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Monday, April 10, 1989 / University Daily Kansan
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Acts of vandalism, thefts have no place in campaign
Competition is a good thing. But too much of a good thing can be destructive.
This year, there are seven candidates on the ballot for student body president. Considering the apathy that has often characterized student senate elections, this is a boon to the student body.
Opinion
However, there also has been a destructive tone to the support. Coalition posters have been removed or vandalized. It is unclear who the perpetrators have been. But it needs to stop.
Many people are getting involved in the election by wearing buttons and putting up and posters in support of their candidates and by other active campaigning. That is the kind of activism that should be encouraged...
Negative campaigning, on the part of either politicians or their supporters, is destructive, unhealthy and immature. Campaign posters are important to the Senate's election process. And University students deserve to have fairly elected representatives.
It is not likely that the posters have been removed by anyone running with any of the coalitions. However, supporters of any coalition must realize that their actions will reflect on their candidates.
Coalitions should remind their supporters that running a clean campaign is more effective than resorting to dirty tactics.
Jill Jess for the editorial board
Public workers need raise
Some of the most intelligent, educated and well-trained workers are being overworked and underpaid. They are government employees. The United States is suffering from "brain drain," with government workers quitting to work for more rewarding, lucrative positions in the private sector.
The implications of brain drain are frightening. Many of the best air traffic controllers, toxic waste cleanup experts, scientists, lawyers and doctors are not working for the public. The National Institutes of Health, a government agency that is one of the world's best biomedical research institutions, has lost 28 percent of its senior research scientists in the past 10 years. The Internal Revenue Service cited a shortage of skilled workers as the reason for a 31 percent error rate in answers given to taxpayer queries.
President Bush plans to propose a 25 percent pay raise to federal judges and possibly to other highly skilled federal employees. The gap between private sector workers and government employees needs to be closed quickly in these areas crucial to societal well-being.
Workers at the National Institutes of Health, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and some units of the Defense Department are lobbying for pay raises on the basis of specialized skills.
Low pay is not the only disincentive for federal employees. Both Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan relished the chance to bash bureaucrats, which has lowered the esteem once associated with government jobs. Bush has given some token "I believe public service is honorable" rhetoric, but a pay raise is the only way to attract qualified workers.
Government employees should be motivated by a desire to serve the public, but these workers are being asked to give up too much.
For the United States to operate efficiently, it has to reward those who make it run efficiently. Last year, a survey by the General Accounting Office showed that only 13 percent of top government employees would recommend a career in public service. That number will continue to slide until U.S. employees are adequately rewarded.
If our government is to be competitive abroad, it must become more competitive domestically.
Jennifer Hinkle for the editorial board
The editors in this column are the opinion of the editorial board. The editorial board consists of Julie Adam, Karen Boring, Jep Euston, James Farquhar, Cindy Hanger, Jennifer Hinkle, Grace Hobson, Jill Jess, Mark McCormick and Mark Tillford.
News staff
Julie Adam...Editor
Karen Boring...Managing editor
Jill Jesen...News editor
Deb Gruver...Planning editor
James Fajquhar...Editorial editor
Elaine Sluung...Campus editor
Tom Sinuang...Sports editor
Janine Swiatkowski...Photo editor
Dave Eames...Graphics editor
Noel Glerer...Art Features editor
Tom Eleni...General manager
Business staff
Dem鲍 Cole...Business manager
Pamela Wille...Retail sales manager
Pamela Martin...Campus sales manager
Scott Frager...National sales manager
Michelle Garland...Promotion manager
Brad Leenhart...Sales development manager
Anna Pride...Production manager
Debra Martin...Asst. production manager
Kim Coleman...Co-op sales manager
Carl Cressler...Classified manager
Jeanne Hines...Sales and marketing
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Death is not 'the great equalizer'
Remembering a murdered classmate: Every statistic has a name and face
W ASHINGTON - A friend of mine was murdered last month. Actually we were not close friends, but we were good acquaintances.
Bridget was three years ahead of me in high school, but she was young for her class and was only a year older than I. We were on the forensics squad together; she was a brilliant actress. I remember she once got sick and missed a tournament. She was scheduled as part of a duet act, Thornton Wilder’s "Our Town," and the only other person who knew her lives enough to fill in was male. The result was a delightful match for male Bridge! laugh and would have given Wildeir attention; it starred George and Emilian instead of George and Emily. Let your imagination fill in the rest
Bridget graduated and went to college in Florida, and I did not see her much after that. She occasionally would come back to Kansas to visit her grandparents, but mostly she was busy exploring new frontiers. News of what she was up to circulated every so often, as it does in a small town with proud grandparents. Bridget was studying at Cambridge University in England. Bridget made Phi Beta Kappa. Bridget went on an archaeological dig in Austria.
That was the last I heard of her until March 23, when she was found dead in her Baltimore apartment. Apparently she had been shot.
She graduated with honors from the University of Florida and since August was on fellowship at JFK.
Derek Schmidt
Staff columnist
The Baltimore Sun reported the story on page one and said police had no suspects.
head.
And that was it. No fanfare. No warnings. No big deal in Baltimore.
Living in Washington, which often is called the murder capital of the free world, I started thinking about what was going on around me. I noticed that the nation where a teenager is more likely to be killed in an accident. More than 120 murders so far this year have prompted widespread media coverage and talk and outrage. But the killing continues. Many of those murdered in Washington were indicted for war turfs, but many were not. Some were just at the wrong place at the wrong time. Like Bridget.
The statistics reflect Bridget's death as well as the drug dealers' in the Washington projects. Ms. Bridget died at death is the great equalizer, and that may be so. But some were more equal to begin with.
