4
University Daily Kansan
Opinion
Wednesday, Sept. 4, 1985
The KU athletic department can pat itself on the back for last week's sellout of all-sports tickets.
Ticket not bargain to all
For a mere $45 students can see all the home football and basketball games and the KU Relays.
However, the athletic department should get rid of the all-or-none policy and let students choose the sport or sports they wish to attend.
But for the many students interested in purchasing only basketball tickets, all-sports tickets were no bargain.
After ticket manager Kent Weiser announced that no basketball student seats would be available if the all-sports tickets were sold out, students snatched up the remaining tickets.
All-sports tickets are easier for the athletic department to sell and an undeniable bargain for students that like all three sports.
A survey reviewed by the
Kansas University Athletic Corporation showed that KU sells fewer football season tickets than any other Big Eight Conference school.
With Larry Brown's team picked to be a top national contender, naturally the demand for basketball tickets is greater.
Selling season tickets separately would not only be more convenient for students, but would also relieve that nagging feeling of blackmail students get when they're forced to support more than they wish to.
KUAC and the athletic department are looking for ways to boost the appeal of football season tickets, but these efforts should not eliminate a student's freedom of choice.
Reagan, according to aides,
decided early last week to say
no to requests by American
shoemakers to impose tariffs
and other trade barriers on
foreign shoes. For years,
foreign loafers, pumps and
boots have crowded their more
expensive and often inferior
Yankee counterparts out of the
market.
Adequate financial support of all our athletic programs is a fine goal, but most fans would like to pick their own games at which to cheer.
Democrats in Congress who for years have been screaming in President Reagan's ear about cutting the federal budget deficit got action last week.
Boot trade restrictions
Ironically, too many of them hushed up only long enough to gather another breath before they commenced to hollering again.
Reagan's decision, while highly unpopular in many parts of the country where shoe companies squirt much-needed life into the economy -- including Missouri -- saved Americans as much as $3 billion a year, according to some estimates.
That's $3 billion less a year in our bills that our children won't have to pay, to borrow
the phrase that has rolled off many tongues in Congress and on the campaign trail in recent years.
But what of the argument that no tariffs means fewer American jobs?
Extending trade restrictions on foreign shoes would merely prolong the agony for American shoemakers. Many are bound to close up shop soon anyway unless they change their ways.
cooking
Like the auto and steel industries, the shoe industry should quit relying on the federal government to suckle a wasteful industry ravaged by overpriced labor and outdated machinery.
If American shoemakers can't put their houses in order by themselves, they shouldn't chide taxpayers to tack $3 billion on to the budget deficit's annual feeding bill.
Reagan did right when he told the shoemakers to take a hike.
Now if he could only do something about those loud-mouthed congressmen . . .
Look beyond numbers
What deserves attention is not the political rhetoric being piled on the statistics from every side. What should give pause are the contrasts among groups.
The Census Bureau announced last week that the rate of poverty had decreased significantly for the first time since 1976. In 1983, 15.3 percent of the U.S. population lived below official poverty levels. In 1984, that figure fell to 14.4 percent as 1.8 million people climbed above the poverty line — which was $10,609 for an urban family of four.
The poverty rate for blacks went from 35.7 percent to 33.8 percent, and the rate for Hispanics increased slightly from 28.1 percent to 28.4 percent. The rate for whites went from 12.2 percent to 11.5 percent. The racial disparity shows that this nation must
study its conscience along with its census figures.
For children under 18, the rate dropped from 22.2 percent to 21.3 percent. For people 65 and over, it dropped from 14.2 percent to 12.4 percent. Ten years ago, the rates for young and old were similar. Organized lobbying has helped the elderly; now children need voices raised for them.
The median income for families with two wage-earners — about 42 percent of all families — was $31,710. For families with only one wage-earner, it was $20,200. That means the second job brings in an average of only $11,420. Although some of those jobs are part time, the figure clearly reflects continued disparity between earnings of men and women.
The American pie still isn't being cut into equal slices.
Rob Karwath Editor
Duncan Calhoun
Business manager
Brett McCabe Sue Johnson
Retail sales Campus sales
John Hanna Michael Totty
Managing editor Editorial editor
Lauretta McMillen
Campus editor
Susanne Shaw
General manager, news adviser
Megan Burke
National/Co-op sales
John Oberzan
tales and marketing advice
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Attacks mar new president's rule
Shining Path guerrillas terrorize Peru
Residents of the Peruvian town of Ayacucho, located 560 kilometers southeast of Lima, had just finished their meal one night in July when the town's power supply failed. Above the town the unmistakable outline of a hammer and a sickle burned in flames on a towering hill.
