MONDAY SEPTEMBER 23, 2013
PAGE 4
opinion
TEXT FREE FOR ALL
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Why doesn't Hanes or Fruit of the Loom ever come to campus and put up a bouncy castle for us dudes?
98 Stowers is the most clutch D-linemen in the NCAA
The makers of Wescoe put the benches two feet from the wall to promote our back problems. Wescoe 1 Students - 0
Thank you, fire alarm, for giving me the push I needed to just get up and walk out of my physics lecture.
KU FOOTBALL WON AN FBS GAME FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE I VGEL HERE #THANKYOUBASEDWYMAN
Everytime someone says that they are "used too" Kansas weather, Mother Nature will prove them wrong.
The Rock Chalk Latte is phenom! A+ 10/10 Would Recommend.
So apparently taking about pap smears in a probability class is a thing...
To the kid that just hustled down the hill on crutches.. Sorry I was staring, I was impressed.
Ethics discussions in my Journalism 101 class are slowly causing me to lose my faith in humanity.
Apparently my socks never remember the buddy system whenever I wash them.
Some of us love gingers. Send them
my way!
Being the only person on the Park and Ride while the bus driver calls out every stop is uncomfortable.
Apparently I'm a "waste ambassador." This whole time I thought my proper title was "trash girl."
I'm walking down a hallway in Wescо-
co that I've never seen in my 3 years
here. This building's a maze.
Thanks football, for making basketball seem a little less distant.
BMX KID NEVER GIVES UP #KeepOn-
Wheeling
My professor just picked his nose in front of the class.
randomraps, got my grandma on speed dial, I call it Instagram.
HEALTH
My roommate and I both have blisters. Hers is from rock climbing and mine is from plunging a toilet... this is just sad.
Props to the UDK for the excellent Obama coverage!
Matthew Wyman, you're my hero.
Obamacare lacks support, connection with middle class
Lou Holtz is a muppet
To put it delicately, President Obama couldn't sell a bucket of water to a bloke in burning trousers. And to be honest, America does bear a striking resemblance to such a bloke at the moment. Our president is an undeniably powerful speaker, but he really does suffer when it comes to selling the American people on his own policies.
This is saying a lot coming from me. While Republicans continue to foam at the mouth and even a faction of Democrats has begun to distance themselves, I remain a devoted supporter of the President merely because I do extensive research on a select few of his policies that are of particular importance to me (cough cough health care- no, help, I'm actually coughing). But if it weren't for my unique situation, I can't say I would be so on board with everything he's proposed.
The policies aren't the problem. The problem is that the GOP has put a surgeon general's warning on everything Obama's selling, and he's made very little effort to sway the public away from the outlandish claims. This strikes me
as odd since Obama has proven to be a master salesman when he himself is the product – a pair of convincing victories and nearly $2 billion in cumulative campaign funds could attest to that. During those elections, Obama succeeded chiefly because of his simple messages and powerful branding efforts. I've never seen a country so eager to wear a presidential candidate's face on a t-shirt, or even emulate his likeness with Facebook apps that turn your profile picture red and blue. He made himself the candidate of "Hope" and "Change," and if you were against him, then you were also against those fundamental values.
But the tables have turned and the GOP has transformed itself into a political branding machine. In just a short period of time, they managed to twist the candidate of hope into a Kenyan, socialist Muslim. In fact, they were the ones who coined the term "Obamacare" and rebranded it as a doomsday for civilization.
I must admit, I'm impressed. The key to their success has been their ability to reduce highly complex
policies and conflicts into blunt buzzwords that draw on basic human emotions, primarily fear. Unfortunately, most Democrats – and Obama is no exception – have resorted to finger-pointing rather than actually explaining their policies in simple enough terms to stave off the negative connotations from the GOP.
I gained a little bit of "hope" this past Friday. I attended Obama's speech at the Claycomo Ford plant as a member of the press and stood in awe as I watched him speak for the following hour. The crowd was a small gathering of Ford employees and their families. They were primarily factory workers. Only hours after the House voted to defund Obamacare, I watched the man himself defend his policy with the thirst of a car
salesmen living off of commission. And he told the workers everything he could to make them drive off the lot in a new car. He didn't talk about ideology or abstract concepts of government spending or phony projections for the year 2072. He gave hard data. He said that defounding Obamacare would "rob 25 million Americans of health care." He said that the new regulations mean that "insurance companies have to spend 80 percent of your payments on your health care, not administrative costs." He said that kids would be able to stay on their parents' plans until they are 26, to the roaring applause of the mothers in the crowd. And then, just to let the Ford employees know that they were the most important customers on the showroom floor, he explained the GOP's refusal to raise the debt ceiling by using an F-150 as an example: "once you're buying a truck, you can't say you're saving money by not paying the bills." America would essentially be "a deadbeat" if the GOP goes through with the government shutdown.
I support my president. I truly
believe he has the best interests of this country at heart, and for the first time in awhile, I feel that he did an effective job in convincing some regular Americans. The truth is, no staunch Republican is going to have a massive ideological shift and suddenly support higher taxes and government spending because of anything the President says, or anything I say, for that matter. Just like how my parents aren't going to give up their Toyotas they've driven for 20 plus years just because Ford says they've got a better car now. But maybe if they took a little spin in a Fusion they'd see what it's all about and be a little less set in their ways.
If Obama really is fighting for the middle class, then he'll need to reach them on their level, connect with them on the issues that they really care about and make it clear that he's on their side.
