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University Daily Kansan
Opinion
10.5
Monday, April 21, 1986.
Buying time
The House of Representatives' handling of President Reagan's package of aid to the Nicaraguan rebels last week could have been better.
But it could have been worse. The House could have approved it.
Reagan has proposed a $100 million aid package to the rebels fighting the Sandinista government in Nicaragua
House Republicans voted down the proposal, which is not as odd as it seems. The Democratic majority Rules Committee had attached the aid to a $1.7 billion general appropriations bill that Reagan had threatened to veto.
House Democrats were trying to force Reagan to accept the spending bill, which contains many programs Reagan opposes, in exchange for getting his aid package approved.
House Republicans reject
the measure in hopes of having the aid considered separately and to buy time for Reagan to round up enough votes to approve it.
prove it. The Senate has already passed the package.
The proposal may come back again by itself. Republicans must gain 218 signatures — a majority of the House — to bring the aid proposal up as a separate measure.
measure.
Let's hope that if the vote comes again, House members will quit playing politics and have the courage to reject the president's proposal outright.
If Congress takes away Reagan's dream, he finally may be forced to comply with the wishes of most of Nicaragua's neighbors and enter into serious negotiations with the Nicaraguan government.
Hurting those in need
The Civil Rights Commission, which was once a watchdog of civil rights, has turned its teeth on the very people it was commissioned to protect.
Last week the commission drafted a 96-page report that urged the suspension of federal programs that issue government contracts to businesses owned by minorities and women.
Clarence Pendleton, the chairman of the commission, said the set-aside contracts were ill-conceived and ineffective in promoting the growth of minority businesses and were an added expense.
The government sets aside about $10 billion a year for minority-owned businesses.
He also said the programs were plagued by fraud and created dummy companies that put minorities and women up front, but were actually run by other owners.
"I am against set-asides, period," Pendleton said. "The basic principle is offensive."
That's where Pendleton is wrong, for the basic principle of the program is to provide contracts for businesses that might otherwise be discriminated against.
As to the charge of fraud, other government programs are plagued by fraud and no one suggests that those programs should be extinguished. In this case, fraud should be dealt with as in other programs, with legal action.
The assumption is wrong. Discrimination still exists. The only way to make up for it is to require government employers to hire minorities and women. And the only way to make up for discrimination against businesses owned by minorities and women is to provide set-aside contracts. Otherwise, these businesses may be swallowed by other companies.
That proposal also was wrong in its assumption that discrimination had died in the early 70s with the end of the civil rights movement.
Futhermore, the commission's call to alleviate setasides is consistent with its previous call to do away with quotas that promoted affirmative action.
The Civil Rights Commission should re-evaluate its goals and decide whether it is in favor of or against minorities and women achieving equal rights.
Wise treatment
Florida recently made a sensible move by allowing pharmacists to take a more active role in the medicinal process. Florida became the first state to let pharmacists prescribe drugs for minor ailments.
At first glance, one would question whether pharmacists should be allowed to determine whether someone is in need of prescription drugs. The move was intended to lower healthcare costs.
But doctors in opposition say misdiagnoses could be a problem because pharmacists don't have the training to spot
The law limits them to prescribing relatively harmless medicines such as shampoos for head lice, stronger drugs for colds and headaches and flouride products for preventing tooth decay.
symptoms that could be signs of something more serious.
But the law wasn't intended to replace doctors. People suffering from persistent ailments will still have enough sense to go to the doctor. They are now able to save the time and, more important, the expense of a trip to the doctor just to get the "hard stuff" in cold or headache medicines.
But while Florida's law is a good one, this should not be the first step down a path of too great a freedom for pharmacists. Pharmacists have enough to worry about besides diagnosing patients' illnesses.
Also, the drugs Florida allows them to prescribe are not likely to be abused and this is as it should be. Potentially harmful or addictive drugs should still be kept under the control of doctors.
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In long run, ramifications may prove costly Retaliation satisfies for time being
For all those who had wondered how long the United States would be patient with Libyan-sponsored terrorists, he has responded with a resounding response last week.
