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Wednesday, July 22, 1987
Kansan Summer Weekly
Opinions and Editorials
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY SUMMER WEEKLY EDITION KANSAN
Today the Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission will consider a rezoning request for a proposed shopping mall to be located just west of Lawrence on Sixth Street.
Cornfield mall referendum
Next month, the Commission will consider rezoning requests by two other developers. One site is inside the city limits on Iowa Street in far southern Lawrence, and the other is outside of town on the southeast corner of Clinton Parkway and Wakarusa Drive.
Many city residents, downtown business owners and members of Lawrence's city government have said that efforts to build a "cornfield" mall are against the best interests of the city and they are opposed to the rezoning of these sites for that purpose.
These people most often cite what they call an inevitable decay of the central downtown business district as an argument against allowing a suburban shopping mall. However, it is time to ask all Lawrence citizens to help the city to make a decision about a proposed mall.
By refusing rezoning requests or by refusing to annex the sites outside the city limit, the county and city commissions can prevent a mall from being built in Lawrence's suburbs.
Though downtown business owners may oppose the construction of a mall anywhere near Lawrence, they, as well as others, concede that a market for a mall exists here in town. This market exists because the stores in town do not fully serve the needs and desires of the town's citizens.
The prices and selection offered by the downtown shops are not enticing enough to prevent the success of large
retail outlets on the southern portion of Iowa Street. The only reason many downtown stores are in business today is because the city commission has adopted a protectionist attitude toward downtown.
It also means that the complexion of the downtown area might change. Businesses would have to be competitive to survive. Ideally, the failed businesses would be replaced by service or professional establishments — which would continue to pay property taxes.
A suburban mall contains few of the objectionable aspects of the downtown plan. Potentially, no public funds would be required for its construction. A suburban mall would create no downtown traffic snarls. A suburban mall would allow room for planning ingress and egress.
What a suburban mall would not do, is please downtown business interests. It might mean that some businesses would be unable to compete and would close. Failing businesses, as far as the city as a whole is concerned, mean fewer management level salaries to be spent here. These salaries, however, would be apportioned among lower-paid workers at new businesses and spent here.
But, none of these scenarios can be guaranteed, and none of us can foresee what the future holds for retail in Lawrence. We can ask voters throughout the city what they think, and act accordingly.
NOW is the time for action
The time is NOW.
To impeach Ronald Reagan. At the closing ceremonies of the National Organization of Women in Philadelphia on Sunday, the members called for the impeachment of President Reagan because of his involvement in the Iran-contr affair. This announcement came after the organization encouraged Rep. Patricia Schroeder, D-Colo, to run for president and after it vowed to block Robert Bork's nomination to the Supreme Court.
At a time when the country's civil rights and constitutional foundations are a little shaky, it's comforting to find a group of strong women ready and willing to come forth and fight for the issues.
Reagan should be impeached, but somehow it seems he has enough "fall guys" to prevent this. But that hasn't stopped the women of NOW to take the bull by the horns and say that his administration's corruption of the constitutional separation of powers is wrong, unforgivable wrong.
Some of their ideas may seem radical, but perhaps it's time someone became angry about the abuses the system has been taking lately. U.S. citizens have begun idolizing a man for admitting to lying to Congress and have sympathized with a president who supposedly was unwittingly caught in the middle.
NOW has taken a stand, a strong stand that it should stand by without bending.
They see it's time to throw out the bath water AND the baby.
More power to them.
News staff
News staff
John Benner ... Editor
Dawn O'Malley ... Managing editor
Jane Zachman ... News editor
Pam Miller ... Campus editor
Paul Beilden ... Assoc. Campus Editor
Tim Hamilton ... Sports editor
Darry Chang ... Photo editor
Connie Sheridan ... Graphics editor
Tom Eblen ... General manager, news adviser
Lisa Weems ... Business manager
Lisa Osment ... Retail sales manager
Sally Depew ... Campus sales manager
Dan Winnington ... Classified manager
Greg King ... Production manager
Chuck Rotbust ... National sales manager
Jeanne Hines ... Sales and marketing adviser
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Officials abused U.S. Constitution
I bought a pocket-sized copy of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Yesterday. I did a very strange thing.
It happened quite unexpectedly at the grocery store. I had gone in to buy my bottle of soda water to mix with the various forms of alcohol I have at home. (Yes, I do drink alone at the end of a hard day at the Kansan. George Thorogood inspired me.) And while standing in the check-out lane, I noticed the small travelers' edition of the document that shaped our country's government.
Now usually I wouldn't pay a bit of attention to those sort of things. But for some reason, after all the stir being made during the Iran-contra hearings about the violation of the separation of powers as set down by the Constitution, I thought "I wonder exactly what this document is all about."
