OPINION
October 16, 1984 Page 4
KANSAN
The University Daily KANSAN
Published since 1889 by students of the University of Kansas
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DON KNOX Editor
PAUL SEVART VINCE HESS
Managing Editor Editorial Editor
DAVE WANAMAKER Business Manager
DOUG CUNNINGHAM Campus Editor
LYNNE STARK MARY BERNICA Retail Sales National Sales Manager Manager
JILL GOLDBLATT Campus Sales Manager
SUSANNE SHAW
General Manager and News Adviser
JOHN OBERZAN Sales and Marketing Adviser
Riverfront mall
Interesting.
That was the word one Lawrence city commissioner used last week to describe the latest mall proposal for the city. The plan, by Steve Clark of Steve Clark Commercial Real Estate, calls for a mall that would take up about 200,000 square feet on the south bank of the Kansas River, east of City Hall.
Clark is asking for an extension of a lease on that land, and the air rights to build a multilevel parking garage. The plan also calls for a large department store and numerous specialty shops.
The first mail is being planned for downtown. It is the project of Town Center Venture Corp., the city's developer of record. That mall has been in the works for about a year. The other proposal came in late September from Delta Properties Inc. of Baltimore. The site for that project would be at the south edge of town at Armstrong Road and Iowa Street.
Interesting is, indeed, the word because Clark's plan is the third for a mall in the Lawrence area.
Of course, the time is not yet right to make a final judgment on the Clark mall plan, but it certainly looks promising. The real question is what this would mean for the downtown mall, to which the city is already committed? Would the presence of one large department store discourage others from entering the market? How long can the city afford to wait for a mall proposal to become a reality?
What makes the Clark plan all the more interesting is that he is asking for no money from the city. The plan also is in line with city goals to develop the riverfront and keep a shopping mall in the downtown area.
The situation is interesting, but the city should take care lest some of that interest wane or the propitious moment to bring more shopping opportunities and customers to Lawrence is lost.
Nuclear suicide
Although presidents at both schools say they won't consider allowing the pills to be stockpiled, organizers of the referendums have made their point about the threat of nuclear war with startling clarity.
Students at the University of Colorado in Boulder have decided to follow the Ivy League's Brown University and conduct a referendum on whether suicide pills should be stocked for use in the event of a nuclear war. Brown students approved the referendum last week by a margin of 3 to 2, and Colorado students are to vote later this month.
Should the University of Kansas follow them in what would be an essentially symbolic and emotional act? The referendums at Brown and Colorado have served their purpose: They have made headlines and caused the nation to react. They have succeeded in their shock value, but what is needed now that they have shocked us is a more constructive approach.
First of all, their action should encourage us to find out what we can about the nuclear arms race and the threat of nuclear annihilation, even if we think our minds are made up. No doubt some people think that the idea of stocking suicide pills is the work of crazed left-wing pacifists, while others are in complete sympathy with the proposal. Whichever side you are on, rethink it. Question your assumptions. Find out everything you can about the issue — it could well be the most important one of our time.
Don't be complacent about it, one way or another. Tell your elected representatives what you think. Join with others who think the way you do, whatever stand you decide to take, and work with them. Two superpowers are poised to destroy each other, and if no one does anything, there is only one way that the situation will solve itself. Some people have decided that if that happens, they don't even want to be around for the day after.
Congress in action
Jim Wright, the Texas Democrat who is House majority leader, was furious with President Reagan for recently closing down some federal offices when Congress failed to enact a budget for the fiscal year that started Oct. 1.
Speaker Tip O'Neill was mad, too, and accused the president of — gasp — playing politics.
Budgeting is not something that Congress likes to do. Congress likes to spend. When somebody like Ronald Reagan comes along and puts the spur to them with a tax cut, it drives congressmen and senators batty.
If they vote for more spending, they drive up the deficit. If they vote to raise taxes, they find themselves 20 points behind in the polls.
So they try to hide behind the process. They delay action until the last minute to create a crisis atmosphere, fiddle with the numbers and attach unrelated bills to the money measures in the hope of picking up votes for their pork-barreling.
The Detroit News
Students' right of choice in question
In the Oct. 4 Kansas, an editorial I wrote was published as a paid advertisement. Since that time, I have received so much confused attention that I find myself porterive, that I feel it necessary to clarify my opinion on the subject.
Inferences have been made that I had some previous connection with the petition. My dispute is over the right of choice for the student body, not the issue of special privilege funding for a group of homosexuals.
