4A
Monday, November 20, 1995
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VIEWPOINT
THE ISSUE: DOWNTOWN
Effectiveness of ordinance is hurt by late inspection date
The Lawrence city commission needs to do more to preserve the quality of downtown Lawrence.
In 1993, the commission passed an ordinance that requires any new downtown establishment to make 55 percent of its profits from food sales in order to receive a liquor license.
However, the ordinance requires an inspection to check for compliance to the ordinance an entire year after the establishment opens. In order for the ordinance to be truly effective in protecting the interests of downtown, the inspection should come one month after the establishment opens, not one year.
If the ordinance is not amended, downtown Lawrence will be in danger of becoming a bar district similar to "Aggieville" in Manhattan. Take, for example, G Willikers, a new deli/bar at 733 Massachusetts St., which was recently granted a liquor license.
Downtown merchants and residents question if G Willikers will meet the requirement that at least 55 percent of its profits come from food sales. The restaurant will be allowed to operate a year without inspection. Therefore, if G Willikers doesn't comply with the ordinance, they essentially will be allowed to be a bar for a year.
The Lawrence city commission should inspect new establishments compliance to ordinance one month after they open.
This situation presents a good opportunity for city commissioners to take a stand for downtown Lawrence.
In the past, the commission has shown a strong commitment to keeping downtown a vital part of the Lawrence economy. It was this commitment that led the commission to pass the ordinance in the first place.
In order to bolster the effectiveness of the ordinance in deterring people from opening bars downtown, they should amend the ordinance to require an inspection one month after the establishment opens. An inspection one month after the opening is the only way to ensure the establishment never operates as a bar.
If the Lawrence city commission is serious about preserving a balance of residents, retail stores, restaurants and bars downtown, then the the inspection of food profit sales should take place sooner.
MARK POTTER FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD.
THE ISSUE: COMPUTER CENTER INVESTIGATION
ACLU was right to cease probe
The American Civil Liberties Union made the correct decision by terminating its investigation of the treatment of two Computer Center employees by the KU police department.
The employees complained to the ACLU after being questioned by the KU police in relation to two thefts that took place at the Computer Center this year.
The ACLU, an organization that some claim oversteps the boundaries of its interpretations of civil liberties, definitely did not do so this time.
The employees questioned complained that they had to take polygraph examinations.
But the ACLU found that the examinations were not mandatory and that there was no threat of a job loss.
Plus, because the computer equipment was taken from an area in the center where employees were supposed to be the only ones with access, police questioning was mandatory. The ACLU's decision to terminate the investigation into the polygraph examinations was obviously the right call.
IAN RITTER FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
KANSAN STAFF
Shawn Trimble / KANSAN
Politically correct or not, the term Black is beautiful
Editors
COLLEEN MCCAIN
Editor
DAVID WILSON
Managing editor, news
ASHLEY MILLER
Managing editor, planning & design
TOM EBLEN
General manager, news adviser
The dilemma now, however, is deciding how to talk to our children about race. What will we tell them? Should they beat up people who call them Black, as my brother did so many years ago? Must they embrace this new term? Perhaps we can hope that one day, there will be no need for labels at all, and this whole thing will just go away. Now that truly would be beautiful.'
You know how kids are — one minute they are running and skipping and jumping rope together, and the next they are mortal enemies, hurling insults across a crowded playground. At least that's how it was in my neighborhood. Sometimes, the insults were racial in nature and designed to be particularly stinging. Once, during a shoutfest in which my older brother and I took on another brother-sister tag team, the screaming ended abruptly when one of them called us a couple of "blackies." I won't go into what my older brother did to them physically, but when it was over, and we had gone inside, my father told us that there was nothing wrong with being called "Black." In fact, he said, he was happy to be Black — Black was beautiful! His joy was infectious and it provided me with a tremendous feeling of self worth.
Robinson should not take away ping pong
Our weekly exercise is deprived. No reasons would be found why a top-notch university with a 1,000-acre campus lacks a place to play table tennis.
Donna Dvila is an Overland Park graduate student
There were several ping pong tables in Robinson Center before this semester. However, students have been told that the space has become a computer room. After learning that, one of my friends, a ping-pong fanatic, wrote to the director of Robinson asking for an explanation and a solution. But we have not received a reply for more than two months.
Hearing James Brown sing, "Say it loud: I'm Black and I'm proud!" was a good thing. Strung together, these moments of blackness leave nothing but positive feelings — why would we want to forget them? I still have a t-shirt from undergraduate school that says, "Black by Popular Demand." Everybody had one.
Black wasn't a color; it was an attitude, for our race has within it many different hues. Being "Black" meant being proud of who you were — not hiding or shuffling or dodging the issue. With this new term — African American — many of us are left feeling a bit cold. There is no emotion in it. It seems generic.
