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Tuesday, February 21, 1989 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Victims of crime deserve more help during ordeal
The Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects the rights of the accused in criminal prosecutions. "Imnocent until proven guilty" is a saying most Americans learn in elementary school.
scRobi: what the Constitution neglects and what grade schools don't teach is how victims fit into the criminal process. Many times they don't. They just live the rest of their lives with the memory of the crime that another committed.
mBODY law their rights may not be ignored anymore. Bob Stephan, Kansas attorney general, introduced bills and a resolution to the Legislature last week that would provide support and rights for crime victims.
Stephan's bill would require that victims be notified at each stage of litigation. It would place the state's Crime Victims Reparations Board under the attorney general. And next year, Kansas voters would decide whether to amend to the constitution to preserve victim's rights.
It's time that victims of crime receive attention and help during their ordeal. They deserve protection just as much or more than do the accused. Until now, victims have been treated as second-class citizens in the criminal justice process.
treated as second-class citizens in the criminal justice process. As the attorney general pointed out, the law would not reduce the guaranteed rights of the accused; it would create guaranteed rights for victims.
Too many times the law-abiding and innocent are hurt in the necessary procedure designed to protect the accused. The victim's bill of rights would guarantee the long-overdue protection of crime victims, rights the accused have had for more than 200 years.
Julie Adam for the editorial board
Neighbors cramp bookstore; rezoning request is denied
Last week the Lawrence City Commission denied a rezoning request by Jayhawk Bookstore that would have allowed an expansion of as much as 50 percent.
More than 200 residents of the area around the bookstore, 1420 Crescent Road, signed a petition protesting the request to change from a residential to commercial zone. They said that it would pave the road for future commercial growth in the area.
Many residents worried that the bookstore's expansion would be aesthetically unpleasing to the neighborhood. Owner Bill Muggy tried to meet with residents to attempt a compromise, but only four residents showed up. It is easy to sign a piece of paper stating your own concerns but not so easy to understand another's problems.
Muggy is a victim of residents who are ignorant of the bookstore's needs.
Jayhawk Bookstore is cramped inside — wall-to-wall merchandise with little or no room for customers to move around. An expansion is necessary to allow the bookstore to remain competitive with the newly remodeled KU Bookstore.
Such competition is essential to KU students. Jayhawk Bookstore prevents the University from cornering Lawrence's textbook market. Taking away the bookstore's power to expand also takes away competition, which protects students from monopoly.
Jill Jess for the editorial board
Other Voices Reilly a smart choice to head EPA
With the appointment of William K. Reilly to head the muchbeleagured Environmental Protection Agency, George Bush has broadcast a strong signal to the world that his administration will not be indifferent toward the preservation of the environment.
While answering questions at a hearing of the Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee. Reilly announced that the first item on his refreshing agenda would be to strengthen the Clean Air Act. He also revealed that a large component of that legislation would aim to curtail pollution caused by acid rain.
So tar Reilly has pressed all the right buttons. Now we challenge Reilly and Bush to back up their statements with action. Indiana Daily Student
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Julie Adam...Editor
Karen Boring...Managing editor
Jill Jess...News editor
Deb Gruver...Planning editor
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Kim Coleman.
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African-Americans want identity
It's only human nature to seek an identity we can be proud of. We're always at-taching ourselves to ideas and images that we can carry in front of us with pride.
That's why it distresses me when people become defensive about talk of beginning to refer to other people's little more than a group of people trying to secure an identity for themselves and their culture.
Why is it acceptable for white Americans to parade about proudly displaying the Confederate Flag? Many African-Americans find the flag's open display outrageously offensive because it connotes decades of racism and brutality against their culture. Never mind that the Ku Klux Klan proudly waves the Confederate flag in almost all of its marches and protests.
Yet if African-Americans want to make a nonoffensive shift to a term that more adequately represents the beauty and richness of their culture, a floodgate of questions opens and everyone is on the defensive, asking, "Why?" and "Will it really change anything?"
If America can accept the chaw-dippin' hordes who arrogantly display the Confederate Flag, why can't it accept the African-American's search for cultural unity and pride?
These questions persist.
People interested in accuracy say, "Why can't they just call themselves Americans?" My response would be that if they were really interested in accuracy, they would insist that we were called Oppressed Americans. Just glance at recent reports showing blacks to be less likely to vote than whites, and their income or education, they have more trouble getting into middle-income housing.
if we're called white people, why can't you be called black people?" some will say. That argu-
Editorial writer
Mark McCormick
ment's answer rests in the connotations of white and black in our society.
