4A
Monday, November 27,1995
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VIEWPOINT
THE ISSUE: UNDERAGE DRINKING
Bar owners should work to enforce drinking age laws
The bar owners of Lawrence, the Kansas Alcohol Beverage Commission and the Lawrence police department need to create a uniform and concrete position regarding the consumption of alcohol by minors. As we all know, the consumption of alcohol by persons under 21 years of age is illegal. Regardless of race, color or creed, minors do not have the right to consume alcohol in any way, shape or form.
In a town full of so-called college bars it comes as no surprise to anyone that, in many bars, a good portion of the bar patrons are under 21. That means that every minor who drinks is breaking the law, that every bar owner who serves minors is breaking multiple laws and that the law enforcement personnel who look the other way are neglecting their duty to uphold the law.
Regardless of one's opinion of the law or view of the correct drinking age, the law is the law, and it is not meant to be broken.
In recent years, some of the local bar owners have taken superficial steps to minimize the number of minors occupying their bars. The hypocrisy needs to stop. The simple fact is that making money is
In college towns, it is easy for bar owners and police to ignore under age drinkers because
the ultimate goal of bar owners and those who are in the liquor business. The sad fact is that money has become a more powerful influence than the ethical obligation to uphold the law.
The hypocrisy lies not in the issue of underage drinking but in the fact that we condone underage drinking or act as if it does not happen. Minors are responsible for their actions; local bar owners are responsible for what goes on in their bars; and local law enforcement is responsible for upholding the law. Why doesn't this happen? If the law is not applicable, then try to change it and voice opposition. But as long as the law is the law, then follow it. The law is open to change but not to personal license of application.
CHRIS VINE FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
If a bar owner makes much of his money on a given night from minors, how can he ever be convinced that selling to minors is wrong? And if bar owners do decide to uphold the law, then they will lose business to those who do not. Without a unified commitment from the bar owners, the hypocrisy inevitably will continue.
OPINION BRIEF
Kansan wants your opinion
Are you tired of not having an outlet for your opinions? Well, the editorial page may offer the perfect opportunity for you to speak your mind.
The editorial board, composed of 15 students meets twice a week. The board discusses topics and then votes on a position.
Applications are available in the Kansan newsroom, 111 Stauffer-Flint Hall, for columnists, editorial board members and cartoonists. You do not need to be a journalism major to work on the opinion page. Applications will be due tomorrow in the newsroom.
Columnists write one column a week about any subject of their choice.
Positions are available for both strip and editorial cartoonists. Editorial cartoonists will participate in editorial board meetings. Cartoonists must draw at least three times a week.
If you are interested and have questions, please call Paul Todd or Heather Lawrenz at 864-4810.
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 Sessions...Deeera Allison
Editorial...Heather Lawrenson
Associate Editorial...Mary Morrison
Associate Staff...Virginia Rennie
Associate Campus...Teresa Vesey
Associate Campus...Teresa Vesey
Associate Campus...Pearl Cook
Associate Campus...Jessica McKee
Associate Sports...Tom Etokouw
Photo...Paul Kelz
Photo...Paul Kelz
Opinion Editor...Rebecca Gaskell
Opinion Editor...Tina Passett
STEPHANIE UTLEY
Business manager
MATT SHAW
Retail sales manager
JAY STEINER
Sales and marketing adviser
JUSTIN KNUPP
Technology coordinator
Business Staff
Campus mgr ... Meredith Henning
Regional mgr ... Tom Dulac
Business mgr ... Tom Dulac
Special Sections mgr ... Heather Nihoua
Production mgr ... Nancy Euston
Marketing director ... Konan Hauze
Public Relations director ... Beth Cefhil
Creative director ... Bridget Bloomquist
Internship/o-cap mgr ... Katy Comely
Shawn Trimble/KANSAN
Grandma rides on the information highway
Similar to many of today's thrill seekers, Patricia Jones decided she would learn to surf the Internet and cruise the information highway.
So she bought a powerful computer, a speedy modem and hooked up to America Online.
"I was so fascinated and excited," said Jones, 60, a suburban granny. "I drove onto that information highway like a madwoman."
She did this despite the grouchy skepticism of her husband, who shook his head and grumbled: "You shouldn't be fooling with that stuff."
