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Opinion
University Daily Kansan, September 21, 1982
Straining a friendship
U. S. Marines, as well as troops from France and Italy, are moving back into Lebanon. The 2,130-man force — including 1,800 Marines — will try to aid Lebanese officials in keeping the peace in the wake of a war, an assassination and a massacre.
Sending troops back may be a short-term solution to the unrest in Lebanon. But the United States, which through the Lebanese crisis has remained Israel's ally, is coming under intense pressure to force Israel out of West Beruit and to force it to adopt a more moderate foreign policy.
Words, no matter how sincere, may not be enough. Many nations, including Western European as well as Communist Bloc countries, have condemned the slaughter of 1,500 Palestinian civilians in Lebanon, and have blamed both Israel and the U.S. for it.
In announcing the decision to send the troops back, President Reagan yesterday demanded that Israel withdraw from West Beruit, or it would grow "every more deeply involved in problems that are not its own and which it cannot solve."
Crutism can be expected from Moscow and Peking, but the U.S. should be concerned when such nations as Egypt, the only Arab country to maintain diplomatic ties with Israel, demands that "all possible means" be used to remove Israel from Lebanon.
These countries apparently would sanction the use of U.S. military force, but that would only perpetuate the "cycle of massacre upon massacre" that Reagan said yesterday must come to an end.
Reagan, however, can help break the cycle by tying future economic and military aid to Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon.
As a friend, the U.S. should not allow Israel to continue its current policy, which already has tarnished its standing in the world.
Small-town students battle stereotypes of big-city kids
I read in a newspaper last week a quote by a Lawrence police officer, telling why the crime rate rises in Lawrence each year at this time.
He asserted, quite truthfully, that the influx of students in Lawrence brings in — and out — the criminals. But I don't believe one of his reasons for the rise in crime — that small-town students don't quite know now to handle themselves in the big world.
Bunk. I sick of hearing about how stupid, naive, innocent, out-dated and gullible we folks from western Kansas are. Western Kansas, by the way, begins at Topeka. That's the first thing
TRACEE HAMILTON
a small-towner learns at the U of K
I got tired, after my first several years here, of explaining where my hometown, Lincoln, is. It's near the geographic center of the United States; for example, and is smack-dab in the middle of
But without fail, the Kansas City-bred britt will reply, "Ah, western Kansas!" and immediately will become absorbed with picking lint from his or her sleeve.
In all fairness, some people show a little more interest. They'll ask relevant questions such as, "How many people were in your graduating class?" always a conversation-starter, or "Did you know everybody, I mean, everybody?" (The answers are 56 and yes).
Once it is established that the small-towner obviously had a deficient upbringing, the city kid makes his it duty to teach him the important things in life. My roommates this summer were from Houston, and they would often help me out by saying such things as, "The play says, 'I'm sorry,'" or my favorite, "Do you want to go to the mail?" That's a big building with a lot of stores inside."
You've no idea how information such as that is appreciated by farm children like me. I never lived on a farm, of course, but no matter; when you're from the sticks, you will wear pants. When you're from the grass, you will wear pigtails and overalls until the day you came to the Hill, where you got not religion, but sophistication.
I rated a guy who told me before dinner one night that the small fork to the left was for my salad. He made an ample amount of it, however, by leaving little mounds of food all around his plate at
dinner. Seems city folk can't keep the vittles on the china.
When I went through sorority rush as a freshman, which was my biggest blunder of that school year, I was mistakenly grouped with a gaggle of girls from GOS-Corphn, while all my friends at Lewis Hall were grouped together. When I arrived at the various houses, they assumed I was one of the privileged few from Kansas City, Topeka or even (gasp) Wichita.
when they learned the awful truth, that I was a hick, when geehlikers, you should've seen 'em make a bee-line for the pantry, or the stairs, or wherever.
I eventually misplaced my hatred on Kansas City, refusing to go there for anything except Royals games or the best concerts. I immediately hated anyone who went to a Shawnee Mission school. I told my city friends about how I met the girl that it sees then turn green and run from the room.
But I've mellowed over the years. I really enjoy Kansas City now, and I have friends who are Shawnee Missions alums. I do, however, still tell them about my Red Man craze.
