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Wednesday, September 17, 1986 / University Daily Kansan
Opinions
How to respond?
Nineteen people lose their lives as terrorists lose control on a hijacked Pan American jet in Pakistan.
A religious sanctuary is riddled by bullets and bathed in blood when 21 are killed in a Turkish synagogue.
One of the last Americans in Beirut is kidnapped on his way to play golf, bringing to four the number of Americans held hostage in that embbled city.
And Paris literally rumbles with the threat of terrorist acts as five bombs in eight days rip through public places throughout the city, killing and injuring innocent people.
The last few weeks have produced a chilling chronology of inhumane and irrecompensible acts as terrorists from around the world once again have brought a general mood of fear and loathing to the fore.
Terrorists hold a grip on the world that is hard to break and
even harder to understand. Coming up with an appropriate response to their deliberate debauchery also is a difficult task.
The immediate impulse is to strike back in an equally violent, equally appalling manner.
To advocate fighting violence with violence, to lower ourselves to the level of the lowest of terrorists is to finally fall into an abyss created by the very people we seek to destroy.
But that is an urge that must be resisted by civilized nations of the world, no matter how much it hurts.
We have to believe that, in the end, intelligence and rational thought will prevail.
But there are certain events, especially in recent days, that make taking such a stand a dangerously hard thing to do.
Dangerous collaboration
Japan the only country to ever suffer a nuclear attack, last week gave its long-awaited approval of the controversial Star Wars program to the Reagan administration.
While the Japanese government stopped short of encouraging involvement in the Strategic Defense Initiative, it did pave the way for Japanese private corporations to engage in SDI research and developmental projects.
It is unfortunate that a country as technically advanced as Japan would entertain thoughts of joining a spacebased anti-missile program that many respected engineers and technicians say will never work.
The Japanese Defense Agency also is concerned that there are few advantages for Japanese defense included in SDI plans.
But the most unnerving element of this recent action is the Japanese government's
The New York Times last week reported that many Japanese take peaceful to mean non-military. As well they should.
willingness to compromise a 1969 parliamentary resolution requiring that Japanese space projects be limited to peaceful objectives.
Nuclear war technology would seem to be an area that Japan would think twice about researching. Especially when that research is intended for use by the same country that devastated Japan with nuclear bombs in World War II.
Reports say that Japanese businesses will be reluctant to share their best stuff with the United States anyway, and the Japanese government has left any decisions up to individual corporations.
Nonetheless, it is still frightening that even one more country would join the quest to put the suicidal Star Wars system into operation.
A potential problem
The invader? Crack.
An invader is on its way to Lawrence, and we must stop it before it devastates our city and kills our citizens.
Crack, a highly addictive and inexpensive form of cocaine, is turning up with increasing frequency in small towns, from the rural South to the outlying areas of New York and Los Angeles.
In many parts of the country, including the Midwest, police say they are worried about the potential for crack infiltration, but they have found little evidence of it yet.
Interviews with officials of local and county police agencies as well as of drug treatment centers indicate that while many parts of the Midwest report little evidence of crack, other places say the drug was increasingly available during the summer.
This is exactly why we should take measures now—
before the crack gets here. Lawrence is a prime place for crack to proliferate, and inevitably it will become a problem. Any college campus is going to be a drug hot spot.
And besides, the cheaper the better. Crack has become the fast food of the drug scene. It's a case of McDrugs going McHawire.
The solution? Simple. Begin education programs before the problem becomes a problem. Prevention is the key word. Our society seems to think a tragedy must occur before anything is done to prevent or prohibit other tragedies.
By educating the public about crack, maybe some potential users will think twice. It can't hurt. By ignoring the problem, society won't be doing anyone any favors.
It's only by intelligent and responsible education that we can nip it in the bud.
News staff
News staff
Lauretta McMillen ... Editor
Kady McMaster ... Managing editor
Tad Clarke ... News editor
David Silverman ... Editorial editor
John Hanna ... Campus editor
Frank Hansel ... Sports editor
Jacki 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 ... Classified manager
Jasir Weemens ... Production manager
Duncan Calhoun ... National sales manager
Beverly Kastens ... Traffic manager
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Quizzes are not always correct
Editor's note: Mike Royko is on vacation. While he is gone, we are reprinting some of his columns from the past. Today's column originally appeared Oct. 29, 1981
I received some startling information today. It happened while I was reading the cover story in the latest Time magazine.
