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Friday, November 6, 1992
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I
OPINION UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
1139
IN OUR OPINION
Free expression includes even KKK's propaganda
The recent hysteria about the finding of Ku Klux Klan literature in the Kansas Union serves as a reminder of how people who have the best intentions can be unnecessarily repressive.
Certainly the Union's staff may object to the content of the fliers found in the building. But calling the police and removing the offending material is not the way to go about expressing disagreement with the Klan's absurd philosophy.
The Union officials overreacted to what was a minor situation in reality. They seem to think that allowing the literature in the building somehow constitutes approval of its content.
And it is not only the officials who are guilty of this. Danny Kaiser, assistant dean of student life, said that the University did not want to hide the fact that Ku Klux Klan literature was present in the building. But by allowing the literature to be removed, the University seems to be saying that it does want to hide the content of that literature.
What needs to be done instead is to confront this literature head on, rather than to attempt to hide it. We all are better served when we can examine hateful literature such as this because it is only upon examination that we can see how wrong the message of the Klan is.
The message of the KKK is one that thrives on ignorance and repression. It withers and is refuted upon examination.
The appropriate response when confronted with such sentiments is not to attempt to hide the sentiments but to expose them for the fallacies that they are.
MARK COATNEY FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Democrats appealed to conservatives in election
Now that the election is over, and Governor Bill Clinton has won the presidency, it is time to look back he made little mistake reasons why George Bush lost.
Bush talked a lot about trust and telling the truth, but in the end, it was he who lacked credibility. By changing his mind on taxes, excessive regulation, etc., Bush could be seen as a person who when the issue was controversial would take his finger to the air and test the wind. This is not to say that he did this on every issue. His firm stance on abortion, and his total support of Justice Clarence Thomas shows that Bush will hold his ground on some issues.
the most important part of the downfall of Bush.
Let no one tell you that Bush's defeat was a rejection of conservative politics. It was a rejection of country-club Republicanism, not the conservatism of Ronald Reagan. Bush rejected conservative ideas on one issue more than any other. He agreed with a Democratic tax increase that was one of the largest tax increases in U.S. history. This one decision is probably
Look at what the Democratic Party had to do just to get Bill Clinton elected. Their whole message was to say that Clinton was not a liberal and would not follow the tax-and-spend policies of Keynesian economics. It has succeeded.
This is one of the first elections in more than 20 years in which the Democrat supports the death penalty, is serious about welfare reform, and actually supported (I'm still not sure that he did not waffle on the Persian Gulf War) a war of the United States. This must say something about the effects of Ronald Reagan and conservatism.
It shows that the American people are much more conservative than the traditional Democrats have taken them to be, and in order or the Democrats to be elected, they must appeal to conservative values.
Tom Grelinger
Tom Grelinger Kansas City, Kan., sophomore
Readers are tired of much ado about nothing in letters
We are writing to declare in the strongest possible terms that we have nothing at all say about the letters to the editor written by Scott William, Elizabeth Arnold, and Tracey Cluthe. Nor can we emphasize with any greater conviction that we have no opinion whatsoever about our maturity in relation to stupid freshmen or immature grad students. We hope
that this letter will ring throughout the land with fierce determination about our apathy regarding the preceding subjects.
James Edwin Smith
James Edwin Smith
Long Beach, Calif. graduate student
Eric Swedlund
Lawrence graduate student
KANSANSTAFF
ERIC NELSON
GREG FARMER Managing editor
SCOTT HANNA Business manager
TOM EBLEN General manager, news adviser
BILLLEIBENGOOD Retail sales manager
BILL SKEET, Technology coordinator
Editors
Ast. Managing...Alinee Brannan
News...Alexander Bloomhof
Editorial...Stephen Martino
Campus...Gayle Osterberg
Sports...Shelly Solon
Photo...Justin Knapp
Features...Cody Holt
Graphics...Sean Tevis
JEANNE HINES Sales and marketing adviser
Business Staff
Campus sales mgr ... Angela Cleverdon
Regional Sales mgr ... Meltie Taiter
National sales mgr ... Brian Wilkes
Legal sales mgr ... Brad Breon
*production mgr* ... Brad Breon
Marketing director ... Ashley Langford
Creative director ... Valerie Spicher
Classified mgr ... J仕德 Standley
Letters should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 200 words. They must include the writer's signature, name, address and telephone number. Writers affiliated with the University of Kansas must include class and homeetown, or faculty or staff position. Letters should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 708 words. The writer will be photographed.
The Kansan reserves the right to reject or edit letters, guest columns and cartoons. They can be mailed or brought to the Kansan newsroom, 111 Staffer-Final Hall.
"Hello, Mr. Carter? Bill Clinton.Well I did it! Now what do I do?"
Bed, not classroom, is the place for germy, snot-nosed students
Have you ever noticed how some people refuse to admit they're sick?
STAFF COLUMNIST
I don't mean people who can carry on despite headaches, or people who have sore throats but just grab a few lozenges and persevere.
I'm talking about people who have raging head colds, but refuse to acknowledge the fact. People who somehow believe that if they don't blow their noses, then they aren't actually ill. And with winter arriving, these people are coming out of the woodwork.
For example, there is a woman in my psychology class who has had a funny nose for at least three weeks. But rather than invest in a box of tissues and a trip to Watkins, she sits behind me and sniffs and snorts every Tuesday and Thursday morning.
