4
Tuesday, October 7, 1975
University Dally Kansan
Anchovies welcome
Honor societies are clearly discriminatory; they strive to exclude the oafs and dolts, though they sometimes slip up.
However, rumors are circulating about a new and different honor society—one that surely compiles with affirmative action guidelines.
The society, Bovis Stercus International (BSI), apparently has only one entrance qualification—no qualifications. Members will be chosen without consideration of toothpaste brand, personal hygiene, any tendencies toward clutching and grabbing raw corduroy and religious beliefs (as long as those beliefs don't contradict the all-engulfing power of Osiris).
All candidates for BSI will be interviewed with the aid of specially equipped World War II scrambler phones. However, so as not to discriminate against non-phone users, replies to questions can be relayed through a series of grunts and squeals emitted by a third party.
Academic qualifications will not be considered because most people are deemed disadvantaged and thus not fairly measured by an education system that unfortunately judges its products by their (neuter gender) ability.
in other words, anyone with the in-
telligeance of an anchovy will be considered qualified.
Incidentally, the word "ability" will not be used by interviewers. Did you notice the clever insertion of the male name "Bil?" Such piggishness will not be tolerated by BSI. Speling will be stressed.
BSI has since discovered other errors in its guidelines. For one thing, the impartial observer can readily see that the word "Bovis" is merely a guise for the infamous male nickname "Bo." This error must have occurred because of the discriminatory society in which we (neuter gender) live.
Furthermore, "International" is a word play that cleverly obscures the presence of "Al," a male name if ever we heard of one. One solution might be to use a name like Storcas International-alice. No one could object to such a modification.
Unfortunately, this ambitious project may never come to fruition. Because the guidelines of BSI were written by members of a culture that is undeniably corrupt, the whole concept has to be relected.
Someday, however, persons may be able to compete with full equality and opportunity with persons. Then, and only then, will they truly be persons.
Ward Harkavy
Contributing Writer
Firemen play old tune
This weekend, the Kansas City, Mo., fire department followed in the footsteps of a historically infamous emperor, for just as Nero fiddled while Rome burned 2,000 years ago, so it came around while Kansas City burned
Last Friday, after several threats and warnings, the 848 professional firemen staged a walkout demanding higher pay. Their starting salary is $10,200.
As it to underscore the vital need for professional fire fighters, a rash of 58 fires broke out Friday night, several directly linked to arson, according to the Bureau of Fire Joseph McNamara. The usual number of fires in one night is five.
Not only were volunteer firemen forced to answer an impossible number of alarms (many of them false), but also they were plaged by sabotaged equipment—including fire extinguishers filled with inflammable liquid and fire trucks with water in their gasoline tanks.
Negotiations between Kansas City Mayor Charles Wheeler and representatives of the International Association of Fire Fighters Local No. 10 have been made and seem doomed to further failure because both sides refuse to compromise.
What is the answer? Should employees responsible for public safety, such as a fire department, be allowed to strike or higher the pay they are allowed to ignore state laws expressly
forbidding such strikes? What if the city agrees to compromise this time? Will they strike every time they want a pay raise?
Should the firemen continue to strike, disregarding public safety and state law, a solution proposed by Wheeler yesterday seems to be the best answer.
Wheeler's plan is to lay off the striking
tweensies, who are one ones
from the backlog of applicants.
No one can prove yet that members of the fire fighters' union were responsible for setting any of the fires this weekend. However, the firemen were responsible for their duty to serve the public and for casually disregarding human lives.
In a time when unemployment is high and people are eager to get jobs, who needs so-called public servants who refuse to do their jobs? There are no doubt, others who would do the job better.
By refusing to be intimidated by union demands, Wheeler has shown that his priorities are correctly ordered. The lives and safety of the 500,000 residents in our country are obviously are more important than the demand for higher wages of 850 persons.
Should Kansas City replace the striking firemen, as Wheeler has proposed, it will serve as an example not only to its own public servants, but also to those threatening strikes in other cities as well. Jain Penner
Contributing Writer
WASHINGTON—The dedication of the new FBI building, which bears the name of J. Edgar Hoover, was a somewhat haunted occasion, despite the bright sunshine.
The structure itself is oppressive, as perhaps it was meant to be. A collection of rocks and staircases, a khalde-colored concrete and set high above the ground, it gives the impression of 1,000 eyes on slats. Vertical slats at the entrance, mindful of prison bars, are part of the scene; a couple of menacing overhangs on the upper stories.
Mary McGrory
But it wasn't the architecture alone which hung heavy over the occasion. It was the thought of what has happened to the family in the day. After his death in May 1972, things were never quite the same. Awe-struck small boys still trugged through its darkness but elsewhere skiptcham has set in and questions are asked.
FBI building oppressive
The former assistant director said that although these burglaries were "technically illegal," he thought they were necessary to help protect the company from cyber-attacks, "black-bag jobs," as they are called in the trade, were kept in a "Do Not File" file.
Congress has cast off the shackles of her heroism and fear and is poking into files and practices. More recently, a retired official confessed to Sen. Berties for stealing committee that the FBI had committed some 238 "black-bag jobs" over a 28-year period.
