UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN editorials
Unsigned editors represent the opinion of the Kansan editorial staff. Signed columns represent the views of
DECEMBER 6. 1978
Good news on Alaska
There was good news from Washington last week as President Carter designated 56 million acres of pristine Alaskan wildlands to be national monuments.
Carter's action is the first serious sign that he is prepared to back up the conservationist rhetoric that marked his presidential campaign, and conservationists immediately proclaimed that Carter "has now replaced Teddy Roosevelt as the greatest conservation president of all time."
Although that statement may be the product of an exuberant imagination, there can be no doubt that Carter's action is a tremendous victory for conservationist forces in Alaska. However, any victory celebrations for conservationists would be premature. There is still work to be done in Alaska.
CARTER USED the Antiquities Act of 1906, an act used only once before by a president, to declare the land national monuments. The 56 million acres counts as the most land set aside for conservation by a president.
Most of those 56 million acres, inhabited by a diverse assortment of wildlife and featuring rolling tundra and snow-capped mountain ranges, were part of the nearly 100 million acres that would have been protected under the Alaskan lands bill that died
Carter was forced to act now because interim congressional protection of Alaskan public lands being considered for parks was to expire on Dec. 18, opening that land for development.
Carter indicated last week that he was aware of this when he said passage of the remainder of the land bill would be the "highest environmental priority of my administration."
Although Carter has proved his sincerity in protecting the wildlands, his actions leave open the possibility that Congress will be bulled to sleep thinking that the ballgame has been won. Nothing could be further from the truth.
If the remaining acres of Alaskan wildlands fall prey to developers, Carter's action would be a very hollow victory. It must be hoped that Congress will follow the president's lead and pass the remainder of the Alaskan land bill early in its next session.
in the Senate shortly before Congress adjourned in October.
Military control of KU called an unlikely notion
BUT HIS ACTION only protected a little more than half of the land covered in the Alaskan bill. Protection of the remainder of the land is essential.
To the editor:
The University Daily Kansas editorial of Nov 28, warning of a proposed takeover of the nation's entire system of higher education department, was certainly an attention-getter.
I can speak only for the Air Force, of course, but I would like to assure each administrator, faculty member and student, that we have no knowledge, there is no plan to take control of KU.
From a more pragmatic standpoint, the current Air Force ROTC enrollment of 65, out of a total of more than 25,000 KU who cannot appear to pose an immediate threat.
The wisdom of the Kansan's policy of unsigned editors is convincingly reinforced when you toss up one of these varieties.
Col. Walter M. Wondrack, USAF Professor of aerospace studies
Cultists should have no place on campus
It is hoped the recent carnage in Guyana will convince some of the erstwhile apathetic student body that those psychological fascists who have been lurking beneath Wescoe Hall all semester have no place on a university campus.
To the editor
Some, no doubt, will cry that freedom of speech is being impinged upon. It seems glaringly apparent, however, that cultists of the Moonies' ilk have little conception of what happens when they relate to the unfortunate whose bodies are presently beeing flown back from Guyana.
No Moonies on campus next semester
London graduate student
KU nuclear reactor poses safety threat
To the editor:
In the Nov. 21 issue of the Kanasa, the article on radioactive waste disposal for the University's reactor raises a perplexing question. The storage area for KU's radioactive waste is approximately half the volume of the container 20 years. What happens in the year 2000 when the present site is full? I presume we simply will start another site.
But this very point defies logic. If with KU's reactor, and all other reactors in this country, we must continually find more and more areas where there are thousands of years, it would seem that eventually these storage areas would be used and land needed for other functions of society.
Through the lifespan of my generation, I would expect these areas to remain small. However, what the situation will be for my grandchildren also converge.
With proposals for hundreds of reactors to be built, each with their own supply of radioactive wastes, I cannot help but ask who is looking out for whom's best interests.
In a related area, the director of KU's nuclear reactor, Russell Messel, recently
KANSAN letters
stated in a Free University class on nuclear power that there was no plan to decompose it.
Reactors generally have a life expectancy of approximately 30 years. After this amount of time, the reactors must be decommissioning. Decommissioning means that they are no longer usable; this is due in part to the build-up of low-level radiation. KU's reactor is more than 15 years old and evidently no plan to decommission it exists. This is typical of the impot and incomplete reactors used for energy field demonstrate in their field.
