4
University Daily Kansan
Opinion
4.7.2-1.28
Friday, April 11, 1986
Stop reckless riders
The quiet sidewalks of Stouffer Place are being threatened by a menace on wheels.
The sidewalks are used as bicycle and moped paths by riders traveling through Stoufer Place to and from the Burge Union. But in the interest of speedy arrival at their destinations, these riders not only violate a city ordinance, but threaten the safety of young children.
The ordinance makes riding bicycles on sidewalks illegal. But that's not enough to stop some people.
Unfortunately, this route also takes them within inches of the front doors of the residents of Building 11. Coming around a blind corner, bicyclists find themselves in an area that essentially is the front porch of Stouffer Place residents.
Bicyclists attempting to ride from Stouffer Place to the Burge Union find their only clear route is by using a handicapped access ramp at the north end of Bagley Drive, which takes them directly onto the sidewalk that heads toward the Burge Union.
Last month, a six-year-old girl was struck by a bicyclist. Although the girl wasn't hurt, that certainly isn't always the case when children are run over by bicyclists.
The woman bicyclist was knocked off her bicycle too, but picked it up and rode away.
without acknowledging that she had struck the child.
There are solutions to this problem. The handicapped access ramp on Bagley Drive near Building 11 should be moved to route traffic farther from the building.
KU police also are trying to crack down on those who ride on the sidewalk.
Also, traffic could be kept on the streets by opening a bicycle-size path at the end of Ellis Drive. Ellis Drive ends near the parking lot west of the Burge Union, but is not connected, blocking car traffic.
In any case, all possible efforts need to be made to lower the boom on reckless riders. Obviously, a simple law is not enough to keep irresponsible riders off the Stouffer sidewalks. The illegality of their actions apparently is not a concern to someone who is late to class.
The only choice, then, is to protect the children by giving the riders another route.
In the meantime, the police need to force these reckless riders to show concern for others, and obey the law.
But legal considerations aside, it's time bicyclists were not allowed to endanger young children every day. The situation is a hazardous one. Obviously some riders can't be depended on to show respect for the safety of children.
Wrong number
Chalk one up for the customers.
Last week the Federal Communications Commission blocked a 12.5 percent increase by American Telephone & Telegraph Co. in weekend and nighttime long-distance phone rates, which was supposed to have gone into effect Sunday.
The commission ruled that AT&T would make too much profit under the increase.
Weekend and nighttime calls cost 60 percent less than the same calls made during normal business hours. The rate hike would have reduced the discount to 55 percent, an increase for AT&T of $150 million.
The customers got a break, and it's about time. The only relief from normally exorbitant long-distance rates are
Even MCI Communications Corp., which has based its business on lower rates than AT&T, was seeking a rate increase but held off when the FCG blocked AT&T's request.
these non-business-hour times. In fact, weekends and nights are the only times many people make long-distance calls.
AT&T has inched rates steadily higher for years, and customers have had to bear the brunt.
Now AT&T, one of the most profitable corporations in the United States, has attempted to encroach on the only times when long-distance rates approach reasonableness.
If it weren't for the watchdog FCC, long-distance telephone service might quickly become a luxury that only the wealthy could afford.
Why believe him now?
"I no longer think of power," he said. "I am irrelevant."
Former President Ferdinand E. Marcos announced Saturday that he no longer entertained thoughts of power in the Philippines.
He also announced he had no intentions of starting a civil war and urged the military in the Philippines to unite and to support President Corazon Aquino. Finally, Marcos warned Aquino of a communist insurgence.
His words seem innocent enough, yet they are hard to accept as sincere coming from a man who still thinks he's the legitimate president of the Philippines.
It's difficult to believe the words of a man who defrauded
Filipinos under 20 years of his rule. It's hard to believe a man who somehow raked in billions with a yearly income of less than $6,000.
"Whatever my sins are against our country and our God, stealing money from our government and our people is not among them," Marcos said.
Aquino should beware of Marcos' seemingly innocent gestures, for Marcos was not a man who acted alone during his rule. He still has supporters in the Philippines who could plot Marcos' return and her assassination. Most important of all, Aquino should remember that Marcos still wants to go home.
Contra issue gray and red, not black and white
This is the third in a series of three columns examining the situation in Nicaragua.
Ask someone more than casually acquainted with the Nicaraguan debate for an opinion and he will fluster to a particularly violent shade of violet regardless of whom he has been listening to.
The President continues to misrepresent the contras as "freedom fighters," some noble band of warriors fighting for purity. The administration cites many human rights abuses by the Sandinistas but none by the contras.
