4 Friday, October 29, 1993 OPINION UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN . VIEWPOINT Anti-stalking laws need stricter enforcement Last week, in Waukegan, Ill., Kimberly Globis had the law on her side but still lost. She had obtained a court order of protection against her ex-boyfriend Leslie Peace, who had threatened several times to kill her. But she could not have been more helpless the moment Peace shot and killed her at her home in front of her two daughters. Because different police departments failed to communicate Globis' multiple complaints of harassment, police were not able to evoke the state's anti-stalking law. And because they could not find Peace, they were unable to arrest him on other charges. Globis was the fifth Chicago-area woman in two and a half years to be murdered by men suspected of stalking them after the women had obtained a court order of protection. Just two days earlier, Caroline Witt, was killed by her ex-boyfriend when he drove his car into hers head on. Witt had requested that her ex-boyfriend be charged with stalking under the state's recently amended ant-stalking law because he had been following her. The police turned her down, saying he did not overtly threaten her with bodily harm. They were wrong. These cases bring into question how the police interpret Illinois' anti-stalking statute, which broadens the definition under which harassment becomes a crime. Kansas has enacted a similar anti-stalking law. Local police must study why the Illinois law failed to protect Globis and Witt to better protect women in Lawrence whose lives could be in danger from stalkers. This anti-stalking statute gives the police the ability to arrest stalkers with an intended threat, not just an obvious threat to injure or kill another person. There is evidence that stalking can lead to murder. Therefore police should act quickly to determine this intent and make an arrest of the suspect a high priority. CHRISTINA CORNISH FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD Crime bill could slow escalation of violence President Clinton's crime bill is a positive step toward eradicating random crime and violence in the United States. Our generation has witnessed shocking increases in crime, followed by insignificant responses from a stagnant bureaucracy. Effective means of action finally can be a reality in our desperate fight against crime and violence. The Democrats' crime bill would put more police officers on the streets, establish "boot camps" for first-time offenders and a waiting period for handguns and emphasize rehabilitation for drug offenders. Unfortunately, the bill is faced with opposition from the Republican Party. The GOP claims that the bill would not be tough enough, should include the death penalty for drug kingpins, limit appeals, and increase sentence time for handgun crimes. Although these are noble ideas, including the death penalty in the bill makes it far more controversial and less likely to pass. Our country needs to act on escalating violence now, and we no longer can remain at the mercy of congressional gridlock. Some action, even if it is not tough enough, is better than no action. The fear of walking down the street at night, sleeping in your home alone and starting another day at a school in which some students are better armed than police has spread from urban areas into towns much smaller than Lawrence. It is vital to urge our congressional representatives to support this bill. Anti-crime measures, especially those that are passable in Congress, should be a continuous endeavor for us and our national government. EISHA TIERNEY FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD DORM LIFE ON A NORMAL DAY: DECORATING FOR HALLOWEEN ISN'T MUCH WORK 1-900 numbers inspire new heights of silliness Good morning, class. Today's informative discussion is entitled "1-900 Numbers: Ma Bell Trips, Smokes Grass and Gets The Munchies." This is interesting because rarely do you get to see large corporations collectively get high and come up with new ways to taunt the consumer. Usually it's just smaller companies that got stoned (see also, "cable company"). Before we discuss further, we feel it necessary to explain 1-900 numbers. These numbers, when dialed on a telephone, allow the consumer to experience the benefits of "Permanent Telecommunicative Monetary Displacement," or "You Are the Biggest Sucker We've Ever Had. The Pleasure to Steal From." Our nation's scientists, who have spent years developing other consumer-oriented goods, such as portable parking ticket machines and ARTS forms, should receive our most heartfelt gratitude in the form of public executions. There are many types of 1-900 numbers, most of which are extremely complex. This is evident in that people who use 1-900 numbers do not know what the hell they are doing. Some 1-900 numbers, through the use of provocative and explicit commercials, appeal to our innate desire to be sexually aroused while talking long distance. Example: CONSUMER: Hello. I'd like to be sexually aroused now. SEXY VOICE: Hello, sexy consumer. What is your credit card number? CONSUMER: Oooh. Thank you. I feel much better. Other 1-900 numbers deal with the supernatural. You can call these numbers and have real, live psychics make accurate predictions such as: REAL, LIVE PSYCHIC: I predict that you have the IQ of a rutabaga because you are paying $5.63 per minute. People are enticed to call these numbers through testimonials of many famous people, including Dionne "T Talk Like A Man" Warwick. DIONNE WAJBWICK: I am a good person to listen to because my real, live psychic predicted my career would end with Solid Gold. As a result of such big-name success stories, I have decided to create my own real, live answering machine psychic network, with such predictions as: If you work in a high school cafeteria, you will surely develop a condition known as Lunch Lady Arms, wherein your triceps turn to Silly Putty. The couple in the Dickinson Movie Theater trailer telling you to be quiet