University Daily Kansan, September 12, 1980
Opinion
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Senate, heal thyself
The Student Senate's ironic failure to muster a quorum Tuesday night illustrates a long-term problem at the University of Kansas, not one that is just beginning, as Student Body Vice President Matt Davis evidently would have us believe.
Davis said that the lack of the quorum to vote on whether the number of senators should be reduced supported those who favor the cut and that the cut could prevent a loss of Senate credibility.
"If we don't improve our efficiency, no one will have respect for anything we do," he said. "Student Senate will begin losing its legitimacy."
Making the Senate a smaller group of people does not necessarily ensure easier administration for him or leaders who will follow him. Nor does it ensure better
Davis is missing the point.
representation of student concerns, the essence of whatever legitimacy the Senate has left, considering its members were put in office by 15 percent of the electorate.
Who is to say that the 60 or 65 senators remaining after the cut would be those who now come to the meetings? Rather, it would seem that about half of the smaller number also would have better things to do than their duty.
Whatever the decision, Davis and Greg Schnacke, student body president, would do well not to scold us piously from their open letter posted on bulletin boards across campus. The letter, which tells students their apathy is responsible for Senate ineffectiveness, makes no mention of more than half of the "public-spirited" Senate, which historically does not care enough to vote on many issues—including its own survival.
Enjoyment outweighs trials on canoeists' trip down Kaw
Letters to the Editor
To the editor:
As tired but happy members of the last-place team, River Ratz, we would like to express dissatisfaction with the story on the canoe race between the University of Kansas and Kansas State University by Jennifer Liston in the Sept. 8 edition of the Kansan.
The story did not mention any of the good points of the race. Sure, there were grats, tired bodies and dirty water. But nothing was said to express the camaraderie felt by teammates after two days of experiencing life in the wilds of Kansas. The area along the banks of the Kaw River is beautiful. There were many new friends made as teams banded together in times of crisis. The local residents along the way even helped lost teams find checkpoints. Impromptu parties were started by teams as we waited for our lagging canoes to pull in.
The enthusiasm felt by an infant team like the River Rats was not to be dampened by 23 hours and 15 minutes on the raging Kaw. Sure we were last, and no one is more tired or sunburned than our loyal Rats. There was not even anyone other than us at the finish to chew our canes as we nulled in.
Vicki Beiriger
Lenexa junior
Shane Garrett
St. George senior
However, teams, we'll see you in the spring!
To the editor:
Harmlessness of pot has yet to be proved
Amy Hollowell presented many important facts in a well-documented editorial in last Friday's Kansan. She favors decriminalization of marijuana. She said that when California decriminalized marijuana in 1976, the state cut its court costs that year by $25 million. She also said the United States government spent nearly $100 million a year to prosecute marijuana cases. I agree with Amy that the United States would save millions of dollars in court costs if marijuana was decriminalized, but I don't believe it should be decriminalized. Here's why:
Hollowell said that "there are findings that indicate harm to the lungs, brain, reproductive system, and there are equally as many findings to the contrary." This is the problem. From May, 1979 to January, 1980, I read more than dozen books and 100 periodicals (almost all of which are available at the University) of cannabis studies and cannabis takers. For every account in which there was evidence of the harmlessness of cannabis, I can show you a cannabis is harmful. Researchers have debated this subject in America for longer than 15 years, and they are nowhere near presenting a definitive report to the American people.
Researchers are unsure about cannabis, and no American can expect his representative to move on decriminalization or legalization until all parties are correctly informed. We must encourage research and patiently await the before legalizing or decriminalizing cannabis.
If research is stopped before the long-term effects of cannabis are known, one of two things will happen. Either popular consensus will draft and ratify a law to approve the use of a drug that may contribute to damaging the lives of millions of Americans, or an unpopular law that outlaws what may be a safe, recreational activity will needlessly and dangerously continue to create
Pat Flanagan Kansas City, Kan., Senior
disregard for cannabis laws and law enforcers in
cannabis society.
Congressmen ignore many gay constituents
To the editor:
There is a large number of gay voters in Lawrence, and they might be interested to know what their congressmen think of them when they go to the polls this November.
On July 23, the House of Representatives passed the Legal Services Corporation Appropriations Bill, a bill to appropriate money to maintain legal aid groups for the poor and needy. The governor's office is located in Douglas County Legal Aid Society in Green Hall is funded by these appropriations.
On July 22, Rep. Larry McDonald, D-Ga,
added an amendment to the bill which reads:
"That no part of this appropriation shall be used by the Legal Services Corporation to provide legal assistance in promoting, defending or protecting homosexuality."
