UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN editorials
Unsigned editorials represent the opinion of the Kanan editorial staff. Signed columns represent the views of the editors.
JANUARY 25.1979
Landlord bill needed
One of the more well-known and widespread hazards of student life is the landlord. More precisely, the disappearing landlord.
The large concentration in college towns of students on tight budgets makes university communities particularly susceptible to the pitfalls of neglectful landlords. Everyone has heard stories about, or worse, experienced, the landlord who refuses to repair a broken window or conveniently forgets to restore the long-lost hot water.
A tenant has few recourses when confronted with a balky landlord. But a bill being prepared by new State Rep. John Solbach, D-Lawrence, would change that.
UNDER THE provisions of Solbach's bill, which is being worked on in the legislative revisions office, a tenant could have any needed repair work done and deduct the cost of the work from his rent.
The process would be relatively simple. The tenant would pay for the repairs from his own pocket and would take the bill to the treasurer of the county in which he lived. The tenant would then supply one month's rent, which would be held in an escrow fund by the county treasurer.
LANDLORDS WOULD have 14 days to protest the repairs. If no protest were forthcoming, the repairs would be deducted from the rent, along with nominal fees for county administration costs and compensation for the tenant for any repairs he made himself.
If the landlord did protest, the case would be decided in small claims court.
Under the proposed bill, repairs could cost no more than $100 or half of the rent, whichever were greater.
THE BILL could have an important effect on landlord-tenant relations throughout the state, and its progress will be of great interest to many students who are now mired in no-win situations with unresponsive landlords—landlords who have now little incentive beyond human compassion to make repairs.
Unfortunately, landlords as a whole often rate low on the human compassion scale.
But Solbach's bill, which was formed with the help of the Associated Students of Kansas, could go far to remedy a situation that too long has been ignored. It should receive the full consideration of the Legislature when it is introduced, which might be as early as next week.
It should then be approved.
U.S. influence dominant in Middle East scene
By FOUAD AJAMI N.Y. Times Feature
CAIRO, Egypt - The United States has become-to use the current jargon-"a full partner" in Middle Eastern affairs. This goes for matters of war, peace and economics. It goes for Arab, Israel and Iranian matters. This is America's moment that fails. That. It is a role that United States has coveted and that it now must live with.
America may be a declining power elsewhere but it is pre-eminent and overextended in this part of the world. Several years ago Henry A. Kissinger wanted to expel the Soviet Union from this region and that was easily accomplished. In 1965, he took own skill at work; it was something that Israel, Israel and Saudi Arabia wanted.
By FOUAD AJAMI
The demise of Soviet influence illuminated the extent to which the Soviet Union has been and remains a flawed institution. With but little Italian cultural lure and openness,
EUROPE, TOO, had long ceased to be a major presence in Middle Eastern affairs. Power was to pass to America, the one country that supplies the technology of war and sponsors the diplomacy of peace, that exports the gadgets of consumption and the food shipments that keep regimes afloat, and that maintains a certain protection against their own subjects and against the hazards of living in an explosive part of the world.
Stalemated by their rivalries, Middle Easterners invited America into their midst. It was an invitation that America wanted: There were tangible interests at stake. But there was also the feeling of a new frontier, the challenge of saving the Middle East from its "passions" and from the baggage of its history. The Middle East faced the South Asian plains after so much blood and treasure—not to be a place where America makes a difference and where resources are committed for good reason.
THIS HAS BRED a certain dependency in this region, a feeling that the distant superpower will do it all: install telephones in Cairo that offer, work哎Egypt a Carter plan for economic recovery, float Israel economically yet without interfering in its affairs. At least with Egypt, while escaping the dislocations of change, bring reluctant Arabs and Israelis together,
protect President Anwar Sadat's flank against his Arab rivals. This is obviously a tall order, the stuff from which disillusionment and large blunders are formed.
Different assumptions are made by America's friends in the area about America's commitment. Two countries that have a "special relationship" with Jerusalem, Israel, and irreconcilable positions over Jerusalem. Jordan considers itself an American ally and even Syria maintains a stronger American connection than her rejectionist friends assume. Plenty of promises have been made to this and by the previous administration.
