4 Monday, November 12, 1990/ University Daily Kansan Opinion THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN Supreme Court decision Allowing gay sergeant to re-enlist in the Army is important in order to change military's policy The recent Supreme Court decision allowing a gay soldier to re-enlist in the Army does not significantly affect the military's ban on homosexuals. However, the action is a step in the right direction. The Supreme Court voted to uphold a federal appeals court ruling allowing a 16-year veteran to continue to serve his country. Sgt. Perry White of Seattle was discharged honorably in 1984 after the Army's enactment of a regulation calling for the discharge of homosexuals. homosexuals. This regulation, adopted in 1981, is the same order disallowing homosexuals from being commissioned as military officers upon graduating from one of the nation's ROTC programs. This Department of Defense policy excluding homosexuals from military service has spurred recent protests at KU and on campuses throughout the nation. By permitting White's re-enlistment, the Supreme Court helps prove to the military that discrimination cannot be tolerated on any grounds. Though the case is merely a drop in the bucket against a giant adversary every little bit counts. When Sgt. White was drafted in 1967, he indicated on his pre-induction form that he had homosexual tendencies. He was enlisted anyway. Since then, he has served two tours of duty in Korea and has maintained an excellent service record. Although White will be enlisted again, the appeals court ruling stated that the Army still could try to discharge him for any future homosexual acts. Alleged homosexual acts, however, which were the subject of past discharge proceedings against White, would not be grounds for dismissal. Sexual preference in no way hinders job performance, military or otherwise, and should not be a determinant in a job-screening process. We hope the Supreme Court will continue to shoot down misguided and clearly discriminatory practices. Buck-Taylor for the editorial board First woman governor Kassebaum, Myers give Finney acts to follow Joan Finney dominated Mike Hayden in Tuesday's election results. Both candidates were weak. Both ran campaigns that embarrassed the state. The one redeeming factor in Finney's victory is that Kansas has shown its trust in women as leaders. Kansas has demonstrated that a politician's sex is not an issue. Kansas has fine role models in Sen. Nancy Kassebaum and Rep. Jan Myers. Now we have demonstrated our support for a woman governor. The people of Kansas can only hope that Joan Finney will meet the standards that Kassebaum and Myers have set. Congratulations to Joan Finney. Congratulations to our team! We hope she surprises us all and becomes the most respected and capable governor Kansas has ever known. Kjerstin Gabrielson for the editorial board LETTERS to the EDITOR Cartoon distorts truth Contrain to the cartoon's portrayal, Women's Studies courses often reach maximum capacity during enrollment. Last spring, I had an extensive waiting list for the course that I teach this fall. As the instructor of the introductory Women's Studies course, I feel compelled to provide an insider's tip to Michael's Nov. 6 Home Remedies. What types of students enroll in Women's Studies courses? In my class this fall, one student is a first year student who placed out of all of the University English requirements. Another student mentioned being a teacher at the Sachsusetts Institute of Technology because of her 900 math SAT score. I have been duly impressed with the quality of my students' work. Within a few weeks, I discovered that other instructors must perceive these students similarly because one by one many class members revealed themselves to be honors students in their respective majors. KU's best and brightest constitute the average Women's Studies class because they are up for a personal and academic challenge. How many students are willing to take courses in women's studies undergives underlying the role of the sexes in areas as diverse as economics, history, sociology and psychology? Traditionally, Women's Studies programs are interdisciplinary, which that students are encouraged to examine the forest as well as the trees. I don't want to characterize Women's Studies students as an elite group, however. My current class is diverse in age, class, sex, ethnicity and other demographics. Similarly, Women's Studies classes are in the forefront in developing a multicultural curriculum at this campus. This is not to say that we have achieved such a curriculum. Indeed, we have a long way to go But Women's Studies students and faculty are characterized by their friendships to grapple with the myriad connections among racism, sexism, classism, and heterosexism. And Women's