Page 4 University Daily Kansan, January 28, 1982
Opinion
'Sin taxes' not enough
Life's little vices may become a little less fun - at least in Kansas.
Although President Reagan has dropped the idea of increasing excise taxes on luxury items, some Kansas legislators still think it is a good one.
Good enough, perhaps, to replace the proposed severance tax as a new revenue-riser for the state.
Some Republicans in the legislature are backing a plan to increase the taxes on cigarettes and alcohol to hold down property taxes and raise money for highway improvements.
A bill has been introduced in the House to raise the tax on cigarettes by 9 cents a pack. Another bill would add an additional nickel a six-pack to the price of beer. Together these bills could raise about $33 million, if Kansans keep on smoking and drinking at their present rate.
But some Kansans might decide after the
imposition of the taxes that it would be a good time to kick their habits.
The proposed severance tax would bring in about $125 million in additional revenue that Governor Carlin would like to use for public education.
It's hard to imagine how the luxury taxes, which at the most would bring in $833 million, could be used to avoid a tax that would bring in $125 million. Somebody hasn't done his arithmetic homework.
Unless there's a large sum of money hiding somewhere in the governor's $ billion budget, the excise taxes would, at the most, supplement the revenue raised by the severance tax.
Everyone in Topeka agrees that more money has to come from somewhere. The legislators would adopt the plan that promises the biggest returns, the severance tax.
Excitement of learning lost in 'weekend to weekend' life
When I was a kid, I was sure that learning was the greatest fun a person could have. Reading a new story, discovering a new word or a piece of music, turning me on even more than tar and dodge ball.
Most kids seem to share that love of knowledge. They haven't been in the world very long, after all, so naturally they're eager to become acquainted with it. Their curiosity is an intellect leaver of the mindless fascination he has for the simplest objects in his environment.
But, as we grow older, we become to "uncurious and un-curious." Knowledge by itself is no longer exciting, and school becomes something we have to go to. In our disen
TOM
BONTRAGER
chantment with learning, we turn to the mindless for entertainment.
A few individuals I know seem never to have their childlike inquisitiveness. For most, apt, curious and thoughtful.
This abandoning of the pleasures of learning is reflected in the popular culture of American youth, especially on college campuses. The University of Kansas, a large state school with a four-star college guide rating, is an excellent example.
By all appearances, a large number of KU students derive little or no enjoyment from activities of the mind. They prefer not to study in classroom settings, and are even less disposed to think in their spare time.
They would rather watch "I Love Boat!" than read a novel. They listen to music that is insultingly simplistic and poorly composed. In conversation, they follow the path of least resistance, discussing parties and the weather and avoiding issues of substance.
Many seem to live from weekend to weekend. Often the soul-life of the dorm or fraternity hall is one of a life of rest and leisure.
In some cases, "partying" (the infinitive, "to party") is so frequent it supersedes studying. "A study break," then, refers to the time one studies as a respite from going to parties.
I do not intend to condemn anyone for the
lifestyle he leads. Of the people I've described, I would only ask. "Why are you here?"
Perhaps we should step back and ask, What is the role of the university? I would answer, 1) to give those who seek it, exposure to a variety of academic disciplines, but mainly 2) to direct students toward critical thinking in all areas. The student, then, who has no interest in learning for its own sake flouts the purpose of the university.
Some attend college merely for career training. They often restrict their interests, labeling all fields outside their own as superfluous. They make statements like this: "English? Oh, I had that last semester, but it's over now."
Preoccupation with job-finding may be more prevalent now than it was a decade ago. The late 1960s were years of ethical turmoil whose immediate effects were felt for a few years afterward. The nation was more concerned with issues of belief, pacifism and civil rights. Now the economy is by far the most prominent public concern. Students are anxious to make themselves marketable, and they choose to be educated accordingly.
