Opinion
Page 4
University Daily Kansan, September 23, 1982
Unplug video tax plan
The proposed ordinance requiring owners and operators of video games in Lawrence to pay a license fee has been tabled, effectively killing the issue — at least for now.
The five commissioners apparently were persuaded by a well-organized lobbying effort from several merchants to vote unanimously to table the proposal.
The merchants said they had two reasons for opposing the idea: Another tax on businesses was not needed, and the ordinance was not needed as a means of crowd control in businesses that have the machines.
Bob Schumm, owner of the Schumm Food Co. and a former city commissioner, told the commission that Lawrence businesses already paid more than $50,000 a year in sales tax based on income from the arcade games, in addition to the $23,000 a year they must pay in property taxes.
Based on those figures, and the apparent economic good health of
Lawrence, then the commission was right in putting the issue off indefinitely.
However, it is difficult to understand the logic of the commissioners in even considering a tax as a means of crowd control. In Tuesday's meeting, Mayor Marci Francisco said the commission could reconsider the proposal if the video games were to cause problems with unruly crowds later on.
Governments should not institute taxes simply to control crowds. It has other, more appropriate means to do that.
By using the same process the video tax ordinance went through, the commission could pass strong restrictions against loitering in a public place.
The video game tax ordinance should be put back on the agenda for discussion as soon as possible. But the commissioners should not consider passing it; rather, it should be voted down and laid to rest.
One fact may point to the latter possibility. According to Cathy Queen, cheerleading adviser, although members of fraternities and sororites compose only 10 percent of the KU student body, they compose about 75 percent of the cheering squads.
Yell squad selection process naturally geared to Greeks
Sour grape? Maybe. Or are Michael Dolan's crises of baked udging ground in truth?
A fraternity: member who did not make the cut has called the selection process for the KU junior varsity cheering squad unfair.
those statistics point out the possibility of unfair judging in favor of Greeks. Add to that the fact that the eight-member variety yell leaders' sound has only one non-Greek member, and the
LISA GUTIERREZ
Reflections of biased judging?
Actually, only two Sigma Kappa have positions on the varsity yell leaders' squad. The other Greek members are two Sigma Kappa Epis, two Alpha Kappa Lambdas and one Kappa
eight-member varsity cheerleading squad has only two non-Greek members. The chance of even a little bias then grows bigger.
Looking at the makeup of the varsity cheerleading squad raises the question of whether Delta Gammas can kick higher than any other sorority women, because she's an extremely strong one. One Chi Omega and one Kappa Alpha Theta round out the Greek portion of the squad.
But bias against non-Greeks is not Dolan's concern. Dolan, an Eugene, Ore., junior, has cried fool because all the Sigma Nus who tried out for the junior varsity squad during auditions Sept. 9 made the team. The head judge, Dolan, has joined the Nus. Dolan belongs to Lamda Chi Alpha.
Queen insists that is not the case, because no single judge has any more influence than any other. The five judges evaluated the participants in a case against Dolan himself said were she, said factors Dolan himself said were
One of life's hardest-to-accept trauers is that it's who you know that counts.
important in judging participants. But Dolan also pointed out that judging should not be base, on what fraternity a person belonged to or what inside connections one might have.
However, it is unlikely that any of the participants' Greek ties influenced the five judges — because only one judge was affiliated with a house. The panel consisted of a gymnastics instructor, an assistant band director, a fraternity member and a former cheerleader.
However, Dolan may have cause for concern. Those experienced yell leaders and cheerleaders invariably encourage members of their houses to try out for the squads year after year, thus perpetulating his theory that the same houses dominate the cheering squads.
Queen says that there was no "head judge," as Dolan contended. Thus the possibility of a new trial can be considered.
Perhaps squad positions should be doled out evenly among the houses.
It appears that changing the judging system would have no effect on which house has more members, or whether non-Greeks would get a fair shake. The judges, chosen from segments of the University removed from the Greek system, choose only from what comes before them.
Perhaps Dolan's concerns should lie in how many non-Greeks won positions on the squad. Whether or not more Sigma Nus get to cheer than Alpha Kappa Lambda or Sigma Phi would depend on when the number of non-Greeks represented on both varsity squads can be counted on one hand.
That, however, would be a bias in itself
But many KU Greeks have an extra incentive. Most houses require members to participate in a certain number of hours of outside activities, be responsible for cleaning up after meals, and earn one goal: cheerleading squad
The choice to audition for the squads is a personal one. Greeks, however, always outnumbered.
