OPINION
The University Daily KANSAN
November 10. 1983 Page 4
The University Daily KANSAN
Published since 1889 by students of the University of Kansas
The University Daily Kaanan (USP5 60-640) is published at the University of Kansas, 18 Stuart Flint Hall, Lawrence, KA 60045, for the regular school year and Monday and Thursday during the summer semester, excluding Saturday, Sunday, holidays, and the winter periods. Second class tuition is $299 per month, outside the county. Student subscriptions are $13 semester paid through the student activity for POSTMaster. Send
MARK ZIEMAN Editor
MARK ZIEMAN
Editor
DOUG CUNNINGHAM
Managing Editor
STEVE CUSICK
Editorial Editor
DON KNOX
Campus Editor
PAUL JESS
General Manager and News Adviser
ANN HORNBERGER Business Manager
DAVE WANAMAKER MARK MEARS
Retail Sales National Sales
Manager Manager
LYNNE STARK
Campus Sales Manager
JOHN OBERZAN
Advertising Adviser
Double standard
Sizeler Realty Co. Inc. did everything that the Lawrence City Commission wanted it to do.
The Louisiana development company presented in detail its plans to bring more retail shopping into downtown Lawrence. It sought public comment. More than once over the past year it walked what company officials must have called the extra mile.
And Tuesday evening, the company discovered that the City Commission operates on a double standard.
But more than that, the City Commission — at least a majority of it — does not care that it operates on a double standard.
Indeed, fairness seems to be the furthest thing from some commissioners' minds.
Perhaps that shouldn't be a surprising revelation. Lawrence is a cosmopolitan town. The troubles of a big-city real estate firm will likely cause few people to lose any sleep, except perhaps the company's executives.
But the questions of Sizerel's work and of fairness to the firm are not of paramount concern here. The larger question — the one that most city commissioners seem to be ignoring — is what the decision means for the way local government functions.
In making its decision to negotiate with the local Town Center Venture Corp., the commission rejected not only Sizeler's work but also the work of dozens of local citizens who had offered their opinions and in some cases a great deal of their time and effort to work on the downtown project.
The city had sought volunteers to work on a Downtown Improvement Committee and to work through other groups to investigate the options for bringing more retail shopping into downtown Lawrence.
It had sought, and rightfully so, to gauge the mood of the public.
The decision to negotiate with
Town Center instead of Sizerel negated all of that work.
The political winds change quickly in Lawrence. To judge from the fast support that Town Center's plan received from some commissioners, the plan must have been presented to them by divine revelation.
Work done on the downtown project in the past year or so has been done in the open. Groups from various segments of the city, including neighborhood groups and local merchants, have participated in the planning for a downtown redevelopment project.
But questions should be asked about the work done recently. How can the work of a year and the experience of a large company be done in such a short time by a new firm?
The ink was hardly dry on Town Center's plans before the praise started flowing from some city commissioners and business leaders.
If Town Center was chosen because it has a better plan, Lawrence will then be better off.
But — just maybe now — could Town Center have been chosen because its location in the 600 block of Massachusetts Street would disrupt fewer businesses? Including the business of Mayor David Longhurst, who participated in the voting?
Was the group chosen solely because it's a local group? Is that a good reason? Will there be a trade-off in experience or in the firm's ability to develop a successful project?
The "shopping corridor" along Massachusetts Street will be stretched out dramatically. Will the other businesses survive?
Weighty questions, indeed. But if you for some reason have been expecting the City Commission to ask for weeks of public comment as it did with the Sizeler plan, don't hold your breath.
And if commissioners do ask for such comment, don't expect them to listen.
Missile deployment
That's a pretty legitimate concern.
The issue, simply, is this: The Reagan administration and NATO want to plant 572 U.S. Pershing-2 and cruise missiles strategically across Western Europe, but many Europeans fear, rightfully so, that the missiles will make their homelands the likely battleground in a nuclear war.
It's fine for the United States to want to defend itself. But by distributing the missiles in Western Europe, the United States is asking the Europeans to be the surrogate victims in a nuclear exchange — not a pleasant predicament. And not one the Europeans are happy about.
A recent poll in Great Britain, a repository for 160 of the cruise missiles, revealed that 94 percent of the British don't want Reagan to be the man controlling the firing of the missiles in their country. And according to the poll, which appeared in London's Daily Mail, 58 percent believed Reagan's policies were making nuclear war more likely. That's not much trust between supposed allies.
And the Europeans fear, once again rightfully so, that President Reagan isn't the most trustworthy person to have a finger on the nuclear button.
This displeasure has been registered in the huge anti-nuclear protests sweeping Western Europe.
But would you trust a man or country planting a nuclear bomb in your backyard? More likely, you'd tell them to stick it in their own backyard.
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 class and home town or faculty or staff of the University. The Kansan the latter individuals and groups to submit guest columns. Columns and letters can be mailed or brought to the Kansan office, 111 Stauffer-Flind Hall. The Kansan reserves the right to edit or reject letters and columns.
