OPINION
The University Daily KANSAN
The University Daily
KANSAN
April 12, 1984 Page 4
Published since 1898 by students of the University of Kansas
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Race heating up
The contest for the Democratic presidential nomination continues to be fierce. Walter Mondale scored an impressive victory Tuesday in the Pennsylvania primary
However, the Rev. Jesse Jackson said he was pleased with the numbers he racked up — about 20 percent of the popular vote, according to early returns. Jackson called his showing a substantial one.
Sen. Gary Hart seemed to concede the race early. Just hours after the polls opened, the Colorado Democrat said that he would likely lose Pennsylvania. Certainly, that was an uncharacteristic step.
Hart, however, also noted that the primary season now rolls into his greatest areas of strength, the West and Southwest. Hart also was wise to say that "there isn't a watershed state." In other words, the results of one state, at this stage, won't decide
either the nomination or the election.
Many people have criticized the primary system for weeding out some candidates too early, and therefore leaving a smaller choice for those who vote in the later primaries.
Although several Democrats were quickly eliminated from the race for the nomination, the remaining three continue to slug it out. Both Hart and Mondale appear to have a good chance at the nomination.
The role of civil-rights activist Jackson also should not be underestimated. If the race and convention go down to the wire, Jackson could act as a broker between the two other candidates.
A lively political race shows that the system is functioning well. The three Democrats, however, must remember that their key goal is to defeat Ronald Reagan in November.
A man of conscience
Many people will remember Frank Church as a loser.
Frank Church lost the 1976 Democratic presidential nomination to Jimmy Carter.
Despite these losses, history will record the former Idaho senator, who died from cancer over the weekend, as a big winner.
And, in 1980, he was defeated for a fifth Senate term by Republican Steven D. Symms in the GOP landslide that swept Ronald Reagan into the White House.
Frank Church was a man of principle.
He earned a reputation in Congress for his social conscience and keen interest in foreign policy.
Former president Lyndon B. Johnson once referred to him as Frank "Sunday School" Church, because of his outspoken criticism of U.S. policy in Vietnam.
The Idaho Democrat joined with
then-Sen. John Sherman Cooper, R-Ky., in sponsoring the Cooper-Church amendment to limit U.S. involvement in the conflict when many other members of Congress refused to confront the issue.
A former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1979, Church was also a champion of civil rights, aid to the aging and environmental legislation.
The former Democratic senator was born into a conservative Republican family. He attributed his approach toward life to a bout with cancer while he was still in law school.
"I had previously tended to be more cautious — but having so close a brush with death at 23, I felt afterwards that life is itself such a chancy proposition that the only way to live it is by taking great chances," he said.
And in the end, the country won because Frank Church dared to take those chances.
Showing man's ability
High dollar, computerized, state-of-the-art technology couldn't do it alone
It came down to a group of less-than-perfect men and a lot of luck.
After one unsuccessful attempt, the Challenger's crew managed to snag a crippled satellite this week. The action further proved the shuttle's practical utility.
Challenger's newly proven ability improves its chances for commercial success.
Although not as dramatic as a fiery lift-off or as glamorous as a space walk, the shuttle's first successful satellite retrieval mission outshadows other shuttle firsts because the rescue was not a showy
The crew made their second try Tuesday. Astronaut Terry Hart manipulated the shuttle's 50-foot bionic arm, finally pulling Solar Max into the cargo bay.
On Sunday, the shuttle crew first tried to capture the satellite, the Solar Max, by sending astronaut George Nelson out in a manned maneuvering unit.
display: it was a real mission.
It is interesting to note that in the end, despite all the carefully calculated plans and high-technology equipment, everything hinged on man's versatility, ability and a heavy dose of good luck.
But after the satellite was bumped by Nelson, it wobbled out of reach.
Some things will never change.
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LETTERS POLICY
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'Lazy poor' myth is unfounded
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Joe came to Shalom House, a hospitality center for homeless men, about a month ago. He needed a place to stay while he looked for a job.
I remember him going out day after day to a place where people were building a church, and day after day, they told him to come back tomorrow.
It was a long way to walk, and Joe finally quit going.
One day, he found some temporary work with a friend of his, and he said to me, "Mary, I'm going to work so hard and so fast that they are going to have to let me come back tomorrow."
There was no work tomorrow.
Joe's experiences refute the myth that the poor are unemployed because they are lazy. The poor often simply work at low-paying jobs.
Not all of the men who pass through Shalom House are unskilled laborers. Some are electricians, some are bricklayers and some have college degrees.
instead to live off their stocks and bonds are well-respected
The market for unskilled as well as skilled laborers seems flooded. Some people think that the men who pass through Shalom House are seeking a handout.
Something is wrong when men who are willing to work but are unemployed lose respect, while others who are not unemployed retain respect.
But in reality, many of them find it difficult to accept any kind of charity in a country where self-sufficiency has always been stressed. People who are unable to meet the respect of their families and communities
Some people think that individuals on welfare are not doing honest labor for the money they need.
But are those who live off the profits of their families' bank accounts more worthy of receiving money without laboring just because they were born into a more privileged class?
MARY
MULDOON
Guest Columns
The men living in Shalom House are eligible to receive only $25 a month in welfare aid. Most of them don't even get that amount.
The people at Social and Rehabilitation Services say that one needs to be "out on his own" before he can receive the money that would enable him to become self-sufficient.