Studies is among the few academic programs to set such a precedent. Now that I have had my say, we'll see who has the last laugh when I'm asked for a closed class apper. Pat Harney Pat Harney Graduate teaching assistant in Women's Studies Cartoons knock women Enough is enough. After reading the cool and oh-so rational advice in Tuesday's Kansan by Mary Neubauer on how to deal with nothing less than reality itself ("the only way to deal with it is to think of it like a cartoon . . . like 'Three Imaginary Girls'"); I looked to the bottom of the page again, looking again in pages in Jane Austen help with my reality, or perhaps even (dare I say) some humor, and instead found Tom Michael's cartoon. What is this, a conspiracy? The character in "Home Remedies" and nightmares about being forced to take classes on the history, psychology and sociology of women. What, may I ask, is so horribly frightening about being exposed to the realities of more than half the world's people? male history, read male literature and study male social sciences ever since we have had access to formal knowledge. How about something in return? Even if Michael himself chooses, tragically, not to enroll in any Women's Studies courses during his years in school, the least he can do is show some respect for those of us who do. And if the Kanas find it too taxing to look for cartoonists who are not blantt misogynists (and proud of it, too), the least you can do is consider moving them off the editorial page. Otherwise, this particular section of the Kansan will continue to read as a ringing endorsement of the smug, myopic and women-belittling opinions held by your dynamic pen-wielding duo. Melinda Weir iowa Citv. iowa. senior Women have been forced to read Group wants apology As KU students, as women, as human beings, we, the undersigned, are shocked and disturbed by the repeated misogynist content of the editorial cartoon strips in the Kansas. We are especially offended by Tom Micauda's strip published by The New Yorker, an entire Women's Studies program and those who participate in it on every level. We demand immediate public, verbal and printed apologies from both the editorial staff of the Kansan and Tom Michaud. These apologies shall participate in the faculty and students who participate in the Women's Studies department. Jeanneettne Bonjour, Lawrence graduate student; Donnie Burk, Lawrence graduate student; Karen Cook, Lawrence resident; other students and Lawrence residents FAE 11-2=90 Appetites will destroy the Earth Y you can call us radicals, although most of us aren't. You can even use us to raise misses of us aren't You can even call us pants, but don't call us boots. Noltensmermey. Opposition to environ- mentally unsound practices is never irrational. The 'monkey wrenching' that some groups support may be just a way for people to feel By elevating nuclear power to a fix-it-all status in your Nov. 5 column, you convinced me that you're really the best friend and but the audacity to proclaim nuclear power "safe" and "proven." Does the name Chernobyl mean anything to you, Noltensmen? Ever hear of Three Mile Island? Do you not realize how close your home, Paola, is to any accident, accidents only happen elsewhere? Roger Kramer Guest columnis Any engineer not working for a nuclear facility will tell you that no system is fail-safe. Furthermore, although automated, the plants are ultimately under human control. Does your plant have an emergency mute? Even if operations safety were an issue, we still would lack a watertight plan for waste disposal. Nuclear safety, however, really isn't the problem. Nor is power production, or international relations. Notlesmeyer, you almost found the problem. "The United States is a foreign oil glutton," you said. Why stop there, Notlesmeyer? How did your "insightfulness" miss the uglier truth. The United States is a glutton. Period. We equate happiness with an all-you-can-eat buffet. Nolstermeyer, you were so eager to keep us all satiated that it didn't occur to you (nor to most of us) that maybe we could just cuck our appetites. Maybe could be happy with enough rather than the status quo of too much. Unfortunately, in this country it's considered a respectable profession to encourage unrestrained consumption, to create a demand for every supply. All agencies convince us that our petty luxuries are actually necessary. True for better or worse consumption, the environment "but progress" that compromises the environment is not progress. Every act of consumption is a bite, directly or indirectly, out of some part of the environment. Our current propensity to consume is biting off more than we should and that, Noltenmensure, is irrational. Our country's 5 percent of the world's population devours a grossly disproportionate amount of the world's resources (almost