4
University Daily Kansan
Opinion
Friday, May 2, 1986
Time for improvements
Sometimes it takes the death of a child to focus attention on a problem and get it solved. Sometimes even that is not enough.
Last week, 10-year-old Brendan Doerw was struck and killed by a car at Ninth and Alabama streets. He was trying to cross Ninth Street to join some friends.
Parents from the neighborhoods on either side of Ninth have complained about traffic on the street. Drivers go too fast, and there is too much traffic. Crossing Ninth sometimes means waiting 10 minutes or more.
Although Ninth is mostly residential between Mississippi and Iowa streets, it has no traffic lights or stop signs in that stretch.
After Doerr's death, some parents circulated letters to the Lawrence City Commission urging a safe crossing for
The city cannot drag its heels on this.
The traffic does not just endanger grade-school children. Students who live in the apartment complexes between Emery and Avalon roads also are put at risk as they cross to the KU On Wheels' bus stop.
The commission will decide this summer whether to study traffic on Ninth. Determining the number of children who regularly cross Ninth might be part of the study.
Appropriate site
It also is too important to be put aside in a trade between safety and traffic flow. If Ninth is to be the artery envisioned by some planners, then precautions have to be taken to protect the lives of neighborhood children.
Ninth. A push-button traffic light at Michigan Street would be one solution.
Just picture it. Lawrence's quiet streets get the focus of world attention as Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev gather for their second summit.
The idea is not as preposterous as it first seems.
A group of Lawrence residents wants the superpowers to hold their next summit here.
City Commissioner David Longhurst first brought up the idea in 1983 when he was mayor of Lawrence. His proposal came about after a group of Soviet athletes was invited to participate in the Kansas Relays.
The idea was renewed about eight weeks ago when White House officials contacted Kansas Secretary of State Jack Brier about possible summit sites.
A prospectus containing possible arrangements for the summit in Lawrence has been sent to President Reagan. An accompanying letter asks Reagan to consider Lawrence because of its interest, accommodations and atmosphere.
Longhurst said the leaders could accomplish more in Lawrence, away from the pressured conditions of usual meeting sites. He said he hoped a productive attitude and a friendly atmosphere might lead to a friendship between the two leaders.
Still, the idea is a good one. In the eyes of the nation and the world, Lawrence became a symbol of nuclear war during the broadcast of "The Day After," which depicted life in the United States after a nuclear war.
Longhurst may be slightly unrealistic in his thinking. Lawrence's homey atmosphere stands a good chance of disruption by the thousands of secret service men, reporters, protesters and dignitaries who would accompany the meeting.
By hosting the summit, Lawrence could become a symbol for nuclear war in a much more positive sense, a symbol of cooperation between the superpowers.
Worth consideration
The United States has the opportunity to bring about some positive changes in Nicaragua — without warfare. Unfortunately, the administration is turning a deaf ear.
Reagan probably won't consider the compromise since it would include an end to U.S. support of the contra guerrillas.
According to Habib's compromise, the United States would abide by an agreement that fulfills the Contadora peace effort as long as Nicaragua did the same.
Philip Habib, presidential envoy, in an April 11 letter, spelled out a compromise that could resolve the conflict between the United States and Nicaragua. The letter has received no comment from the Reagan administration.
In effect, the agreement says the United States will stop supporting the contras in exchange for guarantees of peaceful behavior by the Sandistas — peaceful behavior including free elections and
“some democratization”
The Contadora proposal also establishes a verification procedure which could eliminate paranoid accusations on both sides.
But the Reagan administration is ignoring any potential compromises, even though Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has vowed to sign the agreement if the United States stops aiding the contras.
Reagan's dismissal of the compromise might be understandable if Habib were simply a gullible, unproven envoy. Doubts and suspicion are well-founded when dealing with countries known to be untrustworthy.
But Habib has proven himself to be a hard-hitter. He was instrumental in the falls of both Ferdinand Marcos and Jean-Claude Duvalier.
Habib's words may not be gospel, but they at least deserve attention. Especially when it could mean an end to the contra war.
