THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
OPINION
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2005
WWW.KANSAN.COM
CULTURE SHOCK
PAGE 6A
Time to give other issues a sporting chance
The way we, as a society, devote our time and energy indicates what we value. Apparently, sports are our second religion with the "Divine Dollar" effortlessly retaining the highest echelon of spiritual supremacy.
The fanatical sports cult exhibited at the University of Kansas vastly overshadows more significant matters.
It is not that the University is an anomaly; it is part of a global trend.
As the distinguished Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Noam Chomsky stated: "Sports offer people something to pay attention to that is of no importance... That keeps them from worrying about things that matter to their lives that they might have some idea of doing something about."
Commercial sports internalize the fixation deeper within society. The Associated Press reported on March 18 that college students spent an average of three hours and 41 minutes watching television each day with the ten most-watched programs for males being baseball games.
A newsletter published on Texas A&M's Sport Management Web site reported that college males watched sports a weekly average of 15 hours and four minutes. Females spent slightly less time, averaging nine hours 10 minutes each week.
Our very own The University Daily Kansan, in addition to having a substantial percentage of the news and opinion columns being sports-related, has a colossal section of nothing but KU sports. It likely played a factor in you coming
SARAH STACY opinion@kansan.com
across my column at all.
Every time in which my enrollment at the University is brought up in conversation with others, whether I am delivering an appetizer or making small-talk in a check-out lane, I am instantly bombarded with their outlook on KU sports. I smile and agree that our University has a legendary sports history and an outstanding program today.
But the clichéd sports talk usually ventures further into statistics and predictions without them noticing the resulting vacant glaze of boredom in my eyes.
These discussions with those described in "Fight Club" as "single-serving friends" leave me feeling that I am expected to revolve my time, depending on the season, around football and basketball games.
They are startled when I decline to take to heart their trash talking if they happen to be Mizzou fans. Silly me, I am in college to get an education, build relationships and prepare for a career!
When I first came to the University, I bought the sport pass with optimism that I would catch the contagious Jayhawk fever, but I discovered that I am immune, thanks to my incurable logic.
I could not invest my emotions into an activity in which I have no stake in the outcome, my alliance is arbitrary to my current geographic location, I know no players personally and when I could put my time to more constructive use.
Or I could at least be in the company of friends without the ambiance of patriarchal aggression and crowd conformity.
It is not that I am against sports as there is a distinction between involvement and the cultural craze. I was an athlete before college, and participation in sports and exercise continues to be an enjoyable and indispensable part of my life.
Sports can foster teamwork, improve health, bring communities together, garner funds for education and enable children to stay in school who might otherwise drop out.
Of course, for the latter two points sports should not be overly praised, because they indicate shortcomings in our educational priorities.
Watching sports should not take away quality time from your significant other or studies. It should not instigate fights between soccer moms or rival fans at bars.
The over-emphasis of sports diverts attention away from more estimable priorities.
A skillful football pass should not receive more news time than information that is applicable, such as how our tax dollars are being spent. (For example, tax money is spent to subsidize sporting arenas.) Coaches should not be subjected to harsher criticism and demanded to be more accountable to their "constituents" than our politicians.
A student should not speak more passionately about a missed free-throw shot than the genocide in Sudan.
We have no rational reason to lionize our basketball players so
far beyond the actual service they provide.
I reserve my admiration for those who truly sacrifice on behalf of others.
I respect an athlete's self-discipline and physical ability, but it is not on the same level as our inspiring professors or our fellow students who spend their free time volunteering through the Center for Community Outreach, receiving no such adulation.
It should not be heresy for a student to regard spectator sports as irrelevant to his life.
There are plenty of alternatives to althletic fanaticism. For starters, campus life offers activities, such as intramural sports (it's more social and a better workout than remote flipping between games), organizations for any imaginable interest, lectures, museums and fine arts performances.
I grasp moderate enthusiasm generated by sports because of its entertainment value and that it gives an excuse to tailgate, but beyond that, I feel like I must be missing out on whatever it is that causes people to put real life on hold to
Matthew Sorvik/KANSAN
idly watch a game.
I challenge you serious sports fundamentalists, who are not the next up-and-coming Wilt Chamberlain or successful game gamblers, to help me understand your position better by giving some reasonable arguments to justify the time, money and energy that you exert into your obsession as opposed to pursuing other activities or interests.
- Stacy is a Germantown, Md,
senior in political science, Spanish,
and international studies.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Don't judge private e-mail
As I watched the news coverage of the recent incident involving Professor Paul Mirecki's creationism and intelligent design course, it quickly became apparent that people needed to hear the entire story. The e-mail so many have quoted was sent to the Society of Open-Minded Atheists' (SOMA) e-mail list serv, meant only for SOMA members.
Someone, most likely a Christian fundamentalist, joined the list serv with the sole intention of monitoring our e-mails and using them against SOMA members.
I'll come back to what this says about fundamentalist ethics and morality in a moment, but this entire situation occurred because a "mole" on our list serv unethically sent Dr. Mirecki's e-mail to some fundamentalist, intelligent design nut job in Kansas City, who started this whole thing.
