University Daily Kansan, October 5, 1984
OPINION
Page 4
The University Daily KANSAN
The University Daily KANSAN
Published since 1889 by students of the University of Kansas
The University Dayton Kannan (UNPS 600-640) is published at the University of Kansas, 118 Starfire Flint Hall. Lawen, Kanun 60043, daily during the regular school year and Wednesday and Friday during the summer session, excluding Saturday, Sunday, holidays and final periods. Second class postage付帖 at Lawen, Kanun 60044 Subscriptions by mail are for six months or $2 per year in Douglas County and $5 per month in Anderson County. Attendance fee activity FOSTMaster Send address changes to the University Dayton Kannan 118 Starfire Flint Hall Lawen, Kanun 60043
DON KNON Editor
PAUL SEVART VINCE IBESS Managing Editor Editorial Editor
DOUG CUNNINGHAM Campus Editor
DAVE WANAMAKER
Business Manager
SUSANNE SHAW
General Manager and News Adviser
LYNNE STARK MARY BERNICK
Retail Sales National Sales
Manager Manager
JILL GOLDBLATT
Campus Sales Manager
Referendum
JOHN ORERZAN Sales and Marketing Adviser
In the heat of a continuing controversy, such as the one concerning a petition to cut off funding for Gay and Lesbian Services of Kansas, the temptation is sometimes great to do the wrong thing for the right reason. This week, however, the Student Senate Executive Committee resisted the temptation and decided to do the tough thing for the right reason.
The Elections Committee's attitude toward the petition is understandable. For one thing, GLSOK is the only student organization whose funding is questioned. For another, Steve Imber, the author of the petition, has also been involved in the sale of "Fagbusters" T-shirts on campus.
and decided to do the tough work. The Senate Elections Committee had forwarded the petition to StudEx recommending that it not be approved. StudEx sent the petition back Wednesday, saying that the Elections Committee's only job was to judge the validity, not the moral propriety, of the petition.
But acknowledging those things, no opponents of the petition have come up with a sound procedural reason not to have a vote. The intent of those who wrote the petition is disputable, but no one can speak for the intent of those who signed it. No one knows whether they were swayed by reasons of money or morality.
The referendum process is in the Senate rules and regulations. If the senators are against the process as it now exists, they should change those rules, but barring that, they must follow them.
If the Senate stops the referendum because it doesn't agree with it or doesn't like the author, then the rules are being violated. Once exceptions are made to those rules, they become meaningless and open to abuse and misinterpretation.
The vote should go ahead. The petition should underge the prescribed validation procedure, and, unless any problems turn up, it should be voted on by the students.
That doesn't mean the petition should be approved. Indeed, because of the questionable intent and specific nature of the petition, students should vote against it. However, one does not oppose an election because one disagrees with one of the candidates.
Student Senate cannot operate the system selectively. The referendum should be conducted, but the petition should be defeated.
Export wars are hell
WASHINGTON Canada, according to a ruling by the U.S. International Trade Commission, has been dumping raspberries in the United States.
If that's their answer to acid rain, the Canadians should understand here and now that this sort of retaliation won't work.
Some berry juice just doesn't mix well with vengeance squeezings. Although I don't doubt that Canadian raspberries taste good in jams, jellies, ice cream and other confections of that type, this is no guarantee that they make sweet revenge.
I sampled some raspberry revenge the other day, and I can tell you it was much too bitter for my paste.
Maybe the recipe was at fault, but I suspect there was more to it than that.
To wip up a batch of company revenge is one thing, to find consumers for it is quite another.
In international trade jargon, exports are said to be "dumped" when they are priced so low that they run domestic producers. Although no formal charges have been filed, that data certainly could include U.S. factories that introduce the ingredients of acid rain.
No price at all is assessed for the exports of acid rain.
complaints that the United States has been dumping acid rain on Canada can't be satisfied with the contention that Canada started it by dumping cold waves on us.
Such arguments do nothing to improve our balance-of-payments defect. Nor is that what is meant by the term "free trade."
Just the other day, the Environmental Protection Agency refused to grant requests by three Northeastern states for action to reduce acid rain fallout from
seven other states.
Does that give those three states — Maine, New York and Pennsylvania — the right to dump raspberries on Ohio, West Virginia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee?
I sincerely nope not.
Fortunately, a 30-day period is allowed for public comment after decisions by regulatory agencies
DICK WEST
are published in the Federal Register. Perhaps that will allow time for cooler heads to prevail.
