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Tuesday, September 2, 1975
University Daily Kansan
Busing necessary evil
Here it is again—another school year.
Here it is again. The start of a new continuation of the building controversy.
Everyone surely knows what busing is. It is the transporting of children throughout a school district in an effort to achieve racial balance in schools.
Progress toward integration has been made, but for the most part it has been still incomplete.
It's now 21 years since the Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kan., Supreme Court decision, which banned segregation in public schools, equal education in our public schools.
Civil rights groups rightfully demanded the end to segregated schools immediately. This demand, and the promise of a society in which whites and blacks would grow up together peacefully, has been unfulfilled.
One of the tools used to integrate school systems is busing. Busing has been necessary because of segregated housing patterns which show blacks and whites fleeing to the outskirts of cities and to suburbs.
People now rail against busing, saying that it subverts their freedom to choose schools for their children and reduces the concept of neighborhood schools.
They are wrong. They're using the symbol of busing to avoid doing what should have been done long ago to employ prejudice by blacks and other minor groups.
Where was the concept of neighborhood schools when blacks had to be bused across town to keep them from attending school? Did blacks have their choice?
Where was this concept when school districts were gerrymandered to
maintain separate facilities for whites and blacks?
Where was this concept when rural consolidation forced many kids to travel long distances to schools—and on buses?
Busing is not the greatest thing in the world. But it is a necessary evil as long as racism stubbornly clings to us as we have been for so many years and freedom, from this nation's soul.
To those who oppose busing, one should say this: Make busing unnecessary by helping to change the conditions that force it on us.
Work to eradicate racism in our country. This work must begin with an awareness of the problem and a commitment to solve it.
Understand that it is not blacks who threaten you. Rather, it is the abyssal economic conditions under which millions of people, many of whom are black, exist that cause many of our urban problems.
If one still rejects the concept of busing, at least one shouldn't let that decision keep him from living up to the principles of our laws, which guarantee equal opportunity for people of all colors.
However, if people won't voluntarily integrate their schools, it must be done by our governments—federal, state and local—because the law demands it. And the source of the spirit of that law is the Constitution.
And if busing has to be used to force people to live within the spirit of the Constitution, then so be it. Until better ways are found to ensure equal opportunity for all citizens, we must ensure artificiality in the prevalence of busing. Wood Hornsby
Ward Harkavy
Contributing Writer
African hypocrisy gains
WASHINGTON - Last week's negotiations between white Rhodeisers and black nationalists offer a fresh opportunity, if one were needed, to remark upon the folly of the West and the gale of the East in the guile of the events in sub-Sahara Africa.
James J. Kilpatrick
Since the United States first joined the lynch mob against Rhodesia eight years ago, we have done nothing right in this case. We should not build a policy on a quicksand composed of hypocrisy, double standards and plain lies. Communism has gained; self-government has lost; and mercantory interests have suffered.
From the bridge at Victoria Falls, where the conferences met on Monday, one can see a long way. To the north lie Angola, Zambia, Zaire, Uganda and Kenya to the south, Mozambique; to the south, South Africa, and to the west, Southwest Africa. I speak figuratively, for purposes of reflection. What does on see?
Angola is in flames. This rich
and beautiful and primitive land is torn asunder, as blacks slash at the throats of other blacks. How many thousands will perish in this savage civilization? What an irony it is to recall that eight years ago the United Nations branded Rhodesia "a threat to the peace." What will the U.N. say of peace, suburban housing? What national medding in Angola? The U.N. will say nothing at all.
The charge against Rhodesia was that the blacks had no voice in their government. So long as white rule prevailed, there was no prospect of democracy, no hope for a united nation. One looks out from Victoria Falls at the Double Standard Mountains beyond. It is a beautiful democracy, it is not, that one perceives in Zambia? How pretty the political parties of Zaire! Behold the scenery of Zambia and its dipach correspondents for the next free election in Tanzania.
The landscape is Orwellan, straight from the pages of "Animal Farm": White
domination, bad; black domination, good. In the eyes of intellectuals, who is the most scorned figure in sight? Why. Minister Ian Smith, under whose administration the blacks of Rhodesia have made gains in health, education and personal income that are the highest. And what figures are most admired? Why, sir, the heroes are the tiniot tyrans, one-party bosses, and black dictators, for power known no limit.
