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Wednesday, March 27, 1991 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Lebanese hostages
U.S. should demand return of Western hostages in Lebanon; premier wants release of prisoners
Today there is a good chance that one of many Western hostages in Lebanon is sitting in a hollow, isolated cell clinging to thoughts of family or friends as the only means of keeping some kind of sanity.
Today there is also a good chance that thoughts of the prisoner will not cross the minds of many people living in the Western world.
Unlike the prisoners of war who were captured and released in the Persian Gulf War, the hostages in Lebanon are not prisoners of a formal war. Rather, they are victims of a cold war between the Western world and Middle East nations.
Omar Karami, the premier of Lebanon, recently expressed his interest in releasing six U.S. citizens, three Britons, two Germans and one Italian held in the country. On Sunday, a Beirut daily newspaper printed that the premier wanted the release of the 12 prisoners to be on the front burner for the Lebanese government.
rresident Bush should feel just as obligated to the hostages in Lebanon as he did to the prisoners of war in Iraq. If the U.S. POW's had not yet been released by Saddam Hussein's forces, one only can wonder what kind of pressure U. citizens would be putting on the government to demand their release. It is probably safe to assume the
The Boy Who Cried Wolf-1991
outry of U.S. citizens would keep Bush awake at night.
U. S. citizens should pressure Bush to work for the release of the Western hostages in Lebanon. People are people, and the hostages in Lebanon should not be forgotten just because they are not victims of a romanticized war.
At no other time in President Bush's political career has his diplomatic credibility been so high. Bush should capitalize on the Kuwaiti crisis and work with the Lebanese government to free the hostages.
Carol Krekeler for the editorial board
Alcohol sales
Kansans should be able to buy liquor on Sundays
A new bill going before the Legislature packs about as much punch as a shot of mineral water.
The bill would allow non-alcoholic beer or "near beer" to be sold in grocery and convenience stores on Sundays. The non-alcoholic beer actually contains alcohol, though it is less than 0.5 percent. It is considered a non-alcoholic beverage by federal law.
There is no reason to allow this kind of beer to be sold on Sundays while continuing to ban the sale of beer that contains 3.2 or greater percent alcohol. Cereal malt beverage is cereal malt beverage no matter what percentage of alcohol it contains.
If the proponents of the bill were interested
in the revenue aspects of this bill, then 3.2 and 5 percent beer should have been included.
This may be the first step toward liquor retailers someday being able to sell all forms of alchohol beverages on Sundays.
Many states allow the sale of alcoholic beverages on Sunday.
The Kansan editorial board members are Juli Watkins, Stacy Smith, Brent Maycock, Amy Zamierowski, Melanie Botts, Tiffany Harness, Rod Griffin, Chris Siron, Rich Cornell, Melanie Matthes, Clare McGinn, Elicia Hill, Jennifer Schutz, Debby Myers and Carol Krekeeler.
Other businesses are able to sell their wares Sundays, therefore liquor retailers should have the same opportunity to sell theirs. If the sale of alcohol conflicts with some people's religious principles, then those people don't have to buy alcohol. Just give those who would like to sample the spirits on Sunday the right to do so.
Brent Maycock for the editorial board
Memorabilia yields big profits
Jeff Dolezal strained to see the truck through the cloud of dust it created five miles away.
Even before it arrived, the 11-year-old slammed his money down on the counter of his father's drugstore last week's shipment of baseball cards.
Less than a dollar would buy him more than just cardboard cards. It would bring him closer to his heroes and would allow him to share in their dreams.
Baseball cards and autographs were especially cherished mementos in Dolezla's small, western Kansas town. Dadium was hundreds of miles away.
Today, Dolezel owns a baseball card and nostalgia shop on 23rd Street and still cogently awards oppor-tions to gain new cards or autographs.
But this time it's for profit.
It is no longer a child's bobby when a 13-year-old boy is taken to court in Illinois because he accidently bought a car with his parents' money of $1,200 because of a clerk's error.
The once innocent hobby of collecting photographs and signatures, which would later be treasured and saved in scrapbooks, has become big business. Such things now passed the flicker of the past as keepsakes but as investments.
Rob
Wheat
* Guest columnist
It's no longer out of love for a player that kids demand that the star sign dozens of items in much the same way that they were designed for the floor of the stock market.
A football autographed by Bo Jackson can be bought only for about $150. But last week, basketball star Wren Grettek had to pay almost half a million dollars for the rare Honus Wagner base ball card.
It's no longer in pursuit of a dream when a few professional autograph dealers recruit kids to obtain signatures for them, arming the children with lies about sick brothers they have in the hospital.
There are even new rules to the collecting game: Don't have the player sign it specifically to you, but don't and don't let too many people touch it.
Why? You'll destroy the card's resale value.
Better save the autograph in a safety deposit box at your local bank
How much would you pay for an autograph? How about your life?
so you can exchange it later for a new car or a college education.
