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Opinion
University Daily Kansan, July 15, 1983
Downtown needs a vote
Lawrence is a city divided in many ways. It has the Kansas River splitting it neatly into north and south Lawrence. It has everything west of Iowa street considered West Lawrence and everything east of New Hampshire considered East Lawrence.
But a more subtle division is occurring in the minds of the citizens of Lawrence: Whether to redevelop the downtown area.
The issue has been around for a while, but when grumblings were heard about a suburban indoor shopping mall, the City Commission decided to get moving.
It's easy to see why downtown Lawrence is afraid of malls.
They're convenient. They're comfortable. You don't get wet when it rains or cold when it snows and they have everything you've always wanted under one roof. Oak Park Mall in Overland Park even has a low-cost medical clinic.
The Greater Kansas City area is expanding southward, toward the malls. Of course the planners knew that when they were built. The suburbs
are thriving and the metropolis, well, it's surviving.
Lawrence is expanding southward and westward. The Lawrence mall was going to be placed south of the city. Sound familiar?
It sounded familiar to the City Commission and it decided to nix the mall and get to work on a downtown plan. To make a long story short, Lawrence has a plan now, and it seemed to be going quite smoothly until the April city elections. That's when the voters elected David Longhurst and Mike Amyx to the commission. They don't like the plan one bit.
Could their reluctance have anything to do with the fact that they have downtown businesses that will be affected by the redevelopment scheme?
Before this issue dies at the hands of a few people in powerful positions, it should be brought before the voters. Perhaps then, the leaders of the community will have an idea of what the people who elected them think of the plan. Then, and only then, should further decisions be made.
Israel, US keep their eyes on PLO
as PLO rebels demand a holy war against Israel and fight Yasser Arafat's leadership, American and Israeli officials surprisingly react to the change in the Palestine Liberation Organization
Recently, Arafat's loyalists decided to withdraw their forces from the Beka'a Valley in eastern Lebanon to avoid clashes with Syrian and Libyan-backed rebels.
What would be best for Israelis and Americans? To have Arafat — the most wanted terrorist in Israel — eliminated from the PLO leadership or to give that power to a Syrian leader.
Yasser Arafat's fight for a Palestinian homeland has been changing international politics. He has gone to socialist countries and even to the Vatican to ask for support for the PLO. International news agencies have always covered PLO actions closely.
Although Arafat showed some flexibility in the six-man PLO delegation meeting in Damascus, Col Saed Mouss, the rebels' leader, did not trust the decision.
Unfortunately, Israelis and Americans do not trust Arafat either. Their judgment of the leader's attitude toward world peace is questionable.
Because PLO rebels were frustrated with the Beirut defeat last year, they rejected Arafat's diplomacy. His moderation is a problem for Israel, because of his determination to reach a
KATIA SILVA
Guest Columnist
solution for the Palestinian cause. With the radicals — PLO rebels, Syrians and Libyans — in control, instability in the MidEast is certain.
However, Israeli radicals want the rebels to win that there will be no need to negotiate about the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Israel and PLO expert Matti Steinberg of Newsweek
magazine said. Meanwhile, the Israeli moderates know that a radical PLO turn will send Israel to war.
Arafat's unpopularity is leading Americans and Israelis onto the wrong path. In such a situation, their interests — supposedly to get peace in the Mideast through an agreement with the PLO and Syrian forces — are obviously in danger. But Secretary of State George Shultz does not realize the need for Arafat's leadership of the PLO.
In an interview in Newsweek he said a Syrian-controlled PLO would be beneficial for Lebanon peace talks, since "the greater the Syrian control, the likelier that if Syria withdraws, the PLO will,too." But will Syria ever withdraw?
The danger of a Syrian-controlled PLO is clear. So, why does Shultz believe the PLO mutineers will help Americans reach their interests in the Mideast? Is peace the interest he is defending? With the all hatred involved, it seems that Israeli and Palestinian radicals' interest is in fighting a holy war.
