activity in El Salvador.
JOHN OBERZAN Sales and Marketing Adviser
At that time, the administration threatened to cut off aid to El Salvador unless the murders stopped. But talk is cheap.
Last week, Reagan sent $32 million in "emergency military aid" to El Salvador, by-passing and offending Congress and the American people in the process.
Thus, the paramilitary mayhem continues undaunted.
In March, Salvadorans voted in round one of American orchestrated presidential elections that, despite the outcome, promise only to divide the Salvadoran people further.
The election turnout in El Salvador was Reagan's biggest foreign policy victory this spring. However, at the same time Salvadorans were going to the polls, CIA agents directly were helping contra guerillas mine the harbors of Nicaragua.
Senators screamed that the mining was an act of war perpetrated without their knowledge or the consent of the American people. Nicaragua appealed to the World Court for help.
The Reagan administration defined its interpretation of world justice when it then announced it would not accept World Court jurisdiction in Central America for two years.
Two years seems to be all the Reagan administration needs to ill-advised slip through the door of war that now is slightly ajar.
The fear of war that is a result of administration actions is now clearly greater than Reagan's fabricated "Red menace" in Central America. Clearly Reagan's attitudes and policies in the area are irresponsible.
KANU's happy return
KANU-FM radio has returned to the air at full power.
At last. Although some listeners were able to hear the station's programming, for many in the area the loss was a great one.
The station's tower was topped by vandals in December of 1982. Since then, a few of its loyal listeners have been able to hear its programming from low-power broadcasts from a borrowed 100-foot tower Others outside the area, have been shut out. West Campus on the cold morning after the tower fell hardly could have been a pleasant place. More than 600 feet of twisted metal lying on the ground could have warmed no heart but that of a sick individual. Now that the station has returned to full power, KANU listeners will again be able to catch their favorite movie (One of the strengths of
the station has been its great diversity of material.
For some, the news coverage is one of the station's attributes. Some are sold on the variety of musical programming, particularly about the history of music.
Still others note that some of these programs are not offered by other area stations. Of course, those stations also have their loyal listeners. And most of those stations face commercial pressures that can strain programming.
But a toppled tower is a toppled tower, regardless of the type of station.
Now, however, KANU is back. For many students and faculty of the University, it's been a long wait. Let us hope that the station will be broadcasting for some time to come.
Making deadbeats pay
A deadbeat is a deadbeat, no matter who the creditor is.
Many people who receive government loans as students never repay a single cent and go on to become financially responsible citizens with high-paying jobs.
Wrong. The government now is $18 million in the hole because of overdue loans to people and businesses. This debt is considered largely uncollectable.
When the new fiscal year begins in October, all government agencies, except the Internal Revenue Service, will provide the names of people who do not repay their government loans to private credit rating firms.
The federal government. the
They think that government money is free. The federal budget is figured in trillions; a few thousand won't be missed, they rationalize.
Every loan that remains unpaid lessens the possibility of future loans to help deserving people finance their education.
In addition, the government will be able instantly to scan the credit history of any individual or business applying for a loan.
nation's largest credit agency, has been forced to take more drastic measures in its continuing battle to collect unpaid loans made to students, farmers, veterans and others.
Although these steps are another government intrusion into individual privacy, credit ratings are not sacred — they routinely are given to many public and private agencies.
The University Daily Kansan received a steady flow of letters to the editor all semester. We regret that space constrictions prevented us from printing every letter we received, especially those submitted at the end of the semester. The summer Kansan will begin publication when summer school starts, and letters that we did not have space to run this spring will be printed then. If you wrote a letter that was not printed and do not want it to go in the summer Kansan, please call the editorial editor immediately.
The patrol began its tour of duty last week and disbands today. Volunteer patrol members have seen less action than they anticipated, perhaps because they have increased student compliance with the rules.
Those students who go to the library to eat and drink, and the insects that follow, are the targets of the Roach Patrol. Like a dragnet the patrol sees trash and its bearers from the stacks.
The signs feature a sinister-looking rooach relaxing on a chair with a soda, sandwich and cigarette. The roach gives one a good idea of
Roach Patrol gets tough
This is the story of elite teams of trained specialists that rove daily through some of the most treachery in the history of fighting wrongs and stamping out pests.
There are 60,000 stories in the River City. This is only one of them.
Some students go to Watson to sleep, some to listen to Walkman stereos at inordinate volumes, some to scrawl poignant prose on bathroom stalls and carrel walls. Some even venture there to study.