Life dreams go down the drain
His father and mother bade him good-bye from the bus stop. Townfolk formed a line to the bus door and shook hands with the girl. Yes, they all thought, Durwood doe would be somebody done.
The ride to Lawrence was a long one, yet upon his arrival, Durwood walked through the streets like a child, head high, eyes opened wide. The girl stood up at hand, of his parents and of the degree he would have in a few years.
Those thoughts, however, eventually faded. The first three years at KU went well, but Duruw needed computer science to meet his degree requirements. The courses he needed were not offered.
LETTERS POLICY
Things got so bad, Durwood read in the paper, that the chairman of the computer science department resigned, admitting that it was a
Durwood, the son of a corn and lima bean farmer, left South Succotash on a warm August morning.
Someday, he thought, I will be somebody.
Darwood had heard that KU was having some financial problems, that there was a shortage of books and materials at courses in some departments.
While he waited for the classes to become available, for the state to provide money for more and better medical care, the University of Kansas Medical Center.
miracle that the department had gotten along so well on such meager state appropriations.
The teacher shortages seemed serious, yet Durwood realized he had no choice but to wait until the courses he needed were offered. He was not alone, and would have to just delay his graduation.
which he thought he would enter once he had graduated
Durwood was amazed at the medical complex. The Med Center was constructing a new science library and had built a walkway between them and the complex. The walkway alone was to cost nearly $1 million. So this is
where all the money has gone,
Durwood thought.
Yet, as Durwood wandered on his own, he met an associate professor at the Med Center, and the gaurn man, looking older than his years, gave another view of the Med Center.
"I was once like you," the man said. "When I first came here, we had some of the top doctors, we had some of me. I was going to follow in their paths."
"But the state has kept salaries low. And now most of the good doctors have gone elsewhere. Folk there. There is no future for you here."
When Durwood returned to Lawrence, he weighed the teacher problems with the walkway and library spending. It seemed as if the state's priorities were mixed up, he thought. What use is a new library if the students can't be taught properly?
The question, he realized, was not limited to the Kansas City campus. The Lawrence campus had plans to construct a new science library and a bioanalytical research center. We would have these wonderful buildings, but at the expense of other things.
Durwood would walk at night
through campus, wishing he had never left the farm. It was too late to transfer, though, and Durwood again resolved that he must wait out the problems and do the best he could.
One night, however, while Durwood sat near Wescoe looking upon where the science library was to be built, a thug stumped him to the ground, stole his wallet and kicked him remotely.
Durwood got to a phone after the incident and called the campus police. Yet he learned that no one was available to help. Because of money shortages, nearly half of the students fell for higher paying positions.
Hamilified and distraught, Duwood limped to his apartment. He packed his bags and walked to the bus station.
He couldn't get his classes, the best teachers were leaving for higher paying jobs and now he would be protected. He would go home.
So without a degree, Durwood arrived in South Succotash in the middle of that February night. There was no one to meet him at the church, but Durwood then realized that he was not now, nor could he ever be, somebody
5. 103 NNNNNS
Acid rain is national problem
WASHINGTON — There is a growing consensus in America and the Congress that it is time to control acid rain by reducing emissions of its two principal ingredients, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide. But the problem has been wrongly construed as one facing only the Northeastern states, and the solution an Eastern one.
According to the Reagan administration's Interagency Task Force on Acid Precipitation, vast areas of the South, Soutwest and West are vulnerable to acid rain. In all areas, water damage those areas in coming decades — if the damage has not in fact already started.
There are two ways to reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide from their main source, coal-burning utilities. One is to require utilities to switch from high-sulfur, Eastern coal to low-sulfur coal form the West. But this switch has been strongly resisted by Eastern coal-
mining states, which stand to lose as many as 300,000 jobs.
The alternative is to require utilities to install scrubbers to remove sulfur dioxide from plant emissions. Scrubbers are so easily disposed of, the pollution would cause double-digit rate bikes in many Midwestern states.
The best solution to the dilemma of protecting jobs and the environment is national cost-sharing, as is proposed in the National Acid Deposition Control Act of 1983. The bill would add a fee of one-tenth of a cent for each electric kilowatt generated by every utility in the continental United States.
This would cost an average American family 50 to 75 cents a month. The money column of the document costs $39,000 per install of scubing scrubbers at the 50
GERRY SIKORSKI
Legislator
dirtiest plants in the nation. Sulfur dioxide emissions would be cut by seven million tons a year while allowing the utilities to continue burning high-sulfur Eastern coal, protecting thousands of mining jobs.
It is often argued that, instead of mandating the installation of scrubbers, the government should allow utilities to choose between scrubbers and switching to alternate fuels. But utilities have already made their choice, and it is to send their pollution downwind eventually damaging the ecosystems of distant states.