Chilean housewives joining unions in strike
Everything is not quiet on the Chilean front anymore. Gen. Augusto Pinochet, the dictator of Chile for nearly 10 years, is hearing voices of protest. For the first time since the military took over in 1973, the country is witness to national strikes.
May 11 and June 14 were observed as days of "national protest" and there have been anti-government demonstrations ever since, copper miners being an integral part of them. Rodilo Seguel, president of the largest copper union, was arrested while sleeping one night as Gen. Pinochet threatened to send civilian leaders "to your caves so that this problem will end."
If the problem was that simple, it would end, but it seems that the unions have finally decided to have a showdown with their rulers. Pinochet, the incredible man, won a 1980 referendum extending his authoritarian rule for nine years. But now the question is whether he can carry out his laughable plan to retain power for six more years.
Things seem to have changed since Pinocheto took power in Chile in a bloody coup against the democratically elected but Marxist government of Salvador Allende. History says that the CIA was behind it, with the light was given by the light was given by Kissinger because the cost of the coup to the American government, which was only a few hundred million dollars, justified the end.
So, Pinochet was installed as the new anti-communist ruler of Chile. It is futile to reflect now on what Allende could have done, but Pinochet certainly hasn't done much for his country. He has made his very own contributions to the problems. Unemployment stands at a
stolid 30 percent and inflation is keeping it company with a soaring 28 percent. The wages have been frozen for two years and the gross national product showed a plunging of 14 percent
The economy is clearly a disaster area and so far Pinochet has not been able to remedy the dire conditions that led to the protests. He, of course, blames the Chilean Communist Party for the collapse of the Interior Ministry and the Chileans "not to be provoked by the Marxists" into counterviolence.
Despite the violence and wide support for the strikes, the government shows few signs of compromise. Pinchett says that he will serve his current term to 1989 before calling for elections.
The demonstrators say that they will settle for nothing less than his removal. Gen. Pinochet's power cannot be underestimated and neither can the force available to him. But the sooner the elections are held the less radical the results will be.
SEEMA SIROHI
The Reagan administration's outlook seems to be that Chile is authoritarian, but anticommunist, and therefore, deserving of love and affection. Since President Reagan's term, official bank loans have been resumed and the Navy has visited the Chilean shores. It has been
two years and Chile still has not met the minimal human rights conditions needed to stand in line for American aid.
But then such qualifications are usually ignored when it comes to preserving a passionately dedicated right-wing government, whatever the price. This seems to be a familiar story in South America where history gets to repeat itself quite often. There seems to be a cycle of military dictatorships, or disarmament, which leads to the military aid to control the insurgence, more deaths, revolutionary government and a military coup — and it goes on.
Pinochet is at a difficult stage of his dictatorship. The ruling elite and many people and groups who were initially "understanding," if not vehemently favorable, think that the present government is responsible for the ruined economy. So much so, Chile's Roman Catholic bishops have urged the military regime to end censorship, respect the rights of striking workers and "listen to the people." The Catholic Church is an important voice in South America and often a revolutionary one. The statement issued by the bishopsaid, "Dissent is an innate right," and it includes "the right to strike in certain circumstances."
It appears that the "certain" circumstances have arrived and along with the miners, truckers and students, the housewives have come out on the streets banging their pots — a traditional form of protest in Chile. Now one can only hope that the right ears will hear the banging pots.
Tongue-in-cheek weaponry safer than a loud Walkman
By JAMES O. CLIFFORD United Press International
SAN FRANCISCO — There's real danger that nuclear weapons will become America's Maginot Line, giving us a false sense of security while the enemy perfects a weapon that will render us powerless.
Believe me, I am committed to a strong national defense and would never, never do anything to aid the U.S.S.R. or undermine our moral fiber, if there's any left.
However, my sources, which I can't name, tell me Soviet scientists are well on the way to perfecting a device that will render our youth more intelligent, freezing them in place like so many status.
The weapon is devilishly simple: a beam that silences any radio playing loud music.
Just open your ears the next time you walk down any busy street and you'll know how the cormorants fly.
