MONDAY, APRIL 30, 2012
PAGE 5A
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
FREE FOR ALL
My scalp got sunburned and it is now in the process of peeling. I swear I don't have dandruff. Ginger problems.
Text your FFA submissions to 785-289-8351
Walking through campus and I turn to my left, and what do I see? Why only KU squirrels looking at me.
Every "time of the month" is a gift from mother telling me I'm not pregnant. Score.
When Mario and Peach hit each other with items in Mario Kart, it should be considered domestic violence.
If memorizing the Jimmy John's number is wrong, then I don't wanna be right.
The Boom Boom Room would be an excellent tornado shelter.
I'm in love with my best friend but she likes my roommate. This is a cruel world.
Using a drawstring bag as a backpack = undateable.
To the people that leave the UDK in the stalls for my afternoon toilet time, I thank you.
I think we've upset the wind gods.
BPB&J: Bacon peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Best idea ever.
ALL soap is antibacterial.
I feel the need to wear my chem goggles outside when it is this windy.
FFA Editor: would you like to get some coffee sometime?
Editor's Note: Nope.
Do the plastic chairs give anyone else swamp ass?
Some people look at old pictures from college to bring back memories. I go through all of the newspapers kept from this basketball season.
To the brunette putting books away in the Anschutz stacks, I saw you dancing to your music and I just wanted to say that you're beautiful.
Why do so many bicyclists think they don't have to follow any rules of the road?
That awkward moment when you realize that most of the stuff you cover in your business class you already learned from watching The Office.
Am I an alcoholic for celebrating my fake ID's birthday?
I didn't know .9 mm pencils even existed. You must have the fingers of a troll.
Tried to find the bathroom. Ended up on the roof. Uhm?
Is it creepy that I have a "Summer of Steve" poster in my room? He's so cute!
Okay ladies, that better be mud on the bathroom floor.
Pushing 'never again' into action
TRAGEDY PREVENTION
Visiting the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Wash.
Visiting the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. is like walking through a shrine. After receiving a booklet containing the life story of a victim of that horrific event and absorbing the place for three hours, walking back out into the bustling, bright world feels overwhelming—a feeling dwarfed by the enormity of the task of stopping similarly terrible events. After two such experiences, I've yet to reconcile the horrors of our world and my own responsibility to solve them.
Last Monday, in that halowed space, President Obama announced the first meeting of the Atrocities Prevention Board, an interagency group working to institutionalize the United States response to genocides and mass atrocities worldwide. This announcement couldn't come at a better time—human rights
abuses are gaining more prominence in the media and threaten international security. From refugee camps in Sudan to gulags in North Korea, with killing fields in Syria and violence in the DRC and Uganda, diverse and committed groups seem prepared to continue carrying out unspeakable harm against innocent civilians.
Sixty-six years after the Nuremberg Trials and 10 years after the creation of the International Criminal Court, it's doubtful that any credible source believes the creation of another government council will dissuade regimes from harming their own citizens. After all, the Responsibility to Protect doctrine established by the United Nations in 2005 justified intervention in Libya, but it isn't applied in many other countries where such intervention would be politically costly or unlikely to succeed.
This doesn't mean that the Atrocities Prevention Board (APB) should be eliminated or derided. The president and Congress face an enormous number of national security and domestic concerns, and the nature of large-scale human rights abuses make synthesizing information and crafting policy difficult. As per the recommendations of the 2008 Genocide Prevention Task force, an interagency and codified process can ensure that these pressing issues receive attention.
The new council faces valid criticisms, notably from Stephen Walt of Harvard. He argues that the APB may encourage future interventions, while failing to address the structural reasons why these situations are difficult to resolve and glossing over abuses perpetuated by the U.S. itself. President Obama acknowledged that making atrocity prevention a permanent priority "does not mean that we intervene militarily every time there's an injustice in the world." Doing so would be impractical and irresponsible. However, by bringing together different branches of the government, decision-makers can craft better-informed choices about the feasibility of a wide range of options. In some cases the U.S. may not intervene; in others, actions taken may fail to bring about their desired goal. This does not mean we should cede the possibility of acting and turn
inward, nor should we wait to first purge every injustice from our foreign policy.
