OPINION
The University Daily
KANSAN
March 9, 1984 Page 4
The University Daily KANSAN
Published since 1889 by students of the University of Kansas
The University Daykan IaaS (USPS 656 460) is published at the University of Kansas, 118 Stauffer Fint Hall, Lawrence, KA. 66043, daily during the regular school year and Monday and Thursday during the summer semester by Saturday, Sunday, holidays, and final periods. Second class postage paid at U.K.A. Post Office for students attending USPS courses in Kansas or for students submitting Student subscriptions are @ a semester fee through the student activity fee. POSTMATTER: send address changes to usps@kansas.edu
DOUG CUNNINGHAM
DON KNOX
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Editorial Editor
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Shultz lashes out
Secretary of State George P. Shultz is mad.
He's mad because some members of the House Appropriations subcommittee are justifiably threatening to halt aid to El Salvador.
In fact, he lashed out at congressmen during hearings at the Capitol Tuesday, accusing them of wanting to abandon an important area of the world simply because there are some problems there.
The congressmen, it seems, do not believe Shultz's assertion that some progress has been achieved concerning human rights violations in El Salvador.
One of the subcommittee members, Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., went as far as to tell Shultz that he would not vote for any economic or military aid to El Salvador until he was sure the administration had a human rights policy that had "some chance of success."
Shultz responded by telling the
congressmen that "there are problems there. We all know that. What you're telling me is that because there are problems, let's walk away."
Both sides in this argument seem to be correct.
The subcommittee is correct because they are representing the view of most Americans that we should not be sending aid to a government that refuses to bring anyone to trial for tens of thousands of grisly murders.
The secretary of state is correct. However, his conclusion has grossly misinterpreted the intentions of the congressmen.
The United States would not be walking away from El Salvador simply because of a few problems.
it would, however, be abandoning a negligent government that through murderer inaction does not measure up to its own standards of human morality.
Chemical war horrible
The cruel torture of chemical warfare must never again enter the arena of human conflict.
For almost 60 years, chemical weapons had not been used.
During World War I, the atrocious consequences of unleashing poisonous gas on human beings became a horrible reality.
But recently the monster has been revived.
This week, Iraq was accused of unleashing mustard gas on opposing Iranian forces.
Over the last several years, the Soviet Union has reportedly spewed a yellow rain of chemicals on Afghanistan. Laos and Cambodia.
The United States is also showing renewed interest in chemical warfare.
Reacting to Soviet acceptance of
In the last two years, Penatagon officials have unsuccessfully tried to get money from Congress to build "binary" chemical weapons in which two harmless chemicals would be combined to form a lethal one.
chemical weapons use, the U.S. has stepped up preparations to defend itself against chemical attacks.
Chemical warfare, even with modern scientific advancements, brings unthinkable agony to its victims. The afflicted are subjected to everything from violent convulsions to painful internal and external blisters that resemble burns.
Some, who receive a less-than fatal dose, do not die. They spend the rest of their lives with the nightmare of painful after-effects and equally painful memories.
Selling out to spring
Crystalline waves rush against the sand like gentle thunder. Clouds crawl across the sky. Even the low blare of Motley Crue and Quiet Riot leaking from transistors does not dispel the young peoples' contentment.
Spring break in South Padre Island, Texas. A welcome relief.
Spring break — a few days away from mid-termss and papers that seem to pile up all at once. A few days away from March in Kansas. A few days away from the grind of daily life.
While everyone cannot afford to travel to Padre Island or to Winter Park, Colo., the wonder of Spring Break lives wherever students go to relax.
Although spring break for stu
Tourism officials in South Padre Island predict that 200,000 students will converge for the yearly "beach bash" beginning tomorrow. And each of those students should be carrying between $300 and $1,000, officials say.
dents means relaxing, for merchants in states such as Texas, Colorado and Florida, spring break brings activity and hard work. They engage in super-hyped sales pitches to get young people to spend money in their establishments.
No wonder merchants are coming out of winter hibernation and taking advantage of the money that is simply waiting to be spent. But it's a shame that American youth are victims of a society that promotes and rewards materialism more than simple enjoyment of nature.
