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Wednesday, October 12, 1977
University Daily Kansan
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Comment
Unsigned editorials represent the opinion of the Kansas editorial staff. Signed columns represent only the views of the writers.
Rebate ruling illogical
Students who live in the scholarship hall system are understandably upset by a tentative decision on food rebates announced last week.
Usually, if a scholarship hall doesn't spend all its allotted food money, the surplus is divided among the hall's residents. But because some scholarship hall residents neglected to pay all their room and board bills last year, housing administrators announced that rebate money would be used to cover the unpaid bills.
to explain. The logic employed in the decision is hard to explain. Nowhere in scholarship hall contracts is it mentioned that rebate money would be used to cover delinquent accounts.
But according to housing administrators, the money for the delinquent accounts has to come from somewhere. The scholarship hall people who cared enough to pay their bills last year will be penalized for their conscientiousness.
Or, as J.J. Wilson, director of housing,
explained: "Everything averages out."
Wilson's position on the scholarship hall contracts might best be decided in a court of law. But even if the University can enforce his position legally, it cannot do so ethically.
position regularly a change.
The money involved in the rebate question
is significant. Six of the eight scholarship halls use the rebate system. The halls have determined what they consider to be an equitable amount of rebate money for each of their residents to receive.
Wilson, however, has disagreed with every one of the halls' estimates. He says that, with only one exception, every one of the estimates is too high.
The potential error is not difficult to spot. The housing office, using Wilson's new math, wants to sock each Stephenson resident with a $19.76 bill.
At one scholarship hall, Stephenson,
figures indicate that the hall underspent its
food budget last year and that residents
should receive from $15 to $20 each.
resident with a $19.70 bill.
Nor is the Stephenson case an isolated example. Grace Pearson Hall has figures showing that its men deserve $50 rebates.
The housing office would slash that amount to $17.60.
We must reject Wilson's assumption that he can make scholarship hall residents his bill collectors for the University. Why did he never announce in advance that the unpaid bills would come back to haunt the halls?
Making a poor decision is unfortunate enough. Making it a surprise is inexcusable.
The severe chill between the Carter Administration and the Kremlin earlier this year has turned suddenly into an autumn glow, but don't count on the weather staying pleasant.
SALT accord appears gloomy
After more than two weeks of negotiations between the Carter Administration and Soviet Russia, the Obama administration, Gromyko, Washington and Moscow appear ready to come to general agreement on two major world issues—arms and Middle East peace.
at the same time, both Moscow and Washington seek to forge a new pact to limit each other's use of weapons. The old accord officially expired a week ago, but both have agreed to continue to honor the armies and in connection with missile missions a new agreement is completed.
Publicly, they seem to have similar objectives. Both want an ArabIsraeli peace settlement because neither wants to be drawn into a conflict in the Middle East and risk a nuclear confrontation.
THE RELATIVELY cooperative atmosphere is a distinct change from earlier this year when the air was filled with charges by the United States was seeking an unilateral advantage in arms negotiations while the Carter Administration
Father's lessons still heeded though chivalry dead on campus
I guess you were right Dad.
Times have changed.
I remember long ago when you told me about your courtin' days. Somehow, there was a magic there, a delightful sensation and an important, especially when you emphasized the heritages in a relationship between a man and a woman, namely etiquette and chivalry. Those were the arts of both sexes, you said. No higher than that. You told the opposite sex than to practice fervently those two qualities.
It's sad, Dad, but etiquette and chivalry don't seem to be cutting it here at the University. I think they're peering out.
I REMEMBER HOW you told me to open doors for women. It wasn't because they were too feeble to open them. It was just because the woman gesture that clooaked the woman in respect and flattery. More than that, it brought smiles. I like smiles, Dad. Maybe that's why I can't understand what the operation of having their door opened. Some, it seems, would push me out of the way to assert their independence. It's funny how some people are like girls who don't have a sense of kindness and twist it into a slump invective.
I remember other things, too.
