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Wednesday, March 7, 1990 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
EPA can't do it all
Bush's Clean Air proposal is a worthy plan, but states should be able to enforce new laws
The idea of getting tough on those who pollute the environment is good in theory, but the execution is lacking in President Bush's new Clean Air proposal.
The proposal would force polluters to comply with federal Environmental Protection Agency regulations or face penalties. By the same token, for those who do comply, incentives are provided to entice swift adherence.
In the spirit of his predecessor, Bush has decided that enforcement of the new regulations would be best left to the EPA. He would absolve the states of their police powers to protect the environment. The Clean Air Act would operate under the assumption that the EPA would be able to monitor polluters better than would the states.
But to assume that the EPA can monitor pollution nationwide and enforce new regulations is dangerous. The EPA has had problems
in the past monitoring its own program, let alone the environment. The EPA Superfund program has proven that the federal government is a creator of grandiose plans but a master of none.
In Kansas for example, 14 percent of the groundwater supplies are unsafe. Cleanup and monitoring programs have begun — thanks to the 1989 Legislature. It is wrong to take away the power of the state in environmental efforts. Just as it would be impossible for the EPA to monitor each farmer in the Midwest, it could not police each factory in the East.
The best way for the new act to succeed is for the federal government to require tougher enforcement by the states. The states are the logical choice to clean up the environment when coupled with EPA standards and proper financing. States are closer to the source.
John P. Milburn for the editorial board
Dangerous activism
Killing veterinarians for animal rights is wrong
On Feb. 8, Hyram Kitchen, dean of the University of Tennessee Veterinarian School, was shot eight times and killed by an assailant as he was leaving his home.
After Kitchen's death, investigators on the case sent out a nationwide alert that militant animal rights activists might be planning to kill one veterinarian school dean each month for a year.
Although investigators said the information was only rumor and they had no reason to think animal rights activists were responsible for Kitchen's death, it seems odd that these activists would kill humans to save animals.
Killing anyone is counterproductive. Veterinarian deans teach others to treat and heal sick and injured animals. This makes killing deans especially absurd.
This seems like another case of concern gone too far and activism gone awry.
If the rumor is true, these people are violating the same principle that they are apparently ready to kill for.
One would think that if someone believed in animal rights, then that person inherently would believe in human rights.
On the other hand, why just one murder a month? If someone believes in a principle, why not go all the way? Bomb a couple of veterinarians' offices or conventions; raid some pet stores. Let's set all of the poor, mistreated animals free and kill a few insignificant humans in the process.
The contradictions are clear. To believe in animal rights is fine; someone needs to make sure that animals are not unduly mistreated. But activism like this needs to be tempered with common sense.
There also are groups who put spikes into trees to keep them from being cut down. When others attempt to cut down the trees, they would endanger their own lives. If their saws were to hit the spikes, the blades could fly back into their faces.
These people need to take a good look at their tactics and decide if there aren't other ways to get their point across.
Killing and injuring humans in defense of animals and trees is extremely backward.
Cory Anderson for the editorial board
Distant romances are worth it
S something is seriously wrong with a relationship when dates are more than two months apart and cost more than $300 apiece.
For me and a number of other long-distance relationship fools, one of those dates will be during spring break. Friday, as" I break all precedents and skip afternoon classes, I will take to the friendly skies and three states in order to deposit three states away into the arms of that certain someone.
But I did, I am and I have. I started going out with a girl last semester and, a month later, she was in a different time zone. Of course, she assures me that there is no cause for tension between the two events.
Kinda nauseating, isn't it?
Chris Evans
I don't know how I ever got involved in a long-distance relationship. I can't imagine that anyone ever has done it on purpose. As I recall, I didn't spend many moments last semester pondering how to end my social life, live like a monk and spend my last penny.
Despite the cost of the trip, spring break will be a great money saver for me. Just imagine, an entire week of making no long-distance phone calls.
My beloved and I have but one scheduled, hour-long phone call a week. By this incredibly rational plan, I figure that I shouldn't spend more than $10 a week. I guess the problem comes when calls drift into
Staff columnist
their third hour. The three or four unscheduled calls a week don't help much either.
When I'm not on the phone, I spend time with my friends — the only people who will put up with the tales of my relationship wees.
"Say, Chris," one once said, "talk to your girlfriend lately?"
Of course, even the best of friends have tolerance limits.
