4
University Daily Kansan
Opinion
IT
Thursday, March 27, 1986
Tax makes cents
Every time we buy a doughnut and coffee, it's going to cost a bit more, if the Kansas House passes the 1-cent sales tax next week as predicted. But the benefits to all should outweigh the extra nickels and dimes on most of our purchases.
The state faces a revenue crisis with declining income from taxes because of the downturn in the state economy. With the plunging oil prices and no end in sight to the agricultural woes, the state is left with two alternatives — to tighten belts and reduce services or to raise revenues one way or another.
The lottery and legalized pari-mutuel wagering will raise money for the state, but legislators should be careful about getting hooked on these methods. Other states have not found them to be as lucrative as they hoped once the novelty wore off.
The sales tax places the burden evenly by placing it on all. People whose budgets are small will add to the state's revenue little by little. The big
spenders will pay more in actual dollars, but proportionally the same as everyone else.
There are fears that the sales tax will hit hard at those on fixed incomes to whom every penny counts. But reduced services would also hurt these people.
For students, the benefits in improved educational services will make the few extra pennies spent on books, clothes and other purchases well worthwhile. And students from other states will hardly notice the difference, because they've been paying 4 cents on the dollar and more for years.
For faculty and staff, the increased revenue for the University of Kansas should prove a welcome relief from the penny-pinching budgets of recent years.
The money invested in education will reap a return in human terms that will minimize costs. In this, as in other services that will benefit by the extra money, the more we put in now, the more we will get out in the long run.
Libraries cracking down
Kansas libraries may soon get tough on book borrowers who ignore date dates.
The Kansas House of Representatives is considering a bill that would place failure to return library materials under the Kansas statute for crimes against property.
The bill would make failure to return a book or other library material within 30 days of receiving a written notice punishable as a misdemeanor.
Punishment for a misdeanor in Kansas is no more than one year in the county jail, a maximum fine of $2,500 or both.
style detector systems at most libraries.
The bill cracks down on those book thieves who bother to check out their books first, then choose not to return them.
Those who take the books on permanent loan without leaving their name at the checkout desk are still left to the airport-
House members should be careful not to go overboard in cracking down on those with overdue books and take into account that failure to return a book is often unintentional. Books can be lost, stolen or otherwise.
But stricter penalties are thoroughly justified. Libraries were built on the honor system.
Anyone who would intentionally steal a book from a library deserves to have the book thrown at him. The books are there for everyone.
Libraries are priceless resources for everyone from university scholars to preschoolers. They deserve protection, especially since running a library is not naturally a high-profit business capable of absorbing losses to theft.
Don't foot their bill
Ferdinand Marcos and his family went shopping for just a few "necessities" at military post exchanges in Guam and Hawaii.
It was obvious by the bill the Marcos family ran up at the two military stores that what they considered to be "necessities" were a bit expensive. Their tab totaled $39,000.
After rushing into a hurried exile, one is bound to forget things like toothbrushes and toilet paper. And after 20 years of living as royalty in a jewel-studded palace, it's inevitable that what the Marcoses meant by necessities did not mean they were going shopping for mere bread and butter or TV dinners.
It's fine if the Marcos family
wants to spend that much on "necessities" but it's not fine that the United States Treasury has to pick up the tab.
Sure, the items were put on a tab at macRoss's request until he could pay for them. But according to one U.S. congressman, the United States could get stuck with the bill.
Marcos fled the Philippines with pockets full of money and creates full of valuables. If Marcos really needs money, he can simply pawn some of his wife's jewels or return some of her dresses, which still bear tags, to stores she bought them from and get refunds.
It's not necessary that the United States should pick up the tab on $39,000 worth of necessities.
News staff
News staff
Michael Totty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Editor
Saurena McMillen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Managing editor
Chris Barber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Editorial editor
Cindy CmCurry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Campus editor
David Giles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sports editor
Wilfred Lee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Photo editor
Susanne Shaw . . . . . . . . . . General manager, news adviser
Business staff
Brett McCabe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Business manager
David Nixon . . . . . . . . . . . . . Retail sales manager
Williamson Williams . . . . . . . . . . Campus manager
Llof Eckart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Classified manager
Caroline Innes . . . . . . . . . . . Production manager
Pallen Lee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . National manager
John Oberzan . . . . . . . . . Sales and marketing adviser
Letters should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 200 words and should include the writer's name, address and telephone number. If the writer is affiliated 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 Kanasa reserves the right to reject or edit letters and guest shots. They can be mailed or brought to the Kanassa newroom, 111 Stauffer-Flint Hall.
The University Daily Kansan (USPS 650-840) is published at the University of Kansas, 118 Staffer FIllt Hall, Lawrence, Kan. 6045, daily during the regular school year, excluding Saturday, Sunday, holidays and finals periods, and on Wednesday during the summer, secondary class postdays, and on Thursday during the fall semester, that are $18 per day and $27 per day in Douglas County and $18 for six months and $35 a week outside the county. Student subscriptions are $3 and are paid through the student activity fee.
