OPINION
The University Daily KANSAN
September 22.1983 Page 4
Published since 1889 by students of the University of Kansas
The University Daily KANSAN
The University Daily Kannan (USPS 650-640) is published at the University of Kansas, 118 Stauffer Flint Hall. Lawrence, KA 60045, on daily regular school and Monday and Thursday during the summer sessions. Students enrolling for summer school must pay $25 for each semester. Schoolships by mail are $15 for each semester in Douglas County and $18 for six months or $3 for a year outside the county. Student subscriptions are $3 a semester paid through the student activity fee. POSTMASTER: A send-in form is available online.
MARK ZIEMAN
Editor
DOUG CUNNINGHAM STEVE CUSICK
Managing Editor Editorial Author
MICHAEL ROBINSON Campus Editor
ANN HORNBERGER Business Manager
DAVE WANAMAKER MARK MEARS
Retail Sales National Sales
Manager Manager
LYNNE STARK
Campus Sales Manager
JOIN OBENZAN
Advertising Adviser
PAUL JESS
General Manager and News Adviser
Welfare report
A recent study of black families on welfare resulted in statistics that some federal policy-makers and critics of social welfare programs might find surprising.
Researchers who conducted the 15-year study wrote in their report that "longtime welfare dependency as a child does not cause longtime welfare dependency as an adult, at least among blacks."
"This is not to say that the poor are not at a greater risk of being poor in the next generation," survey director Martha Hill told a UPI reporter this week. What Hill said researchers discovered was that even among the poorest households there was actually a lot of income mobility from one generation to the next.
The study, conducted by the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research, also revealed that 57 percent of both blacks and whites from poverty-level families were not impoverished as adults.
This may come as quite a surprise to welfare critics who have argued for years that such incomme-maintenance programs actually do more harm than good by getting recipients used to the "government dolc."
Program critics have maintained that providing an income, even
though below subsistence level, to the lowest income families makes them not want to work and gets them used to receiving "handouts" from state and federal governments.
mems.
Such labels have haunted welfare recipients for years as they struggle to get back into the workforce that often simply does not have a job for them. And the labels are unfairly applied. Most welfare recipients are children whose mothers cannot both work and raise them.
Adequate daycare is the problem. There's simply not enough inexpensive daycare programs that welfare mothers can enroll their children in while they work, often at minimum-wage jobs.
The small paycheck will not pay for both daycare and other expenses of raising a family.
So, even without working parents, most black children on welfare programs manage to get themselves out of the deadend welfare world. This takes great fortitude and perseverance on the part of those children.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if the government allocated more money to the job training programs and helped get even more of these children off welfare before their adult years?
Back in business
Here it goes again
Radio station KTTL in Dodge City has begun to broadcast new programs of the type for which the station is infamous. According to news reports, the station had stopped playing its programs of hate in the spring.
The station's inflammatory programs have prompted protests to the Federal Communications Commission by various groups and even Kansas Attorney General Robert Stephan. KTTL is applying for a
Those programs blame Jews, various Christian denominations, assorted politicians and seemingly everyone else for the ills of the world. The attitude of the those responsible for the programs appears to be to condemn first and to think later.
renewal of its license to broadcast, and the protestors are seeking an end to the station's current programming. Nellie Babbs, owner of the station, has said that the First Amendment protects the programs.
American literature. KTTL, however, has taken a twisted approach to the problem of how a communicator deals with issues. Is the duty of a communicator to inspire and point out new ideas, or to promote bitterness?
The problem with KTTL is not one of unpopular ideas. It is one of the difference between constructive, responsible criticism and garbage.
Widespread criticism of the programs has apparently not deterred the station management. The voice of hate in southeastern Kansas continues to speak over the public airwaves. The FCC needs to act.
Nonviolent resistance
Violence, at times, played a part in the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Eldridge Cleaver, a former member of the Black Panthers who was in Topeka yesterday, says that violence was needed.
But was it?
Cleaver said that although he could see the importance of peaceful demonstrations, the violence that sometimes rocked the country during the 1960s had its place in the civil rights movement.
That march did more for civil rights than the gunshots, rockthrowing and other violence ever could. Americans looked at their television sets and saw thousands of demonstrators peacefully telling their plight to the country. That was much more persuasive than the sounds of breaking glass or the sight of burning buildings.
But Martin Luther King Jr. proved that violence wasn't necessary. The march on Washington and other nonviolent resistance from
King and his followers is a testament to the power of peaceful rebellion.
but bigger questions remain. If peaceful demonstration worked then, will it work again? And when, if ever, is the right time to take up arms?
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 information. The Kansan also invites individuals and groups to submit guest columns. Columns and letters can be mailed or brought to the Kansan office, 111 Stauffer-Flint Hall. The Kansan reserves the right to edit or reject letters and columns.
