UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN editorials
Unsigned editors represent the opinion of the Kansan editorial staff. Signed columns represent the views of only the writers.
November 6.1979
Sign exemptions vary
Unusually large or otherwise non-conforming signs are not favorably looked upon by the City of Lawrence, or so says the city's sign ordinance.
The City Commission, however, seems to be saying something a little different. The abundance of signs recently granted time delays, variances from the law or full exemptions points to a lack of commitment on the commissioners' part to wage a full-fledged war on the violators.
In October, the Commission heard sign variance requests for 36 signs. Of those requests, 24 have allowed to remain in place for at least one year; the remaining 12 were given a grace period until Dec. 31.
In addition, the Commission completely exempted 15 existing signs and two signs that were not up yet. In September, the Commission exempted 70 additional signs, all of which had granted variances before this fall.
It's not the number of exemptions, variances and delays that are alarming—those signs may likely have valid reasons for exemptions and exceptions. But the Commission has been inconsistent in its granting of those reliefs.
Many of the exemptions have been granted by "grandfathering in" some signs that were already in existence. That is how the oversized sign of the F.W. Woolworth store downtown was exempted.
But at least one city commissioner has hinted that there is some inconsistency in which of those sign variance requests will be granted.
If the city is concerned with the visual pollution created by unsightly signs—as it should be—then perhaps it ought to re-examine its methods in determining which are to stay and which are to go.
Fighting for the right to have a safe legal abortion in the United States never has been easy. People in pro-choice groups always believe that the landside of distortion and emotionalism.
Abortion kits defeat pro-choice stand
And for the most part, there is no way to combat the emotionalism because the issue itself is so personal, so private.
Distortion is another matter, however. At first the issue was muddled by the anti-abortions' claim that pre-choice people should grow toward the destruction of the family unit.
Then, there was the notion that the government would be subsidizing mass murder by providing abortions for women who have no funds.
TO THE marketing mind, it makes sense. Why, weve got convenience in every aspect of our lives. We can buy pre-cooked waffles, bread, eggs, yogurt and wine in the same bottle. We can even buy a wax in the same bottle. We
How does the idea of home abortion kins grab you?
FINALLY, THERE'S the element that really matters. They are irrespective, colloquial and favor abortion as a control. Pro-abortion people are too casual about slaughtering innocent babies, their children.
The drive to insure the availability of safe legal abortions has never been completely free of any of these distortions, especially when a movement fights back with clear, reassured and humanitarian arguments. And just when some process seems evident, some foolish notion simultaneously enters the door of a scientist and a marketing director.
Kennedy tops voter opinion polls, but final outcome is unpredictable
NEW YORK - Understandably, many students in the conclusion will be leaving for the president to attend an event over President Bernie. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, if nominated, will be a sure-fire candidate.
The ABC-Harris Survey shows the senator holds a 63% percent lead in a head-to-head contest, but the firm's surveys for Time magazine indicate that nearly twice as many Democrats would rather see him than Jimmy Carter the president. The results are even overheard to say that these poll results have persuaded her not to vote for Mr. Bush, who does not want him to win by so wide a margin.
BY DANIEL YANKELOVICH N.Y. Times Special Features
This literal interpretation of the opinion polls is misleading. The poll numbers do have a meaning, but it is unrelated to next November's voting statistics.
What they indicate to me is that the voters may be projecting onto Senate Kennedy, still an amorphous figure to most people. He will probably be shaken in their confidence in President Carter's leadership abilities. In the present nervous, almost panicked political environment, they want an opportunity to take a look at Mr. Kennedy as an alternative.
Most of them do not know where he stands on the issues (with the partial exception of his widely publicized position on national health care). They do not know what he stands for. Mr. Carter has truly stacks up against Mr. Carter, other Democrats or the Republican opposition.
They have a vague impression, deriving partly from the Kennedy name, that he possesses those qualities of charisma and leadership that they have come to suspect themselves. They want the chance to take a more careful look. They want him to enter the race.
IF **MR. KENNEDY** does run and the public has a chance to weigh his words and positions, subsequent poll results may show him looking like an even more certain victor than he does now, or they may show him as an easier one, more visible, or they may reveal no change at all.
The closer these results are to the election, the more literally they can be taken—in contrast to today's opinion polls. Mr. Sanders's victory was a precursor of premature poll-reading. "Carter was ahead of Ford by 32 points after the convention in 1976," he remarked in a recent interview, "and that was a close election. It was ahead of John Kennedy by 12 points."
