UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN editorials
Unsigned editors represent the opinion of the Kansan editorial staff. Signed columns represent the views of the editor.
MARCH 27.1979
Racism harms society
In a recent photograph taken in the black of night, Mary Carr stood dressed in the familiar and despicable white Ku Klux Klan robe.
Simply said, Carr is basing her candidacy for mayor of this ST. Louis district.
With her arms outstretched as if to acknowledge a cheering throne, she stood outside her home. At her doorway she saw the Mary Carr for Mayor of Black Jack."
Her campaign platform proclaims white supremacy, of course, and also opposition to "communism," textbooks that advocate integration, and "welfare handouts for lazy negroes."
IT IS distressing that in 1979 one still can run for political office with racism as the campaign platform. However, it is encouraging that some residents oppose such a candidacy.
Such a reaction is justified and should be voiced. But one should not let hatred of this blatant attack cloud the occurrence of this distasteful campaign.
Carr makes the point herself: "We want to work within the system politically. We need to be in the place where we can do what we need to do."
Racism is nothing new. After all, the Klan has been around since 1866. But Carr's comments outline the growing sentiment that white America is
getting less government support and services while it is at the same time supporting welfare, i.e., blacks and other minorities.
AS ONE national columnist noted, Klansmen are not announcing their white supremacy as much as they are clamoring about preferential treatment by the government for blacks and whites. "We now fight for their rights and equality."
These people seek a political force to restore their "equality."
But Carr and others who advocate racism and the KKK as the political vehicle to white emancipation are blind to the malady of prejudice.
The very racism they advocate has in large part contributed to the negation of opportunities and advances for minorities. The result can be government dependence and persecution of the status quo.
Carr says the people of Black Jack are ready for racism. "There's nothing wrong with being a racist, nothing at all," she says.
The doles for welfare, forced integration of schools and revision of textbooks are the fruits of racism. Without that racism, those compensations would not be necessary. It is a disgrace that KKK zealots exist, but worse yet, believe the solutions to society's ills can be found in what is actually the very poison that causes those ills.
It must really be tough trying to live on a year. Our U.S. Senate seems to think it is.
Senators welsh on income promise
A couple weeks ago our senators, with unusually blinding speed and daring and without a hint of remorse, gave themselves another nice nav aid of sorts.
With barely a murmur of dissent, the Senate decided to wait until 1983 before enforcing strict new guidelines on outside sales. The guidelines were to go into effect Jan. 1.
Limiting outside income was one of the major reforms approved by lawmakers in 1977 to help spruce up their tarnished images.
"Service in the Senate should not require a sacrifice," Stevens explained the night before.
So sacrifice is for everybody else, not for senators. The public is being asked to take part in the vote. We wage increase larger than 7 percent. But such belt-tightening measures are not for members of the club. They just make the club more about one thing, one said anything about playing by them.
BUT THIS proved to be too much of a financial strain on their deprived existence. They voted, in a voice vote no less, to rid themselves of the limitations placed upon them by heartless reformers. Now they are assuming that extra $25,000 to make ends meet.
It was thought that by holding members to a maximum of $8,625 a year in outside earnings, on top of $7,500 in government income, they would be able to hill the less and more time on the lecture circuit.
THEY CANNOT, in Moynhan's words, be "worrying all the time about financial reserves and whether they can make it." They must be willing to trust them and must have their minds free so they can
Wednesday, March 21, the University Daily Kanan printed a story about the reorganizing of HIP under a new humanities department. Unfortunately the story went no further.
To the editor:
Kansan ignores persecution of IHP
I have been a student at KU since 1975 and every time I hear it written on my computer's personality page, persecution is a strong word, but it was the word used privately by a member of the journal.
For the freedom of education the ax has fallen, the death knell rings, but no one hears. Ask yourself, what would you do if your teacher could no longer use his style of teaching
I have also observed during those four years the Kansan's inability to uncover the truth. Through stonewailing and administrative decisions, the administration has without notice ended a class and, in effect, told the Kansan that they may teach. The Kansan has just sat idly by.
salary increase. I shall continue to defend it in any form because I believe in my heart that it was right. But we cannot have our cake and eat it, too."
