4
Tuesday. November 30. 1993
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VIEWPOINT
Charging for Vespers defeats event's purpose
Christmas comes but once a year. And so does Vespers. But this year students will have to pay $5 a ticket to see the Vespers performances at the Lied Center.
This may be a disappointment for many who have attended this event for free in the past. And now some students may decide not to attend because $5 is too much to ask.
Tickets have to be issued to maintain crowd control at the center. The $5 fee will cover the cost of tickets and programs, and part of the money will also be used to for music scholarships for students.
The alumni of the University should make donations to Vespers. It's a good cause, and KU alumni have a good reputation for coming through with help.
It is a suggestion that not only the alumni donate for this cause but that three performances instead of two in one day may reduce ticket costs to $3 a ticket, which would be more reasonable for students.
The head of the department of music and dance, Stephen Anderson, said that donations at Vespers had gone down in the past years for unknown reasons which decreased the number of scholarships.
The Vespers tradition of more than 60 years should continue at this University with wonderful performances and more donations because Christmas would not be Christmas without any presents.
And Vespers will not be Vespers without any donations.
MUNEERA NASEER FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS:
DAVID BURGETT, J.R. CLAIRBORNE, CHRISTINA CORNISH, CARSON ELROD, TOM GRELINGER, MANNY LOPEZ, COLLEEN McCAIN, TERRILYN MCCORMICK, MUNEERA NASEEK, KIRK REDMOND, CHRIS REEDY, MIKE SILVERMAN, EISHA TIERNEY, KC TRAUER AND DAVID WANEK
NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
APEC could be as tough as NAFTA was to pass
If you liked NAFTA, you'll love APEC.
The North American Free Trade Agreement directly affects only Canada, the United States and Mexico, and it has introduced countless Americans to the age-old argument between those who favor trade barriers and those who oppose them.
But the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation form, to give APEC its formal name, takes in 15 Pacific Rim nations, some of them as far apart, politically and geographically, as the United States and China.
President Clinton has had a tough time convincing the American public and especially congressional Democrats that NAFTA will be good for the United States, even though all of this country's Nobel laureates in economics and all of its living former presidents have endorsed the treaty.
At this stage, the hard sell on APEC is aimed not at the American public, but at the leaders of the organization, most of whom have their own agendas and timetables for economic development and ... their own worries and fears about helping a rival gain the upper hand.
Some APEC members fear that President Clinton (supported by
Canada, Australia and New Zealand) seeks to export Western idealism as well as Western products. Human rights, as we understand them, don't carry much weight in places such as Malaysia and Singapore, where the priority is on economic rather than political advancement.
Additionally, some smaller Pacific nations fret that China, Hong Kong and Taiwan may be able to gang up on them, economically, if they find a way to work together. Taiwanese already are deeply involved in mainland Chinese investments, even though they are technically illegal ...
APEC may be just a comet streaking across the economic sky, destined to burn out and be forgotten, or it may become a bright, shining fixture in that same sky, guiding the world to better times and greater political stability.
If it is to become that bright star though, it will surely take many years of hard work and negotiations among the 15 beneficiaries. In time, APEC could be as familiar an acronym as NATO. That would be a welcome development.
TAMPA TRIBUNE
TAMPA, FLA.
KANSAN STAFF
KC TRAUER. Editor
JOE HARDER, CHRISTINE LAUE Managing editors
TOM EBLEN General manager, news adviser
TOM EBLEN
BILL SKEET, Systems coordinator
AMY CASEY Business manager
Editors
Assistant to the editor ... J.R. Cairbone
News ... Stacy Friedman
Editorial ... Terrilyn McCormill
Campus ... Ben Grove
Sports ... Kristi Fogler
Photo ... Kip Chin, Renee Kneeber
Features ... Ezra Wolfe
Graphics ... John Paul Fogel
AMY STUMBO Retail sales manager
JEANNE HINES Sales and marketing adviser
Business Staff
Campus sales mgr ...Ed Schoger
Regional sales mgr ...Jennifer Perrier
National sales mgr ...Jennifer Evenson
Co-op sales mgr ..Blythe Focht
Production mgr ...Jennifer Blowe
**Letters should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 200 words. They must include the writer's signature, name, address and telephone number. Writers affiliated with the University of Kansas must include class and hometown, or faculty or staff position.**
**Guest columns should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 700 words. The writer will be**
Marketing director ... Shelly McConnell
Creative director ... Brian Fusco
Classified mgr. ... Gretchen Kottenleinch
The Kansas reserves the right to reject or edit letters, guest columns and cartoons. They can be mailed or brought to the Kansas newsroom, 111 Staffler-Flint Hall.