And so the pocket-sized book went in along with the soda water. I think I may have caught a perplexed glance from the cashier as he rang up the two items. Maybe I should have bought him a copy of the Constitution too.
What better combination late at night, snuggled up on the couch? Scotch and soda and the Bill of Rights.
Of course. I have read the Constitution before, in all levels of school, but never with the practical interest that I had now. When a U.S. child grows up
taking for granted the government system that protects the freedoms of speech, press, religion and all other liberties, he or she doesn't read the Constitution with much interest.
But it's different now: Now, we have government officials — appointed, not elected — who work for the executive office, who ransom U.S. arms to an enemy nation and divert money from those arms sales to the Nicaraguan rebels, all while keeping the executive knowledgeably unaware and attempting to keep Congress completely unaware.
It's a case of the checks and balances gone awry. After all, who are these people? We didn't put them into office, and they're running the country. It's disconcerting to think that officials who do
not represent the vote of the people think it's OK to lie and work their way around the safeguards established in the Constitution.
And so now, here I am with my pocket-sized edition of the Constitution, and I'm going to seek out in this 200-year-old document just exactly where the U.S. people have been wronged. I may need that scotch and soda for this task
Actually, the timing couldn't be better. This year is celebrated as the year of the Constitution. If one good thing comes out of this Iran mess, I hope it is an increased awareness among school systems to use as an example of what the principles of the Constitution are and how they can be abused. Maybe children will have an increased interest in what's all about with an entire country right now tuned in to their television sets to watch the hearings.
I also hope that these same children will be taught that a right way exists, and a wrong way exists to change the Constitution. The right way involves making changes with the knowledge and experience of the people, not just the appointed people with paper shredders and code names. All people. Us.
I think I'll go back to the grocery store tomorrow and buy another copy of the Constitution.
Letters to the editor
Clues to the crime
This is a response to the rather energetic movie critique done by Kristen Hays in the 7-8-87 issue. I will treat each of the "clues" she gives us to see whether they tell the reader something about the movie or something about the critic. Clue number one is that Dan Akroyd and Tom Hanks are dealt ridiculous story lines and that there was no chemistry between them. I suggest that the ridiculous story lines are part of the notion of a spoof on the old *Dragnet* series, that Hank's character helps to create a background which allows Akroyd's bizarre mentality to stand out, and that Akroyd's straight face in the midst of everything establishes and maintains the aesthetic tension of this movie.
Clue number two, to the quality of either the movie or the critic, is that Dabney Coleman is not on the screen long enough or frequently enough for the viewer to hate him. I have to admit that it would be hard for me to get emotionally involved with a movie screen enough to hate any actor, even if he or she were present on screen during the entire movie. Coleman is a minor character, and appears and says enough for his part in the plot to be quite clear.
Clue number three includes some information that Hays perhaps should not have mentioned if she
wished the reader to believe that she paid any attention to the movie (if indeed she even saw it.) Maybe Hays stepped out for popcorn before the scene in which Christopher Plummer, the priest-head of P.A.G.A.N., speaks first to Coleman, publisher of a playboy-type magazine, and then to Elizabeth Ashley, the police commissioner. Plummer's master plan, the blackmailing of Coleman, and the commissioner's political motives are all spelled out quite clearly in that scene. Clue number three tells the reader much more about Hays than it does about the movie.
Clue number four attacks the virgin/P.A.G.A.N. story, that is, the part of the plot that allows Akyrok to be an archetypal hero while keeping a straight face. Hays suggests that they should have stuck to typical cops-and-robbers stuff. I suggest that they typed cops-and-robberies stuff if that is appropriate watching; but she should not criticize a movie just because it's not more typical. How can we expect Akyrok to do anything typical?
Robert Bruce Scott Teaching assistant
I enjoyed the movie. I am not complaining because Hays disagrees with me, but because the reasoning behind her opinion is invalid and demonstrates that she did not even understand what she saw, if indeed she saw it.
Vandalism goes on
I am a student working at Jayhawker Towers and several of my co-workers found your article of 7-88 entitled "Opinions of Towers Vandals" fairly inaccurate regarding the situation at the Jayhawker Towers. Vandalism is a problem on any campus, but that you singled out one housing complex on this KU campus represents yellow journalism at best. Here at the Towers, we house many different types of students, undergraduates, graduates, scholarship athletes, Americans and internationals. I can reassure you at the Kansan, with support, that vandalism is not limited to only one of these sub-population. However, it does appear to be the case that vandalism is more prevalent in apartments housing males than females and especially more male athletes than female athletes.
My point is, records have been kept for many years because our system cannot function without them. Our staff is currently devising a way of keeping more accurate records.