The power failure and the fiery hammer and sickle are signatures of the Shining Path, or Sendero Luminoso. The guerrilla group has been responsible for a series of similar attacks during the past five years.
The five-year civil war between the Peruvian armed forces and the Shining Path was intensified after the election in April of the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance's Garcia, as the new president of Peru.
The members of the guerrilla movement call their organization a "new type of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, and promise to install a
Carlos Chuquin
Staff Columnist
government of workers and peasants when they outst Alan Garcia.
Deriving their communist ideology from the teachings of Mao Tse-tung, the group is led by Abimaleh Guzman, a former professor of philosophy at the University of Ayacucho. He has been in hiding since 1980 — the year that the Shining Path started their
Since 1980, the Senderistas have been preaching for social justice, especially for the poor people. According to Shining Path, the poor suffer the consequences of policies imposed by past governments. In Peru, the lower class composes more than one-half of the total population.
terrorist acts by systematically killing village officials.
It has been said that the Shining Path is directly responsible for killing at least 5,000 people since 1980. Also, it is blamed for the disappearance of 1,000 people — who are presumed to have joined the terrorist group.
Besides murdering innocent people, the guerrillas have destroyed electricity transmission towers, causing blackouts and widespread economic disruptions.
A visit to Ayacucho by Pope John Paul II six months ago gives an example of the group's boldness. The pope practically begged the rebels to convert to the cause of reconciliation with caribellas replied by blocking out Lima.
The group then renewed their promise that they would seize power
The spread of the guerrilla movement has caused alarm among the
Peruvian people. If mistakes by García's administration were to combine with rapid escalation of attacks by Shining Path, the military could be pushed to return to power.
The new Peruvian president has promised to restore peace in Ayacucho by meeting with the guerrillas' leader. But that strategy was tried by former President Fernando Belaudue Terry and it failed completely.
Shining Path makes Peru's future a chaotic one. Besides dealing with the rebels, the Andean country has a foreign debt of more than $14 billion and an inflation rate that will surpass 250 percent for this year.
The economic pressures and the guerrilla threat endanger the stability of Garcia's government. His ability to solve these two problems will decide whether Peru will continue on the democratic path or return to a military regime.
Court's verdict choked with injustice
I'm not sure why, but some of us are more souseeam than others.
The woman, a stranger to him, inspired a fantasy. And he decided to carry it to reality.
It's the same at a car crash. Some people will stand and impassively stare at the manged victims. Others will cinge and walk away.
He tracked her down and stalked her until one day he knew she was alone in her home. Then he got into the house and overpowered her.
I suppose this difference in the borrow-thresholds of people is the explanation for a recent court ruling that created a stir in Nebraska.
At any of the popular blood-
spurtting movies, some people relish
the gore while others scream or
cover their faces.
The case had to do with a creep named Robert Hunt Jr., who is given to having bizarre sexual fantasies.
Hunt happened to see the picture of an attractive woman in a newspaper with a story announcing her coming marriage.
She pleaded for her life, but he stuffed pieces of clothing into her mouth and down her throat, wrapped a nylon stocking around her throat and choked her until she was unconscious.
After raping her, he found that she
had a faint pulse. So he dragged me into a bathroom, ran some water into the tub, and shoved her head under until she was dead.
It wasn't that the Supreme Court didn't believe he committed the murder. He did it all right.
He was later arrested, convicted and sentenced to die in the electric chair. Most people found nothing in the sentence to argue about, except that maybe the chair was too gentle a vehicle for his last ride.
The thing is, Nebraska law rises to be specific about which murderers can be convicted.
But recently the Nebraska Supreme Court vacated the death sentence and ordered a lower court to re-sentence him. In other words, to spare his life.
And the state law says that the murder must be "especially heinous, atrocious, cruel." Or that it show "exceptional deprivacy by ordinary standards of morality and intelligence."
For one thing, the victim hadn't really suffered enough. For another, the murderer wasn't really out to make her suffer. His main objective was to gratify a sexual urge.
The state Supreme Court, in a 4-3 decision, decided that this murder didn't measure up to those standards.
