TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2000
NEWS
4A - THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
OPINION
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2003
TALKTOUS
Kristi Henderson
884-4854 or khenderson@kansan.com
Jenna Goepert and Justin Henning
*managing editors*
884-4854 or jgoepert@kansan.com and
*jhenning@kanan.com*
Leah Shaffer
readers' representative
864-4810 or lshaffer@kansan.com
Amanda Sears and Lindsay Hanson
opinion editors
864-4924 or opinion@kansan.com
Eric Kelting business manager 864-4358 or adsales.kansan.com
Sarah Jantz
retail sales manager
864-4358 or adsales.kansan.com
Malcolm Gibson
general manager and news adviser
864-7667 or mgibson@kansan.com
Matt Fisher
Matt Fisher
sales and marketing adviser
884-7666 or mfisher@kanan.com
McDonald's suit calls for return to responsibil-
In a huge blow for frivolous lawsuits everywhere, the case of Pelman v. McDonald's was thrown
man v. McDonald's was thrown out of court. The plaintiffs had charged McDonald's with causing them to grow obese and in a greater sense contributing to the growing epidemic of obesity. Their argument was that the restaurant chain had not appropriately warned customers of the high cholesterol, salt and fat content of its food. We have come to the line in the sand in corporate responsibility litigation. Lawsuits have replaced common sense and this practice must stop.
The people represented by the plaintiffs in this lawsuit seem to be a somewhat nebulous group. It is difficult to imagine someone with such a dim grasp of basic nutrition that he or she has no idea that an Egg McMuffin for breakfast and a Big Mac for dinner (the stated diet of one of the plaintiffs) do not represent healthy eating habits. Would a collective "Duh!" not be in order here?
The story was much more plausible with cigarettes sold before labeling, especially considering their addictive nature. But as we slide down the slippery slope of the death of personal responsibility we can only imagine the nature of future litigation. How long until a lawsuit is brought against the concrete manufacturers for failing to inform the public that their product will skin knees? How many years will it be before Bic pens will be labeled "Warning: Jabbing into eye may cause blindness."
We should reject this sort of litigation as an insult to our collective intelligence and attempt to return to common sense and personal responsibility.
Mallt Piree for the edithiola board
Mallt Piree for the edithiola board
SUBMITTING LEITERS AND GUEST COLUMNS
The Kansan welcomes letters to the editors and guest columns submitted by students, faculty and alumni.
The Kansan reserves the right to edit, cut to length, or reject all submissions. For any questions, call Amanda Sears or Lindsay Hanson at 864-4924 or e-mail at opinion@kansan.com. If you have general questions or comments, e-mail the readers' representative at readersren@kansan.com
The Kansan will run as many submissions as possible that conform to these guidelines.
GUEST COLUMN GUIDELINES
Maximum Length:
650 word limit
Include:
Author's name
Class, hometown (student)
Position (faculty member)
Also:
The Kansan will not publish guest columns that attack another columnist.
LETTER GUIDELINES
Maximum Length:
Maximum Length:
200 word limit
Include:
Author's name
Author's telephone number
Class, hometown (student)
Position (faculty member)
SUBMITTO
E-mail:
opinion@kansan.com
Hard copy:
Kansen newsroom
111 Stauffer-Flint
STINSON'S VIEW
Zach Stinson for The University Daily Kansan
PERSPECTIVE
Nation not watching this time, failing to appreciate importance
W here were you when the Challenger exploded? It's a question people my age ask one another. After the Sept. 11 attacks, when everyone had a story about where they were and what they were doing when they heard about the terrorist attacks, we thought back to the last big catastrophe that consumed the nation that we could remember. We came up with the Challenger.
GUEST COMMENTARY
Last weekend, for the second time in our memory, another space shuttle streaked out of the sky.
But it was different this time. The nation wasn't watching. We heard about Columbia when we stumbled out of bed late Saturday morning, when someone called to ask us if we had heard.
So, where were we?
Forty years ago, there wasn't a space launch that wasn't above-the-fold news. We raced against the Russians, hoping to beat them to the moon.
I can't imagine what it was like to live back then, when astronauts were regarded as national heroes and were just as famous as movie stars.
We made it safely to the moon and back six times. In the early 1980s, the shuttle program promised us a new way to reach the stars.
Over time, shuttle flights became almost routine. A series of "everyday" people, including a congressman and a teacher, were chosen to fly as part of the shuttle crews alongside the engineers, pilots and scientists who made up the astronaut corps.
Astronauts came to our schools, giving presentations and showing us videos of them floating in space. Just about everyone my age, including me, wanted to be an astronaut someday. Who wouldn't want to float around in space, playing with M&M's and giant orange globs of Tang?
Sarah Hill shill@kansan.com
After the Challenger exploded in 1986, space lost a little bit of its luster. NASA, it seemed, was awash in bureaucratic finger pointing. Space was once again a risky business. Astronauts, including the everyday people who brought space closer to home, were no longer immortal.
And that was it. More than 50 launches passed under the national radar screen. Except for a few notable flights in the last 15 years, including the Hubble Space Telescope missions, the first African-American woman, Mae Jemison's flight in space, and John Glenn's shuttle mission, space flight quietly became routine again.
Times are different now. The nation wasn't watching this time. But we saw enough to convince us that space is still a dangerous place in which to travel.
Only two of the last 113 shuttle flights
We were reminded of the dangers on Saturday.