half) When the Third World decides it wants its share and the East "aspires" to the West's level of materialism, environmental degeneracy or even the alternative is what we're doing now in the guild: defending our horde. Fortunately, the environment is resilient. It bends before it breaks. It heals itself, provided the blows don't come too hard and fast. The 30's showed what poorly managed agriculture can do to agriculture and aquaculture are relatively harmless. Unfortunately, we mistake resilience for indestructibility. No one like a prophet of doom, so environmentalists" irrational warnings are ignored. All the white, warm waters smother a very real breaking point. Noltsmeyer, you were right on another point. "It is time to change our ways." That includes, but is not limited to, looking for more efficient energy sources. I'm not altogether against nuclear power. Nor am I suggesting that we return to a subsistence level or halt progress. But while we're looking for the bigger, better buffet, we should remember that this planet simply can't support 5.5 billion insatiable appetites. Roger Kramer is a Leawood junior majoring in mathematics. Society must open its eyes to the homeless W then the leaves begin to turn from the trees and I dig my sweaters out of the closest. I know that fall is upon us. It's the beginning of the holiday season with Thanksgiving right around the corner. We'll talk about Thanksgiving, the more it says that we have lost its message. For the Pilgrims, Thanksgiving was exactly that, giving thanks to God for their survival in this new country. They not only had divine assistance, but they also had the help of the Native Americans who showed them how to grow food. Today we do not see that spirit of helping often enough. An estimated 1.5 million to 3 million people are homeless in America today. By the year 2000, that figure may well reach 20 million, which is the number of people who make up 12 4 million of the estimated poor, and 500,000 of those children suffer from malnutrition. Yet while numbers are important, they do not provide the whole picture. As a Christian, I see these problems as immoral; it is a sin that this is possible. However, one does not have to be religious to care about the health of others. This is compassion. Michael Harrington was an atheist, yet his book "The Other America "brought this problem to the attention of the policymakers in Washington. Unfortunately, two wars on Poverty has yet to be won. The federal government simply is not doing enough. During the Reagan administration, the funds for low-income housing were cut by 80 percent. The Food Stamp program reaches between only 50 percent to 66 percent of those eligible for assistance. To those it does reach, an average of 55 cents a meal is given. Similarly, the cost of this house insurance, a 1.5 million low-income housing units were lost. By 1982, another 500,000 possibly could fall into the private sector. That means more voundies condo. Of course, these scenarios do not include the homeless. More shelters are not the answer. For all their good, what shelters tend to do is institutionalize the homeless. Many of the homeless suffer from mental incess and drug and alcohol abuse. We need to address these issues in hopes of making these people functioning members of society. What can we do? Here in Lawrence, there are plenty of opportunities. This week is National Homeless and Hunger Week, so when is a better time to do your part? Habitat for Humanity has three home and starting its fourth LINK, a local soup kitchen, can always use food and help serve meals. Or perhaps you could volunteer time at the Salvation Army, or you could instruct you on how to work in the Salvation Army shelter this winter. The most important thing we can all do is to open our eyes to these problems. We must be like the Good Samaritan who refused to pass by the car on the road and was asked what was the greatest commandment, he said there were two. To love God with all our heart and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. If we can all do that, we truly have much to be thankful for. ▶ Nicolas Shump is a Topeka freshman majoring in Italian language and literature. 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MARGARET TOWNSEND Business manager MINDY MORRIS Retail sales manager JEANNE HINES Sales and marketing adviser Great columns should be typed, double spaced and fewer than 700 words. The writer will be observed. The Kanana reserves the right to reject or edit letters, guest columns and cartoons. They can be mailed or brought to the Kanana newsroom, 111 Stuart-Flint Hall, Letters, columns and cartoons are the opinion of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Kanana. Editorials are the opinion of the Kanana editorial board. Three Imaginary Girls By Tom Avery