4A
Friday, September 29, 1995
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VIEWPOINT
THE ISSUE: BOOK BANNING
Censorship restricts students
The novel "Annie On My Mind" by Nancy Garden depicts a love affair between two high school seniors. Both are intelligent, kind people who care deeply for one another. And, to the great concern of Olathe school board members, both of the characters are female.
Because of the book's homosexual content, the Olathe superintendent decided last year to pull it from the shelves of the school's library. Several students filed suit, and the district now is involved in a legal battle to decide the constitutionality of its decision.
Despite the offended prejudices of school board officials, "Annie On My Mind" is not an objectionable book. What is objectionable is the censorship being dictated and enforced at the high school level.
Libraries exist so that anyone can contemplate ideas which, depending upon one's vantage point, may be embraced or
High school students should be allowed to decide what to read and should not have that choice taken away.
despised. By denying these students access to the book, school board officials have denied them the opportunity to read a sensitive portrayal of a relationship. Instead, officials have concluded that censorship is a better educational tool than awareness. If parents believe their children should not read this book, they can choose to ban it from the child's possession. However, every high school student should have the right to obtain the novel. This option should not be limited by a blanket decision imposed by a few narrow-minded board members.
Books like "Annie On My Mind" are not dangerous. Censorship, based on fear and ignorance, is the real danger challenging the minds of Olathe South high school students.
AIMEE WITTMAN FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD.
THE ISSUE: PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES
Forbes adds new blood to race
Malcolm Forbes, Jr. may not be the best choice for president, but at least he offers variety.
Last Friday, Forbes, multimillionaire and publisher of Forbes magazine, announced that he would seek the Republican nomination. What is positive about his announcement is the fact that he is not a career politician or a military person—which almost every U.S. president has turned out to be.
Career politicians are in their own world. They may start out as normal citizens, but before long, many get caught up in the system which doesn't allow them to look at the world from the standpoint of a typical American.
Granted, Forbes is not a typical American. The average American citizen can't exactly claim a multi-million-dollar fortune.. Plus, Forbes endorses a flat-income tax that wouldn't exactly help the poor. But at least he's fresh blood in a system
Non-career politicians such as Malcolm Forbes give voters a more varied candidate field from which to choose.
that often is stale, and perhaps, by seeking the nomination, he will encourage other non-politicians to run.
Variety in candidates would be a wonderful thing for American voters, not only in terms of occupation, but also in terms of class, race and gender. When looking at candidates in the race, most Americans can't relate to a Bob Dole, a Bill Clinton, a Pete Wilson or anyone else running. All of these candidates are rich, white males who have had incredible amounts of power for the majority of their lives.
Unfortunately, it takes a lot of money to run a substantial presidential campaign, and it will take a lot of support from the public to allow a non-millionaire or non-career politician to run.
IAN RITTER FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
KANSAN STAFF
COLLEEN MCCAIN
Editor
DAVID WILSON
Managing editor, news
ASHLEY MILLER
Managing editor, planning & design
TOM EBLEN
General manager, news advtser
Marko Fields / KANSAN
Editors
Republican policy pushes us closer to a sci-fi world
STEPHANIE UTLEY
Business manager
MATT SHAW
Retail sales manager
JAY STEINER
Sales and marketing adviser
CATHERINE ELLSWORTH
Technology coordinator
Do you think Republicans ever read science fiction?
News & Special Sections ...DeeRa Allison
Editorial ...Heather Lawrens
Associate Editorial ...Sarah Morrison
Campus ...Virginia Marghelmil
Associate Campus ..Teresa Vazey
Associate Campus ..Paul Todd
Sports ..Jenn Carlson
Associate Sports ..Tom Ritchie
Peloton ..Paul Kotz
Wire ..Robert Allen
On-line coordinator ..Tina Fessett
The Republicans have been using their usual cop-out to explain their motives: to rein in the federal government. Right. They think the government is intrusive until it comes to topics like the Internet and prayer in schools and sex and the entertainment industry. Then it's okay.
