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Wednesday, June 5, 1991 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Unwise veto
Finney's inability to compromise on tax bill will hurt Kansans who voted her into office
B vetoing a surprisingly progressive tax bill passed by the Kansas Legislature, Gov. Joan Finney has failed the people she claims to represent.
Finney shot down a proposed $138.3 million income-tax increase, denouncing the plan as hitting ordinary Kansans too hard. But they will be the ones hardest hit by her actions.
The House last week failed to override her veto of the plan, which would have provided property-tax relief for the middle class by raising income taxes for those in the upper brackets.
The lack of a tax increase will make necessary some painful cuts in state programs. One of Finney's more imaginative budget-cutting suggestions: School districts could cut back on expenses by using smaller buses.
The University of Kansas will not escape the scalpel. KU has frozen hiring for the time being, and needed repairs will be postponed. The University might have to reduce library acquisitions and the number of classes offered.
In vetoing the tax increase, Finney is attempting to present herself as a champion of the people. But she stubbornly refused to compromise on this issue because the Legislature rejected her non-progressive tax plan.
Earlier this year, she recommended raising about $700 million by eliminating sales tax exemptions and expanding the sales tax to include services.
an increase of more than five times the increase she vetoed.
She shows no signs of relenting. She has said that next year she will submit basically the same tax package the Legislature rejected this year.
If she truly wishes to represent the people who entrusted her to their state's highest office, Finney must stop playing the bully and learn to work with the Legislature.
Sales taxes are less intimidating than income or property taxes; they are paid penny by penny rather than in one lump sum. But the pennies add up, and Finney's plan would have hurt average Kansans much more than the plan she killed
Yet she continues to push for her non-progressive tax package — a strange position for a Democratic governor who was elected after running a populist campaign.
Mike Brassfield for the editorial board
Her term will last three more legislative sessions. If she continues to contradict herself, confuse everyone else and compromise with no one, it will mean bad news for KU and bad news for those who elected her in the first place.
Supreme Court offers conflicting decisions
The Supreme Court has contradicted itself with two recent decisions, and
Reproductive rights
that contradiction not only will leave women uninformed about their reproductive rights, it may take these rights out of their hands.
In one case, United Auto Workers vs. Johnson Controls Inc., the Court places fetal protection in the hands of women.
The Court's decision allows women of childbearing age to decide whether to work around materials that would be hazardous to a fetus. Implicit in this decision is the idea that women have control over their reproductive systems.
However, in a recent decision, the Court ruled that there is nothing wrong with the Department of Health and Human Services policy that prohibits family planning agencies that receive federal money from counseling pregnant women about abortion. The word "abortion" is literally banned from being used in these clinics.
The Court still says abortion is the
woman's choice, but if a woman is unable to get the information she needs to make an intelligent choice, the option is taken away.
Most clinics dealing with pregnancy accept some type of government aid. Now many will face the choice of either refusing to accept federal money and looking elsewhere for money or continuing to accept federal dollars and, as a result, insufficient services.
By choosing to refuse the money, clinics may have to raise the cost of medical care, thus making the services too expensive for the women most often in need.
The Supreme Court not only has contradicted itself in these decisions, it has made an option that is still legal under Roe vs. Wade less available to economically disadvantaged people.
In this case, knowledge is not only power, it is choice. The inconsistencies in the Supreme Court's decisions not only muddy the issue of reproductive rights, they bury the means to seek options.
Liz Kennedy and Michael Christie for the editorial board
Unexpected road guest helps traveler realize self, friends
don't know what I was thinking.
Maybe the cold northern Arizona
air had gotten to me. Maybe it
was the gas fumes.
It was about three weeks ago, the week before graduation. I was on the road, on my way back from a four-month reporting internship in California. I was looking for adventure in whatever came my way.
This long-haired German guy came into my hostel room in Flags staff and asked if I knew anyone who had east. I said I was. That was that.
I really, really don't know what I was thinking. I like to drive alone. I look forward to it. You don't have to ask anyone if they need a rest stop or if they want to listen to this tape or that tape. You can watch the scenery and just think. Driving by myself is one of the most free feelings I know
So let's look at the reasons why I would give this guy a ride. 1) I wanted to save some money on gas. 2) I wanted to give the guy a break. 3) I could stay at his house for free if I visit Germany. Rule No. 1 out. I had my dad's credit card for gas. No. 2 and No. 3 are more believable.
But experimentation was closer to the real reason. It was something different and it might be fun and I might be a better person for it. But it didn't work out that way. At least the fun part.
The name of my problem was Mark Cookiemaker.
OK, so that's the English translation of his name. It sounds harmless, doesn't it? How could a cookie-maker hurt anyone?
Eric Gorski
Staff columnist
had to practically beg him to get out on the eve of graduation weekend, thought he was a nice guy at first. Am狸able enough. He had some interesting views on life. He had long hair. I have friends with long hair. But a culture gap slows down the get-to-know-you process considerably, and I'm still trying to figure out whether he was a good guy or not.
He ended up staying five days and I
He did a few things to indicate he was not. He asked me for reimmunization because he paid for one more gas stop than I had. He took a blank tape without asking. He picked up on every woman in sight, asking one of my friends if he could take a shower with her. And the worst of it: One night while I was out, he took a call from a group of mine in Omaha who were coming. Last week we weekend. He talked him into giving him a ride to Omaha, his next stop. After graduation. This was my worst fear realized.
