OPINION
The University Daily
KANSAN
November 28, 1983 Page 4
The University Daily KANSAN
Published since 1889 by students of the University of Kansas
The University Daily Kaman (USP$ 80-640) is published at the University of Kansas, 118 Stauffert Flint Hall, Lawrence Kan. $65 daily during the regular school year and Monday and Thursday during the summer sessions. Subscribes pay $10 each for six months or $27 each for six months. Subscriptions by mail are $15 for six months or $27 a year in Douglas County and $18 for six months or $3 for a year outside the county. Student subscribes are $1 a semester pass through the student activity link: FOSTMATER.SEND. Send requests to USP$ 80-640.
MARK ZIEMAN Editor
DOUG CUNNINGHAM STEVE CUSICK
Managing Editor Editorial Author
DON KNOX Campus Editor
ANN HORNBERGER Business Manager
PAUL JESS
General Manager and News Adviser
DAVE WANMAKER MARK MEARS
Retail Sales National Sales
Manager
LYNNE STARK Campus Sales Manager
Tick, tick, tick
JOHN OBERZAN Advertising Adviser
Sandwiched between football games and other television programming over the holiday period were glimpses of a nervous world, getting more nervous, more tense with each tick of the clock — the apocalyptic tick of the doomsday clock. The television news breaks and news programs were full of charges and countercharges, similar to the backdrop in "The Day After."
Last week, shortly after the first missiles started arriving in Great Britain, the West German parliament voted to station U.S. medium-range missiles. The Soviets then replied that they would match this by stationing more missiles of their own. They also stepped away from the bargaining table in Geneva, Switzerland. And surprise, President Reagan was shocked. Just another example of belligerant Soviet behavior, he said.
Yesterday, Italy started getting U.S. missiles. The superpowers,
barely talking to each other now, step toward confrontation.
Yet the people, not the paranoid governments, in West Germany, the United States, Great Britain and probably the Soviet Union cry for an to this madness. They want deterrence but they also want sanity restored. Most of all they want peace and a place where their children won't have to live the nuclear nightmare.
This is evident in West Germany over the weekend, where demonstrators protested the distribution of Pershing-2 missiles in their country. It is evident in the United States, where 100 million viewers tuned in to "The Day After." But the governments continue with the missile build-up, not hearing the cries of those they are supposed to serve.
Paycheck problems
Despite the escalation, the Soviet Union and the United States must start talking again, and they must start talking seriously. Especially now, during the tensest of times.
State Sen. Wint Winter Jr., R-Lawrence, has joined Chancellor Gene A. Budig and other concerned individuals who are trying to "do whatever it takes" to untangle the computerized mess the state passes off as its new payroll system.
About 400 KU employees didn't receive their paychecks this month, the first month KU distributed paychecks through the Kansas Integrated Personnel Payroll System (KIPPS). Several hundred more received either too much or too little pay or had withholding incorrectly deducted from their checks.
"The fundamental duty of an employer is to pay his employees," says Winter, "and certainly, that's not happening in this case."
Exactly. If KU and the other Board of Regents schools have to
use this new payroll system, then surely it's not too much to ask that the system work. After struggling for hours to add and drop classes with the new computerized adddrop system, students are in no mood to be told that another fancy-shmancy time-saving computer program has fouled up their pavchecks.
And you can be sure that those employees with families are anxiously sweating out the hours until payday this Thursday, hoping that they may then see at least part of their money. If not, this holiday break may indeed be a less than joyous one for many. Either way, the new payroll system has caused unnecessary hardship and grief.
It's obvious that there are many people working to correct this problem, but it shouldn't have happened in the first place.
Put out that cigarette
The most persuasive argument to quit smoking in the latest report of the surgeon general is the finding that the health risks diminish with cessation, no matter how long or how much someone has been smoking.
The new report concentrates on the latest findings linking cigarette smoking with coronary heart disease. More smokers die of heart disease than cancer, but the risk of both diseases increases with cigarette smoking.
