THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2013
PAGE 4A
opinion
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The girls in front of me were on their phones during the National Anthem at the game. They need to apologize to America. And to Allen Fieldhouse.
It's wrong how much I wish I was
Hudy so that I could stretch the boys
out before the game.
If you got camming problems, I feel bad for you, son. I got 99 problems but a seat ain't one!
Whoever in the Kansan predicted the Pitt game score, maybe should tell me my GPA at the end of the semester. #accuracy
To everyone who saw my poor, scared,
forgotten tablet in Eaton lab and
didn't seal it. I love you and hope
the rest of your life is blessed by
Zeus.
Maybe Embiid should be a hurdler for the track team too...
I felt special for my 9 horoscope and then realized everybody got a 9.
Thanks, UDK. For making every single girl on campus want to marry Colby Listen.
That feel when you instinctively look for Withey on the stats page :(
Whoever keeps crop dusting in the rec needs to knock that shit off. Fun intended.
The ginger in my class just admitted that her favorite jelly bean was buttered popcorn. God.
Rare Beasts of KU: people with 620 area codes. We're out there, we're just really hard to find!
Click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click. How do I always end up sitting next to a rapid-fire clcker in the library?！It's so irritating!
These two guys in my class got each others's streetpasses, traded Pokemon, and became best friends in 3 minutes flat.
I miss the old drummer :(
Perry my boy, you'll do great things this season. I'm calling it now.
So, when we win the big 12 championship again this year, are we gonna call it our decade of dominance?
It must suck to be Aaron Carter. Dude has to wear a Shaag jacket tc his own concert so people know who he is.
Jayhawks, you stand up at all times for KU bball games or gtfo.
Is vajazzling still a thing?
Ah, time for the annual premature building heatings.
Take care of the planet during all four seasons
So I have this friend—Abby. Abby is crazy about the planet and does her best to "be green" and live a sustainable lifestyle. When she can, Abbey buys organic food. She rides her bike to work and walks instead of taking the bus. Abbey even prefers to open the windows instead of turning on the air conditioner. When a room is dark she opens the blinds instead of using a lamp. But Abbay has a problem.
Although she totally digs the earth, she's starting to realize her environmentalism is somewhat seasonal. When the temperatures start to drop and the Farmers Market closes, Abby becomes a weenie and starts buying her food at Wal-mart and driving her not fuel-efficient Mazda to work. And Gabby even chooses to turn on the heater rather than add another layer of clothes. Did I say Gabby? Oops. My secret is out. I am a seasonal environmentalist. But, hey, the first step is admitting you have a problem, right? I know I'm not the only one whose environmentalism starts to falter in the cold months. So today I encourage you to take the first step towards eco-recovery and admit you have a problem.
Okay, now that we've gotten that off our chests let's move forward
in the healing process together by learning some tips to maintain our environmental-savviness throughout the winter.
It is tempting to grab the car keys rather than hit the bike lane as the days get colder. Rather than increase carbon emissions, bundle up Antarctica-style before heading to school or work. Mother Nature isn't interested in whether your boots match your jacket, so grab the fleece-lined puffy coat and mismatched wool socks. Investing in appropriate outerwear for winter will keep you cozy, warm and willing to maintain environmentally friendly transportation practices.
A second pitfall to avoid as the nights cool down is increased energy consumption. Conserving energy is not only good for the environment, but also good for the wallet. The US Energy Information Administration projects heating costs to increase this winter as the prices of residential natural gas, propane, and electricity increase. To decrease your heating bill, set the thermostat 10 degrees lower before you leave the house for work and when you go to bed. Try opening the curtains or blinds during the day to let in solar radiation and closing them at night to trap in heat. Additionally, check that rugs or furniture aren't covering heating vents. And as always, bundle up—another layer of socks never hurts.
By Gabby Murnan
gmurnan@kansan.com
The hardest part about staying "green" in the winter is eating local. When the Farmers Market closes for the season it's easy to drift to large chain grocery stores. Fight the urge to flock to Wal-mart and head to The Merc. The Merc offers more than 600 locally grown food items from small-scale farmers within a 200-mile radius of Lawrence. From salad dressing to tofu, the Merc can fit the dietary needs of any environmentalist wishing to stay on track during the cold months. Also, the Lawrence Farmers Market hosts an annual Holiday Market in December for handicrafts as well as winter crops.
It may seem trite to list such simple ways to be environmentally friendly in the upcoming months, but it's important to remember that seemingly insignificant changes, if done collectively, can make an impact. When addressing environmental issues, it's important to understand that the decisions we make won't have
Periodic sadness should be accepted, not demonized
MENTAL HEALTH
Although WebMD has kindly warned me over the years that my sore throat may indeed be West Nile Virus, that my sore jaw is probably bone cancer, and that my stomach ache could very likely be parasitic worms, there is one symptom that their database cannot seem to turn into a horrific hyperbolic diagnosis for me, and that is melancholy. The ailment—a tugging sadness, an inability to let loose and parallel the happiness surrounding me—could not be located on the helpful Sim-esque virtual "click-where-it-hurts" symptom checker. But even if there were a box to be checked, the causations would be pinpointed to familial distress or suppressed trauma, and lumped under the umbrella label of "depression." With a nearly picturesque childhood and a tacit knowledge that depression is not my issue, I'm left with a lingering wistfulness and the guilt of having neither justification for it or ammunition to combat it. This guilt is intensified by what I believe to be a very dangerous modern opinion: to be sad is to be incomplete.
