UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN editorials
Unsigned editorials represent the opinion of the Kansan editorial staff. Signed columns represent the views of only the writers.
JANUARY 26,1979
Revise state rape law
A bill planned for introduction into the Kansas Legislature this week would, if passed, provide for a much needed restructuring of the rape laws in Kansas.
The bill was introduced by State Sen. Paul Hess, R-Wichita, at the urging of a number of women's groups in the state. It would eliminate the current broad classification of rape and replace it with the term "criminal sexual penetration" of the first, second and third degrees.
Criminal sexual penetration of the first degree would be an offense resulting in great bodily harm or great mental anguish, involve the use of a deadly weapon or be against a child under 13 years of age.
THE OTHER categories then would be classified in a descending order of severity. The bill also would create a crime of criminal sexual contact of the third and fourth degrees, which would be lesser felonies.
Hess said the bill was conceived as a
reaction to the increasing difficulty in getting rape convictions in Kansas.
"The current laws are too narrow in their scope and difficult to effectively enforce," he said.
BY NARROWING the scope and definitions of rape, the new bill would make convictions much easier.
Indeed, the vagueness of the rape laws, combined with society's often flippant attitude toward the crime, make rape convictions extremely difficult to achieve.
As the spree of rapes that terrorized the Oread neighborhood in December vividly demonstrated, rape is an everpresent problem and, despite the lackadaisic attitude toward rape exhibited by some court judges, it is everyone's problem.
Much more than a sexual act, rape is an act of severe violence that deserves to be published by the full weight of the law.
The Legislature's approval of Hess' bill would be a major step toward making that possible.
Missiles not welcome by Nebraska farmers
By MARIAN and JEROME LENZEN
SIDENEY, Neb.—Congress will soon be able to allocate $10 million to start work on the M-X missile. Residents of the western Nebraska Pankhandle will be watching closely how their representatives vote on this request.
This area, known as the South Plateau Plains to the Pentagon, here for me 32 years, is under consideration as one of the largest United States for the M-X missile system.
Gen. Lew Allen, Air Force chief of staff,
has described the plan as a "great sponge"
of targets to absorb硫Warheads.
The M-X missile is a multiple-aim system. Between 20 and 30 silos was built for each missile and the missile was housed in one chamber—the old carnival shell game in spades.
IT WAS a shock to the powers-that-be in Washington when the residents of western Nebraska protested after they were informed of this possibility.
The officials expected us to fold our hands, how our heads, say "The will be done" and accept, as an act of God, anything they wish to impose upon us!
Why wouldn't they? We've always done so. In 1963, the government planted Minuteman missiles in our backyards and we didn't utter a peep. We've been the 1. target for nuclear attack for 15 years. That's long enough.
The Air Force says it did not consider any site with a large population for the M-Missile silos. There are other things just as important as population numbers to be considered in a risk-benefit analysis of this project.
WHAT ABOUT the fact that this area produces the most potent weapon this nation has, grain? The dollar would be a much bigger threat than agricultural exports. The bottom line should be the survival of the human race. It won't survive without food. A nuclear war will be fought in a matter of minutes. The United States is no longer the ones they are Americans, Chinese or Russians.
because even the rubble will be radioactive.
Naturally the Russians would retaliate by building enough missiles to saturate the sponge; then we would build more missiles because we had more missiles, and on it we would go.
The whole point in spending $20 billion to develop and deploy the M-X is to convince the Russian leaders that we could and would destroy Russia if they dared attack. It's all show and tell! So why not put the M-X in an area that is considered high risk, with or without the missiles-say, New York City?
AT BRIEFINGS held by the Air Force, we were led to think that there would be no danger to people in the vicinity of the silos and missiles—except in the event of attack. The silos are designed with standaid a near miss by a nuclear warhead, so surely they could withstand the vandalism of a New York street gang.
Abandoned buildings in New York City could be torn down and replaced with an attractive missile silo. It would improve the neighborhood. Employment opportunities would boom. New York city no longer would be to beg Uncle Sam for loans to survive. What would be a curse for New York City could be a blessing for New York City.
New York City would be evacuated in case of attack. What better place to have our "sponge" in a deserted area? The nuclear cloud would move out over the Atlantic and would circle the earth before coming back over the ocean, part of the country would be able to produce edible food for the survivors.
The Defense Department's ultimate goal should be the survival of the human race. No one can live without food. Sparing food is vital, but attack isn't necessarily the best defense.
