Opinion
The University Daily Kansan
Laura Roddy, Editor Shauntae Blue, Business manager Sarah Hale, Managing editor Brad Bolyard, Retail sales manager Kristi Elliott, Managing editor Matt Fisher, Sales and marketing adviser Tom Eblen, General manager, news adviser Scott Valler, Technology coordinator
Tuesday, February 8, 2000
--much concern given to the decision-making power of the Board. The bottom line is that the system works.
Steve Sack TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES
Editorials
Fate of education board should be outcome of November elections
In the recent furlor about the Kansas State Board of Education's decision to remove some references to evolution from statewide curriculum, the board itself has been sharply criticized.
Some, including Gov. Bill Graves included, have proposed that the board's role should be reduced to one of an advisory committee. With the proposed restructuring, the actual voting and implementation of curriculum would revert to the Kansas Legislature.
Clearly, this move greatly would reduce the State Board of Education's power, leaving final decisions concerning education in the hands of legislators who were not elected to specifically concentrate on education.
This proposal also would insulate the
The electorate will address concerns about the state board through the coming vote
Board from the direct vote of its constituency. The decision regarding who sits on the Board would no longer be contingent upon direct vote, but rather upon appointment.
How long would these appointments last? Is this a decision that the governor would make alone or would the appointees face committee approval from the Legislature?
The concern is that the recent uproar is based upon one issue — evolution. In the last few years, there hasn't been this
The Board of Education was formed to ensure that Kansas school children would receive similar educations. It has fulfilled this duty. Somehow lost in the upraster is the fact that the members of the board were elected by the citizens of Kansas.
Therefore, the present structure should not be altered. The citizens of Kansas voted to place these members on the Board. By that same process they may remove them.
Let the election in November be a referendum on the recent decision concerning evolution. That's the beauty of democracy — the power rests in the aspirant vote.
the power rests in the people's vote.
McCain's victory invigorates race
Drew Ryun for the editorial board
John McCain's victory in New Hampshire last week has injected much-needed excitement into a race that previously had resembled a coronation.
For months, many people have bemoaned the fact that George W. Bush had seemingly already sealed a victory before any elections had taken place. Whether it was polls or campaign contributions, political pundits had written off any Republican's chance of upsetting the governor from Texas. And even before the first caucus in Iowa, Bush's apparent invincibility had prompted John Kasich. Elizabeth Dole, and former Vice President Dan Quayle to drop out of what was increasingly being seen as nothing more than preparation for Bush's eventual nomination.
Results in New Hampshire force George W. Bush to take stance on campaign issues
McCain's victory sends a clear message that there must be real elections before someone actually can win one
Bush's immense campaign coffers have been noted as strong evidence that Bush cannot lose. It is ironic, then, that McCain was able to instill hope in our democratic system by defeating big money, not with campaign finance reform, but merely with a primary victory. Despite having only a cintilla of the money that Bush has, McCain was able to slay the wealthy dragon.
nation is good for an American electorate that can now witness what will hopefully be a hard-fought, issues-driven campaign. Without competition, Bush would be able to get away with revealing very little about himself. Perhaps Bush will win the nomination despite McCain's recent boost, but now he will be forced to further distinguish his stances on a number of issues. If in fact Bush is the better choice, he will win the nomination because voters have chosen him, rather than because he is the Republican establishment's choice.
A real race for the Republican nomi-
As John McCain's odds of winning increase, so does the entertainment value of the race for president. Choice is a benchmark of a true democracy, and McCain's triumph has provided Republicans with that choice.
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 ... Associate features
T.J. Johnson ... Photo imaging
Christina Neff ... Photo
Jason Pearce ... Design, graphics
Clay McCuistion ... Wire
Jeff Engstrom for the editorial board
News editors
Becky LaBranch . . . . Special sections
Krista Lindemann . . . . Campus
Ryan Riggin . . . . Regional
Anne Buckles . . . . 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 . Classfiles
Jon Schlitt . . . Zone
Thad Crane . . Zone
Cecily Curran . Zone
Christy Davies . Zone
Advertising managers
Broaden your mind: Today's quote
"There is no pleasure in having nothing to do; the fun is in having lots to do and not doing it." — Mary Wilson Little
How to submit letters and guest columns
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.
