Page 4 University Daily Kansan, November 3, 1981
Opinion
First things first
Libya sure is nasty.
It's led by a man who is considered—almost universally—to be insane. Col. Moammar Khadafy is his name, and he has a personal love for international terrorism, among other things. He also happens to think he is the new Mohammed, the gospel.
Khadafy doesn't like people to criticize him, especially his own people. In fact, he has a publicly-announced policy of "physical liquidation" of his political opponents, both at home and abroad.
To Americans, Khadafy has become public enemy number one, the embodiment of evil.
So it is only slightly ironic that the United States is still Libya's single biggest customer in the oil department, each day
buying about 200,000 barrels, or one-third of the North African nation's output.
It doesn't matter that the current oil surplus would allow the United States to pick up that oil somewhere else. It doesn't matter that the money Libya gets from oil sales goes to beef up the large tank force that menaces Egypt and Sudan, supposed friends of the United States, and generally contributes to the instability of the Mideast.
Nope, that can't hide the fact that oil is oil. And the business of America is business. President Reagan says we'd just be cutting off our noses to spit our faces if we dropped our financial dealings with Khadafy's regime.
But, he agrees, Khadafy has been doing some ugly things over there.
Yep, Libya sure is nasty.
How to get a student loan, as taught by Mr. Stockman
David Stockman does not believe that the federal government has any responsibility to investigate the case.
That well-publicized notion, he says, is behind the Reagan administration budget director's refusal to reconsider recent deep budget cuts in the college student loan program. It seems that too many of these students reneges on their loan agreements after graduation, leaving the government to tote the costs.
One would not want to underestimate the popularity of Mr. Stockman's idea. In fact, it
REBECCA
CHANEY
is not terribly difficult to understand the viewpoint of the middle-aged American working man who has never received a college education because his family could not afford it. Why should he be left holding the bag for some smart alek kid who refused to pay back a type of loan that wasn't even available when the working man needed it?
Then there are those who took seven years to earn a four-year degree because they had to work full-time to pay their way through school. Then they earned earning a college degree to be any easier.
In any case, the change in philosophy of the college loan program is, of course, one more instance of pushing more financial responsibility back to the private sector.
"I do not accept the notion that the federal government has an obligation to fund generous grants to anybody that wants to go where the Budgetman told the House Budget Committee Oct. 1.
"It seems to me that if people want to go to college bad enough then there is opportunity and responsibility on their part to finance their way through the best way they can."
Actually, for government and students, this is not such a bad idea.
You see. government would not have to
continue carrying the burdens of ungrateful students' fees, and students could pay their way with loans from private sources that, although more difficult to find, have even less access to means of enforcing repayment than the government has.
Nearly 15 years elapsed before Stockman saw fit, last July, to pay off a $300 interest loan from a church he had attended as an undergraduate at Michigan State University
Take Mr. Stockman for an example—here is the model of ingenuity in circumventing the problem.
The money was borrowed to help pay his costs for attending Harvard Divinity School, which Stockman entered, by the way, as a means of being deferred from the Vietnam draft, according to veteran's organizations in Vietnam veterans' programs.
Stockman had originally asserted that the loan had been paid back, until he received a letter in June from the Michigan church. Yet members of the church say they had sent six letters over a period of time, some by registered mail, asking for the money.
On well, Stockman really had nothing to worry about until the unpaid loan became public. Most churches don't employ heavies to encourage prompt repayment, nor are they likely to push a case through the court system for repayment, especially for such a small loan.
The cries of the press and the administration's opponents on learning of the crime are heard.
Stockman dismissed the criticisms as emotional appeal by people who had no other means to defend the loan program against the impending budget cuts.
Criticisms! Not from this quarter. We college students are quite grateful for the help.
We should have thought to play on the generosity of churches and civic organizations—a la Stockman—a long time ago.
Now we all know how to continue taking advantage of college loan programs, despite government cutbacks. And the public still ends up holding the bag.
That Reagan fella's making life hard
WASHINGTON—Dear Louise.
Well dearie, it looks like your old fella may be having an extended field trip here for a spell longer. You see, it seems that the sleek 1973 yellow Ford Pinto with only 90,000 miles, a cracked carburator and a leaky driver—you know the one I bought with my last student when we gave up the ghost on me. And you know what? I hear that it couldn't have come at a worse time.
