UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN editorials Unsigned editors represent the opinion of the Kansan editorial staff. Signed columns represent the views of August 31,1979 Rail support needed At a time when railroads should be becoming a part of our nation's transportation future, President Carter has requested them to be just a thing of the past. The removal this week of six well-known passenger train routes, including the north-south Lone Star through Lawrence route, was a result of its lack of insight into the potential and necessity of rail transportation. Despite Amtrak officials' reluctance to remove the six lines, they were faced with a congressional plan to reduce Amtrak rail mileage by 18 percent—and that 18 percent reduction was a compromise of a greater reduction plan proposed by the Carter administration. Kansas public officials and citizens are understandably upset about the way Carter espouses energy conservation and alternative fuel development efforts and then turns on the railroads. Lawrence will still be served—the Southwest Limited from Chicago to Los Angeles will be redirected through here—but other areas of the state won't be so lucky. Congressmen Dan Glickman, D- Wichita, and Bob Whittaker, R. Augusta, both say they may consider legal action to do what they could not do in Congress; that is, save the Lone Star. They agree it may be the only option left. That non-understanding of railway potential is indeed, the core of the problem. Even the Amtrak officials realize that. Glickman aptly noted that it was a "very poor signal to Americans in a period of an energy crisis to cut off any trains." One official prophesized, "Now is not forever. If the system stabilizes and service improves," he said, "who will cause failures in the system may come about." Until such a day arrives, Glickman and Whittaker may have found one way to show Carter that there is a demand and need for rail systems in this country. But it will not stop Congress from planning rail cars did not work, but litigation might. Litigation to keep the Lone Start route and others would bring to the forefront the present need for not just cries of energy and transportation alternatives, but for a firm commitment to those alternatives. Letters Policy The University Daily Kansan welcomes letters to the editor. Letters should be typewritten, double-spaced or italicized. Letters should include the writer's name, address and telephone number. If the writer is afamiliar with the journal, should include the writer's class and home town or faculty or staff position. Letters should include the right to edit letters for publication. THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN A Pacemaker award winner 1987/04/26 (Published on the University of Kansas daily August through May and Thursday and Thursday evening) A memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. at the University of Kansas Auditorium. The memorial will include a 15-minute tribute to all students who were killed in the 1987 bombing, with more than 18,000 people in attendance. For information about the service, call 312-685-7750 or visit www.ku.edu/memorial. The fundraiser will be $50 each. Postmaster: Send change of address to the University Daily Kansas, Plant Hall, The University of Kansas, Lawrence, RG645 Managing Editor Nancy Deresser Campaign Editor Andrea Campagna Associate Campus Editor Assistant Assistant Editor Assistant Managed Editor Assistant Managed Editor Associate Special Editors Amy Thompson, Jordie Schroeder Special Section Editors Marianne Sheehy Wire Editors Carlin Goodwin, Tammy Terney, Brett Hughen Wire Editors Hannah Boehman, Brenda Hobson Editorial Writers Lann Beyerbykowski, Lann Byerbykowski Driven Prentice Michael Thomson Staff Writers photographers Jeff Harrison, Jeff Harrison, Chris Dwyer Story Writers Retail Sales Manager Vincent Leidfelt Classified Sales Managers Cathy Cookfield Commercial Quality Manager Helen Kelly National Sales Manager Carl Nelson Campus Sales Manager Allen Royoibles Advertising Manager Joe Barker Skill Artist Jayne Schuel Skill Photographer Kevin Scheil Team Manager Phil Ronner Circulation Manager Pam Rottraut Sales Representatives Cheen Barn, Judith Bassemel, Pam Davies, Kevin Brock, Sandy Oyewomen, Elaine Stratford, Katrina Trumplet General Manager Rick Musser Advertising Adviser Duck Doves How many U.S. ambassadors or Permanent Representatives to the United Nations can you name? U.N. more visible due to Young If it's only a few, don't be embarrassed. I can name only three: John Seaman, Daniel Moynhan and Andrew Young. I don't remember why I remember Seaman, but I remember why I remember Andy. I look in my mind — their flambanty, their bright and especially visible style of diplomacy. In fact, that's why I admit to admiring the U.N. mission statement, given the UN's veneration of diplomacy. Visiting Such a diplomatic position should not be a vagary in the public mind, no matter how hard I try to think about it. The number of officials you can name important are often the most important that people have the pools exist, that their powers are tenuously defined and that they are important to U.S. foreign affairs. The job hasn't always been a political "black hole." Such illustrations people as Henry Cabot Lodge and Adrian Stevenson wrote in his *Six Men*, biographical