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GUEST COMMENTARY
Improve College Republican's Re-publicity
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2005
PAGE 5A
Just to recap, the Kansan allowed Stacy to publicize the event under the guise of an opinion piece and then ran a full story with a photo on the Senator's visit.
I couldn't believe it the other day, but I actually agreed with Sarah Stacy. I was initially puzzled why a woman as liberated as herself needed to use so much innuendo to make her article interesting, but what was even more intriguing was that she complained about The University Daily Kansan's coverage of political events on campus.
Now, contrast this treatment with how speakers sponsored by the KU College Republicans have been handled, which consists of absolutely no coverage by the Kansan so far whatsoever.
Although I think she is right the Kansan could have done more on the recent visit of Sen. Joe Biden, I wonder if Stacy realizes how lucky the KU Young Dems were that their event got covered at all.
JOSHUA GOETTING opinion@kansan.com
One might think that this is because KUCR hasn't had any notable speakers on campus this semester, and they could be forgiven for thinking this because the Kansan hasn't publicized, let alone covered anything that KUCR has done.
But, just to let everyone know, this year KUCR has had many guest speakers including local radio personality Jerry Agar, Speaker of the Kansas House of Representatives and gubernatorial candidate Doug Mays and Kansas Secretary of State Ron Thornburg in addition to many others.
Most of you would probably also be surprised to realize that U.S. Congressman Jim Ryun has also recently
visited campus. Even though his visit received mention in the Lawrence Journal-World, this event didn't even make the "On Campus" section of the Kansan, let alone get its own story.
Publicizing well-known speakers like these as much as possible should be a top priority for the Kansan because it improves the reputation of the University and thereby makes every diploma earned here more valuable.
Despite this, the Kansan has continued to ignore important events, with the latest omission occurring last Tuesday when Mathew Dowd visited campus.
Most people probably don't immediately recognize Dowd by name, but in the 2004 election, he was President Bush's top pollster and most important strategist besides Karl Rove.
Although this event did get a line in the UDK but this was probably only because of the fact
that his visit was co-sponsored by the Dole Institute — it was not at all covered by the Kansan.
That's right, not at all, even though it was mentioned in the Kansas City media and covered with an entire article in the Journal-World.
Instead of any type of article, the event only made it onto the Kansan's Web site as a photo with a caption because a KUCR member personally took photos and submitted them for publication.
This is even more shocking when one realizes that the audience that Sen. Biden actually spoke to, as reported by the Kansan, was "about 75 people" while the Dowd visit, which didn't have nearly as much publicity through campus media, drew over 200 people into the Dole Institute.
Seth Bundy/KANSAN
The Kansan has tried to excuse its failure to report certain events by saying that it hasn't heard of some of the KUCR sponsored speakers, and in some cases, they can't be faulted, but when it comes to influential state politicians and people who are active in top-
echelon national politics such as Mr. Dowd and Rep. Ryun, their excuse just doesn't wash.
Instead of just covering the events that they support (like every single thing having to do with gay pride or diversity), maybe the editors at the UDK should actually cover all of the events that make news and enhance the reputation of the University.
♦ Goetting is a Leavenworth senior in political science and KUCR Events Coordinator.
Free All for
Call 864-0500
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 "ukfreeforall."
Seriously, who wants in the Free for All so badly that they send it an instant message?
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What the hell does David Ta and Ryan Joy being gay have to do with their cats? Honestly! Some people just complain for the sake of complaining.
Chris, you are losing Monopoly. Just give it up.
It's midnight on a Tuesday night, and I'm in my room player checkers on my computer. How cool am I?
My roommate doesn't remember rushing the field. Last time he gets 151 at half time!
It's November, and I'm still eating Halloween Oreos.
Cocktail party, best seventh floor ever, be there Free for All in your best formal attire, and you'll be guaranteed a good time!
Wescoe Beach has been liberated by the North Templin Liberation Front.
I'm thinking about changing my major to Russian, so that I can tell Sasha Kaun that I want him in his native tongue.
Actually, I can think of a lot better uses for Sasha Kaun's native tongue!
Chuck Norris' tears could cure cancer.
That's too bad, though, because he never cried.
This is a message for Dennis Chanay: Since abortion doesn't even affect you since abortion is performed on women, you shouldn't have any say in it. A woman's body, a woman's right to choose.
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If every man thought like Eric Jorgensen, the world would die out from lack of reproduction.
The Nov. 7th opinion page was the best opinion page I've ever read since coming to the University of Kansas. They should write in there every week. Good job, Andrew Soukup, Dustin Elliott and Dennis Chanay. Thank you guys for having the courage to write that.
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How can Dustin Elliott be a biochemistry major and still believe in intelligent design? He should bloody well know better!
Just tell your teacher you were too busy to go to class because you were looking at the new facebook.com photo album feature. They'll understand.
Hi, this is that guy that plays guitar outside of Oliver who was written about the other day in the Free for All and um... (10 seconds pass) Bars of music? Wait, I'm reading it right now. What are bars of music? Please call me and tell me at 1-800-You're-Am-ldiot.
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I'm not criticizing, but I'm just curious, what's a Sith Lord? Editors' note: A powerful practitioner of the dark side of the force, from the popular science fiction movies, Star Wars.
Thanks for the barrage of religious banter in today's UDK. I've finally realized that I'm a soulless individual since I believe in a woman's right to choose. Thanks, Kansas!
CULTURE SHOCK
We are the blissfully blasé
Editor's note: Sarah Stacy's column will be in verse this week.
We are from the latest generation of apathetic youth.
dont apathetic you. The mass media provides our preferences and gospel truth; We purchase what they say; Put our possessions out on display. As this is what consumers
As this is what consumers do.