As the presidential election cycle picks up, debates will likely focus on fixing the economy and countering potential rogue nations and terrorists. Human rights policy should not slide to the backburner, nor should three years of contributions the United States has made in Côte D'Ivoire, Libya, Uganda, Sudan, and elsewhere be disregarded. The Atrocities Prevention Board is a good first step towards fulfilling the challenge the memory of the Holocaust and other genocides pose; now the focus should turn towards what policies the Board can enact to make the promise "never again" a credible commitment.
FRIENDSHIPS
Gress is a freshman in political science from Overland Park.
Friends can inspire and guide us to be our best
O f Baby Penguins, Freshman year, and the Importance of Mentors
I've surmised that most freshmen tend to fall into two camps: either they come in with absolutely no idea of what they want to do, like baby penguins flung out into the depths of Antarctica, or they come in fully prepared, ready with a plan of action of exactly what they're going to major in, be involved with, and do with their life. Then have the world say to the latter, "Aw, that's adorable, but you're a baby penguin, hush," before being flung out anyway.
I definitely fall into the latter camp.
I came to college thinking I had my four years planned out. Double major in English and Journalism, be involved in theater, and volunteer casually— this was a list to be checked off, not altered. I was nervous as hell for college, but I hid under a veil of self-confidence and assurance. If I had a plan, and kept to it, everything would work out, right?
Almost the moment I got to campus, I was thrust into Antarctica, all thanks to the mentors in my life.
As my first year at the University is coming to a close, I can't help, underneath the battering ram of work I have to do these last few weeks before finals, but muse about the past nine months. It was during one of these ponderings, my Geology notes judging me as I listened to Vitamin C's "Graduation" on repeat and a bowl of ice cream in hand, that the thought of all relationships I've made this year struck
me. I've met some incredible people during my first year at the University, amazing people, so amazing that I can't be sarcastic or veil my compliments in wordplay. People, that have become my friends and often, my mentors.
It's the mentors that I've found this past year that have changed my path at the University, and my life.
I came to campus unaware I was a baby penguin, and ready to blindly surge forward with 'my plan.' But it was a friend, who I now see as a mentor as well, who encouraged me to get involved with Student Senate, a student activity that definitely was not on "Katherine's College Checklist." I thought it was a horrible idea, but she convinced me to check it out, so reluctantly I did, and found myself running for a senate position, not once, but three times until I earned one.
This was my first shove out of the nest (penguins don't construct elevated nests, so the imagery might not be as dramatic, but ignore that for metaphor consistency). I was forced out of my comfort zone, my assumptions, and above all, my checklist mentality, all thanks to the mentors in my life who pushed me to challenge myself and explore my options. I started to discover what the
University had to offer: classes, organizations, and great people. As I branched out I encountered people who I could learn with, laugh with, and not feel incredibly dumb for incessantly barraging questions at.
I've found mentors everywhere, from my professors to the women I live with. My mentors have encouraged and educated me in my writing, in my academic pursuits, in my growing passion for activism and advocacy, and in my level of student involvement, but they've also been there when my days at the University haven't looked so bright. They've been there to pick me up (sometimes literally) when I was down, to talk me through fluttery panic attacks, and gave me coffee when I've felt like my brain was about to fall out of my head.
The mentors in my life have made an astounding difference in my life. That's the point of having mentors. Mentors not only encourage you and direct you to new opportunities, but they genuinely care about you. Good mentors help their mentees navigate through unfamiliar territory, show them paths they weren't aware existed, and when needed, are there to help them when they fumble on those paths. I've been lucky to find a plethora of friends I consider mentors who do just this.
Maybe I'm still a baby penguin, but because of my mentors, I think I've managed to avoid hitting many icebergs.
Gwynn is a freshman in English from Olathe.
CHIRPS BACK
@Kristinistic
@UOK_Opinion
"You don't like
cute animal
videos?! Are you
Kitten me?!"
@ TomasGonzalez
@UDK_Opinion Does the name
Pavlov ring a bell?
What is your favorite pun?
