4
Monday, September 27,1993
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VIEWPOINT
THE ISSUE
Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., has come out in favor of bullet control. He presented a bill in Congress to tax ammunition at 1,000 percent. The bill would also ban certain types of ammunition not used for hunting.
THE BACKGROUND
There are 200 million firearms owned in the United States. Even if the Brady Bill passes, it will not take the guns out the hands of those already owning them. Currently in the United States, there is a four-year supply of ammunition available.
THE OPINION
Taxes on ammunition could stop gun violence
This issue is not gun control. It is about saving lives and making the streets of the United States safer. Daniel Patrick Moynihan and his supporters do not want to prevent anyone from hunting deer or prairie chickens, just human beings. The proposal is to ban certain kinds of ammunition which are not used for hunting but for spraying crowds of people from tower tops or passing cars. Supporting this concept is one way that people in the United States could move about safely.
It has been suggested that the proposed tax on bullets could be a way to increase revenue for health care. The revenue also could be distributed to states to increase the number of police officers on the streets or to fund an all-encompassing research project to find out why violence is rampant in the United States.
In Canada and Australia, it is more difficult to have guns and ammunition than it is in the United States. In 1990, 10 murders by handguns were committed in Australia, 68 in Canada and 10,567 in the United States. It is obvious that action has to be taken, even if it is only a Band-Aid solution. With time, maybe all of these solutions will work together to lower the death toll in this country.
Everyone can have the guns they feel they need for hunting and self-protection; they can have the bullets, too. Even the most staunch advocate of the Second Amendment should admit that one only needs a few rounds to protect home and hearth.
MICHELLE SMITH FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Search for permanent deans must speed up
Help Wanted: Deans to fill positions.
The school of education and the school of pharmacy have been without a dean for more than a year, and the law school and the school of architecture will be without a dean by the end of the school year. For professional schools to operate successfully a permanent dean must be in place. A two or five-year appointment to school required of permanent dean is a stronger commitment than what is expected of an interim dean.
Both students and faculty of these schools need the security that a permanent dean can bring. The administration has been searching for replacements but claims it has not found qualified people for these positions.
Administrators should speed up the searches, place the most qualified people in these positions and realize that these schools will be in limbo as they wait for a new permanent dean.
TERRILYN McCORMICK FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
KANSAN STAFF
KC TRAUER, Editor
IOE HARDER, CHRISTINE LAUE
Managing editors
TOM EBLEN
General manager, news adviser
BILL SKEET, Systems coordinator
Assistant to the editor ... J.R. Clairborne
News ... Stacy Friedman
Editorial ... Terrilyn McCormick
Campus ... Ben Grove
Sports ... Krist Fogler
Photo ... Klip Chin, Renee Kneeber
Features ... Ezra Wolfe
Graphics ... John Paul Wolf
Editors
AMY CASEY
Business manager
AMY STUMBO
Retail sales manager
JEANNE HINES
Sales and marketing adviss
Business Staff
Campus sales mgr ... Ed Schager
Regional sales mgr ... Jennifer Perrier
National sales mgr ... Jennifer Evenson
Co-op sales mgr ... Blythe Footh
Production mgr ... Jennifer Blowey
Kate Burgess
Marketing director ... Shelly Fuccio
Creative director ... Brian Fuco
Classified mgr ... Janice Davis
**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 hometown, or faculty or staff position.
**Guest columns** should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 700 words. The writer will be
The Kansan reserves the right to reject or edit letters, guest columns and cartoons. They can be nailed or brought to the Kansan newsroom, 111 Stauffer-Flint Hall.
Guest columns should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 700 words. The writer will be photorahmed.
Driving around in Italy an adventure in itself
Recently, in an effort to gain insight into the European currency crisis, my family and I went to Italy.
Our plan was to rent a car and drive around on winding, picturesque Italian roads. Because we are international travel sophisticates, we went in the middle of August, which is when the entire population of Italy goes on vacation. It turns out that the No. 1 Italian vacation activity is to get in a car and drive around at approximately the speed of light.
I imagine that some traffic maneuvers are illegal in Italy. For example, you're probably not allowed to drive your car over a police officer without signaling. But other than that, pretty much anything goes. When we picked up our car in Rome, I asked a man for directions; he told me to start by driving the wrong way up a one-way street.
"Isn't that a one-way street?" I asked.
"Yes," he said, shrugging. "But who reads the siams?"
As far as I could tell in 10 days of driving around Italy, there is only one strict traffic regulation: You are NOT allowed to be behind another motorist. If somebody is in front of you, you MUST, by law, get past this person, even if you are on a winding road the width of a strand of No. 8 spaghetti, on a hillside next to a huge cliff. Several times I was passed by drivers who got past me by driving right off the cliffs' edge, so that their cars were briefly hanging right out in space, the way the cartoon Road Runner does.
We were on many small roads, because we stayed in some picturequeues villages built a thousand years ago by people who put massive stone walls around them to indicate that these villages were never intended for automobile traffic. But you have to try to drive in them anyway to reach your hotel. To do this, you follow a series of arrows, apparently put up by prankster villagers, which lead you through a maze of streets, sometimes passing the same point four or five times before reaching the center of the town, where the pranksters laugh as you inch your car through streets so narrow that they make the winding road look like the New Jersey turnpike, with stone walls scraping your car on both sides and even overhead. The only indication that you are on a legal automotive thoroughfare is that occasionally an Italian driver will pass you, if necessary by driving on your roof.
