Damn the opposition! Full speed ahead!'
hearing voices—
I am sure that many of the students, faculty, and staff have, at one time or another, been victims of an unwanted (and all too often unnecessary) campus parking ticket. Various deeds of our men in blue compel me to suggest that the top line of these tickets be reworded to read, "Visitors (not Faculty, Staff, or Student): Welcome to KU."
The espoused purpose of a campus police force—or any police force—is to "serve and protect." I would like to present a few typical examples of the service and protection we receive on this campus.
1) On evenings of home basketball games, Naismith Drive is blocked off to north-bound traffic while the south-bound lane is left open to vehicles. I wondered this apparent anomaly and asked the officer at the barricade the reason for the stoppage of traffic in one direction and not the other. The officer shined both of his flashlights in my face and said, "Don't you worry about it, just keep movin'." I did. At the next game I presented my query to a different officer who kept his flashlights pointed at the ground and answered, "Pedestrian safety. Now git movin'." I thanked him and drove on. Therefore, it seems that the campus police get the pedestrians half-way across the street and simultaneously inconvenience north-bound motorists who aren't going into O-zone to park.
2) Another familiar sight during this last spring semester was the towing of an unauthorized car from one of the campuses controlled zones with one or two tickets plastered to the windshield. An incident of this nature could conceivably cost the driver of such a car upwards of $45.00 (two $16.00 tickets plus towing fee). I saw this happen several times in O-zone (which probably shouldn't even be a controlled zone due to its enormous size and relatively poor location) and once in G-zone at 5:45 P.M. (there were about fifteen cars in this 60-space zone). Actions of this nature immediately raise the questions: "Whom does this serve?" and "Whom or what does this protect?" Maybe J. M. Thomas has the answer.
3) On more than one occasion since the beginning of the summer session, I have seen the same
officer getting an early morning start on his quota by issuing tickets to violators in M1-zone. He parks in the east-bound lane of traffic and sits in his car to gather the pertinent information even though there may be a host of empty spaces in which he himself could park and not block traffic in the process of issuing a ticket. At one time, this officer had seven cars backed up behind him. One irate motorist, obviously attempting to get to a class on time, sounded his horn repeatedly. The officer, oblivious to all except his victim, stepped out of his car, placed the ticket securely behind the windshield wiper, got back in his car, and the robot drove a few carlengths farther and began the cycle again. Serve and Protect? I doubt it.
speak of "respect from the citizenry." But how can I respect a police officer who will ticket an "unauthorized vehicle" in an otherwise empty parking lot? I believe that an officer of the law who demonstrates such a complete lack of ability to make a free decision within certain legal bounds does not deserve much respect. And if we can't get it together with our own campus police force, what does this say about our cities?
Granted that this article registers a minor complaint, presenting situations which any of us can and do tolerate. But these problems are fundamentally analogous to the more complex situations which confront the people and law enforcement agencies of large metropolitan areas. Police officers
Pat Hogan Wichita senior
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I would like to congratulate you on the June 16th headline "Moon Landing 'hoax,' say skeptics." It proves that even at an institution of higher education pockets of ignorance exist—such as the Kansan staff—a conclusion drawn without an attempt to reach a scientific cross section of the staff. There is wide-spread support for the theory that Adolf Hitler is alive and well and writing for the Kansan.
Shirley Partin class '71
The Political Scene
By JONATHAN JORDAN
The Democrats face the unnerving prospect of becoming a permanent minority party representing the Northeast or being shattered by a fourth party effort headed by the extreme left wing elements of the party. The ugly rule-or-ruin mood of the left wing was evident in an article entitled "Winning in November is not Enough" in the June 13 issue of The New Republic. Written by John Kenneth Galbraith, former U.S. Ambassador to India, the article pulls no punches, declaring that: "If the Democrats will not dispense with Mendel Rivers, John Stennis, Jim Eastland, and John McMillan in order to organize the Congress, then power must be given to the Republicans."
This article, along with an article by Sen. Eugene McCarthy on the third party movements, gives ample notice to moderate Democrats as to their fate if they do not toe the Liberal line.
An essential basis for Galbraith's plan of action is the assumption that the Liberals will win a smashing victory in 1970. Yet Galbraith's skills as a political prognosticator were shown to be greatly lacking when, during the Tet offensive, he declared that the government of South Vietnam would collapse within two weeks. And Galbraith seems to be as far off base on the American scene as he was on the Vietnamese scene.
The political arena where this conflict will take place is the U.S. Congress. In the current House the roles read 245 Democrats and 188 Republicans, but of the Democrats at least 75 are Southern, the type Galbraith would purge, and if only the Southern Democrats are purged, ignoring the Northern Conservatives, we find that the Democrats now have fewer members than the Republicans, and would need to gain more than 40 seats to regain their majority in the house. A victory of forty seats is rare even with a united party.
The Senate is an entirely different body. Rather than having the whole body elected every other year, as in the House, the U.S. Constitution provides for the election of one third of the Senate every second year. This means that the Senate tends to change more slowly in opinion than the House. Almost all of the current crop of senators up for re-election last ran in 1964. They are products of the Democratic sweeps of 1964 and 1958. They are more Liberal than the whole of the Senate and mainly Democratic (of the 35 seats up in the election, 25 are held by Democrats).
The current break down of the Senate is 56 Democrats, 43 Republicans and 1 Independent. The Republicans can gain a 50-49-1 advantage if they can capture seven Democratic seats. Democratic senators from normally Republican areas such as North Dakota, Indiana and Ohio are prime targets for a Republican drive to recapture the Senate. They gained their offices on Lyndon Johnson's coattails in 1964, or the Democratic sweep of 1958. This year, standing on their own, many of them may lose. If Quentin Burdick, Gale McGee and Joseph Montoya lose in 1970 Galbraith may not have any say as to who runs the next Senate.
So this is the situation the Democrats find themselves in. In order to keep from losing control of the Congress they must mend their Southern fences, and even move to the right, but if they do the prospect of a Galbraith inspired fourth party running Eugene McCarthy for president awaits them in 1972. The Democratic predicament can be best summed up in a poem that was popular with the early puritan settlers;
"You're Damned if you do,
You're Damned if you don't
You're Damned if you will,
And you're Damned if you won't."
The elections of 1970 and 1972 promise to be interesting
THE SUMMER SESSION KANSAN
Kansan Telephone Numbers Newsroom—UN 4-3646 Business Office—UN 4-4358
The Summer Session Kansan, student newspaper at the University of Kansas, is represented by National Advertising Service, 18 East 50 Street, New York, N.Y., 10022. Mail subscription rates: $6 a semester or $10 a year. Pub-Second class postage paid at Lawrence, Kansas, every Tuesday and Friday for the Summer Session. Accommodations, goods, and employment advertised in the Summer Session Kansan are offered to students without regard to color, creed, or national origin.
The opinions expressed in the editorial columns are those of the editorial staff of the newspaper. Guest editorial views are not necessarily the same as opinions expressed In The Summer Session Kansan are not necessarily those of the University of Kansas Administration or the Kansas State Board of Regents.
Meanwhile, as students study pollution problems .