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Thursday, March 3, 1977
University Daily Kansan
Comment Opinions on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Kansas or the School of Journalism
Freedom above taste
Once again, freedom of the press is making state and national headlines.
Here in Kansas, there is the case of Wichita State University's erotic film festival last month, at which former Attorney General Vern Mellor, acting in his new role of Sedgwick County District Attorney, seized a film he alleged was obscene.
Nationally, there is the case of Huster magazine publisher Larry Flynt, who was convicted on obscenity charges in Ohio last month.
Both cases involve the traditional question: Are there limits to freedom of speech and the press?
SOME PEOPLE SAY yes. They say freedom of speech and the press shouldn't extend to pornography and other things offensive to the general public. They say the Founding Fathers meant for freedom of the press to promote political discussion—not
Once limits to the First Amendment are established, there is no telling where those limits will stop. An action taken against obscene photographs well may be used as a precedent later by someone taking action against political dissent.
FREEDOMS ARE TOO precious to take chances with.
Obscenity could be outlawed only if everyone agreed on what is obscene. Fat chance of that happening. The definition of
obscenity varies from country to country and state to state, from city to city and person to person. It also varies from year to year.
At present, the Supreme Court believes that obscurity should be defined by the community it affects. Most of the time, this has been taken to mean the town or, at most, the state. Flyn'ts magazine, for example, didn't fit into the community standards of "Devil in Miss Jones" didn't fit the community standards of Wichita—or at least of Vern Miller.
THE SUPREME COURT theory just doesn't work. In the case of the WSU film festival, the community could just as easily be defined as the college campus—which has different community standards than Wichita as a whole. And they are also highly distributed magazine, the community could just as easily be the United States.
This would also be true if people tried to (and they will try to) apply Wichita's or any community's communication other than other instituted magazines and nationally broadcast television shows.
All that people who detest X-rated movies and pornographic magazines can do is to refrain from seeing them or buying them, and to urge others to do the same. They are not locked in a free society, especially when they might waken an important freedom.
Relax, dear friends. Alger Hass has left back so you can once again get your kids out of the closet, secure in the house, no hint of Communism has permeated their unpopulated minds.
Hiss was one of the rising stars in the government in the late 40s, until he was convicted of robbing a bank and denying that he allegedly passed national security secrets to Communists 11 years earlier. He was at KU Monday and went on to break about the Mckardvie era.
It was an era in which he played an integral part, not only in indirectly creating a sense of paranoia among Americans that still subliminally exists today, but also in furthering the goal of getting Richard Nixon, Senator, Richard Nixon, who patience and persistence were finally rewarded by Hiss' conviction.
WHERETHER GUILTY or not, the Alger Hiss trial and the subsequent McCarthy withhunts marked a phase in America's history, the results of which have never been fully erased.
Communism still is a dirty word that few Americans try to comprehend, preferring instead to associate Communism with Russia, and Russia with injustice and lack of democracy.
The crusade to warn children against the Russian threat is launched at an early formative
Tolerance prevents extremism
That's what Myron Tum-
Only recently, however, was it learned that the squealing little critters had a taste for booze.
Pigs—the four-legged kind—are notorious consumers of just about anything—mid, sume, lunch, dinner. But their grimy little hootes on.
THE NATIF PIECE netted its author $1,736. For what? Apparently to stimulate To each his own, as they say.
Research over his head
(RNA)s for the egg yolk protein vitellogenin."
This one's a personal favorite of mine: A grant given by the
Bill Sniffen
Editorial Writer
Meson of the University of Missouri is serving his 24 pigs either grain alcohol or beer.
state
feel thats "if federal movies are involved in these silly kinds of things, I believe we could use ice cream giving alcohol to pigs, and whatever else . . . they want."
TUMBLESON CONTENDS his boozing pigs serve to confirm "deeply serious facts of life about alcoholism," he writes. "They've been born to alcohol mothers suffer severe withdrawal symptoms
uology are complex and overwhelming, Second, the stress placed on educating, both consciously and subconscionably, the nation against potential imminent dangers can only harm d珍t dextra and to less peace and to underriding.
THE IDEAL OF modern democracy, itself as much a loaded term as Communism, is that political authority springs from the people, who act freely to choose their representative
And Missouri State Sen. Harry Wiggins, D-Kansas City, is "deeply disturbed" about the whole thing.
call it the HEBC. (It gets a little tiring typing high energy bubble chamber.)
