4
Monday, February 20, 1989 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Central American leaders begin to stand on own legs
Central America is beginning to take matters into its own hands. Five Central American presidents met last week for summit talks and ended the two-day meeting Tuesday by announcing a new peace proposal.
bring a new peace process. Nicaragua agreed to have open elections in 1990 and to allow the opposition time to organize and campaign, so long as the contras disband. The Sandinistas agreed to release almost 3,300 jailed contras and 1,700 guardmen and to allow political parties full access to the press, radio and television.
The accord also committed the signing countries to ■ negotiate cease-fires with rebel groups in their borders; ■ guarantee free press, free elections and amnesty for political offences;
- guarantee human rights to those holding any political beliefs.
Much to the dismay of many U.S. conservatives, the leaders achieved the accord without help from the United States. If nothing else, the accord represents the leaders' ability to handle their own affairs.
them own affairs.
But the world should be skeptical of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega at this point; he should be pressured by other Central American leaders to keep his part of the bargain.
Central American leaders 90 in days, a specific plan to disband the contras will be drafted. At that point, Ortega's intentions would be better known.
known. At any rate, the leaders certainly accomplished more in a two-day summit meeting than the United States achieved in seven years of contra support.
Jennifer Hinkle for the editorial board
Duke a risk to democracy
In Louisiana, democracy has spoken.
In Louisiana, democracy has spoken. The risk involved in U.S. democracy is that the freedom of choice this nation treasures is the same freedom that allows voters to make poor choices.
Others to make pool choices. Our forefathers decided the risk was worth it
our toretathers decided the risk was worth it. David Duke, former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, Saturday won a seat in the Louisiana Legislature.
To fair-minded, thinking individuals, it has always been distressing to see people choose a former Klansman to lead them. It is even more of an outrage in the supposedly enlightened 1980s.
Although it is their choice, electing an avowed racist to public office is an insensitive and paranoid action for a primarily white community to take — or for any community to jake.
This nation has struggled for fair and equal representation since its inception. And although we grow weary of stupidity and singlemindedness, the fight is not yet over.
and singleton. Republican National Committee chairman, has taken an admirable stance by announcing that the party will try to disenfranchise Duke if he is confirmed as the official winner of the Louisiana House seat.
winner of the Louisiana Brobeuse University Democracy that elected David Duke to office is the same one that drives our nation. But it is an unflagging dedication to fair government and good leadership that keeps us from allowing unhealthy radical factions to chip away at our guaranteed freedoms.
guarantee As much as Duke has a right to claim his victory, the public affairs and the national government's leaders have a right to decry his popularity and to dismiss him from their ranks.
ranks.
As for those who opposed Duke in Louisiana, they don't have the same privilege. They're stuck with the results of the election and the right of the people to make bad choices.
Karen Boring for the editorial board
The editors in this column are the opinion of the editorial board. The editorial board consists of Julie Adam, Karen Boring, Jeff Euston, James Fuarquh, Cindy Harger, Jennifer Hinkle, Grace Hobson, Jill Jess, Mark McCormick and Mark Tilford.
News staff
Julie Adam...Editor
Karen Boring...Managing editor
Jill Jess...News editor
Deb Gruver...Planning editor
James Farquhar...Editorial editor
Elaine Sung...Campus editor
Tom Stinson...Sports editor
Janine Swialkowski...Photo editor
Dave Eames...Graphics editor
Noel Gerdes...Arts/Features editor
Tom Eblen...General manager, news adviser
Business staff
Debra Cole...Business manager
Pamela Noe...Retail sales manager
Kevin Martin...Campus sales manager
Scott Frager...National sales manager
Michelle Garland...Promotions manager
Brad Lenhart...Sales development manager
Linda Prokop...Production manager
Debra Martin...Asst. production manager
Kim Coleman...Co-op sales manager
Cari Cressler...Classified manager
Jeanne Hines...Sales and marketing adviser
**Letters** should be typed, double-spaced and less than 200 words and must include the writer's signature, name, address and telephone number. If the writer is affiliated with the University of Kansas, please include class and homgown, or staff position.
