'Fireproof' pyres?
KU campers smelled smoke on the fifth floor of Lewis Hall Saturday.
They yelled, "Do I smell smoke? Quick open the windows! Call the desk. What's wrong? What's going on around here. what's that smell?"
More smoke, thin wispy smoke, filled the air.
No one knew what to do. In Chicago no one knew what to do when Our Lady of Angels school caught fire and burned to the ground and 98 children died.
Some never left the classroom. Their parents were told they had died of smoke inhalation.
In Chicago they thought "it can't happen here." but it did.
Are we guilty of this comforting egotistical attitude on campus?
With rules to guide campers' behavior on a number of points, it seems reasonable that someone should explain to the 538 girls living in Lewis Hall what to do if fire should break out.
Only the fifth floor had a sheet of fire procedures posted. If there are fire extinguishers, campers would like to know where they are hidden. The alarm is there, but what does it sound like? No one knows.
Most girls said their counselors never advised them about emergency exiting of the building.
The problem of leaving the building is worth a little thought. The elevator in case of fire is never to be used. Who knew that? The elevator is eliminated as a means of escape.
Side stairways are never used by campers; the exit doors nearest them are always locked.
Lawrence fire chief F. C. Sanders said, "No exit door should ever be locked." The "open door policy" should go into effect now.
That leaves campers with the center stairs as the exit route. Preceding a recent wing meeting the stairs were jammed with everyone pushing and yelling, for no reason.
What might the scene look like if these same girls had a cause for pushing,like smoke and intense heat? What kind of panic could break out?
The fears materialized Saturday. Ammonia fumes in the halls resulted in a fire alarm. A few hundred confused girls flew down the flight of stairs to the lobby, where they were directed by equally confused supervisory personnel, who directed them to "just get out of the building."
One desk counselor commented, "I didn't know what that thing was (the siren). Why, I'd never heard it before." Well, neither had the campers.
If camp officials are as concerned for campers" "safety" as the officials say they are, they should advise campers on emergency procedures. Tell them how to get out of a building safely before;
"Several hundred high school students were killed today and others injured when a fire spread through a university dormitory at..."
—Karen Zupko
CAMPER EDITORIALS
LITTLE MAN ON. CAMPUS
Campers... litter
Campers, look around the campus. Does it look the same as when you came?
Litter! That's what most would have to admit seeing. The KU campus was clean and well-kept until the great rush of kids started covering the area; the area around the dorms looks like a public: dumping ground. Papers, cups and candy wrappers dot the lawns and sidewalks.
It is doubtful that anyone could possibly answer yes. Oh, surely, the campus is more familiar, but that is not the point.
Dorm lounges also seem to collect refuse on the tables and floors. Why? There are proper receptacles for trash.
Why is the situation not only here, but across the country, like this? Could it be that people don't care or don't respect other people's property. Or are they too lazy to deposit their litter in proper containers?
To and from classes students throw cans, bottles and papers into the bushes or under the trees. These trees and shrubs were put there to beautify the campus, not to collect litter. And someone is going to pick up this trash.
KU may be home to the campers for only a short while, but they should respect it and keep it clean so others may enjoy it as much as the campers have. —Pam Warren
Education is defense
From Appalachia to the Ozarks, thousands of people live in ramshackle cabins and have barely enough to feed themselves. Scurvy and rickets are common among children who don't get a decent meal for months. It isn't the children's fault, and is it really the fault of the parents?
These people don't know how to escape their poverty. Bountiful crops of any kind in these areas are non-existent; their tenders were never shown 20th century farming methods and have never been introduced to modern machinery and equipment.
In a land of great wealth families must not live in hopeless poverty. In a land rich in harvest children must not go hungry.
The taproot of this problem is ignorance. Without an education these people never will have a fighting chance to cope with life's problems. How can it be the fault of the parents if the children are hungry? These
unfortunate people themselves never received a decent education.
Our job is to open new vistas—to guide and educate the young and to teach them the skills that will lead to a more rewarding life. We must not permit any part of this country to be a prison where hopes are crushed. The promise of America must not be denied.
In a great land of learning and scholars young people must be taught to read and write. Every child must have the best education this nation can provide.
Our ultimate defense of freedom lies not in our weapons systems, or in our armies. These we must maintain. But freedom's surest defense and freedom's greatest force is the enlightenment of the minds of all people. Arms can never make us invulnerable, but the support we give to education can make freedom irresistible. —Jean Michaelson
Honest hippies
When 11 barefoot hippies neared the grounds of the White House last week, guards were hesitant to let them enter. But no dress codes have been written for White House tourists, and on the strength of this, the youths toured the national institution and left.
"What is it with these hippies today?" ask many concerned adults. Their purpose or lack of it covers many aspects, including psychological and social ones. The hippies are aggressive, sure, but most only to the extent of being tolerant and friendly. They are considerably open-minded to new ideas. Passive onlookers may decide this openness is only a yielding to temptations to follow the crowd to unusual lengths for attention. The common definition refers to them as the least conforming and the most rebellious.
But look at these hippies or "politicals" from another angle. They want more than anything else to identify themselves as a whole person, by being bluntly honest and boldly realistic. They readily accept what they find and do not give up when they do not find an answer. Are there not many adults who would be better off if they would do the same?
Why conform to mere traditions which seem to have little value to the individual? Open and deliberate rebellion is wrong, but is not the rebellion of most of these hippies within themselves and not against an older generation?
They are called troubled young people and are treated with sympathy by teachers, parents, or psychiatrists. These youth do not want sympathy, but neither do they seek the apathetic attitude taken by many adults towards the group. They, like all humans, like to feel success found with their own means and in the end receive well-earned recognition. If they could feel this, they might eventually realize their place as equal and responsible persons in any community.
The hippies, who are a minority group, are not uncommon to any generation no matter when it arises. They are no more wrong that the hippies of the 1920's. They are a part of a changing world. Possibly out of some of their attempts to find themselves, they will also find the sincerity and humbleness they will need tomorrow to solve the pressing problems of a changing world.
-Kathy Wright
Summer Kansan 3 editorial page Tuesday, July 11, 1967