OPINION
The University Daily KANSAN
March 20,1984 Page 4
The University Daily KANSAN
Published since 1889 by students of the University of Kansas
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Holes in the net
"The odds were against Anna May Rodgers from the start.
She weighed 2 pounds, 6 ounces at birth one-third the average weight for newborns.
Although her mother had not seen a doctor during her entire pregnancy, her parents were concerned enough to take their premature daughter to a hospital shortly after birth.
When she was five months old, the infant left the special unit for premature babies at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, weighing 9 pounds, 2 ounces.
But after 21/2 years of life, Anna May starved to death after her slight frame slipped through the holes of the social services safety net.
The doctor who saw her four days before her death noted that she suffered from chronic mal-urishment.
He was the last in a long line of
social service workers who recorded such information. All methodically logged Anna May's declining health in their journals and noted her bruises, weight losses and changes in disposition.
Most of them knew that it was critical to remove the infant from her home, but none were determined enough to see that it happened.
Now, these same people are looking for a scapegoat.
The young girl's death would be easier to handle if they could point accusing fingers at one particular individual or agency.
But it is each of them who contributed to Anna May's death.
Instead of helping her beat the odds, they were satisfied to merely make note of her situation, leaving gaping holes in a safety net designed to rescue Anna May.
It is not the system that should be faulted for its shortcomings, but the gross error of human inaction.
Camera doesn't blink
For five years, Republicans and Democrats alike have waged a petty battle over cable television coverage of proceedings in the House of Representatives.
Neither side has come out directly against the television cameras. But both say that the other side has taken political advantage of the free TV time.
The latest attack was launched Sunday by House Speaker Thomas P. O'Neill, who said that the Republicans had repeatedly used the cameras as a political vehicle to talk to a "very, very conservative group" of constituents.
Said O'Neill, "I see a young fellow come on the floor with a blue suit and a blue shirt and a red necktie, hair groomed back and an envelope under his arm. And I know that he's going to make a speech and that speech is for home consumption."
Many representatives undoubtedly fight for time on the floor just so the hometown folks can get a glimpse of everybody's favorable politic.
But the absolute alternative — to ban television coverage of House proceedings — is no solution.
O'Neill is justifiably concerned.
The House has enjoyed somewhat more respectability ever since the Cable Satellite Public Affairs Network began televising proceedings five years ago this week. The television cameras certainly have altered the cigar-smoking, nap-taking habits of more than a few congressmen.
O'Neill reluctantly agrees.
"There'd be a hue and cry if you were to shut it off," he says.
Americans are lucky that the camera in the House of Representatives never blinks. That way, at least we have the chance to determine which of our representatives represent only themselves.
Kassebaum's strength
Kansas has found a good friend in Sen. Nancy Landon Kassebaum. Her announcement over the weekend that she plans to run for re-election to the Senate is welcome. Sen. Kassebaum's agricultural record is impressive. She supported legislation to prohibit selective embargoes on agricultural products and opposed expansion of the cargo preference program, which would have increased the cost of shipping grain from Kansas overseas.
She traveled to El Salvador during its most recent elections to observe whether the voting was fair and voluntary. Her continuous efforts to find solutions to the conflicts in Central America, and her work on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, have been serious and thoughtful.
Her record in other areas of interest to Kansans is just as good. She heads the Senate Military Reform Caucus, which is fighting inefficiency in defense programs and wrote legislation that brought about a freeze on mandatory U.S. contributions to the United Nations.
She has worked to prevent large increases in local telephone rates and has supported legislation to increase the availability of day-care centers for low-income people.
Sen. Kassebaum's record is sound and impressive. Kansas should be proud of the gains she has made for the state through her intelligence and quiet tenacity.
Another six years of such leadership could only help Kansans.
LETTERS POLICY
The University Daily Kansan welcomes letters to the editor. Letters should be typewritten, double-spaced and should not exceed 300 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 home town, 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 Stauffer-Flint Hall. The Kansan reserves the right to edit or reject letters and columns.
Hart projects familiar image
It was a familiar gesture. Gary Hart slipped his hand inside his jacket for a moment, as if smoothing or adjusting his tie.
If you watch Hart perform on TV, you'll see him make that little gesture and it probably looks familiar to you, too.
funny thing.
But not because Hart does it, Jog
your memory and you'll remember
where you first noticed it.
Or course, John F. Kennedy. He was always slipping his hand inside his jacket that way. It was a mannerism I identified from New York. Now Hart does it.
The difference is that Kennedy used to do it because he wore a wrap-around brace for his bad back, but now he wears it on his chest to adapt the brace, not his he.
accent there. But after all these years, it would be expected to fade, not become stronger.
