4
Tuesday, March 1, 1988 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Officials made good choice in killing abortion squeal bill
For young girls confronted with an unwanted pregnancy, deciding whether to have an abortion involves more than just a moral decision.
Not every 16- or 17-year-old girl is going to be given sympathy and support when she tells her parents the news. Some will be kicked out of their parents' houses or beaten for their mistake. For some, telling their parents will open up a new set of problems perhaps even more devastating than the unwanted pregnancy.
Recently, the Kansas House of Representatives found itself faced with a bill that would require a woman under 18 to have the consent of one parent or of a judge before she could have a legal abortion.
Considering both the domestic implications of such a "squale law" and the failure of an identical law in Minnesota, Kansas representatives made the right choice. The bill was killed in committee last week.
committee last week.
Proponents of the bill emphasized the importance of the involvement of a young woman's parents in her decision. They cited the parents' right to know about the pregnancy.
cited the parents. Right there. That's all very nice, but it ignores the harsher realities of life. Fortunately, Kansas legislators were willing to look at the precedent of Minnesota, where many girls avoided telling their parents and went straight to judges — about 99 percent of whom approved the abortions. Thus the law failed to accomplish any of the things it reputedly promoted, and it meant a lot of wasted time for judges.
lot or wasted time to figure out. The proposed squeal law was a thinly disguised attempt to undermine a woman's right to an abortion, a right upheld by the Supreme Court. Its backers were less interested in family relationships than they were in promoting the anti-abortion cause. It would have been legally questionable and practically unworkable. But Kansas legislators didn't fall for it. They made the right choice.
Katy Monk for the editorial board
Relieve state of ugly plates
Members of the Kansas House Transportation Committee are saying that the new state license plates are not making much of an artistic impression.
Surprise, surprise.
surprise, surprise.
A bill has been introduced by 25 House members that would bring back the state's old license plate design in five years,
then the new plates are expected to wear out.
Five years is a long time to suffer by looking at those new use plates on every Kansas car. But it is a small price to say if the state can admit its error by passing the bill.
pay if the state call admin its error payers The sponsors of the bill said most Kansans were not pleased with the ornate lettering and wanted the state to bring back the traditional two-letter county designations.
traditional two-letter county designations. The new plates have blue numbers and letters against an off-white background, a blue border at the top with "Kansas" in orate letters displayed in the middle. In the upper left-hand corner is a small county-designator decal. The plates also use the SAM-123 numbering system with three letters and three numbers separated by a brown shock of wheat.
It should be of no surprise to the Legislature that Kansans think the new plates are ugly.
Now it must follow the lead of Kansans who hate those plates and show that it, too, can have good taste.
body Dickson for the editorial board
Editorials in this column are the opinions of the editorial board.
Other Voices
Organizations deserve free speech
Protecting the rights of minorities to express unpopular views is apparently necessary only when the groups involved don't offend liberal values. When the minority organization isn't one of the chic ones, when it's the Ku Klux Klan, for example, then it's acceptable to muzzle it.
mBZEE2 meeting the right of Klan members to free speech is the acid test of our democracy. Who supports王LAN-propagated values are nothing more than Nazis in silly-looking bedsheets, and their ideology is hateful.
But the Constitution wasn't written to protect popular beliefs. It is ironic that minority groups who themselves have so often availed themselves of constitutional guarantees of free expression are so willing to deny that right to others.
The Sunflower Wichita State University
News staff
Alison Young...Editor
Todd Cohen...Managing editor
Rob Knapp...New editor
Anne Pleurer...Editorial editor
Joseph Rebello...Campsa editor
Jennifer Rowland...Planning editor
Anne Luscombe...Sports editor
Stephen Wade...Photo editor
Richard Stewart...Graphics editor
Tom Eblen...General manager, news adviser
Kelly Scherer...Business manager
Clark Massad...Retail sales manager
Brad Lenhart...Campus sales manager
Robert Hughes...Marketing manager
Kurt Messersmith...Production manager
Greg Knipp...National manager
Kristi Schroter...Traffic manager
Kimberly Coleman...Classified manager
Jennie Hines...Sales and marketing adviser
Business staff
Letters should be typed, double-spaced and less than 200 words and must include the writer's signature, name, address and telephone number. If the writer is affiliated with the University of Kansas, please include class and hometown, or faculty or staff position.
tactility of stilts
Guest illumina should be typed, double-spaced and less than 700 words. The image will be photographed.
writer will be photographed.