United Press International
Instead of seeking revenge by dumping raspberries on the United States, perhaps Canada should consider asking the International Trade Commission to curb the export of experts.
expert of the United States has a large surplus of experts has long been obvious to anyone who has studied the proliferation of federal commissions, including those assigned to study the effects of acid rain.
Another fact that has long been obvious is that this country can't entirely absorb the excess of expert advice through the creation of new governmental advisory bodies. Thus, programs have come into being for the sharing of important expertise with other countries.
That would be almost as bad as for Maine, New York and Pennsylvania to send East Coast experts to Middle America.
What if Canada, after the raspberry season ends, starts dumping Canadian experts in the United States?
These trade wars have got to stop.
The story is familiar to most KU students.
You only have five minutes to make it to Rusty's Food Center on Iowa Street before it closes.
Seat-belt legislation provides safety
lowa street to the
You have to get there to stock up on
the green stuff that provides
the funds for the weekend parties, so you
jump in the car and speed up the hill
to the store.
You will probably make it, and maybe you'll have a few minutes to spare. However, few people, if any, realize that in this typical college scene
Although some people in this situation might forget, among other things, their driver's license, the most important thing most students forget is the seat belt that could save their lives.
I know that the traffic and drivers in little of 'Lawrence seem relatively harmless to those of us who hail from the interstates and continuous webbing of highways in big cities, yet the same dangers are experienced by the wear of a seat belt is the best and sometimes only chance for survival.
The Kansas City Times reported this week that the death rate in car accidents was one in every 10 minutes and that the chance for a death in an accident increased 25 times if the passenger was not wearing a seat belt and flew from the car.
We've all seen the movies in drivers education that depict the gory details of what happens to drivers and passengers who are victims of crashes and accidents, and we've all probably known of someone who has died in an accident. So why don't people wear their seat belts?
The article also said that only 15 percent of the population wore seat belts despite statistics showing that a seat belt doubled the chances for
volunteer rate for wearing seat belts will probably never rise above the 25 percent mark and come close to two
ROBIN
PALMER
The wearing of a seat belt must become mandatory through state legislation before the habit can be established and seat belts can protec
figures cited in the Times account Britain's 90 percent and Canada's 50-68 percent.
Staff Columnist
the majority of the nation's citizens. Other states should follow the example set by New York. That state will require the use of seat belts effective
Although legislation is crucial, the main problem is to overcome the behavioral patterns of most Americans who do not have the time or do not face the fact that any trip in the country is short or how slow, could result in death.
Statistics continue to show that most deaths occur within 15 miles of a person's home and at speeds between 30 and 40 miles an hour.
Therefore, the normal trip to Rusty's could result in a tragedy for a family because the family members did not take the time to protect their own lives.
Mandatory legislation and government campaigns must be used to increase the percentage of those who wear their seat belts.
Moreover, to be effective, these policies must make people think: they must conquer the prevalent opinion that this type of tragedy is avoidable and happens only to other people.
people
So open your eyes before the state legislatures must pick up where people fail to act.
Legislation that is strictly enforced will reach those people who fail to see the danger and how it relates to their lives. For most of us at KU, all the effort that is needed takes an extra 30 seconds to fasten a belt that could mean the difference between living and dying.
I did not know Tyrone. What I knew of him was that he was a good high school basketball player.
Once again, Kansas has suffered humiliation at the hands of an outsider.
Pot Shots
We learned earlier this week that Tyrone Jones, a freshman basketball phenom from Washington, D.C., had left the University of Kansas for green features at the University of Las Vegas.
player and that he was expected to be a good college basketball player.
Tyrone didn't like Lawrence, the story in Wednesday's Kansas reported. The cultural differences between Lawrence and Washington were too great for him.
I can understand that. But Las Vegas?
Please
Once again, Kansas has been left in culture's wake.
I would think that an urban school with a strong basketball tradition — perhaps DePaul or Georgetown or even UCLA — would have better suited Tyrone's yearning for metropolitan culture.
Abu Las Vegas; Vegas on 24 hour glitz, the Mint 400 Off Road Race, the Artemis W. Ham Concert Hall and, of course, Wayne Newton.
It worked. I sprinkled a trunk full of clothes with mothballs and sure enough, no holes appeared from those hungry little moths that in summers past have found a feast among my sweaters, mittens and other winter attire.
However, while the mothballs had kept the moths away, I initially feared that they might have been slightly too effective
Margaret Safranek
Yes, I tried laundering the items and ran them through an air cycle or in the dryer.
them through an air cycle or two in the dryer. Yet the smell, distinctly that of mothball, seemed to have made its way into my room, my dresser, my closet, anywhere I'd stored the mothbailed clothes for as little as one day.
as one day
Hey, it's unamusing to have a friend tell you that your expensive perfume smells like well-morbid balls.
