Opinion
Kansan
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4A
Friday. March 5, 1999
Robert James Novak / KANSAN
Editorials
Millennium bug advice creates undue impression of catastrophe
When some people already are digging trenches in hillsides to escape the destruction they believe will be caused by the year 2000 computer bug, the last thing we need is alarming statements by government officials.
That's why recent statements by governmental bodies — ranging from the U.S. Senate to the City of Lawrence — advising people to prepare for the year 2000 as they would for a severe storm could end up doing more harm than good.
True, the statements were well-intentioned. And true, a certain level of public preparedness is definitely a good thing.
But when the public hears the millennium bug compared to natural disasters without knowing the details of the situation, the potential for further hysteria is quite clear.
Constant government warnings exaggerate preparation needs for year 2000.
Take, for example, a recent statement from assistant city manager Rod Bremby. He advised Lawrence residents to prepare for 2000 as they would for a seven- to 10-day snowstorm.
While the statement was motivated by good intentions, a long blizzard conjures up frightening images in many peoples' minds. Fright without facts is a dangerous combination that can lead to further hysteria.
Governments need to temper their warnings with less harsh images and instead work to spread facts about the issue that will keep people calm.
For example, repeated tests have shown that planes will not drop from the sky. Power will not go out in most areas, and where it does, it should be restored quickly.
There are plenty of soothing facts out there.
All banks insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation were required to be Y2K-compliant by March 1. The FDIC also requires round after round of equipment testing to double-check compliance.
Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman has told Congress that no food shortages large enough to affect the basic comfort or well-being of Americans are anticipated.
In short, the Y2K problem is likely to be a hiccup, not a heart attack. While most government leaders realize this, they need to do a better job of conveying the message.
Nathan Willis for the editorial board
Alumni offer mentoring to students
Another mentoring opportunity is available at the University through the Student Alumni Association.
Hawk Talk mentoring, a program that matches up KU alumni with students, is one of several opportunities offered to student alumni. Students only need to express interest in a certain field, and they will be paired up with one of about 400 alumni registered to mentor.
The participating alumni extend beyond the Lawrence area. Only about 95 are from the Kansas City-Lawrence-Topeka area, said Jennifer Mueller of the Alumni Center. The rest are from areas as far away as Greece and Japan.
Career advising, internship assistance can be found through University groups.
globe.
Mueller said students could receive career advising and internship assistance via letters and e-mail with the distant mentors. While the distance could have downsides, the positive aspects would be that students can find information about their careers in different parts of the country and
To be a part of the Hawk Talk program, students must pay a $15 fee to join the Student Alumni Association.
Students seeking only mentoring opportunities have other resources to which they may look. Women can be paired with a mentor for no charge through the Emily Taylor Women's Resource Center. The University also offers mentoring services for freshmen and transfer students.
Joining the organization has other benefits aside from the mentoring opportunities.
Erinn R. Barcomb for the editorial board
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Individual worth lost in rampant conformity
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Perspective
individuality. Since the Enlightenment — and in some instances, before — it has been viewed as one of the most natural rights that we humans have. A representative government
can't function without individuals to be represented, and individuality can't be nurtured and protected without free choice.
If you have general questions or comments, e-mail the page staff (opinion@kansan.com) or call 864-4924.
United States citizens have rights and freedoms that most others on this planet do not. We are free to develop our individuality by making our own choices and by learning from the mistakes we make.
The problem is that some in our generation have begun to lose sight of what exactly
Keith Burner
opinion @ kansan.com
individuality is. It's something many struggle to define when they get to college and cast off the remaining shackles of childhood.
When we get here, most of us feel driven to shed our precollege skin and be unique. Someone different than the insecure adolescent we all once were.
But because of our age and temperament,we often jump head first into something we don't fully understand.
Usually, the first solution that comes to mind is to physically change something in such an extreme way that you either hide it from your parents, or they flip when they see you.
"I want to pierce my head," we might say.
My friend Albert had piercings all over his body. He was a prince of a guy to hang out with, and his body art made him seem unique. We had many intelligent conversations. He was smart.
But when he was around his pierced friends, he didn't seem to have anything to say that was different from that of the collective. For some reason, Al had given up his true individuality to conform to the beliefs of the group.
When birds of a feather flock together, they become it for their silly endeavor.
I'm not disrespecting people with piercings. It really doesn't matter. Individuality is more than making slight changes to our appearances. As one of the cornerstones of our society, it falls in the realm of things that most would fight for, and some would kill to protect.
Not killing is the best ideal that humans can aspire to, but ideals are only good in ideal situations in an ideal world. Unfortunately, we do not live in one.
But someday, you may be forced to.
Here in the real world, we recognize ideals for what they are, and try not to set them aside unless forced to.
It may be against your religion. Not killing is a big rule in most of them, but if you think about it, the other nine Commandments haven't been that hard to justify breaking.
