UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN editorials
Unsigned editors represent the opinion of the Kansan editorial staff. Signed columns represent the views of the editor.
APRIL 9,1979
Stop Wolf Creek now
It was bound to happen. And, as usual, the government has begun its preventive measures after the fact.
The near disaster at the Three Mile Island nuclear power station outside Harrisburg, Pa., has prompted a resolution in the Kansas Senate asking for the formation of a special committee to investigate the safety of the Wolf Creek nuclear plant now under construction near Burlington.
That resolution is similar to other motions sprouting up across the country in the wake of the Pennsylvania accident.
THE PROPOSED committee in the Senate resolution would be charged with studying general safety of nuclear generating stations, the safety of the Wolf Creek facility and the effects of a nuclear accident in Kansas.
But while increased safety standards for nuclear plants should be encouraged, there is actually only one method that would ensure public safety—shutting down the nuclear power industry.
For, as much as nuclear advocates hate to admit it, the accident in Pennsylvania has effectively proven what nuclear opponents have been saying all along—nuclear power plants are not safe.
THE ACCIDENT at Three Mile
Island leaves nuclear advocates with a significant credibility problem. Namely, why should the public believe what nuclear advocates say when recent events have proved them so terribly wrong?
The conflicting and often deliberately misleading reports emanating from the utility that operated the Three Mile Island plant showed that the utility's interest lay with company profits, not public safety. And as long as profits are the motivating factor in dealing with such problems it will be able to believe what it is told by the utilities and by nuclear officials with vested interests in the proliferation of nuclear power plants.
THE WOLF Creek power plant is scheduled to begin operation in 1983. Should Kansans be subjected to the residents of central Pennsylvania?
The answer is clearly no. It is incumbent upon us to make that clear to the officials of the utilities that own the buildings and to Kansas government officials.
The accident at Three Mile Island has shown us what the future holds if we accede to further dependence on nuclear power. Are we willing to accept that fate?
Abel had Cain. Richard Nixon had Donald, Lyndon Johnson had Sarn Houston, and alus, Jimmy Carter Billy—and Jean and Gloria.
Brotherly troubles go way back in history, and they seem to have gotten worse for the men residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. in recent years.
Carter insisted that Billy's comment to visiting Libyans that they were some of his best friends in the world—"there's a hell of a lot more Arabians that are Jews," had not been anti-Semitic and that he would not condemn him for it.
In addition to a governmental investigation of the $6.5 million credit line extended to the Carter peanut business during the recession, Mr. Schoenfeld included pressure to make a statement condemning brother Billy's comments about Jesus and sister Jean's arrest for disobeying conduct after she refused to quit Argentina or herniconia in a restaurant in Americas, Ga.
CARTER HAD at first tried to avoid the Billy issue; then he issued a weak statement saying only that he and Billy were disassociated. Finally, still under pressure, Carter said, "Billy is my brother. He is seriously ill at this point, I love him."
But never has a president been so beset with family troubles as Carter. Last month, in a speech in New York City, the most presidents right out of the White House. The Carter clan waged have on
Carter should sever ties with Billy
But questions were raised about the nature of Billy's illness after a doctor treating him in Americas for bronchitis said Billy was not seriously ill.
BUT IT MAY lead to the demise of Jimmy Carter, who apparently thinks that Billy is, indeed, very sick. Carter aides have said that Billy has been under so much pressure might proverbially even worse outbursts than the Jewish slurs.
"Seriously ill," Billy's physician, Paul brown, said, "meant it could lead to his death."
Billy may be realizing himself that he is very sick. Last month, he was readmitted to the Americas hospital and is now at the Long Beach, Calif., Naval Hospital. This time, however, it is for the treatment of alcoholism, not bronchitis.
Yet his comments and actions of a few months ago still seem to be a cause of
FEW PUBLIC officials, much less a president, would be able to put up with a beer-guzzling brother, an evangelist sister, a mother-turned-Perce-Cope volunteer who loves the harmonics so much that she makes it to dinner and refuses to quit playing.
So, while Americans may be wondering if Jimmy Carter is a strong leader, they can be assured that he is definitely a strong family man.
January, Billy urinated on the side of a building and then made his infamous remarks about Jews. When he did that, he embarrassed not only his brother, but a Jewish-American people. A few of them laughed with larger number of them expressed outrage.
Billy's allys, once funny and rather innocent, have ceased to be humorous. His actions have deteriorated to the point that he frequently dissatisfacely selfishly from his brother.
Why, he continually asked witnesses—mostly local journalists—subpoenaed by the defense, was this case such a big outcider? "outiders" like the Southern Christian Leadership Conference spied on their shill recruitment spies and their talk of confrontation.
And so Carter, always a strong family man, faces the dilemma of disassociating himself from Billy, which he doesn't seem to understand. He is a political lover for not condemning him.
Bill Brock, Republican National chairman, astutely defined Carter's problem, "To some extent," he said, "each of us is our brother's keeper."