News staff
News staff
Michael Totty ... Editor
Lauretta McMillen ... Managing editor
Chris Barber ... Editorial editor
Cindy McCurry ... Campus editor
David Giles ... Sports editor
Wilfredo Lee ... Photo editor
Susan Shaw ... General manager, news adviser
Business staff
Brett McCabe ... Business manager
David Nixon ... Retail sales manager
Jim Williamson ... Campus manager
Lori Eckart ... Classified manager
Carolina Hines ... Production manager
Allen Lee ... National经理
John Obherzan ... Sales and marketing adviser
Letters be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 200 words and should include the following information: the name of the student with the University, include class and hometown, or faculty or staff position.
the book's spaces and never let too much blood. The writer will be photographed.
The Kansas reserves the right to reject or edit letters and news shots. They can
The Kansan reserves the right to reject or edit letters and guest shots. They can be mailed or brought to the Kansan newsroom. 111 Stuart-Fiint Hall
with the University, include class and hometown, or faculty or staff position. Guest shots should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 700 words. The
The University Daily Kansan (USPS 650-640) is published at the University of Kansas, 118 Staffer-Flint Hall, Lawrence, Kan. 66045, during the regular school year, including Saturday, Sunday, holidays and finals periods, and on Wednesday during the summer session. Second-class postage paid at Westfield Savings Bank, 972-326-5600, in Douglas County and $18 for six months and $35 a year outside the county. Student subscriptions are $13 and are paid through the student activity fee.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to the University Daily Kansan, 118 Stauffer-Flint Hall, Lawrence, Kan. 66045
Conservatism leading U.S. to better times
Conservatism on the rise. Since the Reagan Revolution began in January 1981, Americans are feeling ever more optimistic about the future. The president is enjoying the benefits of a presidential after five years in office.
Recently, USA Today reported that more adults considered themselves conservative than moderate for the first time since 1968.
Gone are the days of embittered Americans in economic recessions and Americans disgusted with U.S. foreign policy.
But this is not to say that our problems are over. We have now entered
Victor Goodpasture Staff columnist
Along with this is the belief that the free market system is the best economic system ever developed. The market works very well as long as government stays away from telling farmers and businessmen how much they can produce and how much they can sell it for.
Conservatives believe in "survival of the fittest," meaning that if someone can't stay competitive in the marketplace, he should get out. But special interests have betrayed this philosophy by pandering to Congress and threatening the poor loser in the end is the U.S. consumer, in price and quality of the product.
For example, farm subsidies do not help the small-time farmer; they just make the rich ones richer and foodstuffs more expensive. In March, CBS News reported that in the last six years, the amount of land left idle (under the government's PIK program) went up over 550 percent.
Yet, surplus of large crops went up over 300 percent. Why does this happen? Because farmers use the government money they get to buy more fertilizer and yield even more crops.
Conclusion - these government programs are a tremendous waste, costing taxpayers billions.
What conservatives want to do is reduce the size of the government by deregulating industries and businesses. They want the government to disassemble the gigantic welfare state, which has done nothing to help the poor. In fact, the hundreds of billions poured into the economy to create jobs in 1970s actually increased poverty even though the annual growth of the gross national product averaged 3.2 percent.
The driving force behind conservatism is the belief in less government and more individual responsibility. It is the individual that knows what is best for himself, not the federal government.
Conservatives believe in the Constitution, and they believe that our founding fathers were brilliant men who conceived a document strong enough to hold this nation together. They are now calling theirdividuals to plan their destinies
The government should make the family the focal point of national policy, and not the individual. The family is the basic cell of the U.S. population. The government should ensure that families get the stability of the family by getting rid of laws that promote the breakup of the family.
For one thing, conservism is logical, as if it were part of the natural order of things. Conservatives look at problems realistically, with the intention of building a better society, not a utopian one.
Greg Easterbrook wrote in the January issue of Atlantic magazine: "Conservative thinking has liberal thinking outgunned. . . . In vigor, freshness, and appeal, market-oriented theories have surpassed government-oriented theories at nearly every turn. This feat has been accomplished in the main by circumventing the expected source of intellectual developments — the universities.
"Conservative thinkers have taken their case directly to Congress, the media, and the public — the marketplace of ideas."
For example, for poor families, especially blacks, the father has to leave the family for the family to receive most forms of welfare. The families grow up with no father figure and this creates even more problems.
Much has been accomplished, but a lot more needs to be done. The U.S. public is embracing conservatism in government. It decades of governmental bumbling.
an era where we can really concentrate on the problems of the impoverished, the neglected and the uneducated.
