October 31, 1984
OPINION
Page 4
The University Daily KANSAN
The University Daily KANSAN
Published since 1889 by students of the University of Kansas
The University Daily Kansan (UPS) 604-640 is published at the University of Kansas, 118 Stuart Flint Hall Law. Kansan 604-635 daily during the regular school year and Wednesday and Friday during the summer session, excluding Saturday, Sunday, holidays and final periods. The student payable帖页 at Law. Kansan 6044 Subscriptions by mail are $1 for six months or $2 a year. Student payable subscriptions are $1 and are paid through the student activity fee (POSTMASTER). Student address changes to the University Daily Kansan: 118 Stuart Flint Hall Law. Kansan 6045
DON KNOX
Editor
PAUL SEVART
Managing Editor
VINCE HESS
Editorial Editor
DOUG CUNNINGHAM
Campus Editor
SUSANNE SHAW
General Manager and News Advisor
DAVE WANAMAKER Business Manager
JILL GOLDBLATT Campus Sales Manager
LYNNE STARK MARY BERNICA
Retail Sales National Sales
Manager Manager
JOHN OBERZAN Sales and Marketing Adviser
Trick or treat
The ancient Celts knew it as the Night of the Wandering Souls.
Later Christianized, it became the eve of All Hallows
Later Christianized, it became the eve of All Hallows. Halloween is a night of ghosts and goblins, witches and ghouls, a night when strange, unearthly creatures roam the cities and countryside.
In America, Halloween has traditionally been a night of fun for the young - a time to dress up and canvass the neighborhood in search of goodies for a sweet tooth.
Last year, Time magazine announced that Halloween had been taken over by adults. Oct. 31 had become, Time said, a giant masquerade ball where bored adults could lose their inhibited daytime personas and let loose the unfamed savages that were caged inside.
However, despite Time's assessment, young people roam door-to-door in search of goodies.
And who knows what evil lurks behind those doors?
Unfortunately, Halloween has become a prime opportunity for deranged individuals to satisfy needs to inflict pain. Candy bars become chocolate-covered razor blades; cookies become pin, cushions.
Halloween should be fun, but let's be careful out there.
I suppose I should have expected that the issues of a presidential election year could stray so far from the plan of focusing the candidates and the nation.
Now, we all know about Geraldine Ferraro's cooking skills and the other candidates' finances. Yet as election day looms ever nearer, the campaign continues to thrive on absolutely irrelevant facts.
The public concerns itself with petty facts and figures that have nothing to do with the ideological performance of the candidates competing for the title of president or vice president of the United States.
Candidates' health obscures choices
Instead of looking for the best educated candidate and the one with the strongest policy-making experience, Americans now turn to the jogger, the weight lifter, the one who controls his high blood pressure and the one who plays squash and tennis for guidance and leadership.
Foreign policy and nuclear arms issues have taken second place to the health and fitness of four capable candidates because their health examination records were released to the public.
We now know, from news reports on the examinations, that Reagan, 73, can complete another term in office and be placed to live until he is 82.9 years old.
Walter Mondale, 56, has just 12 more years to live. This is attributed to his problem in controlling his high blood pressure.
We know also that Reagan has a
special right ear, wears
controllers and has hair.
He works out daily before dinner to keep in shape and his efforts have left his chest one and three-fourths inches bigger.
Montale has had problems with a small cyst that was removed from the base of his spine. He has had his spine exposed and impacted tooth removed recently — impacted tooth removed recently —
The health issues have not neglected the vice presidential candidates.
Three times a week, Bush jogs more than two miles. He drinks decaffeinated coffee.
ROBIN
PALMER
Staff Columns
Even though she plays tennis and squash, Ferraro is not the athlete her habits might suggest she is. She too.
has her health problems. She has a heart murmur and a mild case of varicose veins.
Why, I ask, do we focus on the minute physical functions of the candidates for national offices?
Although general health information is needed, most people are capable of deciding for whom they want to vote without knowing how to vote. There has 202 vision, has dry skin or drinks more than two cups of coffee a day.
These little bits of insight, though interesting, are none of the public's business and should be of no importance who the next president will be.
facts will only detract from the real issues at hand.
In less than a week, this nation has an important decision to make, one that should be based on qualities and value judgments, not on physical attributes.
Some presidents in the past have served the country well despite their illnesses or health problems. Yet in this age of growing technology, people worry that the next president will be overcome by senility or the next vice president will wear support hose.
So I hope that most of us will stop, think and vote intelligently on Election Day instead of consulting the local doctor.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Appearance outweighs content in presidential election
To the editor:
In the movie "Being There," Peter Sellers plays a man who is considered to be wise because he says little and he looks wise. He rises to a high position in a company even though he has no business experience. What he learns from his experiences always knowing what he's talking about, even if he really doesn't.
Watching this movie the other night, I was struck by the similarities between the movie and U.S. politics. The same firm is more important that content.