The Republicans also claim that many of the environmental programs are expensive and ineffective. This is not entirely untrue. Only 21 species have been struck from the sizable endangered species list, and only six were deleted because they had recovered enough to warrant removal. The other 15 either became extinct or were found to be never endangered in the first place. But the solution is to revamp these programs, not kill them.
Newt Gingrich threatened to send the United States into default if Clinton would not allow the Republicans to balance the budget on their own terms — a good way for governing powers that represent 250 million people to solve a difference of opinion.
And underline all the cockroach parts.
Maybe we should feel sorry for them. Maybe they haven't gotten to read any good science fiction. So send your area Republican representative a sci-fi book.
Not all fields are flooded with Ph.Ds
Angela Lopez is a Tulsa, Okla., senior in journalism.
Business Staff
Campus mgr .. Meredith Hennung
Regional mgr .. Tom Dulac
National mgr .. Heather Barnes
Special Sections mgr .. Heather Niaheau
Production mgrs .. Nancy Euston
... Krista Nye
Marketing director .. Christine Tye
... Bath Cahil
Creative director .. Brigg Bloomquist
Classified mgr .. Heather Vallee
Internship/co-op mgr .. Kelly Comessy
The other day, I picked up a sci-fi novel my roommate was reading, "The Sheep Look Up," by John Brunner. In it, he describes a world outrageously poisoned by man-made pollutants. The novelty of the sun coming out in LA stops the traffic on the Santa Monica freeway. People grab disposable filter masks out of futuristic gum ball machines before they step outside and pay a dime to get barely enough water to get their hands damp. Insects have grown immortal through the constant exposure to insecticides and eat through anything.
"Good book," I shrugged. And I traded it for a historical romance novel I'd been wrapped up in and flinched on Jeopardy.
But then I saw the front page of last Friday's New York Times. There was a story about the spending bill the Republican-held Congress has hammered out and its effects on environmental policies. Scary
In essence, the bill will reverse a long-running Democrat-led attempt to make some kind of peace with our environment. It will open up preserved public lands to the mining, logging and ranching industries, encouraging the exploitation of lands such as the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in northeastern Alaska for its natural resources. It
STAFF COLUMNIST
also will severely cut funds for such items as the Endangered Species Act and other organizations that monitor the environment and man's effect on it.
ries written that didn't describe our future world as a depressing and mucky place. All the man-made toxins are either killing us off or turning us into some large form of cockroach. Cockroach because we're all crawling around underneath a load of guilt, fully aware that are own self-righteous egos and lack of foresight was the cause of ouricky situation.
What's the matter with them? Don't they read?
It stops being an entertaining fiction novel when I see the egos and short visions are currently controlling our government.
There have been few science-fiction sto-
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
The scary facts and predictions are already out there, and we've all heard them. The hole in the ozone layer is as big as Europe. Only 5,000 bald eagles are left. There's acid rain and oil spills and the breakdown of ecosystems and industrial wastes and overflow landfills. The danger we will face if we are not careful is not a myth.
Your coverage of the symposium "Reconsidering Graduate Education: Pressures, Practices and Prospects" reported the chronic oversupply of Ph.D.s in the humanities. A July 5, 1995, article in the New York Times that was titled "Job market clogged up with Ph.D.s", referred to the overproduction of doctorates in science and engineering fields. Yet little attention has been given to the underproduction of Ph.D.s in behavioral science.
in a 1994 report "Meeting the Nation's Needs for Biomedical and Behavioral Sciences", called for more federal funding to support doctoral training in critical areas of behavioral science. The National Research Council estimates that the supply of doctoral recipients will not meet the demand. Ph.D.s are in short supply in many social and behavioral science areas. The long-term outlook is bleak: An insufficient number of professors will be available to ensure future training and to advance the field's knowledge. The need for rehabilitation and advanced research will not be met by the available supply of Ph.D.