Small townners, you see, have advantages that city brats can't even imagine. I didn't grow up eating out of a McDonald's bag; we didn't have any fast food establishments. I ate my first pizza from a box at 18. But I did learn to keep my food in the cloth, and not to wipe my mouth my sleeve.
Small townians can't run to the video parlor, or to the shopping center, or the skating rink, or the bowling alley, or the theater. Our fun was up to us, and we made it.
We contributed to the energy crisis by driving up and down main street, honking at people we liked and ignoring those we didn't. We raced each other on an old abandoned highway, and we mooned strangers, and we took old outhouses to the mall, and then them on main street, and we parked and drank
Some of my other small-town friends handle things differently. Some came to college with at least one other person from their burg and they stick to that friend like glue. Some stunchily defend their little town on its merits. Some go to college named names and wear fake noises and glasses.
Some, like me, have a way to avoid the subject
which
"Hey_Tracee, where did you do to school?"
"Lincoln." "Oh Nebraska!"
"Oh, Nebraska?" "Ummm."
"Hmmm
No one ever follows up with, "How many people in your graduating class?" or "Did you
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Too few minorities at KU
The University of Kansas once again has been cited for mishandling minority-related issues on its campus.
This time, KU has been cited in a college employment review by the U.S. Department of Labor for a series of deficiencies in hiring and promoting minorities.
The report concluded that KU has no minority faculty members in several schools and colleges and that minorities and women are not part of KU's civil service positions and clerical positions.
Just last spring, the U.S. Department of Education cited KU for violations of Title XL, a federal law that prohibits giving federal funds to private schools. The law also gender discrimination in athletic programs.
This second citation is two citations too many. The deficiencies reported for fiscal year 1981 are similar to those of 1980.
-No minorities had faculty positions in the School of Pharmacy and in systematics museums (natural history, paleontology and entomology).
- No minority faculty members were in the Bureau of Child Research or the occupational therapy department of the School of Allied Health.
- Minorities and women were not sufficiently represented in civil service "blue-collar" jobs, such as maintenance and facilities operations positions.
—There was a scarcity of black and Hispanic faculty members in the School of Engineering during fiscal year 1981. Of the eight minority faculty members in that school, five are foreign
nationals, one is an American black and two are
Asian Americans. There are no Hispanics, KU
and other foreign students.
In response to this newest report, Chancellor Gene A. Budig signed an agreement last week with the Labor Department that may (emphasis on the may) lead to the hiring of more women in its position. The University indicated that the University has already taken several steps to alleviate some of the discrep-
LISA GUTIERREZ
ances reported. None of these steps, however, have been specifically detailed.
Because of those good intentions, and the correction of a few of the problems, the Department of Labor considers KU in compliance with affirmative action guidelines.
The Labor Department obviously believes it's the thought that counts.
One equal-opportunity specialist for the Office of Federal Contracts Compliance Programs, the regional arm of the Labor Department that gathered the information for the report during a meeting of the UU officials were making a "good faith" effort to correct problem areas identified in the report.
But the report stated that there was inade-
quite evidence of a good faith effort to hire minors in certain job categories, to interview minors, or to make job offers to minors. Serious, conscientious good faith efforts would
Serious, conscientious good faith efforts would have precluded that citation in the first place.
Budging reaffirmed the University's position on affirmative action by saying, "Our commitment to the principles of affirmative action remains firm and strong. The steps outlined in this agreement will be helpful to us in meeting our objectives."
Now that the reports have shown KU administrators those areas that need attention, it is time for that attention to be granted — by translating those so-called "good faith" efforts
The way may be difficult. Deficiencies in the hiring of women and minorities apparently are common on several university campuses. The Labor Department's findings reported similar discrepancies at other universities and described the situation as "typical."
Typicality does not excuse these practices.
Qualified minority and female candidates for non-faculty jobs need to be given equal consideration when applying for posts at KU. That should already be policy — and apparently
Beyond the list of remedies already agreed upon by KU administrators and the Labor Department to correct the violations cited, the KU affirmative action program needs to pay closer attention to the immediate needs of women and minorities. Among those is the need for fair employment opportunities in both faculty and non-faculty positions.
