OPINION
October 15, 1984 Page 4
The University Daily
KANSAN
The University Daily KANSAN
Published since 1889 bv students of the University of Kansas
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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
LYNNE STARK MARY BERNICA Retail Sales National Sales Manager Manager
JILL GOLDBLATT
Campus Sales Manager
JOHN OBERZAN Sales and Marketing Adviser
Victorv in draw
Polls have been indicated Vice President George Bush won Round 2 of the great debates; other polls have attested that Rep. Geraldine Ferraro emerged the victor.
If accuracy in the debates was the sole criterion for victory, both Bush and Ferraro would have had difficulty claiming the winner's cup.
Ferraro incorrectly accused the Republican party of promising the Rev. Jerry Falwell the opportunity to pick two Supreme Court justices, should Reagan have the chance to do so.
Falwell, however, has been given no such promise; the Republican platform merely says that persons appointed as federal judges should respect the sanctity of human life.
Bush said that spending for both food stamps and Aid to Families with Dependent Children was way up under the Reagan administration.
But that isn't what the administration's record shows. Money spent for AFDC programs is down, according to a General Accounting Office report. Moreover, a bill to slightly increase food stamp benefits was opposed by the Reagan administration. That piece of legislation, passed by a Democrat/controlled House of Representatives, has not been acted on by the Republican-controlled Senate.
The second debate didn't feature the top dogs in the presidential race, but the still had plenty of interest in two people who could one day be the top dogs.
Speculation ahead of time was that Ferraro would get the best of Bush, but he managed to hold his own. So it was more a matter of a draw than a win or a loss for either side.
Yet in the draw, Ferraro gave women everywhere reason to revel in victory. She provided a glowing answer to the question of whether women can compete for top spots in government.
Appealing idea
There is a very interesting transportation idea rolling around at the University of Kansas. It might not be that good an idea, at least yet. But it sure is interesting.
KU's student government wants old bicycles any way it can get them. It plans to buy them at police auctions or accept donations from students. The bicycles will be put in workable shape. Then they will be painted white.
Finally they will be put out on campus for every student to use. It's a very simple idea. If you need a bicycle, take one, pedal it from one class to another and drop it off at your destination.
There are several important questions as yet unanswered. How liable will the student government or the University be for accidents? How can thievery be prevented? Student body officials point out that the bicycles won't be in great shape, so they shouldn't be tempting to steal.
Maybe the proposal will turn out to be more simplistic than simple. Still, student officials say they're trying to find answers to the questions raised so far. That's proper.
There is something appealing about getting around on a college campus on a non-polluting and healthy-to-ride bicycle. So why not give the idea an all-out try?
Voters gain from hype
At the risk of biting the hand that may one day feed me, I'll say it.
Kansas City Star
My initial reaction to all the media "hype" — a word often used to describe a zealous press — in this year's presidential election is that I sick of it. I sick also of the candidates' use of the media.
The individual party conventions and "The Great Debates" were played up in newspapers, magazines and television with fervor surpassed this year only by the Summer Olympics.
Moreover, the millions of dollars each candidate pours into glossy.
JENNIFER
FINE
Staff Columnist
image-building television commercials is staggering
However, though I may scaff at the superficiality of it all, a worse scenario is how the election would be without that media type.
I wonder how many people would have watched the Democratic and Republican conventions — would have heard passionate speeches by Gov. Mario Cuomo and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, and would have listened to Sen. Barry Goldwater state senator who said that convention had not been treated by the media as an event folks should be ashamed to miss.
I wonder also how many people would have sat down to watch the debates if the idea of "greatness" had been their heads by news reports beforehand
I never have expected much from debates, regardless of how "great" they are.
Instead of seeing them as enlightening, I always have thought of debates as a means for the candidates to see how skillfully they could make a reference to a question and still hedge on the answer as they recited glowing generalities of what they would do in office.
When my avowedly apolitical roommate watched the first presidential debate in its entirety, and afterwards announced her intention to register and vote, the one-and-a-half hour session of the candidates ariring their views, and every bit of their type along with it, became important.
If just one person is touched by those commercials showing carefree children playing in a safe prosperous country, or the hard-working middle-income worker concerned about how his dollar is being spent, and is inspired to vote, those high-price spots may be worth it.