**THIS HAS to be done at a time when America's Middle Eastern presence itself has become a hot political and cultural issue. For some, it is a tantalizing thing, representing power, possibilities and the prospects of an American-sonsored peace.**
A recently completed 15-year study by the surgeon general on the effects of smoking shows there is now "overwhelming proof" that smoking causes lung cancer and heart disease and increases disorders that kill unborn and newborn children if the mother smoked during pregnancy.
Men anxiously searching for scapegoats to explain everything from corruption, wild rents, shocking cultural trends in Middle Eastern capitals to diplomatic stalemate—find it easy to blame it all on the resourceful superman.
For others it is a violation of self and being, a surrender to alien ways, and a fullfle search for a way out of the Middle Eastern impasse.
IN THE ARAB states and in Iran, some monumental ambitions nurtured in the Middle East. In collapsing, In Israel, some lessons deferred or ignored are beginning to sink in as that society sorts out its own choices about what it values most and about its place and meaning.
If this is America's moment in the Middle East, it is also its moment of reckoning. America cannot spare Middle Eastern societies the agonies of social change, or prop up rulers who have lost touch with their past, or take on the psychological or economic realities, or make the Palestinians disappear and drop their claims. Care must be exercised and some honest American statements must be made so that this frontier does not end up like the previous one in Southeast Asia; with American support, they can end disillusionment for the power from afar.
Found Ajiami, an assistant professor of physics at Princeton University, is a guest speaker.
Summarizing 30,000 papers written on the effects of smoking, Julius Richmond, the surgeon general, said in his 1,200 page report, "In 1979 cigarette smoking is the single most preventable environmental factor contributing to illness, disability and death in the United States." Of the 500,000 deaths in 2005, Americans die annually in smoking-related deaths.
U.S. cigarette education needed now
And still 54 million Americans continue to puff away.
ALTHOUGH the U.S. population has increased by more than 40 million people since 1964, the number of people smoking has not decreased to the degree that the evidence seems to warrant.
That is approximately the same number of Americans who were smoking in 1964, when the surgeon general's first report linked smoking to lung cancer and heart disease.
For example, despite the surgeon general's evidence on the hazards of smoking, University of Kansas students buy approximately 17,000 packs, or 340,000 cigarettes, in their cars. The survey did not include those they might buy elsewhere in Lawrence.
Reasons for smoking are many; common excuses are to ease pressure, to increase relaxation and to pass the time.
Yet, each package warns of the dangers involved when a person lights up a cigarette and takes a few puffs. In fact, the surgeon general's recent report states that a 36-year-old man who smokes will normally die nine years earlier than a non-smoker.
Obviously, something needs to be done.
TO COMBAT the high use of cigarettes the federal government could develop rehabilitation and educational programs similar to those created for alcohol and drug addicts. The federal government has said it has a habit equally as dangerous as that of the adjective or
Jake
Thompson
the alcoholic. All three habits shorten lives and each one causes severe or if other conditions, like minor heart disease, are present.
1. government should lead a well-financed campaign against smoking, complete with clinics for those who want to quit, pamphlets on the dangers of smoking and drugs, stop shops for those who have quit and don't want to start again.
On course, outright legislation banning cigarette smoking would seem to be an irrational step invading individual freedom of choice; a point that smokers correctly state and restate.
But the nation, perhaps the world, must undergo an educational process enlightening all to the real and suspected dangers of smoking. If doctors can have cyclamates removed from the market because they caused cancer in rats, there is some inconsistency regarding humans and cigarettes.
IN ADDITION, banning the production and sale of cigarettes would choke the life from the $20-billion
That would force many people out of work.
Consider these highlights in the surgeon general's report:
- Six million Americans under age 20 smoke—100,000
  years old and younger.
- Lie down and you will be able to nicotine content, the rate of smoking-related deaths continued to climb in the past 15
- Smokers, infants and young children a year, at a rate of 3-20ths higher than non-smokers.
- Smoking dropped only .3 of one percent last year.
- Only about one third of those who quit smoking quin
forever.
So the government must take responsibility for educating Americans on the dangers of smoking and drug use.
THE ANSWER lies in the fact that people are dying as a result of their dependence on cigarettes, and that other people are exploiting their need to the tune of a $20 billion business. The tobacco industry, by its nature, is not concerned with the welfare of the people who consume its product.
- Coronary heart disease from smoking causes more premature deaths than lung cancer and other diseases.