The National Research Council,
level researchers and educators.
level researchers and educators.
It is too general to conclude that Ph.D.s have no academic job market. This may be true in some areas. At the same time, there is reason to encourage Ph.D-level training in health, behavior and communication sciences. It would be unfortunate if the dismal prospects of Ph.D.s in the humanities, natural sciences and engineering were to endanger doctoral programs in areas where the demand for Ph.D.s is unmet.
Susan Kemper, Ph.D.
professor of psychology
Mabel L. Rice, Ph.D.
professor of speech-language-hearing.
When I heard that the chain had decided that a shirt designed to boost the self-esteem of little girls was contrary to its family values, I just shook my head. I think I've had enough of Wal-Mart's family values. From now on, their recycling center can have my old University Daily Kansans and Sam Adams bottles, but I'm taking my checkbook to K-Mart or the new Target.
When I was a kid, a trip to Wal-Mart with my mother was a regular Saturday custom. Mama would stock up on all the stuff that was cheaper there than at the grocery store, and if I'd been unusually well-behaved, I could pick out a
Twisted 'family values' are still Wal-Mart's way of doing things
new outfit for my Charlie's Angels dolls from the toy department. In Arkansas, where the megachain of discount stores was founded by Sam Walton, Wal-Mart is a part of life.
Because of those fond memories of shopping for toys and my annual back-to-school wardrobe (my family was
And folks from any little Southern town can tell you how Wal-Mart stores suck the life out of downtown businesses through ruthless pricing techniques, destroying a vital part of the culture of small-town America. Family values, indeed. What of all the families that have lost everything when their pharmacies and hardware stores have been driven out of business by yet another Wal-Mart mega-store?
Chris Hampton is a Lawrence graduate student in higher education.
semi-poor, so it was J. C. Penney on good years and Wal-Mart most of the time). I was saddened last weekend when disturbing news about the chain emerged in the national press — but I wasn't surprised.
In Miramar, Fla., a couple of morons had gone into a Wal-Mart and complained about a t-shirt in the girls' clothing section. The shirt featured Margaret, the character from the Dennis the Menace comic strip, proudly proclaiming, "Some day, a woman will be president!" Rather than tell these antiquated goofballs not to buy the shirts if they didn't like them, Wal-Mart pulled the shirt from their stores. A buyer for the company told the t-shirt's designer that the shirts "didn't reflect Wal-Mart's family values." After news of this spread over the airwaves, prompting nation-wide outcry, the company apologized and offered to put the shirts back in the stores. As Mama would say, that's mighty white of them.
But as I said before, I wasn't surprised. Nobody grows up in Arkansas without seeing the sordid underbelly of the huge chain of stores that tries to present itself as homespun and hometown-proud. I first developed a bad taste in my mouth about Wal-Mart when Mama got a job there and was forced to submit to urine testing. I can understand and even wholeheartedly support drug testing for Wal-Mart's truck drivers or forklift operators — but expecting a sweet little 65-year-old Southern lady to tinkle in a cup so she can keep her minimum-wage job at the snack bar is absurd. But hey, that's family values. In the wildly improbable event that Mama would want to light up a blunt during her off-time, I think that after a childhood in the Great Depression, four children, six grandchildren, an abusive first husband and the loss of the family business, she would deserve it.
SUBJECT TO CHANGE
FEEL INSECURE?
FEEL INADEQUATE?
By Shawn Trimble
NOW YOU CAN HAVE THE FLASH WINDOZE PROVIDES (AND ALL OF THE PERFORMANCE IT DOESN'T PROVIDE) WITHOUT SHELLING OUT $ 90. (NOT COUNTING THE EXTRA $ 500 - $ 100 NEeded FOR HARDWARE & SOFTWARE UPGRADING)
JUST CLIP OUT & TAPE TO SCREEN OF NON-WINDOZE COMPUTER! USE AN ARMIEL
REBOOTER THIS