The bipartisan National Acid Deposition Control Act equitably distributes the economic burden, preserves jobs and vigorously attacks the problem of acid rain. America needs this legislation.
Copyright 1983 the New York Times. Gerry Skorski, Minnesota Democrat, is a sponsor of the National Acid Rain Deposition Act.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Movies' messages sadly realistic
To the editor:
As a former Johnstown kid ("Flashdance," "All the Right Moves") I feel that yes, "All the Right Moves" (see review of Oct. 31) is probably a second rate "fair" movie in terms of the plot and storyline. But, that is not the message of the movie.
Unfortunately, those of us in places like KU and Lawrence are so insulated from the devastating effects of the current recession that we cannot even perceive the underlying theme of those movies. On the surface they seem to be syrupy, melodramatic portraits, but football or drama in America. Each is certainly a lot more than "just another movie about someone's dreams coming true."
The real story behind those movies is about how humans cope with the slow dismemberment of culture, families, and communities by the deep economic recession.
They are stories about what happens to people when dreams are no longer possible and phrases like "the land of opportunity" become empty and
meaningless
The sad part of these stories is that they are very real to hundreds of thousands of people who live in the coal and steel towns of this country. Even sadder, though, is that the rest of us don't even recognize those struggles in the movies.
But what is beautiful about these movies is that they offer hope to the people and the youth of these areas.
No, "Flashdance" is not a story about a dancer and "All the Right Moves" is not a football story. They are attempts to bring back a little hope and faith, to people who have tried valiantly to cling to these dreams. The least we can do is recognize this, and develop an awareness of how people in our country can snare fully in the relative affluence and opportunities most of us take for granted.
Linda Backus Lawrence graduate student
The Craft case
Lawrence graduate stud
The Craft case
To the editor:
I would like to respond to Professor Rasmussen's letter in
Ideally, I would think that at a university level we would be fighting for more social responsibility in television news, instead of finding defenses for its mediocrity.
the Nov. 7 Kansas concerning the editorial on the Christine Craft case. Like many others, Rassmussen in effect defends Craft's treatment by Metromedia with the argument that "television news is just a different way of bringing information" to harried readers who "tele-news in general and television news in particular are reflections of our diverse society." In other words "That's showbiz".
Sure television news has an important function in our society, as do other media and as do other commercial industries, but that fact does not justify the implementation of sexist, racist or any other prejudicial policy in order to improve sales, or ratings. Other elements of our society are not supposed to discriminate, at least not so blatantly as Metromedia did.
William Sharp
William Sharp Lawrence graduate student
Conflict Forgotten
In America, we have forgotten that the Afghans, fighting for themselves, fight for us, too. The outcry over Afghanistan seems to have been ceded to the right. The anguish over Afghanistan should also come from the left, from everyone.
Every day, death comes from a helicopter, from a bullet across a plain, from behind an adobe wall. The Kremlin wants us to forget, as we forgot Hungary after 1956, Czechoslovakia after 1968, as it knows we will forgive Korean Air Lines Flight 007
There are more than 100,000 Army troops in Afghanistan. They suffer from boredom, dysentery, hepatitis, and there are those here who say that Afghanistan is Russia's Vietnam. It is not. There is neither a nuclear war nor tree disasst in the Soviet Union to put pressures on the regime.
Afghanistan's natural gas is pumped directly into the Soviet Union; in effect, the Afghans are paying for the privilege of being invaded In Vietnam, the North Vietnamese had surface to air missions which resulted in which to even the odds. The Afghans do not have these weapons.
ERE VAN DYK
Author
Do the Russians want out? They seem to be building too many airbases for that. Will the Geneva talks, conducted by United Nations Undersecretary Diego Cordovel, produce a settlement? Two seeming proxies, Afghanistan, for the Soviet Union, and Pakistan, for the United States and negotiate Cordovel consuls with India and Iran while the United States consults with the Soviet Union. It seems a charade.
The deposed King, Mohammad Zahir Shahr, for 10 years a resident of Rome, has come forward to say that the resistance must unite and that if the Russians are serious they must allow the Afghan fighters to sit at the table. Most Afghans I love under this leadership is the sole unifying source. Yet the main resistance groups, in Peshawar, Pakistan, are divided.
The war in Afghanistan is bigger than Afghanistan. In the end, we lose unless we help But Afghanistan is far away. To us, the Afghans are Muslim fanatics The Ayatollah Ruhallah Khomeini is a Muslim. But most Afghans are not fanatics. They see America as their onl
Neighboring Pakistan, a collection of warring tribes, is itself divided, but it could do much to help strengthen the resistance The United States, which supplies Pakistan with military aid, shows an effort on Pakistan to give the resistance to unite and bring it to Geneva.
If the Russians are serious about peace, they must negotiate with their true opponents. The United States should stand with the Afghans, or stop its anti-communist rhetoric.
Copyright 1983 the New York Times
Jere Van Dyk, a writer living in
Manhattan, is author of "In Afghan
ism: An American Odyssey."