Opinion
Kansan
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Ann Premer, Editor
Gerry Doyle, Managing editor
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Tuesday, April 27, 1999
IN HARM'S WAY
The Chicago Tribune
Editorials
The tragedy in Littleton, Colo., one week ago today has stirred talk about the sad state of our society. What kind of society has teenagers shooting classmates in cold blood?
Citizens of Littleton respond with compassion for students
Yes, this is the world we live in. But, looking closer at the massacre, there are some signs that maybe our society really has not completely turned into the cold, heartless thing that it appears to be in the aftermath of such a horrid event.
The community of Littleton did an amazing job of handling the events that took place.
Panic often can bring even more devastation in these situations, but the town ensured that this did not happen. Immediately after the shootings, students who fled the high school were welcomed into nearby homes. The local library and a nearby elementary school
The community's response to tragedy is commendable; support must not stop now.
became information bases. The day after the shootings, a hotel offered rooms to family members and grief counselors.
Denver also handled the situation with grace. Professional athletic events were postponed, including a first-round basketball playoff. There were prayer vigils in Denver to help people cope with the tragedy.
The community came together to mourn and cope with its grief. The question left now is how the community will cope in the months and years to come.
The students who attended the high school will need support for a long time. Their lives are forever changed. How the community deals
with the students' pain and suffering will affect them forever.
Hopefully, the parents in the community will be even more attentive to their children now. If anything can be learned from this, it is that there are warning signs. Spotting these signs and dealing with their significance is something every family member, school administrator and community leader needs to do.
The community of Littleton did an admirable job of handling a very difficult situation.
We should all hope and pray that it continues to rise to the needs of its teen-agers as they take back the high schools days and memories of which they have been robbed.
Let's hope that if a tragedy like this struck Lawrence, our community would be as nurturing and supportive as the citizens of Littleton.
Emily Haverkamp for the editorial board
International group gets pat on back
The Kansan editorial board would like to commend the International Students Association. The board sends ISA a pat on the back for the success of its first International Awareness Week last week.
ISA president Vladimir Sinkov coordinated a treasure hunt and pizza party on Monday. This was followed Tuesday by a foreign film show in the Kansas Union, and Wednesday's international fashion show in front of the Kansas Union. There was an international potluck on Thursday, and Friday was the 47th annual Festival of
Awareness week activities provide means for students to learn about diversity.
Nations.
This week of events was co-organized by Suzy Davis and Laura Oldanie. Davis and Oldanie helped provide the campus with a wonderfully diverse look at what the international community has to offer. The University has a large and diverse student population,
and opportunities for interaction, such as International Awareness Week, can aid KU students in perceiving the large world outside of the United States.
There is no diversity requirement at the University. Language requirements are not spread to all departments. For these reasons, it is mostly the burden of the students to educate themselves in matters of foreign language and culture. The ISA works to make this task a little easier, and last week exemplified how many avenues truly exist for a student to receive an international perspective.
Kansan staff
Mathew Skinta for the editorial board
Ryan Koerner . . . Editorial
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Broaden your mind: Today's quote
“Language is magic: It makes things appear and disappear.” —Nicole Brossard
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Peace in Israel hinges on binational status
Next month's election in Israel presents a good time to pause and reflect about new approaches to peace in this part of the world.
Duane Wagler
opinion @ kansan.com
Like Northern Ireland or the Balkans, talk of the situation in Israel and the occupied territories has caused many Americans to throw up their hands in frustration at the seemingly intractable mess.
But complexity is no excuse for inaction. Because we shovel more than $4 billion annually to Israel, it makes sense for us to urge that new and creative solutions
Perspective
be examined in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. We may finally have one.
Edward Said, former member of the Palestine National Council and now professor of literature at Columbia University, writes in a Jan. 10 New York Times Magazine article that the only achievable way to peace in the region is to have Palestinians and Israelis living as equal citizens in one binational state. Making that a realistic option means changing the official narrative that has governed both peoples.
Said admits that both sides would need to compromise.
"The Zionist-Israeli official narrative and Palestinian ones are irreconcilable. Israelis say they waged a war of liberation and so achieved independence; Palestinians say their society was destroyed, most of the population evicted." he writes.
While taking a walk with my cousin one day, I noticed Israeli soldiers toting guns, overseeing several Palestinians sweeping rocks off the road. Palestinian youths apparently had tossed rocks at a military jeep as it drove by, and the Israelis had responded by telling the Palestinians in the general area to sweep rocks off the road. Finding this odd, I pulled out my camera.
would break my camera if I took a picture. I tried to ignore him but he kept close behind, repeating his threat. My cousin tried to argue that I could take a picture on a public road, but the arguments fell on deaf ears. The soldier kept shaking his head, muttering that he was following orders, and we left the area without a picture.
