UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN editorials
Unsigned editors represent the opinion of the Kansan editorial staff. Signed columns represent the views of the
February 9,1979
Be wary of candidates
A movement is afoot in the United States that eventually could have disastrous consequences for the American economy and, in turn, the entire American political system.
No, it isn't the work of a shadowy underground sect or of a flamboyant political organization. It is instead the product of Democrats Kennedy and Brown and Republicans Connally, Reagan and Crane, one of whom could become the next president of the United States.
The idea that these men—men who normally never would be mistaken for political bedfellows—could agree on anything is absolutely mind-boggling.
It also is absolutely true.
The rallying issue for this diverse group is inflation, which is shaping up as the most powerful force in the 1980 presidential election. Indeed, the inflation issue is showing signs of becoming the most powerful issue to hit presidential politics since the Vietnam War turned the 1968 election outside down.
OF COURSE, it is the nature of the game that politicians adopt the most fashionable policies, for those are the policies that produce their lifeblood—votes.
Given that basic tenent of politics, the early stages of the presidential campaign have been a flood of candidates running to exploit the current dissatisfaction with inflation and big government.
Unfortunately, that rush has produced some zany, and often dangerous, solutions to the problem.
The most popular of the new proposals has been a call for a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced federal budget. California Gov. Jerry Brown, former Texas Gov. John Connally and Phil Crane have all
endorsed this measure, despite its dangerous rigidity.
Other, more bizarre measures have included a novel proposal by Connally for ending the deficit in the balance of payments, which measures U.S. transactions with foreign countries.
The failure of our leaders to address these increases focuses on a basic problem with the new economic curealls. Our presidential candidates are busy making flashy proposals that sound good and attract attention, rather than attempting to introduce solid measures that will slow inflation and improve the quality of life.
As voters, it is incumbent upon us to ignore these ineffectual attempts to win our votes and look, instead, for a candidate with honest proposals that address pressing concerns.
"I WOULD simply say to our trading partners that by a certain date we are going to bring our balance of payments into equilibrium," he said, adding that he would manage this by telling nations like Japan, "If we can't enter your market, you can't enter our market."
So far, no candidate has met that test.
Voters need to decide on liquor by the drink
Sadly enough, Connally's proposal is mild compared with some of the wild ideas generated by the current batch of presidential candidates.
But what all these playground measures are missing, besides a degree of sincerity, is a special attempt to deal with what is probably the largest cause of runaway inflation—the soaring cost of daily necessities such as food, health care and energy.
THOSE COSTS which increased at a rate of nearly 11 percent last year, compared with an increase of slightly more than 6 percent in the cost of non-necessities.
But one area had changed.
THE NEW revelation appears promising and proponents feel it might pass in the Senate. However, chances for approval in the Senate is limited, as it is required for endorsement, appear slim.
The liquor by-the-drink issue reappeared recently in the Kansas Legislature, accompanied by all to familiar arguments for and against its passage.
A Senate committee approved a resolution to place an amendment on the 1980 election ballot that would remove the constitutional ban on open saloons and give counties the option whether they wanted linger by the drunk.
A statewide刃by-the-drink proposal was defeated by Kannan voters in 1976, but it remained a problem until 2014.
House and Senate representatives have, in the past, struggled between voting as their conscience dictates or as their conservative constituents demand.
In last November's general election, 13 Kansas counties approved the sale of liquor in restaurants. But only one month later the Kansas Supreme Court declared that liquor by the drink violated the Constitutional mandate against open saloons in Kansas.
Under the resolution, which was sent to
the full Senate, voters in the 1980 general
election voted to open saloon ban out of the Constitution. At
the same time, voters in each county would
decide whether they wanted to legalize the
sale of mixed drinks in bars, clubs and
cars.
nat same pressure looms again this year.
For example, State Sen. Tom Rehorn, D-Kansas City, told members of the Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee to vote their conscience.
"I want to say to all my colleagues, if people in your districts oppose this, be statesmen and vote your conscience," he said.
OF COURSE, if a legislator fails to represent his district, rely instead on his own counsel.
Jake
Thompson
representation will be removed. The
public expects the performing the duty as
the public expects.
And it seems that over an issue as controversial as liquor by the drink, the concerns of the public should be accurately represented, even to the point of direct voter
Every person in Kansas should have the opportunity to vote for or against liquor by the drink. That is their constitutional right of freedom of choice.
