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Tuesday, March 21, 1989 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Tax plan to help students
The widening gap between the haves and the have-nots may have a chance to narrow, thanks to an Iowa Congressman.
Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, last week announced a plan to give back to students a tax deduction that was repealed in the sweeping 1986 federal tax code changes made by the Reagan Administration.
Reduced reporting to the current law, homeowners are entitled to deduct the interest on mortgage loans. Before the revisions, students were likewise able to deduct the interest on student loans.
loans.
Now, homeowners may use the deductions to finance higher education, whereas the people who really need the tax break don't get it. Those who can afford to own a home are more likely to be able to pay for college than those who rely on student loans.
sure school. The current law gives more importance to homeowning than education. Its message is clear: Those who can afford to own a home take a higher priority than those who cannot afford to pay for school.
pay for School.
Grassley is not without obstacles in getting his proposal into a bill and law, however. The bill would reduce the government's revenue by an estimated $500 million a year. Under the deficit-reduction law, any bills that cut revenue must provide a way to make up the difference.
The bill is worthy of congressional support and planning to overcome the costs. Education is the most vital service provided by our government; higher education, especially, must not be lost in the bureaucratic web of Congress.
Grace Hobson the editorial board
Shuttle brings back pride
The shuttle has landed.
The shuttle has landed.
At this point, we Americans have heard that a few times.
This time, however, it was a perfect landing. It was a perfect flight. It was just plain perfect.
flight. It was just past by the-book mission that news people found line to say about it. It was such a normal, ordinary happening that probably forgot that there was a shuttle flight last week. On the other hand, the largest crowd ever watched Discovery land Saturday at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
informa:
The pride seems to be back.
The U.S. space program is at last back on track. Cheers for those at NASA that have thrown themselves into the shuttle project. Saturday's perfect landing holds promise for future shuttle missions.
We have reason to be optimistic. But, because NASA has focused its efforts primarily on the shuttle program, extreme caution is of paramount importance. After the Challenger disaster, NASA was paralyzed. So, the space program needs successful shuttle flights.
Discovery has done more than inspire national pride. It once again has established the United States as a leader in the space race.
The editorial board
Church disowns apartheid position
Other Voices
The leaders of South Africa's Dutch Reformed Church, the largest of the white congregations in the country, publicly refused to support resistance to apartheid, and disowned its own earlier proclamation that apartheid is sinful.
own earlier place. These aren't politicians. These are leaders of a Christian church supposedly well-versed in the teachings of the New Testament, most notably those of Jesus Christ. And yet they are implicitly throwing their support behind a racist social structure that systematically oppresses the majority of its citizens.
It's been said that any position can in one way or another be supported with Biblical passages, but how can anyone familiar with the life and teachings of Christ honestly say he would advocate or accept the oppression of 25 million blacks in South Africa?
Like many Christians worldwide, the church leaders are able to pick and choose when they'll be true to Christian ideology, and when they'll conveniently ignore it. In doing so they betray their own religion, but more tragically, they betray their fellow man.
The Daily iowan
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Source talks about Quayle's tests
So far in this year of enlightenment, 1989, we have learned what John Tower liked to do after a hard day of arms negotiating. We now know Cat Stevens's "Peace Train" makes a stop in Teharan. The public was outraged when Bob Berdella appeared on public television but lapped it up when Ted Bundy lectured us on the effects of pornography. Wade Boggins and Steve Garvey shared more than just batting tips. Only one more tidit of information would make my year complete — Vice President Dan Quayle's college grades.
As of yet, no official disclosure has been made from DeFauw University in Indiana. However, this columnist was recently in contact with someone who contended to have information on Quayle's undergraduate record — a former J.D.orth's test.
"The test questions that always got him in trouble were the multiple choice problems," my source said. "You know, the kind where the choices are: (a) cattle, (b) sheep, (c) pigs, (d) chickens, (e) all of the above, (f) none of the above, (g) a, b and c only, (h) b and d, (i) everything except c, e and f. Those things used to drive him bonkers.
form's lessons. The grader insisted Quayle's academic record wasn't nearly as bad as many have been led to believe, although he did have some difficulties.
"Then there were the true-false selections. The ones where the professor writes: "True or false?"
Bill Kempin Staff columnist
The macroeconomics of the industrial-welfare state is PROBABLY yielding to the microeconomics or the information self-help society." Or: "True or false? NASA's Project Mercury program was PRETTY MUCH a fly-by-night operation to begin with.
tion to begin.
**Problema?** Pretty much? How can something be absolutely true or false when you come up with wishy-wishy statements like that? Quayle would circle one of the choices and then write this extensive explanation down the margin with arrows pointing to the back of the page, hoping he could wrangle a passing grade even if he marked all the wrong answers.
"His favorite trick came in the matching part. He'd answer all the ones that he knew for sure, then go back and find the letter of the most recognizable historical figure. Did he didn't put down that letter on all the rest of the blanks, figuring at least he'd get one more answer right."
