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University Daily Kansan, July 6, 1987
Opinion
Community spirit alive
The community of Lawrence is to be congratulated for the outstanding Independence Days celebration this weekend. Despite the heat, wind and a little lightning and rain, the people showed up and appeared to be having a great time.
From the beginning of exhibitions and entertainment Sunday morning through the bluegrass concert and canoe race to the spectacular fireworks display Monday night, the weekend was full of true, American spirit commensurate with a national holiday.
The Lawrence Chamber of Commerce Visitors and Conventions Bureau is to be commended for the fine organization of the events. The simpler the better was the order of the day, as activities were for fun, not for winning, such as the watermelon seed-spitting contest and the fishing derby. Innovation even had its moment as children were quick to discover a vine along the river path and took turns swinging Tarzan-style across the path.
The crafts demonstrations and exhibitions were tremendous, reminding us of arts of a day gone by. These artists continue traditions that someday may be forever lost.
"The bombs bursting in air," a line from our national anthem, was brought to mind by the traditional fireworks display. And it would have been a flawless ending to an almost
perfect Fourth of July weekend, save for a few dissonant chords.
One of the ground displays fired off in the stadium was the famed Pac-Man. We think it stood out like a sore thumb. It's not necessary to promote our nation's video-holics. Why not Uncle Sam, instead? Earlier, at the riverfront celebration, there were the problems of waiting in long lines in order to ride the river shuttle or running short of food at the buffalo barbecue.
The crux of the two days was to bring people together for fun and sharing. It was an opportunity to do just that with friends and neighbors, many of whom we may not know very well.
These minor discords didn't ruin the whole weekend for us. They just left room for improvement for what we hope will become an annual event.
Sometimes it is easy for students to forget that the city of Lawrence does exist. At times we think it just fills up the area around the campus. But there is a city out there, complete with community spirit. For those of us who remain here during the summer months, the city becomes truly visible, not overshadowed by the doings of the University.
This weekend it was residents as well as students who turned out for the festivities. Perhaps it brought each a closer to a mutual understanding.
Congratulations, Lawrence, on a successful weekend.
Much like a carrot on a string dangling in front of the nose of a hungry pack mule, the president has been teasing us with the prospects of his candidacy.
Clues, hints and carrots
It seems as if President Reagan has been hinting at this ever since he was elected back in 1800.
If half the fun is "getting there," then all this hoopla about whether he will run is just good, clean, political fun. And perhaps he has his reasons.
predictions of many people that Vice President George Bush would be on a death-watch during Reagan's presidency.
Maybe one of those reasons is that he is awaiting news from his doctors to see whether he is physically able to withstand another four years in office. Reagan has always presented an image of the active president. He chops wood just as Lincoln did, except he uses a chain saw. And he rides horses just as Teddy Roosevelt did. He is definitely not a weakling, despite the
His delay in declaring candidacy is probably just good, political savvy. Let's face it, it's a president's market as far as candidacy goes. It's legal, safe and wise, and the other potential Republican candidates can only sit by and grumble while Reagan deliberates.
He may have lost a little luster with the press lately, but he still has most of them in the palm of his hand.
we'd also like to argue that this country needs a two-term president. It is extremely difficult to get anything accomplished in the short span of four years, especially when you have to clean the dirt out of the corners of the White House, left by the previous administration.
Churchgoers expecting God to have open arms and mind
Others receiving scattered votes included Playboy publisher Hugh Heffner, Mamet Ali Aga, who attempted to assassinate Pope John II, and a ranking hierarchy who womanize and/or steal.
The magazine editors also said a surprising 60 percent said they thought they would go to heaven "even if I died with a mortal sin on my shoulder." They said, with what most Catholics are taught to believe.
And while 86 percent of those responding said they believed in hell, the magazine said its readers were reluctant to put anyone there.
Given a list of "candidates" for *hell*, 22 percent choose Hitter, 10 percent Stalin, 12 percent Nero, 8 percent Hutchison.
"The decline in the belief in hell is one of the most important changes in our history," said Dr. Martin Marty, church historian and professor of divinity at the University of Chicago, in commenting on the survey.
Churchgoers are increasingly optimistic about the afterlife, demonstrating a growing belief in a merciful, loving and forgiving God and a lessening concern about the darker elements of the universe.
"There is a growth in humaneness and a great sense among people that fear of hell doesn't motivate people to be good," he added.
By DAVID E. ANDERSON UPI Religion Writer
Heaven, the magazine said, is something else.