It's all part of the skilful pack-
aging job that has made Hart the Democracist front-runner and — if I was betting — the probable rombi-
MIKE
ROYKO
Then there are the Kennedy-like hand gestures. The Kennedy-like self-deprecating humor. And Hart has even used the "ask not what your country can do for you" phrase.
Apparently Hart, who does not have a bad back, slips his hand in his coat because Kennedy did it and Hart thinks it makes him look sick.
Note the slightly nasal, clipped speech patterns in Hart's speech. Familiar? Sure. It's a New England JKF and the other Kennedy had.
Syndicated Columnist
The Kennedy's talked that way because they were born and reared in Boston, where people talked that way.
Jimmy Carter, among others, is
True, Hart went to Yale as a young man, and I suppose he could have picked up a bit of an Eastern
Hart, however, was reared in Kansas. And that isn't the way people in Kansas talk. Nor is it the way people talk in Colorado, where he now lives. Or in Washington, where he works.
scratching his head and saying that he doesn't understand how Hart managed to pull it off.
Forget about his positions on issues. If you ask Hart supporters what his "new ideas" are, they have no idea. Don't know what his old ideas were.
If Carter means it, then he knows even less about modern campaigning than he showed during his final race.
When you see Hart in a commercial, he's usually outside, sitting on a mountaintop, talking to a small group of people — focusing on them, not the camera. "I can't care about you" routine that's become so successful an advertising tool.
Of all the Democratic candidates, with the possible exception of Jesse Jackson, Hart has shown that he is the only candidate who knows what politics are all about.
Television. How you look and how you sound on it. And how you manipulate it.
What they know is that he looks better and sounds better than the other Democrats. And there is this vague feeling of familiarity that they can't explain explain. The hand in his palm says, "Maybe if he says 'I am a Berliner' in German with a New England accent, they'll catch on."
In contrast, what is Mondale
doing? He's behind a rostrum on a stage in front of a big audience, bellowing out his campaign promises like a traditional politician.
And what is Hart wearing during his mountaintop chitchat? Sort of a combo outfit. Preppy and western, casual and youthful.
Mondale is in the standard fuddy-duddy business suit, stiff shirt and tie. And when he wore casual clothes for a TV appearance with Carter, he put on the kind of dress he would wear at Gramus wears for porch sitting.
Then there is the hair. Many people don't realize how important hair is in modern politics, especially if you're after the younger, hair-conscious vote, as Hart is. Why, in the 1960s, hair was their most important garment. Sometimes it was all they wore.
It's not only that Hart has the most hair of the candidates. Or that it's without a hint of gray, which I find suspicious in a man of 47. But he also understands the importance of the dry look.
Mondale, for all his experience,
hasn't learned that. He still sports
the forbidden wet look
So even if the advisers to Monday had been smart enough to bombard the voters with the hot word "new!" they had done, it wouldn't have worked
In fairness to Hart, that isn't a new device. When Elvis died, his imitators appeared. There was a time when half the broadcasters in America tried to talk like David and then the other half like Walter Cronkite.
But this is the first time I remember anyone doing stand-up imitations in a presidential primary.
What did you do over spring break?
Nor could Mondale even try to mimic Kennedy as skillfully as Hart does. He must have spent hours watching old tapes and films and practicing in front of a mirror. It isn't that easy to slip your hand into your jacket just so. You don't want rubs if you are just scratching your rips.
Mondale, with his suits, wet look,
dark rings around his eyes, and loud
labor hall speeches, doesn't look or
sound at all new. He just looked tired
The tan lines are creating a pedestrian hazard on Wescoe Beach.
The University Daily Korean is pleased to announce the addition of Columns. Columns columns. Columns by Hoyo will appear regularly on the opinion page.
Who knows, if he'd thought of it,
Frank Gorshin might have been the
front-runner on Super Tuesday.
Contrast him to Hart, who looks long, lean and youthful while looping about the tennis court. And Hart makes sure that TV has the opportunity to show him loping on tennis courts.
If you haven't noticed yet, spring break is over.
As you dodge the concrete skiers gliding over the oil spots put there by leftover Coppertec, you pull up the collar of last winter's turtle neck that you wore to hide the glow of your fluorescent-white skin.
Admit it — you didn't go anywhere special over break. But everyone you know seems to have chartered a car and wants to tell you all about it.
You're going to hear their glory stories whether you want to or not. People who travel over spring break are accomplished at asking leading questions designed to solicit the "And what did you do over break?"
Wherever they went, whatever they did, their descriptions sound like the final examination at travel agent school.
It is easy to picture spring break vacationers practicing their travelogue descriptions during the flight home.
