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Wednesday, July 12, 1989 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Public needs to speak out, be heard on abortion issue
In the Supreme Court's ruling to return to the states the authority to decide whether abortion should be legal, it issued a challenge to that majority of us who believe that a woman's right to the privacy of her body must be protected.
to the privacy of her body make it a recent poll indicated that about 70 percent of all U.S. citizens believe a woman should be allowed to make her own decision whether to have an abortion.
whether we have all to do is. Although there are so many of us who believe that women should have that right, few of us would be willing to march or even write a letter in support of it.
would react to the Mike Hayden can't make up his mind. At a press conference last week, he waffled when reporters asked for his stance on the issue.
What Hayden and others don't seem to realize is that those of us who aren't facing that situation don't have to make a decision about it for those who are. Only those in that position can make that decision. A stance for a woman's right to abortion is a stance for freedom and realism. Neither stance, whether for or against choice, takes the burden off a woman's shoulders.
choose 'upper' names.
Anorexia problem is that men who support women's right to choose have not become vocal in their support. Unfortunately, men who are opposed to abortion have become obnoxiously vocal.
vocab
We've got to wake up to the fact that, because the issue ultimately will be decided in state legislatures, it is up to us to make sure our representatives know what we believe.
make sure our representatives do it. It is the people who speak out who get legislators to make changes. Those who straddle the fence say nothing until it's too late.
The challenge issued by the Court is twofold. It's simple: Make up your mind and then say something about it.
In say Something like:
Do Book for the editorial board
Ollie's sentence too light
Oliver North should have been based on his experience lies to Congress, destruction of government documents — North should have been put away so he could have a nice long time to think about what he did to the nation.
Oliver North should have gone to jail.
That punishment would have failed, though, because North doesn't understand that his actions were wrong. After all, with much of the nation's population treating him as a great patron, why should he feel guilty? One newspaper article reported that a toll-free telephone line had been established so his supporters could pledge money to defray North's legal fees.
could pledge money to destroy $15,000 but North hardly needs money. When he hits the lecture circuit, he should be able to bring down about $15,000 a shot. At that rate, it will take only 10 speeches to pay off his fine, and there is little doubt that he will receive scores of speaking engagements. And based on the history of past scandals and scandalous figures, publication of Ollie's memoirs must be pending.
types of crimes seriously.
It is frightening to think that someone who lies to Congress and destroys government documents can get off with only a suspended sentence and a fine.
So what sort of message are we sending to North and those who may follow?
mily follow is usher that the sentence was lenient. His crimes are a threat to the foundation upon which our government is built. And to let North off so easily suggests that too many of us do not take these types of crimes seriously.
When sentenced North, Judge Gerhard Gesell said the former Marine leutenant colonel was acting as a low-level subordinate carrying out orders. However, as a member of the National Security Council staff, North reported directly to the president of the United States. Such a connection hardly seems to make North a low-level subordinate.
make North a 180 degree circle.
One would hope that the nation would now be rid of North, that he would slip into obscurity. But with the inevitable lecture tours and books, it seems that the United States may be stuck with him.
Perhaps he will stop playing the martyr now. And why should he be a martyr? The United States has sent him the message that those who threaten its Constitution and what it stands for are patriots who deserve only a token punishment for crimes.
Jill Jess for the editorial board
The editorials in this column are the opinion of the editorial board. The editorial board consists of Jill Jess, Ric Brack, Kirsten Bosnak and Kathy Walsh.
News staff
Jill Jess . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Editor
Ric Braceau . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Manager editor
Dial Ron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Campus editor
Kelly Lamson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Photo editor
Stephen Kline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Graphics editor
Tom Elkins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . General manager, news advisor
Business staff
Scott Frager...Business manager
Jerre Martel ...Real sales manager
Lori Penney...Campaign manager
Adam Pfeffer...Production manager
Mike Lehman
Hannie Kunze...Classified
Sales and marketing adviser
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Patriotism threatens freedom
Bush's flag amendment would contradict First Amendment
Patriotism is not what motivated President Bush to propose an amendment to the Constitution that would outlaw flag desecration as a legitimate form of
speech.
speech.
It can't be because flag burners pose a danger to society. They don't. However, I am beginning to wonder what Bush poses to society.
wonder—it is indeed addressing the real issues — issues that threaten the stability of our country such as the national debt, the trade deficit and the environment — Bush is successfully preoccupying the U.S. with the issue of patriotism via flag burning.
It is amazing what happens in this country in the name of patriotism. In 1897 the Iran-contra scandal brought forth a new "patriot." The fact that Oliver North broke the law became irrelevant to many who succumbed to his highly emotional testimony where he said he did it for "the country." Patriotism took precedence over law in the minds of many U.S. citizens.
1nen in the 1988 presidential campaign, Bush slaughtered Michael Dukakis with the American flag and the Pledge of Allegiance. Now in 1989 Bush, in the name of patriotism, is seeking to weaken the First Amendment.
Bush's amendment would outlaw physical desecration of the flag. The problem with his proposal is that it does not define physical desecration. If physical desecration includes wearing the flag,
During the campaign, patriotism was only a word Bush used to help demonstrate his love and dedication of the country. Yet, in this struggle, his attempt to take away a constitutional right of every U.S. citizen.
Kathy Walsh
Editorial board
As U.S. citizens we need to be more critical issue analyzers. We need to ignore the issues of party politics, which are self-motivated, and focus on issues that affect the whole. The longer we remain vulnerable to emotional appeals, instead of rational ones, the more we will become entangled in issue manipulation.
