OPINION
The University Daily KANSAN
The University Daily KANSAN
Published since 1889 by students of the University of Kansas
The University Daily Kaman (USP$ 60-640) is published at the University of Kansas, 118 Stauffer Finst Hall, Lawrence, KAN 60039, during the regular school year and Monday and Thursday during the summer sessions closing Saturday, Sunday, holiday, and final periods. Second class postpaid payment is贴金 for a semester fee or £5 per year at the University of Kansas and/or £25 for a year outside the county. Student subscriptions are $3 semester paid through the student activity fee. PASTMER ADDRESS change to addresses
DOUG CUNNINGHAM
DON KNOX
Managing Editor
Editorial Editor
JEFF TAYLOR ANDREW HARTLEY Campus Editor News Editor
DAVE WANAMAKER Business Manager
CORT GORMAN JILL MITCHELL
Retail Sales Manager National Sales Manager
PAUL JESS
General Manager and News Adviser
JANCE PHILIPS           DUNCAN CALHOUH
Campus Sales Manager     Classified Manager
January 20,1984 Page 4
JOHN OBERZAN Sales and Marketing Adviser
Take closer look
And yes, the city even has a Downtown Improvement Committee, or DIC as it is called, to help the commission make plans for downtown redevelopment.
Public involvement in local government is fast disappearing.
Just one small point — the DIC means nothing to the Lawrence City Commission.
Oh yes, the city has the requisite number of boards and commissions to provide opinions and information from the community.
Perhaps that's a tad harsh. The opinions of the DIC do mean a little something. But precious little.
Tuesday evening the commission approved a preliminary contract with the local Town Center Venture Corp. One of the key members of the group, Duane Schwada, has long been a mover and shaker in Lawrence development.
The problem, however, is not that people don't want to get involved. The problem rests squarely with the City Commission.
In working with the city's previous
developer, the Louisiana firm of Sizerel Realty Inc., the city sought reams of public comment, some through the DIC and some through the regular commission. Sizerel representatives went out of their way to attend public meetings and similar gatherings.
Of course, Town Center officials think that their plan is clearly the best. And to their credit, they have met with some community groups to explain the plan at further length.
No such comment is being sought this time around, however. For whatever reason, the Town Center plan appears to have a take-it-or-leave-it approach.
But the people the plan would affect most — the citizens of Lawrence — have had little chance for substantive comment on it.
Surely it is difficult to develop a shopping center in the midst of public scrutiny and advice. But in Lawrence, there seems to be far too little scrutiny of a downtown plan that will affect the city for years to come.
A huge white elephant
"We in the breadbasket of America don't want it. We don't need it. We don't want our rates to go up 100 percent."
Lance Burr, a Lawrence attorney and spokesman for the Kansas Nuclear Awareness Network, reflected the frustration of many an angry Kansan this week when he spoke to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board.
The board began three weeks of hearings in Burlington on Tuesday to decide whether to grant an operating license to the Wolf Creek nuclear power plant under construction near the town.
In March 1976, Robert Rives, a public relations representative of Kansas Gas and Electric, said that
Consumers are justifiably angry. Wolf Creek has become a white elephant of insane proportions.
the plant should be built because it was more economical to produce energy in a nuclear plant than from fossil fuels.
His propaganda today is nothing short of hilarious, of course, but why isn't anyone laughing?
The projected cost of the beast has risen fivefold since the plant was proposed in 1973.
We are told now by the Kansas Corporation Commission that the final projected construction cost will be $2.67 billion and that electric rates could increase 80 percent when the plant finally begins operation.
Burr says that if the license is approved and the plant does begin operations he intends to lead a class action suit against the facility's promoters for consumer fraud. By that time Burr and his group may have to take numbers from those who will want their pound of flesh.
Upsetting the balance
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights' denouncement of numerical quotas for the promotion of blacks into higher management posts will upset the delicate balance for the elimination of discrimination in the United States.
The path to equal employment lies in nudging government and business away from promotion practices that may hide subtle traces of discrimination.
Progress has been made toward correcting a history of discrimination against blacks, Hispanics, women and other groups. But promotion quotas have introduced instances of reverse discrimination.
But discrimination will not vanish overnight. It will exist, in one form or another, for many years to come. Although the possibility of reverse discrimination does not seem fair, neither does historical subjugation of minorities and women.
Promotion quotas are the first step in drowning discrimination. Increased opportunities for minorities and women into upper-level decision-making pools will slowly lead to a fair shake for everyone.
The commission might have better spent its time evaluating promotion quotas. Perhaps a timetable that would chart the gradual and eventual elimination of quotas could be formulated.
The dilemma between minority and reverse discrimination can be solved by the introduction of quotas that gradually taper off as systems of promotion become more equitable for all people.
The University Daily Kansas 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 class and home town or faculty or staff location. The Kansas also allows nails and groups to shoulder guest columns. Columns and letters can be mailed or brought to the Kansas office. 111 Stauffer Flint Hall. The Kansas reserves the right to edit or reject letters and columns.