Dad. Like taking a girl home
after a date and bidding her
farewell with an old-fashioned
kiss on the cheek. Trying that
days could mean ex-
communication from the male
race. In case of a baby, a
very strictly standard after
paying money on a date to at
least try to touch a thigh or an
ankle—anything to be reimbursed.
OH, DON'T GET the idea you've raised a prude. I'm no fool. It's just that, well, as you said, be cautious of people's feelings. But, I guess, people feel, now, pure musk and slobbery sentiment. I'd still like to see a revival.
There were more things. Like
Rick Tbaemert
Editorial Writer
walking nearer the street when a man a woman were strolling along. Young hoodwains taming, toting ochles now are so hard now. So are driving pranksters who would purposely spray mud on walkers. Still, the idea of purposely spraying mud on noble. Not necessary, perhaps, but thoughtful. I know of those who would call such a thing pretentious and foolish in order to be weak or inscrime made to man his business.
But, I see it this way. Dad. If you want to show someone you care for them, you don't fool around with nambry-pamby sexual role games. You show them, in as many ways as you can.
can.
LIKE SEATING A woman at a restaurant. Not in an enriched decor of a McDonald's, of course, but at least in finer restaurants. I've gotten some confused looks trying to pilot a woman's chair while she sat down. Surely, it's not that uncommon. Manly manners are occasionally. At any time, it's the same story—common courtesy declining in a nonchalant world that's concentrating on "taking it easy" and "watching out for number
Maybe I'm exaggerating, Dad, but the evolution of manners seems simple to me. The guys are getting lazy. The guys are getting lazy. The guys are getting lazy.
women numb. I realize there's revolution in the air. Sex roles are converging. Soon, women will ask men out, and even propose to them frequently. They'll wear shirts, and even eras will fade from the college community. Men will unabashedly cook for their women friends, and will do their laundry as well. Freedom doesn't mean consuming traditions that added color to our lives.
I REALIZE SOME changes are welcomed by most. Some men are sick of being the dangling inquirer while the woman decides if she wishes to go out with him. Some women are sick of being in the crowd so they could be asking for a date. A recent column by a fellow Kansan editorialist noted the need for women to ask men and nip submissiveness in the bud. The poor fellow has been swamped by calls from women, but she was never asked to date this year, I guess that's an indication that people want change.
And there are more reasons. Some men are sick of shelling out gobs of money, sometimes to girls who go out just to get a free meal and entertainment. Sometimes to girls who shell out of gobs of men who shell out that money as if at a toll booth, waiting for a green light to feely-meely land. It happens here, Dad. People can be devious under the cape when they are tired of reaping unequal rewards for equal work, unequal legislation for equal issues and unequal
BUT, MUST SUCH changes cause even one young adult to bag things in, in essence, are merely the last vapors of a woman's masculinity. I rather like women and men who can walk into a room and turn heads with refined airs and immaculate sides in their individual sex surrounments, then like hates.
duties in a society where both sexes have equal capabilities.
Maybe you'll be a bit proud to know that I'll try to cling to those slightly old-fashioned morals. I will use to more of what you taught me, in a time that seems to be slithering away.
You probably don't notice it so much in your age bracket, Dad. One generation are the coolest owners of adjective and chivalry.
Honesty, courtesy, appearance, manner. The lists go on and on, like an airplane in the shed that infilms both sexes during this new age. It's tough to know exactly how to act, but I'll try. Traditions like having as many those who believe in them.
"I'll offer my jacket on a cold day, Dad. Send someone flowers for a poor reason. Reason me? It on a gooey mud puddle and allow a woman with permeable shoes to trample it. Well, I suppose that's a bit much, but we were always outing too. Dad."
Like father, like son, huh?
Dave Johnson
Editorial Writer
continued to bore in on its international human rights campaign.
Still, despite the outward amnicability, there are indications that the true picture may be somewhat more tar-
would do so he says.
"Then we will work for further reductions to a world truly
an address before the United Nations General Assembly last Wednesday, Carter said the United States was willing to cut its arsenal of nuclear arms by as much as 50 per cent if the Soviet Union would do the same.
free of nuclear weapons," he said.