I'm not saying that you should skewer anyone
who interferes with your business, just that the price we pay for our individuality is the same. price we pay for owning property; its defense.
But killing should be saved to combat Hitler'scale intrusions into civil liberties, not minor inconveniences caused by the naysayers or petty thieves of the world.
We can all clearly understand the necessity of protecting our property. After all, we're a bunch capitalist pigs.
while our government protects our property we're mostly on our own to protect our individuality. Governments deal better with groups.
When you allow humans their natural right to make choices that help to form truly individual individuals, some will become bad.
And other individuals are who we need to protect against.
The government — chosen by informed and clear-thinking individuals — should protect us from these bad seeds, but really does not.
Many wrong turns are possible on the road of life, and sometimes this world creates people who are individualistic in a bad way.
These people lack something, some truth about the beauty of existence. They try to make up for it by infringing upon the rights of others.
Instead, it fines, imprisons or executes the bad individuals after the fact. Don't get me wrong, that's about all it could do. It's every human's duty to be prepared to defend their own rights, because the government is incapable of it.
The importance of the individual cannot be measured. Individuals make this country — and the whole species, for that matter — better.
Life would be pretty boring if we all looked and acted the same. How could debate of any kind exist if there weren't individual viewpoints, morals and virtues?
And through these debates, humans come closer to the perfection they know is unreachable, but which their individual ethics demand they never stop fighting for.
Here in college, many of our peers still believe the path to individuality is a path paved with tongue rings, hair dye and tattoo needles.
It's time we stop saying we like Miles Davis music, record players and fraternity parties if we don't. We need to stop confusing popularity with individuality.
Not that any of this stuff is bad, but if it's all the individuality we have to offer, we will never get any respect from the community. To the rest of the educated society members, we'll always be a bunch of Generation-X kids who didn't make half the changes to society that they did when they were in college
Anyone who thinks that individuality, at any level, can be achieved by physical change is just one of thousands conforming to the notion of nonconformity.
Don't get me wrong. There's nothing wrong with body art, Miles Davis or record players. We just need to remember that we can't all be different in the same way, or we would all still be the same.
Burner is a Leon senior in journalism.
Memory may influence perception of self, others
Iran into an old friend at a party a few weeks ago. I've known this girl nearly all of my life. She was the first girl I had a crush on.
We were chatting about old times when she told
We were chatting about our me about an article she wrote in her high school newspaper.
She was writing about childhood stuff, and she mentioned how one of her memories was of my sending a postcard to her from Disneyland while my family was on vacation. Unfortunately, my ability with the ladies is still that lame.
Nick Bartkoski opinion @ kansan.com
I don't remember the postcard incident at all, but as we continued chatting, I learned that gaps in her memory were also present.
We were explaining to someone else how we had gone to elementary school together until she had left at the fourth grade.
The one truth upon which my entire life has been based — that I was the fat kid that no one liked — had never even registered within my friend's memory. But some insignificantly lame gesture — my sending a postcard — was a cherished childhood memory for my friend, although inconsequential to me.
"Gee, my fourth grade year really did suck," I said. My childhood friend looked at me quizzically, and I explained, "Fourth Grade: you know, you left, I became the fat kid that everyone hated." This statement prompted her to respond, "You were never that fat, Nick."
What this discrepancy in our memories proved to me was that each of our lives' stories, our lives' biographies, was cobbled together with a different basic premise in mind and with different facts upon which they're based.
I've had this theory for a while. We each have a life biography that governs the way we process our daily lives. We've crafted this biography from hundreds of different things that have happened to us. This biography explains the way we interact with other people and how our belief system
The memories on which we base our biographies can vary greatly. A lot of my biography is based on be teased in grade school.
came to be.
Although I think biographies are shaped by fact, or at least someone's perception of fact, they also are crafted by omission of fact.
The real world is often messy, and one fact is often contradicted by other facts. In our biographies, we have to be decisive.
I can only assume that my friend's biography was shaped by the postcard incident as a self-improvement motivator. The postcard incident probably drove her to ensure that never again would she be the object of a total loser's affection.
To show only one view, we omit the facts that support another view. I've omitted the thousands of compliments that I've received since high school to protect my paranoid belief that everyone hates me.
A lot of the description is based on things that happened when I was ten. Enough has changed that I could provide facts disproving every part of it — except for the rotting fish thing. My picture on the biography's cover could use some serious airbrushing, if you get my drift.
But my point is that enough of the negativity has penetrated and affecting the way I think. I could write the story about how I'm a generally well-received human being who prompts people to ask, "Oh, Nick, why are you so funny?"
Unfortunately, it would seem more like fiction than a biography to me. I'm a prisoner in a cell that I constructed myself. Those are usually the most secure prisons.
So try to think about the things that you remember, about what they say about you as a person or about the people you know. You'll be surprised by what you remember. Your eyes can be opened by learning what others remember.
Bartkoski is a Basehor senior in journalism and English.
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