Opinion
Page 4 University Daily Kansan, February 19, 1982
What price for fame?
Loyal Jayhawks, our chance for lasting fame is here.
In a few short months KU students might see some of their very own classmates as Plavboy playmates.
Of course, crimson-and-blue-blooded hearts were thrilled when the University of Kansas received a four-star rating in the "New York Times Selective Guide to Colleges."
And many a Jayhawk's breast puffed with pride when KU's campus was named one of the most beautiful in the nation.
And some students probably experienced a touch of excitement when a letter in Ann Lander's column announced that Lawrence was a great place to meet a husband.
But now, Playboy readers across the nation will find out that KU is a truly great university.
Because along with its insightful articles filled with social and political comment, Playboy might run insightful pictures of KU women in the feature "Girls of the Big Eight."
Any other attempts to build KU's reputation will seem small next to the willingness of these students to bare all for KU.
Of course, the women who pose for the pictures will be doing so of their own volition, but think what valuable publicity their efforts will generate for the University.
Next fall, the pretty woman who sits next to you in one of your classes could be smiling from the glossy pages of Playboy's back-to-school issue.
We'll certainly have something to be proud of then. Won't we?
Rule could cause problems by opening communication
When teen-agers use birth control, their parents ought to be told—or one man in Washington, D.C. is saying. A daughter's should be given consent that the mother should be open to family discussion he says.
Unfortunately, Richard Schweiker is also a man with the court to make his wishes into action.
Schweiker, secretary of health and human services, has promised to issue a rule that federally subsidized family-planning clinics notify patients within 10 days after a girl 17 years old or younger is given contraceptives. The state will next several weeks'. "Schweiker said last week."
In his previous announcement, he said that the regulation would apply to females only. Apparently,young men will be able to acquire birth control devices without the clinics calling home.
JEFF THOMAS
In Lawrence, both the Lawrence-Douglas County Family Planning Clinic and Haskell Indian Junior College provide the federally aided services, state officials said. Sixty-four of the 105 residents of Kansas were married or living year, about 41,000 Kansas of all ages, more than 98 percent of them women, receive the services.
Nationally, about 500,000 people under 17 years of age receive birth control supplies from clinics
By giving contraceptives to teens without them, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention between them, Schweitzer said.
While Schweiker's intentions to bolster the family may be honorable enough, he seems to have a wall of his own blocking his unrivaled of the young women he's supposed to be servicing.
For the good of American families, Schweiker wants to unclog the lines of motherly and fatherly advice to young women. And he's used federal muscle to pry open the channels.
Most teenage women who come to the clinics have been sexually active for at least six months. Mary Whiten, section chief for family planning programs in Florida, said she has not been given any form of birth control.
"A lot come to us because they think they're pregnant," Whitten said.
The clinics typically give the young women a series of services including pregnancy tests, medical examinations, private counseling, group education, nutrition information, personal and written explanations of birth control, and, if the teen-agers wish, contraceptives.
Now, ponder: How could adding notification to parents—that their daughter is taking precautions against pregnancy—better serve the health of the teen-age woman?
Of course, Schweiker is probably right in hoping that parents be involved in their teen's growth toward responsible sexuality. But surely the time for the talk on the birds and the bees is before a daughter has been sexually active for months and is using a contreactive.
Schweiker's proposal is like calling the fire department after a furniture store has installed a ceiling sprinkler system. The decision for this might not be for the fire trucks would only upstay the town folk.
Whether from foresight or fear, these young women are already seeking birth control from competent authorities. Calling mom and dad, and the stormy scenes at the dinner table that would often follow, can only frustrate young women by saying to take responsibility for their own bodies.
Yet, if Schweiker's proposal becomes effective, many teens won't let the situation reach the explosion-point at home. If the daughter had been exposed to the vaccine, the probably won't go to the clinic in the first place.
And that's exactly the fear of the counselors who work most closely with the young women.
One counselor, Ann Bentmanan, is a health educator at the Topka-Shawnee County Health Department, an office which provides family planning services to about 500 teenagers each planning time.
