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Monday, February 20, 1995
OPINION UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VIEWPOINT
THE ISSUE: RECREATION FEE INCREASE
Student Senate makes right call in increasing funds for Robinson
dents.
Student Senate made a move last week that will benefit all students
And all it will cost you is the price of a Full Meal Deal at McDonald's.
Senate passed legislation supporting a $4 fee increase for recreation services. The fee will help the University buy more equipment and hire more staff at Robinson Center.
Students have been complaining about the lack of equipment and the inflexible hours at Robinson for a long time. Senate has responsibly answered these complaints by taking action to improve campus recreational facilities.
Many say that this fee is wrong because all students will have to pay it,but all students don't use use the recreation services. But more students will reap the benefits of this fee than
The Student Senate decision to increase the recreation fee will benefit many students and will only cost $4.
from the financing of many other activities. Plus every KU student has access to the services and only needs to flash his or her KUID to use them.
Others say that there have been too many increases in fees and tuition and that students are being overtaxed. This argument suggests that this is an example of fiscal irresponsibility. It is hard to believe that it is irresponsible to create a fee that will positively affect such a large percentage of students.
The $4 fee is merely a meal at McDonald's. This way you avoid the Full Meal Deal and get to work off the Big Macs that are already lounging on your thighs.
HEATHER LAWRENZ FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
THE ISSUE: INTRAMURAL BASKETBALL
Ex-Roy's Boys, league set-up create bad intramural games
Has your intramural basketball squad been completely annihilated lately?
If so, you're not alone. Some teams in the open league of both men's and women's intramurals are losing consistently by margins of at least 50 points. Throughout the past three weeks of play, one team has been pasted by 50, 60 and even 100 points. Can this possibly be fun for either the winning or losing team? Watching some of the games can be downright painful. The bigger, more athletic squads don't even have to try against quite a few of the teams.
One squad has former Jayhawk men's basketball players Patrick Richey, David Johanning and Nick Proud. Teams like this are lining up against players 5-feet-11 and shorter who haven't a glimmer of the talent former NCAA Division I players have.
So why is this happening? There are no divisions in the open league, the largest league, this year. The residence halls, law school, greek houses and
Removing divisions from the intramural basketball open league this year has resulted in beatings that aren't fun for anyone.
an open classification make up the leagues. Each league is broken down into hour time slots, during which four teams from each league play each other over three weeks. In years past, the open league has been made up of both A and B divisions. And in the past, teams of lesser ability were allowed to play similarly talented teams in the B division. Likewise, teams with high school AllAmericans, juco transfers and former Kansas basketball players played each other in the A division.
The members of any team pay an entry fee to have fun and to be competitive. It should be the obligation of those running the intramural tournaments to help foster equal competition. This new "divisionless" open league takes the "survival of the fittest" idea to the extreme. And the resulting drubbings aren't fun for anybody.
MATT GOWEN FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
KANSAN STAFF
STEPHEN MARTINO
Editor
DENISE NEIL
Managing editor
TOM EBLEN
General manager, news adviser
Editors
News...Carlos Tolaja
Planning...Mark Martin
Editorial...Matt Gowen
Associate Editorial...Heather Lawrentz
Campus...David Wilson
Colleen McCain
Sports...Gerry Fay
Associate Sports...Ashley Miller
Photo...Jarritt Lane
Features...Nathan Olson
Design...Brian James
Freelance...Susan White
JENNIFER PERRIER
Business manager
MARK MASTRO
Retail sales manager
CATHERINE ELLSWORTH
Technology coordinator
Business Staff
Campus mgr ... Beth Pole
Regional mgr ... Chris Branaman
National mgr ... Shelly Felvate
Coop mgr ... Kelly Connelya
Special Sections mgr ... Brigg Bloomquiet
Production mgrs ... JJ Cook
Kim Hyman
Marketing director ... Mindy Blum
Promotions director .. Justin Froselone
Creative director .. Dan Gler
Classified mgr ... Lisa Kuleth
MARELL Chicago Tribune Evolution of the 20th Century Democrat
Jeff MacNetly / CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Further Bible investigation would enlighten Christians
I am responding to comments made by Pete Mirakian in the Feb. 3Kansan article "KU's discrimination policy debated."
It is unfortunate that when you received Your Bible, you did not take time to learn how to read it. I feel compelled to enlighten you. However, I can offer only a simplified crash course on the subject.
Here are three main points you should keep in mind whenever you read or, especially, quote the Bible:
1. Biblical manuscripts were written in several different languages, including Greek and Hebrew. Since manuscripts of the Bible were being translated as early as 400 B.C., the versions that still exist are far removed from the original text and are highly subject to mistranslation. Just one example of this is found in 1 Corinthians 6:9-19.
Two original Greek words used in that text are melakoi and arsenokaiti. The first means morally weak or wishy washy of conviction, and the second is a specialized term used to identify a male prostitute. Curiously, these two different words are lumped together as "homosexual" in English and German translations. Fortunately, editions using this translation stopped appearing in printings released after 1977.
If you insist on having a Bible, perhaps you should get a new one.
2. Biblical manuscripts were written by many different authors — poets and priests — whose work often should be interpreted figuratively rather than literally. Jesus
GUEST COLUMNIST
Christ, himself,
who you claim to
follow, spoke figuratively in parables and analogies. Curiously enough, he had nothing to say about homosexuality.
