UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN editorials
Unsigned editors represent the opinion of the Kansan editorial staff. Signed columns represent the views of only the writers.
MAY 7,1979
Sears takes on U.S.
Sears, Roebuck and Co., the nation's largest retailer, recently found the U.S. government too strict in its requirements for compliance with affirmative action guidelines.
In a combative mood, Sears executives announced last week that the corporation would no longer accept new contracts with the federal government, thus stifling its $20 million annual business with the government.
Sears charged that the government had embarked on a "campaign of harassment, subterfuge or retaliation" in examining the company's promotion and hiring procedures for minorities and women. As a company that seeks federal contracts, Sears, as are all other companies working with the government, is required to comply with federal affirmative action guidelines.
IN JANUARY, Sears filed a suit against 10 federal agencies to resolve what it called conflicting laws and regulations restricting jobs and promotions for women and minorities.
A few weeks later, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs told Sears it would conduct numerous field tests to evaluate the company's own affirmative action program which it developed two years ago.
The office found Sears' program to be deficient in several areas and recommended changes.
WELDON ROUGEAU, director of the office, said, "After review by our staff and lawyers, we determined that several changes were needed and we requested that the format for the national AAP (Affirmative Action Program) be tested at selected Sears facilities. Sears balked and refused to be cooperative with the government."
In response to Rougeau, Sears corporation chairman Edward R. Telling said, "Representatives of the OFCF have failed to answer our
letters questioning the reasons and methods for the proposed field tests.
TELLING SAID Sears would honor existing contracts but would not bid on any new ones, "for an indefinite time, beginning immediately."
The conflict between Sears and the government centers on differing views of compliance with affirmative action guidelines. Sears wants to set its own standards, while the government wants to extend the same standards on affirmative action compliance to Sears that it mandates to all other companies it does business with.
Although Telling says Sears is not trying to duck compliance, the company is wrong to believe it can regulate hiring and promotion practices autonomously.
AS ROUGEAU said, "I think that a retail business of Sears' size . . . should never go out of business with the government because it cannot comply with equal employment requirements."
In this case, the government is correct to assume that Sears should not receive special consideration. Affirmative action guidelines are designed to protect the hiring and promotion of women and minorities and should be uniform throughout all agencies that do business with the government.
If Sears hoped to force the government to back down under the threat of a loss of business, it should be in for a surprise.
The government can operate without Sears.
The store where America shops will be the loser in the power struggle over compliance with affirmative action guidelines.
The government should be unyielding in dealing with Sears. Sears must meet the exact standards required of all other federally contracted companies. Anything less would wither the effectiveness of the affirmative action programs.
Year's passing leaves father's lessons alive
Dear Dad.
I know it's taken me one year to write this letter to you. But it won't an easy one to write, and I wasn't quite sure what it was I needed to say.
I wanted so much to say something to you as you lay there last May 7, but the words would not come. You were so quiet and peaceful, yet I was filled with an anger and a frustration that I did not understand. What year to realize what you left me that night and to realize what I wanted and needed to say.
I realize now that it wasn't just blue eyes and large feet that I inherited from you. It was also your anger and your fear. It was so much more than so many times seemed unjust and unfair.
When you were angry about the inequality of an inner-city school, you rebuilt its playground.
ALTHOUGH YOU did it so quietly, I see now that you moved people with your emotions.
When you were frustrated that thousands of citizens in your city did not eat a decent meal each night, you an effort to help feed dozens of them.
The anger, frustration and love that you had continually, though quietly,
When you felt disillusioned because the church you had attended for years had lost sight of its priorities by asking for more leaders, you quietly sought to change those priorities.
Although you often were frustrated, angered and disillusioned about your ability to combat that inequality, you never gave up the hop that your eight sisters would have others around you might also be frustrated and angered enough to move people.
When few others wished to change, you had the courage to change anyway.
I DID NOT realize all of this last May 7. It is only today that I have realized that it was in your silence+especially that night+that you were moving people in.
displayed was evident in the words and actions of the people who gathered later that day at the house.
This May 7 I feel angry and I feel frustrated. But they aren't the destructive emotions I left last May 7. I feel more positive, active, and hopeful, very constructive.
AND I HOPE that I have been just a little bit angry and just a little bit frustured when I put my words down on paper. It's not quite as subtle as the way you went about it—and it may not be as effective. But it me, if Mr. Dix's part the word could that night, because my words could have done nothing by themselves.
But Dad, I don't think that I am satisfied to do things in your silent way. I think maybe it's better that way. Just as long as I am still frustrated and angry at injustice and inequality, I think you'll understand.
I'm not suited for building playgrounds. I'm not very good at organizing people for group action. And I often not courageous enough to blaze out across the park, be blasted and Dad, though you never did it. It I've gotten a chance to write.
And it is evident in me today.
