OPINION
The University Daily KANSAN
September 16, 1983 Page 4
Published since 1869 by students of the University of Kansas
The University Daily KANSAN
The University Daily Kannan (USPS 665-640 is published at the University of Kansas, 118 Stauffer Fint Hall, Kannan, Kannan, 60043, daily during the regular school year and Monday and Thursday during the summer sessions, excluding Sunday. Mail subscriptions are $1 per month for short period. Second class postage paid at Lawrence, Kannan, 60044. Subscriptions by mail are $15 for six months or less. Postmaster-subscriptions are $3 a semester paid through the student activity for POSTMASTER.COM address changes to the student account.
MARK ZIEMAN
Editor
DOUG CUNNINGHAM
Managing Editor
Editorial Editor
MICHAEL ROBINSON Campus Editor
ANN HORNBERGER Business Manager
DAVE WANAMAKER
Retail Sales
Midmerger
MARK MEHARS
National Sales
PAUL JESS
General Manager and News Adviser
LYNNE STARK Campus Sales Manager
A backward step
JOHN OBERZAN Advertising Adviser
Downtown redevelopment is not an easy task but surely it is not as difficult as the Lawrence City Commission seems to be making it.
Granted, the redevelopment will affect many people — downtown business and property owners, those who live in the older neighborhoods surrounding downtown and of course, Lawrence taxpayers. The sizeable number of people affected by the redevelopment is an excellent reason for moving carefully with the plans and decision making.
But the commission took prudent planning too far when it decided to open the door for other developers to apply to be the developer of record for the project. It is just about one year ago that the city hired Sizeral Realty Co. Inc. to produce designs for the downtown project, which many took as a positive sign that the development was on its way.
But now with local developer Ron Holt's entrance into the downtown scene and his supposed success at getting commitments from six
businesses to move into the 600 block of New Hampshire Street, commissioners seem to be almost starting over.
After five long years of discussing, hagling, and finally getting down to the planning stage of downtown redevelopment, it's a shame to go backwards. And backwards is the direction commissioners are heading by possibly introducing new plans and a new developer into the downtown redevelopment process.
Mayor David Longhurst said that by delaying the final designation of the project's developer of record it would give one last chance for other developers with alternative plans, particularly local developers, to have a chance to show their stuff.
If this is the case, then these developers' plans must go through the same close scrutiny by Lawrence residents, downtown business operators and community groups, especially from the older central city neighborhoods most affected by the plan.
The proper decision
The City Commission did a good deed Tuesday night that holds the promise of serving the community for years to come.
The commission approved a zoning variance that will permit the Lawrence Indian Center, 2326 Louisiana St., to move into a home at 101 E. 23rd St. In addition, the commission decided to offer the owners of the home $55,000 and to lease the property to the Indian Center for a nominal fee.
The commission, however, chose
to give the Indian Center a chance. The organization needs that chance because it provides special services to Indians who live in Lawrence and has had trouble finding a permanent location. The city's proposed purchasing and leasing of the property could greatly aid the Indian Center.
This decision was made after some residents in the neighborhood of the proposed site had expressed their opposition to the move. A representative for the residents said that the Indian Center would cause increased traffic in the area and would change the character of the neighborhood.
The commission's decision reflects both a recognition of the importance of the Indian Center to many Lawrence residents and an attitude of fair and open government. The opposing residents had a fair chance to express their views, and the commission gave the matter serious thought.
Best of all, the action to help the Indian Center revealed an attitude that organizations which aid the community should be given opportunities to do their work.
A Borneo adventure
Hat's off to Jim Slade, John Long and Jim Bridwell, a group of adventuresome Californians who battled typhoid, jungle rot, white water rapids, leeches, lizards and ants to complete the first known expedition across the rather unpleasant-sounding island of Borneo.
Their 43-day adventure comes as a pleasant surprise for many reasons — the least of which is that they were able to survive the journey.
It's good to know that there are still unexplored areas of the world left for man to conquer. Borneo has up to now been a relatively forgotten mass of jungle of about 290,000 square miles.
Forgotten, that is, to all but the team's guides and native companions, the Punan Dayaks, who, like the Sherpas of the Himalayas,
probably successfully explored their home turf — be jungle or Mount Everest — long before any fame-seeking angel came along.
("The Punan Dayaks) could clear a large patch of jungle, make rainproof shelters and be cooking dinner while we were still fooling around with our stoves and tents." Long said.
Although such rugged intrepedness by the Californians earns praise for being good news in a time overburdened by stories of mass murder and warfare, maybe the real heroes here are the Punan Dayakis and other Borneo natives. They've lived in the inhospitable island all their lives, while the Californians admitted that they felt "fortunate to have gotten out alive and half well."
But Punan Dayaks are not Californians, and, unfortunately, will never make the record books.
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 position. The Kansan also invites individual groups to submit guest columns. Columns that are mailed or brought to the Kansan are reserved for Stauffer-Flini Hall. The Kansan reserves the right to edit or reject letters and columns.