writes in its *Six Men* biographical COLUMNIST melissa thompson sketch of Stevenon, the job often seems to swallow the person, shackle him with ceremonial duties and, in general, not give much of an opportunity to create a stair. It is possible that the nature of the organization itself casts such a mold for the U.S. representative. The person is a complex entity with different capacities towards the elusive goal of world peace. Their vehicle towards this goal is a multitude of committees and resolutions that try to persuade countries to join the UN, or simply by calling attention to an injustice. The United Nations has always reminded me of a certain Indian tribe that had two sets of chiefs who determined the tribe's course. One was composed of war chiefs, the other of peace chiefs, unless who saw all the action. But guess who had more respect, and who ultimately had more control over the tribe's actions? As a high school student, I remember the vague thrills of power I felt as a "U.S. citizen" and how he denounced the entire Soviet blotter great relief; I casually ignored the People's Republic of China and I muttered at the Arab nations under my breath. What I didn't have to worry about as I strutred about with an imaginary flag pin on my lapel我我的 actions' effect on life in the real world. If I were to meet with an observer from the Palestinian Liberation Army nobody would care. I would not have upset them. As I remember that exercise, the thing I liked the best was not the three days of classes that I was excused from, or the "adult" parties that began after the last class had ended. And, it wasn't any brief understanding of world politics that I gained. The best part about all that is now. when Andrew Young is half-basking, half-broiling in the publicity of his naughty deed. I have a good argument for supporting him. He brought the job the utility it needed to be more effectual. Woodrow Wilson would have been pleased, too. The role of the United States in the United Nations did not start its metamorphosis with Young's misdeed. Daniel Moynahan had to sit at the mouth and ready with an opinion. Instead of letting a resolution denouncing the attacks, he called for the maze of U.N. Committees, he grabbed it around the neck and shook it until—as Secretary of State Kissinger has writed—he Richard C. Hottelle of CBS News recently that Moyhan had satisfied the craving of the "American public for" "at international success of success" in international politics. The craving that Young has satisfied brought an end to the tideposting that everybody in the Middle East negotiations has been guilty of. Past remarks mirror Young's fate EDITOR'S NOTE: Following are excerpts from a transcribed discussion between Andrew Young, who resigned Aug. 15 in United States delegate to the NATO, the Nations, and the Arab William Berkowitz for Nato and Yemen at Congregation Bai Din asburant as part of a series of public dialogues involving public figures. The resignation was handed to President Carter a day after Young was reprimanded for holding a meeting with a representative of the Palestine Liberation Organization. RABBI BEKEROWTZ: You once said: "When I speak on the floor of the Security Council or in the General Assembly you can rest assured that I am speaking for my feet. How about off the floor? Are your personal beliefs so important that you do express the view of the government, the administration, which for political reasons it may not 'say' Off the floor, what is your outlook and philosophy in such a position of responsibility and the great position you hold?" YOUNG: I think I try to keep a certain I don't care about this job particularly. If I got fire tomorrow doing something or saying something I really believed was the right course of action, there is no reference to me. And I think the problems of the world are so serious and so intense that sometimes it's better to be a little irresponsible and talk about them, and not just worry about it, but the only way growth and change occur. freedom of speech and freedom of thought that is independent of my government and the State Department because sometimes I think that the State Department is a little unimaginative, and that any administration does think it is too important. And I don't think I am any better than anybody else, but I really don't intend to run for anything. WE'RE IN THE middle of talking with the British on Rhodesia. I started talking about racism. I wasn't concerned about racism. I wasn't concerned about the British. I was concerned about the United States getting involved in an African problem without having discussed it with Africans, and in talking with members of the press just made the point that it's very dangerous for the United States to get involved with problems that we can solve African problems, or Middle East problems for that matter, or in helping people to be essentially, problems have got to be solved by involving the people that are suffering and most directly related to the problem. There had not been consultations between the United States at the top level and the so-called front-line presidents of Tanzania, Mozambique, Botswana and I didn't want to see the United States get pulled into an African quagmire. AND I started talking about that, and it started a dialogue that ended up with a couple of African heads