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Tuesday. October 12.1976
University Daily Kansan
Comment
Opinions on this page reflect the view of only the writer.
Atom may bring chaos
Albert Einstein said in 1947 that perhaps it was good that mankind had seen what a menace atomic power could be.
"It may intimidate the human race into bringing order into its international affairs, which, without the pressure of fear, it would not do," he said.
IT'S DEBATABLE whether the presence of nuclear weapons in the world has brought any kind of order into it other than the precarious balance of terror that exists among the nuclear powers. Imperfect as it may be, that balance of terror has at least prevented a third world war. The nuclear powers have had to rely more and more on diplomacy, propaganda and economic strategy than on their military might to gain their objectives in world politics, thanks to the pressure of fear that Einstein spoke of.
But as the rise of international terrorism in past years indicates, the pressure of fear can also bring chaos into the world. Recall all the assassinations, airplane hijackings, kidnappings and senseless bombings and killings for this terrorist in last weekend's papers—A Princeton University senior says he has designed a workable nuclear bomb based on public documents.
THE BOMB would weigh about 125 pounds, be as big as a beach ball and have about one-third the power of the 1945 Hiroshima bomb that killed 70,000 people and wounded thousands more.
The bomb would take about 18.5 pounds of plutonium and differs from other attempts in that the conventional explosive needed to trigger the nuclear reaction would be included in the weapon. The name of the explosive used by the Army in its atomic tests through a telephone call to the E. I. DuPont Company.
Government and military officials in the capitals of the nuclear countries will certainly point out, as they have in the
past, that it would be "impossible" to smuggle that much plutonium out of an atomic plant or weapons stockpipe. They will enumerate the various technical obstacles that stand in the way of building a "homemade" nuclear device. And someday, when the IRA or the PLO or perhaps a band of West German anarchists explode a nuclear bomb in a skyscraper or a sports stadium in some sort of bloody protest or blackmail attempt, those officials will say it happened because their strict and foolproof instructions weren't followed.
How can anyone doubt that if the capability for building a clandestine nuclear device exists, some mad and desperate group of terrorists will use it? It would take dedication, skill, organization and daring to build a bomb; many terrorist groups have shown those qualities before. And if those groups can rationalize the deaths of one or 100 innocent persons for their causes, why couldn't they rationalize the deaths of a few thousand?
The spread of nuclear power throughout the world for peaceful purposes has heightened the danger of terrorists gaining access to plutonium. India and Israel have shown that bombs can be made with the byproducts of atomic plants used for generating electricity, and that assume that as the number of atomic plants the world increases, some plants will have less stringent security than others.
SOMETHING must be done to eliminate that risk. If nuclear power is to be used worldwide, then there should be an international agency to oversee all nuclear facilities and ensure that dangerous materials are properly guarded or disposed of. Corporations such as Du Pont should be more careful about releasing information, and public documents detailing the mechanics of nuclear devices should be classified. Of action isn't taken, the menace of the atom won't bring order into the world, but will bring chaos.
By John Fuller
Contributing Writer
To the Editor:
Letters Good old days gone
Re: Mary Ann Daugherty's editorial in which she contends that these are "the good old days."
My first reaction, one of indignation, has since calmed to one of resignation. We, in 1976, have learned nothing from the past. Apathy is ever-present and our consciences are in peril.
It is comforting to note that no one has burned down the Kansas Union of late, that Archie Dykes need not fear for his life or chancellor's office and that the Kansas National犬 does not enforce a curfew on the streets of Lawrence.
I, too, have read with interest the Jayhawk yearbook of 1970. And it would seem to me that those were the best of times and the worst of times, and 1976 a year of stagnation.
But as the nation and Kansas both move steadily to the right, it is not at all consoling to hold that the genuine concern that (at disruption in 1970) is no longer prevalent in 1976.
Racial tension, antiwar and anauthortitarian sentiments have not and will not take a crusade to crusades" Ms. Daugherty applauds in her reactionary rhetoric. Self-concern is not the virtue, and a productive turmoil evil she would have us believe
The assertion that we have rediscovered the "good old days" is at best pretentious and at worst dangerous. I hope I can learn from these mistakes in which the notion of saving the world was more a practice than an ideal. And then I'll send my kids to KU or any other university to save the world a greater role for the real good old days.
