September 13, 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 (USP$ 600-640) is published at the University of Kansas, 118 Staffer Flint Hall, Lawen, Kansan 6040, daily during the regular school year and Wednesday and Friday during the summer session, excluding Saturday, Sunday, holidays and final periods. Second class postage paid at Lawen, Kansan 6040. Subscriptions by mail are $1 for six months or round trip to the United States for $275. Second class subscriptions are $1 and are paid through the student activity fee (*POSTMASTER*). Send address changes to the University Daily Kansan 118 Staffer Flint Hall, Lawen, Kansan 6040.
DON KNOX
Editor
PAUL SEVART VINCE HESS Managing Editor Editorial Editor
DOUG CUNNINGHAM Campus Editor
DAVE WANAMAKER Business Manager
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SUSANNE SHAH
General Manager and News Adviser
JILL GOLDBLATT Campus Sales Manager
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Warning smokers
The Senate this week is expected to pass legislation requiring detailed warnings of the effects of cigarette smoking to be printed on the cigarette packages.
Now people not only will be told that cigarette smoking is dangerous to their health, they will be given specifics — that smoking causes emphysema, heart disease and may complicate pregnancy.
In this instance, at least it cannot be said that people are too easily threatened into action.
In the 13-year period since the first warning was printed on the packages, the number of adults who smoke has decreased. But more than one-third of American adults still smoke.
The fact that senators from the "tobacco states" are supporting the rule is a sign that people are willing to recognize the danger of smoking, and realize that one warning is not enough.
Ultimately, social pressure and self-image probably will be what causes people to stop smoking, not a set of statistics or some faceless surgeon general. But as long as it appears that the public is unaware of the dangers of smoking, the need will be present to inform people of a common, but life-threatening habit.
Plugging Title IX
A group of Olympic athletes descended on the Capitol in Washington, D.C., yesterday, but the occasion wasn't another of the myriad tributes to the achievements of America's Olympians. Instead, these athletes, including several female and disabled participants in the Los Angeles Games, were urging members of the Senate to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1984.
Rights Act of 1864. The act, which passed the House by a 375-32 vote and has bipartisan sponsorship, would plug a hole in Title IX of the current Civil Rights Act. That hole was left when the Supreme Court ruled that only the specific programs that receive federal funds are subject to federal guidelines. Before the ruling, if any program in a school received federal funds, the entire school would have to meet these guidelines. The guidelines bar discrimination against women, minorities, the elderly and the disabled.
In practical terms, the difference boils down to whether an entire university should be prohibited from discriminating if the chemistry department gets a federal grant. The Supreme Court said no, but the new Civil Rights Act would change that.
Why does this interest a group of athletes? Because they believe that without the increased spending on women's programs spawned by Title IX, female athletes would never have achieved the level of competitiveness that enabled U.S. women to be as successful as they were in the 1984 Olympic Games.
If, as all the National Collegiate Athletic Association commercials tell us, athletics are an important, positive influence upon American youth, is this any less true for females than it is for males? And shouldn't female college athletes have the same opportunities?
Not all of the young women who compete in athletics at its more elemental levels will go on to medal-winning performances at future Olympics; not all young men do. What they will do is learn the importance of growth and interaction which comes from competition against others and against themselves.
They deserve that right
But that can't be the definition of wimpy as it applies to Walter Mondale.
San Francisco columnist Arthur Hoppe says a "wimp" is the opposite of a "yahoo." A yahoo, in Hoppe's formula, is a person who, through various forms of rude and offensive behavior, gets his way at the expense of other persons. The other persons,
Mondale and the 'wimp' image
We're hearing the term "wimp" used frequently these days, usually in the same breath with "Walter Mondale."
"Walter Mondale is wimpy," people say.
"Mondale wouldn't make a good president because he is a wimp."
What is a wim? Where did that term come from? You probably won't find it in a dictionary, unless you are familiar with Pocket Dictionary or Proper Names.