The Kansan reserve light to reject or edit letters and guest columns. They can also be sent to the Kansan newsroom, 111 Stauffer-Flint Hall.
can be mailed or brought to the Kansan newsroom 11-11 State Letters, guest columns and columns are the opinion of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of the University Daily Kansan. Editorials are the opinion of the Kansan editorial board.
The University Daily Kansan (USP5 650-640) is published at the University of Kansas, 119 Stauffer-Flint Hall, Lawrence, Kan. 6045, daily during the regular school year excluding Saturday, Sunday, holidays and final periods, and summer during the summer session. Second-class postage is paid in Lawrence, Kan. 6044. Annual subscriptions by mail are $50. Student subscriptions are $3 and are paid through the student activity fee.
POSTMASTER. Send address changes to the University Daily Kansan, 118
Stauffer-Flint Hall, Lawrence, Kan, 68045.
Disabled require adequate care
Kalen has Muscular Dystrophy. He is severely disabled and employs a motorized wheelchair. But even with little use of his body, Kalen enjoys life in his freshly built apartment.
apart from.
But Kalen's dreams of maintaining his independent lifestyle may be in serious jeopardy. Because of the weakening muscles around his lungs, he requires the use of a ventilator while sleeping. Without the equipment he could not live.
The main difficulty for Kalen is that the home care program provided by the Social and Rehabilitation Services of Kansas will only pay for six and a half hours of his personal care. He requires 24 hours of care. Because Kalen can direct his own life independently, SRS granted him a paid attendant for as much time as he needed. The hours were granted last July, but today he is still receiving the six and a half hours daily.
Both local and state SRS officials keep putting him off. The money for his care has been approved. Why is he getting the run-around? That's what Kalen would like to know.
"My right to an internal appeals hearing process has virtually been discarded because SRS has put nothing of my case in writing. In turn, my right to have some control of my own life decisions has been denied because I am never told what is going on with my attendant care." Kalen said. "And, in turn, my right to legal actions has been greatly reduced because SRS has put nothing in writing. Consequently, no one in the legal field has any real touch with what impact all the factors can have on a disabled person's life."
And Kalen is just one example of dozens of disabled people who have encountered problems with SPS
Kalen's live-in attendant works about 17 hours a day and receives pay for only the six and a half hours originally granted by SRS.
with SKS.
I am severely disabled with cerebral palsy. I,
Frederick M.
Markham
Guest Columnist
tore, rely on SRS to provide attendant care. Most of my attendants are good, caring, underpaid individuals who demonstrate much love and pride in their work. This type of emotion is greatly needed in the individuals working in the local and state SRS offices.
I have recently returned to Lawrence from Hutchinson to live in an apartment complex especially designed for the disabled.
especially designed for the use of them.
For the past three months, SRS has informed the disabled clients to call their emergency number in case we need an attendant in an emergency situation. There's only one thing wrong with the system: The answering service must not know what the system is about. When I've called this number to inform them of an emergency situation, they think I'm a drunkard, hang up on me or tell me to call back the next morning and talk with my caseworker. They have not been informed about the emergency program nor my speech difficulty. This, my friends, is poor communication at its best.
One Saturday, because of a mix-up, no attendant showed up to assist me in getting up. I called the emergency number and received the same response. So, I called one of the caseworkers at her residence and told her the situation. She seemed to be more concerned about me having her number than with my well-being. Finally, they told me an attendant would be there. But no one came, and my neighbor came by to check on me and helped me dressed. I never heard from the caseworker again.
The next morning, it happened again. I wasn't going through the maze again, so I called the police. They came with red light and siren. I asked them to call one of my attendants, and they came right away.
