4 Thursday, February 12, 1987 / University Daily Kansan Opinions Strength in numbers Faculty members are painfully aware that the University of Kansas lags behind its peer universities in instructor salaries. They are also aware that it will take a herculean effort to change this situation in a time when the University is faced with budget cuts. Now, some faculty members are attempting to prepare for the task with an old maxim in mind: There is strength in numbers. A group of faculty members, led by Clifford Griffin, professor of history, are gathering signatures on a petition to form a faculty union at KU. Proponents say the union, which would be affiliated with the Kansas chapter of the National Education Association, would benefit members by giving them much greater lobbying power than KU might have on its own in the legislature and present a united front in dealing with the Board of Regents. Although certain groups of faculty members, such as from the professional schools, part-time staff and some supervisory positions, would be excluded from joining the union, it still has the potential of benefiting the whole University. While it is true that a union would greatly increase the faculty's ability to lobby and provide a stronger bargaining position, these would not be the only benefits of unionization. Unions such as the NEA also serve to bring their members together and can be powerful influences during elections. These benefits are too large to be dismissed just because they represent something unfamiliar. Faculty members will have to actively fight for anything they hope to win from the Regents or the Legislature in the near future and a union is an aggressive first step in this fight. Same rights apply to all The Ku Klux Klan march on Saturday in College Park, Ga., may not have been as successful as the Klansmen had hoped, but a significant point still was made. Despite what the KKK stands for or whether people agree or disagree with Klansmen, they also have a right to express their feelings. One of the basic fundamentals of the United States is freedom of expression, as long as there is no clear and present danger. The KKK march went peacefully. Only about 200 members showed up for the march. There actually were more law enforcement officers in riot gear lining the parade route. Klan organizers had predicted that 500 to 1,000 Klansmen from 26 states would show up at the march. marched through Forsyth County in Georgia last month did, the KKK exercised its rights to express how it feels. Just as the people who Klansmen said the march was not related to the Forsyth march, but in response to the Dec. 3 killing of a 15-year-old white youth. Four black teenagers have been charged in the killing. Most people respected the KKK's right to march. Only a few spectators lined the route and only two were arrested. At the end of the route, another group of people called the All People's Congress were also exercising their rights by displaying signs condemning racism. Coverage in bad taste Liberace died last week of cytomegalovirus pneumonia "due to or as a consequence" of AIDS at the age of 67. Originally, the media reported that the performer had died of a combination of anemia, emphysema and heart disease. However, instead of leaving the cause of death at that, as the media might have with the death of any other entertainer, it Liberace's physician, Ronald Daniels, said the cause of death was "heart failure brought on by subacute encephalopathy, or degenerative brain disease." However, Riverside County officials in California would not accept the death certificate because the coroner had not been contacted as he should have been in the case of a possible contagious disease. pursued the subject beyond the realm of good taste. The death of Liberace, as that of any other noteworthy person, is newsworthy, but the media went a little crazy in this case. Usually, the illness and death of an entertainer does not attract so much attention. Even though this case involved AIDS, it should have been no different. His flamboyant style as a performer was no secret. Liberace has passed away. It is now time the media let the issue of how he died rest in peace. News staff News staff Frank Hansel Editor Jennifer Benjamin Managing editor Jul Warren News editor Brian Kaberline Editorial editor Sandra Engelland Campus editor Mark Siebert Spokesperson Diane Dultmeier Photo editor Bill Skeet Graphics editor Tom Eblen General manager, news adviser Business staff Lisa Weems Business manager Bonnie Hardy Ad director Denise Stephens Retail sales manager Kelly Scherer Campus sales manager Duncan Calhoun Marketing manager Lori Coppel Classified manager Production Luigianski David Nixon National sales manager Jeanne Hines Sales and marketing adviser **Letters** should be type, double-spaced and fewer than 200 words and should include the writer's name, address and telephone number. If the writer is affiliated with the University, include class and hometown, or faculty or staff position. **Guest shots** should be type, double-spaced and fewer than 700 words. The Guest shots should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 700 words. 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Distributed by King Features Syndica Putting Abe Lincoln to test of time Surely he would never have made it to the White House in the age of the public opinion poll and the 30-second TV spot; he barely made it there in his own time. Even then his looks didn't help, and now they would be grounds for automatic disqualification from national, televised politics. Paul Greenberg Columnist Mr. Lincoln was, to put it paim, plain. No, that is too mild. He was the epitome, the personification, the definition of plain — and even that doesn't get it. Abe Lincoln would never have made a network anchorman, let alone one of the presidents they interview. And what would a 19th-century statesman have to say about today's issues even if he were telegenic enough to be allowed on camera? In this era, so many of those issues are concerned with the control of nuclear arms or the challenge of an ideology that didn't even exist in his century, which we tend to see as so much simpler than ours But Mr. Lincoln would be familiar with at least one supposition behind many of today's questions and answers; the ever-present but never-quite-stated Theory of Moral Equivalence between the world's