OPINION
The University Daily KANSAN
October 6,1983 Page4
The University Daily KANSAN
Published since 1889 by students of the University of Kansas
The University Dayton Kansan ($185P 656-640) is published at the University of Kansas, 118 Stauffer Fint Hall, Lawn, Kano, 60055, daily during the regular school year and Monday and Thursday during the summer sessions. Subscriptions to mail are $1 for six months or $7 a year in Douglas County and $1 for six months or $3 for a year outside the county. Student subscription费是 $3 a semester pass through the student activity fee. POSTMASTER: $3.95 per month.
MARK ZIEMAN
Editor
DOUG CUNNINGHAM Managing Editor
MICHAEL ROBINSON
Campus Editor
PAUL JESS
General Manager and News Adviser
ANN HORNBERGER Business Manager
LYNNE STARK
Campus Sales Manager
JOHN OBERZAN
Advertising Adviser
DAVE WANMAKER
MARK MEARS
Retail Sales
Manager
National Sales
Farm tragedy
The events surrounding a resident of northwestern Kansas Monday serve as a reminder of the hard facts of life.
As officers of the Kansas Highway Patrol and the Graham County sheriff's department stood on alert, the sheriff called for bids on 240 acres owned by Bernard Bates. The lone bid, from a creditor of Bates, was accepted, and the land was sold.
Bates, a farmer from the all-black town of Nicodemus, still has almost 700 acres of farmland that has been in his family for several generations. That land, however, may soon face the same foreclosure proceedings.
The amount of land involved in the auction, 240 acres, is minute in the context of the farm acreage of the state. Moreover, Bates is just one of thousands of farm operators or managers in the state. Yet amid reports of urban problems and proposed industrial policies, the Bates story is poignant proof that trouble exists down on the farm, too.
The auction attracted about 200 people. In addition, the plight of Bates drew the notice of civil-rights
groups, such as Jesse Jackson's People United to Save Humanity.
People attending the auction chanted "No sale." Many of the same financial problems that have plagued Bates also concern those in the crowd — friends and neighbors of Bates, and farmers from around the Midwest. Some of those who were chanting against the sale likely realize that they are next in line to lose their land and possibly their way of life.
The financial problems facing farmers in Graham County and throughout the Midwest include low prices for crops, high interest rates, increased costs of production and past overexpansion of farming operations during better economic times. The fun and games of Old MacDonald and of planting from fence row to fence row have disappeared along with the dreams and ambitions of many farmers.
Perhaps the fate of 240 acres of farmland in northwestern Kansas will stir action to help farmers before it's too late. But one question lingers: One farm down, how many more to go?
Malicious remarks
If they were not so spitful, Sen. Jesse Helms' charges that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was a communist and provoked violence would be almost funny.
The conservative Republican senator from North Carolina tried to filibuster a vote by the Senate on a bill that would establish a national holiday in honor of King, who rallied millions of Americans to the civil rights movement.
Helms said he opposed giving federal workers another unpaid holiday, and he also denounced King for what he called King's "calculated use of non-violence as a provocative act."
Helms accused his fellow Congressmen who are supportive of the bill of being cowed by the threat of losing black political support.
Helms, though, could face a stiff re-election campaign if he chooses to run in 1984; North Carolina's population is one-fourth black.
Helms' remarks are reminiscent of the sharp, bitter attacks against King when he was alive and preaching his message of peace to crowds of blacks — and whites as well. They are shoddy remarks; low, cheap shots against a man who did perhaps more to open communications between blacks and whites than any other American of this century.
Thankfully, other Senators have come to King's rescue and after shaking off Helms' remarks, may do the right thing and vote a national holiday in honor of a great American.
Statute is unclear
The increasing use of bankruptcy to break union contracts or protect a company from suits raises a great many questions about the use of the Chapter 11 proceedings. The law is unclear.
Two federal courts have recently given conflicting answers, with one holding that a company must be in imminent danger of collapse before using the bankruptcy laws to abrogate union or other contracts. The second decision applies a less stringent test, arguing that damage, but not imminent collapse must be proved.
While the collapse of major companies such as Continental Airline has fastened attention on the problem, there has been an increasing use of the technique by smaller companies. Sometimes, the
objective is not to reduce wages, but liabilities. That was the case in August of 1982 when the Manville Corporation filed for bankruptcy on the ground that more than 16,000 lawsuits related to its production of asbestos threatened the company's survival.
