WEDNESDAY APRIL 2, 2003
OPINION
4A = THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, APRIL2, 2003
TAKTOUS
Kristi Henderson
884-4854 or khandaran@kansasan.com
Jenna Goeffert and Justin Henning
managing authors
884-4854 or jgoeffert@kansasan.com and
jgoeffert@kansasan.com
Craan Sniffer
readers; representative
864-4810 or ishafer@kansan.org
Amangia Sears and Lindsay Hanson
Amanda Seers and Emily Hannon
864-9244 or opinion@tknsan.com
Eric Kettling
business manager
904.4358 or advates@kansan.com
Malcolm Gibson
Sarah Jantz
retail sales manager
864-4358 or adsales@kansan.com
Malcolm Gibson
general manager and news adviser
864-7867 or mgibson@kansan.com
Matt Fisher
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CLARIFICATION
A column in yesterday's University Daily Kansan needs clarification. The column, "Support local-minded candidates," stated City Commission candidate Greg Dillibbs "disavowed" his promise to the student body to fight the single-family zoning ordinance in front of the East Lawrence Neighborhood Association. Dillibbs said he opposed unenforceable ordinances.
Neil Mulka and Emily Elmore for The University Daily Kansen
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Dailey's material necessary To Sen. Susan Wagle:
I am a graduate of the University of Kansas, Class of '93, now living in Athnata. I read an Associated Press story on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Website about the bill directed at banning obscene material used in undergraduate classes.
I took Dennis Dailey's class on human sexuality, and I am very disappointed in your decision to promote this bill. Dailey's class is one of the most thought-provoking classes on campus. I do not understand how you can support such a bill when your information is based completely on hearsay. Have you ever visited Dailey's classroom? Have you seen the materials in question in his classroom setting? For you to support such a bill without performing the tiniest amount of fact gathering is irresponsible and poor legislating. Politicians are not elected to make knee-jerk reactions to secondhand information.
I have seen the pictures Dailey uses, and they are completely appropriate for the curriculum. Dailey also makes it very clear what the class is about and what you will see. Everyone knows what they are getting into.
Universities are supposed to be environments that allow the free exchange of ideas. This is even more important for the more controversial subjects, such as sex and sexuality, which often are given no mention in other settings — the home, public and private schools and churches. I'm sure that, on the Kansas Senate floor, senators are allowed to voice their opinions without being censored, after all, that is what democracy is all about. Why, then, do you think it is OK to censor opinions in schools of higher learning?'s
Dailey's class is not about puerile interests. It is not about shock value. It is not about obscenity.
I'm curious — how do you expect students in Kansas to graduate with bachelor's degrees in sexual psychology if they cannot use visual materials about sex?
Robert Allen, Atlanta, Ga.
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111 Stuuffer-Flint
Sex class doesn't harbor secrets
PERSPECTIVE
The actions of our Legislature in regard to Dennis Dailey's "Human Sexuality in Everyday Life" class amount to knee-jerk babysitting that panders to a constituency hundreds of miles from us. According to the bill, no program that facilitates material deemed obscene by an "average person" who considers the material out of sync with "community standards" will be allocated state funding.
I am a 50-year-old senior at the University who comes from a conservative military background. My father, sister and I have all served this country in times of conflict and both my father and I were nearly killed in the defense of American ideals.
As a member of the course, I would love to respond to the latest criticism of Dailey's teachings. Those screaming the loudest have stumbled into the middle of a conversation and have purported to understand what has transpired.
The Legislature's knowledge of Dailey's course is grapevine at best and is one that lacks contextual comprehension. Our brave senators, sitting in their armchairs celebrating themselves, have said they "investigated" this class. But they make no mention that most students, including myself, have found it to be the most applicable and beneficial course of their college careers. Senators Susan Wagle and Nancy Harrington, authors of the bill, have coddled a slim minority.
Witnessing the events that have driven their reaction, I think the complaints waged come from miscommunication. Had Wagle thoroughly investigated the allegations, she would have heard a different version from a majority of students.