But a rule wouldn't be a rule unless there was an exception: "The proposed investigation shall consist of: Genetic response to LLR (whatever that is) and in levels of LH (who that is) in inbred strains of mice and their crosses. . . . 'I left out Part II, an additional 30 words 'gonadotropins' and 'pinkeye' masterpiece netted only $400. SURELY SOMEBODY."
In practice there are discords between the ideal and reality that are largely dependent on
The argument doesn't end there. Nor is the debate confined to MU. At the University of Kansas, thousands of dollars a year from both private and government funds are doled out to students in other states merely absurd to the ridiculous.
Consider this abstract: "In order to probe the mechanisms of control of gene expression, we will study the response of the wreckage to a treatment by juvenile hormone. We will focus on the synthesis of the messenger
National Science Foundation of $139,800 for the study of "High energy interactions using bubble chambers."
You see, I really don't know what a high energy bubble chamber is. For all I know, it could be some kind of radiation. But Heaven help the researcher if that's all it is. For, judging from the stack of about 20 research abstracts in front of me, the more complex and lengthy the experiment, the more money awarded.
I'm not knocking research; it certainly has its place. And what better place than a coocktail lesson? The legged laughed tells us about the two-legged variety we are already all too familiar with! Will the stimulation of a cockroach's fat body help kidnappers or kill their kitchen? Can the enjoyment of porno flicks be enhanced by first placing each member of the audience in a high energy environment?
r historian Richard Hofstadher refers to such "education" as pseudo-conservatism, a product of America's rootlessness, search for secure identity and scramble for status. To help us recognize the creation of innocent scapegoats.
On and on they go, the big bucks for the big research. Projects with obscure titles and even more obscure purposes.
For American democracy, indeed for world democracy, to be a continually workable force in and concern for the people of nations living under all shades of the ideological spectrum is necessary. Fear, irritationality and ignorance can often lead to unpredictable and cause and loss of customer social and political control.
economic and political variables. The average American plays but a minor and passive role in the molding of opinion and often sees no essential differences in the policies of the two major parties.
Education, in all its forms,
has a duty to promote skills and
provide exposure to a wide
range of political, philosophical
and religious ideas. Only then
can each individual hope for
a true and realistic
understanding of his own beliefs.
SO WHY CALL a shower
massage device a shower
massage device when you can
somewhere knows exactly what all the money is being used for. Somebody can explain all the jargon. As for me, I couldn't tell you. I was a stimulated cocktail from a lethargic one. And if a door-to-door salesman ever offered me the chance of a lifetime, bargain-busters buy of an attorney or police officer. Or give in and buy it.
Until my salesman comes, I think I'll station myself supyine on a sleep-inducing implement pustitary-gonadal amnesta.
age and frequently leads to misperceptions, vaguely defined dangers and irrational fears.
LAST WEEK, FOR instance,
former Miss America Debra
Barnes Miles spoke to eighth
graders in Lawrence at a
"democracy-promoting" event sponsored by the Sertoma Club. The children's responses to her talk included "if never did like you," a sort of hard to believe, the Democrats are that restrictive."
This fear of the unknown isn't found only on the side of the right-wing. It also finds foundation in its wings' wengers whose abhorrence of
Paul Addison
Editorial Writer
Taken to an extreme, it is this kind of anti-russian propa-
sure that can so easily breed elitist, and lead to membership in
conservatism and fascism is just as complete.
just as complete.
WHILE I WOULD be one of the last to praise the merits of the Russian Communist system, several observations are in order. First, Communism should never be associated with democracy. The differences between this form, the Chinese form, Eurocommunism and Maritime Leibniz
right-wing organizations which vent their anger and ignorance on ethnic and minority groups.
"Birth of a Nation," vastly popular at the time of its release, represents some of the most blatantly racist film-making of this country. The movie denigrates black women as monsters and roles, a view no longer tenable in this society. Whether consciously or not, such movies only serve to reinforce opinions
SUA is certainly to be commended for its efforts to highlight the role of the arts in human development through its sustained program, "Accent the Arts." However, I am deeply interested in Griffith's movie, *W. Griffith's movie*, "Birth of a Nation," as an example of fine film-making. Even though "Birth of a Nation" does represent advanced techniques in cinematography for its day, the social implications of the film are more than that movie up as a fine example of the highest achievements of the movie industry.
As a further note of some historical significance, through the efforts in the motion picture industry of films like 'Birth of a Nation' and 'The Shape of Water' systematically forced to work in roles (when they could find work) as servants, slaves, or in other demeaning and degrading positions, to the exclusion of other types of roles, until the late 1980s. In the late 50s and early 60s, Certainly a sorror note for the state.
