October 25,1984
Page 4
OPINION
25
The University Daily KANSAN
The University Daily KANSAN
Published since 1889 by students of the University of Kansas
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Alternatives
The choice is clear to many American voters.
Those going to the polls on Nov. 6 may think that their choices are strictly between Walter Mondale and Ronald Reagan
But some voters may be in for a surprise when they go into the voting booth on the first Tuesday in November.
There on the ballot, they will find six sets of candidates listed in the president — vice president category.
Some of the other candidates have been nominated by their parties. The Libertarians, the Prohibitionists and the Conservatives have all had conventions in the same manner as the Democrats and the Republicans.
Those running as Independents have collected the necessary number of signatures to get their names on the ballot
Few people would put their money on anyone but the Mondale-Ferraro or Reagan-Bush team as winners of this year's election.
Should neither of the major party candidates appeal to the voter, he should take a harder look at what the other tickets offer.
But if voters think that they have no other choice, they are mistaken.
Check out some of the other people running for president and vice president and decide whether they more closely reflect the philosophies that people running the country should have.
The democratic system of government in this country allows people many choices. Voting is one of the most obvious ones.
Choices are what the voter will face on Election Day, but it needn't be strictly between the big guys.
Maybe rubber reptiles explain panda problem
Maybe that explains the panda problem at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C.
Zoo officials in Houston have confirmed that one of the Texas coral snakes on display for two years at a seaside tease house was made of rubber.
As every red-blooded American knows, Hsing-Hsing and Ling-Ling, the male and female pandas given to the United States by the People's Republic of China, have never become parents.
During odd-numbered years, if not more frequently, the trouble has been attributed to Hsing- has
DICK WEST United Press International
Hsing's inept mating technique. But that always has seemed to me a specious rationale.
I mean, how can zoologists be sure what the correct mating procedure by panda couples in captivity might be?
From Ling-Ling's viewpoint, Hsing-Hsing's methodology might have been impeccable. Just because his approach isn't necessarily the way other male animals go about producing an offspring is no excuse for jumping to untenable conclusions.
This brings us back to the Houston zoo's rubber snake.
What if it turned out that Hsing-Hsing's keepers had made a point of putting a stuffed panda in the cage for him to practice with? Who could blame him for becoming discouraged?
I am not, let me make perfectly clear, accusing local zoo officials of anything. I am merely asking how, from now on, zoo visitors anywhere can be certain they are seeing what they think they are seeing?
Suppose zoo keepers, for reasons for their own, decided to engage in a bit of waterfowl deception, putting rubber ducks on the pond.
Duck hunters know how realistic decays can be. And rubber ducks would be especially difficult to spot because ripples on the pond would give them the appearance of live movement.
A spokesman for the Houston zoo explained that herpetologists have difficulty keeping real reptiles alive in captivity. Well, captive ducks are vulnerable, too, you know, even if nobody is hunting them. Plus, it costs something to feed them.
Apart from the ethics of zoo-keeping, it is easy to understand why aviarists who have budgetary pressures would be tempted to replace casualties with rubber ducks.
The rubber snake in Houston was exposed after someone noticed it had not moved in nine months. Would anyone be likely to notice the difference if bird house attendants stuck a few plastic woodpeckers around to give the joint more class? Hardly.
Visitors to a zoo bird house are accustomed to seeing woodpeckers perched motionless upon a tree limb, as though asleep in the sun.
And what of creatures that cost a lot to obtain? Rare woodpeckers, for example?
And if someone did, the companions would say, "Shut up and eat your popcorn. We're on our way to the wax museum."
The average zoo visitor seldom turns to companions and remarks, "Isn't that the same woodpecker we saw perched on that same spot on the same limb nine months ago?"
The University Daily Kansan welcomes letters to the editor. Letters should be typewritten and double-spaced and should not exceed 300 words. They should include the writer's name, address and phone number. If the writer is affiliated with the University, the letter should include his class and hometown, or faculty or staff position. The Kanana also invites individual and group to submit multi-letter letters. Letter candidates can be brought to the Kanasa office, 111 Stauffer-Flint Hall. The Kanansa reserves the right to edit or reject letters and columns.
LETTERS POLICY
KU College GOP active primarily in local politics
A primary function of the group is to act as a clearing-house through which students who are interested in getting into politics can become active as volunteers in state and local Republican campaigns.
On a political spectrum, KU College Republicans is generally moderate to right of center, say Tom Stalmaker, current president, and Jeff Polack, former president of the group.
But both Stalinaer and Polack say that the group solicits members who are liberal, conservative and moderate Republicans, and independents.
Through volunteer work, students can obtain valuable first hand experience on a political campaign, Stalker says.
