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Monday, November 8, 1976
University Daily Kansan
Comment
Opinions on this page reflect the view of only the writer.
Airport grants lauded
After more than 10 years of trying, it appears that Lawrence may come up with funds to make much-needed improvements at Lawrence Municipal Court, a mile east and a mile north of the U.S. 99-U.S. 24 junction north of town.
For years, talk of improving the airport has crept in and out of discussions at City Hall. The sad state of the airport has been a mark against a community that sports, among other things, a remodeled downtown and new library, city office and educational facilities.
TO MANY, THE airport is Lawrence's worst municipal facility. Much of the criticism concerns the existing runway, which badly needs repair and is too short to permit much use, especially in high winds. You would like to take off and land there.
The city wanted to improve the airport long ago, but the problem, as with so many other city projects, has been a shortage of money. Estimated costs of buying 250 acres of land, building a new runway, improving the existing runway and building a new hangar are about $3 million, a rather hefty sum that has long been beyond the city's grasp. On two occasions, the city almost received grants that would have paid for 75 per cent of the improvements. Lawrence residents, however, didn't see fit to approve bond issues that would have allowed the city to raise the remaining 25 per cent.
BUT NOW, it appears that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is willing to give the city up to 90 per cent of the money under a special grant program the FAA will fund for the next two years. City officials are preparing the initial applications, and the FAA should make a decision on whether to fund Lawrence airport improvements by January.
The question of how to raise the remaining 10 per cent to match the FAA funds is still prominent, and city officials have learned that the public most likely can't be persuaded to pay the sum. Fortunately, it appears the necessary money can be generated by offering funds, federal revenue sharing funds or even enthusiastic local businessmen.
BUT NO MATTER how the final 10 per cent is acquired, it's certain the federal government will play a big part in funding the airport improvements—by giving money through the FAA and possibly through revenue sharing funds. As a rule, I'm opposed to federal interference in local projects. The less federal supervision, inspection and regulation by federal agencies, the better. But when it comes to giving money, the federal government can invest cent in its willingness to fund bill for local projects. With the prices of land, building materials and labor continually increasing, it's a wonder that medium-sized cities even entertain thoughts of raising a significant fraction of the funds for their planned projects.
If the FAA approves the city's grant application and the airport improvements are made, it will be because federal funding programs have been upgraded in two areas. First, the government now is establishing grant programs that will pay up to 90 per cent of a city project, an amount few cities could shoulder by themselves. Second, the federal government has improved its guidelines for the use of federal revenue sharing funds by allowing cities to use the money as part of a match for city project grants.
I LOOK FORWARD to seeing the federal government continue to set up funding programs and guidelines that will help, not hinder, city efforts to improve public facilities. I also look forward to the development of an airport that can accommodate the many people who would like to travel to and from this university community by air. In both cases, it's about time.
Mary Ann Daugherty Contributing Writer
"IS THAT YOUR FINAL ANSWER?"
Book dissects laws-turned-racist
WASHINGTON—In a familiar phrase, we often speak of the "body of the law." By metaphorical extension, one gets to the anatomy of the law and thence to dissection of the law. In his recently published book, "Disaster by Decree," he describes a masterful job of dissection on the body of law concerned with race and schools. This is a superlative work.
Yorker, a graduate of City College of New York, a graduate in law from Columbia and a former Department of Justice attorney. He is now a professor of constitutional law at the University of Texas Law School. His book is published by
Graglia brings impeccable credentials to his pathological task. He is a native New
James J. Kilpatrick
( c ) 1978 Washington Star Syndicate, Inc.
Brown decision as such; the South's scheme of compulsory segregation plainly disadvantaged some children and therefore denied these children equal protection of the law. But Graglia has great trouble with Chief Justice Earl Warren's decision, and he has still greater trouble with the contradictory decrees that have followed in its wake.
regard to their race. . . . "Degreelegation, Congress, said, "shall not mean the assignment of students to public schools in order to overcome racial imbalance."
Staff Writer
Graglia marshals irrefutable evidence that Congress meant what it said. The leading librarians of the time—Jovian Laverne Celler—repeatedly insisted that the Civil Rights Act could not be misunderstood; it couldn't be perverted into a requirement of racial integration or racial balancing. But the bureaucracy had done little, proceeded at once to pervert the language all the same.
The Brown case of 1954 led directly to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In construing the 1964 act, Graglia demonstrates the Supreme Court disdained the history, the spirit, the intention, and the plain language of the law.
Will Ford become Jerry who?
the enormous advantage of seeming to combat racism while in fact imposing a racist sentiment. The law was by Humpty-Dumpty.
By PAUL ADDISON Staff Writer
WHAT TROUBLES Graglia especially is that the high court, by its judicial activism, has introduced race as a permissible form of first time a sometimes constitutionally required, basis of government action." This feat has been accomplished by the judges only to countable only to themselves. So far as the public schools are concerned, the judges have brought the country "to a position increasingly aggrieved with the autocracy goes on." And the autocracy goes on.
the Cornell University Press. He suffers no Southern stigmata.
As President of the United States, one of Richard Nixon's great hopes was to somehow make a name for himself in the world he succeeded, although not in the way he had originally intended.
memorization tests in grade school.
Nixon's successor, Gerald Ford, had few such pretensions. He became president in August 1974. The historical significance of his 28-month term in office will be要待 to assess for some time.
