Opinion
Page 4 University Daily Kansan, April 9, 1987
Tearing down barriers
Not too long ago, a series about "men's awareness" probably would have been laughed off campus.
But not too long ago, men were the undisputed heads of families, sole or primary wage earners, and political and business leaders of America.
And these powerful roles were accompanied by powerful constraints on men's images of themselves and on their behavior.
As women have angrily fornew places for themselves in American society, men have also had to re-examine and redefine their time-honored roles.
And though there may still be a few snickers, KU's Men's Awareness Series is in its third year and thriving.
The series, which began this week and continues through April 15, is a collection of programs exploring such issues as intimacy and trust in relationships, parental roles and handling guilt feelings.
About 300 men and women attended this year's first program, which included a role-reversing male beauty pageant.
If the series' success is any indication, many KU students are ready to tear down gender barriers that have stifled men and women in the past.
Projects such as the Men's Awareness Series may help us see beyond the inapplicable roles created centuries ago.
And, as we look back at the broken molds we have left behind, we can all have a good laugh.
Abortion argument rages around definition of terms
If columns can sprout as grass roots affairs, this is one of those pieces. Throughout the past two weeks this page has carried a series of letters to the editor wrestling over the right or wrong of abortion. Today, the controversy creens unward.
One letter Monday is a compact example of the glasses, skips, and missteps many people make in opposing abortion. “A fetus doesn’t Z-APP-become a human being at Day 127, but at Day One, it does not qualify, human life could be protected from a time far before birth, from the moment of conception.
Like many anti-abortion positions, this argument slobes around critical terms. Consider that some of these are:
JEFF THOMAS
headway by jumbling "human life" and "human being," and shying away from defining either
Opponents of abortion typically lay out their cases like this: Just looking at a fetus or checking its chromosomes shows that the fetus is human. Of course, it is also alive and growing, thus, it is a human life and human being and deserves the right to life. Abortion is wrong.
Yet centering the abortion question on the human categories—human life and beings—makes the conservative position meaningless. Whether you use genetic measurements or appearance, our appendages, livers and lungs are all human organisms. Their cells are active, multiplying and dying, thus, they are living in the same sense that a fetus lives. Our appendages are also alive and alive; they should be given the right to live. Operations to remove them are wrong.
Prodding conservatives to follow their line of thought those extra few steps tripm them into the absurd. Rejecting abortion because the fetus is a woman, rejecting the sense as outlawing appendicitis as murder.
Evidently, the right to life should be reserved for organisms that are more than human and living. According to this definition, we should go only to the 'person', The Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments both
guarantee that no "person" will be deprived
*life, liberty or property, without due process of*
*court.*
Stopping abortions constitutionally requires establishing "the unborn child's status as a person," Stephen Galebach, a Jarvard legal scholar, writes.
Two rare parents who have lived both sides of the issue—with the same child—may have the experience to tell us whether the fetus should be counted as a person.
Several years ago, Frank Speck Jr., of West Homestead, Pa, had a vasequestet. Yet months later, his wife, Dorothy, became pregnant. Stubbornly, she had an abortion, or so she tried. The child that neither parent wanted was born seven years ago this month.
Their third child, Francine, was born
suffering from a rare genetic pecks
children. Elephant Man's disease.
How can two parents explain to their youngest child that they did all they could to prevent her birth, that they still believe so strongly in their parents' claims? How can doctors sue to she the doctors, and that they still love her.
The Specks' answer is probably going to be the difference between the prospect of another crippled child and Francine, that when they chose the vasectomy and the abortion, Francine didn't exist. The story shows the distinction between a fetus and a child, between human and person.
1. a fetus in Dorothy Speck's womb was not the person they later named Francis Speck; no the child with a mind that may have taken an early life. 2. a girl born to a mother who may have begun craving music at an early age.
Throughout the ages, our species has complied a lengthy list of characteristics we think makes us human. We have developed intelligence, a sense of self separate from the world, a desire to live, emotions, a sense of the past and the future, hopes and more. At the same time, these are precisely the characteristics that define us.
"I fail to see where the controversy about abortion lies," Monday's letter says. The conflict the writer overlooks is her confusion of living human tissue with a person.
In a sense, she sees something hard and glittering and wants to value it as a diamond. Yet for a couple who had to make some difficult decisions, it still stands by them, the feus was not Francie.
Some 1972 stories still in the news
The other day, my curiosity drove me to look back at what was happening at the University of Chicago.
The first thing I found on the microfilm is a corrupted stereotype of campus life during the early 1950s.
