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Tuesday, January 24, 1989/University Daily Kansan
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Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
University should pitch in to help recycling program
The Lawrence curbside recycling program, which is being considered by the city commission, is a feasible way to help the environment and save the city money. However, for the program to excel to its potential, the University of Kansas needs to play a large role that should begin before the issue even comes to a vote in the city commission.
City commissioners now are evaluating the costs and benefits of curbside recycling, and facts indicate that it would be cheaper than the city's landfill costs. The city also would earn money as it sells the recyclable goods.
Other benefits are more obvious, such as saving trees - 3,700 pounds of trees for each ton of recycled paper produced. Mineral resources would be conserved, and residents would be compelled to think about their environment and about the waste in our throw-away society.
including Kansas City, Mo. Here's how it works: Residents separate glass, paper and aluminum from their household refuse and it is picked up weekly from the street. Painless enough.
Curbside recycling problems, such as the one considered by the Lawrence City Commission, already have proven effective and lucrative in other cities throughout the United States including Kansas City, Mo., Seattle and Berkeley, Calif.
Since Seattle began its curbside program last February, 28 percent of the city's waste has been recycled, and the city is fast approaching its goal of 60 percent by 1994. Because the city saves on landfill costs, the resident saves on trash collection fees.
Look at Berkeley. Berkeley has had excellent participation resulting from a lottery-style garbage game. Each week, city officials randomly pick an address from the phone book, and if the garbage cans in front of that home do not contain any recyclables, the resident receives a cash award.
If such a program can succeed in large cities such as Seattle, the city a size of Lawrence should have no problem at all.
trash according to a study by the Environs last semester, more than 200 pounds of recyclable goods each day are thrown away in Wesco Cafeteria. Wesco's waste alone could earn the University $2,049 a year and save on hauling and landfill costs
are doing their part.
That should be easy with groups such as the KU Environs taking the lead. The Environs are raising money to buy extra trash receptacles to be placed in Wescoe Hall for recyclables.
recyclables, the team is so where they KU fit it? Because of the large numbers of research dwellers and campus organizations and offices, KU would have to take the initiative to make sure Jayhawkers are doing their part.
But more needs to be done. Much more
Other KU people also have taken a stand. Academic Computer Services collect wasted computer and high-grade bond paper. Haworth Hall has trash cans marked for aluminum, and the environmental studies program found a way around the University's state contracts that do not allow offices to buy recycled paper.
But more needs to be done. Much more.
Consider for a moment how many newspapers are subscribed to by the University's departments and libraries. Most papers end up on microfiche while the originals are dumped. The journalism school alone subscribes to more than 65 daily papers, which are recycled only occasionally when some organization has a paper drive.
A long-standing question with the commissioners has been how the city would collect recyclables from dorm trash. Extra bins for recyclables in the dorms would be a concrete way the University could show the city that we can help the program succeed.
Consider also that about 123,000 cans of soda pop each month are sold from the campus vending machines. That's about 5,591 pounds of empty aluminum cans. If the University were to collect the cans, it could make $2,516 each month at the going rate of about 45 cents per pound of aluminum.
The editorials in this column are the opinions of the editorial board.
Cindy Harger for the editorial board
succeed. The University has many ways of helping the environment by conserving and recycling. However, we must consolidate our efforts and show the city that we're serious about making a recycling program work.
The editorial board consists of Julie Adam, Karen Boring, Jeff Euston, James Fuarquar, 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 Swiatkowski...Photo editor
Dave Eames...Graphics editor
Noel Gerdes...Arts/Features editor
Tom Eblen...General manager, news adviser
Business staff
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
Carl Gressler ... Classified manager
Jeanne Hines ... Sales and marketing adviser
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Film depicts truths of violent era
I
t embarrasses me to admit this, but I think the movie "Mississippi Burning" is a terrific movie.
is a terrific movie.
The reason I'm embarrassed is that many deep-thinking pundits say it's a terrible film. So do most civil rights activists.
They don't like it because it doesn't present the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. And they're right; it doesn't.
And they're right. In case it doesn't been following the controversy, the movie is loosely based on the murder of three young civil rights workers in Mississippi in 1964.
The young men — two white, one black — were murdered by Klansmen who didn't think they should be encouraging Mississippi blacks to register to vote.
That part of the movie, the murders, is reasonably accurate. So is the portrayal of the killers and the red-necked sympathizers as a bunch of ignorant, sadistic, racist terrorists.
buched or ignorant.
And so are the church-bombings, the beatings and other violent acts that were an almost daily event in the South during those times.
So what's the gripe?
So what, basically, it's that the movie's heroes are two dedicated FBI agents who eventually solve the crime, using a combination of "Dirty Harry" muscle and "The Sting" trickery.
The critics say the movie is dishonest, even immoral, because everybody knows that J. Edgar Hooher, the head of the FBI, was a racist himself and loathed the civil rights movement.
Mike Royko
Syndicated columnist
And they say it's wrong to make heroes out of fictional FBI agents.
There are other complaints. But they boil to the fact that the movie is not a factual document but an action that evinces a genuine tragedy and monumental period in American history.
period in American history.
