Page 4 University Daily Kansan, November 18, 1980
Opinion
Cold turkey hits KU
For the fourth year, students will have a chance to butt in—or butt out, that is—during a contest between the University of Kansas and Kansas State University.
Although contests between the two schools are usually reserved for the star quarterback or the flashy guard, whatever the case may be, students this time around will have a chance to win for their school.
It's the 1980 Smokeout and the objective is to see which school can stomp out the most butts.
At 7:30 p.m. tomorrow, a rally will be held at Memorial Stadium. Head football coach Don Fambrough, a former heavy
smoker, will ask the rally's participants to stomp out their cigarettes and to pledge not to smoke on Thursday.
The school with the most pledges wins.
The school with the most prestigious awards. Of course, there are not monetary awards. There are no governor cups or regional television contracts. Yet the American Cancer Society hopes that the satisfaction of beating K-State—or KU, if you are on the other side—will be enough to make the event a success.
Then there's always the factor of health and the incentive to turn over a new leaf. As one might say, "A pack a day and the doctor will be here to stay."
Letters to the Editor
Kansan's reaction to election contradicts editorial stances
To the editor:
I was unaware that an inflation rate of twelve percent and an unemployment rate of 8 to 9 percent had an "inherent benevolence," as were millions of other Americans, and wish to thank the Kansas for informing me of that. Why didn't you tell me sooner? Your editorial of Nov. 5 was certainly illuminating to me, and no doubt to many others also. For example, it mentions "Carter's foreign policy," and previous to this I never knew that he had one.
It also was nice to know that "no one was sure what to think" regarding the economy. I was certain that the young couples who have been unable to buy homes because of the high interest rates would have an opinion on the economy, as said the laid-off auto workers, but apparently not.
The revelation about the grain embargo causing "many Soviets to forgo dinners with meat" was one of the best. Clearly, that action had Impact, with a capital I. And in other areas of foreign policy, the administration simply oozes with "idealism"; resignations from the U.S. representative to the United Nations and the Secretary of State, combat troops in Cuba that are not combat troops, diarrhea, jail all over, and N.V. votes. Soviet troops in Afghanistan, changes in the nuclear targeting policy without informing the Secretary of State, and 52 Americans still being held hostage in Iran. Now if those examples do not signify "idealism," then what does?
But of course, Carter's defeat "was partly caused by a voracious media." We were the media "voracious" when they covered Carter's 7 a.m. announcement of an alleged breakthrough in the Iran hostage crisis the day of the Wisconsin primary election. We learned from Covered Carter's press conference a few weeks before the election, the opening statement of which was a virtual political commercial?
And were the media "voracious" for wondering about the largest Cabinet shake since 1841, when John Tyler was in office? But then, such vicious actions will be understood when we see that the media were "earger to pounce on the smallest gaffe–regardless of its significance to national policy." Again, I must plead my ignorance, for I was unaware that the Cabinet no significance to national policy, as the Kansan implies, if not outrightly states.
Still, however, it was a very close race, and the popular vote "was less than convincing," with only 8.3 million votes and a percentage spread of 10 percent separating the candidates as of Nov. 6. Forgive me for asking, if 8.3 million people and a percentage spread of 10 percent (which, incidentally, is seven percentage points more than Carter's 3 percent margin over Ford in 1976) is "less than convincing," then what, exactly, would be convincing?
And finally, the Kansan told us that "the United States now allows the greatest citizen participation in the selection of candidates of any democratic nation, yet has one of the lowest voter turnouts in the general election." What is it that the Kansan proposes we do about this, decrease citizen participation in the political process??
Doug Cunningham Pipestone, Minn., freshman
Morning-after blues
To the editor:
I found Scott Faust's "morning-after" editorial on Reagan's election victory even more difficult to stomach than his column from two months back that ridiculed Reagan's heavy use of "cue cards." My stomach upset was only aggravated by the sight of a tastelessly conceived and executed cartoon that was positioned directly above, showing Reagan wearing dark glasses and with the caption, "And a Blind Man Shall Lead Them."