Columbia carried a number of scientific experiments on board, including experiments that tested the effects of microgravity on the kidneys, brain, heart and lungs. The astronauts grew plants in space and tested technology that could monitor the ozone layer. Other experiments involved systems that could lower emissions in cars.
have been lost: almost a 98 percent success rate. As shuttles age, there will be new challenges to maintain these successes. But the missions the shuttle helps humans perform are no less important today.
The space program can still help us explore science and construct an international space station. It truly is one of the last forms of exploration humans can take part in. Footage of the astronauts' last flight on Columbia showed seven people having the time of their lives. They knew the risks involved and accepted them fully.
Now, it's time for us to remember those risks but continue to support the space program. We need adventure in our lives. We need to support space science and technology spin-offs that come from the space program, technology that makes our lives easier and even better.
And, above all, we need to remember the seven astronauts who died this week as heroes, who died for a truly beneficial cause.
Let's hope NASA can fix the problems that plagued Columbia. Let's go back to the world's last frontier.
Hill is an Andover senior in journalism.
She is a campus editor for the Kansan.
Free forAll
Free for All callers have 20 seconds to speak about any topic they wish. Kansas 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.
This dude has been driving around the Chi-O fountain all afternoon. Why would anyone do that? And why is he alone?
before that first shuttle loss.
Beware of a guy driving a white Honda Accord. He may be the guy who spent the entire afternoon driving around the Chi Omega fountain.
--before that first shuttle loss.
Do I really need to shower because I smell bad, or do I smell bad because I really need to shower?
I'm watching the new KUH, and it's pretty cool except that the visual is off with the audio, so it looks like I'm watching a foreign movie.
□
When is a graduate teacher not a GTA? When KU changes them to a lecturer, cuts their benefits and pay and tries not to let them have a contract.
图
图
All degree-seeking graduate teachers should be GTAs with benefits. KU, stop exploiting your workers.
To the guys that live in the house on Ohio Street that threw the party Friday night, the odds were 10-3. You lost.
图
Here's a dilemma. PlayStation 2, or a ring for my girlfriend for Valentine's Day? What's a guy to do?
Sometimes I wish I could get my phone number changed to a number that would be more easy for me to remember, like 222-2222. That way, when people say, "Hey, what's your phone number?" I can say, "Just press 2 for awhile. And when I pick up the phone, you'll know you've pressed it enough times."
---
目
before that first shuttle loss.
Save me from myself.
before that first shuttle loss.
And may God have mercy on all seven astronauts' souls.
I will make him the George Clooney of obese people.
This may make me sound closed-minded, but I really don't appreciate a naked guy damaging my house.
before that first shuttle loss.
I found some keys by Potter's Lake that had a white/cream-colored bottle opener on them. If they're yours, you can find them at the KUPD office in Carruth-O'Leary.
PERSPECTIVE
Columbia's mission, symbolism taken for granted
Seventeen minutes from touchdown, the Space Shuttle Columbia was lost some 200,000 feet above Earth.
A crew of seven would not touch down in Florida, would not see their loved ones waiting in the grandstands, would not shake each other's hands in congratulations, and would not begin again their most dangerous task of sailing toward the heavens.
STS-107 would be a mission NASA never wholly completed, and as the news of the disaster spread across the country many of us were transported back in time seventeen years to another clear winter's morning when we looked to the sky and found heartbreak instead of wonder in America's Space Program.
I was in the first grade when Challenger was lost on Jan. 28, 1986 and I remember that day vividly. Some may not believe that memories of such a young age would be so defined. Nonetheless, the reasons for my remembrance stem from the many mornings
GUEST COMMENTARY
Ravi DeSilva opinion@kansan.com
Those were the times when I found such happiness in watching Columbia soar upon a pillar of smoke and fire into the deepening blue, a realm of dreams and my earliest childhood fantasies.
Columbia was the embodiment of that vision.
During the 22 years the orbiter was in service, my relationship to the splendid vessel grew like a wonderful friendship. It was more than just another craft, for it had woven itself into the better parts of who I hoped to be and I never lost the dream that one day far off, I would find myself looking out its windows past the
shuttle bay doors and onto the grandest vista humanity could ever experience of the planet we call home.
For many of those missions I remember sitting in silence and awe as men and women dared to do what was becoming understood in this country as routine.
Columbia was the oldest shuttle in NASA's fleet and had logged more than 300 days of orbit and traveled more than 100 million miles. During that time, astronauts had conducted hundreds of experiments, deployed and recovered satellites, assisted in the building of the international space station, and perhaps most importantly, advanced the human race's grandest goals of exploration, reaching out beyond our world into the palace of the stars.
Yet, the years of training and preparation undertaken to achieve just two weeks in orbit and the hundreds of people who spent their entire careers ensuring that the ships flew and the crews of these most complicated of all machines would return safely home knew that nothing would
Now, none of us will forget that nothing is routine about coming home either.
ever be routine about riding a Roman candle into the vastness of space.
On the first day of February 2003, I had a great sadness in my heart. While we all lost seven of our best, I also feel the loss of a starship that had been a tremendous inspiration for my entire life.
Columbia was named for America; it is the personification of the spirit that is embedded in the aspirations of people who set the loftest of goals and through unrelenting determination accomplish these aims. I can only hope that even though the Columbia is gone, its spirit that is so integrally would into me and all those of my generation, will once again soar.
Once more, Columbia will "let slip the surly bounds of Earth to touch the face of God," as written by British pilot John Gillespie McGee Jr. in his poem, "High Flight," in 1941.
DeSilva is a Topeka graduate student in anthropology.