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OPINION
The University Daily KANSAN
February 6, 1984 Page 4
The University Daily KANSAN
Published since 1889 by students of the University of Kansas
The University Daykan Daisan (USP$ 650-640) is published at the University of Kansas, 118 Stauffer Prent Irm, Lawrence, KS 60040. daily during the regular school year and Monday and Thursday during the summer session, execlent on Friday and Saturday for final periods, second class postpaid paid at Lawrence, KS 60040. Subscriptions by mail are $13 for six months or $27 a year. Subscriptions by email are $13 for six months or $27 a year. Subscription费 be mailed through the student activity fee. POSTMASTER. send address changes to the University of Kansas.
DOUG CUNNINGHAM
Edition
DON KNOX
Managing Editor
SARA KEMPIN
Editorial Editor
JEFF TAYLOR ANDREW HARTLEY
Campus Editor New Editor
DAVE WANAMAKER
Business Manager
CORG MORMAN
JILL MITCHELL
Retail Sales Manager
National Sales Manager
PAUL JESS
JANCE PHILIPS   DUNCAN CALHUNO
Campus Sales Manager  Classified Manager
General Manager and News Adviser
JOHN OBERZAN Sales and Marketing Adviser
An ironic ending
Kevin Walker never deserved to be student body president.
He misled the student body by competing in a student election although he had no intention of completing the semester as an enrolled student.
His coalition misled the University Judicial Board by appealing the election.
Now Walker says he won't compete in the new presidential election, which was ordered because of the appeal his coalition filed on his behalf.
To be sure, Walker's decision not to run is the best one. Walker's two-year association with the Student Senate has continually hurt students, despite his confident assertions that he is supported by the majority of the students at the University.
The most important accomplishment his candidacy achieved, Walker said, was to bring about reform to Senate elections, which he said had been manipulated by incumbents and plagued by voter fraud.
This might be true, but Walker's actions cannot be overlooked.
He prolonged the election because he said the system didn't work. But when the system changed, he failed to work with it.
The election reforms were accomplished at the expense of his own credibility. Walker was content to watch as the Senate was scrutinized because of his allegations of fraud, but he was unwilling to undergo the same scrutiny.
His successful appeal has ousted the student who twice was declared student body president.
Scott Swenson decided not to file for the new elections because he had neither the time nor the money.
His integrity was admirable. He chose to work within a system that, although flawed, was not irreparable.
The election reform that Walker's appeal started in motion must continue. But the Senate must never forget the sacrifices a few students, such as Swenson, made to carry through those reforms.
Drug's use warranted
The Hammurabi Code was effective. If a thief were caught, his hands were severed, and the chances were slim that he could or would steal again.
The issue over the use of DepoProvera on convicted rapists, however, is not as clear-cut as the ancient code. No one knows exactly how effective chemical castration is.
Although many groups condone its use, they rightly suggest that a jail term should accompany the drug's use to guarantee that a rapist will not commit more violent crimes.
A recent case in Wichita illustrates the problem. A convicted rapist has asked that he be allowed to undergo Depo-Provera treatments rather than serve a prison sentence. Depo-Provera first came to public attention this summer when a Texas rapist was sentenced to a 10-week Depo-Provera treatment program, instead of to a prison term.
The drug is used to lower sex drive in men by reducing a chemical imbalance, and some doctors who have administered the treatment say they have had an 85 percent success rate.
But many groups are uncertain whether the 85 percent success rate is high enough. Reducing an imbalance, they think, does not mean rapists will stop committing violent crimes.
For the most part, the judiciary, the public and law enforcement officials agree that the drug should be used, although it causes considerable weight gain, loss of hair, itching and other symptoms similar to menopause in women.
Few have brought up Article XIII of the Constitution that prohibits cruel and unusual punishment for criminals. The use of Depro-Provera seems established. And the nation should probably now decide to add a jail sentence with use of Depo-Provera.
Protecting free speech
By disciplining three students involved in disrupting a speech by Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger, Harvard University has made it clear that the right of free speech belongs as much to unpopular speakers as it does to their checklers.
A largely hostile audience booed and heckled Weinberger during a speech this past fall with chants of "Murderer!" and "No draft, no war, U.S. out of El Salvador."
Two sophomores have received warnings that engaging in such conduct in the future would "in all probability lead to disciplinary action."
Dean Archie C. Epps described the discipline as "lenient," but noted that it raised the question of which actions should be considered as legitimate protest and which constituted "unacceptable and disruptive conduct."
A third student, one who hurled water balloons, was placed on disciplinary probation.
The discipline . . means that Harvard will defend those traditions and will observe the distinction between legitimate protest and disruptive actions which violate the free speech rights of unpopular speakers.
