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Wednesday, November 28, 1990/ University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Purchasing power
County needs preservation program to prevent more land from meeting Elkins Prairie's fate
Few patches remain of the 200 million acres of tallgrass prairie that once covered the heart of North America. One fewer remains today than last week.
In the early-morning darkness of Nov. 18, an employee of landowner Jack Graham started plowing the 80-acre Elkins Prairie. Protesters gathered after sunrise, and county commissioners called an emergency meeting and offered Graham $480,000 for the land. Graham rejected the offer and resumed the plowing.
Graham's lawyer said the Graham family "simply wanted to make their property more productive." He declined to elaborate.
But their definition of "productive" seems apparent. The prairie is near the junction of the planned South Lawrence Trafficway and U.S. Highway 40, a prime commercial-development spot. But the prairie, which contained two threatened plant species, surely would have been the subject of controversy when development began — controversy that would
have hampered development plans.
Now the prairie is just another piece of farmland.
The obvious lesson for others with property in Douglas County is that destroying nature is profitable.
Some conservation groups, such as the Nature Conservancy, learned that lesson long ago, and now purchase wild lands as the best way to save them. If the will exists, Douglas County can achieve the same success.
The $480,000 that commissioners were ready to pay no longer can save Elkins Prairie, but it could preserve some other tract. As Lawrence grows, it needs an ambitious, systematic program to identify and purchase ecologically valuable lands. If county officials truly are committed to preservation, the time has come to beat plow shares into swords and lead a fight to save our past from our future.
Derek Schmidt for the editorial board
LETTERS to the EDITOR
Prairie gone forever
With great outrage, we have learned that an out-of-town developer destroyed a portion of our precious natural heritage by plowing under the Elkins Prairie. This unique virgin tallgrass prairie, home to two federally designated threatened species, was a community natural landmark for more than 40 years. The residents enthusiasts and biologists explored and enjoyed this wonderful prairie. Now it is gone forever.
It is my understanding that about five years ago, the former owner of the priarie offered it to the KU Endowment Association under very reasonable terms. However, the Endowment Association, which holds title to KU's biological reserves, declined to accept the offer. So, the owner sold the priarie to the developer.
Just over a year ago, the spokesperson for Save the Elkins Prairie declared that the Douglas County Commission had saved the Elkins Prairie. He was satisfied that the land-use plan for the South Lawrence Trafficway and county promises to assist in purchasing the land would
preserve the prairie
The Final Environmental Impact Statement contains both the land-use plan and promises. Yet, when the Nature Conservation stopped pursuing active acquisition of the prairie, the county failed to pick up where the Conservancy left off. The rest is history — natural history.
It can now be said that the Elkins Prairie is the first victim of the county's South Lawrence Trafficway. Since the environmental safeguards in the FEIS failed to protect the prairie, other natural areas such as the Baker Wetlands are now in jeopardy.
Here are a few final observations. First, the prairie could have been preserved if either the Endowment Association or the Nature Conservancy had acted in a more responsible manner. Second, the Douglas County Commission failed to fulfill its obligation to preserve the prairie. Third, the Endangered Species Act must be strengthened to protect threatened and endangered plants on private land. Fourth, we have reached the point where more roads and urban sprawl actually reduce our quality of life by destroying our natural heritage.
Finally, the disrespect the developer and county have shown the people of Lawrence is beyond belief.
Clark H. Coan KU graduate, class of 1979 and Lawrence resident
Professor Robert Shelton, KU ambudasman, was quoted in the Nov. 19 Kansas as saying, "But we need to recognize that White persons cannot avoid being racist, that men cannot be taught racism," and that Blackians cannot escape their anti-Semitism." In my view there are four problems with that statement.
Statement is insulting
The first problem is that it is untrue. I know White persons who are not racist, men who are not sexist and Christians who are not anti-Semitic. The second problem is that the statement gratuitously insults not only me but also most of the people I know and like.
The third problem is that the statement was made by a person who has an official position with the University with respect to issues of discrimination. That someone who is supposed to be particularly knowledgeable made such a statement is especially unfortunate.
The fourth problem is that the statement gives aid and comfort to those who really are racists, sexists or anti-Semites. No doubt they will尉 that racism, sexism or anti-Semitism so bad if they are unavoidable.