But she was not to be deterred. With a few clicks of her mouse, she was transported to that mystical place known as "on-line."
What that means, of course, is that she was sitting at her computer, and her screen was suddenly filled with images that really are not as exciting as Abbott and Costello or even Super Mario.
But for a suburban granny, what the heck, a thrill is a thrill.
"The chat rooms were filled with people discussing O.J. and such," she said. "They were all obviously younger than I, could not spell or were too hurried to do so and speaking in language that both shocked and puzzled me."
Jones sat for hours watching the messages flickering across her screen. It can be fascinating — people from across the country communicating, interacting, chatting, arguing, flirting and swapping wisecracks and deep insights.
(Of course, you can't see these people, and you don't know who they are. So the sensitive soul whose words you are reading on your screen might be sitting naked in front of his computer, drool dripting from his chin, typing with his right hand while his left is otherwise occupied.)
One night, Jones decided that watching these messages wasn't enough. She would join in.
COLUMNIST
"I dare ask a question. I typed,
What does LOL mean? I was
quickly told that it means "Laughing Out Loud."
(The on-line crowd uses such abbreviations and punctuation combinations that they call "smilies" to let others know they are kidding, joking, being witty. Old William Shakespeare and Mark Twain did
not resort to such shorthand.)
"But my question must have clued someone in to the fact that I was new—and dumb." Jones said.
"Only moments later, a message appeared on my screen, identified as coming from the America Online accounting department. It stated that my credit card number was fraudulent.
"Well, I was shocked. I most certainly don't give out fraudulent credit card numbers. Then I thought that perhaps the person to whom I gave the information on the phone when I signed up to AOL had mistakenly typed in the wrong number.
She is right about being naive. You never give any on-line stranger your credit card number or any personal information, other than weird sexual preferences. If that.
"So being of a generation that is both naive and usually honest, I typed in the correct credit card number, my name and my password."
"The next day, I signed on and was so excited to hear the computer voice tell me that I had mail!
But let Jones continue:
"Well, graphic pornographic pictures suddenly appeared on my screen that made my face turn red.
"I know there are people who enjoy such things, and they have a right to do so, but they don't have a right to send such stuff to me. So I phoned AOL and complained.
"And that is when I learned that I had to cancel my credit card immediately and should never give that information to anyone.
"I did that and, as requested, sent the pornographic graphics to some official at AOL. I received an e-mail from him, thanking me for sending him the material and advising me that they would turn the information over to the proper government authorities and terminate the privileges of the offenders.
"You can imagine how shocked I was the following day when, signing on, I received a message telling me that my account with AOL had been terminated.
"I phoned AOL and was told I was terminated for sending pornographic pictures.
"Can you imagine that? I sent those pictures so they could use them as evidence. Now I only hope that the FBI doesn't come knocking at my door and asking if I am a pornographer."
No, but it means that you cannot trust anyone out there, even while happily surfing the Internet and cruising the information highway.
And this is further evidence of our society's decline. Criminals once had the decency and pride to stand face-to-face when they robbed you. Now they lurk behind a computer. What would Jesse James or John Dillinger say about creeps?
They would probably say what Granny Jones' husband said, when he learned that his wife had been kicked off AOL for transmitting porn pictures.
"I told you not to fool with that stuff."
It's a jungle out there.
Mike Royko is a syndicated columnist with the Chicago Tribune.
Americans can be too passive about events outside the U.S.
the war in the former Yugoslavian republics may be ending after the recent peace treaty agreement. The agreement comes after almost four years of battle between the Serbs and the Croats, who are fighting for independence and the right to govern their own nation.
night to govern.
But the war is really about the Serbians wanting more than their share of land.
STAFF COLUMNIST
Although that seems oversimplified, the fighting really does come down to that. Sure, other issues have been disputed. But the Serbians' desire for power led to one of the most brutal wars in this century.
The week before the treaty was agreed to, war crime charges were brought against one of the top Serbian leaders who had ordered his troops to kill an entire village because the villagers were from a different race. Ethnic cleansing is only one example of the war crimes.
After I heard about these crimes, I realized that the war in Bosnia taught me how passive the American public can be. This discovery came when I realized that crimes such as the village massacre had happened throughout the war. But Americans didn't want to help. After all, it is not our problem.
