UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN editorials
Unsigned editors represent the opinion of the Kansan editorial staff. Signed columns represent the views of
November 19, 1979
Calm approach best
The volatile situation developing out of the American embassy takeover in Tehran is leading many state officials throughout the nation to start thinking about the same kinds of things they did in the 1980s, the handling of violent demonstrations.
Gov. John Carlin did just that last week, and did so rationally. Without going overboard, Carlin said he would be prepared to send in state help to college campuses if any civil disturbances broke out.
But Carlin was smart to stop there. Suggestions by one state legislator that the governor call a special session of the legislature to consider expelling from Kansas universities any foreign arrests arrested for crimes committed during any anti-American demonstration were quickly brushed aside by Carlin.
REP. ERIC YOST, 24, a Republican, said in a letter to Carlin, "There is a limit to what Americans should be
subjected to at the hands of the Khomeini of the world. I just don't want them disturbing the peace or breaking heads."
No one wants to see that.
Such a plan would surely quiet the blasts from those who feel the only way to free American hostages in Tehran is to show brute strength. But it is impossible to do so without past policy—that is, to afford some semblance of rights to those attending our universities and living in our state.
Such a plan reminds one of the cynical old man who had no trust in ANY politician, marked them all the same and only one campaign button: T.A.T.E.BO--throw all the baskets out.
The situation on our campus surely does not warrant adopting a plan that ignores the rational solution already adopted—control of any demonstration by local police, and state help if necessary.
Joy and hope balance problems big and small
Thanksgiving is, above all else, a time for family.
But I have been orphaned this year by distance and inflation and the energy crisis, and so must spend Thanksgiving outside that circle of love.
Still, I am thankful for the few friends with whom I can share at least the traditional feast.
While I'm roasting chestnuts and chopping mushrooms, my conscience will no doubt, turn my thoughts to the millions of starving and homeless people of Cambodia. And I will feel helpless to my overabundance, but very thankful.
AS I WASH the pesticides from the cranberries, I will think of how all the meningitis, chicken pox and colic cinders. But, when I remember how many people—more than the 15 million who died last year—would die from without those pesticides, I'm grateful.
I may toss a mental glance at the source of power for my electric stove as I pot boilates. And I may be saddened to think that our excess and our waste may leave a poor world for my children. But, I am grateful for the heat from my gratitude thankful for the heat from my gratitude.
As I draw closer to ward off the evening chill, the vision of the old man who sleeps all day in the public library may cross my thoughts. I worry about a cold winter, a cold winter nights, and I'll be thankful for what is, in comparison, a lavish home.
lynn
COLUMNIST byczynski
I'll KNOW that I may never be able to afford a home of my own, as my money is going out each year. But I'll also know that, for example, shrinking dollar can barely cover the essentials, much less promise upward growth. And if I can still keep my head above water.
I'll be reminded of the problems with it in a way that may ponder the astonishment of the itch to be able to interlude of peace that I have built all my dreams on is coming to an end, without it.
EVENTALLY, THE question that that I asked was the membership member of my generation may surface and I will quietly wonder how soon the end would come if one atomic bomb fell.
But those thoughts will lift quickly, dissolved by the bright sunshine and intense blue of the skies of mw world.
"I'll be thankful for this clarity, both around me and inside me—the clarity that lets me see that my problems are not small; that I am everything and nothing.
And I will thank God that, in that balance, there is always joy and hope.
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Prognosis of American health hazy
By ALEXANDER B. GRANNIS
and PETER D. BETCHMAN
N.Y. Times Special Features
ALBANY—The debate on national health policy has become increasingly muddled in light of new statistics that seem to indicate that Americans' health is better than ever.
The increase in the number of medical school graduates, an average life expectancy of 73 years and data that reflect an improvement in national infant mortality rates have all been cited as evidence that our nation is doing better. Many people have concluded that America's health-care system can now be considered "satisfactory" or even "good."
Unfortunately, these indicators do not begin to enable us to diagnose correctly the true condition of health care. The fact is that health resources remain seriously maldistributed and that millions people—particularly rural residents of inner cities and individuals living in rural areas—lack access to the most basic health services.
A second HEW designation, a "health-monpower shortage area," is based on public access to health-care
THE U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare have developed two indexes to determine which communities do not have adequate health-care resources. The indexes have been identified on the basis of a weighted formula that takes into account general care physicians to population, the infant mortality rate and the percentages of elderly and poor residents. HEW says there are currently 51.2 million Americans with Medicare, or about 23 percent of the population.
practitioners only. HWEY recently published a list of 4,500 areas that are targeted to 31 million people lacked access to health services. This designation, it is safe to assume that many additional communities with health-manpower shortages have not been covered.
Some experts have cited the increasing number of medical school graduates as evidence that this shortage will soon disappear. But there are two flaws in this thinking.
FIRST, WHILE the number of graduates may be increasing, most of our new physicians are continuing the practice of specialized medicine, not the kind of family-oriented general health care that the HEW data suggest. This is likely to go in reorienting medical education to meet crucial health needs. Second, the graduation of more medical students will not solve the maldistribution problem. Without stronger incentives and redefined priorities, they will not for the most part willingly practice in the inner city and rural areas that are most in need of resources.
Many Americans do not receive health care because they cannot afford it. HEW data indicate that 23 million people are not covered by any private health insurance, Medicaid or Medicare, and that 68 percent of these families have family income of less than $10,000 a year. These families are priced out of the healthcare market.
