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Monday, November 5, 1990 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Issues in education
The Secretary of State is on target, but tardy, in criticizing Legislature's education ballot note
week ago, Secretary of State Bill Graves issued a statement that criticized an explanatory note on the
ballots Kansas voters will mark tomorrow. He said that the note, which was written by a legislative committee and explains a proposed constitutional ammendment concerning education, strongly reflects the wishes of the Legislature.
Graves has a legitimate complaint. The note also is an example of why the Secretary of State should have more control over elections, a stance Graves has taken in his re-election campaign.
If voters pass the proposed amendment, all educational concerns in the state will fall under the jurisdiction of the Legislature, removing all references to the state Board of Education and Board of Regents.
The wording of the explanatory note suggests what the Legislature wants. It says, "... Since the present education article is so explicit ... in the field of public education, the Legislature is restrained from providing for changes in the performance of such functions ... even though changes may be deemed necessary or desired by the people.
"A vote for this proposition would provide
flexibility in the operation of the education article so that the Legislature, and through its members, the people, would have more freedom in providing for public education policy and governance."
The Board of Regents, the Board of Education and other educators say the system as it is now freezes education from politics.
The slanted, vague explanation doesn't mention that. Words like "flexibility" and "freedom" read like a sales pitch to the voters and should have been reworded.
The Legislative Educational Planning Commission drafted the explanation three years ago. Graves' press secretary has said Graves waited until just before this election to criticize the amendment because he wanted voters to remember it. His move is as political as is the wording that drew his concern.
But the Secretary of State should have more influence on election procedures. Graves, or his successor, should be allowed to write ballot explanations. Such a change would improve the likelihood that voters would see a more fairly worded explanation on the ballot.
Julie Mettenburg for the editorial board
Take This, KU New paper serves as another voice on campus
The University has a new voice. Take This, a 12-page news and commentary tableloid, was distributed on campus Wednesday.
The massthe state states that the paper's goal is "... to report the unreported, criticize the previously unquestioned and provide a voice for our community within our campus and community today."
Students and faculty now have a generally-distributed option to Lawrence's three newspapers, one public-access cable television station and five radio stations.
Gary Ashwill, a Take This staff member,
said that the newspaper replaced Disorientation,
a magazine published five times last year and once this year. Last week its 800-copy run of Take This will be followed by larger press runs of new issues, which will be distributed every two weeks during the remainder of the 1990-91 academic year.
Response to the first issue was positive for the most part. Ashwil said.
Without question, the University stands to benefit from its new information source. The Take This staff follows many important journalists, who, like those at Take This, thought that much of the truth was not published in the mainstream media. LF. Stone attacked the irrational followers of U.S. Senator Joe McCarthy in the '50s. Dorothy Day began two decades earlier, calling for personal activism and an end to war through her monthly, the Catholic Worker.
The chosen stance of Take This is secondary. Many will agree with the paper's liberal agenda, and many others will not. More important is that, as many supporters of the newspaper told its staff members, another viewpoint will be printed.
Rich Cornell for the editorial board
Nuclear power's time has come
Nuclear power has already done a yeoman's job of replacing foreign oil. More than 4.3 billion barrels of
Bright sun, golden sand and a little sunscreen. Sound like the perfect beach vacation? Sure, unless of course you happen to be a U.S. soldier sweltering in chemical warfare garb while on patrol at the Saudi Kuwaiti border. And why are Pets. O'Neil, Martinez, Johnson and Kowalski enjoying this all-expense paid desert excursion? In large part, to protect our nation's addiction to foreign oil.
The United States is a foreign oil glutton. Today, one out of every two barrels this country consumes comes from a foreign port. This translates into seven million barrels a day and a whopping 2.6 billion barrels of imported oil per year. By contrast, the United States imported only 36 percent of its oil in 1973. Obviously we learned that American oil Consequently, we may now be forced to pay for this tragic mistake with U.S. lanes.
Regardless of how this episode turns out, it should be clear to all of us that it is time to change our ways. The foreign oil needle must be removed from our energy vein. Although our own domestic oil wells can help accomplish this in aArea must be reversed in our production of electricity. Foreign oil must give way to nuclear power.
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The foreign oil needle must be removed from our energy vein.
Guest columnist
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imported oil amounting to $125 billion in foreign payments have been displaced by U.S. nuclear energy plants since the 1973 embargo. In 1973, oil accounted for 17 percent of electricity production while nuclear power supplied only 5 percent. Seventeen other these numbers are reversed with nuclear power accounting for 20 percent and oil only 6 percent.
Unfortunately, as proponents of nuclear power have been forced to hurdle unpredictable obstacles and the irrational opposition of radical environmentalists, foreign oil's share of electricity production has escalated at an alarming rate. In 1989, utilities were using 731,000 barrels of oil per day to generate electricity. This was up from 500,000 barrels a day in 1987. Future prospects are no brighter. Experts predict the amount of oil used to produce electricity to be recorded within three to five years.
Compounding this problem is the fact that the U.S. appetite for electricity is growing sharply. This year, we will need at least 2 percent more electricity than last year, and there is reason to expect this increase. To achieve that growth directly tied to jobs and a healthy economy, it would be suicidal to put our future in the hands of the Saddam Husseins of the world
Nuclear power offers us a proven, safe and abundant source of electricity. Better still, we don't have to lift through foreign soil to find it; it's right here at home. New nuclear technologies offer us an even more promising future when domestic energy can power our nation well past the year 4000. We would be foolish to protect this incredible energy source from realizing its potential.