It's more than annoying now. It's infuriating. I used to want to offer her a tissue. Now I want to slam her in the head with my book bag.
I know that blowing your nose may not be the most genteel of actions. But it's certainly a lot more pleasant than the kinds of noises that people make when they refuse to do so.
JULIE WASSON
However, these runny-nosed types aren't the true menaces. Sure, they're gross. But at least they aren't spreading whatever disease they have.
Unlike people who sneeze and
spray. Now, I know that sometimes
sneezees are unexpected. But that doesn't mean that you shouldn't try to refrain from sharing them with everyone in your immediate surroundings. Just clamp a hand over your general mouth/nose and spare us all.
The same goes for people with coughs. I have bronchitis more often than anyone ever, so I empathize with those who just cannot couch cough.
But I still understand the importance of covering your mouth when you cough. More than just common courtesy, it is a way to keep from spreading germs. It's not a difficult thing to do. And I think we're all old enough to remember to do it.
But there are people with ailments more serious than these who drag themselves to class. All I can think is: "Why?"
I mean, I know it’s important to try to make it to class, but if you’re so sick that you’re contagious, the best place for you is in bed, I don’t want to sit
next to a health hazard.
When my doctor told me this week that I have the flu and bronchitis, I didn't argue with him. Actually, I was disappointed with his diagnosis.
I had already decided that I was probably dying, and that I was likely to become a double-lung transplant recipient. I had shared this information with my parents, my roommate and anyone else who would listen to me whine. So a simple flu and bronchitis was somewhat anticlimic.
Nevertheless, I didn't feel the need to share my illness with everyone. I didn't go to work. I didn't go to class. I went to bed. Because that's where people should go when they're sick.
I hope the woman in my psychology class does too.
Julie Wasson is a Springfield, Mo. senior majoring in journalism and political science.
Crusading censors don't realize demand for smut
COLUMNIST
Business picked up. But he hadn't anticipated the angry response from the decent people who lived in his working-class neighborhood.
Back when Linda Lovelace became the first really big porn star, the owner of a neighborhood movie theater in Chicago decided to get in the smut market. He switched from regular movies to hard-core pornography.
Civic and church groups held meetings. They organized protests outside the theater, which embarrassed the men who slinked in and out.
There were fire threats and death threats. The theater owner finally caved in to the pressure. He dumped the movie and began showing only G-rated films.
After a few months of showing wholesome family movies to very few families, he went back to X-rated movies and started turning a profit.
One small problem: Nobody came to see those movies. There were so few customers that the owner didn't take in enough to pay his projectionist.
The protesters were elated. They had defeated sin and smut. Moves about dogs, kids and happy families began flickering on the screen.
MIKE ROYKO
The moral of the story is that you should give the people what they want, but they don't always want what they say they want, so give them what they want. The moral of the story that doesn't seem to have occurred to the goodness-and-decency crowd.
Despite what Dan Quayle says, it isn't some sort of cultural elite that is supporting the glop shown in movie theaters or TV. No, the majority of the customers are middle class.
The American Family Association, of Tupelo, Miss., is taking out ads asking people to sign petitions that will be sent to the executives at movie studios, networks and record companies. The ads say: "Shame on the
Sorry, but you are going to put up with it because the market, the customer, is not buying your product.
Or maybe the decency crowd thinks that millions of people are being dragged into theaters and forced at gun point to watch "Fatal Attraction."
Sure, instead of all that gore and sex they'd rather watch "84 Charing Cross Road. What? You didn't see "84 Charing Cross Road." Too bad. You missed a sweet, intelligent little movie that got critical raves. But nobody was mutilated or bedded, so it was in and out of the theater quickly.
Recently an actress appeared mude in a networkshow called "Civil Wars." The rating reports say that 9,870,000 households had their TV sets tuned in.
That's why so few movies like it are made. The general public doesn't want them. There's more money to be spent on exploding heads and bouncing beds.
Why did she appear nude? Obviously to get more viewers. It was a blatant appeal to the pruriest nature of people. And it worked. The previous
week 8,570,000 households were tuned in.
That means that the viewers of about 1.3 million more TV sets were attracted to a glimpse of a naked woman. Were these viewers all fiends and degenerates? Probably not. It would be tame stuff for the average fiend or degenerate. Most likely, they were just your typical middle-class citizens. Just like the ones who buy all those weird Stephen King novels.
Or just like the nice people who prefer talk shows that feature 300-pound cross dressers to those about the disposal of nuclear waste. Or the nice people who get their daily dose of infidelity from their favorite soaps.
Unless we want censorship, which would require a change in our system of government, we're stuck with the law of supply and demand.
Now one of the hottest movies being shown in Tupelo, Miss., is "Innocent Blood," which is about a highly erotic female vampire.
Goodness, I didn't know that they even thought about neck-biting bim bos in Tupelo.
Mike Royko is a yiddish columnist from the Chicago Tribune.
Loco Locals
JUST MARINE, KATIE,
IF THE FOOTBALL TEAM
WINS TOMORROW...A
POSSIBLE ALLOY OR DARE
I SAY OR ORANGE BOOW
ALL YOU HAVE TO DO
IS SAY THE WORD -
AND SOME MONEY FROM
MY MOM - AND YOU AND
I ARE OFF...DAYS FILLED
WITH SIGHT-SEEING.
By Tom Michaud
MICHAEL@FPTZ