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Friday, February 8, 1991 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Sexism in service
Military prohibits women from active fighting and lessens their chances of promotion in rank
her.
But when a few of more than 20 male allie prisoners of war appeared brutalized as they uttered forced statements on television, the United States was astounded at how the captives had been treated — not at their sex.
20-year-old Michigan woman is presumed captured as a prisoner of war by Iraq. People in the United States are horrified at what a country that regards women as second-class citizens might do to her.
captives had been treated — not in their sex. U.S. citizens must bring their standards of sex equality to the 20th century before we enter the 21st. They should feel equally mortified when fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters are captured or killed while performing their jobs during wartime.
Overreaction at the thought of a female soldier being captured will only increase Saddam Hussein's chances of influencing U.S. opinion about the war if he chooses to display female prisoners on television. It will not lessen the lack of equality women still face in the United States.
The fact that female soldiers will be captured as prisoners of war, will be injured or will die should come as no surprise considering the fact that 27,000 of the U.S. troops in the Persian Gulf are women, and one in 10 U.S. soldiers are women.
Eighty-eight women, mostly nurses, were
imprisoned by the Japanese during World War II. No women were taken prisoner during the Korean War, and two women were captured during Vietnam. During those wars, perhaps the U.S. public believed that a woman's place was in the home, not on the battlefield.
U. S. citizens should focus their concerns on ending discrimination against women in the military and elsewhere in our society. Women will continue to choose military careers. And although they will be barred from combat duty, they will die.
Thousands of women who have consciously chosen the military as a career — for the same reasons many men choose it — have accepted unequal job status by doing so.
But it seems that U.S. attitudes about a woman's "place" haven't advanced any further since those conflicts. The U.S. armed forces perpetuate discrimination.
By using public sentiment about female soldiers as an excuse, military rules were established that prohibit women from serving in combat units. So although being barred from fighting obviously does not protect women from injury, capture or death, they are banned from promotions. Combat duty is a rung in the ladder of military rank.
Debbie Myers for the editorial board
And so will men.
Norplant funds should educate, not discriminate
Controversial idea
State Rep. Kerry Patrick, R-Leawood, has introduced a bill that would require a woman convicted of heroin or cocaine possession to use Norplant, a birth control alternative.
If the Kansas bill passed, it would have serious ramifications. The punishment itself is so unusual that one would have to question its ethical nature.
The plan is similar to a California judge's ruling requiring a woman convicted of child abuse to have the contraceptive device Norplant surgically implanted in her arm.
Patrick claims that the bill was intended to prevent the birth of "crack babies." It seems to be a way for the state to reduce its costs. Instead of financing the bill, the state should use the costs of Norplant for better drug and pregnancy education and prevention
In addition to stripping a woman of her biological rights, the bill has sex and racial implications. Studies have shown that a man's reproductive capabilities also are
affected by the use of cocaine or crack. However, there is no bill being introduced concerning a man's reproductive rights.
This proposal would be an acceptable incentive to encourage women to practice birth control because its use is purely optional.
Studies also have shown that poor minorities are convicted of drug possession more often than poor whites. Thus, it seems that the bill would target impoverished minority women. This kind of discrimination should not be passed into law.
In related legislation, Patrick proposed that the state pay women on welfare $500 to have the Norplant device implanted. The state would pay the women $50 each year to continue its use.
However, these measures have not been introduced yet, and Patrick continues to push for mandatory implants. Unfortunately, the bill that is being pushed is not the answer.
Brent Maycock for the editorial board
- Editors reflect the opinion of the University Daly Kansan editorial board. Editorials appear in a box on the left side of the page. Editors reflect the majority opinion of the board but not necessarily the opinion of the signed authors.
Opinions expressed in guest and staff columns and cartoons are solely those of the author or artist. Views expressed in columns and cartoons are not necessarily shared by the Kansan.