HUCKLEBEE, TEXAS — The paramedics opened the ambulance doors and started to load the chubby body onto a stretcher. A quick check of the victim showed he was in trouble.
SKELTON
Musical dream a killer
A paramedic took the man's pulse and said, "He's gone. Take him to the morue."
The dreams of Floyd Qugleyg, 44, had caused his fatal heart attack. They had also cost him his job, his wife and his children.
One Guinness official, who asked not to be identified, said, "We'd never really listed a record of this type before. The man who set it first would be amazed, at least for a short time."
Those dreams were achingly simple. He wanted to be the first man in history to watch Music Television for more than 100 hours straight, and he wanted to become Guinness Book of World Records.
The official said that Quiggley had called him in July 1983 and had asked him if the Guinness people would be interested in creating an MTV-endurance record.
"I told him that it was dangerous and that he shouldn't be doing it," Dexter Williams, his family doctor, said. "Such an activity would be dangerous to a man half his age."
"He woke up one day and saw that he'd never done much with his life," said Wilbur Growell, who knew Quigley since first grade. "And then, one day about to play, she felt it gave this cable music channel."
And then Quiggley's training began.
Williams added that constant exposure to violent, sadistic heavy video videos can cause stress and overly shock the heart into stopping.
"I assured him that, if he pulled it off, he would be in our publication," the official said. And then Quiggley's training
"This can even happen in
"I remember him watching stuff like the Rolling Stones." Lynn, Quigley骂, said. "He was doing it for four, five hours a day. I had to drag him out of the chair sometimes.
Friends say Quigley began his training slowly, watching only Jackson Brown and one Lonelier for the first day. Soon, he picked up his pace.
"And he wouldn't say nothing.
JOHN
HANNA
Staff Columns
It was like he was one of those zombies in a horror movie."
Then, in October, Quiggly lost his job at the Cabbage Patch factory. The dingy brick building is the home of the leading employer in this sleepy little town drawn along U.S. Highway 35.
"At first, I didn't notice it much, but then the belly buttons began to look crooked." Antankovitch said, a long stream of tobacco juice shot from his mouth onto the dirty factory floor.
"No one, not even the union, can stand for that," he added "I had no choice, so I let him go."
At the factory, Quigley sewed the navels on the little dolls Collin Antankowitch plant sucker and affected Quigley's performance.
"He'd sit in the house all day and watch that stuff on the TV." Lyn said after the funeral, tears forming in her eyes. "Finally, I had had enough. I packed the car, got the kids and told him I was
going back to Mama's."
Friends say that Quiggley never missed his wife.
"I don't know, he kind of checked out there near the end." Gopher Jones, another friend, told me. "He was sure he was gonna try for the record."
That day, Dec 17, 1983, was cold and gray. Quigley had gathered Jones, Grovell and a few other friends around him in his living room. He flopped into a big easy chair and put the footrest up. Then, he asked Grovell to turn on MTV.
"I'll remember that minute for the rest of my life," Growell said. "My hand was trembling, I almost couldn't do it."
Friends say that Quigley seemed to be "making it all right" until about 75 hours into the event, when his food ran out.
"Then they put Billy Idol on the screen." Grovell said. "He panicked and never recovered. His face was red."
Ten minutes later, the fatal blow came. The VJ put on a world premiere Motley Crue video.
"He'd never seen this one before, and he was totally unprepared for it. I had a hard time taking it, myself." Jones said. "I thought the screen was gonna blow apart. Floyd was clutching at his chest and gagging. It was horrible."
Growell said he called paramedics while Jones tried to administer CPR. But it was too late.
Friends say that life will not be the same without their chubby friend. But they are quick to add them, but they never take inevitable and even fortunate.
"He was probably dead before he hit the floor," Jones said. "It must have been an awful death."
"Of course, I wish he'd gone easier, but it was better than his being a MTV zombie for the rest of his life," Grovelt said. "In the end, he was really kind of pathetic."
Preventing woolly thinking
Many computer companies have spent considerable sums on advertisements that build parental computer guilt: the idea that children will fail in school and life if they don't have a home computer.
LETTERS POLICY
This is a clever and deceptive play to public fears and is nothing more than a high-tech version of encyclopedia sales.
In reality, most people in the future won't need to be computer-
literate - in the sense of knowing computer languages and programming.
People will need to know how to use computers, but not how com-
The trend in computer science is toward simplification, with the goal of making computers as easy to use as calculators.
Student
paters work. Thus, computer manufacturers engage in a deliberate falsification in basing sales appeals on the premise that the job market of tomorrow will require programming skills.
HOWARD ULLMAN
While computers are not and probably never will be the educational wonders that their makers would like us to believe, they do make wonderful tools. They provide us with powerful abilities to calculate, write and sort and file faster than we could ever know, computers will be used as tools in the job market and schools of tomorrow.