Marrian Lenzen and her husband, Jerome, are wheat and cattle farmers. There are Minuteum missile sites "two miles to the West" of their 800 acres.
Nearly 800,000 American college students are in danger of losing what very often is their primary source of income during their four years of college.
Proposed student benefit cuts unfair
They are in danger if Congress accepts President Carter's federal budget, which includes a proposal that all benefits paid to students between 18 and 21 who are children of retired, disabled or dead Social Security beneficiaries be phased out.
But how does one just "phase out" the education of 800,000 students—students for reasons beyond the control had to accept aid from the federal government instead of from their dead or disabled parents? Quite easily, according to Carter.
there are 795,000 students receiving averaged Social Security benefit payment of $21,485 per student. Security Administration's regional office said recently. Nearly 40,000 of the beneficiaries are from Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Arkansas—states that supply a large number of KU students.
YET CARTER has chosen to lump these important cutbacks in student benefits with four other Social Security cutbacks which do indeed need revising.
In addition to the student cutbacks, Carter also has proposed that:
Mary Ernst
- The $225 lump-sum burial benefit to survivors be eliminated.
- The $122 minimum monthly retirement benefit now collected by people who have paid as little as $100 in Social Security taxes during their entire lifetimes be repealed.
- The disability rules be tightened so that teenager workers will collect for a care worker.
- At age 72 pensioners could have unlimited earnings from outside jobs and still collect Social Security benefits. Under this arrangement, this is permitted would drop to 10 in 1982.
system that have been suggested include the following:
- Cover everybody—including the 6 million city, state and federal workers who are most likely to need plans. At least a change should be made to prohibit doubledipping by government workers who retire early and work at providers in hard-hit areas with collateral security—earning both of benefits.
Some other changes in the Social Security
- Raise the age at which retirement benefits begin from 65 to 68.
- Use general revenue sources—income from general income and corporate taxes.
THESE CHANGES could greatly relieve the huge burden that currently faces the Social Security system. The burden will increase in the future as fewer people enter retirement, increasing the amount of tax revenue and people continue to live longer, and so receive benefits longer.
The chance of this major change being accepted by the U.S. Congress is considered unlikely, and even less good. Although Congress in the past has been very reluctant to tamper with the firmly-grounded Social Security system, it has not been willing to fund all of the financial woes and possible
bankruptcy that the system has en-countered.
Yet the change that must be avoided is completely phasing out the benefits to college students. The average beneficiary receives $1,600 each year and that may produce a significant portion of the money that the student needs to stay in school.
WITH COLLEGE costing the average state university student $2,600 year for college education, the amount increases rapidly each year—the amount that these students receive will increasingly become the final factor in getting their degree and to pursue their education to its fullest extent.
With declining college enrollments expected because of the declining birth rate, colleges will become less of a burden to the system. But it will still be a
What Carter and the Congress should look at is the possibility of decreasing the amount of payments to college students if they get the financial need still needed for financial bailout in the future.
But to totally phase out the education of college students is a tragic misstep.
To the editor;
Ernst misconstrues Abzug dismissal
It seems that early in this new semester, editorial writers would have much more than copywriter on their minds. But alas, Mary Ernst has proven my theory wrong in her Jan. 22 column on the dismissal of Bella Abzug and the consequent resignation of another 20 National Advisory Committee for Women members.
Secondly, it is naive of Eratn to believe that Carter is so shortsighted as to believe that he will succeed in the race.
In the recent trial, Davis was charged with hiring a hit man to murder his divorce judge, Joe H. Edison, Fort Worth, Tex. David McCrory, a Federal Bureau of Investigation informant, testified he was given $25,000 to set up the murder.
Apart from being fed-up with emotional cries for equal rights for women and tearful resignations, I am also disenchanted with Ernst's understanding of politics.
Women have Carter to thank for standing behind and speaking out on the Equal Rights Amendment when its extension for ratification was before the Congress.
Claiming President Carter's support has been "bite more than superficial" is hardly an argument I would expect from anyone who believes in his relationship with Congress on this subject.
UNIVERSITY DAILY letters KANSAN
During his 1977 capital murder trial, Davis posted $1 million bond and was released by Amarillo District Judge George Dowlen.
Three months later, the jury found Davis innocent. He posted $650,000 bond on ene
Even if the statement were true, this would only tend to discredit Ernest's whining about a yearly $300,000 budget for the committee. Would she have the government support all interests the committee wishes to represent? No, the government unpublished authors, New York bridge buyers and other interests through the government as well?