of state being told to speak with Africans then we were on a lot better footing in the United States in what movement about how we move in that conflict. And I would have felt the same way about talking with South Africans, and just think that if you're going to solve a problem, the people who are most involved have to talk about it. The part of that decision-making. And when there a surrender to that, you ought to talk back and give it up. Point of point was race, and so I talked about it. NOW, THE government didn't agree with it. I think the president did because the president is a Southerner who all his life had to struggle with the question of whether he could say even when I wasn't saying it very well, but it pushed along the process a little bit. And every now and then I reserve the right to put my own neck on the line, risk my life and get into the middle interests of my country can be served. And I fully respect the right of the State Department to repudiate me, the president or even the government else to say anything they want to do. But I think it's in the process of this kind of creative dialogue that the American people begin to think for themselves and analyze what's going on in the world. Media too often starve news-hunary public I don't understand the priorities, but I do understand the power of the business we call us. Our priorities are less lackadaisic about its responsibilities but is in a position where it can't afford One of the first things I learned as a student of journalism was that the media are social beings. They influence society, Television, radio and the print media are in a position to influence the news. In order for them to be able to reach millions of homes simultaneously and present in skirt fashion the information they need, This position is indeed a powerful tool, and it is one which carries with it a great deal of responsibility. So many times, however, the media has failed to do this and has even been publicized as the public! It is the news judgment or the press's wished priorities which often is most confusing. THIS PAST week, for instance, one of America's great statement, Vice President Kerry spoke about the days, during which he announced further normalization of relations with the Chinese, and during which he made several interventions. He first American ever appear on Chinese david prestor national television. It was a significant trip—an open expression of friendship toward a group of people we had never recognized until this past January. But did the event capture the attention of the American people? No. The national news and press were more upright in upheaval than in the rest of the world but was stack on a runaway in New York. Across the country, Ladmila Vlasova was grabbing paper one headline. Madison Street was filled with people. The Skijab trawery, for instance, should have been mentioned, perhaps tracked or monitored, and the daily exposure it received had everybody looking skyward and worrying about a potential fall. WHAT CRIERIA make events worthy of the media's over-saturation? The answer is not always so. In many cases it seems to be a good place to start. Anything that is vaguely out of the ordinary also is worth sharing. The media turned what should have been a more vacation for President Carter into an important event in the news for a week. It is here that the power of the media can best be seen. By covering Carter's trip, stop by stop from Minnesota and see how he encourages week-long campaign advertisement which allowed him to regain valuable popularity points and to begin work toward a re-election. TO SAY THAT Carter "used" the media is an understatement. Nightly we were subjected to films of Carter kissing babies, dragging a dragging An off and on the Delta. Queen This is not to say that anything to which you are interested in attention is not worthy of such treatment, but bit of what we read or see every day is either functionally important or blown out of context. Along the same lines, a phenomenon of the past seven months concerns a man who has been put under investigation by the presidency but has become a candidate nonetheless, at least in the minds of the party. The very fact that the newspapers, splashed Ted Kennedy's name and face alongside all of the polls that he was leading made him a candidate. THE COMMUNICATIONS industry also has the power to turn a localized news story into a national event, whether or not it becomes public. The island nuclear plant incident, while important, was distorted because of media coverage that had been designed to have happened or what might happen in the future. The alleged swine flu epidemic we have heard about is an isolated case. And fear of the depletion of America's oil supply is fueled by the continued circulation in our daily papers and news shows. The media must realize its potential as the primary agent of influence in our society. The great number of daily newspapers circulated and the presence of millions of television sets nationwide suggest that the newsmaker what the various media have to say. It is the responsibility of the press to present the news which is important to the people and to quit being manipulated by powerful groups or individuals, such as the incumbent candidate. The result of such action would be furthermore and more objective American public.