Opinion
Kansan
Published daily since 1912
Ann Premer, Editor Jamie Holman, Business manager Gerry Doyle, Managing editor Sara Cropper, Retail sales manager Angie Kuhn, Managing editor Dan Simon, Sales and marketing adviser Tom Ebien, General manager, news advisor Justin Knupp, Technology coordinator
Thursday, March 18, 1999
The Chicago Tribune
Editorials
Smoke-free policy for entryways should be applied to all entrances
Recently, a student complained to Services for Students with Disabilities that she was having trouble breathing on her way to class because of the thickness of the cigarette smoke outside the buildings.
In response, a committee was formed to discuss preventing this problem. It has decided that all buildings on campus should have at least one doorway where smoking is prohibited. This new policy will be implemented through posted signs, and ashtrays would be removed from the area. Smokers would have to remain at least 30 feet away.
It is necessary for this policy to be reexamined. Everyone has the right to attend class in a healthy environment. However, this plan only would be effective under certain conditions.
First, the plan should not designate a non-smoking doorway. Instead, it
Consistency, enforcement needed to ensure that smoke less doorway policy works.
should create a uniform policy that includes all doorways.
The right to smoke can infringe on others when secondhand smoke wafts its way into the lungs of someone who is sensitive or allergic to it. It is silly to suggest that students adversely affected by smoke change their paths to and from class to include the single smokeless entryway, which may be on another side of a building or, in the case of a building like Wescoe, on another floor. Designating only one non-smoking doorway inconveniences some students so others may indulge in a habit.
Second, the plan should not be enacted without enforcement. Campus public safety officers or another group should be assigned the duty of checking nonsmoking areas. If a sign is the only enforcement, conflict is inevitable. Smokers may not be as courteous and obliging to other students as they would to a member of law enforcement.
It is true that many smokers will miss the warmth of the doorways and the shelter that many campus buildings provide against adverse weather. Students who are sensitive to smoke who must pass through cigarette smoke to attend class already are suffering.
The smokeless doorway policy is a good first step. Ensuring the effectiveness of the policy about smoking outside of buildings is a necessary next step for the University of Kansas.
Kathryn Jensen for the editorial board
Former student leaves lasting legacy
Watkins' story is about a young woman who went out into the world to make a difference—and did.
Students should not be discouraged by the murder of Amy Watkins, a 1996 KU graduate in social welfare. Instead they should focus on the courage with which she lived.
At 26, her life already had made an impact on many individuals. She would have wanted her life to encourage others to go out into the world and make a difference as well, said Alice Lieberman, associate professor of social welfare and one of Watkins' former instructors.
Lieberman said she remembered everything about Watkins — where she sat, the papers she wrote and that she was a beautiful person who radiated
Alumna a good example of spreading wings, giving back.
love and compassion.
Watkins was one of those people who understood what life was about and what it meant to be an advocate, she said.
At Watkins' funeral in New York every color, race, ethnic group and income level were represented.
woman both in New York and at the Hope House in Missouri when she attended the University of Kansas.
"Amy would have been thrilled to know all the people paying tribute to her." Lieberman said. "That doesn't happen unless you live life in the way that she did."
Lieberman said that sometimes in social work, the plight of helping women is romanticized, when in actuality it is ugly, messy and brings out the worst in people.
Watkins worked with battered
"Amy saw the messiness of human beings at their worst and made them better people," she said.
Memorial services for Watkins will be held today at the Trinity Episcopal Church in Lawrence at 7 p.m.
The randomness of Watkins' death is a reminder that life is short and time can't be wasted on what is not important. Time spent helping others is never wasted.
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 Sheforgen ... 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 Kuminski ... Wire
Carolyn Mollett ... Special sections
Laura Veazey ... News clerk
Katrina Hull for the editorial board
News editors
Advertising managers
Matt Lopez . Special sections
Jennifer Patch . Campus
Micah Kafitz . Regional
Jon Schlitt . National
Tyler Cook . Marketing
Shannon Curran . PR/Intern manager
Christa Estep . Production
Steven Prince . Production
Chris Corley . Creative
Jason Hannah . Classified
Corinne Buffmire . Zone
Shauntae Blue . Zone
Brandi Byram . Zone
Brian Allers . Zone
Justin Allen . Zone
Broaden your mind: Today's quote
"Somehow life doesn't always pay off to those who are most insistent."