On a voice vote, the amendment was defeated, but McDonald called for a recorded vote and many congressmen reversed. The amendment failed to pass, 65 of the bill and sits in the Senate waiting for action.
It is outrageous that gays should be singled out as the one group that doesn't deserve public defense. Gays pay taxes that go to support the Legal Services Corporation. Yet, the House has decided that gays should not receive the benefits of those taxes.
Gay people in Lawrence and throughout Kansas should know that all five of their representatives voted to deprive gays of their rights. This includes Larry Winn of the 3rd District, in which Lawrence lies. Not one Kansas congressman voted to protect poor gays by allowing them to use legal aid services supported by their taxes.
Gays must let their congressmen and now their senators know that this amendment is a discriminatory affront to gay people. Let them know in letters, and let them know at the polls. They can do that by Douglas County Legal Aid Society doors closed to them will have only themselves to blame.
Kathleen M. Conkey
Lawrence, KU graduate
The University Daily KANSAN
Lawrence, KU graduate
Remarks to Council incorrectly recorded
University Senate executive committee
For the record, I would like to point out that I did not make a remark attributed to me in the article headlined 'New withdrawal policy shelter for fall semester' in my Sept. 5 issue.
To the editor:
I did not tell the University Council on Sept. 4 that "there had been no response" from the administration to the Council's proposed withdrawal policy. What I did say was that the initial response from the administration was negative. Like my colleagues in University governance, I hope that we shall be able to persuade the administration of the merits of the prolonged study over a period of several months by three student-faculty groups: the Committee on Academic Procedures and Policies, the Senate executive committee and the University Council.
George Worth, chairman
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Reagan act flops without cue cards
Stage presence has always been a valuable commodity in presidential candidates, but especially in the last two decades, when the word campaign has meant media event. Kennedy had his quick wit and boyish charm; Nixon, his head-shaking sincerity and victory signs overhead; Carter, his smile and naive enthusiasm.
With Ronald Reagan, stage presence has been a life project. Never before has a candidate for office so clearly been a product for sale to the American people. The fact that this is all he is sadly has been overlooked by millions of American voters.
This glistening-haired actor turned P.R. man turned Nicecaster and the Nicecaster now shows through his hair how she's shaped him.
He has trained since the '30s to do well on camera, to speak dramatically. And yet his "aw shucks" embarrassment at the adoration he receives from crowds seems more characteristic of a man who has never known the public eye.
Ronald Reagan is clearly coachable, and his staff of advisers mold and shape him to fit the wants of American voters. A Reagan campaign staffer made this clear last week when he said, "If we want to shift gears, either in terms of what the candidate is saying, or in the political strategy we're pursuing, it has to be decided by committee."
Reagan is not guiding his campaign, but is, rather, its tool. The haunting question remains—who's behind him? What group of powerbrokers will have their thorns on him by the gun they choose to exploit against gun control; for prayer in schools; for escalation of the arms race; against the windfall profits tax and against the minimum wage?
Reagan's slips-up occur when he ignores the notecards of statistics and one-liners prepared for him by "the staff" and speaks that it's what's behind the real Ronnie shines through.
The real Ronnie is a good after-dinner speaker who likes to watch TV. He used to
The real Ronnie is not the learned ex-
version of California who has a firm
gap between them.
come home from work in Sacramento at 5 p.m. and watch it, in fact. He finds Reader's Digest a valuable store of knowledge and what astrologer Jeanne Dixon has to say.
He sends his running mate, George Bush, to China and then contradicts the man's statements by saying he would like to see the re-establishment of some formal relations between Taiwan and the United States. He also questions the War on Terror causes questions the theory of evolution, implies Carter favors the Ku Klux Klan by campaigning in the Alabama town of its founding—and isn't even right about what town it is
SCOTT FAUST
The propulsion of Reagan to the leadership of the Republican party is the result of a life consistent with the image someone was always searching for.
The real Ronnie is the man whose thin knowledge of domestic issues forced him to tell Kansas formers that he didn't know what price parity meant and who admitted last November, on the Today show, that he didn't understand them in President Vail Gorsich D'Estinge was.
With Reagan, that image has always been based on homespun truths, belief in the need to keep government under control and fear of communism. Reagan, whose childhood was raised up in a Southwestern Illinois town where he developed his passion for small-town values.
A job as a Chicago Cubs radio announcer led Reagan into the movies in 1937, when he constantly played the nice guy. The political Reagan emerged in his work as president of the Screen Actors Guild after the war, and in his rabid hatred of communism. He was raised a New Deal Democrat, and first voted Republican for Eisenhower in 1952.
Reagan was rescued from a rapidly sinking acting career in 1954, when General Electric chose him to host its weekly "GE Theater" TV show and tour the country to give to GE employees what was to become known as "The Speech." He still gives it.
