Instant Moralism Vs. More Inaction
It is unfortunate that the media and the public in general seem to have an ex post facto conscience on certain issues—especially those that possess the urgency of the present.
Johnr y-come-lately moralists and instant militants can do little to ease the suffering of Kathryn Kihm, a victim of a fire last Sunday at the Lenz Apartments.
My conscience forces me to cry out in protest (however belated) of the conditions and attitudes that facilitated the tragic incidents of last Sunday.
Silence now would only breed inaction—and inaction is the seed of tragedy.
Housing conditions in Lawrence, for students anyway, have never been what one could call ideal.
Landlords-slumlords have a very common motive—to maximize profit and minimize expenditures, the capitalist's credo. It is often expensive to provide basic safety features like fire escapes. Besides, they say, the chances are small that any such precaution would ever really be needed.
Kathy Kihm needed a fire escape Sunday.
Ken Jorgensen, city building inspector, said about the violations, "I'm sure in 90 per cent of the cases (i.e., violations of the building code) we could make suggestions and, if it doesn't cost too much they'd (i.e., owners) do it."
The time for flaccid promises and reaffirmation of impotent regulations is gone. The city, in fact, has never taken legal action under the provisions of the city building code. The structure of the laws as they are now make it virtually impossible to force a landlord to rectify a violation of the code.
A few well-known interests, both on and off
campus, own sizeable property adjacent to the campus that is, almost without exception, in violation of the code. By no means is the housing in this area the only substandard housing in Lawrence, but these areas are most noticeable to students.
It is becoming painfully evident that the city cannot or will not take action—beyond meaningless incantations to the god of public opinion—to end the deplorable conditions that most cities of this size would recognize as the blight they are.
It is time for the "socially conscious" groups in the community to lay their responsibility and puny panaceas on the line.
A social injustice here is just as wretched (undoubtedly more so) as any crime committed in the jungles of Vietnam.
The Student Senate, a group with a built-in hyperthalmus for righting a social wrong wherever it may occur, could take some positive measures here in Lawrence that would have a bit more immediacy than, say, the C. M. Moore strike.
As a vehicle for action, the Lawrence Tenants Union could be very volatile because its members' expertise is greater than the average student's. It is the most obvious channel, but not the only one.
It is obvious that the conditions will not change on the volition of the city or the landlords.
The community must be the catalyst. Regardless of political conviction, we all live under the same conditions. To remain silent is to shirk the ultimate responsibility of last Sunday's tragedy.
The people of Lawrence are being exploited by avaricious landlords—only because they rationalize this rape as "part of the system."
Tom Slaughter
"Copyright 1970, University Daily Kansan"
Trouble Simmers Under the Surface
"These are the times that try men's souls . . ." Thomas Paine said in the "Crisis Papers." But aren't the times in which we now live just as trying?
Paine and his compatriots were part of a revolution—a nation's revolution against another nation. Today, we are in a revolution, but it is one of a different sort. This one comes from within.
Again at Lawrence High School, trouble has "erupted" and 37 students have been suspended. But was this trouble really an eruption? I think not.
Trouble has just been simmering. Finally, it is starting to boil over.
Probably had just been shrimping. Finally, it is after the last troubled period at Lawrence High, parents and students sat down to talk about their problems. Their discussions were biracial and were conceived as a positive force in the school system.
Lawrence is not alone in its struggle for peace. Topeka High School had some trouble last past week. And there has been trouble in other cities throughout the nation.
What was the solution at Topeka High? And what will the solution be at other high schools? It will lie in talking—black and white, sitting down to a discussion of the problem.
But something has apparently gone wrong, because strife has arisen again. Yet we must not give up, even though there are pitfalls.
In some cases, there is evidence of out-and-out discrimination, but in others it is not so obvious. But is this really the place to start?
No, the disputants should have started to talk to each other a long time ago. And this is where the problem lies. The Problems are everywhere, yet they are sometimes obscure.
The time is now to begin to stifle discord and violence before they have a chance to begin. We should be able to see that trouble is in the offing if it has time burgeon into a gorgon.
The time is now to elect concerned people to posts in which they can be the most beneficial. Without concerned leadership, most of the other things men attempt will be almost worthless.
The time is now to do something besides sitting around with our thumbs in our ears and our eyes riveted on TV screen and our lips saying, "It couldn't happen here."
—Charlie Cape
LETTERS
His Effusive Verbiage
To the Editor:
As regards Spiro Agnew—the febrile philistine—he who fawns to the salt of the earth, the proletariat, the vulgar herd. He should listen to Phocylides: "Trust not the populace; the crowd is many-minded." Spiro's hyperbolic ostentation and persiflage against the nugatory malaperts may bring him low. But if Spiro is brought down by some discordant element, he will go down heroically, I know, with thesaurus and dictionary of synonyms in hand, muttering eloquently about the troglodytic oppagnants.
Nugatory malaperts: effete snobs.
Vernon Minor
Steubenville, Ohio
Graduate Student
Goodness. Adult politics is an entirely different matter.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
An All-American college newspaper
Kansan Telephone Numbers
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Published at the University of Kansas daily during the academic year except holidays and examination periods. Mail subscription rates: $6 a semester, $10 a year. Second class postage paid at Lawrence, Kan. 66044. Accommodations, goods, services and employment advertised offered to all students without regard to color, creed or national origin. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the University of Kansas or the State Board of Regents.
Monroe Dodd
Editor
Member Associated Collegiate Press