4
Wednesday, September 9, 1992
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
IN OUR OPINION
Rape of male student should raise awareness
The majority of the University community was shocked, appalled and astonished that an 18-year-old fraternity member was raped last week.
Obviously it was not only the fact that he was sexually assaulted but rather the fact that he was a male who was the victim of a sexual assault that caught the eye of many.
After all, thousands of women throughout the United States fall victim to this heinous crime every single day. An alarming survey conducted by the National Victims Center, a nonprofit education and advocacy group, reported last April that 683,000 women were raped in 1990. That number translates into 1,871 rapes a day in the United States or 1.3 women who become rape victims each minute.
Alarming? Yes. But last week's police report most likely caught the attention and played on the emotions of most of the male population at KU, though reports of the tidal wave of women who are victims of the same crime cause less of a ripple.
The seriousness of what happened last week in no way should be belittled, but at the same time it should be noted that what happened was upsetting because of the victim's gender. Men and women alike were shocked. They were taken aback that such an unlikely victim was the target of such an ugly crime.
For many, the point was driven home that no one, regardless of gender, age or station in life, is safe. Rape is a violent crime that has and will continue to taint the lives of millions.
A United States Justice Department survey of crime victims released last April showed that there was an 8 percent rise in violent crime last year, which included a sharp increase in rapes and attempted rapes.
Although different surveys report different statistics as to the number of rapes that occur each year, they all share one significant detail. The number of rape victims is on the rise. Though that fact is unnerving in itself, the Justice Department estimates that 49 percent of violent crimes, including rape, are not reported to police.
While there is not and probably will never be a cutand-dried solution for stopping rape, experts agree that education and raised awareness may be the only hope for reducing sexual assault in the future.
Let the shock value of last week's assault sink in. It is disappointing that it takes an unusual twist on a very common and horrifying crime to scare people into awareness, but if that is what it takes, then fine. At least we understand that every single one of us is a possible victim. Now it is everyone's responsibility to be concerned, to work together and to work to make our nation a safer place to live.
JENNY MARTIN FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
QUOTES OF THE WEEK
"It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians."
TELEVANGLEST PAT ROBERTSON,
ON THE EQUAL-RIGHTS AMENDMENT
"I don't have time to tell you what all needs to improve."
KANSAS FOOTBALL COACH GLEN MASON AFTER THE
JAYHAM WALKES DEFEATED OREGON STATE 49-20
"I don't dare ask how many hundreds of George Bush cards you have to trade to get one Michael Jordan."
GEORGE BUSH, ON A NEW SET OF PRESIDENTIAL TRADING CARDS
SOURCE: NEWSWEEK AND KANSAN STAFF REPORTS
A, yes, twisted visions are cathartic but hardly constructive. What will become of a race between two barely compatible candidates? What do they offer?
Economics has easily emerged as the root issue of the 1992 campaign: Can the victorious candidate turn a tepid economy around? or at least give the impression of doing so. In short, Bush is offering an economic package that heartens back to those golden days of the Reagan presidency, when he and Ollie rode the whirlwind, calling down fire and destruction on any who dared to oppose them. George Herbert Walker Bush, lap dog to Reagan, would increase personal exemptions for individuals, would cut capital-gains taxes, which would mostly benefit businesses and wealthy individuals, and would also allow taxpayers to earnarm 10 percent of their tax payments for the national debt.
Voters get two candidates, but little choice in election
The American voter faces a particularly evil choice in 1992: a choice between a gibbering, syntactically impaired Cold Warrior and a man whose every word and gesture recall a particularly flaccid Jimmy Carter.
From the dank and oppressive halls of the White House, where the acrid smell of dog urine pollutes the air so that the President's aides must cover their mouths and noses discreetly while bringing yet more bad news of the re-election effort, to the bowels of Arkansas, where harried aries rush to and fro, taking whiskey and women to the Man In Charge, a foul wind is blowing — a wind seeded with lies, corruption and filth.
Where will it end, O Lord, where?
With Elvis impersonators shadowing Clinton in Texas, Quayle deriding television characters' morality, the race for leadership of the most powerful nation on Earth has all the perseverity and weirdness of a Fellini picture but none of the same sense of moral satisfaction. Both candidates are evil — that is no secret — but which is worse?
STAFF COLUMNIST
Bush himself wasn't fond of such economic policies when he ran for president in 1980, and he referred to Reagan's plans for the economy as voodoo economics. And voodoo would explain much of what has been going on the Bush campaign since about, oh, January. Indeed, retching and nausea in Japan and chronic apathy and confusion since may have resulted from one of Bush's political enemies placing a needle once in the stomach, now in the head.
And why not? Clinton has led the race ever since the Democratic convention, and the character issue has vanished in a cloud of smoke. People do not care about who Clinton is sleeping with as much as they care about his plans to revitalize an ecoo-
my that grows progressively worse with each day. And then there was Hurricane Andrew — a genuine brute, Andrew ripped the paint off houses with 164 mile-an-hour winds and flattened neighborhoods. The result? Confusion in Washington, but little action. Four days passed before the federal government acted. Bush floundered and jabbed wildly about the horror of all before finally ordering aid to be sent to thousands of homeless Floridians.
But would Clinton have done any better? That is the real question that prospective voters must come to grips with in making a decision. Clinton lacks experience in dealing with any such national crisis — from hurricane disasters to the ongoing disaster of the economy. Bush lacks responsiveness.
However, Clinton's economic plans are of precious little substance, either. Clinton's brain trust offers few real gains and even fewer specifics in its package for solving the collective problems of the recession.