The 1972 version of the Student Senate passed a resolution recommending that the Kansas Legislature take action toward legalizing narrijuana.
Although that cause is still heard from once in a while, happily in a more muffted tone, today's Student Senate isn't touching as many external issues as its predecessor seemed inclined to.
Let's flip back a few days to April 7, 1972. Rock Chalk and KU-Y are in the news then, too.
A glance through 1972's April 10 University Daily Kanran has an interesting page on Page 2. At A college Assembly workshop, the main purpose of this workshop is the possibility of establishing a B.G.S. degree at KU.
The idea was generally well-received, with members rationalizing that the B.G.S. degree would allow a student more flexibility in developing a liberal course of study.
One member of the assembly said this week that the intent of the program was not to provide an easy way to get a degree. That I don't know, but the students were honorable when first considered in 1972.
But advising problems and student abuse of the program in subsequent years have made the B.G.S. the laughstock of the University in many cases.
Ah, the best laid plans of mice and men. . .
This week the same group discussed eliminating the degree by closing it to all students who are in the age range of Liberal Arts and Sciences after next fall.
It seems that controversy arose after a skit by McCollum Hall students was removed from the show at the last minute because of its "obscene and blasphemous" nature. The action: left the show with all Greek participants, and the characters were ignored about the discriminatory nature of the show.
However, one letter to the editor made such a convincing argument that it surely put an end to the debate. Praising the University's action in defending the honorary degree, McCollum skit had the ignorance and McCollum skit had the ignorance and
DAN BOWERS
portray God as a woman instead of a man. To quote the writer, "How stupid can you get?"
I'll stay out of this one, but with the women's movement taking root at the time, do your research.
KU-Y was determined to change the format of the show, and the Kanans's editor crouted our more than 100 episodes.
If this didn't happen, the editor warned, Rock Chalk would remain a "sick, tired joke."
Well, after 10 years, the editor may have gotten what he wanted. It appears that the recent afford producing a Rock Chalk skit, sponsor a show that transfers the profits back to the show page, and then the show to the page who previously has the show unable to afford producing a Rock Chalk skit.
Moving on, who can forget last summer's
baseball strike. You know, the one that made the summer an incredible bore. The networks achieved the impossible, while they tried to move away from their mistake while they tried to minor league ball swallow down viewers' throats.
Baseball's first general strike was 10 years ago this spring, and the迫报 postponed the month of the fight.
Someone at the time figured out that the strike was costing Hank Aaron, baseball's highest-paid player at $200,000 a year, about $1,250 for every game he missed.
Just think what every game would cost Goerge Foster of the Mets this year. His annual salary is $750,000.
The comparisons and contrasts rolled by. 1972 was Ted Owen's second losing season as KU men's basketball coach. 1982 marked his third losing season.
There was unending talk of a recession, inadequate funding from the Legislature, and of course, complaints about the Kerry arming Serking in 1996. The latter generally depositing tickets on the cars of struggling college students.
But two things distinguished the KU of 1972 from the KU of friday
The first is an advertisement for a liquor
sold a six-pack of Budweiser for a more $1.15.
The other was more dish恳席ing. It was the most visible story of the day, running. On Page 1
While each day brought with it a different account, the accounts all looked the same:
"Air and naval operations continue north of and south of the dillermilled zone in Vietnam
As I listened to the squeal of *the* microfilm looked awfully good to a draft-age college student.
Letters to the Editor
Student proud to claim KU
To the Editor:
In May, I'll be graduating from the University of Kanaa, going on to other experiences, other
In leaving this lovely campus and my many experiences therein, I simply want to say thanks to the University and all the people who compose it. Through our learning experiences, both academic and personal.
In particular, I'd like to thank professors such as Carl Leban, who passed away this year, and Feliz Moes for their continual effort to keep the school alive. I also wish to thank their students as theirs offer students an honest opportunity to
delve to the core of things and to grow intellectually. There is (and was) no dull didacticism or programming, but instead, an open, and interactive, environment. For opportunities such as this, I'm grateful.
Since I'm a "non-traditional" student, let me say that I've never felt different or unaccepted. Rather, my experiences with people for the most part have been very good at KU.
Soon I'll be looking at the University in a new light. It will seem a bit strange and foreign to be an alumna, but if I must be one, I'll be proud and pleased to claim KU, as my Mla Mater!