Most of us learned that the color black symbolized evil, disaster, disease and forboding in our literature. And while I have nothing against Nathaniel Hawthorne, it was he who utilized the "Black Man" as symbolic of Satan in one of his short stories.
The term African-American links us historically to a continent all our own and suggests that we rose from proud advanced cultures rather than from chains and slavery.
White, however, has a different meaning. Everything good in our culture is white. Snow White is our favorite children's movie, our president lives in the White House, we dream of a white Christmas and (some) people are as pure as the driven snow, which is white.
Alvin Poussaint, who spoke last week on campus, said black was looked upon as a pollutant in our culture. If you haven't noticed, there are a great number of blacks who look more white than black. Bill Cosby's television daughters Denise (Lisa Bonet) and Sandra (Sabrina Labeauf) are called black, although they look more white than black.
Why aren't they called white? The one or two drops of black blood in their veins makes them black.
"It it only takes one drop of blood black to make you black, and we all know that doesn't make any kind of scientific sense." Poussaint said. "That one drop makes you inferior, and that way of thinking perpetuates white supremacy and white power."
By the same logic, many African-Americans could call themselves white.
Carrying such negative images isn't healthy. Locked inside such a mind-set, African. Americans might continue thinking of themselves and less than worthy of life and opportunity.
the term African-American has no such connotations. It links us historically to a continent all our own and suggests that we rose from proud, advanced cultures rather than from chains and slavery.
I am not suggesting that the mere shift of terms will solve all of our problems. Nor am I suggesting that all African-Americans join me in the institution of my heritage. It is a very perusal choice.
When that's done, no man can ride, label or op press us, because we'll think too much of ourselves, our culture and our identity to let it happen.
What I am suggesting is that we cannot remain stooped over under the back-breaking weight of images that make us dislike who we see in the mirror. We must, as Martin Luther King Jr. said, "Start straightening our backs, because a man can't ride your back unless it is bent."
Mark McCormick is a Wichita junior majoring in journalism.
Rock Chalk to shed its all-greek image
it's finally about to happen.
After months of preparation, weeks of vocal and dance rehearsals, and hours of learning lines and blocking scenes, 400 KU students are excited and ready to perform Thursday. Friday and Saturday nights in the 40th annual production of Rock Chalk Revue.
Organizers this year have explored ways to better meet the goals of the annual project.
Rock Chalk Revue is the largest student-organized philanthropy and talent production on campus. It is a variety show consisting of five main shows that are short musicals, and a variety of in-between acts. Rock Chalk Revue donates revenues from ticket sales to the College County, which finances such agencies as Rape Victim Support Services and the Salvation Army.
Members of Rock Chalk Revue's advisory board are committed to making this year's production the best Rock Chalk Revue yet, both in the quality of the performances and the level of contribution. This year's donation is projected to be more than $20,000, which would be the largest sum ever contributed.
This year, members of the advisory board determined that to meet the show's potential of excellence, its biggest problem must be tackled
- its antigreek image
In the past, main shows have included both
Laura
Clark
Guest shot
Board members believed that the decline in non-greek participation had limited the show's potential for excellence, because such large-scale productions required the skills and skills of a wide variety of students. Recognizing that problem, board members focused their efforts on expanding student involvement in this and future productions.
greek and residence hall productions. However, non-greek interest has waned during the past couple of years. Some have perceived the Revue as a variety show that is produced by members of KU's predominantly white sororites and fraternities for members of KU's predominantly white sororites and fraternities.
The board's efforts this year have worked. With more than 400 students involved in various aspects of producing this year's show, students outside the eek system are active in everything from advisory board to in-between acts, from technical crew to the business committee.
This year's show has been promoted actively to the student body. The promotions committee, for example, organized a special promotion for students in residence halls. A portion of the money from each student's ticket will be donated to the social fund of his or her floor. Also, an award will be given after Saturday night's performance to the floor with the most tickets sold.
To expand student involvement and rid the show of its all-greek image, board members recognize that they first must get more students to participate. To achieve this great production KU students have organized.
To increase future student involvement, board* members are planning three workshops detailing how students can submit a show for the production. Special assistance is needed by those who haven't been involved in the past. Two workshops will be this spring and a third one will be early next fall.
Rock Chalk Revue involves students of many talents. The dedication and skills of the wide variety of students involved in this year's production will yield an exceptional Rock Chalk Revue. And if the board's goals are met, next year's show could be even better.
Laura Clark is a Tulsa, Okla., senior majoring in journalism.
BLOOM COUNTY
by Berke Breathed