Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
O'NEILL: STATE BUDGET CUTS NEEDED ACROSS THE BOARD
United States First Amendment
THURSDAY, JANUARY 29, 2009
COMING FRIDAY
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.
WWW.KANSAN.COM
FREE FOR ALL
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To contribute to Free for All, visit Kansan.com or call (785) 864-0500.
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Someone needs to make a Snuggie made out of Shamwows.
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I would appreciate it if whoever took my flash drive from the music library lab room on Tuesday or Wednesday would return it. My contact info is on the drive Thanks!
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Just say no to Mexican food before the Rec.
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Sex makes me happy and extremely hungry!
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I found my roommate's blog 10 minutes ago and I cannot get enough of it.
So I ended up with the smart, cute, rich guy and now my best friend won't talk to me because she ended up with the loser fat guy. Jealous much?
Hello, stranger, I hope you don't mind me temporarily humping you for this bus ride. It's just, there isn't room, and you seem more willing than everyone else.
I've noticed an epidemic of girls getting on elevators to go up two floors lately and then offering the explanation that they had a really bad day. Unless your bad day includes a broken leg, I don't want to
Bus drivers who say "Thanks for riding the Pineapple Express" when I step off really raise my day to a whole new
--ing contrast to George W. Bush's troubling and misguided foreign policy. The executive order to close Guantanamo Bay, the condemnation of torture and the willingness to engage in dialogue with the rest of the world are all signs that Obama will seriously reconsider Bush's War on Terror
"The Nutcracker" spoiler alert: The Rat King dies.
I still have half of my jumbo cup of coffee. This design project is going down!
--ing contrast to George W. Bush's troubling and misguided foreign policy. The executive order to close Guantanamo Bay, the condemnation of torture and the willingness to engage in dialogue with the rest of the world are all signs that Obama will seriously reconsider Bush's War on Terror
FUDGE!!!!!! This royally sucks!
--ing contrast to George W. Bush's troubling and misguided foreign policy. The executive order to close Guantanamo Bay, the condemnation of torture and the willingness to engage in dialogue with the rest of the world are all signs that Obama will seriously reconsider Bush's War on Terror
To the guy who scraped my car the other day: Thank you. You made my day.
--ing contrast to George W. Bush's troubling and misguided foreign policy. The executive order to close Guantanamo Bay, the condemnation of torture and the willingness to engage in dialogue with the rest of the world are all signs that Obama will seriously reconsider Bush's War on Terror
I had to miss my speech today because I didn't come prepared. Talk about big time FAIL.
--ing contrast to George W. Bush's troubling and misguided foreign policy. The executive order to close Guantanamo Bay, the condemnation of torture and the willingness to engage in dialogue with the rest of the world are all signs that Obama will seriously reconsider Bush's War on Terror
Thanks again people at The Studio for giving me stale bread and expired chips. Mm Mm, sucktastick.
You should do something productive today, like stop breathing.
POLITICS
Calling an end to the 'clash of civilizations'
BEN COLDHAM
Barack Obama's first weeks in power have been a heartening contrast to George W.
But Obama needs to avoid the discursive patterns of the Bush administration, especially if he is going to usher in a new era of foreign policy that is conscious of the immense complexities of the world
Let's consider the last words of Bush and the first words of Obama as presidents of the United States.
In his farewell address, Bush his War on Terror as "a broader struggle between two dramatically different systems." In one, "a small band of fanatics demands total obedience to an oppressive ideology," while the other is "based on the conviction that freedom is the universal gift of Almighty God and that liberty and justice light the path to peace." Although Bush tactfully refused to identify these systems, his intentions were clear: the first system is Islam and the second is the West. It doesn't matter how broad and abstract these categories are; Bush relied on them to make significant foreign policy decisions that have had negative consequences throughout the world.
The foundation of Bush's dichotomy between the West and Islam comes from Samuel Huntington's "celebrated" thesis, "The Clash of
Civilizations," published in 1993. Huntington controversially argued that major conflicts of the future would occur between "civilizations" He proceeded to arbitrarily divide the world into seven major civilizations: Western, Confucian, Japanese, Islamic, Hindu, Slavic Orthodox and Latin American
Never mind that Arab Christians, for example, do not fit any of these labels. Huntington's thesis is a simple, and therefore attractive, way of understanding the world, even if it doesn't exactly correspond to reality.
The absurdity of Huntington's thesis is corroborated by his comment that there might be an African civilization. So, not only does he reduce human diversity to seven abstract and arbitrary categories, he also contributed to the antiquated and offensive belief that people in Africa lack any significant form of civilization.
Bush's foreign policy and discourse inherited a lot from Huntington's thesis. The "us vs. them" arguments, and the ideas of a monolithic Islam and an unavoidable clash of values are all connected to the broader concept of a "dash of civilizations"
These ideas have had devastating consequences, such as ignoring distinctions between Sunnis and
Shites. A big part of our problems with the Middle East stem from ignorance and unwillingness to acknowledge that the region is just as diverse as the rest of the world.
Obama's inauguration speech offered both positive developments and a disappointing continuity of some of Bush's discourse.
He emphasized diversity and the human capacity to solve "old hatreds." But he still used the label "Muslim world," as if it were homogeneous, and connected it to "leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict." This language is troubling. It helps reinforce the "imagined geography," to use Edward Said's term, created by Huntington's thesis and Bush's foreign policy.
And it is from Said that Obama should take some advice. As Said wrote in "Clash of Ignorance," a critique of Huntington's thesis published in The Nation in 2001, "these are tense times, but it is better to think in terms of powerful and powerless communities, the secular politics of reason and ignorance, and universal principles of justice and injustice, than to wander off in search of vast abstractions that may give momentary satisfaction but little self-knowledge or informed analysis."
