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University Daily Kansan, October 15, 1981
Opinion
2
Giving the fair share
The University of Kansas, along with Lawrence as a whole, is involved in a more-ambitious-than-ever United Fund drive this fall.
Although organizations seeking personal donations seem to be a dime a dozen in these days of high prices and dwindling bank accounts, the United Fund is an especially worthwhile cause for Lawrence residents. Instead of being sent to a regional or national office far from the area where donations are collected, the money earned during this drive goes primarily to local agencies.
Last year, the Lawrence drive raised more than $300,000 for 20 city and county organizations. Groups aided by the United Way include the Douglas County Association for Retarded Citizens, Penn House, the Salvation Army and the Lawrence Women's Transitional Care Services. Three of the agencies that receive money from the drive also are partly financed by the KU Student Senate. They are the Douglas County Rape Victim Support Service, Douglas County Legal Aid Society and Headquarter's Inc.
Such agencies have had to swallow
federal budget cuts up to 10 percent, and this year's United Fund campaign will play an important part in keeping them operating.
KU officials have set a $51,360 goal for the University's portion of the fund drive. Last year, the University contributed $45,000, less than 14 percent of the total amount raised in Lawrence. Considering that the University community constitutes half the population of the city, officials have reason to believe we can do far better.
Most donations from KU come from faculty and staff members. Those employees, along with student monthly employees, have already received contribution packages for this year's drive and can arrange to have donations deducted automatically from their paychecks.
But students not working for the University might also consider contributing to the fund. Why not put off buying that album for another month, or make due with two drinks on a night out instead of four or five? Even that little bit can help people who are sick, lonely, handicapped or in need of legal help. And for once, you'll be assured that your money will stay in your own community.
Magic number of signatures could buy great things at KU
Notice that sound on Saturday mornings?
Hear that noise that catches your attention? Or, rather, the lack of noise that catches your attention? Now, where's all that silence coming from?
It comes from Strong Hall, which just decided to stop blowing the steam whistle on Saturday
No Saturday morning whine? How will I know when the Bugs Bunny-Run Runner Show is on?
This is a standard case where the matrix of the vector $c$ is stored as a matrix and by the matrix of the vector $c$ is stored as a matrix.
DON MUNDAY
albeit, a petition signed by 253 angry people who were awakened by the whistle on Saturday—that convinced the Stronglydotes to quiet the Saturday morning blasts.
Frankly, I find this precedent alarming. Only a couple of hundred people get up in arms about something, and Strong Hall not only listens, it acts
Is this the Budig administration at work? Can we expect future decisions to be made this way? Government of the people, for the people, by the petition?
Will this administration just roll over and give in to every little controversy that comes along? Whatever happened to that fighting spirit, the never-say-die mentality? Whatever happened to those good of days when it took 25 years just to get a Coke machine in the library?
Honestly, if things had been like this 20 years ago we still have old Fraser.
' nave it on good authority—a confidential source in the office of petition affairs—that from now on, if you want something changed at this location, ' nave it on good authority to do is get enough people to sign a petition.
For example, as has been demonstrated, for
signatures, you get the whistle silenced on Satu-
l.
For 254, you get the whistle turned back on during Saturdays.
For 275 signatures, you can force the Kansas to start printing color Sunday supplements. Or.
for the very reasonable amount of 300 signatures, you can get that hideous I-70 scupture in Marvin Grove smelted down and made into Javakh naerweighs.
And if you've got more signatures, you can use 40 of them to get all math requirements at KU abolished. Or, for just four more signatures, you can have better grafters in the Wescoe bathroom*
But get just 415 signatures, and the Lichtenstein Circus will come back. Or for 450, you can get nightclub comedians instead of evangelist preachers in front of Flint.
For 500 John Hancocks, you can get pencil sharpeners in Strong Hall. Try to beat that deal!
But for a mere 600, you can get beer in the stadium. Gather 56 more, and they'll趴 in fast paced chasing drills.
For 675 signatures, you can get the Spencer art museum renamed the Tomb of the Unknown Sculpture. Get 700, and they'll rename Wescoe Hall after the Tan Man.
And if you're looking for something different to give to a memorable professor, for just 800 names you can create a HOPELESS award for that really bad teacher.
For 900, you can get that champion of
campaign, Benny Hill, named director of
GMPs.
And for just 1,000 signatures, you can create a new minority group on campus, the American Students Association (English Speaking Group).
Jump up another thousand, and for 2,000 names, you can get all marijuana laws repealed. Or for 2,000, you can get co-cat fraternities and sororites (alligators not included). For 3,000, you can get Woody Woodpecker to replace Baby Jay at football eaames.
