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Monday, November 28, 1988 / University Daily Kansan
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Opinion
McMurry case teaches KU that cheating really can pay
The man who embezzled more than $257,000 from KU on Wheels between 1978 and 1982 still hasn't paid up.
KU on Wheels is funded by Student Senate. McMurry, a former coordinator for the program, has paid only $2,860 in restitution since he was convicted in June 1983. He was sentenced to one concurrent and four consecutive two- to five-year prison terms for embezzlement. In November 1983 the sentence was modified to five concurrent two- to five-year terms. He was granted parole in February 1985 after spending 17 months in prison.
Because McMurry has completed his criminal sentence, the only way the University can hold him to payment is through a civil suit, said Mary Prewitt, KU assistant general counsel. The University won a judgment in a civil suit filed against McMurry in 1984, but Prewitt did not comment on any action to enforce the judgment.
The payments McMurry has made and a $50,000 payment from the insurance company that bonded him is being held in a contingency fund by the KU on Wheels program.
Somehow, the judicial system is cheating the University. Shouldn't there be a law that when you steal something, you give it back when you're caught?
McMurry embezzled the money over a five-year period. It's about three years since he was released from prison on parole. At the rate of his payments, it will take him close to 200 years to repay the money.
Why should the University be responsible for forcing McMurry to pay what he owes?
With McMurry's record, the University shouldn't be expecting to get its money back. For KU it was a tough lesson, but lawmakers should look at ways to protect other institutions from getting cheated this way.
Christine Martin for the editorial board
Other Voices
Children are victims of Reagan veto
President Reagan recently vetoed a measure that would have reinstated much-needed restrictions on children's television programming.
The bill intended to limit advertising during children's programming to 10.5 minutes an hour on weekdays and 12 minutes an hour on weekends. It also would require broadcasters to provide educational and informative programming as a stipulation for license renewal.
These reasonable limitations had existed under Federal Communication Commission rules until 1984, when it removed them to allow the market to determine what was best for children.
The market has determined that commercial breaks as long as the inane plots of most of today's cartoons are best. The market also has determined that violent, realistic cartoons featuring characters such as professional wrestlers are best for children.
Without supervision, the market has determined that what is best for children is what is best for the market; in other words, what is best for toy manufacturers and big business.
The FCC's deregulation was responsible for catalyzing other changes in children's television that lowered the quality of programming. Toy manufacturers now use children's television as a vehicle for advertisements to sell toys and other products to children, such shows in exchange for a percentage of the product's profits.
Reagan justified his disapproval of the bill on constitutional grounds. He stated that "it cannot be reconciled with the freedom of expression secured by our Constitution." Since when was our president an established scholar on the Constitution? If his administration were sincerely behind family values and education, Reagan would have let it go unchallenged in government, the judiciary, could then decide on the bill's constitutionality.
President-elect Bush, behaving like the wimp he was once known as, has not publicly opposed Reagan's pocket veto. This silent assent raises an important question: Is this what Bush meant when he declared himself to be an education president?
Perhaps if Bush sat down some Saturday with his grandchildren and saw the excuse for children's entertainment flashing between the seats, he might have been amused.
We have seen the Reagan administration's penchant for turning urgent matters into partisan conflicts with the environment. Now they are focusing on environmental issues.
While each side argues about whose view is correct, the people we are trying to help, our children in this case, are the real losers.
Indiana Daily Student
Indiana University
Bloomington, Indiana
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KU post office crucial to defense Government stronghold as important to defend as Nicaragua
Most of us are aware, by now, that the post office in the basement of Strong Hall is not open for business as long as it used to be. Our government, in a well intended display of frugality, has decided that you, me and our 30,000 friends here at KU don't need a full-time post office.
What's more, the future of the post office itself seems in doubt. From what I'm told, if the government has its way, we'll soon have no post office at all. I think that prospect is unfortunate.
It's not that our government doesn't have the money. I can vouch for the fact that Uncle Sam has at least $1,000 stashed away somewhere. I know because I gave it to him during the last year or so. And even if our government doesn't have the money right now, has that ever kept us from spending before? So why should a little cash flow problem stop us now?
No, the problem isn't money; it's prioritizes. Our government has the money to keep our post office open; it just doesn't want to very badly. So how can we do that? It needs to care as much about our post office as we do?
I can tell you from experience that rational debate won't work very well, especially where money is concerned. I tried to reason with the government's tax collector, the Internal Revenue Service, about a $10 difference of opinion in my taxes. After IRS personnel repeatedly ignored my letters and I repeatedly answered theirs, they finally threatened to put a lien against everything I ever thought of owning. So I gave up the rational debate and gave them more of my money.
