4A = THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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OPINION
79A21
TUESDAY,APRIL23,2002
EDITORIAL Don't buy a shirt if you don't agree with Lee
Four simple words have students at the University of Kansas buzzing. The "I agree with Lee" campaign started April 10 and was meant to provide an atmosphere where students could freely talk about Jesus.
Whether you agree with the Lee campaign and statement of faith, participants had every right to be on campus just as any other group has a right to spread their message.
Students weren't in an uproar, bombarding the Free for All with angry phone messages concerning the peaceful demonstration that took place Thursday about Israeli and Palestinian relations.
Palestinian relations:
During the Thursday demonstration fliers were handed out to students. Those who agreed with the Lee campaign did not even hand out fliers. They simply wore T-shirts and put sidewalk chalk messages throughout campus.
put sidewalk crime messages. They did not pounce upon students who happened to be walking by Wescoe beach like those who were running in Student Senate elections did just a few weeks ago. If you wanted to find out more about the campaign, you as a student had to go to their table or visit the Web site.
The campaign promoted a catchy message that was in fact successful. They were able to get students talking.
The saddest part about the whole thing is when a visitor did go to the Web site and tampered with the poll that asked if you agree with the statement of faith that was made by Lee Bickerstaff.
by Lee Bickertan.
At the University of Kansas, we pride ourselves for being an educational institution that allows the free flow of all ideas. Why then are students so angry and why do they want to silence messages they do not agree with?
Let's not silence an important right that makes ours and other universities across the country truly unique and diverse.
Amv Potter for the editorial board.
For more comments, go to www.kansan.com.
Dude, one of my friends who's all into online porn just sent me a picture of one of my ex-girlfriends that he found on the Web. I guess she's like a online pornography model now. Man, that's totally messed up.
Check it out, I just called in and talked about how one of my ex-girlfriends was now a model for online porn. It’s totally ironic, because I just read the sex column and realized that this guy is online online online, too. So I was wondering
— his sister is doing online porn, too. So I was wondering what her name is, because I'm wondering if maybe I dated his sister, because they're both, you know, porno models now.
If the Campus Christians write "I agree with Lee" on the sidewalk then someone else has to write "Oh, I gotta have freedom of thought." But if someone writes, "Kegger on Saturday," nobody says anything. Nobody is telling you losers what to think. They are just asking you to look at what they believe. It's called an opinion.
it's not that I'm depressed in the winter, but once the weather gets warm, I turn into some sort of freaky happy-go-lucky Pee Wee Herman-type character, and it's hard to put me in a bad mood. No, I don't call my chair Chairee and I don't have words of the day, but I'm not that far off.
To the person calling who wanted a parking permit, try to complain more productively. Most GTAs walk or take a bus to campus. We sure don't get staff, red permits and we get treated very badly by KU in general.
KU allows a drag show on campus, but people get mad when someone wears a red, religious T-shirt. Show some tolerance
Paul McCartney video on MTV? What's this world coming to?
Did Yoko Ono get in his head, too?
So we bombed Canadians, huh? Looks like you hippies won't have anywhere to hide the next time the draft comes around, huh?
I bet you couldn't stop watching television even if you wanted to. Think about that for a minute.
Why is it the librals think they are the only ones entitled to free speech?
I would like to start a new campaign called I agree with Gavin, about what I'm not really sure, but I agree with him.
I am confused. First the dude's name was Jesus, now it's Lee. I think I'll pick a more decisive religion.
So if I start crusade for Satan will KU endorse me, too, and let me hold meetings in the Union and print ads in the UDK? Because technically I think they have to.
Since when was being a hippie bad? I bet your grandma was a hippie, too.
Don't get caught blindly following the words of others. Follow your heart. Make your own statement of faith. I agree with me.
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PERSPECTIVE
KEVIN GRITZKE/KANSAN
Sunny days and warm weather raise spirits of students finishing last weeks of school
"The sun will come out tomorrow,you can bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow,therell be sun."
These are the words that little Annie once sang in the musical of the same name. Indeed in Lawrence, tomorrow has come today. We're starting to get some of that summer weather, and columnist Marc Ingber (that would be me, for those of you who haven't checked out my sexy mug shot) could not be happier.
COMMENTARY
I almost feel like singing. I feel as rich as Daddy Warbucks, as hot as Dave Thomas'spicy chicken sandwich and as cool as the other side of the pillow all at the same time.
I don't know what it is, but around this time of the year, when the weather is nice everything seems to go right. The things that don't go my way don't seem that bad and the things that do, seem 28 times better.
I'm sure many of you feel the same the way. I wouldn't go as far as to say that you're
Marc Ingber
opinion@kansan.com
singing "Connect the Dots" right now, but most people will agree with me that when the weather gets warm, their morale gets boosted.