MEANWHILE, HE was dispatching Defense Secretary Harold Brown to Capitol Hill to ask Congress for $245 million in funds for full-scale development in a new mobile missile system.
Although the Carter Administration has not made a decision on the production and deployment of the new missile, it is unclear how much as $40 billion the missile, called the MX or experimental missile, is being ushered in as the replacement for the unarmed missiles buried in all throughout the United States.
Russians if he continues to propose legislation that would fund new weapons.
No matter how emphatic Carter reaffirms the United States' desire to halt the arms race, he won't convince the
sincerity of any Soviet gesture toward limiting nuclear testing but also violated the 1983 limited treat ban test which the Soviet Union, the United States and Britain agreed to.
BUT THE Soviets aren't without blame, either. Gromyko also went before the United Nations General Assembly to say that this country could join the States and Britain in suspending all nuclear weapons testing for an unspecified period of time. But three days later, an apparent nuclear explosion affected by the U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration. If it is confirmed, the explosion would be the eighth Soviet underground attack by U.S. authorities. The revelations were based on seismigraphic tests.
The test not only questions the
On the face of this evidence, it appears that neither Washington nor Moscow is ready to commit themselves completely to a plan of serious nuclear disarmament. Perhaps their strategies are each other with other into making certain concessions in the new strategic arms limitations talks pact.
But whatever their intentions, it seems that the current warming of relations between the two superpowers is destined to cause an existential threat when neither side employs honey in its negotiations.
AHH. GET GOING. CRACKING A BIG CASE LIKE THIS COULD MEAN A PROMOTION!
By EDWARD W. SAID
Middle East without humanity
The worst thing is the large number of newly dispossessed poor. Whole sections of the city were raided by the Christian
There are Syrian Army strongpoints, but just away from them, into an either "Christian" or "Moslem" quarter, you can see an oceanside warrior wrench making that factions are ready to mobilize and fight immediately.
I had been away from Lebanon (and family) for two years when I returned there this past summer. Almost as much as by the terrible scars of war in downtown Beirut it has become an insignificant changes. Nearly everyone seems to be wearing either an oversized cross or a replica of the Koran around the neck in a religious conviction but a political assertion.
Only the politicians are unchanged.
warriors. The luckless inhabitants fled and occupied houses in other districts.
Yet everything I hear of Moslem savagery, Palestinian treachery and Communist conspiracy is unacceptably neophobic. None of that is capable of killing all sides: 80,000 dead, thousands more injured and billions in property damage.
MANY RELATIVES AND old friends are unapproachable now. Some families are divided as the country is divided, even though both sides are alike in their fear, their needless isolation, their endless anecdotes about "them."
At least, South Lebanon,
which I visited, is an open battlefield. There, Israelights in Palestine have been beheaded Israeli hegemony over Lebanon through a discredited right wing.
Criticism of Senate merits attention
To the editor:
I am writing this letter in regard to the two editorials pertaining to Bert Nunley's resignation that appeared in the Oct. 5 issue of the Kansas. I am personally appalled that a top-grade collegiate newspaper would lower itself to the level of
KANSAN
Letters
a "personality slam sheet" and would ignore the news running daily on the front page.
I have never seen an editorial
as out-of-line and uncalled for in Jouan Mueller's. Personality attacks in a college paper serve no useful purpose. The "conflict of interest" issue is dead and I see no reason for a two-bit editorial to take up newprint expressing his disagreement with the author's view of the situation. It was a claustrophied article, "nuff said."
The most important flaw with both editorialists is that they ignored the facts concerning the Senate expressed by Bert, as well as others, almost daily. Consider the following: After other resignations from the Senate and its committees by respected, experienced student leaders; 2) Ralph Munnyan's speech before the Sept. 28 session of the Senate, experienced observers, more than slightly directed at Steve Leben's handling of his job and the Senate; 3) The Senate since February has essentially accomplished nothing. Two of those actions have been internal and有益 has no one except editorialists who construe them to be constitutional issues vital to our democracy; 4) the committee system has been abused, bypassed and ignored by Leben for no real gain. 5) the Oct. 6 further dissatisfaction by committee leaders with the way the Senate is being run.
