4A
Thursday, September 14, 1995
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VIEWPOINT
THE ISSUE: THE LAWRENCE HOUSING CENTER
Center will duplicate services
last week, the Student Senate finance committee considered paying $20,300 to create the Lawrence Housing Center, which would serve as a comprehensive advisory resource for KU students and Lawrence residents. Fortunately, committee chair Alan Pierce tabled the action.
Of the criticisms plaguing the project, the issue of duplication of services remains at the forefront.
Students already have access to housing information through KU Legal Services for Students, which offers counseling for students involved in landlord-tenant disputes. Legal Services also answers questions about the rental process and reviews leases. In the spring, Legal Services presents programs in the residence halls that inform first-time renters about the housing search.
In Lawrence, Housing and Credit Counseling. Inc. educates tenants and landlords about their
Legal Services for Students already provides programs, resources that proposed $20,300 housing center would.
rights and obligations. These services are free.
If funds are obtained, the services provided by Housing and Credit Counseling will relocate to the Lawrence Housing Center. Because most questions Housing and Credit Counseling receives can be handled over the phone, the counselors' advice is already easily obtainable. While the counselors refer and advise, they do not provide legal support. For students, Legal Services can fill this gap.
Senate helps finance Legal Services. Students can use this agency to answer their housing questions.Before pouring money into the Lawrence Housing Center, Senate should consider how to better promote the advising services already available to students.
AIMEE WITTMAN FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
THE ISSUE: THE CHRISTIAN COALITION
Group's plan misdirects nation
The Christian Coalition's agenda regarding education in the United States is frightening to the future of this county
The coalition's main focus is the nation's moral decline, but if its stance on education were enacted into policy, the moral decline of the country would accelerate. Coalition members advocate closing the Department of Education and cutting loans for students. They also oppose public schools.
Is education not the foundation of this country? Education allows every citizen the opportunity for social, intellectual and spiritual advancement. It is foolish to cut any more educational funds. If anything, money allotted toward education should be increased.
We cannot allow the Christian Coalition, or anyone, to jeopardize education in order to balance the budget or correct recent and past governmental mistakes. The religious right is threatening the stability and growth of our society by ignoring the educational needs and rights of all people of this nation
Opposition to public schools betrays one of the main goals of country educating our children.
With the 1996 presidential elections quickly approaching, we are bound to see and hear a lot more from the Christian Coalition. The coalition is a driving force behind many Republicans. Some Republican presidential hopefuls are fighting for the support of the coalition in their quests for the presidency. It would be a shame if we the people of the United States allow this intolerant, unsympathetic, rigid group to influence decisions regarding the future of education in this country.
Jeff MacNelly / CHICAGO TRIBUNE
TARA FITZPATRICK FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Subtle signs are harbinger of approaching middle age
This past year my car insurance rate dropped. I get my payments sucked out of my checking account, so I didn't notice until I did my monthly arithmetical gymnastics, which some people call balancing a checkbook and I call calculator roulette. About the time I landed within $10 of what the bank said I had in my account, which is where I normally stop and burn incense in thanks to the abacus gods, I found the new rate amount staring me in the face.
I immediately thought I had won the auto policy "carrier of the month" lottery of $5.
Not 10 seconds later I thought,
"Cool, three more schooners of brew at Louise's for Wednesday nights."
Of course, within that same minute, I knew it couldn't be true. The only time $5 comes floating out of the sky is when a multinational corporation peddles me a non-addictive tobacco product that folks just can't seem to stop using. The only obvious answer was that someone Ollie Northed my insurance policy and raised my deductible to, maybe, $2000.
related State Farm insurance. "What's up?" I asked. "You folks dropped my rate, and it's making me nervous."
"No problem," the insurance representative said. "Congratulations. Your last birthday put you into a new age group category. You're considered less of a risk, so we charge you less."
I called State Farm Insurance.
Yeah, thanks. The woman just
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told me I'm getting old. The truth whapped me upside the head with all the subtlety of a Bob Packwood feel-up job. I've hit Generation X middle age. I should have seen it coming, but I was too busy distracting myself with, well, law school.
my true age bracket, I'm a little upset with myself for not having recognized some obvious signs this past year.
Now that I know
The first thing that should have tipped me off happened last winter when I was watching college hoops on ESPN. Dick Vitale did the game, and at one point went off on one of his rapid-fire, hyperbolic spewfests. I turned to a buddy and said, "I think it's time to hit the mute on this guy. He annoys the hell out of me."
The next sign should have been a major wake-up call, but again, I wasn't paying attention. (I'll warn you that these next few sentences deal with personal hygiene and are not for the squeamish.) Last spring, I took a shower, one of many I take each week, I assure you, and took a cotton swab to the old ears as I normally do. This particular time, though, I spotted something weird. A wild hair had sprouted out of my
ear. In a frenzy, reminiscent of the second "Aliens" movie in which Ripley tears apart the child's life pod in search of an alien, I riffed through the drawer for tweezers and plucked that sucker out. I hadn't told a soul about the incident until now.
