Opinion
Page 4 University Daily Kansan, October 13, 1980
Those 'Damn Rovals!'
At about 11 Friday night, a rumble shook the University of Kansas, not to mention the greater Kansas City area and much of the Midwest.
The Royals had just beaten the New York Yankees to capture their first-ever American League pennant.
For too long, the Royals had been labeled as a bunch of chokers. Unfortunately, some of the most loyal Royal fans had started to believe in that label. Fortunately, the players wouldn't believe it; they simply went out and beat the Yankees up and down the field.
Now the Royals will square off against Philadelphia, another perennial "choker," in the World Series which begins tomorrow.
AT KU the World Series, like the playoffs, will mean a lot of honking cars, six-pack purchases, loud screams, endless cheers, closed textbooks and tuned-in television sets.
And for the first time in four playoffs against the Royals, the Yankees will be huddled around their television sets, too. You know, it couldn't have happened to a nicer group of guys.
Not this year.
Since the Royals first made the playoffs in 1976, the Yankees had managed to intimidate them into losing. Often the Royals would dominate the regular-season series between the teams only to crumble in the playoffs.
The Royals not only walloped the Yankees in eight of 12 regular-season contests this year, they also clearly established their dominance by sweeping the American League Championship Series three games to none.
The curse of the Yankees, at least for now, is over. In New York, fans now must contend with the curse of the Royals—those "Dann Royals," that is!
Illegal aliens threaten jobs and security of 'legal' citizens
This year slightly less than 6 million people in the United States will not have the civil and legal rights everybody else has—through nobody's fault but their own.
They are the undocumented workers, their spouses and children. And they have come to the states in search of a secure life and much dinero.
In 1975 alone, the U.S. border patrol near the line between the United States and Mexico
estimated that up to 900,000 illegal aliens
surried through its grasps.
Government response to the infux has ranged from holding conferences to erecting chain link fences.
The samest approach has been taken by the governors of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California, along with the leaders from three or Mexican provinces that border the United States.
The most popular proposal has been to issue worker documents to the illegals. This would allow a worker to stay in the United States legally while earning enough money to return happily to his native country. The proposal has received endorsement from Texas Gov. William P. Clements, Jr., New Mexico Gov. Bruce King and presidential candidate Ronald Reagan. Yet Mexican President Jose Lopez Portillo has been mostly standoffish.
The most recent problem to confront states that have the most illegal aliens was a recent ruling by a Texas court that said Texas was responsible for the education of the illegals' families. It is one of some of whom chauged the plague of latent racism, was raised to new heights after the ruling.
President Carter's response to the illegals has been to order the construction of a chain-link fence at various spots on the border, name a new border checkpoint of the Immigration and Naturalization Service point a Mexican-American as an ambassador to Mexico. The appointees have been criticized—
the director for his handling of the Cuban refugees and the ambassador for not being in touch with Mexico. The fence has merely been built tolegals as an obstacle to economic independence.
The plan to document the workers would allow the United States to legally take advantage of the labor of the alliens who in most cases take jobs that other workers don't want.
However, the scheme has drawbacks. Unemployment in the United States, unlike West Germany, which has a similar plan in effect, is not so low that some tedious jobs, such as auto assembly and coal mining, have not been eschewed by Americans. Once the plan took effect in the United States, a rush of aliens seeking work could be expected.
Then the tacos would crumble. The documented workers would find that jobs would not be available and would have no choice but to attend training or service to which they would be legally entitled.
Or the gate would be open for non-union hiring, especially in the South where unions are not as strong as in the North. The aliens could unempower the cushiest blue collar native Americans.
This would clearly be unacceptable, especially to latter-day pure race theorists, who would have no chance of getting through.
The United States now limits the number of legal immigrants from Mexico, where 60 percent of the illegal aliens come from, to 20,000 a year. This does not include an additional 20,000 who are eligible to enter the United States as dependents of the immigrants.
If the border patrol's guess is right, very few of the illegal aliens stay in the United States for longer.
Demographers estimate the net flow into the United States, which is the difference between the number of migrants who go home and the number of immigrants who come here, at about 225,000 annually.
That is the crucial point. Once the migrants have their pots gold they return to their native land.
Despite the social turmoil that would inevitably result, the plan to document workers' rights has been approved.
