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Thursday, October 7, 1993
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VIEWPOINT
THE ISSUE
Teaching faith in western civilization is under criticism.
THE BACKGROUND
Kansas City Baptist Temple Student Ministries recently criticized the textbook of the Western Civilization course, which studied Christianity. The group said that students were not getting the truth about Christianity.
THE OPINION
Religious persuasion has no place in classes
The teaching of faith in KU classrooms contradicts the principles of this academic institution. The recent criticism of the Western Civilization textbook, "Patterns in Western Civilization," used at KU ultimately asks just that. The demand is in total disregard of the principle of church and state separation.
The Kansas City Baptist Temple Student Ministries believes that the western civilization textbook does not teach the real faith that Christians believe. The reality is that the University is and always should be a secular institution, and ideas and theories are studied in classrooms from a historical and geographical perspective. Students learn how a society or a region was affected by the various ideas of science, theology and philosophy that existed at that time.
The other question KCBT raised was whose sense of truth or conception of truth should be taught? Students enrolled in this class have diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds.
If students want to learn more about religion or feel that they are not getting the "true" picture of religion, they should visit churches, synagogues or other places of worship. There are also numerous religious organizations on campus that can give information.
The fact is that this University, being a secular institution, cannot teach the faith of one or any religion in its classrooms. Classrooms are for objective learning, not religious persuasion.
MUNEERA NASEER FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Americans must meet education reform goals
Americans need to make educational improvement a consistently high priority on the state and national agendas. While the nation's attention has been focused on budget issues, the national debt and health care reform, educational reform and improvement have once again been displaced from the national agenda.
Last week, Education Secretary Richard Riley called attention to this lack of action as graduation rates, test scores and adult literacy continue their downward spiral. In 1989, the nation's governors set forth six goals for education, all of which were to be reached by the year 2000. Four years have passed, and the state and local governments have not undertaken the task of meeting these with the fervor or innovation that is needed. Although health care and the national debt are important issues, we cannot afford to attack these problems while procrastinating on education. Every year that the down slide of education continues is another year that we graduate students who are ill-equipped for the dynamic and competitive world of the 21st century. We cannot ignore these student's future, for it is our own.
There are many ideas for reform and many that have been shown to work. While almost any educational reform will be controversial, we must be open to debate and pledge to act. Contact your local, state and national lawmakers and urge them to take the lead in educational reform before another year is wasted.
CHRIS REEDY FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Taxes will climb,open market will die under health care plan
there is no question that the United States needs some type of reasonable reform for its health care system. That is why it was so tragic to see the unveiling of Hillary Clinton's health reform plan. This deceptive plan ignores the reality of economics and instead offers only an illusion that quality, affordable health care can be provided to every man, woman and child in the U.S. Hillary's complete disregard for the long history of bureaucratic failures in the marketplace and her naive assertion that only a cigarette tax is needed to provide complete health care to 38 million people are comical. But I don't imagine that too many Americans will be laughing after the unemployment rate goes up, taxes increase, and the standard of health care plummets to that of Canadian type levels. If the open market system is completely bypassed, as Hillary's plan proposes, then all of the effects listed above are a short time away.
This plan has "very strong incentives built in that work against fee-for-service, not only on the consumer side, but also on the provider side," said Carla Walinsky of the Health
STAFF COLUMNIST
Care Advisory Board and Governance Committee. This would have obvious adverse impacts on the current system of private practice by doctors. Elizabeth McCaughey, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute in New York, explains that a "fee-for-service is the plan that Americans currently use to pick their own doctor, select the hospital they think best, get a second opinion if they have doubts and see a specialist if needed."
Under Hillary's plan a community rating system will be adopted to determine the pricing in each health alliance region. There are two primary disadvantages for the socialistic community rating system: First, individuals will no longer be rewarded
with discounts in their insurance premiums for healthier lifestyles. Second, if a health alliance region has a high number of people with "questionable" lifestyles then the rest of the citizens in that region will be expected to pick up the bill.
McCaughey states, "Everyone will figure out that you get more health care for your dollar or pay lower premiums in an alliance without inner city problems. The plan will be an incentive for employers to abandon cities and relocate." Is this the type of health care reform American's want?
Hillary has tried to sell this fraudulent program to the American people by stating that increased costs for most Americans will be marginal. However, she does not realize that her Alice In Wonderland economic proposals will fail to translate into the world we call reality.
