4A
Thursday, January 25, 1995
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VIEWPOINT
THE ISSUE: BOSTON'S PROTEST PARADE
Vets' ban on gays hurts all
This St. Patrick's Day in Boston, the Kinsey 10 percent will not be sharing in the wearin' o' the green. A federal district judge ruled that the Irish-American Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Group of Boston cannot march in this year's parade, sponsored by the South Boston Allied War Veterans' Council on March 19. This year's parade is not traditional by any means. It is a protest.
The veterans' group canceled the parade last year after a judge affirmed the group's right to march in the yearly event. So for 1995, the veterans' group banned their nonheterosexual fellow Irish Americans from the parade by sponsoring what essentially is a St. Patrick's Day protest and not a parade. All the world loves a parade, but a protest satisfies only those actually protesting. Both groups, the veterans and GLIB are getting what they deserve — a parade that no one will like. It is mean-spirited for the veterans' group to design the parade this year to specifically exclude some of their fellow Irishmen. However, the gay community in Boston is guilty also. They overreacted. Why would they want to be in a parade thrown by those who obviously hate them?
Sponsors overreact with mean, legalistic tactics to prevent gays from raining on Boston's St. Patrick's Day parade
The argument that a protest is not open to everyone is being used to keep GLIB out of Boston's St. Patrick's Day festivities. Ironically, it is the same argument that also has been used to ban violently anti-gay groups such as the Ku Klux Klan from marching in gay pride parades thus protecting gays.
Gays, lesbians and bisexuals in our country are finally starting to gain ground toward the civil rights they deserve. It would be wise for them to choose the battles they wage with caution and save their resources for those goals which are truly important.
Let the veterans have their parade. No one really looks good in green anyway.
JOHN BENNETT FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
THE ISSUE: COLLEGE HOPE FUND PROJECT
Program pays for education
Gov. Bill Graves and the Legislature could invest in the future of our state by providing every graduating high school student with a chance to get a post-secondary education for free.
A program called Helping Outstanding Pupils Educationally is in its second successful year in Georgia. Last year, HOPE benefited almost 70,000 students. HOPE uses the state's portion of its lottery revenue to finance full scholarships and partial coverage of book expenses for all students who graduate from high school with a 3.0 cumulative grade point average. If students maintain that GPA at checkpoint periods of 45,90 and 130 hours in college, their HOPE scholarships automatically will be renewed, and they will be financially covered for all four years of their education.
However, Georgia state officials realized that a system with GPA restrictions wasn't applicable to everyone. With that in mind, they included technical institutes with no minimum GPA requirements. Therefore, no Georgia student will be denied a chance at a post-secondary education because of its burdening costs. That ideas foreign to many Kansas students.
Using state's lottery Georgia helped almost 70,000 students stay in school. Kansas should use a similar system
At present, 90 percent of our state's lottery intake of $47 million goes into the Economic Development Initiatives Fund. Northeastern Kansas, the wealthiest and most politically active part of the state, last year received around $30 million of those funds.
While the programs paid for by those funds might have some merit, their impact is grossly outweighed by the prospect of providing Kansas with a better trained work force that would receive higher paying jobs in the future. Now that's an investment that all Kansans can benefit from.
LANCE HAMBY FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
KANSAN STAFF
STEPHEN MARTINO
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TOM EBLEN
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Jeff MacNelly / CHICAGO TRIBUNE
April 17, 2018: Opening arguments finally get under way in Shapiro v. Bailey.
Immigrants don't deserve to be second-class citizens
I am an immigrant to the United States.
I arrived here in July 1987, and five years later I became a U.S. citizen. Four out of seven members of my family are also citizens. The rest are in the process.
How did we get here? Let me give you a hint. It wasn't on two empty barrels tied together with rope. Guess again.
No, it wasn't in a shipping crate either. I'm claustrophobic.
Um, I don't recall jumping over barbed wire (ouch) or dashing across any highways either.
My father always told me that I should be willing to pay the extra cost or take the extra time to achieve some things in life so no one could ever point a finger at me and say that I don't deserve what I have.
OK, I'll tell you. Come closer.
We flew here in a nice, big airplane with passports in our pockets and green cards in our hands. Shhh! Not so loud or some loud-mouth politicians will know that we came here l-e-g-a-l-l-y. OK, forget the politicians. How about you? Have the words "illegal aliens," "illegal criminals" or (worse) the word 'parasite' reached the tip of your tongue? You don't have to answer that. You have the right to remain silent. No, that phrase isn't familiar to me either.
Such incidents have led to a negative outlook on immigrants in general. It hurts me when immigrants are
Hey, I understand if you have anger or contempt toward those who come to this country illegally and commit crimes or receive special treatment. I read about those 900-plus illegal students at California universities who were paying much less tuition than the out-of-state legal residents.
STAFF COLUMNIST
I am proud of where I came from, how I got here and where I am today. Many illegal immigrants have managed to become legal and are still proud of where they came from. Even though the word illegal may seem like a scarlet letter to many, it also symbolizes the price one is willing to pay to live here.
I know I deserve to be here. And so do many other immigrants.
Muneca Naseer is a Lawrence senior in journalism and political science.