Folks here tell me that this Reagan fella and his sidekick Stockman, the one that looks like my slickly cousin Warran with thick-rimmed glasses, they tell me that those two are going to take him to jail. This president says that the government can call him my schooling, but I got just one question for them.
Weeyzy, you can tell me why this is so. I heard talk that this president planned to rid the government of waste and fraud, so does that mean they have to take away my loan?
How am I going to buy myself a new car so I can get home and go back to school? I haven't ever cheated the government out of one cent and I depended on that loan money to help me better myself. And now when I really need the money they say it isn't going to come. So here I am, stuck with a pile of junk car that won't bring you money for scrap, and on top of that I won't be able to do Dodge Dart with everything but a windshield, because there aren't no student loan for this kid.
They say that the government is losing money on college kids like us. Oh sure, they say that there will be loans for some, but my folks don't have 12 kids and my pa makes more than $8,000. Meanwhile families like mine with 10 kids and I have a 6 year old son. These cases, except they don't realize that we are already so tight now we can hardly breathe. You know that they say for us, we borderline cases,
we can still apply for a loan, but I figured what's the use, because I'd get turned away anyway.
You know Louise, I was awful mad at first, when they told me my car was broken, because I knew I didn't have my loan to fix it or get a new one. But then I saw that Reagan man on TV and I cooled off quickly. You'll never belief who he is, sweetheart. Remember that night when we were all alone watching a movie about this man and his girlfriend. They're going on a movie star, the one you fell asleep on. That's our president and I bet you feel bad about snoozing on him now, don't you?
Anyway, I saw him again on TV the other night and he really struck my heart—he wasn't as
BRAD
STERTZ
boring as before. He told us all to be patient and to help him help us get back on our feet and I believed him. Why, I'd bet he believed him even if he'd wanted to cut the Army out of his budget to save money. But he's not going to do that because I heard him say he 'd put more money into the Army so the Russians can't take over some Persia Gulf.
And now he's having a tough time with Congress to get everything he wants to save Persia Gulf and I don't think that's quite right. After all, I decided to give up my new Dodge car. I did not choose it for our country and our Mr. Reagan, so why can't these students give us their silly arguments?
Hey Louise, I just got an idea. Maybe I can get one of those new jobs that Reagan said will be available.
I'll do, after all, who needs college? I never studied much anyway and besides, this sounds more fun. I'll get a job from that Private Sector Company and see if they can take care of me. In fact, I think I will go out tomorrow and in line for one of those jobs. Now, some folks have been telling me that there aren't any jobs out there. They say that this Reagan man is full of baloney and his program isn't working, but I know what I saw on TV . . . Still, maybe I should take my coat and a sandwich in case they are right—it could get cold out there.
You know though, if I do get a job with the Private Sector Company then I can make enough money for me to pay your way out here and then we could get married and settle down to buy a house. We could ourselves an American Way of Life. . . except I forgot about it when it broke. But we are and there's the high cost of housing. But still come out, won't you? We can find an old city house and fix it . . . we forgot about redevelopment loans being cut, too.
Weey, what are we going to do? What's wrong with this Reagan fells? I don't know whether to do what he says or not believe him at all. How can you be a good parent if your parents did? Sure, it's fine for him and his wife to live in that big old white house, but I'll bet he never has to eat on paper plates the time. And now his wife is going to buy China at that price. But what does that money these older folks flare around?
Louise, there just isn't much left for us. All these folks have fancy new tuxedos and big fancy limepieces and all I want is a new 1974 Dodge Charger and everything a little rust and everything except a windshield.
Can't wait to see you, Brad.
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Letters to the Editor
Homebirth provides viable alternative to hospitalization
To the Editor:
The Oct. 20 Kansan contained a story quoting a KU iomedical center obstetrician, Rosemary Schepfer, who said that hospitals, with trained obstetricians and high technology devices, were intrinsically safer for childbirth than midwife-assisted home births.
Also, studies have indicated that only about 25 percent of all homebirths are reported. Such reported homebirths contain, however, 100 percent of all the homebirth morbidity and mortality; parents who perceive a potential or unplanned homebirth may be referred to the hospital, while parents who do not perceive problems do not report their birth to a hospital as often.
Fortunately, the facts do not support Scheper's musings.
The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology has, for several years, circulated this false rumor, backed up by fairy tale statistics that reveal more about the lack of methodological expertise among its membership than anything else.