The force the United States unleashed was formidable. For 20 long minutes the 2,000-pound bomb bespoke America's long frustration.
After the Berlin nightclub bombing, the massacres at Rome and Vienna airports, the TWA bombing and other Libya-inspired activity, it would be hard not to understand American frustration.
Unfortunately, the problem now is larger than it was before. True, we gave a message of our chests. Khadafay, as one U.S. policy analyst put it, now knows there is a price for murdering innocent people.
History will have to judge whether it was wise for a superpower to vent its wrath against the country of an insane dictator.
That means all the mad splinter
Meanwhile, the ramifications of our action in the short term are serious enough to give us all pause, even as many are pleased we finally
the first of those ramifications concerns Khadafy as a new hero of the lunatic left in the Mideast and Europe. In that world there is a code-"My enemy's enemy is my friend."
Robert C.
Maynard
Oakland Tribune
groups in the regions now will look upon Khadafy as the latest victim of the monster United States. What passions and frenzes that unleashes, and from where, time will tell
One thing is for certain. The hostilities against Libya are not likely to halt terrorism against defenseless Americans and other citizens in Europe and around the world.
On the contrary, the likelihood is of more terrorist attacks of greater intensity.
The second ramification concerns our European allies and their ties to Libya. One of the reasons our effort at economic sanctions has failed is because of those ties. Libya own 40 percent of Italy's oil reserves, but they buy half its crude oil from Libya. France has many Libyan on its soil. And so it goes.
The critics of the United States and Western Europe, those who say we are trigger-happy, will use this incitement as a means of increasing IUS influence in europe even further.
This comes at a time when the
Soviet union is engaged in a for-
midable public relations and propaganda offensive in Europe. The Russians wish to show them peace and empathy. United Nations an aggressive warmonger. The Libyan offensive will prove cost-
The critics of the United States and Western Europe, those who say we are trigger-happy, will use this incident to weaken influence in Europe even further.
iny in our European relations, and the Russians stand to benefit. This is so despite the fact that the Soviet Union has no particular fondness for Khadiy even though he claims a friendship with it.
So what could we have done instead? We could have intensified the drive to isolate Khadufly economic forces from those in his military action, he was on shaky
ground with his own people. What would it have taken to help topple him?
We may never know the answers to those questions because the aerial attacks are to help Khadyaf consolidate his hold on Libya.
We must now face the fact that Libya is not the only source of terrorism in that region. What will our response be to Syrian spies seeking to infiltrate our nation? Where, in other words, will we find it necessary to strike next?
the fact is our best course is still economic and diplomatic isolation of Libya.
It is clear the Reagan administration lost patience with those efforts. Our allies were simply not willing to support us.
In the end, I suspect we will have to return to the alternatives to military acts. To do otherwise would only make Khadafy and his violence prone allies heroes among the anti-Western forces.
More important, we run the risk of isolating ourselves even further from the Arab world and from our traditional allies in Europe.
It is in some ways very satisfying to make a resounding statement to Khadafy. The question is whether we can afford the price of our gratification.
Mailbox
More than a word
Bravo, bravo, Mr. Erickson and Mr. Hahn. For so succinctly and accurately characterizing a group of people who do a disservice to the real meaning of Christianity, as given by the Bible — the nominal Christian. So many people think and behave as though being a Christian entails nothing more than saying the words, "I believe in Jesus." Being a Christian is a way of life, not simply a verbal decree. The Bible does say in Luke 6:44 that "each tree is known by its fruit."
As Christians, our goal should be to serve Christ and to live our lives in ways that will be glorifying and pleasing to Him. God gave us a recipe for doing so. the Bible. Could anyone honestly say that Prinseing
about young girls masturbating in hotel lobbies and "taming little red machines" are in line with the message of Christ? I would dare say
Christi Johnson
Kansas City, Mo., minor
Kimberly Ross
Raytown, Mo., senior
Does not the Bible tell us in Romans 12:9 "to aborwhat is evil and to cling to what is good"? The performers of such acts are not the only ones who should measure their actions against the yardstick of the gospel; the "Christian" listener of their music must listen to the guise their lives and the lives of others. The one who I have come to know Him," yet does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him (1 John 3:4-6).