**Guest columns** should be typeed, double-spaced and less than 700 words. The writer will be photographed.
The column titles are laterally placed, guest columns and
writer will be photographed.
The Kansas reserves the right to reject or edit letters, guest columns and cartoons. They can be mailed or brought to the Kansas newsroom, 111 Staffer Flint Hall, and columns and cartoons are the opinion of the writer or editor and do not necessarily reflect the views of the University Daily Kansas Editorial board, which appear in the left-hand column, are the opinion of the Kansas editorial board.
The University Daily Kanasa (USPS 650-640) is published at the University of Kansas, 118 Stauffer-Finley, Lawrence, KA 6045, daily during the regular school year, first Friday, Sunday, Sunday, holidays and finals periods, and Wednesday during the summer session. Second-class postage is paid in Kan., KA 6044. Annual subscriptions by mail are $50. Student subscriptions are $3 and are paid through the student activity fee.
subscriptions are $3 and address changes to the University Daily Kansan, 118
Sauffer-Fall St. Bond, Lawrence, KA, 66045.
KLiNe
THE LEANING TOWER OF TEXAS
Smoke-filled buses
Here is a riddle for you. What do the words "No Smoking" mean? Well, the Lawrence Bus Company thinks they mean "no smoking unless you have to, then by all means go ahead."
ahead.
Last semester I got on a bus several times when it was full of smoke from cigarettes. A couple of times I even saw the culprit who was smoking. It was the bus driver. After a few such instances, I called the company, explaining what I had witnessed. I was told that the rule was "the drivers can smoke as long as there were no passengers on the bus." I told this faceless voice that the smoke still lingered around the ceiling at face level. Obviously this was not an important matter to this man.
So, I finally called the Lawrence Fire Chief, who is responsible for enforcing the city smoking regulation, Ordinance No. 5757. The fire chief assured me that the bus company was in violation of the city smoking ordinance. He told me that he would not only send a letter to the bus company but that he also would call them on the matter.
Some of my best friends smoke. I even smoked for seven years. But I did not do it where it was forbidden by law. Just imagine a rule "no smoking on elevators unless there are no other passengers." That would be ridiculous.
them. In here we are, spring semester 1989, and guess who still can't follow the laws? You got it. The Lawrence Bus Company. I have not called the bus company because it is obvious they don't care about blowing smoke all over a $1 million contract.
ouS. Well, now this matter has been brought to the attention of the Student Senate. And it will be brought up at the transportation meeting. Public
be brought up at the trumpet We are all expected to follow rules. Public violations of city, state or federal laws should not be tolerated.
Troy Alldaffer Colby sophomore
Narrow mindedness
I would like to respond to Stephanie B. Sanchez's letter (Feb. 14 Kansan). I found her chauvinism quite refreshing; usually one would think that only a male member of the species is gifted with such narrow-mindedness with regard to gender. It seems her mind is clouded by her own petty prejudices and fanciful plot of that horrible perennial society enforcing its odd masculinity and taking away any female women to rizualized murder, or once she would prefer the word "choice." It is such an offensive word — especially in a democracy.
Maybe if she took the time to read demographic trends and the good ol' newspaper, she would learn that men on the average statistically favor abortion more than women: that most teenage girls at abortion centers are there because they are pressured by their boyfriends to do "the right thing"; that male doctors are more likely to advise women to have abortion without discussing life-affirming
alternatives. The argument that "right to life" is really the platform of male political aspirations can only be the thoughts of someone who has either been out in the desert too long without a hat or is a hopelessly paranoid co-ed.
without a second. Perhaps she misunderstands the antisocial stance that human life can only be protected, nourished and respected when all phases of the individual life process have equal value and constitutional protection. We consider abused children to be human; they have been born, not aborted. While fetuses on the other hand are non-entities not deserving protection because they're not "quite as human as you or me." They deserve makeup to speak of, having rights and no credit history as such. The only thing they have going for them is that they just happen to be part of the human species. So according to our fashionable materialistic values, it's safe, moral and ethical to deny them the existence that we enjoy so much and shred them unceremoniously in the machinery of convenience and Enlightenment.
