4
Fridav.Mav6.1977
University Dally Kansan
Opinions on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Kansas or the School of Journalism
Man's nature bared
The bumpy weather that tormented Douglas County Wednesday night brought out the worst in people, and the best.
As soon as the civil defense sirens had been sounded early that evening, many people were out on the sidewalks, on top of buildings and in their cars—each hoping to catch a glimpse of the ferocious tornado that the radio announcers were warning about.
People can certainly be dumb at times.
It is surprising that so many residents of Lawrence—a city in a state where tornadoes are almost a trademark—exhibited such complicity in the face of a tornado. To many, Wednesday's storm was merely a rude interruption of the Nixon-Frost interview, rather than a serious threat to human lives.
PART OF TRAT complacency can be chalked up to good fortune. The annual barrage of tornadoes sighted in Kansas about this time every year somehow has managed to bypass Douglas County. Not since 1964 has this area experienced a tornado that caused such extensive damage as the one Wednesday night.
And there was good fortune, at least for Lawrence residents, Wednesday night. The tornado appeared to be heading straight for the Lawrence city limits, only to change in tone and move southward, ripping through the low populous southern part of the county.
The City of Lawrence has an excellent civil defense warning system that provided several minutes of warning before the tornado neared the city limits—enough time to seek protective shelter. But many people, it found more fun to seek what the ruckus was all about than to move to safer ground.
ITS FRIGHTENING to think what might have happened had the tornado not changed its path. Tornadoes can do horrible things, especially when people—on widewalks, on rooftops, in cars—aren't prepared; when they don't understand the brute strength of Mother Nature.
Some people south of Lawrence understand it now. In a matter of seconds; the tornado stripped them of their homes and killed more than no mercy in southern Douglas County.
BUT IN THE aftermath, there was hope. Victims comforted other victims. Friends, relatives and unacquainted neighbors pitched in to begin the cleanup. Persons without homes were offered shelter in homes that the tornado had missed. No doubt charity drives will crop up very soon to assist in the rebuilding.
What happened Wednesday was a good lesson in human nature. People can certainly be dumb, but they can also be generous and compassionate.
Ma Bell rates more dues
Trying to defend Ma Bell would seem to be the closest an editorial writer could be to a lawyer. The University of Kansas campus.
Students, especially those who enjoy dialing long distance, rarely have anything nice to say about Southwestern Bell Telephone and Lawrence area. Neither do news reporters, who usually manage to avoid letting the facts get in the way of a good story whenever the phone com-
BUT THE fact is that Southwestern Bell has a remarkable record of efficiency and dependability. Telephone rates are incredibly low, especially those for private offices, and have increased only slightly in the past 13 years.
Since 1964, telephone rates for private residents in Kansas have increased only 8 per cent, from 1.76 per cent until 1972. The inflation rate during the same period was at 2.06 per cent, that, in actual dollars, phone
requests by utility companies for increases in those rates.
There simply is no way to argue that the public has been the victim of profit-paying by the government, Bell, especially in Kansas.
Southwestern Bell in Kansas has filed three requests since 1971 for rate increases. Those requests became necessary as the cost of living—and the cost of operating an immense and
rates steadily have decreased since 1964.
Brent Anderson
Editorial Writer
the telephone as anything other than a utility—and a monopoly—would be unreasonable. But to expect to continue to receive the high quality of service received in the past without an increase in rates is equally unreasonable.
sophisticated communications network—continued to increase.
To expect anyone to consider
If the phone company was to meet the demands of its customers, it had to have money available to invest and it still had to get funding to retain its investors. The three requests totaled $2.5 million, which represents a relatively small increase in the rates paid by phone customers. Even all the requests had
Even if all the requests had been granted, Southwestern Bell's rate of return would have
been less than 8.9 per cent—the rate of return the Corporation Commission has determined as well and fair for a utility company.
BECAUSE the phone company is a utility, it must be regulated by the state. The Kansas Corporation, which utilizes utilities has, has the responsibility of setting rates and considering
THE CORPORATION Commission approved rate increases of only $1.4 million and $0.8 million for the back hold on improvement plans for rural areas and other investments designed to improve the quality of rural water.
Meanwhile, the rate of return to anyone who invested in the phone company in Kansas would be about 7 per cent-less by a guaranteed certificate of deposit at any bank.
Fortunately for Kansans,
Southwestern Bell in Kansas is part of American Telephone and Telegraph, better known as AT&T, one of the largest corporations in the world. If it were to be placed on this state communication in this state would be bleak.
