THE SUMMER
SESSION KANSAN editorials
Unsigned editorials represent the opinion of the Kansan editorial staff. Signed columns represent the views of
June 11, 1979
Deferments not fair
The military draft in the United States might be reactivated for the first time since 1973. Calls for such an action have come from governmental agencies that have reported that the All-Volunteer Force and Selective Service Administration could not meet the armed services' manpower needs in a military emergency.
KU students can expect to be involved if the draft returns. At least six bills have been introduced in Congress to deal with the controversial issue. The bills propose a variety of options, ranging from registering 18-year-olds for military service to inducing and training recruits beginning this year.
Whatever the outcome of the debate, one aspect seems clear.
compulsory service, pro or con, it
According to an April issue of U.S. News & World Report, "It's true that while the over-30s would debate
would be under-38s who would have to shoulder (the load).
Allowing college students such deferments has not been brought up in the classroom.
Although military registration might prove helpful, any compulsory military service during peacetime should not be necessary. More important, if circumstances arise where KU students are faced with actual service, it should be accepted that allowing college deferments is discriminatory against those without the income to enter college.
National polls show the public split evenly on whether the draft should be returned to. A May survey of students by Northwestern University indicates that students there are overwhelmingly opposed to reactivating the draft but definitely in favor of "college deferments" should such a draft become reality.
America's energy need greater than Europe's
By STUART VANDYKE JR.
N.Y. Times Feature
CHICAGO-There is a good deal of talk
about "excess" excessive and wasteful
life of energy.
Europeans are especially critical, telling us that our average energy consumption is 24.1 g/kWh.
Before we agree to cut our supplies in half, we should examine this comparison. Without denying the necessity for energy conservation, we know that waste, there are neverless a number of good reasons why the average American needs more fuel than the average European. To begin with, the most basic cause, the more hospitable to human habitation than your own, Sisee Paris or London rarely experience freezing weather and since the summers are generally cool and pleasant, we need more heating and air conditioning is restricted.
Next, the often-derided American dependence on the car is simply too real a fact to be changed overnight by right so that it would not affect the part of Europeans that makes them less dependent, but merely the fact that the car is becoming superior before the car was invented.
There is no question on the other hand that civilized living in the northern half of the United States requires an effective system for water supply. The Buffalo really expected to use the same amount of fuel as the people of Amsterdam? Stockholm might be a better example, but the fact is, a much greater percentage of our population lives in the arid zone than is the case in Western Europe.
Just as our winters are colder, our summers are hotter, and to take back the great advances in air conditioning that have made us a more comfortable and agreeable would be a serious saffron.
With the possible exception of a few of our older cities on the East seaboard, the car is always in use. On the car in a way unlike any European country. Consequently, we are stuck with it until a long, expensive and disruptive car is to efficient public transportation occur.
Furthermore, the United States has had a 200 percent population growth in the last 100 years. The United States has 180 million European country, and the 168-odd million people have accommodated themselves to our country, naturally providing the aid of the internal combustion engine.
This problem should be tucked, but until it is, Americans will need more energy to stay on the road.
Europe. More energy efficient cars can help, but not solve, this requirement.
There is another crucial structural difference between ourselves and Europe. Due largely to the availability of cheap energy, we are able to develop a higher economic as well as a national cultural unit.
In one way or another, the livelihood and emotional satisfaction of most people in this country depend on smooth and easy completion of approximately three million square miles.
Would it be possible to maintain this communication with the same amount of fuel the West Germans use over their 94,000 square miles? Unfortunately, without a continued supply of cheap energy our civilization will flounder.
It would be an error to believe that by operating on this scale we are recklessly extravagant. We have neither the population of Europe nor the population of history but European countries relatively self-sufficient economically and intellectually.
As a result, California and Midwestern farmers must look much farther at their markets than their French or German neighbors. And in some cases his car from Turin, the Texan gets his from Detroit; the bright student from Birmingham goes to Oxford, the bright one from Pittsburgh.
Although an economy our size requires a lot of energy, it is used for the productive purpose of ameliorating our standard of living and improving the well-being of that many European nations. It is not difficult to foresee that if our supplies were cut to the level of Europe's, depression and civil unrest, we would have
It is obvious that we should not be the only ones worried about these consequences: The security of Western Europe depends on a stronger, unified and determined United States.
Without adequate energy, however, America runs the risk of becoming poor, backward and dislocated, not to mention cold. For Europe's sake, as well as our own, we should not be intimidated by this comparison.
These remarks point out that we have legitimate requirements that must be satisfied, but the Americans from the problem of conserving fuel, for that will probably be a matter about which we have no choice. Showing that we have these requirements is measuring an uninterrupted supply is another.
No matter how that can be achieved, it will surely need the cooperation of our partners.
