OPINION
The University Daily KANSAN
October 31, 1983 Page 4
The University Daily KANSAN
Published since 1889 by students of the University of Kansas
The University Daily Kaman (USP$ 605-640) is published at the University of Kansas, 118 Stairwater-First Hall, Lawrence, Kan. 60042, daily during the regular school year and twice weekly during the summer session, excluding weekends. Subscription prices are $39 for six months or $2 a year in Douglass, County and $16 for six months or $3 for a year outside the county. Student subscriptions are $3 a semester paid through the student activity fee FORSTMATER. Send address changes to the U.S. Postal Service, 1275 South Pleasant Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15210.
MARK ZIEMAN Editor
DOUG CUNNINGHAM
Managing Editor
Editorial Editor
ANN HORNBERGER Business Manager
DON KNOX Campus Editor
PAUL JESS
General Manager and News Adviser
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Marketing
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JOHN OBERZAN Advertising Adviser
Legitimate gripe
The Lawrence City Commission -- flailing for any step that will indicate it's doing something — is scheduled to talk about downtown redevelopment during its meeting tomorrow evening.
Raise the flag, perhaps something new and important will be decided. But probably not.
The commission plans to receive legal advice about downtown redevelopment from the city attorney.
The commission needs the legal advice because the Louisiana firm of Sizerel Realty Co. Inc, thinks that it's been spurned. The city has found a new flame in a group of local people — the Town Center Venture Corp. — which has proposed its own downtown redevelopment project.
Pity the poor soul who might happen upon the middle stages of the fray. As the wrecking ball takes down the Lawrence National Bank in the 600 block of Massachusetts Street, Sizeler will dig in at the 700 and 800 blocks for a long fight.
A long fight, indeed. The city and Sizeler have been talking for more than a year about downtown redevelopment. The project — at the city's request, indeed demand — was to be near the heart of downtown. Somewhere around, say, the 700 or 800 blocks of Massachusetts Street.
Sizerle officials thought that the city meant what it said.
But then the local group called Town Center came in. For whatever reason — a new plan, the local people, a new location — the group has won the hearts of many in Lawrence.
And the City Commission, slightly changed after the spring elections, liked Town Center better.
No devils lurking here
What were hundreds of people doing this weekend at haunted houses on Kansas City's Main Street? The assorted teen-agers, parents and children in the crowds thought that they were seeking some laughs and some scares in the Halloween spirit. Members of some religious groups thought that the crowds were there to worship Satan — and showed that extremism can make any cause look foolish, whatever that cause is.
Sidewalks in the area were soon cluttered by the leaflets. No one seemed to pay attention to the messages of the religious groups.
The members of the religious groups talked about devil worship while they passed out leaflets about such matters as visions of hell and personal relationships with God. The people who received the leaflets were waiting to enter "morgues," "dungeons" and "hotels" full of costumed demons, plastic skeletons and realistic-sounding wails and groans.
One could dispute any exact definition of the Halloween spirit, but the spirit of the season has little to do with the worship of Satan. Halloween, once called All Hallow E'en, precedes All Saints' Day. The emphasis of the Halloween season has changed over the years from religion to merrymaking, as in "trick-or-treat." No devils lurking here.
Undoubtedly the religious groups have a right to pass out such leaflets and to promote their views vigorously. Yet strong opinions on any subject can cause a loss of perspective on the part of the believers.
The crowds gathered on Main Street wanted a bit of pleasure in a world that all too often resembles a nightmare. If there were any devilish implications to the weekend gatherings at the haunted houses, they were that the lines were long—and that grim-faced people were trying to ruin a light-hearted Halloween festivity.
A matter of principle
Ordinarily, we don't think U.S. government workers have much to complain about when it comes to pay. But if they want to squawk about the latest congressional effort to save money at their expense, they're probably entitled to a sympathetic ear.
It turns out that Congress slipped a bookkeeping change into last year's budget reconciliation bill which will result in about 1.4 million white-collar workers getting a small pay cut.
These workers are employed at an annual salary. For payroll purposes, their salaries currently are divided into hourly rates based on a total of
Presto! The hourly rates drop a tad and the workers come up with slightly smaller checks for their 80-hour stints every two weeks.