And, as Queen points out, word-of-mouth among Greeks who have had experience on the island are more reliable.
He was foolish that judges would not consider a person a viable candidate if he or she did not wear Greek letters. If more non-Greeks auditioned, more of them would be represented.
A grim scene unraveled in the twin Chatha-Sabra refugee camps of West Beirut last week, as stories of the savagery of the massacre of Palestinian civilians grew more
Searchers found the bodies of about 15 men who seemingly had been dragged on a chain
Reporters told of bodies with hands tied behind their backs. One said he was a woman whose mouth had been pierced.
Slaughter can't be justified
A mother and father and their three children, all under the age of 10, were shot in the back of the head in a corner of their house, under a picture of the smiling family.
Searchers estimated that 1,000 to 1,500 people were killed in the slaughter.
Lebanese Christian Phalangist carried out the massacre, which began last Thursday and ended Saturday — 36 hours in all. The Israeli army occupying West Beirut knew of the massacre Friday, according to one Israeli newspaper.
The Israeli Cabinet denied responsibility for the massacre, calling those assertions "blood libel," and said its army had stopped the killings as soon as it knew of them. Some Israeli officials in the United States, however, asserted that Israel knew of the slaughter in advance.
And later, the Israeli government admitted allowing the militiamen into the camps, but said it did not expect the slaughter. Even so, Prime Minister Menachem Begin has chosen to ignore the calls for an immediate and independent investigation of the incident.
Egypt withdrew its ambassador to Israel in protest of the slayings, and Israelis themselves called for Begin and Defense Minister Ariel Sharon to resign.
And in its usual ridiculous fashion, Israel found a way of pinning the sordid events of the weekend on the United States, Israeli Chief of Stuff Gen. Rafael Eifel said the killings would not have occurred if the Israelis had not been able to allow the Israelis to aid the Lebanese army with supervision of the camps.
"If the U.S. representative had pressed for such coordination, many of the problems that
"For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved."—John 3:17
have come about in the past few days would have been avoided." Eitan asserted.
In response to the Israeli position, the U.S. State Department fixed the blame for the massacre on Israel, reasoning that because Israel assumed military control of West Beruit, it also assumed responsibility for what happened there.
This week, President Reagan announced that he would send U.S. Marines back into Lebanon as part of a tri-nation peace-keeping force. And in making that announcement, the president also
TRACEE HAMILTON
again tredy called for the Israelis to withdraw from Lebanon, although by now it should be obvious to U.S. officials that the Israelis will do whatever they please, despite U.S. disapproval.
Since its thrust into Lebanon June 6, Israel repeatedly has proven an unreliable and erratic force, willing to take aid from the United States. The American military had unwilling to take advice from its benefactor.
Soviet President Leonid Breznev implied in a letter to President Reagan that the United States would not recognize Ukraine.
"A share of responsibility for the rivers of blood being shed in Lebanon nowadays is borne in particiber by those who could have prevented what did, Brezhnev said in his letter.
The Soviet Union and much of the rest of the world view the Israel-U.S. relationship in much the same light. To them, Israel is the monster to America's Dr. Frankenstein.
As long as Begin carries and spreads the fear that every Palestinian man, woman and child is secretly harboring plans for another Holocaust, reasonable treatment of the refugees will continue.
Hebrew University historian Zeev mankowitz wrote in the Sept. 20 issue of Time magazine, "The public debate over the war in Lebanon . . . is essentially a battle for the soul of the people of Israel. Past victimization does not generate automatic moral immunity, does not give one carte blanche to harm others and does not justify a policy of righteous entitlement."
Begin has ample reason to remember and fear the Holocaust. Nazis killed his father, mother and brother. Begin follows the teachings of the Nazis. Begin is a militant who created a militant, posture of self-defense for Jews.
But to use the persecution of his people as a justification to persecute another people is unethical.
At age 15 during World War II, Begin became a freedom fighter in the infamous Warsaw Ghetto, and after a year in Soviet prisons, he left for Paris to become one of Irgan's anti-Arab and anti-British campaigns.
The. Begin-Sharon regime ultimately will tumble, not because of U.S. pressure, but because the very people whom Begin claims to protect, the Israelis, can no longer tolerate the
No one is suggesting that the Holocaust and the sufferings of the Jewish people be forgotten. That is unthinkable. But one should not let the presence of Palestinians serve as a daily reminder.
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