LETTERS POLICY
More downtown plans
Lawrence City Commissioners should not feel too bad that they can't come up with the definitive downtown plan that promises to safeguard Lawrence against the dreaded cornfield mall.
Downtown redevelopment has been a hot debated issue in Lawrence since the late 1960s when two out-of-town planners told the City Commission that a little bearout downtown certainly couldn't hurt.
Since that momentous day in Lawrence history, city officials,
downtown business and property owners, quasi-official committees and ad hoc planning groups of every size, shape and persuasion have had their say in what downtown should look like.
In its search for money to refurbish downtown, Lawrence has gone through its share of the federal alphabet soup development programs — NDP with its PAC, CDBG and UDAG.
In the late 1960s, the complaint was that downtown was too drab, not exciting enough for shoppers. The city received Neighborhood Development Program money in 1971, which was then used to beautify
Massachusetts Street. Under that program, trees were planted and saw-toothed curbs were built.
Still, things didn't go quite the way the federal government had in mind for NDP. To comply with federal regulations, Lawrence had to have a citizen board — the kind that is being given an eye on the money is spent.
Well, Lawrence did the right thing — almost. It formed its citizens' committee and called it the Project Action Committee. The citizens called upon to head this watchdog group were Bob Moore, a local land developer, and Warren Rhodes, a local banker.
These fellows became a little huffy when they found out that all of the $550,000 in the NDP till already had been allocated before their committee was even formed. But members of the Lawrence-Douglas County Prosecutor's Office were prior when they discovered that the NDP projects had already planned and that nobody had told them about it.
Things slowed down on the downtown redevelopment front until 1974 when the city decided to make it easier for Eudorahoppers to get into downtown Lawrence and use trucks to stop cars. The city officials agreed, was to build a highway through the East Lawrence neighborhood.
Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds were used to buy up and bulldoze homes of some of the low-income households in the path of the "Haskell Loop." City officials insisted it was all right to use funds
labeled community development for buldozing homes because the point of the Loop was to improve and to develop the community.
That plan was dropped when angry residents in East Lawrence called attention to the city's poorly done Environmental Impact Statement that minimized the highway's effect on the neighborhood.
The city held back on any more downtown redevelopment plans for a while, but after an out-of-town mall developer visited Lawrence with plants from the old-fashioned mall district, city officials knew it was time to get back to work.
In 1979, City Commissioners voted against the developer's plan to build south of town and invited the company to develop a plan for downtown instead. The commission chose Commissioner Barkley Clark and City Manager Bauder Watson to serve as the city's ex-officio members of ACTION 80, a group of, for the most part, wealthy bankers, real estate and land development executives and University officials, who were to work with the developer to pursue downtown development.
BUT ACTION 80 disbanded after several community groups complained that it was conducting business behind closed doors. However, it disbanded after a veloper had submitted a plan for a mail store to the mall that would have been out of place in downtown Lawrence.
Needless to say, this plan was not welcomed by Lawrence residents nor the City Commission because of the drawing board, where they still seem to be today.
Remembering "Scoop"
WASHINGTON — For almost 4 1/2 hours, the Senate last week paid its final resuit to Henry "Scoop" Jackson.
The memorial was a moving tribute, heartfelt and genuine, which continued in the Senate chamber when senators had said their goodbyes.
They praised Scoop Jackson for his achievements, and they were many and great; they praised his political abilities, and they were many and great; they praised his attributes as a man, and they, too, were many and great.
But, as sometimes happens when colleagues try to capsule their thoughts for a departed friend, the small, personal recollections are forgotten. Yet often, they tell much about a man.
Although others touched on these things, Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., made it the focus of his remarks — much about Jackson, the private man.
Nor were they compatible politically. They agreed on most domestic issues but disagreed on virtually every aspect of foreign policy.
Biden conceded he was not a friend of Jackson's.
Yet, Biden told two stories that
to prove to Delaware's voters that he should be their next senator. He and a friend decided to crash the dinner.
STEVE GERSTFI
Here was Jackson, beat from campaigning, looking for a little relaxation, vexed by his inability to win. He bid by extension by a neophyte he did not know.
perfectly portrayed the tremendous effect Jackson had on him. Certainly, there must be others in the Senate who could tell the same.
United Press International
- The first story begins the night before the 1972 Florida primary. Jackson, struggling for the Democratic presidential nomination, was having dinner at the home of Sterlin Monroe in suburban Miami.
Biden, then only 29, was in the area, trying for "some legitimacy"
"Come on in. Sit down. What's the problem?" Jackson asked and fed Biden some dessert.
Biden was elected to the Senate that fall but before he took the oath of office, his wife was killed in a car accident.
"Who was in my office a week after I got here?" Biden asked.
Jackson was not asking whether he could help bid Biden his committee, which he had already done, but whether or not he could help me."