But when I realized the caption applied more to the picture of Faust below than that of Reagan above, my gastrointestinal aches were overcome by an emotion—sympathy for a spokesman of a pathetic group that will never see beyond its narrowing "cue cards." Indeed, if, as Faus has said, Reagan is dependent on "cue cards," then it seems that Faus's problems proclaims in his column are slaves to them. But these, of course, are "cue cards" of a different kind.
No doubt, when Carter held up that symbolic cue card that read, "Reagan is a warmmer." the audience containing Faust and his compatriots in turn dutifully recited it. Having mastered the catch phrase, they can now express it with half a dozen different wordings of varying subtlety, some of which Faust reports in his column.
"Oh, I don't want to go to war," says one of the more blunt audience participants.
a craftier one it has it down with a synsex so
subtle she probably isn't even aware of it: "I'm
not saying Reagan's a warmonger. It's just that ..."
But no matter the adaptation used, these people cannot seem to see past the cue card itself. They don't stop and examine just what it is that causes war and, upon discovering it for themselves, rationally decide whether Reagan's or Carter's policy proposals would over the long run be better at dealing with them. They simply read the cue card that happens to be in their direct line of vision and then think and behave according to its dictates.
The *bogus* "war issue" is just one of many that was raised by holding high a cue card. Others include Reagan's supposed opposition to women's rights and his dislike of blacks, the elderly, the poor, and the Hispanics. And the effectiveness of this manner of propaganda cannot be unlearned; it is important for Faust's use in the sinine statement of one of Faust's more misinformed interviewees: "I didn't want Regan. I hope he dies soon. (He has) fundamentally Fascist roots."
Faust himself spoke of Reagan's election as "the nation's cruel fate." No doubt also, as the rates of unemployment and inflation taper over the next four years (benefitting more than anyone else the poor and minorities, I might add), as government becomes more efficient, as productivity increases, and as America regains respect across the globe, Faust will continue to recite the cue cards that are now seamlessly placed on a screen of vision, mindlessly proclaiming us the victims of an "exed ag-actor" or "fundamentally Fascist" president. In any event, Faust is worthy of the very criticism that he himself once piled on Reagan and is worthier still of some sympathy.
Eric Brende
Topeka Sophomore
Greeks shortchanged
To the editor:
I am concerned about a subject that probably interests other students as well. This is my third year living in a fraternity at the University of Kansas. In that time I have noticed that the school newspaper does not print the names of fraternities in its stories.
Whivisthisso?
The University of Kentucky does not hesitate to print greek names in its newspaper. The Indiana University paper prints weekly scores of basketball games and other sports, apparently, they have not suffered by doing this.
since year greets organize philanthropies that benefit local, regional and national causes. Here are some figures on philanthropies and their successes last year: Sigma Phi Epsilon Association for Retarded Citizens in its Superstars philanthropy. Sigma Chi raised $7,000 for the Wallace Village.
The IFC-PANhellenic Blood Drive collected more than 1500 pints of blood. Hawkstock gave $10,000 to KU for the purchase of a handicap van. The Phi Gamma DeLA Leukemia Run raised $4,000. The Alpha Tau Omega Boxing Tournament for the American Cancer Society raised
The list is too extensive for more than a small portion of the events to be named. These figures can be found in Chuck Chapin's files in the office of student organizations.
The Kansan could help these philanthropies immensely by giving them coverage.
The Kansan is quick to follow up on the changes of Greek organizations, but not their goodwill.
There are 25 fraternities on this campus that comprise 19 percent of the undergraduate men.
There are 25 fraternities on this campus that
attracts a significant of the undergraduate men
Aren't newsmen supposed to be objective public servants?
Letters Policy
We're not asking for much, but a fair shake. perhaps future you will see fit to allow us to play.