Although a commercial or a televised debate might not be the best basis for choosing the president, any opinion about a candidate is better than no opinion at all. The opportunity to voice that opinion in an election is both a privilege and the foundation of our democracy.
Maybe if people would stop to think how the world would be without the media, they would be grateful for the hype.
It is easy to become disgusted at the show-biz atmosphere during a campaign and the seemingly mundane things that journalists die up.
Newlywed feels young at 77
Olive Johnson, who went through the first 77 years of her life as a single woman, got married the other afternoon. After a lifetime of being called Miss Johnson, now she is being called Mrs Lange. That might not be front-page news, but it is making her very happy.
"Mr Lange . . . Harold . . . and I both live in the retirement community" the new Mrs Lange said. She was explaining how she had met her husband, who is 75. The retirement community is the Holstein in [1].
"One day about four years ago I was working in the garden," she said. "I was breaking up some sticks to mark off the garden, and Mr. Lange. . . Harold. . . was in the next garden. He said, 'You're going to get shivers in your hand.' He got me some other sticks to use."
Olive Johnson had accepted the fact that she would never marry. "I suppose I thought about when it was a young girl," she said. "I felt bad when all my girlfriends were getting married, and I wasn't. But my mother was ill, and so I lived with my parents to take care of her. Then my father became ill, and after a while I didn't think about getting married."
began to become good friends. His wife had died; Olive Johnson did not let herself think about the possibility that she might finally wed. However, she came to realize that she was
Harold Lange and Olive Johnson
BOB
GREENE
Syndicated
Columnist
beginning to feel emotions she had never felt before.
"I didn't know what it was like to be in love," she said, "but other people said, 'You're in love.'"
At 77, her days and nights had developed a pattern.
"I in the morning I would go to the breakfast table," she said. "I would fix myself some cereal and some yogurt, because by myself and listen to the radio."
"The days would be spent with the other people here in the community. I never lost sight of the basic fact that I was alone. At night, before bed, sometimes I'd fix a snack for myself. I'd listen to the radio again, and I'd
get into bed and read. When my book dropped out of my hands, I'd know it was time to sleep."
More and more, she found that she was looking forward to the hours she spent with Harold Lange.
When it finally happened, it caught her by surprise. "He had driven me to an appointment I had with my doctor," she said. "He waited for me, and as we were driving through the parking lot, he stopped the car. He pulled a ring out of his pocket, and he said it: 'Will you marry me?'
So, in front of almost 500 guests Olive Johnson became the bride of Harold Langen.
"I feel like a young kid," she said. She said she was realistic about the future: "I know there's no guarantee of how long we'll have each other, but we'll eat each other and enjoy each other as long as we can."
The new Mr. and Mrs. Lange will live in his apartment. Right now they are on their honeymoon. They are driving through Wisconsin and Canada to see the leaves turn colors.
"That's something I always wanted to do," the new Mrs. Lange said.
"But I never did it, because I didn't want to take a trip like that by myself. Well, I'm not alone now."
Nancy is campaign worrier
Nancy Reagan was very much involved in the 1980 campaign, flying on the same plane with her husband.
WASHINGTON — Nancy Reagan is a worrier. Aides say she keeps close tabs on her husband's campaign and worries about his reelection chances despite polls that have him leading by big margins.
White House chief of staff James Baker has indicated for more than a year that he plans to leave. Of course, if he is offered a Cabinet post, Baker is expected to remain in Washington.
This time, she is going her separate way with trips around the country to promote the crusade against drug abuse among youth. She also touches base with the local politicians wherever she goes; her travel costs are being picked up by the Reagan-Bush campaign.
SPECULATION IS rampant on who will be leaving the White House staff and Cabinet if Reagan wins another term.
White House counselor Edwin Meese expects to be renominated as attorney general now that a special
HELEN THOMAS
United Press International
prosecutor has cleared him of any criminal wrongdoing
Margaret Tutwiler. Reagan's hiaison with his re-election committee, expects to go home to Alabama
has been viewed as a possible replacement for budget director David Stockman, who went into limbo after giving an interview to the Atlantic Monthly three years ago criticizing Reaganism.
However, Darman's resume was also reportedly found on a plane, so maybe he's looking elsewhere.
speaks to go home to his mother
Baker's deputy, Richard Darman.
Deputy chief of staff Michael Deaver has a standing offer to go with a public relations firm for six figures, but it would be difficult for the Reagans to let such a close confidant leave the fold.