Boston Globe
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 town or faculty or staff position. The Kansan also leaves individuals and groups to submit guest coloured 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.
End of Nestle boycott is victory
Victory can be savored over a cup of Nestle's Taster's Choice coffee at breakfast this morning.
The boycott of Nestle, the giant Swiss company that has a large stake in the baby-formula market in Third World countries, is over.
The real winners are many parents in Third World countries. But thousands of people around the world are claiming a share in the victory.
For years, the multinational corporation proved its remarkable marketing strategy by hiring nurses
and health professionals to act as representatives for Nestle.
in the hospitals and clinics, those marketing people made many good arguments convincing women in underdeveloped countries to use baby formula instead of breast-feeding their babies.
Billboards, free baby T-shirts and baby bottles adorned with the company's logo all further enhanced the image of Nestle.
Many health-care studies have shown that breast-feeding is one of the healthiest means of feeding an infant.
But when women in Third World countries fed their babies the formula, the results were often disastrous.
Bonding between mother and child during these early stages of
Some mothers stretched the formula, which was draining their meager finances, by diluting it. What the women didn't realize was that they were also slowly starving their babies, denying their newborn son or daughter the nutrients necessary for development.
Yet Nestle's marketing of the product was so successful that some parents still swore by the formula, even as they marked their babies' graves with Nestle baby bottles and empty formula tins.
When it came time to buy formula for the baby, parents discovered that the price was often far more than they could afford. The harsh realities and Nestle's profits started going hand-in-hand.
development is another of the positive aspects of nursing. Breast-feeding is also convenient and sanitary.
Because their mothers could not always sterilize the formula, babies were subjected to further health hazards.
But free samples of Nestle's baby formula encouraged women to abandon breast-feeding. Unfortunately, the often ran sample women same time a woman stopped lactation because she was not breast feeding.
But while women in Third World countries continued to believe in Nestle, after being sold on the formula by a slick marketing company, the United States found fewer and fewer things attractive about the company.
In 1977, angered by the marketing techniques employed by Nestle to promote the baby formula in Third World countries, the C.I.A. cernied U.S. citizens formed the
'When it came time to buy formula for the baby, parents discovered that the price was often far more than they could afford. The harsh realities and Nestle's profits started going hand-in-hand.'
Infant Formula Action Coalition International organizations soon joined the campaign.
The groups primarily wanted to change the marketing practices ofuby formula in Third World countries and some American companies.
Widespread, creative efforts at the consumer level, largely centered on boycotts, finally reached manufacturers at the top of Nestle.
INFACT members were smart enough to figure out that emotional and political messages were the type most likely to get through to students, who were deluged daily by reams of scientific and nutritional statistics.
The president of the Nestle Coordination Center for Nutrition Inc., in Washington, D.C., said, "The company was dealing with the situation on a scientific and nutritional level, but the protesters were dealing on an emotional and political level."
The organizers of the boycott refused simply to add to the papers full of figures stacked on corporate furniture in the country and in Nest's case, abroad
After six and a half years, Nestle finally got the message. Several weeks ago, the International Nestle
Far better to show by action just what they meant.
Boycott Committee (INBC) and the Nestle Co. issued a joint statement.
In turn, INBC recommended suspending the boycott.
Nestle had made a firm commitment to comply with the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes, a World Health Organization UNICEF code, which the World Health Assembly adopted in May, 1981 out of concern for health of infants.
This week members of organizations from around the world who have participated in the boycott over the years will meet in Mexico City to discuss how to monitor the changes Nestle has promised
They will also be making plans to try to change practices of some American companies who also use a formula in Third World countries.
According to INFACT members, these companies have basked in the attention focused on Nestle. They have been trying to expand their market shares and at the same time are scrutiny Nestle has undergone.
The success of the boycott ultimately means improved health care for infants in Third World countries.
But the taste of victory is shared by thousands of people around the world who switched to another brand of coffee to get Nestle to realize the power of moral influence and of purchasing decisions.
Reagan tops most polls in election
WASHINGTON — Presidential candidate Ronald Reagan is riding high in the polls, and he is enjoying his victory as he starts down the campaign trail.
But he thinks he has been maligned by opponents on two fronts that he views as political hurdles the so-called 'fairness', issue that the president has tried to undermine and the disadvantaged, and the image that he is "trigger happy."
Right now he is bent on clearing up what he calls "misconceptions" of his views.
He did not help the situation much when he said in an ABC "Good Morning America" interview that even in the best of times people
HELEN THOMAS
United Press International
He was responding to a question regarding charges that he favors the rich and his policies are causing misery to the less fortunate.
sleeping on outdoor grates in the big cities are homeless "by choice."
