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Tuesday, November 28, 1995
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VIEWPOINT
THE ISSUE: TRAFFIC SAFETY
Intersection needs turn lanes
Many Lawrence residents are frustrated trying to turn left at the intersection of 23rd and Massachusetts streets. The intersection, which has the highest number of traffic accidents in the city, can be dangerous. To make Lawrence's streets safer for all drivers, the intersection needs to be improved.
Left turn lanes at the intersection would decrease the number of accidents and increase public safety, a transportation expert said. Accidents could be reduced drastically if new traffic signals were installed, the swinging turn lane was moved from Massachusetts Street onto 23rd Street and new turn lanes were added. All three options should be considered as part of any plan.
Some people who live near the intersection have
Adding lanes and traffic lights at 23rd and Massachusetts streets would decrease accidents. Increase safety
reservations about construction. They do not want streets that are already congested moved any closer to their homes. However, if additional turn lanes would reduce traffic accidents by half, as studies seem to indicate, adding more lanes might be the best solution.
The Lawrence City Commission deserves credit for carefully weighing the positive effects with Lawrence residents' concerns. However, the intersection requires improvements to increase safety.
If constructing new turn lanes would help resolve this problem, it might, ultimately, be a worthwhile solution.
AIMEE WITTMAN FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD.
THE ISSUE: GRIEVANCE PROCESS
Professor deserves to lose rights
The recent order prohibiting associate professor Hector Clark from filing complaints with the University of Kansas Judicial Board was justified and necessary.
Since 1981, Clark has been part of the mechanical engineering faculty at the University. Since then, he has become infamous for the accusations he has directed at colleagues in the form of faculty grievances filed with the Judicial Board. It was the multitude of his complaints that forced David Shulenburger, vice chancellor for academic affairs, to act.
Shulenburger issued an order prohibiting Clark from filing complaints with the Judicial Board until the year 2000.
Clark thought the order violated his rights as a faculty member at the University. He claimed that he filed grievances to expose corruption at the University.
However, the Judicial Board found truth in only two of his many
Administrators were forced to issue an order that prevents Hector Clark from abusing the grievance process
complaints. And in those instances, the faculty members involved weren't disciplined. Clearly, Clark's complaints have not proven to be based in fact.
All faculty members have the right to file a grievance against a colleague when the situation warrants it. But when the process is continually abused, as it was in Clark's case, it spawns negative side effects. It breeds an atmosphere of mistrust and hostility between colleagues.
When it comes to disrupting the work environment, University officials should act in whatever way they deem necessary to rectify the situation, even if that means taking a right away from an employee.
Shulenburger was justified in prohibiting Clark from filing grievances until the turn of the century.
MARK POTTER FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
KANSAN STAFF
COLLEEN MCCAIN
Editor
DAVID WILSON
Managing editor, news
ASHLEY MILLER
Managing editor, planning & design
TOM EBLEN
General manager, news adviser
Editors
News & Special Sections...Deeress Allison
Editorial...Heather Lawrence
Editorial...Morton McConnell
Campus...Virginia Tech
Associate Campus...Teresa Vanessy
Associate Campus...Jennifer Gordon
Associate Sports...Tom Erickson
Photo...Paul Kelts
Nationwide News...Nina Melnik
On-Line coordinator...Thomas Fassett
STEPHANIE UTLEY
Business manager
MATT SHAW
Retail sales manager
JAY STEINER
Sales and marketing adviser
JUSTIN KNUPP
Technology coordinator
Campus mgr...Meredith Hennung
Regional mgr...Tom Dulce
National mgr...Neither Barnes
Industrial mgr...Nancy Easton
Production mgr...Nancy Easton
Marketing director...Krista Knyth
Public Relations director...Beth Goldi
Creative director...Brigid Bloomquist
Internship/oo-op mgr...Kelly Connery
Jeff MacNelly / CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Business Staff
So do we stop tilting at windmills? Should we accept hypocrisy as a part of life? I say no. With enough lances, and the strongest windmill will fall. Fight the hypocrisy wherever you can, stand up for the innocent victims murdered by America, and don't fall for the political rhetoric of those who care for nothing more than their own re-election.