This description of the official narratives mirrors the sense I had when I visited the region in 1991. I went to visit a cousin who lived with and taught Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Next to the school where he taught was an Israeli army base.
I suspect the scene I happened onto was a microcosm of what has been going on in the 50 years since Israel became a nation. The Israelis understandably are worried about security, so they respond to every threat to security with repressive measures on the Palestinians, who respond with ineffectual rock-throwing, and the vicious cycle continues. Both Palestinians and Israelis are trapped in a narrative that does not allow for the existence of the other.
Said argues that both peoples should widen their scopes to take in more realistic views of history. For example, it is wrong-headed to streamline Palestine into one or the other's ethnic history. Although the Jewish and Palestinian presences have been longstanding, other citizens include Moabites and Caananites in ancient days, and Romans and Byzantines in modern times.
Said notes that "Palestine is multicultural, multiethnic, multireligious. There is as little historical justification for homogeneity as there is for notions of national or ethnic and religious purity today."
Before I could snap a picture, a soldier came up to me and warned me that he
Said also mentions that during the interwar period, a small but important group of Jewish thinkers such as Judah Magnes argued for a binational state. The impetus of Zionism obviously overwhelmed their efforts, but the idea is still alive today in Israel with people who are frustrated with the inadequacies of the peace talks today.
Said contends that "once the initial acknowledgment of the other as an equal is made," then pluralism takes on its own kind of logic.
We would do well to listen to and broadcast voices such as Said's. The Kosovo crisis serves as a strong warning against fixed ethnic narratives that breed centuries of hatred and antagonism. Said's words offer a thoughtful resolution in a place where thought and solutions have been lacking for far too long.
Wagler is a Partridge graduate student in journalism.
Ringing in 21st birthday entails more than drinks
Maybe a more responsible person would have picked the favorite friend who had the birthday on the least-busy day, but that person sucks, and more
a row. In all honesty, I spent way too much money, had to drive and stayed up too late, making me squinty for work at 7 a.m. I even held one friend's hair back as she officially became 21 in her toilet.
Jenny Oakson
opinion @ kansan.com
W then three of my friends turned 21, it was my pleasure and duty to accompany them to the bars at the strike of midnight for three nights in
importantly, I consider myself a good friend.
It's important to note that there are many more birthdays during the second semester than the first. Perhaps this has something to do with our parents being frisky in late spring. Nevertheless, this time of year, students experience the rite of passage signifying a transition similar to birth, prom, marriage or death — legality.
Turning 21 has a significant impact on every college student. It leaves us feeling Atlas sans world and in the mood to get as lit (boiled, hammered, etc.) as funds will allow.
No more fear that when lifting your glass, the Sperico wannabes of the Alcoholic Beverage Control will raid your favorite pub. No more waiting for your 21-year-old friends to get off their butts, turn off Friends and go to the liquor store for you. No more worries that the guy at the door may notice that you don't have blue eyes, bangs or weigh 190. Now, you can waltz right in and show him your real identification, all 15 forms that you've gotten used to hiding in the secret compartments of your wallet.
If you never had a fake, your 21st birthday will probably be spent rushing into every bar on Mass Street just to see what they look like inside.
If you don't drink, well, you can gamble now.
If vou don't drink or gamble, being 21
If you don't drink, gamble, or enjoy live music, think of this birthday as another year closer to that car-insurance reduction for 25-year-olds.
Women beware: I don't know why, but the 21st birthday signifies obscene sexual gifts. Personally, I commend the frank approach to such an unreasonably taboo topic, but just a little advice: If the present is buzzing, don't open it at the bar. You will suddenly become the victim or beneficiary of several pick-up lines and free drinks.
Also, when is a birthday gift more convenient? Most likely, you'll buy late enough, your slobbering friend will hardly be equipped to handle another, and, like the chain of command, you become the next commander of the drink. Or you'll buy a bottle of something or a case of something and get to drink half of it.
I encourage all 21-year-olds to pay special attention when their friends turn legal. This is a time reminiscent of getting your driver's license; the kids with summer birthdays always get left out for a few months. And those of you who flunked kindergarten a couple of times, take heed. It doesn't matter that you are 22, hanging out with a bunch of 19-year-olds. You're cool, but just because you know all the bartenders by name and have the drink specials of every night memorized doesn't mean that you're beyond screaming "free shots" for your younger buddies.
As a 21-year-old, I am obligated to assist in corruping my younger friends. They must get belligerent, sing at the bar, then stumble down Mass Street, murmuring, "I can't believe I'm 21."
If you don't drink, gamble, enjoy live music or drive you probably hate my columns and plot to one day make me pay for all my self-righteous banter by slowly and painfully tearing apart my life, piece by ever-loving piece.
gives you the opportunity to see all the bands that play at the age-restricted clubs downtown.
Even though they may not remember it in the morning, it means a lot.
Oakson is an Overland Park senior in journalism.