2005
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OPINION
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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2. 2005
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AUSTIN, YEAH BABY!
Marriage ban hypocritical; Divorce undermines sanctity
Before conservative heterosexual Americans worry about a ban on gay marriage, they should take a look in the mirror to see how hypocritical they are.
According to Americans for Divorce Reform, Inc., between 40 and 50 percent of couples who marry get a
AUSTIN CASTER acaster@kansan.com
divorce. I don't see how marriage ban proponents can make an argument against gay marriage when many don't take it seriously themselves. Apparently the sanctity of marriage doesn't include divorce.
Marriage used to mean something. My parents, who have been married more than 25 years, have kept their commitment. In fact, my grandparents continue to enjoy wedded bliss into their 60s and 70s. It is possible.
Now it seems straight couples marry just to spite those gays and lesbians who can't. It's like a 7-year-old bragging about a toy to another child whose mother can't afford one. Gay and lesbian couples who have been committed for 10 years are legally not allowed a right afforded to drunk, straight couples in Las Vegas who have known each other for 10 minutes. Jennifer Lopez has married three times and Britney Spears married twice in 2004 alone.
Maybe celebrities aren't the best examples. Let's move to conservative politicians. Kansas native and former senator Bob Dole divorced the wife
who nurses him through his war wounds and bore his first child. Ronald Reagan divorced the mother of the first two of his children and then proceeded to marry Nancy. They welcomed a child into the world seven months after saying "I do." Doesn't it take nine months
for a child to develop? He couldn't have been thinking about love, commitment and the sanctity of marriage. It was probably more like, "Oh shit, I knocked her up."
Some divorces are inevitable, but how can you pledge your undying love four or more times? Conservative poster child Rush Limbaugh and his wife have racked up four divorces and six marriages between them. That's almost as bad as getting addicted to prescription pain medication that isn't prescribed to you. Oh wait, he did that too.
Not satisfied? Conservative Bob Barr (R-Ga.), who has been married three times, can see how the Defense of Marriage Act, so I can see how he would be eager to defend it. I wonder, however, which one of his marriages he's trying to defend.
The argument against gay marriage is not only hypocritical but just plain silly. When you go to the polls next month to decide the future of gay marriage in Kansas, think about what marriage really means.
- Caster is a Shawnee senior in journalism. He is a copy editor and designer for the Kansan.
BROCK'S BRAINS
Nothing else will do but KU blue at tonight's game
Pink. Green. Lavender.
Orange. Brown. These are some of the colors of shirts students have worn to Kansas home basketball games this season. Not blue. Not even crimson. Where do these students come from? And what did they have to choose between before they
ROBERT BROCK
vbrock@kansan.com
decided on a maroon shirt? Did it just look prettier than aqua that daw?
Some students show up in their polos, slacks, tank tops and mini-skirts as if Allen Fieldhouse had converted into some form of dance club. For some odd reason, I just can't see the guy with a blue-painted torso who is screaming at the top of his lungs asking for your number — even if your new Gap belt matches your high heels. This has gotten so ridiculous, I'm just waiting for someone to show up in pink spandex or a bright yellow jumpsuit.
The reality is that some KU students seem to have forgotten that KU's colors are crimson and blue. It perplexes me that many students don't understand that they should wear one of these colors to Kansas basketball games. Wearing the same color obviously doesn't guarantee a win, but it does exemplify the principle of the university — unity. If we can show our support by standing and cheering, we need to all follow through and support the team and the school by wearing blue and only blue.
When you watch an Oklahoma or Nebraska football game, or a Maryland basketball game, you don't see anyone wearing anything other than a shade of red. Even fans at University of Pittsburgh basketball games manage to match. When was the last time they won a championship or went to back-to-back Final Fours?
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to patronize the student fans. We are among the most loyal and dedicated in the country. We camp out days in advance. We stand the entire game and lead the chants and cheers. We make the Fieldhouse the formidable arena it is today. What some of us are not able to do, though, is match on a regular basis. What should be a sea of blue is usually more like a creek of burgundy or plaid.
On Sunday, Hutton Farms provided complimentary blue KU shirts for every fan in attendance. Even most of the alumni managed to wear the shirts and stand for portions of the game. (After four years of not getting anything free at the games I might expect free
toilet bowl brushes or free buckets of paint, but free shirts? Now that's something.)
I have never seen a crowd look that impressive. From what I've heard from friends and family, this effort was equally as impressive on TV. Ideally, the crowd should look like that at every home game, but shirts are not going to be passed out at every game. Realistically, every student should just wear blue.
According to a Feb. 8 Kansas City Star article, a new University marketing campaign has deemed royal blue the official KU blue. But, it shouldn't even have to come down to doing research and making official statements through the media for students to know that KU blue is not navy blue or neon蓝 or light sky blue. It should be understood that they wear only KU blue to every game. It shouldn't make any difference if we're playing Missouri or a team of mimes. Hopefully, though, the marketing department can develop some way in the future to get everyone on same page.
