August 30,1984
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 (USP5 60-640) is published at the University of Kansas, 118 Staffer Flint Hall, Lawrence, Kaneg. 60-640, daily during the regular school year and Wednesday and Friday during the summer session, excluding Saturday, Sunday, holidays and final periods Second class postage付住, Lawrence, Kaneg. 66044. Subscriptions by mail are $1 for six months or $27 for a year in Douglas County and $1 for six months or $3 a year in Dana-Farber Medical Center. STAFF MASTER: Send address changes to the University Daily Kansan, 118 Staffer Flint Hall, Lawrence, Kaneg. 60-640
DON KNOX Editor
PAUL SEVART VINCE HESS Managing Editor Editorial Editor
DOUG CUNNINGHAM
Campus Editor
DAVE WANAMAKER Business Manager
LYNNE STARK MARY BERNICA
Retail Sales National Sales
Manager Manager
SUSANNE SHAW
General Manager and News Adviser
JILL GOLDBLATT Campus Sales Manager
JOHN OBERZAN Sales and Marketing Adviser
Wolf Creek saga
The self-congratulatory internal report issued this week by the Kansas Gas and Electric Co. crediting its management decisions for saving millions of dollars on construction of the Wolf Creek nuclear power plant contained, at best, half of the story.
The plant now will cost almost three times the $1 billion it was supposed to have cost when construction began. The report attributes 57 percent of the cost overruns on the plant to a glut of federal regulations.
to a glut of federal regulations.
The plant is 97.5 percent complete and should go on-line at full power in May 1885, utility officials say. Its construction has indeed come at a time of burgeoning regulations, many of which appeared after the accident at Three Mile Island in 1979.
1979. The utilities and the people of Kansas, however, should wonder what shape they would be in if the federal government hadn't stepped in with regulations on the integrity of welds, the dependability of safety systems, the skills of workers and thousands of other aspects of construction. Better a plant that is a few years late and safer than one that is finished on time and ticking away toward an accident.
accident.
What if no inspections had been conducted at Wolf Creek?
In April 1981, according to a report Sunday in the Kansas City Star, inspectors found one bad weld for each one they approved. Two years before that, about 20 concrete walls had to be torn down and rebuilt because they had been improperly built.
improperly built. Certainly the plant would have been much cheaper to build because slipshod work and inadequate safety equipment would have been allowed.
As for the management of KG&E and Kansas City Power and Light, the main owners of the plant, independent reports cited the utilities for giving the lead contractor too much of a free rein, allowing "exorbitant" costs and not providing incentives for staying within budget. The contractor, Daniel Construction Co., got itself a fine of $40,000 for failing to keep track of paperwork, and the utilities considered replacing the company as late as last year.
company is late as last time. It is unlikely that KG&E has done much of anything in the saga of Wolf Creek that is worth congratulating itself about, and the company would do better, considering the runaway costs it wants to pass along to ratepayers, to show a little more modesty.
Hello, Sallie Mae
Sallie Mae is moving to Lawrence, and the city is greeting her with open arms.
Formally known as the Student Loan Marketing Association, the firm is the nation's largest investor in insured student loans.
The association buys federally guaranteed student loans from original lending institutions, then collects and manages the loans.
Although she does not give loans directly to students, it's still nice to have Sallie Mae in the neighborhood.
still nice to have Sallie Mae in the neighborhood For more reasons than the possibility of dollars for students, Sallie Mae's presence in the city is welcome.
The firm will initially employ 25 people and as many as 250 people within two years.
Sallie Mae's choice to settle in Lawrence should also help draw the attention of other firms considering various cities for office sites.
When the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce and others in the city rolled out the welcome mat for Sallie Mae, she decided to move to town.
Hazardous habit?
A teen-ager in Dayton, Ohio, woke up unhurt after two train engines had passed over him on Saturday. He had fallen asleep as he sat on the tracks and smoked a cigarette.
Pauline, the movie serial heroine who gained fame for having been tied to railroad tracks, couldn't beat this one.
If worse comes to worse, tobacco industry lobbyists in Washington can cite the incident as evidence that smoking is not necessarily hazardous to one's health.
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 Kansan also invites individuals and groups to submit guest columns. Columns and letters can be mailed or brought to the Kansan office, 111 Stauffer-Flint Hall. The Kansan reserves the right to edit or reject letters and columns.
Ferraro's status raises vital question
She has hit the country with more force than most fads or other world-renowned people.
In fact, she has created the same amount of excitement and national gossip that surfaced from political campaigns as Richard Nixon, James Watt.
and candidate.
Geidonee Ferraro, Democratic presidential nominee, will continue to bask in the spotlight of national attention long after the election is over, whatever the results may be.