The volunteer can choose the candidate who most accurately represents his views, Stalman says.
The group also hopes that its efforts help Republican candidates win.
Concerning recent history of the group, Polack and other KU College Republican officers took over leadership of the group during the summer of 1983. Susan Sanjean,
CHARLES
BARNES
Staff Columnist
During fall 1983 and spring 1984, KU College Republicans sponsored speeches by numerous prominent state Republicans.
By the end of Polack's term in March 1984, membership had increased to about 200. Polack estimates
The group has sponsored voter registration drives and has participated in and helped co-sponsor debates this semester.
About 150 people showed up for this semester's only formal meeting and sign-up sheets were passed around for members who wanted to volunteer for state and local Republican campaigns.
A membership drive last week netted more than 60 new members, raising the group's membership to between 900 and 1,000. Stallman says.
As its name implies, KU College Republicans is a partisan group.
"They are a party cheerleading team. They go with the party," says Bryan Daniel, state chairman of Young Americans for Freedom.
Daniel says that he and members of his group tend to vote for the most conservative candidate "We would rather vote for a conservative Democrat than a liberal Republican," he says.
Neumann says that College Republicans adopted a policy during the spring that prohibits the group from taking a formal stand on specific international, domestic or student issues, because a group stand on a specific issue might alienate potential members.
Doug Neumann, College Republican treasurer, says that KUCH members "most likely vote along party lines."
The different orientations of the two campus groups are represented by their actions regarding a colloquium on the Grenada invasion.
"We are issue oriented," says Daniel. "They (KUCR) don't take a strong stand on peace through strength, Central America or poorly-drafted civil rights legislation."
Daniel says he talked to College Republicans about co sponsoring the Grenada colloquium.
Other conservative campus groups have taken such stands.
The event is scheduled for today and is also sponsored by KU Young Americans for Freedom and the National College Republicans.
Stalnaker says that he told Daniel that KUCR is already busy with their local and state activities and has volunteered for work supported with National College Republicans.
"I presented the idea to them, but got no response."
Polack is running as the vicepresidential candidate for the Frontier Coalition.
Stalker also says KUCR will not be involved in the upcoming Student Societ
Gremada is not a state or local issue. Stalnaker and Neumann said.
Polack says that KUCR and the Frontier Coalition have no relationship and that he hasn't been to a KUCR meeting this semester.
Members of two other KU conservative groups say that KUCR is an election year group that fades in and out.
KUCR officers say they will do their best to prove that characterization wrong
Rescue mission was needed
Grenada Liberation Day is here! For the first time in history a communist-dominated country was freed from its leftist thugs and its citizens were allowed to breathe the air of freedom! All Americans should be extremely proud of the men and women who went to protect the lives of over 600 Americans and 110,000 citizens of Grenada.
There are critics who claim the rescue mission was unnecessary and illegal. However, small, defenseless Caribbean nations asked the United States to help. Why? Because leftist thugs (1) killed about 100 people by firing into a crowd; (2) brutally murdered the prime minister, forces him to surrender and be captured ministers; (3) endangered the lives of over 600 Americans, and (4) imposed a reign of terror on the island.
There comes a time when a freedom-loving nation such as the United States must act strongly and decisively. Enough Soviet and Eastern bloc arms are found to arm 10,000 men. Also, documents recovered from the former Soviet Union given to terrorist groups in the Caribbean and Central America.
Were that not enough, the CBS Radio Network polled the citizens of Grenada and found that 91 percent welcomed the rescue mission.
The event may be properly viewed as a milestone in post-World War II political history.
The United States action in Grenada signified simultaneously a tidewater change in U.S. foreign policy and an unqualified repudiation of the Brehzweig Doctrine. The action by the U.S. can be seen as sending the
following signals: (1) The U.S. is no longer going to tolerate its citizens being endangered by extremist regimes; (2) the U.S. is going to respond with help to restore order in its backyard when so requested by peaceful, democratic nations of the region; (3) the U.S. has put Moscow and Havana on notice that the days when Washington watches idly as the Soviet Union and Castro's Cuba subvert nations of this hemisphere are gone. (Are you listening Commandante Ortega?)
What did the Soviet Union and its proxy, Cuba, need with such a "small
insignificant rock" in the Eastern Caribbean? Grenada occupies a strategically critical point in the region; it had great potential of a f a g u a r d i n g t h e Colombia-Cuba-U.S.-cocaine/marijuana connection, providing the Cubans with hard currency to buy arms for such terrorist groups as Colombia's M-19 and the Salvadoran guerrillas.
Grenada is within easy reach of the northern tier of South America, providing the Soviets with an exerted role in the defense to terrorists in Brazil and Venezuela.