A. Goffman, PH, send address changes to the University Daly Kansan, 111
Stuartor-Flint Hall, Lawrence, Kan, 68045.
1. I SCREAM A MERCENARY AND
JOINED THE CONTRAS IN NICARAGUA,
MY UNIT HAS BEEN KNOWN TO LOOT, RAPE AND KILL CIVILIANS.
REAGAN FINALLY FOUND SOMETHING
WORTH PAYING MB FOR.
Follow the script for military success
My recent proposal to send Patrick Buchanan to Nicaragua to help the right-wing contras overthrow the left-wing Sandinistas has struck a responsive chord in the White House.
According to a Washington source whom I can identify only as Deep Ear, President Reagan called Buchanan into the Oval Office and the following conversation may or may not have taken place:
"Patrick, I think this is a good idea. Since you're the moving force behind our efforts to overthrow the Sandinistas, you should be there leading the way."
"Uh, Mr. President, as much as I would like to get out there in the front lines, I have to remind you that I have this bad knee. It's the reason I couldn't go to Vietnam, as deeply as I yearned to clamp the Cong."<sup>(1)</sup>
"The knee should be no problem, Patrick. Here, read this secret military document, which I have been studying for the last hours."
"Mr. President, this document looks like an old movie script. On the cover page, it says the title is 'Nipping the Nips.'"
"Let me see. Ah, you're right, it is an old movie script. Same difference, though. The important thing is that in this scene here, the platoon leader's entire leg is blown off. But that doesn't stop him. He just wraps a tourniquet on it and leads an attack hopping on one foot and firing a
Mike Royko Chicago Tribune
bazooka with one hand and tossing grenades with the other, all while singing the Marine Corps hymn. I auditioned for that role. Would have had it, too, if I hadn't developed a painful case of tennis toe when trying to balance forward. It shows what can be done to overcome physical adversity."
"Same difference. We can arrange for you to be dropped in by parachute at night. That's the way to go. Blacken your face, and always remember to bury the chute so the Nazis don't find it. Look, that's how it's done in this military manual."
"Mr. President, that manual is another old script called 'Gung Ho Way to Go.'"
"Mr. President, sir, I have to point out that was a movie."
"So it is. Same difference."
"But I've never made a parachute jump. And with this chronic knee ..."
"Nothing to look. It at this page.
All you do is say to the guy behind you, 'See you in Berlin, Mac.' Then you give a thumbs up, yell 'Geronimo' and jump. Gravity takes care of the rest. But try to avoid lan-
"ding in a tree. I saw that happen to Red Buttons once. He was a sitting duck for the S.S., noor devil."
"Mr. President, I haven't had any combat experience, much as I yearned for it during Vietnam, when this knee frustrated my desire to fight the red menace."
"No problem, Patrick. I can arrange with the contras for you to get a battlefield commission. Maybe the rank of El Supremo. I think that's higher than El Commandante. Or maybe it's the other way around. Either way, you get to ride in a jeep with your own driver."
"Mr. President, I'm proud that you have such confidence in me, but I'm not sure that I'm fully qualified for a command position."
"Don't be silly. The Duke was a bird colonel. Hank Fonda was at least an admiral. Bob Mitchum was a one-star general. And George Scott had four stars when his tanks romped across Germany. Say, maybe you could wear a pair of Pearl-handled pistols like Scott did."
"Mr. President, as eager as I am to take to the jungle and overthrow those tools of the Kremlin, those spreaders of the Marxist plague, those liberal-loving lackeyes of Lenin, I really feel that I can be of greater interest than the Sandinistas if I remain here and fight in the White House."
"Fight here? You mean the San-
dinistas have advanced this far? Are they in Virginia? Why wasn't I told? I left orders that in an emergency I should be awakened, regardless of what time of the day it is. Or at least Nancy should be told."
"No, Mr. President, I meant in the fight against the liberals, the Democrats, the New York Times. I'll fight with it every weapon at my disposal: the White House leak, the op-ed page thunder, the speechwriter. I'll fight it in the clockroom of Congress, the studios of 'Night Line,' the National Press Club, wherever the forces of the enemy are gathered."
"Maybe you're right, Patrick. I suppose there is some truth in the saying, 'They also serve, who stay behind at the Georgetown cocktail parties.'"
"And Patrick?"
"Not that I don't want to go. But this peeky knee . . . "
"I understand, Patrick. And on your way out, please turn on my VCR and put in the cassette of 'Green Berets.' Some good military strategy here."
"Yes, Mr. President."
"Voc cir?"
'You're
limmmmpinggg."
