OPINION
The University Daily KANSAN
December 5, 1983 Page 4
Published since 1889 bv students of the University of Kansas
The University Daily KANSAN
The University Daily Kannan (USPS 656-640) is published at the University of Kansas, 118 Stauffer Final Hall, Lawrence, KA 60045, daily during the regular school year and Monday and Sunday through the summer sessions. Subscribes are paid at $20 per month, holidays at $10, payment made at mail or by subscription by mail are $15 per month, or $7 a semesterpaid through the student collection center or by masterstudent. Send payment to the following address: USPS, University of Kansas, 118 Stauffer Final Hall, Lawrence, KA 60045.
MARK ZIEMAN
Editor
DOUG CUNNINGHAM STEVE CUSICK
Managing Editor Editorial Author
DON KNOX Campus Editor
ANN HORNBERGER Business Manager
PAUL JESS
DAVE WANMAKER MARK MEARS
Retail Sales National Sales
Marketing
LYNNE STARK Campus Sales Manager
PAUL JESS
General Manager and News Adviser
JOHN OBERZAN Advertising Adviser
Frightening turn
The U.S. air strike on Syrian positions in Lebanon yesterday indicates a frightening, yet predictable, turn in American military policy in the region.
The Syrians shot down two jets during the attack that initiated intense artillery exchanges in Beirut. The lost aircraft were the first American jets destroyed in combat since the Vietnam War. Several U.S. Marines died in the worst day of combat the Americans have seen since arriving in Lebanon.
The air attack, which involved about 28 American planes, marked a sharp escalation in U.S. involvement in Lebanon. Such increased participation by peacekeeping Marines in acts of war is disquieting and deserves a thorough explanation from the Reagan administration.
President Reagan said yesterday that he ordered the strike in retaliation for a series of "unprovoked" Syrian missile and anti-aircraft strikes at American planes Saturday.
Although he told reporters that the United States did not want a military conflict with Syria — the Soviet Union's closest Arab ally — he also said, "If our forces are attacked we're going to respond. We're going to defend our personnel that are there."
U. S. fighting in Lebanon changes the role of U.S. Marines from peacekeepers to one of active combatants. But if America has changed its military policy, Reagan should better explain the reasons for the shift or else the forces should be withdrawn.
Reagan also has some explaining to do to the United Nations, Syrian Foreign Minister Abdel Halim Khaddam has registered a strong protest with U.N. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar about the attack, which also killed and wounded several Syrian soldiers.
The Reagan administration sent U.S. forces to Lebanon to keep the peace. But the bombings seemingly are an act of war - one that deserves an immediate explanation.
Put the matter to rest
The Lawrence City Commission is to reconsider tomorrow night its selection of Town Center Venture Corp. as the developer for the proposed downtown project.
Answers to some crucial questions definitely are needed. But those people who are looking to the City Commission to provide them might as well look elsewhere.
The commission also will discuss, according to its agenda, whether Sizeeler Realty Co. Inc. was treated fairly when it was ousted as the city's developer. Both topics come up at the request of Commissioner Nancy Shontz, the only one who voted against selecting Town Center over Sizeeler. A local resident who has long been involved in civic and government affairs, James Postma, also asked those questions of the commission a few weeks ago.
Shontz's action is largely symbolic. Many citizens are unsure why the commission chose Town Center.
And understandably so, as the plans of both public and private bodies involved with various downtown projects have changed often over the past few years.
How and why Town Center was selected are indeed important questions. Some explanations have been offered, and Town Center has provided answers to the concerns brought up about the company.
Some questions still remain. Is the plan proposed by Town Center really the best one available? Do the citizens of Lawrence want to see more shopping space in the 600 block of Massachusetts Street or do they want the new development to be closer to the retail core of downtown?
But the city has fought about downtown for several years. The time has come for action, instead of a continual changing of the minds. Answer the questions or not answer the questions, but put the matter to rest.
Toxic time bomb
Times Beach, Mo., the Midwest equivalent of "Love Canal," remains a monument to man's carelessness and stupidity. A group of former residents came back to the dioxin-contaminated town this weekend to remember those dreams and memories washed away by the Meramec River, when it left its banks and coated the town with the deadly chemical.
Maybe your town is tainted with the chemical. The people of Times Beach certainly didn't know five years ago that they had a contaminated town.
The federal government is buying out the town. But how would you feel if you found out your hometown was covered with poison?
Short-sighted dioxin producers and an irresponsible society allowed the chemical to be produced and spread carelessly throughout the land. And the government continues to take a half-hearted approach to cleaning up the mess. But it still has time to partially correct the problem. In the meantime, Times Beach will continue to serve as a ghostly reminder.
What they saw was a ghost town with empty buildings and empty streets — streets where their children used to play. What they probably remembered was the disruption that came to their lives because their streets carelessly had been sprayed with oil tainted by dioxin.