I considered sending flowers or a note of condolence to her parents. But flowers wilt, and,
since we never met, my note would mean very little to them.
I wrestled for a long time with the idea of writing this column. Few, if any of you, knew Bridget. People are killed all the time and tragic stories are a dime a dozen. I worried that nobody would read this, and that those who read it would not care.
But I decided it was the best I could do. I have tried to adhere to Alden Whitman's definition of January: "It is a snapshot. It not a full-length photograph, it's not a portrait. It's a quick picture."
And so, KU, meet Bridget. She would have loved meeting you; she always met meeting new people. When you started reading this column, Bridget was just a number lost in the nation's mounting murder toll. Now she is a name. That is a step in the right direction. Names are harder to remember than numbers but also harder to forget. Maybe if we could remember the names of the people killed in our nation's cities, the tragedy would be more salient. Then again, maybe the list would just be too long to remember.
I never have dedicated a column before, but neither has a friend been murdered before. This column is dedicated to the memory of Bridget Philips, who always will be more than a statistic.
Derek Schmidt is an Independence, Kan., junior majoring in journalism. He is in Washington, D.C., on an internship.
The new puritans
It is striking how thoroughly desensitized to the absurd we have become. I refer to the very existence of "Condom Sense Week," the be-decking of the Kansan's pages with ads showing cute, smiling little-be宠ed genitalia and hot-air condom balloons. This is utterly beyond pamper, but perhaps all the more amusing because the absurdity is treated with such grave seriousness. Our willful attachment to this kind of perversion and even perversion has sapped us of all common sense, sense of proportion and even sense of humor. After all, there are few objects so utterly and inherently ridiculous as the condom. More amusing still is the fact that such observations invariably excite the sanctimonious reply;our-faced and finger pointed skyward, the holier-than-libertine will commence believing "How dare you," "AIDS," or "you" in a word; lordy, the Puritans of old were bad enough; us from the new puritans for whom immediate sexual gratification is god and the condon their redeeming sacred sacrament.
David M. Whalen Lawrence graduate student
Education disrupted
I am a Haskell Indian Junior College student and I would like to say that I am deeply offended by the recent actions of certain KU students. I am offended by the fact that these students were at Haskell passing out petitions regarding my student rights. I did not realize that I am incapable of voicing my opinions and concerns. I did not realize that KU students are not allowed to attend Haskell students have to tell me what they think are. Perhaps I have been attending college for the wrong reasons, or perhaps, because I am an Indian student, I am automatically unable
to do these things. The only response I have to the appalling effort of those people is that I
I am here at Haskell to receive an education, the very same reason any student attends college. Unfortunately, at my school, my education has been disrupted by these people. Yes, I feel that my right as a student to receive an education has been violated, not by Haskell, but by the over zealous missionary work of these non-students.
In closing, I would like to make it perfectly clear that it is wrong to have the policies governing Haskell changed by individuals who do not have to live with such changes. Volunteer KU students do not have to attend classes here nor do they have to live here. I do. Therefore, it is my responsibility and the responsibility of Haskell students to make this campus what it is. Our students, we are capable of meeting our own needs and taking care of our problems. As college students and Indian people, we wish to be treated with the respect we deserve.
Sonya Bonga Lawrence resident
Bad comparison
I write in response to Michael McVey's lament over the "tottallarian feminist tyrants of the Kansas National Socialist School of Reverse Sexism." I possess no statistics to address the proposition that 33 percent of all women are raped, but my four years in a fraternity taught me that men do treat women as sex objects that date rape repeatedly and that men have had sexual cooperation in return for an all-expenses paid evening as a constitutional right.
Furthermore, I would wager that the frequency and magnitude of male violence toward women dwarfs the issue of abused men. Certainly, I have yet to encounter anyone on this campus who even remotely resembles a "totalitarian feminist tyrant."
But even if I did agree that the case 'gainst male violence was overstated, I would still be revolted by McVey's obsence reference to the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz. No inconvienience of the event during his cory, pampered existence at KU will ever paralleled the agony that was Auschwitz.
McVey cheapens the suffering of an entire race and insults the humanity of all who pray to forever banish the specter of Auschwitz to its dark corner in history. Auschwitz is a stark symbol of our human frailty, not a tool of mockery in the hands of an unwitting fool. If Michael McVey lacks the capacity to create a sensible analogy in furtherance of his position, he should keep his name and his message out of print.
Thomas P. Along Third-year law student
What's taking so long?
We would like to extend our warmest congratulations to the workers at Robinson Gymnasium who are in the process of reconstructing the dilapidated raccquetball courts. In the three weeks that court No. 1 has been under construction, the workers have replaced almost half of one floor. Replacing the floor is about half of the job involved in renovating a court, so they are making great progress. They should be done with the floor in six weeks, and then be finished with all of the other processes involved in approximately 12 weeks.
There are 15 courts at Robinson, and at 12 weeks a court, they should get done in, oh, about 180 weeks, unless of course they run into any problems, such as breaking a nail or running out of batteries for their radio. So, the estimated date of completion at the present rate is three years and eight months away. Heck, we are seriously considering double renovation, so can get a look at the fully completed renovation, or at least in a good game of raceball.
Maybe we can come up this summer and play on court No. 1, but the noise from the construction on court No. 2 - tunes, saws and the like — would probably be quite a distraction. It's sad to see our hard-earned money dribbling into the pockets of disorganized and apparently lazy workers. By the way, do you guys get paid by the hour?
John Thompson, Hutchinson freshman
Matthew Wanna, Weston, Mo., sophomore
BLOOM COUNTY
by Berke Breathed