MONDAY,MARCH 24,2003
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN - 3A
Kolley Weiss/Kansan
Protesters against a war in Iraq march down Massachusetts Street yesterday afternoon without permission from the police. The demonstrators marched from City Hall to the Douglas County Courthouse. Some protesters then went to the Lawrence Free State tent camp area at South Park. The tent camp was formed for people to show their opposition to a war in Iraq.
Camp protests war in Iraq
By Kelley Weiss
kweiss@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
After marching down Massachusetts Street yesterday afternoon without permission from the police, Nicole Burton returned to the tent camp she stayed at last night in downtown Lawrence.
Approximately 25 tents went up around South Park on Saturday to form a community called Lawrence Free State in protest to the war in Iraq. Members of the community, who have agreed to live in the commune-like arrangement, said they formed the tent camp as a symbolic succession from the American government.
Dave, who would not give his last name, is living in the tent community. The Black Cat Collective member said that about 50 to 75 people had moved in as of yesterday.
People living in the Lawrence Free State tent camp said they did not want to be associated with the
American administration and decision to wage war with Iraq.
Some members marched from Sixth Street to 11th Street yesterday before returning to the camp. The demonstrators, who chanted "No war! More peace! Bring your voices to the street!" were met with pro-war responses and angry gestures from downtown pedestrians.
Burton, a senior at Lawrence High School, said the tent camp was a strong way to show their opposition to the war.
"This is a visually outright condemnation to the war," Burton said. "It's a symbolic way to show how we are distancing ourselves from the war."
The members of the Lawrence Free State meet twice daily to make decisions about how the tent camp will operate. The activities the community will organize include having forums to discuss the war and alternatives for peace, hosting dance parties and showing movies for educational purposes.
freshman, said the camp was a great community environment. He also said being at the camp gave him an outlet to express his frustration with the United States led war in Iraq. By having a permanent camping site to show his opposition to the war, Ivanov said he was able to get his opinion across.
Ruslan Ivanov, Lawrence
"I absolutely despise the culture of domination that is responsible for the war," Ivanov said.
Camping at the site every night is a goal for Ivanov, and he said he would camp there as much as opportunity permits.
Burton and Ivanov both said the police had not approached them yet about camping there without a permit, and a police dispatcher said the department had not formed an official statement as of last night on whether the Lawrence Free State community would be permitted to keep its camp in the park.
- Edited by Brandon Gay
Candidate wants kingship
By date Butcheries
cbatchelder@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
By Cate Batchelder
Eric Braem/Kansan
Brett Wadsworth, Overland Park senior, said that Student Senate would accomplish more under a monarchy, in which one person made all decisions with the help of advisers. Wadsworth is running for student body president under the Lord Wads and the 12 Knights of the Crusade campaign.
It was in a dream when Brett Wadsworth saw his vision to be king of the University of Kansas.
"I was sleeping and a voice told me to wake up," Wadsworth, Overland Park senior, said. "So I woke up and saw an elliptical eye with white around the sides, just like in the movies."
In the middle of the eye, a king was riding a horse down Jayhawk Boulevard, which was flanked with people cheering him on and throwing white flowers.
"It was more of a symbol of change than me actually being king," he said.
Wadsworth will try to shake things up as Lord Wads, student body presidential candidate of Lord Wads and the 12 Knights of the Crusade.
Wadsworth was that ornery boy growing up, his mom said.
"Wads is a good ball," said Andy Foertsch, Lenexa senior and Wadsworth's vice presidential running mate. "This is his whole deal. We're just happy to see Wadsworth doing something."
"He could never be in trouble though because he'd make me
His Camelot theme took root long before the dream. Growing up, his mom, Becky, a preschool teacher, would read him countless stories that he and his two brothers would re-enact in the backyard. His favorite story, though, was Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. It's about an ornery boy sent to his room without supper but escapes to a fantasy world full monsters where he becomes the King of All Wild Things.
laugh the next minute," she said.
When Brett was 4, Becky would take him grocery shopping. They would get to the checkout line and underneath the bread and eggs would be hidden packs of beer and Gold's chewing tobacco. She looked at him and asked what he thought he was doing, to which he replied, "Please Mom, just let me try it once."
Or there was the time in fourth grade when Brett and a couple of his friends, all current KU students, coded a sentence in hieroglyphics for a mummy art exhibit that read "I'm King Tut. Kiss my butt."
And just last year, Brett prank called his mom as "Officer Johnson" saying that her son wouldn't make it home for Thanksgiving because he was arrested for streaking on campus. Becky asked "Officer Johnson" if her son was completely nude. He said. "No, he had a cape and a hat on." Completely upset, she was getting ready to drive up to Lawrence
from the family's home in Overland Park to get him out of jail when "Officer Johnson's" voice cracked, and she realized it was her son.
"I could have driven up there just to slap him," she said.
Although Wadsworth hasn't graduated from being that ornery boy in Where the Wild Things Are, he has moved on to books such as Sun Tezu's The Art of War and Machiavelli's The Prince.
The English and philosophy major keeps his beloved books stacked safe by his bed. He said he would take advice from his books in the elections.
"It's all set up for you, like 'Keep your friends close and your enemies closer,'" he said. "It's not like KUnited or Delta Force are my enemies or anything, but I'm going to be hand-in-hand with what they're doing. I mean, that's why we went to their coalition parties."
Edited by Brandon Gay