The University Daily Kanason 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 as well as an off-fee card. The Kanason may invite individuals and groups to submit guest columns. Columns and letters can be mailed or brought to the Kanason office, 111 Staffler-Flint Hall. The Kanason reserves the right to edit or reject letters and columns.
A union leader once could pay a friendly visit to the White House and intervene on behalf of principle, asking public employees. No more.
Labor losing influence
BAY HARBOR ISLANDS, Fla. — Never in 50 years as a unionist have seen organized labor as being supported by the media that everybody is against us.
Once unions placed their demands on the bargaining table and got much of what they asked. No more.
Once most politicians clamored for organized labor's public endorsement. Not now. At least two Presidential candidates referred privately to a formal labor employment as the "kiss of death." Why?
LETTERS POLICY
Polls tell us that unions and their leaders rate low in the esteem of the American people and that workers
LEO PERLIS
Former AFL-CIO Official
do not join unions as readily as they once did. Today, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations has 13 million members. If the Teamsters union returned to the organization to some 15 million — the same number as in 1955, when the AFL-CIO merged.
The third job is the toughest. It requires something autonomous affiliates are not always prepared to give up — their turf. It requires the pooling of resources in a concerted nationwide drive to organize the unorganized under the AFI-CIO banner. It demands the cultivation of a new breed of organizer — the evangelist bearing a new message that goes beyond an appeal to the stomach. Such a drive is important should wholesome community relations by providing health and welfare counseling and referral services along with the pledge card.
No consensus exists on causes or cures. Many people, of course, wish the labor movement would just go away. But what would happen if unions disappeared? Would we be able to conduct democratic checks and balances and the dream of a better society for all would be endangered.
The second job is even tougher. Labor leaders should ask themselves what they want - personal power? money? publicity? social status? the chance to serve their members and country? Union leaders often attribute to corporate executives, sometime accurately, evil motives in their dealings with employees and consumers - greed and a public-be-dammed attitude. But can union leaders, dedicated as most are, afford to be self-righteous and even arrogant?
How did labor get into this fix? Sadly, organized labor offers too simple an "explanation." It denies that it has a problem and then it blames others — greedy corporations, right-wing politicians, esti academics, biased media and, of course, Reaganomics.
The fourth job should be the establishment of departments of science and technology in the key pace with changing developments in life space with changing developments in life space.
What should organized labor do?
First, it must take a good look at itself. Unions are not known for introspection, but if they are to advance the cause of labor in a setting of democratic capitalism and foreign competition, labor must look inward.
For the first time since the 1930s, labor finds itself on the defensive. But only a strong, aggressive, honest, democratic and thoughtful labor movement can lend strength to working people by establishing a balance of power between them and their employers. One such a balanced force enriches the United States' economy and secure a democratic society.
the workplace and marketplace.
Such a proposal was placed before the AFL-CIO six years ago, it is not too late to implement it now.
The fifth job should be the development of a more cooperative relationship with management, including labor representation on company boards, union inspection of company books, joint union management committees on production and productivity, healthy safety and welfare, joint training seminars for foreign students, and policy statements affecting the workplace, joint plant publications, and regular retreats for top company and union officials away from the bargaining table. In
A union leader once could pay a friendly visit to the White House and intervene on behalf of principle, program or even striking public employees. No more.
In sum, organized labor must establish new priorities and clarify its objectives for several publics, its own members and their families.
the spirit of cooperation, the union contract can become a human contract with a wide appeal.
Would all this eliminate disputes and strikes? No. Tensions are inherent in the labor-management relationship, but they would be lessened. Would all this bring the millennium to organization? No, it will not bring more members, more strength, better understanding and the esteem of fellow Americans.
Copyright 1983 the New York Times
Leo Pertis was the APL-CIO's director of community services from 1955 to
1980.
U.S. drawn deeper into war
Any U.S. clash with Syria raises concern of a superpower confrontation, given the extensive Soviet support for the Darmascu regime that includes the Russian military advisers in the country.
BEIRUT. Lebanon — the United States took a deeper plunge into the Lebanese quagmire yesterday by sending Syrian military installation in the mountains east of Beirut.
Two jets were shot down. A Pentagon official said it was the first loss of U.S. attack aircraft to the fire since the Vietnam War.
But with the escalation of American military action, the United States original goal — an independent Lebanon ridon of foreign occupation armies — seems more remote than ever.
The U.S. Marines in the multinational peace-keeping force
SCOTT MACLEOD
United Press International
were assigned to stabilize Beirut and serve as a buffer against Israeli occupation troops.
For their first year in Lebanon, U.S. soldiers went about their business relatively safely and unimpeded - without firing a
But in the last three months, American forces have been drawn into the center of Lebanon's civil war and the Middle East confrontation between Syria and Israel.
