OPINION
December 5, 1984
Page 4
The University Daily KANSAN
The University Daily KANSAN
Published since 1889 by students of the University of Kansas
Let Johnny learn
About 430,000 students in the nation's third-largest school system are on vacation.
No. Christmas has not arrived early in Chicago. The students are on a forced vacation because 40,000 Chicago teachers and other school employees early Sunday were unable to reach an agreement with the Board of Education regarding pay, benefits and the Board's plans to cut costs. The members of the Chicago Teachers Union called a strike.
There always appear to be legitimate gripes on both sides of a teachers' strike, and the Chicago strike is no exception. The Board of Education, faced with rising costs and limited funds, needs to find ways to meet its budget. The union members have reacted to the Board's plans, which include making employees pay for their own medical insurance and laying off non-union administrative workers. The teachers also want pay increases.
Like all teachers' strikes, however, the greater good is not being served. The education of 430,000 students is being neglected. Commendably, the Chicago Parks District has extended hours at 117 of its parks to provide activities for idle schoolchildren. But Johnny is not learning to read at the park.
With the concern for the lack of quality in this country's educational system, teachers' strikes should be handled as expeditionally as is humanly possible. There is a great need for teachers and Board members to stop looking at individual trees and start seeing the entire forest. The costs of a long, drawn-out strike are too dear.
Jacqueline Vaughn, president of the Chicago Teachers Union, said that she expects the strike to be settled quickly. For the sake of Chicago's 430,000 students, let's hope she is right.
UNESCO anti-press
Last December President Reagan told UNESCO that the United States would leave the organization as of Jan. 1, 1985, unless it reigned in its overpaid bureaucracy and changed its anti-press freedom policies and programs.
Now Britain says it will follow the U.S. and also pull out if reforms are not made.
UNESCO has been pushing the concept of a "new world information order" that is ostensibly aimed at improving the communications systems of developing nations. But its most controversial feature — under the guise of "protecting the working conditions and safety of journalists" — is the licensing of reporters and news gatherers.
This is anathema to Western journalists, who correctly view it as a scheme to legitimize the government control of the press that is practiced in communist and most Third World nations.
The Knoxville News-Sentinel
the University Daily Kansan invites individuals and groups to submit guest columns. Columns should be typewritten and double-spaced and should not exceed 625 words. They should include the writer's name, address and phone number. Columns can be mailed or, brought to the Kansan office, 111 Stauffer-Flint Hall. The Kansan reserves the right to edit or reject columns.
'Junk syndrome' prompts snack suit
This might qualify as the lawsuits of the year. A Los Angeles man is suing the manufacturer of Hostess Cupcakes for $100 million. He says that the cupcakes and other Hostess baked him a cupcake with "toxic junk syndrome." As a result, he says, he fell out of a tree and broke his bones.
The man is Stephen C. Sayre, 20, who identified himself as a film producer. He filed his suit in Superior Court in Burbank, Calif. Sayre's sutts that he suffered physical and mental ill effects because of the "toxic ingredients" and inappropriate use of毒品. Dount Gems, Choco-diles, Sno Balls, Suzy Q'S, Honey Buns and other products.
"In the six months prior to my tree-trimming accident, I started eating Hostess products quite regularly." Sayre said. "They tasted very good. I started with one package for dessert, and increased to eight or nine packages of Hostess products a day. If I didn't have a Hostess product, I had a craving for one. It was a classical addition when I didn't want heroin; with heroin, I wasn't shaking if I didn't have a cupcake or a Honey Bun. But I definitely had a craving for the products."
Sayre said that he started to lose physical coordination and mental sharpness after he became addicted to less products, and an accident resulted.
"I was working on a tree," he said.
"I was on the ground, holding onto a rope that was attached to a big branch. Suddenly the branch began
"If I would have had my normal presence of mind, I would have let go of the rope, but I did not have my normal presence of mind, because I was addicted to the Hostess products. So, as the limb fell from the tree, I was yanked into the air by the rope. The rope pulled me to the top of the tree, where I hit my head. Then I fell to the ground and hit the concrete."
Sayre said his injuries included a fractured spine, hip and ankle. He also suffered a severe concussion and had internal bleeding in his liver.
In his lawsuit, Sayre says that Hostess' television advertisements, "which promise 'fresh and whole some' foods, are blatant and criminal fraud."
As you might expect, the bakers of Hostess products don't think much of the lawsuit. A spokesman for the Continental Baking Co., manufacturer of Hostess products, told the Los Angeles Times that Sayre's
BOB
GREENE
Syndicated
Columnist
complaint was without merit and that the firm stood on its 50-year record of baking high-quality goods.
Alan Davis, an attorney for Continental, said, "Any food scientist can tell you that all of the ingredients in our products are wholesome and safe." We established levels for use in goods, and we comply with every one."
