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University Daily Kansan
Opinion
Wednesday, Feb. 12, 1986
Pardons without merit
The case of General Dynamics indicates that the more powerful the criminal, the more lenient will be the treatment.
The Navy has announced that it has lifted its suspension of military contracts to the company, a suspension that was imposed only last December, and will not impose any further suspensions for past misconduct.
The Navy made this decision despite the fact that General Dynamics recently was indicted for defrauding the Pentagon, is facing at least three grand jury investigations and is the subject of 10 to 15 separate Defense Department investigations.
Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., chairman of a committee that has been investigating General Dynamics, called the move absolutely outlandish and compared it to former President Richard Nixon's pardon 12 years ago.
The Navy's agreement doesn't shield the company
from court actions. Nor does it prevent a judge or jury from imposing future fines or other penalties.
It doesn't make the honest taxpayer feel very merry. After all, it's his money that was used to buy the grossly overpriced products. And it's his money that will be used to pay for future contracts.
What it does do is tell big companies that it's OK to defraud the government. If the Pentagon wants your products, they'll deal with you anyway. You just get rid of a couple of scapegoat executives and continue on your merry way.
If Joe Citizen overcharged his customers for automotive parts, he wouldn't last too long once the word got around. Yet General Dynamics can cheat the Pentagon on billion-dollar contracts and all is forgiven within two months.
But that's what separates the average taxpayer from the corporate giants.
Not president for life
President-for-Life Jean- Claude Duvalier will have to find a new title.
Weeks of rioting sent the Haitian president into exile and cut short his planned lifetime rule. Duvalier is now in a French villa waiting for some country to grant his request for permanent asylum.
Duvalier, known as Baby Doc, inherited Haiti from his father, who was known as Papa Doc. With the country came the U.S. support that had bolstered the unpopular dynasty for 28 years.
While he ruled this hemisphere's poorest country, Duvalier and his cronies stored wealth in Swiss bank accounts from the aid the United States sent to the country.
In the end all that remained of that support was a one-way ticket on a U.S. Air Force transport to France. And the Swiss bank accounts.
Duvalier did not deserve even that much. The guns and clubs of his private militia, the Tonton Macoute, made his rule one of the world's leading human rights violators.
His human rights violations finally convinced the United States to withhold in January nearly $26 million in aid. This was the signal to Duvalier that it was time to leave.
It may also be a sign that Washington is no longer willing to subsidize the personal fortunes of petty dictators. Certainly that seems to be what the United States is telling President Marcos of the Philippines.
Whether this change indicates that the United States is committed to true democratic reform in these countries, instead of shifting support to some less-corrupt autocrat, remains to be seen.
Exceptions to the pain
The most popular president in recent history knows how to tell a good story. He knows how to make pleasing promises and how to gloss over unpopular points.
The good stories our popular president tells have usually held some blatant inconsistencies, and his 1987 budget proposal is no exception.
The president's budget proposal is out and, as promised, it has programs bleeding from the cuts. Nearly every program except Social Security suffered.
This was to be the year for cuts, the beginning of a new trend to tighten belts all over the country, the year to make a dent in the federal deficit. Few were to be spared the knife.
In the midst of these drastic reductions, however, Reagan thinks the household budget for the White House needs to be increased.
While family budgets around the country must be trimmed to the bare bones, Reagan finds a need to refurbish his place of residence.
He has said he doesn't want to tax financially strapped families who are trying to make ends meet with too little money, but he thinks the White House needs more money for repairs, alterations, refinishing and improved heating and lighting.
In another odd twist of logic, Reagan has found it necessary to ask for an increase in the mileage allotment for members of Congress — at a time when gasoline prices are falling.
But in a more realistic vein, Reagan has requested an extra $1.2 million for additional deputy clerks to process bankruptcies. It seems the administration is expecting an increase this year.
News staff
News staff
Michael Totty ... Editor
Laurence McMillan ... Managing editor
Christie Barber ... Editorial editor
Cindy McCurry ... Campus editor
David Giles ... Sports editor
Brice Waddill ... Photo editor
Susanne Shaw ... General manager, news adviser
Business staff
Brett McCabe ... Business manager
David Nixon ... Retail sales manager
Jim Williamson ... Manager
Larry Edkert ... Classified manager
Caroline Innes ... Production manager
Pallen Lee ... National manager
John Oberzan ... Sales and marketing adviser
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Bogus beer may not fall to legislation
Having been raised in Madison, Wis., the home of real beer, going to school here on the prairie has been quite a switch for me.
