Opinion
Kansan
Published daily since 1912
Ann Premer, Editor
Gerry Doyle, Managing editor
Angie Kuhn, Managing editor
Tom Eblen, General manager, news adviser
Jame Holman, Business manager
Sarro Cropper, Retail sales manager
Dan Simon, Sales and marketing adviser
Justin Knapp, Technology coordinator
Thursday, April 8, 1999
Editorials
Campaigns' clean slate promising after several years of mud slinging
In less than one week, students will elect two people to govern Student Senate and represent students at the University.
However, students will have to choose between two pairs of candidates, Seth Hoffman and Mary Liu of Delta Force and Korb Maxwell and Dede Seibel of YOU. Both pairs represent their respective coalitions but only one of those two groups of people will be able to call its candidates Mr. President and Ms. Vice President.
Although both coalitions' members want to see their presidential and vicepresidential candidates succeed, members should maintain a positive competitive environment by refraining from malicious political maneuvering.
Elections Commissioner Jennifer Watkins said that the number of complaints against each coalition usually rises just before the elections but that the elections commission had worked to prevent hostility between the two coalitions. So far, the only complaint filed was Ben Walker's and R.J. Woodring's allegation that graduate Jason Fizell was an non-commissioned campaign advisor to Delta Force, elections commission chair Amanda Weinberg said.
Few complaints, less malice better for candidates, constituents as Senate elections near.
The elections commission hearing board determined that the allegations were false. The hearing board decided not to punish Walker and Woodring.
has been much more prevalent than this year. Michael Kaufman, elections commission member, said that signs have been ripped down, cars turned and campaign materials tampered with. He said that this spring's campaigns have been more tame than recent years.
not to parish waist the body.
in past years, political mudslinging
Because coalition politics have been relatively clean so far, members should strive to make efforts to maintain sportsmanlike behavior.
Tensions may rise in the coming week but campaign violations should not.
Coalition members should maintain malice-free professionalism and let the students have their own opinions about the candidates. Clean campaigning will save students a lot of annoyance and candidates a lot of energy.
Emily Hughey for the editorial board
Increased voter turnout within reach
Last year's Student Senate victors won the battle they waged during their campaign to increase voter turnout.
Voter percentage was up 4 percent from the 1997 elections.
To match last year's voter increase, 4648 of the 24,463 eligible students must vote in Senate elections April 14 and 15. That is only about 540 more votes than last year's total ballots of 4113.
KU students should be proud that the percentage of students voting increased in 1998. The act sent a strong message to student leaders that students were taking an interest in the student-centered issues that continue to surrounded the
Students can share opinion about fees, campus crime new leaders with their vote.
Students owe it to themselves to visit the polls and let our future student body officers know how they feel about such issues as public transportation, recreation, Safewalk and student-centered governance.
campaigns
With less complaining and smear campaigning so far this year and several referendum issues on the ballot, typical excuses for voter
Students who chose not to vote because of good ol' boy politics have the opportunity to vote for issues, not just people.
apathy may not hold up
One of these issues, the recreation center proposal, deals with a student fee increase. If for no other reason, students should take five minutes to let their student leaders know how they want their money spent.
The bottom line is that the University of Kansas will have a new Student Body President and Vice President next Friday.
The only way to ensure that those individuals truly represent the students is to vote April 14 and 15.
Kansan staff
Ryan Koerner ... Editorial
Jeremy Doherty ... Associate editorial
Aaron Marvin ... News
Laura Roddy ... News
Melissa Ngo ... News
Aaron Knopf ... Online
Erin Thompson ... Sports
Marc Sheforden ... Associate sports
Chris Fickett ... Campus
Sarah Hale ... Campus
T.R. Miller ... Features
Steph Brewer ... Associate features
Augustus Anthony Piazza .. Photo
Chris Dye ... Design, graphics
Carl Kaminski ... Wire
Carolyn Mollett ... Special sections
Laura Veazey ... News clerk
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Broaden your mind: Today's quote
"The best of life is conversation, and the greatest success is confidence, or perfect understanding between sincere people." —Ralph Walden Emerson
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.
