UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN editorials
Unsigned editors represent the opinion of the Kanan editorial staff. Signed columns represent the views of
NOVEMBER 16, 1978
Med Center library
A proposal for a new library at the University of Kansas Medical Center deserves public support.
If built, the $4.9 million library will not only benefit medical students and faculty, but should also help improve the quality of medical education available at the Med Center. In the meantime, the latter will benefit all Kansans.
BUT OFFICIALS at the Med Center must first get the library project approved by the Kansas Board of Regents, a task that could be more difficult than many people have expected.
On Friday the Regents will be asked to hire an architect to design the library. Money for the planning of a library can be provided by an appropriated by the Kansas Legislature.
DURING ITS last session, the Legislature appropriated $130,000 "for development of alternatives of re-use of vacated clinical spaces including library purposes and the planning of a new hospital."
However, after a study by a library consultant from Duke University was completed, University officials concluded that the construction of a new library would be the only way to meet future library needs.
The study said buildings at the Kansas City, Kan., campus to be vacated when a new hospital is finished were not structurally suited for library stacks. Hospital floors, the study said, are not designed to withstand the pressures required of a library floor.
THESE TWO REASONS by themselves should be sufficient to convince the Regents of the need for the new library, but the Regents have said they will be tightening their belt for capital improvements. One hopes the Med Center will not be the first victim of this tight-fisted policy.
There can be few better ways to advance both education and health care in Kansas than with a new library at the Med Center. The Regents should strongly back the library proposal.
Kansan again falls prey to big business influence
To the editor:
Well! Well! Well. It appears that the University Daily Kanan, albeit the champion of student rights, concerns and affairs on this great campus, has not learned its lesson about dealing with the big business factions of the corporate structure.
One would thai that the Kansan had gotten the message in the letter published Nov. 10 regarding the inserted magazine, Insider, which is published by one of these right-wing, anti-populous profitmongers. This is the Kansan did not get the message.
I'm referring to those posters in Monday's Kansan. It only took me a couple of minutes to realize that these posters were trying to influence my sympathies regarding beer manufacturers. It took a couple of minutes more before I realized that a leading big-brewing beer company had put the poster in the Kansan. And by that time, boy, was I 'out!'
Either the Kansan supports the students or it does not. Either it acts responsibly by thumbing its nose at money and fast-buck corporations, or it accepts their pap and presents a balanced viewpoint in his speech. What is the Kansan, mice or humans?
Why, oh, why could you let a big business like Anheuser-Busch purchase a half-interest in Kansan stock in Monday's paper? Could it be that the paper has once more given in to corporate education and to students? How could you sell out the totally anti-corporate student population of this campus once more?
I want an emphatic response to this...no more, no less. Was giving in to the big business motor company just the foot in the proverbal door? After big business beer conglomerates, what next..big business fast food restaurant chains?
The Kansan should serve the students first. By putting in big business advertisements like for Ford and Budweiser, it would mean that the Kansan has surrendered that responsibility.
Richard Burkard
Kansas City, Kan., junior
Review controversy has lasted too long
To the editor:
This is not another letter in support of or against the review by Melissa Thompson of the Natalie Cole concert but rather a plea to bear the end of this whole ordeal.
When a person writes a review of another person's work it will obviously contain the author's point of view. I am sure you will remember this from freshman English.
Thompson was given an assignment and wrote a review, and how the readers interpreted it it was their own business. It was also used to crowd racist comments, while others did not.
We are all entitled to our own opinions and interpretations, so let's just leave it at that and go on to bigger and better things. As it is right now, we seem to be stagnated on this
Julia Jean Amos
Ashland sophomore
Booze, sex, drugs all part of life in Oz To the editor:
Joe and I decided to take our two finest ladies and leave the inner city for a look at the social aspects of academic life. We jumped into our '78 Cadillac (1979) its lavender color isn't as tasteful as last year's model), bought a bottle of Red Eye at
Friday:
KANSAN letters
Harry's Liquor Store, the nearest one that
supplies food stamps, and headed down the
street.
We hit the streets of Lawrence at about 10 p.m. and were told to head for The Wheel and The Hawk to find some action. Carefully dodging the stream produced by about a dozen patrons who were irritating outside the door, we entered.
I was immediately decked by an enraged boyfriend who mistook me for his girl's lover. Remembering the briefing we had received warning us about these crazed people still couldn't lessen the shock of seeing them firsthand.