COLUMNIST
Once we reached the hotel, we did fine, thanks to my sophisticated knowledge of Italian. I had memorized the Italian expressions for "I do not speak Italian," and "Do you speak English?" As a result, on two occasions, I strode up to the hotel desk person and stated, in crude Italian, "I do not speak English."
Fortunately, the Italians are low on soot, so we were treated well despite communicating like tourist versions of Tonto ("We stay in room with toilet, yes?"). We ate many wonderful meals wherein they keep bringing you more courses. And when you finally stagger away from the table, they follow you
At one point in our vacation, we were in a very important church in Venice, and a guide was pointing toward the spot where St. Mark was entombed, and my son, looking impressed, said, "THE St. Mark?"
to your room and stuff food into your mouth while you sleep.
But of all our experiences, the one I remember most vividly was when we were in the Dolomite Alps, an area of spectacular natural beauty, and realized that our passports were missing. So I reported this loss to the local police, who typed up and handed me a detailed document that I believe said, in Italian, "The people holding this document have no idea what it says, but it will certainly get them out of our hair. Thank you."
In my sophistication, I actually believed that this document would be an adequate replacement for our passports. You can imagine how comical this seemed to the authorities when we got to the Milan airport and attempted to leave Italy. So our plane took off without us, and we got to spend a whole extra day in Italy, rearranging our travel plans and trying to prove to the American Consulate that we were Americans and should be permitted to return home. During this process, I thought a lot about Sheik Oman Abdel-Rahman, whom our government cheerfully admitted despite the fact he listed his occupation on his visa application as "Terrorist Loon."
Anyway, we eventually got home, bringing with us valuable insights into the European currency situation, the main one being that if you go over there, you should take a lot of it.
Not that I am bitter.
Dave Barry is a syndicated columnist with the Miami Herald.
INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
It is possible that (Boris) Yeltsin and his squad will emerge as victors in this battle. But the adventurous nature of this decision is evident. The necessity of this move is questionable. Why such a hurry? The impression which emerges is that
influential men of Yeltsin's presidential team have deemed it necessary to accelerate the confrontation with the opposition (the legislative power) before support behind Yeltsin plunges further.
Whatever happens, even if this new "legality" — instituted by decree — works (with or without blood), it is born stained by a "revolutionary" original sin, of which its creators will not easily cleanse
Force in implementing democracy demeaning
The dramatic turn in Moscow had been long in coming.
themselves. It will not be democratic because they will have to use force to implement it. And tomorrow, with other means of force, in other circumstances, other men, no less scrupulous than the present "winners," will assume the right to impose other "legalities" by decree, founded on other plebiscites.
LA STAMPA
TURIN, ITALY
Women and minorities still striving for equality
Janet Reno
Ruth Bader Ginsburg Joycelyn Elders.
Jaret Reno.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
STAFF COLUMNIST
TIFFANY
HURT
Mary Frances Berry.
It all began with Janet Reno. Clinton's appointment of Reno lead her to become the first female Attorney General.
But it didn't stop there. Joycelyn Elders, another African American, was nominated for Surgeon General. She was recently confirmed.
This year can be defined as "the year of women and minorities."
Next, Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Last month she became the second female Supreme Court Justice. Clinton nominated her to replace Justice Byron White upon his retirement.
Mary Frances Berry was recently appointed to head the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. If confirmed, Berry, an African American, will be the first female to head the commission. But Berry will not be alone. She will enter an administration with at least three other women and minorities that Clinton has appointed.
These four remarkable women will grace history books. They will serve as role models for future generations. It is refreshing to see that more women and minorities are given a chance to hold top level positions in government. For many years, women and minorities have been put on the back burner. They have been taught to sit on the sidelines instead of participate in the ball game.
It's not that women and minorities were not qualified to hold top level positions. They just were not given the chance to do so. I'm glad to see that we are making slow but sure progress.
But we still have a long way to go.
We still await the first female president. We still await the first minority president.
Having women and minorities in top level government positions not only creates equality for the people in the positions but the citizens of the United States. Government should adequately represent the people that it serves.
We still await a woman or minority vice president, chief supreme court justice, and so on.
Ournation consists of a diverse population. Thus, government should be diverse also. If it is not, everyone's needs can not be met. The concerns of women and minorities can not adequately be met if women and minorities are not adequately represented in government.
A white male can not represent a minority person as adequately as a minority can. If minorities are put in top level positions, the voice of the minority can be heard. Berry, Reno, Ginsburg and Elders are minority voices that need to be heard. As women and minorities, they can adequately represent the views of women and minorities in America.
A democracy is government for the people and by the people. But this only can be true if government is diverse. Government should continue to strive for diversity. And women and minorities should continue to strive for excellence.
Tiffany Hurt is an Overland Park senior majoring in Journalism and English.
University of Mars
by Joel Francke