4A
Thursday. September 29. 1994
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Victorian town loses heritage to newer facilities
CHRIS STONG
Change has invaded the Lawrence and made the town into just another product of the'80s.
Clanging hammers and shouts of surveyors ring through neighborhoods as the crews of Douglas County mark off property boundaries. Their spray guns hiss, dividing up Lawrence as they demarcate bits of ordained ground. Similar sounds echo across Lawrence as advocates of change claim an invisible hand commands the work.
The '80s have arrived in Lawrence. Outdated expansionist policies and unrestrained desire for business to grow is now sucking the lifeblood from what used to be an historic community.
Now little more than a bedroom community or outlet mall exit, Lawrence is being divided, and its history pushed aside to make room for
the new monuments to come. The new style is utilitarian and cost effective but not particularly aesthetic.
Perhaps there is some hidden reason in that. No one struggled for any of this newness. They never put thought into it. No artisans worked. Accountants merely calculated the results in a worn-out system that had not yet failed but never once proved any more than unimaginative.
Superhighways and strip shopping malls, tract housing and soft fascism.
The invisible hand is making everything the same: corporate-franchise deco.
realtor who suggests that the home is no longer desirable. Why? The hand-built stone foundation is not the mode of building anymore. The high ceilings are cold in the winter, and the trees in the yard exclude a driveway.
The process begins: a house is abandoned, the elderly couple who lived there moving on. The executors of the house decide to sell and consult a
She advises the nice executors that the house is no longer marketable, despite the fact that every other house on the block in the same style, Victorian, the kind with a little history, is rented out.
It would sell if "zoned for duplexes." Buldoze all the handcrafted work and history of the house, making a beachhead in the neighborhood for further construction of the sort and sell. This curious process is acceptable, but who wants to live merely acceptably?
End of story? Not exactly. The new tenants will have no trees next year. A duplex won't fit on the lot otherwise. The neighbors will see an average, prefabricated, sterile, white duplex out of the neighborhood style.
The city loses part of its Victorian heritage, and as the process goes on, the city is subdivided and sold off to anonymous owners who care more about quick turnaround and increased profit than culture or heritage.
Change does not mean, nor has it ever meant, the same thing as progress.
These late blooming '80s business techniques are uprooting the entire town. Every new house has the same floor plan.
Walking through downtown, it doesn't seem to be a city block long, and as soon as McYouKnowWho moves in it will take forever to get past it. Wal-Mart moved, not because the old store was not environmentally safe enough, but because they want to be on the freeway exit when the wetlands have been "relocated."
No one mentions how boring the great towers of venture capital look on the outside or what the people feel like working inside — only how free and rich the people are. They say interstates and towering banks are modern-day cathedrals.
Not this American.
VIEWPOINT
Party politics don't work in making the best choice
As Congress prepared to adjourn, with health-care reform suffocating in partisan politics, Kansans stressed a positive
witnessed a move toward breaking this cycle in the state. On Friday, former Republican gubernatorial candidate Gene Bick-
Among politicians, sharp divisions between party lines make change
forward" by supporting whom he considers the more qualified candidate.
Chris Stong is a Lawrence senior in philosophy.
GOVERNOR'S RACE
GOVERNOR'S RACE Gene Bicknell has set an example all voters should follow in supporting the candidate and not the political party.
slow illustrated by the health-care movement. During elections, many people vote for a certain opposed to a
nell endorsed Democratic candidate Jim Slattery.
GOP officials argued that Bicknell was breaking a unity pledge; Bicknell said he was attempting to "make a step
Bicknell sets a bold example to be followed in the November elections. Voters must look beyond labels and see individual credentials.
certain candidate.
ERIC MADDEN FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD.
Health-care reform's fate is sign the system works
The Democratic leadership in Congress admitted Monday what the rest of the nation already knew: Health-care reform is
dead, at least for this year.
Some type of health-care reform should be made. However, considering the significant economic impact that a reform
should be praised.
During the 1992 election, health-care reform seemed like a simple goal. Yet, two years
HEALTH-CARE REFORM Health-care reform is
later, no significant progress has been made. This lack of action should not be blamed on our democratic process. Instead, the process
package would have, it is better that Congress continue discussion into next year and get a good plan,rather
noticed but the debate should continue into next year to ensure the nation gets the best possible plan.
than push through hap hazard reform now. America deserves high quality health-care reform. This delay will only help us get it.