The turning point was Aug. 28, the first day of the latest round of Lebanon's bloody internal fighting, when Marines engaged Muslim militiamen in a 90-minute gunfire.
In addition to using ground artillery and tanks, U.S. warships in an expanded fleet in the Mediterranean Sea blasted anti-government forces, who were their backing from Syria.
The United States appears to be heading down the road to more military action, not less.
With the signing of a new military cooperation agreement with Israel this week, in the eyes of many here the U.S. role as a neutral party in Lebanon has been forfeited.
More than a year of U.S. negotiations have failed to budge Israel or Syrian occupation troops, and U.S. officials now see Syria as the main obstacle, not Israel. Syria has even been blamed for the suicide attack on the Marines.
A hard-line U.S. stand against Syria may force Damascus to be more conciliatory. But it also could lead to war in Iraq and open the way for yet deeper American military commitments.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
To the Editor:
I could not believe sports editor Andrew Hartley's head in-the-sand response to the NCAA's guilty verdict for the KU football program. According to Hartley, "The subject is simply something that we need not take lengthy pains to dwell upon."
NCAA column rationalizes unethical behavior
Never mind that University employees engaged in illegal and unethical activity. Never mind that athletics diverts valuable resources from more important parts of the University. Never mind that the lowering of academic standards for athletics is an act of intolerance. The important thing is to have winning football and get a bowl bid.
Hartley says "those who are wise" will realize that the people who violated the regulations are gone. But just because a few coaches were fired for losing and an athletic director has resigned does not mean the problem has left with them. Many officials who undoubtedly knew of the violations are still here. But more importantly, the responsibility for the unethical behavior remains a large college coach with not a few crooked coaches but with attitudes, like Hartley's, that such behavior should be overlooked for the sake of winning. Sports-conscious alumni put incredible pressure on coaches to win at all costs.
Last week the Kansan ran a story about coaches receiving free cars from local dealers as a perk. They even had a car for interest story, as if there were
In fact, Kansas law states that no state employee shall accept compensation for his duties from an outside source, nor accept a gift or award. But Hartley says have a special interest. But Hartley says we should ignore this.
Two years ago the University conducted a series of internal investigations of the athletic faculty proactively to address the academic lives of the athletes
nothing questionable about the procedure.
were being controlled by the athletic department with the main goal being to keep them eligible.
The Kansas seems content to be a cheerleader for the athletic department. It did not report aggressively on the NCAA investigation and was scooped by the Journal World, hardly a scandal sheet of its kind. The NCAA's Now it shows no interest in pursuing the matter further.
I say the University should take this opportunity to reassess it/
Pot column lacked proof
To the Editor
An editorial in the Lawrence Daily Journal/World on Nov. 30 titled “Pot's Anything But Harmless” cites growing violence linked to commercial pot cultivation and deplores this state of affairs. It ignores the obvious fact that the use of marijuana is not only illegal, none of this violence would have occurred.
The same editorial cities statements by California Attorney General John Van de Kamp estimating that 80 percent of the growers in northern California "are armed during the summer season and nearly all carry guns at fall harvest time." How Van de Kamp acquired these figures and how accurate they are is wide open to debate. But more importantly, considering all growers busted in Leavenworth, Jefferson, Douglas and Franklin counties, to what extent were they armed, and how dangerous were they really?
To the Editor:
Matthew Moore Lawrence senior
The editorial concludes with this statement: "Marjina, a number of researchers say, is vastly underrated as a harmful substance." It could also be said that marjina, many researchers say, is grossly overrated as a harmful substance.
on final point — this same editorial claims that "in northern California counties ... an estimated $1 billion worth of potent sinemilla is grown every year." Imagine what state, federal and local governments could do with funds acquired from a tax on $1 billion annually.
I had no idea I was "allied with the forces of evil" until James L. Mitchell's letter to the editor in Kansan made it all so clear to me.
relationship with the Kansas University Athletic Corporation. Should we be associated with what are, in effect, semi-professional sports programs — free minor leagues for the NFL and NBA? If so, should we not at least see to it that they behave in an ethical manner that does not compromise the University's ideals?
Bob Armstrong Leawood senior
Seeing the light
Will I really be damned to hell by supporting a nuclear freeze and advocating diplomatic negotiations as a feasible measure toward peace? Really? Thank goodness for Mitchell's "right-thinking ways" to show me the light. I am now free from the clutches of those "festering scab-holes." Who does he think he is kidding?
Thanks, but no thanks. Mitchell,
the Rev, Jerry Falwell, Frank
Burns and the remaining Young
Americans for Freedom can exist in
your warped ideas and ideals. I amy
hope that those exposed to your
"simple, good, conservative,
American" beliefs are, as I am,
repulsed and disgusted. I think your
keen eye needs some correction.
Great Bend sophomore