Perhaps a new agency would be added to the bureaucracy, but that is the price that must be paid for having the streets swept and dishes washed.
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Registration opens dangerous door
Like millions of other males born in 1960 and 1961, I received a "Dear Registrant" letter from the Selective Service System a few weeks ago.
The letter was a confirmation of my registration for the draft—Washington's way of saying, "We've got you." The letter explained that the law required notification of any address or legal name change, and politely closed, "Thank you again for registering with the Selective Service System."
They needn't thank me. I did not register out of a heartfelt sense of duty, even though I said the pledge of allegiance to schoolday morning for seven of my first 12 years. I
SCOTT FAUST
registered because I did not want the specter of a cut amenable by five years in prison to watch me.
With 20-30 hindsight, I realize that the fear of prosecution was unfounded. The already overburdened judicial system has no capacity to deal with hundreds of thousands who refused to register.
But I decided to make my stand against the draft later, if necessary, when actually called to put my life on the line in a war I could not conscience.
If the Carter line is to be believed, registration was largely a symbolic act, initiated by a president flushed with anger over a Soviet advance. It was meant, by this reckoning, to be a show of America's military resolve, a means to speed up the emergency mobilization process and a way to dust off the Selective Service System, inoperative since former President Gerald Ford put it on "deep standby."
Yet the value of registration for expending a massive call-up must be questioned. Although some pro-draft observers say it could speed up the process by 90 to 100 times, and although many advanced antidraft legislator, maintains that registration will save only eight days.
And such intervention is hardly out of the question. The Iran-Iraq war is quickly getting out of hand as area nations lodge support for Iraq, and as the United States provides assistance to Saudi Arabia while massing naval forces within reach of the Strait of Hormuz.
So registration's value in that respect is doubtful. If there were a draft in response to a major confrontation with the Soviets—in young Americans would respond if they persecuted direct, personal threat. This would be the case with or without advance registration. Conversely, regardless of registration, an emergency call-up for interventionist leaders could be called private economic interests would be rejected by large numbers of potential soldiers.
Registration's danger is that it makes conscription more palatable and has set the wheels of the draft rolling. Therefore, if an American president (Ronald Reagan) suddenly decided he needed troops, many may find Sam tapping them on the shoulders.
If the Iranians tried to shut off oil shipments
through the strait, there undoubtedly would be a Western military response—a fruitless one at that because oil supplies would surely be cut off in the ensuing conflict. Firepower cannot cover for the West's pitiful dependence on the volatile region's oil. Carter's Rapid Deployment Force of 200,000 troops is designed to massive interventionist action that would unnecessarily draw a Soviet response. The draft surely would follow the use of that force.
But the threat of actual conflict is not the only thing that should make registrants shudder. The volunteer military, although fulfilling 99 percent of its recruiting quotas the recent economic slump, is a largely unskilled, uneducated and minority force.
Its low pay appeals to only the superpatriotic or the desperate. About 50 percent of the combat troops are black, as opposed to the roughly 14 percent they represent in the general population. Half of the recent army volunteers had not gone beyond the eighth grade. They supposedly designed to meet the obligation assigned to the registrees, that of meeting an emergency manpower need, are more than 100,000 short.
In some eyes, then, the draft on a very small scale would be a convenient and inexpensive way to shore up the military's personnel shortfalls. However, since drafts require less money, available volunteer supply, they would not significantly change the military's composition.
Drafting people for six months, then placing them in the reserves is a more likely move than a full-stint draft, but no type of
WUNSCH '80
draft would be necessary if the military were made economically more attractive.
Military pay has lagged far behind private-sector pay since 1972. And now on an hourly basis, pay for a new recruit is about 80 percent of the minimum wage. Billions spent to bring military pay in line with pay in the private sector, along with full benefits, increased housing, travel allowances and extra bonuses for special skills could make the volunteer military a capable, fully staffed force with sufficient reserves.
The volunteer military can work, if adequate resources were put into it. Therefore, registrees need not be asked to surrender their freedom of action for two years or six months to take up arms against their wills.
Serving one's country in the military should be a voluntary action, taken in peacetime by those who see the military as an opportunity and by those who want to aid their country in a very tangible way and in wartime by those who see that the nation needs their help.