Guest columns: Should be double-spaced typed with fewer than 700 words. The writer must be willing to be photo-trapped for the column to run.
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.
If you have general questions or comments, e-mail the page staff (apinionk.com) or call 864-4924
Fellow fish,beware of laxly coined analogies
A buddy of mine once proclaimed this beer inspired analogy, and though his elaborations were quite detailed, he said basically any prize fish in his allegorical water world was akin to him and those friendly to his cause.
People are like fish.
Perspective
This in contrast to the cop who just slapped him with a ticket or the professor who barely passed him last semester — those sorts were likened to the bottom-feeders or even to non-fish such as the menacing snapping turtle.
PhiI
Caution columnist
opinion@kansan.com
You can see just how far this analogy might be carried. The beautiful rainbow trout, the majestic goldfish, the intelligent dolphin, or the murderous piranha, to name but a few, all make convenient subjects for comparison to any human's perceived reality.
My first reaction was to applaud my friend. It was truly brilliant, albeit not exceedingly insightful and probably not entirely original. Surely some ancient text somewhere used just such an illustration to help make sense of an otherwise bewildering world.
More eloquent thinkers have boiled down life much more convincingly, shaping the infinitely complex into comprehensible Jello molds of truth (with little carrot shavings floating inside). But I have become suspect of analogies of late because they often can be used to illustrate both sides of an argument, all with the same metaphor.
dy analogies stand like oaks of old, pruned and fertilized by grandmothers and judges. They are the ancestors of, if anything, the less banal bumper sticker.
For example: "Better to light but one candle than to curse the darkness." A less critical take of this seeming truth might extract the biblical "love thy enemy." However, if one considers that loving thy enemy might enrage thy enemy, then is that really love? Would it not be better to light their darkness with explosives? (Empirically, we might ask Castro, Kadafi Hussein, his kidnake, Miloescik.)
Take one such analogy coined by another friend: "Being born into life's b.s. is like being born with your foot on fire. But adequate drinking or smoking certain plants makes the fire a bit more bearable." Good enough. But without much modification, the opposite point seems equally plausible: Pot and port wine also can make you too incoherent to put out the fire.
(Belcham, Martin, Binder, Macsievic ...)
As you can see, if you play with the proverbial matches called analogies, you may get burned by anything from naivete to absurdity. But surely somewhere burns the flame of truth! But I'm thinking out loud, or rather, on paper.
So it seems that careless analogies serve the user's end, leaving out bothersome details. After all, both gar and 20-pound bass are slimy. These wavering homegrown varieties are now taining my reverence for those analogies that embody such truth that one only need understand them to love them and to use them frequently. These stur-
The truth is, often I don't really know what I think. Maybe that's a sort of Socratic wisdom or perhaps just a symptom of a politically correct generation raised to not take a stand on anything. At any rate, I will soon be an intern in Washington, D.C., ever so slightly beginning to emerge from this comfortable college cocoon by way of a newspaper internship.
As I expect to be asked, "So what do you think of D.C.?" when I arrive, I have prepared a few analogies; D.C. is like the University of Kansas. Being insulated from the "real" world allows the people of D.C. to deal with real world issues from an objective distance, but that distance severs them from the real world.
D. C. is like a mechanic's shop. The esoteric work done there lends itself to gouging those for whom the coterie works. Don't expect to get past the door into the garage. And don't be too surprised if your car still doesn't work.
D. C. is like a tropical rain forest. The careful eye spots quetzal senators and sinecure weevils. Countless parasites lurk in search of a lucrative warm lobby. Tourists should stay on marked paths.
D. C. is like the pearly gates of heaven. All the buildings are white.
D. C. is like a woman. Ooh! Wait a minute.
D.C. is like a woman. Ooh! Wait a minute ... !
