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Friday, October 6, 1989 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Abortion pill gives women a safe, responsible choice
The French abortion pill, RU-486, must be made available in the United States.
After its introduction in France about a year ago, the pill's manufacturer withdrew it for a short time because of threats from anti-abortion groups. A French minister commented when it was returned to the market that "RU-486 is the moral property of women." That is true.
The Supreme Court has cases on its docket that likely will further tighten the circumstances when a woman can receive a medical abortion. In the face of those inevitable limitations on a woman's right to abortion, it is important that we look at options that won't require a visit to an abortion clic or hospital.
The pill fits that bill.
One problem in the United States is that we must endure a large, well-organized, well-financed anti-bortion lobby.
That is compounded by the fact that most pro-choice proponents are not as vocal as their opponents, and legislators have been swayed from their convictions. There is pending legislation that would prevent the FDA from approving RU-486 for use in the United States.
Do we want our legislators deciding which drugs will be available?
There, the pill is administered only by clinics and with close supervision. The pill is only effective during the early stages of pregnancy. RU-486 allows a French woman to act responsibly and terminate her pregnancy, thus keeping an unwanted newborn from facing despair, lack of care and maybe even death. Not to mention the countless lives that otherwise would have been lost to botched back-alley abortions.
The pill could be used in the United States with the same restrictions used in France.
If the Supreme Court continues to limit abortion rights and if our legislators continue to refuse to allow the use of this pill, that death toll again will be on the rise in this country. But that blood will be not only on the hands of our Supreme Court and our elected officials; it will be on the hands of all of us who believe in a woman's right to control her body, but who are silent in the face of this threat to her rights.
Ric Brack for the editorial board
Commission should lead Lawrence war on hunger
People are going hungry in Lawrence.
And city commissioners are being unduly reluctant in taking a leading role to solve the problem.
The president of KU Students Against Hunger Inc. presented the City Commission with a petition on Tuesday asking the commission to start a mayor's task force to investigate the hunger issue. About 2,000 students, residents and merchants signed the petition.
signed the position. Although commissioners expressed interest in the proposal, they were concerned a task force might duplicate the efforts of other private agencies such as the United Way.
other private agency. Granted, a task force that is redundant would be a waste of resources, but commissioners should jump at the chance to take the lead on this issue.
Mayor Bob Schumm has said a task force would be a very dramatic step. Exactly. It would direct the community's attention to the problem and also attract its input for making sure the problem gets solved. A task force also would add credibility to the notion that hunger cannot be ignored in Lawrence.
Furthermore, the commission should encourage the involvement expressed not only by KU Students Against Hunger but by other agencies and individuals. A task force with a commissioner as chairman would guarantee direction and foster community and University cooperation.
The recent petition reveals that city residents and the University are ready to take part in an effort to eradicate the hunger problem in Lawrence. Commissioners should seize this community energy and focus it to ensure the swiftest and best solution. A mayor's task force on hunger seems ideal.
No one should go hungry in Lawrence. Daniel Niemi for the editorial board
News staff
David Stewart...Editor
Ric Brock...Managing editor
Daniel Niemi...News editor
Candy Wiemann...Planning editor
Jan Dell...Editorial editor
Jennifer Corser...Campus editor
Elaine Sung...Screenwriter
Laura Huser...Photo editor
Christine Winner...Art/Features editor
Tom Eben...General manager, news adviser
Business staff
Linda Prokop ...Business manager
Debra Martin ..Local advertising sales员
Jerre Medford ..National/regional sales员
Jill Lowe...Marketing director
Tami Rank...Production manager
Carrie Slaninka..Assistant production manager
Margaret Townsend ..Co-op manager
Eric Hughes ..Creative director
Grant Deebol ..Classified manager
Jeff Messey ..Tees勒销售员
Jeanne Hines ..Sales and marketing advises
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Communism severs Chinese family
My oldest cousin was supposed to get married this year.
But right now, I don't know if he is even still alive.
That's the way things are in the People's Republic of China. The communication is so bad that my family still doesn't know who survived the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing.
And in light of the bloodshed, the executions and the hypocrisy, the 40th anniversary of the Communist revolution in China doesn't really mean a whole lot. does it?
What I read about in the papers is, of course, the American view of what is going on. Conservatives and liberals will both spout off, agreeing that the celebration is just a farce.
But they are arguing about politics and theories and how this is such a triumph of capitalism over the scourge of communism. They laugh in glee at the thought of Karl Marx rolling over in his grave.
I, however, do not care anymore about the ideologies of political science. I'm tired of that. I shall be the first to agree that communism no longer suits China, but I think it did work — for almost four decades.
I'm considering a different perspective to the situation — the human side. I have no choice. My family is over there, about 100 relatives all together. No one is certain about the casualty figure, but I know it is high. I know that many sacrificed their lives for a cause they believed in. My cousin may have been one of them.
But. you see, no one knows.
But, you see, I do not have the same perspective of the situation as other Chinese in the United States. I'm not as emotionally attached to China as the immigrants. I'm first-generation Chinese, and in 1978, which was the only time I visited, the people were recovering from the aftermath of an earthquake, not a governmental tantrum.
