OPINION
The University Daily KANSAN
November 7, 1983 Page 4
Published since 1889 by students of the University of Kansas
The University Daily KANSAN
The University Daily Kansas (USP-605640) is published at the University of Kansas, 118 Stuaffer Finst Hall, Kansas City, 60942, daily during the regular school year and Monday and Thursday during the summer sessions. Excluding Stuaffer Finst Hall, the USP-605640 is available for subscription by mail are $13 for six months or $27 in Douglas County and $18 for six months or $3 for a fee. Subscriptions by county are Student subscriptions are $1 a semester paid through the student activity fee POSTMATKR. Send address changes to USP-605640, 230 North Dakota Avenue, Kansas City, KS 64103.
MARK ZIEMAN
Editor
DOUG CUNNINGHAM STEVE CUSICK
Managing Editor Editorial Author
DON KNOX Campus Editor
ANN HORNBERGER Business Manager
DAVE WANAMAKER
Retail Sales Manager
MARK MEARS
National Sales Manager
LYNNE STARK Campus Sales Manager
JOHN OBERZAN Advertising Adviser
PAUL JESS
General Manager and News Adviser
Mock elections
Democracy will not work in Turkey until restrictions are removed from it. The parliamentary elections there are only a mockery of democracy and will continue to be so until more political parties are allowed to participate.
Turkey is the only NATO country ruled by a military regime. So it remains a blot on the record of of the Western alliance, and the sooner it returns to democracy the better for the alliance. Yet it seems to be taking a slow, if not backward, route toward political freedom for its people.
Voting began yesterday, and the official results will not be ready for a week. But regardless, the elections are a farce — only three parties were allowed to participate. Twelve political parties were barred from the voting, and 240 politicians were prohibited from participating. Voting was mandatory and those who didn't vote faced a fine, all of which
makes for a twisted brand of democracy.
The military ruler of Turkey, Gen Kenan Evren, will become president and will not be up for re-election for seven years. In another perversion of the democratic process, Evren has the right to dissolve the cabinet at any time.
However, the seeds of democracy may sprout in Turkey. These elections, though they aren't much of an alternative to military rule, may be a small step toward democracy.
Or the opposite could happen. Evren could feel his power slipping away, even to a parliament of like-minded right-wingers, and bring the nation back to military rule.
For the sake of the Turkish people and the Western alliance, we hope that doesn't happen. We also hope the country can establish the strong democratic tradition now shared by many of it allies.
Heeding ex-presidents
What does one do with a former president while he is alive?
As government leaders in many other countries leave office through assassinations and coups, the United States has the relative luxury of wondering whether and how to put to use those people who became national leaders after years of apprenticeship as local officials, congressmen and governors.
representatives to the funeral of Egyptian leader Anwar Sadat.
Are all those years to go to waste after a person has just tackled the biggest job of all? Fortunately, recent presidents have shaken off political ruin and electoral defeats, and have let the nation benefit from their experiences.
Harry Truman, who reflected more than once on the experience that was being wasted by the sending of former presidents out to pasture, is well known for having done something about the matter: He gave Herbert Hoover a top role in the coordination of relief efforts in Europe after World War II. More recently, Ronald Reagan sent all three living former presidents, Nixon, Ford and Carter, as U.S.
Most importantly, the three current living ex-presidents have taken the initiative to speak out on their own. Thus, Nixon has written books about international strategy and prominent political leaders of his time; one may despise Nixon, but one should not ignore his views, shaped through many years of work in the field.
Likewise, Carter and Ford are participating in a conference on Mideast affairs that began over the weekend at Emory University in Atlanta. Although both men lost their bids to stay in office, they can speak from personal experience on dealing with issues in the region.
Ex-presidents such as these three do not necessarily possess the ultimate solutions; indeed, had they found answers for some problems they might have survived longer in office. Yet they should be heeded—they have seen the nation and the world from a perspective that only 36 other people have ever had.
