ERA foes ready for annual committee battle
By TAMMY TIERNEY
Staff Reporter
When the Kansas Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee meets today to decide the fate of the Equal Rights Amendment, we will be considering unaddressed question.
While ERA supports insist the battle to declare the amendment void centers only on women's rights, anti-ERA groups say it is a matter of constitutional integrity.
rief conflict is based on two different interpretations of the ratification amend-
The amendment passed by Congress specified that three-fourths of the states must ratify the amendment within seven years before it could become law.
Although Congress has called for a three-year extension, some anti-ERA groups have
declared the amendment "null and void"
and has hard-ratified satisfying states now are
the only available.
TO FURTHER complicate matters, three of the ratifying states have voted to rescind the agreement. Because the say recission is not valid, the states are counted among those that have ratified the agreement.
"ERA is not the question right now," said Sita Turness, regional coordinator of the Province. "We need to accept the question." The question right now is whether or not we allow the federal government to just rise to power."
amendment. Then Congress changed the rules in the middle of the game. Now, even some pro-ERA legislators are saying that the Congress is out of line on the time extension. My own legislator told me that the constitution is a violation of state's rights.
Barbara Hanna, a former state coordinator of the Preemily Family Forum, voiced concerns about the
"The ERA doesn't need to be rescinded anymore. It just needs to be declared null."
Underlying both women's opposition to the ERA is a belief that the federal government should not intrude upon state laws. In their own words, we provide adequate protection for women.
"the ERA is not necessary," she said. "I absolutely believe that American women can do anything they really set their minds to." The study showed that passed provide adequate protection. There
HANNA SAID ERA supporters would be better off devoting their energy toward
have been some inequities and they do need to be better enforced, I'll admit, but the
"The big thing is, is that we already have rights and benefits as women. Those who says we need more are wrong. The pre-ERA laws are discriminatory, the pre-Chauchie old laws that they say are discriminative as proof we need the ERA. The point is, that even under ERA, those laws would have to be changed, so why don't they change them instead of wasting their time on ERA."
Because of the recent expiration of the seven-year ratification period, both women say they are optimistic that the amendment will be declared void.
However, that pronouncement is unlikely if committee members are influenced by the
opinion of Kansas Attorney General Robert Stephan
IN FEBRUARY, Stephen released an opinion that said he would not consider Kansas' ratification void once the ratification date had passed and that he thought Kansas could not vote to rescind its ratification.
Amit Gotberg, KU student and a member of Kanans for ERA, agreed.
Because of that opinion, most pro-ERA groups consider this week's committee
"My expectation is that the bill will be in committee," said John Mettner, a lobbyist.
"THIS YEAR is the seventh straight I've been to the statehouse. It's getting pretty old and I think the whole thing is routine for the committee," she said.
"The ratification process is unique from any other and makes it possible to reconsider denying ratification, but impossible to rescind it," she said.
Gottberg said she did not consider existing laws adequate protection against fraud.
"I grew up being very aware of the legal barriers to achieving what I wanted," she said. "Now, I want a piece of the constitution that recognizes me as a person and allows me to discrimination or the basis of sex. ERA is a very permanent kind of protection."
"Although Kansas has very progressive laws, what if I moved to Florida where the laws are more progressive? What happens if the Kansas law conservatives and changes their laws? A constitutional amendment can't be changed that kind of security and protection."
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
KANSAN
The University of Kansas -Lawrence, Kansas
Ridin' the rails
pot Rose, 145 Delaware St., chose this unusual path to exercise his horses on yesterday. Rose said his skis, Hsv and Lady, have gotten out of shape during the winter, so he
tries to exercise them daily. Rose is a member of the Trailriders Association, a group that teaches children how to ride horses.
Outbursts interrupt nuclear forum
By LYNN BYCZYNSKI
Staff Renorter
Shouted obscurities and arguments disrupted a meeting of more than 100 people who gathered at the Plymouth Congregational Church, 927 Vermont St., last night to discuss nuclear power with three KU professors.
The forum, sponsored by Radioactive Free Kansas, a Lawrence nuclear-cancer center, has asked questions about Thursday's accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Harrisburg, Pa. The accident resulted in the release of radioactive steam into the atmosphere.
But as one student observed as she left the
hall, "People only came to vent their anger and their frustration."
TIMOTHY MILLER, assistant professor of religious studies, opened the discussion by questioning Friesen about the severity of the accident in Harrisburg. When Friesen answered with an analogy about the dangers of other forms of energy, Miller left
The scientists from KU were Benjamin Friesen and John D. Zimbrick, professors of radiation biophysics, and Philip Hedrick, professor of systematics and ecology.