To avoid frostbite, skip work order pizza or fly to Jamaica
B before I left for work this morning. I read the newspaper, and there was a story with line on surviving the war.
with tips on surviving the cold spen. It said dress warmly. So I put on long underwear, boots and earrings. Actually, I already had them on when I got up. It said to avoid frostbite, wiggle toes and fingers. All the way to work, I wiggled my toes and fingers, even on a crowded bus.
I followed all the instructions, and when I got to work I was cold and numb and miserable.
That always happens, because it is the same loosy advice we get every cold winter. I've been reading the same stuff all my life, and wiggling my toes and fingers, and wearing long underwear, and taking shortcuts through office buildings, and not getting to the bathroom when water instead, and putting a scarf over my face, and every winter I'm still cold and miserable.
■ Don't go to work. To hell with it.
The world isn't going to end if you don't show up. And even if it does, you might as well be home to make sure looters don't break in. Call in with some kind of excuse. Tell them a pack of wild dogs is outside your door and will eat you if you go out.
We need some new cold weather advice. And because nobody else is offering any, here are a few of my own surviving albarzo temperatures:
Then stay in bed all morning. When you get up, don't wash. It's bad for you. Spend the afternoon watching the soap operas. There are some more shocking things in one segment more shocking things in one segment than Helen Trent or Our Gal Sunday
Mike Royko
Syndicated columnist
did in a lifetime. If your spouse knows the opera plots and, what they have been doing in detail, you might make a mental note to check your script before you leave while you are at work. TV can put in a person's head, you know
Or, in the morning, you might call a few pals and suggest that they take the day off too, and invite them over and get a game playing. There's nothing like sitting on a cold day, playing poker and drinking beer when everybody else is at work. You'll like it.
The next morning, call in with another excuse. Say there is a grizzly bear blocking the driveway. And another cold weather tip — open a fresh deck of cards. Pizza gets them marked up easily.
And order out for some pizza. It' s the best thing for warding off frostbite. You never hear of frostbite cases in Rome.
■ Maybe you aren't the kind of person who can sit come all day. OK.
Then get up and leave for work. But don't go there. Go out to the airport and buy a ticket for the next plane to Jamaica.
If you don't have enough cash, use credit cards or write a check. You can pay late. If you can't get it, don't worry. Let them sue. This is an emergency.
When you get to Jamaica, tell a cab driver to take you to a little bar called Toto's. On the way, stop at a clothing shop and pick up some cutoff pants, a T-shirt with bold stripes, a bandanna, some wrap-around sun glasses and a long, thin cigar. But when you get to Jamaica, your black, ribbed business stocks.
When you get to Toto B, ask for Toto the wears a black eye patch) and tell him I sent you. He'll fix you a great rum and scotch and gin mixed with coconut milk. Don't have more three. The coconut milk is fattening.
Tell Toto that you want to meet Gina. You can't miss her. She has long black hair, green eyes flecked with gold, long, tanned legs, an orange bikini and an erotic tattoo. She is a nice kid. Tell her I sent you.
Gina has her own air-conditioned cottage on a lush hill overlooking a secluded beach, with a quiet, old lady servant who keeps fresh gardenas floating in the pool swimming pool and who knows voodoo. Tell the old lady I sent you. She'll fix you up with a potion.
When you settle down by the pool, ask Gina to bring you the telephone. Call home collect. Tell your spouse you've been kidnapped by some crazy radicals and you don't know how long you'll be gone, but you'll keep in touch. If he or she asks you why you are chuckling, tell him or her the radicals are tickling your feet.
- Or go to Sears and buy an extra set of long underwear.
Mike Royko is a syndicated columnist with the Chicago Tribune.
LETTERS to the EDITOR
Bench Hog strikes back
After reading the comments made by Clare McGimn in the Kansan, I felt a compelling urge to reply on behalf of all Bench Hogs campuswild. There are a great many things I would like to express to McGimn, but some will be omitted so that I can have my responses published.