Her political presence for the past three months has altered the face of the current election process for a solitary reason: She is the first woman candidate of a major party for national office in this country.
rerraro's placement on the Democ-
ratic ticket is supposed to be
symbolic of increased equality for
women.
Despite her position, women are expected to revel in the fact that Ferraro is said to have placed a foot in the door for the advancement of
Never mind that, if the Democrats win, she will occupy second place in the White House.
And yet, although her accomplishes are stuff for the history books, does her nomination really signify a drastic step forward for
women's rights?
men's rights.
Although I do not dispute that her position is important one, in reality all that she has been able to do is serve as the vitality of the democratic ticket and "first lady" of national politics. She, through no fault of her own, has been allowed only to stick her foot in the door.
Men are barring the door from the other side.
ROBIN
PALMER
Ferraro's qualifications for the position have been well-defined by both the press and the public. She has proved a popular and well-respected state official. She has won the hearts of teachers, farmers and labor union members.
Staff Columnist
She can, she says, make a mean blueberry muffin, raise her own children, take care of their home, and aid in her husband's business.
and aid in net mobilisation.
Most local officials and leaders that she has met during the campaign are concerned about whether
How could she possibly cook, clean, do the wash and still be a vice president?
she can perform the duties of the average American housewife.
Somehow I seriously doubt whether the job description for a vice president mentions the need to be able to fight waxy buildup on White House floors.
Moreover, these questions, which have been absent from past elections, are some of the most common questions put to Ferraro, so what has she done for women as a whole?
Nothing less than make the world stop and think.
This campaign is evidence that men still doubt the intellectual qualities of a woman. Ferraro could end up the second-in-command of our country, and all we will remember is that she can make blueberry muffins.
Despite this, her presence in this election is a positive force in the movement toward equality.
movement toward equality.
She has brought women and her party into the limelight even though she sits in second place behind a man who has failed to bring sparkle or vitality of his own to the race.
In addition, her political style has brought national politics within the grasp of women.
The real importance of Ferraro's position is not the status of the job she is running for; it is the fact that her campaign has made women realize the vast amount of potential they have yet to realize.
Still, her nomination does not mark the beginning of complete equality for men and women.
She is receiving attention because she is a woman, and yet, why should that make any difference?
Her qualifications as a political leader should be the focal point.
Some governmental officials and members of the general public still wonder whether she will be able to handle the pressure or the technicality of the issues she will confront.
Why wouldn't she? She has handled the public with poise and class throughout the scandal surrounding her husband's finances.
If the Democratic party is successful, she will have put a man into the presidency because she is a woman.
If the party fails, she will still have made her mark, and the nation's reactions to her will have left one essential question.
Royko responds to reader responses
Will this country ever accept the fact that a woman is capable of running the nation?
Letters, calls, complaints and great thoughts from readers:
Carl Swanson, Battle Creek,
Mich.: "Your whitewash of Geraldine Ferraro's financial disclosure problems was amusing."
"Knowing your selective morality,
if the situation were reversed and Reagan and his wife were involved,
will all over Reagan like bees on honey."
COMMENT: You're so right. If I ever run across a Republican candidate who pays about 40 percent of his income in taxes, I will expose the foul situation. I'll also faint from shock
Ray Grant, Jacksonville, Fla:
"I'm certain of one thing. If Ferraro
were a Republican, right now you'd
be wanting her sent to the gallows.
"It's just like Watergate. If Nixon had been a Democrat, it would have been thoroughly covered up by the stink
ing leftists in the media such as yourself. It's simply incredible how a jerk like you could end up writing for a major newspaper."
COMMENT: But this terrible scandal has not been covered up. To the contrary, the entire nation now
MIKE
ROYKO
Syndicated Columnist
knows the sordid story of how Ferraro received campaign loans from — of all people — her husband. And don't worry — more disclosures are sure to follow. We will dig out what he gave her for her birthday.
Clara Waguenuehr, White Hall,
Md.: "Who do you think you are that
you think you have the right to criticize Republicans without recourse? I am a Republican and I am more honest than you'll ever be. Democrats are not better morally than Republicans and most are worse, including you.
"I just can't understand why a man would select as a career writing a column solely for the purpose of attacking and criticizing Republicans and other decent people so maliciously and unfairly."
COMMENT: I took an aptitude test.
Harold Bishop, Elk Grove Village,
III.: "While reading your column in which you cut down Dallas and likened it to Elk Grove Village, it came to me that because you have lived in Chicago so long, you have taken on the characteristics of that
lowest form of city life, the pigeon
James Kelly, Columbus, Ohio: "I am the chairman of the Franklin County Conservative Council, the National Rifle Association and the Ohio Gun Collectors Association, and I have enjoyed reading about it because it seemed a fitting retribution for your past attitude about guns.