In the Manville Corporation case, where operations were and are profitable, the legal action by the company appeared to be motivated by a desire to stop the suits being filed, and to neutralize their effect. This would appear to be taking advantage of the law, whereas in the case of Continental Airlines, it does have a severe financial problem, and could probably meet a stringent test of what is required to go bankrupt.
The Middletown (Conn.) Press
LETTERS POLICY
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Conservation is key
Seven small children huddle near a heating vent. One child falls to the floor, her blush, frostbitten face contorting in agony. Downstairs, a gas furnace sits idle for lack of fuel.
they use larger amounts of natural gas.
Yet with all the suggestions, one member of the task force said the most effective method of helping low-income residents pay their heating bills was in community financial support.
In another house, an old woman sits in a chair, rocking to the bitter winter wind. She also falls, and in the corner a space heater lies useless for lack of electricity.
The task force last year devised several ways to help the residents pay their bills, such as allocating revenue-sharing funds for fuel assistance, having a car share program or having an inverted rate structure that would require users to pay more per unit as
These scenes may be fictitious, but several Lawrence residents and social agencies are fighting what seems to be a losing battle to keep them from becoming a reality.
Last year the Kansas Public Service shut off service to 46 customers between October and December because they didn't pay their gas bills, and they shut off service to 21 customers between January and March of this year for the same reasons.
Last year that community support was achieved through the Warm Hearts drive, which helped in the needy defray heating costs.
The shutoffs occurred despite attempts by several Lawrence agencies to provide funds to pay utility bills for low-income residents, and this winter will pose the same problem.
The Lawrence City Commission recently reappointed the city's natural gas task force, which is to study problems that are affecting it in paying their gas bills and to find ways in which the city can help.
But other officials said that community money and money
from federal and state sources was not enough. In fact, there could never really be enough.
Marcia Epstein of the application review board for the Emergency Service Center, money stills, though it helped, did not solve the problem.
Staff Columnist
Weatherproofing of homes and education about fuel conservation are necessary, she said. But there is a lot of data it is not a cost-effective solution.
The city does, however, provide community development funds for weatherproofing of low-income residents homes.
MICHAEL BECK
Staff Columnist
The program, operated by the Appropriate Technology Research Center, provides workshops and provided packets containing insulation, caulk, plastic and other weatherproofing products.
Last year the research center gave 20 workshops, with an average of 10 people at each session receiving the packets. A follow-up survey showed that the packets were widely used.
the weatherproofing program is in good financial shape, with donations from area industries helping supplement other grants.
But the number of packets given away and the overall interest in insulating homes in gasoline is very low, as is the investment for fuel is disproportionate.
The Emergency Service Council gave money for fuel assistance to 716 people last year, and the Ballard Community Center gave financial assistance to 229 last year.
Social agency leaders agree that giving away the packets are not the only solution. Even though their homes are insulated, some people will still not be able to pay their fuel bills.
But for various reasons, the weatherization is not reaching enough people, and further assistance to low-income residents should concentrate on conservation to avoid repeated and futile attempts to pay fuel bills of the poor.
The effort of various agencies and people in Lawrence is admirable. The poor have benefited, and it seems they will continue to benefit from the generosity of others.
We cannot afford to let others be left out in the cold. But in the interest of getting more for the community's money, the emphasis for providing heat to the city's poor should be changed.
Diplomacy sorely needed
WASHINGTON — President Reagan's approach to the Central America issue brings to mind an image of a man long accustomed to driving nails who is given the opportunity to use a screw. Ignoring the more sophisticated option, he just keeps banging away and blaming his hands when his pounding doesn't work.
Reagan's "secret war" against Nicaragua has accomplished nothing. It has not interdicted a single rifle. Certainly, it has no chance of getting rid of the Sandistas. On the contrary, by providing an external threat against which they can rally the Nicaraguan people, it may have helped them more than it has harmed them.
WAYNE S. SMITH
Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
A far more promising approach would be built around multilateral diplomacy. It could be based principally on the Contadora process. The aim would be to produce verifiable and enforceable accords that would end all activity by one country in a conflict against a second country, limit arms and armies and reduce foreign military involvement.