So the quality of rhetoric about Hoover was rather strained for once, and the dictionaryes hadn't been ransacked, as in the old days, for the defensive superlatives that characterized Richard Nixon's statement upon the old man's statement.
"For millions, he was the symbol and embodiment of the values he cherished most: his love for the people to his country and granite-like
He never had to, of course. He had the goods. And Richard Nixon, like every other president before him, ran from a fight with J. Edgar Hoover. When they clashed, over the phone, Nixon, like Hoover, quite correctly regarded as a reflection on his subversive-hunting powers, Nixon quit the
Atty. Gen. Edward H. Levi, who starts and stops in his running argument with Hoover's successor, Clarence M. Kelley, over the latter's view that government are expendable in the pursuit national security, was rather noncommittal at the dedication.
He took refuge in quotation from Hoover's first sponsor, Supreme Court Justice Harlan Stone.
President Ford also sought secondary sources for praise. He cited that he had once praised Hoover for "table leadership" and that Dwight D. Eisenhower had him the National Security Mach
At least the President was demonstrably safe. He spoke before a rampart worthy of Elsainro, watched over by three security agents. The audience was thickly sown with other professional scanners, short of hair, wary of eve.
There was also the abounding relief that Patthe Heart, who for 19½ months had caused the Bureau of the most acute of recent
embarrassments, was safety behind bars. She had beer caught just in the nick of time dedication-wise.
But that was balanced by the new disquiet over another violent California woman, Sarah Jane Moore, who so lately in San Francisco had almost robbed the occasion of its principal speaker. Unlike Patty Hearst, Sarah Jane Moore, the pitiful, added groupie had tried to get caught
Sarah Jane Moore is the most notorious ex-FBI informer in history. She was recruited and paid to give information about the Killings, Army, which may help to explain why Patty Hearst was at large for so long. The FBI has still to explain why they
retained an attention-starved misfit whose problem was that she could never get anyone to listen to her.
It is ironic that the bureau, which has been in hot water for too much surveillance-over people who never made any secret of what they were doing, did not warn Jane Moore have failed to keep an eye on Sarah Jane Moore, gun buyer and system-tester.
Problems like that can't be solved by a new $126 million headquarters. It was dedicated at a moment of supreme importance in and about the law, for enforcement and establishment. The bureau's job is to make life less dangerous, and every day in the U.S. is more dangerous for everyone, including the President. Alarmist Star Syndicate Inc.
(c) 1975 Washington Star Syndicate, Inc.
Readers Respond
To the Editor:
SUA leaders take easy way out
The proposed Shockley-Goldsbey debate was a glimmer of hope that this university might attain a place of importance as an academic institute unafraid of an unpleasant idea and as a forum for exposure of views even so bizarre as to
It is evident that thing,
haven't changed much from
when I last attended KU, in
1971. Students of this campus
charged with the responsibility
of providing "leadership" in the
workplace and telling the story
out and avoiding a controversial
issue.
shock the more liberal of this university community.
Shockley has gained much national notice for his being shouted down at certain parties, in prance, and hopefully his been revealed as a charlatan, at this campus might just have been one of the most appalled figures of the academic year.
Does Mr. Bengtson often approve of a controversial speaker without first checking out his credentials? The Kansan article to indicate that his 180-degree change of heart came about largely due to this belated relevance: Shockley is
You bet. Thanks are in order to Mr. Bengton et al., for they have shown themselves equal to the task of protecting us from harm by being servatives and things that go bump in the night.
Clinton Latig
Topeka Special Student
Glover misled To the Editor:
Steven Lewis against the KU School of Social Welfare faculty, I was assured by Mr. Lewis that there was substantive evidence to support his claim. He also convinced that I was misled by Mr. Lewis, as this evidence hasn't materialized.
mittee to the Attorney General's office for further investigation.
When I originally asked the Legislative Post-Audit Committee to investigate the charges brought to me by
Because of my close work with some of the school's faculty manners on other issues, I recovered money from investors and transferred to the Post-Audit Committee, which was specifically created to be an unbiased financial investigative arm of the Com. This is why we supported, the allegations have been turned over by the Com.
I am anticipating hearing from Mr. Tom Regan of the Attorney General's office soon concerning these charges, including his unsubstantiated. At that point, I'm also hopeful that the media will report that the School has surfaced as clean of all charges made by Mr. Lewis, and that the School's faculty will continue to provide education for which they have been known and praised.
Michael G. Glover State Rep., 44th District Lawrence
The K-32 blues
Commuters drive for education
This is dedicated to all students at the University of Kansas who are brave or foolish enough to travel long distances for an education.
It's 7 a.m. as I slam the front door and move down the sidewalk from my home to the bear's building. I'm barely seeing the building, a block away. I wear the moisture from my car's windows with an old
towel as the motor warms up and then I'm off to pick up two other people just like me who live in the city. City, Kan, to Lawrence.
Commuting is an insanity indulged in by a sizeable number of KU students, although the university has not known. Some commute
I'm a commuting student.
