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Tuesday, February 7, 1989 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Redoing Senate boundaries would not serve state needs
Could it be that Republicans in Kansas are feeling uneasy? The Republican-controlled state Senate recently agreed to draw new Senate district boundaries this session, regardless that such reapportionment would be a waste of time.
Politically, it would be to the Republicans' advantage to redraw the Senate boundaries now, while they control both houses of the Legislature and the governor's office. They might not have the advantage next year after the gubernatorial and House elections.
The House districts must be reapportioned for the 1990 election. But redesigning Senate district boundaries as well would be futile. There are several factors involved.
The next Senate election is not until 1992. The 1991 or 1992 session of the Legislature, using 1990 census figures, will design the map to be used in the 1992 elections.
So why bother redrawing the boundaries now?
Reapportionment is a hot issue in the House this session because of the coming election.
Also, the population in the Senate districts determine the size of state board of education districts, and five seats on the Kansas Board of Education are up for election in 1990.
But the primary motivation is simply political: the Republicans think their plan will influence the outcome of the boundaries for the 1992 election. And if recent elections are any indication, Republican candidates will need any advantage they can get.
they can get. Republicans saw their majority in the House drop to 67-58 after the November elections. The Republican advantage in the Senate slid from 24-16 to 22-18 in the last election.
Senate Spokesman Rochelle Chronister, R-Neodesha, said that only 2.607 votes, spread across the state, would have given the Democrats control of the Senate in the last election.
Kansas Republics have resorted to gerrymandering tactics to preserve their majority in the state Senate.
Gov. Mike Hayden said reappointment in the Senate would be "meaningless," and he is right. Members of the state Senate would do well to think less about partisan politics and more about serving the needs of the state.
Jeff Euston for the editorial board
Let 'Citizen Kane' stand; colorize for research only
When Orson Welles made "Citizen Kane" in 1940, he had a choice to use either black and white or color film. And although Welles made the decision to use black and white film based on his creative instincts, instincts that helped create what many consider to be the best movie ever made, Ted Turner's instinct is to colorize it.
Turner's instincts also led him to colorize "It's a Wonderful Life," "casablanca" and almost 100 other movie classics.
Lite. Cashabane has felt sheself needed the black and white film to create the proper mood. Lighting, sets, costumes and make-up were manipulated to give the perfect sense of depth and tone to this and other black and white movies.
and other originals.
Now they play a guessing game to decide what color Jake Stewart's eyes and Ingrid Bergman's hair will be. The computer-generated colors bleed into the whites of the actors' eyes and teeth and produce the same blues, greens and browns in every movie that has been colorized. So much for the unique contributions made by art, costume and lighting directors.
At more than $3,000 for each minute of the colorized tape, Turner is spending millions to colorize classic movies.
Something positive has come from the process, however. The same technology can be used to reveal natural resources under the Earth's surface and can produce more diagnostic information from one angiogram, an x-ray procedure. Turner says he is trying to attract younger viewers by colorizing movies. But such technology would be better used for research; that would be more useful to a younger generation.
Colorizing those old movies is a slap in the face to artists and viewers who want the integrity of the work intact. Just because the technology is available doesn't mean we're better for it.
Jennifer Hinkle for the editorial board
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 Farnes...Graphics editor
Neel Gerdes...Arts/Features editor
Tom Eblen...General manager, news adviser
Business staff
Debra Cole...Business manager
Nam Noe...Retail sales manager
Kevin Martin...Campsus sales manager
Scott Frager...National sales manager
Michelle Garland...Promotion manager
Brad Lenhart...Marketing manager
Linda Prokop...Production manager
Debra Martin...Asst. production manager
Kim Coleman...Co-op sales manager
Carl Cressler...Classified manager
Jeanne Hines...Sales and marketing adviser
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Inaccurate article
Once again a Kansan reporter, hastening to file a story, got his information jumbled. In the Jan. 31 article, "Russian classes fill," the statements "Russian classes fill."
russian classes were closed" and "("the department) plans no large expansion in the future" were inaccurate and misconstrued in the context of my remarks. They combine to give a wholly erroneous impression. This department welcomes the increased interest in the study of Slavic languages. Is has provided classes for all students who wish to study not only the Russian language, but also Polish, Serbo-Croatian and other Slavic languages.