2,080 hours a year. Congress decided that beginning Oct. 1, the workers' biweekly checks should be figured on the basis of 2.087 hours a year.
That isn't much, but it's the principle of the thing. It should be noted that members of Congress won't participate in this money-saving exercise: Their salaries are paid on a monthly basis and won't be affected by the change.
Course not.
—Columbus (Neb.) Telegram
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CHAMMAN THE OREGONIAN - OFFICE OF THE TERRITORY COMMAND
THE MARINES WILL COME
HOME FROM LEBANON
WHEN THEY HAVE
SECURED PEACE...
Reagan's peace through strength
WASHINGTON — President Reagan is being forced to make good on his policy of peace through strength by sending combat troops to many of the world's trouble spots.
Reagan is a man of decision and a man of action. He does not choose to retreat in the face of attempts to attack him, but he does with snipers and terrorist attacks.
A memo drawn up by the National Security Council more than a year ago called for a "full court press" against the Kremlin, and that is what the United States appears to be undertaking.
Reagan had a relatively peaceful first two years, but as with his predecessors in recent times, he is learning that international events inevitably preoccupy the presidency, and take their toil.
Since he has drawn a sharp line in the ideological struggle with the Communists, the United States is forced to take a strong position against Soviet and Cuban influences wherever they may seek to prevail. As a result, the United States is militarily involved in the Middle East, the Caribbean and Central America.
And he does not choose to ignore an appeal from a group of Caribbean island nations to help depele the revolutionary government in Greenland.
The Marxist government in Nicaragua is viewed as another target of opportunity to rid the region of Soviet-Cuban influences.
Like Harry Truman, Reagan does not anguish over a decision
HELEN THOMAS
But Truman did not live in the full glare of television and wars that come into the living room of nearly every home. The combat in Lebanon and invasion of Grenada from American, and the nation is wary of military involvement they may liken to the Vietnam debacle.
United Press International
Nor does Reagan have a malleable Congress that can be easily persuaded to support foreign ventures that will entail loss of life, even when told they are for vital strategic interests.
once it is made, particularly when convinced of the righteousness of his cause.
Reagan sees the struggle in Lebanon as more than a civil war. He believes the Middle East is a war zone and the Europoort and the Western Hemisphere.
The same is true of the Caribbean, where U.S. presidents have refused to do business with Fidel Castro and at the same time taken actions to block the spread of AIDS among his ex-supporters in dissident factions in that region.
White House and Pentagon officials insist that the United States is not spreading its forces into the world's trouble spots.
Military solutions are becoming less palatable to the lawmakers and less acceptable to Americans who are more prone to ask why.
Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., quiesed the legitimacy of the Grenada invasion and the "credibility" of Reagan's explanation for it.
But the president is being branded as "trigger happy" by some of his opponents on Capitol Hill. Rep Paul Simon, D-Hll, said the "military solution to be the romantic reflex" of the president.
called it an 'act of war.'
Sen. Patrick Moynihan, D.N.Y.
Reagan had powerful defenders, however, such as Speaker Thomas "Tip" O'Neill, Senate GOP leader Howard Baker, Senate Democratic leader Robert Byd, and Sen John Kerry. He was led in on the secret of the invasion of Grenada several hours before it took place.
Usually the leaders are "consulted" after the fat accomplish. the president realizes as the days go on and the United States heeds more involved abroad, he needs to be careful. he can get from allies in Congress
Throughout the 1980 campaign, Reagan criticized President Jimmy Carter for not taking a stronger stand against the Soviet Union, Iran and other hostile forces. Carter's opponents criticized him for his "wishy - washy" and indecisive in critical times. The hostage crisis in Iran particularly evoked harsh judgments against Carter.
Now Reagan is having his day,
and showing the flag. It remains to
be seen whether the people will
mode that this is the right way to go.
Third World fights for fair information flow
The issue in UNESCO today is the Third World's demand for the creation of a New World Information Order.
The crux of the issue is the
KALPANA
TRIVADI
Staff Columnist
difference in concepts over what news actually is and who has the right to control news flow to other countries.
