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Opinion
University Daily Kansan
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Tuesday, Feb. 11, 1986
Changing the rules
A joke told in the Philippines goes like this: President Reagan, Mikhail Gorbachev and Ferdinand Marcos are flying on an airplane that is about to crash.
Only one parachute is available. Reagan demands it because he is leader of the free world. Gorbachev demands it as leader of the Communists. Marcos calls a vote.
He counts and declares himself the winner, 14 to 2.
In reality, Marcos is a man who can't stand to lose.
The Philippine election Friday helped prove this.
Election observers walked away from ballot boxes Sunday, full of frustration at the widespread fraud by Marcos supporters.
One election worker said as she left, "What's posted on the tabulation board does not tally with the computer board, and we don't know who is doing it. We can't take it any more."
Corazon Aquino, Marcos' opponent, was leading in the election by 100,000 votes Saturday night.
Sometime between that night and noon on Sunday, Marcos had mysteriously jumped into the lead with 55 percent of the vote. This latest count was tabulated by the official Philippine vote-counting body, the Commission on Elections.
Namrefel, a citizens' pollwatching group, showed by their tally that Aquino still was leading Sunday.
Final election results will not be released for another five days.
What is known already is that something peculiar is happening in that Asian island. And it's not that those people can't count.
What is not unusual is the corruption that always has
been widespread in the Philippines.
Marcos, quick to outwit his opponents, called a snap special election to prove his popularity.
Martial law was lifted in 1981, but Marcos still was at the helm of his political game, one in which he could change the rules any time to keep from losing.
Under Marcos, it has not ceased. He began his rule in 1965, and after being twice elected president, Marcos ordered martial law in 1972, a year before he would have had to leave office.
Enthusiasm aside, Lyng faces one of the toughest jobs in the Cabinet.
But once again, no one wins when playing with Marcos.
Best of luck
In 1983, Marcos' main political rival, Benigno Aquino, was slain as soon as he returned from exile in the United States. Aquino was another pawn eliminated in the game.
Marcos continued to play, this time holding on to his pieces by his fingernails after growing unrest plagued the island and the Reagan administration scorned Marcos' political activities.
He said Sunday that he would consider declaring the election invalid and serve out the rest of his term — an old strategy, when the opponent is gaining, change the rules.
This time, Marcos was caught off guard. The Philippine Supreme Court did not declare the election unconstitutional. And Corazon Aquino has proven a serious contender who might even win
This time, no matter how many rules are changed, the result is that the game was dirty and Marcos, if he emerges as the winner, as he must, will appear as the cheating manipulator he has proven himself to be.
He brings to the job political experience and administrative abilities. Lyng directed California's agriculture department by appointment from then-governor Ronald Reagan.
In 1891, he was Reagan's leading candidate to be agriculture secretary, but Bob Dole, Senate majority leader, pushed for John Block's nomination because he wanted a Midwestern farmer in the position.
Richard Lyng, a Washington-based agriculture consultant, is the President's choice to be secretary of the department.
He has also served four years as an assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of Agriculture during the Nixon administration and one term as president of the American Meat Institute.
A new face at the head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture is getting an enthusiastic response from Washington officials, who say he may be just the man to bring real improvements to the beleaguered farming industry.
"Any farm group would have trouble throwing stones at Dick Lyng," says Bob Frederick, legislative director of the National Grahge, a general farm organization.
Unfortunately, there was optimism when Block took office, and he ended up dodging stones.
Block's pollyannaish attitude never helped matters. He kept telling the farmers that things would get better. They never did.
Block will step down next month. According to Frederick, the problems Lyng will assume are just as great or greater than the problems Block faced in his last three years.
Lyng will have to administer a new farm bill, projected to be the most expensive in U.S. history, that will be a possible target for administration or Congressional budget cuts. Also, the farm credit system is still weak despite an emergency bill passed by Congress.
Everyone certainly wishes Lyng the best of luck with his new job. Unfortunately, Lyng will need more than luck and enthusiastic support to help turn around the very real crisis in the farming industry.
Ma Bell offers 'voluntary' insurance
I'm mad, and not just a little. I almost fell for blackmail insurance.
I am sitting in my cold apartment, huddled against its only heat. I, like most students, am scraping on 25-centa-a-loaf Dillon's bread and bulk rice. My cupboards look like an advertisement for no-name foods, and I know which "TV Brand" colas are worth drinking.
