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University Daily Kansan, June 14, 1982
Opinion
A pox upon their houses
The world is at war. And as the battles rage, it's hard to find any heroes.
In the Falklands, a decayed colonial power struggles against a brutal fascist regime to regain a part of her lost empire, in an inane war fought primarily to bolster sagging governments back in Britain and Argentina.
In Lebanon, Israel has bombed civilians and invaded a neighbor (again) under the filmsim of pretexts. The Israelis are faced with foes who also have a fondness for bombing civilians and whose continued refusal to recognize Israel's existence has blocked any serious peace settlement.
And in Central America, leftists and rightists are still stabbing, shooting and bombing each other, mostly hitting innocent bystanders in the process.
Nearby, the Islamic brotherhood gases at itself as Iraq and Iran have at each other with a zeal usually reserved for helpless hostages.
**KEY 13** ITS possible to make clear sense out of this seemingly absurd scenario. For behind all these conflicts lies a dark influence even more pervasive than the current rash of ill will among men.
This force emanates from the United States and the Soviet Union. Recklessly pursuing their own interests throughout the globe, the two superpowers have created an unstable world order of opposing alliances and rickety regimes. Then they have set a fire to this flimsy structure by arming everyone.
Of the four main areas of conflict in Latin America and the Middle East, the United States has supplied arms or military assistance to three-fourths of the sides involved. And those we haven't helped (and some we have) have gotten aid from the Soviets.
OUR EAGERNESS to sell our nation's arms is almost as great as our eagerness to deploy the carnage we have caused. How ironic it is to hear our leaders lament over the damage caused to our Latin American and Mid-East policies, when those policies were the cause of their own destruction.
Perhaps we will learn a lesson from all this bloodletting and pursue a more just world order with a reduced arms level, instead of the military and economic hegemony we now seek. But that is unlikely
So, a pox upon our house, too.
Letters to the Editor Art tribute
To the Editor:
The black art creation in Marvin Grove has been the bolt of irreverent cloaks hereabouts.
This subline expression (The Rock Island Memorial) was prophetically erected some while ago, and, I hear, will soon bear on a brass plaque the legend, "RUPTURED RAILROAD."
Letters policy
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, address and phone number. If the writer is affiliated with the University, the letter should include the class and home town or faculty or staff position. The Kansan reserves the right to edit or reject letters.
Ira Budd
Electrician. Facilities Operation
The University Daily
KANSAN
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Women crippled by beauty standards
Guest Columnist
By WENDI WARNER Guest Columnist
Last Tuesday, after an especially stressful day, I laced up my Nikes for a run along the river. So I soon was gliding down the familiar gravel path soaking in the last rays of the sun. As the day's worries slowly slipped away, I felt alive as if the run was a celebration, a dance into the night.
WHEN I GOT to the first bend in the path, I heard breathing behind me and turned to see two male runners. They quickly closed the distance as us. As they passed me, one smiled.
I stopped abruptly and stood frozen, staring at their backs until they were two bobbing dots in the distance. Then I turned around and walked home. The evening had lost its splendor.
Some days I can let things like that pass; I want to run too much not to. But I'm never aware of a store or a catcall without feeling a rush of excitement, never take such actions as compliments.
Few people seem to understand my thoughts on this. I don't know whether I've grasped them enough myself to put them clearly into words. But I do know well how violated and handled I feel when a stranger feels free to voice his opinion on my body.
AS AN ATHLETE, I've always admired the human body. And some days I appreciate my sexuality so much I can't concentrate on anything else (despite the slow-dying myth of the low female sex drive). As a feminist, what I can't appreciate is society's rigid standards of what constitutes female beauty, for its attitude that constantly associates women's bodies with sex.
Perhaps it can be better explained by looking at the complaint often voiced against feminists: We don't appreciate, or want others to appreciate, physical beauty or sexuality.
Women by nature are not meant to be bone thin. Our bodies are inherently the softer, more rounded of the two sexes. Yet I can't count the number of women I know who torture their bodies trying to reach an "acceptable" weight, no matter what the cost. Anyone who has ever tried to lose weight knows what a thought-consuming process it is, especially once the body is reluctant to shed any more pounds. And when it comes time for them to another is tried. Too many women's lives are trivialized by unsuccessful and unnecessary diets.
It is not an overstatement to say that the physical standards of beauty expected of women are difficult to reach. They are never reached. Once, if ever, we are the right size, it's time to make sure that our breasts and thighs are firm, our legs are smooth-shaven, and our cheeks are rosy. We always have either too much or too little of something. Some day a woman might get it all right (she'll be the first), but it won't last, for she, like all the rest of us, will age.
AFTER EXPRESSING these ideas, I'm often countered with a statement like "Well, we have to deal with it."
But the male goal is not as difficult to reach as the female's. "Beautiful" men are thin; correspondingly, men's bodies, which burn calories quickly, are more easily made thin. Fat is unacceptable in society's definition of male obesity because nature have much less body fat than do women.
but the contrast goes beyond this. In our society, men are not admired primarily for their physical beauty, but for what they accomplish. Women are often noticed for their looks before anything else. I know of many women, some “beautiful,” some not, who have told of experiences similar to my run along the river. After years of being friends with the girls, it is any wonder so many of us women feel that there’s nothing to us but breasts and buttocks?
