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Wednesday, October 1, 1986 / University Daily Kansan
Opinions
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Here's mud in your eye
It's getting dirty out there in the land of political campaigning. The mud is slinging left and right as local races heat up.
Mudslinging, a tactic usually used late in the race by desperate candidates, has been used and overused this election year. Such displays of immaturity do little to instill respect in a candidate. The mud wrestling needs to stop.
It doesn't matter who started it. At this point it's hard to respect either candidate. This silly tacitty hardly proves whether one candidate is better for the job. Instead, their "technique" clouds the issues.
The accusations were flying early on in the Missouri race for the U.S. Senate seat. Since the primaries, Republican candidate Kit Bond and Democrat Harriett Woods have battled it out on TV screens across the region.
In Kansas, the same type of muckraking has found its way into the race for attorney general. The Democratic candidate, Dennis Moore, has attacked the integrity of his opponent, Attorney General Bob Stephan. Moore wants Stephan to reveal the truth about the out-of-court settlement in his sexual harassment lawsuit.
Where are the issues?
U. S. Rep. Jim Slattery, D-Kan, and his opponent Phill Kline, Republican candidate for the Kansas 2nd District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, have used negative campaigning as well.
These candidates could use a lesson in campaigning from the candidates in the race for the 45th District seat in the Kansas House of Representatives.
When Republican candidate Martha Parker's son pleaded guilty to cocaine charges last week, her opponent, John Solbach, did not use it as an opportunity to embarrass his opponent. Instead, he simply focused on the issues.
Candidates need to wipe the dirt from their eyes and concentrate on the issues really at hand. After all, not much time remains for them to redeem themselves in the eyes of the voters.
Remember the missing
Somewhere between the Lincoln Memorial and the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C., is a 6-by-8-by-6 foot bamboo cage. In it, two activists, Gino Casanova, an ex-Marine, and Lynn Standerwick, a KU graduate, are staging a 66-day modified fast to protest the government's lack of action concerning the 2,436 U.S. military men still listed as missing from the Vietnam War. Standerwick, Casanova, and others maintain that many of these missing men are still alive, and held in captivity.
More than the fact that Standerwick graduated from KU makes this a local issue. A total of 14 KU students are MIAs, although the campus Vietnam Memorial lists only nine.
fective in the past as peaceful ways of drawing media and government attention to problems that are often overlooked.
Hunger strikes have been ef
They will be noticed, they will be written about in newspapers, perhaps taped for a television news show or two, but unfortunately, the chances of the Reagan administration taking action on this issue are slim. This is an election year, and other issues have been deemed more important than attempting to recover 2,436 missing Americans. The current war is the war on drugs, not Vietnam; the United States will do anything in its power to recover one journalist detained in the Soviet Union for a matter of weeks, but little, if anything, for thousands of Americans detained or missing in Vietnam for years.
This is reform?
Despite rumblings from certain economists and Capitol Hill, the new and improved Packwood tax bill has passed. Hailed as a simpler, more equitable method of assessing income taxes, its proponents guarantee it will eliminate the loopholes designed for the rich and spare the pocketbooks of the poor.
And better still, it will look great on a campaign poster or commercial.
Endorsements for particular candidates may soon carry a tag-line: "Brought to you by the party that cut federal taxes." Because somewhere along the line, a "noble idea," as it's been called, has mutated into an off-year election show.
After surviving numerous murder attempts in both the House and Senate, attacks from special-interest and business groups, and other political maneuvering, it isn't the same bill that it once was.
What does the bill really of
fer? Sixty percent of the tax-payers will get reductions under this plan. But the cuts will amount to only a few hundred dollars. The poor will get a tax break, and most of the loopholes for the wealthy will have been closed. But the larger burden is still on middle-income families who itemize their deductions and on two-career couples.
Some economists have predicted that the increase in business taxes will have a conservative effect on business in general, and the end result may be a recession.
What about the deficit? It continues to grow by billion-dollar leaps and bounds, yet the designers of this tax revolution seem to have forgotten this trivial point.
Their foresight seems to reach only as far as election day, and it's unfortunate: our children don't get the shelters or the tax breaks, just the burden of well-intentioned, poorly executed tax reform.
News staff
News staff
Lauretta McMillen ... Editor
Keddy McMaster ... Managing editor
Tad Clarke ... News editor
David Silverman ... Editorial editor
John Hanna ... Campus editor
Frank Hansel ... Sports editor
Jacki Kelly ... Photo editor
Tom Eblan ... General manager, news adviser
Business staff
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'Blood boondoggle' banned
When we read or hear about spending in Washington, the stories often involve bloated defense contracts, waste, swindles, boondoggles, pork barrels and other forms of squandering our taxes.
So I found a refreshing change to come across an obscure federal document.
Mike Royko
Chicago
Tribune
ment that shows that there are some Washington bureaucrats who think about saving some of our money.
out saving some of our money
I will share the details with you.