Father's illness cuts to the heart of health care worries, reform
EDITORIAL EDITOR
My father was admitted to the hospital last weekend for chest pains. He doesn't have health insurance anymore, and I don't just worry about his health.
On his 45th birthday, my father had a severe heart attack. Memories of that day and the following weeks appear to me like a series of still pictures. My father reaching out to me in pain as his heart struggled to keep beating. The tubes that endlessly snaked in and out of him. My mother's nervous hands clinging to each other for comfort. And the tears that spilled without warning as I struggled with the possibility of losing my father. The $125,000 bill meant nothing. We had
It is the $5,000 tests, the $750 medicine and the $1,000-a-day hospital rooms that worry me. It is the possibility that a third heart attack could financially devastate my parents that keeps me up at night.
Two years ago, my father was insured. My parents paid the bill every month assuming that when it was needed, all our emergencies would be covered.
The next several months strained my family. My father was learning to live with his broken heart by quitting his high-stress job, eating healthier and exercising. My sister and I were facing the realization that parents don't live forever. And my mother became the breadwinner. Life was difficult, but we coped. In fact, sometimes we almost forgot it ever happened.
But it wasn't always that way.
And an emergency came Nov. 4, 1991.
Then it happened again. Eighteen months later, my father had another heart attack. It wasn't as severe. He only stayed in the hospital a week and a half. But emotionally it was just as difficult. And I wanted to scream in
And it did.
health insurance. And that is what it is for — to give assurance as life is falling down around you.
frustration. My father was supposed to get better, not worse. He had changed his lifestyle. But it seemed all the steps we took to change our lives to help Dad were in vain. After his second heart attack, we realized we weren't in control. We were helpless against the organ that keeps my father alive.
This time the bill was only $25,000.
Again we didn't worry. That's what health insurance is for. Or so we thought.
Shortly after my father came home, his health insurance rates were increased 130 percent. We could no longer afford to pay the premiums that had been subsidized by his employer. But we weren't worried. We assumed he could just switch over to my mother's insurance. Simple as that.
And the company agreed to cover him. He is covered for any illness or condition except one—his heart. The insurer said he has a pre-existing condition. This means he has a condition that desperately requires health insurance. However, to the company covering his heart costs, it doesn't make business sense. He simply is a loss. Therefore his heart-related bills
aren't paid for.
Last weekend, my father was admitted to the hospital for chest pains. Luckily, this time it was only a virus. But we live with the reality that next time we might not be so lucky. We live on edge knowing that we cannot control my father's heart or the health insurance industry. We are still helpless.
I now understand that health care is a basic need. It is as fundamental to our lives as food and shelter. However, you would never know by examining the injustice of our health care system. The United States is the only highly developed country that does not offer some kind of basic health care to its citizens. And it is the only country in the Western world to discriminate against the sick when providing care.
Health care reform is desperately needed. You may be tempted to believe that just because you are young and healthy or because you have insurance that you are safe. But that is what we thought. And we were wrong.
Terriyll McCormick is a Kansas City, Mo...
senior manager in Journalism.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
KU should join Haskell in opposing trafficway
It is not often that a university community is faced with such a historic opportunity as is presented by the current struggle for justice by Haskell Indian Nations University's opposition to the South Lawrence Trafficway.
The opposition by Haskell to the South Lawrence Trafficway is directly related to its educational goals and the special spiritual relationship to the earth of its students. An understanding of this relationship would be wonderful to have, but is not necessary for respect and constitutional protection. The construction of the trafficway will destroy irrevocably the worship sites on Haskell property and will infringe greatly upon the educational goals of the University by filling 12 acres of near pristine type-B wetlands of biomass and biodiversity.
It is hoped that the students and administrators at KU are thoughtful enough to avoid this maligned development. This is not to say that I am opposed to the development of Campus West but that this community and KU must agree today the full cost of such development, which at least includes not placing the traficway in any alignment between Haskell and the Wakarusa River.
Lane Jorgensen Syracuse junior
Reader needs be aware of track performance
As a member of both the Kansas cross country and track teams, I am glad to see that Lawrence residents are interested in our performances.
Boulder, Colo.
