UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN editorslals
Unsigned editors represent the opinion of the Kansan editor staff. Standed columns represent the views of the editors.
October 18, 1979
Inspections a relief
A lot of reminders still linger in many minds of the awesome destructiveness, in terms of loss of property and life, wrought by fires that have swept through residence halls, amenities and sororites across the nation.
Many of us vividly remember the fire in a Baker University fraternity in the fall of 1977 that killed five men. More recently, there is the memory of the fire that swept through a residence hall at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., injuring 32 and killing two.
The thought of a fire raging through a KU residence hall so pervades the mind of Lawrence Fire Chief James McSwain that he has said, "It's one of those things that is the last thing you think of before you go to bed at night and the first thing you think of when you get up in the morning."
THOSE FEARS have prompted state and fire officials to conduct thorough and stringent inspections of KU residence halls, fraternities and sororites. But the danger extends beyond those types of dwellings, and the Lawrence Fire Department has taken steps to lessen such risks.
Beginning this past January, the fire department began a citywide inspection of all buildings that had two-family units or more. The inspection is street by street, starting at Massachusetts Street, and working its way west.
So far, more than 175 units have been inspected, and more than half were found to have violations. Enter more restless nights.
Many of these buildings were cited for violations because they did not have two exits and fire alarms.
Property owners who are found to be in violation of the city fire safety code have from 15 to 120 days to make repairs, depending on the violations. If they are made within the required time, the city prosecutor will go after the violators.
The new attention being paid to these types of housing should ease residents', as well as McMushin's, more students to sleep easier at night.
'Safe' trip is difficult for cautious traveler
MANY OF the violations have been overlooked for too long. McSwan says many of the older homes east of campus have not had any improvements in years. Now is the time we sure those improvements are made.
It shouldn't be too much to demand, after all, that residents be able to get out. The new intensive inspection program is all the more welcomed given the fact that a majority of KU students live off campus—in large apartment complexes and in old, deteriorating houses.
"We're not trying to make new houses out of old ones," McWain says. "We just want to give everyone an out of a residence in the event of a fire."
The travel agent nods knowingly as I begin to recite my list of provisions for a trip to New York.
"Ab-ba, a white-knuckler," she says with a scornful chuckle from the safety of her swivel chair.
I suffer her scorn in silence, knowing that if I'm going to die in transit, it won't be because I didn't research my tonic
"You read too many newspapers," she adds, flipping erratically through her flight schedule book.
"I CAN'T fly through Chicago," I explain to the travel agent's furrowed brow.
The educated bet-hedging I now inflict on travel agents began in 1977 with an article in Time magazine about airport safety.
ITS NOT easy to go anywhere these days, one who one aspired to nothing more than traveling that gradually—that traveling is far safer than ever before. But it is also much more
An association of airline pilots had ranked the world's airports and, from that article, I tucked in my memory some personal flight instructions: I must not fly into St. Thomas of the Virgin Islands in a jet. I must not fly into Los Angeles at night and I must
An article in New Times magazine convinced me of that long ago. The air traffic controllers at HAre are a wreck from the depression, alcoholism—the guys have problems. Far be it from me to aggravate those bits by飞奔 in a planehead of my bad eyes.
My neurosis had just about subsided—especially after I had indulged it with tortious trip to Philadelphia by rail—when I was taken out of the sky with alarming regularity.
Then DC-8s began popping their tails con-
sulting suckes out into the wild blue. Nake
came the fire of a DC-8 upon touch down in
Athens, Greece and I was sold.
lynn
byczynski
COLUMNIST
"NOTHING MADE by McDonnell Douglas. No 727s either." I intone.
That's another small tidit I picked up while flipping through the financial pages: Certain airlines are in financial trouble because of their bankruptcy the old and decret 275 in their fleets.
"How about a train?" the travel agent ventures, already knowing my answer.
A month ago I could have recruited myself to be eight to 10 hours late and living without my luggage for a few days and I would have agreed.