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from Topeka, some from Kansas City, some from various other locations. All of us have one thing in common: We spend
Paula Jolly
The other commuters roll into the car, spreading books, briefcases and lunch sacks over every available empty space. Greetings are exchanged; a few words are spoken about school. Eventually silence reigns again, with music and news from my sometimes-functioning car radio.
Our reasons for commuting vary. Some may have husbands or wives going to school in Kansas City or Topeka; others live with their parents than to rent a place in Lawrence.
large chunks of our college lives behind the steering wheel.
The others open books or shuffle through class notes. I see concentration on driving, but my eyelids feel as if lead weights were pulling them down. I open books and hoping the cold air will clear, my eyes
For members of a car pool like ours, the distance from home to O-zone parking lot at K3-2 highway, is about 47 miles.
For this semester, which will total about 80 school days, the daily round trip will add up to about 7,600 miles on the road.
The miles slip by in the foggy morning. I watch the early-bird jogging of some high school athletes in Bonner Springs, and then the highway us up into the plateau country in Leavenworth County. The fogs lift a little, and I can see open ponds and golden farm ponds and golden overgrown fields. Appalachian horses and Holstein cattle skip by as the road winds on.
If gasoline were to cost 55 cents a gallon during the entire semester, commuting 7,600 miles in car averaging 25 miles per gallon would be less. The miles covered and gas consumed would be less if the turpike were used, but that would add about $7.50 a week, or a gallon of gas. The turpike tolls—something definitely not worth changing to.
The sun bursts triumphantly through the fog as we approach the Douglas County line. I'm confident I will be brilliant in the rear-view mirror, and as I adjust the mirror to spare my eyes, I see that the commuter in the back has fallen asleep. His head lolls on to the floor window, and a book slowly inches off his lap. In the seat
next to me another student also sleeps, a sheaf of notes in her unmoving hands. I light a cigarette to stay awake: The worry about dropping ashes on my clothes gives my mind a hardaw on. I look at my watch and find the time to be 7:45 a.m.
Pekahs the most valuable thing lost by a commuting student is time. Commuting between Kansas City and Lawrence, for example, takes two hours, but this week—time that could be spent studying, sleeping or being in love.
As K-32 crosses over the trumpet, I glance at the traffic below and remember what it was like to commute during the winter classes on an ice-colored classes on an ice-colored trumpet at 30 miles per hour.
The highway descends into the Kaw River valley, and the twin towers of Fraser Hall are visible in the distance. By 8 a.m. we pull into O-zone and my fellow travelers stir, rub their eyes and collect their books. The journey is over for now.
Someone counts out loud the number of class days left in the semester. We groan in unison, and we all look at the whole thing seems bearable.
Only 49 commuting days remain until the semester's end.
Mediocrity not so bad
E
Like a schoolboy explaining a bad report to disappoint parents, he protested that at least a C would have been justifiable. After all, C had always been his grade in high school. He quickly added that his grades had improved when he reached college level. Then he and already marked down the mayor of Kansas City, Mo., as a C-grade person and always would think of him as mediocre.
BY JANEM MACAULAY
Foreign Exchange Graduates in Student
from Aberdeen, Scotland
Mayor Charles Wheeler of Kansas City, Mo., faced the TV cameras with downcast eyes. His city just lost its high "liveliness" rating still, still, had received a D-grade for its politics.
It's bad to be mediocre in America, where everything strives to be biggest and best. New York City is the world's longest waterfall. Chicago (almost proudly) claims the greatest crime rate. The University of Kansas welcomes us to its overcrowded classrooms with the news of higher-than-ever
Britain is a very small country. At an early stage of primary school geography, I was taught that Britain could be smok entirely in one of the American Great Lakes.
But the British are resilient. Someone invented the phrase "Small is beautiful." Not
I sympathize. Mr. Wheeler. It would be pleasant to be an A-grade mayor, responsible for the most liveable city in this, the most affluent country in the world. But we all have our limitations. Not only am I a B-grade person with a second-class university degree, but I am
only do we take pride in our smallness, but our separatist movements—Scottish, Welsh and even Cornish—try to break the country into still smaller units.
In spite of economic problems, we continue to support small corner shops and have launched campaigns against the closure of one-teacher schools. We take pride in poverty rather than wealth, maintaining that this has strengthened our national character.
Well, perhaps we do make ourselves slightly ridiculous. What Britain and America fail to recognize is that not everyone can be the biggest or the smallest, the richest or the poorest. Most people always will be somewhere in between.
But is this so bad? We, the mediocre, are the backbone of our respective nations. It must be nice to be first-rate in a particular field, the greatest painter the world has ever known or just the most popular boy in the class. But the second-rate painter who also is a second-rate friend, probably is a much more useful member of society and much more pleasant to know.
Not everyone can be President (though it sometimes seems as if everyone wants to be, but many people can, by working hard, become efficient politicians.
Why does the word "medicore" carry such a stigma? The state of Kansas boasts no tallest buildings (unless they are grain elevators) or spectacular natural features. One claim for inclusion in the record books is that it contains the geographical center of the United States. Should we call it "the most medicore state in the country"?