There are faculty who will admit only in private that what the administration has done to HIP is wrong, but they won't protest openly—why?
The Kanas staff see themselves as dreamy-eyed crushers in the Woodward campus, so they use mouthpieces of University policy. The paper has stated its support of the program, but it has not actively defended it. It is a mistake, and it hindered to ask the administration questions.
I hate to make the comparison, but it is as though students were dropping dead all over campus and the Kansan were to report it as just a drop in enrollment.
Why is there a list of those faculty who are for or against the program secretly circulating? Why was this list used by a teacher of computer science to telephone students about the program? Why did initially no one want to chair the HP Advisory Committee and why was the committee never publically identified? Why did Chancellor Dykes disavow any mention of the program? What is Bartlesville refuse to respond openly to Professor Quinn's press release? What does he mean, he hopes the matter will be taken care of humanely? The advisory committee found it inappropriate that it make recommendations to reshape HP?
UNIVERSITY DAILY letters KANSAN
But after spending a couple of years thinking about how much money he stood to receive, the institutions were impassed. Byrd changed his heart and the chamber vote he was nowhere to be found.
or forbid Professor Pickett from commenting on Kansas law?
To the editor:
William Weissbeck
Topeka senior
When State Rep. John Vogel, R-Lawrence, first presented his version of the dividing lines for Douglas County's House districts, it was almost camouflaged. The lines split the student vote at the University of North Carolina, itself, thereby diluting the power that we had.
The two points were otherwise the purpose, the map on whom Morrie took Katherine Reporter Party to Topeka to "help" *draw* map lines, anyone could see that gerrymandering had taken place.
As a student at the University of Kansas and a voter in Douglas County, I find the Republican Party's tactics in this matter highly questionable. And as a Democrat, I know that the governor did not veto the bill on the basis of this injustice to Douglas County.
Democrat questions Vogel's voting map
But the comedy turned to tragedy when the Douglas County fight was taken to the House floor and the Republican Party was able to pass Vogel's map. Even more disappointing is Gov. John Carlin's failure to vet the reapportionment bill.
The lines also drew State Rep. Mike Glover, D-Lawrence, into a Republican-dominated district, thereby weakening his strength in the 1980 campaign.
Susan Otterness
Vice president of KU Young Democrats
It looks as if the Senate will be having its cake and eating it too, with a dish of ice cream.
Past dean praised for journalism efforts To the editor.
I am sure the Kanaan has carried news of the death Burton W. Mavry, who served in World War II and was killed.
In 1977 they told us that if they were given a cost of living increase, they would become good full-time senators. Well, they got their Senate seats, and now they are saying that they don't want to fill their full tenure.
When it comes time again for the day of
concentrate on the great issues of the day—such as making themselves more com-
Then, Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd, D-Wa., reminded his cronies that the present election which allows senators to elect new presidents is intolerably high. We have gotten our
nalism at KU before moving to Syracuse University in 1965.
Your readers may not know of Burt Martin's steadfast support of freedom of the student press, of the student's right to speak and to protest in the classroom at stent pressures. His espousal was not classroom rhetoric. It was given under the most tryking circumstances in the heat of battle between student journalists and administration officials. The doctrine that truth will out in open debate.
reckoning, they are going to have to explain their change of heart.
There were many times during my period as adviser to the Kansan when the shock waves from Strong Hall rocked the news room. But Burt Murtin always found the journalism of service that the students were practicing to be consistent with the tradition of education in philosophy and teaching. That is, he refused to compromise conscience for practical ends.
As a young teacher then, I was especially vulnerable. The federal courts had not yet ruled that students had First Amendment protection. The students were even more vulnerable than the teachers, and hand the struggle between two perceptions of right. Fortunately for them, Burt Marvin was around to give them a sense of dignity and a feeling of pride in their chosen profes-
Melvin Mencher
Professor of journalism
Columbia University
After reading the Bob Marcum article Wednesday, I see he's correct in two respects: 1. The athletic department does need a 'master plan that shows where we're going to be in 10 years' and 2. "You need to see what appeals to the public."