He told interviewer Dayid Hartman, "Sure, when someone is down on his luck and is having hard times and they'd like to have someone to blame, they have heard a steady drumbeat (that he is unfair).
“Now, they’ve been told over and over again that because we’re trying to hold down government spending we’re taking it out on their hides.”
In response to a similar question in Newsweek magazine, Reagan cited "some misperceptions that have been carefully crafted by a certain amount of demagogue on the part of opponents of what we've been trying to do here; issues that would have me uncaring for certain groups of our citizenry — and they're not true at all.
And they probably have been the most frustrating thing that I personally have felt."
He summed up his feelings by saying he believes the fairness issue has been "very unfair."
During his first year as president he made social programs his target for cutting big government, aiming at disability payments, school loans, school lunches and other entitlement programs. Such programs, he said.
In the '60s he opposed nearly every "Great Society" proposal, which became law under Lyndon Johnson, including voting rights, civil rights, Medicare and minimum wage. He also suggested in 1964 that Social Security payments might be put on a voluntary basis.
Reagan came into office with a lot of baggage concerning his views on welfare and equity.
should be only for the "truly needy."
In that respect he has halted the growth of these programs. The cuts added a burden to the big cities with their population growth and the recent deep recession, which is not over in some industries.
But again he is not asking for financing for legal services for the poor, an assistance that he appears determined to wipe out. It is the target of activist conservatives in the country.
In his present budget, Reagan also proposes some lesser-than-expected cuts in food assistance and Medicare.
He was told by Republican law-makers, according to House GOP leader Bob Michel, that big cuts in spending would not be politically unjust. He year would be politically unjust.
His response to those who accuse him of favoring the rich is that they are trying to make a political appeal to "greed and envy."
went along, but showed 'hair-raising' deficits for the coming years if the domestic programs continue to increase.
"This is the same anti-business, anti-succes attitude that has brought our country to the brink of economic disaster," he told the concrete, gravel and stone producers in Chicago earlier this week.
His priorities as president have been clear. He believes his mandate in 1980 was to rebuild the nation's defenses and to cut "big government" and spending on social programs.
As president he has tried to do just that. But he resents the view that such cuts lack compassion.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Who even cares?
To the editor:
When I began to read the column by Harry Mallin concerning the “war between the states” of Michigan and Kansas over which state is more boring. I was delighted to see that he is sticking to stick up for Kansas for a chapter.
After enduring years of Kansas jokes, I was pleased to see that a statement in support of Kansas was going to be made. Or so I thought.
What I found was a sarcastic slander of our state that did not defend Kansas but instead added responsibility to Gov. Blanchard's remarks.
Frankly, I was appalled by the shipshed journalism I was reading, not to mention the lack of research on well-known facts. Let me highlight a few points that Lound quite disturbing.
First of all, the "hick" accent Mr.
Mallin used while describing Kansas: I have to find a Kansan who speaks in this manner and I hope I never do.
Secondly, the subject of tourist traps: Granted Kansas has its share of tourist traps, but no more than any other state. And if the Eisenhower building is not supposed to suppose every museum and library in the country must be one as well.
If Mr. Mallin would to actually visit there he would find an abundance of art and history on display for all to see. In our trap, I say let's build a more few.
Finally, the comments toward Michigan: All I can say is, "Haven't we heard enough childish remarks lately?" Personally, I am growing tired of reading about how Kansas is boring and Michigan is unenjoyed.
In conclusion, I would like to
I agree that Gov. Blanchard's remarks were wrong, but so was the onslaught of rebuttal. I say let the issue die.
David Nelson
Concordia junio
To the editor:
address anyone who has made any tactless comments on Kansas. If you don't like it here, please exit quietly. I can't imagine which state more bored with care?
Right to say no
If the U.S. government told you to round up all the Jews, Catholics, blacks or Future Farmers, would you do it?
In response to Doug Sikora's letter that appeared in the Kansan Jan. 30, I'd like to say, Doug, don't be such a sheep.
If we don't have the right to say no to military service, then we're just mindless stormtroopers. I'll fight when I think it's necessary.
How can we be free men if we don't have the right to make such an important decision as what causes we think are worth fighting for?
Daniel Webster, speaking on the floor of the House Dec. 9, 1814, put it well: "Is this (the draft), sir, consistent with the character of a free government? Is this civil real character of our Constitution?"
No, sir, indeed it is not. The Constitution is labled, foully labeled. The people of this country have not been so deprived that themselves such a fabric of despotism.
They have not purchased at a vast expense of their own treasure and their own blood a Magna Charta to be slaves.
Where is it written in the Constitution, in what article or section is it contained, that you may take children from their parents, and parents from their children, and compel them to fight the battles of war which the folly or the wickedness of government may engage it?"
Ed Stamm
Ed Stamm Lawrence resident