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Thursday, March 10, 1988 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
AIDS bill in Kansas Senate would help reduce hysteria
Faster than the spread of AIDS itself, the AIDS scare has swept the country for the past several years. In a blind panic to control a poorly understood syndrome, parents have boycotted schools that allowed children with AIDS to attend; companies have fired employees with the virus; people have called for quarantines, for mandatory testing, for anything they thought would keep them out of harm's way.
but in traditional conservative Kansas, a Senate committee is taking a stand against the AIDS scare.
is taking a stand against the abuse of Early this month, the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee endorsed a bill marked by its mature approach to the problem. Its most notable feature is its definition of acquired immune deficiency syndrome as a noncommunicable syndrome. That definition would prevent school districts from excluding students with the AIDS virus from the classroom. It could also help fight discrimination in the work place and help reduce the public's unfounded fear of contracting AIDS through casual, non-sexual contact. It would
casual, non-sexual contact. The bill takes further measures against alarmism. It would not require mandatory AIDS testing. It would not require clinics to report names and addresses of people who tested positive for the virus to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, although KDHE had requested mandatory reporting.
reporting. Physicians now must report names of those with AIDS but not of those who only have tested positive for the virus.
First would have defeated its witchcraft. The bill does not close its eyes to the fact that AIDS can be spread. It includes clauses to help protect health-care workers and funeral directors by requiring that they be notified when dealing with AIDS. It also would help victims of sex crimes find out whether their attackers carried the virus.
KDHE officials thought that their request would help them keep track of the spread of AIDS. But, as the authors of the bill recognized, knowledge that their names would be reported if they tested positive would discourage people, especially high-risk people, from voluntarily taking AIDS tests. Thus KDHE's request would have defeated its own purpose.
The Senate committee endorsed a rational response to a problem that will be around for years. The full Senate should embrace the effort to move past the days of panic into a new age in which the problem of AIDS can be faced and overcome.
Katy Monk for the editorial board
Finding ways to pay for college for the young people of Kansas is everyone's business. The bottom line for any society's future lies in the education of its children. That includes college for not only those on the extremes of the financial spectrum, but also for those caught in the category of "can't qualify for a grant and don't make enough for tuition."
Help parents save for college
can't qualify for a gibraltar. The Kansas Educational Savings Plan Trust, KESPT, is a sensible idea whose time has come. A bill that would establish the trust was introduced by two state legislators and is designed to assist those citizens who fall in the lower-middle-class income bracket.
The bill's authors want the fund to be tax-free, but as usual, there are concerns about the Internal Revenue Service.
Under the proposal, the fund would work like a savings account at a bank. The money could be withdrawn for tuition and other expenses when the child is ready to enter college.
there are concerns about the tax-free aspects of the fund so that parents will see some incentive to make the investment in the KEPST. Education always pays dividends in the end.
The bill should, however, allow parents who have invested in the trust and whose children decide to attend an out-of-state school to remain eligible for full benefits of the program. Given the mobile character of today's society, how many residents can say with any certainty fifteen years from now where they will reside or send their children to school?
Any legislation that helps families to provide for the educational future of their children should be supported by all Kansans.
Van Jenerette for the editorial board
Editorials in this column are the opinions of the editorial board
The editorial board consists of Alison Young, Todd Cohen, Alan Player, Jody Dickson, Katy Monk, Russell Gray and Van Jenerette.
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Don't stereotype fundamentalists
Opposing methods of teaching children does not call for padded rooms
Attention, all fundamentalists. The Kansas edutorial board wants us to stop trying to turn our schools into a religious training ground. Okay? Oh, and by the way, we are not allowed to complain about our children being taught secret humanism, evolution, feminism and all those other "isms" we disagree with. Absolutely no speaking against these any-more cool? Great. Oh yeah, and by the way, we are supposed to go sit quietly in a corner. Don't ever speak another word about what we believe; we cannot do that. Oh, one other thing: That corner we are supposed to sit in, well, it has to be in a padded cell because we all must be wacky to believe in what we believe in. So, let's all go join the John Hinkley Jr. of the world in our padded cells and keep our ideas to ourselves, okay? Great. This will make the editorial board happy. Plus, I would not want the downfall of society to be attributed to us fundamentalists.
be attributed. Now let me take my tongue out of my cheek and explain myself. This scenario seems to reflect the editorial board is saying in their edited title "Fundamentalists lose again." One claim the writer makes is that we are trying to return religion to the classroom. Does asking the school to allow their children to read alternative assignments constitute trying to bring religion into the classroom again? I doubt it. In fact, it would be an awful thing to do, to teach (gasp) the Bible in the classroom. I mean, think of how society would decay if school children were
Steve
Gantz
Guest Columnist
taught to love their neighbors as themselves, or that one should turn the other cheek or, humanists forbid, the Ten Commandments. Surely, teaching such ideas would harm us all. **In the**
I am not advocating teaching religion in the classroom; this would be contradictory because if they did teach it, then all of the non-partisans of that religion would be upset about their children learning something they were opposed to. So this leads to a question: Why do so many people criticize parents concerned about what their children are being taught? Would not these same critics try to stop whatever it is that is being taught to their children if it were contrary to their beliefs? Of course they would, so let's try to be consistent.
consistent.