Jane Fonda (remember Hanoi Jane?) and the cabal of celebrities vocal against the U.S. policy in Central America misrepresent the Sandinistas as a people struggling against the yoke of imperialism. They cite many abuses by the contrast, but none by the Sandinistas.
As the rhetoric escalates with a House vote on contra aid nearing, the situation in Nicaragua becomes increasingly muddled.
As the Soviet Union expanded its influence in the world, John F. Kennedy foresaw that the United States would become involved in "twilight struggles," with unclear choices and ambiguous goals. Nicaragua is one of the least successful contras is not then in black and white, but in gray and red.
The gray ambiguity of events in Nicaragua disfortorts the U.S. public. The tunnel vision of the "us and them" mentality does not fit
No communist revolution has ever produced the liberation that it promised. The success of communist insurgencies in Vietnam, Angola and Nicaragua have only reproduced a need for enslavement and repression.
Many rightist regimes supported by the United States have also come under attack from within, but those movements are allowed a far wider degree of freedom of assembly.
In the Philippines, hundreds of thousands thronged Manila in support of Corazon Aquino. The demonstrations against Chun now in South Korea represent the same tolerance. Were they to take place in North Korea, Nicaragua, or even the Soviet Union, they would be met with government-controlled mobs, disappearances of prominent members, or worse.
And that is where the red enters the picture. With the U.S. reposturing, after the Vietnam debacle, the Soviet Union has expanded its colonial influence knowing that Washington's irresolution prevents an effective response.
The United States exercises some influence in situations like the Philippines or South Korea. If it had not been for Reagan giving Marcos the final nudge or a safe haven for exile, Marcos would have clung on to the bloody end with unthinkable consequences.
But with the revolutions in Nicaragua, Angola and Afghanistan, the tyrants can only be removed by violent struggle, which means prolonged and sustained fighting. United States support means humanitarian aid and ves, military equipment.
In Nicaragua, the contra leaders are men who originally fought with the Sandinistas against Somoza. Some had even held high positions in the Sandinista government.
Paul Campbell
Some of the contra fighters are ex-National Guardsmen; the majority are not. Some have committed human rights abuses; the vast majority have not.
Critics of the Reagan administration claim that the contra leadership is disunited. The contra leaders readily admit that there are differences, but as they said in a New York Times editorial, "We respect our differences and are proud we do;
that is what distinguishes us from the Sandinistas."
The Sandindistas have instated policies of repression at home and subversion abroad. They are financed by the same people who have created the exodus of the Vietnamese boat people, the Afghan refugees and the Berlin Wall.
While the Soviet Union has supported such struggles as "national wars of liberation," the most active guerrilla movements are now fighting Soviet-backed regimes. The Soviet army is no longer the main and the mujahdeen in Afghanistan do not want to see their homelands turned into Soviet vassal states.
On the other hand, the contrasts are the fragile hope for democracy in Nicaragua. Even after the cut-off of aid, their numbers nearly doubled. The faith in democratic institutions of their leaders makes them the people to back.
Imperfect as they are, the contras need and deserve our support. They do not want U.S. troops but they want the means for them to win. Opponents who claim that this would be foreign intervention forget that our own revolution was won with foreign aid.
But the House of Representatives is balking and House Speaker Tip O'Neill would rather defeat the President on an issue than make the hard realizations of freedom in the world. The critics have it easy; they can deal with "what if" and "what should be." The President must deal with "what is."
if we are not willing to promote freedom — either peacefully behind the scenes or by support of arms — then do we really deserve it?
Mailbox
Claims unsupported
News staff
Staff columnist
comfortably in the regional conflict, the lowest common denominator of Cold War politics.
We would like to respond to the letter that appeared in the Kansan on April 3, titled "Offended by GUPS". We wonder what logic the members of Total Response Agenda believe in when they allow themselves to violate the minimum requirement of being educated college students. That is, being objective and well-behaved. It is necessary to debunk the preposterous claims made in that emotionally charged article.
The so-called "Israel" is by no means the best ally of the United States. Most Americans are aware of the fact that Israel is a parasite living on the blood of Americans. A great part of the taxes paid by U.S. citizens are exploited to help that parasite survive.
Furthermore, it is despicable of Israel to practice espionage against
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Amjad Dalal
Yafa, Palestine, junior
Mahmoud Ali
Nazeray, Palestine, sophomore
M. Hussein
Akko, Palestine, senior
Guest shots should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 700 words. The writer will be photographed.
