MONDAY. OCTOBER 7, 2013
PAGE 4A
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Dearest KU athletics; please, for the sake of our safety and sanity, learn how to manage a crowd and effectively let them in. Without trampling the elderly.
TEXT FREE FOR ALL
Pro tip for freshmen attending KU sporting events: stand forward, sit back.
There was no "Woo" during the rock chalk chant after the football game. I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming.
Red headed gypsy long boarder looking for sidekick vagabond adventurer.
Everyone should know how to pronounce our starting center's name. It's tar-ik, NOT tar-eek.
Sweating like a whore in church up here in AFH.
I'm on campus with nothing to do from noon to 4. So of course I start playing skyrim in the back of spair.
Why is everyone so excited about a zombie walk on Mass when there's one on Jayhawk blvd everyday?
To the dude I see walking around campus everyday with a different kstate hoodie and hat on... Do you even go here?!?!
My girlfriend just farted in front of my roommates without them noticing. I'm dating a ninja.
Feelings suck. I wish I was a bagel.
Chalking for the Quaker Society of Friends. Sounded a lot less cultish in my head...
If I look like I just witnessed a murder it's because a cicada flew straight into my face and I'm still recovering
Whoever wrote about the panda express in the union is a jerk. Estimated completion time is next semester.
Can we all pull together and get an escalator put in for the hill?
EDITOR'S NOTE: What would become of our calves?
One look at potter lake tells me they scrapped the whale rehabilitation project.
PUMPKIN POP TARTS ARE THE BEST
KU secret admirers should be more readily used by the student body #getseme
Thanks to all the people who rushed down the hill for late night. You got the student entrance closed, so people who had been waiting 7 hours couldn't get in.
Environmental neglect evident in government shutdown
Representative Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, recently tweeted, "There is some good news out of the shutdown, the EPA can't issue new regulations." Blackburn's cynical comments towards the Environmental Protection Agency aren't just reflective of Republican attitudes - many Democrats and Independents are just as skeptical of the EPA and environmental issues.
There is an overarching political scheme that neglects environmental issues and policy for the sake of economic growth and lower taxes. In order to understand the government's feelings towards conservation and sustainability, all one has to do is check out the agencies that were shut down after Congress failed to pass a new spending bill. Unsurprisingly, the EPA and 401 National Parks were the first to close their doors
(The EPA remains partially open to respond to environmental emergencies).
But why the lackadaisical attitude towards the environment? Shouldn't our nation's leaders be prioritizing issues such as large-scale biodiversity loss, ocean acidification, oh, and that big one - climate change? The reality is, our nation is good at two things: responding to immediate threats and promoting economic growth, neither of which encourages protection of the environment.
With big-ticket issues on the table like conflict in Syria, Iranian relations, Obamacare and the government shutdown, many policymakers give little attention to matters of the environment, which are not yet tangible realities. For most individuals, it's hard to digest our perpetual destructive actions towards the environment, particularly for lawmakers who
By Gabby Murnan gmurnan@kansan.com
spend their lives promoting policies that speed up the demise of natural resources and ecosystems
Most issues of the environment unfold on a long-term scale; therefore our short-term minded law system neglects them almost entirely. As a country, we are great at damage control. But it's the preemptive measures where we need a little work. If issues such as rising sea levels and toxic-waste dumping are not addressed at a policy level soon, then we will be dealing with a national security threat, but not one that can be solved with Tomahawk cruise missiles and fancy rhetoric.
The biggest obstacle to environmental policy in the United States is the concept of unlimited economic growth. We are a capitalist society that feeds on profit. As a result, focus on production and consumption leads to extreme pressures on the natural world. Ironically, this paradigm of economic growth is directly challenged by the very environment it abuses: without natural resources,production will end, as will the success of the economy. There is no such thing as sustainable economic growth. Eventually, oil fields will run dry, and our society will have to suffer the consequences of our illogical economic mindset.
Big business is the major player in American Politics. Political access has shifted to the source of the money, and policy action reflects the needs of profit-driven corporations.
It's time for a change. In order for environmental issues to be properly addressed in American
politics and policy, environmentalists must step down from their biodegradable soapboxes and talk in terms that appeal to their audience. Policymakers must understand that the continued success of the economy and the preservation of the natural world go hand-in-hand. You cannot have one without the other. Instead of rattling off data on atmospheric carbon content, environmentalists must explain - in dollars - how much climate change is going to cost the economy and how the dwindling oil supply is going to challenge the framework of capitalist production. The economy and natural world can only coexist if Mother Nature and big business can sit down and make a deal.
POLITICS
Gabrielle Murnan is a sophomore majoring in environmental studies from Pittsburg.
Kansas legislation deprives thousands from food stamps
Kansans know our state represents an agricultural paradise. It consistently produces more wheat than any other state in the country, and its gently rolling fields dotted with herds of cattle span nearly the entire stretch from Kansas City to the Rocky Mountains. It's little wonder that in 1930, the Kansas Chamber of Commerce declared "if there's anything better than life - it's life in Kansas." In short, this should be a place of prosperity, for all.
be a place of prosperity.