When my father and uncles shouted "Black Power!" — which they did loudly and often — it was a good thing. Seeing a bold, black-gloved fist raised in proud protest at the 1968 Olympics was a good thing.
News & Special Sections...Dedra Allison
Editorial...Noether Lawrence
Associate Editorial...Bernish Morton
Campus...Virginia Manganhee
Associate Campus...Teresa Vayssen
Associate Campus...Paul Todd
Sports Campus...Tom Cobham
Sports Campus...Tom Ericson
Photo...Kotz Kotz
Wire...Robert Alton
Online coordinator...Tina Pasett
— my parents included — vividly recalling the horrors of shopping, eating, and living in "colored only" parts of town, it becomes clear that self-definition and self-identification was crucial. By denouncing the terms "colored" and "negro" — both painful reminders of a frightening era — Blacks could feel empowered and proud.
fer being called Black to African American, even though the latter is considered to be more sensitive and politically correct. It is easy to understand this phenomenon. When we consider that racial segregation is part of our very recent history, with many folks
In a recent Newsweek poll, 44 percent of Blacks stated that they pre-
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
With all of the hoopla over being politically correct these days, it's a little difficult for some of us to let go of the immense pride of being Black and beautiful and reidentify ourselves as African American.
COLUMNIST
I don't understand why some sports that just a few people play can exist, but table tennis, which more than 50 students played last semester, disappeared from campus. It
Religious right is not to blame for extremist behavior
Excluding American students, I think that more than 50 international students enjoy playing table tennis. Therefore, I hope the University of Kansas chooses not to ignore our exercise and can arrange a place for ping-pong tables as soon as possible.
Taiwan graduate student
Wu Polh-Shyun
seems that the annual higher tuition and fees don't equate to the entertainment facilities we could use.
However, our nation permits and encourages acts of violence to occur daily in the name of "women's rights." Every day, human beings are ripped limb from limb from the sanctuary of their mothers' wombs in the name of choice. More people have been murdered by abortion than any war or movement. Groups such as the National Organization for Women expressly support these acts of violence. How can someone claim a "right" that directly interferes with the rights of another person? I do not understand how we can value one person's right to reproductive choice more than another person's right to life.
Rescue or any other anti-abortion organization encouraged or participated in these acts of violence.
Chris Hampton's column in Tuesday's Kansan blaming the "radical religious right" for acts of violence against abortionists is amusing. She offers no evidence to support her conclusion that Operation
Ultimately, it's pitiful that issues such as education, Medicare and welfare are being undermined by politicking. The President and the Republicans are foolish if they think that the American public views this shutdown as anything more than an attempt to manipulate the vote.
Welfare cuts also are being pushed by Congress. If we increase education spending, maybe fewer people would need welfare in 20 years. Economic stability is directly related to education, and economic stability often helps prevent major social problems. People will learn to help themselves.
If the President or the Republican leaders fall, they might lose the election, but Americans might lose an already weakening faith in the future.
David Barry
Shawnee second-year law student
Nicole Kennedy is an Overland Park Junior in Journalism.
Like school children bickering about the swings at recess, Republics in Congress and President
Education should not be a victim of the budget impasse
The American public is growing sick and tired of the political posturing. Come election time, this skirmish will be remembered.
Education is a major issue in this impasse. Republicans tout family values. Recent history has proven that families are succeeding in keeping kids off drugs, off the streets and out of jail.
STAFF
COLUMNIST
Many adults in this country either are ill-equipped to be parents or are too caught up in satisfying their immediate needs and desires to be effective parents. They are failing now more than ever, and the educational system has to pick up the slack.
Clinton have reduced the balanced-budget issue to nothing more than a test of wills, and they're playing with our futures. As much as I'd like to write off these theatrics as the newest game in the latest round of presidential politics, I can't help but fear that this scuffle could
Our children should be the highest priority of government and society. Cutting education is not a solution to the budget crisis. Funds should be shifted to education, not away from it so big business can get tax incentives.
make or break some fundamentally important social programs in this already fragmented and crumbling society.
Be it right or wrong ideologically for the federal government to play a key role in parenting young people through education, we are facing a national crisis.
Kids are becoming parents. They're carrying guns, joining gangs and killing each other. No philosophical argument will change that. Face it, the days of Horatio Alger, whose stories epitomized the classic rags-to-riches, are gone. When these troubled teens become screwed-up adults, they won't be pulling themselves up by their boot straps. They'll be trapped in the vicious cycle that is being created and perpetuated today.
Education is the key to breaking that cycle of degradation. If you can't think, learn and grow intellectually, you can't accomplish anything. If you can't read and write, you can't help yourself or anyone else.
By Shawn Trimble