4
Thursdav. September 10. 1987 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN Erase the racism
The remnants of racism linger on.
Thirty years ago this week, National Guardsmen, on the order of the governor of Arkansas, stood in the doorways of Little Rock's all-white public high schools to prevent court-ordered desegregation.
Though most of us shrug with muted disgust and ascribe these racial atrocities to the misplaced values of the past, the sad fact remains that racism is not dead and gone.
The constitution of West Virginia still prohibits blacks and whites from attending the same schools. Though the provision is null and void because of the United States Supreme Court's ruling in Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education, it remains a black eve for both the state and the country as a whole.
It already is.
Some state lawmakers have tried to eliminate the offensive passage by bringing it to a public vote. But the efforts have faltered because many legislators fear that the people of West Virginia, only about 3 percent of whom are black, would not vote to strike the section. That, opponents say, would be an embarrassment to the state.
remain for the present. But in trying to do so, they sacrifice both.
It already is. The public could do no worse than to leave the state constitution sullied with the stains of damnable racism, as it is now. Timorousness on the part of state legislators is cowardice, an unwillingness to stand up for the principles that make this a great nation. They would give away the principle of equality in exchange for the preservation of West Virginia's image.
But if trying to off so, Lie with them. And if their character is so weak, their hearts so full of hatred and their clouds so clouded with the ignorance of a bygone era that they would reject the change, let it be plainly and truthfully acknowledged.
West Virginians, and by extension all Americans, must have the courage to see themselves as they are. Let us confront those attitudes that threaten to drag us down into a mire of unfulfilled promises and racial conflict.
Labor-intensive
Imagine spending the next four years in freezing temperatures, with little or no food, away from any family or friends, doing hard labor.
promises and racial conflict Only in this way can the necessary attention be focused on the lingering manifestations of racism, so that we can banish them from our society once and for all.
On Monday, Rust was convicted of violating international flight rules, illegally entering the Soviet Union and malicious hooliganism. He was given the stiften sentence, four years, for the malicious hooliganism charge, the only charge he contested
The crime Rust committed was indeed serious. He endangered international security, his life and the lives of others. His prank should by no means be taken lightly.
Rust caused an uproar within the Kremlin. After his stunt, Communist Party leader Mikhail Gorbachev immediately called an emergency meeting of the Politburo to take action. The defense minister, the highest-ranking defense official, was fired, as was the marshal of aviation, the head of the air-defense system. An in-depth investigation was conducted.
Matias Rust has a significant adjustment ahead. The young West German pilot who rather innocently landed his small plane in Red Square in May will spend the next four years in a Soviet labor camp.
The Kremlin saw the seriousness of Rust's action, and so should he. However, four years in a Soviet labor camp is too harsh. Imprisonment, yes. In a labor camp, no.
The roads lost.
Hit the pavement
The roads lost. The special session of the Kansas Legislature disbanded with the only accomplishments being political hard feelings, wasted time and unnecessary expenditure.
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, Kansas has the highest percentage of roads in need of immediate repair of any state. Out of 816 total miles, 66.8 percent are deficient. Our roads need help.
record time.
The special session was a political gamble that backfired, making Gov. Hayden look foolish. The legislators were disagreeable, and the net political gain was nil.
Our roads need responsible repair and upkeep, the kind with a more manageable price tag than $3 billion.
What Kansas roads do not need is the political show of a special session called to try and push a big-spending bill through in record time.
more manageable price tag than our politics aside, let's mend our roads to the best of our pocketbook's ability and forget the drama seen in special sessions that drain thousands from Kansas coffers.
Editorials in this column are the opinions of the editorial board.
News staff
Jennifer Benjamin ... Editor
Juli Warren ... Managing editor
John Benner ... News editor
Beth Copeland ... Editorial editor
Sally Streff ... Campus editor
Brian Kaberline ... Sports editor
Dan Ruettimann ... Photo editor
Bill Sheet ... Graphics editor
Tom Eblen ... General manager, news adviser
Business staff
Bonnie J. Hardy...Business manager
Robert Hughes...Advertising manager
Kelly Scherer...Retail sales manager
Kurt Messersmith...Campaign sales manager
Greg Knipp...Production manager
David Derftel...National sales manager
Angela Grittell...Classified manager
Ron Weems...Director of marketing
Jeanne Hines...Sales and marketing adviser
**Letters** should be typed, double-spaced and less than 200 words and must include the writer's signature, name, address and telephone number. If the writer is affiliated with the University of Kansas, please include class and hometown, or letter of staff position.
faculty or other
Guest shots should be typed, double-spaced and less than 700 words. The
writer will be photographed.
writer will be photographed.