Finally, the last event that should have signaled the end of an extended youth happened at a Hootie and the Blowfish concert this summer. Granted, for many of you musically savvy hep cats, the fact that I attended a concert with a '90s version of the BeeGees showed my age. But Hooite gets played on the Lazer, so give me a break.
Anyway, I sat behind a couple of kids who were about 16 years old. They pawed each other during the entire concert. They groped, they slobbered and they rolled around on the hill like Bob Packwood with one of his aides. In days of yore, I would have taken another drink and toasted the effort, albeit a tragically inepent one. Instead, I sat there and tried to choke down the vomit rising in my throat. I didn't feel good about my uncool intolerance, but I felt what I felt.
The signs of aging were there, but I ignored them. I suppose I fell victim to the same fuzzy-headed oblivion as the next guy, but it didn't make it any easier to have my impending thirtysomethingness pointed out to me by my insurance agent. Yeah, whatever.
John Martin is a Lawrence second-year law student.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
PETA was right in its methods of protest
I disagree with Jenny Wiedeke's Sept. 11 column about PETA's recent protest against Oscar Meyer. Oscar Meyer is a huge corporation with enough money and power to get away with unethical practices — and to hide them from the general public. PETA was trying to "make headlines" to inform people. If PETA had demonstrated more mildly they might not have been recognized at all. To make a dent in big business you have to have big actions. Remember
the Boston Tea Party? I'm sure there were many people saying, "Radical groups like these need to be stopped," and maybe some children cried that day because they didn't get any tea, but see what that event did for America. Isn't speaking up for what you believe in an essential aspect of our freedom? It was unfortunate that children witnessed the protest, however, I am sure that those children would be more emotionally scarred after visiting one of Oscar Meyer's factory farms or slaughterhouses. We can hope that after PETA's demonstration the children and
parents discussed it, and maybe it motivated one of them to look into Oscar Meyer's practices. Jenny Wiedebe said that "if even one child's life was altered by the demonstration, it was not worth it for the saved life of a pig," yet in contrast — if just one person who witnessed or read about the event decides to reduce his or her hot dog intake or become a vegetarian, then I applaud PETA's actions. To close, eat fewer hot dogs — you know what they are made of, don't you?
Jason Daniels Colby sophomore
Dole was wrong in asking that Packwood stay in office longer
Two years ago, when I first heard about the allegations of sexual harassment against Sen. Robert Packwood, R-Ore, the only word to describe what I felt was outrage. Like many others, I was angry that someone elected to help lead the nation could abuse his power in
STAFF COLUMNIST
such a dissagusting way. Slowly, during the past several years, that anger has turned into a much quieter disgust as the ethics committee investigation slipped into the background behind more highly publicized "trials." That anger returned last week, however, as Packwood resigned
his seat under the pressure of a unanimous ethics committee decision that asked the full Senate to throw him out of office.
Don't get me wrong. I have been waiting for Packwood's resignation since the accusations began. As more and more women came forward with allegations of harassment, I found the senator's repeated denials increasingly disgusting. And it would be an understatement to say that when he finally resigned last Thursday, I was glad.
What did make me angry was that while a majority of senators were agreeing that it was time for Packwood to resign, Sen. Bob Dole was saying the opposite, asking that Packwood remain in office for 60 to 90 days.
I understand Dole's motives. Packwood is chairman of the Senate finance committee, an extremely powerful position in Congress. His resignation will, without a doubt, affect the committee. However, with his resignation, Packwood is beginning to own up to the seriousness of his actions. At the same time. Dole is trivializing the charges.
By asking Packwood stay for an extra two to three months, Dole is ignoring the fact that Packwood is leaving amidst numerous allegations of sexual harassment and a 6-0 committee decision asking for just such an action. These are not trivial charges. Abuses of any type have repercussions, and this case is no different. After two years of denying allegations, Packwood finally recognized them publicly last Thursday.
Dole is ignoring the seriousness of the abuses. He is sending a message that this type of sexual misconduct is OK. It is a step away from the gains made in the battle to stop sexual harassment in the workplace.
Packwood, in a display of class that I did not think he had in him, stepped down as committee chairman immediately. He also said that he would leave office by Oct. 1. While I have no respect for Packwood as a person, I do respect the way he handled himself in his resignation. As for Dole, while I do understand his motives, I have no respect for his actions. In ignoring the reasons for Packwood's departure, he trivialized the charges and legitimized the abuse.
Packwood's resignation does not mean the story has ended. With his departure from the Senate, the question of whether the women involved will press charges remains. I only can hope that in the future, Packwood will carry himself with the same decorum he had on the Senate floor, instead of the way he behaved behind closed doors.
Stacy Nagy Is a Topeka sophomore majoring in Ruslan.
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HUBIE
By Greg Hardin