Books can be closed
It's hard to think about the dictionary being a "dirty" book, or "The Diary of Anne Frank" being a threat to the morals of our children. Yet there are parents and groups, whose sincerity we accept but whose judgment we do not, who see these and other books as dangers.
superintendent to remove 100 copies from the schools; and in Alabama, John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men" was cut from English classes because 700 parents protested its inclusion.
Already this year a group of protesters in Vermont burned a school library copy of Ernest Hemingway's novel "The Sun Also Rises"; a parent in New Mexico objected to alleged obscenity in the "Merriam-Webster New Collegiate Dictionary" and pressured a school
Burning or banning books, which by most standards are acceptable, is not the way to preserve the morals of the young. If a book offends, it can always be closed. On the other hand, if a school censors dictionaries and classics, it cannot open young minds to learning.
Boston Herald
The University Daily Kanese 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 position. The Kanese also invites individual students to submit guest columns. Columns and letters can be mailed or brought to the Kansson office, 111 Stauffer-Finn Hall. The Kanese reserves the right to edit or reject letters and columns.
LETTERS POLICY
KUEA puts profit before people
Officials of the Kansas University Endowment Association have consistently argued that their investment policy is dictated by the need to maximize profit. And they maintain this position even when confronted with evidence of the social consequences of their investments.
The association invests money in corporations that profit from impoverished South African blacks. Other corporations in which the association invests make their money while polluting Indian reservations in their quest to mine uranium and coal. Others make their profits from the development and production of nuclear weapons.
But is the association accountable to the University, in whose name it invests?
Applicants. The association manages and invests the funds donated and bequeathed to the University, yet it is a private corporation whose trustees and president are not selected publicly. And the association is exempt from the Kansas Open Meetings and Public Records acts, according to a 1980 ruling by the Kansas Attorney General.
Because of its lack of accountability, the association has been able to unethically invest money entrusted to the University. Investment policies of the association have put profit before people.
Apparently not.
By tabulating various corporate stock holdings from its 1982 tax statement, one finds that the association has invested at least $9 million in corporations involved in South Africa, where the living standard of the black majority is kept deliberate while the white minority and corporations resp benefits from its labor.
The 1982 tax statement indicates that the Endowment Association had Philips Petroleum Co. stock purchased by the company. Corp stock worth $135,441. Those
Association funds also are invested in the corporations of some of its trustees. These include William Douce, chief executive of Philips Petroleum; Stanley Learned and Daniel Learned; Philipks chief executive; Robert Mallott, chief executive of FMC Corp.; and Dean McGee, chief
two companies have abandoned millions of tons of radioactive uranium tailings on Indian lands in the Southwest, according to documents from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Taxpayers will eventually have to pay for the cleanup of these hazardous wastes.
executive of Kerr-McGee. The total amount invested in corporations that have executives or directors who also serve as Endowment Association trustees or advisory trustees is $3.4 million
The Endowment Association also has found it profitable to invest in corporations that develop nuclear weapons systems, including FMC, which makes guided missile launching systems.
In addition to investing in stock, the association also coordinates corporate "donations" in accordance with the wishes of the donor. These corporate donations to the University often have directly served the interest of the corporations making them. Besides being a tax write-off and a public relations tool, corporate gifts have traditionally been earmarked for pet research projects.
The KU Nuclear Reactor Center was built with state, federal and endowment money. At the dedication of the reactor, then Chancellor W. Clark Wescote foresaw "a new end of collaboration in research state and federal government, industry and higher education."
One way in which such "collaboration" may take place is through classified research on campus. And although there are restrictions placed on classified research at the University, these restrictions are currently under attack.
A new category of classified research, "proprietary research," recently was proposed on campus. It would keep confidential the results of corporate-sponsored University research and could enjoy patent privileges.
It's possible the University might turn into an industrial research operation dominated by corporate Endowment Association trustees who "benefeciously" give to the University the direction of University research.
As it is now, if University research produces a patentable item, the association finds an "appropriate friend" of the University. If the friend, a corporation, thinks the item will sell, the association negotiates a contract for patent rights.
But who in the association selects the friend? Does the association have a list of appropriate friends?
Ask Endowment Association officials and see whether they'll tell you.
