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Tuesday, February 10, 1987 / University Daily Kansan
Opinions
Preserving the past
Save the depot.
That's what several local groups are trying to do. The Union Pacific Railroad depot is one of the few historical buildings remaining in Lawrence. Many old buildings in the city have been demolished in the name of progress. And some concerned residents want the depot to escape this same fate.
The Save the Depot Task Force, the Lawrence Preservation Alliance and the KU Crew have joined forces and initiated a drive to raise $500,000 to relocate and renovate the depot. The groups want to move the depot from its present location east of Second Street, between Locust and Maple streets in north Lawrence, to a proposed site
on the south side of the Kansas River.
The depot, which was built in 1888, is not just an old building, it is a part of Lawrence's heritage. It stands for a time when a city depended on its railroads and much of life revolved around the railroad.
Although the cost of relocating and renovating the depot is high, the cost of losing an integral part of Lawrence's heritage is much higher. And if Lawrence can't preserve its past, where will its future lie?
Now, the KU Crew team and the Lawrence Rowing Association want to make the depot the center of their activities. These groups and other Lawrence residents can restore life to the building.
Bill to hurt work-study
A formal state-run work-study program would provide excellent opportunities for students, but forcing state universities to absorb the administrative costs of such a program would defeat the purpose of the bill.
State Rep. David Miller, R-Eudora, who helped amend the bill to prevent universities from using money to administer the program, said KU could absorb the administrative costs.
KU has had an informal work-study program since 1983. The bill would create uniform guidelines and funding procedures.
The work-study program is too important to the students to let it fall by the wayside because of budget cuts. If the University is forced to pay the administrative costs, the work-study program would probably be a primary candidate for budget cuts.
The work-study program allows students from lower-income families to actively work for their educations. The legislature is on the right track by proposing the bill, but the program will not be allowed to serve its purpose if the state asks the universities to come up with even more money, especially in these tough economic times.
A toast to override
Congratulations to Congress for a vote well done.
In a very smart move, the U.S. Senate last week completed an override of President Reagan's veto of a $20 billion bill to clean up the nation's water. The Senate voted 86-14 to override the veto. Earlier in the week, the House voted 401-26 to override it.
The bill, the Clean Water Act, will provide $18 billion to help build sewage treatment facilities through 1994 in communities across the nation. Another $2 billion will be supplied for other programs to clean up the nation's water supplies. Along with protecting the environment, the bill also will provide states with federal funds for pollution control.
This marks the seventime in his six years in office that Reagan has had a piece legislation overridden by Congress. In this case, Congress saw the light.
The Clean Water Act was
Correction
Reagan's chance to support legislation that would benefit all U.S. citizens, and he blew it. It is time for Reagan to stop channeling money out of the country and start using some of it to improve his own country.
Yet, when it comes to improving the United States, Reagan acts like he could care less. Big deal if the water we drink is polluted, as long as we can keep other countries happy.
Congress was very wise to override Reagan in this case. The vote was accurately described by Lawrence D. Downing, president of the Sierra Club, an environmental group, as a signal that Congress would not "bow to presidential pressure when the public health is endangered."
An editorial on verbal abuse in sports in Friday's Kansan incorrectly listed the name of the school from which Frank
Despite all the other problems the nation is facing, at least we won't have to tell visitors to our country and ourselves not to drink the water.
Kush was fired. Kush was fired as football coach at Arizona State University.
News staff
News staff
Frank Hansel . Editor
Jennifer Benjamin . Managing editor
Jul Warren . New editor
Brian Kiblerine . Editorial editor
Sandra Engelland . Campus editor
Mark Siebert . Sports editor
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
Durien Calthour . Marketing manager
Lori Copple . Classified manager
Jennifer Lumianski . Production manager
David Nixon . National sales manager
Jeanne Hines . Sales and marketing adviser
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Buchanan a force out of White House
WASHINGTON — Interest groups that manage to place one of their own inside the White House can be expected to roar with pain when they lose that voice at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Arnold Sawislak
UPI Commentary
But when Pat Buchanan announced last week that he was leaving his job as White House communications director, conservatives generally expressed regret, but not outrage.
Robert Grant, chairman of the 350,000-member Christian Voice conservative evangelical lobbying group, had a characteristic reaction:
"While it comes as no surprise, we regret that Pat is leaving. Pat Buchanan was the one dyeed-in-the-wool conservative who we could count on in the White House. But the loss will be felt more by the White House than by the conservative movement. After all, Pat will now be fighting on the outside, where he's most effective."
The absence of any mention of anti-abortion legislation in President Reagan's State of the Union address last month did not escape notice.
Grant may have been trying to put the best face on the loss of a strong advocate in the inner circle, but he also may have been tacitly conceding what many in Washington are assuming to be a fact — that the right has little or no chance to get much more of its program out of this administration.
Reagan did issue his annual call for legalization of voluntary prayer in the public schools, but there was little else that would qualify for the conservative social agenda.
Further, as Buchanan recently noted acidly, a lot of Republicans have abandoned Reagan since the Iran arms-contra aid affair broke. The prospect is that Reagan will have more than enough trouble achieving relatively moderate goals in the next two years, let alone have the clout to push controversial conservative issues.
So Buchanan, who played with the idea of declaring for the 1988 Republican presidential nomination but withdrew saying he did not want to hurt the campaign of Rep. Jack Kemp, R.N.Y., now is en route to the exit himself.