First of all, in this country majority rules, that is what our democratic system is based on, and the majority says that saving seats is fine. Granted, some students are disappointed when they can't get a seat close to the floor, but they know the system and respect it. Why should
the whole system be changed because a few people feel slighted? say that the wants of the many outweigh the wants of the few.
As for criticizing the Bench Hogs for arriving hours before game time, I find that utterly ridiculous. If you will recall, last year people camped out for days, even as long as a week for the Missouri game, and I didn't hear anybody complaining. As a matter of fact, the team, coaches and community thought that kind of fan support was, and is, great. Dick Vittale related those exact feelings to some of us as we waited outside, and he said that crews as well as players should go to the University of Oklahoma where they don't even sell all of their student tickets. I'm sure that she would have no trouble finding a seat there.
Another point made by McGinn that I would like to refute is her
'Perhaps McGinn should go to the University of Oklahoma where they don't even sell all of their student tickets.'
Randy Phillips Topeka sophomore
apparent misunderstanding of basketball enthusiasm. She made the point that we Bench Hogs spend hours tearing up confetti when, "nobody gives a toss!" If nobody cares, then why does it seem, at least to this Bench Hog with "the brain capacity of a flea," that most students at the games participate in this activity.
I would also like to say that I am personally offended by McGinn's comments implying that while one Bench Hog is saving seats, his
friends are out getting bombed. Neither myself, nor any of my friends have been under the influence of alcohol while attending basketball games at the University of Kansas. Perhaps McGinn should accumulate some proof to back her allegations before she airs them publicly.
I feel no sympathy for McGinn's plight. From the information I've gathered, people have been saving seats for a long time, and they will continue to do so for a very long time to come. Everybody knows the system, so I would suggest that she learn to live with it. Taking into consideration that McGinn is an exchange student, she will encourage her to learn a lot more about traditions at this University — a University with the greatest basketball tradition in America — before she publicly ridicules and degrades those of us who try to be part of that tradition with our entu-
siasm and spirit
I feel that I have made my points, so now I will end this commentary, because I, being a true Bench Hop, am off to the field house to save those seats. Go 'Hawks!
Randy Phillips Topeka sophomore
Define target correctly
I admit it, I'm guilty. I am part of the problem that Clare McGinn described in her Feb. 6 column on the hazards of seating at basketball games, though I don't fit the derogatory description of her "Hench Hogs." I a die hard Jayhawk fan, and I do not want to get good food, but I'm a victim of the KU Athletic Department. Don't think that the only purpose for my existence is hanging around Allen Field House, eagerly awaiting the
next game. Point of fact: Allen just isn't that exciting until game time. I do have other things to do during my college life, and basketball is just one more thing to do. The game. I have to go early to get good seats, just like everyone else.
This brings me to the real problem in this situation — the KU Athletic Department. They are the ones who keep selling off the courtside seats, which should belong to the students, to raise revenue. Sure, there are plenty of seats left for students, if you're into altitude sickness.
that's why we go so early to games — because we have to. So don't complain about the fans, target the seating bureaucrats, who created the situation in the first place and continue to make it worse.
Robert Kirkman Salem, Ore., senior
KANSAN STAFF
CHRIS SIREN
Editor
RICH CORNELL Managing editor
TOM EBLEN
General manager. news adviser
Editore
AUDRA LANGFORD Business manager
business manager
MINDI LUND
Retail sales manager
JEANNE HINES
Sales and marketing adviser
by Tom Michaud
Editors
News... Melanie Matthés Campus sales mgr... Sophie Wehbe
Editorial... Tiffany Harness Regional sales mgr... Carmen Dresch
Planning... Holly M. Neuman National sales mgr... Jennifer Claxton
Campus... Jennifer Reynolds Co-op sales mgr... Christine Musser
Pam Sollier Production mgrs... Rich Harbarger,
Sports... Ann Sommerlath Kate Stader
Photography... Keith Thorpe Marketing director.. Gall Einbinder
Graphics... Melissa Unterberg Creative director.. Chrisy Hats
Features... Jill Hamington Classified manager. Kim Crowder
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