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Wednesday, March 11, 1987 / University Daily Kansan
Opinions
A minimal wage
Kansas has the perfect setup for people who don't want to work but can make more money than those who do.
Because the current minimum wage for Kansas is only $1.60 an hour, a person on financial aid who has dependent children has more incentive to stay on welfare. State Rep. Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka, said that a person on welfare with dependent children received $4,452 a year, while someone working for $1.60 an hour made only $3,328 annually.
In that case, why work?
in that case, why work?
A bill raising the minimum wage to $2.50, proposed by Hensley and cosponsored by 28 democrats, may change that if it is enacted by the Legislature.
however, the state needs to do more.
The state minimum wage level needs to be increased to the federal level of $3.35 an hour.
Employers now can pay state minimum wage if they are an independent or service establishment that does not engage in interstate commerce or does not reach a federal threshold of $682,000 in annual gross volume of sales.
If businesses do not fit these criteria, employees are covered by the federal minimum wage law.
An employee should not be punished because he works for a small business that keeps all of its trade within the state. They have as much of a right to earn the same minimum wage as workers of larger businesses.
More importantly, though, under the current structure, the state is encouraging people to stay on welfare. The role of the state should be to encourage people to work instead of sitting at home and getting paid by the taxpayers to watch television.
A case of low funds
It is a well-accepted fact that the state provides a lawyer to defend someone who can't afford one. Yet, the supply of lawyers in Douglas County who are qualified to defend resident indigents is threatened by under-funding. Unless the state government acts to provide a greater incentive for lawyers to defend the state's indigents, it will be evading its obligation to ensure due process of law for its citizens.
Douglas County receives $58,000 a year from the state to support indigent defense services. This allocation sustains a panel composed of 20 to 30 private practice lawyers who are willing to defend indigents involved in felony cases. The money for fiscal 1987 ran out on Feb. 19, four months before new financing was to be received for fiscal 1988.
Despite the lack of financing for the service, projected allocations for fiscal 1988 differ only marginally.
It is understandable that many lawyers threaten to bow out of the program. They work with a large case load for almost nothing. Recent efforts to spread the case work evenly among volunteer lawyers are only a temporary solution to the problem.
The state has a constitutional obligation to ensure a fair trial to all citizens. Without a lawyer, suspected criminals must either forgo representation or be set free. The state cannot choose either of these socially detrimental options. If the money to supply quality defense lawyers for Douglas County indigents isn't carved out of the state's budget, cases involving indigents will be closed before they open.
A court-created religion
In a bizarre twist of injustice on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Brevard Hand created a new religion and set a precedent that could change the content of textbooks.
Among the passages opposed by over 600 plaintiffs in the case, who were backed by a group founded by Pat Robertson, were mentions of
Hand ruled that 44 books used by Alabama public schools violated First Amendment provisions regarding the separation of church and state by promoting the religion of secular humanism. Secular humanism is defined by the judge as an atheistic religion that makes man the center of the universe, not God. It also advocates situational ethics and morals instead of absolute values.
Precedents like this not only serve to deprive children in Alabama of what the real world is like, but they also keep controversial topics out of textbooks nationwide. Textbook publishers might waterdown or completely omit controversial topics rather than risk printing a book that could be challenged. It is easier to write to please fundamentalists in Alabama and Texas than to write off their business.
In order to stop this tide of censorship by the court, two things must happen. Courts must not allow this manipulation of the law, and people must not put up with tactics that deprive their children of the education they deserve. one-parent families and divorce.
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News staff
Frank Hansel . Editor
Jennifer Benjamin . Managing editor
Juli Warren . News editor
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Bill Skeet . Graphics editor
Tom Eblen . General manager, news adviser
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Bonnie Hardy . Ad director
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David Nixon . National sales manager
Jeanne Hines . Sales and marketing adviser
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Still one more alibi for the Gipper
Even at a distance, I could tell that my conservative friend Grump was in a chipper mood. There was a bounce to his step, and when a frail panhandler asked him for a few coins, Grump gave him a hearty walk across the shins with his walking stick.
