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Friday, April 28, 1989 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
KANSAN
Day on the Hill is needed
It's time for students to prove they're serious about celebrating diversity and attend Day on the Hill on Sunday.
As part of Student Senate's Celebrate Diversity program, several local bands will play and cultural performances will be presented free for KU students.
The University has needed an event like this for a long time, a day for students to get together and just have fun. Its intention of uniting students from different cultural backgrounds makes Day on the Hill a unique opportunity students shouldn't miss.
Wearing the Celebrate Diversity buttons is a symbolic gesture, but actually attending the concert is even more meaningful. Until students make a genuine attempt to see, listen and understand different cultures, diversity will not be celebrated but ignored.
Jennifer Hinkle for the editorial board
Our mistreatment of pets
With friends like humans, pets don't need enemies.
With friends like humans, pets don't need beddings. Dogs and cats are being put to sleep by Humane Societies that manage them.
In Topeka last year, 4,761 dogs entered the shelter, and 2,672 had to be killed. For cats, chances of adoption are even smimmer. Only 559 of 15,457 cats found homes after entering the shelter.
those placement numbers are 38 to 40 percent higher than the national average.
Often the animals find themselves in Humane Society cages as part of an unwanted litter or when their owners dump them in the country.
In Lawrence, many animals have been abandoned by KU students who are moving for the summer or whose landlords don't allow pets in their complexes.
Lisa Tesh, an employee at the Lawrence Humane Society, said adoptions weren't approved unless the would-be owner's apartment allowed pets.
"We have a list of apartment complexes that allow pets, and we don't allow adoptions unless the pets are allowed there," Tesh said. "If we did allow those adoptions, many of those animals would be right back here in no time."
Certainly those animals should not be allowed to roam our streets uncontrolled, yet the rate of their extermination reflects a frightening disregard for the lives of pets we supposedly love.
The solution of the problem rests in human, responsible decision-making regarding the adoption of pets. Pets should be adopted only if living accommodations will accept them. After adoption, pets should be spaced or neutered.
adoption, pets should Our pets are deserving of all of the safety and care we can offer and should not have to be put to death because of lack of planning.
Mark E. McCormick for the editorial boar
Other Voices
New aid bill will turn investment in future into extra hurdle for poor
Many college students may have to work in a public service project to receive financial aid.
project to be taken by the students. Sens, Sam Nunn, D-Ga., and Dave McCurdry, D-Okla., recently introduced a bill that would phase out all federal financial aid programs in favor of voucher payments to those who participate in public service programs. Participation would be mandatory for students seeking financial aid.
The United States Student Association, a Washington-based group determined to defeat any such bill, said the bill would "draft the most needy students to do national service."
Wealthy students would be able to forego the system, producing a two-tiered system — one for the rich and one for the poor.
Backing the bill is the belief that federal aid is a handout, which it is not. Financial aid is an investment in the nation's future that reaps many benefits.
Pittsburg State Collegio
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MAILBOX
Evolution as a bush
In the April 18 Kansan, Carma Paden asks, "Why did humans, who supposedly have evolved furthest, develop drives neither reproductive nor somatic?" First of all, as a practicing biologist, I must clarify a common misconception about evolution. By saying,
"... humans, who supposedly have evolved furthest. "Carmar suggests that humans are the most evolved organisms on earth. This is simply not true. Evolution is a bush, not a ladder! There are organisms just as evolved on this planet; they're just different.
Humans are complex animals that have evolved away from their natural instincts and have evolved the ability to control their own behavior. This allows us to pursue alternatives, unlike many animals that are locked into their institutional behaviors. The benefits of such behavioral freedom have allowed humans to adapt well to a constantly changing environment. We should celebrate our ability to make choices in our behaviors and lifetimes, for it is this ability that has allowed us to evolve successfully.
Chris A. Wright Lawrence graduate student
Anti-Buchanan
The University of Kansas recently had the pleasure to host Pat Buchanan, a man once called "the pit bull of the Republican Right." On this night, though, Buchanan hid his fangs behind humor and a quick smile. He displayed a great knowledge of government and presented his arguments convincingly. I felt proud when I disagreed with his politics and his party.
He played a major role in the focus on the "packaging" and insulation of former President Reagan. One moment last fall epitomizes this approach. After the Iran-contra story became public, the administration "spin doctors" opened a debate whether to present the evidence as knowledgeable of the details or as detached and ignorant. The press treated this matter-of-fact, seemingly ignoring the basic question of whether or not Reagan and Bush knew about the diversion and instead focusing on how they should be presented. In this way, style takes precedence over substance. Buchanan said he thought that Reagan then told Bush that he would think they knew and lied to save themselves politically, leaving Oliver North to twist slowly in the wind.