Perhaps the first big difference any foreigner notices is the bogus beer sold in 3.2 bars and grocery stores. For a Wisconsin used to drinking beer, the idea of putting a cereal malt beverage in my mouth is pretty scary.
I often have wondered what will happen to this charming cross between beer and water once the statewide drinking age changes to 21.
The reality is that 3.2 beer still ma<sub>2</sub> be around long after the drinking age is raised, mostly because of peculiarities within the Kansas constitution. Presently 3.2 beer may be consumed only by those persons born after June 30, 1966.
This age will be raised every year, until it conforms to the national age of 21 set by Congress. This national age requirement grants a 21-year-old the privilege to drink any alcoholic beverage. One would therefore assume that 3.2 beer would be phased
out and only strong beer would be sold.
Sadly, this is not the case.
In November, Kansans will vote on the introduction of the open bar into current law. In those counties where the liquor-by-the-drink amendment does not pass in November, drinkers can either become club members or continue to drink 3.2 beer in those taverns that remain open.
A city survey in Lawrence last year estimated that 19 percent of the 20.32 bars presently in existence would close.
Because of laws enacted over 100 years ago, the public tavern will no longer exist. Students who wish to drink will be forced into the more restricted and more expensive private clubs — all because an 1880 clause in the Kansas Constitution states, "The open saloon shall be and is hereby forever banned."
The present significance of this archaic wine is staggering. Because 3.2 beer is a cereal malt beverage and not an alcoholic beverage, it has allowed countless Kansans to go to
Jason Elder
Staff columnist
bars and drown themselves in weak,
tasteless beer in order to get ripped
without ever entering an open saloon.
This was and is an excellent method of circumventing silly laws, but this method has become obsolete in the face of current national law.
Liquor by the drink should have passed long ago. The present constitution reflects the outdated morals of a bygone era.
Temperance has never worked, and it is neither feasible nor desirable at KU, even to the limited extent practiced today.
Counterfeit beer is a good reminder of past attempts to legislate morality. In 1937, when 3.2 beer was first bottled and sold in Kansas to dodge prohibition, 3.2 taverns were a good way to avoid being seen at a speakeasy and pegged
as the local bad guy
The preamble of the Kansas Grand Lodge of 1877 stated that "the use of ardent spirits as a beverage is a fruitful source of most of the crime and suffering that afflicts humanity."
But people no longer believe that drinking alcohol and beating one's children are synonymous.
There is no need for 3.2 beer in Kansas' future, but 3.2 beer may be the only way to maintain a local bar if liquor by the drink does not pass in Douglas County. After the drinking age is raised to 21, traditional campus watering holes like The Wheel, the Hawk and Johnny's will either have to join the club system or continue to serve 3.2 beer.
of these establishments will no doubt close, disturbing many of their loyal patrons.
To move Lawrence out of the alcoholic dark age predicated by a century-old law, liquor by the drink must pass both statewide and in Douglas County. Vote for liquor by the drink in November, and the tastebuds you save by eliminating 3.2 beer may be your own.
Cap on malpractice is ploy by physicians
There is a very unseemly battle going on in our state legislature on the issue of medical malpractice.
The American Medical Association is trying to convince our legislature that the burden of malpractice suits is keeping young people from becoming physicians and is making the practice of medicine too expensive. Apparently a typical premium for malpractice insurance is $70,000 a year.
The AMA is very cleverly trying to paint this as a case of physicians versus lawyers — who, of course, are preying on the poor physicians.
The AMA wants a cap on the total recovery that a victim of medical malpractice can receive (in Kansas the proposed lid is $1 million) and a cap on the total amount of punitive damages recoverable ($250,000 in Kansas).
Under the present system, the physician committing the malpractice primarily is responsible for paying for his negligence. Physicians protect themselves by purchasing insurance, thus the gripe about the high cost of the premium.
This position of the AMA is not in the best interest of the patients of Kansas. Physicians are human beings; they make mistakes. When they make professional mistakes, their errors can cause serious bodily injury or death.
Under the proposed cap system, insurance premiums would go down, but we still would have to support the rehabilitation of those who could not afford it themselves.
If the AMA gets its way, the burden to pay the cost of the injuries will be on the victim.