How to submit letters and guest columns
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 Koerner or Jeremy Doherty 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.
Missourian sleeps well after gun bill shot down
Perspective
Gerry Doyle gdoyle @ kansan.com
dedged a bullet a day ago
In Missouri on that day, citizens voted about whether a law that banned concealed firearms in that state should be repealed.
dodged a bullet Tuesday.
If you have general questions or comments,
e-mail the page staff (opinion@kansan.com)
or call 864-4924.
The worst part is, I forgot to mail in my absentee ballot. As I watched the results trickle in and saw what a tight margin it was, I was mentally kicking myself. At one point, the margin was less than one percent. What if concealed weapons were allowed by one vote? That thought was chasing its tail in my head for most of the evening.
They narrowly voted to keep the ban, 52 percent to 48 percent.
I'm leaving Missouri — possibly for good — when I graduate. The thought that my home state could have passed a law so represensible and dangerous would have made that parting rather less than amicable.
if it, respectively:
Backers of Proposition B held that, somehow, carrying concealed guns would have made Missourians safer.
It would have hurt my state, and my feelings for it, irreparably.
And yet, amazingly, voters in the Missouri's urban areas, including Kansas City, St. Louis, St. Joseph and Columbia, didn't feel threatened enough by their "hostile" urban settings to vote for the proposition. In fact, they rejected it by more than a 2 to 1 margin.
It was rural dwellers who thought concealed weapons would benefit them somehow.
Do guns deter crime? Not likely. Law enforcement officials from throughout the state denounced the proposition.
St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch flatly told The Associated Press that more guns would bring more trouble.
"We don't want to be going back to the old Wild West days with everyone wearing a gun," he said.
Statistics scarcely can be brought to bear on the matter. The Center on Crime, Communities and Culture and the Columbia Journalism Review list five reputable organizations that will give statistics against gun control. They also list six that will support gun control. Both side's numbers add up. Both contradict each other.
The bottom line is that guns, no matter what anyone says, are weapons. Weapons are designed to hurt or kill. Giving people another means of hurting and killing one another is simply a terrible idea. I'm biased.
I grew up at 54th and Woodland in Kansas City,
My. Mom买的 bought their first house for $1 from
the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Nobody else wanted it—it was in disrepair and had been used by squatters.
Growing up in that neighborhood, it never seemed threatening. I had friends, and I played kickball, hide and seek and whiffleball with my friends in their vards.
But it was dangerous.
One afternoon, my father and I were having tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches in our kitchen. It was a sunny day, and we were enjoying lunch together.
A crash from the back door, which led into the kitchen, made us look up. A man, wearing a ski mask, had just ripped open our back door with a crowbar.
He stood there, looking at us. I looked at him. My dad looked at him with a spoon and a surprised look.
But consider an alternate situation: My dad was wearing his Sig Sauer 9mm pistol because it was legal and because he didn't feel safe in our neighborhood.
The burglar ran, and was caught by the police a couple blocks away.
This changes things.
The intruder feels more like panicking, maybe attacking us, maybe just running. My dad feels threatened by the crowbar. He shoots and kills the intruder. Or a swing of the crowbar makes the shot go awry, hitting me.
goal, intjagme.
All having a gun around does introduce the possibility of more violence. And I don't know how anyone could argue that'a good thing.
The NRA tried, though, it spent $3.8 million on the campaign in Missouri, unleashing 700,000 mailings and 60,000 yard signs to try to ram through Proposition B.
For people in rural areas, what the NRA said made sense. But people living in rural areas don't understand the fear of walking into a mall, or a football game, or a movie theater and knowing that anyone around you could be legally carrying a device designed to kill you.
But it didn't pass, and I slept soundly Tuesday night.
Now, when I pack up my things into my Chevy and begin the drive up north, I won't leave my home state with a bad taste in my mouth.