Words alone can't coke people the way your quiet, but obvious, concern did. Words have to be backup by you. Words have to be backups and words are backed up by that frustration.
I never would have believed it to be true, but I have learned more from you in this last year that I did from all that you taught me during my frst 20.
Thanks, Dad. Even in death, you've poked another person.
Mary
Water rights still conflict for Yakima
More than 100 years ago, a group of people living in the semi-arid region of the Northwest territory were surviving by using irrigation.
The Yakima Indians farmed land on either side of the Columbia River and north to the outer branches of the Yakima and to the interior, a vast area that is now the state of Washington.
the Yakima Indian nation and the U.S.
the Yakima Indian nation and the U.S.
was established. The reservation was east of
the Cascade Mountain Range; essential to Indian existence was the continued diversion of the Yakima River to fields for
In time, the struggle for water rights, which were guaranteed to the Indians in the treaty, began as settlers moved into the area. They used a supply of water for Indians from the Yakima.
This past February, the governor of Washington, Dixy Lee Ray, announced the Yakima Basin Water Enhancement Project, which she called the "grand
Ray stated that the state and the akima Indian nation had agreed to a treaty with Japan.
TODAY THAT struggle continues.
Philip Garcia
reservoirs along the Yakima River and surrounding waterways.
The reservoirs would provide water for up to 30,000 dry acres within the reservation, and a supplemental water supply for about 70,000 acres of irrigated land in the Yakima Basin, Ray said. Other benefits from the reservoirs include increased quality, protection for fish and the development of better flood control and hydroelectric power.
Sen. Henry Jackson, D-Wash, and Rep. Mike McCormack, D-Wash., introduced legislation that would provide $800,000 for a 2015 program that will estimate cost of the project is $390 million.
SEVERE DROUGHTS two years ago in the area aided the push for an expanded fire suppression system.
But there are problems with this "grand design."
First, Ray and Watson Totus, Yakima tribal chairman, said the negotiations on the agreement were held quietly for more than a week. But in October Yakima tribal councilman, and James Hovis, Yakima nation attorney, played key roles in getting the tribe and the state to agree.
But Jim has said the tribe had not approved the project and Thevius has said no
ALTHOUGH THE Yakima tribal council voted to support the Jackson bill, Jim said, the legislation had not been presented to the Yakima General Council nor to the people of Yakima and told the tribe's land and irrigation community not had heard arguments on the project.
PARTIAL BLAME for the current water rights conflict can be laid on the tribunal council. The council, in voting to support the Jackson bill, voted down language that would interfere with water for the project would not interfere with Yakima water rights or development.
Furthermore, it is estimated that as much as two-thirds of the water in the Yakima River would be used for non-Indian use, and as much as one-tenth of the river would be flooded,么么的it land owned by Indians.
An engineer from the firm of Morrison and Materio, inc. of Tulare, Monk, has said that the new project will cost $10 million.
Perhaps the most important aspect of the project is that it would lessen the impact of the water rights cases pending in state and federal courts. Some stand to lose access to water if the project is completed and all rights must comply with project plans.
Michael Watson, of the consulting firm that advises the Bureau of Indian of Affairs, said that about 40 studies had been completed on the basin, and that the streams were already overdrawn and overappropriated.
Moreover, details of the water project have not been discussed with or presented to the Commission.
Water is essential to the well-being of all in this arid region. But any efforts to ensure that all people have proper and equal access to this vital resource should not be made at the expense of the Indians, nor without their understanding of the consequences of the water project.
There is no excuse for continued abuse and exploitation of the Indians and the natural resources they own. It is hoped that such conditions end in the all too familiar situation in which Indian rights are buried under the steamroller of progress and expansion.
PLEASE NOTE:
IN ORDER TO PROTECT SMALL OR IMPRESSIONABLE CHILDREN OR PERSONS WHO MIGHT OBJECT BECAUSE OF WHAT THEY CONSTRUE TO BE BAD TASTE. THE FOLLOWING DISGUSTING, OBSCENE STATEMENTS HAVE BEEN PRINTED UPSIDE DOWN.
TEXAO INC. 81% INCREASE IN PROFITS GLIF OIL CO. 61%INCREASE IN PROFITS MARATHON OIL. 107% INCREASE IN PROFITS EXXON — 37% INCREASE IN PROFITS
Physically disabled are students first
To the editor:
I was encouraged to see that the Interfraternity Council is working to raise money so it can help purchase a specially equipped van for students with physical disabilities. The approach is positive and fun for everyone involved.
However, in the article in the University Daily Kansan Tuesday, May 1, there were statements that I was not encouraged by. It was stated that Tom Bissing is "a wheelchair student." He is not a wheelchair student." He rather is a student who uses a wheelchair. The semantics illustrate to me vastly contrasting concepts.
