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Wednesday, July 10, 1991 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wasteful spending
KU Med should consider Bargain Shopping 101
F first the Pentagon, and now the University of Kansas Medical Center.
The Med Center has managed to spend $500 on hammers and $100 on a pen sharpener.
Out of the 50,000 vouchers so far reviewed, four purchases have been deemed excessive. two of which were made by the Med Center.
The Kansas Department of Administration, which audits state spending, now is paying extra attention to all vouchers submitted by state agencies as a part of the Finney administration's program to reduce excess spending.
The Med Center's director of purchasing tried to justify the expenditures by saying that because the Med Center did not buy the items through a state contract, which usually provides such items at a lower cost, the articles were purchased from a non-contracted company.
However, it seems any hardware store could have provided an inexpensive alternative.
It is a time for every KU department to review its purchases. If the University is required to buy common items at ridiculously high prices because of contractual agreements, it may be time to re-evaluate such commitments.
As KU continues to face financial problems because of state economic woes, such wasteful expenditures become more obvious. One such purchase is forgivable. Several such purchases are expensive.
Because, even though it was the Med Center that needlessly spent $180 on common household items, ultimately everyone will pay the price.
Jennifer Schultz for the editorial board
Misleading labels
Companies should fulfill environmental promises
Recycled, recyclable, earth-friendly environmentally safe. For the eco-conscious consumer these
only are misleading, they sometimes are wrong.
Companies are catching the latest advertising wave of eco-awareness by packaging products "environmentally." Promises are made on the outside of packages that aren't delivered inside.
Those little green trees, smiley faces or checkmarks don't always mean that the product is safe for the environment.
Central to this problem is the lack of governmental or industry standards defining what is environmentally responsible. With no one setting standards, often the individual companies set their own.
Although some private organizations are rating some products, more complete standards must be formed and used to regulate industry. Some types of recycling proces-
dures, such as plastic recycling, are so new that mandating standards is difficult. But other environmental regulations are feasible and should be created now.
Consumers also should be aware of advertising gimmicks vs. environmentally responsible products. "Recyclable" means just that, not that the product has been recycled. Even "recycled" doesn't guarantee that a majority of the product is made from recycled products or that it is made from post-consumer waste.
Because across the-board standards don't exist, shop intelligently and read the ingredients. If a product is labeled toxic to humans, it is a safe bet that it is as toxic to the environment.
Standards for environmentally responsible products are needed now. Consumers should be able to buy intelligently and not rely on eco-happy advertising departments to tell the truth.
Liz Kennedy for the editorial board
Mink sheds light on problem causes change in point of view
I don't remember the exact date. But I should have made a note of it because it was personally significant — the day I underwent a change in my political and social views.
It began with a simple telephone conversation.
The woman said, "I have a problem that I wonder whether you can help
I told her that I was sorry but that he would not write about her shedding fur coat.
Her voice rose in anger as she said, "I bought a mink coat about two and a half years ago on Michigan Avenue. And now the coat is starting to shed. I complained to the store, but they aren't doing anything about it. So I thought you might want to write about this."
"Why not?" she asked.
I explained that it was likely that many readers had problems more serious than a shedding mink coat.
She accepted that. But then she asked, "What agency should I call?" Agency?
"Yes. Who handles problems like this?"
You mean a government agency that could recommend another government agency that deals with the problem of a mink coat that sheeds?
Mike Royko Syndicated columnist
"Yes."
I told her I didn't know about that either.
"Well, thanks a lot," she said and hung up.
Every day we hear about schools and how they are failing to do the job. But you almost never hear about the fundamental reason so many children drop out of school or muddle through without learning anything.
That was when I realized that politicians, especially Democrats, had done too good a job of convincing many U.S. citizens that if they have a problem, a social agency should be there to solve it.
Go to their houses and see how many books you find. Ah, but the TV set will be going full blast. Ask the parents whether they ever check to see whether the child is doing homework. Or whether they even check to see that he's home at night.
Why else would that woman have assumed that the great social safety net provides a soft landing for someone whose mink coat is shedding?
A teacher has a room full of children about six hours a day, nine months a year. And they are supposed to make up for what the parents fail to do the other 18 hours a day, plus weekends, plus holidays, plus summer vacation.
Anyway, this is why I am glad to see that there has emerged in the Democratic party a faction called the Democratic Leadership Council.
It's made up of Democrats who have decided the party no longer can try to appeal to every special interest group that thinks government must solve their problems.
This radical idea has upset the Democrats who have been running the party for the last few decades, giving us the political conventions that sent forth Dakikas, Mondale, and Hillary Clinton. We say these less sweepy Democrats are abandoning the party's traditions of compassion for the downrodden.
I do not agree. I think what they are saying is that they want to show the downtrodden how to get up so they do not get trod on anymore.
And I wish them success. If they do not make it, we may wind up with the Department of Shedding Mink Coats Investigation.
Mike Royko is a syndicated columnist with the Chicago Tribune.