Later, after being told by our girlfriends that there was no spot on their posteriors that they could touch, they stepped over the mess of a patron who had drunk "too much." The poor souls, they just can't help avoiding the loss of so many brain cells, deflate products of their en-
Upon leaving, Joe bumped me to draw my attention to the couple copulating against a parked car. The feeling of having eight eyes on him was unbearable, so we stop, because they separated, excused themselves and asked us whether we wanted to go to a party. In the interest of transcending the socio-economic barrier and to satisfy our curiosity, we decided to
W felt alone and when we entered the party as most of the other guests were armed with a brown paper bag in one band and a pipe in the other. Our ladies were there because there were a few males who were still trying to determine their topography.
Following the Long Hair we knelt at a coffee table and, in a ritual performed a thousand times before, he laid out four lines and I placed a $10 bill and two $1 bills on the table. Just then, the Long Hair sneezed, and I gave him another $10 bill, the $10 bill I felt guilty, yet somewhat justified.
The clouded room and obvious excess of alcohol consumed made the females at the party look ever so-much-more inviting. A long-heired male approached and was kind enough to offer us some cocaine at $3 a line, take or leave it, you white trash!"
Tired and high, with a sense of being out of our environment, we headed back to the sanctinity of the inner city. On the way, Joe was very quiet, obviously contemplating the night's events. Then, in a philosophical tone, Joe looked over and down the street, for us to notice and leave, but what about the poor souls who have to live there?
in house in Walt Steirenwood Scott Sherwood Lawrence seniors
The saga of Patricia Campbell Hearst at times seepa to be never-ending.
P. S. One last comment concerning Kathleen Conkey's article: If Dorothy doesn't care for Oz, she should stay home in Kansas. Wall Strenbern
Her story is one that easily brings feelings both of sympathy and disgust. Sympathy for a 19-year-old newspaper heiress who was brutally kidnapped and held hostage by a terrorist group. And disgust at the fact that she will管理 with her husband, the Symbionese Liberation Army, and helped them rob a San Francisco bank.
Money,justice on trial in Hearst case
But the Paty Hearst story should have ended two years ago. It was then that a jury found her guilty of seven counts in relation to her death and sentenced her to seven years in prison.
Letters Policy
The University Daily Kansan welcomes letters to the editor. Letters should be typewritten, double-spaced and not exceed 500 words. They should include the writer's name, address and telephone number. If the writer is affiliated with the university, the letter should be sent to the writer at the home town or faculty or staff position.
The Kansan reserves the right to edit letters for publication.
Heart has served 19 months of that 7-year sentence and could be released as early as next July when she first will be eligible for parole. A 7-year sentence that turns into only 28 months seems relatively light with the 30 years she could have received.
Since her conviction, however, Hearest's lawyers have almost continuously appealed her case to anyone who would listen. And those appeals can bring only a disturbed feeling because once again justice may be different for the rich than it is for the poor
HEARST WAS convicted in a fair trial—at least as fair as a trial of that magnitude could be—and she should remain in prison until she is paroled.
Allen Holder
Heart's attorneys won't stop. Her appeal on the grounds that her trial was unfair was turned down by a U.S. Court of Appeals last year and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to stay on this year. Her attorneys also have sought a pardon from President Jimmy Carter.
Last week a federal judge refused to set aside Heath's conviction, saying, "None of the evidence offered in her behalf, even if it were the most difficult hearing, would entitle her to relief.
"SIMPLY STATED, the juriry apparently believed that Ma. Heart participated freely in the robbery and did not believe the coercion theory presented by her defense."
Hearest has many persons on her side, including some from both newspapers in
Phil Kerry wrote in the Los Angeles Times, "Justice and reason got swallowed up in confusion," and asked, "How would justice be undermined by releasing Patricia Hearst and ending her ordeal and the continuing torment of her family?"
That same question may be asked about other persons serving time in federal penitentiaries. Why not release them if there is reason to believe they won't repeat the CRIT.
The smaller Los Angeles daily, the Herald-Examiner, also urged Heard's release in a front page editorial. It said that they were "proud and pleased to have kidnapped Patricia Heard," rebutted the argument that Heard should be treated like a criminal.
THEAT ARGUMENT does not address the matter. There is little doubt that she is nearly there. He was not there, however, centered on what happened after the kidnapping and whether she will willingly return.
The Herald-Examiner is owned by the Hearst Corp., but the newspaper insisted that the Hearst family was not involved in the decision to print the editorial.
The paper's misguided editorial continued by arguing that the time Hearst had spent in custody demonstrated that there was equal respect for persons of poor and wealthy backgrounds.
Maybe so, but releasing Hearst now would destroy that demonstration. would prove that the model of a political economy is not true.