"If notification is required the majority probably wouldn't come to us," she said. "They are afraid their parents will do something to them." "It will," she said, with a serious tinge to her chuckle.
Of course, even for the teen-agers who avoid the clinics, private physicians and pharmacies would still be available. The problem would then become cost.
Federal law requires that the clinics charge according to each individual's ability to pay. On a rough average, the services a teen-aged woman in Kansas receives for $5 or less would cost $20 or more from other sources, Whitten said.
"Many times they have very little money," she said. "Very often we don't charge at all."
Sadly, a move to open family communication may leave more teens starting their own
"I'm sure most would go ahead with sexual activity if birth control was available at all to them."
Young people across the country, including young Kansans, have claimed the freedom to sexual relationships. Even Schweiker's notification can't stifle those actions.
KANSAN
Instead, the regulation will only make it more difficult for young women to take on the responsibilities.
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Letters Policy
The University Daily Kansan welcomes letters to the editor. Letters should be typewritten, double-spaced and should 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 his class and home town or faculty or staff position. The Kansan reserves the right to edit or reject letters.
Pot Shots
Last week, about 1,000 other people and I crowded into a local church to hear the Jullard String Quartet. We all got more music than we bargained for.
The strains of the first quartet had barely exploded, and the tenor in the balcony exploded into a couchiness.
The snow has melted, and we are saved.
After the first fit subsided, I assumed the poor, sick soul had left and gone home to work.
But just as I sat back and started to enjoy the quartet, his cough again sang out with
Of course, it will probably snow in March, but the temperature is above freezing, and for now we can put away the heavy down coat, hiking shoes, scarves, stocking caps and long underwear. No need to worry about the cold weather, because it will cover the winter—most of it was extra clothes.
We had fog most of the week, and the sun isn't ready alone just give it time. The sun is out. Give it some light.
This winter's snow was like a houseguest
Most students took their first tests of the semester this week.
The subject of my first exam is sleep.
As I reviewed my notes, I learned that while people sleep, not only does a pasty film cover their mouths, but their blood pressures, hearts and breathing rates relax. Also, people relax more when they are dreaming than when they are sleeping peacefully.
added vigor. Being the die-hard Beetoven fan that he must have been, he stayd right there among the audience, refusing to let his audience keep him from enjoying the concert.
Experts claim that people need to sleep and dream to refresh frazzled nerves, which work better when they are calm.
The couchers kept on coughing and the quartet kept on playing I think. I couldn't hear the strings anymore for the coughing. That's what Elain's how moving furiously back and forth.
Yup. We got more music than we bargained for at that concert. But I'm not sure the extra songs are worth it.
His virtuosus must have inspired latent coughs in the rest of the audience because soon we had a cacophonic cough of coughing. A staccato soprano cough in the front. A wheezing baritone due on the side. A medley of throat clearing throughout the audience.
Dan Torrelia
who stayed too long. Sure, it was nice for a while, but the welcome was quickly worn out.
Snow is appropriate in certain places, like in Colorado or the Himalayas. Snow is not appropriate on, say, Ninth Street, which you slide down trying to get to Iowa Street.
The same goes for cold weather. Cold is unnatural. There is nothing worse than walking down Jayhawk Boulevard with a -20 windchill in your face, knowing that you could have received the same quality education in Florida or Arizona. The best climate is one where you have to wear shorts and sip amaretto and orange juice to stay cool.
To those who say we need cold weather to balance the warmth, to keep things interesting, I say nonsense. That's why God created air conditioners.
Because people usually wake up right after the sun sets, we remember best their last dreams of the night.
may be a test run of nerve circuits, and when a test run shows the nerves are refreshed and working properly, the brain sends a wake-up call to the rest of the body.
My notes also mentioned that people have different brain waves when they are aleep from when they are awake. While awake, people's brains emit alpha, beta or theta waves. While dreaming, people's brains act as if they were awake and emit beta waves, but when they are in a deep sleep without dreams they emit delta waves.
Studying sleep is fascinating, but, as the night and the facts rolled on, I longed for more.