Still, after a decade of Republicanism, one must, by needs, fear the future. Shall we make it 16 years of Reaganism? Shall Dan Quayl(e) usher in the year 2000? Ross Perot, if he decides to return to from the grave, may siphon off enough votes to guarantee Bush a victory. In light of all the realities, Democratic and Republican, fear now drives the voters. Fear of "read my lips." Fear of bumbling and corruption.
Kevin Bartels is a Louisville, Ky. graduate student majoring in English.
NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
Employers should control retraining
would like to do, often ending up behind the convenience store counter with a worthless degree, or skill in low demand. But employers know precisely what their labor needs are. Put employers in the drivers seat.
Instead of giving students money and discretion in spending it, give employers commensurate tax incentives for retraining displaced workers in the jobs employers know they have to fill.
ing in-house, but more likely would contract out to schools with proven track records.
At a time of stubbornly high unemployment rates and a continent-spanning trade agreement that will change employment patterns, retraining America's work force is a crucial issue.
A demand-driven plan would keep trainers accountable and responsive to industrial customers. It would move people from retraining into jobs instead of dumping them back into a gluted labor market with new skills that may be no more marketable than their old ones. It is more efficient and less susceptible to waste.
Companies could handle retrain-
The Albuquerque Journal
What skills will be in demand? Politicians don't know, because they don't need to know. Students may fantasize about what they
ERIC NELSON
Editor
GREG FARMER Managing editor
KANSAN STAFF
General manager, news adviser
BILL SKEET, Technology coordinator
Asst. Managing Almee Brainard
News Alexander Bloomhoof
Editorial Stephen Martino
Campus Gayle Osterberg
Sports Shelly Solon
Photo Justin Knapp
Features Cody Hole
Graphics Sean Tevis/Michael Rlies
JEANNE HINES Sales and marketing adviser
Loco Locals
BILLLEIBENGOOD
Retail sales manager
Business manager
SCOTTHANNA
Business Staff
Campus sales mgr .. Angela Cleveren
Regional sales mgr .. Mellea Tervil
National sales mgr .. Brian Wilke
Co-op sales mgr .. Amy Stumbo
Production mgr .. Brad Bran
Kim Claxton
Marketing director .. Ashley Langford
Creative director
Classified mgr .. Judith Standley
TOM EBLEN
JEANNE HINES
*Guest columns should be types, double-space and fewer than 700 words. The writer will be shot at random.*
Letters should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 200 words. They must include the writer's signature, name and address telephone number. Writers affiliated with the University of Chicago are required to include their email address.
nne Kansas reserves the right to reject or edit letters, guest columns and cartoons. They can be mailed or brought to the Kansas newspaper, 111 Stauffer Fint Hall.
WELCOME TO THE MORNING SHOW... FOR THOSE OF YOU ON YOUR WAY TO CLASS, THE PROFESSORS WOULD LIKE YOU KNOW THEY
I HOPE NOW OF
THEM I HAVE BEEN EATING
WHAT I FOUND ON YOUR
SIDE OF THE PRIYNTY...
DO YOU EVER READ THE
INGREDIENTS? SHALL WE
DO A WORD STUDY?
GUEST COLUMNIST
DOUG MCCOID
Censorship would stop at KJHK with "safe harbor"
In late February, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review an earlier decision issued by the Circuit Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia. By opting not to study this ruling, the Supreme Court confirmed the decision to allow "safe harbor" on the public airwaves.
"Safe harbor" is a term used to designate a period of time during each day when indecent material is allowed to air. Indecent material is defined by the Federal Communications Commission as descriptions of "sexual or excretory activities or organs" in terms "patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards."
The impetus for the case was comedian George Carlin's "seven dirty words" monologue. In 1988, U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., sponsored a bill to totally ban indecent material from the public airwaves. In May 1991, the Circuit Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia ruled that a period of time must be allocated to allow indecent material. In February, the Supreme Court confirmed this ruling.
Since the ruling, KJHK, the student-run station at the University of Kansas, has done nothing to take advantage of its First Amendment right. The station's executive board and administration have sided with Jesse Helms and the Parents Music Resource Center rather than the First Amendment. By taking no action in accordance with the court's decision, they are successfully limiting and censoring what you listen to. They are telling bands that if they make a certain type of music or utter one "dirty" word their art is not suitable for them
As an alternative station, KJHK gives air time to a lot of struggling young bands. Bands that have not entered the corporate world; bands that still have that rage, youth and a lot to say. They may communicate this with a chord, the gospel, or a "dirty" word. Public Enemy's song "I Don't Wanna Be Called Y Niaga" is listed as a "DO NOT PLAY" at KJHK because of its repetitive use of the derogatory title歌.
Malcolm X once said, "Raw, naked truth exchanged between the black man and the white man is what a whole lot more of is needed in this country."
As a disc jockey at KJHK, I want to play the raw, naked truth. You can do your part as a listener, too. You can reach up to your stereo and hit the power button. You can turn your tuner to another station. Or you could turn up your volume. This would be your choice and no one could take it from you. But the KJHK administration is ignoring the First Amendment and won't even grant you this choice. Censorship is the only word that can apply to this policy.
Once upon a time, rock-and-roll was the devil's music, and the Beatles were blasphemous. Do we want to limit our information to what Jesse Helms approves of? Do we want to tell our brightest, most inventive young artists what they can or cannot play? It's your choice — for now.
Doug McCoid is a Mt. Pleasant, Iowa,
senior majoring in philosophy and
philosophy.
By Tom Michaud
WHAT IS ACTUALLY CURSING?
THIS BITTERNESS TOWARDS
MY DIET?
OUNK.  SINCE YOU BROUGHT IT
OUP... IT'S THE FACT THAT,
WHEN YOU HAVE THE TU.
REMOTE, YOU PICK THE
STUDIOPIED SHOWS!
"MADE HERE" "91...why