The story itself wasn't depressing.
It was about the obsession for physical fitness that has become a part of American life.
I don't mind reading about how millions of people jog, wack balls, wrestle with exercise machines, ride 12-speed bikes, and otherwise punish themselves to squeeze into a pair of designer jeans. Just as long as I don't have to take part.
but at the end of the story there was one of those self-testing quizzes that magazines and newspapers like to print.
You've seen them. They're usually labeled something like: "Do You Drink Too Much?" or "How Happy Are You?" or "Are You Under Stress?" or "Are You Courting A Heart Attack?" or "What's Your Rating As A Lover?"
you answer the questions, then add up the points, then look at the bottom to find out what kind of shape you're in. And, depending on the kind of quiz it is, it says something like:
Or: "Ten to twenty points — You are a terribly inadequate lover and your mate is surely carrying on with someone else."
then you’re probably too shaky to take the quiz in the first place.
It isn't, say Brennan, "Ten to twenty points — Your heart probably sounds like a slushmaker."
1 usually skip these quizzes because I know the results in advance. If you don't know if you drink too much by the red in your eyes,
But the headline on the quiz in Time had a title that made it impossible to ignore. It said:
That is an intriguing question. If
"How Long Will You Live?"
Mike
Royko
Chicago
Tribune
you know the answer to it, then you have time to make plans for your future. For example, you might buy a new Mercedes-Benz, knowing your children will get stuck paying it off. Or you could stop slobbering on your boss's shoes and tell him what you really think of him and his wife.
So I took the quiz, which consisted of about 30 questions in two categories: personal facts and lifestyle status.
The personal facts included whether I lived in a city or small town; the longevity of my grandparents; the health of my parents; marital status, and earnings. The lifestyle questions had to do with how much I smoked, drank, exercised, slept, weighed, and whether I was an easygoing or an aggressive, angry person.
It was a simple test. I started with 72 points, each of which represented a year. Then, each question was worth plus or minus points or years. I just added or subtracted as I went along.
When I finished, I looked up at the final number. Then I looked for further instructions. Most quizzes tell you to multiply by two or something
But there were no further instructions. The final number was it.
"That can't be right." I told myself. And I took the quiz again. But the results were the same.
According to that test, I died seven years ago.
like that
I couldn't believe it. I went to a coworker and said, "I just took this test in Time magazine. It says that I died seven years ago."
He nodded and said, "I'm not surprised. You haven't looked well lately."
Hoping to show that the test gave inaccurate results, I asked a friend who doesn't drink, smoke, swear or get mad, and stays in perfect physical shape, to answer the questions. The final figure was 82 years.
"How did you do?" my vice-free friend asked.
"Ind seven years ago. He 's said,
'I said, 'I said "Only the good die
young."
"I died seven years ago," he said.
At first I was depressed. I've always known that my lifestyle isn't recommended by most physical education instructors, but I didn't think the situation was that serious. After all, I take vitamin pills and get regular exercise by walking down escalators.
And I know others who have the same habits and have made it to ripe, old ages. After I took the test, I sought out one of the oldsters in a nearby bar and asked him, "Oldtimer, how long have you been living this way?"
"As far back as I can remember," he cackled.
I looked at his wrinkled, withered face, his frail, stooped shoulders, the liver spots on his hands, and said, "To what do you attribute your remarkable old age?"
He said, "What the hell are you talking about? I'm only 38."
The joint does have poor lighting.
ne that the test is a initial shock has worn off. I don't feel as bad about the test results. In a way, I find them complimentary.
For one thing, I took the test again, basing the answers on the condition I was in seven years ago.
Those results showed that I wouldn't have died until last year. So that tells me something, but I'm not sure what.
You can look at it this way: I must be a truly amazing physical specimen if I'm in such awful shape that I should have died seven years ago, but I'm still walking around
Nevertheless, there's a warning in the test results, I guess. So I'm going to immediately change some of my bad habits.
By doing so, I can make a dramatic shift in the results and add about 10 years.
I'm going to add those three years by moving out from behind my desk and sitting on my sofa when I write.
For one thing, I lost three points (or years) by answering "yes" to the question, "Do you work behind a desk?"
Also, I failed to pick up two years by answering "no" to the question,
"Did any of your grandparents live to be 85?"
Actually, one grandfather would have made it, but he died at 82 in a barroom brawl with a sneaky young Greek who had a knife hidden in his sleeve.
