4
Thursday, February 25, 1988 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Drunk drivers should suffer when they cause others harm
In Kansas, it is currently a greater crime to steal $150 worth of MTV than it is to injure someone while drunk.
However, a bill now in a Kansas House committee would make it a felony to injure someone while driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. The bill already has been passed by the Senate.
It will be good news for sober drivers if the House follows the Senate's lead.
The original bill would have made the crime a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine. But the bill was amended by the Senate to make the crime a Class E felony, punishable by two to five years in prison.
Opponents of the stiffer legislation said the bill would only result in more overcrowding of the state prisons. State Sen. Robert G. Frey, R-Liberal, said that it was not feasible to make it a felony to injure others during accidents while driving drunk.
"When you drive a car, you assume a certain amount of risk," he said.
Is it unreasonable to ask that the state make it a crime for a drunk to run into a sober, careful driver?
Other bills that would toughen the state's drunk driving laws are also currently in House committees
One bill would change aggravated vehicular homicide from a Class E to a Class D felony, resulting in punishments of two to ten years in prison. A second bill would automatically restrict or suspend without a hearing the license of a person refusing to take a blood-alcohol test or who failed such a test. The third bill would require the victim of a drunk driving accident or victim's family to have the opportunity to testify at a trial. The offender could also be ordered to make restitution to the victim
The Legislature should take the problem of drunk driving seriously and pass these bills. It's laughable that cable theft is currently considered to be a more serious crime than drunk driving — laughable until someone is permanently injured or killed by a drunk driver.
Jody Dickson for the editorial board
GTAs need grasp of English
"This is very important for tomorrow's test: (garble, garble,
garble, garble). Do not forget. Class dismissed."
Such is often the state of classes taught by graduate teaching assistants with a less-than-wonderful grasp of the English language.
A GTA can be intelligent, knowledgeable about his subject and otherwise well-qualified, but if he can't communicate in the tongue of the country he's in, he's not worth having on a university's payroll. The University of Kansas realized this several years ago and made necessary hiring policy changes.
The Board of Regents has belatedly caught on. This month, it decided to set a standard of spoken English to be met by prospective GTAs in Regents schools.
Such a standard should have been put into effect years ago. That much is obvious to students who have struggled through lectures, trying to grasp difficult concepts being delivered in torrents of incomprehensible English.
Refrains of "What did he say?" echoing through the classrooms of Kansas' universities finally caught the Regents attention. Fortunately, they realized that the solution was simple: Stop hiring people who can't speak English.
Few will mourn the passing of the classroom linguistic guessing game.
Katy Monk for the editorial board Editorials in this column are the opinions of the editorial board.
Other Voices
Put Confederate flags in their place
Confederate flags are flying over the Alabama state Capitol, the South Carolina Statehouse and the Oklahoma Capitol building. Confed erate designs can also be found on the flags of Mississippi and Georgia
The Confederate flag is of historical value and should not completely forgotten. But, it should never have been given a place in the history of American history as a symbol of the South or the Southern way of life and may not realize it is a powerful reminder to blacks of the slavery they once endured.
To blacks, the Confederate flag is as much a symbol of repression as the surrender is to a Jewish person
For the sake of blacks and other conscientious people, the Confederate flag should finally be given the ceremony it deserves: a funeral. Kansas State Collegian Kansas State University
News staff
Alison Young...Editor
Todd Cohen...Managing editor
Rob Knapp...News editor
Anne Pryce...Editorialeditor
Joseph Rebello...Campus editor
Jennifer Rowland...Planning editor
Anne Luscombe...Sports editor
Stephen Wade...Rechts editor
Richard Stewart...Graphics editor
Tom Eblen...General manager, news adviser
Business staff
Kelly Scherer ...Business manager
Clark Massad ...Retail sales manager
Brad Lenhart ...Campus sales manager
Robert Hughes ...Marketing manager
Kurt Messersmith ...Production manager
Greg Klippin ...National market
Kria Schropo ...Traffic manager
Kimberly Coleman ..Classified manager
Jeanne Hines ...Sales and marketing adviser
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.
Guest columns should be typed, double-spaced and less than 700 words. The writer will be photographed.
can be mailed or brought to the Kansan newsletter, 117 StaleyPrint Hall.
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 Kansan reserves the right to reject or edit letters and guest columns. They can be mailed or brought to the Kansan newsroom. 111 Stauffer Fint Halt.
The University Daily Kan萨 (USPS 650-640) is published at the University of Kansas, 118 Stauffer Flint Hall, Lawn, Kansas, KA 6045, daily during the regular school year, excluding Saturday, Sunday, holidays and final periods, and Wednesday during the summer session. Second-class postage is paid in Lawrence, KA. 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 Staufer-Fint Hall, Lawrence, Kanon, 66045.
The GOP Race Enters a New Phase.
KU was tarnished
The weak-knee apologies paid by Chancelor Gene A. Budig and Judith Ramaley, executive vice chancellor, to the intolerant components of the minority community send a clear message to all left-of-center bigots that the University of Kansas is not impervious to clamorous interest groups and self-righteous "reform" movements. Budig and Ramaley's lily-livered defense of the journalism school also conveys a more frightening message: the administration will not defend departments or schools that sponsor politically "objectionable" dialogue from the disruptive toolery of (anti-)social activists.
Budig and Ramaley have tarnished KU's reputation as an institution that promotes the free and open-minded consideration of diverse viewpoints, 'however bizarre and repugnant those views may be (sic).' They have failed to distinguish between the right-minded indignation of victims of racism and the close-minded outbursts of self-styled community leaders. The only apology they owe is to the faculty and students of KU.