After World War II, public outcry against the war crimes committed by the Nazis was amazing. The Nuremberg trials sought to punish those people who committed such violent acts. Ethnic cleansing was viewed widely as a horrible crime, so horrid that it would never happen again. That is, until the war in Bosnia began.
In the United States, we debated whether to invade Bosnia. Only after several years did we finally enter on a scale large enough that the war could end. Even after we entered, many people thought that it was wrong. In reality, our assistance didn't come soon enough.
I understand that it is not our job to police the world. But one thing that bothers me is that many people ignored the atrocities. For almost four years, innocent people were killed because they were from a different race or because they were in the wrong place. It is our responsibility, as a world leader, to set an example for the rest of the world. That example should include fighting against these atrocities.
With the agreement, there is a possibility that peace may be achieved. However, it will come only if the treaty is followed, and in the past, that hasn't necessarily happened. It should be our responsibility to prevent these atrocities and to lead the fight to punish the leaders who ordered them. The passiveness of some Americans should not dictate the actions of the rest. We can set an example to end these actions, not only in Bosnia but also throughout the world.
Stacy Nagy is a Topeka sophomore in Ruslan.
Helms, Buchanan aren't so mainstream
I am writing in response to Jason Walters' letter expressing his frustration about mainstream conservatives being smeared as extremists. First, let's take a look at the lexical meaning of extremist: "a person who advocates or resorts to extreme measures or holds extreme views (Webster)." Walters cites Sen. Jesse Helms, Pat Buchanan and Operation Rescue as icons of what it means to hold mainstream conservative views.
Helms told a reporter that "Mr Clinton better watch out if he comes down here. He'd better have a bodyguard." Most people go to jail when they threaten the life of the president. When Helms was confronted with information that right-wing El Salvadorian military leader Roberto D'Aubiljon directed death squads to execute civilians, Helms replied, "All I know is that (he) is a free enterprise man and deeply religious." So much for the conservative value of protecting human life. These are but a few examples of his mainstream conservative views.
Helms' agenda is driven by a lifelong opposition to democracy and diversity. He pines for the days of the antebellum South and waits for Dixie to rise again. His fundraising machine has been fined repeatedly for breaking campaign finance laws. In 1992, Helms and his North Carolina Congressional Club settled in a Justice Department complaint concerning a pre-election mailing that threatened 125,000 African-American voters with jail if they went to the polls. That's supposed to be representative of less intrusive, oppressive government?
Buchanan is more of the same.
Concerning Adolf Hitler, he is quoted as saying that Hitler was "an individual of great courage — a soldier's soldier." Combine that with his well-known doubts regarding the Holocaust, and I think it's fair to say that he's anti-Semitic. While he
advocates campaign finance reform today, his history makes this laughable. As President Nixon's aide, he admitted to a congressional investigation committee that he advised Nixon to burn the Watergate tapes. He advised Nixon's administration to use the IRS against organizations they considered too leftist. This included the Brookings Institute and the Ford Foundation. He has been publicly repudiated by noted conservative theorist William F. Buckley.
While I agree with Walter's notion that people have the ability to act on their own accord, I dispute the claim that the rhetoric of the right is blameless. Consider G. Gordon Liddy's advice to his listeners: "Aim for the head or groin to avoid the body armor." He brags that he uses cutouts of the First Family for target practice. Operation Rescue uses the suggestion of murder, wanted posters, harassment and stalking to motivate its flock to protect the rights of the
unborn. Leader Randall Terry said, "I want you to just let a wave of intolerance wash over you. I want you to let a wave of hatred wash over you...We have a biblical duty; we are called by God to conquer this country." I don't think it's a coincidence that the Republican agenda in Congress is labeled a revolution.
Finally, John Hinckley's assassination attempt on President Reagan was not characterized as an attack by an extremist leftist because it had nothing to do with his political beliefs. He suffered from a mental illness which Reagan graciously acknowledged in the aftermath.
The old adage that words don't hurt no longer holds true. Free speech is a right, but rights come with responsibilities. If Helms, Buchan and Operation Rescue represent conservatism, it is no wonder that mainstream Americans label this movement as extremist.
Shannon L. Teuscher Lawrence junior
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