Nearly everyone said they believed in it and almost as many said they expected to go there.
They found that 97 percent of those responding to the informal survey said they believed in heaven and 33 percent said they expected to go straight to heaven when they died.
Another 50 percent of the readers, made up mostly of Roman Catholics, said they expected to go to heaven after purgatory. According to Roman Catholic doctrine, purgatory is a place where baptized souls that have died without repentance for venial sins go.
Asked what they would do in heaven, reader response fell into a pattern, saying first they expected "to hug God," find relatives who died before them and ask God some tough questions, like "why are little children taken without warning?"
Only 1 percent of those responding said they expected to go to hell.
Readers' images of heaven were highly rural and pastoral, with descriptions ranging from "a peaceable green pasture" to "like the Rocky Mountains with streams and waterfalls and meadows with trees and flowers and the magnificent Grand Canyon."
"They have window boxes and dream of going to the country," he said. "You have to picture something to talk about heaven so I don't bettle you think I should be bored after three days in such a heaven."
The editors said the last two responses were not surprising but the first was.
That is the conclusion of the editors of U.S. Catholic, the monthly publication of the Claretian Fathers and Brothers, who surveyed their readers on their views of the afterlife.
Marty said results may reflect the pastoral longing of American city dwellers.
Anyway, he added, the Bible "calls heaven a city as much as a garden."
"The hugging of God was mentioned too many times by widely dispersed people to be ignored," the magazine said. The editors speculated the image may come from the New Testament parable of the prodigal son, the gospel song image of "he's got the whole world in his hands" or from the longing of people who were not hugged enough as children.
ERA should be left to smolder, die
Much ink has been spilled over the Equal Rights Amendment issue; i.e., the ERA or the Unisex Amendment. Last June, the ERA was left to die, and the question now is whether to rake the dying embers of the ERA's ashes or to let things be.
For centuries, women have been the object of the artist's, poet's and writer's inspiration and exalation it solely on account of their sex. Now why throw it away? All for the love of the ERA?
The proponents of the ERA are screaming about male chauvinism and job discrimination, wanting to create equality for men and women as they say there is in other parts of the world.
Do you know that women in Russia make up 50 percent of the work force? Yet many typically female jobs are the least attractive, such as paving streets, picking up garbage or digging
my contrast, the woman in the United States is a truly free and happy bird. So what's she cribbing about? Equal rights as men? What rights do men have here anyway that women
or take the Indian woman for instance. The educated woman in India who has a career works hard both at office and home. Often she has to rise at 4 a.m. to have the clothes washed, put the dirty dishes into the pie pan packed, the grocery shopping done and the children sent to school before she can take off.
As for job discrimination against women, that's a lot of bull. If there's job discrimination against women, it probably arises out of a lack of common sense, and this discrimination is not created by law and therefore cannot be abolished by law.
The American woman, by contrast, is helped enormously by dishwashers, washing machines, vacuum cleaners, hot water, packaged food and so on.
The Indian woman has to do the job of the washing machine, dishwasher, vacuum cleaner and cook as well. (Unless she belongs to the rich
Possibly under ERA, women will relinquish the equal rights to send equal amounts of candy to their babies.
Some of the ERA talk can make you sick. Take for instance the unpredicted thrill of unisex restrooms. The gross indelicacy of the idea stuns me.
neting to the old-fashioned times (or is it called ancient culture now?) when it was thrilling to receive a box of candy or a dozen red roses from an admiring beau.
Unlike his American counterpart, hubby does not gallantly offer to do the dishes or baby-sit. If there's any cleaning up he does, it is to clean the sumptuous table. That's why his any kind of chair is the arm chair kind.
or upper-middle class who can afford peons,
cooks and maids.)
PRIYA
PERIANAYAKAM
Guest Columnist
In the United States, a woman has the complete freedom to choose to be single or married, she can select the man of her choice without being harangued by a host of relatives.
Very often in India, a young girl may not be allowed to go to college. She may just have to get married. (If he turns out to be an enlightened husband, surely it is by the mercies of heaven.)
then she can stay at home or seek a career as she so desires.
Most often, a girl has to subject herself to the summation of the dowry system, paying a huge dowry for her future.
The pressures to conform to rigid patterns of society and tradition are intense and often unavoidable. This clearly indicates lack of freedom and equality.
A woman from any race or background can succeed if she truly wants to. Take the case of two young Indian women doctors in Kansas City, highly respected and admired by their colleagues — Dr. Naline Premshing, cardiologist at the Heart Clinic, and Dr. Madhava Parekh, pathologist at the Kansas City Osteopathic Hospital.