Neil, Reagan's brother, who was in advertising, used him in a series of Borax commercials. His potential as an actor on the political stage was recognized when women to whom Neil showed the commercials, according to Neil, "said they'd buy anything from him. They even said they'd vote for him, and we didn't even ask that."
Reagan, the commodity, was born.
Nell arranged for Reagan to work for Goldwater in 1964, which brought him enough notoriety that powerful Republicans wanted him. He lumped him up then California Gov. Pat Brown in 1968.
Reagan won by a landslide and was able to manage the state for eight years with the help of capable people around him—largely recruited by California corporate men.
Reagan delegated authority to these advisers, avoided the details of issues and decisions and was regularly supplied with four paragraph 'mini-memos' summarizing policy issues. The draftman was crutch supplied by a bureaucracy accommodating a man of limited abilities.
Urged to run in 1968 as California's favorite candidate for President, Reagan became forever a symbol of conservatism in the Republican party. His time finally came in 1980.
Call it "soap salesman to president in five easy lessons." Call it what you will. The danger is that a reactionary cue card reader could be our next national leader.
If Reagan wins, a puppet, not a leader, will stand before America to give his inaugural address. The question will be: Who's pulling the strings?
And it will not be Ronald Reagan himself who will be guiding U.S. policy, if the California experience is any indicator. Rather, his mini-memo preparers and others behind the scenes will determine the direction of the nation along a course of conservatism.
Candidates put University before resumes
Student Leader goes to Student Meetings too, to which he brings the handshakes and the chatter and, quietly, University Administrator's policies. Student Leader and his friends don't always agree with their constituent, Student Body. But Student Leader believes that Student Body is apathetic and really doesn't care about anything anyway.
Student Leader wears a blue oxford button down and attends a lot of meetings where he shakes a lot of hands and chats with University Administrator.
So Student Leader goes to luncheons and dinners, and occasionally, a class. See, Student Leader always has office hours or meetings or appointments to keep, leaving little time for classes. He doesn't have much time for studying either, but he does enough to get by.
Student Leader is exactly contrary to the vision Mark Bernstein, Lawrence graduate student, and John Gullory, Spring Hill junior, have of these missions. Last week, Bernstein and his team met with the president, the first student body president and vice president, for a team to file for the November contest.
They say they are non-political and have only one "real" commitment, which is to the students of the University of Kansas. At the base of the Bernstein-Gullery candidacy is a dedication to quality higher education, a desire, as Bernstein or "make the University a university again."
Oh, yeah, Student Leader does have this treasure that he has cultivated for years. He has strategically nourished it into a flourishing specimen, a truly blooming resume.
Quite unlike Student Leader, Bernstein and
T
As Bernstein and Guillory see it, the problem has been that students haven't given the opportunity to be heard, to have their special needs and concerns aired. They become alienated. The answer, according to the candidates, is to supply a kind of leadership that will
Gulluill believe that students genuinely care about their education and the University. Low voter turnouts and poor Senate attendance are reasons for the problem, leading to frustration and, finally, to resignation.
AMY
HOLLOWELL
Bernstein is one for working through the system, a system in which he has great faith. He has been a participant in the system for 10 years, as a student senator, as a representative on the University Senate executive committee and the University Council, and as an appointee to numerous Chancellor advisory committees. Through it all, Bernstein has surmised that the most powerful group at the University of Kansas is the student body.
give students a reason to get involved, that will draw voices from everyone with something to do.
"If they (students) really care about something and really want to have an effect,
Gullory agrees with Bernstein. But having
never served in the governance system, he thinks he brings a freshness and an open-mindedness to the campaign. He views himself as a diversified candidate, a student with "no set group or background" but a skilled "organizer" of diverse people "in a positive way."
"I'm not brilliant, and I'm not the best
man. I can't represent to represent my
myself and my cohorts," he says.
So the candidates want to bring, through their unique melange of experience, government to the people in an almost populist manner. The question is what the Senate is all about, they say.
Therefore, a current move in the Senate to cut the amount of representatives in half is a case for doubt.
"How can cutting out senators because they're not interested stimulate interest?" BERNstein said.
If anything, Bernstein and Gullory say they would increase the number of senators. In addition, they would like to improve communication between the senators and their constituents.
"We believe in the free exchange of ideas, between students and students and students and parents and parents," she wrote.
Because of this conviction, Bernstein and Guillory say they aren't running against anyone, but that they just want to be heard. They just want everyone to be heard.
As Bernstein puts it, "We just want the
women to be treated with regard, regained,
and we take care of all the students."
Let Student Leader put that on his resume
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