4A - THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
OPINION
MONDAY,MAY 6,2002
864-0500 free for
all Free for All callers have 20 seconds to speak about
any topic they wish. Kansan editors reserve the right to omit comments. Slanderous and obscene statements will not be printed. Phone numbers of all incoming calls are recorded.
for more comments, go to www.kansan.com.
the pool to let my feet dangle in the water while the kids around me began to run and jump into the arms of this woman with a whistle.
Hi, I would just like to say that I am the only member of Lear's Daughters who didn't get her picture in the paper today. Yeah, that's really nice, guys. Thanks.
the pool to let my feet dangle in the water while the kids around me began to run and jump into the arms of this woman with a whistle.
I just wanted to say that I'm graduating in less than three weeks, and I want to give a big thanks to the journalism school for helping me get my degree. Dean Gentry and the journalism school rock.
Hey Leita Walker, let me respond to this. I know about it's about a man who didn't want to his story told, but whose story might change the way we view people like him. Yeah, you might also might make him cannon fodder for more dumb journalism majors, and you might also get his ass kicked by a bunch of frat boys who think he's funny now.
It seems ironic that the UDK would run an article about media ethics two days after running one on how to get new drugs. It just doesn't seem quite right, folks.
This is to the person that said "Don't hassle me. I'm local." Why don't you try to get something that's not off the movie What About Bob.
And by the way, it's Lear's Daughters, not King Lear's Daughters.
This is to the guy from the NRA who called in earlier. I am tired of people treating the Constitution like it's some kind of holy, it can have errors, because it was written by human beings. Just like anything that's written by human beings, it can have errors.
I have no tolerance for people who think they are better than others, and who think they have the right to tell others that they are going to hell. I don't think I should have to tolerate that, and certainly everybody has the right to free speech, just as I have the right to say that I find that kind of thinking intolerable.
Just because it's the Chi Omega fountain doesn't mean you're not welcome. We'd love to have you. Come join us.
About the front page article today about the homeless man, it is incredibly unprofessional, no matter how good the article was, to say that this was one of the best articles of the semester. If you're going to try to be professional do not do things like that.
I suspect that the reason that the Kansan doesn't cover NASCAR is because NASCAR is not a sport. It's driving.
I don't know how the Columbine kids learned how to make bombs, but I don't think it was from reading the front page of the Kansan or any other newspaper for that matter.
This to the girl with the white boyfriend who claims all the sorority girls stare at her. Well, I'm a sorority girl, and the reason I'm starring at her is that I'm a lesbian, and I want to have sex with her.
To the girl with the white boyfriend, I think you should pity your self more
the pool to let my feet dangle in the water while the kids around me began to run and jump into the arms of this woman with a whistle.
It's kind of funny when someone calls to bitch about the media's indifference to Layne Staley's death, and then the media misspells his Lieyne, L-A-Y-N-E.
Did you hear me, Kenny? I said your family's poor, Kenny.
This is to the guy that returned my wallet after finding it in our philosophy review. Thank you so much. My faith in humanity is restored.
Yeah, what's TRL man?
图
Who is Layne Staley?
So, I guess TRL is not on ESPN. Does this mean Drew Gooden's going to be a rap star? I guess he's not going to the NBA. Oh well.
Picture it, Sardinia, 1932, I was on a tour of the great caper factories of Sardina. I was going through my Picado period, a wedge of lemon and a smart answer for everything. Anyway I was slicing the onion wedge when suddenly a big basil tree fell. I don't have a story about taking advantage of a dead guy, I do have a story about a Morrocan and a monkey, but that's all under the heading of lust.
Can somebody please tell my new roommates that Sanctimonious is no name for a dog?
the pool to let my feet dangle in the water while the kids around me began to run and jump into the arms of this woman with a whistle.
Nobody ever tells me when I'm telling the truth, like it's the curse of every devastatingly beautiful woman.
Who cares if Drew Gooden was on TRL? Why are that many people watching TRL?
Fire sale,fire sale.
the pool to let my feet dangle in the water while the kids around me began to run and jump into the arms of this woman with a whistle.
To the person that complained about Left Eye getting all the media coverage while Lavey Staley's death was ignored, consider it payback for when everybody ignored Eazy-E dying when Kurt Cobain died. Thank you.
Is anyone else sick of these horrible, local Lawrence commercials? I mean, come on. Where do they get these actors?
What the hell is going on? So, I'm watching one episode of The Simpsons, and during commercial break they come back, and it's a completely different episode. What's going on here? Help me.
I think we should boycott Baskin Robbins for not giving out free scoops on free-scoop night. Those bastards.
I just want to call bunk on Baskin Robbins for not having the free scoop in Lawrence. That's just not cool.
Lawrence Baskin-Robbins aren't participating in a free-scoop, Wednesday night. You will rue the day, Baskin-Robbins. You will rue the day.
Yeah, I just saw my girlfriend's roommate in a porno with her boyfriend. Go, Double D.
图
Jesus, save us from your followers.
Uh, right now I'm riding my unicycle drunk.
Hey intelligent NRA member, cars weren't in the Constitution, because cars didn't even exist, but that's a nice reference to keep guns. Jeez.
PETER JENNINGS FACES DRAMATIC PAY CUT...COULD LOSE MILLIONS
KNIGHT RIDDER TRIBUNE
By the Numbers $5,000
Amount a Silverado executive stole from his investment firm per day of his three-and-a-half years in jail
$50 billion
S50.000
Source: Harper's research
Fine paid by Neil Buish in 1991 after federal regulators found him guilty of "ethical lapses"
Estimated amount the U.S. spends each year safeguarding oil supplies in the Persian Gulf
S19 billion Estimated value of U.S. crude-oil imports from the region last year
Source: Council on Foreign Relations, U.S. Energy Information Administration, Harper's research
120
Number of visitors to a Las Vegas consumer-electronics show last winter who opted to be shot with a stun gun.