That source says that "Wimpy" is the trade name for a fast-food hamburger, which got its monkier from a cartoon character who was "rarely seen without a half-eaten hamburger."
by their lack of obnoxious behavior, are the wimps.
If we continue with that premise, we can say that, because America traditionally rewards displays of strength and braggadocio and ridi-
JOHN SIMONSON
Staff Columnist
cules passive and submissive behavior, a wimp is a misfit in our society.
A wimp is a weakling, a milque- toast.
So how did Walter Mondale earn such a label?
It might have been because he lacks an actor's talent for inspirational oratory. He is rather bland at the podium.
But I think Mondale is considered wimpy because of his association
with the Father of Wimpdom, Jimmy Carter.
Carter, of course, will be remembered as the weakest leader in recorded history.
"Jimmy Carter" O, yeah. What a weak president! O'liff Jimmy just laid down and let the world run over him and the country."
But, just for the record, let's remember a few of the items on Carter's wimpy presidential record:
- He was an outspoken advocate of human rights worldwide. Politically oppressed people in Soviet bloc countries and in South Africa received hope from Carter's plea for simple human freedoms.
- *He allowed for the return of the Panaman Canal to the Panamanians, thereby displaying a willingness to challenge imperialism in imperialist image Latin America.
- He was instrumental in bringing about peace negotiations between Egypt and Israel, which culminated in the Camp David accord.
- He showed compassion in par-
donning draft dodgers from the Vietnam War, reasoning that those people should not be punished if the individuals who instigated the war were not punished.
- During the hostage crisis in Iran, Carter resisted what must have been a strong impulse to punish Iran with a show of force and risk the lives of the American captives.
Ronald Reagan should be wimpy.
Now let's see a show of hands from all those who expect to see Ronald Reagan renovating a slum during his retirement years.
And Carter is still at it. Just last week, the former president and his wife were in overalls in a New York tenement, working with a non-profit Christian group to renovate a six-story slum on the lower East Side.
Walter Mondale could do a ld worse than be associated with a compassionate a human being Jimmy Carter.
If that's what wimpy means, then I'll take the wimp ticket.
Skating rink brings back memories
One evening last weekend I was cajoled into going to the roller skating rink and was completely unaware of the time the warp awaiting
Of course I was terrified at the thought of standing on a few wheels hardly larger than a silver dollar, much less trying to roll in a circle of whirling maniacs. But while I was fearing what my rear end would have to face, I happened to notice what was going on around me, and suddenly I was remembering my old junior high school days at the rink.
Hanging out at the roller rink hasn't changed much. There are a few basic differences that can be expected with changing times and passing fancies, but for the most part you can still see what we were all like
back then.
what is it about rolling around in endless circles that is so entertaining? Of course, what is it about rolling around in a bar that's so entertaining?
I know that these kids must be out here at the rink night after night.
LAURIE McGHEE
Staff Columnist
because they're wizards on wheels. It makes me wonder how many parents know how talented their sons and daughters actually are.
Poor audience, equipment taint lecture
His credentials are displayed on the front cover of Time magazine each week.
Rudi Hoglund, art director for one of the most popular weekly news magazines, seemed a good choice for the Hallmark series, the Hallmark Symposium Series.
One of his more intriguing points was about Time's effort to be prepared for whatever situation might arise. He used as an example Time's preparation of three covers for the last presidential election. One cover featured Carter as the victor, one had Reagan, and one had the two candidates sharing the front cover in the rare event that the election had been a tie — with the vote going to Congress.
Never mind that Wescoe Hall was the site for the lecture. Most people who have attended programs at the University of Kansas have reconciled themselves to the shortcomings of the facility.
The lecture still had the potential to be a topnotch event.
By the time the crowd headed for the exits, Hogtund had proven that he had some interesting things to say
Although Hoglund enlightened the audience about some of the activities of a major magazine's art department, the lecture was medicene. Some students in the capacity crowd were partially responsible.