Treat those fabrications as you would either lint or a trusty blankey. Columnists are like snack food for the intellect: They can be carrots or candy bars, supplements or sustenance. Watch what you eat.
Cauthon is a North Richland Hills, Texas, graduate student in journalism. He is an intern at the Washington, D.C., bureau of the Houston Chronicle this semester.
Bad 'carma' illuminates chronic local vandalism
It was intact when I left it there Friday evening, but during the night, someone had
A s I was leaving for work a couple of weekends ago, I was startled to find several broken pieces of my blue Ford Taurus living in the snow.
I bent down to pick up the dirty, ice-covered fiberglass and plastic scraps from the ground. I was overwhelmed with anger and frustration as I stood dumbfounded and freezing in the apartment complex parking lot.
Lori
O'Toole
columnist
It must have been bad "carma."
leaving the damaged left panel, side bumper and tail light for me to find and fix alone.
The irritating part is that all of this is because of someone else's mistake.
I realize this instance is by no means unusual — I'm no different from the other innocent people who come out of their homes to unexpectedly find a new bent fender or dent.
What made that Saturday morning even more discouraging was the memory of the previous Saturday morning.
Fortunately, the car still
My younger sister Jennifer had come in town to visit me, and her car was vandalized during the night. Someone broke off one of
opinion@kansan.com
runs and the damage can be fixed. On the other hand, it will require a significant amount of paperwork and time working with the insurance agency and body shop. And there is the hassle of finding an alternate mode of transportation while the car is tied up in the shop.
Detective John Lewis with the Lawrence Police Department said there were usually one or two cases of vandalism reported each week, including anything from what happened to my sister's car to a brick through a windshield.
The frequency of vandalism is apparent in the Kansan's "On the Record" section on page 2A, which lists information about police reports filed by University of Kansas students.
her side mirrors. Again, the car still ran and the relatively little damage could be fixed.
Dealing with vandalism damage is especially frustrating because it appears to be intentional, whereas a hit and run initially could have been an accident. Like hit and runs, vandalism is not uncommon.
But even with such precautions, these things do happen. As a friend told me, there's nothing I can do about it except fix it and move on.
That should be easy to do — unless this Saturday morning becomes the third one I spend investigating car damage.
O'Toole is a Wichita junior in journalism and English.
Before I became a statistic. I was not fully aware of the problem. Luckily, insurance could help pay for the repairs in my case.
Although I'd take a hit and run or act of vandalism more than than a more serious injury accident, both cases were aggravating. Nobody, including me, likes to have property damaged.
Although both cars were parked in fairly well-lighted areas, I will be even more aware of where I choose to park in the future. I also will be observant of any suspicious-looking activity around other parked cars. Maybe I can help someone else avoid the displeasure that accompany hit and runs and vandalism
Theory of evolution scientifically valid
Feedback
Drew Ryun's guest column a couple weeks ago contained several factual errors: "There is no ... evidence for the theory of evolution."
All species are genetically related, as now confirmed by the Human Genome Project. New species, such as HIV, have evolved in our lifetimes.
"The board only removed macro-evolution."
They actually removed many topics: the Big Bang, geological
timeline, global warming and radioactive dating of rocks.
Scientific theory is a framework for understanding observations. Evolution is no more a guess than is the heliocentric theory or the germ theory of disease. Nobody expects "opposing views" of these theories to be taught. The only reason for disputing evolution is ideological.
"The jury is still out on ... evolution."
"I'm not against theory being taught, just ... remember it's theory." "Debate ... scientific evidence, not ideology."
The scientific community overwhelmingly is (100 percent in a 1998 poll) behind evolution, ever since the discovery of chromosomal segregation provided a mechanism for it. Any competing theory must explain all of the evidence of evolution to be accepted.
"How is it that one .. cell contains more information than .. the Encyclopedia?"
If you want to know, take genetics, but in short; Ancient creatures had less information; then they evolved.
Matthew Buechner assistant professor of molecular biosciences
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