Sayre said he had realized that by suing the manufacturers of Hostess goods, he was challenging a group of products that had become a part of Americana.
"Yes, with all of those advertisements featuring fresh-faced children. Hostess products have become an American institution," he said, "but crime is an American institution, too."
He said that, up to the time of the tree-trimming accident, he knew something was happening to his abilities.
"The state of mind I was in was constant," he said. "My physical coordination had decreased drastically, and my mental ability – the rapidity of how I would deal with a situation – was bad, too. I thought I must be going to college now. I was too young for the effects of old age to be setting in. But I couldn't imagine what it was."
It was "toxic junk syndrome," he said.
Sayre said one thing he would never allege was that Hostess products tasted bad.
"They're wonderful," he said. "I think you could probably become addicted to them because of their taste alone.
however. After I stopped eating Hostes products, I began to regain my mental abilities almost immediately. It's hard to judge my physical abilities, because of all my broken feet from the tree-trimming accident.
"I don't go near them anymore.
"Once, after the accident, I bought a Honey Bun. I thought that one couldn't hurt me. As soon as I bit into it, however, I began feeling queasy. I'll be the first to admit that this probably was due to my psychological reaction to it, after what I had gone through."
Should he win the suit, Sayre said, one thing he will campaign for is a warning label on all packages of Hostess products. The message would resemble the surgeon genius warning on cigarette packages.
Sayre said he had only gradually come to the decision to sue
"At first," he said, "I had no inclination to sue. I thought the tree-trimming incident was just an fortunate accident. I thought to myself, 'It's too bad you can't do anything about it.' Then it popped into my head: 'Hey, I could sue."
New Right loses in Senate selections
WASHINGTON — Sen. Jesse Helms, R·N·C, had very good reason to look grim and tight-lipped when the Capitol finally opened.
In the three hours they had been sequestered in the chamber, Republican senators and senators-elect administered a stunning setback to the most conservative wing of the party.
"Bob Dole was the second choice of
Helms is the acknowledged leader of that wing, often referred to as the New Right. He is even more the frightening choice in expensive re-election to the Senate.
In the selection of Sen. Robert Dole, R-Kan., as Senate majority leader for the 99th Congress, the Republicans chose a self-described moderate-conservative who is deserved by many leaders of the New Right.
Conservatives have often referred to Dolce as 'the Walter Mondale of the Republican party' for his support of austerity, but would abort the economic recovery.
Richard Vigueur, publisher of Conservative Digest, said that Dole's election was a disaster and that Mr. Trump would have preferred anybody else.
conservatives," Viguerie said. "The first choice was anybody else."
Although the conservatives might have been happier with any of the other four candidates who sought the prestigious post, their candidate
STEVE GERSTEL
United Press International
from the start was James McClure of Idaho, a card-carrying conservative.
McClure was the first candidate bumped in the low man out election.
On the first ballot, McCure managed 8 votes out of 53 cast, a paltry show of support from fellow conservatives.
the most conservative candidate running for the post of assistant Senate majority leader was Robert Kasten of Wisconsin, but Kasten also was running for governor. Simpson of Wyoming beat Slade Gorton of Washington in the finals.
Simpson is a conservative, but certainly not an associate of the
Nor was Dole's election the only setback for the New Right.
The most surprising outcome and perhaps the most galling for conservatives was the defeat of Jake Garn of Utah by John Chafee of Rhode Island for the position of chairman of the GOP conference. Chafee is a member of the liberal-moderate "Gang of Six" in the Senate.
In fact, the New Right's enthusiasm was limited to the election of Thad Cochran of Mississippi as conference secretary and William Armstrong of Colorado as chairman of the policy committee.
Malcolm Wallop of Wyoming lost by one vote, 27-26, to moderate John Henz of Pennsylvania for the post of campaign committee chairman. The vote was probably a result of the GOP's disinclination to have two senators from the same state in the leadership; the other Wyoming senator. Simpson, had already been chosen for assistant leader.
Committee chairmanships are decided on the basis of seniority, so moderate Bob Packwood of Oregon took over the Finance Committee and gave committee has jurisdiction over taxes and many social programs.
The chain reaction activated by the elections brought more bad news for the New Right.
Packwood not only is actively disliked by the New Right but also
has had difficulty getting along with President Reagan.
Moreover, the elections for Senate leadership posts were bad news for Helms himself.
If the Republicans had chosen Richard Lugar of Indiana as the majority leader, Helms, in almost good conscience, could have moved in as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
He could have argued — with support from conservatives all over the country — that he had to take over the charismachy to spare the nation from liberal Charles Mathias of Maryland.