Over one-half of the petroleum imported by the U.S., as well as over a quarter of the country, is exported.
cobalt, manganese, titanium and chromium come within easy striking distance of fighter jets based, say, in countries with 10,000 foot airships such as Marxisi Grenada was in the process of constructing.
And finally, if Soviet and Cuban hegemony had prevailed in Grenada without a U.S. response, how could the United States region resist similar domination?
The ultimate question to be asked is, "Would it be better for Grenada today to have a communist government than for us to have gone in with troops?"
George Will put that question to Geraldine Ferraro on "This Week with David Brinkley" and this was her reply: "Well, uh, I think what you should — you know, I mean, let's, let's slide either whether or not it would have been better than — I'm not quite sure, again, and when I'm, I'm focusing attention on is the means to addressing the problem. And that's where this administration has gone wrong."
Is this the wishy-washy type of answer America wants from a vice president? Certainly not!
At first Walter Mondale was dead set against the "invasion," but a year later he said that he, too, would have been called to rescue mission. "Such decisiveness!"
Rep. Philip Crane (R-III) said it best when he said, "If the U.S. is guilty of anything, it is the attempt to restore freedom — an international crime only in the eyes of the communist world."
Victor Goodpasture, Topeka sophomore, is chairman of the K.U. Young Americans for Freedom
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Graffiti displays spinelessnes
To the editor:
To the cowards who have not yet outgrown the childish habit of painting on walls and sidewalks:
I don't know who you are, however, graffiti have zero class. Your graffiti at Wescoe Hall, in all three places, say little and have very little significance. Why you cannot use standard media forms is beyond my comprehension. I realize, though, that to do this you would have to sign your name to it, which you obviously do not have the guts to do.
But then, if I had done such a spineless thing, I wouldn't want my name on it either.
No matter what your opinion is, if you can't put your name on it, it must not be worth the paper it's written on, or in your case, the paint it's written with. If you can afford a can of spray paint, you can surely afford a pen and a piece of paper, and write a real letter that says something.
Spraying obscences about the draft, a call not to vote in 1984, and other things your little brains are troubled about doesn't make me stop and think, it just makes me angry because you destroy the beauty of our camps, and now more of our money was then to be spent cleaning juvenile acts. Besides that, vandalism is illegal. But after reading your statements, I doubt you have any respect for law and order anyway.
Next time you want to broadcast your opinions, put them in this column. That's what it's here for. Let's walk around campus without feeling like we're in a New York city subway.
Stephen Reimers Gardner senior
False accusations
In his letter of complaint to Thom Davidson, Student Senate Elections Committee chairman, Duff says that he was not trying to "backstab" anyone. Yet I think that the credibility of the poll that my coalition has worked so hard to complete has been damaged.
To the editor:
Clayton, Mo., Junior
Chris Admussen
In my opinion, it would have been more beneficial for both parties if Duff had approached me personally and inquired as to my method of acquiring signatures for the poll, rather than sneaking off to his typewriter to begin a stur campaign.
the October 18 Kansan brings to mind a couple of key questions
Recently my coalition and I spend many hours compiling a survey concerning the student opinion on a late bus. To my displeasure, it seems that our hard work has been shrouded by ignorant acts and false candidates, as well as staff, candidate or School of Architecture and Urban Design senator
Must we, the candidates for Senate, once again turn this election into what it was last year? I hope not! Let us run on ideas and let the voters make their own decision on that basis, rather than run the credibility of our election process with immature accusations and mistrust
Student body president candidate Fresh Vegetables Coalition
Is it a fee or a tax?
To the editor:
John Hanna's front page article in
First, why is the $24 fee which KU students pay each semester not called "student tax" instead of "student activity fee"? After all, the $838,000 thus generated annually is spent by the student government according to rules set down by the state government.
Second, why are the students not properly informed as to how our money is being spent? Specifically, I have never seen a financial disclosure of student activity fee allocations published in the Kansas. Certainly publishing the allocation breakdown of this student fee might stir up confusion because it might even be a student election issue — but I think this is preferable to having the Student Senate believe that the activity fund is their money to spend as they see fit, without being held accountable for it.
For example, some students may not appreciate discovering that part of their activity fee supports KU rowing if it is indeed true that rowing team membership is restricted to males over a certain height. They would like to think that any student, regardless of physical stature, could participate in rowing and are to represent this diverse university if be or she be a mind to do so.
Otherwise, I suppose, the shorter persons and others would be entitled to petition for their own boats to row, that is, equal funding.
Fortunately, we do not yet have a South African mentality in this country which would prevent this from ever happening.
Charles J. Scott
Adeleide, Ark., senior