A case study: Today, I woke up, went to class, came home, studied for a psychology test, ate dinner and put gas in my car. Doesn't sound too interesting, right? But I woke up with the windows open and the sun shining, my walk to class probably got me three shades darker (just in time for my Hawaiian Tropic swimsuit competition), and I studied for my test out on the deck with a slight breeze blowing at my back. To top my day off, I bought a Krispy Kreme at the gas station that has left me in the most jovial of spirits.
just the presence of the sun has the ability to turn any frown upside-down.
Teachers will sometimes catch spring fever too and decide to convene class outside. For some reason, comparing the difference between an igneous and metamorphic rock can almost be interesting if done outside on a warm spring day.
Pardon me if I sound like Marcia Brady, but
The most interesting part of this whole warm weather phenomenon is that it wears off usually within about two months. By mid-July, people get sick of the hot weather and wish for winter again. Don't become one of those people though. Yes, there are going to be those days when your trip to the mailbox leaves you sweating like a walrus in a sauna, and you will curse the sun and all his accomplices.
But don't be so fast to judge. Just imagine yourself standing in the parking lot for half an hour furiously trying to scrape a small hole in the ice frozen on your windshield just so you can drive yourself to class, and you will see the error in your ways.
Sun good, winter bad.
■ Ingber is a Golden Valley, Minn., sophomore in prejournalism.
LETTERSTO THE EDITOR
Bear Censor.
We are writing to correct a few misconceptions and errors that were published in Friday's Kansan about the various tuition activities that occurred Thursday.
University Council voted to endorse the recommendation of the Ad Hoc Committee on University Funding, which calls for a $51.6 million increase in tuition over five years. We are disappointed that no student perspective was included in the front page article about this endorsement, and that it was not noted that all eight votes in opposition were from students.
TUITION COVERAGE
Dear editor.
Additionally, it is important to note that there were over 20 other students present at the meeting to voice their many concerns with the Committee's recommendation. We are shocked and disgusted that the faculty and staff on University Council recognized the painful effects of such a high tuition increase, but chose to ignore them. Students have repeatedly said that they are willing to pay a reasonable tuition increase, but cannot afford to support the entire financial burden for this University.
What is perhaps even more disappointing is the editorial board's criticism of the rally for higher education last Thursday. Students have been ignored and ridiculed by the administration and faculty throughout this "discussion" about tuition, but to see other students ridiculing our efforts to secure state funding for this University is frustrating.
Organizers of the rally were very
aware that the Legislature is on their recess. Waiting until the legislators are back in session would put us near finals and limit the number of students who could attend such a rally. Also, the desired effect of the rally, pressure on the state Legislature via media coverage and knowledge of the many students in Topeka demanding proper funding, was realized despite the fact that the legislators didn't look out their window and see us.
If the rally failed in any way, it was not the responsibility of the organizers, but the fault of students who were able to attend the rally but chose not to. Student apathy will lead to the largest tuition increase in KU's history, not student activism on campus and in Topeka.
Anna Gregory
Student Senate communications director
Kyle Browning
Student body vice president
SPEAKER RESPONDS
Dear editor.
Of the scores of articles written about me or my work, Jessica Tims's article "Author bashes modern society" (April 18) is by far the most shoddy: She didn't stick around to witness most of the event she was pretending to cover. Tims left quite early in the talk. This is not good journalism.
If she is going to attack me or my work, I wish she would do me the courtesy of attacking me for what I actually say, in the context that I actually say it, instead of grossly misrepresenting me, or simply getting quotes wrong. The quotes she attributes to me (culled from the first few minutes of my talk) are misleading or simply in error.
She states I find it absurd that corporate media pay more attention to trivialities such as the O.J. Simpson trial or the Lewinsky scandal than they do to the activities of our social and economic system that are killing the planet. I do find that absurd, as should any sane person.
But then she states, "Jensen admits that even he has thought about these things. 'I have even found myself wondering if Kato Kaelin will ever get another date,' he said." This statement was not an admission of the importance of these issues, but instead was a joke. Most in attendance actually did understand and laugh at this joke, instead of taking it as an attempt to undercut my point.
Not that you would know it from Tims' hatchet job, but the evening was fun. The talk went so well that at the hour and 40 minute mark, when a fire alarm sounded in the building, we went outside and continued the conversation. When the alarm was over, we went back inside and continued for an hour until my voice gave out. This wasn't included in the article.
She states that I gained "notoriety" with the publication of my "first book" A Language Older Than Words. First, that wasn't my first book, but rather my third. More importantly, the word she is looking for is "fame." One normally gains notoriety for doing something awful.
4.
Derrick Jensen
Author
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