Opinion
The University Daily Kansan
Shauntae Blue, Business manager Brad Bolyard, Retail sales manager Matt Fisher, Sales and marketing adviser Scott Valler, Technology coordinator
Wednesday, April 25, 2000
Steve Sack TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES
Editorials
Kansan report card
PASS
Elian drama - Despite the jack-booted federal thugs, the rescue comes off without a hitch. The end may be near.
riding the new Lawrence transportation system; a.k.a. the "T".
Gas Prices - After getting dangerously close to the $1.50 per gallon range, prices are dropping. If they go that high again, we may have to consider
- Festival of Nations - International students put on a fine show Saturday night. Those who attended were impressed.
FAIL
- Newspaper shutdowns – Iranian hardliners try to preserve power by shutting down 14 pro-democracy newspapers. It happens in Iran, 14 too. Misguided journalists should have known better than to write unfavorable stories about those in power.
Wide-mouth cans - Despite their initial promise, wide-mouth cans are nothing but trouble.
- Drought - Unless rain falls this weekend, this will be the driest April on record for the area. Luckily, campus dog population is lifting a leg to keep Potter Lake full.
Sanctions against China will not work
During the fourth week of May, a crucial vote will come before the U.S. House of Representatives. It is a vote that the international community will be watching with great interest. It will decide whether the United States will pursue permanent trade relations with China.
Although the final decision will not be easy, the House must vote in favor of establishing permanent trade relations with China. The argument has been made that sanctioning China would force reform in regards to human rights violations. Sanctions will not work. North Korea is an example of what will happen if we sanction China. Not only do human rights violations take place in North Korea on a scale similar to China's, but North Korea is building a three-stage ICBM that has the capability
Permanent, normalized trade creates opportunity for U.S. to influence,bring change
to hit the United States. Yet we are powerless to have any influence or input into North Korean policy because we sanctioned North Korea years ago.
We must learn from our mistakes. Normalizing trade relations with China doesn't condone its rampant human rights violations or its recent jingoism with Taiwan. Instead, it keeps the door open for interaction on all levels.
Furthermore, if the United States slaps sanctions on China, there will be plenty of other countries eager to step in and
supplement trade with China. Even if China is hurt economically by unilateral U.S. sanctions, perhaps the wrong populations will suffer — such as proponents of democracy.
Interaction with China at this stage in world politics is crucial. Although China probably never will be the democracy the United States is, by normalizing trade relations we will be able to influence it and condemn human rights violations. According to recent reports, these violations include forced abortions, prison slave labor and the harvesting of organs from executed prisoners.
The only way we can affect change is to keep the door open with China. We must learn our lessons from history. We cannot afford to make the mistake we made with North Korea.
Drew Ryun for the editorial board
Kansan staff
Seth Hoffman . . . Editorial
Nadia Mustafa . . . Editorial
Melody Ard . . . News/Special sections
Chris Fickett . . . News
Julie Wood . . . News
Juan H. Heath . . Online
Mike Miller . . Sports
Matt James . . Associate sports
Katie Hollar . . Campus
Nathan Willis . . Campus
Heather Woodward . Features
Chris Borniger . . Joyplay
T.J. Johnson . Photo imaging
Christina Neff . Photo
Jason Pearce . Design, graphics
Clay McQuistion . Wire
News editors
Advertising managers
Becky LaBranch . . . Special sections
Krista Lindemann . . . Campus
Ryan Riggin . . . Regional
Jason Hannah . . . National
Will Baxter . . . Online sales
Patrick Rupe . . . Online creative
Seth Schwimmer . . . Marketing
Jenny Weaver . . . Creative layout
Matt Thomas . . Assistant creative
Kenna Crone . . Assistant creative
Trent Guyer . . Classifieds
Jon Schitt . . . Zone
Thad Crane . . . Zone
Cecily Curran . . . Zone
Christy Davies . . . Zone
Broadon your mind: Today's quote
Advertising managers
"History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon."
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Napoleon
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If you have general questions or comments, e-mail the page staff (apinion@kansan.com) or call 864-4924
Perspective
E-books don't provide connections to the past
Sure, the human race has experienced several changes regarding the form of the written word, from scrolls to handwritten and later printed texts — what we now recognize as a "book". But I'm not sure if I'm ready to adopt the newest transition to e-books.
Lori O'Otoole columnist opinionkansan.com
These electronic texts are popping up on the Internet as fast as the dandelions along Irving Hill Road. For example, the Internet Public Library provides more than 11,000 titles. ZID Net downloads, another site, provides ebooks as well as plot summaries and ratings (five stars is the best).
Thriller author Stephen King showed us that the readers of the world are ready and willing to use e-books when he released his 66-page downloadable book *Riding the*
Bullet. More than 40,000 copies of the 16,000-word electronic document were downloaded within the first 24 hours of availability — a larger first-day response than King had with any of his previous bestsellers.
Maybe the hype surrounds a new technology craze. Maybe the e-book is the book of the future. Whatever the e-push behind them, their prices probably help. King's book was available for free throughamazon.com and at a measly $2.50 through other book-related sites such as barnesandnoble.com.
Despite his e-book success, King showed some reluctance to endorse the textual form wholeheartedly. In a March 16 USA Today article, he said, "While I think that the Internet and various computer applications for stories have great promise, I don't think anything will replace the printed word and the bound book."
Glad to hear that, King — and I hope your prediction comes true.
There's just something about the good, ol-fashioned paperback that tugs at my heartstrings. It could be the tangible comfort it provides. Or perhaps it's the fact that I don't have to worry about electrocuting myself if I drop it while reading in the bathtub.
E-books do provide lots of benefits, such as cost. However, King's economic bargain may not be the case with every e-book. For example, an electronic version of Personal Injuries by Scott Turow costs $21.60 online. But its paperback counterpart usually sells for $18.90.