Davis has paid the price; he has spent time in jail and gone through much mental anguish. But one wonders if those were the only prices paid.
Moore said that he would not want to press a retaliatory saying the length of trial could have been less.
Thirdly, Ernst's system of logic escapes me when she condemns Carter for pursuing his own re-election through support of the women's movement. She chastises Carter for becoming "angry" about blasts at his economic plans and budget.
would confer with him only on the subject of ERA.
Yet somehow Carter and the entire
Davis mistrial an expensive venture
In November 1977, Davis was acquitted of capital murder charges in connection with an August, 1976 shooting spree at his $6 million Fort Worth mansion, in which his stepdaughter and his wife's companion were killed.
Davis, a Fort Worth, Tex., industrial millionaire, walked away from a Houston district court of a free man Monday after the judge issued her sole solicitation trial ended in an 8-4 impasse.
T. Cullen Davis has beaten the legal system-again.
This marks the second time within a little more than two years that Davis has escaped from his hometown.
District Judge Wallace Moore, who presided over the trial, last week began to admit that the trial might end this way. He had said before that it would serve no purpose for me to guess."
HOWEVER, the jury, after 48 hours of deliberation, is unable to break the 84-jury vote after 14 days.
During the 1971 trial, it was revealed that the day before the shooting spree Davis had been ordered by Edison to pay $25,000 in legal fees to his wife's attorneys, pay Mrs. Davis for providing a property settlement and paying a property settlement to $,000 per month, an increase of $1,500.
DAVIS' WIFE, Priscilla, testified that the estranged husband was the "man in black" who fired at her and her companion, Stan Farr. Mrs. Davis was wounded and Farr died of four bullet wounds after he responded to her screams.
maining charges stemming from the incident, and had a party.
In attendance were Dowlen and some of the jurors.
Davis was able to walk away free, escaping the murders charges. However, less than one year after his acquittal, Davis was arrested for plotting against Edison.
But Davis was acquitted because Mrs. Davis could not positively identify her sex.
During the solicitation for murder trial, the prosecution presented both audio and visual tapes of Davis and McCryme meeting on Aug. 18 and 20. Davis claimed he was "playing along" with McCryme and did not have intentions of killing anyone.
SINCE THE JURY was in a deadlock, the mistrial was declared. On Monday, Davis posted a debt of $30,000 cash and to have gone to Colorado for a ski vacation.
It is estimated that Davis paid his legal counsel, Richard "Racehorse" Haynes and his associates, about $3 million for the first trial and may have spent as much this time. Judging from the results, Haynes earned his pay.
Last Aug. 20, Davis was arrested after
But, after the millions Davis has spent in his defense, one wonders if Lady Justice has untied her blindfold and checked her scales on her bar was substituted for one of her weights.
So, after much evidence and testimony, and millions of dollars paid in bonds and fees, Cullen Davis is free. Justice, it seems, has been done.
McCory had informed the FBI of Davis' intentions.
country are expected to feel remorse at the thought of relieving Abzug of her duties.
Ernst seems to want it both ways.
The public and Carter are expected to feel relief after 20 women resigning as a political statement.
Though the women's movement's aims may be good, politics does not cease to exist.
Douglas Burson
Kansas City, Kan., junior
Don't blame unborn for societal troubles
Finally an editorial has been written which condemns not women who abort, but women who kill.
often the convenient, rather than the responsible, thing to do. Abortion may be a quickie remedy, but it is not a long-term solution. As Garcia points out, we cannot attack the unborn for problems caused by the born.
Phillip Garcia, in his Jan. 19 editorial, has a good grasp on who should be condemned for what in this country. The unborn fetus is not responsible for poverty, he says. The normal life process does not cause child abuse. And, as he mentions, abortion is
To the editor:
I believe the primary question is not when a baby becomes a baby. The debates may never end, but the action must start now. Children who are not born to individuals' should augment their philosophizing with clinics, funds, jobs, babysitters. If a woman could get a new job, a new reputation, and of course a reliable nurse, many more might opt against abortion.
I agree with Garcia: only someone without solutions would thus misplace blame. Only those who feel no responsibility for the failure face no race would say abortion is the best remedy.
And for those not exactly poverty-stricken, perhaps cash and counseling would be an incentive for them, too, not to become dependent on the care lifestyle is in danger, interfering with natural life processes appears as a very live option. Pregnancy need not interrupt life, however. By allowing natural life processes to happen, the normal dayal life, all of society can benefit.
Kathleen Burbery
Ratheen Bursley
Visalia, Cal. graduate student
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