"That's sweet. Really sweet. So tell me, how does it feel to be .. committed?"
wet, I think... "As in, 'to an institution.' You know, where the mentally imbalanced go."
It feels just fine. I love relationships.
"Uh-huh, they're pretty cool — if the person you're dating is in the same city . . ."
Here, as this is, the worst punishment certainly does not stem from friends' torments. It comes from watching other couples hold hands while I try to pretend that all that stuff grosses me out.
Sappy as I get now, there was a time when I didn't understand why anyone wanted to wait around for me where there was so much fun to be had here.
About a year ago, I became infatuated with a girl who was in a long-distance relationship. Her boyfriend was attending school half a world away.
Strangely, I wasn't too off but by being told, "I have a boyfriend on the next continent." I convinced the girl that she needed to go out with me. The result was a year full of trouble for all three people involved.
I called the girl recently, more than anything else to apologize for pursuing her when she was in love with somebody else. I told her that I was in a long-distance relationship and understood what she had been going through.
Her response was less than gentle:
"Serves you right! Hah-ha-ha-ha!"
'
Maybe it does. These relationships are hard enough when only two people are involved. At the same time, long-distance relationships are easily some of the best around.
Few people would suffer through the torments involved if they weren't.
> Chris Evans is a Hutchinson senior majoring in French and Journalism.
LETTERS to the EDITOR
Get facts straight
William Sanders' position in University government is that of Student Senate Executive Committee chair, or StudEx chair, not SenEx chair. For the information of the Kansan and the student body, the position of SenEx chair is not even open to students. SenEx is the executive arm of the University Council and not part of Student Senate.
The University Daily Kansan editorial board and reporters seem to have the same sense of responsibility to their readers as a native freshman who simply guesses on a test instead of studying. In one issue, the Kansan distinguished itself as not being able to tell apart the different parts of University governance, misquoting the amount of money Student Senate allocates and representing Student Senate Finance Committee as not taking itself seriously.
Six SenEx Senators were not replaced, as the Kansan would have you believe. There are no SenEx Senators. Six Student Senators were replaced. Student Senate has neither the time nor the authority to tell SenEx how to run its affairs.
Student Senate allocates a bit more than the $40,000 that the Kansan editorial board believes we spend. We allocate $1.4 million in student fees on this campus. This year we are dealing with an addition of a amount of approval of 650,000 students we are hearing the Kansas Union fee, and the women and non-revenue sports fee increases.
The Finance Committee has the same problems with scheduling and attendance at meetings that any board or committee would have which meets three or four times a week. Speaking as a member of the committee and a Senator whose only absence from either was a Saturday meeting at 8 a.m., I was sorry that the groups could not be dealt with at that time. However, all groups who have turned in financing requests have been heard.
Craig Fulton
Student Senate Finance Committee
News staff
Richard Brack...Editor
Daniel Nieman ...Managing editor
Christopher R. Ralston ...Lia Monk ...Planning editor
John Milburn ...Editorial editor
Candy Niemann ...Campus editor
Mike Corday ...Scout editor
E. Joseph Zurge ...Photo editor
Stephen Kline ...Graphics editor
Kris Berguelt ...Arts/Features editor
General manager ...General manager
Margaret Townsend...Business manager
Tami Rank...Retail sales manager
Misey Miller...Campus sales manager
Kathy Boulder...National retail manager
Mike Lehman...National sales manager
Mindy Morris...Co-op sales manager
Nate Stamos...Production manager
Mint Landau...Assistant production manager
Carrie Slainka...Marketing director
James Glaanapp...Creative director
Janet Rorholm...Classified manager
Wendy Stone...Telemarketing manager
Jeanne Hinen...Sales and marketing adviser
Business staff
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Don't close Jayhawk Boulevard — yet
Don't close Jayhawk Boulevard, please . at least not yet. I believe that a better solution exists at this point in time. Close it and many problems will be created. For example, campus buildings along the stretch will become much less accessible. This would be a disadvantage for everyone. Students would no longer be dropped off near their respective destinations. That would create other problems.
Faculty and staff would no longer be able to park along Jayhawk Boulevard or its immediate contingencies, which would not only further frustrate our folks today, but would also place a further cramp in faculty recruitment (who actually consider parking accessibility in their decisions). It would have the same effect for our present and future administrators in Strong Hall, as well as the hundreds of people a day who conduct business at their offices. Add to that guest lecturers, visiting meeting appointments, alumni, etc, who would experience a similar fate.