I threw open the windows and put those clothes on the nearest clothesline.
Well, I had to tell you.
When the kind lady sitting next to you at church inches her way toward the other end of the pew, you don't need to wonder why.
Just a one-day reprieve from the chilly days requiring the wearing of those garments saved the day.
The soap and detergent experts still haven't packaged anything that comes close to plain old fresh air.
One of the matters to be resolved when I decided to revive "Pot Shots" was the identification of the writers.
Columns run with a picture of the writer, but "Pot Shots" of past years had the writer's signature.
A columnist cautioned me against use of signatures; some readers might use handwriting analysis to discover the dark secrets
of the writers
Another writer's suggestion was that the name should be typed at the end of the column, just in case the signature was illegible.
I chose the signature – the personal touch. The writers' comments remained in the back of my mind. Also in my subconscious way was the School Admission Test, which I took last week.
Professionals have illegible writing. I came to realize this after years of visits to physicians, and examinations of legal documents.
This, my signature on this "Pot Shot" is a mess, and I'm proud of it. My handwriting experts will drive themselves crazy in trying to decipher it, and I can include a copy of this mini column with my applications to law school.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Homosexuality belongs in bedroom, not on streets
To the editor:
I'm speaking of the "Fagbusters" T-shirts. Ruth Lichtwardt, president of GLSOK, says, "Homosexual students may fear harassment because of the shirts." Every year GLSOK allocates a day to harrass the heterosexual students; it's called "wear blue jeans if you're gay day."
I don't think that the "Fagbusters" Tshirts are going to drive any homosexuals back into the closet for life, as Lightwatt says, but maybe they will keep a few from making a public and political issue out of it. After all, if it one thing to come out of and put another to go out into the streets.
Doesn't this all really belong in the bedroom?
Jackie Hirbe
St. Louis junior
Reagan harmful
To the editor
It is very difficult for this student of political science and history to understand why my generation
To the editor:
identifies with the image of Ronald Reagan, while most young adults do not support his policies. This development shows how naive and even ignorant this country's youth are when it comes to their political attitudes and ideals.
It is pathetic to think that the future leaders of the 21st century prefer a polished, Madison Avenue-made image like Reagan's over the impact of his administration's short-sighted policies.
To show our true patriotism and pride of our wonderful democracy, we must judge the president and his administration by their deeds and not their image. The years under Reagan's "leadership" have brought this nation to the brink of war and economic failure.
Reagan's highly touted "economic recovery" is certainly the strangest in the past 50 years. Although inflation has been dramatically
The largest peacetime military buildup in the history of this nation has opened a new chapter in the Cold War with the Soviets. Excluding Reagan's last minute meeting with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko, conveniently a month before the election, his administration has shut down arms-reduction talks and has forced the already paranoid Moscow leadership to respond with increased aggression.
reduced, the economy is plagued with a record number of foreclosures of family owned farms, many bank failures and high levels of unemployment.
As the Reagan-sponsored tax cuts bring millions of dollars to corporations and the rich, more and more people, mostly women and children, fall below the poverty line. The recovery seems to have two sides.
Keith Manies Overland Park senior
So we come down to a very monumental decision, a decision that will affect our nation for years to come. Does the flag-waving, apple pie projected image of George Washington devastating impact of his policies?
The apparent answer to this question is a hearty "no!" Reagan's shining city on the hill has turned out to have room only for the rich and the powerful, and most Americans are fearful in the squawed sham in the valleys.
Call for unity
To the editor:
1. for one, am dismayed at the name of homosexuals and liberal Democrats that write for the Kansas. I'm of course talking about the recent
issues concerning Gay and Lesbian Services of Kansas, and the lack of articles about Ronald Reagan. 2
I can't think of anything more hyper-licious to my upbringing or anything more disgusting than shipping an organized dating service for homosexuals I would not sponsor a gay partner because we have to support it now. The issue here isn't the ability to be self-supporting, but homosexuality
As for the "Fagbusters" T shirts, I think they are funny and superficially depict my feelings toward homosexuals. I think that it will be evident that there are some regular heterosexual people' on this campus who will take great pleasure in wearing these T shirts. I know I will.
Sure. I'm being discriminatory,
but, hey, that's my right Regular
heterosexuals, stand up and fight
after all, the homosexuals have their
bleeding heart liberal buddies
David Lang Olathe senior