There is nothing wrong with admiring the physical beauty of women. I'm awed by it. But we are wrong to narrow our definitions of beauty in a way that cripples women, and to make them feel that physical beauty, or the lack of it, is what determines their worth.
I will always love and care for my body, even the parts that could never squeeze into our mold of physical beauty. But I will do so because it is the shelter for all that I really am—my talents and dreams, my constant though human attempts at compassion and caring. I will treasure my self, and love my family. My primary, part of myself and will use all of myself to express and nurture that sexuality with whomever I choose to love in that way. For me, such a life is brimming with beauty.
Treatment of elderly maligned
Social Security offers no real solution to elderly's problems
Did you kiss your grandmother when you left home today? Or did you leave that up to Uncle
If the government is taking care of Grandma for you, don't expect them to send the very best. Encouraged by monetary drought and a hot wind from the executive branch, financial affection has been offered.
Meanwhile, one of the nation's most valuable resources is at some dim, far-away rest home having a gay old time watching the debate on its threatened Social Security checks.
SHIRLEY DEITCHMAN, a 74-year-old widow, has been watching the debates, and she's worried that Social Security cost-of-living increases might soon be cut.
I can't live without Social Security," the retired New York saleswoman said in the May 24 time cover story on Social Security. Even with her check, Mrs. Deitchman didn't have enough money this year to attend a $3.50 Passover dinner, and her utilities are about to go up $10.
Although people like Mrs. Delichman are troubled about their checks, no one except economist Alan Greenspan knows if or when Social Security might be cut. The bipartisan commission that Greenspan leads must decide the fate of the 48-year-old government program now paying out $17,000 more in benefits every minute than it collects in taxes.
Unfortunately, proposing such solutions would be short-sighted. They would place the fate of both Social Security and a happy American society at risk in the hands of a bewildered, deficited government.
Social Security past 1983. The Greenspan commission might consider tapping general revenues, such as income tax, or slowing the inflation of Social Security benefits.
Two general classes of solutions might get
Such solutions also might fail in the long run
John Scarffe
when the baby boom generation starts to retire in 2010. By the early 21st century, the ratio of Social Security taxpayers to beneficiaries could drop as low as two to one.
THESE TWO groups of solutions are not only short-sighted, they are inadequate. Like so many other political solutions, they treat the symptoms rather than the disease. The real problem is not a bankrupt trust fund, but the often maligned treatment of the elderly.
Americans are infamous for their treatment of the aged because they have so effectively
managed to push retired folks into dusty coworkers, the increasing number of rest homes and retired retirees.
Even more distressing is the increasing number of elderly, female transients. Often called bag ladies because they carry paper shopping bags with handles, these transients wear strange clothes and wander the city without a home, a family or sufficient food.
To atone for this poor treatment, Social Security has been used increasingly to guilty ply the retired with favors. As a result, Social Security has become the primary source of income for most of the aged. Although originally intended only to ward off disbursement, about one-third of the retired body on Social Security for 90 years their income, and 15 percent have no other income at all.
This steady increase in benefits, however, has only added fuel to the conflagration, because it has allowed Americans to rationalize away their private duty to the elderly. After all, why should anyone take care of their retired parents if it looks like the government will do it for them?
Along with many other elderly people, these women are financial and physical outcasts from a society they loved. Worse than many primitive societies, women are walking and leaving the need to die aloof.
These rationalizations force the elderly to become even more financially independent. This
drives up the retired person's expenditures against creating the need for higher Social Security benefits.
Since poor treatment of the elderly creates such a cycle, there is only one effective, long-run solution. Americans must take matters into their own hands by taking the elderly physically and mentally to appointments with their Social Security to return to its intended level, while providing a few fringe benefits for society.
'Closer living quarters for the elderly are not only cheaper, they also put the younger members in contact with a source of wisdom and experience. They are aady missing from many young people's lives.'
THIS SOLUTION's biggest advantage is its reliability on American citizens rather than their budget-stalled Congress. For example, the elderly can be brought back into society's mainstream by providing living arrangements for them close to their younger relatives.
Instead of paying rest home prices that could be as high as $1,500 a month, relatives could provide a finished basement with an outside exit or find a nearby apartment. Such arrangements make health care easier and less expensive. Grandchildren can pick up extra expenses from their grandparents or, if the family can't be around, a full or part-time companion can be hired.
Even if the elderly must live in a nearby rest home or retirement village, contributing more finances and time to their lives is still important. More family contact with them can lift them from a purposeless existence of waiting from one tasteless meal to the other by keeping them in tune with those more concerned with life than death.
The government could help private citizens take the elderly back into their lives by encouraging and providing tax incentives. For example, income tax breaks could be awarded for those who make even small contributions to their pension or retirement. They would be increased in proportion to the amount given, with those who provide shelter for the elderly also receiving substantial breaks.
Despite these tax breaks, many folks will still want to scream, "i can't afford it!" Before saying this, however, imagine placing in a bank account the blood, sweat, tears and money it took for today's elderly to raise depression-era families.
Then open a savings account and encourage family members to contribute only a few dollars every month. Such a fund would give Ucms Club access to the need for light Social Security benefits.
Then, as you leave home every day, give your grandmother all your love with a few kind words.