For $5,000 signatures, you can get the abolition of all KU parking restrictions. You asked for it,
Finally, and to be really abard, for the astronomical price of 25,000 signatures, you can
Or, for something completely different, 10,000 signatures can buy you a Worldwide Communist
And here's a little item of interest, for the low,
price of 15,000 names, you can have sex in the
sheets.
As you can easily see, we're entering a new era here at KU. For enough signatures, you can get a few of them online.
Kansas tourism brings in big bucks
When planning the ultimate vacation, many people choose to visit New York City's Times Square. Florida's beautiful beaches, California's Disneyland or Colorado's Pike's
Kansas, however, does not come to mind immediately when making a vacation
What's there to see or do in Kansas? All it has are wheat fields, tornadoes and windmills, with a few towns scattered around. The other way through Kansas is to get to Denver or St. Louis.
But something must be drawing visitors to Kansas besides miles of straight, flat highways. Tourism is the third largest industry in the state after agrbusiness and manufacturing.
Kansas pulled in $42 million in tax receipts associated with tourism in 1977, the most recent year for which figures are available. Visitors spent $1,062.2 million in general travel expenditures while in Kansas that year.
All that money was spent in a state where many of the tourist attractions are free. KU's Dyce Museum of Natural History, the most popular tourist attraction in the state, is a museum and art center. Dyce Museum the Elsenbon Center, the State Capitol or Dolge's Root Hill Boot.
Kansas restaurants, motels and gasoline stations are benefiting from those four well-known attractions, but those four are not the only tourist spots drawing visitors into the
Kansas is filled with a variety of special places for the tourist to visit, many of them
Some other Kansas attractions are one of a kind.
Any state can have a Disneyland or Worlds of Fun, but how many states can boast of a Barbed Wire Museum with more than 500 specimens? That attraction can be found in La Crusie, along with the annual Kansas State Bard-Sell Session, which takes place each May.
The world's largest hand-dug well,
If Kansas can make millions of tourist dollars from grain elevators and barbed wire secluded in small towns, just think how much more profitable the attractions would be if they were consolidated into three or four regional tourist centers.
measuring 32 feet in diameter and 109 feet deep, is in Greensburg. Nine miles southwest of Wichita is the Gravey elevator, the world's largest single unit grain elevator. Oakley has a museum featuring the world's largest cement iron implement seats and pioneer farming.
I realize that the state might lose some money in gasoline and lodging revenues, but the increase in the number of tourists should counteract those losses.
How many people want to drive hundreds of miles from Argonia, which elected the
KARI
ELLIOTT
country's first woman mayor, or from Goesse's Wheat Palace, which has a replica of the Liberty Bell made out of wheat, to the breathtaking attractions in north-west Kan
The annual State Cow Chip Throwing Contest in Russell Springs and Norton's "Gallery of Also Rans," an exhibit of presidential election losers, sound interesting. But are they worth the expense if they are the only attractions in the area?
It would be easy enough to move the museums or first homes of famous Kansans. Besides, many of them are only replicas of original buildings. Just look at Dodge City.
If you are going to bend historical truth anymore, you'll reallyn't matter where you lie the musing.
geological attractions, which are too expensive to move.
If moving historical homes offends the tourist purists, they could visit the state's
Castle Rock, Monument Rock, Rock City and Mushroom Rock State Park would be worth the drive to the north central and northwest part of the state. Along the way, visitors could gawk at a mammoth, man-eating bear near Longford: a 80-19' turtle high footbald.
If the state consolidated its tourist attractions, it could also build amusement parks in the same area. They could be based on historical or literary themes.
For example, those who want a little violence during their vacations could visit Quantrill Land, where the sack of Lawrence was found. You can also have the traggish scoops of denim on
For families and children, the state could have Toto and Dorothy Land, where larger-than-life Scarecrows, Tin Men and Cowardly Lions could greet the visitors. Also, it would be mandatory that all women and girls be called Dorothy while in this theme park.
The park also could increase its revenues by selling Munchkin clothing. For a small fee, kids could ask the Wizard of Oz to grant their wishes.
Traveling throughout the park could be the Inge Midwest Express, which would make frequent bus stops at the park's many picnic areas.
If the Kansas Department of Economic Development wants to increase state tourism even more, it will have to effectively exploit the state's historical and natural resources. Quaint, one-room museums and authentic log cabin reproductions might be all right for the casual visitor, but they aren't going to make tourism the number one industry in Kansas.
And what Kansas park would be complete without Farm Land? Real farmers could plant a variety of crops that are usually grown in Kansas. They could sell souvenir sacks of wheat, corn, soybeans or potatoes, and farmers who think bread originates at Safety.