Recently, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services sent a letter to all state agencies that run federally-funded welfare programs.
*Subject: Treatment of income resulting from the sale of blood.*
The letter said:
"Background: Historically, the AFDC (Aid to Families with Dependent Children) and the adult assistance programs have considered money from the sale of blood to be unearned income.
"However, states had the flexibility to disregard the money as casual and inconsequential income.
"Most states elected to disregard this type of income.
*Final regulations were published on March 18, 1966, which allow only gifts to be disregarded as casual and inconsequential income.
"Consequently, it is no longer permissable to disregard money from the sale of blood as casual and inconsequential income.
"Instruction: In order to promote consistency and uniformity in federal assistance programs, money resulting from the sale of whole blood or blood plasma is to be considered as earned income from employment."
Now, what that means in simple terms is this:
Let's say that you are poor and on welfare. One of your kids has a big hole in the toe of his shoe and winter
You are honest, so you don't even consider shoplifting or finding some other way of stealing something worth $10.
You live in a big city with a high unemployment rate, so there is little chance you can find a way to earn $10.
is coming and you want to buy him a new pair of shoes.
But it turns out that you are about $10 short of having the price of the shoes.
So you get an idea: Maybe somebody will pay you for your blood.
There are such blood banks. In almost all states, it's illegal to use purchased blood for transfusions. But some bank bills buy blood for
'Now, when a welfare recipient is asked if he has earned any money lately,he is required to say that, yes,he sold a pint of blood for a ten-spot.'
use in medical research and other non-transfusion purposes.
so, you go to one of these blood banks and say, "I want to sell a pint of my blood."
They stick the needle in your arm,
draw your blood, and pay you the $10.
Then you go and buy your kid the pain
of shoes.
What the letter from the bureaucrat says is that the $10 is earned income. And any time you earn money, that amount is supposed to be deducted from your welfare check.
Ah, but you can't do that anymore. Or if you do, it will not solve your financial problem.
In other words, you must now receive $10 less in your welfare check.
So, instead of being paid $10 for your pint of blood, you will, in effect, be giving blood away for nothing.
I'm sure you are as relieved as I am to know that welfare recipients can no longer get away with lining their pockets with blood money while drawing their full welfare checks.
I called Washington and asked which sharp-eyed bureaucrat had realized that poor people were slyly increasing their spending power by selling their own blood. A spokesman said he wasn't sure who did it.
I also asked if they had any idea how much money these people were making a year by letting their veins be tapped. He didn't know that, either.
But a blood bank executive said that a person could give a pint of blood about once every eight weeks — about six or seven times a year.
That means that at the going price — about $10 a pint — some shrewdie could pick up an extra $60 or $70 a year. Why, that's about $1.25 a week.
But that's all over. Now, when a welfare recipient is asked if he has earned any money lately, he is reprimanded. But he sold a pint of blood for a tencent.
Of course, there's nothing to prevent the welfare recipient from lying or failing to mention the sale of that pint of blood.
And the welfare worker will then deduct that tenner from the next check.
So maybe the welfare workers ought to carry magnifying glasses and take a close peek at the veins in the recipient's arms for telltale puncture wounds.
Whatever it takes to catch the blood sellers, let us hope they do it and get those welfare checks reduced.
It will be so thrilling to watch the federal deficit shrink.
He didn't know that, either. But the guy's worth every drop I mean penny.
Incidentally, I asked the spokesman at the federal agency if they had any idea how much we pay the guy who spotted this loophole in the welfare rules.
How much do we owe the nation?
WASHINGTON — Do U.S. citizens owe their country something, other than taxes, for the freedoms and rights they enjoy?
That issue — embodied in the concept of "universal national service" — is now slowly emerging on Capitol Hill, and although it is unlikely to become a national policy anytime soon, it's something to think about.
The issue was raised recently by the Democratic Leadership Council, a panel of top party figures including many in Congress, prompted at least in part by the fact that the all-volunteer armed forces soon will find it harder to fill manpower needs because of a shrinking pool of people to recruit.
Eliot Brenner UPI Commentary
The council suggests that Congress begin to look at the idea of required civilian or military national service.
The idea of service to a government is nothing new. In wartime, it is embodied in a military draft. Many countries require peacetime military service of all young men and some require women to take a tour of duty.
Its effect on military readiness and mobilization in time of crisis notwithstanding, the issue carries with it the concept that citizens should give back to their government something in return for what the government provides them, exclusive of the fact that taxes we all pay underwrite the cost of government.
As a Leadership Council paper on defense put it, "While this idea presents formidable administrative obstacles, it embodies a principle we deem fundamental: That the American ideal of equality applies to obligations as well as rights.
"Besides serving national ends, such a program could rekindle a sense of civic responsibility — the notion that being an American involves duties as well as privileges — that inspired the Peace Corps and other volunteer efforts," the council said.