No, rational debate won't work. Instead we have to convince our government that our post office is not open.
Think about the past election campaign (I know it's painful). What was one of the few things Bush
Mark
Jost
Staff Columnist
and Dukakis agreed on? Answer: The need for a strong national defense. Clearly that issue is one of our highest national priorities. That issue is also the salivation of our post office.
Unknown to our government, and perhaps to you, the KU post office plays an important part in our nation's defense. Let me explain.
Since World War II, our nation's foreign policy has revolved around the assumption that nearly all conflicts in the world are actually confrontations between East and West, communism and democracy. This reasoning helped legitimize the fight against the Communists 25 years ago and the fight against the Nazis more than a century ago. We argue that if not for our presence, communism would continue its program of world conquest.
What's more, if we are willing to go to the Persian Gulf to defend the interests of ourselves and our allies, shouldn't we protect our own mail? Even if you are extraordinarily open-minded about communism, given the poor condition of the Soviet economy, are you sure you want the Soviets in charge of the KU post office? The thought of Dan Quayle as president may make some people nervous, but the thought of communists controlling the delivery of my correspondence scares the
So if our government abandons the KU post office, who do you think will take it over? The
daylights out of me.
Even if the role of the post office weren't important, think of its location; right smack dab in the middle of the United States. If a friend (but distant) Nicaraguan government is worth hundreds of millions of dollars to us, how much is a friendly Kansas post office worth? Uncle Sam may scoff now, but just wait until those Soviet missiles start arriving C.O.D. The KU missile crisis will make the Cuban missile crisis look like a friendly game of penny poker. Suddenly you can hold dollars a month or whatever it takes to keep the post office open doesn't sound like very much, does it?
Let's also look at the defense issue from a personality perspective. We supported and still negotiate with Panamanian pusher/president Noriega. We also support the often repressive and brutal Duarte government in El Salvador. If our government can support these rulers and others like them, why can't it support the employees of the KU post office?
I've talked to these employees. They're quite nice, even when I can't decide how many stamps to buy while a line of 20 impatient customers waits behind me. I haven't checked with Amnesty International lately, but I'd be willing to bet that the number of human rights violations at our post office is dramatically less than in El Salvador or even Cincinnati, for that matter. Aren't our postal workers worth at least a few million dollars a year, if for no other reason than congeniality?
So much for my defense. Now it's time to let the government know how we feel. It seems to me a letter might be appropriate.
Mark Jost is a Lawrence graduate student in journalism.
Cartoon ironic
knows when life begins . . . I find this rather blatant contradiction hypocritically ironic.
I'm responding to the political cartoon Kline illustrated in the Nov. 17 issue of the Kansan depicting George Bush holding two hangers. I thought it was crude and in poor taste. It also justifies the irony I find in the popular political philosophies on this campus.
We're aggressive for equality and minority rights. We express concern for the homeless and disadvantaged. We want animal rights for laboratory mice and parade around with "Save the Whales" buttons. Yet when we come to the subject of our own unborn, the sense of compassion is heightened. We are the helpless member of our society and of our own species. Still we justify their extermination: a woman has the right to her own body; we need legalized abortion for safety measures; no one
Pro-choice advocates argue that they don't want other people's morality "imposed" on them in the million children program. They want Wade to expose of these advocacy's morality. Where does the true imposition lie?
Again I express disdain for Kline's cartoon. Pro-life and many pro-choice advocates, alike, were not amused.
Laura Heim
Topeka sophomore
Peaceful forum
On Nov. 18, a protest was staged in front of Stauffer-Flint Hall to combat the racism problem that has plagued society.
Although I wasn't able to stay for the duration of the event, I stayed long enough to realize one
thing: I love a protest. It's something unique on the college campus. There may be protests outside (in the "real world") but none contains the fervor, emotion and feeling of a college protest.
How many times have you seen protesters march to call attention to the use of bricks in a building? None. The point is that we, as students, don't necessarily protest just for the sake of protesting. These are important issues that are brought to the forefront for debate and decisions. Issues that will definitely play a role in our future.
Nonetheless, I favor Martin Luther King Jr.'s forum: the peaceful demonstration. Freedom of choice is an important factor in our constitutional rights, and no one should have another's views forced on them.
Despite what you may think, I have never been involved in a demonstration of any kind. I hope I have put into words the feelings of the average student as he listens to these protests.
Doug Rieman Lawrence sophomore
BLOOM COUNTY
by Berke Breathed