Opinion
Kansan
Published daily since 1912
Julie Wood, Editor
Laura Roddy, Managing editor
Cory Graham, Managing editor
Tom Eblen, General manager, news adviser
Brandi Byram, Business manager
Shauntea Blue, Retail sales manager
Dan Simon, Sales and marketing adviser
Scott Valler, Technology coordinator
Monday, November 15, 1999
Seth Jones / KANSAN
Editorials
Students should be responsible for weekend cleanup in halls
The Kansan recently ran a story about the general disdain of student housing residents who complain about excessive messes accumulated on weekends. These residents should turn their disdain on themselves.
Custodians are assigned to work half days on Saturdays and have Sundays off, a perfectly reasonable policy. Instead of complaining, every student should take some initiative to make his or her living environment as tolerable as possible — which, folks, isn't that hard with a little good old-fashioned responsibility.
By the time you are a senior in high school, you are more than ready to be treated as an adult. And for most students, college represents life on your own, life outside of constant parental
Common sense and personal responsibility should replace disrespect for fellow residents
supervision for the first time.
The relationship between custodial employee and resident shouldn't be the same as that of parent and child. And residence assistants and desk attendants are not hired as members of the custodial staff, although they often are called upon to clean up after others.
Understandably, there always will be mistakes and accidents not committed maliciously and not the direct result of irresponsibility. And these problems do exist outside of the residence halls but simply are more prevalent in living envi-
ornments in which facilities are shared by a greater number of individuals.
Anyone who has lived in the residence halls, however, cannot forget the times when childish behavior and a general lack of regard for fellow residents resulted in a disgusting mess. It's almost as if irresponsibility in the residence halls is, to an extent, a rite of passage. But as saying goes, you cannot have your cake and eat it too.
The next time you hover above the water fountain with an upset stomach or stand in the sixth floor stairway holding a helpless pumpkin in your hands, think of how your actions will affect others.
If you screw up, try cleaning up after yourself. It will save everyone that much more grief.
Matthew Dunehoo for the editorial board
Running from cops not cause for stop
The Supreme Court is considering a decision that will effect the status of our rights in regard to the police. Currently if someone flees after seeing a police officer, he or she can be stopped and searched — even when not observed committing a crime. This is an unfair practice in law enforcement, since running from the police does not constitute de facto guilt.
Evading the police may look suspicious, but it is not enough to justify a search
Without this authority, the police would retain the ability to catch criminals. The criminal justice system is unbalanced in the latitude it offers the police in apprehending suspects. If someone is seen committing a crime or leaving the scene of a crime, he or she can be held in police custody. The rights of society
in regard to law enforcement are adequately protected; however, when police officers can search people simply because they run, then the rights of individuals are infringed. If you've done nothing wrong, the police should have no right to detain you.
Why would anyone run from the police unless he or she were guilty? In a tense environment focused on police brutality, people's paranoia about harassment is justified. There is a growing culture in the United
States that is raised with the image of the police as a threat as much as a security.
Most importantly, the "if you run, you are guilty" mindset is bad for the police in the long run. It creates a negative image of the law officer as militantly on guard. The adversarial relationship police sometimes have with their communities is the worst obstacle to adequate law enforcement because it erodes cooperation. A mutual relationship of trust must be constructed, which means protecting the ability for police officers to enforce the law and freedom from police harassment.
Kansan staff
Chad Bettes . . . . . . . . . Editorial
Seth Hoffman . . . . . . Associate editorial
Carl Kaminski . . . . . . . . Neus
Juan H. Heath . . . . Online
Chris Fickett . . . . Sports
Brad Hallier . . . Associate sports
Nadia Mustafa . . . Campus
Heather Woodward . . Campus
Steph Brewer . . Features
Dan Curry . . . . Associate features
Matt Daugherty . . . . Photo
Kristi Elliott . . . Design, graphics
T.J. Johnson . . . Wire
Melody Ard . . Special sections
Brett Watson for the editorial board
News editors
Becky LaBranch . . . Special sections
Thad Crane . . . Campus
Will Baxter . . . Regional
Jon Schlitt . . . National
Danny Pumpley . . . Online sales
Micah Kafitz . . . Marketing
Emily Knowles . . . Production
Jenny Weaver . . . Production
Matt Thomas . . . Creative
Kelly Heffernan . . . Classified
Juliana Moreira . . Zone
Chad Hale . . . Zone
Brad Bolyard . . Zone
Amy Miller . . Zone
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Broadon your mind: Today's quote
Broaden your mind: Today's quote
"There are only two tragedies in life. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it." — Oscar Wilde
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.