Last summer, a magazine article reported, Oakland's *a* star *Jose Canseco* was signing autographs outside of Arlington Stadium when a man in a white shirt was railing by crazed fans hoping to a glimpse of the famous hitter.
The boy began to turn blue before a few sportswriters finally noticed and hurriedly forced the crowd back.
Unfortunately, it now seems that athletes are getting caught up in this perverted monopoly game, charging fans at card shows anywhere from $5 to $10 to sign a hat, poster or baseball card.
Part of the reason they do this is to discourage the few fanatics who pester them at hotel lobies at 3 a.m. or bother them at their homes, but this is not the case for former Cincinnati Reds star Pete Rose.
In his first card show since he was released from prison, Rose happily signed everything put in front of him three hours = for $20 autograp
Everthing, that is, except for base ball bats. They cost $50.
Rob Wheat is an Overland Park senior majoring in journalism.
War spirit doesn't dispel problems at home
Since the beginning of Operation Desert Storm in January, President Bush's overall popularity rating has soared. The latest results show that his popularity is still in the mid-80 percent range and that his approval rating on foreign policy issues is above 90 percent.
However, as people realize we are entering a steep economic recession, Bush's popularity in domestic and especially in economic issues has declined. The approval rating for his economic policy now stands at 42 percent.
Have these problems been noticed in the past? Yes. The budget was in trouble long before Desert Storm occurred. We've had a serious trade deficit for years. Unemployment was rising before the 2nd Airborne flew
Why the sudden split opinion about Bush? It's probably because people are no longer swept up in the storm of patriotism that co-existed with Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm. Now that the euphoria of war has faded, a lot of people are noticing other problems that, strangely enough, were there long before Saddam Hussein sent his troops into Kuwait.
to Saudi Arabia.
The sad truth is that the problems we face now are the same ones we faced when George Bush came into office, when Saddam invaded Kuwait and when allied forces began Desert Storm attacks. Only in Iraq, from its war victory high, we find that these problems have been magnified.
Congress was glad to support this war, but now it is bickering about how to pay for it. There is even disagreement about where in the budget the cost should be placed. And almost no one in Congress wants to the one to cut financing for the important program to pay for the war.
The main culprit for the blooming of old problems stems from the almost tunnel-vision concern for the Persian Gulf War. The main person
behind this move is George Bush. Was he trying to rally U.S. support for our troops and for his New World Order? Certainly. After all, that's one of his main concerns. Is Bush trying to dispel the wimp image? Maybe. That's one problem that people probably never will know. Did Bush use this crisis to direct the public's attention away from such domestic concerns as inflation, unemployment and the federal deficit? I don't know, but I can't help noticing the coincidence.
Some historians have said former President Franklin Roosevelt took advantage of, or even encouraged, United States involvement in World War II as a means of trying to end the last effects of the Great Depression on the U.S. economy. Many wars around the world have occurred at times when governments were having economic trouble. These wars supposedly get economies moving again. But that has yet to happen this time.
One other interesting point is Bush's popularity. Strong when he first entered office, it had been declining steadily until last August.
'The sad truth is that the problems we face now are the same ones we faced when George Bush came into office,'
It increased when our first troops went over to the Gulf but started dropping again. Then, the day after allied troops began the war, Bush's popularity hit an all-time high. Is this the reason we went to war? Not officially, but the coincidence shouldn't be overlooked.
Waving flags and Desert Storm rhetoric will not solve the savings red ribbons cannot finance the budget or mangle up the trade deficits.
Patrick Brungardt is a Leavenworth senior majoring in political science.
One thing is certain, though. As the euphoria of victory wears off, the public is beginning to realize just how many problems we have and how they have increased during the past few months.
Other Voices
Minorities increase
The figures for the 1990 census are now out, and they have many observers buzzing about the size of their country in the nation's ethnic makeup.
Non-Hispanic whites continue to be the predominant group, but whereas they were 80 percent of the population 10 years ago, they are now 75 percent. Minorities increased their share from 20 percent to 25 percent, primarily because of shifting immigration patterns. African-Americans experienced relatively modest growth; but with 12 percent of the population, they remain the largest minority group. However, Hispanics are catching up rapidly, now constituting 9 percent of the decade (a doubling) was among Asians, who are now 3 percent of the population. And American Indians are nearly 1 percent.
From the Providence (R.I.) Sunday Journal
We are concerned that civil wars and intervention by neighboring countries may divide Iraq and turn it into another Lebanon. If civil wars expand, it is possible that the country may be divided in two parts. This part will be ruled by the Kurds, the middle part by the Hussein administration and the southern part by the Shites.
It's up to the Iraqi people to decide how they will post-Hussein Iraq politics. The internal disturbances may be the labor pains needed to create a new system. However, turning Iraq into another Lebanon must be avoided by all means. Such a situation will not only expose Iraq to the danger of not being able to maintain its territory, but it will also add a new factor of instability to the balance of power in the area.
From the Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo.
Plea for unity in Iraq
CHRIS SIRON
Editor
RICH CORNELL
TOM EBLEN
Loco Locals
by Tom Michaud