The one thing that a candidate for public office must have is the ability to look good on camera. I couldn't believe my ears after the second presidential debate when David Brinkley and Peter Jennings discussed why Walter Mondale did not look good on camera. One of the key issues of the first debate was whether Mondale had worn too much makeup. Does this sound like a democracy — or a beauty contest?
The vast majority of voters don't know the issues, and what's more, they don't care. If you asked the average voter after the second debate about where each candidate stood on the Middle East, he would not tell you. However, he could tell you how he thought each candidate looked.
Ronald Reagan meets with Andrei Gromyko to show that he wants peace. Mondale talks tough to show that he's not a wimp George Bush goes jogging and says dirty words to show that he's one of the guys. Geraldine Ferraro works to show that she's not a crook.
Candidates also try to associate their opponents with unfavorable people or images. Mondale links Reagan with Jerry Failwell. Reagan often brings up Mondale's association with George McGovern. Shouldn't we worry more about a candidate's tax policies than how many times he voted with McGovern in the Senate?
It's something to think about, anyway, on Nov. 6. Are you voting for the issues — or the image?
Reagan and Jones
Mark Coatney Linwood special student
To the editor:
A few years back while I was living and attending college in Washington, D.C., a guy I was dating happened to be Jewish. The fact that his religion differed from mine greatly disturbed him. He said he spoke words from my parents, in Kansas
They replied that they didn't care about his faith as long as he could take good care of me. My fur bristled at the sight of the words! I neither helpless or defenseless. Nor am I all air upstairs.
where the woman was with his trusty club in hand and swacked her. He dragged her off by the hair to his cave, where she'd serve his highness out of indebtedness, and later perhaps because of love.
Many years later, not much has changed. Slavery supposedly was abolished by the 13th Amendment of 1895 and was annulled a different guise — marriage.
That incident leads me back to the time when a man saw a woman he was taking an offer for.
I always was curious as to why the female took on the male's last name
Then along came women's liberation. Liberal open-mindedness on greater individual participation in society was the devil that created female uprising.
Women were not excluded from the Constitution. The authors said, "We, the people." The struggle between the sexes, and between conservatives and liberals, might have begun before anyone realized.
Conservatives adhere strongly to the doctrine of no change. Just take it from our ex-liberal president, who is now a Bible-blazing conservative.
Social programs are not at all necessary. Maybe the women whom males love and leave will need the programs, but the men don't. Lovin' them is fulfilled when them is fulfillment of that Biblical commandment, love your neighbor.
The male has always been able to sway things his way with his oratorical skill. An example is the Rev. Jim Jones: whenever he asked for financial help, ob., of course, for the memory of God and pockeest most of the man's brain, that is stealing. However, Jones must have used a different translation.
At the end of his act, Jones coerced members of his flock to drink punch laced with cyanide. Most of his flock were submissive; males were in the majority. They behaved toward Jones as people do today toward Ronald Reagan, who uses nostalgia and patriotism as a play.
Think and vote
Deb Orsborn Lawrence senior
Our democracy is not at its best during a presidential election campaign. Mixed with some taking of thought to the issues involved are volumes of grossly exaggerated charges and slapdash attack on the opponent. So will the attacker show himself a true leader with fighting spirit or oler tires from much of this. It is better to be humble and conflict more than we value serious thought upon issues by either candidates or the electorate?
To the editor:
Poll shows that great majorities will favor a particular candidate, while in the identical poll they will state themselves opposed to the candidate's stand on most of the specific issues.
How can we improve the election procedures? Doubtless, the main solution is voters themselves valuing the discriminatory mind rather than judging the politics. I submit that the recent presidential debates are a step forward.
It has been argued that the practice should be discarded because the challenger always gets unfair advantage over the incumbent. This advantage is more than counterbalanced by the incumbent's ability to bend policies to appeal to the electorate. He also can officially set many a stage to give him the hearing of thousands both at home and abroad. All in all, the debates have focused the nation's attention.
Ultimately, if we wish to improve,
premium is upon the thinking citizen
at large, not upon artificial election
tricks, momentary slips of the tongue
and catch phrases. Above all, it is not
recommended of billboard signs and
more money.
Shall we not encourage a degree of independent voting without surrender of party allegiance? Many Democrats will vote for our distinguished, judicious Sen. Nancy Kassebaum, no more mere party back cover than Henry Kissinger, favor a highly qualified Democrat like Betty Jo Charlton, high trained and further experienced in the office sought.
Walter Sandelius professor emeritus of political science
Leftist potential
As a pseudo-anarchist, I am far from excited about the Demobublican's November extravaganza. If I were in mainstream politics, assuming my support for Montreal would not be surprising.
Increased racial strife and farm difficulties, higher trade deficits and buildings armuild characterize the past four years. Creating the most interest, however, is the appearance of patriotism without government criticism, comparable to a cream puff. Patriotic blinds the ugly with a veen and the man in the White House shines from a felon helm.
November could open new doors — doors with left hinges. During the past four years, a Reagan revolution has developed. A president who supports issues that are among the most unpopular advocated by a majority enjoys enthusiastic crowd reactions and admiration from the U.S. public.