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All letters and guest columns should be submitted to the Kansan newsroom, 111 Stuaffer Flint Hall. The Kansan reserves the right to edit, cut to length or reject all submissions. For any questions, call Chad Borsett, or Seth Hofstrom at 492-4974.
If you have general questions or comments, e-mail the page staff (opinionkansan.com) or call 864-4924.
Perspective
My dad is no Galileo but just as important
There's nothing like reading about the life of a genius to make you feel like an idiot. And there's nothing like reading about a father's love to make some of us realize how lucky we are.
Galileo's Daughter, a new Galileo Galilei biography, does both. Galileo was the first to use a telescope to study the skies. He anticipated Isaac Newton's theorizing about gravity. He derived many of the equations still used in physics today. When comparing yourself to such a mental giant, it's hard not to feel intellectually inadequate.
Rachel Robson guest columnist opinion at kansan.com
Gallioe is called the father of modern science. Or at least that's what we call him now. In his own lifetime, he simply was called father.
To his friends, Galileo wrote that his daughter was "a woman of exquisite mind, singular goodness, and most tenderly attached to me." Virginia wrote her dad that he surpassed "the majority of fathers in loving me as his daughter." Galileo discovered the moons of Jupiter in 1610. Six years later, when Virginia took vows as a nun, she rechristened herself Maria Celeste, which means Mary of the Moon. She was always daddy's little girl.
Galileo had three children. The oldest, a daughter he named Virginia, wrote him hundreds of letters throughout his lifetime. We know this, because Galileo, a proudapa, kept every one. Virginia kept every letter her dad sent her, too, but they were all destroyed after her death.
My own father didn't discover any laws of physics or new planets. My father is a printer and has been his whole adult life. Four hundred years from now, history won't remember my
dad as influential or important, because history won't likely remember my dad at all. But I too could say that he surpassed the majority of fathers in his love for me. A historian still could find my eight-year-old handwriting on my father's printing equipment: "I love you Daddy." The historian wouldn't care about the notes written to an unknown man by his daughter. But my Dad never has cleaned these notes off the obsolete platemaker he still owns.
When Galileo was tried for heresy by the Roman Catholic Church, his daughter, then a nun, stood by him. The first letter she wrote him after he was accused was the only one she signed with her last name — making the point that she was as much the child of Galileo as she was the bride of Christ. When he was convicted and his writings banned from all Catholics, Maria Celeste wrote him, lamenting that others had so misunderstood his work.
Recently, the cable network A&E compiled a list of the 100 most influential people of the last millennium, chosen by a panel of experts. I was on the phone with my Dad as the top few names were explained by the A&E commentators. Galileo, predictably, made the top ten. But he wasn't No. 1.
Under house arrest for the rest of his life, Galileo was allowed by the church to visit one other location: the convent where his daughter lived. That, he wrote to his friends, brought him much joy. My father and I didn't have an inquisition to overcome, and though we fight like all children and parents fight, I know he will support me through whatever struggles I have.
My Dad and I cheered the narrator read the last name: Johannes Gutenberg. The most influential person of the last 1,000 years wasn't a great scientist. He was a printer.
Robson hosts Real Alternative Radio, which airs Mondays from 4 to 5 p.m. on 90.7 KJH. Dava Sobel, the author of Galileo's Daughter, will be interviewed on tonight's program.
Kansan writers cover sex; how about something else
The ads followed the same general format. An ad for Game Guy, 7 E. Seventh St., suggested "Play with me one more time." Another ad was for "Sex after Java Break." Scales and Tales Exotic Pets, 221 W. 25th St., asked "Can your
On November 10, section B of The University Daily Kansan was titled Sex on the Hill. There were headlines covering sexual privacy in the residence halls, sex in movies, masturbation myths, places to buy sex toys, safe sex and abstinence, date rape, cyber sex and sexual enhancement.
man coil himself up like this?" Tobacco Express's three Lawrence stores advertised a "Nice, Long, Firm" (and in smaller print) Cigar. One ad suggested sleeping around, while another showed a large, slightly blurred picture of naked body-grabbing.
