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Monday, November 20, 1989 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Pennsylvania abortion law designed to scare women
The Pennsylvania legislature has passed the toughest abortion law vet on the books.
The bill that is on its way to Gov. Robert Casey, who is expected to rubber-stamp it through, would require wives to notify their husbands if they plan to have an abortion, would prohibit abortions because of the fetus' sex, would ban abortions after the 24th week of pregnancy (except in cases where the mother faces death or irreversible harm), and would establish a 24-hour waiting period.
Further, doctors would have to inform women about the risks and alternatives.
Apparently, Pennsylvania lawmakers don't think that women would have debated the idea heavily before deciding to have an abortion. They must think that the women are totally irrational, unaware and, basically, stupid before going in for the operation.
Pro-choice supporters in the state, however, don't think they can fight the plan, because any appeals might open the door for a worse law. However, they say, if they don't fight, then other states will probably follow Pennsylvania's lead.
And it's a lead made by an anti-abortion body with two left feet. Obviously, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania cares little about its female citizens and doesn't mind treating them like they don't have minds. The state happily will treat its women like sisters, so long as it gets to be a hateful big brother.
The abortion-rights supporters in Pennsylvania should fight the law, regardless of what they see as possible dire consequences. If their supporters in other states follow suit, we can keep this伯ering of women from happening closer to home.
David Stewart for the editorial board
Give thanks,but take time to help those less fortunate
"Tis the season to be jolly, almost.
Soon, Salvation Army bell ringers will be located at strategic locations throughout the city. Lawrence will be dressed in the traditional holiday garb. And our steps to classes will be to the beat of familiar Christmas carols.
But first, before we can be completely caught up in the holiday spirit, we must make it through the Thanksgiving Break and the uncoming post-Thanksgiving rush.
The homestretch to Winter Break is long. We still have to survive those last chance finals, last minute holiday shopping and general holiday anxieties.
To be prepared to do all that, we should take advantage of the few days we have off to celebrate Thanksgiving. Relaxation should become our temporary motto.
In this season when we must take care of ourselves to insure academic survival,we must also be acutely aware of those who don't have as much to be thankful for.
As we enter this magical season, let us not forget those who often are forgotten.
Reaching out and helping others could be in the form of donating a check to an organization or dropping spare change in a charity basket.
But as students and faculty, we all know that often there just isn't much spare change to give.
So substitute money with time. Giving could be in the form of giving a couple of spare hours helping an organization get ready for the cold weather. Or giving could be making sure an international student has a place to go during the holidays.
Many people are out there who need our help. We all know that. But that we could actually make a difference in someone else's holiday is a lesser known fact.
Thanksgiving Day is just about here. Let's go home, rest and enjoy.
Then let's come back to school with clear heads for studying and warm hearts for caring.
Tiffany N. Harness for the editorial board
David Stewart ... Editor
Ric Brack ... Managing Director
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May I have the envelope, please. . .
Tested judging system battles 40-year-old rumors of a fixed Rock Chalk
"This whole thing is fixed!" "This Rock Chalk thing is fixed, and I know it!" Exclamations like those have been ringing through Hoch Auditorium since Rock Chalk Revue debured them in 1949. But despite the prevalence of such rumors, they are just that — rumors.
Rock Chalk Revue is a campus-wide variety show. It is also a competition. But it is not fixed. There seems to be a great deal of confusion about how each phase of Rock Chalk Revue is judged. Well, let's just clean up these misconceptions and off-target grumblings in one fall sweep. Let's start with explaining what is actually judged. During the Fall semester, interested living groups work tirelessly to create their own show for the production. This year, 14 groups have presented shows. These presentations are in the form of production
Ned Nixon
muscle and everything else that goes into the production of a musical show. On a designated day, these notebooks are given to the Executive Director and Advisory Board of the Rock Chalk Revue. In turn, they give a copy of each group's notebook to eight judges. These judges are picked by the Executive Director and the Assistant Director early in the semester. They are individuals of varied musical and theatrical backgrounds who live in the Lawrence and Kansas City area. They have been interviewed to make sure they
Guest columnist
have no connection to any groups involved with the show, and they are instructed to judge the shows only on the material presented in the notebooks. They don't even know which show belongs to which group. All they have are the notebooks with a number. Even the groups are forbidden to have any hint of their identity within the content of the notebook.
The judges carefully examine the notebooks for two and a half weeks. They have a chance to clear up any questions they have through an oral presentation by the directors of each group. Then each judge gives each group a score based on certain criteria including script, music and theme interpretation.
The ballots containing the judges' scores are given to an impartial third party for tabulation. This again has only a number to identify each group. The highest and the lowest scores are thrown out, and the remaining six are combined to
produce a composite score. The top five composite scores make it into the show, which is in early March. The whole process is, of course, supervised Rock Chalk faculty advisor. It's as simple as that.