during the show are not dating. They are paid actors, which is evident by the quite noticeable fact that the woman, who looks like she is related to Kathleen Turner, does not shove the 55-gallon barrel of popcorn down the throat of the man, who looks like he is related to Mer Fudd. Ruggles, the dog in those carpet-store commercials, will one day get rabies and, on live TV, will have a prolonged pee on an Oriental rug and then proceed to maul his obnoxious, bald-headed owner. Ruggles will then go pay a visit to Rodney D. Young. And Sonny Hill. And... A disgruntled KU journalism student will utterly destroy the Parking Department through the use of a well-placed tactical nuclear warhead. Sally Struthers will feed the children of the world when she goes on a diet and stops taking up India's share of the global food market. It will be discovered one day that Conan O'Brien is actually Herbie, Santa's elf who wants to be a dentist on "Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer." People will never get tired of imitating Beavis and Butt-head (although we wish to God that please, please they would). Sally Struthers will get her degree in TV/VCR repair. As you can see, this has been only a small sampling of the ways 1-900 numbers can benefit you by stealing your money. For more examples, please see the back of this paper. Todd Puntney is a Manhattan senior majoring in Journalism. LETTER TO THE EDITOR Median not responsible forraising our youth It is sad that in today's world no one wants to take responsibility for himself. Case in point #1: The latest hoopla over Beavis & Butt-head. MTV has decided to move the show to the late-night slot and promised to take references of fire out, but still people are whining about it. It is unfortunate that little children have been hurt by the show's content. Little kids are too young to take care of themselves, so let us ask this question of the parents: Where were you when "Billy" was watching this show, and if you were not around, then why did you not lock the channel out on the cable box before you left? Don't blame MTV for your mistake. Case in point #2: The teen-agers who have been imitating scenes of the movie "The Program." A couple of losers imitate the movie and get hurt, so what do we do? We cut out the scene from the movie as if this will keep these geniuses from trying something really cool the next time. It is our suggestion that we use movies like these to single out these cool people and let them kill themselves with their stupidity. That way, society will be spared some of the idiots who will probably grow up to be destructive elements anyway. Mick Puri, Overland Park senior Chad Anthony, Shawnee senior Alex Couture, ronolou senior Rush wrong Americans must make sacrifices I was watching television the other night, and I discovered something very strange. Rush Limbaugh. Not that Rush is strange — well, actually Rush is pretty strange, but that's not what got my attention. The strange thing is that Rush is on television almost continually from 11:30 to 1:30 every night. Since I was doing my usual late-night channel surfing, I thought it was just the same show that was lasting a long time. After about an hour, it occurred to me that his show was outlasting the average attention span of most of his viewers. So I got out my trusty TV Guide and was shocked to realize that Rush is on as many as four channels in the span of two hours. Channel 13 even runs him twice a day. I had never really watched Rush's show before. After all, you really don't have to. It's usually pretty easy to guess which side of an issue he will take. However, any show that gets that kind of market saturation deserves some attention, so I watched him a couple of times last week. Unfortunately, Rush's show confirms what is becoming a dangerous trend in America. It's not Rush himself, or even his opinions. After all, we do have a right to free speech. If Rush Limbaugh wants to shoot off his mouth and someone is willing to put him on TV, and several million people want to watch him while he makes millions playing on their fears, then that's fine. Rush Limbaugh's popularity is more significant than perhaps even his own ego realizes. It represents a dangerous trend in the way we see ourselves as a nation. We seem determined to divide oursels into ever smaller subgroups. Instead of seeing ourselves as Americans, we are Black or white, male or female, Conservative or Liberal, and the list could go on. Usually we will combine several groups, such as a white, male, professional, Conservative suburbanite. Then we vote and act in ways consideringhowit will benefit the groups we are in, and the rest of the country can just go to... well, you know. The best example of this is the current debate over health care. Those who have it at a reasonable cost are unwilling to try anything that might affect them. They ignore the fact that there are millions of Americans who are without adequate medical care because they can't afford it. COLUMNIST It seems as if most of us have lost our altruistic spirit. We are no longer willing to make sacrifices to make the country better for all of us. That's unfortunate because our differences are fewer than our similarities. We want a secure life for ourselves and our families. We want a decent job that we don't hate going to each day. We want a good education for our children and ourselves. We want adequate medical care at a reasonable cost. There will always be disagreement over how we get these things. There's nothing wrong with debating an issue. That's the way a democratic society makes decisions. It's when we stop debating and start looking out only for ourselves that the strands that bind us together as a nation start wearing very thin. Jim Kimmel is a McLouth junior majoring in history and sociology. KC TRAUER Editor JOE HARDER, CHRISTINE LAUE Managing editors TOM EBLEN General manager, news adviser BILL SKEET Technology coordinator Editors Assistant to the editor...J.R. 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