'the majority said: "The evidence establishes that the victim was rendered unconscious within a short time of defendant's intrusion into her home. It therefore cannot be said that the murder was of the nature described (in the state law.)'"
Mike Royko
Chicago Tribune
The justices, as courtesy requires they be called, went on to say:
"There is no evidence the acts were performed for the satisfaction of inflicting either mental or physical harm to someone for any prolonged period of time."
"To be sure, forcing items into the victim's throat and strangulations itself were cruel, but not 'especially so,' for any forcible killing entails some violence toward the victim.
Maybe I'm a sissy, but I think that going into a woman's home, stuffing clothing down her throat, strangling her, raping her, and drowning her in a bathub is pretty heinous, atrocious, cruel and deprived.
See what I mean about some of us being more or less saquish than one another.
True, he didn't chop her up, as
some killers do, but maybe the guy was on a tight schedule.
It might be true, as the justices said, that the woman blacked out "within a short time" of the creep's appearance.
But that's another difference in the way people look at things: the passage of time.
An hour under a dentist's drill seems like an eternity. Two hours of candle-lit dinner with the one you love seems like a mere moment.
So I would guess that time could sort of drag along when a stranger shows up in your house, wrestles you down, stuffs clothing down your screaming throat, and wraps something around your throat and tightens it until you cannot breath and your life begins fading away.
We could have a scientific experiment, if those four learned Nebraska judges would care to join me.
It's simple enough, your honors.
Just open your mouths real wide,
and hand me your black jeans, and we'll begin stuffing.
But that's only a guess.
There is a way, though, that we could be a little more certain about the extent of one's suffering over a brief period of time.
And if it starts getting too heinous, atrocious and cruel for you, just make a gargling sound.
Have you heard the criticisms aimed at our generation? It has been charged as a generation more interested in careers and amoral partying than a generation as noble as that of the sixties. These accusations can twist some minds.
Life in youth culture lacks meaning
I noticed that my friend, D. Toleson Burtont, appeared disquieted during Country Club Week. Burtont was concerned about such trivial questions as why we exist, I suggested Burton see Dr J., a psychoanalyst. A look at the session's transcript told me the affliction was inevitable.
Dr. J: Yes, there are 24,000 people on campus. So what?
D. Toleson Burtum: Can't you understand? People cling to people, so all the people huddle in one mass; they do they huddle with one another?
D. T.B.: People, especially people my age, are attracted to a huge mass. They become a mass to contrain the biggest dilemma of my generation since the onslaught of
Dwight Hunter Staff columnist
moral imbecility and decadence
overt sexual desires, inflamed by
music videos and advertising flirts,
beautiful photos, leaving fruition
in the soul
D. T.B.: I've concluded that the youth culture never concentrates on developing older, mature people. They don't concentrate on why we exist. They concentrate on perpetuating the youth culture. Perpetuate the impromptu judgments, obviate rational thought for emotionally charged sensations, crucify the human spirit so lust may live in our hearts. This is the general desire of
Dr. J: How has "overt sexual desires" become the biggest dilemma of your generation?
Dr. J: Do you have guilt for your association with this youth culture?
D. T.B.: No! I love the youth culture perpetuation. I believe it is essential to have no worries, no values — just live and live.
Dr. J; Specify.
D. T.B.: I enjoy the physical benefits of it.
those who perpetuate the youth culture.
D. T.B.: The usual combination found in any youth culture: meaningless pop music, drugs, alcohol, sex, lust, vanity, narcissism, an avaricious attitude and anti-intellectualism.
Dr. J: You enjoy these "benefits?"
D.T.B.: Almost everyone I know enjoys most of these benefits.
Dr. J: You are confused. You seemingly decry the youth culture for its desires which drive the human raison d'etre out of consciousness. Yet, you just said you love the youth culture.
Dr. J: Are you envious that some people your age enjoy life without these benefits?
D. T.B.: No, just curious. But that is why I'm here. I've always wondered if there was more to life, if there was a reason for existence, for values. But can I explore these questions without separating myself from the youth culture? I'm afraid searching for answers could destroy my status.
Dr. J: It is inevitable, Toleson. You must change your goals. Life is not one big party, always the same; but a series of parties, serving various needs and interests. Life can become stagnant and boring if all you do is stay at one party.
D. T.B.: My generation is just going through one of many parties. I might as well enjoy this party, while searching for yet another one.
Dr. J: You can stay at this party for a while, Toleson, but don't live and perish trapped within it.