4
Thursday, August 30, 1990/ University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Women in combat Draft registration should include women and men
Throughout the crisis in the Persian Gulf, women have proved themselves to be capable of performing military duties side by side with men.
Women currently are serving in combat duties in Saudi Arabia. They perform the same tasks as men and have proved themselves physically and mentally capable for combat.
Women deserve equal rights, even if they don't have them yet. We don't all receive equal pay for equal work. Some of us still face discrimination and harassment in the workplace. But the reality is that rights include responsibility.
If women are men's equals, they should share equal responsibility in the defense of the United States.
Women should have to register for the draft. The old arguments, such as women being the weaker and more emotional sex responsible for the rearing of the country's children, no longer apply.
It's true that women are socialized differently from men. We learn from an early age that aggression is not feminine, that showing emotion is acceptable behavior for girls and
that girls just don't fight. We are victims of our socialization, but we can overcome it as we have in the business world and in government. Obvious examples are the publisher of the Washington Post, Katherine Graham; the publisher of MS magazine, Gloria Steinem; and the prime minister of Great Britain, Margaret Thatcher.
It's true that women bear children and men can't. But women should no longer be expected to be solely responsible for raising children. Nonetheless, no one wants to see children separated from their parents. Parents of young children, not just mothers, should be exempt from the draft.
Of course, pregnant women can't be expected to serve. The argument follows that women could get pregnant to avoid the draft. But a man could shoot himself in the foot. Plotted pregnancies would merely be a new pioy in an old con game.
Despite these rational arguments, however,
most women don't want to go to war.
Neither do most mer
Kjerstin Gabrielson and Jill Harrington for the editorial board
Recycling at KU Regional firms provide outlet to aid recycling
B recycling is catching on in epidemic fashion.
Housing groups on and off campus are trying to find every thing they can to recycle, from tin and aluminum to glass and paper. Dillon stores are accepting paper and plastic bags as well as aluminum cans and plastic bottles for recycling. Automobile repair shops and garages are taking metals and batteries.
The University of Kansas has expanded its recycling program to include newsprint in addition to aluminum cans. The "blue monster" newspaper receptacle in front of Staufer-Flint Hall, unsigly as it might be, gives an imposing message that students and citizens in Lawrence show no sign of letting up
As an industry, however, recycling hasn't taken off. The market for recycled materials has developed slowly, leaving many companies with no place to sell the materials they have collected. In Lawrence, both River City Recycling and United Recycling no longer are in business.
Several area companies deserve praise for providing an outlet for recyclable materials.
In Lawrence, Conservation Resources is picking up the slack left by the closed companies by taking aluminum, tin, plastic, newspaper, white bond and computer paper, glass and scrap metal. The company picks up materials once a week, for a charge of $2 a month.
Central Fiber Co., in Wellsville, transforms newspapers, cardboard, milk cartons, envelopes and computer paper into house insulation, mulch, horse bedding and peat moss. The company also accepts aluminum and plastic and is testing new products for national distribution.
Deffenbaugh Industries Inc., in Shawnee, accepts newspapers, aluminum cans, glass, plastics, motor oil and batteries. It distributes those materials to companies that make them into new products like soda pop bottles, clothes baskets and fuel oil.
Both Central Fiber and Deffenbaugh accept drop-offs from individuals and small groups,
These companies are helping to keep recycling successful in Kansas.
Members of the editional board are Sarah Biy, Rich Cornell, Kristen Gabrelsen, Sally Gibbs, David Harter, Tiffany Harness, Jill Harington, Stephen Kline, Julie Mentenburg, Mary Nebusau, Christine Reinolds, Derek Schol, Carol T
Julie Mettenburg for the editorial board
Hussein's actions historically typical
S addam Hussein is not a mad man.
Wait, let me repeat myself,
so as to be perfectly clear. Saddam Hussein is not a madman.
Despite numerous attempts by government spokespersons and so-called media experts to convince the public that Saddam is insane, proof is certainly lacking. None of Saddam's statements about the situation are anything other than the actions of an ambition, increasingly powerful, world leader.
There are many problems with the assumption that Saddam is crazy. First, those who叫 him insane from a Eurocentric perspective.
Saddam is not European. He is highly distrustful of Europeans. He cannot be judged fairly from the standpoint of a European value system. He is an Arab from the Middle East. Therefore, his actions must be considered from a Middle Eastern perspective.