The entire situation could have been avoided had we been allowed to call the attendant. But a stupid regulation by SRS prohibits this. My attendants have told me to call them when I was in trouble. It took a warning from a lawyer that SRS would be responsible for whatever happened to me under the above circumstances to get to the point where I can call my attendant.
I reported this incident to the Lawrence Journal-World in a letter to the editor. The letter was turned down because the editor viewed it as a personal attack on the caseworker. I simply asked the caseworker to resign. There were no names mentioned in the letter.
names mentioned in the text.
I think this was an act of very poor and unprofessional journalism on the part of the Journal-World. If they can print a story on how a college student was reunited with his missing car keys, it looks as if they could print a letter that told of a potentially dangerous situation such as the one described above.
The problem here is how to communicate the dangerous situations in which SRS officials are putting the severely disabled. Kalen sums it all up.
up.
"Imagine having no one to get you a drink of water or help you eat breakfast or assist you in toileting if you couldn't do it by yourself." Kalen said. Imagine needing medication vital to your health and having no one there to give it to you. Imagine having no way to use a telephone in an emergency. Without someone to assist you with these things, wouldn't you consider yourself to be at risk in the community?"
Frederick M. Markham is a Lawrence resident.
K·A·N·S·A·N
MAILBOX
Stop promoting beer
Last time I looked at statistics on traffic accidents killing young people, the percent of alcohol involvement was right up around 100, so I wasn't surprised to read that beer cans were found with the bodies of the three KU students killed last weekend.
students Nor was I very surprised to find, in the same Kansan which reported about the beer cans, a glossy insert from Miller Lite letting us all know "What to do on Spring Break." Those of us who live to see it. Of course Miller doesn't want us to drive drunk or drink too much. Wedged in among the 16 pages of ads is one paragraph light-heartedly plugging moderation and designated drivers. It also tells us not to get too much sun or eat too much junk food. A nice serious approach. Don't die now any more.
drunk, I can save them the trip to Florida. I have some nice beachfront property for sale right here in Lawrence.
If anyone believes Miller is going to pay for the beachside concerts in South Padre, Daytona Beach and Pensacola; the top comedians; the free movie previews; the volleyball tournaments; the Miller Welcome Centers, and this nationwide ad campaign by selling beer only to people who drink in moderation and don't drive
I have been at the University of Kansas less than two years. In that time, at least seven KU students and one innocent bystander have been killed in alcohol-related accidents. One student lost a leg to a drunk driver. Isn't it time for the Kansan to stop promoting and profiting from the products that cause this slaughter?
John Ericson
Teach people to think
In response to objections to my guest column, I would like to note that the humanities and soft sciences have an amazing accomplishment to their credit: teaching students to think that they were thinking. It is often said, for example, that the humanities address problems that have persisted for centuries. One possible reason for this durability is that the humanities have not been terribly successful in teaching people to think. The obvious lack of substantial progress in areas like social psychology suggests that the soft sciences are equally inept at teaching students to think.
In fact, I have never known courses on Shakespeare or Plato to teach anyone to think. I have, however, met individuals who learned to think by acquiring computer programming skills, who learned to think through training in the hard sciences or who learned to think by
becoming engineers. One mechanical engineering student told me that he sought that degree not to become an engineer but rather to learn to solve problems.
To reiterate, I believe that the humanities and soft sciences are essential parts of a university education, but this importance does not directly rest upon teaching students to think effectively about truly important issues. And courses whose major products are teaching students to think that they are thinking effectively when they are not should generally not be difficult ones.
Maynard W. Shelly Professor of psychology
Support new coach
As an avid KU sports fan since attending the University of Kansas in 1966, I would like to offer an observation of our new head football coach Glenn Mason. At the recent Kansas-Duke basketball game, I had the good fortune of sitting in front of Coach Mason. He was very energetic and vocal throughout the game. If a person did not know better, you would think that he had been a Jayhawk fan for years. If he can transfer his enthusiasm and energy into our football team and staff, we can all be in for some fun times ahead. I hope that all concerned give him, his staff and our team the support they need and deserve.
Bob Laskey Lawrence resident
Lawrence resident
BLOOM COUNTY
by Berke Breathed