Opinion
Kansan
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Ann Premer, Editor
Gerry Doyle, Managing editor
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Tuesday, April 20, 1999
The Chicago Tribune
Editorials
'Bad boys' e-mail is defamatory to greek students'reputations
An e-mail circulating throughout campus condemns various "Bad, bad, bad boys" from the University of Kansas and the University of Iowa. The e-mail contains the name, greek affiliation and transgression of the person in question. The receiver can add information to the list and send it on.
Some of the transgressions are minor. But it is not funny. Many of the accusations are damaging, often accusing them of sexual assault. This is not a light-hearted e-mail.
Not only does it attempt to embarrass the males in question, it also is libelous. People who send
Students shouldn't forward libelous e-mail that accuses men of sexual wrongs.
it along are contributing to its publication, increasing their own culpability. The men in question are not public figures, and they are being defamed in a publication. This constitutes libel, plain and simple. Anyone who has taken even a high school journalism course has learned this.
Accusations are dangerous. Any person who is bitter can accuse with few repercussions. There is
no guarantee that there is any truth in the e-mail, and people should keep that in mind before they add to it and send it along.
Some probably think that an e-mail such as this would warn girls about potentially dangerous men. Be that as it may, a mass e-mail naming names is not the answer to the prevention of sexual assault.
If you get this e-mail, read it if you like. Formulate your own opinions on the matter and the people in question. After that, delete it and do not send it any further. It is libelous and the people involved may not have the ability to defend themselves. It simply is not fair.
Emily Haverkamp for the editorial board
Caution during road work saves lives
Warmer weather has brought the return of road construction to Kansas highways.
Students and other travelers should take extra caution and be prepared for delays, which are necessary to maintain the roads.
Driver inattentiveness and impatience are dangerous to both road construction workers and drivers. Last year, the Kansas Department of Transportation reported eight fatalities in work zones due to carelessness.
KDOT asks motorist to consider what orange road construction signs mean. Instead of viewing the orange signs as a nuisance, drivers need to recognize these signs as a request to increase alertness and
Kansas highways speckled with construction during warming spring days.
protect the lives of road workers. In addition to following the speed limit in work zones, drivers have a responsibility to watch for the workers who are concentrating on keeping the roads suitable for travel.
The recent trend of allowing traffic to travel through work zones instead of taking detours has saved time for travelers but also has made the road construction job more dangerous.
Drivers should be thankful and remind themselves that driving the same route slower is better than taking a detour.
travelers must keep in mind the likelihood that spring road construction will slow them down. They should plan ahead by allowing extra travel time or finding an alternate route.
All motorists should make eliminating work zone fatalities a goal this year when they set out for their destinations.
Families are depending on you to help protect the lives of their fathers, mothers, sons and daughters. So slow down and proceed with caution when you see orange road construction signs.
Kansan staff
Katrina Hull for the editorial board
Ryan Koerner ... Editorial
Jeremy Doherty ... Associate editorial
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Broaden your mind: Today's quote
“Use been on a calendar, but never on time.” — Marilyn Monroe
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 home-town 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 photographed for
the column to run.
All letters and guest columns should be submitted to the Kansan newsroom, 111 Staufer-Flint Hall. The Kansan reserves the right to edit, cut to length or reject all submissions. For any questions, call Ryan Koermer or Jeremy Dearby at 864-4924.
if you have general questions or comments, e-mail the page staff (opinion@kansan.com) or call 864-4924.
Perspective
I have been wanting to write about Kosovo, but it has been overwhelming trying to narrow so many emotions down to just a few. I also wanted to reflect on a feeling that some of you might also have. So
Past atrocities repeated during Kosovo conflict
you might also have. So where do I start?
The past is always a good place to start. I went to Washington, D.C., for spring break. On the day that the United States, started bombing Kosovo, I was standing in front of the White House getting my picture taken. I was clueless. A few hours later, I found myself in the Holocaust Museum. There were documentaries in small screening rooms, mock-ups of the ghettos — the last stop
Simmie
Berroya
option@kansan.com
before the concentration camps — mock-ups of the concentration camps, and audio narratives in which people told their stories.
Of course, it was a very sobering experience. What struck me was that all this happened not too long ago. Just 60-some years ago. I hate to admit to my naivete, but I remember thinking,
"Thank God that mankind has progressed to where this could not happen again."
Wrong. Guess again. My geography-major roommate has informed me that it is happening again, and it has happened other times in recent history, like in Rwanda.
Genocide. That is when a whole group of people decides that another whole group of people doesn't deserve the gift of life. Or that a whole group of people can't live where they want to. Total intolerance. Absolute unacceptance. No mercy.
I won't name names, but I have a professor that suggested the possibility that the only reason we don't have genocide (or do we?) in the United States is that our democracy is so strong that it won't allow it. In other words, we still have the propensity to adapt such an intolerant attitude. For an optimist like me, that was quite a low blow. I have to admit, that without my faith in God, I would be really down about the future because I can't see where people have made any progress.
I have heard about atheists who say that if there were a God, he wouldn't allow these terrible things to happen. Maybe if we didn't know about a loving God, we wouldn't recognize all the hate. We wouldn't know these things were so terrible.
We can philosopize all we want, but it won't change anything. Here I am in Lawrence, writing my little column about diversity, when a lot of us can't grasp the magnitude of hate that exists in the world.
So, what's the use? How can we possibly make a dent in it all? These are the questions and the emotions that I have had in the past few weeks. My goal has been to encourage the KU population to be more loving, more tolerant, so that when you leave here and encounter hatred and bias, you'll recognize it for what it is, and not allow it to find a home in your hearts.