Saddam Hussein is one of many Arab leaders who resents this Western partition of the Middle East. As a result, he has been accused was a sovereign nation. He sees
The boundries were drawn by the English and French, without much regard for the indigenous history, culture and people of the area, which were largely Bedouin. Formerly, Bedouin people roamed throughout the Middle East, but this idea was not acceptable to Westerners who had the power to impose lines of nationalism.
European兴盛 similar to today's treatment of Saddam created the context of the current Middle East conflict. After World War II, Europeans drew national bindries for troops throughout the Middle East.
Staff columnist
Aaron Rittmaster
Kuwait as an oil-rich area that already should have been part of Iraq, as it was before non-Middle Easterners in and changed his boundaries for him. If the French and English can take Kuwait away from Iraqi control, Iraq certainly can decide to take it back.
This is precisely what Saddam Hussein has been telling the world in recent weeks. He views Kuwait as a sort of stepchild. He was willing to tolerate the stepchild as long as it interfered with his conflict between the two nations, and was time to take the stepchild behind the barn for a good switching.
As Kuwait became a bastion of Western ideology in the increasingly fundamentalist Arab world, Saddam began to resent the stepchild. Kuwait became a foreigner in the Arab midst. As economic pressure escalated, the infidel Kuwaits were prime targets. To Saddam, the Iraqi action never was an invasion, but instead a reunification.
Finally, Iraq remains under severe economic distress, largely because of its drawn-out war with Iran. That past war is not an issue in the current conflict, however, except as a cause of Iraqi financial distress.
In an effort to improve its financial standing Iraq first went to OPEC and asked for lower oil production quotas. In a recent letter, the price for crude oil OPEC agreed, but the Kuwaitis exceeded the voluntary quota, thus keeping oil prices lower.
Additionally, Saddam believes that Kuwait was increasing production by taking unfairly large amounts out of an oil field near the Kuwait-Iraq border. Saddam says the field taps into an oil pool shared by Kuwait and Iraq, meaning that Iraq's oil reserves were being depleted while Kuwait contributed to a reduction of production.
Essentially, the Iraqi invasion to Kuwait could be compared to battles over water rights in the American Frontier. What happened when a neighbor stole scarce water or she likely was run out of town.
What does all of this have to do with Saddam Hussein's mental health? All of the scenarios above are logical being taken by a rational human being.
I'm not saying the U.S. should stay out of the Persian Gulf. Instead, we should hone腱 about our reasons for visiting the Persian Gulf and our perceived right to foreign oil.
However, by painting Saddam as crazy, the United States can justify any action it takes as an attempt to free the world from a madman. Remember former CIA chief George Bush's old friend Mani Nurgeia? When it was time to depose him, Norigeia suddenly became a "drug-crazed strongman" instead of a trusted ally.
and our perceived right to foreign off
Oh, and something to ponder: George Bush's popularity ratings were at an all-time high just after the invasion of Panama. But before the invasion, in the wake of the savings and loan scandal, they had reached a new low.
Military action anyone?
Other Voices
Untapped oil to south
Aaron Rittmaster is an Overland Park senior majoring in political science.
The upheaval in the Middle East has flashed like a bolt of lightning illuminating the precarious position of the world's energy supplies. Fortunately, important alternatives to Middle East oil supplies exist right here in the Western Hemisphere, if we have the foresight to use our Latin American neighbors to bring them into production.
It is no secret that Latin America's supply of natural resources, oil and energy constitute one of the world's most important mineral reserves. Mexico and Venezuela are not the only countries in Latin America; Ecuador, Colombia, Peru and Argentina have large, unattached reserves.
We propose the formation of an Inter-American Energy Community. The concept is a natural complement to President Bush's proposals for a
broad program of free trade zones, significant reductions in official bilateral debt owed to the United States and other countries encourage investment in Latin America.
But an Inter-American Energy Community is more than an adjunct to the Bush initiatives. It could really make them work. To tap the full potential of the Americas, we must begin to think not only along geographies but also along countries in specific well-defined areas that will lay the groundwork for broader cooperation. Energy is the obvious first sector.
Building an Inter-American Energy Community could set the practical parameters of cooperation in the Americas in the same way the European Coal and Steel Community began the transformation of Europe.
