会
}
5
Wednesday, September 9, 1992
OPINION UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Quayle deserves tough criticism for past actions
David Frankel's column in the Sept. 3 issue of the Kansan asserts that the media harps on Dan Quayle mercilessly. First, in reference to the "potatoe" issue, if I write that the Holocaust never occurred and Frankel repeats it in his column, he is culpable because he perpetuates a mistake. Synonymously, Quayle was rightly ridiculed because he took the card at its face value instead of using his own knowledge of spelling. Blind acceptance is frightening coming from a man who could be president of the United States.
I agree with Frankel to an extent. The media has treated Quayle unfairly at times. But let's face it, if you are the vice president, you don't walk into an AIDS clinic and ask doctors if the patients are taking DDT. You don't hope that a cure for AIDS is discovered before Magic Johnson gets it. You don't state that a dilation and curettage is performed before the forming of a life and is therefore not an abortion. And you don't say that tobacco exports should be expanded aggressively because Americans are smoking less. (See the August issue of Esquire for more Quaylisms.) Taken together the quotes show a pattern of ignorance and insensitivity. I don't wonder where the next one-liner will come from, I know it will come straight from Quayle's mouth.
Finally, Frankel, I suggest you define traditional family values. If it is when family life was pure and simple, then there is a problem: family life isn't pure and simple anymore. And is that really a bad thing?
Nathan Olson Chicago graduate student
Public figures can expect scrutiny for comments
Since I have little regard for political jokes and because I am undecided as to which presidential candidate I support, I don't consider myself a biased critic. Even still, I disagree with David Frankel's sympathetic defense of Vice President Dan Quayle.
Quayle's comments about single-parent families deserve considerable scrutiny, especially since he carries the campaign's family-values banner. Frankel's support for pure and simple families of yesteryear merely echoes the idealistic values of those families lucky enough to resemble the Quayle and Cleaver households.
Looking back to yesteryear ignores reality today. Single-parent families are certainly capable of garnishing the purity Quayle assigns to traditional families. Regardless of status, singleparent families are a significant part of many communities and defining values without them is like spelling potato with an 'e'—pure nonsense.
Frankel's next defense is that Quayle has fallen victim to media assassination and attacks from the entertainment community. I would only remind Frankel that Quayle is by definition a public figure. Therefore, he assumes a burden of criticism for his views. Furthermore, when Kirstie Alley and Candice Bergen stated their political beliefs, they merely asserted their own opinions as public figures, and they had every right to, especially since Quayle took the first cheap shot.
Words altered by political correctness lose context
Frank Bustamante Kansas City, Kan. law student
As defined in the Random House College Dictionary, a freshman is "a student in the first year of the course at a university or school." It means either sex. This is a word that has a singular meaning of first year student. I am completely outraged that some people want to change the word to first year student.
In early universities, most of the students were men. That is a fact. The word freshman was initiated to symbolize these "fresh" to the university "men." Since those early times, society has adapted this term to mean the first year in college.
Referring to Nebraska Wesleyan University's decision to phase out the word freshman, Kristen Lange commented in the Aug. 25 edition of the Kansan that she would, "like to see our administration do the same. It's a more inclusive term. It's definitely more accurate."
How could the term "first year" be more accurate, when all it is stating is the definition of freshman over again? Isn't this pointless? In this day and age I am personally all for women's rights on everything involved in society. But aren't women just basically male-bashing for no logical reason? This is just a word. It has no sexual preference. What is the purpose of taking words out of the English language?
Why don't they focus these aggressions on something more productive to the community?
Keith Boxler Lawrence,Junior
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