superpowers. Assume that the values and policies of both are equally suspect, and the ideas that motivate each, troublesome and provocative things that ideas are, can then be dismissed. Then the world could concentrate on arranging a peaceful and permanent settlement between the two in an emotion-free, value-neutral atmosphere. Anything wrong with that? Well, for one thing: "A house divided against itself cannot stand" To paraphrase Mr. Lincoln, a world "cannot endure permanently half slave and half free." I do not expect the house to fall—but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward till it shall be alike in all the states, old as well, new. North as well South." West as well as East That's putting it a tad strong for these times. For that matter, Mr. Lincoln's words were a tad strong for his. “Important principles may and must be inflexible,” he said in his last public address. In today’s world, would he agree that not every people is fit for self-government? Various scholars and experts now explain that democracy requires a certain level of cultural, economic and educational development. As a 20th-century statesman from Arkansas, who was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, once put it, “what earthly difference does it make to nomadic tribes or uneducated subsistence farmers” what kind of government they have? Slavery or freedom, what could it matter to such people? hear anyone arguing for slavery. I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally." Mr. Lincoln would disagree. "I have always thought that all men should be free," he said in the last year of a war fought to determine whether a nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal could long endure. "But if any should be slaves, it should be first those who desire it for themselves, and secondly those who desire it for others. Whenever I A plain man, Mr Lincoln, with a certain talent for putting things plain. Perhaps that is why his words still have an edge. Not everything has changed since Lincoln's time. Some things remain remarkably the same in human affairs — like the temptation to temporize, to ignore certain basic principles in the vague hope they'll go away, to pretend that ideas have no consequences and can be safely ignored, to call any lull in hostilities peace and to assure ourselves that this republic really has no great interest in the future of freedom elsewhere. Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan — the forgotten and forgettable presidents who preceded Abraham Lincoln and whose birthdays are not national holidays — would understand some of the contemporary assumptions of American politics. And the American people might say, Just as they instinctively made their compromises with the slave power to put off the day of reckoning, and succeeded in making that day all the more certain and terrible. Jackson is not the answer to black problems Given the valid concerns of black Americans — unemployment, teenage pregnancy, black fathers deserting black mothers, etc. — it is unfortunate that they continue to look to Jesse Jackson as a source of answers to their problems. Mike Chapman Cojumnist Jackson became a piece of the American political fabric soon after the death of Martin Luther King Jr. As the non-elected, self-appointed successor to King in the struggle for democracy he made quite a name for himself and than a little money, telling other blacks how miserable their lives are. But in recent years, Jackson has gone beyond the role of domestic critic. He now travels the world denouncing U.S. foreign policy and expressing his solidarity with some of the worst regimes in the Third Unfortunately, it seems inevitable that Jackson will repeat his bid for the presidency in 1988. This is bad for blacks, Democrats and the United States because the policies he advocates are detrimental to all three. As in any democracy, the United States has many domestic problems that need to be resolved. And the path to solving those problems is the point where Jackson demonstrates his incompetency. Jackson is a dedicated proponent of the welfare state gone berkel. He is convinced that the solution to black America's problems rests at the footsteps of the U.S. Treasury. The necessary consequence of this position is that blacks, not blacks, but rather increased dependency on government support. Jackson's pronouncements on foreign policy are equally irresponsible. In his vain attempts to portray himself as an international statesman, he has embraced, literally, dictators and terrorists who despise this count try and its democratic values. He has expressed sympathy for Yasser Arafat, a man who considers it a moral obligation to hijack planes and throw grenades at Israeli schools. As a presidential candidate in 1984, Jackson had a few cigars with the principal terrorist in the Western Hemisphere, Fidel Castro. And during the campaign he refused to disassociate himself from the anti-Semitic outbursts of his friend, Louis Farrakhan. Jackson also has called for negotiations — concerning what, isn't clear — with Syrian President Hafez Assad, the quintessential sponsor of state terrorism. And in Nicaragua, where a totalitarian government is in the making, Jackson offers Sandinista leaders praise and support. But this demagogue who would be president is at his best when it comes to South Africa. While savagely denouncing apartheid and accusing the United States of supporting racism, he is mute when the subject concerns atrocities committed by black dictators in Africa. South Africa is a paradise when compared to communist, black-rulled Ethiopia. Yet Jackson says nothing about the horrors of genocide in Sudan. Leaders, Mengistu Hale Mariam. This is but one example of his double-standard regarding African policies. Jackson is a dedicated proponent of the welfare game gone berserk. He is convinced that the solution to black America's problems rests at the footsteps of the U.S. Treasury. The necessary consequence of this position is not increased opportunities for blacks but increased dependency on government support. Instead of trying to get people from the welfare system through jobs, he proposes to add more people to its rolls. Surely there are other figures who can offer pragmatic solutions to the concerns and aspirations of black Americans. If not, then the black movement is in serious political trouble. BLOOM COUNTY by Berke Breathed