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Tuesday, October 5, 1976
University Daily Kansan
Comment
Opinions on this page reflect the view of only the writer.
Ford waited too long
There they were, the three of them, discussing the future of the Grand Old Party as they flew back to California after the Kansas City Convention. Pat Boone had become philosophical about his experience as a Reagan delegate. John Dean, the Republican Judas, and Sesame Sanders would be the publicity he got from being a First Family mascot during the convention, listened.
Then, according to Dean's article about the convention in Rolling Stone magazine, a certain shirt-sleeved arm overlaid amped to join the conversation.
BOONE, AS naive and pure-hearted as ever, asked the secretary why the party of Abraham Lincoln couldn't and forced more blacks. Sonny had dozed off.
Dean said Boone gulped twice at the secretary's answer, which was printed verbatim in the Kansan yesterday for those readers who may have missed it.
Now the country knows that the secretary was none other than U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz, and Butz surely regrets not giving Boone a tenacious answer instead of the tasteless racist joke that cost him his position.
WHEN BUTZ' slur was made public, the damage it could do to President Ford's presidential campaign was evident. Butz was called on the carpet to hate President, and one can bet that they didn't swap Rastus and Liza jokes.
Butz issued an apology "for the unfortunate choice of language" and said that even though it was no excuse, he was "merely repeating a comment made decades ago by a ward politician in a large Midwestern city."
He didn't say why the politician's
humor was so important or seemed
humorous to him at the time.
YESTERDAY. in response to the
controversy surrounding his words,
Butz resigned for what he called the best
interests of the President and his
campaign. He said there was no
pressure put on him by the White House
to do so.
Ford was reportedly prepared to accept Butz' resignation if public indignation over the incident grew. He had told Butz that his remarks were offensive to him and the American people and that such language and attitudes weren't acceptable from a member of his administration.
But Ford didn't fire him. It seemed that the President was waiting to see how the public would react to the slur. If it shrugged off the remarks as just another politician letting his mouth make a fool of him, Butz might have weathered the storm of disgrace and controversy.
IT COULD well have happened if Butz hadn't taken the initiative to do the right thing. Most newspapers and broadcasters withheld the precise language of the faux pas, couching it in such terms as "a derogatory characterization of fashionable women preliedictions." It's hard to get too indignant over such descriptions.
But Ford shouldn't have waited for some sort of spontaneous public outrage to sweep across the land before he fired Butz.
Ford's refusal to fire Butz or even put much pressure on him to resign was a serious mistake. If the "high moral values" that Butz said the President possessed weren't compromised by his inaction, they at least could appear that he had assured him that integrity of his cabinet and the public's esteem, he should have acted and shown the public that racism had no place in his administration.
By John Fuller Contributing Writer
Women's attacks unwarranted
The Kansan has been called many things in its long life—a school workshop run by juvenile J-School groupies producing laundered news, a running dog lackey for the KU administration, a tool of the Student Senate, etc. We try to print such criticism with a touch of grace, a little humility for all of our patience; sometimes, however, people go too far.
from the women's coaching staff in yesterday's Kansas. Their letter attacks both the Kansas and its objectivity in our coverage of criticism of the department's management. The stricty of the letter fails to replace serious work or even simple accuracy.
WE HAVE printed three stories on the department this semester, excluding sports coverage. One pointed out that
Such is the case with the letter
KU ranked second in women's funding among Big Eight schools, one announced the university as sports information director and a third was a follow-up to dissatisfaction voiced this summer at Martian Washing- ing management of the program.
The coaches' first step case was in assuming that any "negative" story about the program stems from an interaction in a "conspiracy" against the program. Opinions about the program and Washington's management abilities are confined to the editorial page. It is the opinions of others that we
The coaches imply that the Kansan has helped those trying to tear down the University's pride in its women's teams. Wrong again. There have been an increasing number of Kansan stories about women's athletics and its successes. Despite our limited space, the Kansan has carried a higher percentage of Kansan's sports news this semester during the past four years.
'Doonesbury' captures the truth
THE COACHES say it is
Have you ever asked someone a question and been amazed when they didn't have the slightest idea what you were talking about? You had asked about something you thought it was known of, only to find out that at least someone didn't know.
Editor's Note
Debbie Gump
reporter. In all cases, Washington was contradicting an earlier statement.
Doonesbury is your average
I have felt that frequently recently when I have asked friends whether they have read the latest Donebyson comic strip.