I for one, sincerely hope that my life, those of future generations, and that of the planet are not left in the hands of these individuals.
Lawrence senior
Bill Beems
Disgruntled student indicts KU education
I wonder what title would best fit this letter. "I want my money back?" No, I really do not have the heart to say that. Maybe the headline "Ralph Nader finds University of Kansas incompetent." Probably not.
To the editor:
I can make two statements about this quote and host it compares with the campus I work on. First, as a goal, everyone is to seek and find the thing called truth. But then that is a proper way to live.
Nalph probably does not care about education. And if he did, his position would probably receive very little support. The student could of course think of it as "KU students rupped out."
Second, the above citation seems to be a total out-and-out lie. If I tried to do what statement in the bulletin says should be thrown, it promptly be thrown out of school for cheating.
"A large part of university life involves getting to know your fellow students and your instructors, discussing with them your goals for the course and seeing the world from many vantage points."
Nixon pathetic as failed politician
For example, a recent KU bulletin states:
There is a lot more I could say about what is wrong at KU, but this letter must be kept short. So I recommend that everybody—and you and me—and read the following essays on education:
In ending, I will say that KU is not alone. There are few schools that are not in the same predicament as KU is. But KU is going to wait until someone else takes that lead and becomes fashionable to change? Is KU going to be jumping on the band wagon or pulling it?
The news accounts told of protesters 'pounding their fists' on the black linemusine, 'shouting obscences', 'chanting in unison', 'flinging eggs', 'waving placards' and at one point 'demonstrators knocked off the helmets of a cordon of British policemen and pushed forward.'
It was all too familiar.
(2) "The Abolition of Man" by C.S. Lewis.
(3) "What You're really Learning at College" by Myron B. Bloy Jr. in "His",
December 1978.
Nieman and Ann Nixon had opted into the quiet town of Oxford, England, Nikon had sent a speech to the Oxford Union debating society as part of a short European tour designed to let him relieve the days of surges of outrages and foreign diplomacy.
The problem came when about 500 demonstrators, both American and English, showed up to let Nikon know what happened.
Richard Nixon was back in town.
y
1) "Screwtape Proposes a Toast" by C.S. Lewis.
NOT SURPRISEINGLY, they don't think there is. That isn't surprising because they always deal with issues that ability to polarize the public to degrees rarely matched by other American politicians. From his early days as a Red-baiting California congressman to his final disregardful days in the White House, Nikon has masterfully driven people to manic
John Sheffield
But for many people, myself included, Nixon was a symbol. As the war in Vietnam wore on, as the war over America had ended, we were wore on, Nixon took on the role of the gang leader for the bad guys, methodically working his will toward
John Sheffield
Osawatomie iunior
For some odd reason, some people just couldn't seem to stomach the胃. But what was even older still was the heart. It was still as big as it was when I was a kid.
TO PEOPLE who shared that view of Nixon, a good majority of them win. Nixon became a symbol of the Republican Party's victory in 1968.
To make matters even more sublime for hard-core
Nixon-haters, "Tricky Daisy" has been a
willing success with its obscene ones) was a willing
John
Whitesides
symbol. Traveling the country with his sidekick Spiro, Nixon seemed to go out of air to help iniure his enemies.
What was perhaps most infuriating about Nixon was that no matter what horrible thing he might say or do next, there was always an unlimited supply of people who were convinced he could do no wrong.
This lesson was learned quickly during the 1972 campaign, as the American public, and with rare but notable exceptions, the American press, ignored a slow news story that came to be known as Watergate.
But the crowd in England last week seemed unwilling, or unable, to distinguish between the two men, and for a few brief hours the old passions flared again. And that's why the police probably had better things to do than fan a long-dead fire.
ONE OF MY most chilling memories from an otherwise misspent day is the iDay spent stalking the corners of Five Points in downtown Atlanta, Ga., handing out pamphlets about the dangers of Wategate to disinterested Nixon admirers.
It was October 1972, and the occasion was a ticker-tape parade for the president along Atlanta's Peachtree Street. Although it was definitely a hard-sell audience, we had hoped to shed some light on Nixon's character for those who obviously, in our minds at least, had not given him enough thought.
Instead, our efforts were met with a shocking series of rude grunts and obscene comments (these were Republicans, mind you!), and our leaflets wound up littering the around us.
Nixon's motorcade was preceded by hordes of young girls with freshly scrubbed, cherubic faces who were dressed in red, white and blue and chanting "Four more years", an ill-fated political slogan if ever there was one.