Don Marquis professor of philosophy
Society should teach morality
The decision to sell condoms in University residence halls is a symptom of the fortunate disappearance in our society of a natural phenomenon: generational nurturing — the passing down from generation to generation of basic sets of rules that tend to preserve stability in society and happiness in individuals.
The consequences of the failure to develop these virtues also were taught. Among these teachings was some framework for sanctioning sexual relationships involving restraint, structure and commitment. Today, the rules, and the teaching and reinforcement of these behaviors disappeared. Why? Maybe we should examine some recent trends and seek some answers.
It is no coincidence that great and small civilizations throughout history have shared such similar rules to govern human behavior. Parents have been the primary teachers of these basic rules, and they could count on other adults to reinforce these teachings. The great and enduring literature is replete with these themes, including self discipline, unselfishness, compassion, integrity, courage and dignity.
Many people make the decision to have children, then spend an inordinate amount of time and money seeking in vain for substitute parents so they can pursue their own selfish desires. When youngsters themselves, produce offspring without the financial or emotional stability to care for them.
Millions of children spend most of their waking hours in day care centers where individual nurturing is impossible. At the end of the day, they are picked up by a tired
Pam
Peck
Guest columnist
parent(s), who has an evening agenda of household chores. Weekends are catch-up times, so religious teachings are left out.
Many parents are poor examples of virtue, fidelity and restraint. Schools are forbidden to teach values, but grade schools are asked to teach how to have safe sex.
Many children are left with hours of unsupervised time during which they learn largely from television or from their peers. The traditions of a culture, the basic rules that help make healthy, happy, normal lives are not learned from peers of a culture. Children may learn more mother love, that long-term, one-on-one commitment to a child that any caring adult can provide.
Irresponsible writers of movies, TV shows and musical lyrics promote their own undisciplined lifestyle or perverse themes while claiming to reflect society. Children and youth spend a regrettable time watching, listening to and absorbing the low-level entertainment.
Is it any wonder that these youths arrive at universities and demand that rules designed to uphold conventional standards be abolished? Administrators, once in the rule of the land, must now bend to the will of the students.
Students who arrive with moral training must resist pressures to conform. Some are successful, some
are not. We offer them Dr. Ruth and classes in "getting to know your sexual self," as if they were so many mindless biological organisms.
Because we have failed to teach morality, we are now reduced to teaching how to survive immorality. So we put condoms in residence hall vending machines, and we teach us about the consequences of undisciplined lives.
The dilemma is extremely complex and should not be oversimplified, but several generations of these practices have surely contributed to our morally illiterate society with increasingly high incidences of casual sex, uncommitted relationships, abortion, infidelity, divorce, sexually transmitted diseases, sex-related crimes, sexual obsession, perversion and abuse. How can we reverse this downward spiral?
Responsible child rearing, including the tradition of generational nurturing, would be a good place to start. No child should be brought into the world without the conscious intention to teach the basic and enduring rules that help make societies strong, healthy, and prosperous. Essential attention and guidance may require personal and financial sacrifices. Educational institutions should reinforce traditional values. Media professionals and others in positions of influence on youth should accept greater responsibility for the effects they have on society and not sell their souls for profit.
and not sell their souls for profit. In general, the virtues of unselfishness, self-discipline, conscience, compassion, integrity, courage and dignity should be learned, cherished and taught.
Pam Peck is a Lawrence resident
Looking for a new 'do? The greasy look is back and better than ever
Us? Trendv?
Don't worry, this joint doesn't close 'til 2 a.m.
iming is everything," Slats Grobnik said.
"I wasn't talking about that. I mean trends and fashions. You and me, we were way ahead of our times as trendy guys."
"Sure. You remember when we were punks, what we put on our hair before we combed it?"
"Nah, I used pure petroleum jelly from the drugstore. Bye, one glob of that stuff and my hair would have stayed in place in a tornado. And you remember how often we used to wash our hair?"
Yes, I remember it with great disgust. I was partial to brilliantine and the oily look and, as I recall, you got a shiny finish. Pattrowskis's gas station and garage.
As often as we washed the rest of ourselves, which was once a week.
"That's right. The regular Saturday bath, whether we needed one or not. Of course, if it was a hot summer, and we played four or five softball games on a dusty diamond. It used to wash my feet on Wednesday night."
Mike Royko
Syndicated columnist
You always were a fastidious lad.
You always a fastidious lad. "Yeah, but not our hair. We put that stuff on our heads every day, it just kind of built up, layer at layer top. I removed ones but flew in my hair. On instant contact."