Stuart Van Dyke Jr. is a doctoral candidate in history at the University of Chicago.
KANSAN
THE SUMMER SESSION
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Gas shortage not attendant's fault
By GREG SACKUVICH
It used to be working in a gas station was a piece of cake. No hard work was required. Just stick the nozzle in the hole and blow air into it. Then the weather, baseball or shooting commies.
Editorial Writer
The cars were simple. There was plenty of room in the engine compartment. If something didn't work, you just replaced it.
Life was easy, even more so if you worked in a gas station.
But things have changed. Joe McCarthy is gone. The Beatles are gone. Ed Sullivan is gone. Nickel chewing gum is gone. The gas is gone.
countries don't have to deal with a hostile public. Gas station attendants do and serve.
The only thing left seems to be those customers going into gas stations. And you can bet they don't want to talk about the weather, baseball or shooting commies.
Shooting politicians, heads of OPEC countries or gas stations attendants
But politicians and heads of OPEC
Do you ever stop to think what a gas station attendant has to put up with? If he tells a customer about a problem with his car the standard reaction is disbelief.
The poor guy pumping the gas has nothing to do with fuel allocation or price decontrols. He's just trying to make a mistake and probably not doing a very good job of it.
Then there's the energy situation. The attendant gets asked, "Is there really a gas shortage? I heard the oil companies say that we are bringing it until the price hits $1.25 per gallon."
The customer then walks away thinking,
"Just because this guy works around cars
all day doesn't mean anything. If he had
nothing, he wouldn't be working in a gas
station."
Then there are the bathrooms. They are locked and the key is attached to a redwood. Did you ever wonder how many times the attendant has heard the line, "What's the matter? You think I'm gonna steal the sink?"
The mechanic has to content with the latest in engineering advancements. It
Then there is the issue of money. Tell a customer a price and his reaction is, "The last time I needed one it was $15 cheaper." So what if that was ten years ago.
now takes half an hour to change a fan belt on some cars. An ant cannot fit in some of those engine compartments, yet a full grown man has to maneuver in there.
The gas station attendant also has to be a prognosticator. Tell a customer he has a bad battery and the question is, "How long do you think it will last?"
Tell the lady she has a bad water pump and the question is, "Do you think I can fix it?"
Working in a gas station isn't all that bad, though. When poor, helpless women come in, they are an easy mark for a little impressive mechanical jargon.
Then there are the low cut blouses. Now, that almost makes up for that neanderthal headband and necklace.
But the gas station attendant has to cherish those memories while he's working in sub-zero temperatures and tromping through 12 inches of snow.
Nobody ever changes a tire in the snow.
They just call the gas station. Do you need your car started on a cold morning? Call the gas station.
The next time you pull into the gas station, take a little bit. Do you want to be married? No, just take a short walk.
You can be reasonable, but that takes all the fun out of the gas station. You need someplace to release your hostilities, so be abusive.
After that, ask him to check all the fluid levels, belts, hoses and the paint on the engine. While he's doing this, look over his shoulder the entire time.
Pull into that driveway so the gas pump hose will have to be stretched to its full length. The attendant to check all the tires, include the spare.
Then ask the attendant to clean all the windows and make sure not to leave any streaks. But most important, remember to keep complaining about the price of gas.
If you do need an work done on your car just say, "Well I don't trust you to do it." I'll probably just leave it.
Just keep in mind the idea that baseball is no longer the national past time. It has become a global sport.
So the next time you go into a gas station don't talk about baseball or the weather.
A June depression replaces May's finality
The sunlight cuts the humid air and explodes in silent waves over the ceramic cup. A chipped ceramic cup with a peeling, faded crust, rubs back on a chipped cup. In sunlight.
A mumbled curse for the light and heat of another day. The tired student pours black coffee into the cup. Steam twists upward and vanishes. The morning paper crackes open. A yellow bird coughs softly at the window sill.
The plague.
May is for murder and the campus shrivels under it. Sad farewells to the departing horde. Get the pictures in the scrapbook. What's that banner say about South Africa? A hot, long day. Summer day. May is for bounce by the wind along emmitting streets.
Yawn. More Folger's splashes into the cup. Reader turns page and wonders if any
news is on the it is. Walter's "That's the way it is" was missed last night. Too bad. Frutellus Garcia pole and reel lean dejected behind door.
Gone fish'n.
Pieces of a shattered rainbow are nearly floating on Clinton Reservoir's smooth surface. An occasional bubble comes from the darkening depths. Sunset so quiet. Sneak up on their big bass. No splashmouth... they got ears you know. Ease in there.
"Sonic Lure #3" arches high and low into a mellow "plop." Nice and slow in the muddy water. Turn that real nice and slow. Steady. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. ready, ready, nothann. Damn. Try again.
