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Wednesday, October 22, 1986 / University Daily Kansan
Opinions
Increased fine is dandy
Some bar owners in Lawrence may not be very happy since the City Commission passed a new overcrowding ordinance last week. According to the ordinance, owners will be fined $2,500 if their establishment is caught with more than the maximum number of patrons in it.
The $2,500 fine may seem a bit steep, considering that the old fine was only $250 and that the new ordinance will apply to first-time and repeat offenders.
However, the increase was proposed by the fire marshal and passed by the commission for a good reason. Too many owners were filling their bars over capacity in order to make a profit. If caught, the $250 fine
was a negligible sum compared to the money to be made from the increase in patrons.
It would have taken only one fire to have proved them wrong. In a dark, crowded room filled with smoke and people whose reflexes are slowed by alcohol, there would be panic, many injuries, and perhaps even a few deaths.
When apathy endangers
Fortunately, that kind of proof wasn't necessary. The fine should ensure that bar owners keep their bars below maximum capacity. In addition to the safety factor, the new ordinance should make things more pleasant for those patrons who don't enjoy being packed in a building like a sardine just to have a drink.
When the American Red Cross blood drive came to campus last week, it quickly became apparent that every donated drop counted.
When the donor turnout on campus was low for the first two days of the three-day drive, the Red Cross office in Wichita was forced to cut back blood shipments to more than 130 hospitals in Oklahoma and Kansas. That meant patients at any of those hospitals stood a chance of not having blood available to them should they need it.
After the cutback to the hospitals was publicized, KU donors rallied and exceeded the final day's goal of 300 units of blood by 14 units. But overall, the drive still fell 70 units short of its goal of 800.
when the blood mobile visits KU for three days, the campus drive becomes the region's primary supplier for that week. Hospitals that normally receive Red Cross blood from this region are therefore completely dependent on the campus drive making its goal to fill blood orders.
Red Cross officials say that
And it didn't.
Blood donation is typically an area that suffers far too much from either apathy or hysteria on the part of the public. Most recently, the AIDS scare has chased many potential donors away.
But blood will always be needed to save lives. Responsible citizens should remember that they, or someone they love, someday may be on the receiving end of the donation cycle.
Hostage no longer vogue
Another American was kidnapped in Lebanon yesterday. Too bad it's not fashionable to be a hostage anymore.
Edward Austin Tracy, 55,
from Rutland, Vt., was accused
of being a spy for the CIA
and Israel after he was abducted by The Revolutionary Justice Organization, a band of Shiite Muslims loyal to Iran.
There are now seven
Americans missing in Muslim
west Beirut.
In Washington, White House spokesman Larry Speakes said Tracy "has no connection with the U.S. government. Allegations of his kidnappers that he works for the CIA are totally without foundation."
American hostages aren't a priority as is our so-called drug crisis, or Nicholas Daniilo, or tax reform. It just isn't chic to languish in the Middle East. We've got better things to worry about, don't we?
Great. At least we know Tracy's not on the payroll. But what about getting him and the rest of the hostages in Lebanon home? Speakes had no comment. And so it goes in the world of "quiet diplomacy."
Tell that to the families of:
For that to happen, Terry Anderson, 37, chief Middle East correspondent and Beirut bureau manager for The Associated Press — celebrating day 584 as a prisoner.
David Jacobsen, 54, the administrator of the American University Hospital since November 1984 - 511 days.
Thomas Sutherland, 53,
dean of the American University
of Beirut's agriculture
school - 497 days.
■ Frank Reed, 53, director of the Lebanese International Schools — 42 days.
■ Joseph James Ciccippio, 56,
American University of Beirut
deputy comptroller — 38 days.
U. S. Embassy political officer William Buckley was kidnapped in March 1984 and "executed" in Oct. 5. His body has not been recovered.
No, nobody stormed an embassy or hijacked a plane to get at these people. There have been no press conferences with kidnappers. Actually it's not a very marketable crisis at all
Maybe if the hostages had been drug addicts or, better yet, drug dealers, we would be anxious to get them back to the United States for rehabilitation or imprisonment. These men weren't that lucky though. They decided to be doctors, teachers and businessmen.
Until U.S. citizens decide to put this hostage crisis at the top of our skewed agenda, the hostages will remain hostages and we will be as guilty as their kidnappers for their imprisonment.
