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Monday, November 8, 1993
OPINION UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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VIEWPOINT
City's South Trafficway should be constructed
The South Lawrence Trafficway project is vital to the future of Lawrence and should be built
as planned. The trafficway would allow through traffic on Kansas Highway 10 to bypass 23rd Street by traveling south of Lawrence. The project is necessary because projections indicate that 23rd Street, with a daily volume of 35,000 cars, will become highly congested in seven years.
hugely congested in seven years. The trafficway has been planned for almost a decade and construction is due to start soon. However, many Native Americans at Haskell are upset, claiming that the new road will be too close to wetlands that are used for spiritual purposes. These wetlands are not owned by Haskell and have already been bought by the county. It is unfortunate that the land will have to be disturbed, but the project is necessary.
Whole cemeteries have been moved in the past to make way for roads. Some churches are located right next to highways. Native Americans' use of land for worship purposes doesn't warrant them receiving special treatment. If possible, the county should erect noise barriers or a tree line to minimize the traffic noise on the wetlands, but they should not delay or alter the construction of the trafficway itself.
Hopefully, those objecting to the trafficway's construction will not be successful in blocking this muchneeded project, which would benefit everyone in Lawrence. Without construction of the new road, parts of Lawrence will become gridlocked, jeopardizing economic development and the quality of life for students and residents. The South Lawrence Trafficway is vital to the future of our city and should be constructed as planned.
MIKE SILVERMAN FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Umbrella organizations would simplify financing
Student Senate should simplify and improve the way multicultural organizations are financed. Currently, each minority group submits financing requests to Senate. Resulting are endless Senate debates about the importance of numerous groups' activities.
Forming umbrella organizations grouping similar cultures would benefit both Senate and minority groups.
An umbrella organization could be composed of several minority groups. Senate could allocate funds to the umbrella organizations, and each umbrella organization then could divide the money among the groups the organization covers. Forming umbrella organizations would grant individual minority groups increased control over financing.
Under the current system, Senate is forced to determine financing for numerous minority groups that many senators know little or nothing about. Forming umbrella organizations would allow minority groups to work together to allocate funds fairly.
The financial needs of all multicultural organizations are important and deserve careful consideration. When smaller minority organizations are forced to compete with larger organizations for Senate funds, smaller groups often are overlooked.
Umbrella organizations also would eliminate duplication of services. Often, minority groups of related cultures plan similar activities and events.
The minority groups themselves are better qualified to decide how funds should be divided among them. Umbrella organizations would confer power to multicultural organizations and would better serve Senate and minority groups.
COLLEEN McCAIN FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
KANSAN STAFF
KC TRAUER, Editor
k Editor
JOE HARDER, CHRISTINE LAUE
Managing editors
TOM EBLEN
General manager, news adviser
BILL SKEET, Systems coordinator
Editors
Assistant to the editor ... J.R. Cialiborne
News ... Stacy Friedman
Editorial ... Terrlyn McCormick
Campus ... Ben Grove
Sports ... Kristi Fogler
Photo ... Kip Chin, Renee Knoser
Features ... Ernz Roel
Graphics ... John Paul Fogel
AMY CASEY
Business manager
AMY STUMBO
Retail sales manager
JEANNE HINES
Sales and marketing adviser
Business Staff
Campus sales mgr ... Ed Schager
Regional Sales mgr ... Jennifer Perrler
National sales mgr ... Jennifer Evanson
Co-op sales mgr ... Blythe Focht
Production mgrs ... Blythe Blowey
Kate Burgess
Marketing director ... Shelly McConnell
Creative director ... Brian Fusco
Classified mgr ... Gretchen Koetterleinch
Letters should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 200 words. They must include the writer's signature, name, address and telephone number. Writers affiliated with the University of Kansas must include class and homeotem, or faculty or staff position.
Guest columns should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 700 words. The writer will be mailed or brought to the Kansas newsroom, 111 Stauffer-Flint Hall.
Frogs and cheese vital to knowledge of world
What's wrong with this country, aside from "light" beer, is that Americans don't know anything about foreign affairs. Your average American can't answer basic questions about geography, such as:
1. In which direction does the Nile River flow?
2. What can the letters in "Great Britain" be rearranged to spell?
(Answers: 1. Downhill; 2. "Big Titan
Rear.")
Tragically, we Americans are too busy sitting around watching worthless, juvenile, mind-rotting TV situation comedies such as "Dave's World" (Monday nights, CBS, check your local listings) to learn about foreign affairs. This is bad, because what happens abroad can greatly affect our lives. For example, ifensions were to mount again in the Middle East, fighting could break out, and it could escalate to, God forbid, nuclear war. This almost definitely would affect our TV reception.
This is why today I'm going to present a Foreign News Update, starting with an important story from the Sept. 2, 1993, Times of India, sent in by alert reader Tapash Chakraborty. This article, which I am not making up, states: "Villagers of Khajuria in Ganjam district worshiped a frog on Monday to please the rain god Indra, as the dry spell continued to delay cultivation." The article further states that "a big live frogtied with a bamboo stick was carried by villagers who roamed in and around the village chanting couplets in honor of the wife of Lord Indra."
The article does not give the exact wording of the couplets. Probably they went something like:
We need rain; your wife is great Here's a frog; let's cultivate!
The article also doesn't state whether this effort resulted in rain, but I'm sure it did. If you're a rain god and you have people waving a frog around and chanting about your wife, you're definitely going to dump something on them.