And as I'm driving away, I won't feel a loaded gun prodding me on my way.
Doyle is a Kansas City, Mo., senior in journalism and philosophy and a Kansan managing editor.
Opinion editor plays Let's Make a Deal with readers
have a confession to make.
I have a confession to make. I have never voted in a Student Senate election.
About 6 p.m. Saturday, when most students were dyeing Easter eggs with young cousins and I was working in the Kansan newsroom, I wondered why.
To quote my associate, "I as firmly nestled between my legs."
I can't hide behind ignorance. And by last year, although not noble, it simply was a challenge to traipse through campus and avoid being lured to the polls by anxious candidates.
Ryan Koerner
opinion © kansan.com
I'm not proud of that.
I'm not proud of that.
The first two years, it was about intimidation. Student Senate elections were too far out of my comfort zone. I didn't know how they worked or what the ballot looked like. I didn't know the University of Kansas or the candidates well enough to understand what my vote meant.
enough to understand I was the worst kind of nonvoter, never taking the time to learn enough about the elections to make a sound decision.
make a decision. Each student has two choices on April 14 and 15. For each Senate seat and student body officer candidate, they may vote for a candidate or they may abstain. For referendum issues, they may voice their opinion or they may abstain. In a democratic election, abstention is a choice, one that students should make wisely.
The beauty of abstention is that constituents may communicate that they never found a suitable option.
I wish I could say that was the reason I didn't vote. Voter turnout already is low; I am not advocating that it drop. Instead, I advocate that the "I don't cares" be replaced with "I'm not satisfied."
Each year, the Kansan editorial board endorses candidates for Student Senate elections as letters about campaign tactics flood in. I don't know when the tradition began, but I want it to be more than a stamp of approval.
It is better to be more aware as editorial editor, I had a goal: to publish a page with national, state, local and campus issues every day.
I am throwing that out the window for the next four days.
Beginning with this column and the editorials defending voter turnout and pleasant campaigning, the next four days will focus on Student Senate elections.
The goal: to offer insightful, researched articles about the candidates and the issues. This is an opinion page. There are no promises of objectivity. Instead, each referendum issue will be examined and the perspectives of the major players will be shared. Staff columnists, guest columnists and editorial board members will offer information and arguments about the options.
spots, will be paired with you.
On Wednesday, we will print guest columns from the presidential and vice presidential candidates for each coalition. Korb Maxwell, YOU candidate for student body president, and Dede Seibel, YOU candidate for student body vice president, will outline the issues and rationale of their campaign. Seth Hoffman, Delta Force candidate for student body president, and Mary Liu, Delta Force candidate for student body vice president, will do the same.
options.
For the last two weeks, the Kansan editorial staff has been chin-deep in Senate elections. Board members have interviewed the candidates for student body president and vice president. They have surveyed each senatorial candidate. The results of those interviews and surveys, including the board's choices to fill the spots, will be published on Monday.
They are a recreation center proposal, a zero-tolerance hate crime proposal and a public transportation proposal. The purpose of these referendums is to record student opinion. This is the students' opportunity to suggest the direction of these initiatives. And it is important to know that these are not coalition initiatives.
Three referendum issues that will appear on the ballot also will be addressed on the page.
Two views of the hate crime proposal, which originated from a group known as Students Against Hate, will be published tomorrow. The new recreation center proposal, created by the Recreation Task Force, will be detailed from both sides in columns and by the editorial board on Tuesday. And a proposal for KU student support of public transportation, which was submitted by KU Enviros, also will be a topic of a Tuesday editorial.
Friday, two Kansan columnists, Nick Bartkoski and Andrew Marino, will share their observations about the Monday night debate between these two coalitions.
I hope that this year's 'Kansan endorsements will be read by more students than just those pictured on the page, and that students will use them as a voters guide as well as a suggested slate.
I'll provide you with the ammunition to cast an educated vote, and you give me a ride to the polls. OK?
Koerner is a St. Joseph, Mo., senior in journalism and the Kansan editorial editor.
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