News staff
I go to the seafood display of a local grocery store, only because it's on the way to the generic section. My paper towels come from Wal-Mart, as do many of my clothes. When I feel generous with myself, I turn the heat up to 67 degrees. This is not life at the Ritz, but I am匆忙 to be alive.
It is brought to you by Southwestern Bell, those people who charge you more for calling Topeka than it costs to call San Diego. They are the same people who charge you a $45 hook-up fee to flip a switch and enter your name into their giant computers. They are associated with that group who charged you rent for your old phone, then asked you to buy it from them.
"But," I say, "I have the comprehensive OHMS/OMS contract. That cable came with my Unison TP6432 and the label says that it meets Part 68 of the FCC rules. What's the deal?"
However, I am looking at this incredible yellow card I received in the mail. It does not make me happy. It amounts to a blackmail insurance. It amounts to blackmail insurance.
"Well," he says, "the telephone is covered by the FCC, but the cord that came with it is not. So when you dropped the phone and pulled the plug out of the wall, you were using standard wiring. That will be $45."
is G-379a telephone cable. You're not covered."
I was most offended by the way Southwestern Bell originally offered this service. If you did not want this "voluntary" OHMS/OMS option, you had to send them the stupid little yellow card back by March 15. Otherwise, it was automatic.
This little yellow card is offering me OHM5/OMS for only 90 cents a month. Who, for goodness sake, has
Is that the definition of "voluntary"? Is it voluntary when you must refuse an unsolicited service? It is voluntary when no response means yes? Is this Columbia Records without the bonus albums or what?
Southwestern Bell was flooded with calls from irate customers. The customers knew a sham when they saw one. So Ma Bell recanted. Now, if you want the service, you send in the "No" card. If you don't want the service, you do nothing. And if you already sent the card in, who knows what will happen. Confused? Join the crowd.
Of course, this great little OHMS/OMS contract doesn't cover all maintenance problems. For instance, "Some destruction or substandard wiring placed by the customer" is exempt. Does that mean I am covered if I accidentally pull the wiring out of the wall?
Remember those big thugs in high school? They hung out in dark corridors and bathrooms, offering protection from big thugs. It was such a reasonable price for this protection that you were hard-pressed to refuse. They had a subtle way of implying that "you needed this protection" just in case.
The Mafia had a similar way of protecting people from unsavory elements on the East Coast. It was so kind and caring, worried about your safety and the possibility of firebombing.
Now, Southwestern Bell is graciously offering us protection against the worry and anxiety of telephone service charges.
I am mad when I have to send me refusal card for something I did not request. I don't like getting unsolicited merchandise c.o.d. in the mail. I don't like automatic shipments coming every month "for my convenience." And I don't like this stupid yellow card I got with my telephone bill.
After saying all that, don't be surprised if my phone suddenly quits working. You will hear this pleasant Southwestern Bell recording telling you that my number is having difficulty. And there I will be in my cold little apartment, eating generic bread and wishing I had let them sign me up for OHMS/OMS.
I can see it now: The telephone guy comes in and begins to examine my wiring. He checks a few numbers on my cord and nods his head.
I am not losing sleep thinking about my telephone connections. When my phone is on the blink, I hit it. I paid $19 for it, and it works just fine, thank you.
News staff
Michael Totty ... Editor
Luuretta McMillen ... Managing editor
Chris Barber ... Editorial editor
Cindy McCurry ... Campus editor
David Giles ... Sports editor
Brice Waddill ... Photo editor
Susanne Shaw ... General manager, news adviser
Business staff
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John Oberzan ... Sales and marketing adviser
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Reagan should read book on contras
The new book by Christopher Dickey is hair-raising in terms of the terror, torture and inhumanity portrayed by the U.S.-supported side in the Nicaraguan struggle.
President Reagan should read "With the Contras" before he pushes ahead for a return to military aid for the anti-Nicaraguan rebels while miting the possibility of a negotiated settlement.
Dickey quotes a contra in a bar in Honduras as saying, "You know there are people who learn to kill and love it."
The author goes on to say, "These are the men President Reagan has likened to 'freedom fighters.'"
Reagan also has likened their cause to that of the Founding Fathers and more recently has called them allies of the heart.
Dickey, a foreign correspondent for the Washington Post, depicts the role of the CIA in the covert attempt to overthrow the Sandinista government and the intense involvement of former Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza's guards.
