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Friday, February 1, 1991 / University.Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Scary legislation
Utah passes country's strictest antiabortion law; makes a dangerous attack on personal liberties
Uath's passage last week of the nation's most restrictive antibiotion law is a bad omen for personal liberty in the United States.
Constitutional lawyers say the law, which bans virtually all abortions, has a 50-percent chance of surviving court challenges.
Utah has made a grave error that other states should not repeat
About half the states are watching the law's progress as they prepare to debate their own antiabortion laws.
At the root of U.S. legal and moral thought is the precept that the individual should have sovereignty over himself or herself.
Regardless of one's personal views on abortion, no one has the right to dictate who must bear children.
Reproductive freedom clearly is included in the penumbral rights of the Constitution. The right to breathe is not explicit in the Constitution, but it is essential to the exercise of the right of free speech.
Similarly, the right to control the destiny of one's own body is a prerequisite to other Constitutional liberties
If individuals are to maintain any autonomy, the state must not be given the power to dictate the biological fate of its citizenry
Other fundamental philosophical arguments exist against limiting a woman's
reproductive options.
There is a reason we do not conduct funerals after miscarriages. Our society does not — and should not — value the fetus as a person. Only after birth does human individuality, which carries the full complement of human rights, develop.
Many who object to abortion as murder base their belief on Judeo-Christian notions of morality, just as the heavily Mormon Utah legislature did. However, the Bible's text offers little support for such a position.
According to chapter 21 of Exodus, one who causes a woman to miscarry is liable for payment of damages, but there is no suggestion that he is guilty of homicide. Until the moment of birth, then, Biblically there is no criminal liability for the destruction of a fetus.
Philosophical debate aside, advocates of criminalizing abortion must recognize that however repugnant abortion may be, by permitting the government to dictate reproductive rights, they open the way for state control of a wide range of personal decisions
The right to legislate reproduction implies a right to enforce the use of birth control or a right to limit the number of children a woman may bear or a right to require abortions.
Chris Siron for the editorial board
State should not intervene
Decision of health care should be left to family
W who should have the right to decide where a severely disabled person receives medical care? The person's family? A hospital? The state?
Pete Busalacchi has been fighting to move his daughter, Christine, from a Missouri hospital to a Minnesota hospital, where state laws give more leeway in the removal of life-support systems of severely disabled patients.
Christine, 20, has been in a vegetative state since she was in a car accident three years ago. Missouri officials have opposed moving her, and her father has been prevented from relocating her until a St. Louis appeals court
makes a ruling. Arguments will begin Feb. 4.
The issue at hand, however, is not whether Busalacchi should live or die, but who has the right to make decisions about her care. Families of severely injured patients should not need permission from a hospital or a state before moving the person to a different health care facility.
In this case, the state should not intervene. Everyone should have the right to a second medical opinion, which could involve a change in hospitals. And it should be left to an individual's family, not the state, to decide which hospital offers the best care.
Stacy Smith for the editorial board
I'M HEARING NOISES FROM SOMEWHERE WHERE IN ISRAEL.
BACK TO YOU, RALPH.- BACK TO ME? I DON'T KNOW WHAT THE
NOISES ARE! THEY COULD BE TRAFFIC; THEY MIGHT BE AIR-
RADIK SIRCINS; THEY MAY BE ALL-CLEAR SIRCENS. I JUST DON'T
KNOW. BACK TO YOU, RALPH.- BACK TO ME? WHAT CAN TELL
You IS THAT I HAVE BEEN AWAKE since THIS MOONING, AND
I WAS ABOUT TO TREK A NAP WHEN THESE NOISES BEGAN,
LET ME AGAIN STRESS that I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IS
GOING ON AROUND ME. BACK TO YOU.- BACK TO ME? IT'S
NOT CLEAR IF THE WAR IS OVER, IF THESE NOISES ARETHE
END OF LIFE AS WE KNOW IT, OR IF THIS IS JUST A BIT
- UNDAGED BEFORE YOU KNOW IT.
END OF LIFE AS WE KNOW IT, OR, IF THIS IS JUST A BIT
OF INDIGESTED BEEF. YOU KNOW HOW THINGS' BEcome
OVERRAMATIZED IN THIS PART OF THE WORLD, ONE AGAIN I MUST SAY THAT I DON'T KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON HERE. I DO KNOW that I HAVE BEEN RISKING MY LIFE AND LIMB TO BRING TO YOU THESE VITAL ACTION-PACKED REPORTS. BACK TO YOU RALPH. -
University Daily Kranen
FLAXMAN
February celebrates the lives of heroic African-Americans
February is Black History Month.
