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Wednesday, September 16, 1992
OPINION UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
IN OUR OPINION
Campanile Hill beer ban ends a student tradition
After one home football game, the effect of the beer ban on Campanile Hill seems to be that many students, rather than sit on the hill without a beer have decided not to sit there at all.
This may be fine with University administrators and Lawrence residents who pushed for the ban in the first place. However, it's sad to see a tradition end that was so much fun for so many students.
The worst part of all this is that for the first time since the early '80s, the football program is becoming one of the top ones in the country. Student interest and involvement in the program should be high.
This ban on beer only serves to dampen some of that enthusiasm. Students will still support the team no matter what sort of restrictions the University administration comes up with, but for many students the social atmosphere that surrounds a big event such as a KU football game is gone. In the past, watching football from the hill was a time to renew old acquaintances and to have a drink with friends. Now it seems that watching a game from the hill will be a time to watch the children of the people sitting in front of you. Though one expected result of the ban might have been increased attendance in the stadium, the home opener crowd was smaller than 40,000.
Football games are student events. Students play in the games, students play in the band and students make up the spirit squad. Why then is it that the students' opinion of whether or not beer should be allowed on the hill is of no consequence?
MARK COATNEY FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Loud Watson Library is not conducive to studies
Unlike Anschutz Science Library, there are no enclosed spaces designated for group study at Watson Library. Consequently, students who wish to do research or study quietly at Watson face the frequent disruption of students participating in group study — or simply socializing.
Even if these frustrated patrons manage to drag reference resources and journals into the more austere and cold area of the stacks, they are not guaranteed a quiet, uninterrupted atmosphere. And silence tends to be more conducive to serious and intense study.
The library's response to this problem is that there is insufficient space for group study rooms at Watson, and the library's official policy endorses the rights of individuals to have quiet study over the rights of those studying in a manner that may disturb others.
All staff members are responsible to enforce this policy should a complaint arise. However, there are many problems with this procedure. First, too-short weekend hours and a backlog of books to be shelved monopolizes staff time so there is no one to police noise. Secondly, students should not have to waste their time to alert a staff member or attempt to silence a disruptive group themselves.
Although this problem may never completely disappear, with a bit of creativity, the issue of individual rights vs. group rights might be substantially reduced without unnecessarily wasting anyone's time. By officially designating certain floors, wings or rooms for noise and reserving others for quiet study, the University would be recognizing the legitimacy of both modes of study, as well a guaranteeing the space for them to take place.
ANN JURCYK FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
KANSAN STAFF
ERIC NELSON
Editor
GREG FARMER Managing editor
TOM EBLEN General manager, news adviser
BILL SKEET, Technology coordinator
J COOTT HANNA
Business manager
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JEANNIE HINES
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AS THE BUSH BURNS
"THE SOAP OPERA SAGA OF A RHETORICAL PRESIDENT"
ATTENTION VIEWERS THE LAST EPISODE OF THIS SERIES WILL AIR NOVEMBER 3. TAPLE
Startling revelation: Atlanta legislation links liquor and sex
The Atlanta City Council last week made what was probably the single greatest intuitive leap by any branch of government this year.
Noting that people, after swaming a few cases of Billy Beer, tend to grab the first equally inebriated person who happens along and engage in a mindless rut without wearing a condom, the council voted to require that all places licensed to sell demon rum also sell condoms. As we all know, having unwrapped sex is as much a sin in today's world as having sex at all was 50 years ago, and anything the Atlanta City Council can do to put a stop to this sort of behavior is a welcome step.
STAFF COLUMNIST
Call it the condom conundrum — what is the only reason Earl doesn't use a Trojan after his date with Betty? Because one wasn't as available as an after dinner mint.
Kansans may remember that Carry Nation made this same connection between booze and sin but came up with a more direct solution by simply taking an axe and smashing every place that sold the stuff into kindling.
MARK COATNEY
tion is gambling rather than sex. I have been known, after a couple of Prairie Fires, to bet on the AFC team to win the Super Bowl, something that is commonly known in gambing circles as a sucker bet. Shouldn't the bar that made me do this terrible thing be forced to cover my losses?
Bureaucrats in Atlanta can only dream about the good old days.
