05
OPINION
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6, 2005
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Liberals confuse Coulter's words react without listening to lecture
The author of the Thursday letter to the editor accused Ann Coulter, Vickers Memorial speaker, of disrespecting the "University community."
ANDREW FRAY afray@kansan.com
Whatever a "university community" is, Coulter's "shenanigans" were only alleged. Liberals disrespect
for the open exchange of ideas, however, was proven that night.
The disrespectful rhetoric at the Lied Center was not coming from the stage. Coulter's detractors attending the event with preconceived notions, i.e. marked pages in their Al Franken books, simply attended waiting for words they disliked before they started banging their spoons on their high-chairs, which took approximately 30 seconds.
Ooften people have a problem not with content but with the messenger.
As a "woman who advocates freedom of speech" Coulter found it difficult to speak over those awkwardly trying to recreate some '60s-era scene by yelling hackneyed slogans. Freedom of speech doesn't mean yelling "fascist" in a crowded theatre.
To say the hecklers were "challenging" Coulter would be disingenuous. They were, however, "challenging" repeated requests to act more civily. While mocking Coulter they were contemporaneously becoming the butt of the joke. Coulter has written that within minutes of discussing the Middle East, a liberal often squeals "Halliburton" and proudly thinks he's made a point.
Showing slightly more cunning than the young lady behind me who called Coulter "anti-Semitic," several detractors prefaced effusive yet uninformed questions with "I'm not a liberal but..." I'm not a conservative, but I think we should lower taxes, abolish race-based quotas and out-law killing unborn babies because the mother doesn't want to raise it after having conceived it.
A few minutes into Coulter's speech about Iraq, a young man in the balcony scaled a staggering one word argument: "Halliburtton!" Touche.
See. it doesn't work.
Because many hecklers refused to compose themselves from the beginning, Coulter asked the College Republicans to do free what the ushers should have already done. Gasp. Most of the ushrens apparently thought the extent of their job
was to sternly fold their arms and huddle by the exits.
The author claimed Coulter "made irreverent comments about minorities including brown men."
Coulter explained President Bush's Middle East policies, which are spreading
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democracy, closing death camps, etc. To the embarrassment of liberals, these policies are supported by Middle Easterners.
Coulter referred to democracy's supporters in the Middle East as our "brown brothers." Because "brother" was the more important half of Coulter's alliteration, liberals were again prepared to focus on whatever they could re-contextualize as "hate speech."
"Brown man" and "brown brother" sound similar, but someone listening closely should have understood that Coulter was not referring to minorities. Note: Iraqis in Iraq are not minorities. If the author was seated among the sophomoric hecklers, perhaps she misunderstood because of their clamoring. Whereas the hecklers themselves misunderstood because of either their lack of aptitude or tolerance.
About eight million Iraqi brown brothers voted in the January elections. John Kerry said that would never happen. A fact conveniently ignored by Bush-hating feminists is that half of them were women. We can call them brown sisters to be fair.
The author could better express her disgust for irreverence by reminding the Rev. Jesse Jackson that fathering children out of wedlock was irreverent. She might remind the Rev. Al Sharpton that inciting disorder in the streets of Brooklyn, N.Y., resulting in the beating deaths of several shopowners, was irreverent.
Would the aforementioned young lady also call Sharpton "anti-Semitic" if she knew the victims were Jewish? Jackson and Sharpton claim Republican policies don't help blacks. One prominent, black, ex-congressman who would heartily disagree is J.C. Watts, the University's 2003 Vickers Memorial speaker.
All I ask is for the peace-loving liberals to prove that their parents taught them to be peaceful. If admittance is allowed to the sloppily dressed again next year, they'll have their chance.
F. Reyy is a Kansas City, Mo., 2001 graduate from the University in the School of Business.
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state with no real chance of gaining consciousness or recovering at all. The New York Times reported that images of Schiavo that protesters extrapolated from a video gave a false impression of how promising her condition was.
Playing God doesn't help in prolonging quality life
than a blip on a computer screen. Conservatives argued that it was not man's decision to decide when to end a life. It was, however, man's decision to prolong it in the first place. Maybe modern science has gone too far.
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An inoperable brain tumor caused Cochran's death. Was that the doctor's or God's decision? Protesters didn't stand outside of his hospital ricketing for surgery.
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Her "life" was nothing more
The pope suffered through his final weeks of life. Parkinson's Disease, heart and kidney problems and a urinary tract infection plagued the pope through his final hours. He couldn't even speak during one of his final appearances on Easter Sunday. Doctors should not have prolonged his suffering. His achievements should be remembered, but it was his time to go.
If the Bible is correct, and God does control life and death, then Schiavo's passing was part of his plan. Those who protested her death should realize that if there is a heaven, she is in a better place.
AUSTIN CASTER
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in Review section to Schiano last week, I too took a side on the right-to-die debate.