Teenagers carrying radios as heavy as a machine gun plow through crowds blaring songs that drown out police sirens. Cars roar by with windows down and horrible sound fences flanked by tank drivers. A bank driver, who day could become as immobile as Hitler's Panzers stuck in Russian mud.
One is not even immune on buses that here have signs reading: "No smoking, eating or radios." Smokers are thrown off but I've yet to see anyone tell somebody to "turn that &?$!&½² thing off."
I catch my bus at 5 a.m., the same time a young man opens a gas station near the depot. The first thing he does is switch on a radio that wakes the neighborhood before the roosters crow. It's as regular as the flag raising at Fort McHenry.
I have teenage sons who can't take a shower without a radio on. I asked the oldest how he could hear it with the water running and he answered, "I don't hear it. I feel it."
When they mow the lawn several portable radios are placed at strategic spots so no matter where you go, the battery is always on.
And study without a radio on? You've got to be kidding.
Remember the scene in "Gundacanal Diary" where Marine William Bendix becomes frustrated because the radio he's lugged ashore breaks down just when the announcer's about to broadcast the final score of the World Series? Bendix wanted to know something, not feel it.
Contrast that with the radios blaring from helicopters as they attack in the Vietnam War
If the enemy had the weapon the Russians are working on, they wouldn't even have had to fire a shot.
We may just have to end up fighting the next big one with people over 40. They'll have enough sense to go home and pull crabgrass — and where will national defense be then?
On the other hand, maybe the Russians have the same problem.
Perhaps someday *SALT* will stand for Strategic Audio Limitation TAs.
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Letters to the Editor
Not a guru, just a simple, macrobiotic guy
To the editor:
To the editor:
I appreciated the opportunity of having some of my views on macrobiotics printed in your brief article "Macrobiotics guru promotes simple, natural diet" on July 8. However, there was some wrong information presented and, in my opinion, poor interpretation done by the reporter.
First of all, the East West Center is located at 4321 Main St., Suite 205, Kansas City, Missouri, 64110. There, we present macrobiotic cooking classes and workshops which cover the entire scope of macrobiotics, including diet, psychological and spiritual development, natural healing and exercise. We do not present classes on "medication" as reported in the article.
Secondly, macrobiotics encourages one to establish a life of care and appreciation for each other and the environment as well as promoting healthy living based on a natural diet consisting mainly of whole cereal grains and fresh vegetables.
The high quality of nutrition derived from whole, microbiotically prepared food is unsurpassed. Contrary to the article, there are many medical professionals who recognize the benefits of macrobiotics. Their reports have appeared in The New England Journal of Medicine, The Journal of the American Medical Association and other medical publications, Harvard Medical School researchers have monitored the positive changes made by people who practice macrobiotics and the August 1982 issue of Life magazine featured an article on the results of the application of macrobiotics to the relief of cancer.
On the East coast, the Lemuel Shattuck Hospital of Boston offers macrobiotic food service to its staff and patients. The hospital is presently studying the effects of macrobiotics on its psychiatric patients. The Tidewater Detention Center is conducting research on the effects of macrobiotics on the health of the names of scientific medical institutions. The names of scientific medical institutions are interested in macrobiotics are too numerous to completely list here. And judging from the steady increase of physicians, nurses and other medical professionals who attend our classes and seminars, I can definitely
The Topena physician referred to in the article does not realize that macrobiotics does not offer a single diet for everyone but a dietary principle that takes into account differing climatic and geographical considerations, varying ages, sexes, levels of activity and ever-changing personal needs. I would suggest that he become familiar with macrobiotics by knowing the facts.
report that the medical community is beginning to acknowledge the value of macrobiotics.
Finally, I object to being referred to as a "guru." Anyone who knows me would find this reference ludicrous. Macrobiotics encourages everyone to establish freedom, understanding, health and happiness. There are no leaders and followers in true macrobiotic living. Each one is completely free to be and work in freedom and work is dedicated to helping people create for themselves healthy and happy lives which include freedom from the authority of gurus and anyone else.
In Friendship,
David Briscoe, director
East West Center