But there are several obstacles to that right, the main one being lobbying by the Rev. Richard Taylor Jr., president of Kansans for Life at its Best
TAYLOR ARGUES that if the resolution is passed, legalized sale of mixed drinks outside private clubs will increase consumption and lead to more alcoholism, drunken driving and lost human productivity.
But, if the House or Senate defeats the resolution they will be taking responsibility away from a public which elected them to office.
But, it's not Taylor's responsibility to act as the conscience of the people.
Those claims may be true.
Every U.S. citizen has the right to be governed by his own conscience over the issue of how much alcohol he or she consumes.
The resolution before the Senate should be passed to insure more direct voter representation in the liquor-by-the-drink issue. If passed, voters would have two opportunities to defeat it, either on the open saloons matter or on county choice.
Because of the controversial nature of the issue, the decision should not rest with the legislature or the Kansas Supreme Court. It should go to direct vote in 1980.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
KANSAN
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Editor Barry Massy
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Farmers' cause not just a tantrum
WASHINGTON—An editorial in the Washington Post Wednesday called the farmers' demonstration at the Capitol a "massacre" by fears of the unknown and of the future.
By MELISSATHOMPSON
Guest Writer
If that is what proteins symbolize, then we need to petulant children given a pediatricist's titer.
RICK REDMAN, author of the "Dance of Legislation," would attest to that. He told a group of congressional interns recently that the farmers' parades and protests were useless because Congress was too responsive to the whims of the people.
Instead, they are remembrances of a social studies lesson learned years ago. The farmers are demonstrating because a long time ago somebody told them about a stering link between government officials that link was the power of public opinion.
That sentiment is carved above the marble doorways of some buildings here. Documents in the National Archives back up such a simple political theory. So, the farmers weren't wrong when they came with their flags and slogans, expecting a government that was willing to listen. They were just a little naive.
But we aren't all children, and the
children are not all displays of
self-identification temp.
The business of government is far too complex, Redman says, for the problems of one group to greatly influence congressional action.
But it is the traditional political portrait of the farmer that makes this situation more than just one force pushing against another. It also captures patioists with arace degree of standoffness.
Given the myriad of special interest groups that regularly pressure legislators, the media has been a major factor.
Their demonstration this week resembled a Fourth of July parade as they rumbled through the city with their windmills, grenades and tractors. Those flags fluttered energetically on Monday when their demonstration was new and unmarred by violence. But now the flags hang limply, a reminder that the movement is carbon of the tractors exhaust fumes.
WHEN THE farmers came last year they had the stars of government accountants on their wrist.
Mike, a 23-year-old West Virginian, drove in last week's tractorcade. He's here again this year because he thinks the government should hold to政府 officials accountable.
He said farmers would not spend an average of $150 for each 200 miles for fuel and oil just to anger the local residents and the families. The farmers, their wives and children, who have been haunting the hill, came because they really thought that officials would at least listen to them, he said, as they had listened to him, and civil-rights protesters in the past.
Unhappily, that is not the case. Officials in the Department of Agriculture and legislators seem unwilling to discuss the farmers' concerns.
as they sit in their tractorcars and trucks to keep warm. A few days ago, their traditionalist political energy kept them from getting wetter and the equally friend reception.
THE FARMERS mood now is as damp as the snow that coats the Washington streets. Maybe they are beginning to get Redman's message. Their faces are grim
But soon, the only reminders of our visit here will be the ruts left on the Mall grass by tractor tires and the scores of the bulldozers that were printed in local newsletters.
It's unsettling to wonder what the farms will think when they finally head back to the farms. Will their patriotism droop as did their flags?
Hopefully, their lack of political sophistication will not discourage them from using the simple method of protest by disruption.
Melissa Thompson is a Wichita senior majoring in journalism at KU. This semester she is participating in a in Washington program in Washington, D.C.
But, if government officials do not begin to regard their protest as more than just a rush-hour inconvenience, then perhaps the government could compensate in government has been overused.
Black activities are valuable lesson
This is a commercial for the promotion of Black History Month at KU.
The express purpose of Black History Month, which is being observed during February, is to get blacks to appreciate the contributions of African Americans and to knowledge about the contributions of black inventors and scientists to American society and increase the understanding of all Americans about their own "ethnic" identity. This will help them to appreciate black contributions to society.