Now we must endure a law in which our government dictates the supposed free flow of thought among adults. It has not made the connection that this class,
GUEST COMMENTARY
in reality, studies universal human behavior and relationships.
Richard Sullivan
op:nion@kansan.com
While we sit in the comfort of our living rooms, watching our country wage war with all awaure and no shock, the Legislature would have us ignore our human behaviors. Behind every yellow ribbon, every American flag and every military interest piece on television, there is a soldier far away shunning Kansas' standards of community. While members of our Legislature whistle "God Bless America" and proclaim their support for the troops, they forget that the media are brushing past some of the sights and language. If Dailey's class makes our senatorial population so "sick to their stomachs," it should quit celebrating its Johnnycome-lately who is over seas right now.
We won't see soldiers who are so stressed that they masturbate three or four times a day or on guard duty just to stay awake. We won't hear all the politically incorrect language and humor that is mercifully diffusing inner unit tension. The television won't show the prostitutes the soldiers visit or the veneer diseases they contract, and television won't explain why these things happen.
It won't show the soldier who will come home, read about our Legislature's actions and remember the far more explicit and animalistic behavior he engaged in.
The Legislature won't care that such
taws make him feel like an outcast when he returns. It will never know that such a culture will drive him back to the battlefield simply because he doesn't fit in with "Kansas values" anymore. The Legislature won't sit down with the soldier and candidly explain why he may have adopted certain sexually predatorial practices.
Neither the Legislature nor the embedded media will address the marital, sexual and relationship problems that soldiers face now or that will manifest when they return home.
The state of Kansas apparently has no cognizance that these are some of the same problems that Dailey's class has helped me, a once "average" soldier and present "average" Kansas citizen, to overcome.
Are we to conclude from this act of gross micro-management that an "average" person is a Kansas senator? Should we believe that adult American citizens, who hail from many different communities around the world and the country, are not mature enough to decide their own level of class participation?
Our Legislature has responded reflexively and emotionally to fewer than a handful of misinterpreted complaints and passed a law that affects every Kansas student. Its members don't consider the immediate consequences of their actions or the precedent that has been set.
Senators should spend more time keeping promises than conjuring up new ones to break, such as the shift of casino revenue away from educational allocation in a system that now teeters on bankrunner.
What would happen to our state of community if the average Kansas resident mimicked the communal standard set by our Legislature?
Sullivan is a Lawrence senior in English
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10
Campus-wide Hide-and-Seek, Wescoe Beach at 9 p.m. on Wednesday night.
See you there.
I am in a sorority and I have to say that as much as I want to support our greek newspaper, it's the most pathetic display of journalism I have ever seen, and I'm embarrassed to be associated with it.
10
Norm Chomsky is the leftist Rush Limbaugh.
To the girl who thinks that Mr. Channel 6 is hot, this is Mrs. Channel 6. Back off.
The Gravity Train is gonna lead us to the promised land.
life working against sexual harassment and sexual abuse. It is the attitude behind close-minded and ignorant accusations such as these that prevent our culture from moving forward on these issues.
图
I'd just like to give a shoutout to the hot girls on Wescoe Beach today with the KUnited campaign, and yea for the fliers, and Muck Farquette.
You know, there's nothing to ruin a nice day on Wescoe Beach like Student Senate elections. P.S. Delta Force, I can smell you from where I'm sitting.
To the person who said that Michael Moore didn't graduate from college and Bush graduated from Yale, Bush was admitted to and graduated from Yale largely due to his father's influence and graduated with, at best, a C average. Bill Gates didn't graduate from college, and neither did Gandhi. Who should be making the decisions? You tell me.
life working against sexual harassment and sexual abuse. It is the attitude behind close-minded and ignorant accusations such as these that prevent our culture from moving forward on these issues.