1 guess he did his best on the short essays. I can remember one semester when a professor in one of his courses wanted to make sure that his
students knew the exact answer to a particular question. So the professor put the same question on all six of the exams the class took during the fall. This didn't throw Quayle at all. He wrote exactly the same answer each time the question came up, using precisely the same words. Something about being qualified to answer the question correctly, and that being correct on this problem was really a question of competence. On the final, he threw in an extra line about his grandmother telling him when he was young that he could answer any question he wanted to if he put his mind to it. I think the instructor gave him extra credit for that."
Did the former grader have any extraordinary concerns now that Dan Quayle has assumed our nation's second-highest office?
"I guess the only thing I'd be scared about is if President Bush suddenly became incapacitated and Qauyleh had to take over. Suddenly the red phone rings and Gorbachez on the line saying, 'Mr. Qauyle, we are about to invade Estonia to quash their rebellion. When that happens, will you (a) merely criticize us sharply, (b) contact the NATO forces, (c) insist on an immediate trade embargo, (d) order a strategic missile alert, (e) all of the above, (f) none of the above, (g) a,b, and c only, (h) b and d, (i) everything except c, e and f."
Bill Kempin is a Leavenworth graduate student in journalism.
It's your right to know who's phoning
If someone raps on your door or rings your bell, the sensible thing to do is to ask. "Who's there?"
There's nothing impolite about the question.
You have a right to know who is standing outside your door — and why — before you open it.
If you have a peephole, you can look out. If a Girl Scout is standing there with boxes of cookies, you can safely slide the bolt. On the other hand, if you see a man with a skim mask over his face, it would be wise to grab the phone and call the police.
There may be peaceful nooks and crannies in this country where a person can open a door and be sure that the caller is friendly. But in most big cities, and many smaller ones, it's a good idea to find out whether the knock or ring has come from the big bad wolf.
There is nothing more precious than your fundamental right to privacy and security. No one can enter your house without your consent. Even a police officer must have a search warrant to cross the threshold. If you want, you can ignore a knock. You're under no obligation to talk to someone simply because of the knock on your door.
They hear from pitchmen who want to sell them siding or fences, stock market peddlers who offer to make them rich, hustlers of every conceivable product.
But then we have that most wondrous and devilish device — the telephone.
This is known as telemarketing. Or junk phone calls, a more accurate phrase that the telemarket-
every day, millions of people get phone calls they don't want or need.
Mike Royko
eters hate.
Syndicated columnist
The millions of unwanted calls also include the old standbys — the panter, heavy breather and obscene talker.
obscene talker.
So I've always thought it would be nice if there were some way of knowing who was on the other end of the phone when it rings.
And now, through modern technology, phone companies can provide you with a small screen that displays the number of the phone that is being used to call you.
It hasn't come into widespread use yet. But phone companies are planning to offer the device, known as "Caller I.D." in several Eastern states and on the West Coast.
Eastern States and on the West
Through a strange twist of logic, the service is being called an invasion of the privacy of those who make the phone calls.
They say the caller's privacy will be violated because the person he or she calls will know the number of phone being used to place the call. And in many cases, by knowing the number one can determine who is calling.
Therefore, the caller's precious right to privacy — phoning you without you knowing who he or she is — will be violated.
Well, that's what they say. And they are making a big fuss in states where the service will
be offered.
Maybe my logic is cockeyed, but it seems to me that the person whose phone rings has a first option on privacy and freedom from jerks.
If a woman's phone rings, and a guy starts panting and telling her about his lasciulous hopes and dreams, it would be nice if the woman could jot down his phone number and give it to the police. The caller could discuss his need to pant at strangers with a judge.
If some pitchman calls more than once about a product or service that you don't want, as pitchmen often do, you will have his number. You can take legal action to put a stop to the calls.
Sure, a phone creep can find a way around screening device by going to a public phone. But in zero-degree weather, he's less likely to go trudging out with a pocketful of quarters.
There may be some cases in which there are valid reasons to conceal your number. Someone phoning in a tip to the police about a neighbor peddlings drugs might have good reason to remain anonymous. A pay phone would provide that cloak.
The phone company in Pennsylvania argues that "Caller L.D." acts as a sort of pepoleh in the door, so that you can see who is knocking. He has the right to put
The critics say that a caller has the right to put a finger over the nebuleh.
Well, if someone knocks on my door and puts a finger over the peephole, he or she will soon find a police officer knocking on his or her back.
And when the service is offered around here,
And when the service is I I'll be among the first to subscribe.
■ Mike Royko is a syndicated columnist who writes for the Chicago Tribune.
BLOOM COUNTY
HE SAID THE UNVERSE WILL
FALL BACK IN ON ITSELF
SOMEDAY. STARS. PLANETS.
TUFT HOT DOGS...
EVERYTHING WILL
SOUASH TOOLETHER...
by Berke Breathed