I did not have time to examine the issue before being asked to sign the petition; subsequently, I did not sign. Eventually I became a spokesman for the petition out of my concern for our right to referendum.
Furthermore, I am not affiliated with the printing or distribution of the "Fagbusters" T-shirts. I choose to speak and write my views, not wear them on my chest. On the other hand, I see the shirts as valid, legal parody and I do not view their intent as violent. I have one of the shirts on reserve for "Wear Blue Jeans" "if You're Gav Day."
I view the would-be investigative reporting, the inference of illegality and the opinions expressed on the
editorial page to be a one-sided slur campaign by the Kansan. I further consider such an attack by the only daily student body-funded paper on campus and the Kansan's refusal to advertise for Steve Imber's T-shirts a threat to freedom of speech.
There have been objections to my use of the word "deviant." I view the phrase "sexual deviant" as a techni-
cution is one purpose of civil court.
cal term describing a statistical relation in terms of population. As far as I know, a great deal of heterosexual activity commonly practiced is also considered deviant. I have no intention of degrading anyone for sexually deviant behavior or publicly judging them as immoral. People's sexuality is their own private business, and it is no one's right to seek anyone out and persecute them. Redress for such perse-
Furthermore, people should not be harassed for expression of their opinions in public. Homosexuals have the same rights as every other citizen, and provisions already exist for their protection under law. For example, at this time the case of a homosexual schoolteacher is being decided before the U.S. Supreme Court.
As far as differentiating between "sexual preference" and "sexual deviant", I don't. I'm personally not concerned with one "special definition" or another. Until homosexuals have segregated themselves from other devians in state or federal legislation, I can only consider my opinion. I can't say I regard a man's having a preference for another man to be any less of a breach with nature than to be more of a breach for another species. In other words, I do not view homosexuality as better or worse than any other deviation.
If the referendum had been conducted and the student body supported Gay and Lesbian Services of Kansas, I would have respected that decision. Clearly, the homosexuals, liberals and lesbians think that their
definition of bigot applies to the majority of students at the University of Kansas. Similarly, if our federal legislators added "sexual preference" to the minority groups already determined to be deserving of special protection, I would have to respect that policy.
As it stands, I feel that homosexuals and liberals are attempting, by lobbying for "back-door legislation" like the affirmative action sexual preference clause, to usurp the hard-won status of minorities they are not logically related to. Race, gender, national origin, religion, handicap and the others protected by law are private in their nature, and the source of unfair discrimination is obvious.
I have no objection to homosexuals leading the lifestyle they choose; however, when I am an employer, I should not be forced to tolerate fragrance. Employers must make judgments of moral character as well as avoid disruption of the workplace.
Tom Crisp is a Lawrence graduate student.
Local effort can help reduce hunger
Today is World Food Day, a designation that represents part of an effort by the United Nations and private organizations to increase public awareness of the world food situation and of hunger.
Each year 13 to 18 million of us on this planet die from hunger-related deaths ... about 35,000 of us each year ... 18 of whom are children.
To those of us at the University of Kansas who are accustomed to gratification of our hunger at any one of the restaurants at the Kansas Union and the Burge Union, these statistics may seem like abstractions. However in fact, the statistics reflect realities that they represent a portion of the human condition that exists right here.
A Douglas County Task Force on Nutrition and Hunger just completed a survey that found 50 pregnant women, infants and children waiting as you read this article to receive needed nutrition services from the county's Women, Infants and Children program. In this county, 1,674 low-income households participate in the federal government's community food stamp program and 2,083 people receive food stamps
These are reported statistics; we have no way of knowing how many
unserved hungry citizens there are in our community, particularly as programs have been slashed.
Fortunately, there are resources in Douglas County to help feed people if they step forward. These resources include not only the ones mentioned but other private and governmental resources such as Salvation Army, Penn House, Ballard Community Center Inc., the Indian Center of
Lawrence and Social and Rehabilitation Services. The United Way is currently making its appeal to help victims of the shooting in its plea with our contributions.
Kansas is one of the main breadbaskets of the world and U.S. agriculture is the world's largest commercial industry; its assets exceed $1 trillion. With less than 3 of 1 percent of the world's farmers and farm workers, this country produces 64 percent of the total supply, 64 percent of the total soybean supply and 31 percent of the total sorghum supply.
The relationship between U.S. agriculture and world wander is often overlooked. The two are linked in terms of how our food experts attract the hungry throughout the world, and we are debatable social consequence.