Meanwhile, negotiations should begin in El Salvador, possibly under international supervision and should
be aimed at bringing about an immediate cease-fire so that there could be conditions for really meaningful elections.
If the left is to lay down its arms before elections, so must the righting death squads. There must be give and take on both sides — and since neither would trust the other to overseen an electoral process, they would have to work out some way to share the responsibility.
The administration has no intention of trying a diplomatic approach. It insists, for public relations purposes, that it favors negotiations, while doing everything it can to avoid them.
Less than 10 days later, Reagan dismissed the Cuban proposals as
It says, for example, that it supports the Contadora process. Yet representatives of the Contadora countries, Mexico, Venezuela, Haiti and Colombia stated openly that the administration was undermining their efforts.
Did we open such negotiations? Of course not. Reagan said Fidel Castro's proposals were "encouraging" and Secretary of State James W. Powell measured congressional leaders that they would be thoroughly explored.
And what of the Cuban and Nicaraguan proposals for negotiations that were presented in July? They are far from perfect, but they have made a major key concerns, including the hauling of support for guerrillas.
"not serious," and made it clear that we had no intention of discussing them. The Nicaraguan proposals received an even shorter shrift; Reagan responded almost immediately that there was little hope of a regional settlement as long as the Sandinistas were in power.
Nor, predictably, have contracts with the Salvadoran opposition produced anything useful. They could not, for the administration and the Salvadoran government continue to insist that the only thing there is to talk about is the opposition's participation in a political process organized and overseen exclusively by the government.
Why is the administration avoiding serious negotiations in Cental America? Mainly because it thinks that takk might get in the way of its real objectives — to get rid of the Sandinista government one way or another and to force a military victory in El Salvador.
By the time the administration realizes that neither of these goals is achievable and that its policies are not being followed, it will probably be too late.
What's needed in Central America is diplomacy, but the Reagan administration has shown no sign that it is capable of competent diplomacy. It has durable diplomatic ability. South Atlantic, not in the Middle East. Why should Central America be any different?
Copyright 1983 the New York Times.
A divided Cambodia
WASHINGTON — This year the United Nations General Assembly will discuss the question of Cambodia for the fifth year in a row. As before, it will debate whether to seat the deposed government in Pat Pot, the head of the Khmer Republic of Heng Samrin, who was installed by the Vietnamese in 1979.
But it is time again to search for a solution that would end the fighting between the Vietnamese occupiers and the Cambodian resistance forces. There is a simple solution: Ask both sides to drop all fighters who belonged to the Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot's government.
This formula would have farreaching implications because the Khmer Rouge remain the key Cambian actors on both sides of the war. When Pol Pot was overthrown in 1979, some Khmer Rouge allies assistance with Pol Pot, while others stayed to work for the Vietnamese.
The two sides have hardened considerably in the last two years. Communist Pol Pot has formed a
ELIZABETH BECKER Author
Most of the issues that divide the two sides would disappear if Khmer Rouge members were dropped. If Pol Pot's forces and the Khmer Rouge army were dismantled, the Vietnamese would no longer have to fear that China might use Cambodia as a base to threaten Vietnam's security. The United Nations would no longer have to fear Poil Pot's army. And the Vietnamese would soon feel secure enough to begin withdrawing their forces.
The Chinese would have to agree, for only they can take care of the Khmer Rouge, presumably by the top figures asylum in their country. But China could accept this solution because it resembles Peking's latest call for an independent, neutral Cambodia.
coalition of sorts with the non-Communist Prince Norodom Sihamov who ruled from 1945 and 1962 (19) and his prince's former prime minister.
On the other side, the Samrin government joined a Vietnamese-dominated alliance that cemented this year at the first Indochina summit meeting of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Meanwhile, thousands of Cambodians and Vietnamese died this year, as in many years, in the annual dry season offensive.
The death caused by the Khmer Rouge has been well documented. Just this summer, the Samrin regime released a study that said almost one-half of the population — 2.7 million people — had died of hunger and exhaustion or were executed.
The Vietnamese would agree if they were promised significant economic aid—and if Vietnam went along, the Soviet Union would too.
In this, the United States could help by lifting the embargo against Hanoi, normalizing relations and promising to support significant international aid And The Vietnamese should be assured that the formula would allow Marxists in Samrin's regime — including his prime minister and defense minister — to join a new government.
Copyright 1983 the New York Times.