The size and weight is another factor. True, an electronic version of the complete works of William Shakespeare could be helpful. I find myself cursing my ridiculously heavy copy of the text every Monday, Wednesday and Friday on my way to and from class. The book is so heavy that I don't carry it in my backpack for fear of popping the seams on its straps.
Another benefit of ebooks is all the paper they could save. Eco-friendly items often win my vote, but like King. I can't manage to go whole-hole on this one.
My respect for tangible paper books as we know them exponentially has increased this semester through my History of the Book class at the Spencer Research Library. My classmates and I have browsed through handwritten books from the 15th century. We've thoroughly inspected some cover to cover. We've read notes in margins written hundreds of years ago. We've carefully turned yellowed pages to discover what was waiting inside of the antiquated documents. It has been an exciting once-a-week adventure that I would want future generations to have access to.
But this hasn't been the first time I've been stimulated by a palpable book. I collect 19th century poetry books, some with inscriptions from the original owners. I consider my grandparents' family Bible and the collection of children's books my mom grew up reading especially meaningful. But one of the most important to me is my grandmother's cookbook. Its literary merit obviously is not what attracts me, but rather the item itself. Although my grandmother died years before I was born, I feel a connection to her when I look at the notes she wrote to herself in the margin — my tightly looped cursive handwriting is nearly identical to hers.
These connections would not be possible if I were reading these documents on a computer screen.
Still, go ahead and recommend your favorite e-book to me — I'm not afraid to try it out. But I'm not ready to throw away my bookends yet.
O'Toole is a Wichita junior in English and journalism.
U.S. not as open-minded as many citizens believe
The 1999 decision of the Kansas Board of Education involving the teaching of evolution revived the debate about the literal interpretations of the scriptures and their conflict with the discoveries in science. Strangely enough, the United States, the most technologically and scientifically advanced country in the world, is also the only Western society in which this debate takes place.
In other societies, especially European, literal interpretations of biblical texts have ceased to be popular. In these societies, most religious people,
despite the stereotype that typically depicts Catholics as conservative and reactionary, accept the discoveries in science and try to combine this with their religious beliefs, simply by reading the scriptures in allegorical terms.
Moreover, evolution and the "big bang" theory are taught to children beginning in the first grade, while creationists who wish to explain human history with the Bible are discredited and derided as dogmatic funda
Federico
Ferrera
guest columnist
opinion@kansan.com
This decision, which has reduced the State of Kansas to a national and international joke, is highly representative of two interrelated tendencies present today especially in rural America: the hypocrisy characterizing the relation between individual rights and the role of religion, and the subtle religious fundamentalism affecting part of the local population.
mentalists. The Catholic church has added this issue to its rich list of lost causes. This also includes Galileo's observations which were once similarly refuted for their inconsistency with the scriptures.
First, America prides itself with being a sort of individual-rights paradise. Self-proclaiming themselves no less than the "leaders of the free world," Americans tend to ignore how many of them subscribe to freedom of thought, free speech and the separation between church and state only on paper. There appears to be a growing ultra-conservative revival attempting to restore the supremacy of traditions and customs over liberties and freedoms, using an old weapon, the Bible.
An obviously powerful movement, which masquerades itself with the aura of scientific doubt, is attempting to impose its mythical and unsubstantiated beliefs about the citizenry, and at least is succeeding in stripping children of the intellectual means to question these beliefs. This is a clear encroachment on children's individual rights, it damages the education that is ultimately forming the present generation of young Kansans. It is symbolic of a larger threat menacing the constitutionally sanctioned separation between church and state.
This extremist religious revival has many other faces, ranging from the intolerance of homosexuals to the frequent harassment of doctors who legally perform abortions, to the power and influence of the xenophobic Christian Coalition, which supposedly promotes Christian values as organizing principles for modern society. The desire to base education, social life and political action on religion, and consequently to impose its prescriptions on the rest of the population, is expressed by an alarmingly growing number of groups and individuals, especially in Midwestern rural America. This testifies that many Americans are not so different from the Middle-Eastern fundamentalists whom the local media often demonizes. The means employed might be different, persuasion and propaganda instead of violence, but for this very reason, more effective. The will to reassert conformity to traditions, to reinforce ignorance by repressively limiting the scope of education to areas that do not discredit religious belief, and to refute scientific discoveries for their inconsistencies with Christian creeds makes many Americans comparable to the Iranians and Afghani who support their local theocracies.
This loosely organized movement holds viewpoints that are in stark contradiction with the Enlightenment ideals that founded this country. The Constitution, largely inspired by these ideals, was forged with the objective of guaranteeing the liberties and freedoms that are often employed to question and override anachronistic traditions, contributing to social and scientific progress. Yet, the decision of the Kansas Board of Education represents the highlight of an opposing — and very popular — tendency: intolerance and the reinforcement of ignorance in defense of deep-rooted beliefs. Although their successes have thus far been limited, the triumph of religious prejudice at the damage of rationality, science and constitutionally protected rights reveals how reactionary and extremist many Americans are. What is worse is that there are institutions, such as the Board of Education, and political parties that are willing to embrace their goals.
Ferrara is a Venice, Italy, junior in political science.
Feedback
Easter headline ironic
"Scour" can mean a special kind of beating, given with a whip that has barbs on the ends of the flail — the kind of beating that, legend holds.
Jesus was given prior to crucifixion. This gave your April 24 headline on kids looking intently for Easter goodies, when juxtaposed with the photo of the crucifixion reenactment, a delicious visual irony. I'm not sure if this was intentional, but it was pretty amusing, in a sick sort of wav.
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Rachel Robson Baldwin City senior
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