"The fight continued, now, with no end in sight and the constant threat that the Reagan administration, having committed itself to the Sandinistas' overthrow, would finally decide it had no option but open direct U.S. military action if the contras faltered once too often or too badly."
Helen Thomas United Press International White House Reporter
"If you're going to overthrow anyone you have to do it pretty quickly," he quoted a CIA veteran as saying. "These operations always unravel — unless they take over a country — they always make a mess."
Dickey said CIA Director William Casey was listening to two voices, but was eventually won over by "cowboyism: a go-get'em attitude that said now was the time for the agency to win some certifiable victories over communism."
Much of the book focuses on the internal disputes and power struggles between the rebel factions. The spotlight is particularly on La Suicida, one of the rebel leaders, a former Somoza guard whose, excesses and rampages led to his own death at the hands of other contras.
Shortly after the news conference began, a bomb went off. Morgan was desperately hurt and Frazier, whose legs were blown off, died a slow death.
Pastora was rushed from the scene in a speedboat, leaving the reporters screaming for help.
Dickie writes that La Suicida was kept naked and interrogated for days before he was executed by the contras.
Shades of Vietnam and short memories.
"Reporters would not remember Pastora for his bravery there," the author wrote.
"Pastora's luck held," Dickey wrote.
He writes of the fatal news conference given by Eden Pastora, known as Commander Zero, who met with a handful of reporters after they had taken a hazardous journey to a dilapidated shack on stilts in the jungle.
In conclusion, Dickey writes;
He quotes one of the rebel leaders, Edgar Chamorro, as saying, "If you know too much, you owe too much. There are times when it is better not to know too much."
Among the reporters was Susan Morgan, stringing for Newsweek, and Linda Frazier, wife of an Associated Press correspondent.
He notes that the United States, which first said it was trying to interdict arms supplies from Nicaragua to Salvadoran rebels, had widened its original goals.
Dickey ties the rebel offenses to a step-up in Sandimista repressions and increasing reliance on Soviet support. In short, a vicious circle.
I'd like to quote two very credible sources on the subject of Contemporary Hit Radio in response to all the controversy surrounding the format change of KLZR.
What the people want
Mailbox
In the Feb. 6 Kansan, Bob Newton, KLZR station manager, stated that KLZR was a business supported by advertisers trying to reach the largest audience possible. Newton also made the distinction between the "listeners who were interested in music," and the "majority of people who . . . want to hear the current hits." The KU journalism textbook "Understanding Mass Communications," by De Fleur and Dennis supports Newton's statements.
It reads, "It's no secret that the people with low artistic and intellectual tastes far outnumber the people with highly developed tastes . . . this
crudle law of large numbers generally accounts rather well for the low intellectual and artistic level that prevails in American mass communications. Advertisers are looking for programs that will reach the largest possible number of purchasers of beer, soup and soap."
By keeping this philosophy in mind, one can understand why KLZR changed its format. Apparently, the average pop music radio listener is simply too stupid to be able to appreciate higher quality programming.
So who can blame KLZR, ZZ99,
Q104 and all the other contemporary
stations for providing the kind of
general public is able to enjoy!
Perhaps a quote from Elvis Costello's "Radio Radio" best sums up the feelings of KLZR's former "small group of loyal listeners who
Ray Velasque
Ray Velasquez 1983 journalism graduate
A vote for standers
Those individuals who are interested in music will just have to stay close to their turntables until the mediocrity and impotence of pop music is removed.
were more interested in music."
"They say you better listen to the voice of reason, but they don't give you any choice 'cause they think that it's treason . . . Radio is in the hands of such a lot of fools trying to anesthetize the way that you feel."
I was reading an article in the Feb. 4 issue of the Kansan, and was appalled to find out that the University of Kansas Athletic Corporation was considering closing off areas of the student seating sections. Personally,
I find it quite invigorating for fans to stand throughout entire ballgames
When I attended this year's Kansas-Oklahoma game, my roommates and I sat in the alumi section. After watching us four jumping up and down and screaming at the refs for an entire half, many of the older Jayhawk fans began to stand and yell with us. (Believe me, those alumni have the potential to get pretty rowdy if well-provoked.)
I can offer only one suggestion to KU fans: If the KUAC decides after this season to remove some seating, make up for the cheering that will be lost by the missing fans in those sections. I'm sure it can be done by the Allen Field House fans I've heard for the past four years. Go Jawhackys!
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Mark Haworth Glencoe, Ill., senior