LETTERS POLICY
Catcalls are unnerving
"Nice ass."
The comment jars her. Followed by rude laughter between the two young men, it comes as no compliment. It wasn't intended as one.
She wonders, enraged, for what it was intended. An insult, a threat, a joke?
She's angry and she wants to react with more than silence. She wants to yell back. She wishes she were as
big as those two, who looked like men but acted like overgrown boys. She is limited by her size, by her
She is inflicted by her size, by her sex. She is helpless against them.
And that angers her.
It is precisely that point that the men had seemed to want to make.
They were reminding her that laws would never make the world less than a man's world, for they would never make the average man less physically powerful than the average woman. They were telling her they would never have to give up their jobs and move to the rulers and the rulers and the subjects.
Later, she talks to a small group of
women, who immediately nod not in understanding when she spills her frustration. They too, have often been so accented. They are eager to share their stories and to tell of the incidents the incidents have put on their lives.
One told of being yelled at by men in cars almost every time she went jogging, no matter which neighborhood she chose.
The women discovered that all of them locked their cars because they were afraid not of having their cars stolen inside when they returned to them.
"she should have known better." Perhaps so, the women agree, and they talk about elaborate escort services that have been set up at other campus locations, an informal one arranged between some campus living groups.
"And they're not just hoodlums," she said. "They're all kinds of guys."
Sometimes, she said, the fear made her cut her run short. Other times, she would sit in her apartheid days trying to get up her nerve to go.
They remember chiding female friends for walking to classes or to the library alone in the evening. And they remember being a source of wooded areas on campus.
"She should have known better."
"She was stupid. She asked for it," people had said. "She shouldn't have been outside alone at 2 a.m.
Those services are good; they remove the danger. They don't,
however,remove the problem,the women conclude.
A few minutes later, a man, asked how he would feel if it happened to him, grinned and said, "I'd probably say, 'Your place or mine?' "
It happens at all times of the day to women of all shapes, dressed in anything from dresses to shorts to baggy, uneven sweat pants.
She said that if a man was yelled at crudely by a woman, he'd probably grin and say, "Your place or mine?"
Most men just don't understand. They think the favorable comments on a woman's anatomy shouted by a doctor should be taken as a compliment.
They can hardly be blamed, though, because they rarely experience the degradation that some women experience almost daily. When men do, they know little threat can accompany the comments.
Other men don't sympathize because they are unaware of the frequency of the assaults.
"Does that really happen a lot?" they ask doubtfully.
To the men who don't believe how frequently it happens, or don't understand the anger and humiliation it brings, one woman had this advice: ask your girlfriends, your sisters, or your female friends.
They'll tell you.
Reagan avoids political trap
WASHINGTON — By resisting demands to impose harsh economic sanctions against the Soviets and to nuclear nuclear arms control talks because of the Korean airline tragedy, President Reagan is in a position to reap political dividends in Congress and Europe.
Reagan imposed relatively moderate sanctions on the Soviets — banning their airline from any business in the United States, and dropping plans to discuss a cultural and scientific exchange agreement and to open new consulates in Kiev and New York.
But Reagan did not scrub the separate talks in Geneva on intermediate range missiles in Europe and on limiting the strategic arsenals of the superpowers.
The administration came into office vowing to correct what it considered rash action by President Jimmy Carter severely restricting grain sales to the Soviet because of the invasion of Afghanistan.
A few days before a Soviet fighter shot down the Korean Air Lines 747, the administration signed a new five-year grain pact with the Kremlin. It expressly guarantees
E. MICHAEL MYERS United Press International
Reagan used the example of Soviet aggression to appeal to Congress to consider American interest in voting on his large defense budget.
Reagan has the political benefit of appearing credible with his warnings against Soviet behavior while pushing for his arms requests.
He could have suspended the medium range missile negotiations, wrecking any hopes of a compromise and fueling opposition in Western Europe to their deployment in December.
Reagan's efforts to secure funding and deployment of the MX missile depends on the perception in Congress that he is making genuine attempts in the strategic arms talks to limit nuclear arsenals.
demonstrations in the streets of Western Europe against ending the talks and deploying the Pershing 2 and cruise missiles
the United States will not interrupt grain supplies because of political considerations.
Reagan pledged the talks would go on. By scrapping them, he would lose the support of moderates and the president, who voted for the 10-warhead missile.
But Reagan had other option: to punish the Soviets. Only they would have been more costly to him.
American outrage over the loss of the airliner and its efforts to promote a worldwide condemnation of the Kremlin would be eclipsed by
And he has not turned an airline disaster into a potential political problem for the alliance or himself. He will form a firm decision on seeking re-election.
A night of football
Monday Night Football . . . a true Roman Cipher. Pure Americana from the heart of the nation, offered on TV screens in every two-bit burg from Fresno to Raleigh. Ah. if you can still imagine could see the glory of all.