Mirecki has the right to put forward his opinions on any subject. I share his opinions, because I think Christian fundamentalists lack reason and logic, and they need something to wake them up.
Mirecki's proposed class isn't an assault on Christianity as State Sen. Kay O'Connor would have you believe. After all, Kay O'Connor doesn't believe in the 19th amendment, so her words
aren't exactly something I would ever use to support other arguments nor take seriously in the first place.
Intelligent Design is not science, and its supporters, who clearly won't listen to real science, need to be dealt with by examining their claims in an academic environment. This is precisely what Mirecki will do.
Just because he shares no love for these Christian extremists doesn't mean he's unfair or unqualified to teach a class on this subject. Mirecki has a Th.D. in theology from Harvard, he worked with John Strugnell in translating the Dead Sea Scrolls, and he is the last human being on Earth to find and translate an unknown gospel.
What he's doing in Kansas, I don't know, but while he's here, we can all benefit from his knowledge and experience.
Creationism and Intelligent Design are wrong. There is no scientific evidence to support these claims, and no amount of belief will make them true. We don't need to be sensitive to active ignorance.
Mirecki is not any more of a bigot than a fundamentalist who says that secularism is wrong, morally or otherwise. The only way someone gets away with making such statements is because we live in a society where the majority is Christian, and they get to set the rules. Fundamentalists get to mock everyone and become martyrs when people fight back. Fortunately, the rest of the civilized world has turned a deaf ear to their whining.
It certainly doesn't do a lot of good for the argument that religion, specifically Christianity, inspires morality when people pull stunts like this. My opinion of Christianity only continues to drop every time I witness some clearly Christian person commit some sort of offense.
If a secularist committed some offense, we would all be hounded openly by every fundamentalist preacher in the country. It's hypocritical, it's wrong and it's horribly unethical to focus on Mirecki's statements and then call him a bigot. How many preachers will claim on Sunday that all secularists are immoral, terrible people? How many qualified, aspiring politicians will lose elections because they are secularists?
And yet, Mirecki, a man most people have likely never met, is a bigot based upon an abstract of an e-mail he sent to a private list serv?
Andrew Stangl
Wichita junior in political science, international studies and French
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Free for All callers have 20 seconds to speak about any topic they wish. Kansan editors reserve the right to omit comments. Slanderous and obscene statements will not be printed. Phone numbers of all incoming calls are recorded. Instant message the Free for All at "ukdkfreeotrall."
OK, so KU's quidditch seeker should totally win the Heisman.
I haven't been to class in three weeks because
I am sick. Am I going to fail?
I completely lost all respect for Amy Leochner's letter to the editor when I saw that she's from Oklahoma.
Please tell me that I'm not the only one who has noticed the similarity between the names of Sasha Kaun and Chaka Khan. The singer, Chaka Khan.
I Feel For You. Anyone? No? OK.
I didn't steal your Grey Goose!
Facebook.com just told me I can't be friends with myself.
I respect Britney Spears.
Diplomacy is the art of letting others get what you want.
I saw a girl writing in her notebook, "How yourself a 'Jacob Christmas.' just thought that was odd!"
I saw you in that coffee shop, breaking the fifth commandment. Congress passes these things for a reason, Lois.
Hey. We have fish. We named one Free for All.
So, am I the only person at KU that is a croquet addict?
I've tried so hard to get in the darn Free For All but I'm just not good enough.
Karl, you are the most gorgeous man alive.
Those Germans really know how to make 'em!
Don't be sad just because I own you in
Mario Kart Duel Dash, Ashley.
The guys here at KU are single, hot and smart,
but you can only pick two of those traits.
This goes to the Dave look-alike:
You're freaking me out, man.
You'd think that once you stopped dating a guy he'd stop standing you up!
Today's forecast for Fish's room: 100 percent chance of handsome.
Free For All, you have the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen!
It's so cold I can't feel my face. It's 2005! Where are the dome cities and the climate-controlled atmosphere? I feel cheated.
Your mother's a hamster.
Dire Straits will never get old.
OK, this is getting ridiculous. I've still got 10 Halloween Oreos. They better be gone by Stop Day.
We'll have a nap,zen fire ze missiles!
Brrr!
If people can make fun of Christianity, then I should be able to make fun of the Hare Krishna guy doing his meditation in front of Wescoe today. And I did.
I'm wearing Crest White Strips right now.
Should my gums be burning as bad as they are?
I want to die.
I just took a test in linear algebra and it made me want to punch a baby.
M'
Why is Neil Diamond so rad? Because Chuck Nornis nir "Comin" to America."
A
My roommate is scaring me. He just took a test in linear algebra, and now he wants to punch a baby. He literally might go on a baby punching spree.
You stupid, I don't like you.
HAF!
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Chuck Norris doesn't read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants.
Why do people put their underwear in the top freeway? Who decided the top was for underwear?
7:30 classes aren't worthy of me taking a shower.
ARIE
ARIE
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brain