A few passages you may have missed the last time through are: "Thou shalt love they neighbors as thyself," Matthew 19:19 and "Judge not, that ye be not judged," Matthew 7:1
In conclusion, it is difficult for people like me to take Christianity seriously when there are so many uneducated, intolerant people who claim to be followers of Christ.
lifestyle was so alternative to the rest of society. For example, he associated intimately with twelve men instead of marrying. Also, his companions included known prostitutes and the hated Roman tax collectors. Maybe you should read a bit more about what Jesus did and said and then decide whether you really are one of his "followers."
I hope that one of your goals as a future lawyer is to uphold justice and truth rather than intolerance and mythology. And please don't forget about separation of church and state, which is the reason your argument is not even valid in the first place regarding the city code. Perhaps you missed that when you skimmed through your law books.
If you think about it, Jesus was hardly a role model for heterosexual family life either, since his
If you are going to base your life on the conflicting words of one solitary, antiquated book, it would be wise to study it rather than skim through it.
courses in both history and current events in your personal curriculum, just to keep you up to date.
3. Biblical manuscripts were written during an extensive period of time, covering an enormous range of peoples and events. All texts must be considered within their historical context.
For example, the holiness code of Leviticus, an outdated Israeli code written under Persian domination, verse 18:22, calls for the death penalty for sexual acts between men. The same code has other rules such as dietary instructions and rituals that are rejected by today's society such as sprinkling the blood and burning the fat of a slain animal.
Perhaps you should include some
Furthermore, hundreds of books have been written to help people study the Bible. Two that I recommend for you are "Embodiment; An Approach to Sexuality and Christian Theology" and "Is the Homosexual My Neighbor?; Another Christian View."
Also, churches of all denominations offer workshops and educational forums on homosexuality.
Julie Ann Baker is a Androda, Ind., senior in environmental studies. ...
QUOTES OF THE WEEK
"JESUS SAID, 'FEED MY SHEER,' AND THAT'S HOW THE TERM CAME ABOUT. BUT SOMETIMES THE PLACE SMELLS LIKE A FEED LOT."
—Andy Hagemaster, Leavenworth freshman, on the origin of the name of the residence he and three friends, who share common religious beliefs, occupy.
"IF I GET THROWN OUT, IT'S GONNA BE YOUR HEAD. YOU'RE GONNA DIE." According to a police report, this is what Mike Medintz, a security monitor at Oliver Hall, alleged that Andrew Spitz, West Longbranch, N.J., freshman, told him after Medintz filed alcohol and noise violations against Spitz.
"IT'S JUST ANOTHER REMINDER THAT WE LIVE IN AN EXTREMELY PATRIARCHAL. SEXIST OBJECTIFYING SOCIETY."
—Renee Speicher, coordinator of the center for peer health promotion at Watkins, on mint and fudge flavored condoms.
—Dennis Dailey, professor of social welfare, on Sports Illustrated's 31st annual swimsuit edition.
"YOU CAN'T COVER UP THE TASTE OF LATEX JUST LIKE YOU CAN'T COVER UP THE TASTE OF COUGH DROPS."
Compiled from Kansan staff reports the week of Feb. 13
Literature: It's just too broad to think about in these times
Recently, in a class that will remain nameless to protect the innocent, we got into a heated debate about what qualifies as literature today. This is not a simple question to answer. In a time when the top 10 best sellers are written by stand-up comedians, can we even say we have literature?
STAFF COLUMNIST
Literature used to be thought of as the province of the written word. The poet or novelist could produce literature. But an actor or musician? Unthinkable. But now, anything is literature.
Certainly, I am a culture junkie. I recently proved this by rattling off the names of all national talk show
hosts, even though I have seen only fifteen minutes of Oprah and two episodes of Ricki Lake. I know some people out there own five VCRs for the singular purpose of capturing all soap operas, fictional or real, because that is what keeps their lives interesting. For them, if a subject doesn't fall within their narrow fields of interest, they are oblivious. This is how you can find a person who has no idea who the Beatles were or never opened a John Grisham novel. It's frustrating for the eternally plugged-in, such as myself, because I'm more interested in knowing "it" exists than what "it" actually is. Without soundbite or news-release summaries, I don't have time to look into it. Does this make me slightly better off than those who never have heard of Kate Bush or Terry Pratchett? Probably not, since all the trivia about media figures tends to push out any real information about what is being said.
Once upon a time, it wasn't that easy to put your words into print. There was a filter system that just doesn't exist anymore. While you had to possess at least a convincing illusion of talent back then, today your last name need only be shorter than your first so the graphics on the book cover will look right. To be considered a valid method of using language — verbal, physical or photographic — or to evoke emotion and a sense of community is not really necessary.
William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe are two examples of how narrow this viewpoint was. Mozart, Bach and Beethoven all could affect their audiences more deeply than most Romantic poets. Before long, writers like Samuel Clemens proved journalism also can entertain.
Literature today is in almost everything—advertising, television, books and newspapers. And that's why literature is so hard to talk about. It's just too much input to absorb.
But thanks to certain judicial media circuses, I can feel comfortable ignoring at least half of the input.
Besides, I still need to attempt to read a Melville novel.
isaac Bell is a Lawrence junior in English.
How to submit letters
Letters: Should be double-spaced typed and fewer than 200 words. Letters must include the authors signature, name, address and telephone number plus class and hometown if a University student. Faculty or staff must identify their positions.
All letters should be submitted to the Kansan newsroom, 111 Stauffer-Flint Hall. The Kansan reserves the right to edit, cut to length or outright reject all submissions. For any questions, call Matt Gowen, editorial page editor, or Heather Lawrenz, associate editorial page editor, at 864-4810.
HUBIE
By Greg Hardin