News staff
News staff
Lauretta McMillen...Editor
Kady McMaster...Managing editor
Tay Clarke...News editor
David Silverman...Editorial editor
John Hanna...Campus editor
Frank Hansel...Sports editor
Jackk Kelly...Photo editor
Tom Eblen...General manager, news adviser
Business staff
David Nixon...Business manager
Gregory Kaul...Retail sales manager
Denise Stephens...Campus sales manager
Sally Depew...Classifier manager
Lisa Wrenham...Production manager
Duncan Calhoun...National sales manager
Beverly Kastens...Traffic manager
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To reform the reform on the Hill
Few people in Washington -- perhaps nobody -- believes Congress runs smoothly, but lately some particularly harsh criticism has been unleashed by prominent individuals who are a part of the institution.
"Anarchy," "historic low point," "out of killer" are some of the phrases used by the critics who are saying it is time for Congress to seriously consider reforming the way it does business.
Most of the criticism is aimed at the congressional budget process, which Congress thought it fixed in
Robert Shepard
1974 with the Budget Reform Act. That law created budget committees in the House and Senate and set deadlines for the adoption of overall budget figures, for the passage of appropriations bills, and doing whatever reconciliation was needed to bring the spending and revenue figures in line.
The reform has been less than a smashing success and the addition of the Gramm-Rudman deficit reduction law last year has not improved the budget process.
"We have not complied with our own laws in the 12 years the Budget Act has been in existence. We just refuse to meet deadlines." House Republican leader Bob Michel of Illinois said recently.
Unett said the House had reached "a historic low point" and was "in need of swift, drastic, and comprehensive reform."
UPI Commentary
Rep. Silvio Conte, R-Mass., senior Republican on the House Appropriations Committee, agreed.
"If the time was ripe for budget reform in 1974 and 1985, Mr. Speaker, the time for budget repeal is overdue," he told the House.
"The system has failed." Conte said, pledging to offer an amendment to future bills "to repeal Gramm-Rudman-Hollings — that's been a total failure; to repeal the budget act of 1974, which created another layer of government here that has almost paralyzed this congress. Certainly it has paralyzed the appropriations committee."
Retiring Sen. Barry Goldwater, R-Ariz., will be out of the picture next year but nevertheless is pushing a congressional "housecleaning" suitable for the 100th Congress that convenes in January.
Goldwater has challenged House and Senate leaders to guide Congress "into a new era of responsible, orderly government — the sort of government an informed public will sooner or later demand."
"The lack of discipline — anarchy is not too strong a word — in both the House and Senate is inexcusable." he says. "And don't let anyone tell you the congressional workload is to
Distributed by King Features Syndicate
blame. Throughout much of the year, the Congress essentially works Tuesday through Thursday, leaving Mondays and Fridays for travel time
Goldwater, in addition to criticiz
'Things are terribly out of kilter in Congress.'
Rep. Trent Lott R-Miss.
"I think it's obvious to everyone that things are terribly out of kilter in Congress, and that the overpowering presence of the budget process is a major factor in that equation."
In the closing days of the current session of Congress, Rep. Trent Lott, R-Miss., House Republican whip, introduced a bill to create a bipartisan commission "to study the impact of the budget process and recommend whether the process should be continued, modified or terminated.
"We should also look seriously at revising the committee structure to clarify lines of authority and put a stop to petty jurisdictional bickering. And we should replace the current annual budgeting process with a more manageable two-year budget." Goldwater says.
Lott's commission would be directed to report its recommendations by the end of next September
ing the budget process, objects to the fact that both chambers have authorizing and appropriating committees that essentially duplicate each other's work. He says the system "makes no damn sense."
Sandman Columbus
This can't have been a very happy year for fans of Christopher Columbus.
I'm not referring merely to the pre-Columbus Day report by the National Geographic Society suggesting that although Chris may have been a great discoverer, he was a lousy navigator.
According to a five-year study by a team of Geographic mathematicians, computer experts, ar-
Dick West
UPI Commentary
Nor do I have exclusively in mind the fact that the latest "Big Two" summit meeting was held in Iceland, birthplace of Leif Ericson, whom Scandinavian partisans claimed to North America about half a century before Columbus.
What I am referring to primarily is a release by the Geographic news service that the items Columbus brought back to Spain from the New World included a barrel of sand.
"Columbus thought the sand was a precious ore." says the report.
Only we would never confuse Cuba, nor any other Caribbean island, with Asia. The beaches are too sandy for that.