Physics complaint
The physics instructors I have encountered here at KU stress the fact that we must understand the concepts instead of just plugging in numbers to a formula, "like in elementary algebra."
But the department's tests, which are closed book and closed note, are practically impossible to take with the aforementioned attitude, turning physics classes into memorization classes (while the time given to students to "learn" the material is negligible compared to the centuries of research it took to develop these formulas).
This type of altitude was rejected by Albert Einstein when he said
(paraphrased) that memorizing numbers was useless as long as you knew where to look them up.
Aristotle said of the student who did not understand the demonstration but who affirmed the conclusion only because the teachers said it was true, that he did not have knowledge. Even if the truth is false, he does not own the authority of someone else is to hold it as a matter of opinion rather than knowledge.
Do you see any practical application to memorizing a mass of formulas that we won't remember after the weekend?
Jaime Prieto
Overland Park Junior
U.S. shouldn't support Israel blindly
For years many people in America, practicing Christians especially, have supported Israel in Palestine unquestioningly. Many practicing Christians feel that the occupation is by the will of a fulfillment of certain Biblical prophecies regarding the "end times."
This interpretation of these propheies may be correct, but even if it is, I think it would be wiser if the political state of Israel was not assumed correct in all its actions without investigation.
Racism seems to be rampant in Israel today, especially that against Palestinian Arabs. Of course, there are many Jews who abhor this, but are much more practice it. One result of this is that Arab car drivers of the West Bank, with their distinctive yellow license plates, are routinely pulled over for harassment
... oops, i mean, questioning,
Peti violations, such as a child
throwing a stone at an army vehicle,
may cause an entire school to be shut
Ian Chai
Guest columnist
down or a sudden curfew imposed.
Palestinian hatred of the Jews is understandable. In 1948, Bishara Awad of Bethlehem, then seven years old, saw his father shot to death without warning when he stepped out to greet what he thought were friendly Israeli soldiers. Awd's family was driven from its home a short time later as the Israelis occupied part of Jerusalem.
"You cannot take away your childhood hatred and the memory of the thing that caused you to live without a father all your years," he said.
ried a woman from Gaza, who filed reunion papers for him, saying he was a foreigner.
saul.
When war broke out in 1967, he was in Kansas City and was informed that he could not go home, except as a visitor. He managed, however, to get a temporary visa. He met and mar-
Fortunately, his papers were accepted. Finally, after becoming principal of Hope school in Bet-Jalan and reaffirming his faith in Jesus Christ, he could begin to cease his hatred.
Reconciliation between Arab- Palestinians and Jews is difficult, but not impossible. Recently 150 Arabs and Jewish Christians were invited to Jerusalem Baptist House for a series of worship and fellowship meetings.
In this month's Christianity Today, Awad said of his experience at the temple: "The first time you meet with Jewish believers they are still your enemy, but the Lord told us to love our enemies. You can see the tension on both sides, but after several meetings, slowly, you accept each other and love each other. Both sides have wanted to get together and it has been eye-opening for both. To have a brother who is Jewish being
loved by an Arab - I think this is history itself."
Christianity Today also says, "Aadw's warm acceptance of Jewish believers stands in sharp contrast to his opinion of Western Christians who support the Israeli government and at the same time neglect the indigenous community of believers there."
If these reports are true, then we should not blindly back Israel. Even the Old Testament law says that non-Jews should be treated with fairness and respect. (See Leviticus 19:33-34; Exodus 22: 1, 23; 23:9; a nd Deuteronomy 22: 7.)
I do not in any way mean to be anti-Semitic. How can I when my own Lord is a Jew? I merely want to point out that the Israelis are not perfect. They make mistakes, so we should be more circumspect.
Ian Chai is a Kuala Lumpur Malaysia, junior majoring in computer science.