Number of those who were journalists.
PERSPECTIVE
**SQUARE:** Taser Internationale (Sotzschäfe, Aniz).
**SQUARE:** Taser Internationale (Sotzschäffe, Aniz).
Summertime and the living's easy... if you know how to swim, that is
With spring well under way, you have probably questioned the moral and ethical implications of yourself in a nothing but this coming summer.
COMMENTARY
What color should it be? One piece or two?
Farmer's tan or no tan?
I can safely say that my suit will be a yellow, one piece trunk with a farmer's tan so defined that it looks like I'm still wearing a shirt.
Over the years, I have acquired a great deal of knowledge about the pool experience, both public and private. Today, you too will learn the intricacies of this American pastime: getting wet in a big public tub.
My research began somewhere around age 6. I was young, naive and due for a nap when all of a sudden my parents had me standing at the edge of the shallow end of the public pool. My shorts were neon green and had mesh underwear conveniently sewn into them. The glaring sun caused my eyes to shrivel. My overexcited swim instructor became a blur, standing waist deep in water that was as tall as me.
"Come on! Jump in and swim to me!" she said.
Uncheated forward and sat down on the lip of
Justin Henning opinion@kansan.com
I ended up jumping , and if it taught me anything, it was that pool water was kept jut above freezing point.
"Bunch of lemmings," I would have thought to myself if had known what a lemming was.
In colossal underwater strides, the instructor came over and stood in front of me, as all the wet kids bobbed about her like those little plastic balls you put on your fishing line.
"Justin." she said. "Don't you want to learn how to swim?"
"No," I said. Who could argue with that logic?
"No." I said. I didn't buy the story.
Then she told me some story about how this would be really important if I was ever in a sinking boat or were stuck on an island.
"Well," she said as she spun her whistle. "Look at the big kids in the deep end. They are having a great time!"
She was referring to another swimming class in the deep end of the pool. Their instructor threw stuff that sank to the bottom of the pool and then made the big kids get it. They had been doing that for more than half an hour.
I was sold. If big kids did it, then I should too.
So my point today is this: Learn to swim if you don't already know how. It's a great way to cool off in the summer and will come in really handy if someone ever throws something in the water and tells you to get it.
That and remember to write your opinion columns with enough time to make them good. Otherwise, you could end up with this.
Henning is a Leawood junior in journalism
QUESTIONING THE KANSAN'S ETHICS
Ded editor
Dear editor,
There is a long, ugly history of institutionally powerful voices doing great harm to people with disabilities, while claiming to be doing those people favors. Adam Pracht's article on Robert Gilmore ("Hiding in plain sight," May 1) is part of that history.
In his commentary on the methods he used, Pracht portrays himself as a "frustrated" reporter in search of the truth about Gilmore, who is depicted as a spinner of "fantastic stories," and also as a liar: "He (Gilmore) never told me anything true." Perhaps Pracht is suggesting that Gilmore owed him something because he bought the man hot cocoa and a doughnut. Perhaps readers may have wanted to judge for themselves whether Gilmore's statements were untrustworthy. All people have their own versions of reality, and their unique ways of expressing them; Gilmore is entitled to his. But Pracht chose to silence him and then stigmatize him, adding to the stigmatization he already suffers.
Pracht's investigative instincts took him to sources like a delivery person a Checkers and a convenience store owner, but never to community advocates for people with disabilities. He contacted school administrators in Missouri to probe Gilmore's past, but never consulted scholars right here at KU who have devoted their careers to empowering people with disabilities. Had he visited these scholars, Pracht
LETTERSTO THE EDITOR
would have learned that people with disabilities have the right to tell their own stories and to resist the well-meaning outsider who would speak on their behalf.
As egregious as Pracht's actions and inactions were, he is not fully to blame for this ill-conceived and deeply harmful article. In Leita Walker's piece on the ethical dilemma the story raised, she mentions a journalism professor who implies Gilmore brought the attention on himself by "placing himself in the public eye," and must live with the consequences. Interestingly, this professor escapes public scrutiny—he is quoted anonymously. He is not called upon to explain how being without a home and job makes one a public figure. Compare this to the situation the Kansan created for Gilmore. Not only do readers learn his name, but they also learn about his eating and hygiene habits, the items he keeps in his "shed," his education, his poor eyesight, and his "criminal record."
The lessons are clear: those with institutional prestige, like the professor, have the power to make statements and not answer for them. Those without power, like Gilmore, have no right to dignity or privacy, and no chance to prevent themselves from being defined by members of the "normal" majority.
Ray Pence American studies instructor
Dear editor.
One of the primary duties of a journalist is to weigh the public's "right to know" against the impact stories have on individuals. Unfortunately, the staff of the Kansan failed to uphold their responsibilities by publishing the Robert Gilmore feature ("Hiding in plain sight," May 1)
Leita Walker writes in her editorial: "we cannot slip into the practice of catering to our sources — every story we write forces...us to ask uncomfortable questions." However Walker is disregarding the source's unique situation. The article has been treated as some sort of exposé of a public figure, but is only an intrusion into the life of an individual who has a right to privacy, just as anyone else. Informing students about Mr. Gilmore's status could have been accomplished by publishing an item inside of the paper.
The piece does not, as Walker writes, "change the way we view people like him," but simply reaffirms what little value society places on the desires of the mentally ill and the homeless.
Ultimately, the Kansan's staff has made their decision about Mr. Gilmore not in his interests, but in their own. Any attempts to explain their choice as otherwise is disingenuous and further illustrates their callousness toward Mr. Gilmore.
Katie Crooks
Parsons Junior