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Friday, March 24, 1989 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Accurate drug test needed for transportation safety
The Supreme Court Tuesday approved mandatory drug testing for workers entrusted with public safety or sensitive government jobs, a ruling that common sense tells us is needed.
The U.S. government should make public transportation safety measures its highest priority. The public has every reason to assume that safety is ensured. But a person's privacy should end only when his work involves the safety of the public.
Another priority is to control drug abuse, and drug testing would prove that the United States is serious about punishing drug users. Not only would drug testing identify those who use drugs and may need help, but it also would eliminate the risk of bribery or blackmail of U.S. Customs Service workers in key jobs.
But there is a problem that accompanies this seemingly obvious measure. Drug tests are wrong 20 to 40 percent of the time. Although some sophisticated tests that are 100 percent accurate, the expense of these tests makes businesses opt for cheaper, unreliable methods.
That kind of unreliability is scary, to say the least, especially considering that an error could scar your record permanently. Your only recourse would be to have the sample retested, at an average cost of $80 that you likely would have to pay if the company would not foot the bill. Why should a company believe that you are not on drugs? And why pay $80 for a test that is already flawed?
Although it is common sense to test workers who are dealing with public safety, it also is common sense to provide the most accurate test possible. The government should be willing to pay for both. It's not too much to ask that workers are drug free, nor is it too much for workers to think that their jobs are not on the line because of a Big Mac.
Jennifer Hinkle for the editorial board
Finally,political dissenters may get some real support
Nobody likes to be found out. Especially those who work for the U.S.government.
Those who expose government deception, fraud and immoralities often end up jeopardizing themselves. In recent years, whistle-blowers have found themselves demoted, harassed and discriminated against.
But despite their unpopularity within the system, these patriotic dissenters are vital to an honest and efficient government.
Fortunately, a bill that probably will become Bush's first law takes a strong stand in support of whistle-blowers. The law would give strength to the ineffective Office of Special Counsel, a federal agency designed to protect patriotic dissenters.
The current law places the entire burden of proof on the whistle-blower. The new law would relieve the dissenter of part of that burden and compel the OSC to act quickly and more forcefully on whistleblowers' complaints of harrassment.
That added strength would greatly improve the agency, which hasn't helped a whistle-blower get his or her job back since 1979, the year after the agency's creation. One member of the OSC even advised whistle-blowers, "Don't put your head up because it will get blown off."
After a scandal-filled Reagan era, the law would be a move toward a more ethical government. Exposing government waste and fraud would be encouraged. And, who knows? Maybe the government could earn back some trust.
Cindy Harger for the editorial board
The editorials in this column are the opinion of the editorial board. The editorial board consists of Julie Adam, Karen Boring, Jeff Euston, James Fuarhar, Cindy Harger, Jennifer Hinkle, Grace Hobson, Jill Jess, Mark McCormick and Mark Tilford.
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MAILBOX
Skewed Senate logic
In the March 9 article "KU Space Projects Grounded," Chris Shirling, Student Senate treasurer, said that the KU Space Program was denied funds because the program was academic and research-oriented. Shirring went on to say that the student activities fund did not have to finance academically oriented programs; it this logic were applied other programs:
■ KU band could not be financed ($53,747). Since music is a major and many music majors take part in band, it could be academically oriented.
■ KU theater could not be financed ($50,533).
Because most of the actors major in theater,
KU theater is clearly an academic learning experience.
The Kansan can not be financed
($109,890). Because most Kansan writers are journalism majors, the Kansan is strictly academic.
- Language and Cultural activities could not be financed. Because KU offers programs in language and culture, it is logical that these, too, are academic learning experiences.
The Student Senate allocated $1,234,800 this
in sure some of the money could have
reachen.
Ed Unterreiner St. Louis senior
This type of logic is obviously not the answer. I'm not saying that the above programs should not be financed. What I am saying is that I believe the KU Space Program should be financed. KUSP is open to all KU students. It is no more academically oriented than other programs. Experiments on the space shuttle can help KU to become more nationally recognized, which could help raise money for other programs.
Protect the wildlife
The recent controversy and protests over the new riverfront development have prompted me to write this letter. I am saddened by the loss of the trees, but because the emphasis seems to be on the eagles' habitat, I would like to address this issue.
I, too, have seen the lone eagle who once on a tree by what is now the riverfront development, but it is across and downstream from there that I have seen a half dozen eagles circling at once. I have seen the groups of rocks where herons gather, and I have seen the trees that house the nests of these great birds. These woods are also home to foxes, beavers, muskratss and probably others that I have not seen.
