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Friday, February 22, 1991 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Save the wetlands
Congress has chance to prove it is eco-aware should buy Kansas wetlands, preserve for future
Congress needs to act now, before it is too late.
In eastern Kansas, 4,000 acres of wetlands are for sale. Midland Land and Cattle Co. has expressed its interest in purchasing the property. The corporation wants the land for coal mining and other developmental projects, such as establishing an industrial park and building a hunting and fishing club.
Twenty environmental groups, along with the state and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, have asked Congress to purchase the land, known as the Marais des Cygnes wildlife area, as part of a proposed $964 million federal project that would incorporate the land into a larger, national wildlife refuge system.
Congress should buy the land. If we allow the destruction of another delicate ecosystem, we invite our own destruction. Not only do wetlands provide homes for wildlife, they control floods, are vital for water storage and recharge the water table.
It is common sense. The wetlands are irreplaceable. The world shakes its head with
concern and disgust as rainforests rapidly disappear and a black blob of oil eats its way down the Persian gulf and people wonder how they will deal with the consequences.
The United States cannot afford to pass up this opportunity to preserve its share of nature's precious commodity, wildlife. If Congress takes action now, it can prevent disastrous, permanent consequences. What is done now cannot be undone later. Congress should make this decision before its only remaining option is to formulate an apology to future generations.
The Marais des Cygnes land obviously offers a developer great monetary wealth, but at the expense of the area's ecological richness. The land sings with life. It is the home of many reptiles and amphibians on the state's endangered species list. It also is an acknowledged feeding stop for ducks and geese. If Congress does not buy the land, it is essentially signing a death warrant.
The Marais des Cygnes land is unique. An industrial park is not.
Jennifer Schultz for the editorial board
Campus driving
New campus policy would protect pedestrians
Some of the worst traffic snorts in Lawrence happen right here on campus.
As the cars whiz by on Jayhawk Boulevard, it is only a brave soul who dares to cross the street. But now the University has decided to do something about this problem.
A new policy has been proposed to Chancel lor Gene Budig. If it is approved, there will be more restrictive access times for campus cruisers.
Currently the restricted hours for driving on campus are from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. The new hours would be from 7:45 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.
But the most compelling reason to restrict campus access is to reduce the chance of a tragedy occurring in the afternoon.
The additional 15 minutes in the morning would allow extra time for visitors to be assisted by traffic control booth attendants if they had an 8 a.m. meeting.
At 4:20 p.m. students emerge from their classes. At 3:45 p.m. cars start lining up to drive through campus, which turns into a speedway after 4:00 p.m.
The change would be a good move for the University. If approved by Budig, the plan would be implemented by August 1.
■ 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 Schultz, Debbie Myers and Carol Krekeler.
Elicia Hill for the editorial board
FLAXMAN university Daily Kansan
Fostering vicious competition among children is abhorrent
Just when I thought I was immune to being shocked by news articles about twisted hate crimes, a recent story of an attempted murder in Texas made my head spin.
Here's the story: A Channelview, Texas, woman named Wanda Webb Holloway stands accused of trying to help her 13-year-old daughter make the junior high school cheerleading squad by attempting to hire someone to kill a rival girl's mother. According to local police, Holloway thought her daughter's rival was be so distraught over her mother's death that she would pull out of the tryouts. Holloway was arrested when an acquaintance notified police she was looking for a hit man.
This was by far the craziest thing I had ever heard. The fact that someone actually could think of such a heinous murder, much less attempt to kill it, definitely indicates that something has gone awry in our society.
Carol Krekeler
Staff columnist
Children are innocent in my opinion. It is their environment, particularly their parents, who shape their thoughts, values and actions for the rest of their lives. Although most parents today will say they want
their children to grow up to be caring individuals, gross competition between adults would testify to the fact that they would rather have the "cool" kids that other children envy. In some sad way, parents think that this reflects on them. If their children are the most popular in school, they must be great parents. This kind of thought does have some amount of reason in it. No one wants their child to be the most popular in school in school. But at the same time, adults have gone way too far to ensure their children's popularity.
The effects of parents' rivalry on children easily can be observed in any public school in the nation, preschool to college. Children form cliques of friends at an early age and become well-dressed some and well-dressed immediately have the advantage. They, by the nature of their looks, automatically
are "cool" and have the power to nickname the other children who are not. They often take control of the classroom or student government at an early age.
Children of poor parents are doomed from the start. These parents, many who rely on the social welfare system for proper food and clothing for their children, cannot even attempt to play the rivalry games of middle-class parents. Their children are persecuted by other members of society, they cannot afford to have the material things needed to be popular.
