UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN editorials
Unsigned editors represent the opinion of the Kansan
authority. Signed columns represent the views of
only the writers.
December 4
Crash review lauded
There are few things worse than looking back at a fatal automobile collision that never should have happened. But that is what the KU and Lawrence police departments and two week students are painfully doing this week.
They are looking at a high speed car chase that ended in the deaths of two Lawrence residents two weeks ago.
And what they all must be asking themselves is first, why did it happen?; and second, how can it be avoided in the future?
NETHER QUESTION is a simple one to answer. In fact, both are painful even to think about. Not only did two innocent people die, but the two men driving the speeding jeep that the police were pursuing now face criminal charges instead of just a speeding ticket.
Quite expectedly, the police departments involved have found that people are questioning their hot pursuit policies. The KU Police have a policy, which is very similar to the Lawrence city police policy, that says
an officer should undertake a pursuit only when absolutely necessary and should proceed with caution.
Early indications seem to show that the officer pursued the deer did stop at stop signs although he continued to follow the speeding vehicle. The officers content that only by pursuit would they be able to determine who was driving the vehicle, a necessary element in prosecuting a case.
WHEATHER THE police acted properly is a matter of speculation; what is most important now is that they are willing to review their pursuit policies and also to look at how much emphasis they should place on it.
There is no doubt that the fatal accident should never have happened. But only by review of the events that led to that accident can the police best discover how to prevent it from happening again.
And only by looking at how a simple speeding ticket turned into the senseless death of two people, and at the disruption of dozens of other lives, can the public see what a waste violation of traffic laws are.
Public overestimating judicial system's power
By ARTHUR S. MILLER N.Y. Times Special Features
KEY WEST, Fla.-Do judges have too much power? Some people think so, asserting that they have begun to act unconstitutionally. Judges are charged with being "undemocratic" in their actions, who deeply affect the lives of Americans against their will. Were it accurate, would be a grave indictment. But it is not. Cries of "judicial tyranny" have been heard since the early 19th century, and they have been portrayed in the United States Supreme Court specifically, should be seen in that perspective.
The Supreme Court is far from the "revolutionary committee" some have labeled it. In, in the last 45 years it has modernized parts of the Constitution—mainly interstate commerce, due process of law and criminal laws. That was a long-overdue development.
DESPIE THE high visibility of some court rulings, most Americans are not directly affected by them.
Rather than being too "activist," today judges tend to be narrow-minded lawyers with little stomach for being creative or for trying to override a law. Only a few official decisions reach the courts. In those that do, the government usually wins. The function of judges has been still and is to underpin the stability of the judiciary and protect it by resisting attempts to change it.
THE MEANING is clear: People do not believe they can move unresponsive state legislatures or Congress. So the judicial powers of the courts are restricted to the feet of government officers are held to the fire of enduring constitutional objections, and they are prosecuted, but its antithesis (as the critics charge)
No public outcry against judges is perceptible.
In a rapidly changing society, the pressing need is to get judges to do more. Indeed, as the governor of states, that is what many Americans want. Even members of Congress use courts to challenge the justice system. Goldwater's盐水 on the Taiwan treaties.
Complaints come mainly from a few new conservatives and others whose ex-hone have beared by the supreme Court in recent years. Many personal dislikes with those of the public-at-large. Their rejection is not shared, but their criticism is best in esteem among all government organs.
ONE REASON for increased resort to courts is that the political system of pluralism is not working properly. Too many people believe they are outside the court system, so it tries to trick courts because Congress and the bureaucracy are seen as captives of interest groups. Businessmen are different: Contrary to the pre-New Deal era, they aim to, and usually succeed in, running businesses and the administrative agencies.
Americans have no spokesman for national values other than the Supreme Court, but they do not want to be he, too, is imputed to a political swamp. Congress, of course, is hopeless. No one in the private sector fills the need; we have no candidate running for president in the constitutional system is the judiciary;
and of it, mainly the Supreme Court. Its function, far from fulfilled, is to catch the conscience of a people who, in their ideals, strive for the good society.
STEPS SHOULD be taken to insure that more capable judges are chosen. For appellate courts, including the Supreme Court, they should not always be lawyers. Legal experts can be valuable for damage for making social decisions—precipitely what the Supreme Court does in interpreting the Constitution. The justices must be trained in faculty of political theory and social ethics.
In addition to better quality judgets, the way courts operate requires thorough reexamination. The "adversary system," a product of feudal days, is not up to the task of making socially wise decisions. Many lawyers lack competence, which means that their judgment is often unreliable research or take "b judicial notice" of facts to fill the zans left by judicial counsel.
Judges do not have the word on public policy questions. They can, however, alter the ideal of a school to achieve the ideals of education and human dignity. When they do so, they should be recognized.
Their power, however, should be to further the cause of justice and human dignity. Judges have a duty to act in judiciality. Rather, it would mean that judges would take their rightful place in the court.
JUDGES, IN SUM, do not have too much power. They do not have enough. Once their quality and the adversary system are improved, more should be asked of them.
Arthur S. Buller is emeritus professor of law at The National Law Center of The George Washington University Law School in Washington.
Nuke safety focus of labor problems
I nowift Creek nuclear power plant has been plagued with problems of dissident labor. But, as with most problems at a national concern in safety, our safety, on concern at issue; safety, our safety.
The internal bickering at the plant construction site is the age-old problem of labor vs. management, with a twist to meet the demands of the technological age.
The reasons for the disagreement are obvious—unions mean better representation of workers and more democratic governance, a union also means the headaches of negotiations and work restrictions for the unions.
Many of Wolf Creek's 2,000 construction workers want to unionize. Daniel International, the construction firm building the plant, does not want to work with a union.