Need it take another citation to show administration where those needs lie?
Soviets taking a new look at American art
By HARRISON E. SALISBURY New York Times Syndicate
NEW YORK—"I hear," said my Russian friend, "that you have been playing the International a lot in America this year."
"That's right." I replied. "It's been heard in theaters from coast to coast and it almost became the theme song of the Oscar awards in Hollywood."
"How do you explain that? From what I read in Pravda, there's a violent anti-Soviet campaign in the United States, and Reagan wants to make us."
We were talking in August in Kiev, where I had gone to attend a meeting of American and Soviet writers who assemble every year or so, first in Berlin, then in New York, and finally Union, to discuss questions of mutual interest.
"I don't know," I said, "that I agree with what you say about Reagan. He's played the international himself in the White House and invited a lot of important guests to hear it."
"Yes, I am. And, incidentally, it has been a long, long time since I've heard the International ale in the Soviet Union — ever since you adopted that national anthem of years in World War II — the one that always reminds me of the old czarist anthem."
"You can't be serious."
that's a new know.
He said, "But you probably know that we've been hearing the International because it's the theme song of the motion picture 'Reds.'"
"That's a low blow."
"Do you mean that Reagan showed that picture in the White House?" he said. "Isn't it about John Reed, the Russian Revolution, Lenin and the Bolsheviks?"
"he did show it," I said. "And when he asked him if it wasn't a communist picture, he said he understood it was anti-communist. Are you going to show the film over here?"
"Probably not," my friend said. "We're making our own John Reed picture. If they showed 'Reds,' no one would go to the Soviet version and it would be bad for business."
"flow can you talk about business? This is a question of revolution."
"Maybe so," he said. "But in this country, business is business. We don't push a competitor's product if we have one of our own."
"That's too bad." I said. "I think you'd like 'Reds.'
"Probably I would," he said.
I asked my friend what new books he had read lately.
"The World According to Garp," he said,
"Everybody's over a Garp. They think it's
good."
"Is it published here?
'Not yet — but it soon will be.'
"But it's a capitalist book. There's no ideology in it."
"That's what you say. Here we think it's very anti-capitalism. It exposes the true nature of your society. And besides, it's the craziest thing I ever read."
"With all the tension between the United States and the Soviet Union," I said, "there must be some new ideological plays that expose the nature of human suffering. The Kid I need to see during the Stalin period."
"Tennessee Williams!" I said. "That decadent navuror of bourgeois American pornography?"
"I wouldn't know about that," my friend said. "I've been seeing a lot of Tennessee Williams."
pursuer of bourgeois American politics. My friend winced. "That's no way to describe the most brilliant modern critic of capitalist society," he said. "The hottest tickets in town are 'A Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' and 'A Streetcar Named Desire.'"
Nanette said,
"You surprise me," I said. "Aren't writers in this country supposed to be the 'engineers of human soul,' as Stalin used to say?"
"You've got to be kidding," I said. "I know the Lennon Konsomma Theater from the days of old,
"Not this year," my friend said. "Labinow is in being Germany and Western Europe a lot. The other one is in South Africa."
"Well, sure," he said. "And Williams is some engineer!"
engineer
"What about Lahimov and the Taganka Theater?" I asked. "Is he putting on a big controversial play this year?"
all that young-communist propaganda — morality plays, boy-mmees-tractor, girl-meets-dairy
"You've been away from Moscow a long time. Who do you suppose produced Andrei Voresenkii's new rock spectacle? Not Libimov. It was Mark Zakharov and Nikolai Karachensov at the Kumsal Theater. They have the police a very night to handle the crowds fighting to get in."
"By the way," my friend said. "If you happen to see Art Buchwald when you get back, give him my congratulations. They've just put out a collection of his pieces from Pravda. I think it was an edition of 150,000 or 200,000. Tell him to keep up the good work."
"I'll do that," I said. "I can't it too bad that Afghanistan brought an end to all the cultural exchanges."
I shook my head groggily
"It certainly is," my friend said. "Incidentally, do you suppose there is any way I could get
Harrison E. Salisbury, former Moscow correspondent and retired associate editor of the New York Times, recently completed his memoirs, "A Journey for Our Times."
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