And it is the conservative philosophy that is leading the way to a better, more productive America, with opportunity for all.
What is it about conservatism that is attracting many people?
Locals hurt in development push
The Lawrence Chamber of Commerce, the Lawrence Daily Journal-World, the Lawrence City Commission and the Douglas County Commission (a multiple redundancy) lately have embraced us with their passion for "Eco Devo" (economic development).
Ferocity always takes its human toll. In many communities, the victims are the poor and the blacks, dispossessed by urban renewal, gentrification, and expressways. In our community, the victims are American Indians and the rural people affected by the proposed highway bypass. It's all in the name of "improving the quality of life."
Few people are opposed to progress. However, there's a difference between economic development and rape. The distinction usually is lost in an atmosphere which urges communities like Lawrence to compete fiercely with other communities, an exhortation offered by the incoming president of the Chamber of Commerce.
For whom? Certainly, you'll get no grips from the businessmen and industrialists who can obtain a trained labor force through the pending expatriate workforce. For how many programs, Certainly no complaints from a powerful local "eco"
Norman Forer Guest columnist
developer whose massive land holdings will skyrocket in value if the taxpayers build his "private" road, the bvpass.
Chamber of Commerce pundits frequently remind us that we are now living in a free market economy, free of government interference, in which everyone enjoys freedom of speech. In practice, however, we find many politicians holding positions as city and county commissioners.
As for free speech, our rural neighbors tell of highway bonds paid for by tax taxpayers without a public vote, controlled public hearings, behind the-scenes meetings of public officials, warped press coverage and a pervasive resistance by county commissioners to public dialogue.
At Haskell, of course, the scene is rough. Staff and faculty have been threatened with dismissal if they criticize proposed legislation. Discident student articles have been censored. The president of the
employees union faced dismissal for allegedly distributing critical leaflets off campus. The union and the alumni association mailboxes were shut down after both groups attempted to call a conference of national Indian organizations to discuss Rep. Jim Slattery's legislation and Mayor Sandra Praeger's role in it. (The Indian conference was aborted.)
Press conferences on campus have been forbidden. Press conferences off campus also have been forbidden "if organized by Haskell employees or students under the influence of drugs, alcohol or a community has been obliged to hold Saturday's press conference for their Haskell colleagues.
Do Slattery and Praeger know of this? Of course they did. I'll personally attest to that. Slattery's intervention on behalf of Indian free speech has been solicited on several occasions. Both he and Praeger have been silent. Obviously they have been too busy collaborating on legislation and programs designed to enhance "Indian self-government."
Are there civilized alternatives to ferocious "Eco Devo"? You bet your sweet American dream there are.
Mailbox
Accusations wrong
We would like to refute the accusations made by Michal Medved and Nancy Michaelson in their letter (Kansan, April 18).
norman rover is an associate professor of social welfare.
Let us talk about the events in Munich, Tel Aviv and elsewhere. Although the killings were committed by a few Arabs, we think it is inappropriate to use the term "Arab terrorism." Terrorism is terrorism. It should not be associated with any particular ethnic group.
These two go on to say that "there isn't a single account in Israel's history of a premeditated attack upon civilians."
Between 1936 and 1939, tens of thousands of Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany killed about 5,000 Arabs and imprisoned 6,000 more. In 1947, Menachem Begin, leader of the al-Qaeda and 23 Arab villages at Dear仪 Yasir.
In 1954, in Qbyya, 66 Arab women and children were slaughtered. the "hero" was Ariel Shipen, the same Sharon who ordered the invasion of Lebanon. the death toll there reached 20,000 — 99 percent civilians.
A year ago, the Israeli Air Force went out to bomb the Palestinians to "protect its borders" 1500 miles away in Tunisia.
Medved and Michaelson also say that the Peel Commission of 1936 and the U.N. Partition Plan of 1947 were accepted by the Jews and rejected by the Arabs. First, most Arab states were under French and British rule, so whatever the Arabs said was hardly of any importance.
Second, Israel violated the Partition Plan when it took over the territories ascribed to the Arabs, including Gaza, Rafah and Acre.
Israel is still holding the West Bank, Gaza, the Golan Heights and Jerusalem, territories recognized as Arab by U.N. resolutions.