But now, with trains so prone to jump their tracks, I know I'd better steer clear for a while.
"THESE THINGS always come in threes, you know," I lambely tell the exasperated woman.
I thought I had all the bases covered until I read of a new angle after the Antrak deralment in Lawrence earlier this month.
A passenger aboard that train spread the word that the number 11 was the ticket to crash over San Diego, which crashed over Chicago and the plane that crashed over San Diego after a mid-air collision.
"What's the flight number?" I ask the travel agent, who thought she finally had me beat.
"WHY DON'T you just take the bus," she growls through her gritted teeth.
I've been on buses for three days straight
and I know what awaits me there—
screaming babies, horny soldiers and
snoring wipes.
And that is a fate worse than death
"Now av." I reniv.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
USPS 6464-6468 Published at the University of Kansas daily August through May and Thursday during June and July except Saturday, July and Sunday. Second-class postpaid data at Lawrence. Kansas 6466. Subscriptions by mail are $10 for late fees or $12 in Douglass County and a year outside the county. Student subscriptions are $6 a semester, paid through the student activity fee.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
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Editor
Mary Heath
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Nancy Dresser
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Tim Rowe
It is a sad sight to see. Two of the nation's most oppressed minorities, blacks and Jews, who have fought side by side for so long against prejudice and inequality, have now turned on each other. A bitter battle of rhetoric has erupted between whites and emojis that threatens to severely damage the causes of both sides.
At the heart of the issue lies Andrew Young and his meeting with the Palestine Liberation Organization. Black leaders have called for a boycott of Jewish lobby" for forcing Young, the former U.S. Ambassador to the United States, to resign from leadership. Israeli leaders have emphatically denied this.
Young had met with a representative of the Israeli government, who officially sanctioned by the State Department and was contrary to Israel to Palestine to Israel not to negotiate with the PLO.
The ensuing hue and cry that followed the revelation of the meeting resulted in Young submitting his resignation which was accepted by President Carter.
Blacks, Jews need cohesiveness
American black leaders were infuriated. While Young may have been extremely controversial with a tendency to shoot from the hip, he was still a highly respected leader in the black community, a dynamic representative of American blacks in government.
Black leaders have become increasingly angry over the past week by revelations of widespread sexual abuse. Kissinger, have negotiated with representatives of the PLO in the past embarrassment.
HIS FALL from power for negotiation with the PLO, many blacks felt, was unnecessary and was caused by pressure from American Jewish leaders.
Revelations of the negotiations came rarely from these Artaxias. American Army commander Mauger contacted the PLO during the 1975-76 Lebanon war for the evacuation of the embassy.
A PLO representative met with the Ambassador in Beirut and helped organize the evacuation. Kissinger later offered his personal advice for the FLO's aid, according to Anwar.
ARAFAT ALSO said other contacts had been made in the past, including a chance meeting last July between a PLO official and America's ambassador to Austria, Dr. Robert Kaiser, who was no pressure on Wolf and Kissinger has added to black leaders' anger.
While Andrew Young's resignation touched off the first wave of hard feelings between the black and Jewish communities, what has really split the alliance
of the two groups was the "fact-finding, peace-making" mission of the black leaders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference last month. That mission involved extended meetings with that and other representative of the PLO.
COLUMNIST
John
logan
Many Jewish leaders were angered by what they saw as black meddling in the Middle East. That anger turned to fire when the black leaders linked arms with the Israeli soldiers using the civil right anthem "We shall overcome" on national television.
DENOUNCEMENTS from many Jewish leaders quickly followed this display of camaraderie. There is no justification for Americans to negotiate with a murderer, many said. Others openly terrorize that the entire trip was an act of terrorism in the community with the Jewish community for their resignation-revenge, in other words.
"THE CONFUSION of the past several weeks must not be allowed to polarize the race. We should allow to heighten or to release feelings of racism, anti-Semitism or religious bigotry. The only ones who benefit from these denials are the enemies of both groups."