Larry Burmaster Prairie Village junior
public servants:
Is the staff of the Kansan doing its job?
The University Daily Kansan welcomes letters to the editor. Letters should be typewritten, double-spaced and not exceed 500 words. They should include the writer's name, address and contact information, if filled with the University, the letter should include the writer's class and home town or faculty or staff position.
Moral majority morals questionable
For this year, the kingdom and the power of politics is theirs. Theirs is the glory, for the rebirth of right-wing politics, for the recruitment of nearly 18 million Americans, for a yearly budget of $27 billion. They call themselves the Moral Majority. They are moralistic, with a majority in name only.
They number themselves among the saved, meaning to save the rest of us from our civil liberties. They are for enforcing prayer in the schools, for teaching the creation theory in biology, against equal rights for women and against liberals. In the past, the Bible was used to justify slavery and to exploit the poor. Today in fundamentalist hands, it justifies denying others their beliefs. The dates have changed but the hypocrisy hasn't.
I expect Christian compassion, but hear only fundamentalist calls for increased military spending. I listen for proposals to serve the needy, following Christ's example, and hear only silence. I ask for the tolerance that Jesus spoke of when he said, "Judge not, that you be not judged," (Matthew 7:1) and am answered with moral ratings.
It is a politics that passes for Christianity.
As Rev. James Gillion, Des Moines United Church of Christ pastor said in a recent sermon, "What we are seeing is no less than the abuse of the name of Jesus Christ for personal and partisan gain. Don't let the Christian gospel be narrowly defined for you. You were given your own mind. For the love of God, use it to do your own thinking about Christian morality."
In the minds of the Moral Majority there are no definitions, only morality. They ask for a Christianity that slanders its own beliefs in toleration and equality. They answer only with a decreme in national politics that is lowered to a less moral political politics, governed by a set of out-of-context morals.
Christianity itself is a charade when its moral teachings are reduced to a zero to 100 rating. Where is Christianity, when by mathematical morals Rep. Richard Kelly, currently indicted in the ABSCAM scandal, is rated 100 percent. Where is Christianity, when by Catholic priest, Rep. William Gray, a Baptist minister, and John Glenn, a Presbyterian Church elder, are all rated zeroes.
But if the Moral Majority counts its morals by inflexible addition and subtraction tables, its theology is much more reversible. The Rev. Jerry Falwell, a leader of the Moral Majority, insisted that God didn't hear the prayers of a group in a dangerous Jewish support for Ronald Reagan, the Moral Majority's chosen presidential candidate. At that point, Falwell revised his theology,
SUSAN
SCHOENMAKER
asserting that God "hears everything," Dogma, can be waived in the interest of Jewish votes.
Unfortunately, it is less pliant in the face of liberals. When asked whether liberals could be Christian, Falwell pronounced, "not very morally." Falwell characterized Christians who participated in the civil-rights movement and anti-war movement as "morally mistaken."
Yet morals, so zealously defended by the Moral Majority, were curiously lacking in campaigns against candidates labeled "immoral" this election year. In Iowa, for example, supporters of Charles Grassley, who successfully challenged Sen. John Culver, placed pamphlets leveling grusome charges at Culver on cars parked near Catholic and protestant fundamental churches. In those pamphlets, distributed two days before the election, Culver was accused of voting to allow experiments on human fetuses. Calver campaign workers, angrily dismissing the charges as a lie, were given little time to refute them.
Morals come in one creed and color these days—white Christian conservative.
Iowa is not an isolated example. There are reports of emotionalism, half-truths and outright lies substituting for facts in fundamentalist campaigning across the country. The kind of morals that we need in politics necessarily bear any relation to the facts. Before minding America's mortality, the
moral Majority would do well to mind the nine commandments—Particularly the ninth commandment, which says, "neither shall you bear false witness against your neighbor." That includes right-wing Republicans as well as Democrats.