It is precisely in education, however, that we must look carefully at computer limitations.
What is lacking in computer-assisted instruction is imagination. Computers cannot examine students' thinking; how they approach a problem and think it through.
Proponents note that studying computer languages helps students to think logically — but so does study in the liberal arts. And the rewards of studying the liberal arts are those with those of computer languages.
Machines can only judge right and wrong, true or false. This is precisely the approach that has turned off many students by making school a place to earn grades rathen in the face of excitement, fun and learning.
Computers have a place in education as tools, but they are not a form of social insurance against incompetence and woolly thinking. In the long run, the nation and the computer manufacturers will profit most if students can be taught how to think.
Howard Ullman, a junior at Cincinnati Country Day School, uses his Apple IIE mostly for word processing
Perfect image fails to mirror the real world
Most women hate their own bodies. The media reinforce this dissatisfaction by perpetuating the myth of the perfect female look. Ads depict hourglass figures and faces distorted by cosmetics. If women learned to accept their own looks, many industries would fail.
Fighting the image of the perfect woman takes special self-confidence that's hard to come by when one's looks don't fit the stereotype. Women and men should boycott the use of cosmetics.
In a recent poll published in Glamour magazine, 75 percent of 33,000 women said they thought they
Women addicted to this form of self-denigration should try to live without the false front for just a week, and see whether people treat them differently. Anyone who knows a woman who cloaks lovely features in falseness to “bring those features out” should encourage her to discard the disguise and be real for awhile.
KIESA
HARRIS
taff Columnist
were too fat Only 25 percent of those women actually weighed more than they should for their height
Most of the women said they would rather lose weight than be successful at work, receive a call from a doctor, have a date with an admirable man.
Although the article said women should accept themselves as they are, the same magazine contained articles on "How to Keep the Pounds Off." "The Right Makeup for Women" and "Please Make Me Over!"
Some women starve themselves for days, and some force themselves to regurgitate meals in order to resemble the image that's pushed down their throats. A poll in Ladies Home Journal shows that if respondents in every age group from 25 to 55 could change anything about themselves, they'd change their bodies.
Some women look fine, but insult that they are too fat, too skinny, too tall or just plain ugly. They may not fit the stereotyped image created by cosmetics companies — one that is depicted by their own missecurities.
Many women feel awful all day if they leave the house without applying at least a little makeup.
In some cultures, women are not allowed to show their faces. They wear veils. In American society, women hide their faces under thick veils of makeup, and diet to whittle their bodies away.
My sister's dog ate her makeup. She looks better now than she has for 20 years. Health and self confidence give her a natural glow that in no way resembles the "natural look" of makeup.
Even in Ms. magazine, a publication supposedly geared toward feminists, ads scream that women should buy base makeup — for that "natural look" On television, female role models wear excessive makeup to look youthful and innocent. The image of the sexy sweet, charming woman has not been discouraged, despite the so-called救赎 of women.
The sexy siren with the come-kiss-me smile sells everything from shaving cream to green beans, but the message remains the same: products can alter that ugly natural appearance and help any woman become newly beautiful, with ruby-red lips, eyes creased with blue and a bevy of male followers to appreciate the false front. Men who buy certain products can attract that kind of doll-woman.
Discarding makeup does not mean discarding grace, dignity, beauty or fitness. The modern woman must develop enough self-assurance to let go of the makeup bag long enough to live in happily in her own body.
So destroy the stuff, and create a real image that celebrates the beauty of the spirit.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Patriotic at heart
To the editor
'Contrary to what many so-called 'loyal and patriotic' Americans believe, it is my contention that just because one is against nuclear automatically indicate that he is against America and democracy.
On several occasions I have seen those who are genuinely concerned about the arms race called "commine-dupuis" (commine-depuis, "pinkoes," and worse. Am I a
I am merely concerned about the future of this country, as well as the future of the world in general, and my concern deepens as Ronald Reagan battles at the O.K. Corral in the arenas of diplomatic diplomacy.
Communist simply because I oppose this nation's current astronomical build-up of thermonuclear devices? The answer is clearly "no."
The only freedom the United
I am also concerned about America's belief that we are the "leader of all democracies."
Congress is supposed to declare war, and that's as it should be, but recent presidents have been sneaking around that handicap.
States was defending in Vietnam, El Salvador, et al., was the freedom of a handful of military rulers who can't even handle their own populations. These wars (sorry, advisory incursions) have been fought in violation of international Constitution in complete disregard of the democratic process.
In conclusion, let me say that I am a patriotic citizen of the United
.
States. I always have been and,
barring unforeseen circumstances,
always will be.
That fact, however, should and does not stop my alarm over the many dangerous and shameless people in the present administration employs
In the future, I hope that others who feel a need to speak out against certain aspects of the United States will do so without fear of being labeled "socialist sympathizer" or
Randy S. Ellis
Overland Park freshman
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