To the editor:
But would support for Mondale be beneficial?
Who could the Democrats have nominated against Reagan with any chance of winning? No one.
Richard Nixon. However, such a choice would require the U.S. electorate to choose between Attila the Hun and Al Capone.
There is one person who might give Reagan a serious challenge —
The Democrats should relax and allow their friendly political partners to continue their revolution. Perhaps true liberals could then offer immortalisms or rosaries, differing from those supported by Reagansmets or immournables.
Supposedly, society through the years grows more liberal. Reagan and his disciples are fighting against the societal stream — a stream that has turned stagnant with regurgitation, and the upstream battle, the Reagan administration probably will stir the pool, setting off an undercurrent chain reaction
The Reagan-initiated chain reaction has the potential to provide the necessary impetus for leftists to become influential again.
Let the Reagan revolution continue; a gamble, yes, insure, hardly.
Dwight Hunter
Car damage
Republic graduate student
To the editor:
I wish to take this opportunity to let your readers know of an event that occurred after the KU-Oklahoma football game. An apparently drunken, certainly reckless driver, going down 13th Street attempted to turn right into Ohio Street. The driver missed the turn by at least 10 feet and plowed into the side of my car which was parked on 13th Street.
This unknown driver then left the scene of the accident. My car was knocked up onto the sidewalk. Later that evening, I was informed that my car had been hit, and I moved it off the sidewalk.
The next day I was informed that a silver sportscar had returned to the spot of the accident and that its riders had enjoyed a good laugh from the damage to my car. I can only assume that this car was the one that wanted my car and that the driver wanted to give a good look at the damage.
Because he seems so interested in his handwork, let me say that not only did he tear up the left side of my car, he also bury my rear right side wheel so that it will have to be replaced. I only pray that I get this back, because I do not have enough money to buy another wheel, let alone an axle.
I'm sure that this is all a big joke to that driver. He's probably some rich kid who has never had to work a day in his life; if his car gets a dent, he just calls home. Well, I'm not rich. I'm in my mid-therapy and have returned to school. I don't mind driving to work. I can't go out and drunk. I spend most evenings studying. My car was the only luxury in my life.
I really hope that someday some
irresponsible jerk does to him what he has done to me and that it hurts him as much as it has hurt me. However, he is probably so irresponsible that he could care less.
S. M. 'Sandy' Jordan Kansas City, Kan. graduate student
To the editor:
Oldest rivalry
This is to correct an error in the Oct. 26 Kansan. In a sports story ("KU faces tough homecoming foe") Greg Ddamman says that the oldest uninterrupted rivalry in the nation." In fact, it isn't even close.
My alma mater, DePauw University, has played football against Wabush College every year for at least the past 90 years. I think it's because they play competitive games between KU and OU. The series record is 42-42-8.
Even this, however, is not the oldest continuous football rivalry in the nation, but merely the oldest west of the Allegheny Mountains. I'm not sure which schools hold this record (Harvard and Yale?), but you can be certain that it does not belong to KU and OU.
Brad Weatherbie Wyoming, Ohio graduate student
Proper channels
To the editor:
It has been said in a letter (Oct. 25, "False accusations") that I have been running a slur campaign against a coalition. As one of the current Architecture and Urban Designers, and as a concerned activist, I followed the proper channels of filing a complaint of a potential violation.
As a candidate in this year's Student Senate election, I am running as an independent with no coalition affiliation. The coalition in question offers no candidates to oppose me.
If the coalition in question merely wished to clear its name, there was no reason to use my name, just as I have not used its here.
Phillip Duff Columbia, Mo., junior
To the editor:
Candidate's ideas
As candidate for student body vice president, I would have appreciated the opportunity to express my views in the paper earlier. I will do so now.
More than 50 percent of the students at the University of Kansas are women, yet 90 percent of the professors are men. Few women are in the administration. This situation will change toward equal representation, but it would be good to start the process today.
Use of the University hospital system should be at no charge to the student or KU employee. On a national level, it is thought that within the university the paid by the government. As a university, we should help take a leading role in the development by means of example
David Spear
Fairway senior
To the editor:
candidate.
student body vice president Beautiful Day Committee
Faculty petition
As an unclassified staff member at the University, I support the faculty petition opposing intimidation by threat and violence to members or supporters of Gay and Lesbian Services of Kansas.
The University Senate Human Relations Committee passed a resolution on Oct. 5, 1984, that reiterates the "policy of this University that its participants undergo no discrimination or exclusion from benefits of membership in this community due to their sexual preference" and that "incidents to injure or intimidate members of this community because of their sexual preference" be repudiated by the entire University.
I hope that other administrators, including the chancellor, will speak out in support of this resolution. The climate that now exists on this campaise is threatening to free expression, right to assemble, even the right to vote. All of us can provide leadership now, to quell this unfortunate situation.
Pat Kehde coordinator, University Information Center
GUEST COLUMNS
The University Dally 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 reserve the right to edit or reject columns.