Like any piece of legislation, this one has flaws, but these can be neglected.
I like the city council's reasoning though, and I think it should be carried out to its logical conclusion. For instance, because it is well known that slamming one too many Alaskan Polar Bear Heaters makes you likely to fall all over your date while earnestly insisting "it is, it is a glorious thing to be a Pirate King" and other show tunes, the place responsible for putting you in such a state should be required to apologize for you the next day. Or say your particular tempta
One is a simple question of inventory, the question being just how many different kinds of condoms should a bar be required to stock? One would think that the desired condom features would vary from location, and we wouldn't want someone not to purchase a condom simply because the restaurant didn't carry the right brand. So a little research is needed. Perhaps the fans at the Braves games require rawhide condoms, while those at Falcons games need ones with a cast iron tin.
Another issue is that of liability. I mean, condoms do fail. They are not 100 percent reliable. Interestingly enough, KU Student Health Services
reported a few years ago that even abstinence is only 99 percent effective, a statistic that should have a few people worried.
Perhaps the places that sell such defective condoms can offer to pay medical bills if the user gets some dread disease.
Also, I believe that this measure does not go far enough in applying only to those places that have a city liquor license. Drinkers need access to condoms no matter where they get the booze, and the city should regulate this.
I must admit a selfish motive on this last point, because I can just imagine the uprarow that would occur if the city council required the Catholic Church to distribute condoms like wafers with the communion wine.
I can only hope that the Lawrence City Commission takes the same steps as Atlanta. After all, if the government can't get us to use condoms, who can?
Mark Coatney is a Linwood graduate student in political science.
Vietnam vet says draft-dodging is obvious issue
David Mitchell's commentary on Bill Clinton's efforts to escape the draft brought out some interesting points. For one, he was correct that there were some big differences between World War II and Vietnam, but the primary difference was in warfare methodology. In World War II, the battle lines were fairly well-defined, and the military leadership had a much greater level of control over where and when the battles would be fought. There were not defined battle lines in Vietnam, and the military leadership had little, if any, decision-making authority concerning the conduct of the war.
As for World War II exposing the evils of genocide and dictatorships, those evils were known before then, and concerning his description of Vietnam as "a few miles of jungle and rice paddy," he is either terribly naive or ignorant about that part of the world. His description is most likely offensive to those of Vietnamese descent who attend our University.
GUEST COLUMNIST
KEN DICKINSON
Mitchell refers, I assume, to Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy as radical thinkers. I don't think either of those men fit that mold. David Horwitz, a political commentator defines radicalism as: "A permanent temper tantrum," while Webster says radical means to favor extreme or revolutionary change. I personally prefer the former. While both King and Kennedy were strongly in favor of basic changes in our socioeconomic structure, they also advocated those changes be made through peaceful
means. There were a great number of radicals during the turbulent 1960's and 1970's. Unfortunately, quite a few found their way into university classrooms, supposedly as teachers, and more often than not, their primary agenda was to influence young people in their particular brand of ideology. Obviously, they have been successful in some instances.
Bush and Quayle undoubtedly are using Clinton's draft dodging as a means of getting re-elected, but why should that surprise anyone? Have they misrepresented the facts? Perhaps, but more so than Clinton and Gore? No. In a national election, rhetoric is the name of the game.
Mitchell condones draft-dodging, and I cannot agree with that. There were millions of American men an women who served in Vietnam. The vast majority did not want to be there, but they served because they felt it was their responsibility and duty. The expansion of Soviet Bolshevism was a serious threat to the world. At some
point, a line had to be drawn. Today that threat is gone, perhaps in some small way because this nation made it clear there was a point beyond which we could not be pushed. Those people who ran to Canada or Sweden or through other means managed to keep out of the draft have to live with themselves. I feel sorry for them.
One final comment, though it be of little consequence. I am retired from the United States Air Force. Between 1966 and 1970 I served all or part of 33 months in Vietnam. That proves nothing other than that I was there and have seen many of the things that happened, but at least my perspective is based for the most part on personal observation. I wonder what he would think if he had that same experience, and I wonder what he will think 20 years from now. I would hope his thinking would be altered to some extent, and he would at least have an open mind. The last thing this country needs is another biased journalist.
Ken Dickinson
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