"If you want to prevent yourself from having a coronary event, the most important thing you can do is quit smoking," Edward N. Brandt Jr., assistant secretary for health, told reporters.
Cigarette smokers have a 70 percent higher coronary death rate, at least double the risk of sudden death and a twofold increase in the incidence of heart disease — fourfold for heavy smokers, those smoking two to three packs a day.
Los Angeles Times
The nuclear freeze and politics Only seconds away High Frontier' PAC
WASHINGTON — For most of the 100 million Americans who watched, ABCTV's movie "The Day After" became a defining warear is survivable and winnable.
But within minutes after the film was aired, Secretary of State George Shultz appeared on TV to perpetrate another myth; that the government would all it can to prevent "The Day After" from becoming a reality.
Let's look at the facts. Ronald Reagan has more than doubled spending on nuclear weapons since he entered office, while slashing the budget for the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency by a third.
President Reagan has shelved
EDWARD J. MARKEY
Democratic Representative from Massachusetts
In the early days of the administration, Shultz spoke of using "nuclear warning shots" in a conflict. In testimony to Congress, his undersecretary said everyone could survive a nuclear war if there were enough shovels to go around to build shelters.
In addition, President Reagan's confrontational policies toward the Soviet Union have made it seem very likely he will be the first U.S. president not to meet with the Soviet leadership since Hoover.
negotiation for a comprehensive test ban treaty, has failed to make any significant progress at the strategic arms talks, and has adopted a stance on basing nuclear missiles in Europe that resulted in the Soviets walking out of the negotiation in Geneva.
Now that millions of Americans have seen "The Day After," what will the reaction of the people who saw the movie be? I believe there was an awareness call for a freeze and reductions in both sides nuclear arsenals.
It is no wonder, therefore, that the White House has launched an all-out publicity campaign against "The Day After." The administration is well aware that its policies are leading us rapidly into a more dangerous era. Our Kudels are hardworking on a frantic effort to build nuclear weapons designed to start wars, not prevent or deter them.
The Reagan administration is spending billions of dollars on the MX, the Pershing 2, the Trident-21 and the cruise missiles. When are matched by their Soviet counterparts, they will be beetle; they will put the world on a hair trigger. The possibility of nuclear war will be seconds away.
It is inevitable that the impact of "The Day After" and the reality of the Reagan record will combine to swell support for a mutual and freeze, which more than 85 percent of all Americans already support.
In 1844, American voters who understand the message of this powerful movie will challenge President Reagan and other presidential candidates to explain how life after I do not believe a 'day after' I do not believe it is challenge President Reagan can meet.
Edward J. Markey was a sponsor of the nuclear freeze amendment that was passed by the House. A similar proposal was defeated in the Senate. This column was provided by United Press International.
The rapid growth of PACs, or political action committees, as a result of campaign reform laws that were passed by Congress in the 1960s has been a cause of concern to liberals and conservative political observers alike.
In 1974, there were 608 PACs registered with the Federal Elections Commission. Today, there are more than 3,300.
The purpose of PACs is to funnel contributions from individuals and corporations with special interests into the pockets of political candidates in order to influence legislative votes.
Now, apparently, some PACs are reaching beyond their previous
attempts to buy the votes of legislators and are attempting to use their huge monetary resources to win in the fears of the ordinary citizen.
Recently, Young Americans for Freedom, a conservative student group, sponsored a forum at the University of Kansas to counteract basal the nuclear freeze movement would receive from "The Day After."
The speeches at the forum, which was well attended by students and faculty, were filled with references to the horrors of war and appeals to the patriotic love of Americans for the defense of freedom.
