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Friday, September 30, 1988 / University Daily Kansan
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
New pill threatens to cause casual air about abortions
Opinion
French officials last week authorized the sale of a prescription drug that would abort unborn fetuses.
The drug, RU 486, is an anti-hormone chemical that interrupts pregnancy by blocking the implantation of the fertilized egg on the uterine wall. It is in the form of a pill. It is effective 95 percent of the time.
Easy access to this pill brings the issue of abortion as a form a contraception to its pinacle. With this drug on the market, having an abortion could become as quick and easy as curing a cancer without any time for thought about the ramifications of such a decision.
That is reason for concern.
Having an abortion is a monumental decision. It requires a woman to decide whether to take the life of a fetus. Intertwined with that decision are numerous other questions she must reconcile. Will she, as a mother, be able to properly care for this child if the pregnancy is continued? Is adoption a viable alternative? What other options does she have?
Answering these questions can be a traumatic experience. They take more time to answer than the few seconds it takes to swallow a pill. If a woman decides that abortion is the best solution, it's her choice. That is current U.S. law.
Easy access to such a pill increases the chance that the drug would be used as a convenient form of birth control. That is
when use tumes come for our government to consider the sale of RU 486, it should take the steps that the French government took to limit access. Abortion by means of a pill should be approved by special specialists and in hospitals designated by the government.
Michael Horak for the editorial board
To require any less would be to treat an important decision much too casually.
They are also about fallen idols, steroids, sad mistakes, politics and bad sportsmanship.
Shine on the gold fades
the olympics are a spectacle of athletic prowess and a tribute to the purity of sport, but unfortunately, the games are
The glory of the 24th Olympiad has been diminished a bit by these things. Every day another controversy surfaces that grinds away a little more at the honor and reverence that is reserved for the Olympic Games.
From the beginning, it was evident that these Games would not escape controversy. One of the first mishaps involved a U.S. boxer who missed his bout and was disqualified from competition. His coaches blamed everyone but themselves and used excuses, but the end result was the crushed dream of the boxer.
Things turned ugly when Korean box coaches roughed up a referee after a Korean boxer was defeated. The United States, which already had an image problem in Korea, was embarrassed when two medal-winning U.S. swimmers celebrated their achievements by going on a drinking binge in Seoul.
The most devastating incident was Canadian Ben Johnson being stripped of his gold medal and world record in the 100-meter sprint after failing his drug test. He was banned from the Canada team for life, banned from international competition for two years, and he lost several lucrative commercial endorsements. But more importantly, Johnson lost the respect of countless fans and put another ugly mark on these Olympics.
Politics entered the scene when an East German official pointed out that the U.S. women's gymnasium team violated a rarely enforced rule. As a result of the penalty, the East German team inched out the United States for the bronze
But we can't forget there are many heroes in Seoul. One hero is Greg Louganis, who showed great bravery while repeating as the 3-meter and platform diving gold medalist after he gashed his scalp on the board during the 3-meter competition. Another is Jackie Joyner-Kersey, who beat her own world record in the heatnath desite an injured knee.
Although the Olympics may seem cheaped somewhat, the great performances still outshine the scandals.
Julie McMahon for the editorial board
News staff
Todd Cohen Editor
Michael Horak Managing editor
Julie Adam Associate editor
Stephen Wade News editor
Michael Mershel Editorial editor
Noel Gerdens Campus editor
Craig Anderson Sports editor
Scott Carpenter Photo editor
Dave Eames Graphics editor
Jill Jess Art&Features editor
Tom Hennigan General manager, news advisor
Business staff
Greg Knipp
Department of Business
Chair Cooper
Company Campus sales manager
Linda Prokop
Promotion National sales manager
Sarah Higdon
Brad Lemhart
Production Manager
Michael Lehmant
Ast. production manager
Michael Lehmant
Classified manager
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'88 Toilet Bowl lived up to name But commentators' analyses almost kept Americans awake
It was the 1987 KU/K-State football game all over. The determined competitors trained for week before the game. The pre-game high elevated expectations to unintuitive levels. Hoods of fans turned out hoping to win, but not by a huge margin.
onognish it was disappointing, the resultant stalemate provided commentators ample working material. Each side claimed victory. But for most spectators, nothing had been decided.
When the mud finally settled from Sunday's presidential debate, it was clear that the Toilet Bowl was not a sign of weakness.
DON had injured to visit.
Then came the pundits.
Dan Rather began the melee with a pitiful pun to introduce the competitors.
"For the first time," said the CBS anchor, Americans will have the opportunity to measure COVID-19.
Derek Schmidt
first days of eness CNN graphics illustrating the seven-inch height differential between the candidates' podiums, Rather's phraseology could hardly have been accidental.
Following a 90-minute full during which the candidates debated, the real substance of the debate was
Post-date commentary is the most important element of the political process, because this is when learned people tell Joe Citizen what he just saw.
Like leftovers, post-debate analysis never has the full flavor of the original. Therefore, media gourmet have to add that special ingredient to liven it up.
Staff columnist
CNN broadcast a post-b debate forum from Los Angeles in which Frank Seino moderated a panel of six common people trying to act intelligent for a national audience. The two Republicans on the panel were Dustin Johnson and Democrat thought Michael Dakis won. The final woman was undecided. Shocking results.