The University Daily Kansan welcomes letters to the editor. Letters should be typewritten, double-space 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 class and home town or faculty or staff information. The Kansas Association individuals and groups to submit guest columns. Columns and letters can be mailed or brought to the Kansan office, 111 Stauffer-Flint Hall. The Kansas reserves the right to edit or reject letters and columns.
LETTERS POLICY
Memories of street performers
One of the most exciting diversions I encountered while traveling overseas is denied me in most of the United States.
It's entertaining, spontaneous and downright fun. Sometimes it's even romantic. Always it's free.
I'm speaking of the corner mime, the sidewalk juggler, the one-man band — the street performer.
Many a time, in some foreign burg, new to town and a bit intimidated by the language and the surroundings, I've been put at ease by a familiar song drifting across the street.
Such music has always drawn me to it because music is a universal language.
If the act is good or it touches me in some way, I may throw some change into the hat. But knowing that you make it makes the payment more satisfying.
Street performing is one of the few occupations left where someone delivers the product first and requests compensation later.
Because of the amount of joy street performers evoke and the cheap price of their gift, I've always wondered why they are not as abundant in the United States as they are elsewhere.
Sure. there are some big cities here where minstrels feel free to practice their trade. New York is
one such sanctuary for street performers.
Every afternoon scores of them congregate in midtown Manhattan at Washington Square Park. That raw talent chest, in the shadow of New York University, has yielded, with some bumps and peaks, Pepsi advertisements and the latest popular fads of break dancing and rap singing.
I grew up close enough to New York to visit Greenwich Village at
GARY
SMITH
Staff Columnist
my leisure, but my fondest memory of the city will always be of sitting under the George Washington Arch one misty June evening listening to a soul group entertain more than 100 soggy people with an a capella version of "Under the Boardwalk."
So, why aren't street performers allowed in Lawrence like they are in smaller European towns such as Flam, Norway, or Grindelwald, Switzerland?
Ordinances in Lawrence are not in street performers' interests.
Municipal ordinances discourage street performances by making the process by which to obtain permission to perform unreasonable for the average player.
First, a performer must propose that the Lawrence City Commission vote on a particular request because city ordinances prohibit use of the public right of way for any private purpose without permission.
Next, the performer has to wait until the vote is taken and must pay for insurance and sometimes even pay a licensing fee.
Occasionally a street performer will show up on campus, and it's always a nice addition to the atmosphere along Jawhayk Boulevard when you do. However, the University also has restrictive rules.
One rule prohibits activity that may "obstruct or interfere with the normal activities of the institution." Another bars the practice of soliciting donations for personal gain, the misuse of leading performance's meager existence.
I was in Paris in late autumn one year, all alone and living it. But something was missing that night. It wasn't the same thing alone in Paris is nothing to get
depressed about, but I had been traveling alone for more than a month, and my last trip to Paris had been on vacation with some of my closest friends.
There, at the turntle, a five-piece band from South Africa was playing "The Me and Bobby McGee," and the gravelly voice of the female singer was sufficient to fill the small void.
But there were no friends this time to share the experience with — that is until I stepped into the underground for the trip back to the hot
The performance was spontaneous, entertaining and romantized a subway ride that otherwise did not exist just taken me where I wanted to go.
That's what was missing. I was having a blast, dining and drinking on the west bank and talking broken to respond to me in broken Spanish.
The four frances I threw in the open guitar case will always remain on my mind as the best investment I ever made in good music.
Maybe it's time street performers were thought of on the KU campus as a normal and necessary activity of the institution. Otherwise a walk through the campus is time to be just a walk to class, when it could be a memory.
O'Connor's speech a dry civics lesson
Few people expected Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor to come out in flowing black robes to speak in Hoch Auditorium Monday
But many people were expecting more than what the justice delivered at the University of Kansas as part of the Sckers Cr. Memorial Lecture Series.
The series was established in 1970 by the Vickers family to provide a forum for "prominent citizens to debate or discuss subjects vital to maintaining a free political and market society."
There is no question that the subject of O'Connor's speech, the Supreme Court, is vital to maintaining a free political society.
Studying the Supreme Court, reading about it in a history book or learning of the court's decisions shows the crucial role the court plays in the American political system.