Regarding the issue of records kept on apartment vandalism. Our staff has kept records here for many years because sometimes we must retain security deposits in lieu of past rent or damages. Each year our staff records the condition of empty apartments before new tenants move in. However, we have neither legal right nor manpower to inspect the condition of the apartments when they are already occupied, and we do place new tenants in occupied apartments.
Another point of correction: The Towers currently has no fee holds on anyone responsible for apartment damages. Towers staff can only retain deposits or bill for assessed damages. We receive calls in abundance regarding the deposits we retain. I can only explain this student backlash by believing that students do not read or understand the leases and contracts which they sign. Our policy for retaining deposits is clearly spelled out. Next year, we will collect no deposits and then bill for assessed damages.
Yes, at the Towers, every staff member has an opinion and frequently they are different. After all we are individuals who think and emote. Do us the kind favor next time of cross-checking opinions in an attempt to arrive at some valid conclusions before you misrepresent our organization as some assembly of disorganized incompetents.
Bridget Compton Eskew 2nd year graduate student
Useless honors from the White House
Paul Greenberg
They gave out the National Medals of the Arts the other day. Ordinarily that wouldn't be worth comment; there is something in an American that does not take notice of such ceremonies, at least not in a positive way. If memory serves, Mark Twain once denounced a similar intrusion in this ascending order of the appalling: "That's not American. It's not un-American. It's French!" Like awarding Medals of Freedom and calling May Day Law Day, handing out National Medals of Arts doesn't mean much to those Americans without airs or who, if they were to cultivate them, wouldn't want foreign ones. Awarding a spate of medals at the White House comes too close to imitating the Queen's Honors List.
Syndicated Columnist
It's not as atrocious an idea as Richard Nixon's wanting to put shakes on the White House guard to give it that continental look. Then again, that notion had the great advantage of not being acted on. Alas, royal honors by another, Americanized names now have become a regular American non-event. Such accolades are not American. They're not unAmerican. They're English!
This year, the passel of awards included a painter, a singer, two poets, a choreographer, a sculptor, a composer and — the most frequent category — four patrons of the arts. None of the artists deserved this indigence, yet one could grow soft on this kind of non-honor. For one thing, the tenure of the awards in favor of patronage is so long in this world that many artists This emphasis on patronage over artistry indicates a certain talent, even if unconscious for snaring the zeitgeist.
There is something un-American about government rather than the marketplace honoring art. Yet no one would argue with the selection of the singer — Ella Fitzgerald. She, and not the bureaucracy that dispenses National Medals of the Arts, is the legitimate American institution. In a world that made more sense, it would be up to Ella Fitzgerald to legitimize National Medals of the
Arts and not the other way around. In a sense, she did when she accepted the medal. But that may only have been good manners. Miss Ella sounds a good deal more American than the awards dinner, which featured veal p printantier, Chairteau St. Michelle Chardonnay 1985, and military escorts to lug the 10-pound medals back to each honoree's table.
One can almost forgive all the folderer if it introduces a poet and civilized presence like Howard Nemerov to a wider audience. In that case his trip to the White House from Washington University at St. Louis, where he teaches English, would have been worth it. Mr. Nemerov is the author of some of the more perspicacious lines about the interpretation of history this side of Wallace Stevens. They can be found in his short
and eminently re-readable “To Clio, Muse of History,” which was written “On learning that The Etruscan Warrior in the Metropolitan Museum of Art is proved a modern forgery” — But tell us no more Enchantments, Clio. History has given and taken away; murders become memories, and heals are saddened. Clio with dream interpreted by one still sleeping, the interpretation is only the next room of the dream.
It would have taken Vico, Crocé, and Ortega y Gasset whole volumes to explain as well that history is not the same as the past, not at all, but a continuing construction and obligation of the present.
Somewhere in the Nemerov carpetbag and corpus there is also a one-act play about King Saul that does the old boy justice, which may be more than one can say about the original version of the story. The gospel according to Howard Nemerov includes these few but tart lines from the Witch of Endor, who is addressing a minister to Saul might be the very prototype of the mod politician. He wants to know his destiny but is such a man as anybody could easily be said to have one. Or as the witch puts it much better, I wish men of your sort, though they have lives and deaths, never have fates. Maybe because they have their cleverness instead, their light, dry minds which blow in the wind of fortune back and forth, they can have many meanings, no one meaning.
Whatever his faults, Saul did not live by polls or platitudes. Howard Nemerov, half-Saul and half Saul's minister, is able to see through both. He has written many re-readable poems over the years (his "Vermeer" is as light and elevating as the work of the painter) as well as some 23 essays and books on the likes of Dante, Wordsworth, Shakespeare, Blake, and Proust. All of his work can lay claim to some of the same wry workman-like quality that marks the man.