Mark Rudd. But, the main character, was Mike Doonsbury, who can be traced back to "doon," a Yale term for "fool," and a Trudeau roommate named Pilsbury.
characters are still around,but many have been added.
THE COACHES asserted that they had never been asked for their views on the complaints in the complaints in the complaints were leveled against Washington, not the coaches. It is the coaches' jobs to coach, not to defend or to complain. The coaches and unagency athletes.
Even though Trudeau holds little to be sacred, he isn't out to get anyone, either. As he put it, "I'm simple, country cartoonist."
time a comic strip was ever so honored.
"Watergate profiles." Mark prematurely labeled John Mitchel "guilty, guilty, guilty," and the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post and Boston Globe all cut the strip.
IT HASN'T all been easy for Trudeau. He works hard at making the strip entertaining, and his strip is drawn closer to its publication time than any other strip is. Trudeau is always poised to poke fun at the front page news.
As Erich Segal has noted, Trudeau is great because what he says is so true, but so gentle. And his subjects are all of us. Which is why everyone should read his strip.
Zonker Harris, campus freak,
brought marijuana to B.D.'s
football huddle and convinced a
Time magazine reporter that sex
and drugs—especially peyote and clam dip—were the main interests of college students.
And Trudeau's political comments in the strip have gotten him into some trouble.
The most famous of these was a strip where Mark Slack-meyer, as a radio WBBC jockey, was reading one of his
"UH, NO I haven’t. I never read it, I don’t think. What did you say the comic strip was again?"
Greg Hack Contributing Writer
WASHINGTON has often been "unavailable" to our reporters, preferring instead to send a prepared statement through FILOR, the information director. Strange conduct for a KU administrator, especially when elaborate objection statements are often incomplete and sometimes hurt Washington's position.
The coaches said that we made no effort to hear from students who support Washington's policies. Wrong. Our reporter did talk to a group of those athletes, but when they were invited to join a group discussion, they refused.
For those of you sharing my former friends' ignorance, the strip is Doomsley, by Garry Trudeau. It is becoming an American institution, and rightfully so.
Trudeau began cartooning for the Yale Daily News amid the student protest of the early 1970s. His strip wasn't political per se, but was about general college life.
JOANNIE Caucus, a 39-year-old runaway housewife who couldn't take her husband's hand to help her with the local day care center. She is now a law student in California and campaign manager for her roommate, who is running for U.S. House of Representatives.
college learn, described on the jacket of an early Doonesbury paperback as "a hero of sorts, but basically an enigma, an incomplete man, and, above all, a turkey."
B. D., THE conservative field general of the football team, satirized Brian Dowling, the Yale quarterback. Mark Slack-meyer, campus radical, bore some resemblance to SDS's
"absurd" that Washington must frequently defend her decisions. Wrong a third time, if you think that an administrator's job includes justifying, explaining and announcing his actions.
The strip continues to be a fine satire of American life, and politics. His extensive work on Watergate was good enough to win the 1974 Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartoons—the first
Zonker's Uncle Duke is the spitty'n idea of Rolling Stone's Hunter Thompson. Trudeau made him governor of Samoa for a time, and Uncle Duke even wrote about his shoplifting case, but Samoa, "Fear and Loathing at Macy's Men's Wear."
The coaches said they expected the Kansas to report women's athletics accurately. Well, they're right there. We expect accuracy also, and we have been getting it.
Trudeau's early cartoons were thus concerned with football, romance (or at least attempts at it), student protest and less important college matters such as studying.
DOONESBURY wrote a biology paper on juxtabranchial organ secretions in the higher vertebrates. The title "Our Friend the Beaver,"
The strip was soon syndicated and newspapers have been buying it in great numbers ever since. When the strip went nationwide, so did Trudeau's subject matter. His original
The few times Washington has accused us of inaccuracy, I have double-checked with our
Flarup said she wanted to cooperate with the Kansan, and on the whole she has been helpful; her credibility was weakened, however, when she secretly tape-recorded a conversation with one of our reporters last week.
We aren't reporting criticism of the program as part of a personal vendetta (in fact, we have not reported articles because they lacked substantiation); we are reporting it because it is there. We have tried to be fair to both sides, but we have taken both sides to be fair to us.
WE DON'T mind criticism; however, when readers begin to blend fantasy with fact in their criticism, even the most tolerant of journalists cry "foul!"
