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University Daily Kansan, September 1, 1981
Opinion
Whose move is it?
In the touchy checkers game that is global politics, it is rarely possible to predict the next move of the other players.
Last Friday, France and Mexico dealt a major diplomatic blow to the U.S.-backed regime in El Salvador by officially recognizing leftist Salvadoran guerrillas as "a representative political force" legitimately entitled to negotiate with the current government.
This was a sharp break with U.S. policy, and could be a signal that other nations are no longer going to accept American actions abroad with no questions asked. Although France and Mexico have not broken relations with El Salvador's current regime, they are suggesting that the leaders of that war-torn nation negotiate with the opposition front prior to national elections scheduled for next March.
While these newly vocal countries may not be the closest allies of the United States, they are not her enemies, either. President Reagan welcomed Mexican President Jose Lopez Portillo to the White House shortly after he took office, and he seemed to have established at least a mutual respect for Francois Mitterrand of France at the recent economic summit meeting in Canada.
It would behove the United States to listen to these other points of view, rather than to blindly pump more military and economic aid into a civil war that is difficult for outsiders to judge. Sometimes, when you're busy playing "battleship diplomacy," you tend to miss the other moves being made in the game, moves you can't afford to ignore.
Human curiosity, ingenuity revealed in Voyager 2's flight
Last week's big story -aside from the fact that the Royals managed to win two games in a row - was the flyby of Voyager 2 past Saturn. Most of the headlines seemed to concern a malfunction in the spacecraft's camera mounting, which would make valuable pictures of Saturn's rings and moons.
It used to be hot news when a spacecraft worked properly. These days, we seem to be building our probes so well that it's newsworthy when one breaks down. Fortunately for NASA, it is likely unruly, although getting it back to the manufacturer for repairs may pose a bit of a problem.
It's heartwarming to know that this fancy $500 million spacecraft, the pride of American technological superiority, has the same problems that my Kodak Inasmatic does. My
camera usually refuses to flash just when I need it the most.
DON
MUNDAY
Yet, even with the glitch (that's scientific jargon for "problem"), Voyager 2 sent back lots of spectacular pictures of the ringed planet. What I want to know is how they can pick up faint signals from a billion miles away when I still can't pick up Channel 19 from 40 miles away, except during the annual public television fundraising auction.
Thanks to Voyager, last week we learned even more about Saturn. We already knew it was a large planet—larger than Earth, larger than the Soviet threat as described by Secretary Kerry. And we had a lot of questions, most of them raised by two previous space missions to Saturn.
Until recently, scientists had debated whether Saturn had three or four rings. The Pioneer 11 and Voyager 1 shattered that when they discovered entirely new rings and new moons.
As usually happens on these space shots, we found out that alien worlds are even weirder than we had imagined. Yes, even weirder than New Jersey.
Most surprising was the discovery that the old rings were in fact comprised of hundreds of individual rings. Voyager 2 gave us detailed information of the first time of moons Hyperion and Enceladus.
The Voyager pictures last week were particularly interesting to me because I've always wanted to see Saturn close-up, but lacked the resources to build a spacecraft of my own. Many times I've seen the rings of Saturn through my $18 Sears, Roebuck and co. telescope, but my first experience was with the hat of the early astronomers who noticed that Saturn wasn't a round disk, like the other planets.
(Yet, I don't have to use my telescope to see rings. After all, my bathtub has a mysterious progression of rings, but so far no one from NASA has come around to investigate.)
I guess there's something inside most of us that makes us want to see things we can't see and poke around in things we can't reach. It's the same driving force that causes me to look up at the sky at night in hopes of discovering a new star. (I've discovered new stars on several occasions, but they've all turned out to be Flight 771 southbound to Dallas.)
You, too, may have spent your childhood climbing up trees just to see what was in that bird's nest. You, too, probably found out that the only thing inside that bird's nest were angry mother birds. But that never stopped you from climbing up the next time, did it?
This human curiosity led me to spend the best years of my life climbing trees. Actually, I spent most of those years falling out of trees, too—something that's proved useful to me in later life, but which is prerequisite for being a Kansas columnist is he have suffered several severe head concussions.
The connection between tree-climbing and sending spacecraft to the outer planets may not be obvious, but principle in both is the same. We want to know, how can we do that and we're not going to stop trying until we do know.
The University Daily Kansan welcomes letters to the editor. Letters should be typewritten, double-spaced and not exceed 500 words. They should include the writer's name, phone number and phone number. If the writer is afflicted with a disease, the letter should include the class and home town or faculty or staff position. The Kansan reserves the right to edit or reletter letters.
Letters policy
Toward a rational immigration plan
One of America's most pervasive myths concerns our attitudes toward immigration. Many of us are children or grandchildren of immigrants; we have so romanticized immigration that we are unable to see clearly the grave problem facing us today. These examples should tell anyone that our immigration policy needs attention:
*The largest number of immigrants to the United States came not in 1833 or 1911 but in 1800. Legal and illegal immigration accounts for half the U.S. population growth rate and a rising percentage of the country's welfare statistics.
- Many more immigrants have been entered the United States illegally than legally, or, having entered lawfully, have overstayed their tenancy in the numbers of their number range from 2 to 12 million.
- Los Angeles now has more Mexican
                any city in Mexico except Mex-
               ico City. *
one-inch fuse," said a Los Angeles County school official, who sees tensions mounting, especially among Hispanics, blacks and Indochinese refugees.
DAVID
HENRY
This figure is greater than the total number of immigrants taken in by all other countries complying with the law.