Racism awakened in Ala. rape trial
Why had the local and national media played the whole drama up? Why was there all this talk about the defendant's being unable to get a fair trial in his court? Why had the good character and biennial customs of Cullman citizens been tortured? Why did he have no control? Why had the issue of race suddenly become so dominant in a community in which it had once been so dormant?
BECAUSE JUSTICE has not been equally fair, nor even equally random, for black people in towns like Decatur all over Alabama and the South; not in the Scottsboro days of the '30s, in the "Great" settlement" days of the '60s, not in the "New South" days of the '70s.
The judge ruled that the state statute was superceded by the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees trial by an impartial trial, and the 14th Amendment, which provides for the process of law.
Why?
N. Y. Times Feature
CULLMAN, Ala.—Breaking recent with the Alabama in an unabashedly venerates, Judge Jack C. Riley of Cullman county court recently removed the defendant any further charges against him. Tommy Lee Moe redacted black man whose arrest in May in Decatur, Ala., together with his conviction and sentencing in Cullman to 30 years in prison, was uncovered nearly 10 months of bitter racial protest in northern Alabama.
Because a black's rape of a white, especially when unsolved
ON MARCH 2, Judge Riley apparently found what he was looking for as for he ordered another change of venue for the remaining charges, this time to Birmingham, the largest city in northern Alabama.
By state law, only one change of venue is permissible. That judicial card was played last summer by a Decatur judge who, having witnessed in his own town the angry demonstrations of local Hines supporters, members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Ku Klux Klanism, sent forth the coming court actions—three separate rape charges and a related robbery charge—32 miles down the road to Culmen County, where less than one percent of the population is black.
But Carter is also the president of the United States and as such, Bill's actions are in line with the state's policy.
concern for Carter, who continues to feel the pressure to rebill Bake's comments.
By JQSEPH P. KAHN
While playing host to the Libyan oil men in
The University Daily Kansan welcomes letters to the editor. Letters should be typewritten, double-spaced and not exceed 500 words. They should include the writer's name, address and telephone number. If the writer is affirmed as a student of Kansan, they should include the writer's class and home town or faculty or staff position. The Kansan reserves the right to edit letters for publication.
Letters Policy
for a period of months, exerts a community pressure on local law enforcement that too easily invites application of what some black Decatur residents call the "nearest available nigger" school of police philosophy.
Because, guilty or not guilty, Hines, who had never been in trouble with the police and whose character was stanually defended by school associates and fellow church members, suffered disgraced fingers at the hands of interrogating officers who communicated—a grossly incompetent suspect for whom access to the legal and civil counsel should have both swift and obvious.
Because Decatur housed some other prince suspects who were never adequately questioned about the crimes eventually hung
These factors may mean little to Hines, who sits in a cell on the psychiatric ward in Kidney Prison with his impaired memory and learning ability, that has been evaluated as that of a 3-year-old. But they are crucial for cognitive ability to look at how he got there and ask, "What?"
BECAUSE PROGRESS in Southern justice has largely been achieved through the integration of jury panels, and moving the Hines trial to Cullman a gratuitous bow to an ugly, disreputable past.
Now that venue is the latest variable to change, it appears that it will be Birmingham's turn to wrestle with the hows and whys of the local. That old steel mill with a bloody perspective is the best place for the Cullian to see Decatur's biracial carnival swinging toward its portals, but at least Birmingham will have a broadened audience in the parade. And it will offer a representative number of blacks.
"They said. 'Let's get Tommy a white lawyer.' And maybe if we had—maybe if we paid him X-thousands of dollars and let him spread the money around where he needed to—then maybe Tommy would be free today. But there’s a lot of sickness in Decatur that been getting ignored, and the Hines case would not have been the last of it. Nothing would have changed."
Because the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Klan, in vastly different ways and with markedly different motives need dramatic issues like the Hines case to revive their moribund images.
Joseph P. Kahn has been attending the trial of Tommy Lee Hines in connection with a book he is writing on justice in the
"Some of them were furious with me when I insisted on getting Tommy a local black attorney," said Al Robinson, a paper mill employee who also now serves on Decatur's newly formed church, led the initial organizing for his young friend's defense.
Because Decatur's blacks felt they had to shake a sleeping, complacent city awake.
Mandatory draft not key to manhood
To the editor:
In your story on conscription (March 28) you quoted ROTC member John Persyn as saying that the draft "ought to be a mandatory two years for everyone. It gives you a little responsibility—it makes a man out of you."
I am amazed (and amused) that a senior in an institution of higher learning can embrace such a simple-minded and antiquated notion of manhood. That Persyn would pressure to impose his twisted idea of himself, the rest of us, however, is unforgettable.
I intend to do all I can to see that my son does not grow up under the shadow of the Soles.
In the meantime, I would suggest that Percy not take those John Wayne movies that have been made.