And let's not also assume that every immigrant receives handouts from the U.S. government. Immigrants study hard in schools, support themselves through scholarships or work and pay taxes as they should. They become our teachers, our engineers, our doctors, our lawyers and our police officers. What is so wrong with that? They didn't take people's jobs. They earned them.
looked down upon or their presence in the United States is questioned. If you go back far enough in history, we are all descendants of immigrants.
So cut down on the illegal part, but don't cut down on the immigration part. Don't make honest people feel unwelcome
because of dishonest people
escaping from horrific circumstances like war or famine. Some do not have the time or the resources to enter this country like my family did. I sympathize with them. There are exceptions.
And don't let politicians play on the emotions of the American people by using immigrants as scapegoats for their own shortcomings.
If my parents had come here illegally, I would have felt responsible enough to strive for legal status. I wouldn't want the word "illegal" to haunt me for the rest of my life.
I am not saying, "Don't catch the criminals." Just don't use them as an excuse.
So did my parents when they came here. The immigration process is tedious and time-consuming, and it can take several years. My parents spent a good portion of their incomes on medical checkups for everyone, collecting documents on everyone and making several two-hour trips to the U.S. Embassy. They didn't bribe officials or fake records.
If I commit a crime, I should be punished. In my eight years as an immigrant I have had only one speeding ticket. I naid my dues though.
Why am I telling you all of this?
Because I want you to know that not all immigrants are illegal. Some are
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.
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All letters and guest columns should be submitted to the Kansan newsroom, 111 Stauffer-Flint Hall. The Kansan reserves the right to edit, cut to length or out-reject all submissions. For any questions, call Matt Gowen, editorial page editor, or Heather Lawrenz, associate editorial page editor, at 864-4810.
Literary Excerpt
From "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus,"
bv John Gray. Ph.D.
"When the Martians became depressed, everyone on the planet left the cities and went to their caves for a long time. They were stuck and couldn't come out, until one day when a Martian happened to glimpse the beautiful Venusians through his telescope. As he quickly shared his telescope, the sight of these beautiful beings inspired the Martians, and their depression miraculously lifted. Suddenly, they felt needed. They came out of their caves and began building a fleet of spaceships to fly to Venus.
When the Venusians became depressed, to feel better they formed circles and began talking with one another about their problems. But this didn't seem to relieve the depression. They stayed depressed for a long time until through their intuition they experienced a vision. Strong and wondrous beings (the Martians) would be coming across the universe to love, serve and support them. Suddenly they felt cherished. As they shared their vision their depression lifted, and they happily began preparing for the arrival of the Martians."
Death penalty means Kansas justice system should change
In light of the fact that Kansas has adopted a death penalty and that presumably it will be put into effect in the future, it seems appropriate to revamp the criminal justice system to help it better deal with its new role as the Instrument of God's Wrath in the State of Kansas.
First of all, the Department of Corrections needs renaming, seeing as it becomes extremely difficult to correct someone who has been put to death — at least the task becomes prohibitively expensive. There are a number of possible names for the former Department of Corrections: "The Department of Vengeance and Death," "The Department of Divine Retribution," "The Department of Fire and Brimstone," "The Department of the Hoosegow" and my personal favorite, "Wichita Northwest High School."
Second, perhaps the modern reawakening of the gambler in all of us, generously supported by state lotteries and such, could be satiated by combining gambling with the execution of violent felons. For example, a lottery could be held to see who gets to administer the lethal injection. Wagers could be placed on the precise time of death, with the winner receiving a large sum of money for his trivialization of the death of another human being.
Or perhaps we could combine the execution with an entertaining sporting event. Perhaps we could have a live-fire episode of "American Gladiators" where Laser and Torch blast the condemned with phosphor grenades instead of Nerf arrows and tennis balls. Or maybe the KU men's basketball squad could bounce basketballs from the felon's head until he dies, with the athletic scholar delivering the coup de grace of having a few points added to his ACT score or something nice like that. Or the condemned could even be trampled to death by rogue elephants at a circus or by throughbreds at the Woodlands.
This leads to the question about what form of death should be administered. It's true that lethal injection lets the executioner begin by smiling smugly and saying, "This may sting a little." But that would get old after awhile.
Death by firing squad, strangulation, stoning or being drawn and quartered should not be overlooked. Perhaps the condemned could have their hats nailed to their heads, the way Dracula did to the Sultan's men when they refused to remove their turbans.
Then again, you can't beat decapitation as a form of execution. There's blood everywhere and a nice trophy you can keep to remember the event afterwards. Perhaps the executions could be public spectacles: They could be held on the Statehouse grounds next to the Lincoln statue. That way we could bring a sandwich and make a day of it. Maybe they could set up little booths to sell t-shirts or bands could play. The severed head could be displayed in the Kansas Judicial Center, in the rotunda of the Statehouse or even over the gates to the governor's mansion, the way the heads were displayed on the gates of Istanbul or at the Tower of London. What better way to signal to the criminal element in the State of Kansas that violence and crime will not be tolerated in the Land of Ahhs?
Michael Paul is a Lawrence graduate student in political science.
HUBIE
By Greg Hardin
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