Though AT&T is part of what has come to be known as "big business," its rate of productivity is twice the national
average. AT&T has proved that big business isn't always a dirty word.
KANSAS' PHONE system represents about one hundredth of AT&T's Still, it expected to continue to have high quality telephone service. We must hope the Corporation Commission will realize this change allowed to decrease in quality.
It is important that the phone company be considered separated from other utilities because requests for rate increases have been small in proportion to those of gas and electricity utilities. Although utility companies, including South Carolina, have experienced some problems—especially increasing fuel and labor costs—the is a danger that requests for rate increases will be only because they are utilities.
No one wants to pay more for utilities, including the cost of telephone service. Burdensome though it may be, however, we can pay Ma now or we will all pay later.
To Mom:
Things I should have told mom
Spring fever rampaging
Q. You say that the disease is brought on by spring. What is it about spring that causes the fever?
A strange malady has been stalking campers for the past few months. Most commonly known as spring fever, it afflicts young children. And now that classes are almost over, the disease is taking its toll in overwhelming numbers. Since spring fever has reached epidemic proportions, we thought we would contact a medical expert to find out the cause of the disease We calls.
Finally, persons who catch the disease will lose their will to work. They may perform their duties as usual, but their hearts won't be in the task. Consequently, they'll have their homework late; faculty members will be slow to grade assignments.
A. Spring fever is a catchall term for several elusive symptoms which appear in Homo sapiens, and the first signs of sunting.
ed the Kansas Board of Health in Topeka and talked to a Dr. S. Beane. The following are excerpts from our interview with
- `want are those symptoms?`
A. The patient may first feel a wake-up scream or do something physical. These urges range from a sudden craving to ride a bike or fly a kite to the impulse to hug a proverb.
Next, the patient will be repulsed by class sessions. This happens to both students and faculty. But due to outside influences, only the student unaware of his prey to cutting classes.
Q. What exactly is spring fever?
Next the victim has an uncontrollable desire to be out and back. He suddenly will find themselves sitting on grass stop a sunny slope; habitual bus-riders will begin to walk to class in the
Q. How can you tell if someone is suffering from spring fever?
A. These are several ways to
Then there are all the people
A. This is still a matter of speculation, but scientists believe that such atmospheric rains can delightful breezes, longer daylight hours and the greening of campus bring on the disease. Coupled with the approaching winter, it does so on, the disease has a tenden-
diagnose it. Those who suffer from the disease usually dress in bright spring colors. Women who were seen all winter in blue jeans suddenly will blossom out in flowery dresses. Men will often wear blue jeans, often replace their jeans with cutoffs.
Also, one can try a mind-over-body approach to convince oneself not to succumb to the disease. However this preventive measure isn't 100 per cent reliable. The best one can do is to grit one's teeth and bear it—or enjoy it until the hot and humid weather comes on. Q. How can you tell if so*
Diane Wolkow
Q. Is spring fever contagious? A. Yes, I believe it is. It is communicable by spirit as well as by the season itself.
A. Very little. The only sure remedy is holing up in a pit where no sunlight or fresh spring air can enter.
Editorial Writer
Q. Is there anything one can do to guard against catching the disease?
cy to hit especially hard right around finals.
As the warm weather gradually stabilizes, the fever builds in intensity. Periodic rest and rain help wind, And, as I said before, it usually is most severe right around the end of classes and finals week. The fever will last through training of true summer weather.
Q. How long does the disease usually last?
A. Spring fever has several stages. A mild form is brought on by the first warm weather. It is when a cold front comes on.
A. There are several ways to
who sit out on the grass, I'd say that 50 per cent of the people sitting out in the sun right now are suffering from acute stages of the fever. And that is a conservative estimate.
A. No, the fever has to run its course.
However, in order to insure that the victim is comfortable throughout his illness, may I recommend holding classes outside and cutting their length as much as possible. This latter measure seems to be particularly effective because it is a psychological boost.
Q. Are there any remedies for the disease?
The patient himself can try to exercise willpower and attend all of his classes. He can also try to get his work in on time.
and apple pie for dessert. Some of us cried because you served cauliflower.
Acute victims can try going to a lake for the weekend or doing something else outside.
