Opinion
Page 4 University Daily Kansan, October 21, 1981
What price tolerance?
The United States has traditionally been known for, above all else, its dedication to freedom and justice for all. That ideal is at the basis of its Constitution, its laws and its general philosophy.
However, in days of great international turmoil and threats to national security, even Americans have trouble reconciling their belief in individual liberty with their belief in the need to defend themselves from forces of an evil, or worse, an unknown nature.
Nationalistic paranoia led to the formation of Japanese interment camps during World War II. Although we look back on that move with embarrassment and shame, it seemed justifiable in that time and with that national mood.
Since then, we have been faced with many questions about our treatment of the foreigners within our shores. One of the
most recent debates has been over the Iranian citizens living in the United States. What do we owe these people? Are they entitled to all the rights we have under the Constitution, or should those rights become privileges that are contingent upon people's attitudes about the United States and its leaders?
More important to a university community, what are our obligations for educating foreign students who seek admittance to American schools? For instance, is a student actively supportive of the anti-American regime in Iran entitled to the full benefits of an American education, which would be far superior, we presume, to that he could receive at home?
An opinion recently voiced by columnist Kevin Helliker to fellow Kansas members brought discussion of this issue. On today's page, Helliker offers his viewpoint, and Ben Jones responds with a counterpoint.
Educating Khomeini followers only benefits anti-U.S. forces
Days after the Hussein Yayli family from Jordan was ordered out of its subsidized apartment in Lawrence, the headline in the Kansan "Foreign students squeezed by housing law."
The subsequent story, which said the seven Yahigis were presently "cramped in a four-bedroom apartment," undoubtedly squeezed sympathy from those readers who would like each foreign student in the country to enjoy an unshared bedroom.
A related investigation conducted by the Kansas City Times suggests that the Kansas merely gathered superficial facts about foreign
KEVIN HELLIKER
students and public housing. Like many liberal publications, the Kansan occasion lumps all foreigners into a group as questioningly deserving of pity as the Starving Kids In Asia.
In a story published last Thursday, the Times revealed some incriminating truths about the liberties granted to foreign students in Lawrence.
First, the Times said nearly all foreigners who came to American for an education had to assure the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Services that they were financially independent. But, because these assurances are often forgotten once the applicant crosses the border, he passed a law last year forbidding foreign students from living in government housing.
Therefore, those foreign students who were "squeezed" out of public housing were merely being coerced into upholding their side of a previously made deal.
Second, the Times revealed that Hussein Yahi, a KU linguistics instructor who originally came to Lawrence for an education, had been paying only $76 monthly for government housing, even though he earns $1,122.22 a month at KU.
Don Murrel, executive director of the Lawrence Housing Authority, would not disclose to the Times the income listed on Yaygt's balance sheet. The amount was less than Yayhe's actual income.
Ironically, many of the people who read the
Kansan version of Yahgi's predicament with sympathy than the Jordanian family in question.
A third item in the Times story is neither as immediately astounding nor as financially suspect as the Yahgi host. But in a democracy that George Will described as "given to the modern disbelief in serious, irremedible evil," this item fully illuminates the absurd and scary conditions that arise out of extreme tolerance and complacency.
He probably faces deportation to Iran, where, according to fellow Iranians, he will be idolized by his country.
The Times found that one foreigner who stood to be "squeezed" out of public housing in Lawrence was Slavish Khagavi from Iran. Khagvi, who was arrested after a fight between rival Iranian groups at KU in September, no longer must worry about housing, however.
In short, then, Americans financially supported an Iranian who most likely will assume a government position in a country that applauds such anti-American acts as the recent assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.
Upon this point, the question of U.S. policy toward foreign students extends beyond the realm of economic ethics and into the area of national security.
One must wonder whether it is practically or morally advisable for Americans to educate pro-Khomeini Iranians who will later force forces with the most anti-American nation in the world.
But American interests in the Middle East aside, Khomeini is reprehensible. And his followers in America cannot separate approval of the man from approval of his harbinger acts.
Although universities such as KU pride
should not be simply compared to
ground schools should be simple in
preparation for earth.
History proves that not all living beings are equally good, nor all human actions equally acceptable. Just as this country demonstrated its disapproval of Soviet atrocities in Afghanistan, so should it publicly register its disapproval of Khomini's crimes.
A conscientious step toward this would be the refusal to educate any Iranian who admittedly was an American citizen.
It would be snobishly academic to argue upon reasons of principle that this country should educate those individuals whose intentions are to return to Iran and support the execution of children who don't believe the ayatollah is really the Moslem Santa Claus.