News about a mother wanting to kill another mother for her child's benefit should not be taken lightly. Many students now in college will be
Let's teach our children by example instead of making half-hearted attempts to teach them about kindness while stabbing each other in the back. Let's teach children to abhor distorted competition and vicious rivalry by first abhorring it ourselves.
Carol Krekeler is a St. Louis senior majoring in journalism.
Deaths of Iraqi civilians reveal the true horrors of war
I took a month, but U.S. TV viewers finally got a look at what real war looks like.
Not briefing generals calmly reciting sorie statistics, sleek firefighter planes roaring into the wild blue yonder, golden rockets lighting up the city while a display of bridges that suddenly turn into something like ink blots.
This time it is the real stuff: dead bodies of men, women and children, charred beyond recognition and laid on pavement; the faces contorted with grief; young girls burnt skin peeling from their arms.
It was a tragic mistake, our military says, and I don't doubt it. We have nothing to gain by intentionally killing civilians. If anything, it's bad public relations because much of the people who fight say that they are the bad guys.
Any Englishman, Russian, German, Frenchman, Japanese, Chinese. Italian or Pole who is 50 years old or older knows what it is like to huddle in a basement when bombs are falling. They know how it feels
On the other hand, the rest of the world probably will be less shocked than most Americans. That's because just about every major country, and many of the small ones, know firsthand about the misery of war. They've had it in their own back vards.
Mike
Royko
Syndicated
columnist
when enemy tanks roll into their cities; when fathers, mothers, brothers, uncles, aunts or their own children are dragged from the rubble. Iranians know. So do Israelis, Cambodians and Vietnamese. They all have experienced it, at each other's hands, or at our hands.
They know that despite whatever the prevailing international rules of war may say, civilians are going to die. Little children, old men and women and those in between. Bombs and missiles don't discriminate. And high-tech or low-tech, there's really no such thing as a surgical strike. It's more like whacking a butcher's block.
But as Americans, we're fortunate. Since the Civil War, we led sheltered lives. Bombs haven't fallen on our cities. Ships haven't shelled our country. We don't know what it's like to crawl into our homes and that the next one land on us.
Yes, many veterans know what that's like. But they represent a small slice of our population. And even among veterans, the majority
'But as Americans, we're fortunate. Since the Civil War, we've led sheltered lives. Bombs haven't fallen on our cities. Ships haven't shelled our shores. We don't know what it's like to crawl into our basements and pray that the next one won't land on us.'
weren't on the front lines, and most never heard a loud noise.
Maybe that's why so many Americans are quick to talk about kicking ass, getting the job done, showing them who's boss. Sports bar jabber. European don't talk that way. Asians don't count. Many of them are firsthand and understand that when you go to war, there's more to it than kicking ass and getting the job done. They know that there is going to be what we nicely call "collarless damage." Or in simpler terms, dead children, dead men, dead women. They know that bold talk about kicking ass and getting the job done appropriate when a sabbing man is holding the body of his wife or baby in his arms.
Those who have been through it are less inclined to bluster, thump their chests or spout mindless slogans.
They realize that it's not a TV show, a football game or a Stallone movie. It's man's most terrible endeavor and should be viewed solemnly, not like a pep rally or a rousing sales meeting.
Maybe it's because we've been spared war's immediacy that this man called me and said, "Why in the hell do we keep showing that stuff
about those dead people in Iraq over and over again? Who cares? If it was up to me, there'd be 10,000 of them dead."
I have to assume that he's in the minority. I hope he is. If he's not, then maybe they're the bad guys too.
Mike Royko is a syndicated columnist with the Chicago Tribune.
Other Voices
Self-serving Congress
Jack Kemp's empowerment agenda for the poor is widely credited with containing the first new thinking about federal anti-poverty programs in the past 25 years.
Politicians, pundits and academicians on both sides of the ideological divide have endorsed the broad aims of the Department of Housing and Urban Development secretary's plan to give the poor control over their destiny.
Yet, Kemp has struggled to get Congress to accept even small portions of his program to let residents of public housing projects choose their own houses and apartments.
It appears that many in Congress simply refuse to abandon the poverty industry. The poverty industry has created legions of well-paid bureaucrats and helped nurture a dependency culture that politicians regularly exploit.
From the News, Greenville S.C.
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Home Remedies
TANNER,DOTHISMANY
PEOPLE NORMALLY
SLEEP OUT FOR Δ
BASKET BALL GAME?
WE BRING SPACE HEATERS
TELEVISION, RADIO...
SOME SLEEP IN TENTS
AND SOME ROOM IT OUTSIDE...
THE COACH WILL COME
OUT AND VISIT, AND SOMETIMES
HE'LL BRING DOUGH NUTS...
MCWIOO FAY 322