If we could afford it, we'd probably hire a West Coast accounting firm to do it all inside a sealed vault. But we can't. So for 40 years the process has been closely scrutinized to ensure its integrity. This careful attention to detail has produced a system we believe to be beyond reproach.
Perhaps rumors of impropriety spring from man's inherently cynical belief that something is rotten. Then again, people still watch professional wrestling. I don't attempt to understand these paradoxes, I just thought I'd explain what it could.
With this cleared up, I'm just waiting for rumors like, "Wow, those conscious Rock Chalk guys sure have hammered out a squeaky-clean sys-ter." That sounds more true than the produced a judging process that serves as a shining example of what's possible for democratic youth in the 1990's."
That I can handle.
Ned Nixon is a Wichita senior majoring in human biology and is the Executive Director of Rock Chalk Revue.
'Elvis' keeps this library shook up
So there I was, trying to be as unobtrusive as possible, wandering once again inside the first library I had ever visited. I was recalling the quiet, soothing feeling of my hometown library, the Bexley Public Library, and thinking about how much it had to do instill in me a lifelong love of reading. I was also thinking about how I would probably never be able to write about it. I asked a teacher in the library for some readers of the column were more sick of hearing about than my fond memories of Bexley.
The answer came in the form of an unexpected tap on my shoulder.
tap on my mouse.
"Sir?" the voice said.
I turned around and stood face-to-face with Bexley's only Elvis immersioner.
"Sir, I just wanted to introduce myself," said Jamie Coyne.
You have to understand. Bexley is a town of 15,000 people. I was not even aware that there was an Elvis impersonator in Bexley. But here was Jamie Coyne.
"Well, I guess I've hit the daily double," I said. "Pardon me?" Jamie Convee said.
Jamie Coyne, 17, is a senior at Bexley High School. Not only is he the only Ellys emperonator, but he thinks he may be the only student at the high school who likes Elvis.
"Mostly the other students like U2 and New Kids on the Bck," he said.
I should point out that Jamie Coyne does not look like Elvis. He is a clean-cut, fresh-faced lad who would be at home whitewashing wooden fences in a
"Bexley, Elisis . . . both of you in one column is really going to drive people crazy."
Bob Greene
Syndicated columnist
Mark Twain twole. Nevertheless, impersonating Elvis is his chosen avocation.
"I're really started the year I was 12 years old, on Halloween," he said. "My mother made me an Elvis suit for Halloween, and I went out dressed as Elvis."
"Jumpsuit?" I said.
"Jumpsuit." I said.
"Yeah," he said. "A blue one."
Then he learned to play the guitar. He estimated that he could perform 657 of Elvis' songs.
He spent his freshman and sophomore years at St. Charles, a parochial high school, but transferred to Bexley when he was a junior. One of his teachers was intrigued when he handed in a term paper on the topic of "How Elvis Presley Affected American Values." The teacher invited Jamie to sit in front of the class. He did, and he then repeated the act in several other classes that day.
"After school, I got a message to report to the assistant principal's office," he said. "I thought I was in trouble. But he just wanted me to sing 'Don't be Cruel' for him."
His fame inside the school began to spread. "I'll walk down the hallways every day and the other kids will say, 'Hey, Elvis,' or 'How's it goin', Elvis?'" he said.
he is not exactly playing huge arenas yet; his biggest recent performance was at the Reynoldsburg Tomato Festival. Mostly he does children's birthday parties. There's not that big an Elvis market in Bexley. His standard fee is $50. "I'll knock it down to $25 for a nursing home," she said.
He was recently invited to sing at halftime of Bexley's homecoming football game. His mother had sewn him a new jumpsuit, and he wanted to entrance to the football field in a pink Cadillac.
"I didn't know where I could get one," he said. "But there was this lady who won one from Mary Kay Cosmetics, and she agreed to drive me." Thus, backed by the Bexley High School Marching Band, *All Coyne* stood on the 50-yard line and sang "All Shook Up" at homecoming.
He said that even though Bexley is an Elvislive, he is enjoyingly himself. "My dad is a public works inspector for the state of Ohio," he said. "We live in Chelsea. Over the Dairy Queen?"
"Sure." I said, "Near the Clark Oil station?"
I asked him what he was doing at the Bexley Public Library.
"An Elvis impersonator who also works at the Bexley library," I said.
"I work here three or four days a week," he said. "I file books and stamp cards . . . it's a good part-time job."
"As a matter of fact, I do," I said, wishing him the best of everything.
▶ Bob Greene is a columnist for the Chicago Tribune.
CAMP UHNEELY
BY SCOTT PATTY