Easter, Eleanor Roosevelt and racism
' ' You're ... not
One of the biggest disappointments of my childhood concerned Easter and Eleanor Roosevelt. The late first lady held an Easter egg hunt on the White House lawn, and I read about it in the newspaper. I wanted to go in the worst way, but my parents gently explained that all the children in America wanted to go, but only a few hundred would be so privileged.
All the same, I became an admirer of the wife of the president. Anybody who would allow a bunch of schoolchildren to run all over the White House lawn had to be all right with me.
In her time, Marian Anderson was probably the world's greatest contralto. Someone once said they would play at Carnegie Hall from the Maphamtai telephone book
My parents, sensing an opportunity to advance my education, encouraged me to read more about Eleanor Roosevelt, and that is how I learned about Marian Anderson and institutional racism.
In 1939, Howard University decided to schedule a concert in Washington for Anderson. The largest auditorium in the capital in those days was Constitution Hall. The proprietor was the
Robert C.
Maynard
Oakland Tribune
Daughters of the American Revolution.
At least the DAR didn't beat around the bush. It shocked the world by announcing that neither Marian Anderson nor any other artist of color would be permitted to perform on the premises. Mrs. Roosevelt promptly organized the organization, then one of the nation's most prominent institutions.
More than 75,000 people came to hear her sing "America" with such feeling that one witness said it sounded like a prayer. She closed the show with "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen."
What happened next would be improbable in a novel. The Roosevelt administration arranged for Anderson to sing at the foot of Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday, 1939.
Marian Anderson went on to become the first black member of the Metropolitan Opera Company, but
only after becoming a superstar in Europe. She also later served as a member of the United States Mission to the United Nations.
Ferguson wrote that the DAR has published a book about black patriots and it created scholarships for needy
What, meanwhile, has become of the DAR and its reputation for racism? Two years ago, Lena Santo Ferguson of Washington, D.C., became the first black woman known to have become a member of the DAR. It was a four-year-long struggle that Ferguson says she felt she owed to her ancestors who were black American patriots.
Moreover, Ferguson wrote recently in the Wall Street Journal, she has brought sweeping change to the DAR. At Ferguson's prompting, Sarah M. King, president general of the DAR, "broke DAR's" "grip on racism and set it on a new course."
That course includes the recognition of the 5,000 blacks who fought for freedom in the American revolution. King has gone to Capitol Hill to testify in support of legislation to recognize those black Americans previously left out of the telling of the story of the Revolution.
youngsters in Washington, D.C.
So the DAR of 1939 is not the DAR of today. Ferguson said she remembered the Marian Anderson incident as the catalyst that motivated her. She said she thought many times of the irony of a black woman seeking membership in such an organization.
"My warm welcome in the DAR," Ferguson says, "must have something to do with the universal admiration that people have for courage, whatever color may be associated with it."
Moreover, Ferguson's efforts add impetus to the study of history by black students. They will find it easier now to research the role of blacks in the shaping of America.
Eleanor Roosevelt's courage has been a model for many people around the world, including Lena Ferguson and Sarah King, both of whom have managed to change an institution through courage and principle.
Her family supported and encouraged her. They thought that if the DAR was the organization that recognized patriots, then it should recognize all such, regardless of race.
Mailbox
Poverty in America
Is it right to make a living
Buying every item you "need"
With all those lonely children
And all those mouths to feed?
Is it right to contently sit there
In the sun beside your pool
With all those hungry people
And children who have no school?
Have you ever thought to feed them
or have you even seen their eyes?
Or don't you think we need them
With their trivial, silly lives?
Yesterday I saw a rainbow When I awoke to my alarm
And thought about my brother's condo.
And my sister's bankrupt farm.
In the land of opportunity
Where one can make or break his fate
never see the lunacy Or step to appreciate
For a moment forget your dreaming
And think of all the children on their knees
With sunken eyes astreaming. Lying bloated from disease.
Shawn Stockman
Shawn Stockman
Kirwin junior
I hope I see you dying;
"I'll keep on walking by;
Well-wisher in Korea
I don't have time for crying;
I'm just too busy "getting by."
I have patiently waited for a chance to watch the Jayhawks on American Forces Korea Network, AFKN, since I came back home from Lawrence in January. My patience paid off March 10.
All the familiar faces made me homesick for my second home. I saw that the Jayhawks have tremendously improved their skills in making defense walls against Cyclone shooters. That was terrific.
What inspired me to write this letter, however, was the emotional story about Ryan Gray. It was so special to feel the heartfelt warmth people I have known. I was deeply moved when I realized that Ryan was the son of Captain Gray, who was my wife's physician while we lived as a foreign family in Lawrence.
I have two dreams. One is to see another NCAA Championship penant hanging from the Allen Field House ceiling alongside the 1952 penant. The other one is to invite Danny and Chris Fliper to my family dinner table after they win the Gold medals in the '88 Olympics in Seoul.
B. J. Yang Seoul, South Korea