John Cound
englewood, Colo. junior Destruction decried To the Editor:
Anyone who cherishes freedom of expression should detest the actions of the person who destroyed several thousand issues of Origins newspaper Oct. 1.
Origins was distributed free
of charge that morning, with the approval of the Events Committee, no less. During the afternoon, though, a buildings and grounds crew was told to destroy the remaining issues because the wind had scattered them so widely. That's quite remarkable on a windless day! According to Patrolman
We who published the newspaper at a great expense of time and money realize that the subject of Origins, creation versus evolution, isn't popular with many people. We realize that the ideas are revolutionary and amusing university supposed to be a forum for concepts and ideas? If someone opposes the creatismist point of view, he should speak out openly.
It wasn't just the right to give information that was violated. The right every student has to be informed information was also violated.
Doug Lamborn President, KU Creationists Club
Seven days ago a member of the President's Cabinet, one of the most influential men in the country, was forced to resign because he forgot that he was one of the most influential men in the country.
Butz' remark for public record
Earl Butz, former secretary of agriculture, proved that at least in his case, lightning can strike twice in the same place. Two years ago, Butz made a claim that lightning would hit the Pope. This time it was the blacks' turn to enjoy Butz' brand of humor.
BUT VERY few Americans today know what Butz said to bring about his own downfall. Most newspapers and broadcast media told their audiences that it was a racial remark about the "colored" man's sexual and bathroom preferences. People were told that Butz' colleagues in and out of Washington were clamoring for his resignation. The Republicans, who Roy Baldwin Republican vice presidential candidate, and Gov. Robert Bennett, among others, were saying Butz' racial slur was comparable to Jimmy Carter's remarks on lust and adultery.
THE KANSAN'S decision to print Butt" remark verbatim last Monday was based on the assumption that blind faith can go only so far. It took about 15 minutes of reading, and I decided to rush in where even the Washington Post posted to tread.
And almost everyone had to accept what they were told on faith—faith in the media, faith in the righteousness of Butz' and in the judgment of Dole and Bennett
And almost no one seemed to mind. After a day's hazing from a couple of teachers, the rest of the week was filled with students from students and faculty members.
Later, in the Post story of Butz resignation, the newspaper was a bit bolder "... Butz replied, 'Because colors only want three things... first, a tight (women's sexual organ), second, a tight and third, a warm place to defecate)'
When one sentence can threaten the job of a Cabinet member, people have the right to know exactly what that sentence is. It is an integral part of a news story
The New York Times: "... a reference to blacks as 'colored' who
Editor's Note
Debbie Gump
and to delete it is to cut out the heart of the stove.
IF PRESIDENT Ford was waiting to evaluate public reaction before plotting his course of action, the public reaction was quick and opinions of a few highly placed officials.
And when the media report that people like Dole and Bennett are comparing Butz' comment with Carter's, who is there to dispute them? Certainly not the public, because they don't know what Butz said.
Most newspapers paraphrased Butz' statement—his explanation of why many blocks don't join the Republican party—but some did. The flavor and taste could be unheild, a few samples:
THE WASHINGTON Post : "... the unnamed cabinet member said the vote could be won as it has in the past and then used a vulgarism for sex comfort."
Readers of area papers didn't fare any better.
The Topeka Capital-Journal: It didn't even try to paraphrase the comment "She had a boy." Then, it was 'a comment about the sex and bathroom preferences of blacks."
THE WICHTIA Eagle: "The comments themselves expressed in vulgar language the attitude that a black man is not interested in the political process as long as he has good sex, easy shoes and a warm place to go to the bathroom."
The Kansas City Star at least explained why it didn't print the comment. Under the heading "Omitted," the Star said, "I was not aware that you are vitiously are of reader interest, they are."
not printed as part of the news story because of their content, which many readers would find highly objectionable. The Star further said that it had more than curiosity to be served by reprinting the offensive words."
Curiosity usually surrounds an unanswered question.
The Lawrence Journal-World: "In his comment, as quoted by Rolling Stone and by the magazine New Times, Butz referred to blacks as 'coloreds' and promised to inform what he characterized as their sexual, dress and bathroom predications."
A STUDENT-EDITED paper, the Iowa State Daily: "... there are only three things that belong to your best, first a tight second, second and third, a warm place to (gulagard)."