If the University actually adopted this proposal, how would traffic be re-routed and what consequences would follow? Well, let's begin with the cost of widening the circle around the Chi Omega Fountain or a nearby area to allow for a bus stop that would necessarily be in that area. We then add the cost of building a similar circle on the other end. Buses, if not allowed on Jayhawk Boulevard, would then most certainly have to
Brook Menees
Guest columnist
travel along Memorial Drive to service those particular buildings unless a viable and acceptable alternative could be arranged. What would this do to the already narrow and cramped Memorial Drive? Can you say "catastrophe"? It does not take a genius to realize that we would be solving a traffic problem on Jayhawk Boulevard by creating a potentially more serious one on Memorial Drive.
Guest columnist
Another disadvantage created is that students, and particularly females, would no longer be dropped off in front of the buildings along this stretch for night classes, tests, or other events. Men may find this point trivial, but women are well-aware of the lighting insufficiencies that exist and balanced with the bulk of these buildings. Jiahayw Boulevard were closed to traffic, the contingency of improved lighting in these areas, ensuring the safety of everyone involved, would most definitely need to be met.
Finally, and yet most likely not the last of the problems, the university community has at last reached a balance in the area of parking allocation. By that I mean that during the past few years, student, faculty,
staff, and administrators have reached a point in negotiations upon which nearly everyone can agree. Proposals such as this, and others, have been discarded in the past because of the balance that others before us have attained. That is not to say that I oppose change, au contraire. I welcome it — but only if it is change that has been exhaustively analysed and explained. Questions have been weighed, and one which, after all that, produces a positive result for the entire university community.
In conclusion, I must say that I do understand the logic behind such an idea. I can even see how such an idea could add to the aesthetic beauty of campus. Replacing Jayhawk Boulevard with cobblestone and adding gardens and fountains is a very exciting proposition. My point is simply this: Before making such a radical change, we must consider all the problems and consequences of such a move and commit to solving them before implementing it. If we want to transform a hill, then let's get smart and create a shuttle bus service from all exterior parking lots. This is not a radical concept seeing as we, the students, already provide a bus service that could serve these lots until after midnight. As a matter of fact, Chris Ogle, owner of the Lawrence Bus Company, and the Student Senate Transportation Board, which runs the service, have, in the past, been in
favor of such an idea. The issue is one of money — and this is a commitment that the University should assume.
This expansion would not only ease the inconvenience of re-routing but would more importantly help ease the perennial tension between the blue-, red- and yellow-stickered politicians who each year dispute the importance of their respective constituencies. You see, although a university has been reached, the tension lives on. And if you at all doubt the existence of this tension, witness a University Parking Board meeting during discussion of parking allocation.
For now, however, why don't we lower the speed limit on campus from 20 mph to 10 mph and enforce it until everyone, including bicyclists, learn to slow down and be more careful. We are, after all, discussing a half-mile stretch of road that is usually packed with human lives. Isn't life that valuable? And then, when the University is ready to commit money for better lighting of the campus parking lot, bus service to serve parking lots and build the essentials necessary to make such a proposal attractive (which would include making the old Jayhawk Boulevard a beautiful addition to our beautiful campus), I say we do it. And then we can say, "We have truly created a better system for everyone!"
Brook Menees is a Prairie Village senior majoring in French literature.
CAMP UHNEELY
BY SCOTT PATTY
SPENDSPRINGBREAK IN SUNNY KANSAS CITY!!!
IF YOU DON'T HAVE THE FUNDS TO GO TO A REAL BEACH, HERE ARE SOME TIPS TO MAKE IT LOOK LIKE YOUR
TIP#1: Go To
A TANNING
SALON TWICE A DA
DISCLAIMER:
THE KANISAN is
NOT SUGGESTING
THE USE OF
TANNED BED.
TIP#2.WEAR BEACH CLOTHES ON CAMPUS*
SWIMSUIT
- PACKARD'S OUTFIT
COURTESY OF
PERI I IMPORTS SPARTA
3/10
11P# 3: SET YOUR
WATCH ON EASTERN
TIME (ANNOUNCE
YOUR MISTAKE TO THE
CLASS.)
DID WHEN CLASSES RESUME
TIP #1$: DUMP SAND
OUT OF YOUR SHOES IN
CLASS.