To the person who said law students aren't smart enough to find the crosswalk, I have two things to say. First of all, we're smart enough to know that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, and second of all, we're smart enough to know that, if you hit us, we'll sue you. Thanks.
--life working against sexual harassment and sexual abuse. It is the attitude behind close-minded and ignorant accusations such as these that prevent our culture from moving forward on these issues.
[ ]
If you think Bush is smarter than Michael Moore, then you're even stupidier than Bush is. If that's possible.
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Fighting for peace is like screwing for chastity.
Delta Force uses the Greek symbol for change. KUnited uses Greek symbols that say, "We're pretty and throw Frisbees on Wescos Beach, so vote for us so that we can become the future of the Kansas Republican party."
PERSPECTIVE
Dailey counteracts unhealthy sexual practices
The Womyn's Empowerment Action Coalition, a group of feminist activists on campus, would like to express its complete support and admiration for Dennis Dailey. Many members of the organization have taken his classes on sexuality and learned a great deal about themselves, human sexuality and healthy, respectful relationships.
His teaching and commitment to ending sexual violence is greatly appreciated, and we consider him a vital part of this University and an ally for positive social change. We are shocked and dismayed at the recent allegations against him and the state's recent amendment to cut funding for programs deemed objectionable.
Who is the almighty person is who can determine what is objectionable? The law uses words such as "reasonable" and "average" when discussing censorship of sexuality in our country. Religious fanatics don't consider feminists or queers reasonable, but we don't consider religious fanatics reasonable, either. It is dangerous for the state to have the power to censor sexuality.
Dailey is a die-hard supporter of women's rights and has spent his entire
It is ironic that a day this student seemed to find most objectionable was the day homosexuality was discussed in class. This seems to be more of an issue of bigotry on her part. If a person has a prejudice against homosexuals, of course he or she will find discussion of homosexual sexual behavior vulgar. Should bigots dictate the acceptability of discussions of homosexuality? We certainly hope not.
As far as showing pornographic materials, Dailey is honest about the nature of audio and visual materials used in his class. He also is using these materials for educational purposes to promote healthy and respectful sexuality and sexual behavior. Masturbation is normal, natural and healthy — as is sex. The Victorian era was over more than 200 years ago. Perhaps it is time to move past Victorian ideas about human sexuality.
Dailey promotes healthy relationships and healthy expression of sexuality. The people in his class are adults and should
be mature enough to behave like adults and to discuss adult topics. The human body is nothing to be ashamed of. Perhaps, if we were all a little more educated about it, there would be less sexual misuse and abuse of the human body.
As for the allegation that he uses child pornography, since when is human biology pornographic? Knowledge of the human body and human sexuality includes knowledge of our sexual organs.
Dailey uses educational, not pornographic, photographs of children's genitalia to show human sexual development. Are all human biology books now to be censored? Can biologists and medical students no longer learn what the human body looks like or learn about the stages of human sexual development?
Human growth and development are natural processes and should not be treated as taboo. We all have sexual organs and should all be educated about them so we can make informed decisions about our own sexuality and sexual behavior. If students are too embarrassed to look at the human body, perhaps they should do more growing up before taking Dailey's class.
It is ignorance, silence and fear of sexuality that helps to create the climate of sexual misuse that our society lives in. That causes so many people - women and men - to suffer.
Dailey works to educate people about sexuality so they can use sexuality in a healthy and responsible manner and treat others' sexuality with respect. Last fall, Dailey took part in the Womyn's Empowerment Action Coalition's panel discussion on rape and spoke out about treating people with respect, having a healthy sexuality and respecting people's sexual and emotional boundaries. He also has been the facilitator of the men's circle at the Womyn Take Back the Night March.
We are grateful that men like Dailey exist and are actively educating people about healthy sexuality.
We cannot allow narrow minds and homophobia.
We cannot allow the state to dictate what can and cannot be taught.
Our outrage at this knows no bounds, nor does our support of Dailey and of academic freedom.
Beth Peterson for the Wonnyn's Empowerment Action Coalition.