RICHARD BOYD FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD.
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Letters should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 200 words. They must include the writer's signature, name, address and telephone number. Writers affiliated with the University of Kansas must include class and hometown, or faculty or staff position.
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HEALTH CARE REFORM:
Matt Hood / KANSAN
DOLE CLAIMS REPUBLICANS DIDN'T KILL IT :
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Compassion is way to salvation
Geez, Mr. Zimmerman, can we beat that bible just a little harder? I'm a pretty easy going guy, but it really chaps my hide when close-minded people try to push their beliefs upon others, completely disregarding what those people believe in.
I once got in an argument with a couple of bible-beaters who denounced my point of view on religion. They said I was going to burn in Hell because I don't believe Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation.
In your last column you referred to the Salvation Army as having lost its way. I can't quote passages from the Bible off the top of my head, but don't the actions of the Salvation Army preach the Gospel? And in the "eternal scheme of things," how can you say that filling the starving bellies of the poor is useless because they are going to burn in Hell anyway? How do you know?
The Salvation Army is still doing what all Christians are called to do, and that is to have compassion for others less fortunate and help them out as best they can. The Salvation Army doesn't need to overtly preach the Gospel. If it is going to shove something down people's throats, why not let it be food?
Jay Lisondra Overland Park senior
Wetlands debate prompts practical, moral questions
The wetlands/South Lawrence Trafficway debate has been one of the most important and contentious in Lawrence in a number of years. It also illustrates one of the main dichotomies in our society today: the relationship and conflict between religion and government. This dichotomy has existed in various forms since the dawn of western civilization.
For those of you who felt Western Civ to be a waste of time, try rereading Sophocles, Black Elk and Aldo Leopold in light of this wetland debate.
COLUMNIST
The central question in this debate is whose rights should prevail?
Do we come down on the side of progress and side with Douglas County, or do we join forces with the environmentalists and Native American students from Haskell, who have their own compelling reasons for abandoning the project?
How seriously do we consider the arguments of the Haskell students, who claim that the wetlands have a spiritual value? Can you quantify this spiritual value or is its qualitative significance sufficient to stop this project?
NICOLAS SHUMP
What about the environmental impact of this project? Again, how can this be put into qualitative terms? Should it even be necessary to quantify the environmental damage, or are the two sides in this debate just comparing apples and oranges?
Will the eventual solution be acceptable to all parties involved?
And finally, what good is civil disobedience in this case? Does it actually accomplish anything?
These questions plagued me a few years back when I was involved in my own act of civil disobedience at
Offutt Air Force Base near Omaha, Neb. I was part of a group of nearly 60 people who were planning to trespass in a protest against Desert Storm.
We protested; we were arrested and nothing changed, as recent events in Somalia and Haiti have shown.
Nevertheless, I feel that by merely protesting the rationale for the Persian Gulf action, we allowed our voices to be heard.
Civil disobedience is the most telling sign of a society's commitment to democracy.
Only a society that is confident of its mandate can allow itself to be criticized. I am encouraged to see that civil disobedience is alive and well here in River City.
Mary Gray's recent action brought all of those feelings and questions back. I imagine that many people will feel that her action will actually solve nothing.
It is quite possible that she would have sat in jail without her wishes being met. She might have remained on a hunger strike indefinitely without the slightest interest shown
by the Douglas County commissioners. I hoped that this was not the case. Mary Gray's courageous act forced the county to listen to her.
I applaud her willingness to go to jail for her beliefs, especially considering that she did it alone. I had company at least.
But I also hope that Mary Gray does not stay alone for long. I hope that other protesters would consider joining her in some future protest. I hope that the Douglas County jail is overrun by protesters who believe in the same cause as Mary Gray. Why? It's not because I think that it will be cool or hip.
No, I hope that others will join Mary Gray because the Douglas County Commission needs to understand that there is a significant group of people who oppose this South Lawrence Trafficway.
Exercise your right to civil disobedience. It's the only way to ensure that you don't lose it.
Nicolas Shump is a Lawrence senior in comparative literature.
HUBIE
By Greg Hardin