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opinion
Text your FFA submissions to 785-289-8351 or at kansan.com
Recent polling shows that 6 out of 7 dwarves aren't Happy.
This girl just gave a whole speech about why the drinking age should be state law and not federal... For 8 minutes I wanted to scream at her IT IS A STATE LAW!!
I would like to teach a class that is only about pokemon.
$61,500.65 was raised for KU Dance Marathon last Saturday and was donated to Children's Miracle Network! RCJH
TEXT FREE FOR ALL
I'm not waiting for you to leave so I can noope, I just like to check Instagram while sitting on the toilet.
Ginger beards are very handsome!
I prefer to read the FFA in color. It brings the comments to life.
I'm not entirely sure that I'm comfortable giving Wiggins Withey "W"
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2013
Saw a coupon for a free cookie at Hottbok Cookies on the bathroom floor. Yoink!
Wescoe's internet connection is the worst!
Peeing in little kid sized urinals just takes me back.
I may or may not have fantasized about being proposed to via the FFA. Can you believe I 'm single?
Please refrain from choosing your new ringtone if you are on the 4th floor of Watson library.
You're in too deep if a guy you're not really interested in takes you to meet his parents. The only thing you can do now is transfer schools and change your name.
I'm watching toddlers and tiars in class. What has my life come to?
I want to marry a Nautica model.
You know you hate your 4 hour chem lab when you have an overly enthusiastic TA.
I only use Facebook to periodically check on which of my old high school classmates have gotten fat.
When is Obama going to make the milk companies start selling Egg Nog in gallons instead of these measly quarts?
Monday Night Football has consistently been a matchup of the worst teams in the league this year.
Sexual assault policies should empower victims to report
It's 2013, and we're still explaining to college students what consensual sex is. If somewhere down the road someone failed to inform you that a person incapacitated by drugs or alcohol is unable to consent to sex, then you might need to reassess the legality of your one night stands.
In regards to the recent Al Jazeera article and the noise surrounding alcohol-assisted rape on campuses, I agree that universities need to crack down harder on these violent crimes by changing policies to better educate consent and alcohol-use, while implementing harder sanctions on offenders, especially when the statistics read one in four women are victims of completed or attempted sexual assault in college. As important as this conversation is, however, I feel as though it's steering away from a discussion about the victims.
According to the Department of Justice, 95 percent of sexual assault attacks go unreported. So my question is this: why aren't these victims coming forward?
Nine out of 10 sexual assault victims know their offenders, according to a study conducted by the University of Mississippi on sexual violence against college women.
women.
According to the Atlantic's Caroline Kitchener, "Almost a third [of offenders] are a close friend," and "41 percent of the time, the perpetrator is the victim's boyfriend."
Unlike what rape myths stereotype, sexual assault offenders are hardly ever strangers, and that's a huge factor for victims to consider when faced with this dilemma of reporting.
After interviewing "ten women from colleges across the United States who experienced sexual assault in college but didn't report it," Kitchener points out another reoccurring factor in unreported cases — fear of how the offender's punishment would affect them.
Kitchener writes that "if a victim reports and the perpetrator ends up expelled or even just suspended — that victim risks facing social stigma from a company that doesn't want to
By Evan Shinn
eshinn@kansan.com
It might be kinda snowy right now.
believe her." It's this and the fear of "ruining the [offender's] life" that deters victims from coming forward, which is interesting to note in light of recent discussions on sexual assault in college.
Slate Magazine's Amanda Hess cited a recent Wayne State University study on date rapists in order to relay why colleges should crack down on sexual assault by making examples out of previous offenders.
According to the study, "If the costs of sexual assault are obvious, undesirable and immediate, then intoxication-driven sexual assaults are less likely to occur because the potential perpetrator cannot forget about the likely, undesirable consequences." Antonia Abbey, the psychologist who conducted this study, writes, "This suggests that colleges need strong, consistent, well-publicized policies that no one can ignore."