And I shake my head in dismay at the few sparsely placed ads for rape hot lines and AIDS testing, asking myself what has led to the decline of society?
Andreleita Schultes guest columnist opinion at karsan.com
Don't misunderstand. I
Don't misunderstand. I realize that the focus of the November 10 *Kansan* was about sex, and for that reason there was an abnormal amount of articles and ads concerning that topic. But it seems that sex has been a recurring theme for the *Kansan* this year. Some time ago, there was the full body shot of a scantily clad stripper, and a few weeks before that we were all fortunate enough to see a man's naked body (granted, there was a conveniently placed black box).
I don't think such attempts are going to work. I have a theory that newspapers chase after sensational headlines to increase circulation. It works for a while, and then people want some news of real substance, and they go to another source.
I think that's what bothers me more than anything about the Kansan's recent focus on sex: it seems like a topic for someone who is too lazy to go out and find a real story. Sex is easy to write about because it's around us, some of us are having it, yadda, yadda, yadda. And maybe once in a while sex can even be viewed as newsworthy because it's interesting and has shock value. But writing about sex to the extent I've witnessed this year is a cop-out, and it's poor journalism. Plus, it's no longer shocking.
I'm not offended. I'm more amused at the one-track mind of some of the people who are writing for the Kansan. Sex if fine. Have it. Buy your whips and chains, or whatever it is that gets you going. But sex, at least to this extent, is not news. People have been having sex for thousands of years. Might as well write on the respiratory system. But for gosh sakes, write about something Exert a little effort to be creative.
There's something to be said for subtlety, something that the Kansan doesn't seem to know about. I can't know for sure, but it seems that the Kansan is after attention grabbing headlines. It's after circulation. It's after controversy, eye-widening and gasp-inducing. To accomplish these things, the Kansan has beaten the topic of sex to death.
Where does that leave a newspaper like the Kansan? If we stop thinking about sex for a few minutes, I think the answer is obvious.
Schultes is a Roffe, Iowa, freshman in pre-journalism.
Feedback
I read the University Daily Kansan every weekday. For the most part, I find the articles to be informative, interesting and fairly well-written. But I was shocked and appalled to find an entire section devoted to Sex on the Hill.
Too much sex
The articles about roommate conflict in residence halls, the human sexuality class, Islamic views, date rape, Watkins' services and culture's effects on our society's views of sex were quite good and informative. The story on protection was helpful, although I must say that you're only kidding yourself if you think condoms or any other form of birth control will truly keep you safe.
I was, however, disgusted and shocked by Corey Peck's story on the merchandise Priscilla's has to offer. I could hardly believe my eyes as I read the graphic descriptions of vibrators and their various
Erin Downing
Colby freshman
The world today, particularly American society, has enough problems with irresponsible and dangerous sexual activities without journalists adding to the melee with such writing. It's not as if we are not already surrounded by and face a barrage of unhealthy, unsafe material and situations that have no potential for improving our minds. So please don't add to it with irresponsible, unnecessary and — I hate to say this — fairly ridiculous journalism.
uses. The Cybersex article was equally offensive.
Babies are being aborted, families torn apart, diseases spreading and killing and hearts are breaking because children, adolescents and even adults don't understand the dangers and effects of premarital sex, pornography and other promiscuous activities. These practices are unhealthy and unintelligent.
Evolution an illusion
Kenneth Demarest, professor of computer science, in a recent letter to the editor, said of the lack of debate on evolution at KU. "Any view that disagrees with that of the intellectual elite is ridiculed and excluded."
We need to understand that evolution theory is, as the philosopher Karl Popper says, a metaphysical research program. That is, just as Marx turned the Hegelian dialectic upside down, so neo-Darwinism turns Freud and Feuerbach upside down. Evolution theory is the projection of an illusion to protect the intellectual elite from ontological anxiety, that is, the question of the existence of God. Obviously.
Leonard Magruder President, KU chapter of Vietnam Veterans for Academic Reform