Finally, instead of losing three points by being "intense, aggressive, and easily angered," I'll gain three by becoming "easygoing and happy."
And I'll drink to that
Reagans' drug war is a lost battle
Nancy Reagan has launched her war on drugs, and drug users everywhere are shaking in their chemically dependent boots.
Well, not really. Some friends of mine threw a party last week, but I'm sure that someone out there is taking this seriously. I am optimistic and idealistic by nature, and even I don't think she has a chance. I will admit that, given time, she could possibly influence younger people not to do drugs (by younger I mean 10- to 14-year-olds), but among older U.S. citizens I didn't think she can pull it off. I have come up with a few reasons why.
Nancy Reagan makes people want to do drugs - Normal everyday people are sent scrambling for needles by the simple sight of Nancy on the 26-inch home lobotomy kit. She can send the strongest of men and women bounding over the love seat, chair and ottoman to the medicine cabinet.
Now that the president is involved in this crusade, I expect a huge number of first family-induced overdoses.
Drug use and abuse is a symptom — You cannot make a person stop doing drugs unless you take away the reason behind their use. Many people believe this is not the best of all possible worlds and reality is not so great. If it is so great then why do people want to alter it?
Christopher
Cunnyngham
Columnist
Drug tests are poor humor at best — Drug tests are a dying wheeze from a conservative regime. Soon, a large portion of upper echelon corporate power wielders will be men and women who once had shoulder-
length hair and an incredibly large bong collection. These people couldn't care less what their employees do in their free time as long as the employees don't bring it to work with them. President Reagan taking a drug test? I'll bet he was up all night studying by candlelight too. I bet he just aced the spelling L-S-D
Do he just accept that You can't win a war if you don't know the enemy — Nancy isn't Rommel and Ron has trouble being anyone. How are they going to know what goes on in the heads of the enemy? The acid casualties? The guy who gets stoned with his wife and rents Hitchcock movies for their VCR? What they need is a little hands-on research, like being locked in a room with a thousand comic books, the complete Bob Marley collection, some Monet prints and a big block of black hash. Then let them do their little police action.
There are so many people out there who really don't know anything about most drugs and Nancy keeps giving them information. She's kind of like a dope popularity barometer, a weather man for the drug culture. "This week's top drug ... various amphetamines! And you can expect that old standby, marijuana, to be gaining steam for the upcoming season!" People think "Hmmm, Nancy's worried about that this week
...must be the NEW DRUG
TREND. I better go buy a lot."
Nancy Reagan's big mouth —
Honestly, I think Nancy's War sounds better as a five-part miniseries than as a cultural reality. What young people need is a better understanding of drugs and what drugs can do to you. What they don't need are knee-jerk reactionary conservatives who want the press off of their backs for buying too much china.
Mailbox
Some are still unique
In response to Christian Colbert's Sept. 12 column on student apathy — "The time has come, the walrus said, to speak of many things . . ."
to speak of many things.
Kudos to: Coach Valesente for stressing academics over football.
That's what we're here for.
The Student Senate for establishing the student hotline; a simple solution to an age-old problem.
Shame on: Trailways for cutting bus routes. For some, buses offer the only choice between seeing friends and relatives or staying home.
Applause to: TV-30. Period. Here's
hoping you're back in action again soon.
The National Organization for Women for forming a chapter at KU. Equality, like the chapter, has been long overdue.
The KU Endowment Association for not divesting yet.
Kaspberries to: The Student Senate for misplacing important files from last years' elections. Looks like your hotline will be getting pretty hot.
The Drug Enforcement Agency for impounding Richard von Ende's car. Good luck in getting the car to talk, guys.
Congratulations to: The Entertainment & Arts section of the Kanran for
Financial accounting students for not passing the test. Good luck on finals and in the real world. You'll need it.
Compliments to: Disorientation on another successful welcome back issue. Consider this my vote for bringing the comic strip "Zippy the Pinhead" to KU. All you Kansan folks take note.
Thumbs down to: Financial accounting professors for being surprised at the dismal results their students had on a ninth grade math test.
the article on the Womonsong program, but please don't stop there. KJHK has eight other special programs, all deserving of a writeup.
The Glass Onion for offering an alternative to alcohol. Remember, I've got the table near the crawl space on the front window reserved. And finally, thanks to all of you who haven't lost your voice or individuality.
OK, Ski, the ball's in your court Pass the cream.
William A. Siebener
KU graduate and Lawrence resident