4
1. (    )
Thursday, October 29, 1992
1.
OPINION UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
IN OUR OPINION
Another high school would offer city more
One of the most frequently heard sentences in a small town is, "I'll see you at the game." The social life of the community often revolves
around the high school. School activities provide a unifying force for the community and a common meeting place for parents. The fact that the great majority of students in a community will go to the same high school, no matter how many different elementary schools there are, creates a common ground.
Lawrence High School has been that common meeting place for the members of our community for many years, and it is understandable that many here want this to remain. What these people must realize, though, is that Lawrence is not the small town that it was 30 years ago, or even 10 years ago. The time has come for the city to build another high school.
Lawrence High is by far the largest school in the state. While its size and solid financial base allows the school to offer many classes and programs not offered in the majority of Kansas high schools, the size of the school also can be intimidating and inhibiting. The chance to participate in school activities, such as drama, football or debate, becomes limited to only the best students and denies the educational opportunities that those activities give to most students.
Property taxes in the Lawrence school district have been reduced recently under the new school finance plan, so raising money for the construction of a new school shouldn't be difficult. What may be difficult is changing the attitudes of the Lawrence residents who still think of Lawrence as a small town.
MARK COATNEY FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Criminal justice system illustrates a lack of logic
last week, a Texas grand jury redefined "safe sex". When an Austin woman found herself face-to-face with a rapist wielding a knife, she convinced him to wear a condom.
However, what seemed like a clever and clearheaded decision at the time is returning to haunt the victim.
The condom may have protected the both of them from sexually transmitted diseases, but the grand jury kept that protection intact for the attacker. The jury refused to indict the man. Although grand jury proceedings are secret, it is believed that the jury felt that the woman's act of self protection might have implied her consent. If consent was involved, then by definition it is not rape.
It is at times like these that the criminal justice system in our nation becomes scary. It seems as if all logic has been thrown out the window. The Rodney King case was a similar miscarriage of justice.
However, women who have faced injustice similar to the woman in Austin are not fortunate enough to all live in the same part of town. Will it take a riot, with its destruction and violence, to convince us of this unfairness?
This decision by the Texas grand jury could set a frightening precedence, indeed. Is a woman who takes the birth control pill consenting to sex with anyone who feels like it? Of course not. But the present situation is not far from this line of thinking.
Attempting to convict "beyond a reasonable doubt" is extremely difficult in rape cases. But when the evidence is as lopsided as it was in this case and our system can't convict, then maybe we need to throw it out.
JEFF REYNOLDS FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
SECAY PART IS MARY
THEY MAY BE ON SOMETHING
TOYS
UNIVERSAL PRESS SYND.
01028 THE BUFFALO NEWS
'No comment'comment shows newspaper's bias
Is the press fair? 'That'a debate that never ends. Some papers are. Some aren't. One thing you can count on — they're usually fair to themselves.
The Chicago Sun-Times is the country's ninth biggest city paper. One recent day, displayed on its front and back pages was a promotion for one of the paper's sports columns. It was an open letter from the columnist to Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka.
It was an angry letter. Among the words used to describe Ditkwa were "pathetic," "psychosis" and "lumatic." And it concluded by telling Ditkua, "if you are unprepared to act like a civil human being, then quit."
In addition, the Sun-Times invited readers to vote in a phone poll, the question being, "Should Beaches coach Mike Ditka out?"
What was Ditka's crime? During a recent news conference, Ditka was asked a stupid question clearly aimed at provoking him. He took the bait and called the sportswriters SOBs.
COLUMNIST
Fl let others debate whether Dittka should quit or be strong up from a battle.
What is interesting is how the treatment of the story compares with another story in the same paper. The other story was less than half as long as the Ditka tirade. It was tucked away at the bottom of an inside page. It was about a former Sun-Times sportswriter who had been indicted on 196 felony counts. He is accused of using his position to persuade publicity-hungry high school athletes to have sex with him or with prostitutes. He allegedly liked to videotape the men with hookers.
MIKE ROYKO
The story was written in a non-emotional manner. It didn't describe the accused sex criminal as being a mononuclear individual, nor any other flaws attributed to Dikta.
There were three paragraphs saying that investigators were concerned that the youngsters might have caught AIDS from the prostitutes.
So here we have two different approaches to two different stories. In one, a coach calls sportswriters a crude name. So a columnist questions his mental stability and suggests that he either reform or quit his job.
This is so newsworthy that it is promoted on the front page, back page and the page where the story about the accused sex offender appears.
Nor does Page One carry the warning to teen-age athletes that they might be infected with AIDS. A reality that much of which story is more socially significant.
However, an accused sex offender who wrote sports for the same paper is indicted on almost 200 felony charges, and that is not worthy of front page treatment.
There are other questions a reasonable person might ask. Weeks have passed since the man was arrested right in the Sun-Times newsroom, his former employees haven't explained how a convicted sex deviate managed to get a job writing about high school sports. He had been hired after doing time for raping a teen-age boy.
Nor have they explained why the paper didn't become curious when some coaches called, complaining that he was phoning players at home, trying to take them out.
If a public official had hired a person to work with teenagers with so sordid a background, the Sun-Times would demand immediate explanations. If Ditka drafted a football player who served time in prison for sexually assaulting a teen-age boy, Ditika would surely be accused of being worse than a monster or a lunatic.