But one thing seems certain. Having established himself as Washington's fiercest conservative north of Jesse Helms, Buchanan will be heard from in the struggle that already has begun for the leadership of the right after Reagan retires to the ranch.
Had he stayed at the White House, even after quashing the presidential boomlet that was forming around Mr. Bush, there have been politically impotent in 1988.
It is entirely possible that Pat Buchanan will support Vice President George Bush if he gets the GOP nomination. But you can bet the White House and throw in the Capitol that Buchanan will be working for someone else to get that nomination soon after he has said his goodbyes to the president.
Leaks inspire movie of Reagan and staff
WASHINGON — A visit to my friendly neighborhood bookstore reveals that someone has published a volume titled "Gossip: The Inside Scoop."
Dick West UPJ Commentary
That title reminded me that I probably could write a book called "Leaks: The Outside Scoop." Not that gossip has been around as long as leaks have.
Co-author Jack Levin of Sharon, Mass., tells us that gossip only dates back to the Roman empire. Even if we can't know that leaks are older than that.
There is a temptation to say outside scoops have been disclosed by leaking information at least since the time of the ancient Greeks. But practically everything ancient is being blamed on them these days, so forget anything you have have read in Homer.
Instead, give some thought to casting a new movie about the Reagan administration, if leaks regarding Iran get any worse.
We all know the part that leaks play in being down President Nixon and who starred in the motion picture version of Watergate. But a different set of actors probably would have played a film based on Fran-Contra leaks.
As Robert Orben, a former White House speechwriter, has pointed out the image of the hero has changed so
much in today's movies, "Peter Lorre would be a leading man."
I can't argue with that observation, but I do quarrel with a poll that showed Rodney Dangerfield as the leader of the Secretary of State George Shultz.
Bert Lahr, who first gained fame in "The Wizard of Oz," would have been my choice.
And what about the survey's casting of Burt Lancaster in the part of President Reagan, Shucks, not even Ronald Reagan could play that part. Taking my cue from Orben, I could cast Boris Karloff in the role.
As for Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, the survey, as well as Adm. John Poindexter and Lt. Col. Oliver North. is strangely silent.
For the role of Attorney General Edwin Meese, I would have contracted Sidney Greenstreet, based on his performance in "The Maltese Falcon."
I realize poll participants envisioned Ed McMahon as Meese but it would be worth the price of admission just to hear Greenstreet, as attorney general, chuckle over some of the leaks.
That brings us to Nancy Reagan. Although Jane Wyman, who once was married to Reagan, received the majority of votes in the poll, I know who can do justice to the first lady's part — Mae West.
The role of the sodden reporter drenched by all these leaks I would fill with Humphrey Bogart.
OK. So some of these actors are dead. Some administration officials aren't all that lively either.
Trouble in Panama merits U.S. attention
While President Reagan was busy winning aid from Congress for the Nicaraguan rebels, a series of alarms began ringing about Panama and the Panama Canal that should attract the attention of the United States.
Carlos
Chuquin
Columnist
In a television interview last summer, Sen. Jesse Helms, R.N.C., accused Gen. Manuel Antonio Nortega, commander in chief of the Panama Defense Forces, of being the head of the biggest drug trafficking operation in the Western Hemisphere.
If the charge is true, the security of the Panama Canal is in danger. Panama serves as headquarters for the U.S. Southern Command and as a
listening post that monitors Latin America.
Since the signing of the U.S. Panama Canal Treaty in 1978, the transfer of the responsibilities of operating the canal to Panama has progressed smoothly. However, a pro-U.S. economist, Nicolas Ardetto Barletta, was elected president of Panama in 1984. This has proven to be troublesome for Panama because it is rumored that Noriega rigged the elections for Barletta.
In September 1985, Barletta was forced to resign. Apparently, he had pushed too hard for an investigation into the brutal murder of Dr. Hugo Spadafora, a political activist and persistent critic of Norgeia. According to many witnesses, Spadafora was in the custody of Norgeia's troops when last seen alive.
Now, U.S. policy-makers are worried about handing canal operations over to a poverty-streken, politically unstable country. Experts think that
Panama's military chiefs are inter ested in operating a Mafia-style rack eteering organization.
There are some obvious questions that should be answered. How can the United States promote democracy and total drug control in Central America while dealing with Noriega at the same time? And how can the United States assist Panama with financial and military aid while Noriega is supposedly selling U.S. intelligence secrets and high-techology American equipment to Cuba and Eastern Europe despite embargoes on sales of such equipment to Communist countries?
If the accusations of misconduct on the part of Noriega are true, the United States should withhold any type of assistance to Panama. There are more than 9,000 American personnel in Panama at the present time. Also, Panama will receive $32 million in U.S. aid this year, with $8 million in military assistance for the
Panama Defense Forces
Many Panama citizens realize Noriega is highly interested in the canal, which the United States is committed to hand over to Panama in 1999. It is assumed that if Noriega is still in power at that time, he could become the key man of a waterway that is obviously important to the United States and other nations.
Many fear that Noriega would use the canal for his own benefit by raising tails, padding the payrolls of Panama Defense Forces officers and their relatives, and possibly embezzling large sums of money from contracts with ships that travel through the canal.
It is the duty of the United States to pressure Noriega to step down. The White House and State Department should investigate alleged political murders, the possible rigging of the 1984 presidential election and Panama Defense Forces' role in drug trafficking.
BLOOM COUNTY
by Berke Breathed