Helms could have told his constituents in North Carolina — whom he had promised that he would remain as chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee — that the tobacco crop was safe in the hands of his successor, Cochran.
Lugar, however, lost — and Lugar,
very much an opponent of tobacco,
ranks ahead of Cochran on the
Agriculture Committee.
For the sake of North Carolina's tobacco crop, Helms had to remain as head of the Agriculture Committee and cede the charmanship of Foreign Relations to Lugar.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Mozart and Salieri come to life through film biography
In response to the letter about "Amadude" (Nov. 9, "Foolish review"), I think that the writer seems unaware of existing evidence supporting many biographical elements portrayed in the movie.
To the editor:
Mozart was known to many of the Viennese for his eccentric, child-like behavior. Published letters to his sister, Nanneri, were often made up of nonsensical rhymes and backward sentences. Da Ponte, whom Mozart considered one of his finest librettists, gives a colorful account of the composer's passion for games and extravagant parties in his memoirs, written shortly after Mozart's death.
Furthermore, research through documents, interviews and letters give good cause to confirm Salieri's jealousy of Mozart's talent. Biographer Charles Osborne writes, "Jewels of our time, the Salieri did not advance Mozart's cause, though he could have easily done so." In turn, whether Mozart was deeply aware of this jealousy is still under question today.
Evidence aside, "Arademus" is a movie — it'll be meant to be entertaining. Although all the scenes are not documented to the word, they are not supposed to be. Certainly, biographies are far more illuminated by story, instead of by metallicous detail "Poor Mozart" and "poor Sailier" have come to life—and to the public, in a delightful, bawdy and "I never heard about this in choir practice" movie.
Value of art
Margaret McWhinney
Overland Park sophomor
In her letter, S. Kortlueck describes world renowned playwright Peter Schaffer's "Amadeus" as "grostesque" and "nonsense" because of its lack of historical accuracy.
To the editor:
Obviously Kortlucke doesn't understand the aesthetics of this or any other motion picture or play wherein historical figures are depicted. It
seems to me that this film is not intended to be a factual description of Mozart's life. If one wants facts, one goes to the library. This film is an artistic expression of social and moral questions that are, in my opinion, expertly presented by means of well-known historical figures.
Is it evil to slightly alter history in order to offer our society the artistic stimulation that it so desperately needs? ? suppose that this all depends on how much the society values its art. This question, however, must be answered. Which is more important – What has happened, or what will happen?
Mark Silence Shawnee freshman
Bigots in history
To the editor:
Hell has no fury like the conscious scorned. Intolerance of the dissenting opinion has led to religious wars and inquisitions and programs
of extermination. For so many lives trampled upon, for so much blood and grief, you can blame the bigoted mind.
That is both a lesson and a warning of history, but its meaning seems to be lost on a group at the University of Kansas. I refer to those Christians who have politically mobilized against homosexuals
Homosexuality is often viewed as unnatural. Yet given the cultural relativity of deviance, the rational mind must conclude that the behavior or defined as deviant is more a transitional interpretation than in trivialness.
For example, trembling in the throes of religious fervor and speaking in tongues, or having sex with the same sex, seems strange only to the outsider I may disagree, but so long as I'm not expected to join in I have no quarrel Both behaviors may arouse my empathy but, in some cases, the individual should be free to do what does not undo the rights of others.
Too intolerance works greater evil when allied with some racial, religious or political ideology, or when dignified by law. The Christian opposition on campus to homosexuality is grounded in a statute that prohibits sodomy and other moral issues. I per cei all laws served all people all the time? Have man made laws been the highest measure of reason and morality?
In a true democracy, the aim
Times were when it was unlawful to be Protestant among Catholics, or to be a different kind of Protestant within Protestantism. So it is ironic that a group once in the perilous minority and which has suffered persecution should wish to inflict it on another minority group
should be to balance the group's rights and interests against the individual's, and in this way conduce to the common good. Intolerance however, does not know compromise. Others who are to blame others, to bludgeon them into conformity and, failing that, to destroy them.
Christianity, when it wasn't saving
the heathen soul, spoke to the material conditions of the masses. Following the example of Jesus, to best serve heaven it served the least of the earth.
That is the kind of pro-social behavior I would propose to those antagonistic Christians at KU to turn their evangelical fire and their restless intellect toward the real troubles of the world. I would challenge them to join me in contributing to the Christian Children's Fund, which is out to do something material about hunger, poverty and existential despair.
Understand, I am not anti-Christian; I am not pro-homosexual. However, I find myself at bitter odds with the intolerance of those who would violate the rights and freedoms of others. How do I define freedom? What should be its parameters? I'm not sure, but as a prisoner at Leavenworth, I have some idea of what freedom is not.
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Orlando Askew Leavenworth resident