Speaking of frogs, many alert readers sent in an Associated Press report concerning an incident in Manchester, N.H., which is not technically a foreign country, but you'll want to know about this incident anyway, because it involves a woman who opened a bag of pretzels and pulled out a pretzel with a one-inch frog baked onto it. The Associated Press sent out a photograph showing the actual pretzel, and sure enough, there's a frog sort of welded onto it looking ready to hop away.
My first thought when I saw this article, was that maybe the frog had been put there on purpose. We live in an era of increasingly complex snack-food variations, such as Japaleno Cheddar n' Onion Graham Crackers ("Now With Avocado"). It's entirely possible that marketing experts at the pretzel company were enhancing their product line "Now With Frogs!"). But
apparently that was not the case with these pretzels, so the woman took them back to the food store, which gave her a handsome baked prince.
No, seriously, the store gave her a refund, so all's well that ends well. But that does not mean we should relax, not with the alarming cheese-related developments that are taking place in England. I refer to a May 26, 1993, United Press International report, sent in by alert reader Clyde E. Morgan, which begins: "Fourteen people were injured taking part in the annual Double Gloucester cheese-rolling race." I still am not making this up. The article states that this race takes place every year, and it involves "rolling large round slabs of cheese down a hill," with individual cheeses "reaching speeds of up to 50 kilometers per hour." Last year, 27 people were injured.
The question is: What if this kind of semi-deadly activity catches on in this country? I, personally, am not worried, because I live in south Florida, which is extremely flat; plus, even if you could get a large cheese rolling down here, passed armed motorists would blow it to smithereens. But what if people start rolling cheeses in, say, Colorado? What if you get one of those big babies hurtling down a Rocky mountain, straight toward — to pick the worst-case scenario — a John Denver concert?
Is that the kind of nation you want your children to grow up in? Me too.
.. friends around the campfire, and everybody's hiliEEE (SPLAT).
Dave Barry is a syndicated columnist with the Miami Herald.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Analysis should come after, not before debate
The Kansan's Nov. 3 editorial disappointed me greatly. The Kansan editorial board should know better than to report the conclusions of a debate before it begins. The statement "Sex before marriage should not be considered unethical or immoral based solely on the preaminal status of the couple" assumed this would be the conclusion of Wednesday night's debate.
The Kansan fears Campus Crusade will judge others, yet it is critic.
cal. I suggest the editorial board familiarize itself with the motives and opinions of this Christian organization before it condemns them.
The article states: "Some religious profess that sex is sinful unless the couple is legally married. We disagree with this belief ..."
My question to you is this: Why does the idea that someone else thinks that sex outside of marriage is sinful bother you?
Health concerns, both physical and emotional, are integral to a sexual relationship. isn't spiritual health also a vital element of sex?
have been subject to time-honored debate and are not exclusively Christian. I applaud Campus Crusade for bringing this debate into the public forum.
Limitations on sexual behavior
Elizabeth Morrow
Lawrence graduate student
The editor replies. The Kansan editorial board respects your opinion, and we reserve the right to state ours on anything at anytime. The editorial was not intended to represent "the conclusions" of the debate between Michael Horner and Dennis Dailey. The editorial represented our viewpoint on the issue. — KC Trauer
GUEST COLUMNIST
Inaccurate facts about Ireland add to confusion
Patrick Dilley's column on Ireland in Wednesday the Kansan was fraught with inaccuracies. As an Irish born person, with many years exposure to Irish history in both Irish and British schools, I feel duty-bound to respond and attempt to set the record straight on those points raised by Mr. Dilley. In the interest of clarity, I will confine my critique of his article to short, factual responses.
1. Ireland is not engulfed by blood-shed nor is there a war going on between the north and south sections of the country. During the worst week of violence in many years, Oct. 24-30, 1993, 14 people were killed in Northern Ireland. By contrast, any one of several U.S. cities exceed that toll of violence every weekend. The current conflict is confined to the six northeastern counties of the province of Ulster. The remaining three counties of Ulster and the other 23 counties of the provinces are enjoying peace and good will.
2. There are thousands of books and manuscripts that trace the introduction of Norman adventurers, not English troops, from England to Ireland in the 12th century to the present struggle for equal rights in the sixcounty section of Ulster. For anyone who may be interested, a good place to start research on this subject is the O'Hegarty collection in KU's Spencer Library.
3. Ireland was converted to Christianity in the fifth century by St. Patrick. This was long before the 12th century conversion stated in the Bible column.
4. English rule over all of Ireland did not take place until the 17th century. Up to this point, the English only had partial, but never full control of the country. Full English control of Ireland was not achieved until after the Tudor conquest in about 1603.
5. There is no such being as an Englishman born in Ireland. Under English rule, those born in Ireland are considered Irish subjects. ♂
7. The Protestant-Catholic conflict is but one dimension of the historical struggle for Irish independence. A more compelling dimension of this struggle was the colonial nature of the relationship between the Irish peasants and the Anglo-Irish governing elite. The Dilley column never mentioned this.
6. The Irish population never was split in the four ways identified by Mr. Dilley. For example, "... the royal government and the British parliament" named as two segments of the split, are not independent governing entities, but rather, two elements of the one political body.
Readers beware. Not all information is enlightening. There is enough misinformation about Ireland already in circulation to guarantee frustration in the ongoing efforts for a solution to her struggles. Those struggles are aimed at social and political freedom for the Irish people of the six northeastern counties of Ireland. The success of these struggles will be enhanced greatly by dissemination of accurate information that is clearly articulated for public consumption.
June Leahy is a Limerick, Ireland, graduate student in sociology.
University of Mars
by Joel Francke
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