"Scoop Jackson, saying 'Is there anything I can do for you?' "
Up for re-election in 1978, Biden was in trouble but, after fighting with Jackson over foreign policy and the Iran hostage crisis, did not bring himself to call for help
The second story Biden related dealt with Israel, an issue on which he "felt not nearly as strongly" as he does now.
Then Jackson, unsolicited, came into Delaware and raised money among his friends for Biden.
He changed after a "long, long discussion" with Jackson, who urged him to visit Israel, Eastern Europe and the concentration camps.
It was after this that Biden was "able to understand with any of the sense and depth of emotion that he, in a moment of jealousy, felt about what had happened."
Biden said, "Scoop Jackson changed a major part of my political life and my attitude about a whole person," but that I did not understand before."
Cold War policies
WASHINGTON — During 2 years of Reagan-dominated politics, we have witnessed a remarkable passivity and timidity from opposition political leaders. Not only have they allowed President Reagan and his team to assault and injure voters, but, even more important, they have allowed him to set the terms of the political debate.
Opposition leaders and much of America watched agog as Reagan's Interior Secretary, James G. Watt, scaled vast areas of natural lands and placed oil drills into clean waters. Congress looked on as the Environmental Protection Agency rolled back government anti-pollution requirements, doing two verses of irrepareable damage.
Having agreed that the state was suffering from a fiscal crisis and that the federal budget needed cutting, the opposition watched helplessly as the Reagan team succeeded in moving the neediest Americans from a state of virtual suffering to one of virtual disaster.
The opposition could only stutter and stammer as Reagan pushed immense military budgets through Congress and committed U.S. military forces to remote corners of the world.
Most appalling, opposition leaders have been unable to present coherent alternatives and so have been unable or unwilling to attack
SAUL LANDAU
Senior Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies
the president head-on. As a result, Reagan has determined the outlines and the language of political debate.
Government is bad, says Reagan, in spheres, such as the environment, in which it was supposed to protect and help the citizens. Where governments are not in police and military affairs, and where we need its interference more.
The result in two and half years is that the rich are richer, the poor are poorer and we are closer to nuclear and conventional war.
For some 50 years, Americans have believed that the question of poverty can be answered, in part at least, by federal spending on education, public works, jobs and rehabilitation programs. Now, in Reagan's Hobbesian world, individual poor people must assume personal responsibility for their plight and seek the help of private charities.
In foreign policy, the Democratic leaders have allowed Reagan to define the world as one of good versus evil. The leading Presidential contenders and tired Congressional leaders, fearing that they will be accused of having "lost" Central America, can disagree only with Reagan's tactics and methods — not with his premises.
In the last two and half years, then, the opposition leaders have proved their inability to lead. Those who have been hurt most by Reagan's policies — the vast majority of poor and middle-class Americans — must now take a part in leading the opposition.
Without vast displays of political opposition and demands for de-Reaganization, we might well look forward to what amounts to a continuation of Reagan policies under Democratic leadership.
There are alternatives to the Reagan budget, to the new Cold War and interventionism, to the stated and unstated priorities that are guiding American politics against those of the vast majority of the people.
Those alternatives must be articulated. To do so, the 48 percent of eligible Americans who did not register to vote in 1980 must be brought into the political process. Only they — along with those who can bring opposition leaders to come forth with clear opposition policies.
Copyright 1983 the New York Times. The Institute for Policy Studies is a public-policy organization.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Korean airline tragedy part of power struggle
To the Editor:
If recent public opinion is correct, the full story is yet to be told about the Korean Air Line tragedy. Many have suggested that questioning the veracity of the story that we have been told by the United States government is wrong. Of course, these same people have never heard of the historical detail about how KAL 007 supposedly landed safely on Sakhalin Island. How easy it is to forget inconvenient facts.
We may presume that more information will come to light in the future. Unfortunately, we are
caught between the maneuvering of the Soviet Union and the United States as each try to exploit the disaster for their own benefit. Both empires claim to be defending the highest ideals while stretching the facts as far as possible. The political parties both are using this tragedy to rally their respective blocs around their own glorious national flags.
The victims of the KAL 007 disaster may have fallen into the sea because of Soviet missiles and the invasion of Airspace airspace, but the underlying cause of their death is the life and death struggle between
Let us not forget that hundreds of lesser incidents than the KAL disaster occur every year where lives are lost and limited hostilities erupt between the Soviet and American forces. In some cases sometimes called "Mutually Assured Destruction," and the pawns are millions of citizens.
the superpowers as they prepare for World War III.
1
The KAL victims share the distinction of hundreds of thousands over the years who have died at the hands of one or the other of the superpowers. When similar numbers were being executed by goverment organized death squads in El Salvador, the Reagan administration certified that the fascists in government were improving human rights.
His sudden interest in the murder of the victims on KAL 907 is so obviously hypocritical and politically inspired as to make one reach a
While preparations for nuclear war intensity, it is easy to see that the interests of the peoples of the world be a concern for the superpowers.
David Huet-Vaughn Leawood sophomore