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MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2014
PAGE 4
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY GANSAN
We don't have cottonwoods on campus because they are classified as a type of catkin and they require high amounts of water to survive. That's also why they are normally found on river banks.
To the guy who scored 75,000 in
2048, I just scored over 153,000.
GetOnMyLevel!
I'm not saying I'm Batman, but let's just say nobody has ever seen us in the same room.
Just looked at the poverty map from the last census and the area that KU is located in is almost 70% poverty. At least we are all poor college students!
opinion
rinking about writing fan fiction about then two guys in the Sonic commercials. Cherry Limarriage?
I'm the girl that stops near the fratsketball court almost every afternoon to take pictures... of the flowers.
TEXT FREE FOR ALL
Text your FFA submissions to (785)289-8351 or at kansan.com
The answer is always, always to keep watching One Tree Hill.
I knew I was a poor college student when I saw my horoscope about delaying financial decisions and immediately thought of the 98 cent soda I bought.
NOE. Or, as everyone knows,
Nutella Over Everything.
My shoes smell like expired milk.
How do I make them not smell? My roommate is starting to notice.
It's good to see the flags back up over Fraser! America!
They're taking little schoolchildren into the stacks at Watson. WHAT PART OF "QUIET STUDY AREA" DO THEY NOT UNDERSTAND?!!?
I am 21 years old and it STILL takes everything I have not to ask to pet everyone's dogs.
I once traveled from KC to Law-
rence on the google maps street
view. It took me about 35 minutes
and I can never get that time back.
Rainy Sunday: no motivation to finish the work I had no motivation to do during the rest of the weekend.
Dear roomie, I know you are mad about me eating your encore...but I have no regrets, it was delicious. Also sorry for peeing in your bed.
Some professors should quit and become sleep therapists. This lecture could cure any one of insomnia.
Can I still make the FFA when I graduate?
Does the free for all work on iPhone?
CAMPUS
Taking the elevator is lazy and morally wrong
Out of all of the possible moral questions I could've
questions I could've chosen to write about for this piece, I've chosen a truly important one: Should I or should I not ride the elevator? I can't count the times I've walked by an elevator on campus in the past few years and shook my head. Why do so many people ride the elevator to go up one floor?
This problem is similar to dozens of other daily choices we make: Should I recycle this newspaper? Should I eat healthy? Should I go to class? Should I exercise? These are all decisions that affect the environment, our health, productivity and so on. Yet while the "right" answers to
these questions (i.e. recycling this paper because it reduces waste) seem simple from an objective standpoint that maximizes health, minimizes waste, etc., many of us make lame excuses to ourselves in order to make the "wrong" decision (i.e. not recycling this paper because there isn't a recycling bin right next to you).
By Sebastian Schoneich
opinion@kansan.com
There are lots of these kinds of excuses for unnecessary elevator usage. Unless you have a good reason, using the elevator to go up one floor is just silly. Some say that if the elevator is going anyway, it won't make a difference to join in (this only works if you weigh zero pounds). Others say that because energy usage
per ride is so small, it makes no significant difference to ride the elevator every once in a while. But I'm willing to bet that most one-floor-riders are just lazy bums.
10,837 kwh in a year. Imagine the energy savings if everyone who's capable of using the stairs would take them instead of elevators, especially going down.
Fortunately, it's true that elevators don't expend a huge amount of energy per ride. But, the rides add up. A loose estimate of the total energy consumption in one year of an elevator in Wescoe Hall, calculated using figures by elevator manufacturer Kone, is about 9000 kilowatt-hours. To put this into perspective, the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the average American household uses
Now, if you don't care about the energetics of elevator usage or if you don't think that elevator usage poses any moral problem at all. I have another argument for you.
another argument for you. You know how you only realize how useful your pinky finger is when you injure it? Only those who are injured or disabled can understand what it means to be unable to walk up the stairs. Those of us who haven't experienced having difficulty walking can't fully understand the beauty of being able to take the stairs.
It's because of this that I think using elevators without good reason is insulting to both ourselves and those who actually need them. This is the kind of practical knowledge that grandparents teach us. Basically, don't use the elevator unless you need to. When we use elevators without a good reason, we're just perpetuating a culture of laziness.
Elevators aren't evil, but they are often misused. Don't laziness make the decision for you. Also, don't ride the elevator in running gear, you'll just look like a fool.
Sebastian Schoneich is a junior from Lawrence studying biochemistry and philosophy.