When we finished eating, we raced from the table, mumbling something about "Excuse me! I'm not here." We smiled and said "Thank you."
four Mothers Days, I'm sure you'll get along nicely without me this year. No doubt you'll enjoy the day much more with just Dad than with all of us kids around to terorize the house-
Q. Are there any other comments you would like to add regarding spring fever?
A. No, none at all. Oh yeah,
just one parting word. Tell all
the leopole over at the University
who are suffering from the
disease to hang in there. In two
weeks it will be all over.
So I send you my thoughts of a Mother's Day (maybe any Mothers Day of the past) when we were all at home and of how we attempted to make you feel like a queen.
Some queen! We trudged out of bed that Sunday morning to mumble (in unison), "Happy mothers day吵的 for breakfast!" You smiled and said "Thank you," then ordered us to use the bathroom before sitting down to the breakfast eggs and sausage and cinnamon rolls and cereal and orange juice and cocoa. You really shouldn't have bothered, but we were hungry and weren't about to tell you to take it easy.
BUT OFF to church we plowed, persecuted subjects all. Our respective Sunday school teachers gave lessons about "God's Plan for Mothers," and we came home inspired. We offered to assist with the Big Dinner, which you prepared every day.
Some queen, indeed.
After clearing the dishes from the table, you ushered us off to dress for Sunday school. You laid out our Sunday suit, Sunday shoes and Sunday underwear and made sure that we had combed our hair, brushed our teeth and, again, used the toothbrush to be a queen, but we considered you a truant -you made us go to Sunday school when "Ruff-n-Ready" was on TV.
Stewart Brann
Editorial Editor
Sunday—even Mothers Day Sundays. We wanted to prove that you really were a queen. We even volunteered to foreign our post-Sunday school sodas to help in the kitchen.
"No. So I said, eloquent child that I was, 'I hate you, you toad.' I didn't really hate you; but it seemed appropriate. But it seemed the appropriate thing to say at the time. It seemed appropriate to you to send the neighborhood off to and to slap me senselessly.
You said, "Fine, but why don't you have some Dr. Pepper first?" We accepted the offer and ran to the TV set, sodas in hand, to the Funnies." Time slipped away from us, we knew we, were calling us for dinner. Somehow, it was prepared without our assistance.
AND WHAT A dinner it was—a meal fit for a queen cooked by a queen and served by a queen). There was swiss steak, mashed potatoes, home-made potato flowers, homemade butter, rolls
According to our timetable, Mothers Day ended with the conclusion of the Big Dinner. It was now Sunday afternoon on a Saturday in which neighborhood was clamoring for us to join in a game of Break That Window (a game you and Dad somehow never appreciated) and about in the sun, leaving you inside with an insurmountable stack of dirty dishes. We didn't because you never complained.
FIVE OR SIX hours later we decided that we were hungry. We returned to the kitchen and found everyone in their neighborhood as surgu客 guests. You were one step ahead of us; the table was set once again before we began eating everyone. I wanted Dr. Pepper instead of milk, but you said,
Some queen, indeed
AS THE END of Mothers Day drew night, we all climbed into our piamias and headed off to bed, as reluctant to retire as we were to arise earlier that day. We wore heavy clothing, we weary from your day of honor, to tuck us in and to hear our prayers.
We mumbled, "Dear God thank you for everything that is good and for mothers day and for mothers." And then, "Good night mom i hope you have more happy mothers days."
You smiled an exhausted smile and said, "Thank you gery much."
This Mothers Day none of that will happen. This Mothers Day *I* get out of bed around noon, treat myself to a bag of Doritos, then spend the rest of the day inside, as you did, working. But now I am alone and without a moment or two to think of you. Now it's my turn to say, "Thank you very much." I love you, to you.
Hope grows amid tornado's destruction
The road crossing Highway 59 south of Lawrence looked like a tattered war zone Wednesday night. Dozens of cars drove aimlessly up and down County Road 464 as their passengers
quietly in line in front of the pay phone that hangs on the front wall to call friends and report on the shambles.
TRAVELING UP and down Road 464 was a humbling ex-
\ The storm turned onto the road and again found houses along the road. It found a quiet country church, leveled it and neatly pulled back into the clouds.
IN ITS WAKE, the tornado bad lead dozens of splintered trees, fallen power lines, at
least one injured woman and thousands of dollars of damage
For those who had lost virtually all their property, there was a glimmer of hope. Neighbors who had been more for carpets than flashlights carried flashlights, blankets, tools and kind words. They
mended fences to keep farm animals from escaping. They cleared away trees and rubble and talked about rebuilding.