The Kansas reserves the right to reject or edit letters and guest shots. They
respond to the Kansas newsroom, 111 Stauffer-Flint Hall.
The Kansas reserves the right to reject a call can be mailed or brought to the newsroom, 111 Straiter-Flint Hall. Letters, giving columnars are the opinion of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of the University Daily Kansas. Editorials are the option of the Kansas editorial board.
The University Dialy Kanaan (USP5 650-640) is published at the University of Kansas, Kanes. 181 Stauffer-Flint Hall, Lawrence, Kan. 6045, daily during the regular school year, excluding Saturday, Sunday, holidays and finals periods, and Wednesday during the summer session. Second-class certificates Lawrence, Kan. 6044. Annual subscriptions by mail are $40 in Douglas County and $50 outside the county. Student subscriptions are $3 and are paid through the university.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to the University Daily Kansan, 118 Stauffer Flint Hall, Lawrence, Kan. 66045.
"CALM DOWN...I'M WORKING ON IT!"
Reagan hampers peace efforts
Since President Reagan took office in 1980, the U.S. policy toward Central America has been an intractable one, spurning efforts at negotiation and reconciliation in favor of a heavy-handed military solution. Now, however, with his policy in disarray and with prospects for new contra-aid appropriations in grave doubt, the president has suddenly reversed his position and has offered his own peace plan for the region.
Reagan has once again used his considerable political acumen to make black appear white; he hopes to turn the failure of his peace initiative into a resounding success for his contra-aid policy.
a résounding声. The very tenacity with which the president has supported the effort in the past is enough to caress to rub on his motives. The victory of the Nicaraguan rebels has been his primary foreign policy objective since the day he took his oath. It is likely that a man who believes the contrasts to be the moral equivalents of our own founding fathers would simply give up the cause?
Moreover, President Reagan has unquincovically stated that his efforts to achieve a contra victory over the Sandinistas are not dead. Only days after his peace plan was made public, he told a group of businessmen who had made donations to the war effort that he had never been willing to abandon the contras.
Yet his own plan, like the Guatemala plan signed by representatives from Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Costa Rica, calls for an end to all U.S. support for the rebels. How can the president be committed to two
mutually exclusive objectives? Obviously, he must be insincere about either his interest in the peace plan or his interest in a contra victory. And it isn't the latter.
President Reagan seems to give his own plan little chance for success. In fact, his administration has placed the emphasis on the new, record-breaking aid package that will be necessary after the plan fails, rather than on seeking the success of the plan itself.
White House Chief of Staff Howard Baker has insisted that the plans for more aid were necessary because "we can't be sure the Sandinistas are really interested in peace."
The bitter irony in Baker's statement is that the United States has tried for six years to overthrow the Nicaraguan government, has mined Nicaraguan harbors and defiantly ignored the resulting condemnation of the World Court; it has steadfastly refused to negotiate and has even violated its own laws to ensure that the fighting would continue.
It is the United States that has shown little interest in peace.
President Reagan's plan threatens to destroy the genuine peace efforts of the Central Americans themselves. The U.S. proposal calls for the Nicaraguans to "shape up" by Sept. 30, a deadline far in advance of the Nov. 7 implementation of the Guatemala plan.
irus, the president can announce that peace efforts have failed before they have even had a chance to begin. If the United States then renews contra financing, the Guatemala plan would be doomed.
The United States is essentially demanding that Nicaragua make unilateral efforts. Other signatures to the Aug. 6 agreement, such as American proxies El Salvador and Honduras, are unlikely to begin reforms before the Nov. 7 start of the treaty.
Moreover, the contra will continue to receive installments of the $100 million in aid approved last year until Sept. 30. While the contra and the Hondurans are free in the meantime to continue to promote conflict, the Sandistas are expected by the United States to reduce tensions.
President Reagan's plan was the best — and only — option available to him. The appearance of peace-making improves the odds of renewed contra aid considerably while simultaneously reducing the chances for a premature outbreak of actual peace in the region. The president is hoping to find that there is no success quite like failure.