But if you were one of the
With some clever planning, however, you don't have to subject yourself to the crucifixion by comparison that follows spring break.
fortunate few who spent his vacation here at the Corkbelt Berkettle — or anywhere in the Sunflower State — may not be eager to swap stories.
A few carefully chosen phrases
HELAINE KASKEL
Staff Columns
A good tactic is to casually admit that the family yacht was being redecorated last week and you were on board. I should also note the noise of painbrushes on the deck.
can effectively forestall any further questioning on the part of skiers and sunbathers.
Then add that the family thought
it best to give the pilot a vacation because he hadn't had one since the trip to Bermuda.
Most people will then hesitate before giving you the highlights of the great keg party they had on the stage and then them to the slopes in only 28 hours.
After hearing this, there is an excellent chance that your interrogator will not be overly anxious to boast about the one-bedroom accommodations he shared with six guests. The Mar Hotel in Padre Island, Texas.
Let your imagination be your guide. If you don't have any imagination, look through the pages of a Harold Robbins novel for ideas.
Another strategy is to let it slip that Daddy didn't want to deal with the tourists after he rented out a condominium complex in Vail, Colo.
Talk about how inconvenient it would have been to ship all that ski equipment all the way from the Alps for just a few days of recreation.
The goal is to make your spring break story so overbearingly extravagant that anything anybody
Mention that you could relax at your Virgin Islands villa this year because you lent it to the Jacques Cousteau production crew to use while shooting an underwater documentary.
else did seems about as exciting as well — staying in Lawrence
Let it drop that even though you had planned on Hawaii, Tom Selleck decided to meet you here instead.
And if a slight — um — misrepresentation of the facts bothers you, consider the alternative by standing up. That is, "I staved in Lawrence." 50 times.
Or stifle a yawn as you complain about how boring Monte Carlo is at this time of year.
If you make it past 10 times, the question-avoidance strategy described above is not for you.
If you're part of the online 99.9 percent who see the obvious logic in this harmless play, start practicing your story now.
Don't be honest.
Here's a little incentive: "What did you do over spring break?"
Exhibit a mild sense of ennui. Be ofhand. Be casual. Don't be hurt.
Reagan is hypocritical
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
To the editor:
I should like to respond to the statement published in an advertisement paid for by Students for Human Justice, March 8, University Daily Kansan, which used a proclamation by Ronald Reagan for a new National Sanctity of Human Life Day.
It would be more appropriate if his concern for "human justice" manifested itself in active consideration, not of the unborn, but of those citizens already living in this country — the unemployed, the handcapped, and any discriminatory basis of sex, religious belief or ethnic origin.
Reagan's proclamation, written in highly sensational and emotive terms, is both misleading and effective.
His concern for all those unborn who "will never laugh, never sing, never experience the joy of human love" is laudable; it is sadly ironic that once they are born, his concern for their mental well-being
Reagan's performance so far suggests that justice is accorded most fully when those individuals involved are male, heterosexual, middle-class. English-speaking whites.
It is surely significant, too, that this statement
It would be interesting, too, to discover how Reagan would propose to adjust the American economy so that it could sustain the extra "15 million unborn children" that have "died" since birth.
Reagan claims that abortion erodes "our sense of the worth and dignity of every individual." I should like to argue that, in most cases, the denial of a woman's freedom to choose the appropriation of her body for forced procreation is far more degrading.
was written by a man, and that the representative from Students for Human Justice is a man.
The era to which Mrs. Harris is referring is totally different from the 1980s.
Carol Lucas England graduate student
1
It seems that the economy is struggling to support the population as it stands at present. I am fully in favor of a day in which to "teachfirm our commitment to the dignity of every human being and the sanctity of each human life;" for one day of the year, let us give thanks for the gift of life.
But for the other 364, let us work to create better
coverage for the millions of under-
building dwellers living in low- and mid-rise
Column is misleading
To the editor:
In response to Kiesa Harris' article of March 7:
Riots, bombings, and the setting of fires were the norm of protest in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Is Mrs. Harris inferring that we as students should burn the ROTC building every time we do work with a decision the president, who was popularly elected in the democratic process, makes?
People are free to voice their opinions in America; that is what made this country what it is. But planting a bomb or rioting is not the answer.
To address the issue of finding a good job, I ask Mrs. Harris this: What is wrong with finding a secure, well-paying job? She makes it seem as if it is a crime to find a job and support a family!
I and a majority of the students at the University of Kansas are here to acquire a sound education. Mrs. Harris implies the student body is composed of robot-like alcoholics who care more about getting their daily six-pack than contempt for them, so they only them as individuals, but also their country.
In conclusion, Mrs. Harris seems to be protesting the lack of something to protest. She needs to open her eyes and take stock of what is going on around her. Thomas J. Sherard
Louisburg freshman