4
Wednesday, December 7, 1988 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
The University of Kansas has no serious problem with hazardous wastes, and something should be done to keep it that way.
KU shouldn't wait for crisis to deal with hazardous waste
The amount of hazardous wastes stored on and shipped off campus has increased sharply in recent years, according to the office of research health and safety. The wastes, such as paint solvents and photographic chemicals that are produced from dozens of sources across campus, are sorted into barrels and stored in a trailer on West Campus before they are shipped away.
And the University needs to support the office of research health and safety and Steve Cater, environmental health and safety officer, as much as possible. The office helps make sure KU is a safe place and has ways to make it safer, such as bringing in processors that will render some wastes from photographic darkrooms non-hazardous. Other projects Cater has in mind could help reduce waste even more.
There's nothing wrong with that, so long as the wastes are monitored carefully. But just because there is no immediate crisis screaming for attention does not mean that KU shouldn't worry about the waste it produces.
Across the country, toxic and hazardous materials are a dangerous problem. Each year about 270 million tons of dangerous wastes are produced in the United States, and the difficult problem of figuring out what to do with them is not getting any easier. Or any cheaper.
Now is the time for the University to take the steps needed to keep its hazardous wastes from becoming a serious problem. One of the best and safest ways to take care of the waste is to produce less of it. Responsible departments should curb hazardous waste production and use less hazardous substitutes when possible.
The University shouldn't wait for a crisis to deal with hazardous waste. The sooner preventive steps are taken, the better.
Michael Merschel for the editorial board
Tokenism a step backward
Newspapers have some of the worst records in the country for hiring minorities. A study released this fall by the American Newspaper Publishers Association indicated that while racial minorities made up 16 percent of the work force of American newspapers, they composed only 8 percent of the news and editorial staff.
And although many newspapers have implemented programs to try to increase the number of minorities in their newsrooms, the minority percentage still remains too low.
In response to this, the Gannett Company, which operates 88 newspapers across the country, including USA Today, has established a policy requiring every story to contain information from a minority source.
Gannett officials say the policy is a success. Because they are finding it difficult to hire minorities to work in the newsroom, they say they must make minorities more visible in their news columns.
By making reporters and photographers file weekly reports listing the minority sources they use, Gannett is making sure this policy is not just another rule that occasionally is followed.
Gannett should be commended for its efforts both in hiring minorities and reporting on minority issues. Minority coverage at most newspapers, including the Kansan, sometimes reflects the fact that much of the staff is white. As a result, minority issues and problems sometimes don't get enough emphasis.
But Gannett's policy adds up to reverse discrimination. Minorities should be included in stories when they are the most knowledgeable about the facts involving a news story or when they have something valuable to add. But with a policy that says a minority should be in every story, Gannett runs the risk of selecting its sources not because of their expertise, but because of their skin color. That is tokenism, which in itself is degrading and does not help minorities.
often engage. Other avenues would be more effective. Gannett and the newspaper industry should expand their efforts to encourage minorities to select journalism as a career. They should provide more scholarship opportunities to minorities who are interested in studying journalism in college and should pay competitive wages to keep minority journalists in the newsroom once they get there. They also must cover issues that face minorities in this country.
It is through these measures that minority roles in journalism will increase. A token quote is not the right approach.
Michael Horak for the editorial board
News staff
News Star
Todd Cohen ... Editor
Michael Horak ... Managing editor
Julie Adam ... Associate editor
Stephen Wade ... News editor
Michael Merschel ... Editorial editor
Noel Gerdes ... Campus editor
Craig Anderson ... Sports editor
Scott Carpenter ... Photo editor
Dave Earnes ... Graphics editor
Jill Jess ... Arts/Features editor
Tom Eblen ... General manager, news adviser
Business staff
Greg Knipp ...Business manager
Cole Debe ...Retail sales manager
Chris Cooper ...Campus sales manager
Linda Prokop ...National sales manager
Kurt Messerman Smith ...Promotions manager
Sarah Hidgon ...Marketing manager
Brad Lenhart ...Production manager
Michelle Garfand ...Asst. production manager
Rinold Lehmann ...Classified manager
Jeanne Hines ...Sales and marketing adviser
1047
Guest columns should be typed, double-spaced and less than 700 words. The
letter will be photographed.
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 hometown, or faculty or staff position.
The Kansan reserves the right to reject or edit letters, guest columns and cartoons. They can be mailed or brought to the Kansan newroom, 111 Stuffer-Flint Hall. Letters, columns and cartoons are the opinion of the writer or artist and do not necessarily reflect the views of the University Daily Kansan. Editorials, which appear in the left-hand column, are the opinion of the Kansan editorial board.
The University Daily Kansan (USP5 650-640) is published at the University of Kansas, 118 Stauffer-Fint-Hall, Lawrence, Kan. 6045, dailies during the regular school, including Saturday, Sunday, holidays and final periods, and dailies during the summer session. Second-class postage is paid in Lawrence, Kan. 6044. Annual subscriptions by mail are $50. Student subscriptions are $3 and are paid through the student access portal. The University Daily Kansan, 118
POSTMASTER. Send address changes to the University Daily Kansan, 118
Sippee-Flint Hall, Lawrence, Kau 68045.
You can't teach an old Santa. . . . well, anything; it's one of those learn-by-doing things
You'd better watch out. You'd better not cry
You'd better not pout; I'm telling you why.
They're just like this.
At least some Santas are. I know, because I saw it on "USA Today, the Television Show."
A company named Western Services trains more than 3,000 jolly, run men nationwide for the task
The company runs a Santa training camp,
drilling the red-and-white army in North Pole
studies, primarily the names of the nine reindeer.