Max Lerner
**Leters:** 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.
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.
How to submit letters and guest columns
**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.
If you have general questions or comments,
e-mail the page staff (opinion@kansan.com)
or call 864-4924.
Perspective
Pursuit of selfish goals spurs abuse of power
During the winter break, two friends of mine went to Argentina. I took them to the airport on Dec. 17 and promised to pick them up on Jan. 17 in the morning. After they left,
Donato
Fhunsu
opinion kansan.com
I started seeing horses and
I decided that I also was going to travel. I would go to
Venezuela, Trinidad and
Curacao. I would go to visit my friends, go dancing and
see the beaches.
So I called around and found a reasonable fare with an airline that assured me it could take me there on Dec. 29 and bring me back to Kansas on Jan. 16, just in time for me to pick up my friends and start the semester. Besides meeting my
obgation to my Friends, I was scheduled to start teaching on Jan. 19. Thank God, I did meet all my obligations. The airline was American Airlines.
But that was in December and January. If I had been scheduled to travel in February, I would have been stranded in Venezuela. I would not have been able to pick up my friends at the airport. I would have missed the classes that I am taking, and my French 120 students would have been without an instructor for God knows how long.
First of all, they lied. If you are not sick and you call in sick, you are lying. And for a pilot who, on a typical flight, can carry hundreds on passengers, it is a serious offense. Second, the legitimacy of the pilots' dispute with the airline did not justify the pain and disruption they caused to the thousands of American Airlines passengers who use the airline every day. There were physicians who had to see a patient, or patients who had to see a doctor. There were lovers who had to see their beloved, friends who had to meet friends, or teachers who had to meet their students. Many of these people may have been hurt beyond repair because the pilots abused their power.
I travel a lot, and whenever I do, I never take anything for granted. I always marvel at the power of the human mind that invented a plane that can take me thousands of miles across the seas in a few hours. I marvel at the airlines' ground crews who make sure that my reservation is secure and that I catch the right flight at the right time. I admire the flight attendants who make sure that I am comfortable during the flight. I especially marvel at the intelligence and skill of the team of pilots who fly my soul at the appointed time and allow me to meet my obligations. That is a valuable service. That is a great power.
power that the pilots have.
Last month, though, the American Airlines pilots abused their power. Encouraged by their labor union, the Allied Pilots Association, they started calling in sick beginning Feb. 6, and as a result, thousands of flights were canceled and thousands of passengers stranded. The pilots certainly had a legitimate labor dispute. The method they used, however, might have been legal because nobody can force them to fly when they think that there are circumstances that put such mental stress on them that it would be unsafe for them to fly. But it was an abuse of the tremendous
Many people say that threatening to use force or actually using force is a good bargaining tool. Whenever a dispute looms in the horizon, many people tend to flex their muscles to gain a bargaining advantage in the negotiations.
But I would say that unless you are specifically trained in self-control, the way martial artists are, and know how to control power, you are not fit to use it. The kind of force used in most negotiations, once unleashed, is almost impossible to control. We intuitively know this, and we condemn governments around the world when they abuse their tremendous power. For instance, once the U.S. and British airplanes unleash their missiles over Iraq, there is no telling what damage the weapons can do. Even the so-called smart bombs are not so smart. A smart bomb, for instance, cannot distinguish between a military target and a civilian one. It cannot say, "I am supposed to be directed only at military targets. Here is a kindergarten, and the children are playing. I am not going to hit it, or, if I hit it, I am not going to explode."
We also know about police brutality, especially against minorities. The New York City police officers who unleashed 41 bullets on Amadou Diallo, an unarmed African immigrant, probably thought they could use "controlled force." But who can control the force of bullets after they have left a gun?
Whether we are a government that oppresses here or abroad, a police force that tramples on civil rights, baseball or basketball team owners or players, airline owners or pilots who want more money, or any other group in pursuit of personal interests, abuse of power is abuse of power.
