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Monday, October 23, 1989 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Government should help finance abortions for poor
President Bush's disregard for the poor was exemplified Saturday when he vetoed legislation that would provide federal financing of abortions for poor women who are the victims of rape or incest.
Bush had said he would veto the legislation because it "would compound a violent act with the taking of an unborn life."
Does the president truly believe that a child born out of incest or rape would have any chance of leading a normal life? As with most unwanted children from poverty stricken homes, the chances are slim.
Anti-abortionists scream that adoption is an alternative. But studies show that poor women rarely choose this alternative.
It's impossible to imagine the trauma of bearing a child for nine months who was the result of acts disdained by society. Unwed pregnant women are frowned upon in our society regardless of their social position. There is no justification to making a woman give birth to a child that is the result of such despicable acts as rape and incest.
Because Bush has denied poor women the opportunity to receive federal money when pregnancy is the result of these violent, criminal acts, the president has only shown his own disregard for human life that lives outside of the womb. In essence, he is penalizing these women by forcing them to bear a child that will only remind them of the crime committed against them.
Few women with the resources to have an abortion would go through a nine-month rape or incest related pregnancy. It's unfair for Bush to deny the same opportunity to society's fortunate.
Speaker of the House Thomas S. Foley, D-Wash., said an override attempt would be made. Let's hope there will be sufficient votes. It's time for society to stand behind the disadvantaged American women whose bodies have been violated.
Kathy Walsh for the editorial board
Dallas pulls fast one with sex-business license rules
This is the fourth in a series of editorials concerning pending Supreme Court cases.
It is common for a child who is losing a game of checkers or jacks to change the rules during the game. Often, it is the only way the child could win.
If the Supreme Court lets stand a ruling in a Dallas case, this kind of childish rule-changing may become commonplace in city zoning and licensing ordinances.
The Dallas ordinance restricts motels from renting a room for less than a 10-hour period. If a potential business owner has been convicted of a sexually related crime, he would be unable to receive a license to operate a sexually oriented business.
Of course business zoning and regulation is necessary. Cities should not allow sexually oriented businesses to operate around the corner from an elementary school. Likewise, most cities have zoning laws limiting where liquor can be sold and where heavy industry can be conducted. Such laws are good and necessary.
But laws such as the one in Dallas are a circumvention of public discussion. Instead of bringing the debate into the public arena, where all the citizens could voice their opinions, Dallas' cathy fathers are sweeping the sex-business issue under the rug.
They are prohibiting sex business without actually passing laws against it. By passing laws that restrict where, when, by whom and for how long such business can be conducted, the city effectively prohibits it.
Modern city governments should act above board on all city matters and not resort to questionable policy-making on politically sensitive issues.
It's too bad the Court must play baby sitter to city fathers who never learned as children how to play fair.
Ric Brack for the editorial board
News staff
David Stewart ... Editor
Ric Brack ... Managing editor
Daniel Nieman ... News editor
Danny Nemman ... Planning editor
Stan Dell ... Editorial editor
Jennifer Corser ... Campus editor
Elaine Sung ... Sports editor
Laura Husar ... Photo editor
Anthiaca Winnier ... Arts/Female editor
Tom Elem ... General manager, news adviser
Business staff
Linda Prokop ... Business manager
Debra Martin ... Local advertising sales director
Jerre Medford ... National/regional sales director
Jill Lowe ... Marketing director
Tamil Rank ... Production manager
Carrie Stinkin ... Assistant production manager
Margaret Townsend ... Co-op manager
Creativist Hughes ... Creative director
Christal Dooll ... Classified manager
Jeff Meesey ... Tearsares manager
Jeanne Hines ... Sales and marketing adviser
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Peace in Israel means compromise
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The 22-month-old intifada, or uprising, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip has become one of the most complicated regional conflicts in the world today. The volatile and hostile Middle East has acquired a history of conflict and instability that has been dominated by the Arab-Israeli dispute concerning Palestine.
When massive numbers of Jews flew war-torn and widely anti-Semitic Europe in the late 1930's, most of them emigrated to the British colony of Palestine in hopes of creating a Jewish homeland. They shared the land with the native Arabs and prospered. But the serenity of prosperity and cohabitation was destroyed with the formation of Israel as a Jewish state.
The intifida marks the most recent attempt by the Palestinians to regain the land that they believe was stolen from them by what Israelis call Zionism.
Because Israel is a Jewish state surrounded by often hostile Arab countries, Israelis are reluctant to accommodate the demands of the Palestinians. Israel has grown bitterly defensive toward all Arabs, partly because of the numerous invasions initiated by its neighbors. Many Israelis fear that they can punish on the Palestinian issue will pave the way for the destruction of the world's only Jewish state.
There are no simple solutions to the problems faced by both the Israeli government and the Palestinian people. The failed efforts of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to bring both sides to Cairo to negotiate a settlement serves an evidence of the complexity of the problem. Any hope for progress rests on the willingness of Israeli Prime Minister Yiltzhak Shamir to compromise and
Daniel
Grossman
Staff columnist
participate actively in the peace process as well as the willingness of the Bush administration to provide the leadership and guidance necessary for a peaceful and just solution.