Of course dirty politics are aired every election year, but not usually on such a grand scale or for such a moral cacade celebre. The danger is not that such politics exist—they were part of our past and will undoubtedly continue—but that they were so resoundingly vindicated. Culver lost as well as a host of Moral Majority and New Right targets such as Sen. Birch Bayh, D-Ind., Sen. Frank Church, D-idaho, and Sen. George McGovern, D-S.D.
The Moral Majority claims victory by the grace of God, but if so, divine intervention has lost its political scraps these days. More likely this is because moral cornerers on the very moralism they profess.
After their pressure politics was rewarded by a conservative "Christian" election outcome, the Moral Majority wasn't prepared to go back to church. Some fundamentalist churches, such as the Joelton church in Tennessee, are advancing beyond politics into the social arena.
In an eight-month-old campaign endorsed by Falwell, the Joelton Church of Christ is seeking to withdraw "immoral" shows by boycoting their sponsors. The Joelton Church and the more than half a million followers it claims listed Saturday Night Live, Dallas and Soap as the most offensive public figures, be pressured by one of its promoter-Lambert Co., one of television's largest sponsors, to stop advertising on Saturday Night Live, The Newlywed Game and the Dating Game.
or some of us, moralism means not television shows but the Third World, not taking away rights and granting them, not just "a right to vote," as in our past. To us, moralism is a gift to the world ungiven.
Today is the time and the turn for concerner individuals to organize, if there is ever to be any hope for a more tolerant tomorrow. We must organise unless we intend for the Moral Majority to speak for us and for our rights. Yet we needn't and we shouldn't raise the standard of moralism for our cause. Moralism is best left to the individual.
It was a typically mundane Monday night and Rich Litwin was sitting in his room at the Lambia Chla Alpha house studying political science. He was doing much of nothing across the room.
Beddv-bve time can be big,big surprise
Then, about 11:30, a knock came at the door. Two strangers—one of them Miss Kansas 1981,
BLAKE GUMPRECHT
Leann Folsom—were standing at the door wearing house coats and slippers. They were there to to nut Rich and Rob to bed.
They put each to bed, gave them a big teddy bear to cuddle and read them the story of "The Three Bears." A peck on the forehead followed. Then the two women went off into the night.
The two visitors were to read Rich and Bain's history, tuck them in and give each a goodnight kiss.
Actually, it's just a new service being offered by two enterprise KU students. Now you cannot only send flowers, candy and singing balls, but also have two women (or two men) tuck in a friend.
Litwin and Carlin got their late-night mother courtesy of two female friends.
"I just freaked me out," Lilwin, a Fort Scott junior, said later. "I don't get embarrassed very easily, but I got real embarrassed. I think it's a super idea."
Apparently he's not the only one. Since Sherry Feist and Brent Gutenkut began offering the service several weeks ago, business has continued to increase. Now, they get an average of 60 percent of their customers daily, and the pair has even opened a checking account and rented a post office box in that name.
Each tuck-in visit costs $3.50 and three-day advance notice is preferred, although same day service has been given upon request. Customers are given their choice of fairy tale. "Goldilocks," "The Three Little Pigs," and "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" are among those offered.
R. v. winkle's was Feist's idea. Feist, a senior from Sharon Springs, had heard about a tuck-in service operating on the West Coast. A group of students at Indiana University have been offering Hosiers late-night tuck-ins for several months.
She talked to Gutekunst, who loved the idea. A few days later they placed an ad in the newspaper classfiles seeking "uninhibited people interested in earning extra money through reading bedtime stories." About 30 people responded. Six men and six women were prey.
Since then they've been running a simple classified daily: "Let r.v. w.r.k's tuck someone in for you tonight." Call 841-8571.
P
"We figured it would be a crazy thing to do," said Gutekunst, a junior from Overland Park. "We thought it would definitely be more interesting than a regular part-time job."
Gutekunst and Feist aren't getting rich just yet, though.
F
"It buys us about a pitcher of beer a week,—we're breaking even at least," Gutekunst said. "But it's fun."
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