As for the men, the cross country team has managed a top-16 finish in three of the last five years, placing as high as 10th.
We athletes feel no need to make excuses or explain ourselves, but I ask Mr. Kassell to consider the difficulty of competing against foreign athletes who are often much older and against programs that, unfortunately, do not observe the rules as strictly as KU.
Perhaps Mr. Kassell is not aware that the Lady Jayhawks qualified for the NCAA Championships or that the women's track team finished second at the Big Eight meet last spring in
Kaarl Kassell asks in his letter to the Kansan, "Why can't KU compete in track anymore?"
Mr. Kassell, I appreciate your interest in KU track. Our first indoor meet is Jan. 15. Hope to see you there! Ladd McClain
Overland Park senior
Fair-weather fans should stop criticizing teams
Headline: "Students Watch Notre Dame Game, Ignore Kansas." This is front page news?
The football team struggled this year because of injuries and the loss of key seniors and all the Kansan can do is take pot shots and kick it while it's down. Who cares when students found out the score of the Kansas-Colorado game?
Calling the year a "dismal season" is embarrassing, especially because it was written by a fellow student. Even the Kansas City sports writers are more sympathetic toward the team and don't write irrelevant, irresponsible articles like this one.
I cheer for the University of Kansas because it's my school and I like football. It doesn't matter that, "it's hard to get excited when it doesn't seem like there's much to get excited about." Did any of the interviewees go to the Nebraska game? If we had such a "dismal" team, how did we come within a two point conversion of beating (the) number six team in the country?
A valid criticism of KU fans is whenever the football team loses or starts doing poorly they respond, "wait until basketball season." When faced with this I always reply, "those
Those same people will be the first ones out of Allen Field House if, God forbid, the basketball team begins to lose. Look for them: Chesley Dohl will be leading the pack.
John Percival
Lenexa senior
aren't KU fans, they are fair-weather fans who jump on the bandwagon of any team who is winning."
Death penalty is only cold-blooded murder
I just couldn't believe my eyes when I read the "Viewpoint" of Nov. 17 about capital punishment. It was not just the idea of defending the death penalty, which I consider nothing but legal, cold-blooded murder, but the arguments that really scared me. By the way it was written, this article looked to me like a nice fascist pamphlet or a beautiful column from *Pravda* in its worst years. Here are a few examples of quotes from the article:
The death penalty "... would serve as a deterrent to violent crime if it were carried out more efficiently" as "immates on death row ... sometimes ... die of natural causes while still in prison." Well, what about lynching? Is it quick and efficient enough?
"This would also dramatically reduce the problem of prison overcrowding ... " Gosh, Hitler would be harvy to read this one!
"It is imperative that we, as Kansens, support it." What does being a Kansan have to do with supporting death penalty? This is a deeply moral issue and has absolutely nothing to do with our homeland or our national pride.
The death penalty "... is the only sure way to prevent some criminals from committing their crimes again." No, it is not. Just don't let them out of prison. That will do.
cally much less likely that a white person who has killed an African American or a Hispanic is condemned to death. At least 80 innocent people have been executed in the United States in this century. The mere possibility of executing an innocent should drive us all crazy.
I would finally like to point out some further considerations. Most of the executed criminals are African American or Hispanic that have killed a white man. It is statisti-
Finally, the United States is the only western democracy where capital punishment is practiced. In my opinion, a country cannot consider itself civilized if the death penalty is allowed. The roots of the problem are very deep. Effective gun control, education against violence and encouraging self-responsibility are the only effective solutions to prevent crime. The death penalty is just revenge.
Textbook out of line to preach economics
Francisco Poyato-Ariza Spain graduate student
I am writing to bring your attention to yet another instance of political correctness and historical revision in the University's classrooms.
It involves the textbook "Elements of Sociology Through Theory" by Daryl Evans which is used in Sociology 104. On page 83 of this tone Evans teaches the following:
For example, a person would have to have the brain of a newt to still be trying to push the ameliorative aspects of "trickle down economics" for the working class. Trickle down economics didn't work for poor and middle-class people and it made a lot of rich people a lot richer, and it was based upon greed and a malignant indifference for people in need.
It is clear that Evans's contention is extremely biased and should not be taught as fact in a classroom environment. This should not be tolerated at a University which claims to encourage a free exchange of ideas and has no place at our supposed "institution of higher learning."
Derek Shirk
Job senior
Iola senior
---