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Wednesday, July 1, 1987
Kansan Summer Weekly
Opinions and Editorials
Regents adopt AIDS policy
The Kansas Board of Regents last week adopted an AIDS policy aimed at curbing the spread of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. The policy will attempt to increase public awareness and perhaps will prevent the spread of AIDS.
In the new policy, the Regents said they "have an obligation to help educate their students, faculty and staff" about the disease.
But to what extent should the University of Kansas extend itself? Should it require freshmen to take a class? Should the information be taught in Biology 104 classes, or classes that teach human sexuality? The recent budget cuts will make programs such as these difficult to enact. Is it reasonable to believe that another class could be added to the curriculum when classes are being cut?
The Board of Regents governs the six state universities and Kansas Technical Institute.
The Regents policy also called for the universities and the institute to "assure prompt, confidential and nondiscriminatory treatment" of anyone diagnosed with the disease or AIDS-related conditions. This will ensure that patients will get the necessary treatment without fear of public outcry from those who have been overcome by mass hysteria and those who have not been supportive to AIDS patients.
There are 79 reported cases of AIDS in Kansas, and 32,000 cases reported in the United States. It is estimated that by 1991, about 100,000 people in the United States will have the disease. The nation's medical workers must unite and work on a cure to treat the dying and stop the disease from spreading to the healthy. State school districts have taken a responsible step in the right direction to educate younger students.
The state Board of Education last month approved a policy that requires all public school districts and accredited private schools to begin a human sexuality program by fall 1988. The Regents are following in the board's footsteps.
The Regents have begun to implement this program. The Regents have committed themselves to a program that must work. Budget restraints aside, this program must begin soon.
Fireworks, pets don't mix
The Fourth of July weekend is approaching, and that signals family outings celebrating the day complete with fireworks. While the celebration is fun for people, these fireworks are hazardous to animals.
Fireworks often are associated with the festivities, but animals really don't like all the noise and hoopla that the day generates. The noise can cause severe distress to the animals.
fences hoping to escape the noise.
Dogs and cats do not like firecrackers because of the loud noise that sounds like gunshots. The noise will hurt sensitive ears. If the firecrackers continue to explode, animals may become agitated to the point of running away.
It is a good idea to keep the animals inside where the noise is not as loud.
Although many animal owners have fences for their animals, a fence will not hold back a hysterical dog that is trying to escape the frightening noise. And cats are jumpers; they will climb over
The basement is an ideal location for the animals because it is cool and the animal cannot escape. And if the animal is inside, the owner will not have to worry that the confused pet might bite a visitor. Animals can be very loving, but if provoked, their moods can change.
If the animal should escape from the yard or basement, it should be wearing a collar with identification tags. If can be returned to its owner.
The Fourth of July is a family weekend, and the family must remember that there is one member which does not enjoy all the noise from the firecrackers or rockets. The family can have more fun if the pet stays safely inside at home.
U.S. stays married
It's nice to hear that things apparently aren't as bad as we thought.
A Harris Survey released Sunday exploded the myth that 50 percent of marriages will end in divorce. The survey showed that only about one in eight marriages will suffer that fate.
In fact, the Harris poll showed that in any given year only about 2 percent of married couples call it quits. Additionally, the divorce rate peaked in 1981, while the number of marriages has increased every year. One can only hope that the fact that more couples each year are willing to tie the knot despite this strain is a testimony to the power of love and is not merely an economic necessity.
The source of the original rumor was a 1981 report from the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics which showed that 2.5 million couples got married that year, and 1.2 million got divorced.
Hang in there, Married America. Remember that the 50th anniversary is gold.
News staff
John Benner . . . . .
Business staff
Lisa Weems...Business manager
Lisa Osment...Retail sales manager
Sally Depew...Campus sales manager
Dan Pennington...Classified manager
Serg King...Production manager
Chuck Rotbut...National sales manager
Jeanne Hines...Sales and marketing adviser
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Veteran soldier remembers Korea
Past and present united toward achieving democracy
I remember being a 19-year-old AmericanGI listening to the Rolling Stones and The Doors as I sat freezing in a foxhole along the Korean demilitarized zone. No different from the average soldier of the late 60s, I wondered why the United States had to send us 5,000 miles from home to protect freedom. Unknown to most Americans, while the war in Vietnam was raging, young U.S. soldiers were engaged in combat along the Korean DMZ, and scores became casualties. Quietly, bodies were shipped home and buried — no monuments, no movies, no memorial for them.