So when Duke University an
nounced in early July that it would be increasing its sanctions for students found guilty of first-time sexual assault from suspension to expulsion, it was in the same line of thinking as Hess and Abbey.
Under this new policy, however as pointed out by Kitchener, in the event an alcohol-assisted rape occurs, the likelihood of a victim remaining silent will most likely increase.
What Kitchener and Know Your IX and Yale graduate Alexandra Brodsky advise is that colleges implement a policy in which a conversation with the victim is had in regards to her offender's punishment. Brodsky would like to see administrators check with victims first before assigning any punishments — something similar to what you see in restorative justice programs.
justice programs.
According to Kitchener, the victim is often disregarded in the school's handling of a sexual assault. For example, once a sexual assault is reported to administrators at Duke, "the case is out of [the victim's] hands." This causes
an internal struggle because, as mentioned earlier, the offenders are typically a friend, acquaintance or boyfriend.
That being said, it's important that university administrators come down hard on offenders because, as Kitchener and Brodsky point out, most sexual assault victims don't want to see their offenders on campus and be reminded of the trauma they faced.
Yes, we need better consent education and harsher punishments to make examples of offenders in order to crack down on sexual assault, but in the case that sexual assault occurs, universities must find a way to encourage victims to feel comfortable in speaking up about their attacks. That is true whether it be through some sort of restorative justice program or another option.
Evan Shinn is a sophomore majoring in journalism from Lenexa.
'Oscar Wao' explores detrimental effects of love in two relationships
Often, we learn the most from literature when we struggle to make
sense of it. Recently, I experienced this reading Junot Diaz's "The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao." "Oscar Wao" is a deeply personal tale narrated in a unique voice by Yunior, a Dominican-American. The beautiful storytelling and authentic voice alone merit reading this Pulitzer prize-winning novel. In it, we are invited to consider what being "cursed" might mean, to learn about the backward politics of the Dominican Republic, and to experience Oscar's story through Yunior's unique perspective. Most significantly, the novel made me think about the important love in others
Oscar's all-consuming love for females is the first thing we learn about him: "He had secret loves all over town... about whom he could not stop dreaming." The catch-22, of course, is that Oscar is an overweight "nerdboy" whose zeal for science fiction is only surpassed by his infatuations, which almost never come to fruition. In contrast, Yunior is constantly succeeding in new conquests; however, his cheating tendencies prevent him from developing a solid long-term relationship. Through these characters' relationships, Diaz explores the consequences of loving and neglecting love.
The way Oscar and Yunior love is ultimately a character flaw that causes them considerable pain. In Oscar's case, he loves a woman so blindly, that (spoiler alert!) it leads to his death. On the other hand, Yunior finds a woman that is perfect for him, but loses her
because of his lack of commitment. Yunior sums up the extent of his emotional damage when he says, "She was the kind of girlfriend God gives you young, so you'll know loss the rest of your life."
The women of the novel also experience their own struggles with love and relationships; I choose to look at Oscar and Yunior because they are juxtaposed as foils to one another at either end of a spectrum. Their experiences apply regardless of gender roles — one loves completely and illogically to the point of self-effacement, while the other fails to invest enough love in someone. Do you identify more with Oscar or Yunior? Is the behavior of one more right than the other? I've struggled to answer these questions myself. Take a step back and extend these questions to the love we show not only in a romantic sense, but also to our friends and family.
At first, I was tempted to see Oscar as a Christ-like figure. He loved so much that he died for it. But this is an oversimplification; I now see Oscar as a flawed, tragic hero whose love, though completely consuming, was blind and reckless. At the same time, Oscar's commitment is something Yunior could have used to grow a better relationship. I'm quicker to condemn Yunior's behavior, perhaps because I can see examples in my life when I've regretted letting a relationship fall by the wayside.
Oscar's story scares me. He loved a woman so much that he kept coming back despite repeated rejections and a near-mortal beating from her ex-boyfriend's thugs. She later accepts him and the thugs finish the job. Was it worth it for Oscar? For her? For Oscar's family and friends that also love him? I think Oscar's fault lies in that he used up all of his love on one person, leaving others like his family, friends, and self out of the picture. Thus he neglects people that need him, just like Yunior does.
