UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN editorials
Unsigned editors represent the opinion of the Kansan editorial staff. Signed columns represent the views of
APRIL 18,1979
Events' decision right
Anyone who has observed the administration's lack of commitment to academic freedom and an open exchange of ideas must be pleased by the University Events Committee's recent decision to drop a controversial literature distribution policy.
The policy, which outlined how and where literature could be distributed on campus, was suspended in January after several protests against the restrictions the policy placed on free expression and academic freedom.
IN FINISHING off the policy for good, Ann Eversole, chairman of the Events Committee, said last week that the committee found that the distribution policy was an unnecessary duplication of existing guidelines.
But more importantly, KU officials have admitted that the policy was overly restrictive and was a mistake. Given the usual administration attitude that "No news is good news," or
sometimes that "All news is good news," this admission by the administration is big news indeed.
LAST WEEK'S denise of the Integrated Humanities Program is ample evidence that the desire to kill anything new, different or outrageous still burns strong in the KU administration. But the decision to abandon the literature distribution policy could be a sign that perhaps the administration now is more willing to allow contrary opinion to be heard on campus.
In announcing the suspension of the policy in January, Del Shankel, executive vice chancellor, said, "We have supported the rights of controversial speakers on campus and we have also repeatedly supported the rights of controversial material."
For once the administration's actions bear out those words. At least it's a beginning.
The world of 1789 is far removed from the world of 1789. Today, each American citizen is surrounded by a plethora of numbers--from the hundreds to the thousands, insurance policies and a host of others.
Carter recognizes right to privacy
All these numbers give so much information about the individual that many citizens feel nothing about themselves is their private property.
President Jimmy Carter, however, is working on a package of initiatives to restore a semblance of personal privacy to Americans.
New protections, Carter said in a message to Congress last week, are made necessary by the potential mitime of a statewide emergency to create a dangerously intrusive society."
The new protections would include coverage of insurance policy-holders, medical patients, some federal program agencies, pretrapping targets and news story sources.
"We CONFORT threats to privacy undreamed of 200 years ago," he said. "Whenever we take out a loan, apply for insurance, receive treatment at a hospital, obtain government assistance or pay taxes, we add to the store of recorded information about our lives which can now be flashed across the nation from computer to computer."
The tremendous increase in the capacity of computers to store information about our world, and the increasing wants information about his finances, government assistance or personal matters to be in the clutches of anyone who has access to the computer and knows how to punch the key keys.
Oil: our nation is literally and figuratively being run by it.
Gasohol merits funding for research
The vovorous need for more oil—coupled with open-ended price increases—is forcing our nation into greater dependence on foreign supplies. Political action and everyday life have created an environment to concern for oil prices and sums.
The public outcry to seek more independence from the oil companies has motivated President Carter to outline plans to force the issue.
In his recent energy message, Carter proposed re-education of the oil companies and the public. He wants the nation to move towards a development develop alternative sources of energy.
Carter's proposals make it incumbent on the nation to begin intense efforts to develop alternative sources of products, or to replace some altogether.
Jake
ONE OF Carter's main proposals is to lift controls on oil prices beginning June 17. The company also controls by Sept. 30, 1981. That would allow U.S. gasoline prices to rise to European standards. Already in some countries, country gas is more than $2 a gallon.
Thompson
Carter also proposed that Congress impose a tax on "windfall profits" to the U.S. oil companies. The money raised would be deposited in a special fund, called an "energy securities fund," and would be used to aid alternative energy programs, to help the poor and to improve mass transit.
Clearly, Carter's proposals should be taken seriously if we want to cut oil consumption.
One way to cut back is through the use of gasohol, which is gaining more support as oil prices continue to rise. Gasohol, an alcohol and gasoline mixture, could cut oil consumption if it were economically feasible.
BUT UNTIL recently, gasolon cost far more to produce than oil. But propensities of gasolon, led by grain prices, have been a growing research and make gasolon cheaper.
Of course, grain producers are seeking to raise low grain prices by increasing
the demand for grain. The nation's dependence on oil companies might then be transferred to grain producers.
But, if the federal government controls gasolase research now, it also could control prices. Economical gasolase could curb the demand for oil.