But when the editor of the SunTimes is asked about hiring procedures the paper's representative says: "No comment." It's doubtful that the SunTimes would accept a "no comment" from a public official or coach under the same circumstances.
Then there is the telephone call. If readers are asked to vote on whether a coach should go, why shouldn't they be asked to vote on these questions: "Is it right for the editor of a paper to say 'no comment' when he is asked about how his paper hired a dangerous sex offender? And should that editor quit?"
And finally: "One of the sportswriters was indicted on 196 felony counts. Could that be an all-time record?"
Mike Royko is a syndicated columnist with the Chicago Tribune.
INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
European press eyes U.S.election
The U.S. political parties have failed to secure the trust of their fellow citizens. They have proved at their weakest when wooing Ross Perot and allowing him to present himself as some cuddly pixie. In fact, he is the Pied Piper of paranoia, a dire warning of what cash and unadulterated egotism can inflict on a weakened political system.
He may not make any difference to the end result, but it is not now sufficient merely for Perot to lose: He is a boil to be lanced.
The next president of the United States will need to destroy his absurd pretensions in this final speech, but he is confident and more the new administration.
The Guardian
This could be positive to the extent that the global economic recovery depends on a large extent on the power of the American "locomotive." This could be dangerous to the extent that Europe and the United States now seem less like partners than like rivals.
Bill Clinton at least deserves credit for having made it clear: America will concentrate on all on itself.
But one declaration is cause for joy: "I'm convinced that America has more to gain than to lose in dealings with Europe," Clinton said.
Les Dernieres Nouvelles d'Alsace Strasbourg, France
KATE KELLEY Graffiti loses impact if the message is misspelled
In response to recent criticism that my columns lack substance, I am going to tackle a sobering subject, which may have lifelong repercussions on half the population on this campus. I am referring to the graffiti on the stalls in the women's bathrooms in Wescoe Hall.
Trite, you say? Unimportant, you scoff? I think not.
One may choose not to pick up a newspaper, or avoid reading pieces by staff writers known to have skewed points of view. But it is almost impossible to ignore the glaring propaganda scrawled across the bathroom walls. There one sits, stranded for minutes, a captive audience for the flaming-liberal pinkos or right-wing Nazis who feel compelled to leave their infinite wisdom on three of the four walls that enclose you.
Wall wallers are always extremely right or left, politically. Fence sitters or mural liners are evidently not right to vandalize to present their opinions.
KANSAN STAFF
Bill Clinton supporters have written the most in these pre-election days. According to one author, "If we have any hopes of finding a decent job after we graduate — we must vote for Clinton/Gore." Grammar usage is not a big concern to bathroom proseligers.
ERIC NELSON
Editor
GREG FARMER
Managing editor
TOM EBLEN
General manager, news adviser
Neither is spelling a concern. One message said, "It would also be wise to help our educational system as college graduates are incamp (a line crosses this out) incapable of spelling and proper grammar." Then, the author adds, "Hopefully, you can find the errors!" But I think that the writer added that to cover her mistakes. As Dan Quayle so aptly demonstrated, if you want your political expression taken seriously, you had better at least spell it correctly.
Someone liked Ross Perot and wrote the high-school type war cry, "Perot Rules." Opponents were quick to attack this with accusations of Perot taking over the CIA, cutting his own taxes and leaving us poor folks to pay off the deficit.
A Clinton backer enthusiastically told us that Clinton would actually cut taxes for the middle class. (My experience has been that there is no Santa Claus; no Tooth Fairy; and no president, Republican or Democrat, who will ever cut taxes.)
One paranoid person compared President George Bush to the Nazis and referred to him as "Heir Bush". Another pen user corrected this to "Herr Bush." Once again, I was distracted from the point of the message by the author's ignorance of correct grammar, but multi-language dictionary in the stalls, maybe on a little shelf right next to the toilet paper.
Most of the graffiti is found in the first floor rest room. Perhaps the chemicals from the Wescoe cafeteria excite violent reactions of expression. Or, maybe people on other floors are in too big of a hurry to get to class to write anything.
To get serious again, bathroom-wall graffiti, much like subliminal advertising, is frightening in its capacity to brain wash unsuspecting bathroom users. It must be stopped. If you agree, leave me a message on the wall in the first stall.
Kate Kelley is a Fort LeavenworthJunior
maloring in English.
BILL SKEET, Technology coordinator
SCOTT HANNA
Business manager
BILLLEIBEGOOD
Retail sales manager
JEANNE HINES
Sales and marketing adviser
Asst. Managing ... Almee Brainard
News ... Alexander Bloomhot
Editorial ... Stephen Martino
Campus ... Gayle Ostringer
Sports ... Shelly Solon
Photo ... Justin Knupp
Features .. Cody Holt
Graphics .. Sean Tevis
STAFF COLUMNIST
Business Staff
Campus sales mgr...Angela Clevenger
Regional sales mgr...Melissa Tilperd
National sales mgr...Brian Wilken
Co-op sales mgr...Amy Stumbo
Production mgrs...Brad Bron
Kim Claxton
Marketing director...Ashley Langford
Sales manager...Judith Standley
Classified mgrs
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 Kaiser should include class and homework, or faculty or staff position. Letters should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 700 words. The writer will be photographed.
The Kausan reserves the right to reject or edit letters, guest columns and cartoons. They can be mailed or brought to the Kausan newsroom, 111 Staffer-Flint Hall.
Grace
By David Rosenfield