As opinion polls have grown more influential in recent years, the public needs to be prepared for paradox. The polls are almost always accurate in the narrow sense of reporting what cross sections of Americans say in response to news of a time. Unfortunately, though, even accurate polls can be misleading because what people say is often not what they really know.
THEERE IS **nothing mysterious or unsavory about this**. It is not a technical problem having to do with sampling, the phrasing of questions or the tabulation of
statistics. Nor is it a moral problem. People almost never lie outright in polls and they virtually never seek to mistake. When faced with a decision, most people do not sort out their convictions until they have spent weeks or months working through" their feeling and attitudes.
This process is party deliberative and partly intuitive, and at any point along the way a public-opinion may catch an audience of the public in the act of making up its mind.
But what has the image captured? Is it a public at the very early stages of resolving its feelings about an issue or a candidate, or did it develop over time, and decided "decided"? Public-opinion poll percentages by themselves do not reveal whether the results are true or false. At the end of this working-through process.
VOTERS HAVE hardly begun to think about the candidates or the issues of the 1980 presidential campaign. Nonetheless, Mr. Bush is not only at this stage. Rarely has the public manifested so much genuine interest and support for the presidential candidate so far in advance of an election.
But when it comes to interpreting what the opinion poll means, all they really demonstrate is that the American public would like to hand Senate. Kennedy a ticket insider,idential sweet-sweeps. They say nothing, identical outweak, about the eventual outcome.
Daniel Vankelovich is president of Yankelovich, Skelly and White, a public-library research organization.
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melissa
Strange bird
COLUMNIST thompson
BUT EVEN more disconcerting is the fact that this would support the accusations of casualness that anti-abortionists make.
The obvious problem is that there would be no control over the procedure. When skilled physicians drop out of the picture, so many people have been aiming at all along.
important element here. The fact that people are even considering an at-home abortion kit is alarming to one who has always favored the right to have a choice.
kit to test ourselves for pregnancy. So, it's just natural that the next item would be a do-it-yourself abortion kit. no?
The kits are not actually for sale yet in American manufacturer, the lippon kit and two different kinds of abortion kits that are being used in hospital-monitor tests.
One notion has escaped those who are toying with this product. Giving yourself an abortion is not like giving yourself a perk on your television while watching television.
Upjohn's versions are based on a kit that has been selling in Japan and parts of
THE ISH KIT, which has bloomed into a multithrillion dollar item, causes severe distress to women. It is one of the sides of the women who have used it overalls. But the side effects are just temporary, they
Europe for about two years. The item is a tampon filled with prostaglandin which induces contractions and causes the fertilized egg to be expelled.
Feminist groups that even consider supporting the idea of at-home abortion kits are being more than slightly hypocritical.
Planned Parenthood officials and a doctor at the KU Center were both quoted in a recent news story as saying these tampon kits are only available in testing situations.
There then's the economic side of the issue. If the kit is a million dollar hit in other parts of the world, then it's a bet it would be here.
There are, however, suction kits available on illicit markets in some states, says the KU Med Center official, Dr. Robert Crist, an optometrist professor in obstetrics and kinesiology.
I COULD probably track one down by 5:30 today if I spent the afternoon on the telephone," Crist is quoted as saying.
Quite respectfully, sir, time is not the
If the fundamental question of abortion is who will control a woman's fertility, then certainly is at least one obvious answer. It shouldn't be Madison Avenue.
Volunteer army a potential threat
To the Editor:
Before the KU student body warmly embraces the antidraft proselytizing of the KU Libertarian Alliance, Libertarian Kentucky is not being evidentially Congress, considerable thought should be exercised regarding the wisdom of the anti-draft pro-selution alternative—the all volunteer military
By allowing the further development of a separate, and very professional military force, we can move from society as a whole, we can only expect uncertainty regarding absolute civilian responsibility.
Though I largely object to the all volunteer concept on moral and ethical grounds, I also can convict that it simply will not be effective. It is crucial to utilizing tremendous recruiting efforts, the military is barely meeting first term and re-enlistment objectives, in spite of the large influx of women who are uninterested in being prohibited from performing combat roles.
First of all, and contrary to the reported views of Mueller, the employment of military conscription in no way encourages military adventurism ones. On the contrary, a military organized through a cross society has no interest in selecting at random from the general population, inhibits such involvement. Only when the军官 represents a cross section of society and its values, aspirations, and objectives, will the objectives of the military will remain the objectives of the nation as a whole. Moreover, a voluntary military is run by a larger percentage of career officers and enlisted personnel without the possible idea and vision that a larger membership discussion could introduce protect.