Mike Royko Columnist
Seeing me, he shouted a greeting, "Ah there, you media jackal, what do you think of our president now?"
"You can bet your Commie card it was." Grump said.
Let's see, he also conceded that he had been too statesmanlike in wanting to build diplomatic bridges to the more moderate elements in the Iran power structure.
"He's already rebounding in the polls. The Gipper is on the move again."
I didn't think he could pull it off.
I don't think he could pull it off.
"Nothing to it. He just admitted that he made a mistake. Anyone with a sense of fairness can understand that we can all make a mistake."
"True. And it takes a big man to admit that he had been guilty of being overly compassionate."
No, he admitted to having made at least four mistakes.
"I don't recall that."
Yes. He very honestly conceded that his aides had done wrong because he had been too trusting.
Of course, he admitted that while thinking about the welfare of the hostages and their families, he may have been too compassionate.
"You must admit that it takes a big man to admit that he had been too trusting."
yet another measure of his statesmanship that he would admit to having been too statesmanlike. But what was his fourth mistake?"
I'm surprised you overlooked it. He admitted, in effect, that during his many years in government, his work style has been almost perfect.
"Of course! How could I have overlooked that. His style always has worked to near perfection in the past."
Yes, and because it had been so amazingly successful, he was lulled into a false sense of security. This then led him into the mistake of being too trusting.
"What an amazing man. How forthright. How courageous he was to go before the American people, nay, before the entire TV-watching world, and make a clean breast of his mistakes. When was the last time a president did something like that?"
That's exactly what I have been asking historians. I have asked them if any U.S. president had gone before the people and admitted that he had been too trusting,
too compassionate, too statesmanlike and that his managerial style had been too perfect.
had been poor.
"And what did the historians sav?"
They said it was a first, that no president ever 'fessed up to so many character flaws before, although Jimmy Carter once said that he had lust in his heart. But that was while he was a candidate, so it doesn't count.
"I should hope not, the little twit. So you were obviously as moved as I was by the speech. As he spoke, I went."
So did I. But as you know, I'm allergic to my cats, so that could have been a contributing factor.
"Nevertheless, I'm pleased that even someone such as you, a vicious media shark who circles in the bloody water of a wounded presidency, could be moved by a sincere and honest revelation.
Oh, I was, especially when he said: "You know, by the time you reach my age, you've made plenty of mistakes if you've lived your life properly." That really touched a
responsive chord because it made me think of my late father.
"Your father? In what regard?"
Well, when he was in his 70s, he,
too, took weapons to Iran.
"Your father did?"
Sure Like the president said, when you get on in years, that's the kind of mistake a codger can make. It's very common. My Uncle Stanley, on his 80th birthday, flew over to give the ayatollah a box of Twinkies, a Boy Scout manual and offered to sell him three boatloads of M-80 firecrackers.
"Your Uncle Stanley?"
Yes. As a matter of fact, I'm no kid myself and lately I'm getting these strange urges.
"What kind?
A planeload or two of shotgun shells for the ayatollah. I guess it comes with the aging process.
"I am starting to doubt the sincerity of your feelings."
See? That's exactly the problem with this society.
"What's the problem?"
Too many cynics like you
Focus of group should be on all students
Forest Bloodgood Guest Shot
A little after midnight March 4. I heard a clamor of voices outside. Looking out from my residence hall window, I saw the marchers representing the Black Student Union.
They were carrying candles and signs that supposedly (I couldn't read them because of the darkness) demanded fair treatment from the Student Senate and accused it of racism.
I would like to point out that the BSU must accept a share of the blame. If the BSU expects fair representation, it should work to elect more supporters of its cause.
wuine the BSU may argue that they are not strictly a minority organization, I would argue against that after not having many white marchers on that night. The president of
BSU was quoted in the Kansan as saying that all black students are immediately considered members, while white students are free to join if they desire.