I savored these thoughts as I doused the brickets in the bibachi, standing by my car on the miles of pavement outside Arrowhead Stadium. Kickoff was a few hours away and we'd come down from Lawrence for the game.
All around, groups were firing up grills and slapping on burgers. Smoke curl up from a hundred campfires on the concrete plateau
As the game drew near, the crowd snaked toward the stadium, spiraling up to the house of the gods. The crowd was a little overcrowded of the stadium, gazing at 60,000.
A camouflaged C-130 cargo plane — could have flown into the Khesh years back — circled overhead. Then human beings fell out of the helicopter and echoed to 1.70 as the parachutist touched down near the 50 vard line
Below on the field at a microphone, the archishop of Kansas City offered prayers for the victim of the Korean tragedy. His voice rebounded and echoed off the crowd as he spoke to an extraordinary alienation. We proclaim that you enable us to recognize our world as reconciliable. Grant us
So it was kickoff time at last.
unity and peace, amen." The crowd paused, digested his words, then broke into ragged howls of agreement.
There were the titans down there, in red, white and gold, and here was Kansas and Missouri standing shoulder to shoulder, cheering on the
They were a robust bunch, these Americans. Hard drinking. The night was chilly, but still the holier, "Hey beer man," could be heard every few seconds. Hank Hammonds was the beer man. He's been selling siops at Arrowhead and Royals stadiums for three years.
Hammond predicted Chiefs' fans in his section would go through 16 cases on this night.
"They can hold their liquor better than people at Royals games. These people drink all night, but Royals are much happier in a real hard to deal with sometimes."
The game bleed and flowed on the Astroturf. The sun had fallen over Kansas and the lights were on. A ways into the game, the announcer asked the crowd to give a warm Kansas City welcome to the three kings of Monday Night Football: Dandy Done, Frank and Howard.
The boos were tremendous. Good, rich, lusty yowls that kept up for 10 long seconds.
Hand-written posters on the stadium walls reflected this motley collection of Midwesterners. Two of the signs, placed at strategic locations, simply gave the cryptic reference, "John 3:16." Another accused the San Diego Chargers of crude and unnatural acts.
The Chiefs fought hard but the minutes waned. San Diego went ahead late in the fourth quarter. The cause was lost.
The final gun sounded, and thousands filed into the parking lots. You could almost hear a resounding click of TV sets across America switching off. We were all family there for a little while.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Columnist wrong about Little Sisters program
To the Editor:
I just love it when knowledgeable people express their ideas in this newspaper. Unfortunately, it doesn't happen very often. This is a challenge to Kisaa Ascue's column, "Little Sistah System Should Be Abolished."
Kiesa has never been a Little Sister to any fraternity on this campus and would never care to be one if asked. The reason would be that she hatred of the Greek system and possible hatred for freshmen girls.
I have been a member of a Little Sister organization for four years. I have always held an office and I am president of one now.
And as Kiesa knows, I do not smile sweetly. I do not bake cookies, clean rooms or perform other menial chores for party invitations
Sorry, Kiesa, but I do know better. Little Sisters does provide almost
instantaneous friendship for the girls as well as the guys. There are tutorial groups formed for the girls, teen-age advisers and quasiparents who may yell at you if you need to shape up. And it is more like an extended family than the master slave image which Kiesa poranys
These girls are not there to serve their Big Brother, nor are they there for their Big Brother to use. I have always stressed, and I have seen it stressed elsewhere, the idea that the owners is a group formed for the girls.
These girls gather now and then to talk, have fun, discuss problems and sometimes throw a party. All Little Sisters are invited to all parties and
if they wish, they may bring an outside date. In addition, any girl can join a Little Sister group if she wants.
To the Editor:
Propaganda
Lastly, Kiesa, I do not feel degraded in any way. Little Sisters got me involved my freshman year and it has shown me leadership not to have noticed otherwise. I am proud to be a senior and a Little Sister.
Carole Bittman Overland Park senior
The seed of a perfect propaganda event is a claim which, by its very nature, is self perpetuating. That is, by the nature of its own irrefut
Our popular culture has lost almost entirely the distinction between knowledge and information. We should hope that we do not degenerate to losing the distinction between information and propaganda.
2
It is the business of the Ministry of Propaganda to propagate that which is useful, and the allegation against the "spy plane" is, in the face of a terrorist attack, very useful when the evidence lies submerged beneath the Sea of Japan.
bility A recent (and sorry) example of this is the allegation of the official organs of the Soviet Union that the mission was a spy mission for the United States.
What of further allegations that the United States is using this incident as an excuse for "anti-Soviet propaganda?" This requires no further comment beyond saying that if propaganda is that which is useful (as opposed to that which is useful), it is therefore outrage in anti-Soviet propaganda — it is useful, precisely because it is true, rather than the reverse.
Kirk Allison Wichita senior