John Myzer Topeka senior
Hard classes have merit
I find it hard to take seriously Maynard Shelly's proposals for changing the University curriculum. In his Feb. 19 column in the Kansan, Professor Shelly recommends emphasizing difficult, "hard-to-digest" liberal arts courses in favor of teaching courses designed to reduce contemporary-scene "illiteracy." Shelly claims that difficult courses should only be offered if they can "justify" their difficulty.
Given the tone of his column and the further suggestions he makes concerning curriculum, one can imagine the students of Professor Shelly's ideal university shuttling between their "soft" liberal arts courses such as "Lytic Poetry in the Work of Houston, Whitney" and "Contemporary Football Aesthetics" (excuse me, "aesthetics" is a difficult word; make that "appreciation") to their hard, serious courses such as "Understanding the Evening News" and "How to Read a Software Manual (CS 791)."
computer literacy, there is value in wading
through information and we stood
the test of time and are washing up.
Professor Shelly, in equating courses on Shakespeare and Plato with difficult-to-digest junk food, shows an appalling lack of insight into the value of the liberal arts. To say, as he does, that Shakespeare and Plato have no relevance to the modern world is to exhibit a certain degree of classics illiteracy. What counts as current knowledge is in constant flux. A student who is only taught current material will find his or her education to be out of date only a few years after graduation. In a rapidly changing world where, for example, today's computer literacy is tomorrow's antiquated
An understanding of Plato's attempt to formulate a theory of an ideal government or to define the nature of the Good can only be helpful in giving perspective to the world of Khomeini and Oliver North. In reading Shakespeare's characterizations of what is constant in human life, he is presented with a theory of psychology as good as that of any who has set rat against stopwatch.
Perhaps Professor Shelly's recommendations have value for high schools or junior high schools, but for the college level it seems that he has set his sights too low. To ameliorate "current-events literacy," students can subscribe to a newspaper. Additionally, the major TV networks all provide current events updates in the form of news broadcasts. Professor Shelly appears to confuse junk food with real nourishment. The type of knowledge he thinks is important can be, in most cases, easily acquired outside the classroom. Wrestling with difficult material is largely what a university is for. To say that anything that does not have immediate, objectifiable, practical value should not be taught if it is difficult is to completely misunderstand the purpose of university instruction.
Albert Cinelli Lawrence graduate student
Freedom has failed
Having just recently attempted to teach my Western Civilization class about the positive nature of free and open debate as proposed in John Stuart Mill's "On Liberty." I am dismayed to see how little the University administration cares for this position.
Whereas Mill goes to considerable length to show how all of society benefits from listening to even the most detestable positions, and I tried my best to show the strength of his position, not all persons thought it worth their effort to help Mill and myself in this lesson. What will my students think when they hear me argue in favor of a free marketplace of ideas while they find that marketplace poorly stocked at the University of Kansas? Are my students likely to see my words and those of Mill as empty rhetoric?
If we cannot find, even in a major public university, an open and healthy exchange of ideas, then where in this country are we likely to find such a situation? Perhaps the debate generated by the administration's actions itself will be a lesson in free debate. However, that is a sad consolation for the original failure of freedom.
Paul M. Jurczak San Diego graduate student
See facts clearly
I believe it's time to sit back and clearly look at all the facts in the case of the Ku Klux Klan coming to the University of Kansas.
The facts: The KKK is a racist and prejudiced organization with all the rights and protections that this newspaper has. The University of Kansas is a public institution that shall abide by the laws of the state of Kansas and the Constitution of the United States. The First Amendment to the Constitution gives all individuals and organizations the right to free speech and expression, except in cases of a clear and present danger. KU has denied an organization the right to speak on campus without more than a wordy and confusing explanation that does not give any concrete justification for the cancellation.
If my right to hear an organization is being taken away and the policy of KU overrides the Constitution, then I want to know exactly what facts KU had that would require it to forsake an organization First Amendment rights. If it is found that there wasn't a justification for the cancellation, then haven't all our Constitutional rights been violated?
Jimmy Greenfield Highland Park, Ill., junior
Deal with all ideas
The recent controversy over whether the Ku Klux Klan should be interviewed on KJHJ is not just prominent on campus. Talk has even reached the high school. As a junior attending Lawrence High, I would like to express my own opinion
It is very possible that I will be attending KU in a couple of years. Whatever college I attend, I hope I will be given the same basic rights that I am allowed under the Constitution.
Freedom of speech is not just the right to express oneself. It is also a right to hear all views that would like to be expressed. How can my generation, as future voters, know what is right if we can't even hear all opinions on each issue?
I am in no way saying that I support the Ku Klux Klan. I don't, I never have, and I am sure I never will. But I believe that when our founding fathers gave us the freedom of speech, they did not mean to give that freedom only to those who would be sure not to offend anyone or to question one? Any political group that doesn't offend anyone probably does not stand for much.
I will admit, though, that it is easy for someone like me to have this view on this particular issue. I am not of any origin that the KKK objects to. Yet, if I were, I feel confident that I'd feel the same way I feel now.
People do not have to listen to every single idea being expressed today. Yet they can't deny that those ideas exist. Wouldn't it be better to bring those ideas out and deal with them? You can if you let them in, somebody did find that they just couldn't stand to listen to whatever the speaker was saying, they could always press that power button and turn the radio off.
Laurel Osterkamp
Lawrence High School
Class of 1989
BLOOM COUNTY
DONAHUE WAS
TALKING ABOUT IT
THIS MORNING.
by Berke Breathed
*IM SUFFERING FROM A
*MALE MENOPAUL MIDP
PATERNAL CAUCASIANAL
GULT POST-PENOUNAL
EARLIE-LIFE SNIT.