From the Los Angeles Times
KANSAN STAFF
DEREK SCHMIDT
Editor
KJERSTIN GABRIELSON
MARGARET TOWNSEND Business manager
Editors
- TOM EBLEN
General manager, news adviser
News... Julie Mettenburg
Editorial... Mary Neubauer
Planning... Pam Sollier
Campus... Holly Lawton
Sports... Brent Maycock
Photo... Andrew Morrison
Features... Stacy Smith
TOM EBLEN
Campus sales mgr   Christ Doolb
Regional sales mgr  Jackie Schmizkalr
David Price mgr    Debbie Doebler
Co-op sales mgr   Debbie Doebler
Production mgr    Missy Miller
Production assistant  Ajake Aylan
Director  Andrea Langford
Creative director
JEANNE HINES Sales and marketing adviser
MINDY MORRIS
Retail sales manage
Business staff
Individual recycling efforts can help save earth and money
Letters should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 200 words. They must include the university's name and the student's initials, or the name of the university with the University of Kansas most include a class and hometown, or family and staff position.
Guest columns should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 700 words. The writer will be photographed.
The Kansan reserves the right to reject or edit letters, guest columns and cartoons. They can be malted or brought to the Kansan newsroom, 111 Santa-Franca Hall. Letters, columns and cartoons are the opinion of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Kansan. Editorials are the opinion of the Kansan editorial board.
You feel it every time you pass by an abandoned newspaper or Coke can. You think, "I really ought to go over there and pick up that aluminum can and put it in the nearest recycling bin." And then you think, "If I don't, the ozone layer will deplete, the rain forests will die, and global warming will consume every life form on the planet."
uilt
It takes more than 500,000 trees (the size of a small forest) to fulfill our weekly appitions for the Sunday paper. Yet, if every U.S. citizen recycled newspapers, we could save that year's earth. That's 500 Sundays of papers.
Well, not exactlv.
One can or newspaper will not make that much of a difference in the global scheme. But if we all band together in a recycling effort, we may find ourselves breathing easier and faster on the road. Consider the following facts:
Similarly, the energy savings potential from recycling aluminum cans is just as great. Recycling one can saves enough energy to power a TV set for three years. Two years ago, aluminum recycling accounted
Sally
Gibbs
Staff columnist
for enough electrical savings to serve New York City for half a year.
Recycling is growing here, as witnessed by the "blue monster" newspaper receptacle in front of Stauffer-Flint Hall and the aluminum can bins inside campus buildings. Hats off to Student Senate's Environmental Task Force and Environs. Those groups serve as a wonderful role model for the rest of the campus and the Lawrence community.
Our individual recycling efforts should not stop with Sunday papers and Coke cans. "Fifty Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth," a 96-count book from DK about the title suggests. Rescuing the environment has never been so easy.
Take water for example. Water is one of our most precious resources: Americans consume 450 billion gallons of water the next time you leave the faucet
running while you brush your teeth the water you see swirling down the drait twice a day is enough for you to take a shower, according to the book
In addition, a low-flow aerator, a faucet attachment, slows water flow and therefore reduces the amount that is wasted.
'It takes more than 50,000 trees (the size of a small forest) to fulfill our weekly appetites for the Sunday paper.'
If you are planning a painting project, take proper steps in cleaning brushes and disposing of unused paint. Try to avoid toxic oil-based paints. Use acrylics or water every day to fill a trench 2 feet deep, one mile wide and four miles long.
When replacing the tires on your car, select ones that are fuel-efficient and long-lasting, and keep them properly inflated. If each of us used energy-efficient tires, we would save 400,000 barrels of oil a day.
Put fluorescent bulbs in your lamps. They may cost more initially, but they will outlive by 13 times a 60-watt incandescent bulb. That translates into a $40 savings for each bulb during five to 10 years of normal use.
The savings for the environment and your wallet begin here. "Fifty Simple Things" offers even more, including all you need to know about battling junk mail, ozone depletion, Styrofoam and groundwater pollution. From six-pack rings to cloth diapers, motor oil to rechargeable batteries, this book sizes up the environment, dispelling myths and revealing startling truths. It even offers triya to amaze your friends.
Recycling is not reserved for avid environmentalists or naturalists. You do not need to know what a plant is, or how to spell it if you must. Ministers plant a tree, recycle newspapers and think twice before turning on the air conditioner. It *OK* to be earth-wise. People will not think you are weird just because you scour the river for juvenile cams every time you go camping. If they do ask, then what they have done to help our "Mother" lately.
Sally Gibbs is a Columbia, Mo. senior majoring in economics and political science.
Home Remedies
C B A D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
By Tom Michaud
(    )