Among the philosophies fundamentalists oppose, as mentioned in the editorial, are evolution, feminism and secular humanism. You all know about evolution versus creation and that whole mess, so enough said. But what about this secular humanism? What's wrong with it? Is it a religion, as many assert? Take a look at the
Humanist Manifestos I and II. When reading these, you sure get the idea that it is a religion in which everything you do is focused on yourself. This is the reason fundamentalists are opposed to the teaching of humanism in the schools.
the teaching of humanities, we don't have to worry about this anmother because we all should lock ourselves in a padded room. What is the editorial board trying to say? That we are all a bunch of loony tunes? This is a popular belief about fundamentalists, probably due to the people that blow up abortion clinics, or Brother Jed and Sister Cindy types who come across campus telling people that they will wind up in hell. It would be safe to say that the large majority of fundamentalists would in no way condone such behavior and, in fact, most fundamentalists do not condone the money-grabbing techniques of so many of the televangelists either. It is risky to characterize a group by the actions of extremists in that group. Why not focus instead on such notable fundamentalists as Billy Graham, Charles Colson or this year's Super Bowl coaches — Dan Reeves and Joe Gibbs?
Dan Reeves and Joe Growen.
So, did you find a corner. Billy Graham? How about you, Coach? OK, great. Get comfortable because we'll be 'here be while because of this harsh sentence put on us by the editorial board.
Good night.
Steve Gantz is a Downers Grove, Ill., senior majoring in geography.
K·A·N·S·A·N
MAILBOX
Music shows heritage
Monday's goings-on at Hoch auditorium inspired some thoughts about music and heritage.
tage.
I arrived late, but I was proud to join the "street pulver" outside in a few rounds of hymns. When I got home and listened to the broadcast of the forum on KJHK, I was able to hear the panelists quite clearly, "Entertainment Committee" or no. I assume that the original broadcast served free speech just as well.
A speaker for the KKK went on at some length about racial heritage and the importance of preserving it. As a part-time musician, I have found Celtic music an important link to my heritage. However, this is only the tip of the iceberg.
teering. It's substantial genetic evidence that all of us from Inuit to European to Australian Aborigine, share a common ancestor in Africa. The successful collaborations of artists such as Peter Gabriel and Paul Simon and the growing acceptance of artists such as Fela, King Sunny Ade and Ladysmith Black Mombazo in their own right are encouraging signs that we are getting in touch with our human racial heritage.
David Hull Lawrence resident
Spill handled carelessly
A more haunting and much larger question is why does our society think it's OK to use poisonous such as Ethallfuralin in growing our food? Just spread it out, and it won't hurt us too much? Despite what the chemical companies lead us to believe, pesticides and fertilizers are not completely absorbed by the soil and are slowly making their way into our groundwater supplies. Iowa residents already are facing the problem of groundwater poisoned by pesticides and nitrates, and Kansans are close behind with nitrates as the primary concern.
In Friday's Kansan, it was reported that a tractor-trailer truck carrying the herbicide Ethalfuralin overturned at about 11:15 p.m. March 2. Officials did not discover that the hazardous chemical was leaking until 14 hours later, after it had already made its way into Pony Creek.
It is very tragic that the environmental threat this particular accident caused was not minimized by prompt action. I assume that the highway patrolmen were the first officials to arrive at the scene. There are a few obvious questions that ought to be asked at an accident involving a tractor-trailer. For example, "What was the truck carrying?" "Is it hazardous?" "Do we seem to have any leaks?" Somebody should feel embarrassed about not thinking of these questions until a turnipoff official investigating the accident became dizzy.
We really shouldn't continue to abuse the soil and water that give us life.
Rich Niebaum Lawrence resident
"They shall not be heard," a group of protesters sang at Monday night's forum on free speech.
free speech.
Well, thank you for taking it upon yourselves to decide what I should and should not be allowed to hear. If you had stopped singing, clapping, and stomping for one minute, you would have realized that you were, at the beginning, drowning out the words of a KU professor, not a Ku Klux Klan member. This professor was reciting the sordid, violent history of the Klan. But I guess you thought I shouldn't hear my own teacher tell 2,000 people about the atrocities of the Klan.
Maybe you also would have realized that the audience was doing a fine job on its own of making the Klan feel quite unwelcome at the University of Kansas.
And yes, it admit it, I wanted to hear what the Klan members had to say. Maybe then, I thought, I could better understand how demented minds worked. But I was forced to leave the forum early. You denied me the right to hear, not only the bad, but the good.
And to the KU students who began to cheer when these protesters began to sing, what was going through your heads? Were you only there for the show? You cheered wildly when they began to sing, but when you got bored with that you southered at them to be quiet. Boy, aren't controversial issues fun?
Monica Hayde Prairie Village junior
BLOOM COUNTY
by Berke Breathed
::THE ONLY WINNES5 WAS
LEFT A CONFUSED,
BLABBERING,
FISH ENTRAIL5-EATING
MANIAC...