4A • THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
OPINION
FRIDAY,MARCH 28,2003
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EDITORIAL BOARD
Protesters Advocate cause until war ends
The Kansan editorial board issues the members of the Free State Community a challenge: Validate an otherwise comical protest by sticking to your guns and following this thing through to the end. Like it or not, you will be ejected from South Park. Find a new spot for your city and stay there until the termination of this so-called unjust war.
The Lawrence Free State Community will be broken up. City officials will remove them from South Park shortly. This is a moment of truth for this protest movement. Is this a publicity stunt or is there real passion here?
Hit the streets and the surrounding areas; find a new ground. Once there, reestablish your tent city and dig in your heels.
President Bush and the administration are warning America to prepare for a long conflict, so prepare yourselves for a long camping trip.
Prove to the city and everyone else who will listen that you are willing to continue your demonstration indefinitely. Prove that you are willing to continue, even if the novelty of tent life wears off, reporters and photographers stop coming and the weather deviates from the sunny 70s we have been enjoying of late.
If you cannot sustain the protest until the bitter end of the war, we suggest that you recognize the worth of promoting hot showers and air conditioning.
Matt Pirotte for the editorial board
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111 Stauffer-Flint
STINSON'S VIEW
PERSPECTIVE
Ninth Circuit Court decision makes U.S. seem hypocritical
There has been much misunderstanding about a controversial
There has been much misunderstanding about a controversial ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The court ruled that recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, when led by teachers, was an unconstitutional act. Since that day, the ruling has been misconstrued by the lay public to mean that anytime anyone said the pledge, it was somehow an unconstitutional act. This is not the case.
The United States enjoys freedom of religion because of a small phrase in the Constitution that says, "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion." This phrase does not mean that Congress is only to avoid establishing a national church. It says that Congress shall do nothing that could be seen as a national endorsement of a particular religious creed.
COMMENTARY
Does the United States seem to any casual observer to endorse religion? Yes. We may give lip service to the idea that we have freedom of religion, but how free are we?
Many courthouses across the United States, including the Supreme Court, are fighting to keep up large displays of the Ten Commandments, citing them as the basis of our laws. As if we would never have figured out that it was a bad idea to kill one other. But consider Hinduism, a polytheistic religion. When the local government tells you that the laws you live under are based in an ancient document that commands you to have no other God before the God of the Bible, what
Matthew Dunavan
opinion@kansan.com
There is no way around it. "Under God" is a religious statement that establishes the existence of a deity and says that said deity is the sole god that watches over us. As a person of a minority religious viewpoint whose people have been persecuted for centuries, including one of the worst cases of religious intolerance in all of Western history, I know what it is like to be looked down on for being different. The pressure to conform, at least in thought, is enormous.
does that say about your beliefs?
Congress opens with a prayer. "In God we Trust" is printed on our national money. Students were formerly forced to recite the Lord's Prayer and study scripture in public schools. There is nothing wrong with statements of religious belief, but to insert them by legislation into the public sphere is to give the government's stamp of approval, or endorsement, to a particular type of religion.
Ruling the phrase "Under God" in the pledge unconstitutional does not diminish the free exercise of anyone's political rights. All people, including me, are free to recite the pledge, the Lord's Prayer or scriptural passages, whenever and wherever they like. That includes public school buildings. The Constitution only prohibits that the government appears to be endorsing what I say while reciting one of those.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that, when a teacher leads the class in saying the Pledge, you are free not to say it with no mandated school punishment. But you are still not free. Psychological coercion plays a role in what we say and do, from the way we dress to the things we do on Friday nights. Children with minority religious viewpoints who are faced with a school full of peers and choose to refuse saying the pledge open themselves up for ostracization and isolation. Most young children will choose to compromise their beliefs rather than face teasing and ridicule.
To have a government free from endorsement of religion is the only way to preserve the beautiful religious traditions of our country. It is not political correctness run amok; it is the necessity that allows all religious persuasions, from Jew to Muslim to Buddhist to Religious Humanist, to practice their religion with the dignity that befits all religious practices. By taking this unpopular position, I, at least, will support "Liberty and justice for all."
Matthew Dunavan is a Topeka Senior in political science and philosophy.
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Michael Moore is a traitor and a disgrace to this country.
between getting items and paying for them. A cashier swipes a card and the shopper walks away with his purchases without giving any money. How convenient. You can shop all day and not spend a cent. And when the bill comes, it doesn't seem connected to what you bought.
between getting items and paying for them. A cashier swipes a card and the shopper walks away with his purchases without giving any money. How convenient. You can shop all day and not spend a cent. And when the bill comes, it doesn't seem connected to what you bought.
Old women must have a thing for X-Men, because my grandma's favorite character is Cyclops.
For the guy who called Charlton Heston a racist, maybe you should do your research next time, because Charlton Heston was in the Million Man March with Martin Luther King back in the sixties. So put that in your pipe and smoke it.