U. N. Ambassador Jeane Kirk patrick has made it clear that she wants to return to Washington because she is high on Reagan's list she might be appointed to a foreign policy role.
Time to register
Tomorrow is the last day to register to vote.
Volunteer how is the last day of August?
Voter registration drives on campus have put the names of many KU students on the voter lists, but undoubtedly some students have failed to signed up.
This year's elections are special. Voters will choose a president, congressmen and state and local officials.
Registering to vote is the first step in the making of those choices.
Missing person
It could have been James Michener. It could have been Jaroslav Seifert, in a special prose appearance. It could have been George Will. It even could have been Jim Sawyer.
Blame for the omission of the signature lies with the editorial editor, who still has a blank expression on his face over the goof.
In truth, the writer of the Friday "Pot Shot" about the preparation of a home for winter was Margaret Safranek, staff columnist.
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.
GUEST COLUMNS
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
History crucial in interpretation of Bible
To the editor:
What disturbs me most is not the browhaka created by the GLOSK Steve Imbert Senate message presented by Charles Miller in his movie.
1. too, am a Christian Those who say, "The Bible is without error in all that it affirms" are actually saving that their interpretations are without error. The Bible does contain timeless truth, but only so far as we can see the place of each book in the total impact of the Bible will we begin to formulate an understanding of the real message of any of its books.
For example, the Bible refers to the menstrual period as a "sickness" and an "imputy". Here was an instruction (Lewisus 12:2.5) based on primitive cultural understates of urticaria, unceratically across 35 centuries.
There were at least two uses of homosexuality in that era. One was as sacred prostitution in worshiping gods other than Jehovah. The other was to arm armies. It was a graphic way to express contempt for fallen foes.
No wonder modern Christians have such difficulty with much of the early part of the Old Testament. Some people in and retrieves a verse such as "You shall not lie with a male as with a woman" (Leviticus 18:22), but we
do not retrieve the verses that deal with a woman's "uncleanness."
None of the four gospel writers has recorded any sayings of Jesus concerning homosexuality. What is the meaning of this silence? It is all too easy to rush in and conjecture about this lack of mention.
If we view the Bible as the record of how people perceived God through the long ages, then we are beginning to get on the right track.
If some people are born with a genetic-psychological orientation that does not allow them to enter a heterosexual relationship, are they beyond the love of Christ? Perhaps the issue of which gender is the most sensitive to such an orientation, is not as important as the quality of the relationship.
Christopher Guadian
Chicago graduate student
Reason hidden
To the editor:
To the ballot.
The debate over funding for Gay and Lesbian Services of Kansas has gotten out of hand. In spite of attempts to look innocent, the Student Senate Elections Committee and the other groups deciding the validity of Steve Imber's petition are
These groups say the wording of the petition does not include legislation that would result from it. First, a person not involved in student activism is expected to form the actual wording of a law, or student government is useless.
consciously avoiding stating the true reason they oppose it
Second, why does the problem with wording surface now? Either the Elections Committee is just trying to use a loophole, or it intended this all along and used the Kansan as a forum to persuade students, through the T-shirt issue, that the petition was discriminatory, that the cartampersing indicated the blind hatred of homosexuals that abounds here. Furthermore, the funding of GLOSK and that such legislation would set back cultural and social advancement at least a thousand years.
The committee members do not want to have to condemn support of such a group and fear giving students the right to voice such disapproval. With the help of the Kansan and other narrow minded people, these representatives have tried to persuade all concerned that intelligent people should not try to persecute homosexuals.
My only response is that if their supporters have to resort to such
Tom Wurster
tactics, perhaps they should be discriminated against.
To the editor:
Kansas City, Kan., sonhomore
I've had all I can stand and I can't stand no more
Soccer missing
It has been my casual observation that for a month and a half or so, the women's volleyball team has had a picture or an article in the sports section almost every other day. All this despite a poor record.
Contrast this with the women's soccer team, which has to run off 20 consecutive victories before it can get one article in the Kansas. Anyone can see that the women's volleyball team does not deserve all the media coverage detailing its disgraceful season.
The Kansan needs to re-evaluate what makes a good news story, or it should have a general clubs and sports column that gives highlights of all the lesser sports. These are logical solutions to the never ending parade of drivel about the women's volleyball team.
Larry Thigpen Chicago senfor