4.
Wednesday. October 7,1970
University Daily Kansan
KANSAN comment
Abortion Laws: The Old Myths
In his book "Old Myths and New Realties," Senator J. William Fulbright defines certain facets of the American political scenario that have acquired new reality in the changing face of international events.
His hypothesis can be extended to the moral and social spheres with equal validity.
Abortion, for one, has been so shrouded in biological fact and religious-moral fantasy that the reality of the issue is lost, and the archaic myth flourishes almost unscathed.
With the exception of a few heartening examples, (New York and Hawaii) most state legislatures have opted to either bind the law with so many legal riders that final agreement on any legislation is remote, or to ignore the issue altogether.
Moralists quote philosophers from Dietrich Bonhoeffer to the local priest with their "morally sound" distribs decrying abortion and affirming sanctity of human life from the moment of conception.
The classic argument attempting to pinpoint the precise moment when the fetus becomes a living being only muddles and subverts the issue at point, that being the right and privilege of each woman to determine her own maternal future, irrespective of legal and moral sanctions against such an act.
John C. Danforth, Missouri Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, argues that the only women who would be able to afford legal abortions would be the wealthy. Because they aren't the people that over produce children, the law would prevent them from obtaining avenue for wealthy women to escape an unwanted child, Danforth thinks.
Danforth, who has four children himself, seems to miss the point behind legalized abortions, which is to bring this possibility within the realm of every woman, regardless of economic condition.
Snowballing world population presents another valid argument supporting legalized abortion.
Not wanting to get into the figures game, suffice it to say that the United States, which accounts for one-sixth of the world's population, consumes one-half the world's natural resources. Remedial math shows that five-sixths of the world's population consumes the other half of the worlds total resources. And a large part of this remaining five-sixths is still in the first stage, the most prolific of the three that demographers recognize in the population growth continuum.
Yet, even these somber figures pale in the light of the suffering of just one unwanted pregnancy.
The grief and social stigma that accompany unwanted pregnancies leave little validity in the arguments for the sanctity of the fetus, aside from the fact that it has the potential of growing into a child. The birth could harvest a cruel shock of despondency and needless remorse. The facts, statistical and moral, fall into place.
he needed action should be obvious. The barriers separating action from contemplation are formidable, with a host of almost universal blue laws as the most visible impasse. These laws, as is the rule, can be changed.
The needed action should be obvious
What is desperately needed is a champion to carry the banner and the support of thinking men to corrode the armor of shackles that they can be so painful.
—Tom Slaughter
TIGHTROPE ACT Jordan's Hussein Went Through It All Before
By TED ILIFF
Once again history is repeating itself, this time in the beleaguered kingdom of Jordan.
King Hussein, the personable 35-year-old monarch, is struggling to keep his government and his country intact in the face of civil war, Syrian aggression, and constant pressure from Israel.
Hussein's 17-year reign has been a sequence of troubles from the beginning. He assumed the throne in 1983, but his first wife, a disturbed father, King Talaq. The reign of Hussein's grandfather, not Talaql's of one year, had the effect of making him an ideal king.
Abdulah ibn Hussein was emir of the area when the nation took shape as a British mandate in 1822. In 1946, when then Trans-Jordan became independent, Abdulah was still ruling and named himself king of the 400,000 persons within 35,000 square miles of desert and rugged hills.
Abdullah quickly established the economy of the kingdom through loans and payments for oil pipelines.
When the Palestinian mandate ended in 1948, Abdullah immediately swept into the hills east of Jerusalem and eventually captured Old Jerusalem from infant Israel.
In 1956, ignoring violent opposition from other Arab countries, Abdullah annexed Arab Palestine, bringing more than 1,000,000 Arab refugees from Israel under his domain. Although a motion to expel Jordan from the United Nations, an Indian, Arab resentment of the move persisted. This animosity was to plague Husein when he took the throne.
In July, 1951, Abdullah was assassinated while entering a mosque in Jerusalem. After a year of rule by the fervently pro-Arab Talal and another year by an imperial regency, Hussein was called back from studies at Britain's Sandhurst Military Academy to take the throne at 18 years of age.
His first two years as king were marked by incessant border problems with Israel. He received "substantial moral and financial aid" from other Arab nations and he refused to negotiate with Israel, fearing Israeli attacks on any talks and also potential United Nations pressure to drop the countries' long-standing grievances.
Stayed Away From Squabble
His differences with other Arab nations, particularly Egypt and Syria, first became obvious in 1555, when he remained alof from an Arab League swabble with Turkey over borders with Iraq and Syria. He also saw that the French and German negotiate for mutual prisoner exchanges and direct communication links between the two countries.
Hussein first openly demonstrated his mistrust of Egypt and Syria during the 1966 war with Israel. Although he had openly promised to side with Egypt in the war, he did not not be Egypt, for help when Israeli forces attacked the city.
Iraqi troops were massed at the border with Jordan, ready to move in to assist Hussein against Israel. But pressure from Egypt and pre-Egyptian elements in Jordan, along with ominous threats from Israel forced Hussein to back down, and the Iraqis remained at the border.
Early 1975 saw the beginning of Hussain's first stroke for survival, which lasted two years.
After the 1965 war, a wave of pro-Egyptian, pro-Russian sentiment among Jordanians put a leftist government in power under Prime Minister Suleiman Nabuli. The Nabuli government proceeded to seek diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union and Red China while flatly refusing any U.S. aid.
Hussein, who leaned to the West because or worsen education and tastes and who saw a potential threat to his influence, dissolved the Nabulsi cabinet and replaced it with one filled with pro-Western politicians.