Andrew Rymill Spring Hill junior
ence also Emlightenment. Sanchez questions the soundness of anti-abortionists' 'ideals. I question the soundness of hers. If the argument of abused children is the one you use to justify abortion and the liquidation of human life, then the alter of "choice" you have constructed for yourself is a very bloody one indeed.
Stereotyping comment
Stephanie B. Sanchez stereotyped anti-abortionists who people who did not care about childbirth suffering in abusive situations. She also stated that "some men . . . are interested in the abortion issue as an attempt to exert control over women in this country."
I believe in the rights of unborn fetuses because they are human beings, not because I want to exert control over women. Also, I care about not only what happens to abused children, but abused wives as well. This may be hard for you, to believe Stephanie, but I realize that an unwanted pregnancy is very hard on the mother and that there are no simple answers for her. Please don't stereotype anti-abortionists like you did. Instead, try to understand that there are people who care genuinely about people of all ages, from the umbrella to the elderly.
Scott K. Clark Yates Center senior
Gays choose lifestyle
I believe that a deep problem today with the civil rights movement is the number of gay groups, including the Gay and Lesbian Services of Kansas, that are riding the movement's coattails and are trying to pass off one's sexual orientation as a legitimate minority issue.
issue
Homosexuals are not born a separate race of humanity. Anyone can be gay. It is simply one's choice of life to pursue in order to find personal and sexual gratification. In America, we all have that choice. Blacks had no choice when forced into slavery. American Indians had no choice when their land was stolen from
them. What right do gays have to equate their struggle with theirs?
I care deeply for my minority brothers and sisters. And I am willing to work and live side by side with homosexuals as long as they do their business and don't force their lifestyle on me or my family. But if I fail to protest or protect us, I'm in response to a concern. I don't want the gays sponging support off it by making them like we are marching for them also.
we are marching for them'.
We all understand the gays' motives for not wanting to be discriminated against. But gays must recognize that their struggle is in defense of their choice, not of their heritage. I don't believe one's lifestyle is an equal minority issue. Martin Luther King Jr. probably wouldn't have thought so either.
Brad Hansen Overland Park senior
Insulting advertising
Isn't it ironic that only days after David Amber, vice chancellor for student affairs, and Eladio Valdez, president of Hispanic-American Leadership Organization, appeared as Kansan guest columnist, appeared encouraging people to work toward the elimination of prejudice and prejudice, yet another reminder of stereotypical thinking appears in the Kansan?
This time, the action was not perpetrated by a teaching assistant or some unknown vandals; this time, the reminder was in the form of a colorful, innocent-looking inserted advertisement in the Feb. 15 edition of the Kansan.
The ad was intended to promote Miller Beer and Spring Break. More adversely, it also prompted stereotypes of all sorts by degrading women, serious college students and mothers of students. Women were depicted as passive, mindless objects to fulfill the hedonistic desires of men. In the ad, we are basically told to lose weight, buy a bikini, receive the same treatment as a volleyball (to be "dinked, pumped and poked"), and use passive cliched phrases to "beat the dudes" if we want to have any sort of fun. The ad also degrades the serious college student (which, I believe, most are), by glorifying laziness, illiteracy, mindlessness and hedonism, as well as a lack of priorities.
As students, we should have fun and pursue our definition of happiness. But we should not let anyone or anything, such as "the Anatomy of a Beach Monster," tell us what is the "right way" and the "wrong way" to enjoy it. We experience an experience in growth, sharing and learning through grow and learn to be mature enough to feel pride from what we are, not from what others are or are not.
The Miller Beer Co. knows its selling strategy and marketing methods well. Let's show them that unfortunately, they do not know their target audience as well as they think they do. Write to them and let them know who we are — college students who still socialize, still drink beer, still procrastinate on papers and projects, but who have matured enough to refuse to be categorized and taken in by their distorted views.
by their unrecorded New York
Write to: USCO Services Spring Break 89.
P.O. Box 619325, Dallas/Ft. Worth Airport,
Texas, 75621
Carol Jong Wichita junior
BLOOM COUNTY
by Berke Breathed