WITH THE continuance of the all volunteer concept, and the rejection of selective service mechanisms, the need for effective, nationally pioneered college students are in effect sanctioning the practice of allowing more students to participate in the least education and alternatives, to assume the defense responsibilities of the general population. (On this point I reluctantly agree with the lack of no feasible alternative to his rejection of both conscription and the all volunteer concept). In addition to finding this to be an advantage, the concept has the potential for creating an internal threat to a democracy that is far greater than any external threat from external forces.
Most importantly, one must keep in mind that military action in this country, is an extension of political decision making and can have a profound effect on the draft mechanism. Our temporization in Vietnam was a classic example of the military's ability to make an intelligent assessment of their goals and to act swiftly and decisively in following through with those goals, thus allowing them to attribute too much influence to the military in this country's政治 decision making process. If anything, the military can be said to be less effective during this period, for pursuing a very
vague military goal within a web of political constraints.
The continued removal of the draft is not a panacea for poor leadership, nor for the personal inconvenience that would otherwise be endured by the general population. It could lead to an additional internal threat and a lack of preparation for future external threats.
Any future proposals for military manning schemes, regardless of specific details, must be based on a rational and random selection from all eligible members of society, without academic or economic discrimination. To do otherwise would undermine the principles of constitutional precepts in which this particular case especially, are far more implemen- tious than naessistic individual interests of a few.
It is a policy, like so many others adopted a majority of college students and all too often a minority of people who served the proverbial sailor who, with his limited horizon, always fails to anticipate the application.
Mark R. Esher
Lawrence graduate student
Sorority is welcome if it competes equally To the Editor:
I find it amazing that a student such as me can have no sense of responsibility concerned enough to write to the Kansas is not concerned enough to carefully read the articles she finds "disheartening" or "hilarious," and instead perhaps more people share her misconcerns concerning the Alpha Omicron Pi program.
AOPi was guaranteed an entire floor of a residence hall for next year. Those of us protesting this administrative action bear witness to our dislike. We oppose the Greek system as a living choice. The team has absolutely nothing to do with anti-greek sentiment; that's not the point at all. Students may live in a residence hall, or they will be affiliated, and that's the way it should be.
What we object to is the position of privilege being given to a special group who simply need a place to sleep, over those of us that do not live in a home or an environment and community. This preferential treatment for the seventy-plus AOPM members put several groups at a higher level than whom space is already severely lacking; those returning residents who would be automatic displaced; everyone else who wishes to live in a hall and is required to move there; everyone who especially, upperclass wishing to return to a hall which has been given a quota of such members after which only freshmen will be all AOPM will be sophomores or older.
THE ACKNOWLEDGED value of returning residents to a hall cannot be overstated; they are our biggest asset.
We also feel this is a had precedent to set. Other groups in similar situations, such as the fraternity Alpha Pi, simply do not compete like any other student who must compete.
If Alpha Omicron Pi is guaranteed space like this, then any special group should also be eligible for the same privilege—and the residence hall environment as it now exists. This may mean that and more limited opportunity as more and more floors are taken up by such groups.
On the first day to turn in contracts last spring, 20 or more people were already in line at 6.30 a.m. Ninety or more were there by 7.30 a.m. Some guests preferance at 8. The point is that people choose to live here and their rights should not be superseded by a group who simply want to stay. In a case of AOP1 to live in the halls—if they are exempted from the competition procedures everyone else must go through, I'd like to see women live here, but only on equal terms.
I resent the implications that we are acting on prejudice against the Greek student who made a minimative decision that failed to consider students. No one is rejecting Alpha Omicron Pi; we reject only the unfair treatment given to almost five thousand students.
Miriam Edelman
Manhattan junior
Unnecessary rules stunted oil market
To the Editor;
John Logan, you poor misguided and uniformed clone, if you even so much as your boss, may have caused so-called rape of the public by the oil industry your mindless disdain for one of the most efficient and productive businesses in the world. You are blindly following the masses, whose complaints about higher gas prices grow tiring, because they do not know when oil and gas regulations were instigated causing an artificial tier for supply and demand that soon became the cause of mass protests.
The price of a barrel oil then stagnated while the public enjoyed low prices at the pump, insensible to the waste of the fuel. The industry failed in a false demand insured that the oil companies could not effectively meet the nation's growing demand during the regulatory process. The controls were lifted, it was too late. For the airborne skyrocketed to meet world prices, solar and alternative energy sources could not meet public demand and the oil company had no option to "fall" profits into machinery and manpower. A rational solution may have been a gradual rise in oil prices under a natural recession. This might have better stimulated a steady rise in exploration for new resources, possibly alleviating the shortages of '74 and '76 and maybe have created a more efficient production of alternative energy sources.
Craig Slawson Wichita senior