Letters to the Editor
As it is now, Kansas is a nice place to live but I wouldn't want to visit here.
Kassebaum received ungracious welcome from KU audience
To the Editor:
In regard to the introductory speech given by Nancy Landon Kassebaum at the U.S.-Soviet Relations conference Oct. 11, I must say that I received the invitation based on the rude recognition the audience gave her.
When Sen. Kassabean first stood up, only about 25 people actually gave her a standing ovation. Not only is Kassabean a U.S. senator, she is the first woman to be elected to the Senate by her own standing. She is a maverick in the realm of equal opportunity, and thus a pillar of the very ideas of this nation. She is, further, an activist with a unique voice. To make her even more outstanding, I was shocked at the audacity of the audience in receiving her as if she were any old speaker.
Finally, when Kassebaum entertained questions following her oratory, several individuals seized the opportunity to ask her questions about the Middle East: Anwar Sadat's assassination and the AWACs deal. Clearly, this was out of line, and insulted the integrity of those individuals there to hear a discussion of U.S.-Soviet relations.
Nancy Stevens Overland Park senior
In my mind, KU's reception of the senator on the part of the students and even the faculty was discoureteous and ungrateful. Whether one agrees with Kassabea's stance in politics or not, there was no excuse for this lack of decorum.
Defense plan prudent To the Editor
In your story's somewhat tongue-in-cheek treatment of the mechanics of nuclear deterrence, you made several important oversights yourself.
This letter is addressed to the author of "MX plan no determent to big blast." in the Oct. 12 issue.
Your observation that the B-1 and the MX missile are outdated draws no argument from me; no weapon produced since the Cold War of the '90s has reached the production stage until long after racing technology made it theoretically obsolete.
To the Editor:
However, as a future Air Force pilot, I invite you to fly with me in a 30-year-old B-52 that has outlived its design life three times over, or I should like to see you present when a Titan II refuels a 20-year-old missile through cracked rubber sealers, hoping the entire works will not explode in their faces. Do you really know what happens when you throw an aircraft plane that is older than you are? And the recent track record of the Titan II missile speaks for itself.
Regarding your criticism of the MX-basing plan; do you think we should pay billions of dollars to plow up ANY state in order to play ridiculous shell games with live atomic weapons? I have to believe that the proposed basing scheme was chosen out of economic
necessity rather than a particular political lobby's manipulation.
In short, our present nuclear arsenal is unsafe as well as vulnerable to attack. I, for one, believe that the President's decisions concerning the B-1 and the MX were reasonable, prudent and necessary for the continuing security of our country. Bob Scott
Column written hastily
Tempe, Ariz., graduate student
To the Editor:
This letter is in response to the Oct. 12 editorial by Coral Beach on the MX missile plan.
The lack of time that went into the writing was obvious. For instance, nuclear war does not mean a war to end all life. It can be used instead as a fast way to destroy or cripple an enemy. This is the view the Soviet Union has had. Do they deploy so many missiles in order to destroy the U.S. population? No, the missiles are to inflict a first strike upon them, and it takes the defended silos so that we cannot fight back, which would lead to a U.S. surrender and the takeover of the U.S. economy.
Beach claims that the MDA policy has been forgotten. The reason it has been forgotten is that it is mad. It would mean that after the Soviet Union had stopped bombing our missile and air bases, we would retaliate to inflict the same damage. The only disadvantage to this plan is that almost all of our missiles would have been destroyed in the first attack.
Instead of MDA, our lawmakers have introduced a policy of peace through strength. That is, there will be a deterent to prevent the Soviet Union from launching a first attack.
If you were hungry and the person next door would not share any of his food, wouldn't you feel tempted to somehow get that food, especially if you had a knife. But what if he had a gun, would you feel like taking that chance? Or would you stab your opponent and wait for him to do the same thing to you, as would be appropriate under the MAD policy?
The MX system is a step in the right direction, because the Soviet Union will not know which killer was on the ground.
And writing that the compound is probably the same stuff used on Mrs. Reagan's face is a very low-class remark, and proves my point about the amount of time that was spent writing the story.
Another of those fine arguments—"What exactly a hardened silo is no one knows for sure?" is even more ridiculous. A hardened silo is one that can withstand a direct hit by a nuclear bomb.
Marc Kean
Lenexa freshman
I also question Beach's criticism of the B-1 bomber. Should we continue to fly a bomber that is older than the pilots who fly them and that is very expensive to repair? Or should we build a new aircraft that is more efficient, the air today and that can be modified in the future to meet our defense demands?
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