Martha DuBois, Lawrence senior
The University Daily
KANSAN
USPS B540 (440) published at the University of Kansas daily August through May and Monday and Thursday July except June. July excursions are $2 each. September, October, November and December excursions are $1 each. 6044. Subscriptions are for $1 for six months or $4 for nine months or $4 year outside the county. Student subscriptions are a $6 semester, pcd through the student activity fee. Postmaster: Send changes of address to the University Daily Kansas. Flint Hall, The University of Kansas, KANSAS CITY.
Business Manager
Vannessa Herron
Managing Editor
Editorial Editor
Campus Editor
Associate Campus Editor
Assistant Campus Editor
Assignment Editor
Sports Editor
Associate Sport Editor
Entertainment Editor
Manager Game Dealer
Wire Editors
Photo Editor
Photo Sales Manager
National Sales Manager
Campus Sales Manager
Classified Manager
Production Manager
Teamleaders Manager
Business Manager
Mataline Julie
Terence Harrison
Karen Schulter
Gene George
Jane Geoffred
Joe Rebein, Rebecca Chaney
Steve Robatha
Hen Rangtatum
Glio Strippol
Coral Beach
Liam Mansod, Lillian Davis, Sharon Appleton
Elise Markey, Teresa Hurdan, Liam Mansod
Ben Bigger
Amy Broemeyer
Howard Shankley
Perry Beal
Sharon Bodin
Larry Latthood
John Egan
Sales and Marketing Adviser
John Obertan
General Manager and News Advisor
Rick Musser
Pot Shots
In junior high, it was half-form sleeveless sweatshirts and nighttop, striped athletic socks that were hip. But those were the silly, vain years of adolescence and I knew that in the sophisticated college environment, stupid fads would be a thing of the past.
I thought I'd seen the end of it in high school. Everyone would put on rugby shirts and painter's pants and think they were really chic.
Not so! Along with green grass and warm temperatures, this spring has brought us
Why is it that people ahead of me at the express checkout counter never can count
Yesterday I was walking up to the checkout line with a carton of milk under my arm when some pregnant lady arrived from behind and nudged her brimming cart in front of me.
Hey, I don't mind waiting my turn in line,
but I know what the sign says, and the sign
means that you are waiting for me.
Well, there's no way that lady had ten items or less. Even if you counted her four cans of coffee, she would have been right.
The roar coming over the radio sounded like a den of lions, but it was only the House of Commons, hungry for more heads. The general outcry already had felled Lord Carrington, Britain's unimpeachable Foreign Secretary, now victim to the country's 'rage at allowing a "tin-pot dictatorship" to take over the Empire's Falkland Islands.
The ferociousness of British politics belies the Britons' reputation for reserve. Members who have gone to drown out the nation's elected leader, who is a lady no less. Whatever became of
But most likely, my belly's grief is due to the realization that even after you've left high school and junior high, some things haven't changed much.
To see a simple, red cotton headband on the head of a short-haired, clean-cut paused-propriety leisurely across our campus is enough, in current college lingo, to make one gag. I don't know whether it is the wearer's silly face or the feeling that he somehow thinks he looks spiffy that makes my inwards churn.
Perhaps it is the absurdity of seeing someone wearing a headband who will never sweat or need to keep the hair out of his eyes that does it.
another stupid jad. What was once functional apparel and standard wear for jippies, hippies and manual laborers has become the domain of hip-hop clothing, black, the bandana headband has become chic.
As I said, I don't mind waiting in line, but I know what the signs say. And right below that sign about 10 items or less is this other sign with blue letters. "Absolutely on cash." Check only.
soup, she still had better than a week's worth of groceries in that cart.
I know because I counted every item, from the box of minute Rice to her Sara Lee cheesecake, while we were waiting for the man ahead of her to get his check cleared.
I guess I'm finally catching on to the fine art of going through the checkout line. I was out of the door before the checker even got that Sara Lee cakecake into a sack.
Well, I had enough of waiting for the manager to come clear that man's check, so I migrated to one of those old-fashioned checkout lines—you know, the ones where you can buy the whole grocery store if you want to and pay for it with your checkbook.
etiquette, and tipping the derby, *and all of*
that? Quite.
The halls of Parliament, for all of their bannisters and barristers polished through the years by layers of bass rhetoric, sound like a crowd at a Philadelphia Flyers hockey game. In contrast, the sleepy congressional chambers might as well be a smattering following Dow Finsterwald in the staid Masters golf tournament.
Americans by reputation are supposed to be loud and emotional; it is the British who are regarded as cool and dignified. So why is it so prominent in Parliament and a drone in Congress?
Possibly because Parliament dates from the Middle Ages, when men were more emotional, and the cacophonic custom has carried over. But could part of the reason also be that the British care about their politics more than Americans do?