Gasolon is an old idea. It first was developed in 1922, but the cost of production has increased. Gasolon is being sold in Iowa, Nebraska and Missouri and is usually a blend of about 90 percent gasoline and 10 percent 280-pound Iowa has 400 stations offering gasolon.
AND TODAY, the greatest deterrent is still cost.
Leonard Schruben, professor of agriculture and economics at Kansas State University, has been studying the cost of production is not yet worth the cost of production.
"The facts are that there has been nothing reported scientifically to demonstrate a technique for converting farm products to alcohol using less energy than is given in the form of ethanol. It has been shown that there has been a process demonstrated that would allow for the use of alcohol so that it would pay its own way."
More research money is needed. The government could draw from its "energy securities fund" to escalate gasohol development and make it cheaper. But gasohol research awaits Congressional approval.
ORIWEOUSLY, oil prices will continue to rise as supplies dwindle. Thus, gasohol is more economically realistic than in the past.
Carter's energy plan allows for the development of gasolil. It's up to Congress and the American public to push for research funding.
The decisive factor in gasoline research may be forced by supplies. Grain crops are renewable. Petroleum supplies are finite.
Gasolso, though only a supplement now, could become a substitute for gasoline. Congress and Carter should increase funding for gasol肖 research. It is the responsibility of the oil companies, which is a goal of the government and the public:
Carter says his proposal seeks to strike a balance between protecting Americans' privacy and allowing "the flow of information" for legitimate business operations."
stitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in a controversial case last year.
- Presidential support for strengthening the nation's 10-year-old legal curbs on wiretapping, generally along the lines recommended by a national commission.
- Proposed legislation establishing the in-
terpretation legal guarantees of confidentiality in federa-
tion law.
Carter's proposals seem to achieve such a balance.
ter- an assortment of congressional bills,
executive guidelines, presidential endorsements,
and yet-to-be-drafted legislation, contains the following
elements:
- Proposed legislation extending a similar guarantee in medical records.
- Presidential support for legislation now being developed in Congress limiting the use of lie detectors in private employment.
The citizen's right to privacy has been neglected by the government all too often, especially in this age of highly-developed electronic devices. Carter was right when the laws of 200 years ago were not adequate in dealing with the threats of today.
services
· Guidelines protecting the safety of innocent individuals when the government probes computerized lists to detect fraud and other abuses of federal programs.
His package should be welcomed by Congress and the American people as a renewed commitment to the rights of the individual citizen.
- **LEGISLATION restricting police searches for documentary materials held by the press.** The legislation would shield work products" such as notes, files and images from being released to a simple search warrant for other documents. Such police searches were ruled con-
The importation of vast new amounts of
Efforts to legislate bedfellows ironic
It should be remembered that the accident in Harrisburg, which grew so serious through a combination of human error and equipment malfunctions, did not claim even that a chain of events resulted from this very unusual chain of events would seem to indicate that, even when a multiplicity of breakdowns and mistakes occurs simultaneously and severely cripples a nuclear facility, the systems are still able to prevent a disaster.
There is a bit of sad irony to be found in the smacking efforts of the Kansas Legislature.
Perhaps the writer of the editorial would like to suggest some viable alternatives to nuclear power, including shut down. Where might Chicago, which is heavily dependent on nuclear electricity, find another source of energy that would be cheaper than their zero-fatality nuclear system.
The privacy package proposed by Car-
I find it indeed unfortunate that the Kansan has seen fit to engage in a little easy sensationalism with its editorial of April 9 against the nuclear option of generating electricity. This editorial, inspired by the events at the power plant, insists that the events in Pennsylvania have proven that "nuclear power plants are not safe" and that the only way the public safety can be assured is by "shutting down the nuclear power industry." How the leap between the facts of nuclear disclosures was made completely escapes me.
Recently, there was a debate in a conference committee about repealing two laws that uphold, superficially of course, sexual morality in Kansas.
To the editor:
House members of the pionty piously fought against repealing laws that make the death penalty more effective.