It is obvious, if you choose to look, that there is merit to Bert Nunley's claims. It is sad that the editorial staff blatantly ignores these facts in blind defense of their fellow journalist and analyst, who that is the crux of the matter and maybe the Kansan staff should search internally for conflicts of interest.
Royals abused by fickle fans
Ed Duckers
Salina junior
Doug Burson
Kansas City, Kan., sophomore
To the editors:
As a neophyte Royals fan, I cannot claim to be an expert on either the team or baseball in general, but I can attest that my most important lesson we know to me known Kansas City has a winning ball club. So it
deeply upset me to see the Royals lose their bid for the permit, not because of the loss because of the public reaction to it.
No sooner had the last out been made than I began to hear a torrent of abuse towards the Royals, their manager, coaches, and players from the very people who had been cheering the loudest throughout the season. Suddenly instead of "Those Royals are the best," I heard "Those Royals sure are bad, aren't they?" and other worse, though similar, remarks.
If this is the best the Royals' loyal fans can do, then I can only suggest that the team move to another city, since the fans around me are one of the best teams in baseball to cheer for. I have nothing but the greatest contempt for people who will cheer for a team when defeat and still have the temility to call themselves "fans." Despite what these self-styled "experts" say, there is no doubt in at least some places that the Royals have been, are now, and will always be, No. 1.
Dave Kraus
Overland Park freshman
Lebanon is but the latest, and the most dramatically articulated, instance of what has taken place in the oneromantic Near Orient since World War II. Crisscrossed with incredibly complex and amoral weapons deals, the city is also home to people poor, frightened and abused despite pockets of enormous wealth.
WHAT HAPPENED IN former Palestine has not been a good model for the region, especially not for Lebanon. True to its roots in the culture of Jordan, the Zionists divided reality into a superior "us," and an inferior, degenerate "them."
Today, if you are an Arab in Israel you are a third-class person; you cannot ever be equal, so far as land-owning and free movement and state institutions are concerned.
On the Israeli-occupied West Bank, daily civilian protests are dealt with summarily. There is no secret about them, illegal detention without trial, and occasional murder.
Above all, it is religion or race understood in the least politically charged political attitudes. The Western liberal mind refuses to accept any of this, doubler because the Arabs are more Orientalists.
INTO THIS unattractive mess, INTO Jimmy Carter's rhetorical spotlight on men's rights has yet to penetrate.
there has been no widespread call for attention to human rights in the Middle East—except by Palestinian. Yet now, clumely, cautionary to a minority of Palestinians on Palestinian rights has appeared, formulated by the two superpowers.
Surely on some level this is an instance of the two powers nursing and assisting their interests. Yet, just as surely is this the first
public acknowledgment that the Middle East generally, Israel and Lebanon particularly, are not simple problems of instability and security, but coarse parallel instances of bloody conflicts, terrible conflicts, violations of basic human rights.
Geneva clearly can have another dimension than that of a big international conference. It must be the first of many. The principle of modern Middle-Eastern politics is honestly challenged.
THERE MUST BE recognition of the fact that citizens with rights—and not movable anonymous populace—are national Hero. Hence, the importance of Palestine Liberation Organization representation at Geneva. The minority ideologies dominating Middle East political life must be made public and replaced by a more generous conception of human variety.
Two generations of men and women have been reared only on ideas like security, protection against extermination, minority sovereignty and unappeasable need for weapons and their symbolism.
We need to distinguish between surface explanations of Middle-Eastern problems like Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinians and the underlying realities.
Yet unless the pitiless logic of
you these concerns yields to some
understanding of their human
beings, they will be still more
murderous.
On the other hand, a recovered Geneva conference is an opportunity now that cannot be obtained in Ostrikan and Israelis above all.
Edward W. Said, professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University, is author of the forthcoming book, "The Question of Palestine."