I realize I could never advocate restriction of access to universities, even for those who waste the opportunity to learn. They might never be detected, for one thing, and it is certainly true that some of those who initially abor learn learning to love it because of a particular instructor or course. It is also admirable that higher education enjoys nearly universal availability in this country. If only all who took advantage of it were sincere, it would be more admirable still.
It is dishearten to note that the emphasis of college curricula may be changing to suit the desires of students rather than their best interest.
In a recent column, the Wichita Eagle-Eacon argued that "colleges should teach students to use their minds as well as funneling knowledge into them" but also quoted a panelist for the Association of American Colleges, who remarked, "The current baccalaureate degree is a marvelous convenience for a mediocre society, putting passive acceptance at risk of being the dangerous myth that technical skills are more important than ethical reasoning."
If colleges are in fact altered by students' values, it will be up to the student to help correct his school's deficiencies. The typical student will learn about technology and enjoy learning more than he appears to now.
Such a drastic reversal, sad to say, is about as likely as regaining one's childhood.
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Believers still flock to City of Angels
LA isn't paradise.
I was dismayed when the radio in my apartment flashed a brief last weekend to let me know that two guys, Reggie Jackson and Christopher Cross, have decided to move. They are going to the land of activity and sunshine, the land of that glowing flow of popular "I": generation quasi-thought, that place Los Angeles.
I guess the attraction is there
It's an image town, a visual society. You don't talk ideas out there, you feel them, then act them out. You "take" meetings, a la the movie line for another try at the "scene."
Creativity dominates. It oozes out the edges of the pressure to produce. The image is the acme, and the facts are read in figures; you can dollar-in and dollar-out of the circuit. You have to plan your profile and produce images that demonstrate yourself. I am Beggie, I Chris ... BU my!
But what is the true reward? What happens after you make it, after you get quickly rich? Most careers are short-lived, and the great percentage of seakers of fame enlist themselves. "Do you know the way to San Jose?" But still they come, Creative souls.
They started coming as early as 1896. The Edison Film Trust in New York promoted shorts for showing between-vaudeville acts, but stopped any efforts to produce dramatic films with plots—beginnings, middle and ends. So the first creators, Jesse Lasky, Adolph Zukor, and Samuel Golfif, came west. They were the originators of what was to be one of the dominant media of the 20th century.
natural. It had the big studios, the people who knew how to put life on the screen, and the experience of making art for the whole nation to understand and be moved by.
And when television came along and needed production facilities, Los Angeles was a
Soon, the former mission, founded in 1783 by Spaniard Father Junipero Serra, had turned into the screen center. What is on it? It looks like a TV monitor. We get ideas and pictures of the world from
W.J. ANDREWS
I was jogging near my apartment one day while living in LA and had a strange deju vus I as passed a large house near the beach. A Colombo rerun. It all comes from out there.
And there's always been this rift between the Big Apple and the City of Our Lady, Queen of the Angels. Always discussion of art and creativity and their roots and centers. Unsophisticated Americans are drawn to New York because it is the place where Europe. At the same time, more European are coming to Los Angeles because they know it represents a vitality that is peculiarly American. It is no coincidence that in New York City the artist can
sung in rront of the boob. During prime time the pictures are all of Los Angeles. If there is a cop, he is an LA cop. If there is a divorced woman, she is in Los Angeles though she is supposed be in Des Moines.
name all the critics and not one producer. In La it's reversed.
The Vienna couch doctor of the East seem to have sway over the artists there.
The ethos of studying your faults and your childhood and your parents, and passing into a torpor of brooding self-analysis just won't work in Los Angeles.
LA is for action. There is no kudos for excellence in analyzing why you aren't getting IT done. Getting rich overnight in Los Angeles is not a dream, it is the model by which things happen. The dreamers never become millionaires however tomorrow.
And when people can see their fortunes in sight as close as the next morning they become frenetic finglers and hot-deal demons. Just one hit movie, one big record
... seven and a half points of the net, one dollar per album, 80 percent of the auditorium gate. One big shot and you're living like a sheik in Rel-Air.