Naturally, the recent news from Korea and the television footage of demonstrations brought back a flood of memories. Along with the names and faces I had forgotten for so long came the same old questions asking why were we there.
something other than the official party line
Korea could have become another Vietnam if the communist North had had its way. Not that it didn't try. While Woodstock was going on in the United States, and public attention was focused on Vietnam, communist infiltrators were hell-bent on taking over South Korea. Not only did they kill U.S. and South Korean soldiers defending along the DMZ, but they killed many civilians who disagreed with them or got in their way. I wonder how many demonstrations would be happening in Korea today if the United States had pulled out back then? Communist countries tend to have a sense-of-humor failure when their people try to express
Not long ago, I talked to an ex-GI now living in Virginia. David was the only survivor of a U.S. patrol that got wiped out by North Koreans in the 60s. He carries 48 scars from grenades that blew him off a hilltop when he was just 17 years old. We talked about the DMZ and both wondered if the sacrifice was all worth it. Most of the Koreans demonstrating in the streets now were just children back then, and they probably don't even realize the part he played in their lives. Perhaps I'm looking too deeply into things, but I honestly think that David and other U.S. citizens like him played a key role in setting the stage for the Koreans' present move toward democracy.
people's rights of self-determination. If you were to ask me, I would say that for the people of South Korea, their Olympics are happening now. Not in the new stadiums or track fields but in the universities and the churches and the streets throughout the country. The South Korean People's Olympics has started now, and the main event is freedom.
However, it seems that most of the world is more worried about the 1988 Olympics than the Korean
I must admit feeling a sense of comradeship when I see the protesters in Korea standing up against the odds and demanding a government that represents the will of all the people. However, the weapons used to secure democracy include more than the guns that we carried. Weapons of justice, fairness, equality and human rights have to be brought to bear when the smoke finally clears.
Regardless of what happens to the 1988 Olympics, the Koreans have their Olympics now. A people's Olympics perhaps, but when you think about it, that's the most valuable kind.
I think I now have the answer for the hundreds of U.S. soldiers who went out on patrols, and sat up on lonely ambushes to keep the communists out of South Korea. If I could yell back across almost twenty years, I would tell them, "We were over there then . . . for today." If the South Koreans get their democracy, then it was worth it, and we were there for a reason. We were there for the people.
Good luck to the people of South Korea. . . "GO FOR THE GOLD!"
Is responsibility suddenly gained at 21?
I guess I'm jealous
Tonight, some of my friends are making plans to go out, visit a few bars and have a few drinks. Sometimes, they go to Westport in Kansas City, Mo., because in Missouri they don't need club cards. But tonight, they are going to stay in Atlanta for a couple of days and be on a bar on a Wednesday night, (heaven's) one could miss an episode of Night Court), but tonight will be somewhat special
Today, as if no one has heard, the state drinking age rose to 21, and club cards are no longer necessary in all drinking establishments.
--weren't out driving around town with a case of beer in the back seat.
Big deal. right?
I can vote and, if I were a male, I could be drafted and sent to fight in a war. I can also be prosecuted in court as a legal adult. I know it's been said before, but in almost all instances, I am considered a responsible legal adult. So, (yes, this is the big question I've been leading up to), why can my friends go out this evening and have a drink when I cannot?
I'm 29 years old. It's not a bad age, and my 21st birthday is on July 30. But, legally, I am faced with a few restrictions for the next 29 days that my friends are not.
I remember in 1984 on my 10th birthday, I sat in a tavern in my hometown and thought it was really neat that it was finally legal for me to be there. I had been frequenting the bar since I had been a freshman in high school; there was little else to do in a town of 7,000 residents. And at least our parents always knew where we were and that we
Maybe I have this attitude because when I was a teenager, the bar scene was never played up. We didn't start the evening by saying to each other, "Hey," and "Let's go to the Lanten and see who there's." "Let's go to the Lanten and see who there's."
The legal drinking age for 3.2 beer was raised to 19 on July 1, 1985, and to 20 one year later. No grandfather clause, which would have allowed those who were 18 years old at the time to maintain legal drinking privileges, was added to the law.
It still bothers me that for 11 months, from July
30, 1984 to July 1, 1985, I was considered responsible
eagerly for my actions.
I have lived away from my family's home for more than three years. I pay my own bills, I feed my dog everyday and I consider myself a fairly responsible person.
Some 21-year-olds I know still live at home with
their parents. A couple of my friends turned 21 recently and have done little else but work a few hours during the day to get by and then go out all night they manage to make it home and fall into bed.
I guess its one of those cases where many people my age must pay for the mistakes of a few who abuse their drinking privileges.
I am not saying that the laws of our state are unreasonable. If I were making the decision whether the state should raise the drinking age or lose 5 percent of its highway funds, I would have to think about it a long time. Would I take away a privilege that comes with responsibility and age, or fix the cracks on K-10?
Sometimes, I think it doesn't matter anyway. I can't say that since I have been legally restricted from drinking, I have drank any less. Alcohol is easily accessible to me.
So tonight when my friends go out, I guess I won't be too upset. I'm sure one of my 21-year-old friends won't mind running to the liquor store for me.