Follow us on Twitter @UDK_Opinion.
Tweet us your opinions, and we just might publish them.
@KClivelaughlove
@Kciverlaughlove
@UDK_Opinion "@omgthatspunny:
So my mate swallowed a typewriter.
Now he's suffering from irritable vowel syndrome. #punny"
PERSONAL GROWTH
Be a person, not just a student
It sounds really simple and maybe a little too obvious to miss, but when I came to school here, I forgot that I was learning how to live, not just how to do research and write papers.
A friend of mine who has a couple years left as an under-grad called me a couple weeks ago asking for advice. She wanted to make the rest of her time in college worthwhile, and she asked if there was anything I would have done differently during my four years if I could go back.
I'm prone to overanalyzing; so for days and days after she asked, my mind has wrestled with this question. I was a traditional student, going straight to college after high school and spending four formative years at KU, and I will go straight to graduate school after I graduate this spring. I've done things by-the-book in a lot of ways, and instead of thinking about how I'd feel at the end, I just kept plowing ahead, following my to-do list.
My first instinct was to assess all the memorable details of my experiences, especially those related to academics and student involvement. I could have done a better job evaluating my roles in student organizations each
year, identifying time wasters, recognizing difficulties before they became problematic, staying focused and organized, not spreading myself too thin... There are easily 100 general and specific complaints I could make against myself for how I handled my undergraduate career.
"Sometimes the subtle experiences contribute more to personal growth."
How productive would it be to analyze these minor points? I started to realize they wouldn't make a difference in the larger scheme of things, and for that matter, that way of thinking might be a symptom of a more pressing problem.
By focusing on the minor things I could have done differently but probably would not have mattered much, I would do myself a disservice by giving into self derision with no productive outcome. So many
It's really easy for college students to get bogged down in the details. It's even easier to neglect important parts of yourself, especially if you're an uptight "type A" personality like I am.
of my friends have done this on a routine basis, and it just isn't healthy. We aren't doing ourselves any favors by beating oursels up over inconsequential moments in the past.
The reality is that when someone asks me about my
But self reflection can be beneficial when it comes to the important things. On that note, now that I've started to recognize that I tend to agonize over small mistakes or details from the past, I can use that assessment to stop that habit.
This reflection has also reminded me that those small things I couldn't change from the past don't comprise my whole experience as a student at KU. The academic experience I had was wonderful, as were the various opportunities for student involvement. But I realize that I, like some students do, have made those elements central to my whole being as an undergraduate student.
four years in college, there is more for me to think about than some projects or events I worked on. Sometimes the more subtle
experiences contribute more to personal growth. Maybe I didn't realize that going out to eat on Mass Street with my friends or having a good conversation with a professor was having an invaluable impact on me at the time, but those experiences weaved together have meant just as much in the bigger picture as my class assignments.
My point is not that we should undervalue our scholarly experience or negate the positive effects of the parts of our lives that we "plan out" on campus. I just want to remind the students out there (who might need reminding as I did) that our experience here is about more than that; one's development as a person is more than one's development as a student.
Cosby is a senior in english and political science from Overland Park.
HOW TO SUBMIT A LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Send letters to kansanopdesk@gmail.com.
Write LETTER TO THE EDITOR in the e-mail subject line.
LETTER GUIDELINES
Length: 300 words
The submission should include the author's name, grade and hometown Find the full letter to the editor policy online at kansan. com/letters.
Ian Cummings, editor
684-4180 or editor @ kansan.com
Lisa Curran, managing editor
684-4810 or icurian@kansan.com
Jon Samp, opinion editor
684-4924 or jasm@kansan.com
Garnet Lentl, business manager
843-6588 or albert@kansas.com
Korland Bail, sales manager
843-6777 or albert@kansas.com
CONTACT US
Malaicom Gibson, general manager and news adviser
864-7670 or mgbison@kansan.com
Jon Schiltt, sales and marketing adviser
864-7668 or jschiltt@kansan.com
THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Members of the Hansen Annual Board are Ian Cummings,
Lisa Curran, Jon Samp, Angela Hawkins and Ryan Schlesen.