Opinion
The University Daily Kansan
Laura Roddy, Editor
Sarah Hale, Managing editor
Kristi Elliott, Managing editor
Tom Eblen, General manager, news adviser
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Brad Bolyard, Retail sales manager
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Scott Valler, Technology coordinator
Monday, February 21, 2000
MEANWHILE, AT THE NEW YORK YANKEE'S HEAD QUARTERS...
Seth Jones / KANSAN
Editorials
Ignition-interlock devices can stop drunk drivers from turning the key
The Kansas Legislature is considering a bill that could help end a serious problem - driving under the influence of alcohol.
The bill would require that individuals with two DUIs use ignition-interlock devices, which don't allow a car to start if its driver is unable to pass a Breathalyzer test that is linked to the car's ignition. These two-time offenders would have to use the device for one year after their year-long driver's license suspensions.
Other options included in the proposal are impounding or immobilizing of the offender's car. However, these options are extremely hard to enforce because of the lack of an effective way to match drivers
Kansas Legislature should pass bill to install Breathalyzers in cars of two-time offenders
to their vehicles.
Kansas Attorney General Carla Stovall has said that each year, more than 100 Kansas residents are killed and more than 2,700 injured in alcohol-related traffic accidents. These are frightening numbers, and any possible method of decreasing them should be considered.
The ignition-interlock device not only links the offender to his or her car but, thanks to recent technology, it is almost impossible for a person to trick the system.
Rather than allowing the funds to be transferred, the Legislature should pass the ignition-interlock option. But even if the retention of funds wasn't at stake, this is a solid solution to a rampant problem. For the state merely to ignore it would be to accept the dangers associated with DUIs.
If legislators don't choose to enforce one of these options, federal highway money will be transferred out of the state's road construction and maintenance fund and into a safety fund. Of the three options, the ignition-interlock system seems to be the most effective.
The ignition-interlock device provides an effective method to combat driving under the influence.
Heather Herrman for the editorial board
Reform Party's politics need reform
The Reform Party is hopelessly dysfunctional, and so is any hope of a substantial third party movement in U.S. politics.
The only hope for the success of a third party in national elections is for its candidates to make issues of true reforms and to avoid chaotic infighting.
The convention in Nashville, Tenn., proved the lack of continuity in the party. Political quarreling among different factions embarrasses the whole party and destroys any credibility it might have with the U.S. voters. The same kind of dissension exists within the Democratic and Republican camps, but these parties don't dissolve into chaos. As contentious as the race between McCain and Bush or Bradley and Gore, might become, the parties
Reformers' failure spells doom for success of third parties in future elections
themselves endure.
The Reform Party doesn't appear to have the ability to endure. Its meltdown is indicative of the crisis in third party politics. The Nashville convention makes voting for the Reform Party seem like a waste of time. Not only do these events suggest that a Reform candidate never could win the presidency, but also that the party is not fit for any leadership position. If there can be no consensus in the party itself, how can a Reformer hope to build a consensus in
government?
Perhaps a lack of true ideology is the problem. The Reform Party solely exists as the alternative to the two major parties. But this is not enough, especially because the party isn't making an issue out of true reforms, such as campaign finance or term limits.
Jesse Ventura wants to form an Independence Party in the spirit of third-party politics. But any future third party would suffer from the Reform Party's failure.
This is a pity because national politics could use the challenge of a viable third party, a true "reform" movement. In the future, it will be hard to convince voters that any new party is a viable organization and not hopelessly dysfunctional.
Brett Watson for the editorial board
Kansan staff
Seth Hoffman ... Editorial
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Advertising managers
Broaden your mind: Today's quote
"One thing I have learned in a long life: That all our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike — and yet it is the most precious we have."
- and yet it is the most precious thing we have. "
Mark Tsuchi
Mark Twain
Letters: Should be double-spaced typed and fewer than 200 words. Letters must include the author's signature, name, address and telephone number plus class and hometown if a University student. Faculty or staff must identify their positions.
How to submit letters and guest columns
All letters and guest columns should be e-mailed to opinion@kansan.com or submitted to the Kansan newsroom, 111 Stauffer-Flint Hall. The Kansan reserves the right to edit, cut to length or reject all submissions. For any questions, call Nadia Mustafa or Seth Hoffman at 864-4924.
Guest columns: Should be double-spaced typed with fewer than 700 words. The writer must be willing to be photographed for the column to run.
Perspective
I am nothing if not a constant watch of the evolution debate. So imagine the surprise I had when I saw that the institution selected to write the next generation of Kansas science assessment tests was none other than the University of Kansas. The mind boggles.
If you have general questions or comments, e-mail the page staff (apinion@kanson.com) or call 864-4924
When you get down to it, you have one group that doesn't like the Kansas State Board of Education's decision regarding evolution and you have another group that wishes the University would keep its nose out of things that don't concern it.
Let the Knobs compose science assessment tests
So I have an equitable solution Outsource the job to a competent group. I'd personally suggest the Knobosatkich Institute.
"Who or what is the Knobskatich Institute?" one might ask. The Knobskatich
Nick
Bartkoski
columnist
opinion@kansan.com
Also, because it already deals with research that has absolutely no basis in fact, it would have no problem working for the Board of Education.
Institute is a nonexistent center that does all of the research for my columns, so it's obvious it wouldn't be overburdened by this new job.
I had the boys down at the institute work up a quick quiz to show their chops. The answer to all of the questions is either A or C, unless one of your parents happens to be a member of the Board of Education or has a smart lawyer; then, the correct answer is the one you gave.