Stephen Bunch
Stephen Bouch Assistant Instructor of English
Armed forces service shouldn't be required
To the editor:
I would like to make some comments about Dob Riechman's article of March 28, 1995, in the *New York Times*.
in your article you talk to some of the future military personnel who really do not know or have been well indoctrinated about what military life is like. Sure they get their training when August gets here it is back to school. They are somewhat different in real life.
thank you tor showing an unbiased bit of journalism. You have done extremely well. It appears that you have forgotten to add up sides of the coin, however. When one reads "disputed" in your headline, one would think of equal time. But after reading your article, you have forgotten to add or write 'you' not believe in equal time. By the way—four pro, two con.
There are so many demeaning and demoralizing things happening to you that you begin to wonder, "Why the HELL am I here?" Anything to keep you in your place. Regulation after regulation telling you when you are supposed to get up from the restaurant, drunk, smoke and everything else.
Military life is great. Go to work, then to the barracks, then to work, etc. Or sometimes you can go to the NCO club and have several drinks. Lots of fun.
You cited an Associated Press-NBC News study about the draft. Studies are great. I would like to see a study done on the military and the number of alcoholics we are counting in a crisis situation. I'm sure we would all be astounded!
No one should be forced into the military for any reason. Maybe we should listen to Comrade Persyn, he really knows what is best for all. I've been there. I know what it is.
Norm Kinney McLouth senior
Treaty supporters ignored human right
To the editor:
Tuesday and Wednesday, March 27 and
UNIVERSITY DAILY letters KANSAN
28, were days of public protest for various Moslem, Arab and American students. The issue was the Egyptian-Iraeli treaty and its neglect of the Palestinian people.
The Palestinian homeland (or rather, lack of a homeland) is without a doubt the core of the Middle East problem. The majority of tension stems from this issue. The Arab country has been an island of orderly; the unprepared Israeli counterpart was emotional. I found it interesting to note that in this country of freedom of opinion, the Israelis' most common (and still printable) comment was "The Palestine, showing a definite lack of tolerance."
And yet, do they not realize that in their own cry they have embraced the entire problem? The Palestinians do not have a home to which they may return. That is exactly the point that they were trying to make. Somehow in the shuffle, that very basic human right, human need even, has been ignored, and that what it was all about
Coleen P. McKeighen Los Angeles, Calif. senior
Religion not needed to take part in TM
To the editor:
We would like to thank Bob Anthony for his interest in Doug Henning, Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sihi protocol, which are necessary to correct his misunderstandings.
A religious man sees religion everywhere, a scientist sees science and an artist sees art. These diverse views enrich society; a religious person feels ennobled; thy eyes feel there is a religious aspect to the TM program, then for him there is—even though many religious leaders do not agree. If he feels that truth is not to be found in any form, then we can only think that he is a faint.
We disagree with Anthony's opinion of Heming. We both know Doug. He is well-known. We don't know who he is.
psychology and is a truly gifted performer. People who attended his performance at Haskell Indian Junior College expressed great delight that he came.
Anthony is incorrect when he states that belief in the TM and TM-Sidih program is required. Practice of TM and TM-Sidih all involve a belief and all benefits occur automatically.
Anthony also seems unaware that hundreds of saints and religious people (St. Francis of Assisi, St. Theresa, etc.) have suffered during the martyrs' cities as living, where few sacribes lay.
Anthony's condensation of Maharishi European Research University's report of the Maharishi effect ignores the fact that the odds of these results occurring by chance are more than one in a billion. Anchton was not aware that principals of national science conferences were concentrated in countries where sufficient numbers of people practice the TM and TM-Sidih program. While these developments are still in their early stages, their principles are scientifically verifiable. Over 300 scientific studies conducted by more than 100 separate research facilities throughout India validate the TM and TM-Sidih program.
Anyone can verify these claims in his own experience without involving 'belfire' in the story.
We encourage all interested people to attend a MahariSh International University visitor's weekend where they can observe a large population practicing the T-MiSidi program, attend lectures by MIU faculty and visit with the students.
Anthony's fright at the possibility of a simple, natural, scientifically validated program that quickly develops personal confidence in him. A certain cern but must point out that a reaction that is opposed to the most intimate nature of life shows a fundamental misunderstanding of
William R. Weston
Sara Quijada
MIIU Field Representatives
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
KANSAN
(USPS 600-640) Published at the University of Kansas daily August through May and Monday through Thursday. Subscription is $25 each; paid by mail or landed at a payer in Lawrence, Kansas 66940. Subscriptions are for $1 per six months or $2 a year in Douglas County and $1 for six months or $3 a year outside the county. Student subscriptions are $2 a semester, paid through the student account.
changes of address to the University Daily Kansas, Flint Hall. The University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045
Managing Editor
Direk Steimel
Editor
Barry Massey
Retail Sales Manager
National Advertising Manager
General Manager
Risk Manager
Editorial Editor
John Whitesides
Business Manager
Karen Wenderott
Ron Altman Bret Miller
Advertising Adviser Chuck Chowins