Pack it up. More curves to the tish and the Army Corps of Engineers. Sadly stumble through dark wooded area carrying equipment and crippled ego. Eopile without
Andy to whistle with; Bury the ego in a seclusion. Perhaps a resurrection on future life? No, it's an insult.
The black pool trembles to the newspaper crackles once again. Two beetles on the kitchen floor circle and back towards each wing with wings carefully raised. Romance.
The few return.
The pain begins on a cloudy, hot day. Play-time over. A sweating army with new recruits sharply standing out. Folders and papers are strewn around the gray building perfect for the coast of Normandy around 1944. The Allies could never have taken it. Few students can. The army moves anyway, Signs and arrows. Step one step two . . .
Leather sandles and smiles to protect the feet and lure the women. Tennis shorts or faded jeans with big Bic pens sticking out of the pockets. Nike shoes instead of K-Mart specials. Long, tarned legs and quick pants. Two. See a friend, trade a juice, drink a beer.
Gene of "Today" reviews a French film. The paper folds roughly to the final page. Student kills last of his Java and rubone story. Looks strange. A June story. A July date.
Classes, moms and dads.
Intellects crumble in classroom ovens.
Grab for grades begins. Student forgets.
Misses father's birthday and parents' anniversary. Dedication trip.
However, Dorothy Jean Womack, Ft. Wilma Okahama, lists as superior mother. Loved by the family and friends of her children.
His coffee gone, student leaves chipped ceramic cup on table and returns to secure bed. Newpaper falls to floor—discreetly burying the two beetles.
South Africa committee backs Kubv
To the Editor:
The KU Committee on South Africa deplores the arrest of Ron Kuby for unfurling a "KU out of South Africa" banner at Commencement. The arrest was not only a flagrant assault on basic rights to free expression, but also an act of political agitation and against a human rights movement unlawable to the University administration.
Kuby's arrest is the most serious example of the recurring harassment of anti-apartheid activists by administration officials.
In March the campus police filmed a rally against aparthief, shooting the film from behind a fence. The pro-diventment literature have been repeatedly intrigued by administration personnel, despite University regulationsettered dissemination of such information.
At Commencement, for example, a man was prevented from handing out leaflets in the Kansas Union. During enrollment on the job, a member of the union's official for manning a table in Wescott Hall
Everyone at the University who values our support Ron Kubi both in his trial defense and an action of complaint. We must resist this latest attempt to gag the free expression of thought.
Laird Okie
Former employee's accusations not fair
KU Committee on South Africa
To base an entire article on the accusations of one person within the office is definitely one-sided. One of us was called on Sunday and was interrupted for half an hour because she was in the entire interview with her was ignored—nothing of what she said was printed.
In response to your article on the traffic office we feel we must clarify the problem
To the editor:
The writer who called on Sunday stated that the accusations made against the staff of the office are not all it seems, may have some personal complaint about her supervisor and how things are run. We have all worked in the office and have seen no prejudices based on race or gender.
We feel that the students and faculty on the campus are unjust in their beliefs about the traffic office. The traffic department is completely self-sufficient. All fines paid are used to pay employees and to build new parking lots.
of all us who have cars and who have parked illegally have paid our fines. But the difference is that we know we've made a mistake, and that's why we know we are responsible for those mistakes.
G. Shirazi
No one can be forced to park their cars where they don't want to. The people have to make the decision themselves and face the consequences if they have parked illegally. You should not park unless you as it is the responsibility of the traffic department to enforce those rules.
G. Shirazi
Lawrence junior
C.H. Campbell
Leawood junior
To the editor:
Kansan traffic story misrepresents office To the editor
The main issue we would like to address is the comment made in reference to minority students working in the "sweatbox." We are temporarily working under crowed conditions until the police administrators move into Carruthb O'Leary Hall.
As employees of the KU Parking Services Department, we would like to express our concern for the misleading and poor representation of our office that was given in the first issue of the Summer Session Kansan on Monday, June 4.
The reader should be made aware of the fact that the three rooms each serve a different purpose. The front office is used for selling paper collecting fines, as well as renting tickets.
The back office is used for keypunching and refund procedures, as well as posting tickets. The third room or "sweatbox," as one former employee referred to it, is used for accounting purposes and additional space.
Full-time employees work in all three of these rooms. Student help is obviously assigned where needed. Minority, international and white students are assigned to work in the back rooms, as well as in the front office.
The implication that one "is assigned to the sweatbox when bad and kept there all day" is positively untrue. In fact, a number of workers in that office space by choice.
The office employees and student helpers strive to work as a team. This involves working where necessary and we feel that our supervisor has done the best job that we can provide, including handling working on filing billing, identifying more than anyone else has ever tried to do.
Karen Milligan
Karen Milligan
Christine Neybert
Peggy Warren