THESE WHO had lost their homes talked quietly among themselves about returning to life. They assess the damage. And an
elderly woman who had watched the destruction from her undamaged home a mile away and their feelings of unsatisfied obsessions.
"My husband just watched the tornado and said, 'My God, those people down south must be losing everything.'"
Jerry Seib
Editorial Writer
At the Quality Oil station,
where Road 464 cuts across
the highway, I don't have
no reason, except to be with
another, to stand shifting
restlessly from foot to foot,
to see if they had been hit.
They had just seen. Some stood
The tornado that had cut a swath of destruction down Road 444 hours earlier had chewed up the homes and spit them out in small sections that lay in ditches or hung from the branches trees. Some of the families had lost barns and cars and pets.
perience. The 10 or so families whose homes had been in the path of the tornado stood at the roadside with trembling lips as relatives consoled them and reporters gently asked questions. The families' homes lav in rubble behind them.
But there had been one that night. The storm seemed to pick its path carefully. It traveled down Road 464 from Lone Star Lake, destroying or damaging four homes before it reached the end of the road, split into two, and one half turned south on the highway until it found another, smaller county road.
But, miraculously, all were still alive, even those who sat beplessly in basements as their homes were sawed off at the foundations just above their heads.
Letters
MANY OF THESE who lost their homes had lived in the area nine miles south of Lawrence most of their lives. So said they had never seen a home near their homes before.
To the editor:
Being very disturbed by Win Wilhelmsson's letter of April 20 concerning the injury to his track and field athletes into American educational institutions, I feel obligated to offer some thoughts.
Winning isn't only thing
Currently, foreign athletes perform no minor role in "national" collegiate track and field competition. The NCAA Tour includes 858 of the available points in the 1976 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships and capturing two-thirds (10.15) of the individual championships in the 1977 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championship American colleges are present in great and talented numbers. Wilhelmelsen cites the success of Nadia Comaneci as "proof" that age is no factor in track and field competitions. Comaneci competed in gymnastic events and failed to put the shot, or compete in any track and field events, where years of religious training is the prerequisite for success that is often enjoyed in the athlete's life.
But perhaps the crux of the issue lies in the purpose of "minor" (read Olympic) sports
in the intercollegiate program.
If their purpose is to develop American athletes, then recruiting foreigners in such an erroneous. Finances in track and field are very limited, yet many scholarships may be awarded to a proven foreign athlete in the Olympian, rather than a promising American pre-star.
Wilhelmse seems to view winning as the sole purpose of any track and field program. With such Lombardian "principles," the finest athlete, regardless of nationality or age, should be recruited. Winning thus evolves into the ultimate athlete. Particular athletes and development of athletes are shunned in favor of recruiting world-class foreign athletes.
Jim Podrebarac
Kansas City, Kan., senior
T
But, as Eric Hoffer wrote, "It is usually safe to predict that the fulfillment of an excessively cherished desire is not likely to still our nagging anxiety." Perhaps this desire for victory will continue override all else in its pursuit of greater increase. Which is a depressing state, for there should be more to sports than utter victory.
Gays misconceived To the editor:
I would like to applaud the letter in the May 3 Kansan that cleared up many of the misconceptions about gays. To that end, I read a book analogy, that all gays are unhappy and living in unstable relationships, is similar to saying that all left-handed gays are not on good childhoods. It has been estimated that one out of every 10 persons is gay. If this is the case, I don't believe that the number of one or two can be generalized to 10 per cent of the population.
Lamborn also stated that he didn't reject homosexuals, but rather had a great deal of
compassion for them. I'm afraid, judging from the tone of that letter, that his compassion borders on pity.
I am presently enrolled in psychology 450, taught by Mike Storms, assistant professor of biology at Morgan Margaret Knowles, Lawrence University student. These two persons have done an excellent job in clearing up misconceptions about homosexuality and in understanding the importance to understand human sexuality. This course has helped me to better understand many of my own feelings as well as those of others. I strongly urge Lamborn to believe he'd learn something.
Jan von Unwerth Overland Park senior
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
KANSAN
Published at the University of Kansas daily Audit June 15, 2014 Published at the University of Kansas daily Audit June 15, 2014 June and July eeep except Saturday and Holiday Subscriptions by retail are $1 or $18 Subscription by retail are $1 or $18 a year outside the county. Student subscriptions are a year outside the county. Student subscriptions are a year outside the county.
Editor
Jim Bates
Managing Editor
Greek Hack
Business Manager
Stewart Brannan
Business Manager Janlee Clements