But I am still Chinese, proud and aware of my
Elaine Sung Sports editor
heritage - and worried to death about my family.
herself.
The week before the incident, my great-uncle, an immigrant, went back to China to see our family. Everything was relatively peaceful at the time, and no one thought twice about his trip. Then the violence started, and all we could do was wonder why we didn't see it coming, why we didn't stop him.
But he came back intact, and we plied him for information. He had none. Everyone was confused as to which couch was at the university, which aunt was in Beijing, or was it neighboring Tianjin?
My family usually took a lot of pride in China's "Independence Day." We'd have a big dinner, my mom would use real Chinese china, my great-aunt would give us money, and it would be fun.
But this year, my mom said to hell with it. And she was raised in the Communist school of thought, so it was quite a shock when she told me there would be no celebrating at home. It's almost a religion to her.
Politics don't even matter to my father anymore. He's from Taiwan, of the Nationalist Party, so of course our dinner table conversations were always at near-riot levels. Politics used to be a big deal.
None of that matters right now. Mom said the day wasn't worth anything because we didn't know whether to give thanks or to mourn.
My mom had taught me to try to understand
communication a little, to give it a chance. I've since
learned that in the United States, being sympathetic to communism is . . . well, bad. You look Chinese, you're equated with communism. (I'm a moderate Democrat - registered, by the way, and I was born in New York.) I've been called a commie jerk, a chink, and oh most definitely, I've been told to go home.
Even with all the taunts, the jeers and the spit, I still held that communism could work. If the people accepted it, it was nobody's business what theory the government practiced.
But after June, I was forced to do some soul searching and especially this week. I still cannot bring myself to condemn communism. Was it the theory that destroyed the peace, or was it a group of 80-year-old tyrants?
I looked at the issues of Time and Newsweak that I had saved and wondered if there were any cousins or uncles and aunts in the midst of their own hell.
our helm.
I stared at the photo that I dug out from the family albums when I went home this summer. It was a group shot of my mother's side of the family at a seside hotel — a bunch of dirty, happy children who just came in from playing in the sand, a group of proud uncles and aunts, a couple of surly great-auits, my mother and her contented father, the patriarch. I cried, realizing that it was the picture of a family united for the first time in 20 years.
That picture will never be the same again. My grandfather died last year — before the turmoil started, thankfully before people started dying again for a cause that I'm not sure will ever be fulfilled. I don't know who else from that picture is missing. I don't know if my cousin ever got married.
And I don't know if I will ever be able to go back.
> Elaine Sung is a Rochester, N.Y., senior majoring in journalism.
'ASK ME!' plugs quality education
This week at the University of Kansas, students will be pleading "ASK ME!" These students represent Associated Students of Kansas, a lobbying organization that represents the seven universities in the Board of Regents system. ASK Awareness Week (October 2-6) is intended to raise the consciousness of students, faculty and the concerned public about the organization and its work at the Leisilature in Topeka.
Since its creation in 1973, ASK has served student interests by lobbying for reasonable limits on tuition increases, higher minimum wage for students, higher state scholarships and increased financial aid.
Current issues that ASK is working on include the Youth Education Service, which provides financial aid to college students who work with at-risk students in local public schools, and the Margin of Excellence financing proposal.
The Margin of Excellence is the Board of Regents three-year plan to bring the total financing of its seven institutions to 95 percent of their schools and to bring faculty salaries to 100 percent of their peers.
In 1987, before the first year of Margin financing.
Sherri L. Sweers
Guest columnist
KU's faculty salaries were 88.5 percent of our peer average and the school was losing top instructors. The overall financing was 82.2 percent lower. For example, since 1985, Regents institutions have faced a $7.1 million decrease in acquisitions financing for libraries. By bringing our schools up to the level of financing of their peers, Kansas higher education can remain competitive.
Regents schools then will be able to attract the best instructors, top graduate students (who may end up as teaching assistants), larger research grants, and higher quality undergraduate students from within the state.
After the first two years of the Margin there is evidence that the quality of the student body at KU is improving, indicated by the increasing number
of National Merit scholars and the higher ACT scores among incoming freshmen. More Kansas students are staying within the state to receive their education. New faculty have been hired and fewer are leaving.
The success in gaining Margin financing has been considerable. In the first year, 83 percent of the requested funds were received; last year 100 percent of the request was honored. This will be a tight year for the budget, however, and it is important that the last year of the Margin is approved. Our goal has not been reached.
Students represent our future and providing them with a quality education ensures that future. This is ASK's goal and we want to make it yours. You can help by stopping at one of the tables set up by ASK at Wescoe Hall or the Kansas Union and writing a short letter to the governor.
writing a statement
Clip this column and send it to your legislator.
Show him or her that you are concerned with the future of higher education in Kansas and that you think this important investment should be made for Kansas' future.
> Sherri L. Buevers, Green River, Wyo., senior, is the ASK Director.
CAMP UHNEELX
BY SCOTT PATTY
I DON'T KNOW ABOUT YOU, BUT
THESE WERE THE BEST
LOOKIN' OLD FOGIES
I'VE EVER SEEN.
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