A woman persistently heckled Friessen, despite angry remarks from the audience.
"These men are scientists, not politicians.
Let them speak."
At one point, a man rose and shouted.
Prescott Ripley, 3005 Topeka Lane, moderator of the meeting, questioned the professors about the effect of the radiation on milk production and planted on farm and dairy products in the area.
THE HALF-LIFE of iodine 131 is eight days, which means that only half of the original quantity of the element will remain in eight days.
The only radioactive element that could be transferred to humans is iodine 131, *B*<sub>2</sub>.
"The farmers around Harribburn haven't just because their milk will go into cheese
Those products will be virtual free or radioactivity by the time they are eaten, he
The forum soon reverted to a discussion about the merits of nuclear energy.
One man asked, "Can you gentlemen,
with your bias, justify the development of
this type of device?"
When Frenes answered, "Yes, if you're interested in developing any sources of food," she said.
Members of Radioactive Free Kansas agreed before the forum to join the Kansas City People's Energy Project in picketing between 4:30 and 6 p. p.m. today at the Federal Building, 601 E. 12th St., Kansas City, Mo.
Reinstatement of death penalty rides on Carlin
From Kansan Staff and Wire reports
TOPEKA-In what one of its main supporters called "a historic moment in Kansas, a bill that would reinstitute the concept of gay marriage," Legislature to Gov. John Carlin yesterday.
If Carlin signs the bill or allows it to become law without his signature, murders could be sentenced to in Kansas for the first time since a 1972 U.S. Supreme Court decision struck down the state's previous capital punishment law.
One one has been executed in Kansas since 1983. The state's gallows at the penitentiary is now a memorial.
The bill went to the governor when the House voted 78-47 to adopt a conference committee report approved last week by the Senate. 21-19. That was the first time the governor had made an investment in the seven years since the Kansas law was invalidated by the Supreme Court.
House approval came despite pleas by anti-death penalty legislators to reject the Senate's expansion of the bill to include a prediction despite a prediction Carlin would veto it.
CARLIN'S APPROVAL or acquiescence are not a sure thing, because the governor has said he personally opposes capital punishment.
However, he pledged during his election campaign last fall that if the Legislature sent him a constitutional bill, he would not veto it.
Paul Wilson, KU law professor, said any death penalty bill would have to follow recent U.S. Supreme Court guidelines to be constitutional.
"The court ruled that if lower courts used too much discretion, their decisions might be less effective."
A House death penalty proponent, State Rep. Robert Frey, R-Liberal, said the bill was designed specifically to meet Supreme Court guidelines.
He said this was accomplished by a trial system that was divided two pieces.
IN THIS SYSTEM, a person convicted of a capital crime would be given a second trial to determine whether he should be executed or given a jail sentence.
The second jury would consider any aggravating or mitigating circumstances. If the defendant were given the death penalty, the judge would rule against Supreme Court would review the verdict.
"This is a well-framed bill that does what the people have shown they want done," he said.
Wilson said he could not comment specifically on the bill because he had not
seen it, but he said all the states that have had death penalty bills accepted by the U.S. Supreme Court recently have used a form of the divided trial system.
THESE STATES have also allowed mitigating evidence to be admitted in the courtroom.
"I don't think the battle is over," said Sean Don Allegrucci, D-Pittsburgh, a staunch death penalty fee. He said he had talked to Carlin and planned to talk to him again.
"He has serious reservations about that felony murder provision," Allegruc said.
The Senate broadened the bill's application to make those convicted of murders that occur in the commission of a felony, such as armed robbery, subject to the death penalty, as well as those convicted of first-degree murder.
Carlin has publicly stated his opposition to expanding the death penalty's application under the bill. Whether that will cause him to veto it remains speculative, however.
BILL. HOOCH, Carlin's press secretary,
said that expanding the death penalty to include felony murder might make the bill unconstitutional.
However, Wilson, who specializes in criminal law, said he did not think adding felony murder to the bill would make it unconstitutional.
Hoch did not rule out the possibility that Carlin may vow the bill because it includes felony murder, even if the governor decides the bill is constitutional.
"I suppose that first we'll look at the constitutionality of the bill and then at the felony murder issue," he said. "But we'll look at the bill before we decide what to do."
POLLS CONSISTENTLY have indicated that a substantial majority of Kansans support reimposition of the death penalty in some form. If Carlin were to veto this bill, regardless of his philosophical or technical background, he would be byestimated as damaging to him politically.