In the end, we have a finite amount of love to give; perhaps the wise choice would be to give all of it that we can to those that need it most. Both Oscar and Yunior suffer, and I don't think there's an easy answer that would prevent them, or us, from suffering. In spite of this, renewed commitment is what heals that suffering — later Yunior finds someone else to love and seems to avoid his past mistakes to lead a happy life. The importance of learning from past mistakes and of continued perseverance may be the best things that can be learned about love from Diaz's novel. Diaz is speaking at the University of Kansas next week on Monday, Nov. 18th. Please consider attending.
Jason Bates is a senior majoring in chemical engineering from Overland Park
Park.
RELIGION
Roman Catholic Church alienates today's youth
The Catholic Church in 2013 is one of the most polarizing institutions in the world. Record lows of young people all across the globe identify with the faith. Even in predominantly Catholic countries in Europe and Latin America, the Church is seen unfavorably by vast numbers of young people. In the United States, the picture is a little different as Catholics aren't a majority, yet millions of youth brought up in the religion come to view the faith with indifference, confusion or antipathy. The reasons are more complex than much of the commentary on the subject has let on.
Recently, I found myself attending a mass, something I hadn't done — except on holidays — in a number of years. I should mention that I was raised Catholic, or rather that I attended a Catholic grade school and high school. I didn't care for it. Now that I'm 25 and about to finish my undergraduate career (yes, I'm a bit old) it seems like forever ago. But what amazed me about my unintentional return visit was, despite a stark divergence from the perspective I held for a long time, just how little had changed about it.
From all the hundreds of masses I attended as a child and adolescent, and the relatively few I've attended as a young adult, the strongest feeling that has persisted is a sense of compulsory adherence. Granted, I wasn't able to articulate this feeling when I was a kid, but I was acutely aware of it last Sunday. I strongly suspect I'm not the only one who feels this way; that you are taking part in a ritual that was repeated and finalized hundreds of years before your grandparents were born. You are expected to stand and recite the Nicene Creed (a rather long prayer that details all aspects of the Catholic faith) before you are even capable of fully understanding it. The belief that, yes, the Eucharistic wafers and wine are actually the flesh and blood of a man who died two millennia ago and it's not merely symbolic.
All of this doesn't even touch on the broader public issues that have caused such a strong divide between the faithful and skeptical. It's worth mentioning that, although women are permitted to become nuns, they are still considered lay people, meaning they are not clergy and have little to no official power in shaping Church policy. I agree with those that find this to be outdated and misogynistic. And we're all aware of the Church's outspoken stances on abortion and birth control, which often result in anger and mistrust from those who feel it is an abuse of stature for any religious institution to instruct its members on how to think about complicated issues. Dittic for the recent controversies surrounding the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa and the Church's attitude toward gay rights.
"Please God Don't Let Anything Inappropriate Come On My Screen: Watching Netflix While In Budig Hall" an autobiography by me.
By Eric Schumacher eschumacher@kansan.com
For all of this criticism and more that hasn't been discussed here, I remain sympathetic to those who cherish Catholicism and rise to its defense. In the broader conversation, there are significant points that often go overlooked, such as the fact that the Catholic Church is directly responsible for a huge portion of the world's charity work- something manyhumanist organizations struggle to match. Stances on many social issues notwithstanding, the Church is also a vocal opponent of the death penalty and has been relatively progressive when it comes to accepting scientific consensus.
Despite my own feelings about the Church and what it might mean to "be Catholic," I respect what it means to the millions around the world who identify with it. To some, it's about the community one is connected to through their parish. For others, it's about the direction and strength they find in their spirituality. I can't take anything away from that. Maybe I'll find my own way to it one day. But for now, the attitudes and policies that made me doubtful as a kid and teenager are even more prominent, and I feel like nothing short of a stranger in the land of Catholicism.
Eric Schumacher is a senior majoring in English and political science from Toneka
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