We are hi-tech American pioneers.
Instead of the Wild West, suburbia is our frontier.
We have video games and AIM to fill our time;
We know we have friends because it says so online,
But we are more isolated than it would appear.
Our wisdom can be expressed in tired clichés.
We are blissfully bored and blasé.
We read Cosmo and Maxim for profound insight
SARA STACY
opinion@kansan.com
On "How to please your man" or "Getting laid every night"
But we feel empty despite our outward displays.
Affairs of state and global human rights are so passé.
It would be politically incorrect any other way.
sors idealism.
For defeatism that we call realism.
endeavors that occur far away. We discarded our predecessors' idealism.
We accept it to feel secure, It may be an illusion but at least it's relief.
They are nothing but abstract endeavors that occur far away.
Although we are secretly unsure.
We all love the same 15 songs;
Our divorced parents and our wartime Commander in Chief
Offer for comfort their religious beliefs,
Yet we shrug and turn on the TV.
It's not because the radio markets them all day long.
We sometimes look around and see,
For we will all work for a big company one day.
How corporate our society is coming to be,
It's far wiser to obey and develop your resumé.
So volunteer and join activities for appearance sake,
nature has been mapped out for you.
And turn off the thoughts that keep you lying awake,
TALK TO US
Stacy is a Germantown, Md., senior in political science, Spanish and international studies.
that keep you lying awake. Because this generation's
Austin Caster, editor
864-4854 or acaster@kansan.com
Malcolm Gibson, general manager, news adviser
864-7667 or mgibson@kansan.com
Matthew Sevcik, opinion editor
884-4924 or msevcik@kansan.com
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Joshua Bickel, managing editor 864-4854 or jbickel@kansan.com
Sarah Connelly, business manager
864-4014 or adddirector@kansan.com
John Morgan, sales director
864-4462 or adddirector@kansan.com
Jennifer Weaver, sales and marketing
adviser
864-7666 or iweaver@kansan.com
Jonathan Keating, managing editor 864-4854 or jkealing@kansan.com
864-7666 or jweaver@kansan.com
The Kansan welcomes letters to the editors and guest columns submitted by students, faculty and alumni.
General questions should be directed to the editor at editor @kansan.com.
The Kanas reserves the right to edit, cut to length, or reject all submissions. For any questions, call Austin Caster at 864-4810 or e-mail opinion@kansan.com.
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LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Rights derived from humans
No human being has an inalienable right to life beyond the extent to which a governing force grants said human being the right to life. In the United States, most people believe unborn human fetuses, while certainly alive, have no right to self-determination.
They rely exclusively on the mother for support and, without such support, would perish from existence. A human fetus develops into a full-fledged human by the grace of its mother. The issue with abortion doesn't rest with questioning whether a fetus qualifies as a life form or a human being. It lies with the extent to which a government has the right to make personal and invasive medical decisions for individuals within its territorial borders.
The rhetoric on both sides of the debate has made a very simple issue unnecessarily complex. Despite Andrew Soukup's fundamentalist Christian logic, human beings do not possess inalienable rights, certainly not rights derived from some fictitious deity.
Dr. Paul Mirecki, chair of the University's department of religious studies, offered the statement: "The concept of human rights is basically a modern idea coming out of the liberal social movements of the 1960s, and to impress that modern idea back on to an ancient, Near Eastern religion like Christianity is methodologically suspect and anachronistic. Ancient people never had the concept of civil rights like we do, civil rights were for elites, not common people."
Soukup is creating God in his own image, seeing God as believing everything he believes politically, in an attempt to determine who has rights and who doesn't have rights. Instead of stepping up to the plate, he's
"For a person to claim that rights come from a deity not only displays a complete lack of historical understanding and distortion, but likewise insults the very people who fought tirelessly to establish rights and freedoms in America."
putting it back onto God.
It's interesting that the ideas of God are coincidentally identical to his own."Assuming our rights come from "God" or whatever particular god(s) someone believes in, one naturally expects to find free speech, press, assembly, self-determination and others completely prevalent throughout the Western world.
In fact, a rudimentary understanding of history tells a completely different story. For more than 1,700 years, most Christian countries were little more than theocratic monarchies, where any rights Americans enjoy today simply didn't exist.The facts speak for themselves: the American Constitution, not some deity, does in fact provide the rights we enjoy. Fundamentalist Christians would do well to take classes from the department of religious studies, where they will learn that the very notion of representative democracy and inalienable rights
would have been appalling to Jesus, who was an absolute monarchist.
Religions may start with the best intentions, but they almost always end up promoting a ruling class, and Christianity provides an excellent example. During the theocratic, absolute monarchies in the Middle Ages, the Roman Catholic Church legitimized rulers who often ruled over people with an iron fist. Religious leaders also perpetuated inquisitions, violent crusades, witch burnings, torture and genocide.
Does this sound like a religion that makes it clear within its scriptures that human beings all enjoy certain inalienable rights? As it turns out, such a thing exists only within the secular governments in our modern world. It never existed in any Christian theocracy.
For a person to claim that rights come from a deity not only displays a complete lack of historical understanding and distortion, but likewise insults the very people who fought tirelessly to establish rights and freedoms in America. Secularists do not care what meaning other people assign their lives, as long as that meaning doesn't include constant harassment and negative actions towards others.
It's a shame fundamentalists wave the American flag with such intensity, yet fail to appreciate the actual source allowing them to freely practice their religion, a right they would gladly strip from others.
Andrew Stangl is a Wichita junior in political science, international studies, and French and president of the Society of Open-Minded Atheists and Agnostics.