Obama may be in the process of ending the misled War on Terror, but it is also time to end the use of the misleading idea of a "clash of civilizations."
De Oliveira is a Belo Horizonte, Brazil, senior in history and journalism.
KANSAS DAY
No place like home, even if it's Kansas
As cornny as it sounds, it's like that old cliche: The grass is always greener on the other side of the hill. And it took traveling 1,800 miles from home to finally realize how much I truly love and am proud of the state I live in. Let's face it: I love Kansas
I grew up in Manhattan, which may not seem like the pinnacle of Kansas life to us who live in Lawrence. To be quite honest, by the time I finished with high school, I had thoroughly had it with Manhattan and Kansas. I decided to completely get out of my element and go on an adventure during my freshman year of college, moving to Eugene, Ore., to attend the University of Oregon
Everything was different in Oregon. The weather was milder, but it rained all the time. I could see mountains, fir trees and ducks as I walked across campus. After growing up in the Midwest, the coast was a complete culture shock
KANSAN FILE PHOTO
distinguish between being from Manhattan, Kan., and Manhattan, N.Y.
For the first time, I had to
None of my friends had ever met anyone from Kansas, and a lot of stereotypes about us are floating around. Evolution, corn, Republicans, religion, conservatism, cowboys, cornfields and flatness were just some of the things they found funny about Kansas. Although at first these jokes were amusing, after a while, I started to defend my home state, trying to tell everyone what was so great about living there.
I even told my friends about our highest point, Mt. Sunflower, which stands at a trifling 4,039 feet and resembles more of a hill than a mountain. Coincidentally, Mt. Sunflower is only about 100 miles from Colorado's lowest point, which my Denverite roommate wouldn't let me forget.
It may have been a shock to them that I returned to Kansas this year, but it suits me. I'm glad to be back in my home state, and I've realized that there's a lot to be proud of: the history, the people, the cities, the nature, and in short, everything. Even our mascot, the Jayhawk, reminds us of Kansas' struggles and history.
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It's never until you live somewhere different from what you're used to that you begin to realize all the things you've been missing. And I realized that Kansas means a lot to me because of all the great times I've had here.
So here's to you, Kansas. Happy 148th birthday, from one of your most loyal fans.
Simon is a Manhattan sophomore in journalism and history.
CAMPUS
Students can define Senate
@KANSAN.COM
Read The Kansan's editorial on the Student Senate at www.kansan.com/stories/opinion/
John Kenny is a Kansan columnist and a member of Student Senate. He is writing this column in response to a recent Kansan-Florid.
The attitude of the editorial is encapsulated in Mason Heilman's remark on how "the biggest challenge the Senate faced was helping students understand what the organization could do for them." This talk would do little to ignite my appreciation for the Senate if I were not already a student senator.
provided by Senate," explores the so-called raison d'etre of Student Senate and thus tries to discover why the Senate is important to students. However, students can be important to Senate and define what the organization does. Students who want to get involved in student governance can also join Senate committees that help make decisions about policies such as the $17.50 activity fee which the Senate disperses, the $423.35 per student per semester fee, and the Senate's ability to write resolutions.
The editorial titled "Students should be aware of resources"
The question at hand — What can the Senate do? — is improperly phrased. It might be better to recall the rhetoric of JFK, that is, ask not what the Senate can do for you, but rather what you would like do
or change at the University. The real value of Student Senate lies in its existence as a democratic institution for students, an institution which has approximately one-third say in all University-level decisions (far more than at other Big 12 schools). Such control over our own affairs did not come easily, and it is a tenuous privilege. As Marlesa A. Roney, the vice provost for student success, reminded student senators earlier this year, students must constantly demand their rights or they may be lost.
Most importantly, this real value of the Senate is available to us all. One need not apply for the empty Student Senate seats; all students can be members of the Student Senate fornightly committees, which "take a direct and active role in the legislative process" of Student Senate and essentially make or break the Student Senate agenda.
Once involved, you can make of it what you want. More fees, fewer fees, no fees, applaud Bill Self, sweatshop-free University apparel, responsible use of student e-mail, environmental practices, endowment transparency; it only happens with the realization that anyone, not just the self-selected "clit," can decide for themselves what is best. Perhaps it's time for us to get our hands dirty and start practicing some real democracy.
Kenny is an engineering senator and a senior in civil and environmental engineering.
What the FOCA?
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Cramming the facts of a very scary American future into 300 words is not going to be easy, but I'm going to give it my best because this information is simply too important to keep to myself. Quite possibly the most sugar-coated piece of legislation in the history of America is trying to make its way into law by quietly flying under the radar. FOCA, a four letter acronym that means quite the opposite of its name, is going against what every American is guaranteed — freedom.
FOCA stands for the Freedom of Choice Act. As I said, the name of the bill has nothing to do with what is written in it. FOCA is undoubtedly the most drastic abortion legislation to ever make an appearance on Capitol Hill. Among the aims of the bill are: eliminating safety regulations in abortion clinics, forcing every state to allow partial-birth abortions, and refusing doctors, nurses and other health care providers
the right to exercise freedom of speech and conscience, forcing them to aid in abortions, and denying parents the right to be involved in their daughter's abortion decision.
To all the pro-choice supporters out there who are about to stop reading and call in opinions of me to Free For All, I ask you to stop and think for just one second. What words stick out to you in the above paragraph: eliminating, forcing, refusing, denying. Should this be the attitude, or even the right, of our government? This act leaves nothing to "choose freely"; in fact, it does the complete opposite. I urge students on this campus to take an active stance in fighting this bill. If our Congress and president are so eager to take these fundamental rights away, who knows what will be "forced, refused and denied" next.
Tara Elpers is a sophomore from Wichita
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