Opinion THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN McNAUGHTON: TAKING A LOOK AT TOSE WHO DENY GLOBAL WARMING COMING TUESDAY MONDAY, APRIL 13,2009 United States First Amendment WWW.KANSAN.COM Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. FREE FOR ALL To contribute to Free for All, visit Kansan.com or call (785) 864-0500. I really just want to live in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer universe. That would own. I'm about to do dishes for the first time in three weeks and there are so many that I have to carry them to the sink room in an 18-by-12-by-8-inch box. I'm two things in one:a man and a smart shopper. --- The economics TA should not wear black when he has to use the chalkboard. Just letting ya Easter eggs? Hunting? My two favorite things! --- My parents don't send care packages. My heart is sad. --- I think I like the idea of White-Out more than I actually like White-Out. --- To the girl who pooped all over my bathroom floor, rug, and toilet bowl, you did a really bad job cleaning it up. PAGE 9A I forget what sleeping at night feels like. --- Roommate One, screaming: "Hell yeah!! Take that — I just made you my bitch!" Roommate Two: "What're you talkin' 'bout?" Roommate One: "Nothin', just owned my physics extra credit." What the hell, what the hell? Remember "Face" from Nick Jr.? Oh, he was so witty. Do you think it's possible for people to change dramatically? --- I really want a nice, smart, funny, cute girl. Eating contest to see who could finish 20 turbo buffalo wings at Jefferson's the fastest right before a chemistry test — worst idea EVER! To the girl putting makeup on on the bus,you looked pretty Woohoo, hiding from my extended family! Damn, you, Tiger Woods. SNL isn't even funny anymore. --- When I make Easy Mac, it's never easy. EDITORIAL BOARD Get to know Haskell; debunk stereotypes "At Steak 'n Shake this weekend, we saw some really drunk guys going into the bathroom, and without thinking, I asked if they were having a pow-wow in there. They were all from Haskell. FML." So the student feels bad. So we laugh about it. But what does it tell you when the only press First Nations, the University's Native American student group, got for a pow-wow this weekend was in an ad the group took out its[?] - Free for All, April 7 Sadly, this is reflective of the climate that reigns at the top of the hill. In my opinion, comments such as this reveal that the white majority displays an abysmal lack of awareness and understanding about Native culture, and subsequently, our closest collegiate neighbor. Haskell Indian Nations University lies roughly three miles away from our campus, but you would think it was farther, considering the ignorance that exists here. From the top of the hill, however, many have no idea that right below is the only four-year intertribal school in the nation. As Becky Welton, the coordinator of the Haskell Bridge Program, said to me, "I used to live in north ern Arizona, about an hour from the Grand Canyon. What used to surprise me was that there were people who lived there who had never been there. I find that here in Lawrence. You drive by Haskell when you go down 23rd Street, but very few people come and take advantage. It is kind of amazing." It is awareness, not programs, that are lacking. The University offers a graduate program called Global Indigenous Nations Studies, but I would guess that few know that. Patti Wakolee, academic advisor, is the coordinator of the Haskell Mentor Program for transfer students from Haskell as well as the Haskell/KU Exchange Program. Through the exchange, Haskell students can come to the University, and KU students can experience Haskell's uniquely Native-based education program. Haskell offers courses such as Diabetes on the Reservation and the popular Western Civilization from a non-Western perspective. Despite these opportunities, only about ten students from each university participate in the exchange each year. "I am surprised there are so many people that don't know about the history and the culture," said Marjeanna Burge, Fort Worth graduate student. "It seems like there would be more of a push for that from a big university like KU." Despite being a grad student, Burge said, she feels no sense of community here, but instead finds it at Haskell. And it's little wonder when the predominately white campus population chuckles at racial stereotypes in the Free for All. Wakolee surprised me with her upbeat attitude in response to the comment. "It's a teachable moment," she said. "I challenge that student to participate, to take a class. One of the reasons students go to college is to debunk myths that they have had growing up." There are incredible opportunities for the two universities in Lawrence to work together on research and cultural activities. There is the opportunity for wonderful dialogue and conversations. I dare each of you to follow Wakolee's advice: step out of the bubble on top of the hill. Debunk those myths. EDITORIAL CARTOON Daldorph is a Lawrence junior in journalism and French. TYLER DOEHRING IN CASE YOU MISSED IT Jouglas County Sheriff's Department THE CONTEXT The bond set for Derek Foster, who was arrested in connection with the drive-by shooting at The Hawk on March 26. Foster, 24, of Stillwell, was charged on Friday with three counts of aggravated battery. Last week's items you might have missed. Check out Kansan.com Roundup for full stories. THE CONTEXT File photo by Ryan McGeeney/KANSAN The number of Student Senate debates. One took place Friday afternoon. A second debate, hosted by campus media, will take place today at 1:30 p.m. in the KUJH-TV studio in the Dole Human Development Center. It will also be posted on Kansan.com. THE CONTEXT April, the fourth month of the year, is Sexual Violence Awareness Month. The Pantyline project encouraged students to write their opinions of sexual assault on paper cut-outs of panties and underwear. File photo by Ryan McGeeney/KANSAN THE CONTEXT The number of years between celebrations of the Jewish holiday Birchat Hachama, "Blessing of the Sun." Students and other worshipers met the morning of April 8 at South Park to celebrate the rare event. The holiday is held to thank God for the sun and occurs on the day when the sun is said to be in the same position as when it was