None of the speakers — including former Congressman Jim Jeffries, R-Kan, Robert E. Dolan, national
chairman of Young Americans for
Freedom, Brian Dalean, a defense
consultant for the Computer Science
Corp. and former Congressman
Robert J. Dorman, R-Calif — had
thing good to say about nuclear war
But they did have many good things to say about the need for America to have a strong system of deterrence. And they especially kept trying to sell one system in particular.
The panel members continually referred to a system known as the "High Frontier," which was described as a "non-nuclear space-based defense plan designed to repel incoming missile attacks on the U.S.
It just so happens that Dornan is president of a group called the American Space Frontier, which is the political action committee for the High Frontier. That makes the forum; it would seem, a deliberate and direct attempt by those with vested interests in the space and weapons industry to do the very thing that they repeatedly chiseled the "freezenks" for doing — attempting to use "The Day After" to manipulate emotions for their own benefit.
The University Daily Kansas 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 position. The Kansas also invites individuals to submit a short column. Columns and letters can be mailed or brought to the Kansson office, 111 Stauffler-Flint Hall. The Kansson reserves the right to edit or reject letters and columns.
And unlike the benefit nuclear freeze supporters hope for, the saving of human lives, the special interests that support the American Space Frontier P.A.C. is in it for the benefit of those who receive from defense contracts.
The question students should be asking is, "Is it really in the best interests of KU to allow political action committees to present lengthy commercials, sponsored by KU student groups and involving KU faculty members, to play on the tears of concerned individuals?"
Ann Begun, 31, is a Lawrence senior majoring in journalism at the University of Kansas.
Democrats fight as Reagan rolls along
WASHINGTON — It must be fun to be President Reagan's campaign manager these days.
First, you have a candidate who ranks high in the polls. Whether or not they agree with him, the candidate will presumably like and trust Ronald Reagan.
Then your candidate is president of the United States. That always makes the campaign manager's job more difficult. In an airplane, the president has his own.
LETTERS POLICY
CLAY RICHARDS
Being president and being a Republican means fund-raising — probably the most difficult job in any campaign — is a whole lot easier. Ronald Reagan will raise and spend every penny allowed under the law and do it with ease.
United Press International
The White House communications office means never missing an important telephone call.
Being president and being a Republican means that fund raising — probably the most difficult job in any campaign — is a whole lot more difficult will raise and spend every penny allowed under the law and do it with ease.
Reagan's campaign manager must be happy with the way the economy is going. One political figure in recent years has true is that people vote their
Unemployment is moving down, inflation is already down, and economists who seelom agree on any new stimulus but don't put a key turn for the worse.
docketbooks.
Yes, the budget deficits look bad for Reagan and take away from the Republicans their cherished label of being the party of fiscal responsibility. When was the last time a poll showed someone voting against a president because his budget deficits were too big?
And this multiple-warhead missile also charges that Mondale is soft on defense and would seriously weaken the nation if he is elected.
But most of all Ronald Reagan's campaign manager must be happy because of the state of the Democrats.
Was this rocket launched by Republicans — who very likely
All of a sudden comes a heat
seeking missile charging that he will
be the last of the big-time spenders,
and that he is promising so many
things to so many people it will cost
the nation $90 billion we don't have.
There is Walter Mondale,
smoothly gliding on a path that
could win him the Democratic
nomination in a walk.
No. It was launched by Sen. John Glenn, who woke up in November and found his own campaign going nowhere.
would use all these arguments against Mondale if he got the nomination?
Module of course could not leave the Glenn attack unanswered. He called Glenn's proposal to help balance the budget — a to 10 percent income tax surcharge, the most important measure of tax burden but the poor as hard as the rich.
And Mondale said that when Glenn called for restraining entitlements, it was a code for saying he wants to cut Social Security benefits. Of course saving someone wants to cut Social Security is the line Democrats have used most recently against Republicans for years.
So with Reagan already improving in the polls, the Democrats are ending the year before the election softening up each other.
And for Ronald Reagan's campaign manager the only nightmare these days would be hearing Reagan say, "I've decided not to run for another term.