1. The Earth was formed:
a) by geodesic, gravitational and cosmological forces
b) as a cruel joke on Nick Bartkoski
c) by God
d) during the one occasion when two teenage planets forgot to use a condom
2. The Earth is ___ years old.
b) it's not polite to ask a lady cosmic body such questions
c) exactly 6,000, regardless of what the fossil record and mineral data tell us
d) exactly 16, because I was born 16 years ago and the world revolves around me
3) . Some people question the value of creationism because;
a) it goes against almost every piece of scientific research ever done.
b) they're concerned about how a Benevolent God intentionally would create columnists
c) they enjoy the concept of burning in hell forever d) they weren't convinced by a compelling episode of Veggie Tales
4. Women differ from men in that:
b) women can get into a bar by smiling at the bouncer
c) their role is to be subservient to their men and bear the men's children
b) behebeh behebeh behebeh
5. Gravity is best described as:
bear the men's children
d) they've got . hmm . uhh . heh-heh . beh-heh
5. Gravity is best describable:
a) the force of attraction between two objects
b) what I must accept about the situation Tm in
c) God's plan to keep us on the Earth
d) a British game using lots of equipment with names that sound like dirty words
6. Plants get their food from:
a) chlorophyll
b) dirt
c) God
d) Gumby's
7. People will get tired of making fun of the Board of Education:
a) when the board is voted out and reasonable people end the evolution debacle
c) as soon as they embrace the truth in the decisions the board has made
b) when President Clinton has sex with another intern
d) never, it is hoped, because this is as golden for humorists as Dan Quayle
Bartkoski is a Basehor senior in English.
EU shouldn't undermine Austrian voters' choice
Cassio
Europeans are seeing one of the most worrying crises in the recent history of the European Union. The entire concept and philosophy of the organization is being threatened by Austria, the country where Adolf Hitler was born in 1889.
Created to unite the continent and to prevent another world war, the European Union is questioning whether it is acceptable to censor a country for having a coalition government with a party that espouses principles and ideals contrary to the organization's democratic ones.
The steps Europe has taken toward political and economic unity seriously seem threatened by the new government in Austria.
Fourteen European leaders said they would cut bilateral ties to Austria and would make it virtually impossible for any Austrian official to take on important roles in international organizations.
Why? To Joschka Fischer, Germany's foreign minister, the answer is clear. According to a Feb. 4 article in The New York Times, he said.
Cassio
Furtado
columnist
opinion@kansan.com
"This is the first time an anti-European, xenophobic party with a very dubious relationship toward the Nazi past has come into the government of a member state."
Joschka was referring to Joerg Haider's farright Freedom Party, which had 27 percent of the democratic vote in the last elections and took control of the new Austrian government Feb. 4.
The coalition government includes six members from the conservative Austrian People's Party, headed by new chancellor, Wolfgang Schuessel, and six members from Haider's Freedom Party, namely the new ministers of finance, social affairs, defense, infrastructure and justice. Haider's Freedom Party also includes the new
vice chancellor, Suzanne Riess-Passer.
Haider earned notoriety for commenting on Adolf Hitler's "orderly employment" policies and for lauding veterans of the Waffen SS as "decent people of good character." His party opposes EU expansion and takes an anti-immigrant stance. The public repulsion to these statements led Haider and Schuessel to sign a statement that says: "Austria accepts her responsibility arising out of the tragic history of the 20th century and the horrendous crimes of the National Socialist regime."
The EU fears that the Freedom Party in Austria will increase the chances of a resurgence of anti-immigration sentiments in the continent. It's already happening in the far-right party of Jean-Marie Le Pen in France, the nationalist parties in Belgium and the Danish People's Party in Denmark, among others.
However, only the Austrian people can decide whether there is a place for Haider's Freedom Party in their country's future. The EU's intervention is questionable for a very simple reason: There's something called sovereignty. If the Freedom Party won 52 seats in the 183-member parliament, as did the People's Party, I would assume that it is very popular in Austria — so popular that it managed to form a coalition that would remove the Social Democrats from power, even though they had a plurality in the last parliament.
It is imperative that the will of the Austrian people be respected by the EU. Nazism began 70 years ago in Austria. It certainly was one of the world's biggest mistakes and tragedies. Everyone must do whatever it takes to prevent its rebirth.
However, there is no place for judgment and condemnation in the free world without cause. There is no place for censorship of democracy through actions such as the ones taken by the EU against Austria. There is a place for open discussion, negotiation and progressive talks.
Furtado is a Pelotas, Brazil, junior in journalism and political science.
Feedback
Religious groups not financed by Senate
We are writing in regard to the editorial board's condemnation of Student Senate's action relating to the Intervarsity Christian Fellowship.
Had the board done its research, as we did, it would have discovered the explicitly religious content of Schaefer's speech as indicated by transcripts of previous speeches. After discussing the relation between science and religion, Schaefer concludes by saying: "If we trust our lives totally to the Rescuer, Jesus Christ, we will be saved. The one and only path is to give up all human
attempts to satisfy God's requirements and put our trust solely in Jesus Christ and in His means of redemption, namely, His death on the cross."
We believe this set a dangerous precedent, a precedent we hope to have changed by refusing to fund this group. If a speaker is truly secular or academic
Clearly Schaefer's speech was not more academic than religious. The board then claims that Senate needs clearer guidelines as to funding of religious events. Our guidelines are as clear as can be. We do not fund religious organizations. But as the board noted, Senate has funded KU Hillel in the past by suspending the rule prohibiting funding of religious organizations.
in nature, then an organization should have no difficulty in finding an additional sponsor — perhaps Senate itself — that is able to receive Senate funds.
This guarantees that educational, secular speakers will continue to be brought to campus without unnecessarily (and unconstitutionally) using student fee money for religious events We in Senate are not in the business of subsidizing religion.
Luke Pfannenstiel
Hutchinson senior and
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
student senator
Erin Simpson
Lenexa junior and
CLAS senator