Although there is a flow of information from the wire services to its member newspapers, there is no connection between the industrialized and the between the industrialized and the
developing countries, with a mini mum two way flow of information.
The developing countries have always complained that the four major news agencies of the world — Reuters, Agence France-Presse, United Press International and the Associated Press — belong to only a few countries. Of the international news which passes into the world's newsrooms.
These four agencies and the Soviet Union's Tass reportedly have 50,000 clients around the globe and are said to provide nine-tenths of the entire foreign news output of the world's newspapers and radio and TV stations. AP alone says it reaches one-third of the world every day.
Third-World countries frequently have asked UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, to ensure a free flow of information to their countries. They also have complained of distortion of facts in news about their countries.
Another argument against the agencies is that Western reporters seek the sensational — violence, war, crime, corruption, disaster, famine, fire and flood. By emphasizing just the negative aspects of the countries, the agencies are said to have distorted international knowledge of the cultural, political and economic progress of the world.
The Third World is treated as corrupt, a bunch of aid-fed migrates who are burdensome to Western economies.
The Western press offered the stories of the Nigerian civil war, Pol Pot's regime in Cambodia, the Ayatollah in Iran, Indira Gandhi in India, and Idi Amin in Uganda as a failure in Third-World leadership.
The 1978 UNESCO General Conference on the New International
Information Order brought to attention some concerns of the Third-World leaders Mustapha Masmoud, Tunisia's permanent representative at UNESCO, forth the following demands:
To Third-World leaders, freedom of the press is seen as an illusion fostered by big businesses which control the media.
- The bias in the collection, editing and dissemination of news must be stopped.
- News is merchandise, they charge, and a luxury that their societies cannot afford.
- There must be a reduction in the monopoly of transnational agencies and more equitable use of satellites and other networks.
- UNESCO in particular should train Third World journalists in a spirit of self-sufficiency
U.S. needs coherent industrial policy
STAFFAND, Conn. — There is a lot of argument these days about whether the United States should experiment with a national industrial policy. In fact, we already have such a policy. I and have had one for most of the nation's life. Why not, then, have a coherent and competitive one? I think that business and labor must do more to participate with the government in developing such a policy.
What America has is not a coherent policy. It is a ragtag collection of laws, regulations, taxes, tariffs, subsidies and practices that are often contradictory and counterproductive. In a sense, however, they constitute a defaft industrial policy: They involve interference in the 'tree market' and in doe, together to determine the international competitiveness of American industry.
What are some of these regulations? The federal government
DANIEL SHARP
Executive of a Large Multinational Corporation
billion for the Payment in Kind program. Another $10 billion to $20 billion goes to subsidize home supports agriculture with $22 billion in subsidies and $10 billion to $15
ownership — and, thus, the housing industry. Producers of steel auto, textiles and large motorcycles also reason, as does the shopping industry.
These billions of dollars often help to protect jobs and to bolster specific industries but they rarely boost the country's international competitiveness or protect American consumers and taxpayers.
Even those industries that do benefit are often pulled and pushed in many different directions by companies. Consider agriculture. We are the
In other instances, government "investment" simply does not accomplish what is intended. Education is perhaps the saddest example. Despite enormous sums spent to create public school systems and subsidize private ones, we produce fewer engineers and scientists than Japan, which has half our population.
The government supports 50 percent of the country's research and development. Yet most of this money goes to defense-related products, and the strategy for research and development is not coordinated with other aspects of our industrial policy.
In many ways, the government is part of the problem. Federal agencies overlap and contradict each
world's largest and most productive agricultural exporter. Yet we have no national strategy to protect our farmland and fresh water supply, and intermittently we embargo agricultural export sales.
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other and there is little coherent guidance. The government also has created impediments to our international competitiveness. Export controls and embargos on such American products as pipeline equipment, high-tech products and grain often help create the impression that America is an unreliable supplier.
An ideal industrial policy might mean less — not more — government involvement. Certainly, the government should not be trying to decide unilaterally which of our priorities are "winners" and which are "losers."
No industrial policy can work without the active involvement of the business community. We in business often assume that we will be the victims of such a policy. We may well be if we refuse to come on. Or if we join in, can we hope to be among the beneficiaries.
Copyright 1983 the New York Times.