"Combining the administration's overoptimism about Medicare-Medicaid savings and its understatement of increased utilization implies at least $70 billion a year of extra costs," said Martin Feldstein, an economics professor at Harvard. "The only way to avoid these increased costs would
be to impose a system of controls and rationing that denies patients the care that they and their doctors want." Price controls, the rationing of medical services, and a $70 billion shortage, all of which are the inevitable result of Hillary's plan, hardly constitute a quality, affordable system of health care.
If this plan is passed, Americans can expect mediocre health care, increased taxes, and an end to the free market system that doctors now operate in. A reasonable health care reform would be a noble pursuit for President Clinton or the elected legislatures of this land, but Hillary's closed door policy has clearly resulted in a flawed plan constructed by an unelected official. A reasonable health care agenda must be open to public debate by the American people and our elected legislatures. If this process continues to be ignored, this country will continue to be haunted by Hillary's proposals.
Lance Hamby is a Wichita junior majoring in political science and journalism.
On the quest for 'coolness,' pick up a hat or possibly a banjo
I have recently been informed by my avid readers, of which I have none, that although my columns have made for first-rate fireplace material (if you get my drift), readers have been unable to relate to any of them. Somehow, there are people who don't fit into the realm of stupid drivers, roofers, and people with nine-person families. Think of it, — I'm exclusionary. Pretty cool, huh? This is a conveniently great lead-in for the topic of today's symposium. We're going to discuss the art of being "cool."
Discussions of "coolness" probably go back to the days of the Romans. I'm sure if I researched the subject (which would require an admittedly unneeded strain), I would find in-depth dialogue between Romans such as:
ROMAN KID: "But MOM! If I don't have this Polo toga, I'll never fit into the social circle of the cool kids."
ROMAN MOM: "Oh come on, Julius,
it's a passing fad. Now eat your
grapes."
As the saying goes "The more things change, the more they remain the same." So it is in our present culture.
My personal quest for coolness began in junior high, when I was informed by numerous cool people that I was, in fact, a "dork." This label continues to be distressing to me.
Nevertheless, I've learned much
over the years about what it takes to be cool. Of course, once I catch on to what is cool, it's uncool. Anyway, with my vast cool knowledge, I feel I may be able to give those of you in similar uncool positions that extra boost to push you over the top to cool. (COLUMNIST DISCLAIMER: Following these tips may help, or could quite possibly stunt your effort. Therefore, use them with discretion. I, the adviser, cannot be held responsible for any public humiliation you may incur as a result of using these tips. Handle with care. Wash warm, tumble dry medium and use warm iron if necessary. Do not dry clean.) And a herrrery we go.
1) Take up wearing a hat. I've seen that recently, hats are very cool. I like it especially when people are wearing hats of sports teams they don't even like. I'm sure you've walked on campus and asked someone if they liked the team of the hat they were wearing
and they said, "No. Who wants to know?" And you said, "No one. But you are cool." And they probably threatened to beat the hell out of you for giving them "lips."
2) Start a band. Seriously. People with bands get an automatic "cool exemption." See, playing an instrument is cool because the vast majority of the population can't do it. It's also helpful to have a band with a cool name, something that catches the public eye. If I ever started a band, I would call it "The Vegetarian Cattle Herders." Now I just have to learn to play the banjo.
So, obviously, there is much you can do to improve your standing in the community. With some musical ability and some hat sense, there's really nothing you can't do.
Chris Ronan is a Overland Park sophomore
major in radio and T.V. broadcast.
KANSAN STAFF
KC TRAUER, Editor
KC TRAUER, Editor
JOE HARDER, CHRISTINE LAUE
Managing editors
TOM EBLEN
General manager, news adviser
BILL SKEET, Systems coordinator
BILL SKEET, Systems coordinator
Editors
Assistant to the editor ..J.R. Clairborne
News ..Stacy Friedman
Editorial ..Terriflyn McCormick
Campus ..Ben Grove
Sports ..Kristi Fogler
Photo ..Kip Chin, Renee Kneeber
Features ..Erzola Wolfe
Graphics ..John Paul Foelig
AMY CASEY
Business manager
AMY STUMBO
Retail sales manager
JEANNE HINES
Sales and marketing adviser
Business Staff
Business Staff
Campus sales mgr .. Ed Schager
Regional Sales mgr .. Jennifer Perrier
National sales mgr .. Jennifer Evanson
Co-op sales mgr .. Blythe Focht
Production mgr .. Jennifer Blowey
Kate Burgess
Marketing director .. Shelly McConnell
Creative director .. Brian Fusco
Classified mgr .. Janice Davis
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For the Birds
by Jeff Fitzpatrick