The shuffle resulted in massive demonstrations supporting Nabisil, leftist and loyalist Army factions in the eastern Ainman, in Aman, and vehement denunciations from Egypt, which called him a "traitor to the Arab cause."*
Hussein declared martial law, established military courts, and dissolved all political parties. He accused Egypt and Syria of spreading false propaganda about him and encouraging communism in his kingdom.
He withdrew from a short-lived alliance with the two countries, ordered their troops out of Jordan and strengthened Jordan's long-term friend, Iraq. He asked for and approved financial aid and the U.S. Sixth Fleet, with marines on board, sailed into the eastern Mediterranean to move into Jordan if requested.
Forms Union With Iraqis
Egypt and Syria continued their anti-Hussein threats in 1958, while loyalists and allies continued to clash. Hussein, attempting to bolster his external security, formed the Arab' Union with Iraq, but avoided joining the British-sponsored Baghdad Fact in deference to public hostility to that organization.
His country was relatively secure from external pressure, so Hussein turned his attention to internal affairs. Tensions reached a new high in June, 1958, when the government in Lebanon was near collapse, and it became quickly misdiplomatic. When revolution broke out in Iraq, coalition forces afflicted all he faced a coup by part of the Jordanian army.
At his request, British troops entered Amman to restore order, while the king purged his army. The British troops, who left on the insistence of the United Nations, undoubtedly saved his throne, and by December, 1958, the government and kingdom were once again stable.
The next three years were fairly calm for Hussein; in an irritation coming from Israel, Egypt and Syria, by contrast, the Israeli prime minister's internal opposition was negligible and Hussein's prestige in Jordan and around the world was high. The Iranian revolution had been
But in 1962, relations with the UAR worsened when President Nasser began a propaganda campaign against the remaining monarchs in the Arab world. Hussein was the prime target.
In May, while visiting Morocco, Hussein narrowly missed being assassinated. He blamed Nasser, and his son Al-Jaziz was killed.
Last month's crisis began evolving in 1965, when various Palestine refugee groups organized the Palestinian Liberation Organization, the forerunner of the popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Guerrilla operations in Israel launched from Jordan became a serious problem for Hussein, who was enjoying political and economic stability in his kingdom.
Balancing Act
Brought Disaster
He was forced to start his agonizing rite wope, trying to keep Israel pressure to curb the Palestinians at a minimum while maintaining a tolerance for their actions to appease other Arab nations.
As Middle East tensions mounted, he reluctantly signed an alliance with Egypt in case of Israel's aggression. Two weeks later, the Six-Day War broke out.
The war was a disaster for Hussein. He lost half of Jordan's territory, more than half of its population, most of his air force and artillery, and his shattered kingdom had to deal with 150,000 shelterless refugees. The kingdom's economic outlook was the worst in 20 years.
Soon after the cease-fire, Hussein mounted diplomatic campaign, including trips to Washington and Moscow, to seek help to rebuild his country. Meanwhile as Jordanian and Israeli artillery duelled in Jordan River, he refused to negotiate directly with Tafil avid when his former lands were occupied.
In early 1968, Hussein obtained $100 in arms purchases from the United States, which allowed him to establish a military base in Iraq.
Once again he was forced to maintain a happy medium between Arab interests and Israeli pressure. He said he would wait for the next round.
With Egypt and, to a lesser extent, Syria, sura rebelting from the 1967 defeat, Hussein's growing apprehension about Israel, and his traditional pro-Americanism, led to him keeping peace and not antagonizing the United States or Israel. Rising guerrilla activity in his kingdom, coupled with heavy artillery and air attacks from throughout 1868 and 1969, showed Hussein that he must control FLPI activity or face another disaster from Israel.
His pleas for voluntary curtailment of PFLP activity in Jordan were ignored, so he turned his government into a terrorist group.
The similarities between that crisis and the one of 1957-58 were striking. As in 1957, a militarization of the government was followed by widespread internal unrest and attacks on the armed forces. He again contended with outside intervention, the latter in the form of Syrian aggression. Now it was the U.S. Sibs Fleet, with 1.500 Marines standing by if needed. Tel Aviv was again able to act if Israeli interests dictated such a move.
1907. In Hussein was given a "fair chance" of survival by the State Department, month the State Department said.
And once again, the youthful monarch who struggled for so long to stand up to both Israel and the more militant Arab nations was fighting for his political life, while the young man who had fought how far history would go to repeat itself in Jordan.
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LETTERS
Clarifying Points In Baha'i Story
To the Editor:
Concerning the article in Friday's Kansas about the Baha'a faith we feel it necessary to clarify some points. The religion taught by Baha'a jihah is not a "spect" in the popular connotation of that word. Neither is it an eclectic religion. Rather, it is an independent world where all believers are invited to be spiritually applied the spiritual teachings taught in all the religions of God. Common sense shows that Baha'a is not the only world-wide religion, and it is not claimed to be. It is, however, the newest. Also, the date mentioned in the article for the founding of the faith was off more than a decade ago. In the Baha'a Dispensation dates from 1844, not the '1960's'. Whatever the source of these errors, we thank you in advance for their correction.
The Local Spiritual Assembly of Baha's of Lawrence Steve Townsend, Garden City Senior and Secretary
'Sorry, but we can't have the people electing a president!'
Griff & the Unicorn
By Sokoloff By Writer
Dean Taylor Is Praised By Writer
"Copyright 1970. University Daily Kansan'
Three cheers for our own Dean "Em" Taylor, who won't settle for being a token female lawyer. She is joined by Lawrence Chamber of Commerce-KU Faculty mixer, whose planners advertently or inadvertently construed "stag" to her case, she has come through again.
To the Editor:
Suzanne Atkins Atchison senior
My respect for Miss Taylor knows no bounds, and I'm sure that many KU students share my passion. I represent us and this University.
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