In 1800, per capita food supplies were less than adequate in 53 developing countries. For the poor in these countries especially, the international community must for the time being, share part of the
responsibility for feeding their people. Long term solutions lie in how countries develop their own resources toward self-reliance, both for fulfillment of diet and for a sense of dignity.
Lest we forget the poor black person's lust in South Africa or the biated child on the streets of Calcutta as we satiate our appetites wherever we eat on the Hill. let us act now to organize and support a local group to assess what can be done to combat hunger globally and locally.
As John Donne said, "Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind." Lawrence used to have a soup kitchen. Is it time to reopen the doors? Perhaps even worse than starvation of the stomach cavitation of the skin, a resignition to powerlessness. It is time to act.
Ed Dutton, associate professor of social welfare, was chairman of the Douglas County Task Force on Nutrition and Hunger.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Ferraro's position on abortion spurs protests
To the editor:
The press has recently reported a lot on the harassment Geraldine Ferraro is receiving for her views on abortion. What the press hasn't told us, however, is just why those of us in the pro-life camp are so riled up at Ferraro.
As Catholic leaders get involved in the fray, the abortion question is being obscured into simply a religious issue instead of what it is, the most serious civil rights question of our day.
Ferraro's stated position on abortion is something akin to, "I personally oppose it, but I support the right of women to be able to abort their children if they so choose." I suppose what she means is that her religion tells her abortion is wrong, but as a matter of public policy, her private religious opinion has nothing to do with her political stance.
What is so profoundly annoying with such a position is that it completely ignores the non-religious, purely secular consequences of abortion, namely, the termination of human life on a massive scale.
As a Christian, I believe that abortion is both a sin against God and a sin against one's fellow man. However, in the political arena, we have a crime against abortion as a crime against God, or against one believes that there is a God, is
ultimately irrelevant. One can ignore God without ignoring that, in the abortion act, one human being is terminating the life of another human being, a loving heart, a functioning brain and the ability to feel intense pain.
So then, abortion is just as secular an issue as one wants to make it. The criminal laws of society, such as those regarding burglary and murder are designed to protect them, but that harmed by another, to outlaw abortion would be just another extension of this same principle.
Certainly, there are religious roots to such laws — ultimately, "Love the neighbor as thyself" — but since when does that have anything to do with whether one punishes a thief for stealing, or a murderer for killing? Justice demands that we punish criminals in order to avenge and protect their victims. So it is with abortion: Justice demands that we prohibit the taking of life in order to protect society's unborn victims.
Ferraro is apparently incapable of seeing the duplicity of her position, which explains why pro-life people are so insistent in their protests. Fighting as Ferraro does for the rights of the right, she is also so casually ignoring the civil rights of the unborn, is blatant hypocrisy. Having a belief
that abortion is wrong and then fighting for it suggests perversity of our society.
Until Ferraro recents her untenable position, she has proved herself unqualified to lead our country.
Joe Vusich
Fairway scenic
Mondale on taxes
taxes for both consumers and businesses.
"The experts" who say that Walter Mondale won the first presidential debate because of his "warm style of delivery" seem to be ignoring the issues to a greater degree than Mondale said President Reagan was. A presidential election is not a beauty contest, but a show of impatience, paused畏惧 "nervous and poorly coached," he still comes out on top when the issues are examined
To the editor:
For example, the two candidates debated how each other would deal with the deficit. Reagan would continue his pro-expansion policies of tax cuts and business incentives, which are working to improve the economy. Mondale would raise taxes for everyone by both the elimination of indexing, virtually the only protection the middle class has against inflation driving their tax bite to exorbitant levels, and the raising of
Montale's home state of Minnesota holds the dubious distinction of being home of the highest income taxes in the nation. The personal exemption, an amount skimmed directly from a person's total income to avoid taxes on income, is $130 million in Minnesota, the personal exemption is a more $66, roughly the average weekly pay of a fast-food fry cook.
Mondale would also impose a new rate of 15 percent across the board tax hike on every business in the country. Because U.S. businessmen would be unwilling to pay this new amount, they would instead pass it on to the consumer, resulting in an inflation rate of 2.3 percent. The corporations have left Minnesota in recent years because of the ridiculous tax rates
Determining which candidate is a better speaker or has a better "style of delivery" is no way to choose a world leader. I suggest that anyone reading this watch the next debate, and make his own choice as to which would make the better president. The opinions of the experts do not matter in the long run. All that matters for your vote is your own opinion.
Overland Park freshman
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