RICHMOND'S report contains few new revelations on the hazards of smoking, but it does, by massive compilation of information, prove that smoking can kill. Concerning the hope that a safe cigarette will be developed he said, "The only safe cigarette is an unlit cigarette."
Of course, a necessary question is why government should take the moral responsibility for keeping people alive when they are not concerned with the issue themselves.
Presently, the tobacco industry spending $500 million annually in advertising. Perhaps as much is needed to reach the mark of $1 billion.
Americans have to be weaned from their habit. It will take time and it will take money. Our tax money.
One would hope that a 25 year-old person would not resign himself to die at age 64, rather than at 73, and light another cigarette. But that right of choice must be protected.
- Smoking during pregnancy has been linked to one in 400 previously unexplained crib death.
Then, as always, the choice must be made by each individual whether to smoke.
The decision can be influenced, however, and that is the problem now facing the U.S. government.
THE TENNESSEE WALTZ
Park opponents want preservation
To the editor:
What is common of all the congressmen is a desire to preserve the land. What they don't want is a bunch of stupid adventure tourists who have a reason to come to the Flint Hills, which have been so beautifully preserved for five generations by ranchers who realize that they need to keep their business is to use careful grazing to preserve people a reason to come to the area.
Mary Ernst's Jan. 18 column was filled with incorrect statements and misleading implications about the possibility of the creation of a Tallgrass Prairie National Park. It is exactly this type of ignorance that completely distorts the picture. As a resident of the area proposed in the bill for a park, submitted by Larry Winn last session, and followed by the activities of the Kansas Association Assoc. to promote the creation for the purpose of opposing the park I feel qualified to remark on the statements she made.
First of all, the proposed park is not in Western Kansas. Any person who could look at a map woud see that Greenwood, Chase, Wichita Falls, and Oklahoma are Kansas, which is also where Robert Whitaker's fifth district is. I find this ignorance of Kansas geography by Ernest and most of her Kansas city neighbors disturbing, paradoxical, and irritating about city on something they know nothing about.
Also incorrect is her assertion that Kansas congressmen have been in support of the idea of a park. Sebelius, Glickman, and Dole have opposed it in the past, and Kassaebu voiced opposition to it in her campaign. Of course, Mr. Sebelius verbally opposed to pat, which is why fifth district voters elected him over whilenough to replace the retiring Skubitz.
It is true that with Skubitz gone the prospects for the park are better, but it is likely that any bill similar to last session's will encourage Wimin's new bill has to be. We all
Zack Reynolds Eureka senior
want the remaining natural prairie to be preserved. The Kansas Grassroots Association is willing to work with the Nature Conservancy on privately purchasing the land, but they don't want to see 187,500 acres of prime pasture land, which produces 10% million bushels per year. They are unlikely taken away by the government when the land remains largely the way it was when it was found due to the care of the ranchers.
Abortion decisions prompt ironic action
For the editor
I agree completely with Phil Garcia's position that anti-abortionists must promote their views. However, I find it ironic that we must now strive to protect human rights previously provided for within the United States that terminated by a Supreme Court decision.
Garcia states that it is in the court's domain to deal with criminal laws, and with its adversaries. But other, again, it is ironic that the Supreme Court would make it a law to allow such criminal acts. There is certainly no worse option than a court can commit against another than murder.
In the face of such acts by the government, we must fight for the rights of the children who have no voice. This is not a challenge to merely aid students of morality and ethics, but a call to action to every citizen who has already been granted, automatically, the right to life which now become optional, a matter of "parental
Further, society needs to recognize its responsibility to the mothers and children. In a world where we rarely know our neighbors, we need to once again reach outside of ourselves and care for others. Proven alternatives to abortion is absolutely necessary.
discretion." Our response must consist of more than an amiable nod toward antiabortionists. To overcome the Supreme Court decision requires an act of Congress. Our congressmen need to hear that we believe in human rights.
It is not idealistic to think that we can together mobilize the resources to support women carrying their children to term. It is not idealistic and it is beginning to happen in Lawrence, too.
It is easy to think someone else will see these things through. It is also "easy" to abort. Both acts are a denial of our responsibility as human beings to protect the rights of others, especially the most precious right which we already safely enjoy.
Lee Stratton
Lee Stratton Prairie Village, senior
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