MARGARET
SAFRANEK
Staff Columnist
May interested audiences everywhere be spared the students who
You can spot them the minute they walk into the lecture or performance. They come in dragging their feet and discussing, with at least one fellow sufferer, how long they might be forced to stay. Their only goal is to gather sufficient information to survive the next class discussion.
attend only because of a class requirement.
Some students in the capacity crowd were partially responsible.
Others come and quickly search
the crowd for a fellow classmate or friend who might be willing to hand in the necessary attendance card at the door on the way out.
But should the lecture prove absolutely too much for the student, no problem. His solution is to rise from his carefully selected seat in the middle of the row at some inopportune point in the lecture, forcing half of the row to do the same before he exits.
If that fails, they are forced to sit through the lecture. Writing letters, reading books, or best of all, visiting an institution makes the tolerant palate.
Vet these thoughtless students, lacking the consideration to sit near the back of the audience, do not deserve all of the blame for the shortcomings of the lecture.
One of the few advantages of using Wescow was the opportunity for audio-visuals, a major part of Hogland's presentation.
Surely anyone working on preparations for the lecture anticipated that an artist would be sharing some of his work through a medium
besides words.
not apparently the people in charge of the lecture either did not prepare ahead of time or forgot one of the laws of guest lectures: When audio-visual equipment is needed, it's bound to screw up; plan accordingly.
Professors who conduct classes in the same lecture hall use the equipment regularly with rarely more than a minor trip-up.
But the people working with the lecture series fell flat on their faces.
More than 300 people in the audience, sitting in a hall that felt only slightly air-conditioned on a 100-degree night, waited patiently while a first, then second, third and fourth attempts were made to get the projectors working.
but it endures.
I must have been pretty good on skates in my day too, but I can't remember. I do know I went skating at least two night a week, so I must have been pretty good.
They finally did resume operating, placing fault more with the operators than with the equipment.
Many other programs are ahead this semester at KU.
But as Hogland pointed out, if you want a first-class product, you can't overlook the small details.
It took me about half an hour just to get the feel of being on wheels again, but all around me were kids who can't even drive a car, acting as if they were simply walking effortlessly across the floor, talking and dancing moves with the music I felt like an idiot, and none of my years could have made up for my uncoordinated falls and the terrified look on my face I can remember making fun of those kinds of people then, so I know what they were thinking.
I can recall having discovered young love for the first time at this age. Young love hasn't changed much. The girls are still taller than most of the guys, and they still wear combs in their back pockets. When they dance, the girl puts her wrist on a towel, then dances and holds on to the belt loops in her jeans. The more smitten ones cling like Velcro and can't unlock their gazes.
Most of the musical selections ranged from Motley Crue (same song played at least twice) to the Scorpions to Ratt. Heavy Metal is in, folks, and these kids know what's on going. And they especially love Prince — how can an 11/year/odd possibly understand the complicated mind of Prince? That's what I wanna know.
They still have dises jockeys. This one had a particularly difficult time getting the kids to do the Hokey Pokey. When announced, it received moans and groans of protest. Most of the kids left the floor completely, except for the youngest ones. One delinquent boy in a black t-shirt, jeans and long hair skated around the group despite warnings to get off the floor if he was not participating. Hasn't there always been at least one of those in every crowd? The Hokey Pokey may be not too cool any more,
No. I did not participate in the Hokey Pokey.
Clothing fads come and go, even in college, but these kids know what is cool and not cool to wear. I can remember what particular style was cool then, but I do know that it was about the time I discovered that makeup will enhance a girl's apearance. But then it seemed like something special, and it was worn sparingly. Now it's a mandatory standard, along with a permanent wave and distressed denim jeans. Some of the jeans, incidentally, are more than distressed when the girls buy them a size too small. Tight is still tops.
I was having too much fun to worry about my lack of expertise or distressed denim jeans. But just watching all the activity made me realize a lot of things I never have before. It was like looking into a mirror and seeing how I was so many years ago, and how we all were at work on the project. We knew who I am today. It turned out to be the kind of escape you learn from — and the kind that makes you glad that you can never go back
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