And were any civics teacher to deliver the lecture O'Connor did — a simple, historical summary of some
But when someone with the stature of a Supreme Court Justice delivers a talk, it's disappointing to hear a lecture that a high-school teacher might give to her students in an American government class.
of the cases decided by the highest judicial body in the nation — there's a good chance the students would chalk up as a boring class.
Few people lacking such basic understanding of the judicial system would be interested enough in the Supreme Court to a lecture of its aptness.
Indeed, O'Connor may have found rationale for her topic with a study she cited. It showed that more than 50 percent of the American people think that in this country's judicial system, a person accused of a crime is considered guilty until proved innocent.
Rather, most of the 2,000 people who came to hear O'Connor were hoping to hear something not found in a book or discussed in a clivss class.
As she said, one would think that television shows such as the "Night Court" and "Perry Mason" would have taught people otherwise.
Justice O'Connor was in a unique position to deliver new insight into a topic many citizens have little
But if one thinks logically, he should also think enough to realize that a large portion of a university audience would not fall into the 50 percent of people ignorant about simple judicial issues.
contact with, but one which influences the lives of us all.
With the increasingly involved role that Supreme Court justices play in the country, as well as her unique role as the only female ever to serve on the Court, Connor was one of the few who, which she could have shed new light
To have a person with her
MARGARET
SAFRANEK
academic and professional credentials discuss her ties to Kansas and then the historical aspects of the state in question. The state was an insult to the audience.
Staff Columnist
But at least O'Connor should get a lot of mileage out of the speech. It is one that will come in handy for the justice as she travels the country, and it will also be hoping to hear more from someone of her stature.
As requests to address audiences
in various states around the country come in, the justice can simply insert the appropriate court cases in the blank spaces.
A good computer programmed by anyone knowledgeable about law should be able to perform a search-and-replace exercise that will take care of this in a matter of minutes, making it a useful tool for an increasingly burdened justice of the highest court in the nation.
But regardless of the convenience of such a talk, the justice's speech fell far short of reaching goals the lecture series was designed to meet.
Few members of the audience came away with any deeper insight into the Supreme Court and its role in the judicial system.
O'Connor's talk reflected little of the vast knowledge and expertise most people expect of a Supreme Court justice.
The number of people who turned out for the lecture showed the interest people had in hearing from those who most respected court in the nation.
But instead of sharing with the audience information and opinions only a Supreme Court member could offer, O'Connor delivered an address that was disappointing but for its value as a civics lesson.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
'Salina Piece' is eyesore
To the editor:
The defects of the "Salina Piece" are primarily three: it has no proportion, it lacks a great theme, and it has no cunning of design.
Its defects are probably best seen by comparing it to great artwork, so we will consider such comparison.
The "Salina Piece" is too big to represent anything human. It might have served as a monument to the upward striving of dinosaurs, but not of people.
Even Michelangelos "The David," though much smaller than the "Salina Piece," is considered
"Salina Piece" is just too big. Touching the theme of "Salina Piece," one of its defenders called it a kind of "Flashdance" — a tribute to venereal and vulgar pleasure — and I agree.
"Flashdance" is pablum for the neverthinking and so is "Salma Piece."
enormous (still worthwhile, but approaching a size boundary).
We feel quite different when we listen to a fugue
Bach's "Passion of St. Matthew" is considered great because, among other things, it points us to the Passion of Jesus, the loftiness of this theme we hold in shape by the commonness and the saliva "Salina Piece."
Concerning the design of the "Sailina Piece,"the viewer's first impression is that the design is thoughtless.
by Bach. The parts pursue each other and wind around each other in something like a frolic.
In the same way we might consider Donne's highly counterpointed poetry. The fun is knowing how the meter's supposed to come out, but being surprised and delighted at how it does.
In "Salina Piece" there's no doubt how it comes out. It's simply a slab of steel on a mount.
What should be done with "Salina Piece" is simple: KU should donate the eyesore to K-State. We'd get rid of it and the K-State students wouldn't mind having it in Manhattan.
After all, if they knew about art they wouldn't be at K-State, now, would they?
Michael Guemple Fairway senior