One might try to justify use of terms by saying, "Well, if one can categorize a person as a student, one can also categorize him as a wheelchair student."
Saundra Engwall Courtland junior
In response to Linda Koenigman's letter concerning nuclear power; yes, nuclear power is dangerous, more so than other forms of harnessed energy. But what she says is that nuclear power is the power the generators for the production of energy are unreplenisable resources. This current source of energy is projected and based upon statistics, to be critically low enough 15 to 20 years from now to the full use of an alternative form of energy.
One has to consider that the development of the other forms of energy that Linda spoke of (solar, geothermal, wind, coal, gasohal) are at least 15 to 20 years away, with the exception of coal. Using coal, you would require the mechanical transformation of natural gas, which is using natural gas and or petroleum a process that would take years, considering the economics and the total number of power plants in this country.
I hope that in the future the writers for the Kansan will try to portray persons with physical disabilities as just that—persons first, disabilities second.
I don't believe this to be true. A person cannot assume the role of "student".
UNIVERSITY DAILY letters KANSAN
New energy forms not yet satisfactory To the editor
Also, consider the energy alone that would be required to transport that coal to the power plants, not to mention the proven and currently detrimental effects to our environment caused by the use of coal. One reason for this is that the amount of time from the conception of an energy or power plant to the actual production of that energy, is at least ten years.
In other words, it would be at least 25 years until these alternative forms of energy could possibly satisfy our mass needs.
Yes, facts do speak for themselves. But evidently, Linda herself and possibly others may not realize that the facts must speak of the energy industry as a whole. This is not to say that I totally approve of nuclear power plants. It is not because I hate it. But it all boils down to this; do you or don't you want the luxury of electricity 20 years from now?
Mark Silks
Prairie Village senior
Khomeini takeover a move to freedom
To the editor:
There has been a constant racist and reactionary campaign waged in the U.S. media to portray Aatollah Khomeini as a murderer. The latest example is a demeaning cartoon in the Lawrence Daily Journal-World of April 25, which carried a picture of Khomeini and these words "Idi Amin is alive and well and living in Iran."
Thus propaganda campaign of the media is basically telling us that it is not worthwhile for underdeveloped countries to gain their independence because they will end up with another dictator. The Western media and particularly the American important race role in presenting Idi Amiri as a typical example of a black leader in Africa.
They did this in order to justify their support for the fascist white minority
regimes in Africa and to attack the liberation movements. Everybody who remembers the history of Uganda can recall that Idi Amin came to power with U.S. and Israel help, but only when he turned against the United States did the media attack him as a dictator—which he was from the beginning.
The U.S. government did not criticize Amin for the sake of "human rights," but rather to use him as a model and to tell the truth about his actions. Western white Nazis, you'll set black one."
In the case of Iran, the U.S. media are telling us, "You got rid of a dictator? Well, now you've got another one!" The fact is that the press here never reported the shah as a brutal dictator, rather they referred to him as a "liberalizer" and "modernizer."
These generals and officers who are all trained in the United States and Israel have been responsible for the deaths of 65,000 civilians in Iraq and Syria. More than 80 percent of people in the past year and one half alone.
We, the Iranians, believe that despite all the problems, our people have gained a major victory. We have ended 2,500 years of despotic and rotten monarchy. It was a very hard struggle. Every time in our history that we wanted to move to a more democratic state, foreign colonialists or imperialists intervened in our country and backed the kings.
to peace in 1953, the CIA sponsored a military coup in Iraq to overthrow the popular government of Mosaddeq. Everyday the local Iranian army has been used to suppress our people. This army has been trained by the British and the American armies. The shah's secret police, SAVAK, was created under the契約 by the CIA and Israeli intelligence.
murderous leaders must be gotten rid of.
That is absolutely necessary for preventing
the country from going back to a dictatorship again.
Less than two years after our 1905 constitutional revolution, which took political power from the king and gave it to the parlament, the czar's army invaded Iran, bombed our parliament, killed the activists and brought the king back to power.
After the experiences of the military coups in Chile (1973) and Indonesia (1968s) and many others in which the CIA was involved up to its neck, one cannot help but draw a lesson from history. The old reactionary army must be destroyed and its
Although the present government of Iran has many weaknesses, such as the lack of experience in fully staffing the military and in public peasants, women and national minorities, we, the Iranian students, fully support the execution of the war. We have sold out our country to foreign imperialists.
There are still gangs of SAVAK agents shooting people down here or there or provoking groups with different goals. They do not want and will not allow the U.S. government or any other imperialist government to stage a military coup in our country again. We want them gone.
After all, the world is changing to the benefit of oppressed people. Just like the slave owners, the feudals, the kings and the colonialists who are gone, the necolonialists and the imperialists will vanish too.
People can only live in peace and happiness with each other if they are socially and economically equal. That is the kind of freedom and democracy that we want.
Iranian Students Association
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