'Birth of a Nation' stereotypes blacks
To the editor:
about a segment of American society, about a particular racial group, which were not at the time the movie was made and which are not true today.
Sponsorship of movies of that sort only helps to continue the view, of those who have had AFI, any direct contact with black Americans, or American ampersand are more Steppin Fetchits. I find it difficult to believe SUA intended to foster a love of film and program. "Accent the Arts"
Thomas Settle Torrance, Calif. graduate student
of the arts in this country, particularly the state of the most accessible artform, the movies.
Your editorial on taxes (Feb.
28) moved me to drag out the old portable typewriter to attempt to enlighten you on the basics of the U.S. federal tax system.
Marriages taxing To the editor:
So you feel that single people
always assail windmills." If discrimination exists, it is against married couples. And the proposed reforms that you cite won't change that bit; if anything, singles are getting an education at a lower centage rate, they will receive a greater standard deduction.
Ruth Goring Stewart
On Feb. 28 you printed an article concerning a suit filed against a member of the KU basketball team. To say the news is possible taste, I found it offensive that a newspaper of such generally high quality as the Kansas would demean its readers' intelligence by assuming that this kind of information the sensationalist need would satisfy the reader's need for news.
Lawrence graduate student
Zionism pervasive To the editor:
"Network," a movie nominated for 10 Oscars now being shown in Lawrence, once again
heavy fighting, making possible their safe evacuation. The PLO was publicly commended and thanked for its concern for American lives by former President Ford.
Zionists must resort to deception and trickery because they know that the existence of their state depends on large scale American economic and military support. Billions of dollars have been used to trick troubled economy. Military hardware has been taken from the American active reserve to
Story in bad taste
To the editor:
Readers Respond
are discriminated gainst by our government because President Carter proposes to raise their standard deduction to $2,400 while married couples' deductions will be raised to $2,800? Have you really looked at the tax form? When you seem to realize is that the $2,800 is to be split between two individuals, while that paltry $2,400 goes completely to one person.
I was married last August. I nearly crooked this January when my husband and I received our Short Forms in the mail and I discovered that the government people for getting married. My single friends can take a standard deduction of $1,700; my husband and I get $2,100 to split between us, whether we file jointly or not. We do calculations on the form can be worked out quickly. I figured out that if we were still single, we would be required to pay $201 and $381 respectively for 1976. Our being married meant the government $697 between the two of us. That's a difference of $215—a big chunk of money for us.
We like being married and we think it's worth $215 or more per year in extra taxes. But please, think before you write—or at least before you put your money into a retirement plan. You think you had adopted the integrated *humanities* Program's slogan: "May you
makes clear the extent to which Zionist forces in the United States seek to influence American public opinion against Arab nations. The film contains numerous clips, news programs, making accusations that Arabs are responsible for raising the price of oil and in doing so, harming the American economy; and that Arab financial interests are making huge undesirable investments. This is a prime example of what George Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said two years ago when he exposed the fact that Zionist leaders demand the media and banks in this country facts are that Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates refused to join the other OPEC nations, including the non-Arab nations of Venezuela, Iran, Nigeria and Indonesia, in their 15 per cent holdings to only a 5 per cent increase in the interest of the American economy.
Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have shown their concern for the welfare of the United States by buying more than $1 billion of Iran's oil, their low yields, to help stabilize the American economy. Egypt too has shown its friendship to the United States by expelling Soviet advisers and cooperating with Henry Kissinger. The PLO agreed last month that Americans in Beirut by protecting them during the
The time has come to recognize the racist nature of the Zionist philosophy and to recognize the desire of Zionists to cause a rift between Arab countries and the United States, to avoid an economic, military and political support to Israel, and to receive the hand of friendship offered by the Arab people.
be sent to Israel, to such a large extent that General Brown expressed his fear that the US could be in danger of inadequate military hardware in the event of a conventional war.
Shawkat Hammoudeh Palestine graduate student
A newspaper has a responsibility to provide information relevant to the general public interest. You abused this responsibility by violating an academic or legal principle in the process discredited both your paper and a well-known student. Was your article either relevant or of general public interest? I feel it was nothing more than malicious gossip. I enjoy KU basketball. I am often criticized for my unnecessary read about aspects of the players' personal lives, which should best remain private.
In printing this article, the Kansas staff displayed an image of a man's face with hope that in the future you will use more discretion in deciding what is news and what is simply damaging and trashy jour-
Sue Parcell Columbus, Ohio, junior
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