And I will wait the 29 days until my birthday. I guess sometime during those 29 days I will be instilled with the responsibility that makes it appropriate for me to legally walk into a bar and order a drink.
U.S. must take care not to fall into the Gulf
There is that moment before a terrible accident that one might give anything to return to. It is a moment that never can be brought back.
There are such moments in history, too, and this might be one of them. Call it the moment before the United States is sucked into a long, drawn-out war over shipping rights in the Persian Gulf. One can see that murky conflict shaping up now, with no clear goal or policy or explanation.
But this moment is still intact. Yes, there are tremors and premonitions, and first blood already has been spilled in the attack on the USS Stark. But the United States is only on the edge of the abyss; American policy has not yet made the plunge. Perhaps it won't if some questions are not only asked but answered:
Paul Greenberg
- Why is the United States moving toward war with Iran over an attack on an American warship by Iraq?
Syndicated Columnist
● Why is the United States now siding with Iraq in order to assure safe navigation in the Gulf when it has been threatened by terrorists?
--we don't?
- Why should the United States lend its flag and protection to Kuwait when that sheikhdw will not let U.S. aircrafts use its airfields?
- Why should the United States be protecting the interest of oldums that not long ago boycotted this country preparatory to raising the price of petroleum to extortionate levels? The oil out of Kuwait isn't of great importance to the American market. It matters to Western Europe, but European allies are not dispatching their fleets and flags to the Persian Gulf. Do they know something
If Iran should attack these Kuwaiti tankers flying the U.S. flag, just what would be the response? Does anyone think a single act of retaliation would discourage Iran's fanatic regime? Might it not welcome war with the Great Satan? Or does Washington still believe in the tooth fairy and Iranian moderates?
In short: What in the sweet name of reason are we about to do?
The president says that this kind of open-ended intervention is necessary to prevent the Soviets from moving into the Persian Gulf. But Moscow is learning the folly of heedless intervention in Afghanistan. There is little evidence that it is prepared to commit itself in the endless war between Iran and Iraq, too. Why should Washington?
Henry Kissinger may not be anyone to consult on the morality of foreign affairs, but it would be a
foolish president who failed to ask for his counsel on matters of Realpolitik. Last week, Kissinger clearly spelled out the unclear nature of the Administration's latest policy in the Gulf. "If an American ship is attacked," he said, "we will have to retaliate, and we will have to retaliate massively."
But there is no guarantee that even a massive attack would end the danger to shipping in the Gulf; it might only increase it, given the nature of the regime in Teheran. Then the war would be on without a clear reason or a clear end in sight. It is always best not to begin a conflict unless one has some idea of how to end it. Let us learn from Iraq, which chose to begin this war without some assurance of being able to end it. Let's avoid an indefinite war for indefinite reasons.
Instead, the U.S. public is getting only the vulgant explanations. That is no basis for war or for public support of a war. A contest that divides the U.S. public opinion might weaken this country in the Persian Gulf far more than a studied neutrality two regimes that both have a terrorist bent.
Kissinger put it this way: "Now if the American national interest is involved, of course we should be prepared to fight Iran. But it isn't something that one likes to slide into one tanker at a time when one cannot define what the war aim is and what the terms are on which to settle."
Now is the time to *think* about what looms ahead. Now is the moment before the accident, when it still happens.
Letters
Monkey's meditation
Assuming evolution has not resulted in a narrow mind for those holding to that theory, and assuming that they are not too heady from the recent misguided court decisions in the case of greeting, even humorous, to hear what one of their own has to say about the subject.
A Monkey's Meditation
A monkey musing in his cage
"This evolution is a lie."
Surprised to hear him speak so plain, I paused, profounder truth to gain. Unconscious I was there to heed, not to misunderstand. "For mortal (hu) man to try to trace Decent from our illustrious race
Upon the progress of the age, half-whispered as I happened by.
Is rank injustice to our clan,
the monkey much surpassed (bu)man.
"In blood wars, men butcher men; They slander, both with tongue and pen.
"They trahphe justice in the must; they toll in luxury and lust. Their men, their women, young and old. They sell their very selves for goods; they laugh under their eyes to trust. They详尽 the dreams of youth. Their hearts are hard as solid stone; They worship God with legs alone. "No self-respecting monkey can Admit himself akin to (hu)man. According to the Word from on High
'They trample justice in the dust;
They cheat, they lie, they wear, they steal,
they wine, with wine, they rock and reel
and reel
This evolution is a lie
Taken from D E. Gayton
This evolution is a lie."
It is unlikely that those in their various camps, e.g., creationist scientists, theistic evolutionist scientists, and the several types of evolutionist scientists will be much moved from their respective positions of faith regarding the origins of life.
B. Crawlev