Unfortunately, these woods are also used to trash, abandoned cars, rusting barrels of whiskey, and other items.
those good people who have been protesting, who have such abundant energy and networking capabilities, I say here is the real wildlife issue: Those creatures can't all come sit in trees by the edge of town for all to see, but they are nevertheless, and they need our help. What can be done to make this area a clean and safe habitat for our local wildlife?
Since moving here seven years ago, I have spent a lot of time along the river near town, and I can say with assurance that the real story is that we were along the northeast portion of the river.
Maria Anthony Lawrence senior
Ordinary civility
This is to defend Tom Wilhelm's March 20 column against the charge of racism.
I admit that others may infer a bias against African-Americans from the statements in his column. Wilhelm, who is white, finds it necessary to explain that blacks are "hypocritical" if they should decide to call themselves African-Americans. That reminds me unfavorably of the French government, which finds it necessary to legislate the proper baptismal names for French citizens. At work in both cases is a kind of benighted certainty that other people are too simple-minded to use the proper names without outside help.
But Wilhelm is more egregious than the French government. There are enough cases of outright racism here to make many black students on the KU campus feel unwelcome. Wilhelm's pumppus and provincial pronouncements perceptions that KU students are insensitive.
Yet a charge of racism would be too hasty. I am inviced that Wilhelm merely suffers from an inflated self-importance which leads him to display excruciatingly bad manners.
In particular, ordinary good manners require us to call people by the names they request us to call them; just as ordinary civility requires that we refer to a group of people by the name that most members of that group prefer.
The name preferred by members of the groups in question seems to be undergoing a kind of sea change, from "blacks" to "African-American." Of course that transition may cause an occasional faux pas until things settle down, but that is neither an issue of grave impatience nor an appropriate occasion for outside to give impertinent lectures on proper naming.
Wilhelm's column was a rude embarrassment to all of us. He should do the decent thing
Assistant Professor of economics Race or culture?
David Burress
I agree with Tom Wilhelm's March 20 column (Americans must earn cultural identity). There definitely is something wrong with the American treats the different cultures in the world.
I have noticed this for a long time. On applications, on standardized tests and on virtually every type of government document there is always a spot where one fills in their ethnic group. The word "ethnic" can mean political, religious, racial or cultural affiliation.
The choices are usually "American Indian," "Afro-American," "Caucasian American," "Mexican American," "Asian American," and
"other." In each case, the word preceding "American" infers the idea of race. I do not understand why "Mexican American" is being treated as a race when in actuality it is a gendered concept. The same goes for the Mexican American or French American on these documents, and yet, they are cultures too.
Americans should be consistent in their "labeling" of the different peoples and either ask for all the different cultures or do not ask for any. Americans should not encourage racial, or more precisely, cultural discrimination.
Louie Lopez Kansas City, Kan., freshman
Don't ignore history
10m Wilhelm's column foolishly suggests that the issue of social injustice in America is not "fundamental" to "Black/African" American culture. That is absurd.
Equally absurd is that he implies racism is not the central historical principle that underlies white American culture. In order to starkly expose Wilhelm's amazing shallow grasp of American history, let us consider 19th century American scholarship.
In his writings, the famous 19th century American anthropologist Henry Lewis Morgan espoused a "liberal" version of racism. Morgan ridiculously attempted to prove that culture and race are linked analytical terms. His "liberal" point of view was clearly racist and anticipated the apartheid ideology of South Africa.
In Morgan's white ethnocentric point of view, the nuclear family existed as the icon of advance human culture. In the formal, so-called objective arena of white 19th century American scholarship, racism was simply a matter of degree.
Well into the 20th century, racism on the bus and at the voting booth was an unnatural prerogative exercised by whites. In the face of such monolithic ignorance and self-conscious patterns of racism and genocide, how can any individual cultural tradition ignore white America?
Tom Wilhelm exhibits an amazingly shallow grasp of American history and ignores actual historical cultural undercurrents. By doing so, he is a brilliant representation America in its 20th century manifestation.
Alan Hoffmann Lawrence graduate student
Untouched stereotype
It is disconcerting to me, putting it mildly; that a full discussion on the Jewish-American Princess stereotype (Sherry Merlish lecture, March 3) could take place on this campus without one, not one, reference as to why that word buzzes so easily off the tip of one's tongue. Years of apparently fruitless efforts have failed to touch many members of the Jewish-American community and others who continue to use this racist acronym. To deny this association while eiting World War II slogans, such as JANE-WORLD and Kill JAPS dead, is tantamount to similar slogans assoc with the term KIKE. How would these users feel if Japanese American girls hapened to call each other Kept Immature Kimono Empresses?
Roger Shimomura Professor of art
BLOOM COUNTY
by Berke Breathed