Little efforts can overcome rife American hypocrisy
Hypocrites come in many forms and are found in every walk of life. They are the doctors who ask about our insurance before they ask about our illness. They are the priests who molest our young while preaching salvation. And they are the politicians who talk about family values while acting with the moral turpitude of hedonistic pond scum. My favorite of these is Newt Gingrich, who deserted his wife while she was in the hospital with cancer and refused for a time to pay child support. He exudes family values, doesn't he?
The U.S. national security adviser, Anthony Lake, said last week that our American values were at stake and we had a moral obligation to stop the slaughter in Bosnia. He is wrong. We had a moral obligation three years ago. Now all that is left is cleaning up the mess and burning the dead. This isn't indicative of sound values. It is merely helping them to exercise good hygiene.
But hypocrisy isn't confined to the activities of individuals. When our politicians fail to fulfill basic values that we as a nation purport to follow, then our nation is soled by hypocrisy, as well. Following World War II, the U.S. government swore that it never would allow the atrocities committed by the Nazis to happen again. In spite of this, we have done little more than watch as the Serbs, Croats and Muslims have terrorized each other with rape squads, death camps and the shelling of civilians.
But our government always has been reluctant to help the defenseless, no matter what our leaders may have said in the past. We stood
STAFF COLUMNIST
Todd Hlatit is a Lyndon senior in social welfare.
In a way, it is the fault of the American public that such a school is allowed to operate within our borders. We have tolerated hypocrisy so long that no one feels ashamed of it. It's a fair question to ask the doctor who refuses to treat the uninsured patient if her main objective is to help people or to pay the mortgage on her house. But it's a question seldom asked. It is reasonable for us to demand that our government stop funding and training murders — and you can do so by calling the Maryknoll Order at 1-800-227-8523 — but after 40 years of hypocrisy, your screams of protest will probably go unheeded.
by, doing nothing, while the Khmer Rouge brutalized Cambodia. We did nothing to stop the massacre in Rwanda. And we haven't done anything to stop the government-sponsored domestic terrorism campaign that continues to plague Chile.
I can understand the logic behind our passivity. We aren't the world's policeman. It is not our responsibility to make sure everyone behaves themselves. (I would say it is the United Nation's job, but I'm afraid the peals of laughter would disrupt class.) But why can't we just be honest about it? United States' policy statement: "We will not exercise military force in Bosnia until it starts spreading into other parts of Europe and messing up our trade, or until so many people have died that the warring factions are virtually forced to make peace and we can step in and take the credit."
But our hypocrisy runs deeper than a pretense of concern for the innocent. We denounce terrorism and the murder of civilians with the fervor of the morally superior, yet for the past four decades we have financed the School of the Americas, which has trained some of the most brutal murderers, torturers, assassins and Central-American government leaders the world ever has seen.
This school in Fort Benning, Ga.
is run by the U.S. Army. Its list of graduates includes Roberto D'Aubisson, organizer of the Salvadoran death squads; Hector Gramajo, Guatemalan Minister of Defense, who is responsible for the deaths of 70,000 people; and Julio Alprez, who was on the CIA payroll when he tortured and murdered U.S. citizen Michael Devine. The list goeson and reads like a Who's Who in Torture and Mayhem. Personally, I like knowing our tax dollars are going to support such a worthy and noble cause as the raping and pillaging of Central America.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Remains of program exist in courses
May I make one correction to NovelaMom Summers' otherwise accurate article "Old program was souled. " 11/16)?
The advisory committee charged to review the Integrated Humanities Program in 1978 did not find the program "gulity of presenting only one point of view." Nor did that committee "rule that in the future the program would have to present all points of view."
How many classes at the University of Kansas present "all points of view" or even more than one point of view about current political issues such as race, gender, the western canon, etc.?
The committee recommended to the dean of the college that the Integrated Humanities Program be "incorporated into a balanced humanities program."