The teams form the Roach Patrol, a hardy band of Watson Library staff members dedicated to the preservation of books and, consequently, the elimination of those that eat books. cookbooks, mice and silverfish.
Cockroaches haven't changed in eons, testimony to their ability to survive. When the food left by roaches runs out, the roaches eat books.
how Peter Lorre would have looked had he had six legs.
Four things, according to the sign,
attract roaches to Watson: A. Freezs d'oeuvres; B. Great drinks; C.
dancing on stage; D. Plenty of room to dance
After warning me about the danger involved, one patrol member allowed me to follow her on a
JESSE BARKER
search-and-destroy mission. Her name is not important — like all of the volunteers, she patrols not for money or glory, but because she feels a strong sense of duty, of honor, of obligation to police her library.
Staff Columnist
The mission begins on the high ground in the top of the stacks and winds down through the labyrinth corridors between the ranges of countless books. Books menaced daily by bugs.
It was quiet. Too quiet. As we moved through the stacks, electric tension crackled in the still air. The patrol member stopped suddenly, squatting to pick up a pop can. She stared at the concrete floor.
"Toach spoor," she said calmly, but her steely eyes and sneer betrayed her distaste. She poked at her skin. Not long ago this way. Not long ago."
While a goodly dose of sugar-free cola will debilitate a healthy roach, she explained, the insects are attracted to the library by the food and drink scattered about by careless, rule-flowing students
Despite an exhaustive search of the building, her quarry evaded her to live another day.
A brace of students, bagged on the fifth floor over a can of contraband Coke. did not. They were escorted from the building in a slow march of penitence, exposed to other students' stares of condemnation.
say, has been good. The library is cleaner because more people are keeping the books on hand. The coaches test the crunch
Papers found on its freshly two-dimensional body indicated the roach had hoped to turn itself in, seeking either arminity in exile or a plea bargained charge of tres-
Last week a roach, apparently overcome by the diligence and new "get tough" attitude displayed by the police, approached the circulation offices.
It was summarily executed under a vigilant patrol member's heel, applied with a sudden impact.
The Roach Patrol plays for keeps.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Message of love
Karen Greschel
Leawood freshman
To the editor-
Dear Mr. Barker
Regarding your article, "Listening to the Lawn Preachers" (University Daily Kansan, April 20) I too noticed the return of the Lawn Preachers, although perhaps with a different perspective than yours.
I am a Christian, also raised "Presetbysterian-style." I share some of your skepticism, especially concerning the TV evangelists.
I also understand your amusement concerning the Lawn Preachers. But if we Christians lived by the message of love and forgiveness that we so often talk about, it would be much easier to take the words of the Lawn Preachers a bit more seriously.
Because basically, that's the message that the Lawn Preachers are trying to get across. Putting gestures and catch phrases aside, casting away the traditions and surrounding practices of various denominations, there is one reason why the Lawn Preachers never have any "new" material: the message of Christianity never changes: "God so loved the world that He gave His Son, that whoever believes in Him might not die but have eternal life." (John 3:16)
I challenge each reader to go to the source of the Lawn Preacher's message: the Bible. It is there that one can read about Jesus and His teachings in the Bible or Lawn Preachers. Then the skepticism can be turned into discovery.
As a rhetorician whose profession it is to study the impact of words on people, I wish to respond to the letter from Kathi Percival, professional linguist.
Clarifving issue
To the editor:
Because the office of affirmative action requests that all schools avoid terms suggesting that only
As any number of studies has demonstrated, linguists may assert that "he" and "his" and "man" are generic terms, but contemporary American men and women understand them to refer only to males.
Language choices reflect social attitudes; they ought also to reflect social reality. Women are a majority of KU students.
The office of affirmative action merely asks us to use language reflecting contemporary meaning or presence of women at this institution.
professor of communications studies
'No' vote needed
Karlyn Kohrs Campbell
According to Senate Executive Committee propaganda favoring the proposed grade appeals board, "appeals may be made on procedural grounds only, and not on grounds of substance. The appeals committee will evaluate the faculty member's evaluations in the subject-matter area."
To the editor:
This claim has no basis whatsoever in the language of the proposed amendment which reads:
2. 3.3.1 A student may initiate a grade appeal if he or she believes he or she has been assigned a course grade . . . because of improper application of the grading policy announced for the course . . .
Note that the key word 'only' is missing here. The logic of propositions of the form 'q if p' is entirely different from 'o only if n'.
A condition of the truth of the latter is that p is a necessary condition for q; that is not a condition for the truth of the former.