Facing elections, Shamir committed his conservative Likud Party to ending the Palestinian conflict by promising elections in the occupied territories of Palestinian delegates to future negotiations for limited autonomy in the West Bank and Gaza. But his cabinet's rejection of Mubarak's proposal was an unfortunate step backwards in resolving the problem.
The primary reason for Shamir's hesitancy is the fact that he and his fellow Likud hard-liners adamantly refuse to deal directly or indirectly with the Palestinian Liberation Organization.
However, the intifada has been and continues to be lead by Yasser Arafat and the PLO. If Shamir refuses to include the PLO in any proposed settlement, his initiative will be doomed to failure.
Another factor contributing to the Israeli government's fool-dragging is the Bush administration's reluctance to participate in the peace process. Under previous administrations, most notably Carter's, the United States has provided instrumental leadership in the pursuit of peace in the Middle East. The Camp David Accords of 1978
A firm proposal from the Bush administration has not been forthcoming. But after the Israeli cabinet rejected Mubarak's peace plan, Secretary of State James Baker III hinted at an American role in finding an acceptable compromise between Iranian president's proposal and the Israel's reluctance to work with the DLO. But the Bush administration has failed to come up with any proposals of its own.
serve as an example of how valuable U.S. leadership can be in achieving compromise.
In the waning days of the Reagan administration, the State Department began to soften its stance toward the PLO. White House officials even agreed to meet with representatives of the organization on the condition that it renounce terrorism and recognize Israel's right to exist.
This change in attitude placed pressure on the Israeli government to seek a solution to the Palestinian problem and drew criticism from Likud hard-liners as well as U.S. legislators. But, the United States administration for the Bush administration's policy toward peace in the Middle East that has yet to be followed.
Bush's "to go slow" attitude toward foreign policy is teaming up with Prime Minister Shamir's foot-dragging to postpone any progress on the Palestinian question. Pressure from the United States to bring Israel and the PLO to the negotiating table is crucial to the cessation of hostilities in the region. Without such pressure, Shamir's Likud party will remain satisfied with the status-quo and the conflict that has already claimed more than 700 lives will continue indefinitely.
> Dan Grossman is a Denver senior majoring in political science.
Books are the essence of education
He really doesn't understand.
Ed W. Harris, the assistant superintendent at the Watson Chapel School District in Arkansas, sounds mystified — just because folks are making a ruckus over a book being dropped from the required reading list. "It's a minor situation," he says, "that's been blown out of proportion." It's only a book.
But books are not minor. They are major. They are the essence of education, and, when they are great, they are the essence of life. That's why it matters when a book like John Steinbeck's "Of mice and men" is no longer assigned to students because he complained about its all too realistic language.
The student newspaper at Watson Chapel, the Wildcat Scratch, carried a heartening response to the administration's disheartening decision. Education at Watson Chapel can't be bad as the administrators make it appear if the school paper is the worst in the state. The student who wrote the response out of class for a talk, he should have been summoned to the principal's office for an award.
But, says Watson Chapel's Harris, "It is a very, very insignificant situation. Any kid that wants to read it can read it. It's on the reference shelves if they want to read it. No one can stop him. He's free to read it if he wants to. I don't understand who'
Paul Greenberg
Syndicated columnist
the hoop is. I don't see the big deal of it myself. I really don't understand."
Let the day y to explain.
Books are not very wise insignificant
Neither is how they are taught. Books are a big deal.
So is the opportunity to discuss a great book together with a teacher who knows it and with other students who have read it.
The greatness of a book is not transmitted only from the page to the reader.
A great book may be magnified and enlarged when those who have read it come together and discuss it. Its meaning is explored, debated, weighed.
That is why people are not content only to read what has been called the greatest of books, the Bible. Many of them meet in Sunday-school classrooms and go over it with their teacher and classmates — so its greatness can be shared and
reflected, and its layers of meaning explored and expanded. That is why some carry its words in their heart and teach them diligently into their children and talk of them when they sit in their house and walk by the way, when they lie down and when they rise up. They do not just put the book on the reference shelf.
That is why it is wrong to strike this book from the reading list. A great book is a holy thing. It represents a pouring out of the human spirit. It should be treated with respect.
— in keeping the public pacified and the library stocked and the kids quiet — that it forgot the end of education? That's an occupational hazard in any case. They don't want to worry with the process that they forget the product.
There. I think I have explained it as simply as I can. I hope Harris understands. If not, maybe the students, teachers and patrons of the Watson Chapel district who care about books can explain it more effectively than I have been able to do. Because somebody needs to.
Harris says he is in charge of the curriculum for the Watson Chapel schools. That is a frightening thought. Can the school district's administration have gotten so caught up in the means of education
▶ Paul Greenberg is the editorial page editor of the Pine Bluff (Ark.) Commercial.
CAMP UHNEELY
HERE ARE A COUPLE OF EXPERT ROADTRIPPERS
PREPARED FOR
THEIR EXPEDITION TO
MANHATTAN, KANSAS. IT'S
A JOURNEY WHICH REQUIRES
CAREER CONSIDERATION
AND PLANNING.
BY SCOTT PATTY
LET'S SEE . . . BEER...
PINK BISMUTH. . . BARK RINGS
BOOZE . . . NO DOZ...
ROLAIDS. . . VELVETA...
HILLBILLY REPELENT...