From the falls, one ages at vast rivers of hypocry. Every member of the United Nations, on paper, is bound to observe the U.N.'s stupid sanctions against Rhodesia. The observance is only on paper. It is common knowledge that Russia is buying Rhodianese chromite from Turkey; see Salisbury, visitors to automobiles from France, England, Italy and Germany.
What a curious oestracism! In theory, Rhodesia is the blood enemy of Zambia and
Mozambique. In fact,
Rhodesian railway lines
provide the arteries in-
ternationally to their economic
life.
Left alone, out of the spotlights, away from an international stage on which actors must act, the several cast members need accommodated-honest accommodation, taking political, racial and economic realities into account. But the bridge at Victoria Falls is a stage set. Postures must be maintained
The Communists doubtless enjoy the show. They have won Mozambique. Eventually they will pick up the shattered pieces of Angola, Sooner or later, they will win West Africa. At Victoria Falls, Bishop Abel Muzowera represents an uneasy coalition of "ZANU" and "ZAPU," the former tied to Peking, the latter to Moscow. What do we know of Russian Rhodesia? They are armed by Communists, trained by Communists, indoctrinated in
the ideologies of Lenin and Mao.
Their purpose is to throw the white rascals out. To what end? It is to throw the black rascars in.
There is much speculation in the British and European press about whether this latest round of military action will be but What is meant by success? If the Communists succeed (whether Russian or Chinese), they will pull the Rhodesian government out of their bottle. They will have achieved effective political, strategic and economic domination over most of the continent. Western influence in a mist of might-have-beens.
The best that the United States can hope for is that Ian Smith will resist the blanks and speak to his own latest spokesman, that he will play his cards skilfully and that South Africa will not weaken. With the world ganged up against him, he has done of our own Congress, these are frail hopes. They are merely the best we have.
Cheap thrills prevalent
(C) 1975 Washington Star Syndicate, Inc.
Family TV is 65% violent
Much has been said in the past few years about the excessive amount of violence on television and the possible impact that people who view it. While I'm not an avid television viewer, it seems to me that gunshots and explosions will common television sounds.
Because of this, and out of sheer curiosity, I picked up a recent issue of the Kansas City
Star's television section an
counted the number of
television programs concerned
with the health of children
on so. I counted programs from
Paula Jolly Contributing Writer
6 p.m. up to and including the 10:30 movies. This is what I found:
—During those hours, about
20 series programs dealt with subjects that were almost guaranteed to include violence, such as police and detective
In addition, 11 movies dealt with violence in some fashion. Included was "The Legend of Lizzie Borden," the story of a girl who was accused of backed her father and stepmother to death with an ax.
While most of the shows with violence were thoughtfully scheduled for later hours, a few were shown at times when young children could be watching. Lizzie Borden wielded
her ax from 8 to 10 p.m., a time when some children could possibly still be glued to the tube.
Roughly estimated, about 29 of the 42 hours of programming were filled with shows with violence. That's about 65 per cent of the programming hours.
Perhaps this amount of television violence is less than the amount in years past. I have no data from the past for a comparison. However, even the constant amount is too much for me.
decision makers probably won't try to decrease violence unless pressure continues to be applied by people outside of the truth-telling environment, packed, suspenseful murder and police chase are much cheaper to film than an action-packed, suspenseful mountain-adventure or some other subject that doesn't stress violence.
By filming the "lower priced model," the television people save money, and after all, money is the name of the game in television, just as it is in any other business activity.
Unfortunately, television's
Mary McGrory
Inmate clemency a joke
WASHINGTON—You may remember the "body count," that infamous concept which the US used to describe Vietnam War. It has figured also in the so-called Clemency Program which President Ford devised to provide "not just mercy" for those who fled it.
The program which he announced on the eve of the Nixon pardon, with the hope of molling the left without inflaming the right, was, three years later, the first step on its way to becoming his greatest flasco since the "WIN" campaign.
On Jan.15, he sent a notice to
The most the Clemency Board attracted of its potential clientele was 18 per cent. In the beginning, it was boycotted. In an attempt to up the numbers and give the affair some semblance of plausibility, Clemency Board Chairman Gerdel Gödel turned to large manpower pool, the country's prisons, where one in 20 inmates has a bad military discharge.
wardens of penal institutions asking their help in bringing presidential clemency to their charges' attention.