I can't argue. No, the movie isn't a documentary. Yes, it weaves fiction with fact. And J. Edgar was a louse.
But so what? I still think it's a fine movie, and here are my reasons.
Most important, it shows the South as it was in 1964. And for those who weren't around 25 years ago, or were too young or distracted to notice, the movie can be educational. Such things can and did happen in a supposedly civilized, law-abiding, God-fearing society.
many were.
audience; the movie's violence, terror, bigotry and ignorance are realistic. The beady-eyed boobs had seized control of a big part of this country. They were America's version of the beer-hall thugs who followed Hitler in Germany. Decent Southernners, and there were many, feared speaking out. Those who did could be clobbered, and
What puzzles me most about the complainers is their demand that a movie be an accurate recitation of the facts and only the facts.
If they want facts, here's one: It is a fact that making movies is a business. And documentaries are not good business.
But if they insist on only facts on the screen, they should get together with some investors, come up with about $20 million, make such a documentary and put it in the theaters.
Then they should get their lawyers and file for bankruptcy when the movie bombs at the box office.
Actually, it's a bit ironic that so many civil rights activists are panning the movie for bending facts.
As I recall, Jesse Jackson didn't mind mixing fiction with reality when he showed up on TV in that blood-stained shirt the day after Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered.
So it didn't happen exactly as Jesse described it. He wasn't the last person to talk to King. King didn't anoint him.
But, what the heck, it could have happened that way. And if there's ever a movie about Jesse, I'm sure it will.
■ Mike Royko is a syndicated columnist who writes for the Chicago Tribune.
Would-be knight swept off white steed
hivalry is dead.
C inyway is that That's what many people say, anyway. However, many women don't seem to believe it.
If you ask a woman about her ideal man, you'll often get this response: "I'm waiting for a knight in shining armor to ride in on his white horse and sween me off my feet."
That's what one young woman told me. Her name was Marci, and I had been after her for months without success. I tried everything: roses, stuffed animals, romantic dinners. Nothing worked.
Finally, I tried the direct approach. I asked her what she wanted in a man. Out came the answer: She was holding out for a man in a polished, tin suit.
OK, I thought, if that's what she wanted, that's what I'd give her.
what I did give her.
The next day I went to work. My friend Brian was a member of the Society for Creative Anachronisms, a group that re-creates medieval times, sword-bashing and all. He owned a full suit of plate armor and was about my size. When I told him of my mission, he gladly lent me his suit.
All that remained was for me to sweep Marci off her feet. I felt confident of success. I made a date with her for a riverside picnic the following
But where to get a white horse? Another friend, Juli, came to my rescue. She worked at a riding stable where a white mare was boarded. She spoke to her boss, who agreed to let me use the horse.
Barry Goldblatt Staff columnist
Saturday at noon.
saturday at noon.
Saturday morning arrived, bright and sunny. I picked up Brian, then drove out to the stable to meet Juli.
meet John.
Somehow, I managed to squeeze my body into the tin tuxedo. It's no wonder knights were so ferocious in battle. The sooner it was over, the sooner they could escape their private torture chambers.
chambers.
We then tackled the most difficult task: getting me on the horse. Juli held it steady, while Brian pushed me into the saddle. After she and Brian loaded the horse and its none-too-steady rider onto a trailer, we drove to Marci's house.
we drive to Marcel's home.
I rode up onto the lawn as the door opened and Marcel walked out. She stood there, mouth open and eyes wide, speechless. Flashes of reflected light from the suit danced across her face.
I grinned inside the darkness of my helmet.
Victory! How could anyone stand unmoved before such a display of devotion?
before such luck. Although I had rehearsed a monologue for the occasion full of “theses” and “thouus,” I never had the opportunity to say more than “Good morrow, my lady.”
Just then, the horse reared, its forelegs flailing
wildly in the air. I tell my feet leave the stirrups just before my head smacked the ground with a metallic thud. The ringing in my ears echoed in the helmet.
I must have blacked out for a few seconds. When I came to, I was flat on my back, and through the slits of the visor I could see a face peering down at me.
A laughing face.
"Stop crying on me; I'll rust."
A laughing face. Marci was laughing so hard that tears poured down her cheeks and her breath came in sharp gasps.
"Stop crying on me; I'll rust."
I started laughing. I couldn't help it. Maybe I was hysterical, or maybe I had a concussion. But I kept laughing.
It was terrible. I couldn't even stand up to try and salvage something from the disaster. I felt as if each limb had a 1,000-pound weight tied to it.
In the end, Marci went to find Juli and Brian,
and the three of them got me up and out of my
metal cocoon.
Marci and I didn't go on to live happily ever after. In fact, we parted ways after only a few months. But I learned a valuable lesson: No one is worth the excruciating agony — and the accompanying embarrassment — of modern day knighthood.
day knighthood.
So ladies, I ask you: Is there anyone out there who will settle for a hopeless romantic in blue jeans who drives a battered Chevrolet?
BLOOM COUNTY
Barry Goldblatt is a Sacramento, Calif., senior majoring in English and journalism.
bv Berke Breathed
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