Of course, since the moment he arrived I was searching for a way to rid of him. The ride board predicately flopped. Then he got that ride to Omaha with my friend (Actually never would have allowed this guy I barely even knew to ride in the dark to Nebraska with a female friend of mine. Not with that hungry look in his eye.)
Finally, I lucked out and I got him a ride to Omaha with someone else Friday morning. I had the unpleasant job of telling him why he had to be in that car. It was difficult, you knew it. We were meeting anyone in Omaha until Monday. It was 20 minutes of hell, and I needed a good drink when it was done.
I think he never really grasped the idea that he was my responsibility, because he was, really. I picked him up and let him into my circle and I had to carry him on my back. I tried to get that across in the 20-minute talk, but, again, the culture gap may have impeded that.
My final resort, of course, was to tell the truth. I wanted that weekend to be perfect. Some of my best friends were graduating, and I wanted to be with them without any distractions. It made me realize how important my friends are to me and how much I'm going to miss them. It made me realize that telling the truth is usually the best way to go. Cookie-maker even thanked me for telling it Then he left.
And what to think of the guy, anyway? Were some of the bothersome things he had acceptable in that world — or did he just go a little too far?
Before he went he left $10 on the telephone for long distance calls and a scrubbing in a notebook with a note: "You're welcome to come."
I really haven't decided yet if I will.
Eric Gorski is a senior majoring in journalism.
Lighten up, war cynics, join patriots for mall extravaganzas
There's been been a sharp slump in the sale of yellow ribbons. But that's no reason in need of an euphoria-fix to participate.
An organization of patriots called Yellow Ribbon America is planning a spectacular, nationwide series of rallies to celebrate our gulf war victory and welcome the triumphant troops.
And the celebrations will be conducted in settings that couldn't be any more traditional. Not in village houses or in town halls or on Main Street U.S.A.
The organizers of the event say they have lined up scores of corporate sponsors, and others are
The gala events will be conducted in more than 1,000 shopping centers across the nation. And on a Saturday, which is always the best day to be in a shopping center, whether to buy something, hang out, meet a famous disc jockey or celebrate a military triumph.
Mike Royko
Syndicated columnist
expected to sign on. Some of the sponsors will provide "gift packs" to all gulf veterans who show up. As they said in a news release, "The gulf veterans' information on special offers and discounts from participating companies."
A representative of Yellow Ribbon America said veterans of World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam also are invited to come and be honored at the shopping center rally, although was said show giving them corporate experience anything about those who served in Grenada and Panama, but it can be assumed that they would get at least a cup of coffee if they show up.
So if there are shopping centers anywhere near your community, chances are that one of them will be taking part in the big day. They will if they're smart. The organizers expect 10 million people to turn out, so if every one of them spends only $10, it could be one of the biggest retail days since we last celebrated the birth of Jesus Christ.
As a patriotic U.S. citizen, I was cheered by the news of this coming attraction, although I was momentarily disappointed that I don't qualify for a corporate "gift pak." But then I remembered that in the foreign land where I served, there were no local religious laws against boozing and caverging with women, and I felt better.
The only flaw in the plans for this grand day is that we have to wait until June 15 for the Super Saturday. And that's unfortunate, because a lot of gloomy party-poopers are on an anti-euphoria kick these days.
For example, I just received a copy
'And the game ain't over until the last Kurd is out.'
of one of his "Essays in Theology," by the Rev Richard P. McBrien, chairperson of Notre Dame's theology department.
Space doesn't permit me to repeat the entire essay, and as a euphoric patriot, I wouldn't, because he actually thinks the war was morally wrong. But here is part of what he wrote:
"The glow has faded from the allies' great military victory" in the Persian Gulf. Instead of basking in the sunlight of a 'new world order,' the gulf region is in an ever greater mess today than it was on January 15, when President Bush initiated military action against Iraq.
"Kuwait is still literally ablate, its atmosphere thickened with pollution, its skies darkened at midday, its waters and shores coated with oil, its
"Ira's own infrastructure is in shambles. Many thousands, even millions, of its citizens, have been deprived of the basic necessities of life: water, electricity, housing, transportation and medical care.
"Encouraged by President Bush to overthrow Saddam Hussein (but not without the necessary military support), the Kurds in the North and the South were beaten in the South were savagely beaten in the North and then driven from their homes.
"Hundreds of thousands of refugees, including countless children and aged, have been devastated by disease, malnutrition and exposure to the elements. Their efforts to escape the Saddam regime have, in turn, created an overwhelming problems for the bordering nations of Turkey and Iran."
Boy, if there's anything I can't stand it's a nit-picker. I'm surprised
that he didn't complain about the inept surgery that kills patients in some VA hospitals. Or that he didn't mention Saddam's big birthday, which Saddam acted like a hero and the band played: "Did it id my way."
I suspect that the Rev. McBrien's problem is that he isn't a sports fan. If he were, he would understand why we are having big celebrations. It has been explained by sports theologian Slats Grobink:
Sure, that part of the world is a bigger mess than it was before we restored the seat of Kuwait to his golden toilet emir, but that's to be expected. After a Super Bowl, the stadium is always covered with glop.
national character sullied by incidents of brutal revenge against Iraqis and Palestinians.
"Remember, a bloop hit looks like a line drive in the box score.
"Even if you win ugly, a win is a win.
KANSANSTAFF
MIKE BRASSFIELD
Editor
"And the game ain't over until the last Kurd is out."
■ Mike Royko is a syndicated columnist for the Chicago Tribune.
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