The best study documenting the safety of midwife-assisted homebirth was done by a Dr. Mehl and presented at the 1976 meeting of the American Public Health Association. The study used a matched set of mothers in home and hospital birth groups. In almost every case of potential childbirth complication, the homebirth was safer than the much safer outcomes than did the hospital group.
For example, it is common for ACOG members to lump spontaneous abortions and miscarriages into the homebirth category, along with babies born en route to the hospital.
This observation is not confined merely to Mehl's study. Vitally every properly constructed study contrasting the care of obgyns to midwives comes out in favor of the midwives.
The ACOG cannot provide any studies to challenge this statement because there are none available.
The high-technology, "space-age," surgically-
oriented procedures invoked in the name of "safety" in today's typical hospital-birth are really the causal mechanism for most of the experiences by mothers and babies in the hospital.
Witness the scandalous national average of 13.9 percent Caesarean deliveries in the United States (1978). Many European nations, with better overall infant mortality than the United States, have Caesarean rates of less than 1 percent. Also, many such country deliver babies in midwife-operated, out-of-hospital clinics.
Schepfer is flat wrong in labeling the current alternative birth movement as merely a post-flower-child fed lingering since the 1960s. Most babies in the United States were delivered by midwives before the 1930s, when the American Medical Association seized political power and now law midwifery and other health-care entities such as homeopathy, naturopathy and herbalism.
The bottom line is that every baby born at home costs a nearby hospital up to several thousand dollars. This is, along with some true benefits of the practice, including ob-gyn opposition to birthbeg and midwifery.
James DeMeo Lawrence graduate student and member of the National Association of Parents and Professionals for Safe Alternatives in Childbirth
James DeMeo
Pets worth expense
To the Editor:
In an Oct. 28 editorial, Brian Levinson argued that American pet owners were responsible for the fact that some of their fellow Americans were starving and freezing to death. After all, if we pet owners didn't spend all of that money on food could be donating it to charitable organizations.
I assume that it follows that Brian and all other pet-owners take the money they save each
month from not owning a pet and turn it over to charity. Brian, your generosity overwhelms me!
Obviously, as the poor are still with us, some of this money must be being funneled away to purchase beer, pizza, stores, sports cars and other items for which there are booming markets.
I will willly bypass $12.50 a month for these items to maintain my pet. This maintenance figure covers just about everything except pet food, and I extremely well-cared for, medium-sized mutt.
And what do I get in exchange for this major investment of $12.50 a month? On at least one occasion my dog has saved me from probable serious injury or death, and who knows how many times his barking alertness has scared away would-be criminals. I know for a fact that my dog would lay down his life for mine. How many human beings would do the same?
And how do you measure the monetary value of the endless times that my dog has been there to offer his love and devotion in a world that is largely unloving and unkind?
Better a living dog
There are other questions we could debate, Mr. Levinson, such as whether only human life is valuable, how you propose to go about the question with animals, etc., but I will leave them for another day.
In closing, may I just say that the next time someone (human or canine) bites you, I hope that your owner stops to consider whether you're worth the money it it takes to stick you up.
Enjoy your beer!
Ruth Leavitt
To the Editor:
The number of stories in the Kansas this year that castigate pets and pet owners has surprised me. The most recent, which discussed "pooch coddling" to excess, may serve as exemplum. I choose my words carefully here, in order that I not overstate my view.
Brian Levinson's column exhibits one of the more abominable positions I have encountered in the Kansan this year. I find his discussion to be somewhat asinine and perverse, a rather palpillianous foray on pet holders and their pets.
Though Brain's figures fall far short of the amount of money spent for pet health care, correcting the figures still would not cover up the nefarious and intolerant tone of his views. Such a dictionary to define what a pet is deserves can be taken lightly as an authority on the subject.
Obviously all people do not value the experience of coming home to a tail-wagging dog. But for many who do, the distinction between the person in "in the in keeping of a pet makes little sense at all.
Recent studies on the physical benefits that accrue to those who keep pets speak profoundly of the positive impact a pet can have on its owner's health.
If you think $100 a year for insurance exceeds the "utilitarian" value of a pet, consider again the Ecclesiastical admonition, "A living dog is for your safety," (9:4). Ask your psychiatrist what that means.
Darryl K. Wenner
Barry R. Weiner
Nampa, Idaho, graduate student
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