Is it right to purposefully disrupt the lives of those we are supposed to serve?
Fhunus is a Lawrence graduate student in journalism.
Kansan intended no insult
Jeremy Doherty goin@kansan.com
Claibourn said it was his decision to use the word gimp as a reference to a scene in the 1994 film Pulp Fiction. The two students were intending to poke fun at the movie's use of sadomasochistic, sexual imagery. The Kansan photographer on the scene, Eric Sahrmann, reported about his subjects and their skit in writing his accompanying caption for the photograph
A caption beneath a front page photo of a student dressed in bondage gear in Tuesday's University Daily Kansan has provoked some concerns by several readers.
For their assignment, Claibourn and Rowe went to Wescoe Beach on Monday. Claibourn was decked out in combat boots, black trousers and a black leather S&M mask. Rowe held Claibourn at bay with a leash attached to a collar around his classmate's neck.
*dansan* editors thought that readers would understand this pop-culture reference. No
The photo depicted two students from a basic video production class. The assignment required the students to complete a public service announcement, and the two sophomores, Bryan Claibourn and Tyler Rowe, created and enacted a skit titled, Leash Law for Gimps.
The caption has drawn criticism from persons on campus who were concerned that the Kansan was belittling persons with physical disabilities.
This includes the use of the word "gimp," a familiar phrase in today's youth culture. The Kansan is confident that most readers understood its presence in the newspaper.
Nevertheless, what occurred Monday on Wesco Beach was just that a parody. Pulp Fiction still is a popular movie. Its soundtrack remains popular at parties. Students have memorized chunks of its dialogue, working it into their everdav conversations.
in the hope of clarifying the caption's intent, some explanation of the situation is needed.
Doherty is an Olathe senior in journalism and is the associate editorial editor.
Tamara Falicov, assistant professor of film and lecturer in the basic video production course, said that Claibourn and Rowe incorrectly performed the assignment. Parodying a public service announcement was not in the guidelines.
Feedback
Music critic off the mark with review
I believe if someone is going to review a show, they should have at least some concept of the biography and sound of the band. Your music boy missed the mark totally with his review of the Placebo show in Monday's Kansan.
First of all, Mr. Ox should learn to get his facts straight. I think that's the major tenet of journalism. If he'd done just a little research, looking at a discography that's easily found, he would have noticed that the songs weren't from Placebo's debut CD, but rather their second CD.
"That never entered our mind," Claibourn said. "When you see the skit, you know that it's not making fun of anyone with disabilities."
doubt, some grief may have been avoided had the caption mentioned *Pulp Fiction* by name. Regrettably, some readers did not understand the movie reference or that the skit's title had, in fact, been used in the caption.
In the scene of the movie, actor Bruce Willis portrays a boxer who literally is on the run from gangsters. In panic, Willis' character hides out in a pawn shop that is operated by a pair of rustic fellows who engage in kinky sexual acts. As Willis is about to be tortured, his captors bring out a man, who is dressed entirely in black leather and is referred to as "the Gimp."
Claibour and Rowe developed their skit in homage to this distinctive scene. Claibour said that the routine in no way was a veiled insult at people with disabilities.
My second complaint is maybe Mr. Cox should actually listen to the album before reviewing the band. I honestly don't believe he had heard Placebo before, except on the radio. If he had listened, maybe he would've noticed that Placebo sounded the same live as they did on the CD. Maybe it had to do with where he was standing, or maybe he needed to step back from the bar for a bit.
Granted, Stabbing Westward was the headliner of the show. Most people were there to hear Stabbing Westward, myself included. But there are some people who went to see Placebo also. My advice to Mr. Cox is to actually talk to people
at the show or move a little closer so that he can understand the vibe of the show. They definitely displayed "enough punch, energy, and diversity of musicianship" from where I was.
Maybe I'm taking this a little too seriously, but I think the Kansan music boy needs to be a more objective listener. I agree with him when he says that the lack of bass added an interesting effect to the show, but I don't think he gave a fair representation of the band. And, I'm sorry, but I was under the impression that a review was meant to be objective.
Kristen Nilsen Andover junior