However, Hoch said 36 telephone calls relating to the death penalty issue were received on the governor's new toll-free number. It was the first time on Saturday, and 33 of them opposed reimposition.
The bill would make death an alternative punishment to life imprisonment in cases of first-degree murder and felony murder. One person could be held on the basis of accused person, and a second jury would determine the penalty, taking into account the facts of the case. The judge before reaching a decision on the penalty.
Death would be by lethal injection under the bill, a change from Kansas' prior law, under which those sentenced to die were put to death by hanging.
Fears haunt patients as they start new lives
Bv GENE BROWNING
Staff Reporter
Sarah is an art student at the University of Kansas and Carla is a lab technician with plans to attend
Many mental patients, however, can never break away from their dependence on a mental hospital. Those who do need help from outside, according to the U.S. Department of Project Acceptance and a former mental patient.
But life has not always been this way for Sarah and Carla. Both women have been patients in mental hospitals. They are among the 20 million Americans hospitalized in mental institutions between 1971 and now.
Sarah is font of cats and likes to live alone. Carla enjoys growing plants and weaving.
Project Acceptance, a group of former mental patients based in Lawrence, helps patients recently with depression.
Build said hospitalization often provided an escape for a person, but could give the patient a dependency
said. "After finishing my bachelor's degree in 1972, I was hospitalized for a long fairly period of time."
Sarah said she still experienced the fear of the hospital that she first felt when she went there in 1971.
"The first time I was in for a month or so," Carla
Carla agreed.
"I have recurring nightmares about the hospital. I have a dream where a doctor has a multi-barreled machine gun shooting at me and I wake up screaming."
“There is the struggle to make up for the lost years in my life and to rebuild my life,” Carla said, covering her face with her hands. “A lot of time is lost to this person and person. It really undermined my confidence.
But hospitalization provided the escape that Carla and Sarah had wanted. The problem was getting back
"You learn to be afraid," she said. "When you're in the hospital you never know when what you're doing is going to get you into trouble. By trouble, I mean they increase your medication.
"I was in school the last time I freaked out. I have the fear that that will happen again."
Sarah said she was lucky when she got out because her mother took her in. Then she got a job and moved away from home. She said if she had not had anyone to help, she'd have got out she would have had to return to the hospital.
Budd said one of the first problems a former mental patient faced after leaving the hospital was
"WITHOUT AN ADDRESS you can't get welfare,
and without welfare you can't live," she said.
She said welfare money was barely enough to live on.
"It's very strange to leave a state hospital. And it's very strange to realize that you have a room of your very own. That the door isn't locked. That you can come and on as you please."
"I was getting $79 a month from welfare when I moved to Lawrence. I paid $20 for the apartment and I bought a house."
When she first got out, Carla said, she also experienced fears of living outside of the hospital.
"It can be very difficult having not been responsible for preparing your own meals for six months," she said.
"YOU HAVE TO get up in time to fix breakfast
before going to work and figure out what you're going to do for lunch. Just the daily things of not being used at work.
"The first problem I faced was being very tightened to try to hold a job. There are little opportunities for growth in our education, a publication about what you've been doing for the last year. There was fear of whether or not I could get up on my own."
Budd said patients also had trouble finding jobs when they were released.
Carla recalled her first attempt to get a job with painful slowness.
Sarah said employers' fears were unfounded.
"They think, Are they going to do something to hurt me?" she said.
In general, mental patients tend to be very
EMPLOYERS ARE usually sympathetic to problems former mental patients face, but can be very hard to handle.
She said this fear was amplified in employers' minds.
- Employers may not hire mental patients because they are unsure if they will be dependable, if they will work with a child.
obedient, very docile and very easily manipulated," she said. "They are very easy to get along with because they have been trained to respond to the needs of a staff and doctors."
Sarah also said she was afraid to contact other people.
"WHEN I FIRST came to Lawrence, I was afraid to talk to people, afraid to go out of my apartment," she said. "但它 wouldn’t have done any good if I had to spend so much time talking that concentrate long enough to have a conversation."
"I came to a place where my big social interaction was taking to the neeole at the grocery store."
Fear never leaves former mental patients, Budd said. But she said organizations such as Project Acceptance helped former patients cope with their fears.
Patients talk out problems and make friends with people who have common problems. But the patients would eventually have to work out the problems themselves, she said.
Carla said, "You have the fear of being insane. You can only be afraid for so long, until it gets boring. And after you get bored, you say, 'All right, insanity is real, it exists. What happens now?'"