PAGE 7A
While the fieldhouse has many problems that need to be addressed, this is the most egregious one and the easiest to fix. We can dream about a new Jumbotron scoreboard so we can watch replays of Wayne's dunks instead of two-dimensional dancing nachos, and we can dream about adding a few thousand seats to raise a few more bucks and bring back the men's rowing team, but it will take millions of dollars to make those renovations.
It's the student's job to fix this nuisance now.
Support the Jayhawks tonight against Kansas State and wear blue. Not red, white, turpoise,
black, but KU blue.
Brock is a Dallas senior in journalism.
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SACK'S PERSPECTIVE
Steve Sack/STAR TRIBUNE
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Be cautious of extremist pundits; Give credit to tenured professors
I would like to start by saying that I am not writing this as a liberal or a conservative. I'm writing this as a black man, so take it how you want.
In the year of our Lord 2005, we still live among ignorant people who don't seem to understand how the real world works. Not that many people do at 18 or 19, but it seems sad to me that with today's political atmosphere that feels more like fascism than conservatism, people aren't taking to the streets in protest. The reason however is simple and tragic. Nothing is real until it affects you.
The term "liberal extremism" is funny considering these days and times. With Ann Coulter on the loose it seems like the only extremists that are truly dangerous are the ones that have the most influence. True, Coulter, O'Reilly and Limbaugh aren't politicians, but they are still highly influential people who write books to affirm the beliefs of the 85 percent of the country who doesn't have a damn idea what the hell is going on.
In Ann Coulter's book "How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must)," she actually states that "we should go into Iraq, kill all their leaders and convert everybody to Christianity." This is the woman that is supposed to be at the top of the conservative intellectual chart. Convert everybody to Christianity? It's a Muslim nation. Why is that so hard to grasp? Then she has the nerve to say that the only thing the average black person has to worry about is being patronized to
death. What?
Ward Churchill's statements about the people in the World Trade Center were well within his right to say as a professor who had earned tenure — no matter what the statement was. That's the reason you come to college in the first place. The whole point is to critically analyze the world as we know it and receive a different educated opinion, not to train the masses to follow the establishment.
The problem is no one wants to believe that we deserved to be attacked. America, the only true juggernaut of the whole world, makes decisions that affect the rest of the world every day in ways we don't even bother to fathom. Nobody cares. Everybody wants everything to be nice, so they avoid the true issues and refuse to see the truth. Why were we attacked? The country has been at war for more than two years now. Has there been any true study into why the World Trade Center was attacked? Churchill was forcing his students to look at the tragedy of Sept. 11 in a different way other than what the government would have you believe. Since when do tenured professors become the enemy?
We are slowly becoming more and more fascist as the years go by. The reality is that next thing you know Ann Coulter is going to be running for president, which is a scary thought. As I said, I'm not a liberal or a conservative. This past election, I voted for Shirley Chisholm. I don't have the answers, but I know this: We're not free; we're just licensed.
Brian Pearson Wichita senior Film studies
Call 864-0500
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I'm disappointed that the condition of the squirrel that caused the power outage was never reported. Editor's note: The squirrel died.
Me and my friend were just sitting here talking about how awesome it would be if the Kansan did something useful with the sports section, like print stats from the KU games.
I wish I could get my Internet service from somebody other than Sunflower. It turns out Broadband Man's real superpower is dodging monopoly laws.
Seth Bundy easily writes the least funny comics I have ever read.
Why is it that every time I walk into one of the offices in Strong Hall, somebody always ends up telling me,
"Sorry, we screwed up"?
Wow, there's a giant palm tree in the front of Lewis. How cool is that?
Is opinion columnist John Jordan trying to imply that we should wait until a global war happens before we
Your phone bill is $1,200? Here's a clue. Turn your phone off.
clean any countries up? Because that's pretty ridiculous And so is he.
I just wanted to let everyone know that the Burge Fitness Center is closing, and I really think it's a travesty. We should all fight it and get it to stay open.
How am I supposed to hit a four-foot bong by myself?
This is going to take a portion of my cunning — no, all my cunning.
◆ Student Senate. Senate stuck up for the student body's rights when it demanded a differential tutition referendum on the ballot for the spring election. Too bad CLAS isn't listening.
Vintage basketball uniforms. Although we haven't seen them yet, the men's basketball team will don retro jerseys at tonight's game to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Allen Fieldhouse. But don't get too excited, they're skipping the short shorts.
Fail:
- Kansas sports teams. The baseball, football, and women's and men's basketball teams' GPAs are below the NCAA's standards. The University should shine not only in sports but academics as well. It is, after all, a learning institution.
- Voter turnout. Low turnout of registered voters plagued the Lawrence City Commission primary yesterday. Have we really become that apathetic since November?
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