Sadly, it seems we are bound and determined to do just that. Orders for new nuclear plants have ground to a halt and barrels of foreign oil keep sailing our way. Hopefully, the United States will wise up before some of us are forced to take an early spring break at Club Baghdad.
John Noltensmeyer is a Paola senior majoring in communications studies.
No one is immune to discriminatory practices
If you've never been discriminated against, skip this column.
If you fit in with the "perfect image," (what ever that is), read something else.
If you aren't considered by somebody to be too thin, short, tall, ugly or beautiful, don't read on.
If you aren't too Jewish, too male, too female,
if white, too dark; if your nose doesn't stick out or
your ears don't flap in the breeze, you have no business here. Get yourself into a beauty contest.
We have all been discriminated against. Yes, even me, Anglo-Saxon Protestant.
I was told I couldn't get a certain job because of the heavy lifting involved.
I demonstrated my ability to lift the weight required. I said I didn't care whether I had to lift it or not.
But the man doing the hirehold would not hire me. The only reason that he gave for not hiring me is to get a raise.
I again demonstrated that I indeed could lift the weight required. Still, the answer was no.
I am not a man. Never have been, never will be,
and in fact, never want to be.
Frustrated, I pushed for a reason behind his decision. What I came to was that he really wanted me to fail.
Discrimination implies refusing a benefit on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin of the person who might potentially receive the benefit.
This has happened this will commit to help Homosexuals will be refused commissions in the
I was refused a job because of my femaleness.
Good. I will work and will continue to happen.
Staff columnist
Amelia Beard
military.
**blacks will be refused the right to education**
because of weak minority recruitment and retention.
Asians will be denied acceptance because of fear and competition.
Women will be denied job advance opportunities because of the fact that they are female.
Discrimination does not only focus on Blacks, Jews, women or gays.
These are just a few of the injustices resulting from discriminatory behavior.
But there is more. What about women who do not get into sororities because they went to the
It extends to all races, all sexes, all sexual and religious orientations.
They may seem unimportant, but I think that the above examples demonstrate that discrimination reaches into every corner of society, even Anglo-Saxon Protestant corners.
What if the educated White male doesn't get a job because he has too many freckles and doesn't fit the corporate image?
These things are real injustices.
It attacks all of these groups. But I emphasized
the other possibilities in order to bring discrimination home to the non-minorities.
But big deal, right? They don't have it tough like Blacks, gays, etc.
Wrong!
Discrimination is not isolated to anti-Black symbols painted on walls, burning crosses or
It there's, it is a problem, and it needs to be dealt with now.
Discrimination is sometimes subtle, small and sly. But as such, should we ignore it?
Educate yourself about minorities, watch your actions and thoughts about minorities and anyone who views them.
Even if you don't want to attend a protest or write letters, you can fight discrimination by being an activist.
As someone who tries very hard to keep discrimination out of my own thoughts and actions, I say, "I'll stick to what I know."
Finally, be sure that if you or someone you know is discriminated against, you act to correct it.
If this sounds like a call to action, that's because it is.
Discrimination affects everyone: people who have freckles, bag noses, black skin, a different appearance.
You can take action simply by sitting in your room and re-evaluating your attitudes toward others. Sound easy?
▶ Amelia Beard is an Atchison senior majoring in English and Journalism.
Middle East life hard
Cairo, Egypt — Yesterday afternoon, I was calmly sipping tea and writing in my journal at the Semiramis Hotel, where just hours before, the Speaker of the Parliament and his guards were assassinated by three unknown gunmen. No one has claimed responsibility, but it is rumored that the murder resulted from internal political ambitions to U.S. implications linking the incident to the Gulf Crisis.
It is hard to know what to believe because the few American newspapers I get here are packed with media hype and at least a week old, and most Egyptian newspapers are censored blatantly or are sensationalist. "Iraqis Eat Animals" is a sample headline.
At times the tension can be unnerving. Many American students have their bags packed, ready to hop on the next plane home if necessary. The rest of us continue to go horseback riding by the Pyramids, swim in the Red Sea as the sun goes down in Arabia and take long walks along the Nile, cracking jokes about terrorists.
In addition, political activity of any kind is forbidden on campus and is frowned upon off campus. So the only response to the recent
On days like yesterday, however, our laughter is strained because we realize that we are playing a waiting game and that we could be sent home at any moment. None of us knows what will happen tomorrow, but whether we can finish our semester is not up to us. It is up to Baghdad and Washington, D.C.
massacre of 22 Palestinians in Jerusalem was a silent sit-in on the library steps. Just 20 students quietly sitting on the library steps and at quick doubling of the firestaff strict security forces on campus.
Anium Akhtar
Anjum Akhtar
Topeka junior studying at American
University, Cairo, Egypt
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Three Imaginary Girls
OF A TIME, BENNY.
THEY both ARE,REALLY,THAT'S
why THEY fight so much
I mean,THEY know what THEY're
talking about,BUT it's ALMOST
beside the POINT... I HOPE
you DIDN'T have TOO BAD
By Tom Avery
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