When the affairs of any state-affiliated group be, it the Endowment Association or a research department, are conducted in secret, suspicions arise. And because these institutions are acting in the name of the University, they must be made accountable to the public
Stu Shuer, Great Bond graduate student, is a founding member of the Ad Hoc Committee for KU Accountability.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
To the editor:
U.S. protecting freedom in Grenada, Lebanon
In Tuesday's Kansan, Gary McCullough states that Reagan is "showing his true colors" with his actions in Grenada and Lebanon. I was shocked at McCullough's apparent misunderstandings and misperceptions of the two countries. I first hard to swallow that McCullough, who so strongly supports "The rights of an individual to a decent life, free of political, spiritual and economic tyranny," cannot fathom the fact that this is
precisely why we are in Grenada and Lebanon.
The invasion of Grenada was for two reasons: to protect the lives of nearly 1,000 American citizens, and to liberate the people of Grenada from the hard-line Marxists who brutally murdered Maurice Happ and 38 children on Oct. 19. The people of Grenada deserve the same rights you spoke of.
As for Lebanon, our peace-keeping forces are trying to keep two sides from exterminating each other. Once again we are simply trying to ensure that the people of Lebanon can continue to speak so speak so highly. The hope is that they will be able to live their lives decently, without fear of suppression from the Soviets or their
They, not the Kremlin, should have the right to choose those
surrogates.
It is truly unfortunate that in this country we have pseudo-intellectuals and distractors who condemn the actions of our president and soldiers, while they die in the field to preserve and protect the ideals you hold so high. If one were to seek an indictment against us for any reason it would legitimately be that we have bred this generation of vipers.
who they want to govern them.
That is why the people of Grenada the overreligiously sup-
pressed the liberation of their country.
Young Conservative Alliance
TV editorial was loaded with specious logic
To the editor:
Shame on you, Kansan, for your "A Shallow Reflection" editorial on Wednesday Taking TV's Christine Case craft and extrapolating it as a universal example of television news is specious logic, what you colorful illustrators might call "a cheap shot."
There is much that is wrong with television news, particularly at the local level, just as there is much wrong with the National Enquirer, the Daily News and even some student newspapers published by traditional, conservative, print-orientated journalists. did it be that those who preach that there is no alarmed at television's growing dominance of the news market and its revenues.
Your editorial glibly dances from Christine Craft to "Happy America," the American pursuit of pleasure, to Christmas shopping and presi-
Sickeningly sweet news
To the Editor:
16 To the Editor.
Three cheers for the author of "A Shallow Reflection" in Wednesday's Kansan. It's about time someone saw through the sickeningly sweetened news we must choke down.
As I scrutinize the enormous group of people that watches TV news - a sign of our country's laziness in reading newspapers - I am sickened at the sight of so many people sitting back in their plush chairs, kicking their feet up and joyfully viewing their plastic news.
Who cares if the woman接纳 an important national disaster isn't wearing enough blush!
Perhaps people don't realize what has happened to TV news. In any event, the Christine Craft case is just one small symbol of the shortcomings of not only television and media, but of a shallow society that really hopes to be more like "a century of reflection" will help江 Americans into reality.
Judy Scott
Leavenworth freshman
The reality is that television in general and television news in particular are reflections of our
dental campaign spending.
Could you possibly just, as we in television say, "Focus up a little bit." please?
diverse society. Just as in the newspaper business, there are practitioners who are motivated by money, by malice, byjournals, by other means that comes from practicing the craft. by all the motivations
Don't lament about television's "shallow reflection." Television news is just a different way of bringing information to our harried society. Isn't it delightful to realize that the adult who had difficulty with geography and history as a child now knows, thanks to television news, where Lebanon and Grenada and Iran are located on our globe and their relevance to America?
that have inspired men and women to communicate since we became social beings.
Christine Craft will pass away Walter Crankite will pass away. We will all pass away, but man's appetite for information on which to make decisions will not pass away. As a consequence, unless we destroy our civilization, there will always be room for — a need for — diverse news dispensing mechanisms.
George Rasmussen Assistant professor of journalism and RTVH