The Clemency Board, which received only general information about the civilian offenses, handled what came to be known as the "jail mall" just like the other applications. Then it dawned on them that they might embassar the President in charge of the pardon of people who were later revealed to be murderers, rapists or perpetrators of other serious crimes.
After a long and bitter dispute which polarized the board members and employee, they entered legal interns, they decided on a policy
of no clemency for those convicted of heinous offenses.
Vernon Jordan, executive director of the National Urban League, took vehement opposition to the Clemency Board was taken unto itself the powers of a Supreme Parole Board and going so far out of its jurisdiction, which applies only to military offenses, that the Clemency was "unconstitutional."
Presently, the board is sending over to the White House what Goodell calls "a number of favorable recommendations for felons who engaged in nonviolent criminal activity—crimes against property, not persons, as Goodell defines it. The recommendations go over in separate packets from those of non-felons so the President's office can be informed. anew, embrace content."
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Readers Respond
Ho hum. Another semester, another shortage of textbooks (see "Bookstore blues to stay; bodies outnumber books" by Larry Koehler) surveyed the University ombudsman surveyed more than 50 teachers about textbook shortages. Below, with the exception of ad hominem attacks on the university's director, are the results.
The problem has existed for at least eight years: Per cent of
To the Editor:
Basic, not minor, changes are desired: Type of change desired
teachers dissatisfied with bookstore—1988, 55; 1969, 32; 40, 127; 1971, 38; 1972, 38; 51; 1974, 49; and 1975, 38.
Students are also dissatisfied.
Take note, Ed Rofls and student senators: Per cent listing
student complaints as—very frequent or frequent, 56; in-
frequent, 43; and nonexistent, 1.
Faculty members demand change: Per cent desiring change-yes. 74. and no. 26.
Bookstore opposition documented
From an examination of written comments, one can conclude that the basic change demanded was this: The books should order as many books as the teacher requests. Period.
(in per cent)—Overhaul 22;
basic, 41; minor, 37.
Recently, William Balfour,
vice chancellor for student
affairs, and Ron Calgardia, vice
chancellor for academic
affairs, were asked to "discuss
and investigate" the problem. IF
you want your voice heard, you can write them a note in care of Strong Hall. Otherwise, the arbitrary abuse of power by bookstore bureaucrats will go on at least another eight years. Since this is a period of Trumante nostalgia, give 'em hell.
David Kowalewski
Former Assistant Instructor
Political Science Department
The Dally Kansan welcomes letters to the editor, but asks that letters be typewritten, double-spaced and no longer than 500 words. All letters are subject to editing and condensation, according to space limitations and the
letters policy
editor's judgment, and must be signed. KU students must provide their name, year in school and hometown; faculty must provide their name and position; others must provide their name and address.
Editor's Note: A copy of the survey can be seen by contacting Jed Berliter, director of the KU Ombudman Office.
Clarification
To the Editor:
To the Editor:
I should like to compliment
the author on this informative article on the
University libraries (Kansas,
Aug. 20). This should certainly help the University community
One board member, Joan Vinson, questioned the use of a clemency discharge for a man already in prison while the woman was on the value of a clemency discharge for a man with no other record is dubious. The Arizona legislature passed a clemency ordinance that gives county or local government employ anyone who avoided or deserted military service, "even though such person has been granted clemency by the Army," Annette (sic) Board."
To clarify one thing, however,
I should like to correct (or rather expand) the caption of the picture which accompanied the article. The stacks shown, although located in Spencer Library, are part of the temporary storage shelves in the basement of the library. The books shown aren't the rare books, which are housed elsewhere in Spencer, but books from other branches of the libraries which they cannot shelve because of lack of space.
The shelves in the rare book areas, although rapidly filling, haven't yet reached this stage of crowding, nor do they hold books shelved on their foreedges.
Alexandra Mason Assistant Director of Libraries
understand the problems faced by the libraries.
The President is not asking for an extension of the Clemency Board, which goes out of business on Sept. 15. If he asked Congress for more money, he would invite discussion of the futility of the fury of the president to unespeakable word to him. The disappointed convicts will not be heard from. They are in no position to complain that they got neither justice nor mercy.
He lost. He has not been to a board meeting since. In Atlanta, at an Urban League conference on July 27, he said he had read the Clemency Board had converted him to belief in total, unconditional universal amnesty. Dissident attorneys protest prosecution of the board exploited felons who them for public relations and then abandoned them for political reasons.
(C) 1973 Washington Star Syndicate, Inc.