CBS offered more traditional professional analysis. The team experts in fitting suits and dressing for sex use a decision table concluding that Bush and Dakuska each had high and low points in the showdown. Fortunately,
The analysis followed similar patterns across the country. Pat Buchan declared Bush the winner, Tom Braden supported Kocal. Local politicians and enthusiasts declared Kocals, while Rohembales saw Bush with the edge.
One Kansas City television station enlisted an academic debate coach to determine that there was excessive staging and only superficial specificity about issues.
Monday's Kansas City Star made six people ranging in prominence from a U.S. Congressman to an Atlanta Mayor.
who got their pictures on page one, gave the letterer grades for their overall performance. Quick arithmetic (using the plus/minus grading system, of course) shows that Dukakis finished with an overall GTS of 122.1 while Bush finished with an overall GTS of 120.8. He was helpful if presidents were on scholarship.
Of all post-debate nationals, NBC missed the biggest opportunity. In keeping with its Olympic capacity, it should have hired Mary Lou Williams and Conner to critique the candidates' performances.
"I'll have to give Mr. Bush about 7.5 on that performance. Mary Lou. His degree of difficulty was fairly low, but the documentation so crucial to a good performance. Nonetheless, with a few minor exceptions such as his forgetting what he was talking about after being interrupted. George's advice."
"Well, I think you are too generous. Bart. Dukakis scored points with the Joze Iuzaim line, but problems plagued both men. The judges must not have noticed the subliminal outfitting these two employed. Of course, only a trained observer like we would have noticed that the candidates like represented their positions on the political specs to the judge to be carried to the left. Bush's wrong was brought to the right."
"Overall, Bart, this is not the Americans strongest event."
Schmidt is an Independence junior majoring in journalism
MAILBOX
Good work, Dan
That was a great article you wrote on skinheads, Dan Houston. I really like to see somebody go out on a limb like that. I can tell you how to do it. If you look at their otherwise you wouldn't have known that they all begin their sentences with "dude." I can see it now — you pull on your skincap cap that you got at the Halloween store, kiss your auto mirror and look at the Out House with your trusty pen and pad.
You said in your column that your opinion of the skinheads had been "live and live" until you discovered that they were neofaecils. Well, if that's what bothers you, then maybe on your phone you should call to see who's car around and gone back to your fraternity. When you got back there, you could have taken a poll to see how many blacks, Hispanics and Asians are in your house. Then you could have called up all the other fraternities and sororites to see how many they have. Excluding the black fraternities and sororites (why don't they have them?) and sororites? you'd have found maybe five.
*Coccinidence? Maybe. But your journalistic sense wouldn't have let you stop there. You'd have called up those two or three big money bags. And they'd just jump out, "Jump!" the treasurer says, "How high?" Then
you could have said to Mr. Big, "Say, we've got what you need," and then you asked, "What do you think about a pledging thing? And then, Dan, after you got your response, you could have sat down and written a column about that."
wann it you,丹. who said "the children of
'stils will look back in embarrassment and be forced to
Mike Connor
Mike Connor Lawrence graduate student Toughness OK
This letter is directed to all of those people who feel that Couch Glen Mason is being too rough on his players. I think it's time that you come back from Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood and see college football for what it really is — a rough sport.
Gosh, it just makes me shudder when I hear the atticies committed to Mason. Verbal abuse. hitting people on the bednet — I haven't seen that in a long time since high school football. Someone get a rope.
Maybe the KU football team would be more successful if Mason was more of a siffe like Bear Bryant. No, that isn't so. He's not much worse work either. I know, Barry Switzer. nope! It is ironic that when you look at some of the most successful coaches, it turns out that they too are or were
By making practice rough, Mason is not only making the team stronger, he is "getting the tourists off the队". This man must have care for the players to play. For example, bleeding hearts who are afraid to see KU
football be successful and long for a tridim sport, maybe we should get one for them so we can return to the "Grey Days" – or should I say "Gray Dare" – or Bob ValenteSs.
Monte White
Monte White
Humboldt sophomore
Golden Brown
What a disappointment it was to watch the men's U.S. Olympic basketball team. With the amount of talent the U.S. assembled, it's a shame they haven't played against them have found a better coach. Unfortunately, John Thompson was chosen nearly four years ago and he's still Lawrence to find a better coach. Larry Brown.
Brown clearly showed he was the best coach in the college ranks between 1966 and 1988. He led two jahawk teams to the Final Four, with last year's team winning the championship. That team used superior defense to win the title. The team also won against the Soviet team. Brown's team, however, held the high-scoring Oklahoma Sooners to 29 points in second half of the 1988 NCAA finals. Furthermore, Thompson's Olympic team had little offense, other than points scored off the press. Brown's 188 squad beat OU with 00 first-time superior half court defense in the second half.
The U.S. team was chosen in June. Why not choose the Olympic camp in May? Maybe then we could have seen a talented U.S. team by the best coach in the game: Larry Brown!
Alan Mills Silver Lake senior
BLOOM COUNTY
by Berke Breathed
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