Currently, illegal cohabitation—defined as "persons living together as man and wife"—is punishable by a $500 to $1,000 fee or by 30 days to three months in jail. Violating adultery is punishable by a fine of $900 or both. Both crimes are middensmen.
foreign oil, with its damaging effects on our economy and the demonstrated danger of massive oil spills, does not appear particularly attractive. The other alternative, namely the biological capabilities, namely the burning of coal in the environment both in the mining and burning phases, and certainly would claim many lives in mining accidents or through the pollution of the air—especially if uncontrolled and in a scale to compensate for the loss of biodiversity.
The committee did come up with a compromise bill. The adultery law would be kept but cohabitation no longer would be a crime.
HOWEVER, Wendell Lady, Speaker of the House, R-Overland Park, said he thinks this bill will remain a proposal and suffer as much as defeat—as have similar bills in the past.
He said he doubts that the bill will be heard on the floor, noting that legislators do not like to deal with or vote on such issues because of negative consequences at election time.
Kansan unjust in nuclear criticism
Death penalty veto deserves applause
To the editor:
It would seem to me that the death of a single miner in the coal fields of Wyoming is a greater disaster than the "near disaster" at Three Mile Island, which has yet to show us our first documented case even of injury, let alone death.
We are writing to express our commendation and support of Governor Carlin
UNIVERSITY DAILY letters KANSAN
Kevin C. Travis Lawrence senior
We do not feel that any legislative body has the right to decide whether one should live or die. As long as there is any moral question involved—and there always will be—any such legislation is wrong and a violation of human rights. Rather, the precedent for our penal institutions is that they are to fill in the gaps in the role and not a punitive one. The death penalty for any crime clearly does not correspond to this view.
for his decision to veto the bill to reinstate
the death penalty in Kansas.
We appreciate Governor Carlin's decision on this issue; he has insured an important degree of respect for human dignity in the state of Kansas.
Given that the majority of the citizens of Kansas support the reinstatement of this bill, his decision was a courageous one and, in our view, ethically right.
Campus bus riders waste human energy
Martha Visser
Lawrence junior
And two others
To the editor:
There has been much talk in recent years concerning energy shortages. Very few appreciate the idea of reducing personal use. Whether it is gas, electricity or oil, Americans trown at any imposed stipulation. Yet, students living on campus at the University of Kansas seem to conserve possibly the most natural resource: human energy. Students live in a high physical fitness popularity so many students must ride campus buses.
True, riding a bus is more economical than driving a car to class, but KU's campus does not require cars for on-campus students. Even when warm weather sets in, hordes of students pile on the buses, chatting about how nice the weather is. By being lazy, and paying more than $2 a year for a car, we reduce the conservation of gasoline.
If so many of us are concerned with "cutting back," why can't bus riders dispose of human energy as well as those pounds who riders claim they wish to lose? To college students everywhere, the backbone of tomorrow's world is a powerful action, for it seems wasteful to let a gifted natural resource go to waste. Walk! Don't ride!
Dreux DeMack
Olathe junior
If anything, the voting record of members of the legislature on these two issues indicates that too many Kansans can be shamefully vicious and hocritical.
Phillip Garcia
Lady states that legislators retain these current petty sexual laws to appease constituents. And it is generally known that most Kansans wanted the death penalty, and legislators voted in compliance with this sentiment.
Tampering with laws that uphold the moral fiber of Kansas is dangerous.
There is no morality in capital punishment. Morality is not sending someone to the electric chair on one hand and on the other condemning promiscuity.
Two years ago, Lady said, a Republican senator from Topeka voted to repeal a law against砂姆 between consenting partners. During the candidate's campaign for president, the defendant was indirectly accused of supporting sexual immorality. The candidate lost.
It is foolish that members of the house wish to retain laws that are hardly enforceable and furthermore contradict the state's recognition of common-law marriage—the cohabitation of an unmarried man and woman.
BUT WHAT I AM to the signifikant and
woolfie犀利 is more signifikant and
ratiawild
these laws are the efforts to maintain morals by legislators, House members in particular, after earlier approving a death penalty bill.
How can a person fight for sexual morality in the same time approving the killing of another person?
This is not a plug for adultery or cohabitation. It is only asked that the call for moral fiber be sounded from institutions better suited to do so.
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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
KANSAN
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