Bush should turn himself in now, for he wrapped himself in it during his campaign. And what about all the clothes that resemble Old Glory? Would people be prohibited from wearing this attire?
This sounds silly, but so is the idea of a constitutional amendment. Besides being a time-consuming process — after passing both houses in the U.S. Congress the amendment must be approved by two-thirds of both houses and 38 states — it's unnecessary for an issue of this sort.
However, Bush is not the only one hiding behind the flag. The president's conservative cohorts in
Congress as well as the liberals, who fear the patriotic wrath that plaged Michael Dukakis, also have joined the flag-wagon.
in an effort to decide whether the Constitution should be amended or whether legislation would do the job. Congress will hold hearings on both measures in coming weeks.
There is no indication that either side will see the contradiction of its actions. Public servants are simultaneously proclaiming and opposing the essence of the Constitution for which the flag stands.
As U.S. citizens we need to be more critical issue analyzers. We need to ignore the issues of party politics, which are self-motivated, and focus on issues that affect the whole. The longer we remain vulnerable to emotional appeals, instead of rational ones, the more we will become entrapped in issue manipulation because as a questioned speech has now turned into a quest of patriotism. Patriotism is something we feel. Freedom is something we live, breathe and may even die for.
If flag desecration is outlawed, the stability of the Constitution should be questioned. Before taking action on the issue, Bush and Congress should ask themselves whether there is any significance to freedom of speech being designated as the First Amendment. I think there is.
As U.S. citizens, let's remember that constitutional amendments and legislation should protect and increase our civil rights, not take them away.
Kathy Walsh is a Lee's Summit, Mo., senior majoring in journalism. She is a copy editor and member of the Kansan editorial board.
Dog day cicadas inspire morality play
After life of contemplation and self-improvement, insect treats world as spitoon
T the muse afflicts as much as it inspires. Some projects flourish and others languish while the writer succumbs to its enervating spell.
Now that the dog days of summer are upon us,
it's the sonorous buzzing of the cicadas that lulls
one out onto the porch and away from deadlines.
There's nothing to do for it but write a cicada
But how to capture the cicada's spirit, its elan?
An eic poem? Not by Monday.
Perhaps a soliloquy: "What a piece of work is
not more noble in form and aspect."  No,
not disclams!
This is summer reading, after all. A narrative will make it more diverting. This requires some insight into the life and times of the cicada, and George Byers can provide it.
He said that muscles in the male cicada's chest distort tight membranes covering hollow resonating cavities, much as one presses a toy clicker. The hammer-like toy, like the toy, clinks loudly upon being released.
Byers is a retired professor of entomology at KU. On a sweltering afternoon last week he enthusiastically drew diagrams of cicadian thoracic cavities on a Snow Hall chalkboard and explained how the insects attract mates with their buzzing...
Byers explained that "locust" is a common misnomer for the cicada that probably originated in Europe, where the periodical cicada species predominate, as they do in the eastern United States. Thirteen or more years separate the appearance of each brood of the periodical cicada. Periodical cicadas are distributed in population from adapting to the sudden abundance of prey. The numberless hordes of insects overwhelm both the food and predator supplies, evoking the pestilential insect invasions of ancient
Stuart Beals
The male cicada repeats this action hundreds of times each second to produce the familiar buzzing sound.
Staff columnist
Think of it. To emerge, after a decade and a half of maturing in solitude, to a bacchanalian orgy
T
This suggests a modern morality play, a combination of John Milton and Arthur Miller with an ironic twist at the end.
times.
The local variety, sometimes called the dog day cicada or harvest fly, produces a new brood every year and presents much less threat to local agriculture. A textbook provided by Byers contains a colorful account of this, "among the most interesting of all insects."
interesting or unusual.
The larvae or nymphs are most peculiar-looking insects, pale in color, awkward in movements.
ments,
when fully matured, the nymphs emerge from the soil, climb any convenient shrub or tree, and attach themselves firmly, after which the dorsal line in the integument parts and the adults emerge to feed, sing, mate, oviposit, and perish before the coming of winter.
coming of winter.
"When feeding, mature adults can emit jets of honeydew which cover the ground beneath a tree crowded with adult cicadas."
Think of it. It to emerge, after a decade and a half of maturing in solitude, into a bacchian anorgy.
This suggests a modern morality play, a
combination of John Milton and Arthur Miller with an iron twist at the end.
As darkness settles, a male cicada nymph emerges from the earth, ghostly in the moonlight. He awkwardly climbs the tree and sheds the clumsy armor of youth.
The piece would open in a shady Lawrence backyard at dusk. A large tree stands in one corner of the yard. Even after sundown the air is oppressively hot.
Now the robust insect forsakes his former subterranean life of contemplation and self-improvement and embarks on a morid career of debauch and dissipation. Gorging all day, he regards the world below as a convenient spittoon.
Throughout the evening he carouses with his randy comrades, buzzing their ribald chorus. He devotes the night to seduction.
Finally the prodigal dog is overcome by fatigue and boredom. Bloated on honeydew, he is easy prey for a female cicada-killer wasp. She pounces, locking him in an embrace tighter than that of any other insect to parry, she smiles him with his singer, at once paralyzing him and depriving her eggs within him.
A low, bumpy flight ends at her burrow in the soil. There she carefully stashes his inert but attentive form, to house and nourish the wasp brood growing within him. Back in the familiar, compact surroundings of his youth, the wistful host has a while to reflect upon the cicada condition.
That's the sketch of the plot, anyway. The details will have to wait, though. Outside, the red sun silhouettes the trees and the locusts are singing. It's time to do a little porch swinging.
Stuart Beals is a Lawrence graduate student in journalism.