University Daily Kansan / Friday, September 25, 1987
9
Campus/Area
Women's farm role redefined
Dave Niebergall/KANSAN
Denise O'Brien, director of the Rural Women's Leadership Development Project of Prairiefruit Rural Action.
By BEN JOHNSTON Staff writer
Staff writer
Farm women are abandoning their traditional roles and becoming involved in political efforts to improve the profitability of family farms, a farm activist said yesterday afternoon.
Denise O'Brien, director of the Rural Women's Leadership Development Project of Prairiefire Rural Action in Des Moines, Iowa, spoke to about 40 people in the Jayhawk Room of the Kansas Union. The lecture was by the KU women's studies program and the School of Social Welfare.
O'Brien, who with her husband farms 200 acres in southwest Iowa, said farm women could be influential supporters of family farms by becoming involved in the political process. Many farm women are becoming involved in politics for the first time, O'Brien said.
"There has been an awakening of women that they can create farm policy," O'Brien said. "It used to be that women were the cow belles or the dairy maids or part of other groups that were marketing farming and exploitive to women.
"Now farm women are starting to go beyond their comfortable little groups." O'Brien said.
Prairiefire is a coalition of 22 farm,
church, labor and citizens' groups that educate farmers about issues such as paying off debts and how to obtain food stamps. However, the main purpose of the organization is to shape farm legislation, O'Brien said.
"We try to persuade politicians by educating them about the problems and issues involving the family farmer, and what we think can be done about it," O'Brien said.
She said one piece of legislation the group liked was the Gephardt—Hark-in farm bill, which is stuck in Congress. The bill was introduced by Rep. Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., and Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa.
"The Gephardt-Harkin Bill is a good bill because it was written by
farmers," O'Brien said. "The bill was developed by farmers at meetings all over the country."
O'Brien said she was frustrated by the lack of progress federal and state governments were making to enact legislation that was beneficial to the farmer.
"It took 10 years during the Depression in the 1920s and 1930s to get policies changed," O'Brien said. "We've been at it for five years, and it may take us 10 years to accomplish what we want. So far our victories have been very small."
O'Brien said Congress' inaction on the Gephardt—Harkin Bill exemplified how government had failed the family farmer.
Citizens' group aims to bring public vote on trafficway plan
By VALORE ARMSTRONG Staff writer
Staff writer
At least two residents won't let the City of Lawrence go ahead with a plan for a trafficway without see-see residents get a say in the matter.
Mike DuPree, Lawrence resident, has formed an organization called Citizen Action for Responsible Environments whose first objective is to secure a public vote on the proposed South Lawrence trafficway. DuPree's concern is that Lawrence residents are uninformed about an issue that could have a great effect on the city.
"There's a tremendous amount of information available that's not made known to the public," DuPree said. "Getting the approval to vote also will involve information dissemination."
DuPree, who is coordinator of CARE, said that by reading reports of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Kansas Department of Transportation and other agencies, he concluded that media coverage of the issue was limited.
city and Douglas County to court complaining that public approval was not involved in the decision to lend bonds to finance the trafficway.
Leslie W. Blevins Sr., Lawrence resident, filed a suit in Douglas County District Court earlier this fall. He contended that the $4 million in general obligation bonds issued by the county to finance construction of the trafficway were illegal because their issuance was never voted on by Lawrence and Douglas County residents.
Don Stroele, attorney for Blevins,
said. "We are arguing that they could not issue these bonds without a vote." He wrote the right to petition for a vote.
The city and the county contend that Blevins has no case.
Another resident has taken the
The county's stance is that Blevins cannot claim personal injury and therefore has no grounds to sue. They said that the bond Blevins has cited included money earmarked and already spent for several projects and not just the trafficway. The county said that money had already been spent and could not be recovered.
The next court date for the case is Oct. 26.
Howard Hill, a former city commissioner, said the environmental concerns involved in building a trafficway should be addressed.
"But I don't think they should submit this to a general vote for the following reason — it would be difficult, but safe. And we have to have a trafficway."
"That's the reason state law doesn't require it," he said about a public vote on the issue.
Historically, Hill said, roadways fail when put to a public vote because the public usually cannotitate the need for such projects.
And if the city waits until the need for a trafficway becomes obvious, it's probably five years too late by then, Hill said.
DuPree's group is scheduled to meet Monday at 8:15 p.m. in the NorthRoom of the South Park Recreation Center, 1141 Massachusetts St., for an organizational meeting.
DuPree said he was not sure how many people would attend the meeting.
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