What would be the BSU's opinion of a University organization that immediately considered whites as members, while "allowing" non-white to become members? They would be outraged, and rightfully so. I've noticed black "beauty pageants" advertised around campus. I specifically remember one as boasting the titles of "Mr. Ebony and Miss Essence." What could be the University's response to a Miss Ivory contest? A contest that might honor the traits and virtues stereotypically defined as belonging to Caucasians?
The BSU also should concern itself with protecting the rights of all people, including women and homosexuals. Until they do, it will be recognized as merely a group looking after its own interests and not one in search of universal rights.
As I salute the leadership that got all the marchers out in the middle of
the night, I also would like to pose a few questions for these leaders. Mainly, where were these marchers in the fall when local and state elections were taking place in November?
I was an active member of KU Democrats and regularly attended the weekly meetings. I scarcely recall a black person attending any meeting, period. And I'm pretty sure that the marchers weren't at the Republicans' meetings. The apathy of black students concerning local politics makes it hard for me to take the march more seriously than just a group of people acting on a whim.
One of the most important platforms of the Kansas Democratic Party was the opposition to the restatement of the death penalty. The death penalty, which is heavily biased along racial and economic lines, discriminates against blacks and lower-class minorities. Ten times as many blacks receive the death penalty as whites.
I'd like to see the leaders of the BSU take a firm stance against the
proposed reinstatement of this penalty, possibly even organizing lobbying efforts at the State Capitol.
The black voice is a loud voice and it certainly demands attention, especially when raised in unison at midnight as it was on Wednesday. I applaud the BSU in its attempts at fairness and hope its leader will review their focal interests. Situations of near discrimination as well as reverse discrimination are easily found when eyes are opened. And when these eyes have been opened, they will see that we need to work together to battle racial and sexual discrimination in the Legislature and in Congress as hard, or harder, as that found on campus.
So let us march together in the fall of 1988. Let us join forces and use the strength of our numbers to effect change for all peoples, and not only for ourselves.
Forest Bloodgood is a sophomore from Stillwater, Okla., studying English.
Mailbox
Stopping blood lust
My heart sinks every time I encounter the sort of attitude that Hitterites and racists are infamous for: Kill those who look different from me, those who do not belong to my group or simply those I do not like. When the disease takes root in the mind, it will one day translate into real, horrible deeds, given a chance. The world is made miserable because of this dangerously minded logic being applied at will and everywhere.
I come from a place not far from Vietnam and have not had time to see "Platoon" yet, but I can imagine what it will contain. The true value of a war movie is in the revelation of the senselessness of war and the lesson of horror and pity for both sides alike, not a goad to more blood lust, hatred and violence or sham patriotism.
If you hate the guts of the enemy, those worthless foreigners, ask yourself what real business the United States had in Vietnam in the first place. To the Viet Cong, U.S. soldiers were less than worthless foreigners.
God (if there is such a being) gives life to people of all colors and camps to value and cherish equally. When you damn another's right to life, you damn your own. All that blood and guts on the screen should serve as a reminder of how sacred and vulnerable life is. Practice your creed, if you must, but only within the confines of your home.
Bless the spirit of charity, not the M-16, and thank God that you are still alive.
Wichai Wisutsimikanim
Bangkok, Thailand, graduate student
Silent coverage
You blew it! One of the hottest shows of the semester happened Friday in the Kansas Union Ballroom, and not one word in the way of a review appeared in the Kansan on Monday. I'm talking about Jason & the Nashville Scorpers with Lawrence's $own Homestead Grays.
Here's hoping you won't miss another ballroom concert. They're the best value for your hard-earned student dollar.
William A. Siebenaler Lawrence resident
BLOOM COUNTY
by Berke Breathed