Unprofessional coverage
Let me begin by praising the Arts and Entertainment staffs of the Kansan who, for the past five years, have done a responsible job of covering film events affecting KU students. The same cannot be said for the news department.
During the past six months, the Kansan has been irresponsible in its coverage of events surrounding the film "Nice Girls Don't Explode." An extensive series of articles should have been written concerning the major benefits for students and the University that resulted from the production of that film in Lawrence last year.
Instead, we got a front-page article in the April 2 Kansan titled "Movie premiere canceled." Not only did staff writer Paul Belden seem to revel in the filmmakers' misfortune, but he grossly misspelled the names of the co-producer of the film, John Wells, and the coordinator of the Kansas Film Commission, Jerry Jones. He also confused The Kansas Film Foundation with The Kansas Film Institute, which holds an annual festival in Lawrence.
Then we got an "article" in the April 3 Kansan by columnist John Benner titled "Nice Girls bombs in Lawrence debut." This is one of the most juvenile, superficial and vindictive film reviews I have ever read. Most of the review consisted of a description of the plot, accompanied by snide, immature comments. Mr. Benner never examined the merits of the film in any depth, obviously because he lacked the critical skill to do so. I was offended by the article, and I cannot understand how it made it past editorial review and managed to get into print.
Finally, we got a front-page article in the Sept
3 Kansasan entitled "Nice Girls flick fizzles." Staff writer Ben Johnston dwelled almost exclusively on all the negative material concerning the performance of the film that he could muster. He never bothered to mention that it is a common industry practice to release small films gradually in selected markets to give the film a chance to find its audience. Only in the last paragraph did we get the news that the film is scheduled to open in New York City and Chicago on Sept. 11.
Pers. the fact that the film "Kansas" is currently shooting in Lawrence is due in large part to the fact that Lawrence was able to offer a rich variety of people experienced in supplying the needs of a film company shooting on location. The majority of that local experience was gained during the shooting of "Nice Girls Don't Explode."
It seems obvious to me that an article updating the progress of "Nice Girls Don't Explode" should have a headline such as "Nice Girls to open in major markets," and should treat the subject with some degree of fairness and sense of perspective.
Douglas Curtis, co-producer of "Nice Girls Don't Explode," is currently in the process of building Oread Studios in Lawrence. Because of arrangements made with the Theatre and Media Arts Department, KU will be the only university in the United States whose film program has a formal relationship to a film studio.
I feel that the behavior of the Kansan as described above has been reprehensible and, at the least, amounts to shoddy journalism. The Kansan's news department could benefit from healthy injections of professionalism and humility.
Avoid sex, AIDS
Mark C. Syverson, executive secretary, The Kansas Film Institute
A KU professor of health, Philip Huntingstier,
recently wrote a script for a film on how to
get AIDS, according to an article in the Sept. 2. Kansan
Kamba M. Ma. Huntssinger states correctly that sexual abstinence is the best way to avoid AIDS. This is true. Curiously, though, he says that this is not realistic, so it will not be emphasized. Rather, the film will emphasize this so-called "safe sex." Not realistic? We're talking life and death here, but Mr. Huntssinger says go ahead, have sex, just be careful.
In the same issue of the Kansan, staff columnist Jane Zachman wrote an article saying basically the same thing. AIDS is in most cases a sexually transmitted disease, with most other cases coming from drug use. With this in mind, wouldn't common sense dictate that to avoid AIDS you should abstain from these two activities (with the exception of a normal monogamous marital relationship)?
I suggest that possibly Mr. Huntssinger change this script and say to everyone that sexual abstinence is the only realistic answer to avoiding AIDS.
Steve Gantz, Downers Grove, Ill., senior
Thanks, honestly
However, Sunday morning, someone from the library called me and asked whether I had borrowed a particular journal and whether I had left some money in it. After I said yes and the exact amount, he told me that I could come and pick up the money anytime at the library desk. I genuinely appreciate the honesty of the staff in the Science Library. Thanks for giving cash back to another poor student!
I am writing to express my thanks to an anonymous staff member in the Science Library in Malott Hall. On Aug. 25 I checked out a journal from the library. I kept it overnight, and after returning it the next day, I discovered that I had left a $20 bill inside the journal. I considered it gone after that careless mistake.
Elizabeth Soliday, Lawrence senior
BLOOM COUNTY
by Berke Breathed