Stephen Parker
Kent Deeds Lawrence senior
Chairman of Slavic languages and literature
Soviet realities
squandered life and vicious deceit. History like that puts credibility at a premium.
Tom Wilhelm's Feb. 2 column "Us vs. them, mentality futile" was a crafted attempt to make distrust of the Soviets appear absurd. The piece clashes fundamentally with fact.
Concern about communism is mocked by the banal phrases "Red manace" and "Communist behind every bush." Paranoia has characterized American reaction at times; however, the truth behind the paranoia takes a beating in this presentation.
Soviet professor Bagrat Edelian offers Soviet military reductions in Eastern Europe as a sign of their desire for a defensive force. The United States has been pressing relief from ponderous military expenditure.
Moreover, much weight is thrown to likening American action to the Soviet's: Talking of armed intervention, it states that "the patterns are the same in their basic facts." Not true. Different ideologies give rise ultimately to different outcomes.
America's past holds nothing close to the atrociousness of Stalin's purges. Changing the system that allowed that is the point — simply admitting past wrongs does little to improve credibility. Communism's history is one of
Graphology fad
The lifestyle piece in the Jan. 26 Kansan on graphology was sufficiently annoying to deserve a reply. Graphology seems to be thriving in the same climate that has produced such a blossoming of astrology and the sunny mumbo jumbo that is lumped under the “new age” rubric. While the new age is little more than a slick, post-modern way of separating people from their graphology there must sinister. Since geographologists have had little luck in improving their theory, their new-found success results from improving – or at least changing – their politics.
They offer the wonder tool to corporations looking for insulation from charges of sexism, racism and discrimination. What could be better than a quick, cheap test that shows personality traits but is unable to reveal sex, race or age? But like any misair product, it doesn't work as advertised. I have had no training in graphology, and the only thing I can consistently recognize in handwriting is the sex of the writer. At least if the writer is documented, this bothers me since I would like to be able to grade exams without knowing anything about the student, but in more than 60 percent of the cases, the sex is obvious.
The longhand styles of the kids 1 grew up with jellied during junior high, a great time of peer pressure. Most kids tried hard to make their handwriting look like their friends', which meant that the girls would copy each other's style and the boys would be careful not to write like the girls. If that was a universal practice, then it would not be surprising if people of similar class and age have similar style. It only takes a quick look at old manuscripts to discover that handwriting changes from generation to generation.
It is clear that people can deliberately change their handwriting. I know a woman who radically overhaul her style, including a switch from a right slant to a left slant. She did not change from expressive to reserved in accordance with the dictates of graphology. I have changed my own writing in an attempt to write fast and legibly. Surely other people
have as well.
The claims of graphologists are uniformly facile. Consider two examples from the article: "wide spaces between words indicate shyness and isolation" and "tightly closed O's indicate that the applicants can keep a secret." The age-old gimmicks of palm reading are similarly simple because you must remember that an answer on the pantsy doesn't think to question them. For example, crosshatches on the life line mean an early death.
Graphology is being used today much as personality tests were used in the 1960s. Then, as now, corporations were looking for the malleable, team-playing conformist. Behind that, there is a point we often forget: conformism is but another name for idolatage. It should not surprise us that a quicker, cheaper personality test is on the rise today. graphology is discrimination but with a clear conscience
Rick Piper
Lawrence graduate student
Lawrence graduate student Unborn rights
I would like to comment on the argument made in the Jan. 23 Kansan, "Pro-life march." I completely accept the premise: "People have the right to make their own decision, and you shouldn't force anything on anyone else." That is a completely correct and valid premise. Second premise, drawn from the first: Since the term "people" includes unborn children, they have the right to decide (to live or die as they wish), and you can't make that decision for them. Because the fetus can grow, age and reproduce its components (cells), it is a living being. Inanimate objects can these things. Thus, to abort the child, she/he is a living being; so that child has a mother/she wants to live; it is to force the child to die against his/her will. Of course, my conclusion is that the woman does not have the right to abort her unborn child, since that action precludes the child's right to choose. Rights tend to work both ways. If one person can claim a right (e.g. a woman), then all persons can claim the right (e.g. a man, a fetus, etc.). Our society must realize that all its components must coexist and cooperate in a mutually beneficial manner to achieve the good of the whole.
Michael McVey Lawrence graduate student
BLOOM COUNTY
by Berke Breathed