RELIGION
Pope Francis can inspire regardless of affiliation
A little more than a year ago, the world was introduced to Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who had just been elected pope. Shortly after his election, stories of Pope Francis' humility and emphasis on Christian love began to circulate on Facebook and online news sites. There was the account of the pope riding the bus back to his apartment in Rome on the night of his election, the images of him praying with various people and the interview in which he said, "Who am I to judge?" when asked about gay people. Many people, Catholic and non-Catholic alike, have viewed these acts as signs that Pope Francis intends to fundamentally change church teachings and bring it "up-to-date" with progressive society. Those who are holding their breath waiting for His Holiness to change the church's positions on abortion, contraception, gay marriage or women priests will have to keep holding their breath.
Pope Francis is not a grand crusader, devoted to changing church teachings on hot-button issues; he recognizes and affirms the long history of tradition and doctrine in the church. However, Francis is revolutionary in his calls to simplicity, humility and
By Alex Johnson opinion@kansan.com
generosity to the poor. He places emphasis on the true message of the Gospel: Jesus loves everyone and wants us to love everyone, too. The real success of Pope Francis is that he has caused people to focus more on this central message of the Catholic Church and less on the particular applications of this message on controversial issues.
The church's stances on contraception, gay marriage, etc., are not fundamental to its overall mission to serve all people, however, these stances are not going to change. Higher on the Pope's priority list is increased dialogue between different religious groups and cooperation among these groups to serve the world's poor. One key way he has tried to accomplish these goals is by softening the language he uses when answering questions about the sticky issues. He gives essentially the same answer to these questions as his predecessors did, but with a heavy dose of compassion included.
So how can we follow Francis' example on campus? One obvious way is for the different religious or ideological groups on campus to collaborate
in efforts to serve the disadvantaged. The St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center could organize a food drive with the Society of Open-Minded Atheists and Agnostics (SOMA), or the Young Democrats and College Republicans could work together on a voter registration drive. The different religious groups could host forums where they discuss what beliefs they have in common instead of the ones they disagree on. After establishing friendly relations and defining common ground, the groups can then start to discuss their differences and the reasons for these differences in a civilized way that hopefully leads to a greater understanding of the others.
Francis was publicly recognized for his example by publications that range from Time to The Advocate to Rolling Stone. None of those are known for being Catholic apologists and are, in most cases, hostile to the church. The fact that even they can recognize the good work being done by the current Pope shows that we don't have to be Catholic to follow his example.
Alex Johnson is a senior from Wichita studying political science and economics.
NATIONAL
Affirmative action still necessary
this week, the Supreme Court made a
This week, Court made a decision affirming the constitutionality of Michigan putting affirmative action to a vote. Many people believe this means that the Supreme Court decided that affirmative action is no longer needed, but that's just not true. While some justices sitting on the bench certainly believe that affirmative action is no longer necessary because we live in a "color blind" society, their ruling did not make affirmative action unconstitutional. All it did was deem voting to ban affirmative action constitutional.
As a middle-class white female, I understand why some people don't like the idea of affirmative action. After all, it places a value on race, which we've been taught is bad. But this view ignores the fact that the way our society functions is inherently biased toward whites. Affirmative action levels the playing field between white applicants who have lived in a system that puts them first and minority applicants who have lived in a system that doesn't.
One thing that affirmative action fails to take into account is the socioeconomic status of the applicant, which I believe can be just as big a factor as race in determining
By Helena Buchmann
opinion@kansan.com
how society treats a person. People can't control what color skin they have, but they also can't control their parents are and what kind of opportunities are afforded them. In this country, there is disdain toward people who are poor and aren't "working hard enough" to get out of their poverty, which creates a system that is just as biased toward whites as it is toward people with money.
The Supreme Court ruling means that Michigan voters can choose to get rid of affirmative action if that's what they really want. While I would certainly benefit from doing away with affirmative action, it's not something that I personally would vote for, at least at this point in time. Until our society functions in a way that actually grants equal opportunity to everyone, affirmative action will guarantee that I won't be surrounded solely by middle-class white people like myself during my formative years.
Helena Buchmann is a freshman from Kansas City Mo., studying global and international studies.
FFA OF THE DAY
I can't even tweet how I really feel because my work follows me. FFA it is.
CAMPUS CHIRPS BACK
What is the best/worst part of severe weather?
@m2marcus
@KansanObion Listening to rain fall with a nice book, and a cup of tea.
Follow us on Twitter @KansanOpinion, Tweet us your opinions, and we just might publish them.
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@KansanOpinion being able to watch all the hail and wind... And then having to go away from the window because of the hail and wind...
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THE EDITORIAL BOARD
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Members of the Kansan Editorial Board are Katie Kutko, Allison Koen, Lauren Armendariz, Anna Werner, Sean Powers and Koby Bots.
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