Marcum unobjective on minor sports
What the athletic department needs now is someone who can carry out both of these objectives, not an athletic director or promoter a football and basketball promoter.
To the editor
Please don't rehire Clyde Walker too.
as far as the future of sports are concerned" Even the most passive observer can tell what happens in a sport, or interest in a sport in which people "play" for the sole purpose of hurting other people is, for some mysterious reason, failure. Entertainment went out of style with the gladstone.
The trend in today's sports programs is definitely away from the once-major sports. There are now many women's sports and women's sports has caused a spurt of interest to a whole range of athletic endeavors, and this University needs aperformers who will implement a comprehensive program.
An obvious example of the bask in the KU athletic department is its consistent oversight of a sport that has become commonplace on both coasts and in which our teams have competed by champion teams: (Sit down Bob, here, that deadly plague virus word.) SOCCER!
What would a truly objective person see as far as the future of sports are concerned?
Pat Cassidy
Lawrence graduate student
Fake IDs may draw stiffer penalty
KU students beware. In the near future you might be doing something that could result in a six-month jail sentence, a $1,000 fine or both.
Have you ever loaned your driver's license to an undergraduate so be could answer.
Have you borrowed a driver's license from an older friend to buy liquor?
Have you manufactured, bought or altered a driver's license so it states false information?
This sounds like an inquisition, but if you are caught doing any of these after proposed changes in Kansas law go into effect, might be arrested, thrown in jail and fined.
Two bills recently passed by the Kansas House are responsible for the new, stricter policy concerning fake IDs, and their use. The first bill stiffens the penalty for a person who knowingly lends a driver's license to a person under 18 to buy beer.
CURRENTLY, the maximum penalty is a month in jail and a fine of up to $500 or both. In addition, the prison sentence Gov. John Carlin before it becomes law, would have a maximum penalty up to one year. In contrast, the minimum penalty is
The other bill makes it illegal to sell, manufacture or offer for sale false identification. It was passed by the Senate and enacted as a law of a month in jail, a fine of $500 or both.
Considering another bill passed by the House that requires pictures on all drivers' licenses, the situation adds up to a legal challenge because the misuse of drivers' licenses are identification.
Concern over misuse of licenses is justified, but the Legislature's methods are more restrictive. A judge will a judge prove a person known had loaned a license for the purpose of buying liquor or beer? Such an act is frequently inadvisable, known only to the two parties involved
POSSSESSION OF a false identification already carries a maximum penalty of six months in jail, a $500 fee or both. That is sufficient. The addition, which blames the lender even more, seems less defensible and appears to be a legal scare tactic.
That scare tactic, coupled with the other bills concerning license manufacturing and pictures, demonstrates a covert effort by lawmakers to suppress or oppressive law, the lives of Kansans.
Where is the evidence showing that the problem is severe enough to require such a solution?
THE LEGISLATURE should aim at educating young Kansans to the dangers of gun violence.
The legislator's efforts to punish vowon-
a of relatively minor crime by harsh sentencing is not the answer to the problem. The law does not make it possible that attempted to buy liquor or borrow a license.
rather than passing tougher criminal punishments.
Unfortunately, the Legislature rarely works that way and usually operates as a reactive body, rather than as an initiatory one.
It is also unfortunate that Kansans will have to suffer under tighter government control, on the state level, if these bills are passed. And it is likely the bills will pass.
But Gov. Carlin should veto the first two bills on the basis that they are too harsh for the crimes committed. The third, by itself, presents few threats to public freedoms.
But if all three pass, KU students and all Kansans will have to become more misly with their drivers' licenses out of a sense of self-preservation. It is discouraging to see a "eplissature use scare tactics to push for more control over the use or misuse of identification."
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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