--between getting items and paying for them. A cashier swipes a card and the shopper walks away with his purchases without giving any money. How convenient. You can shop all day and not spend a cent. And when the bill comes, it doesn't seem connected to what you bought.
The people who run the whistle should spend more time fixing it and less time naming it.
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This is to the genius who shot off the firework last night that went by the 10- East wing of McCollum. Who sets off a firework in March at 1 a.m.? Let me just say that there are about 25 girls who are seriously pissed off at you right now.
between getting items and paying for them. A cashier swipes a card and the shopper walks away with his purchases without giving any money. How convenient. You can shop all day and not spend a cent. And when the bill comes, it doesn't seem connected to what you bought.
In a recent unscientific survey, nine out of 10 Lawrence residents could not care less about the opinion of Meagan Kelleher. So I suppose that if Ms. Kelleher is inclined to follow her own logic, she should drop her idealist attitude and take a seat beside the protesters and celebrities she was so eager to condemn.
I figured out why liberal hippies like trees so much. You can try to reason with a liberal or a tree and you're pretty much going to get the same result.
between getting items and paying for them. A cashier swipes a card and the shopper walks away with his purchases without giving any money. How convenient. You can shop all day and not spend a cent. And when the bill comes, it doesn't seem connected to what you bought.
Hmm, Freedom Fries, Freedom Toast ...
I think I'm going to Freedom Braid my hair now.
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--between getting items and paying for them. A cashier swipes a card and the shopper walks away with his purchases without giving any money. How convenient. You can shop all day and not spend a cent. And when the bill comes, it doesn't seem connected to what you bought.
Whoever decided to have 8 a.m. classes for KU students should be forced to brush his teeth and then drink orange juice right afterward.
Is it any wonder that Dick Cheney's excompany just got one of the first contracts to rebuild oil wells in southern Iraq?
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This is McCollium calling for Hash. War is on!
I was just driving down 11th Street, and I saw seven guys crammed into a red Jeep Wrangler. That was frat-tastic.
between getting items and paying for them. A cashier swipes a card and the shopper walks away with his purchases without giving any money. How convenient. You can shop all day and not spend a cent. And when the bill comes, it doesn't seem connected to what you bought.
Have you seen The Brady Bunch, the old episodes with Cindy when she was about nine? Mmm, eye candy.
Exercise caution when using credit cards
Once long ago, credit cards were offered as a service for emergencies, when a person was unexpectedly dumped into a situation that demanded a large expenditure of money. Now they pay for everything from airplane tickets to a hot dog at Wescoe Tarrace, and credit card companies are eager to shove applications down the throats of anyone they can.
COMMENTARY
Credit card companies make their profits primarily by charging interest and late fees, so responsible people who pay their bills on time and in full are unprofitable given the cost of keeping track of the account. Conversely, people who go through life with a $1,000 balance and make only minimum payments, like many college students, are gold mines.
Sam Lane opinion@hansan.com
In the dark ages before credit cards, people used to pay for their purchases with money. There was the clear understanding that part of purchasing things was giving up the money for them. Now the predatory credit card industry encourages people to use cards for their convenience. Using a card breaks the mental link
I don't know any sure-fire way to avoid credit card debt, short of becoming unrealistically responsible or avoiding cards completely. But the following might help.
First, pay off as much current debt as humanly possible. Setaside part of a pay-check for just that. The less left unpaid, the less interest credit companies charge, and the less you pay them money that you didn't spend.
Also, it might help to reform that buypay association if you make your credit card purchases toward the end of the month, closer to the time you get your bill.
When you're about to use your card to pay for something, ask yourself whether you can pay in cash or write a check instead. If not, ask the obvious question: "If I can't pay for this now, can I pay for it when the bill comes?"
If you are absolutely addicted to the convenience of using credit cards, put them some place unusual such as your shoe. You'll think twice about how convenient credit cards are if you have to take off your shoe in the checkout line to use them and explain the smell to the cashier.
Reform the psychological association between buying and paying by writing down all the credit card purchases you make as soon as you leave the checkout line. Write the purchases on a card that you keep in the same sleeve as your credit card and add the amount to your total on the spot. That way you know exactly how much you need to set aside for this month's bill.
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And be careful when you apply for a card. Obviously, ask whether you need another card before applying. And before you apply, look for two things
First, is there an annual fee (a fee just for having the card, regardless whether you use it)? A lot of cards don't have one, so don't settle for a card that does.
Second, what is the permanent annual percentage rate? All cards push low introductory annual percentage rates to look good, so you get used to not worrying about interest when you leave a balance. It will be your surprise and the company's profit when the introductory period ends and they start charging normal interest. APR offers are as low as 15.9 percent, so don't settle for 20 percent or more with this slow economy driving rates down.
Credit cards are lures to snare people into debt. Not falling for the trap ultimately requires personal responsibility, but nobody's perfect. Until that changes, keep putting the card in your shoe.
Lane is a Leavenworth senior in psychology.
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