Sadness is seen as weakness, and a "personality deficiency" that can simply be carved out
with a smattering of checklists, a cult of self-help books or endless deliberate distractions. Pick your poison. Run until you're sweating so hard you can't dwell on what upsets you—call it "endorphins." Cut out gluten—it's been linked to depression after all—maybe the crazy-eyed lift for a dinner roll will replace your gloom.
The Huffington Post's recent headline "Train Your Body To Be Happy" summarizes this notion quite effectively. Sadness has come to be seen as a blemish in our human nature that we must actively combat in order to "improve" ourselves. There is a frenzy to fill up the emptiness, to stuff down the sadness so deep that it can't resurface. The language of "training" or "tricking" ourselves into a warped mental balance has become commonplace, and frankly I find that the bluest of all.
Call me Sylvia Plath, but I find sadness beautiful. I find it powerful and assuring. Sadness makes us complete beings—it fights against the portrayal of our generation as mindless texters only out to have fun and feel good. Sadness makes us complex—it indicates our ability to look at the world around us in its entirety, to empathize with those similar and distant to ourselves. Sadness is our capacity to notice things in our world we don't like, things that aren't just, things that our society has blindly perpetuated that we believe to be inherently incorrect. Sadness actively opposes ignorance; it is a knowledge that our world exists outside of ourselves and isn't all flowers and rainbows. Sadness is the victorious flag of sensitivity—it marks that we have not been hardened to inequity; that life hasn't ground us into apathetic acceptance of its ills. So I take pride in my melancholy. I don't attempt to expunge it or disguise it with a haphazardy-knit web of idioms. I revel in its ability to give my life and my perception a rich depth of dimension. Take that, WebMD.
Erin Calthoun is a sophomore premed student from Naperville, III.
FILE PHOTO/KANSAN
The Lawrence Farmers Market, located at 8th and New Hampshire, offers food from local farmers. The market is open from 8-11 a.m. every Saturday until Nov. 23.
immediate or even tangible results. The beauty and satisfaction lies in knowing that you've done your best to contribute to a better, cleaner planet for yourself and the guy sitting next to you. So this year, I urge you to fight back
against seasonal environmentalism and maintain your eco-love all winter long.
Gabby Murnan is a sophomore majoring in environmental studies from Pittsburg.
PHILANTHROPY
Incentivize charities with for-profit model
Even the most forward-minded people I know cringe at the thought of a charity with a profit margin. Taking a healthy salary off the top of a charity isn't just morally acceptable; it's a damn good idea.
By condemning philanthropists to careers of obscenely low salaries, we damn the industry in one fell swoop. Why would a brilliant young mind with a platinum education start a career with a charity and make next to nothing when they could take a top-tier career path, make ten times as much and donate a fraction of their salary back to the charity that they would have been stuck with in the first place?
We need to incentivize the smartest and best-equipped men and women in our work force to join the philanthropic industry. Giving them a pat on the back and calling them "noble" is a slap to the face. Arguing that someone who professionally helps the needy and unfortunate doesn't deserve proper compensation just doesn't make sense.
What I really don't understand is why we detest anyone making money while helping people, and at the same time accept and even expect wrinkled old men in suits to rake in millions by underpaying their employees and destroying the environment. When the CEO of a soul-sucking, sweatshop regime pulls in a seven-figure salary, no one bats an eye. When the CEO of a charity so much as makes a dime, there's a riot and the Statue of Liberty gets pushed over.
It's an antiquated, backward and vaguely puritanical view of what charity should be. Why is it seen as a moral crime to not donate every dollar directly to those in need? Why are charities and business considered completely different? Why does putting some of your profits into advertising and administration make people's toes curl inward?
Overhead is a blessing, not a curse. If it emerges that a charity only spends 50 percent of their funds on their cause, they're vilified and shed donations like dandruff. This shouldn't happen.
Before you start sharpening the
pitchfork for the next witch-hunt, think about what the money they're spending means.
It means that this charity grows each and every year, bringing in millions and millions more to their cause. It means that their services and fundraisers are constantly becoming more efficient and more effective. It means that smart and committed workers are joining their organization and are being paid enough to work full time.
"But it still doesn't feel right," people say. Well, I don't care. People didn't feel right about Heelies and Bowie for a long time, but it was worth it in the end.
A girl fell asleep in the front row with a Red Bull still in hand. Looks like she should have drank it faster!
The Susan G. Komen For the Cure foundation is the perfect example of a well-advertised, merchandised and incredibly effective charity organization. I want to see more charities adopt this model and help turn the non-profit sector into a profitable, for-people sector.
Bucking the stigma against profitable charity will be difficult. It starts with challenging the notion that charity is able to properly function any different from a regular corporation.
Structuring philanthropic organizations like corporations means accountability and competition. I don't just want to Google "charities for X problem" and then throw money at them. I want these companies to show me, the consumer, what they do and in a modern way.
When charity is no longer seen as an obligation, but instead as just another service—the service of helping others—then we'll know progress has really been made.
Wil Kenney is a sophomore majoring in English from Leawood.
What are you being for Halloween?
Karen Kammerman A Gypsy, gonne have my tarot
cards and everything. Best Holiday Ever!
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