Mindful of this goal, the Heritage Series Display in the Kansas University documents some of the contributions of black people our society, and is certainly worth viewing.
In addition, the film "The Greatest" will be shown in Strong Hall auditorium tonight.
IF YOU'RE wondering why I'm converting today's column into a marquee, the answer is easy. Many students and faculty are quick to express disgust at the usual
cultural and entertainment fare offered to
blacks at KU. The denouncement is
Nevertheless, we are slow in responding to real quality when it comes our way. Often, one of the big excuses we hear is, "I didn't know it was here until it was gone."
The office of minority affairs has been laboring for a year to put together an agenda of cultural and entertainment access to students and appeal. They appear to have succeeded.
This year the office of minority affairs received some assistance from the Black Student Union, and their combined effort will be displayed for the public in a few
weeks in a theatrical production called "Sleepin".
OTHER EVENTS scheduled for this month include a speech by Carolyn Dorsey, coordinator of black studies at the University of Missouri, and a communication workshop on the dynamics of the black male-female relationship.
Halle Gerima, a respected African filmmaker, also winted on campus to show her work.
It is important to remember that Black History Month was the brain-child of Dr. Carter G. Woodson, noted historian and scholar, under the auspices of what is now known as the Association for the study of Afro-American Life and History.
In 1926, the association launched Negro History Week on Feb. 12, the birthday of both Abraham Lincoln and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Abolitionist Frederick Douglas also was born about that date.
IT IS WISE that this celebration has been extended from what once was called Black History Week. One week of concentrated discussion cannot cover the scope of black history and, in fact, a month represents a sort of tokenism. The history of the Afro-American needs to be integrated and made an important part of this nation.
Today there are many college-age blacks who fail to get the job that they feared they would be. They were fueled the adjacency from whites when they started.
They have forgotten or conveniently ignore the sacrifices, including the loss of lives and careers, that made it possible for them to sit in a classroom or in a movie.
That loss of memory is unfortunate in the short run, but it will be devastating for the long term.
An awareness of and participation in the events taking place this month is mandatory if blacks are to retain their heritage and prevent further declines.
Book titles can be more valuable than books
By MARTIN COPENHAVER
N. Y. Times Feature
NEW HAVEN, Conn—Let me moat. I book the largest collections of books at titles like *The Penguin*.
I do not have the largest collection of books, mind you, but I do have the largest collection.
Perhaps I should explain.
You see, I am convinced that the most profound statements are fragmentary ones. How many poems start with a provocative line and end with an elaborous a few lines later? Put another way, why is it that the most familiar lines of a poem are so often the first lines? ("When what comes it may cease to be . . .") What does come in world is too much with us late and soon . . ."
Could it be that inspiration comes like a couplet and not as an epic tone? How many novels have been written to satisfy a first line that has captivated the author and will not let go until a book has been written for ransom? How many preachers are stuck on early afternoon with a silver sermon they came up with on Monday morning?
MY QUESTION is: Why not leave it at a couple or a first title or a title? Chopin wrote prefleses for pieces of music that did not exist. Kierkegaard wrote prefleses for pieces he never intended to write. Somehow, the prelude or the preface was enough.
Imagine all the possibilities if we could be satisfied with just having book titles. I could write a novel about a family of three.
Absurd" without feeling as if I must read the book to see what the author says inside.
Volumes would be as small as the fortunes you find in a cookie. In fact, that could become a good means of dispensing book titles.
Titles would have to be more entertaining.
This is not to mention that we could save a lot of time if we did not have to read the stuff there.
ONCE PURCHASED, they would save a lot of space on the shelf. Titles would be cheaper to buy than the clumsier books and there would be no snobby distinction between paperback and hardbound. We could have card catalogs filings from The New York Times. We could build a library by cutting out advertisements in newspaper book reviews.
Karl Barth would have to change the title of his magnum opus from "Church Dogmatics" to something like "Success Through Indecentation."
I started by saying that I have the largest collection of book titles at the university. Here are a few titles that have come my way recently that I would recommend for future reading. I wrote the accompanying book: "The Advantages of Being Infinite"; "Enjoying Paradoxes"; "Why I Am Not Bertrand Russell; I can only repeat myself. The Teacher is not only my teacher, it is when we try to hide the statements in books that we get into trouble.
Martin Copenhaver is a student at Yale Divinity School.