Across the street the windows of the local flophouses were filling with interested winos and transients, all straining to get a glimpse.
Later, Lerre estimated the crowd along Peachtree Street to be about 70,000 strong. The Atlanta police said no more than 70,000 could fit into the area. But whatever the crowd count, Nixon had indeed, for at least that one riotous moment, seemed to represent everything going on in American society. And I wasn't the only one who felt.
AS NIXON CAME into view the sky was full of confeiters being blown from the rooftops by gigantic fans that had been rented by the Committee to Re-elect the President. Nixon and his wife, Pat, were standing in their car, waving and wearing slightly smiles that could have stopped them for 100 feet. Nixon looked like the definition of treacherous.
A knot of demonstrators chanting anti-Nixon slogans pressed forward, only to be pushed back by the police. Nixon continued to smile and wave, while the little girls in red, white and blue continued to clam "Four more
But whatever quality Nixon possessed that made him the focal point of so much hatred and anger, it was dissipated by Watergate. By August 1974, Nixon resigned as president after every bit of the man who had inspired so much hatred.
Although the laws of nature dictate that we must all grow older, there is no reason for us to also grow bitter. We do not have a right to be bitter.
'Tailor-made' punishments fit crimes
Judges across the country are finally starting to make sense. They're seeing now that stealing a box of raisins is not the same as driving while intoxicated.
In other words, they're making punishment fit the crime and coming up with individual, innovative punishment for crimes which jail sentences just don't make sense.
And by all indications, the judges are right on target—so far. Such sentences are being practiced in several foreign countries and in states, including New York and California.
Take a look at a couple of 'tailor-made'
matter. Repair reported recently by U.S.
News Corp.
A 19-year-old drunken driver who was accused of manslaughter was ordered to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and to spend one day a week for three years working in a hospital emergency room. The patient is the first hand the results of people like him."
The rationale behind these sentences was on what. What good would it have done to put these projects together, and then them to community service projects, they pay for the crime, and the community
A PRIEST who was arrested for trying to shoplift religious books was ordered to counsel young adults who had been convicted of serious crimes.
"The act of restitution should serve not only to restore the offender's sense of honor, but also to give society an even more crucial, society's sense of the offender as well, in a way that it can do for society."
Philip Brickman, associate professor of psychology at Northern University, put the question to Mr. Lowe.
THE IDEA IS one, Brickman says, that has appeal both for liberals and conservatives. It appeals to liberals who like the idea that the penalty involves something valuable. It appeals to conservatives, and It appeals to conservatives, who like the idea that the penalty involves holding the
Allen Holder
offenders responsible for their actions and making them pay for their crimes.
The idea, of course, is not a new one. Parents use the same idea when they punish their children. They can either whip the children and ground them for a period of time or they can make them perform extra household chores.
It is painfully apparent, however, that the grounding and whipping has not worked. And when all else fails, almost anything will be tried.
But the idea of making the punishment fit the situation, belong in that "almost nothing" category<sup>2</sup>, is
WILL A COMMUNITY benefit more from the jailing of a doctor who was found guilty of simple assault or from the cancer seminars he is sentenced to give?
The idea, however, can be carried too far. Making the punishment fit the crime can be seen as an adaptation of the Bible verse, "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." But that verse also has been used by those who support capital punishment.
Obviously, such an idea in criminal punishment can't work universally. The punishment for violent crimes, such as rape, cannot be altered to the extreme of an offender paying only by working in a rape support agency.
But in many instances, alternative punishment can work better than prison sentences. And in these days of Proposition 13, taxpayers should be happy to know that they're also saving money by instituting innovation in punishment.
U. S. News reports that it now costs up to $26,000 annually to keep an offender in prison. By changing the structure of sentences, would-be inmates can still support
themselves and their families, who also would be supported by taxayers.
But there are more savings. A dentist was sentenced to fix the teeth of the poor and elderly at his own expense one day a week at how much did that save the taxpayer?
Obviously, saving money is not the goal of criminal penalties. Deterring crime and
rehabilitating criminals is. And so far, it looks like its trend-setting alternative to working in the law.
Of course, it's not a cure-all and its success failures are yet to be seen. But it’s worth noting that
Keeping an intelligent, productive person behind bars for a small crime doesn't make much sense. Making him work off his crime does.
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