Because of a president's fear of the Soviets and his view of the volunteer military's problems, many young Americans now find themselves caught in the cross hairs of fate—of time and place. This group must not become a pawn in unjust, Vietnam-style intervention, and neither should they have their lives interrupted because of government frugality in allocating funds for military personnel.
As a registrant, I don't yet know how to fire an automatic weapon, nor can I pull a grenade's firing pin. And I don't want to learn.
Letters to the Editor
KU certainly no slouch in academic world
To the editor:
I don't imagine that many alumni write open letters to the Kansan lauding their alma mater, or at least, not after being gone a mere five months. I'm not the sentimental type; I don't think I've ever sung a single chorus of "I'm a Jayhawk," and I'm certain I've never attended a KU football game or a Rock Chalk performance. I didn't have much of what is called school spirit. However, after beginning graduate work at another university (Cornell), I realize that there are a few things needing to be said in the University of Kansas' favor.
I came to Cornell for a specific reason—I was looking for a strong doctoral program in classics; KU has no doctoral program in classics. I am not disappointed with what I've found here.
But I also find that Cornell--Eastern, expensive. NY League school that it lacks in the East.
Cornell has nothing approaching in quality KU's Spencer Art Museum. There is an art museum here, but it is small, and its collections are small in size and variety.
Cornell's theater department offers fewer productions each year than Murphy does, and none to which students are admitted free. Here, we must pay $2.50 for tickets.
Cornell has no campus newspaper competitive with the Kansan. I know it's entertaining and fashionable to jeer at the Kansan. Sometimes I did it myself; I know it makes mistakes. But KU students do not realize how well the Kansan staff performs, especially when their limited funds are considered. Cornell's paper is smaller than the Kansan; it contains fewer campus and local stories and almost no features or reviews. Students pay 15 cents a course for it.
There are other things missing here. But the purpose of this letter is not to degrade Cornell. It would be erroneous for readers to infer that Cornell is anything less than an excellent school. The purpose rather is to point out what KU has. It is common when one lives in the Midwest or attends school there to be convinced by other people and by what one reads that inexpensive,
state-funded public schools are second-rate and cannot compete successfully with Ivy League or other Eastern schools. Don't believe it. It's better to make the elements that make KU a good school. I like them and I'd add here that I now realize how good my teachers at KU were. Every student could find additional reasons to appreciate KU. Like all universities, it has its problems; unlike all, it has
Sarah Iles Johnston 1979 graduate
Snyder is unaware
To the editor:
According to a Sept. 29 Kansan article, the Republican candidate for the 45th District State House seat, Kent Snyder, has accused his opponent of "not representing the conscience of the district." Snyder claims that he is in touch with the will of the people in the 45th District, but on at least one major issue the facts prove that the exact opposite is true.
In 1978, the voters of Douglas County were given the opportunity to vote on whether or not they wanted liquor by the drink. Although the county option proposal was later found to be unconstitutional, the voters within the current boundaries of the 45th District voted in favor of the proposal and had a margin of support for 36 percent in opposition. I think that any objective observer would say that this clearly represented the "conscience of the District" on the liquor question.
However, Kent Snyder apparently is unaware of the feelings of the people he wants to represent. According to the July 1980 issue of The Kansas Issue, the newsletter of the Kansas United Dry Forces, Snyder has been endorsed by the governor of the dry for the Rev. Richard Taylor, Snyder's colleague that he "will refuse to promote or defend alcohol by opposing legislation that would tend to increase consumption in Kansas" and that he "will refuse to promote or defend alcohol by opposing
a constitutional amendment that would tend to increase consumption in Kansas." The Rev. Taylor and the voters of the 45th District are against the proposal, and has chosen to stand with the Kansas dry forces.
An issue of personal conscience like the consumption of alcohol should be decided by the individual citizens of Kansas, not by the Kansas Legislature. For Snyder to say that he opposes allowing the people to decide what they can do with their votes in a state with the height of arrogance—supporting government intrusion in its worst form. I feel that the fact that he claims to be able to represent the conscience of the voters when he clearly does not is even more indicative of how out of touch Snyder is with his district. As a lifelong Lawrence resident, I feel that Snyder represents the conscience of the Rev. Taylor rather than the views of others and I question whether he is deserving of our trust.
Howard Bauleke Lawrence senior
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