Bailey tried to select older jurors who were parents and might be touched by the sight of the Hearts sitting behind their daughter in court.
Hearst's trial was one of the most publicized ones in recent years. And obviously that publicity made the trial more difficult. But Hearst money secured one of the country's most famous trial lawyers: F. Lee Bailey.
BAILEY WORKED long to find the best juries he could. "Everyone who says he hasn't read about the case is going to get kicked off the case as incompetent," he said. "You can't win an election, don't want some redneck who will say, 'Put her in the can because she has dug.'"
The entire Hearst episode is unfortunate. Hearst and her new lawyers say they want Hearst to be freed she can forget about five years and start to straighten out her life.
After Bailley's closing arguments, Patty's mother reportedly said, "I thought it was magnificent." But Bailley didn't win the case and Hearst went to jail. F. Lee Bailley is no longer her attorney. Now the Hearsts are in incompetent and are asking for a new trial.
But freezing Hearst a few months before she scheduled parole would only complicate things. If justice is to be done to everyone, the judge must prison term and then straighten out her life.
Buried in last week's avalanche or election returns was the swan song of one of the most controversial politicians of the city, Philadelphia Mayor Frank L. Rizzo.
Rizzo lost what was probably his final battle when Philadelphia voters overwhelmed turned down a change in the team's colors. Rizzo to run for an unreceded third term.
Rizzo's defeat ends the political career of a man who—like Richard Nikon before him—evoked hysterical emotions from his audience. He was Philadelphians, and to many others across the country, Rizzo was either saint or demon, martyr or fiend. There was little
RIZZO'S DEPARTURE from the mayor's office next year will be a passage of sorts, because with the death of Chicago Mayor Larry Sanders, the last of the powerful blue-city bosses
Although his tough-guy, super-patriot image made Rizzo enormously popular with members of Philadelphia's highly diverse population, he was also a strong Italian-American, Rizzos overwhelming racism was his final downfall. He was defeated because his constant urgings to be more aggressive had been overshadowed.
Racism brings defeat to bia-citv boss
Although his political machine never approached the power of Daley's, Rizzo was without question cut from the same cloth. He, like Daley, was from immigrant stock, admired by like Daley, his most fervent adversary, and the populous ethnic communities of his city.
DESPITE OCCASIONALLY slips into outright ignorance—and acquiring a deserved reputation as a racist—Rizzo has been able to expand his strength in ethnic areas into a diverse coalition of members. Since his election as mayor in 1971 he had been able to expand his strength in ethnic areas into a diverse coalition of members.
But as he became more entrenched in office, his racism became more obvious, and his campaign to change the city's policies decidedly racist slant as early as a year ago.
Rizzo's racist image was increased after a brutal showdown this summer between the Philadelphia police and MOVE, an all-ball-cust whose members had taken the surname
John
Whitesides
Africa and barricaded themselves in a Philadelphia house for more than a year.
Rizzo ordered the police to attack the house. One policeman was killed, but photographs of policemen beating and kicking MOVE members were published in the press and increased Rizzo's image as a blackhat faniac for law and order.
But it was too late. A little dab of Hizzo did wonders for organizing and uniting the black community of Philadelphia. A massive registration and voter turnout campaign that was begun in the black wards was a successful, spelling the end for Hizzo.
AFTER BEGINNING his campaign with openly racy appeals to Philadelphia's white population, Rizzo eventually changed his strategy and switched his attacks to an easier target—the press—during the last two months of the campaign.
In the 25 mostly black wards of Philadelphia the charter change lost by margins as high as 50 to 1. Black wards that had been handily carried by Rizco in 1975 were nearly unanimously against him in last week's election.
OF COURSE, Rizzo's increasingly desperate raveals alienated many segments of Philadelphia's voting population, which turned against him in overwhelming numbers and numbered Mr. Rizzo like Rizzo outnumbered Republicans by about 700,000 to 200,000.
But the increased black turnout at the polls, plus the solidarity of their voting, was more than any other factor the main reason behind Rizzo's downfall.
Indeed, increased black voting power is what has spellied the end of the big city boss as we had come to know him. As more whites flee to the former, the problem widens if the big cities, which were the communities that once produced and supported the old-time political bosses,
are slowly splintering and disintegrating,
giving way to new alliances of political
The voters of Philadelphia made that message clear to Rizco and his boys. The man who became known as "Supercop" will play in the finals last late 1980s will soon, barring some unforeseen political rebirth, return to the
majority of his career as a policeman.
All of which was just fine to the thousands who gathered in front of the Philadelphia City Hall on election night to chant their own version of "Ding Dong, the Witch is Dead."
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