Unlike many of the days,
weeks and months marked for
remembrance. Black History Month
serves serious thought and attention.
The time given to African-American history in virtually all U.S. schools at all levels is so insignificant as to be contemptible.
No more grievous injustice has been done to as large a segment of the U.S. population by educators and others that has been done to African Americans.
The Kansan, in an effort to recognize the heroic contributions of African-Americans to a society that legislated their enslavement or subjugation for more than 200 years, will print a series of profiles this month that detail the lives of seldom-studied Blacks.
Because of its focus on the less-
known, the series will bypass the most famed — and indisputably greatest — African-Americans.
Martin Luther King Jr., a hero to millions around the world, more fully than any before him philosophically incorporated the Declaration of Indemnity, which he called 'equal' into the institutional framework established by the Constitution.
Chris Siron
Editor
Besides his mamth contributions to human liberty, King's unselfish struggle against poverty and warplaces him in the pantheon recognized for moral authority. The Kansan will not profile him this month.
Frederick Douglass, another champion of freedom, generated a body of writing as excellent as any other U.S. thinker's. The rarest sort of philosopher, he matched brilliant insight with brilliant writing and had a clear impact on his own generation as well as later ones.
A broader view of African-American history is essential if we are to recognize that the contributions of African-Americans not limited to a few exponents.
Black History Month is a time to examine those key individuals who have been neglected by the history books.
He also will be overlooked in the Kansan's series.
As the historian Arthur Schlesinger Sr. pointed out, history is usually
made by everyday people
The Kansan's profiles, with two look at a few of the marvelous achievements of African-American men and women, will attempt to convey how much poorer the United States is in contributions of African-Americans.
In the medical field alone, mossy shows that the efforts of African-American innovators' have saved millions of lives.
A Black man performed the first successful open heart surgery, another did pioneering research in heart transplant blood, making blood banks possible.
The tortuous progress of African Americans in this country and the breadth of their accomplishments is the result of the diversity of diversity in the United States.
The Kansan encourages the KU community to spend time this month thinking about the life-changing conventions African-Americans have made.
To dismiss Black history is to dismiss an enormous number of artists, inventors and philosophers who have been the greatest democracy in all history.
Chris Siron is a senior majoring in journalism and political science.
'Geezer' throws Chicago bus driver for loop
At 83, Irving Nailditch is a fine old gazeer. He says what he thinks, is amused by the foolishness of humans and takes joy in simple things.
So he dropped his quarter in the box and moved slowly toward a seat, leaning on his cane.
For example, Mr. Naiditch boarded a Chicago bus and was pleased to see the sign that said senior citizens could ride for 25 cents. Like most older people, he likes bargains.
Then the bus driver said, "I need to see some identification."
"No," said the driver. "There's a special card from the CTA you need to have."
"Sure," said Mr. Naiditch, and he took out an ID showing his age.
Mr. Naiditch did not have the CTA identification card because he lives in Minnesota and was in Chicago visiting his two sons.
He told the driver, "The sign on there doesn't say anything about a special card. It just says you have to be a senior citizen."
The driver said, "You need a special ID card."
Mr. Naiditch said, "Where does it say that on the sign? Show me."
ay that on the sign? Snow me.
The driver said, "It's in the rules."
The driver said, "It's in the rules. Mr. Naiditch said, "Don't I look old enough for you?"
The driver said, "It's in the rules."
Mr. Dahlick said, "I'm not locked."
enough for you.
The driver said, "Put in another
Mike
Royko
Syndicated
columnist
quarter or get off the bus."
One of the privileges of old age is being stubborn. Mr. Naiditich said, "OK, give me back my quarter, and I'll get off the bus."
The driver said, "I can't give you the quarter. It's in the box."
And Mr. Naiditch. "Why should I get off the bus if you won't return my quarter? I want my quarter or I want my ride."
The driver said, "Look, if you don't get off the bus, I'm going to call the
But bus drivers sometimes think they are captains of ships. So this driver stood up and told everyone to get off and take the next bus. After pointlessly inconveniencing these people, he found the nearest telephone and called the police.
A sensible man would have shrugged it off and driven his bus. A sensible man wouldn't have argued that he would about a quarter in the first place.
"So call the police," said Mr. Naiditch, walking to the rear of the bus and sitting down.