Letters
To the Editor:
Funeral industry myths irresponsible
Not wishing to discoun the fact that Mr.Young was callously introduced to the funeral industry, I nevertheless find his article an example of unsupported, irresponsible
Re: Mr. Young's "Callous Lesson"
"the law-abiding citizens of this country should not be deprived of the right to have firearms in their possession."
journalism that borders on the libelous.
Let me begin by stating that I personally do not find much reason or comfort in the common funeral custom of calling those who do. From that perspective I find Mr. Young's "expose" callous in itself—completely without regard for those who may have had a fight with the funeral industry.
Secondly, I find that Mr. Young is doing a great disservice to an industry that, acknowledging its faults in the profession, has made great efforts at self-regulation, and to those professionals who are doing their utmost to dispel the "gruesome" myths of their profession that are only created by the likes of Mr. Young.
A case in point is Larry McElwain, director of the Warren McElwain Mortuary. "Perspectives on Death and Dying," I have found Mr. McElwain in his appearance as a lecturer in our class and as a professor at the very open, accommodating, sensitive and, above all, professional and sincere in his efforts to answer our questions about the complete picture of his profession.
I too have toured a mortuary-from church, viewing room and hearse to embainb facilities and casket viewing room. I found one of it was mutilated, was impressed with the services Mr. McElwain provides to those who desire them.
I suggest that Mr. Young's
friend was grossly immature and inappropriately employed, and that that should have been Mr. Young's conclusion, rather than an unsupported inference about the funeral industry.
If the editorial page is to be devoted to the subject of death, an excellent endeavor in our death-denying society, I would hope that the purpose is to ask us to face and examine our fears, rather than reinforcing them with careless reminiscing.
Paige J. Hunt
Manhattan junior
Faith and hope exist To the Editor:
In response to the editorial, "Death: a second birth?" (Kansan, Sept. 30), I believe John Fuller contradicts himself when he precludes the knowledge of life after death on the basis that he was in God for a marriage that is far from a fervent hope. Webster's dictionary defines hope as "to long with expectation of obtaining" providing the synonyms trust and expect. On the basis of J. John 5:13, I know that I have eternal life and it is on this knowledge that I base an ever-giving hope and expectation.
Juris P. Krievins Newton senior
Race not relevant To the Editor:
Chalk up one for poor reporting and editing. Your story in the Sept. 27, Kansas, "Student hit with gun," reports the race of the person who struck the school bus. The fact that neither race, religion or country of national origin had anything to do with
the crime. The story represents another example of how journalists inadvertently influence racism without trying to do so.
The reporter fell into a trap of using police jargon. Even if the police report did say, "The perpetrator was a black male," the good journalist is not a stenographer. He or she should have followed the policy followed by the major wire reporters. New newspapers. If race had been factor in the crime—a significant cause of effect it should have been reported.
Samuel L. Adams Associate professor of journalism
Many is the time I have felt compelled to express my unpublished opinions. But now is the time to come forward. Nay, this note doesn't pertain to more conflicts of student politics, to administrative policy or to free money from such much charitable acts. This note intended to express the frustration of the hundreds of KU students who decided to donate a pint of precious red
Donor frustrated To the Editor:
fluid in the Kansas Union Ballroom this week.
Brave are the many, placing only courage between their appended and the Red Cross needle. And what is their purpose? They have cookies, a sip of imitation orange and a free beer. With that, and the feeling of good deed, the masses year forth, only to encounter the final barrier—"The Eternal Line."
As if registration, parking permits, enrollment and the like weren't enough, the three-hour, 25-minute delay that I experienced in the Ballroom that gray Tuesday evening may serve as the proverbial straw. If the Red Cross drive on campus its predicted goal, it was only a slight existence of the over-buried staffers and the sheer lemming-like patience of its donors.
Take note, oh dear Red Cross of Topeka, or the teeming of the Jayhawk masses will be reduced to a trickle. And even I, participating my eleventh donation, will fail by the sideside.
Cary Badger
Garry Budget Gardner graduate student
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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Published at the University of Kansas daily August 17, 2014 **Missions:** June and July except Saturday, Sunday and Holiday. Subscription by mail low $2 a semester or $18 a year. Subscriptions by mail low $2 a semester or $18 a year. A year outside the county. State university subscriptions are $18 a year. A year outside the county. State university subscriptions are $18 a year.
Editor Debble Gump
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