But how are people supposed to start "out on their own" if they can't get a job nor the proper assistance?
Recently, a 62-year-old disabled man stayed at Shalom House, which SIR considers free room and board. Because of this, the man had $125 deducted off his next check.
Some political leaders think that by living on food stamps for a short time or studying hunger in America, they can understand the situation poor people are in.
But I am reminded of a classic statement by Alexander Solzenitsyn in "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich": "How can you expect a man who's warm to understand him who's made cold?"
He needed that extra money to get started out on his own, and yet to receive aid, it seemed that he might have had to stay out on the streets to qualify as "homeless."
The leaders of this country should listen more to the voices of the poor, as well as those who live and work with the poor.
Shalom House has 24 beds that are always full. Each night we have to tell people that we have no more room.
Despite the new shelters that have cropped up in the Kansas City area, there are still people who are forced to sleep in abandoned buildings and under bridges.
One food kitchen in the city feeds between 300 and 700 people daily. To share bread with the children, mothers, senior citizens and homeless persons, there is a large number of them are not simply looking for a free meal.
It is not by choice that people stand in line for food they did not even have a hand in choosing or preparing. It is not by choice that men live with 22 others in a dorm where there is little privacy.
As an individual who works with the poor put it,
It is not the choice of the poor to be poor, but of
the rich.
It is not by choice that some do not have money even for small necessities.
Mary Muldowon, Olathe senior, is a history major and works at Sholom Catholic Worker House, Sholom House has a peace and justice center and extends hospitality to the homeless.
Gary Hart's young image is misleading
But Sen. Gary Hart has started it up again by presenting himself as part of a new generation of new leadership that will provide us with the innovation of solutions for the new generation of problems that confront us.
I thought all the "generation gap" silliness ended when the flower children started getting bald and thick around the middle.
The Life Of . .
He has talked about new generations so much that for a while I wondered whether he was old enough to be running for president.
So I looked at his and age started doing some figuring. Hart is either 46 or 47, depending on what he's admitted to lately. He used to say he was 46, but somebody checked it out and it appears that he fudged on a year, the vain fellow, and is actually 47.
Whether he's 46 or 47, that doesn't exactly make him Gary Coleman.
Why, he's a lot older than Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, two of the all-time great generation gappers.
So what is all this talk of new generation, new solutions, new, new, new Simple. This is packaging, new Simple. It just an all-new! improved! detergent!
For that matter, he's only four years younger than me, and I'm generally regarded as a geezer, a codger and even a coot.
Actually, Hart's generation has nothing special to brabag about. If anything, it is one of the more fortunate of generations. He was born in New York. That means that he was too young to experience the Great Depression.
It also means he was just a little kid when World War II broke out and ended, so he didn't have to take part in it. He was probably too young even to buy those 10-cent defense
stamps that school children used to paste in books.
Our next war was Korea, and he was about to turn 16 when it ended, so he was too young for that, too.
But by the time the draft really revved up for the Vietnam War in the mid-'60s, he was about 27 or 28, and they weren't drafting guys that age.
Now that's luck. Too young for the Depression and the wrong age for three wars. (Not that he hasn't had military experience. When he was more than 40, he joined the Naval Reserve. I'm sure he was motivated by the thought of how good that would look on his political pamphlets.)
And the luck continues. When the social wackiness of the 1960s came along, he was still a young man. And this was probably the golden age for young men. The Pill had been invented and was widely used.
Young people were tossing their inhibitions hither and yon. A young fellow could let his hair grow, put on some love beads, jeans, sandals, shoes, or slippers. Their sisting of 'hey, groovy,' 'mellow,' or 'i dig gig,' and lead the
So why is Hart thumping his chest so proudly about his generation? The only physical demand ever placed on it was to stay fashionably thin.
That is a now name, a today name. Past presidents always had, much squaren names. Woodrow. Herbert.
satisfyingly wanton life of a playboy. I'm not saying he did, but at least the opportunity was there.
Harry, Dwight, Franklin, Richard, Abraham, George, Ulysses. (I don't count Jimmy, because Carter was from a part of the country where young men are named Bubba and Billy Joe.)
Even his name fits the image he tries to project. Gary. We have never had a president named Gary. He is one of our candidates, a candidate named Gary before.
But he has a glorious head of hair, a wonderful set of choppers, a manly jaw, a boyish yet mature grin, a smooth complexion and is tall enough to get through the adoring crowds who are brought to airports by his advance men.
He's making a big deal out of his generation and his alleged youth because that is the best thing he has going for him politically. His ideas aren't remarkable. Most of the "new paths," the "new solutions," the "bold, not cautious" approaches he talks about are either not new, specific or much different from those of his Democratic rivals.
What if Gary Hart had a bald spot right on top of his head, as many men of 47 have? Many men of his age have bald spots stretching from ear to ear.
Would he be campaigning as a representative of a "new generation?" You bet he wouldn't. Not unless he sneaked into Hairline Creations and got fitted for their super-natural rug.
And what if he had a bulge above his belltine, and a bit of a jowl, which many men his generation are afflicted with? Would he be the youthful vigor and the bouncy step? Only if he wanted to get laughs.
So I hope he gets around to talking more about what he would do if nominated and elected and less about his "new generation."
Until he does, he's going to sound like he's running for president, all right — but of his senior class.
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