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Friday, August 28, 1992
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
IN OUR OPINION
Services seek to prevent drunk driving accidents
When bartenders yell "Last call for alcohol!" far too many students stagger to their cars and head home. Hopefully, that does not
include you. Even one person who drinks and drives is too many.
More and more people are realizing the need to curb drunk-driving and students at the University of Kansas are no exception.
It is important to recognize the various organizations here at the University and in the community that are trying to deter students from drinking and driving. Everyone knows that having a beer or two is part of most students lives, but drinking and driving does not have to be.
The most obvious solution is to designate a driver who won't drink that night as you go to a party or a bar. Many local bars give students who introduce themselves as the designated driver free soft drinks and non-alcoholic drinks throughout the night.In addition to that,bartenders are asked to watch out for people who have had too much to drink.
Benchwarmers general manager William Colgan said the policy was to have bartenders find out how someone who has had too much to drink is going to get home. If they do not have a sober friend, then they will call Safe Ride for them.
Safe Ride is the new service offered by the Lawrence Bus Co., which is sponsored by Student Senate and paid for by student fees. The new cars and company will be an encouragement to anyone who has had a problem or a hesitancy about using this type of service in previous years. Safe Ride's hours are from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m., seven days a week. There is no charge for the service to KU students with a valid KUID.
The greek system should also be commended for its efforts. BADD, brothers against drunk driving, and SADD, sisters against drunk driving are two programs designed to get party-goers home safely. Members take turns staying home weekends to pick-up those who have been drinking.
Lieutenant John Mullens of the KU Police said that he has seen a decrease in KU students that were pulled over for drunk driving since these options have become available.
But while many are trying to make the streets safe from intoxicated drivers, the fact remains people still drink and drive. Are the consequences worth the risk?
Offenders spend anywhere from 48 hours to six months in jail on a first conviction. They also pay a $500 fine, loose their license for 30 days, do 100 hours of public service and complete an alcohol training program. Drunk drivers also an unnecessary risk to others. All for not handing their keys over to a sober driver.
There are other options, but it is up to the individual to make the decision. Let someone else help you find your way home. Please, don't drink and drive.
JANET RORHOLM FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Tailhook vs. 'Unforgiven:' Clint's method would help
The other night I saw the new Clint Eastwood movie, "Unforgiven." This type of movie doesn't usually hold my attention, but in "Unforgiven," I couldn't help noticing some parallels to the recent U.S. Navy Tailhook scandal.
I normally wouldn't give away the plot, but this is a Clint Eastwood movie.
In the film, a small town called Whiskey is run by a crusty, old ex-gunfigher named Little Bill who likes to run his town by the system of "you boys follow my rules and we'll go along just fine." He doesn't want any trouble. He just wants to be left alone to putter around his house. This reminded me very much of the top brass at the Department of Defense and their normally quiet lives at the Pentagon.
But trouble comes to Whiskey. Two cowhands from the T-Bar Ranch decide to carve up the face and various body parts of a young sporting woman.
Little Bill is summoned to punish the offenders. He first decides to whip them, but Strawberry Alice, the head sporting woman, protests that a harasser sentence is required.
Skinny, the man who possesses the contract of the whitted woman's services, also complains because now that she's looking like a jack-o'-lantern, she won't be able to pull down the bucks like they used to.
STAFF COLUMNIST
This argument appeals to Little Bill who decides the criminals must pay five horses to Skirn as their fine. You are right to think that be boys and that young lady was asking for trouble simply by being there.
KATE KELLEY
ing for trouble simply by being there. These are almost the very words used to defend the navy pilots who were accused of groping, grabbing, and generally sexually harassing any female who happened to walk within reach. But they were just fly boys carrying on the way they always have, we were told the Department of Defense brass slapped a few wrists, gave some classes on sensitivity and moused on back to tinker with the Pentagon.
Little Bill gets wind of this plot and enforces his favorite rule: no firearms allowed in Whiskey. Except it seems every male citizen of the town may keep his gun. They use them routinely to point at visitors while Little Bill kicks the snot out of them. No one said Bill was a fair man.
Strawberry Alice and the girls are understandably outraged. They decide to pool their earnings and employ a hired gun — Clint
It becomes apparent that the only rules in town are really those Little Bill uses to keep himself in charge. When the women try to assert some authority for themselves, he changes the rules to keep them in their place.
The DOD generals also seem to be afraid of women obtaining positions of authority. During the Senate hearings, one of the generals actually said that he thought of no logical reason to keep women out of combat positions (which would enable them to be eligible for higher command positions, such as his.) He just couldn't allow it. He didn't feel right about it. Keep the women in their place, so to speak. Clint eventually shows up at
Clint eventually shows up at
Winskey hoping to make a buck. You
know he's the best in town.
I am in no way advocating the hiring of a gunfighter to blow away the leaders of our armed forces. A better solution is to present those tired old men with the celebrated notices for retirement that so many other service men and women are receiving these days, due to budget cuts.
It's time to clean out that rickety, old house of worn out traditions, the mildew of prejudice and the rank odor of crotchety, old gentlemen who want to run the town by their own rules, fairness aside.