THE PROBLEM of the medically uninsured goes beyond the issues of access and the marketplace, for we all get it sick and die. When this happens to a medically uninsured person, the hospitals that provided treatment
must absorb the costs. The result is that our entire hospital system is experiencing unprecedented fiscal instability as operating deficits mount. Many hospitals have closed; many more face an uncertain future.
It is the medical unserved themselves who continue to suffer the greatest effects of all these barriers to care. Despite the national life expectancy of 73 years, a review of death and communicable disease statistics for the United States countries discloses rates of disability and mortality that are often many times higher than national average figures.
If the barriers to health care and their contributions to ill health do not add up to a crisis for American medicine, at the very least they constitute a serious condition. We should be guardedly optimistic about the prognosis.
THE FEDERAL government has taken the lead in funding primary-care centers for outpatients in underserved areas. Further, the debate on national health insurance is underway. We acknowledge everyone's right to enjoy good health. Certainly the universal approach to national health insurance as conceived by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, combined with the expansion of primary-care resources, will provide potential elements of a revitalized healthcare system.
It is clear that such restructuring is required to provide care to those best in need and to improve the overall health of children.
Jewelry student indicts studio safety
To the Editor:
The list of injustices is long and inexcusable, but I believe the most unaccurious injustice this University has allowed is the sacrifice of our health and lives. The daily
Though there have been several articles and editors on the plight of the jewelry students here at KU, I feel the whole story is a great case study. I express my disappointment and disillusionment with the department of art and design as well as with the University itself. I feel the problems of the jewelry students have been swept under the rug long enough.
Nothing to be alarmed about, sir . . . just teaching the students to respect our state's liquor laws.
Ace Bantos
KANSAN '79
hazards in the studio range from inadequate ventilation and the explosive gas leaks to imminent failure of host H. 4 professor Jon Hamner was thrown into an electrical shock and knocked unconscious during a class demonstration. Do we need 10 students for this demonstration? administrators quota and action is taken.
Margle Lutz Omaha senior
Mengke Lutu
Survey misleading, gun law a non-issue
To the Editor:
The Nov. 14 Kansas contained an in-teresting survey appropriately titled "student survey" which was intended to be used by political scientists at the address: Political Science Survey 004 Blake Hall. An overview of this "survey" indicates that it is as about non-random as you can possibly get so any results obtained will be influenced by the way they didn't bother me in itself, because Today's Intellectual has evidently abandoned the scientific method as burdensome in favor of finding out where people's heads are at, and because most people are no major so nobody was skipping on my steps.
However, upon close examination of someone's brainchild I got my cheesewallet right. I got my support-Right of all to own a bandage? Yes or no. "Well now. There's nothing wrong with that question, or is there?" Just ask. "How do you support-Capital punishment? Yes or no. Do you support KU Endowment Assoc. in South Africa? Yes or no. (Etc.) Etc."
LET ME SAY that they are all valid issues facing voters and politicians, students and non-students, et al. But the right of all to own a handgun? I'm not sure where the person who thought up that rule exists. What else might interest him or her to know that since 1968 the following people have NOT been allowed by law to own, purchase, possess,
UNIVERSITY DAILY letters KANSAN
transfer, borrow and/or sell handguns. These people are:
1. Those under 21 years of age.
3. Fugitives from justice
2. Convicted felons or those indicted for felonious crimes.
5. Those adjudicated to be insane
So what can we conclude? Obviously we can conclude that the right of all to own a handgun is a non-issue. Who would want to allow kids, convicted, criminals, creets and creates to own, purchase, possess, transfer an unwind or sell handguns? Certainly not me.
Brian Mark Farley Lawrence Junior
Open-minded people ease hatred in Iran
To the Editor:
I am an American but I am first an inhabitant on the Earth. I am on neither side of the Iranian situation. Both sides have wronged.
Much hatred has been shown by both sides toward the other. To alleviate this state, both sides need to offer informed of the failure to address the problem, so I will address both people involved.
To the American people:
To the American people:
The American government put the shal in
the hands of the CIA. The CIA, CHA,
SAVAK, to suppress those who questioned
the shal. Under the shal thousands were
killed. Everyone in Iran had a relative or
friend killed under the shal. Of course they
were from America. But many people, but the American people never know the truth their government's intervention.
When the Americans witnessed raging demonstrations by Iranian students, they could only react negatively.
TO THE Iranian people: You say you are not against the public but only on the American side. You say the Americans hostage, if these people are innocent, then I say holding innocent people can never be against them.
The Iranian people are basically a calm and logical minded race, but repeated attacks have made them more into revolution. Had the American government not intervened in the affairs of Iran, none of the turmoil in Iran probably would have been resolved. It is known how our CIA had supported SAVAR's suppression of the Iranian people, we would have put pressure on our government to stop
Now it is too late. Thousands are dead.
Iran is in chaos, wanting to turn its back on
western civilization and advancement. No
one knows what will become of Iran.
As an American I am disheartened by my government, as an inhabitant on the Earth all say nations have got to come together and work together. But there is unjust, be it poverty, war, or whatever.
David G. Adams St. Louis junior
PLO gets thank you for efforts in Iran
To the Editor:
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the United Nations recently sent Iran to be congratulated for their efforts, albeit unsuccessful, at attempting to free the hostages from the building.
Steve Howard
Steve Howard Lawrence graduate student