There would be "formidable administrative obstacles." How much would participants be paid? How long would service be required and during what age bracket would service have to come? Should people like rock stars or ballplayers, whose most productive career years are often in their youth, get exemptions?
Should individuals be allowed to skip service in return for higher tax rates later in life? What might be the effect on those who serve the country, whether it's two years in an infantry unit or work in the inner city, a national forest or a hospital ward? Would a 20-year-old be more mature, more ready for college or a career after providing a couple of years of service to the country?
National service — as embodied in the concept of the draft in Vietnam — gave military service a bad name among many in the baby boom generation. But times have changed, and perhaps the country's mood has changed.
Mailbox
The final word
Editor's note: The following letter was received this week from William M. Tuttle, Jr., professor of history. Tuttle is a research associate at the Institute of Human Development at the University of California, Berkeley, this semester and receives the Kansan on a delayed schedule.
I have just read the Kansan's September 11 editorial, "Silence Isn't Golden."
I am disturbed and perplexed that the Kansan has so little comprehension of individual rights and so little appreciation that the presumption of innocence still prevails in the American legal system. First, what does the newspaper expect Chancellor Budig to say or do at this time? In view of Rick von Ende's monumental legal problems and the possibility of imprisonment, why does the Kansan think this is the time for the chancellor to say anything at all? The Kansan editors need some simple lessons not only in the operation of the University of Kansas's personnel system (for example, the medical leave policy), but also—and more importantly—in the protection of civil liberties guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States.
The United States has a drug problem, particularly from cocaine and its deadly derivative, crack. But antidrug hysteria, either on the part of Ronald Reagan, Mike Hayden, or the Kansan, will only exacerbate the situation by trampling on people's rights.
Finally, as a historian who studies modern america, let me say that your comparison of this case with
Watergate is ludicrous and highly insulting to Chancellor Budig, Richard Milhous Nixon was a crook, as were H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, Charles Colson and a host of other White House aides. Rick von Ende has been charged with several federal counts of distributing and conspiring to distribute cocaine. There is no "cover-up," no "stonewalling" in Strong Hall. There is, however, respect for the legal system and for the individual's right to a fair trial. And this, of course, how it should be in a country that presumes to be free.
No parking problem?
According to a story in the Sept. 24 Kansas, director of Parking Services Don Kearns said there is no parking problem on this campus I suppose the "problem" is just a rumor started by a lot of people who can't find a place to park their cars in time for their classes.
Of course, there is a problem — particularly for faculty who not unreasonably expect the University to provide parking relatively close to their primary work place. It is galling to be told that no parking problem exists because there are plenty of places to park the equivalent of five blocks away from one's destination.
One solution to the problem of faculty parking would be to assign specific spots to each faculty member, install telephones in each lot with which a faculty member who finds his spot occupied could call parking services to report the condition, and then have the offending car towed away, I for one, would be willing to trade off having to walk a little farther for the comfort of not having to play musical parking places each morning.
Donald Brownstein Associate professor of philosophy
A satisfied customer
I hope that all people who crowded your Laundromat last week remember your kindness. I know
Last week, though, you topped yourself. All week long you gave people quarters free to dry their clothes once they washed them. I was in twice that week, and you personally gave me $1.75 to dry my clothes. You told me and several others it was your way of thanking your customers. So, with your good humor and your quarters in hand, you went up to each customer and gave him the amount he needed to dry his clothes.
I am writing this to thank the owner of Laundromat 777 Mike, you are a definite attribute to the Lawrence community. I am at your Laundromat about once a week, usually during the hours when 700 high school students are rushing in and out during lunch, and am always surprised to see how congenial you are to the students and to the customers. Most people would see these students as possible troublemakers and try to discourage their business. You do not. You are able to keep them happy and the people doing laundry happy, also. It's good to see an owner talking with his customers and remembering them. Your personality is truly honest and friendly.
that you try to remember all of your customers. So, Mike, thanks for the quarters, for remembering me and all the others and for a nice, clean Laundromat.
Tom Smith. Stilwell junior
A shocking crime
The extremely unfortunate event that occurred last Tuesday in Robinin Center — the sodomization of a young man — prompted me to write this letter. My apologies to the victim if this hurts him in any way.
I don't think anyone would feel comfortable saying that the victim in this case brought the sodomization upon himself or would have consented to it in any way without severe coercion.
Homosexual or heterosexual practices are not my concern. The focal point of this letter is consideration of the incident in which one individual forced another to engage in a sexual act against his will. Specifically, I would like to ask why some men and women are so willing to blame the victim when a woman is raped and not the victim in this case, where a man has been raped?
What I wish to stress is the fact that a forced sexual act — regardless of the form it takes — should repulse women and men alike. It is my hope that this recent tragedy will offer further evidence that rape is a truly shocking crime in which blame must only fall on the violator, not the victim.
Adina F. Morse, Lawrence senior