COMMENT: I have never done anything like that to an innocent suburban commuter.
"The pigeon, which I liken to a flying rat, is a notorious city dweller. It hangs around tall buildings and it swings on small inconscene suburban commuters below."
"I don't expect such an event to change your spineless position, because persons like yourself lack courage in the beginning.
"As a retired professional soldier I do not understand men of your type. Your singular lack of courage is very curious, as well as your passionate dislike for all types of guns.
"Remember, as a philosopher once said, 'The brave taste death but once, but the coward dies a thousand times.'"
COMMENT: I don't know what my problem is. I'd really like to be the kind of fearless guy who keeps gums all over his house, in the bedstand under the pillow, ready to leap out of bed and snatch them out at the slightest sound in the dead of night. But the arsenal would be wasted because I sleep too soundly. Anyway, I envy brave guys like you. But make sure that burglar you shoot isn't your wife.
Sam Goodman, Aurora, III: "Say what is all this carpeting about President Reagan's falling asleep in once a while? Whobody who works hard gets drowsy once in a while. That is no big deal. Why don't you lay lay out that garbage. If the president wants to sleep, who cares?"
COMMENT: Actually, I don't care whether he sleeps. It's what he does when he's awake that worries me.
Speed of light first timed at Olympic games
WASHINGTON -- A magazine article I read recently compares the nucleus of light to a beebive around which swarm electrons, or bees
Additional energy, the article says, "drives the electrons into higher, more excited orbits" just as bees, when disturbed, "will swarm out of the hive and fly agitated for a while."
Light occurs when the electrons calm down and throw off the extra energy that they have absorbed while they were agitated.
The answers to these questions probably can be found in the early Olympics. It may be postulated that at some point in ancient times, the Olympic program included a 186.282 mile run. (The speed of light is about 186.282 miles a second.)
Although I don't doubt the veracity of the beehive analogy, I must say that it fails to deal with the question that is uppermost in the minds of confuse laymen: Namely, who first saw the speed of light? And how? Or why?
At any rate, legend has it that the
This obviously was during that golden age when Olympian distances were calculated on common-sense scales such as vards and miles.
I, for one, contend that the traversals of metric distances should be timed with stopwatches that have 100 seconds in a minute, 100 minutes to the hour and so on. If we must race in Olympic racing, let us all out.
coach of one of the teams training for this event was named Einstein. During a workout, he noted that light was reaching the finish line before
DICK WEST
United Press International
his runners even left the starting blocks — relatively speaking, of course.
course.
His curiosity excited, Einstein
timed a few light waves and found that they needed one second to cover 186,223 miles. This speed broke both the world and the Olympic records
The electrons in the light waves were agitated, however Emsliein correctly reasoned that if his runners were agitated, they also would pick up speed.
The magazine article says light-wave energy can come from such sources as thermonuclear fusion, which fires the sun, and the electromagnetic heating of a wire inside an incandescent lamp.
Neither source being very practical for exciting athletes. Einstein tried pep talks. ("Win one for Herodotus.")
Although none of Einstein's runners, who won gold, silver and bronze medals, came close to the mark set by light waves, it was a glorious victory nonetheless and made the Phoenicians regret that they had boycotted the games.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Tolerance harms homosexuals
To the editor:
TO the Editor
This is in response to the Aug. 22 story "Gays at KU find both tolerance and harassment."
nice and may not tolerate something that is wrong. We all have a standard of morality? The question is: From there is that standard derived? God has given a standard with which to measure morality. That standard declares homosexuality immoral and worse (see Lev 18:22, I Cor 6:9). Therefore, homosexuality should not be tolerated.
Is this, then, bigotry towards the homosexual? No, far from it. I personally discipline my own son when he does something wrong. I
I oppose homosexuality. It is perverted, lustful rebellion against truth, purity and God. In love we must risk being harsh and resist the temptation to condescension and flattery. I care for the homosexual. For this reason I choose not to tolerate his or her sodomous practices.
discipline him for his good because I love him. To assume that a person's opposition to homosexuality is founded in bigoted malice toward the homosexual is to make the same error you accuse the supposed bigot of. When you do this you become the guilty party concerning an unjust judgment.
They, as all of us, need deliverance from perversion. We all have envy pride, bitterness and rebellion What's wonderful is that we can be free. Jesus Christ came to set sinner free
To not tolerate the homosexual practice, if guided by the humble self awareness of our own sin, is indeed enlightened compassion. Tolerance to the practice, interestingly, is inconspicuous hurtful to the homosexual. So if you care for the homosexual, encourage him or her to change, or rather, speaking as a Christian — to be changed
Chuck Vanasse '84
Chuck Vanasse '84 Lawrence alumnus