Last Tuesday, Kansas became a little less bountiful. New state legislation requires that if an adult is healthy, under the age of 49, and has no dependents, he or she must work 20 hours a week or receive job training to qualify for food stamps. The state estimates that about 20,000 people will be affected. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that 4 million people would be affected if these changes were applied nationwide.
The change comes as federal food stamp benefits are already at risk - the farm bill, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives in September, cuts $40 billion from the program. There are other benefit cuts already scheduled to go into effect on Nov. 1. This is a problem even in bountiful states - 11 percent of Kansans currently receive food stamps, including over 140,000 children.
In an interview with the Huffington Post, Topeka Councilman Chad Mspeaker explained that the new requirements will simply give the burden of feeding the unemployed to soup
kitchens, nonprofits and local governments, which have fewer resources to cope with larger demand. Ellen Fieldhausen, Director of Communications at Harvesters Community Food Network, described a dire situation following the onset of the recession. Around half of those served by Harvesters in 26 counties received food stamps, she explained, but still required extra help to stave off food insecurity. About 40 percent of those served already had at least one job, but still could not make ends meet.
In 1886, one immigrant to Kansas named Percy G. Ebbut remarked that "The fact remains: if you are willing to work, you need never despair of getting a livelihood in Kansas." "Today, Kansas has a 5.9 percent unemployment rate. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that with the addition of part-time workers seeking full-time jobs and those who have left the labor force out of discouragement, the figure is closer to 10.9 percent.
Kansas' addition of work requirements affects a small number of Kansans - about 0.07 percent. The number is so small, and so symbolic, that some opponents of the current political majority are suspicious of the
motivations behind the policy change. Councilman Manspeaker suggested that this represents a political ploy by Governor Brownback to galvanize his supporters before his 2014 gubernatorial election against Paul Davis. Supporters of the proposal reply that those who abuse the system grow dependent on the government for their livelihood, discouraging them from seeking work in the future.
MENTAL HEALTH
Let us be clear: it is not possible to comfortably live on the money that food stamps provide. A single adult can receive a maximum of $200 per month from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program - $6.67 per day. I don't know any adult who can live on $200 per month, nor can I imagine doing so. I doubt that many individuals voluntarily pass up the income from a part-time job to scrape by on $7 a day.
As pointed out by executive director of the Kansas Center for Economic Growth Annie McKay, making individuals ineligible for food stamps does not make a job suddenly appear for them. New work requirements do not change the structural reasons that desperate Kansans need food stamps. Unfortunately, Kansas lawmakers seem more interested in scoring cheap political points and punishing those struggling the most than in realizing Kansas' promise as a place of bounty and prosperity for all its citizens.
Amanda Gress is a junior majoring in political science and economics from Overland Park.
Mental illness given blame for violence
A man suffering with schizophrenia, as well as any other neurological or psychological disorder, is no more likely to commit an act of violence than someone who is suffering from cancer, heart disease, arthritis or bad breath. However, we have been quick to use mental illness as the explanation for violence.
You walk on a bus and there are three empty seats left. One seat is next to a paranoid schizophrenic. One is next to a man who is going through alcohol withdrawal. The other is next to a fanatical football fan after his team lost the championship. In regards to your personal safety, who do you choose to sit by? The answer is that you do not have enough information to make that decision.
The sad truth is we judge and stigmatize individuals based on their labels, rather than looking at the whole picture. In the scenario above, many would most likely avoid sitting by the individual with a mental illness because of this notion that the "mentally ill are violent." Maybe it's the football fan that has an abusive past.
Unfortunately, there have been a slew of mass shootings in the past decade. The most notable include the shootings at Virginia Tech, a movie theater in Aurora, a Sikh Temple in Wisconsin, Sandy Hook and the D.C Navy yard. Each of these perpetrators was deemed to be mentally ill. And just like that, the investigation stopped. There is no other explanation. Maybe he was a political extremist? Maybe he was racist? Maybe he hated organized institutions like universities and government? The correlation between psychiatric disorder and violence is so entrenched into our minds that we refuse to hear other justifications. And we live in a society where we feel the need to justify every action.
It is not fair to use the mentally ill as a scapegoat. What about the many mentally ill individuals who do not commit acts of violence? As a matter of fact, they are the ones getting teased, picked on and hurt for having a mental illness. Scapegoating the mentally ill creates a negative stigma towards all mentally ill individuals. And how do we decide which mental illnesses translate to violence? The ones where individuals see hallucinations or believe delusional thoughts in the form of negative voices? Is it only schizophrenia and bipolar disorder? But these symptoms can happen to psychotropic drug users and insomniacs. Even I have negative voices and thoughts in my head. Don't we all? The difference is that I have a stronger, more even-tempered voice that knows when to take a step back and look at things in a more rational way.
The point is, we cannot keep using mental illness as a scapegoat for violence. Sometimes, there are just bad people in this world that do bad things. Whether they are suffering from schizophrenia or acne, it should not matter. It is important to assess the situation and past history, not just labels.
Monica Saha is a first year pharmacy student from Overland Park.
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