By a feat of dazzling word play, Graglia observes, the courts asserted that their decrees required only that racial discrimination be removed before discrimination in the name of eliminating discrimination. The court "was thus able to retain
Gerald Ford hadn't had an easy task as America's foremost citizen. He didn't plan to seek the office, he didn't want it and he wasn't fully prepared for the rigor of the job.
ment expenditures and the budget deficit. The reality of a weakening economy forced postponement and, finally, a state-led effort to make Ford's proud hope for "energy independence" was foiled by political differences with Congress and twice it was forced to postpone a planned additional fee on imported oil.
ONE THING is almost certain. President Ford won't go down in the ranks of American great leaders; rather he is deserved be judged alongside of some lesser presidents, such as Franklin Pierce, Rutherford Benjamin Harrison—president names bring back only dim recollections of history
THE CIVIL RIGHTS Act spelled out explicitly what "desegregation" means and what it doesn't mean. Desegregation, Congress said, "means the assignment of students to public schools and within such schools without
In foreign affairs, Ford continued to seek compromise solutions and to play a mediating role in the affairs of other nations. The end of that effort in Southeast Asia brought, and will continue to bring, conflicting interpretations about its necessity. Ford's foreign policy was further marked by a lackuster expedition to China in 1987. By the end of that defense with the Soviet Union,
Ford's presidency has been a survival struggle. His ability to withstand two assassination attempts and the exoneration of former National Guard role in the nation's emotional recovery from Watergate marked him as a fighter until the sands of time ran out Nov. 27. After a tougher job, President, he had every intention of cutting back govern
IN SOCIAL PROGRAMS, the discerning historian will find little to exonerate Ford from the
Step by patient step, Graglia traces the course of desegregation law from a point before the famous Brown decision in 1864 to the most decisive decision in the United States and Boston and Detroit. He finds the course "incredible." The Supreme Court, he observes, began by prohibiting and deploring racial discrimination; the Court now stands in a position of requiring proving the very racial discrimination it once condemned.
criticisms that followed the extensive use of his presidential veto power. While conceding that he had made a post-Vietnam America had already surfaced when Nixon was hastily making his retrace, Ford can't escape the statistical evidence that Americans out of work in 1976.
Ford's overall record hardly contains the material from which memories are made. Ford has had the misfortune of being a "caretaker" President. He has had little time to forge his own policies and little time to appoint his own advisers.
"THIS IMPOSSIBLE task has required it to resort to methods—in unfair and inaccented patentlyfallacious reasoning, and perversion of the 1964 Civil Rights Act—that would be considered scandalous in any context of American government."
The middle years of the 1970s consequently are destined to be remembered more for the events surrounding Watergate and for the arrival of a southern conspiracy that inflicted a troubled nation and failed to gain election as President in his own right.
In some years of reading books about the law, I cannot recall a critique more comprehensive, or more graphic, than Greitai's assault upon the Supreme Court's twisted trail in the matter of school desegregation. He has no trouble with the
Gregalia's scholarly polemic may not influence a willful court; but if his work is sufficiently read, it could have great effect upon a constitutional amendment intended to undo the evils of racism the Court has wrought.
Letters
To the Editor:
B1 estimates inflated
I'm sure you will wish to print a clarification of the grossly inflated cost estimate of the B1 bomber as stated by Jim Bates in his comment on "the real issues" in the Oct. 29 Karsan.
exaggerated, if not erroneous data, does little to enhance whatever credibility the article might have had.
MR. BATES informs us that the BI bromer bombs "about $1 billion each." I'm aware that in an article of this kind, only the most intelligent think, however, that reinforcement of one's opinion by
As of May 1976, the unit cost of a Bi was $22.8 million (based upon a total buy of 244 units). Any total buy less than that figure obviously would increase the unit price because development costs are amortized over the total number.
B1 as a bargain. That depends upon one's feelings about the need for the B1 and how much that need is worth.
PLEASE DON'T lst me appear to be making a case for the
Walter M. Wondrack, Colonel, USAF
Professor of Aerospace Studies
Demos ambush GOP
By CARL YOUNG Contribution Writer
The Kansas Democrats have ambushed the Republicans.
- Gatescap district captain *
* Gatescap captain eight years in the U.S. House representing the 4th District.
He was defeated by Dan Glickman, a Democrat, Wichita Woman, for the Wichita Storm Boat.
- The Kansas House of Representatives. The House now is controlled by the Democrats by a 65-40 margin. This is the first time in 64 years that all states have controlled the house.
- A 26-14 majority in the 1976 Kansas Senate that has been reduced to 21-19.
- Martha Keys defeated her Republican challenger, Ross Freeman, in the race for the seat case from the 2nd District.
- Joan Finney, state treasurer, defeated her Republican foe, Darnon Weber. Weber's strong campaign.
The new makeup of the Kansas Legislature resulting from the Democratic gains in the state was higher education lobbyists and the new legislature will give to schools supported by the state.
THE UNIVERSITY of Kansas and the other state schools have received substantial backing for the past year from a state government controlled by Republicans.
Now the supporters of higher education will have to deal with a Democratic Speaker of the House, who is also the House Ways and Means Committee. The two men who occupy those offices could play an important role in determining how much from the state.
The man most likely to become speaker of the House, State Rep. John Carlin, D-Solan, has said that there will
have to be more cooperation between the Democrats and Republicans in state government.
THAT COOPERATION will be needed to get anything done. The government should parties bicker over every issue that comes up, higher education and the whole function of state government could come to a conclusion.
It's nice that the two-party form of government has returned to Kansas after more than a half century of one-party rule, but let us hope that it is constructive government.
Open warfare between the parties will do nothing but damage Kansas government.
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