"Because I happened to be reading a Wall Street Journal that somebody left on the bar, and there was a story
What has provoked these raunchy memories?
in it about how the real trend thing up in L.A. and in New York is to have a real greasy, dirty hair look. There are movie stars who have stopped washing their hair, and some of the fancy hair joints are fixing people so that they look greasier and dirtier than when they came in. They even sell stuff that gives you an instant, greasy look."
Why would anyone want their hair to look greasy and dirty?
"Well, we used to, didn't we?"
"Sure. Here, lemme read you what this big time hairdresser out there says. Guy by the name of Victor
No We didn't know any better. We thought we looked cool. And because nobody in the neighborhood had showers, washing our hair meant sticking our heads in the kitchen and not running around if there were pots and pans there.
"Yeah, I guess so. But now it's considered sexy."
Vidal."
I wonder why hairdressers always have names like Victor Vidal. Why aren't they ever named Horace Glotz or Bruno Zankowski?
"Because those are barbers' names, if you're a barber, you can be a Bruno Zankowski. If you're a hairdresser, you got to be a Victor Vidal. Don't you know nothing about show bz?"
I guess not. So what did he say?
We say, 'The whole look is eroticism. It’s very animalistic. It’s aggressive. That’s the whole purpose of not washing the hair so much. You are allowing yourself to secrete your own oils. We have to wash when, you and me had the eroticism look. We were animalistic."
You may be right. I remember the time a gym teacher told us we smelled like a couple of skunks, so that's animalistic.
Nah, what that means is that we
Then why was it that when we asked girls for dates, they called us geeks and greaseballs?
must of had that natural, sexy, an-
mal quality like Marlon Brando had in
'Street Carved Named Desire.'
"Because the babes in our neighborhood didn't have no sense of style. They didn't recognize that we were wild and trendy guys secreting our own oils and being animalistic That's why they all ended up marrying me, then got them gay ankles and blue veins. Hat!" "The laugh on them."
I still find it hard to believe that anyone would choose to have hair that looks like it was dipped in a cream. That, what a female would find it appealing.
"It must be so. I guess if you got the look, the doll will say, 'Oh, your hair looks so oily and animalistic, as if you are secreting your own oils. And the smell. My, it's as if a mouse died in it. May I run my fingers
through it? Wait, I'll fetch a surgical glove."
"I don't know. Maybe that's even a bigger turn-on. Maybe the women say, 'You your head is just teeming with blood.' Take me, you animal. I'm yours."
But what about cooties? If you don't wash your hair, the little buggers breed and thrive on your noggin.
I hope this doesn't mean you're tempted to give this trend a try.
"I'll tell you the truth. I did. I went out and got some of the old clear jelly and rubbed it all over the top of my shirt. Then I asked my wife what she thought."
What did she think?
"She said she thought I needed a new-style hat to go with my new-style head, and she went out and bought it for me."
DEREK SCHMIDT
Editor
What kind of hat?
KJERSTIN GABRIELSON
KANSAN STAFF
Mike Royko is a syndicated columnist for the Chicago Tribune.
"A bowling bag."
TOM EBLEN
General manager, news adviser
TOM EBLEN
News. Julie Mentenburg
Editorial. Mary Neubauer
Planning. Pam Sollin
Campus. Holly Lawton
Sports. Brent Maycock
Photo. Andrew Morrison
Graphics. Brett Brenner
Features. Stacy Smith
Business staff
MARGARET TOWNSEND
Business manager
MINDY MORRIS
Retail sales manager
JEANNE HINES
Sales and marketing adviser
Campus sales mgr...Cristal Dool
Regional sales mgr..jackie Schmaltzmar
National sales mgr...David Price
Co-op sales mgr...Deborah Salzer
Production mgr...Missy Miller
Production assistant...Jill Axland
Marketing director...Audra Langford
Creative director...Gail Einbinder
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Three Imaginary Girls
WELLY, I DON'T KNOW, I THINK THAT'S REALY ALL YOU CAN SAY ABOUT THEM, I MEAN, THEY JUST PLAYED THEIR THIRD 'KEEP
AND I DOW S/GREAT, THEY'RE CONCERNED,
TWO, MAYBE A DIFFERENT ANGLE, THREE,
THEY'RE RIGHT OUT OF THINGS
TO SAY.
By Tom Avery