Lastly, on the subject of Jewish persecution in Arab states, Medved and Michaelson say that the "Jews were forced out of their land . . . and taken by Israel." The truth is quite 'he opposite.
The majority of Jews live outside Israel, seven million in the United States and about three million in Europe. Jews have long been because the Algerian economy went belly up when France withdrew Persecution was only a pretext.
But if we are to believe Medved and Michaelson, we will conclude that persecution of the Jews is widespread in Israel today, because emigration is by far higher than immigration there
Louqmane Tidjani
Said Salim
Khalid Kebbati
Algerian graduate students
Israel is democratic
Which country allows its Arab citizens more freedom than any other country? Israel. This is not a misprint. Here are the facts.
Israel is a democracy where Israeli Arabs have the same equal voting rights as Israeli Jews, and hold seats in the Knesset (Israelian parliament). Israelis Arabs belong to labor unions and receive equal pay. Arabic, like Hebrew, is an official language of Israel, and its sites flourish in Israel. Religious freedom is guaranteed to all Israeli citizens.
All Arab countries are either autocracies or family dynasties. A typical example is Algeria, (I should know. I lived there!) a pro-Soviet military dictatorship. In the presidential "elections," only the dictator is on the ballot. His winning percentages are inflated to the upper 90s by the party, which controls the ballot boxes.
It is ironic that Israel, despite having belligerent Arab neighbors, allows its Arab citizens more freedom than the Arab countries themselves. When the Arab nation turns into a miracle when it is realize what the odds against Israel are.
Picture Maryland against the whole U.S.A. in terms of area, population and resources. Seems impossible? These are the odds that Israel faces every day. Talk about the quintessential undergrowth
Malek Bouzid Lawrence graduate student
Column unrealistic
Tim Erickson's column "Most choose to blame someone else" was slightly out of touch with the use of Northern Ireland as an example relating back to the problem of our "blame the other person" society.
Mr. Erickson, as much as I enjoy your columns of social responsibility and guidelines in which to live, one should not take the tyranny that Theather administration holds over Northern Ireland as a true example of the irresponsible nature of individuals in our society.
When faced with the problem of Northern Ireland, one should plead with Margaret Thatcher to release the hands of bondage, and if successful, Mr. Erickson should minister to the people of Northern Ireland about self-human when it is indeed a possibility.
To say that Northern Ireland is responsible for its own misery — as you infer — of a violent and almost anarchical state, is to say that South Africa is on the verge of solving its own problem of apartheid, if they would only stop blaming their racist oppressors and help themselves.
Brian Glipin
Toneka sonhomore
My advice is that you down your saills and right yourself by reworking your potentially fine exposition on the responsibilities of the individual. At this point it is unacceptable for one to confuse the irresponsible nature of individuals in our society with that of international barbarianism,
Microphone troubles
I would like to reassure our many patrons as well as others who have inquired about the sound system at the Sarah Vaughn concert,
During the concert, Ms. Vaughan used her own microphone. The Hoch technicians immediately noticed that the microphone was not working well and asked Ms. Vaughan to referee. Ms. Vaughan's staff elected to continue using her equipment.
The sound system was checked by Ms. Vaughan's band and manager two hours before the concert. They were pleased with the sound.
Naturally, we defer to the wishes of a performer — especially a performer of the stature of Ms. Vauhan.
Jacqueline Davis
Concert and Chamber Music Series
Residents left out
Through the courtesy of your esteemed paper, I would like to draw attention to the recent segregation done by the Jayhawker Yearbook staff in not representing McColm from the 488 page annual book of KU.
This book contains photographs of, nearly all fraternities, sororites, scholarship halls and residence halls (except McColum and Naismith, which is private). Brenda Ashner, editor of the Jayhawk, told me that the reason McColum was not represented was that no one identifies the photographs. The business manager blamed the thick population of the international residence hall.
The task of identifying every individual is done by University Photography which is then forwarded to the Jawahayer staff. But upon contacting University Photography, I was informed that the yearbook staff asked them not to bother about identification of McColum residents.
In closing, I would like to say that it is a very frustrating experience for me to spend a hard-earned $2 on the clothes. So I see myself with fellow residents in it.
Karachi Pakistan freshman
---