Two squad cars pulled up, and several police boarded the bus. The first one had his billy club out
Mr. Naiditch, sitting alone in the back of the bus, smiled at the policeman and said, "I'm the desperate."
Mr. Naiditch and the driver told their stories to the police.
"I'll get off the bus if he gives me my quarter back," said Mr. Naiditch
"I told you, it's in the box," said the driver.
The police put their heads together, then one of them reached into his pocket and said to Mr. Naditch, "I'll give you a quarter."
Mr. Naidhit, his sense of logic now in high gear, shook his head and said, "That's not fair. Why should you give me a quarter? The bus has to give me my quarter."
The police held another huddle. And it would be nice if I could report that they then hit the bus driver on purpose and arrested him for public stupidity.
But they did the next best thing. They asked Mr. Naiditch where he was going.
"I'm going downtown to have lunch with some old friends," he said.
So Mr. Naiditch got to ride in a squad car all the way to the Merchandise Marten, where the CTA has its offices. And one of the police accompanied him right to the counter room. He also identified identification cards to senior citizens.
"C'mon," the police said. "We'll get your ID card."
However, they wouldn't give him an ID card.
"You need a picture of yourself for the card," a bureaucrat said.
"What about his quarter?" the cop said.
The bureaucrat conferred with his superior and the decision was made to refund Mr. Naiditch's quarter.
"Thank you," said Mr. Nalditch.
When Mr. Nalditch got downstairs, the policeman asked where he was going.
"To see my old friends," said Mr Naiditch
"How you going to get there?"
"On the bus. And all I'm going to pay is a quarter."
"Good luck," said the policeman, jumping in his squad car and driving quickly away.
The driver looked at Mr. Naiditch and nodded. He didn't know how lucky he was to be a sensible man.
Mr. Naiditch got on a bus, dropped a quarter in the box, and said: "I'm a senior citizen."
Mike Royko is a syndicated columnist with the Chicago Tribune.
Other Voices
We love peace and sea creatures,
but we love humans more . . . while they (the allies) shed crocodile tears over crocodiles.
What is scary is that Saddam Hussein may be delusional enough actually to believe that Americans, or maybe even most of the rest of the world, would buy those obviously coerced statements made on TV by the downed and apparently roughed-up American and other allied airmen.
If he does, it's only further confirmation of what everyone already knew: there's no predicting where he will be, because he is getting lengthes lengthes he is willing to go.
The gassing of his own population, the missile attacks on Israel's civilian population centers and the threats of chemical warfare already point to a man who has no concept of right and wrong.
So now comes the brutal treatment of prisoners of war, an act that, as
Al Dustour, Amman, Jordan
Saddam miscalculation
They (the U.S.-led coalition) have no right to wall over the death of sea creatures when they themselves are killed, and a large number of people in Iraq with their bombing.
And consumers know very well where those profits came from. The companies quickly jacked up the price of gasoline and other oil products after Iraq invaded Kuwait on Aug. 2.
Allied hypocrisy in Iraq
Those prices stayed up for months, even though increased production by other members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries completely offset the loss of Iraq and Kuwait's oil to the world community.
KANSAN STAFF
From the Grants Pass (Ore.) Daily Courier
Altogether, the nation's nine largest oil companies are expected to pay the $7.2 billion in profits for the final year of the expansion. The $4.3 billion in the same period of 1980
Oil companies have profited and will profit from the war in the Persian Gulf, so they should help pay for its cost.
CHRIS SIRON
Editor
RICH CORNELL
Managing editor
TOM EBLEN
General manager, news adviser
AUDRA LANGFORD Business manager
MINDI LUND
Retail sales manager
JEANNE HINES
Sales and marketing adviser
From the Chicago Sun-Times Oil companies pay up
but if the purpose of this barbary show is to scare Americans from the fight, Hussein has badly miscalculated. It has only strengthened American public opinion in support of the war.
Melanie Matthes Campus mgrs Sophie Wihbo News. Tiffany Harness Regional sales mgr. Carmen Dresch Editorial. Holly M. Neuman National sales mgr. Jennifer Claxton Planning. Jennifer Reynolds. Co-op sales mgr. Christine Musser Campus. Pam Sollier Production mgrs. Rich Harbarger. Sports. Amanda Sommertail Marketing director. Kate Studer Photography. Keith Thorpe Marketing director. Gail Ental Graphics. Melissa Unterberg Creative director. Caithe Hish Features. Jill Harmington Classified manager. Kim Crowder
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President Bush correctly observes, angers Americans.
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Home Remedies
By Tom Michaud