The dean did not adopt this recommendation but instead terminated the program, although the four courses were permitted to continue and be taught as they had been taught for nine years.
Dennis Quinn professor of English
The courses continue to be taught to this day as Humanities 104, 108, 330 and 338, with me as the instructor.
To which may I add a query:
Labels reflect views of abortion issue
I appreciate the Kansan publishing my letter to the editor regarding the Religious Right and the abortion issue. However, I was disappointed to see that my words were changed to perpetuate a liberal bias against those who work to protect the unborn.
Your editorial license should not allow you to change the label "pro-life" to "anti-abortion." I find this an offensive encroachment on the expression of my views. Editorial changes to "Letters to the Editor" should be limited to changes for clarity and style.
Abortion is a politically charged issue. As with many
controversial issues, advocates for both sides attempt to change public opinion of their adversaries through the use of labels.
The label "anti-abortion" suggests an individual or group is against the rights of another to have an abortion. On the other hand, the label "pro-life" suggests an individual or group is for the protection of another's right to life. The critical distinction between these labels should be respected.
I consider myself to be pro-life. I am not against abortion per se. However, I believe that the right to life is fundamental. Therefore, any rights which infringe on the fundamental right to life must be subordinate.
David Barry Shawnee law student
Editor's note:
Letters to the editor are edited for style and clarity only. Kansas style requires that a person be identified as an abortion-rights advocate or an anti-abortion advocate. The Kansan does not use pro-life or pro-choice.
Mud slinging dirty politics soil voters' confidence
The amazing thing about Colin Powell's decision not to run is that we not only understood but agreed with him in his decision. Who would want to be president, anyway? Politics is not for the sane.
STAFF COLUMNIST
I've had the pleasure to meet one of the fearless contenders. He's the mud-slinging, Kansasmade machine, Bob Dole. On his third time up to bat, Dole is defying gravity to keep his mouth shut tight. His smoking vocals have cost him two
prior elections, and he's determined to hold on, white-knuckled, to the presidential dream.
in the opposite corner of the ring, we have President Bill Clinton, who's betting bread he won't be the fourth president since 1976 to be defeated in a presidential race. The not-soguty but well-groomed spokesman for MTV battles white waters and worries about his character.
Not yet lamed from the game,
Lamar Alexander, Pat Buchanan,
Steve Forbes, Phil Gramm and
Richard Lugar press on.
Whom will we choose, and whv?
A registered Republican, I would choose Mickey Mouse, except he's not running. And why not? He seems reasonable enough. Movie stars are not foreign to the political playpen. He's a groomed, television-ready world figure. And kids love him. That is what the game of politics is all about, isn't it? It's a game of children squealing 'mine' and 'me, too' to a bunch of wide-eyed television-watchin' Americans.
Before you get the wrong idea, I'm not completely against our government. I won't be running naked down Massachusetts Street, with a burn bra, screaming anarchy anytime soon. I dream in red, white and blue about the foundations from which we grew. We are a proud nation, scarred by the political foul-ups of the past. And this race is the same stale story.
Anyone who could have made a difference has ducked out to avoid the storm. And we — the public, the 'little guy' — are standing by for our night to fill the room at the White House. With Prince President nowhere in sight, history is being made. And how in shape are we when it comes to history? The majority of Americans can name the figures on a box of Rice Krispies faster than those four political heads on Mount Rushmore. If knowledge is to be the key to demanding good leadership, we could ourselves left in the cold. It is easier not to care and let the politicians run politics while we worry about running our lives. But in the end, it will be the politicians running our lives — along with our country.
Unless we demand honesty and fairness,we could find our country in shambles faster than we can say snap-crack-pop.
Amy McVoy is an Olathe junior in Journalism.
How to submit letters and guest columns
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All letter and guest columns should be submitted to the Kansas newsroom, 11.1 Stauber-Stint Hall. The Kansas reserves the right to edit, cut to length or reject all submissions. For any questions, call 804-4810.
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