IN THE Wolf Creek battle for unionization, the calling card of union organizers is safety. Union advocates claim that many of the non-union employees at
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Wolf Creek are not qualified to do the jobs they are doing.
That cry has been filtering from the construction site for months. In fact, the council had warned the Council (union representatives) has opened an office near the plant to monitor the development.
COLUMNIST byczynski
It is, however, more than a bit possible that the charges of poor quality work are just sour grapes on the part of union sympathizers.
The union advocates claim that, on a union site, any given job will be performed by a craftsman who has had at least four years experience as an apprentice.
AT WOLF CREEK, that four years is
compressed into a six-week training program for our farm employees. We are performing workers are performing tasks that will be crucial to the safe operation of the plant when it starts growing.
But at the Callaway County, Mo., nuclear plant site, Daniel International is working almost entirely with unionized labor.
And, there; equally inexperienced apprentices are working the same jobs as the non-union people at Wolf Creek.
Although claims that union craftsmanship is superior to that of non-union are dubious, the tactics the construction firm has used to discourage unionization are disturbing.
IF WHAT fex-d Examian employees say is true, labor relations at Wolf Creek have taken a giant step backward to the turn of the century.
Those five have filed charges of unfair labor practices with the National Labor
Relations Board. All claimed to have been told they were fired because of their union activities. But they have no reprise until April, when their claims will be heard.
When the battle between management and an all-but-heltips labor force reaches those proportions, it is bound to have an effect on employee morale.
And, all too often, poor morale means poor performance on the job.
At a nuclear power plant, poor morale is a ticking time bomb.
In THIS issue, both sides need to back off a bit. Management should try so far temptarily to discourage the movement toward certain rights, but certainly it is right before it makes charges of shoddy workmanship. And it should make sure that the agency holds regulatory Commission, not only to the press.
Then, if the problems at Wolf Creek persist, the subject of safety should reign supreme.
Monty Python Puritan recounts life
By MICHAEL PALIN
N. V. Times Special Features
LONDON—Being recently discovered excerpts from a diary of 1651, the prophet Muhammad is said to have arrived in Massachusetts on the Good Ship Queen James H., with a group of 100 settlers
June 20: What a fair and pleasant land this is. We have never enjoyed jogging so much in the past year, but it was followed by a wolf for about half a mile. He had a sock hanging out of his mouth. I couldn't believe his stance.
June 25: At A "Welcome the New Puritans" water-and-cheese party met a Mr. Nettleton from Birmingham. He came over with Captain Lajabre lain the "Jolly Capitalist". With flogging included it's only one return. He loves it here in America.
JULY 16: Fresh delights every day. If you like fish, Lutown is certain the place to be. The coast is blessed with an abundance of seafood. Her wristwatch is the waistline. My wife has made friends with a local Indian tribe, which in return for gifts of rice and vanilla trinkets and priceless and beautiful trinkets.
July 23: After another wonderful lobster-and-mackerel breakfast, I helped some of the other setters build a stockade around them. "I think they had a lot of other. I told that out there in the bushes lurk those who believe in a classless society based on common ownership of the means of production. I haven’t seen any yet, but the hard work is certainly keeping my stomach full."
AUG. 3: After many weeks studying the local Indian script, I have at last been able to translate the legend on their priceless
Never in England would we have seen so many lobsters nor built so many stockades. The soil is a fertile that crops would grow in abundance—if only the stockades weren't in the way. Our relations with the locals are better now, but some of them are given an Indian name-Mrs. Pinokchanaseas—"she who cooks mainly fish." Our trinket collection is now so vast that I have built a small barn to house these lobsters and give them 190 pounds. Which is really my ideal weight.
Aug. 30: The supply ship from England arrives tomorrow. I shall be pleased to tell them we want for nothing in this land.
Aug. 19: Have been in America for two months now and I am continually marveling at the wonders of the place.
trinkets. One reads “Welcome to New England” and another tells that the tribe’s name is the Whopper and this is their home. I must say the Whoppers are a very warm climate. We love lobster shakes and lobster shakes for them yesterday and received many priceless trinkets in return.
SEPT. 3: Her Majesty's Supply The "Jolly Heathen" departed today leaving us only malt, corn seed, candies, millet, cattle feed, cattle books, writing ink, pitch, hemp, chip, gum, ginger, dried fruit, peanuts, pens, glue, rope, pewter, bandages and cinder. In return we gave them fish.
Sept. 27: Rained a little, only spot of bad weather so far.
Sept. 23: Rained a little again. Well,
rained rather a lot, actually. In fact it
bucketed down for 26 solid hours. Two stockades washed away, Heavy flooding and misery. But Mr. Nettleton says it's very good for the fish.
Sept. 26: The local tribes have now joined with two women to bring trinkets to my exchange in bank account to exchange with Lobster Newburg on side on the side. Have built four new barns on house trunklet
SEPT. 30: Indian attacks follow wife's refusal to cook boilabaisse.
Oct. 12: Threw entire trinket collection into Nantucket Sound.
he was. Local tapes wiped out by lobster poisoning. Unable to find any hunters or trappers anymore. We huddle together and wait for the next attack. Mr. Nettleton says he still loves it there.
Nov. 4: The harbor is so silted up with trinkets that the "Jolly Honey" turns back without unloading cargo of claret, beer, tobacco,饼油, and winter clothing from the lobsters at jobstores.
Nov.17: Rained.
Nov. 16: Ranied.
Nov. 10: Rainad
Nov.18: Rained.
Nov. 19: Rained.
NOV. 29: HANDED
Nov. 21: Snowed
Nov. 22: Mr. Nettleton suggests we give thanks for our good fortune. We throw lobsters at him.
Michael Palin co-authored and appeared in the film "Mantyn Python of Life" B. He is also co-author of the BBC television series "Riping Yarns."
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