Do we quit trying? Do we say the problem is just to big? No. We have to keep on trying. Maybe you and I can't change the whole world, but we can change our world. I think there is a song that says, "Lord, let there be peace, and let it begin with me."
Berroya is an Olathe senior in communication studies.
Spectator misunderstands production's use of props
Last month, The University Daily Kansan published a column by student Aaron Crim, an Overland Park senior in sculpture, about the KU Theatre for Young People's
production of *Ramona Quimby*, written by Len Jenkin and based on Beverly Cleary's books. Crim said he was "distressed" and "absolutely floored" by the presence of the word "Coke"
— as in "Coca-Cola" — in the script, as well as four Coke cups appearing on stage for a total of 90 seconds of the 65-minute show. The column claimed that Coke was the only copyrighted name to appear anywhere in the performance.
Jeanne Klein
Guest columnis
Guest columnist
In fact, Crim either missed or forgot that other copyrighted words were also named in Jenkin's script: Cover-Girl lipstick, Clearasil, Fig Newtons, Oreos, Ding-Dongs, Toys R U K, Sandy Kitchen, Disneyland, Mack truck, Count Choculca, Teen Beat magazine, Hamburger Helper and Chevrolet.
The column recalled only one copyrighted name from this list, perhaps because the other names had no visual logos attached to the dialogue. Many in the Quimby cast agree with the column's point that "one could argue that this is no big deal based on the idea that the word Coke is practically a synonym for the word soda."
But worse, the column unjustly challenges the integrity of the University Theatre by accusing this production of advertising the University's economic collusion with Cake all "propoganda" — which is absolutely untrue, totally absurd and quite laughable to some of us.
quite magnitude to No, the prop room was not "chock-full of bright red cups that bore the name Coke on the side." We at the University Theatre obtained four, readily available cups from the Murphy Hall snack bar, just as we usually scrounge around for free props within our limited budgets.
Did anyone ever consider that perhaps the playwright chose to repeat the word "Coke" in his script to accentuate a joke for aesthetic reasons? It makes the comedy crisper when the Quimbysh声, "Cheesewhopper. Coke!" "Chiliwhopper. Coke!" "Veggiewhopper. Coke!" followed by Ramona's "Doublewhopper, fries and a chocolate shake!" It just wouldn't have flowed the same if Jenkins — or University Theatre — had changed it to "Cheesewhopper, soda!" The one syllable "Coke" contrasts more against the longer order Ramona gives. This word choice certainly had more to do with the aesthetic sound of the lines
than with "advertising" a soft drink
The director of this production is extremely upset by the University's selling out to and monopolizing of Coke on campus. She and the designers went out of their way to ensure that the "Whopper-burger" restaurant — Cleary's word choice — would not "sell" any commercial burgers.
we designed a construction-site environment — because the character Ramona loves huge trucks — with a huge burger drop, truck-tire table and orange booth. How is it that "red cups stuck out like a neon jacket in the forest" against this bright orange decor? If the University's corporate deal with Coke is already seared into the brain as preshow baggage, then Coke is what one will remember most from this production. If one focuses on the production in its entirety, as most child and adult audiences did, then one will remember far more important family aspects of Cleary's story — such as the fact that Mr. Quimby's unemployment strained the family's budget.
The column argues its opinions to the point of absurdity. Maybe we should all feel terrified, now that our vile corruptions and brainwashing propaganda have been exposed. We may never be able to hang a giant "Holiday Imm" sign on our sets (i.e., as called for in "The Batting Cage" script last October) to acquire the "obvious profits" we receive from the companies blatantly endorsed.
Humor aside, the fact remains that the Quimbs were in no way "selling Coke" — or any other product — onstage by the mere mention of the word and the mere use of its cups. We assure you that the University Theatre never gains any financial help, economic bliss and certainly no generating revenue from Coke's profits.
As a future sculptor, Crim himself probably will face similarly absurd misunderstandings and false accusations about his aesthetic choices. Most likely, he may prefer to discuss his artistic reasons with his accusers first before having the moral integrity of his art slammed in public.
A simple phone call to the play's director, cast members or designers would have cleared up the column's raging dissatisfaction with artistic choices. Instead, Crim based his opinions more on person feelings and memory lapses — than on factual and artistic evidence about how live theater works in our inescapably commercialized world.
See you at the movies, if not at the next "commercial-free" University Theatre production. And may aesthetic feelings and controversial opinions concerning live theater never cease.
Klein is an associate professor of theater and film and the director of the KU Theatre for Young People.
Feedback
America 'clueless' about Kosovo
I just read the April 7 column by Jenny Oakson about being clueless about international affairs, especially Kosovo. I think all of us have been clueless about Kosovo.
Within the past couple of days, some background information has come to my attention about events in Kosovo over the past 10 years. The author, Stephen Zunes, an assistant professor of politics at the University of San Francisco, states in a recent
newsletter for the Manhattan Alliance for Peace and Justice that the Kosovars had carried on a nonviolent struggle.
"The Serbian authorities have ... severely suppressed cultural and political rights ... This suppression has been ongoing since Milosevic revoked Kosovo's autonomy in 1989. Until a year ago, the Kosovars waged their struggle nonviolently, using strikes, boycotts, peaceful demonstrations, and alternative institutions — indeed, it was one of the most widespread, comprehensive and sustained nonviolent cam-
In other words, this conflict began during the Bush administration and has continued during the Clinton administration. It makes me wonder, perhaps, that you and I aren't the only ones clueless. it looks like the Bush and Clinton State Department people and the CIA may have been clueless, too. Why?
paigs since Gandhi's struggle for Indian independence earlier this century. However, the world chose to ignore the Kosovars' nonviolent movement."
Mark Larson Lawrence resident
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