But Jordan appears to be a lone voice of wisdom crying out from a sea of lunacy. Surrounding him are fierce angels and an unremitting sadness, while two groups have fought to eliminate for decades. His pleas for unity are likely to be rejected, and he is likely by other rational black and Jewish leaders.
This accusation was soundly denied by
The Rev. Jesse Jackson added that he thought American blocks could be a potent force in moving Arafat and the PLO away, but he added that Arafat has pursued for the past decade.
JACKSON MAY not be as potent a force as he thinks. however. The SCIS appeals to his credibility. But when he listened politely to their requests for novellas that he promised only that they would be worthwhile.
many black leaders who defended the mission as a genuine peace-making effort. They argued that blacks would stand to such待遇 another MidEast crisis explode.
The disadvantaged and minorities would bear the greatest burden if there should be another energy shortage.
That lack of success has drawn a number of black critics to join the Jewish community in blasting the SCLC's mission to the Mideast. One of those critics, Vernon Bruner, played in the Urban League, lashed out at Jackson in a speech千川 in Kansas City, Mo.
"Black-Jewish relations should not be endangered by ill-considered flirtations with terrorist groups devoted to the extermination of Israel," Jordan said.
Jordan is right in saying that the black-Jewish split benefits only the enemies of both groups.
Until then, the goals of equality and fairness for these groups have fought so successfully that the side, awaiting a return to reason. As these goals lie ignored, the work that went ahead has been missed.
Other vital civil rights issues are being ignored. Clearly it is time for the two communities to turn away from their common foes against them and against their common foes once again.
To the Editor:
Violence impedes anti-nuclear cause
I am responding to the article that appeared in the Kansan Oct. 9, 1979, titled "Violence Threatens Anti-Nuke War." The use of violence in protesting the building of nuclear power plants is aberrant. This violence will in fact turn people who have not made a decisive on whether to support the anti-nuclear power away from the anti-nuke cause.
Lawrence freshmar
The nuclear power industry is not safe for various reasons, some of which follow:
I am sick and tired of hearing California's Gov. Jerry Brown described as an opportunist or a "Zen-kicked officer" by those who have been consistently running our country are on track.
Jerry Brown offers essential alternatives
1. Government control for building in the required safeguards is inadequate.
2. Local funds for building in these safeguards are not adequate, so a poorer grade of building material is used. Hence, poor grade equals poor safeguards.
To The Editor:
Brown is offering this country some alternatives, and whether or not certain people like the alternatives he espouses, I
3. There is not a viable program for the education of the general public on the effects radioactive materials have on the body and the environment.
Let us face the fact that nuclear power is presently the only inexpensive way to produce electricity. We show that approximately 25 percent of the electric power produced this country will be used by nuclear plants.
I object to paying outrageous prices to heat my home and see no indication of a price decrease in the future.
The only result of violence against the present nuclear power industry will be more nuisance to future generations, not chance, but change the way that radioactive waste is processed and disposed of. This industry will not change the way it is used for energy. The only way to change the industry is to bring pressure on our governments to abolish the damage: Volence breeds violence!
Therefore, it is imperative that we let our elected officials know that the general electorate will be in control of our nuclear power program to continue. We should also inform these people that we need an immediate alternative energy that supports the energy needs of the masses.
James M. Flynn
think most people will agree that this is an alternative to the alternatives. Kennedy, as an alternative to Carter, doesn't offer much, just as Carter didn't offer much on an alternative Gerald Dell's advice.
What exactly are the issues that Brown supports during the last three years? We've been relying on nuclear power and oil, and a balanced budget. What is so flaky about
I've heard Brown called an opportunist so many times that I tend to ignore the fact that he was an opportunist? The very definition of "politician" is "opportunist"; the two go hand-in-hand. Jimmy Carter was being the most enthusiastic candidate a year before the 1976 election, but no one called Carter flaky for that action. I don't know what called an opportunist, I don't know who can do it.