Hence, the actual language of the proposed amendment does not rule out appeals on grounds of substance.
Whatever the intentions of SenEx or anyone else concerning this matter, if this foolish amendment
passes, we will have to live with the language we approve
Accordingly, a vote against this proposed change is in order.
Don Marquis
associate professor of philosophy
Interesting tale
To the editor:
I had a friend once who worked at a family planning clinic, and she told me an interesting tale.
It was all about a boarding school for unwed mothers that was located somewhere on the East Coast.
I don't remember all the details, but the house was a combination of school, clinic and home so that teen-age mothers could carry their pregnancies to full term, perhaps before babies and still finish high school.
Last my friend heard, the pro-
filer were trying to close it down.
Now, I found that interesting. It would seem that the pro-liers are more concerned with making unwed mothers wear a red letter 'A' than with protecting the lives of the unborn
Margaret Schmidt McFarland junior
Sign of insecurity
To the editor:
Now we realize that most people think the purpose of "Wear Jeans if You're Gay Day" is to find out who's gay on campus. In actually, it is a day to find out who the narrow-minded bigots are on campus.
Most students didn't give a thought to their outfits for the day, but those that were compelled to wear slacks or skirts to prove their heterosexuality only drew attention to their insecurity.
You see, it doesn't matter whether you wear jeans on that day or shirties on "Go Shirtless if you are Straight Day" because it no longer matters. You can wear jeans straight, just as it no longer matters whether you're black or white.
Candace Veach Derby senior Carol Zuschek Lawrence senior
Graduates owe a debt of gratitude
Despite my blood, sweat and best efforts during the past four years, I was not asked to speak at 1984 Commencement at the University.
I will not be given the chance to sum up the thoughts and feelings of my peers and myself in the inevitable graduation speech.
I am content, however, with second best.
And so I present to you: The Inevitable Graduation Column.
HELAINE
KASKEL
The perfect few among us would say they did it all themselves, pulled their minds from the ground, pushed their muck to the heights of higher
Fellow graduating, hopefully soon to be-employed; seniors: College has taught us all to think, evaluate and analyze, and to form educated opinions based on the conclusions we reach.
We are all lucky to have developed this truly admirable, though profoundly unmarketable, talent in the halls of academe at the University of Kansas.
Staff Columnist
education and to top it off, walked the requisite 37 miles in the snow to class every day. The rest of us know that none of us did it alone.
Many people, institutions and even inanimate objects at KU and in Lawrence helped make us into fine, educated individuals who soon will be made indistinguishable from the identical caps, gowns and resumes we will bring to graduation.
The members of the class of 1984 hereby offer their heartfelt thanks and gratitude to the students as being as get to where we are today.
Clearly, the class of 1984 owes an outstanding debt of gratitude — a debt we must settle before running those last few yards through the goalposts of graduation at Memorial Stadium.
Pizza Man, you saved us from starvation on many a late night when all we had to keep our company was a Norton Anthology of English literature and the works of F. Scott Fitzgerald; papers weren't finished by 8 a.m.
You were kind enough to bring us pizza that tasted so much like cardboard that many times we had to ask and never knew the difference.
KU Police Department, you taught us the meaning of "budget" by charging us $7.50 every time 3 milometers of our rear tires overlapped the white lines of our parking spaces. In addition, you taught us responsibility by charging us an extra $5 if we did not pay the ticket within 14 days.
Enrollment, you deserve a special thanks for first teaching us the invaluable skill of running a ratrace in Allen Field House, and later, letting us observe firsthand an amazing technology of computer technology as we stood in the add/drop line for six hours at Strong Hall.
KU on Wheels, you let us keep those extra pounds we fought so hard to gain our freshman year by never forcing us to walk up the hill to class. A few of us might even have mastered the fine art of forgery as a result of your service.
Traffic Booth Operators, besides teaching us the many ways to circumnavigate the KU campus, you fed our burgeoning creativity by encouraging us to invent fantastic reasons why we simply had to drive our cars on campus before 4:30 p.m.
Wescoe Hall, you gave us an undying appreciation of classical architecture and the beauty it can lend to a campus.
Lawrence Bar Owners, you showed us how to go out and drink and still remain conscious Also, you taught us how to do our homework quickly and efficiently Drink and still remain conscious.
Lawrence Fast Food Joints, you showed us that the fastest way to a student's wallet is through his stomach.
The class of 1984 says a resounding thank you to everyone and everything mentioned above, and to everyone and everyone who helped us for here. As for thanking our parents and educators — well — I'll leave that to the Commencement speechmakers.
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