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The University Daily Kansan (USPS 650-640) is published at the University of Kansas, 118 Stauffer FIll Hall, Lawn. Kan, 6045, daily during the regular school year, excluding Saturday, Sunday, holidays and finals periods, and on Wednesday during the summer session. Second-class postage paid at Lawrence, Kan, 312 Sutton Hill, Lawn. Kan, 6045, duty and $18 for six months and $36 a year outside the county. Student subscriptions are $3 and are paid through the student activity fee.
We challenge the members of TRA to provide any true evidence to support their claims, or else these claims will be the usual plain Zionist oropaganda.
The Palestine Liberation Organization is not a terrorist organization. It does not practice nor does it encourage terrorism in any form. In fact, the PLO played a major role in protecting the U.S. embassy as well as the American University of Beirut.
The alleged democratic state of Israel has been confiscating the Palestinians' land and forcing them out of it by ignominious and savage ways. It has become a part of the Zionist nature to misinterpret and deform facts and statements. King Hussein's statement in 1981 means that Palestine and Jordan are inseparable and their people are one integrated nation.
Current events quiz
of TRA accuse the Palestinian students of displaying half-truths, misdocumentation, altered images and lies to deceive KU students. Undoubtedly, KU students are not naive enough to believe in those spurious emotions and inauthentic statements.
I have a little quiz here that might help clear up some of the confusion
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to the University Daily Kansan, 118 Struarter-Flint Hall, Lawrence, Kan. 60/45.
its own sustainer, the United States. It also has open military and economic ties with the racist government of South Africa.
By their blind logic, the members
Now some people might be tempted to pick "e" because Rep Schroeder is the only female in the set. Overlooking that, the only correct answer can be "g." It is almost impossible to differentiate between the choices. All of them bash logic all of them play the fool frequently all of the indulge in intellectual mischief to arouse popular passions all of them are Democrats.
Question: Which of the follow does not belong?
a. Jesse Jackson
b. Thomas Downey
c. Lyndon LaRouche
d. Steven Solarz
e. Patricia Schroeder
f. Ronald Dellums
g. None of the above
surrounding recent events.
Question: Which of the following does not belong?
Franklin Square, N.Y., senio
Richard White
Talking appliances just around corner
It has been suggested that since we now have talking cars, maybe technicians can figure out a way to provide such goodies as talking dinner plates, talking everclasses and talking shoes.
Such an expansion of scientific knowledge should be relatively simple to accomplish. It's only a matter of programming a few microchips, but the fact is never, it will be scientifically possible to make the messages a bit more upbeat.
Thus far, at least, talking cars sound a lot like back-seat drivers. The person at the wheel gets a lot of static about failures to close doors properly, to buckle seat belts and omissions like that.
Sure, such reminders can come handy. But did you ever hear a talking car say something nice like, "Hey, do you love swerving around that stalled truck?"
Just once, I would like to hear a
Dick West
United Press International
talking car utter something complimentary, rather than always nag, nag, ng. But that development, apparently, must await the marketing of talking plates, glasses, shoes and similar products.
A cartoon I saw had these technologically advanced objects dealing mainly in admonitions. There were messages about eating all the food one is served — shades of World War II — about keeping one's eyes off shapely figures among pedestrians and about walking along a sidewalk where dogs and other animal pets have been.
In short, owning talking plates,
glasses or shoes is made to seem
about as encouraging as living out where the buffalo roam. It doesn't have to be that way.
I would like to see verbal capacity extended to other commonplace items but also to see their outlook become rosier.
Who would not like to have talking plates that not only would rebuke us
Oh, it would be OK for a talking grocery cart to say, "Hey, dummy, you forgot the butter," or the salt, or whatever one neglected to put in the cart before getting in a checkout line. But an occasional verbal pat on the back wouldn't hurt anything either.
I'll concede that human beings are imperfect. Nevertheless, with a little help from talking appliances we could be much better than we are if the conversation became a bit more sanguine.
about the starving Ethiopians but also would commend us for sticking to our diets?
Dessert plates, especially, could do good work. For example, they might say, "A little piece of pie like that couldn't hurt anyone."
Talking spectacles also could pep form good out useful service not only by pointing out that curbs were coming up but by calling attention to sightworthy attractions the weared might otherwise miss — interesting architecture, for instance.
There might come a time, d course, when you would feel like lik ing your talking galoshes to "shu up" or your talking gloves to "cool it."
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On such occasions, all you would have do to is disconnect the battery and blessed silence would prevail.