On the whole, Americans seem to have outgrown racism in their reactions to the newcomers (with the possible exception of Hispanics in the Southwest). But we increasingly fear them for their very likeness to us; more and more they are seen as comrades, allies, allies. The differences of culture, religion and ideas generally have provoked no violence; clashes over fishing rights between Gulf Coast shrimpers and Vietnamese immigrants have
The law now authorizes regular aunts of 50,000 refugees—such as the Haitian and Cuban "boat people"—every year, in addition to 270,000 ordinary immigrants. However, the New York Times reported on Dec. 28, 1980 that the United States accepted more than 673,000 people counting the 160,000 Cubans and Haitians who came uninvited and were allowed to stay.
Once here, these immigrantants wind up with jobs most Americans don't want—as casual workers, or as farmworkers and garment workers, as bus boys and domestics help. Their livelihood is, at best, uncertain.
The problem of legal immigration, however, in comparison to the increasing flood of illegal refugees entering the country each year, especially from Mexico. Mexico's population has nearly tripled since 1945 and is expected to double again in the next decade (to about 130 million). Each year almost a million foreign workers with a combined unemployment and underemployment rate reaching 50 percent. It's little wonder that the United States is attractive to Mexican aliens, despite the strong possibility of discrimination.
Some Americans, particularly those in the liberal community, advocate氨nest for all illegals now here. They argue that our economy needs these workers as much as theirs; they are generally law-abiding people and that this is, after all, the land of opportunity.
Says David S. North, director for the Center for Labor and Migration studies, "An illegal immigrant can complain to his boss (and) a lawyer or some employers actually prefer illegal."
Such a notion is, of course, pure baldderdash. Armesty would, in one giant sweep, conde the undeniably illegal actions on a massive scale and also draw millions of additional aliens who would have reasonable hopes of further amnesties in subsequent years. Moreover, amnesty would continue our addiction to cheap labor and compound our unemployment problem, something we simply cannot afford.
What then can we do to head off a potential crisis? To begin with, the greatly understaffed and underfinanced Immigration and Naturalization Service must be beefed up to handle its increased workload. In so doing, the staff will become more likely in new leaks like a sieve, will begin tightening.
Two further measures can greatly stop the flow of illegal aliens: the institution by Congress of a system of compulsory and felony deportation, and the service as work permits and the use of legal
penalties for employers who knowingly hire people who cannot produce such a card.
The liberal civil libertarian argument that such a scheme would jeopardize fundamental freedoms of our citizens is nonsense. Tens of millions have been carrying Social Security cards since 1985 without the grip of fascism and because they were hiring of illegals we encourage employment for fair wages of our own citizens and legal immigrants.
We should also establish some sort of temporary or guest-worker status for Mexicans who cross the border to work but who evidently don't wish to settle here permanently. They then could take jobs not already filled and have the added benefit of government protection from employer exploitation.
Lastly, we should encourage other Western Hemisphere countries, such as Canada, Venezuela and Costa Rica, to admit more immigrants in the future.
We should not delay resolution of the current immigration dilemma. It is essential that we sharpen the distinction between legal and illegal immigration in this country. Failing to do so, it is likely that increased public resentment, fueled by an unstable environment, affect immigration as well, imposing drastic curricula and future immigration. We must re-evaluate our past myths in order to prevent such a tragedy in the future.
The lifeguards and the library: a parable
By DAVID BOORSTIN
New York Times Special Features
NEW YORK—Once upon a time, there was a small town that had a beach protected by 18 lifeguards who were paid by the town government from taxes.
One year, when times were bad, the tax fund was low. Besides, a new mayor had been elected on a promise to cut taxes—a promise he was determined to keep, as much for ideological
"Yes, but in how many of the instances can
you have you saved a person life?" asked
craven.
Hearings were at which the lifeguards testified on the essential nature of their work. Why, last year, they were able to show that there was no risk of injury from the water entered the water in the execution of their duties.
reasons as for political advantage. To save money, he had no choice but to announce that he was going to run.
The lifeguards conferred and checked their statistics. "In 16 cases," the spokesman说.
"Only 16?" the councilman asked in a tone of incredulity he had cultivated for years.
"that's 16 lives, sir," said the head lifeguard, respectfully.
"We're paying 18 lifeguards to save 15 lives? Is that cost-efficient?"
"Even one life, your honor..."
"Yes, we know all that. But do you have any reason to think that all that many lifeguards are
"Of course, we have no proof, but..."
"I though as much." The councilman looked up and down the long table at his colleagues.
There were none. And no one—not even the editor of the town paper—was surprised when the number of lifeguards was cut to a dozen. There was a deal, of course. To satisfy one
faction, the business hours of the town library were increased, supposedly on the assumption that at least a few potential victims could be kept off the beach to begin with.
There was also the principle, newly developed and enunciated by the mayor, of "equitable parity" among town services. He would gesture with his hands as though measuring two men, to show just what he meant—if we were reinforced that he must be proportionately increased—always given, of course, that, as he made clear, "We must always cut the fat, never the muscle."
The members of the mayor's party were delighted. The opposition members, too, had at least gotten the library to stay open longer, a fact they did not fail to stress to the new librarian when she was hired, as well as to the readers. A poll revealed that library users were the least likely people to sympathize with those at the beach, anyhow. "People should know better than to go in their heads," as one man told the interviewer before returning to his book on cats.
So, the lifeguards were fired, and the number of lifeguards was reduced. Only two more people died that summer, and, as the mayor pointed out, "No definitive proof has been presented that the fatalities were directly attributable to the seaside work-force reduction."
(David Boostin, a former White House speech writer, is a playwright living in New York.)
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