Terri Schiavo. Johnnie Cochran. Pope John Paul II. They say death comes in threes.
▼ AUSTIN, YEAH BABY!
These public figures don't have much in common, other than that they all lost their battles with debilitating illness during the past week.
After The New York Times devoted nearly its entire Week
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Being stuck in a hospital bed as a vegetable who couldn't feed herself is no way to live.
Also: The Kansan will not print guest columns that attack another columnist.
Schiavo died Thursday in the swirl of a religious debate. She was cremated Monday after 13 days of starvation and dehydration when her husband ordered her feeding tube be removed. Schiavo had brain damage from a chemical imbalance some said was caused by bulimia. The feeding tube had sustained her in a vegetative state for about 15 years.
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Conservatives, including President Geroge W. Bush, who protested the stop-feeding order, said it was the duty of the strong to protect the weak. Because Schiavo didn't have a living will, her husband and parents fought in court about whether to remove the tube. It was removed and reinserted twice before the courts ruled in favor of Michael Schiavo, Terri's husband. Her husband, however, would know better than anyone whether she would have wanted to continue living.
But could Schiavo's experience be considered life? She couldn't feed herself or communicate. Doctors said she was in a permanent vegetative
★ Castner is a Shawnee senior in journalism. He is a copy editor and designer for the Kansan.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
University needs to better support museum, student research efforts
The Museum of Anthropology at the University of Kansas houses cultural collections representative of indigenous peoples across the globe. These collections represent the cultural diversity that the University claims to support.
But I am gravely concerned about the poor condition that these cultural collections are in and the lack of staffing available to properly care for and preserve these collections. Despite the expertise of the current staff and their willingness to help student researchers, often their administrative duties and other tasks in running the museum limit their availability to students.
Several years ago, the University cut the Museum of Anthropology budget, eliminating staff, including a curator position, thus leaving the museum and its collections in jeopardy.
Almost three years ago KU administration closed the museum to the public, further eliminating grant avenues available to the museum.
If the University is really committed to its students and their research, the administration will step up and consider how it can better support the museum financially and administratively.
The University has a responsibility to ensure that the Museum of Anthropology's collections are properly cared for and not left sitting on dusty shelves to deteriorate.
I am aware that other departments on campus, such as Anthropology, Archaeology, Art History, Museum Studies and Indigenous Nations Studies, use collections in the muse-
use collections in the museum. If the University fails to support this museum and allows these collections to disappear, these departments and other students will no longer have access to these collections for research purposes, and it will be detrimental to the future of my master's thesis.
Johna B. Van Noy New Braunfels, Texas Graduate student
Condemn Canadian government's slaughter of Harp seals
There is a slaughter of Harp seals going on in Canada. In the slaughter that will run through May, at least 300,000 animals will be shot or clubbed. Counting the animals killed this year, a total of 975,000 have been slaughtered since 2003.
Most seals killed are between two and 12 weeks old, unable to swim and completely helpless. They are skinned so their pelts can be used for coats. In previous years some 42 percent of the seals may have been skinned alive and conscious, according to research conducted by independent veterinarians.
The United States Senate passed Resolution 33 this year urging Canada to stop the "hunt" in part because of this evidence.
"Hunters" are supposed to ensure the seals are dead, but an observer from the Humane Society of the United States stated that she had seen seals moving and crying left in piles to die, as well as live seals stomped and imoaled.
I urge you to join this boycott and write letters to Canada's prime minister and the minister of Canada's department of fisheries and oceans. Please help end this.
Many groups, including the Human Society of the United States, are spearheading a boycott of Canadian seafood in an effort to end such hunts.
The justification for this slaughter is that fish-stocks need to replenish themselves. But there is evidence that the problem is not the seals, but over-fishing.
Adonia David Conservation specialist Watson Library
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So let's recap the year in sports: First the Royals were predicted to win the division, and they suck. The Chiefs were predicted to go to the Superbowl, and they suck. KU football was supposed to be much, much better. They played great for three and a half quarters every game, but they suck. There's no hockey playoffs. KU forgets how to play basketball in the spring and loses in the first round to Bucknell, and Roy wins the national title.
Watching Roy Williams win a championship is like your ex marrying a model and you being forced to watch the honeymoon video.
Roy, you got some brownie points for mentioning us, but Bill, we love you.
You know, I just have to say it. Go,
Roy.
You should change the name of this paper to The University Daily Liberal.
The greatest thing about the Internet: You can buy ammunition.
You really should have called me back Saturday night. I was going to sleep with you this time.
Chancellor Hemenway, is there any way I can satbath nude by the fountains?
To the two girls who unexpectedly got sprayed by the sprinklers at Budig Hall, you just made my day. Thanks.
When boys say they're going to call and then don't, it makes me want to punch them in the testicles.
KUnited, quit pestering me.
You think maybe Galindo realized that Self signed two McDonald's All-Americans in his position?
+
Alex Galindo just made the dumbest mistake ever.