Hospital
They made it because they had drive, stamina and ambition. They didn't need the ERA. Neither do I. Nor you.
All things considered. NPR is worth saving
"Good morning. . This is Bob Edwards on NPR's Morning Edition."
The voice is familiar to all National Public Radio addicts but it may soon be lost. NPR has been hit by the fiscal plague and its deficit could grow to $9.1 million by September.
The board of directors is fighting hard to keep the network afloat but the sudden financial crisis has forced it to announce reduction plans and layoffs. Some say the crisis is fatal since all the signs are visible. NPR President Frank Mankiewicz and his team have assured the deficit increased with every new audit and signs of mismanagement became evident.
It seems that NPR spent more money than it had and inadequate control over its finances compounded the problem. Internal control, the ones said, was not as strict as it should have been.
The effects of the mistakes are being borne by employees. As a result of the budget cuts, 139
Can NPR be saved? It deserves to be. The organization's acting president, Ronald S. Bornstein, has appealed to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for help. CPB is a non-profit, independent government agency that allocates federal money to public radio and television. Bornstein was hoping that CPB would serve as a guarantor for a bank loan that would not to sort out its affairs and CPB has agreed to NPR's rescue after some anxious debate.
According to the bail-out plan, CPB would act as a banker and loan NPR money to meet its immediate financial needs. In turn, local
stations would pay back that loan by pledging their Community Service Grants, the money that CPB gives to public radio and television. A CPB spokesman said that the general plan had been accepted by 93 percent of the radio stations and that the details were being worked out.
This might ward off the crisis temporarily and we would be able to enjoy the services a little longer. But if no one disappear from our lives, but then again, maybe some anomaly, rich
SEEMA SIROHI
philanthropist will rescue the network before it's too late.
My addiction to the network is obvious, but I speak out of a need for noncommercial journalism. An institution such as public radio serves a great need in our lives. It provides news and features that are certainly not available in abundance on other stations. It covers events, especially international, that go unnoticed by commercial stations.
Award-winning new programs such as "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered" remain unmatched by their five-minute counterparts on other stations. I could not imagine being subjected to these biased news reports, but poor newscasters have such little time to tell us all about the local, national and international climate of the day. They cannot possibly cover such wide a
spectrum of news with such consistent quality as NPR.
And NPR begins my day in a very wholesome way with a full three hours of "Morning Edition." I am sure NPR fans share the feeling. Now the question is whether NPR can maintain the same standard of performance that it is credited with, because the budget cuts have touched the untouchable — the news department.
NPR's news budget will decline from $5.3 million at the start of this year to $4.5 million in 1984. Such cuts in the news department, which is the heart of NPR, can be stifling.
can referral rending be provided to save public radio? A distant possibility, because the conservatives are not exactly in the law with public radio. They say that the taxpayers' dollars cannot be used for public radio that cannot support itself. Public radio is also accused of bias — left-of-the liberal kind.
This may only be the tip of the proverbial 12ceberg because NPR's financial future seems
The last accultuation holds little water when one seriously analyzes the method of coverage. It is almost excruciatingly fair. All sides of the picture are well-represented and the coverage goes beyond repeating the official government line on issues.
In today's world, where the media are becoming increasingly more dependent on advertising revenue for survival, a refined institution such as public radio ought to be preserved to provide the balance. And if England's poor economy can support the BBC, then America's recovering economy can certainly salve NPR. Another simple option, of course, would be to cut a very thin slice from the billion-dollar defense budget and give it to NPR.
Letters to the Editor 'Way' column way off base
To the editor:
What was the real point of Charles Lawnhorn's column of June 29th? It certainly wasn't about "Exercise religious tolerance with newer ways to worship."
In the opening paragraph, Lawhorn introduces the controversial group "The Way" and never ceases to mention them. The article is little more than a thin, historically distorted effort to defend
Lawhorn writes about having an open mind and how "our society likes to label," but he seems to rely rather heavily on symbols. He
refers to the Salem witch hunts, McCarthyism, America — “the land of the free, home of the brave,” – and offers a grammar school account of why the Pilgrims journeyed to America. Lawnhorn adds that the Way does not believe in the doctrine of the Trinity but since they do believe in Jesus Christ they are an acceptable “Christian” group.
If the article was an attempt to defend the Way, it would not encourage tolerance toward them nor add a grain of credibility to their group.
Loreen Keating Lawrence junior
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