906/Burtos!
'OK men, get them foreigners . . . and that weird lady who's helping them.'
Politics no basis for denving education
All must be even in our government — You that employd, I will go root away The nonswee meal, that without profit such The soil's fertility from wholesome flowers.
Shakespeare. Richard II
The metaphor of a government as a garden has been a literary staple for centuries. We know from the Bard of Avon that he was a man who loved his country. It cost him the crown and finally, his life.
But the problem with pulling weeds out of one's garden is that potato plants are sometimes hard to distinguish from weeds, until uprooted to reveal a cluster of young potatoes, clinging in a network of roots and soil. There are times when it is best to leave the piñweed alone.
In an example closer to a, recent Kansan story quoted a single Iranian student who made a far-fetched supposition that violent support of the Ayatollah Khomeini by Iranian students in Iraq was crucial, possibly help those students step into high government positions when they returned to Iran.
Also quoted was an Egyptian economics professor who made the harmless acknowledgment that pro-Khomeini agitators at American universities would return to Iran as allies.
In our country, the string lines marking out the pea patch supposedly are staked far enough apart to be indistinguishable.
These quite ordinary statements, combined with the extraordinary example of one former KU student's rising political fortunes in Iran, have encouraged a radical notion of barring from Mount Oread those Iranians who support Khomeli. It is typical of the gardening work countries pursue in times of international tensions.
The desire to curtail the activities of those who politically oppose a country's goals has always been popular and superficially justifiable, as well as expedient. After all, one cannot have bad apples in the garden without bargaining for a bushel of trouble, can one?
thought. The principles of the Constitution are laid out to prevent a recurrence of the intolerant hysteria characterizing the Salem witch hunts, which had raged 100 years earlier.
Maybe our Founding, Fathers were naive. After our vows to maintain free political expression had been yellowing on parchment for more than 150 years, we were still feverishly against the "Tail-Guerner" Joe McCarthy had taken over for the Cotton Matter, but not much else had changed.
Communists are still high on the "witch-ter scale," but Iranians are now number one on the deport parade. Their presence in this country is predominantly felt at universities, which makes
BEN
JONES
us wonder why we educate those who may wish to use their education against us.
One obvious answer, of course, is financial. But I would hope there might be other considerations. To deny anyone an education through discrimination, even if politically motivated, seems to me immoral, illegal and impracticable.
The practicality of deciding which Iranians are safe to educate and which are not sets the policy at ease to tottering. Shall we educate only those who disown Khomeini? And who is to die? Is it safer for Iran to accept our policy change, if a new leader supplying Khoumbi becomes an anti-American as he is?
Philosophically, the policy goes against the grain of every truth ever penned by Thomas Jefferson, who had a profound faith in the ability of education to stabilize a commonwealth.
It seems reasonable to assume that most Iranian students, even those ardently supportive of Khomeini, would return home with a more moderate view than they would have if we had
never "indoctrinated" them with our "imperialist" ideas.
The legality of denying education to such persons is debatable, at best. The due process and equal protection clauses of the 14th Amendment read: “... nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
If "persons" here is interpreted literally to mean "persons," and not "citizens," which is used twice earlier in the amendment, then iranians are entitled to such fundamental constitutional rights as the protection of the First Amendment. Their deportation because of political beliefs would therefore be unconstitutional, unless a "compelling state interest" were shown.
If we refuse them education because of the possibility they will aid an opposition government, we judge them when we have no right, we judge them when we are not competent to bring and we sentence them to their own folly.
An education is more or less universally thought to be a good thing. As such, we have a moral obligation to provide education for all who seek it. A university's moral obligation ends at commencement. The University of Kansas cannot be held responsible for whatever diabolical designs its graduates may harbor. To prevent harm, the university's prisonment of the gun dealer who sold Lee Harvey Oswald the rifle he used to assassinate President Kennedy.
Jesus said, "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in Heaven. He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous." We cannot withhold our benefits from our enemies.
Letters to the Editor
This is very difficult to practice. It requires unwavering trust in the power of the eternal virtues of kindness and love to show themselves, and that their virtue cannot be swayed by exigencies of the moment.
SNA seeks to clarify stand on Stouffer housing policies
To the Editor:
This letter is in response to the Oct. 7 article concerning the proposed rent increase at Stouffer Place and the Stouffer Neighborhood Association's stand on this same issue.