created. THE CONTEXT THE CONTEXT The amount of the Charles M. Schultz Award, which went to Grant Snider, a former KU student and cartoonist for The Kansan. The award is given annually to one college cartoonist nationwide. Snider was a chemical engineering student at the University and is now studying dentistry at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. See examples of Snider's work at Kansan.com. STUDENT LIFE Be cool; don't vote I'm going to level with you, fair reader. Two elections ago, when I was still a registered voter in Lawrence. I chose not to vote in the Congressional midterm elections. Why? I just didn't feel like it. Class, eating and taking a nap were all priorities. Voting for people who had little to no effect on me was not. Besides, voting damaged my Fonzie-esque cool vibes. To reinforce my coolness, I decided to cruise by the polling place on my rockin' motorcycle. As I passed, I did a wheelie, which kicked up mud in the face of some nerd who was proudly sporting an "I Voted" sticker. Or at least I like to imagine I did. (I actually drive a Honda Fit, which is a car whose principal ownership consists of middle-aged women. It is very hard to do anything cool in a Honda Fit.) Naturally, I took a lot of guff for this. I find that people are so obsessed with the democratic process that they will publicly call me out on it and accuse me of ruining the nation with my apathy and laziness. Gen. George Marshall never voted, and look at all the wonderful things he did for our nation! One of my friends got flipped off and chewed out by some guy after she revealed she hadn't voted in that same election. Frankly, behavior like that makes me want to vote even less. It's my vote, and I can do whatever I want with it. This includes sitting on it like a lump, which I did during this particular election. Honestly, I wasn't informed about the election at all and couldn't have cared less about who was running. Would you rather I strut into the voting booth with my sunglasses on and just vote for whoever's name I thought sounded most like the word "fat" (I actually briefly considered doing this)? I might have accidentally given Galactius an electoral mandate to devour the planet. Then wouldn't you have egg on your face, ultra-judgmental voter types? And guess what? Nothing bad happened after I ignored my democratic duties. Hitler wasn't elected as the Kansas representative to Congress, and I felt like a new man after a three-hour power nap. Take that, middle-finger guy. You know who you are. You would probably flip off a baby if you found out he didn't vote. Let's be real about this. There are enough elderly people out there who actually do care about midterm elections that someone will inevitably get elected (although I would like to see what would happen if no one got elected). So why are we, as twenty-somethings, the coolest people alive, wasting our cool time being squirreled away behind striped curtains? This is time that could be spent purchasing leather jackets, drinking, smoking in high-school parking lots and combing our greasy hair. We can vote when we're old and gassy. Neubauer is a Lynn Haven, Fla., senior in journalism. FROM ILLINOIS BY DANEILA BLOCH Northwestern U. Daily Northwestern Think twice before you dig into dinner Food officially freaks me out. And I have one book ("The Omnivore's Dilemma") to thank for this phobia. The book argues that we Americans eat a lot of crap that damages our bodies, devastates the environment, hurts barnyard animals and encourages us to turn a blind eye to all of the above. By the end, even vegans look like hypocrites. Cows and salmon raised shortterm on mass farms are fed corn they cannot naturally digest and an antibiotic cocktail to make the food go down more easily, if at all. Apples are coated with corn (wax) to stay shiny, and organic rice processed in factories is seasoned with chopped mice by way of impartial machinery. Then there the world of suspiciously processed foods. Of the 38 ingredients in a chicken nugget, 13 come from corn, some are a type of meat and then there's my favorite: TBHQ (a type of butane that the FDA permits in small doses). Something's got to be safe. though, right? That's why we have the FDA, which allows peanut butter, frozen pizza and even kitchen spices to contain delicious things such as rodent hair and excrement, maggots and cigarette butts Yum. (To really throw up, go read The New York Times" "The Maggots in Your Mushrooms") We are, thanks to no one but ourselves, a nation of corn-fed, chemical doused Twinkies. Is it any wonder that two-thirds of all Americans older than 20 are obese or overweight? I'm not suggesting you eat dandelions and start your own petting zoo, but you should realize that the way we produce food today is not all right, and it wouldn't be so bad to find a remedy. I started the book in order to find a solid argument for vegetarianism, one to wield against haters who harass me at the mere mention of tofu. Instead, I found an argument for why every one of us — carnivore, omnivore, herbivore or 7-Eleven — is at fault. I realized why everything looks like a flaming corn husk or a crying cow. If we really are what we eat, then we are all rotting from the inside. — UWire HOW TO SUBMIT A LETTER TO THE EDITOR LETTER GUIDELINES Send letters to opinionkansan.com Write **LETTER TO THE EDITOR** in the e-mail subject line. Length: 300 words The submission should include the author's name, grade and hometown. Find our full letter to the editor policy online at Kansan.com/letters. Mary Sorrick, managing editor 864-4810 or msorick@kansan.com CONTACT US Tara Smith, managing editor 864-4810 or tsmith@ikansan.com Brenna Hawley, editor 864-4810 or bhawley@kansan.com Kelsey Hayes, konsant.com managing editor 894-213-0368 Katie Blankenau, opinion editor 864-4924 or kblankenausikansan.com Dan Thompson, editorial editor 864-4924 or dthompson@kansan.com Laura Vest, business manager 864-4358 or lvest@kansan.com Dani Eker, sales manager 864-4771 or darikerxikansan.com Malcolm Gibson, general manager and news adviser 864-7667 malcolmgibson@kyanam.com Jon Schitt, sales and marketing adviser 864-7666 jon.schitt@microsoft.com THE EDITORIAL BOARD Members of the Kannan Editorial Board are Brenna Hawley, Tara Smith, Mary Sorrick, Keiley Hayes and Daniel Thompson