Of course, either way, society is going to have to foot the bill for malpractice. Under the present system, we pay higher medical bills so physicians can pay for their insurance.
It is fair for the wrongdoers, not their victims, to pay.
As things stand now, physicians buy malpractice insurance to protect themselves from liability. Under the proposed system, that burden merely will be shifted to consumers.
Another problem with the proposed system is that its savings are illusory.
Chris Bunker Staff columnist
Consumers, at least the smart ones, will be forced to buy malpractice insurance to protect themselves from a physician's possible errors.
A new report by the federal government has found that the medical profession does a remarkably poor job of policing its own ranks. Physicians are reluctant to take action against their fellow practitioners. No wonder malpractice insurance rates are so high.
As individuals, consumers simply won't have the buying power that a physician does. The physician, in essence, protects all of his patients with his malpractice insurance, thus achieving economies of scale which he passes on to his patients in higher medical prices.
Remember the oil embargo? Now there is a glut of oil, but prices are well above their pre-embargo level and no one is complaining.
The real answer to high medical malpractice rates is for the medical profession to do a better job of weeding out the worst offenders from their profession.
Finally, the proposed system must be viewed as a money grab by physicians.
The same thing will happen in this case. As consumers of medical services, we are used to paying a high price for the service. If malpractice insurance rates go down for physicians, do you think physicians will turn around and lower their prices for medical services? Of course not. They'll merely pocket the difference.
Physicians might delay future cost increases, but in the meantime, they will pocket a handsome windfall profit.
This is a local issue, so your letters to your state representatives can make a difference.
Tell them to vote against the cap on medical malpractice recovery. Tell them not to be suckered by the AMA.
Mailbox
Children feel loss
In response to Professor Richard Sattilaro's letter on "the cross that children are obliged to bear" regarding Christa McAuliffe's death, I would like to express my opinion as a prospective teacher.
Many children across the country feel a personal loss as a result of the space shuttle tragedy. Many are upset, confused and even angry.
American children anticipated the flight ever since McAuliffe's selection was made. They followed her progress and training for many months, and to them this shuttle flight was special.
These children should be allowed to accept this tragic death and all the healthy feelings of grief accompanying it. Any help that teachers can offer to allow students to get in touch with their feelings ought to be encouraged.
While I agree with Mr. Sattillaro that all the attention has centered on McAuliffe and has left out the contributions of the other members of the team, it is not the fault of educators but that of the press.
Holly Bartling Topeka senior
Realizing dreams
It is in the nature of man to dream about the future. It is also in the nature of man to bring those dreams to reality.
Those of us who read science fiction literature and view science fiction television and films dream perhaps more than most about what tomorrow will bring. The dreamers of the past could only do that, dream.
The reality of life tells us that sometimes our heroes do die.
We who enjoy the science fiction television program "Doctor Who" have a hero who never dies, or so it seems. When it seems all is lost, he is reborn to pursue his adventures another day. Reality is different.
On Jan. 28, the spaceship Challenger and her crew perished in pursuit of bringing our dreams into reality.
We must always remember the
Tim Miller
They are gone, but their spirits will always be with us in our dreams of tomorrow and in the turning of those dreams into reality.
names of Scobee, Smith, Resnik,
Onizuka, McNair, Jarvis and
Maulife. They left all that was dear to them, faced danger and then passed beyond our sight.
Overland Park senior president, KU Doctor Who Appreciation Society
Mother of greatness
On Feb. 12, 1809, Mother Nature delivered twins - two of the greatest minds that shaped world history - Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin.
The mother of greatness
st still alive
Fit and Fertile
Like the Queen
In the hive.
There is room
In the sky
For every star.
When you are
True to yourself
Nature would do
The rest.
Anthony A. Alya Lawrence resident
Rude late arrivals
Lawrence residents and KU students and faculty were treated to the Tyrone Guthrie production of "Great Expectations."
After living in Lawrence for two years now, I'm beginning to expect to be irritated at any social gathering if KU students must be present.
Several members of the audience were students fulfilling a theater class requirement.
I paid to see the production, not the performance provided by the trickle of late arrivals who insisted on talking, laughing and stumbling around after the play had begun. Unfortunately, behavior such as this occurs at movies, lectures and concerts.
I think this provides another reason why professional entertainment bypasses places like Lawrence—a lot of people do not know how to act in public.
Rose Eieslard.
Lawrence senhbr