Our military, like Whiskey, needs new leaders who employ people on the basis of qualifications and abilities, not because of gender or sexual orientation. And they should properly punish those who can't be professional with all co-workers.
The days of the gunserling in the Old West are gone. Even Clint looked just plain tired of the whole thing. It's time for us all to move forward and establish new rules by which everyone can live.
Kate Kelley is a Fort Leavenworth junior majoring in English.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Mail-in fee payment fails to meet goals
As a survivor of the most recent attempt at streamlining the registration process I have only one thing to say to the Administration: this is a long way from the mail-in (or phone-in) registration that many other schools that are as large or larger than KU enjoy. Many of these schools have been using this kind of relatively hassle-free gys-
tem for the last two decades! I recognize that any process should be applauded (little steps for little feet), but it took me just as long to complete registration this semester as last, and I was somewhat applauded to find out that a receipt for payment of tuition would not be forthcoming unless I covered the same ground between Fraser and the Memorial Union as I did last semester. This is progress? I can not see where the added convenience is for the student. What I do
Allen Macfarlane
see is that it is easier for KU to collect fees. Maybe that is where the convince lies. It seems to me that before the "atta-boys" are passed around we should look to other schools to see the state of the art in student registration. My only hope is that my grandchildren will be able to enjoy the benefits of what so obviously has eluded us here at KU. Surely we can make significant progress in this area at the rate!
Allen Macfarlane Lawrence graduate student
STAFF COLUMNIST
MARK COATNEY Building character from river adventures
The first thing people say to me after I mention that I'm going canoeing is usually, "Oh. Have you ever seen 'Deliverance'?"
After this, they proceed to regale me with gruesome tales of inbred hill-billys forcing unsuspecting city folk like myself to squelal like a pig, eat grits and confront one's inner animal. They leave muttering dark warnings about not going ashear to relieve oneself and whistling "Dueling Banjos."
Fortunately, the reality of canoeing, at least in the Midwest, is more mundane than what happened in 'Deliverance.' You can go for miles at a time without sighting anyone with a twisted family tree. In 10 years of canoeing I have never heard the sound of a banjo from across the water.
You notice that I say "canoeing," not "floating," which is a modern corruption that bears about the same relationship to canoeing that Arena Football does to the NFL. Canoeing is a heroic pits struggle with nature in which one pits oneself against a river.
Floating is an inner struggle that pits oneself against one's liver, the object being to cover as little of the river as possible while drinking all the cheap beer the canoe will hold. Although ambling down the Kaw shotgunning case after case of Milwaukee's Best does have a certain degenerate attraction, it is a pursuit best to freshmen and professional stuntmen.
Real caneoing is what parents call a "character builder." Which means it’s not any fun, but at least you’ll have the tools to use when it’s time to build their character.
"When I was your age we used to canoe the whole month of July along" the source of the Mississippi, living off whatever we could catch, sleeping in the open and fighting off mosquitoes as big as your sister," my mom would tell me, thus shaming me into my own first character building experience. (Thus, by the way, is an example of one of the great fictions that American culture has produced, the parental story, such as, "When I was your age I walked 10 miles to school every day in six foot of snow.
My first canoeing experience came at the age of 15 on the Little Niaqua River. It was called the Little Niaqua because there was little water in it. The eight other guys I was with and I carried out canoes for a whole day along a bone-dry river bed while the adults who were toting out hopeful comments such as, "It can't be much farther now."
At the end of the first day, we came to a paddle large enough to float our canoes in. We then knew what Lewis and Clark, who made the first character building canoe trip, must have felt like upon reaching the Pacific.
Since then I have been on a number of character building canoe trips. I have carried my canoe down miles of dry riverbeds, often going entire trips without seeing water, let alone inbred hillillows. And now I have quite a few lies saved up for when I have children. Like I said, I have never heard "Dueling Barjos" while on a canoe trip. But I have always done so for home. After all, I can just make up a character building story about it later.
Mark Coatney is a Linwood graduate student, majoring in political science
KANSANSTAFF
ERIC NELSON
Editor
GREG FARMER
Managing editor
TOM EBLEN
General manager, news adviser
BILL SKEET, Technology coordinator
Assst. Managing ... Almee Brainaland
News ... Alexander Bloemhof
Editorial ... Stephen Martino
Campus ... Gayle Osterberg
Sports ... Shelly Solon
Photo ... Justin Knupp
Features ... Cody Holt
Graphics ... Sean Tevis/Michael Ries
SCOTT HANNA
Business manager
BILL LEIBENGOOD
Retail sales manager
JEANNE HINES
Sales and marketing adviser
Business Staff
Campus sales mgr ... Angela Cleveron
Regional sales mgr ... Mellisa Tertia
Sales mgr ... Amy Stumbro
Co-op sales mgr ... Amy Stumbro
Production mgr ... Brad Broen
Kim Claxton
Marketing director ... Ashley Langford
Creative director ... Sabina Scholz
Classified mgr ... Judith Standlve
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