President's energy strategy fails at its futuristic purpose
free the White House 321 President, Corton, ho
President Carter had 32 solar panels installed on the White House in 1979. But Ronald Reagan had them removed, and now they're collecting dust in a government warehouse.
Mike Brassfield
The panels symbolize what ought to be the cornerstone of our National Energy Strategy — efficient renewable energy.
But Reagan not only ditched the solar collectors but slashed solar research budgets for eight consecutive years. From 1981 to 1989, U.S. financing for solar and other renewable energy sources was cut from $750 million to $150 million, according to the Worldwatch Institute.
Now George Bush, our "environmental president," is following in Reagan's footsteps, mortgaging our ability to pay for business-as-usual today.
On Monday, congressional investigators complained that the Bush administration was withholding important data it had used in decision-making. The National Energy Strategy it submitted to Congress earlier this year.
In particular, officials from the General Accounting Office said they wanted more information on why the administration rejected proposals to boost automobile fuel-efficiency taxes and to levy new energy taxes.
Incredibly, it does not include any energy-efficiency measures and completely ignores clean, renewable
It should come as no surprise that the administration has refused to release that information. Bush's plan for our energy future is so contrary to the needs of this country and this problem that one has to woe with it, its allegiance truly lie — with the oil, coal and nuclear industry, perhaps?
The NES says the United States would rely on fossil fuels and nuclear power.
Editor
energy sources such as solar and wind power.
This strategy is exactly the opposite of what is needed.
The NES does not mention higher mileage requirements for cars, although an increase in car fuel efficiency of less than three miles a gallon could save the United States about the same amount of oil a year about four times from Kuwait and Iraq each year before the Persian Gulf War.
The NES does, however, propose the opening of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to offshore oil drilling.
But our dependence on fossil fuels is dangerous. The gulf war whether or not it was entirely about oil — has proved that. Our continuing reliance on fossil fuels causes acid rain, catastrophic spills, global warming and bloodshed
The effects of global warming can't be measured in dollars.
The global average temperature for 1990 was the highest ever recorded, according to the Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Seven of the last ten years were the hottest on record.
Even without catastrophes from rising sea levels or melting polar ice caps, researchers predict climate changes that, within the next century, could turn cropland to desert land of major social and economic dislocations.
Fortunately, non-polluting alternatives to fossil fuels exist. Our national energy plan should redirect the kind of subsidies and tax incentives that have gone to the fossil-fuel and
nuclear-power lobbies
If there were no tax subsidies for fossil and nuclear power, existing solar- and wind-generated electricity, just to name two sources, already would be cost-competitive. And with the proper energy-efficiency measures, we could reduce the need for more production in the first place.
If we became as efficient as Europe and Japan, we could save about $200 billion a year, according to the Rocky Mountain Institute, an independent energy-research group. Choosing the best energy buys from companies has resulted in savings of several trillion 1991 dollars — enough to pay off the national debt.
But the only alternative the Bush administration is concerned with is nuclear power.
The NES proposes increasing government subsidies to the nuclear industry and scaling back the regulations governing nuclear plants. But it is not all bad. The NES is storing radioactive waste and decommissioning worn out reactors.
In theory, the officials we elect are supposed to plan for the future, with the benefit of all people in mind. But they usually do just the opposite, and we're stuck with the NIMTOOO syndrome — Not In My Term of Office.
Unfortunately, Bush's term of office most likely will last until 1996, thanks to the popularity the gulf war has given him. If Bush, a former Texas oilman, cannot be persuaded to make a serious commitment to renewable energy, we will continue 'o pay in blood and money.
It took $176 million to fuel Operation Desert Storm aircraft for eight days. That amount would double the number of pilots employed by Research and Development budget.
War should not be an energy policy. As the 20th century draws to a close, we have tools other than guns available to choose our future.
Mike Brassfield is a Shawnee senior majoring in journalism and English.
Drug possession gets life
Should one feel sorry for the person who, having gotten caught with a sizable load of dangerous drugs, draws a life sentence without parole? Isn't this cruel and unusual punishment? Two weeks ago, the Supreme Court answered the latter question by ruling such sentences constitutional.
In doing so, the court rejected the argument that possession of large amounts of drugs is not on a par with murder and rape. It also rate life sentences. Hardly anyone
Other Voices
Drugs cause injury and death, and they contribute to enormous emotional suffering among those who use them and those who know and love users. To judge from its ultimate consequences, sending drugs for sale truly can be called an act of violence. In the case before the court, defendant Ronald
In a plurality opinion upholding the sentence, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy said it was wrong to suggest that possessing enough cocaine to yield 32,500 to 65,000 doses was a nonviolent, victimless crime.
Harmelin might not consciously have intended to harm anyone, but the fact remains that he could not separate himself legally and morally from his actions.
From The Los Angeles Daily News
carrying a really large quantity of dangerous drugs such as cocaine is carrying it just for his or her own use. Those drugs are meant to be distributed to their distribution affects human beings in the same ways acts of violence do.
A Harmeln was found in possession of 672.5 grams — about $1_{1/2}$ pounds of cocaine and sentenced to life without parole under a Michigan law.
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