During the speech, Buchanan used the common Republican strategy of press bashing, but implicit in his arguments was a taste of hypocrisy. He scolded the press for its treatment of John Tower but joined in the laughter over its treatment of Gary Hart. The president was working on rumors of Michael Dukakis' psychiatric treatment, quipped. "I'm not going to pick on an invalid." The arguments go both ways; and in the final analysis, the free press is a needed
watchdog of government.
Another objectionable point was Buchanan's attempt to legitimize the issues he thought turned the election in Bush's favor. He spoke gloriously about the five-week, 25-point turnaround; but remember the trouka that spearheaded the campaign of the deaths, the death penalty and the Pledge of Allegiance now? They have merit; but no matter what Buchanan says, they weren't problems that demanded action then, and they don't now. The nation squandered countless dollars and, even more precious, its attention on matters of relative importance.
One question I wanted to ask was how he felt about David Duke, the former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, joining the Republican party and being elected to the Louisiana legislature. It seems that the implicit racial appeal of the Willie Horton ads come at the cost of attracting hate-mongers like Duke. Bush ran a campaign of division and fear, black from white, man from him, rich from poor. This, I feel, only weakens us as a nation.
Throughout, Buchanan made a convincing case for the success of politicians who invite confrontation and conflict, and I would hope that my statements will be taken in that spirit. I think that both the University, and I have been in this presence, and, respectfully, I bet to differ.
Nicholas Franano Ottawa senior
Abortion as murder
I would like to respond to Mark Dugan's article about abortion that appeared April 20. I read opinion articles with great interest because I want to know the line of reasoning people employ. However, I fail to see Dugan's reasoning. He unfortunately fails, as do many of us, to distinguish between the substructure of an argument and the superstructure, or the given and the conclusion. If you want to attack the pro-life position, then you should attack the given. Pro-lifers argue that it is at conception. If this is true, then the conclusion is more important is murder is logical; this premise and yet attacks the pro-life position. He attempts to discredit this position by saying that when the "fundamentalists" pray for abortion to end, they are really praying for women to "mutilate their bodies, be subject to male dominance, and be punished for having sex." Furthermore, Dugan uses the wonderful phrase "healthy abortions". Once again, Dugan fails to understand the pro-life position, don't wish to take away a woman's right to determine her own reproduction, she already has the freedom to define abortion as murder because I the define abortion as matter because I the baby has to do is grow, inside the womb and out.
Matt Martini
Overland Park junio
Trying to understand
Trying to understand
After being thoroughly disgusted by Christopher Wilson's anti-abortion article, I felt compelled to write in defense of men who have brains and try to use them sometimes. Quite
frankly Mr. Wilson, the only logic I questioned after reading your article was yours. Your unrelenting ability to criticize and make value judgments about a topic which men can in no way understand, makes you uncomfortable. How dare you protest to tell me or anybody else what is right or wrong.
I suggest to you, Mr. Wilson, that you are the one "thoroughly blinded" if you believe making abortions illegal will stop their occurrence. It seems to me that if abortions are legal, they would be available in clinics by professionals, not in bathrooms by scared teen-agers with no place else to go.
I agree with you, Mr. Wilson, that abortion is a perfect world, if this were a terrible world, abortions would not exist. However, as a man, the very best that I can do is try to understand that abortion is a terrible world, she does any worse. I am trying to understand, Mr. Wilson, why can't you?
Peter S. Johnson Leawood graduate student
Constitutional rights
I am writing in response to Sonya Bonga's
Anril 10 letter to the editor.
Bonga feels that "it is wrong to have the policies governing Haskell changed by individuals who do not have to a live student with such changes." I am also a student at Haskell Indian Junior College. I am trying to help change some policies that have remained the same since Haskell was a boarding school. I am not a high school student. I resent being treated like a high school student. I am an individual who has to live with these changes.
The Haskell faculty and staff enforce current policies. They do not experience a violation of their rights. If the Haskell employees had to answer their policies, they'd change their right way.
Bonga also stated, "It is my responsibility and the responsibility of other Haskell students to make the campus what it is." I feel that it's my responsibility to help make Haskell not what it is, but what it should be, as college that construals the constitutional rights of its students.
Last October, Haskell's senate president was harassed and threatened by certain Haskell employees for expressing her concerns about a controversial issue. Eventually, she was illegally pulled out of office. When such incidents happen to those who voice their concerns, what happens to others who also want their opinions heard? For this reason, I am grateful for Professor Dario Robertson, Jim Sanderville and the KU law students.
Robertson is doing for Haskell what a few wanted to do but have been afraid to. As an Indian Leader reporter, I have worked with Dario. I know for a fact that he is not out to make a name for himself in problems at Haskell. The problems evolved long before he heard of Haskell. Rather, Professor Robertson is helping restore constitutional rights that Haskell students have overlooked. How many people would sacrifice a large sum of their money to ensure that future Haskell students' rights are no longer violated? Professor Dario Robertson is a man of integrity.
Catherine Williams Lawrence resident
BLOOM COUNTY
by Berke Breathed