Which is exactly the sort of assumption you and I might make
Asian sand might be worth more, but we all know what a barrel of New World sand brings on the open market.
Maybe that explains why there has
I remember once having given a young woman some sand jewelry. To say she didn't appreciate my security would be underestering her reaction.
never been an international cartel composed of sand-exporting countries.
"That's plain old Atlantic sand," she pointed out, reacting adversely.
In truth, the jewelry came not from Cuba but from a beach resort north of there, where it was even cheaper.
Maybe Columbus intended to build a house on the barrel he sent back. It also should be noted that one of his brothers was formally christened the Santa Clara.
That could confuse anyone, most of all latter-day poets and lyricists who would undoubted have trouble remembering Carrion with the Pinta and the Santa Maria.
Furthermore, in 1498, the year of Columbus' third voyage to the New World, the ship "had four masts, in stead of two or three as she has always been depicted."
Small wonder Columbus brought back a barrel of sand from his second voyage.
"On the second voyage, which left Spain in September 1493, Nina was among the floatia of 17 vessels. Convinced that Cuba was the Asia he sought," the Geographic says, Columbus "umbled all his crews to swear to their belief about reaching the Asian mainland."
"On her return to Spain in 1496," it further reported, "Nina brought back New World goods: gold, wood, cotton and a barrel of sand."
Unfortunately, the Geographic doesn't identify the type of wood. I'm betting Columbus regarded it as an ore that was even more precious than the sand.
Mailbox
Let's be aware
Kudos to everyone involved in the work that goes into "Alcohol Awareness Week." this week. It is unfortunate that some people continue to glamorize the use of alcohol, our nation's most abused drug.
When an athlete such as Boston Celtic rookie Len Bias or Cleveland defensive back Don Rogers dies from an overdose of cocaine, it makes headlines around the nation. But every day young people around the country die in alcohol-related incidents such as drunk-driving crashes, alcohol-induced asphyxiation and alcohol-toxic coma.
The article on the Wagon Wheel Cafe, which appeared on page one of the Oct. 14 Kansan, told of men like
John Riggins coming in and drinking "between one and 16 beers." The article also cited the dayhawk basketball team which frequents the bar.
Kevin Pritchard, a Tulsa freshman, was quoted as saying, "this is the place." Sadly, Kevin was in the bar illegally since Kansas law requires patrons to be at least 20 years old on or before July 1, 1986. This is not to single out Kevin, as an am looking forward to many of his three-point rainbow jumps during the upcoming season.
The next day, the Rock Chalk Bar was featured, also on page one of the Kansan.
I am appealing to the Kansan to reduce the amount of advertising of bars and clubs during Alcohol Awareness Week, and to be extremely careful in their coverage of local bars.
Paul Pettitt
Topeka senior
Team spirit
It looks as though "Late Night With Larry Brown" was a success and will be a tradition for years to come. What better way to start off each season!
Basketball fans are a little less restless now that they know it is officially basketball season. We will be looking in our mailboxes, eager awaiting the arrival of our season tickets.
I thoroughly enjoyed the festivities, the scrimage and the
The Republicans After 1988
band. I noticed that Baby Jay was wearing his pajamas and shippers, since he was up past his bedtime.
Next year, I would like to see all the fans wearing pajamas, robes, slippers, etc. We could make it a pajama party! I know KU fans are fun-loving and have the spirit to really do it right. Let's go all out, and wish the team a winning year.
Rhonda Smith Lawrence resident
Columnist's fantasy
The column "Myths surround U.S. aid program" was not about myths, it was about fantasies — Jan Underwood's fantasies. Does Underwood actually believe that the U.S. government is the perpetrator of a vast conspiracy to keep the world hungry in order to provide "slave" labor for U.S. corporations?
Many people believe that looting money and providing modern farm equipment to underdeveloped countries is humanitarianism. Underwood disagreed. She said the answer to Third World hunger problems is subsistence farming using traditional methods (a wonderful utopian image of happy, smiling farmers hoeing their fields and plowing with oxen comes to mind).
The fantasy continues with Underwood's assertion that every country in the world has the capacity to feed its own people, without any agricultural development.
Jan Undewood needs to wake up and return to the real world. In the real world, hunger is not a problem that has a simplistic answer. World hunger will never end without the large-scale agricultural development that Underwood fantasizes as enslaving the Third World.
Michael O'Rourke Lawrence junior