Santa also learn important tips.
"You don't want to have a bad experience where a child on you lap says, 'Mommy, this Santa smells,'" trainers tell the Santas, advising them to wear plenty of deodorant in the hot suits.
The prospect of professional Santas stunned me.
I always thought Santa was an amateur; the ones I go to always act amateurish.
I thought that it took a special person to be Santa, not special training. My high school English teacher worked seasonally as a Santa at a hardware store. He never studied the art, but he did wear Mickey Mouse socks to class.
Derek Schmidt
Staff columnist
Some say we should just accept this Christmas boot camp; after all, this is the yuppie generation. And training workers for a commercialized holiday seems appropriate. Alex P. Keaton would do
That might be reasonable, but this training goes too far.
Western Services advises its trainers not to *Ho,
ho, he because it could frighten children.
The presidential election frightened a nation, but we didn't stop it. Finals frighten thousands, but we don't stop them. My cooking frightens me, but I eat.
Some things are so well-established that to eliminate one part is to ruin the whole. Santa's
vocabulary is one of those things
vocabulary is one of those timid children who,
Besides, these are the same timid children who,
on Halloween, decided ghosts and witches were too
tamed, and so dressed like Freddie Krueger.
game, and so dressed into
They're not afraid of a 'ho, ho, ho.'
Irkay.
If it is to be regulated, it should not be for his speech. Has the FAA issued a sleigh-flying license to the old fellow? Is he a licensed chimney sweep? Most cities prohibit grazing livestock in the city limits, particularly reindeer on roofs. Does he have a warrant, to search for milk and cookies?
All these Santa issues are silly. There is no standard Kris Kringle.
Only the cowboy is more individualistic than Santa. We never trained cowboys.
Studying Santahood is like studying parenthood,
it's nice in theory, but you really only learn on the
back.
Joseph
Nobody taught Dad to be Dad. Nobody can teach Santa to be Santa.
Derek Schmidt is a Independence junior majoring in journalism.
Fooling Bambi is cruel
Tamara K.W. Rice Lawrence graduate student
It's a shame that Tom Wilhelm hasn't "found a way to make roasted hypocrite palatable" since he seems to have missed a good number of the hypocrites in his pre-hunting/anti-animal rights article. I agree that there is something hypocritical about protesting hunting while munching "some tasty morsel of chicken flesh fried in animal fat," but there is also the point that many people hunt simply for "sport" and not to provide food.
But back to the column that started Mr. Wilhelm on his hypocrite hunt. The deer hunt at the Sandpoint Naval station was not protested simply because it was a wain, but because the animals were tame and in a fenced area. Doesn't it seem hypocritical (not to mention sad) to teach those animals to trust humans and then to repay that trust by shooting them? Perhaps it doesn't bother Mr. Wilhelm, but it bothers me.
You won't find all of us who believe in animal rights at the meat counter, as he assumes. Some of us do "appreciate and understand the sacrifices" that stock our refrigerators. Some of us are vegetarians.
Not all are hypocrites
While I understand Tom Wilhelm's anger over the hypocritical attitude of flesh-eating individuals who are opposed to hunting, I think Wilhelm was wrong in using this example as an opportunity to assume that most people who are opposed to this cowardly, cruel "sport" eat meat. Certainly there are those individuals who fail to practice what they preach, but these peoples' hypocrisy is due to the failure in realizing the value of all life, not just those that are stalked by men with firearms. Many of us who oppose this bloody pastime do so because to us, all life is precious and this belief has led us to be just as much opposed to destroying any life form for the selfish purpose of pleasing our palates as we are to hunting.
As to the heart-wrenching pains Wilhelm must go in to order to prove his manhood, my suggestion is to take up chess. You'll do a lot less harm to those creatures who share this planet with you and you won't have to physically exert yourself. One word of warning here would should happen if you were a new pastime, that none could be less challenging than hunting. This shouldn't bother a rugged guy like you though and just think, you'll always have us vegetarians there to cheer you on.
Who's the hypocrite?
Lisa Monaco
Olathe junior
In reference to Tom Wilhelm's column "Not all Bambi killers carry a gun" (Dec. 1), just who is the hypocrite here? Just because I eat a dead cow or chicken now and again does not mean it is all right for you to go out in a macho frenzy and kill a deer for sport. God gave me incisors, and evolution prepared me to eat meat. OK? If I
thought that you needed the meat from the hunted animal to survive, that would be a different story. But you don't.
If you have enough money to invest in a firearm, a neat orange outfit, and a cook knife to split open and withdraw the guts of an innocent animal, then I suppose you have enough money to go out and buy a pound of hamburger for dinner. Or lentils, if you like. And if you had any sense at all, you would rent a Chicken McNugget; the back of a lot more humane than stalking a dumb animal whose diet cannot be justified, no matter how hard you try.
you try.
So just stop all this "big man" stuff about having the right to go out and kill things just because it's fun.
Jane Hoyland
assistant director/academic coordinator Supportive Educational Services
Sanders refreshing
I am glad to see that, for once, Mark Tilford has written an editorial that is neither inflammatory nor misleading. His relation of Barry Sanders' refreshing humility in the face of national recognition is a pleasant change from the doomsaying and condemnation that usually appears in newsprint.
Sanders' actions are a pleasant affirmation of the more important fundamentals of life; things that can never be altered by rushing yardage, media coverage, or the Heisman trophy. Barry Sanders is the true definition of a winner, in life as in sport.
Eric Angevine Lawrence sophomore
BLOOM COUNTY
- 1986 Washington Post Co
by Berke Breathed