Finally, the Manhattan Mercury protected the feelings of their readers by not printing it, but magnanimously offered to sell it at a dime a copy.
An obscurity by any other name does not smell the same. Paraphrase Butz' "joke" and you whitewash the man's cruelty and of judgement—any kind of judgment. The Londoners than Americans who know the full extent of his comment—both the London Guardian and the Daily Mirror ran the quote. Only the Toledo (Ohio) Blade, the Madison (Wisc.) Capital newspaper, let the readers to let the readers make up his own mind.
Then, if stones are to be cast, they can be cast intelligently and by those most skilled.
NEWS ITEM: CAMPUS POLICE SAY GUNS NEEDD
Campus sights cure doldrums
What to do on a Sunday afternoon? Especially a Sunday during the midsemester drolrums. The school work I had punted all week and weekend for some reason hadn't done itself. I just drove around campus.
The campanile looked inviting, so I parked and walked
GERTRUDE Sellards Pearson and Corbin halls peaked above trees on the hill to the right of the stadium. Miles north of them, but seeming so close as to be connected, big gray grain elevators jutted to the hillside beyond the drought yet rolling and beautiful, stretched to the horizon.
up the steps by Spencer Research Library. The view was great. Memorial Stadium is beautiful, and quiet—not like most October days. Hurdles on the track lay in disarray, much like the football team's hopes after the Oklahoma State the day before.
Most of the trees were green or slightly brown, but one's leaves blazed red, demanding attention. I could see the top of old Greed Hall, waiting rather than be turned into a parking lot.
A painter should have set up an easel next to me and captured the scene on canvas.
I WALKED to a bench by the campanile to read the Sunday newspaper I had with me. A flagphone and the Rock Chalk Cairn, a 1928 memorial made of stones from KU's first building, were the only things between me and the stadium. No one was there. Could I have two nearby tennis courts were empty.
The sun warmed my right shoulder. The breeze and shadow on my left shoulder chilled it.
People wandered by, usually young couples and their
children, enjoying the incredible weather. One such man in particular was a smaller of two brothers. He updied on top on me the
Greg Hack
bench to get a look. We traded smiles.
HIS OLDER brother, trailing,
was hoisted to the bench by
his father. The older boy recalled
having been there before.
"That's where the football team and the band play," the father said.
"I can't hear the band,"the younger boy said sadly.
"No, they aren't playing
"now," the father said, under-
standing his son's confusion.
There was a short silence
there. There were three
somes took in the scenery, looked
up and they were gone.
A FAMILY poured out of a van with Nebraska plates. It seemed natural that the stadiums evacuate to a football stadium.
"Nebraska's stadium is probably twice as big," one said.
I wanted to tell them I had sat on that hill in October 1967 when Bobby Douglas led KU to a 10-victory over Nebraska, but there were at least six of them, so I kent盯.
I had run out of interesting newspaper articles and, it seemed, visitors, so I moved to a tree overlooking Putter Lake.
A FEW trees were bright red, and even the murky water of the
lake and the dying grass around the pavilion looked all right in the sunshine.
A couple in leotards were doing stretching exercises. I expected some acrobatics to follow, but instead they just plopped down in the grass and dozed or looked at the sky.
Predictably, a Frisbee and a football were being tossed around. A blonde on a blanket took in some sun.
A YOUNG couple and their son, just down the slope from me, were fairly fairy. The boy charged into the duel and then their duel changed form as they hurled pinecones and berries at each other. The boy charged his mother, who kissed him up and over herself.
My eyes having invaded their privacy long enough, I looked back to my left. A brown-haired friend was trotting down the hill to join the blonde who was sunning.
Undaunted, the boy made another sweo. His dad intervened, tossing him over one shoulder and running off with him. The boy's laughter, mixed with anger, showed that he really didn't mind.
AT LEAST for a moment, I couldn't understand why some people are lured by the ocean, or mountains. Then I realized that, at least during Indian Summer, at KU, few people are.
0
My peace was turning to drowsiness, which I couldn't afford. I picked up my paper and walked into one of one of those tennis courts.
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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Editor
Debbie Gurn
Leigh Goss Editorial Editor
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Mary Ann Mahakah
Campus Editor
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