Brown is, quite simply, honest and open in his campaign. Brown has changed his mind before, and probably will again, just as all politicians do. He has been batered by some of the voters who only after it was voted in by California's people, yet he has explained repeatedly that he felt it was his duty to follow the obvious mandate of his constituents. Would that be true?
It seems likely that Brown will not win the nomination of his party or the election next year—that much is apparent. America fears
We're all agreed that our government has to stop paying the rent. Jerry Brown is the only governor who has done anything concrete to stop the waste. He refuses to live in the grandeur that usually comes with a budget.
We all know that fossil fuels, like oil and uranium, are doomed to run out before another century is over, but let a politician come out in favor of alternative energy, and he's called a fake. Even President Carter agrees with Brown that the federal budget should support it, but Carter wants to procrastinate, while Brown wants to balance the budget now.
One thing that scares people about Brown, I think, is the fact that he's not a conformist; he can't be pegged a liberal or a conservative; he doesn't follow his party's line.
UNIVERSITY DAILY letters KANSAN
The other thing about Brown that scares our provincial public is the fact that he has never been a president. The people are upset by the fact that a presidential candidate sees more in Zen Buddhism than in born-again Christianity. Mr. Brown, who Jerry Brown, but I think that can be accounted for the provincialism and the provincialism of the American public, not by Brown's "fakness."
Ronald Bain
candidates that are different, and for that reason, will continue to have the same kind of imaginative, nept leadership that we've had for decades.
Lawrence senior
To the Editor
Art studio facilities warrant official aid
As a jewelry major, I feel that the whole story was not told in Kate Pound's article on the jewelry department on Oct. 9.
First of all, the health hazards existing in the studio were underemphasized. Last semester, one course was held in a 15-by-20-foot room with one door, no windows, no air conditioning or ventilation, using a Kinetik at degrees and a fuming sulfur acid bath.
Pound did mention the structural improvement we students made in the studio, but what was not made clear was that we had not learned three weeks of education while doing it.
The students of the jewelry department appreciate the Kansas's attention in this matter. Now if only the Board of Regents and the state Legislature would listen.
Although we have made structural improvements, we cannot put in a ventilation system, and the University is not about to do it because they consider our studio tem-
Marv Pringle Price
Lawrence senior
To the Editor:
Waving blonde hair, blow by the stuff fall wind of Mount Oread. Such a typical sight, if you ask me. Then again, so is the woman on I had to look all over. If I knew better, I had to look all over. I knew better, I had to look all over. I knew better, I had to look all over. I knew better, I had to look all over. I knew better, I had to look all over. I knew better, I had to look all over. I knew better, I had to look all over. I knew better, I had to look all over. I knew better, I had to look all over. I knew better, I had to look all over. I know
Windy-day photo of woman too dull To the Editor.
I couldn't keep it in any longer. I may be beating a dead horse, but then again photographically speaking, so is the Kansan.
Oh, and then last Friday. I had to send a copy to Mom and Dad. Sure there are more interesting things than a woman intent on catching a cold. Geometrics, right? Look
Be it known, I've never written to criticize the Kansan, but you guys are going
to be professionals, and KU's journalism school is not capable of turning out rejects. Well, may a few.
How about a perspective of the Jimmy Green statue?
To the Editor:
Dreux DeMack
Olathe senior
Communication key to racial harmony
I have read some of your editors that say minorities are not treated fairly. I believe you are sincerely. So I would like to recommend, to anyone interested in a truly democratic form of government. Tom Buchanan, book, "The Challenge of Nationalism."
It is written in language that all can understand, regardless of education, or age.
I have learned many things on this course, the students and my whole canine community. But man don't seem to understand that, with an honest smile, effort, communication is possible.
The greatest discrimination problem we have is the inability to say "hello" and learn a part of another one's customs before a gap that needs mending occurs.
Floyd E. Cobler
1600 Haskell
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