The Stouffer Neighborhood Association is a representative assembly that provides an outlet for the residents of Stouffer Place to voice their opinions concerning the neighborhood in which they live. One of the key responsibilities of the SNA is to act as an intermediary between the office and the housing office headed by J.J. Wilson. Therefore, that the SNA and the housing office establish a working relationship in which both parties can openly communicate.
The people of Stouffler Place would like to take an active part in the decision-making process that affects them directly by being able to give feedback before definite decisions are made. This is not only beneficial for the residents of Stouffler Place, but also help the housing community in making sure the SNA was given this chance on the new lock-out, where were not given this chance on the issue of the recently completed parking lot for Jayhawker Towers.
The issue of the rent increase stems from the question of whether Stouffer Place is worth the price paid. In terms of price per square foot, Stouffer Place is not that inexpensive. Other questions that need to be addressed concern the approach taken in calculating new rates and the distribution of Stouffer funds. These points need to be addressed in order to justify the proposed rent increase, which right now is very confusing to many Stouffer Place residents.
These major points being clarified, we would be stretching the point by highlighting other
technical errors, misquotes and out-of-context passages included in the article. Suffice it to say that a newspaper such as this established its credibility by its objective reporting of facts and its providing of useful information that serves its readers. Whenever any newspaper reports on a controversial, complex issue in a superficial and fashion, that newspaper is failing in its role as a source of reliable information and is contributing to the public being misinformed and misled.
Perhaps we expect too much of aspiring journalists, or perhaps the spontaneous interview itself does not lend to accuracy and objectivity. Perhaps the only way to solve the problem is for SNA or any other organization to protect itself and the accurate dissemination of information by only issuing statements to the media. The latter entitles the serious problem and one the two of the SNA executive board think the Kansan should come to grips with.
SNA executive board Brian Liebel, president
Statue spirited away
In the dark of night on Wednesday, Oct. 7, two or more presumably husky persons removed a statue from the porch of my home at 1645 Louisiana St., bordering campus.
To the Editor:
On the chance that the theft was a prank perpetuated by spirited young campus personnel, I would ask the princksters to attend to its safe return. There is none like it for miles and hours. I would ask them to believe it to be nonreturnable, like a bottle that once held pleasure, I think they should be
possessed of its pedigree as well. Stone is only stone unless it was history, and so, I presure, is the
Missing and mourned: one large (3-4 feet tall, 2-3 feet long) plaster cast of the Lacoo group—a father, aged and bearded, standing between his two young sons. All are appropriately disbrobed, because they were about to enter the water for morning abulations, and are caught in the colds of a tremendous serpent sent by a god (according to Virgil, the goddess Athene) to punish Lacoo for his opposition to those Trojans who wished to bring the wooden horse within the city's gates. The only other copy, a life-sized figure, currently being kept with the Wilcox Museum collection, under what may only be described as exeable conditions of storage.
The Wilcox Museum copy stood at the back of a classroom, looming above the heads of students and striking a peculiar terror in the hearts of instructors who feared whatever wrathful gods may be, facing a class at 8 a.m. after running up 14th Street hill. Like our nightmares, lived with long enough, the experience became something to treasure.
My copy (more properly, the copy that was mine) is a gift from a friend and former student, who had purchased it at a sale of surplus items from the Baker University collection in 1956. I would have enjoyed having it because of an anecdote I had related about teaching in Old Fraser in 1988.
My student friend intended the gift for my office—to crowded, alas—and so I placed it on my porch, mute testimony to the many years the Walker, professor of classics, had resided there.
The statue must have little monetery value.
even in a world mildly insane about Victoria, for my student was not likely to spend much on an arming gift for an aging so-so professor. I am whimsical hope that someone played a prank.
Our world, I do believe, despite all signs to the contrary, is yet a kindly place, and readers of the Kansan still more kindly when the moment speaks of intellect or art. Should any reader of Kansan feel that his status in an unexpected haunt, I trust that he or she most graciously will see its return.
George F. Wedge
Associate professor of
English and Linguistics
PMOI redefined
To the Editor:
It is important to stress that the PMOI is an Islamic revolutionary organization that has struggled against the Shah, imperialism and Khomeini.
This is to refute a statement made in the Oct.
16 Kansas that the People's Mojajedin
Organization of Iran is a "Marxist terrorist
group." That is incorrect.
N. Charmchi
N. Charmani
Tehran, Iran sophomore
On behalf of the Supporters of the Mosium Student Society.
Up to now, the PMOI has formed the "National Council of Resistance," which is the largest democratic organization struggling against the Islamic State of the Shah's government and world imperialism.
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