Somebody help me! I feel intense delta activity approach, and I haven't finished
Letters to the Editor
Commissioner unhappy with Gleason's letter
I view this recall petition as living proof of the principle of popular sovereignty, which means, very simply, rule by the people. This principle is based on the principle of alternative process and I see nothing improper about it.
Other commissioners have called news conferences to discuss the recall of Lawrence City Commissioner Tom Gleason. I am simply availing myself of the same opportunity. I might add that I did not consult with the mayor about this news release.
To the Editor:
How can anyone call an expression of the people an improper act? Whether it succeeds or not, the principle is a valid one. Just as the police are called to a city commissioner be recalled by the people,
Now, as for the letter that was written calling for the resignation of the city manager, Gleason admits to the authorship. However, I wish he has given it more importance, and he has given as to how the letter was made public.
He also stated that he took it upon himself, without consulting other commissioners about his action. I look upon this action as irresponsible and unethical, as well as displaying a crass ignorance of the city manager form of government.
In this form of government, no single commissioner has any power on his own. The hiring and firing of a city manager certainly must be done by a majority of the whole commission.
I would simply ask our citizens to read Gleason's letter to the city manager calling for his resignation and make up their minds for themselves.
It is my personal opinion that this letter
is written for me or in search and not a city
commissioner of law.
Also, I would urge you to read the charges on the petition carefully, read the letters to the editor in the local newspaper and make your own decision whether Gleason should be recalled or not.
Donald Binns.
Donald Dinkley
Lawrence city commissioner
Planning not poor
To the Editor:
I am writing to reply to a letter from Bob Dowdy and Alan Rowe regarding what they perceived as the poor planning of the AURH elections.
First, I am prepared to agree with them, in that information regarding the elections seemed somewhat vague at the Feb. 11 General Assembly meeting. However, the dates were set about a month. These dates were announced at the first General Assembly of the spring semester.
Further, if Dowdy and Rowe would recall, it is the responsibility of AURH representatives to report information about AURH to their respective halls. If either had done his job, such information could have been available at a very early date for the residents of Templein and Ellsworth wards.
Granted, definite information regarding policies and penalties of campaigning was not immediately available because of confusion about the location of the elections file, but once efforts were made on the part of various AUHR staff to contact the information was easily available for all the residents.
Dowdy and Rowe also said that ample time was not allowed for candidates to take the initiative to run and complete the necessary steps. Apparently this is not such a difficult task, because these gentlemen have managed to show their interest and are currently accomplishing tasks in an efficient manner. In concern, the members of the General Assembly should have voiced their opinions in the form of a
Ads ran in the University Daily Kansan the day before, as well as the day of, Dowdy and Rowe's letter to the editor, information packets and posters were distributed to all the halls before the letter ran and the AURI office phone "secret" elections.
motion or an appeal to the elections chairman—but neither occurred at the Feb. 11 meeting.
I regret any inconveniences to any interested residents. If there are still concerns or questions, I would encourage those people to contact Karin RUH ECH elections chairman, or to call me at home.
Brenda Darrow AURH president
Computers break bond
To the Editor:
By computerizing enrollment (a luxury for which guess who will pay), the University of Kansas has eliminated the only event that brought together every student in the University.
Admittedly, this semi-annual ritual was deficient in social amenities, but it was an event, and one in which hundreds of thousands of students have participated. It was a joke, a rather sour joke, but at least a freshman joke, one of the few foods (good and freshman English) that has persisted.
One day not too far in the future, we shall all look back with nostalgia to those times when there were such things as fallible human bank tellers and living check-out cashiers in supermarkets. We shall wax sentimental for surly police officers who once ticketed cars and are now replaced by robots with whom all remembrance is vain.
Our hearts will yearn for gray-haired ladies in plastic mittens who dispensed dorytical fries. It is even possible that students will regret their failure to wear mittens, when their obsolescence, will shed a tear when they remember that there were once living students who swarmed about Mount Aureol, but are now represented by computer terminals that beep when in a language known only to themselves.
Dennis B. Quinn,
Professor of English