This is the whole ball of wax once you've made it. Success is to get up in the morning, sit in the sun and wait for your agent to call. And if he doesn't call, never you mind. The investments are made. Who cares if your image—maybe your self-image—is history.
But why Reggie and Chris? A New Yorker and a Texan.
The turncoat Jackson and cowboy Cross don't seem cut out for the coast. But then again, there is the attraction. Reggie has his smile and his candy-bar image. And Chris has that laid-back Southern California swoon with a smile and I certainly don't have a house in Bel-Air.
No, LA isn't room for me, anyway.
Letters to the Editor
Kansan cartoon insulting to black fraternity
To the Editor:
Maybe the best way to provoke anger and retaliation in a person is to constantly insult him. Every black person in this great nation of ours is insulted almost daily on television, radio and now in the University Daily Kansan. The time has come to put a stop to it.
Joe Bartos' editorial cartoon accompanying David Henry's Jan. 25 column is a slap in the face to this organization, and should irritate every black person who walks the KU campus.
Why did the basketball player sketched have to be black? Are blacks more tempted to go along with illegals in recruiting? Does a whiff of money or the promise of a new car turn the head of black athletes more than those of whites? If so, what makes these are certainly no. So it seems that the Kansan is guilty of using the same technique used by many successful businesses.
*acdonald's isn't prejudiced, are they? They want blacks to buy burgers just like everyone else. So how do they push the product: By showing black people from all walks of life be-bopping down the street with a radio blasting and grins on their faces.*
Anheuser-Busch tries to reach black beer drinkers by showing a disc jockey and everyone groovin' to his music on their way to the neighborhood bar for a Bud.
And it isn't music, it's basketball. Coca-Cola, Pepsi and several other companies use the basketball stereotype to sell their products to blacks. It should make a black kid more likely to his parents. It could do such a thing.
New those of you—black and white—who are thinking, "That's all they do is play basketball and listen to music," this letter isn't directed at them. They should never be used to combat total ignorance.
*nus letter* is aimed at the black students of this university and anyone else who is wise enough to see that the black people of this nation are being played for genuine fools.
The time has come for all black people to simply say, enough! And this means actively protesting against what is unfair, shortsighted or biased. It means writing letters to the Kansas City mayor, asking him to speak up and telling people when you think something is unjust. As long as black students play the apathetic role that plagues so many people at KU we will be treated as second-class citizens; simplepets, who don't know that we see are people laughing at us—not with us.
The time has come for blacks to start demanding the respect that our forefathers fought so hard for, and if it means using the methods of Martin Luther King Jr. and other peaceful civil-rights leaders this organization is ready.
So we say to the Kansan that we will be fooled no longer. We won't be happy with just a picture of a black student every now and then, and only on the sports page. And we certainly will not accept a black face accompanying anymore stories or columns dealing with wrongdoing or scandal, unless, of course, a black person is personally involved.
Maybe it is time to take the streets again.
Because nothing else seems to be working.
Avvih A. Reid,
and the president
and members of Alpha Phi
Alphafunny Printer,
+
I have several questions for the KU parking committee that I'd like to ask in this public
Question 1: Where is a motorcyclist to park to visit the Kansas Union or the Spencer Museum of Art? Since one former lot has been taken for construction of the new alumni building, the
To the Editor:
Not enough parking
nearest place seems to be behind Bailey Hall, for those with blue permits.
The latest answer to these questions, made by Don Kearns, director of parking services, is that the matter will be studied this summer. But what are we motorcycleists to do in the meanwhile? The parking committee insists on retaining the rule that motorcyclists park only in motorcycle lots, or they will receive tickets. I know from experience that this rule is enforced.
Question 2: Where is a motorcycle to park to visit the Satellite Union ? Right now, the nearest airport is Birmingham.
J. Bunker Clark professor of music history
Question 3: Last April 2, the University
of Chicago paid $10,000 per parking
reduction from $17 to $14. You'll see it
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 Kanasan reserves the right to edit or reject letters.