And maybe, just maybe, they'll buy that bucket of water. Our trousers could use a rest.
Will Webber is a journalism major from Prairie Village. Follow him @mwwebber.
LANGUAGE
Examine meanings attached to messages
Before I departed for China, a good friend of mine said something very interesting
to me.
As we looked up to the stars from the Rocky Mountains, we traded stories. The collections of constellations gently turned on their axes and our conversation gave way to the recounting of our childhoods. Both the naivetés it contained, and the unadulterated truths it possessed as well.
"Did you ever...," my friend paused momentarily to fully recall the old thought from his mind, "did you ever repeat a word... until you forget its meaning, you know? And you just heard its sound alone?"
just hear its sound croak.
I asked him to clarify. "You know, like you say the word 'wood' until you just hear the sound 'wood' – and don't think of the object." He started to repeat the word "wood" a couple of times and then looked down, letting out a small laugh.
I had never heard this before, and made him promise me he had naturally thought to do this on his own, as the idea initially seemed straight out of some Buddhist guide to meditation.
He assured me, and the idea stuck in my mind. I mean, it seems incredible to me that my mind doesn't have the self-control to separate a word from its meaning. It's phenomenal that after 21 years of careful development, I can't get my mind to
By Scott Rainen srainen@kansan.com
effectively perform such a simple task. So a few days before I left for Nanjing, I decided that while I spent the 25 hours commuting across continents, I would conduct a little experiment.
Now if you could have stood near me during the process, you would have heard a gentle mumbling under my breath. As I waded through the security lines and customs, it continued. Scrunched between an old Chinese lady and some over-the-hill perverted French chef, it did not subside. As the Frenchman voluntarily shared the most intimate details of his various sexual exploits to an extent that made my stomach turn, the repetition turned inward. Then finally as I realized my check-luggage had been lost, you might have heard a small muttering pass between my lips, if only to keep myself calm: "International travel, international travel, international travel..."
It is truly weir the way we assign meaning to things, and it is not limited to sounds either. For example, my elementary school holds more meaning to me than that of a simple building. I associate it with a feeling of youthful curiosity, and this was constructed on its own, completely naturally. I can assure you this was not taught.
From my layman's perspective, language seems to be important simply because it is one of the easiest ways of communicating wisdom. If I want to explain the youthful feeling of adolescence, it is terribly inefficient to take a person to my elementary school; even if I did, they probably wouldn't catch my meaning. It took six years of yearning for whatever came next to create this meaning. Thus, it is far simpler to say, "I feel a sense of youthful curiosity all over again now that I'm about to graduate from college." Now, please disregard the fact that this statement is not true.
Language, on the other hand, seems to be an organized assortment of meanings developed over a long period of time to ultimately facilitate more complex thoughts, or the organization of international travel.
Perhaps I'm getting slightly ahead of myself. At any rate, this much is certain to me: if I can ever say the words "international travel" again and separate it from its meaning I will only be a few steps away from enlightenment, and never again will I be able to discuss international travel while eating any food product attributed to France.
Scott Rainen is a senior majoring in Geography and East Asian Language and Culture at Oakland Park
and Culture from Overland Park.
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ECO-FRIENDLY
Advertising can promote environmental causes
Millions of companies and businesses spend large amounts of money promoting products with the goal to increase revenue. For example, Coke spent $2.6 billion on advertising worldwide in 2006, the most recent year for which figures were available on their website. So what does advertising have to do with environmentalism? Dr. Wallace J. Nichols proposes that it might just be the answer to conservation.
Nichols believes that if we can harness what happens in our brain when we see and experience the ocean, we could radically shift conservation. From Shark Week to Finding Nemo, our culture is fascinated with the mysterious life underwater.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the ocean covers 71 percent of the earth. Not only is it a huge part of our environment, but waves may also cause a wave of emotion. From soothing beach noises to vacations on the coast, people are attracted to this amazing part of our ecosystem.
However the fascination does not transfer directly to conservation. As put by Nichols in a Huffington Post Blog, "I've heard it said that less than 1% of eco-funding goes to caring for the blue world. But, the fact is we live on a blue planet, not a green one, or a brown one...Life came from the ocean, and most of our planet's life and habitable space is in the ocean. We know all too well that the ocean gives us our climate, the air we breathe, and food to eat."
Nichols is the creator of the BlueMind movement. As explained on its website, BlueMind links nature and neuroscience to create a new field it refers to as "Neuro-conservatism." Each year, a BlueMind Summit is held, "bringing together top neuroscientists, oceanographers, explorers, educators and artists to consider new questions about the 'human brain on water.'"
HOW TO SUBMIT A LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Nichols suggests using people's natural attraction and attachment
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With the science and knowledge available to us, there's no reason why we can't turn greed into a greener planet.
Trevo Grant, editor-in-chief editor@kansan.com
Allison Kohn, managing editor akohn@kansan.com
LETTER GUIDELINES
to the ocean as a tool to protect it. Whether this is through advertising or some other creative method, the possibilities are unlimited in this growing field of "Neuro-conservatism".
If Coke spends billions of dollars learning how to manipulate the mind of the consumer, then why shouldn't environmental activists use the same methods to actually accomplish something rather than to just make a profit? What if every time a goal was accomplished, we would have lessened our footprint on our natural world rather than funneling money to large corporations?
Length: 300 words
The submission should include the author's name, grade and hometown. Find our full letter to the editor online policy at kansan.com/letters.
If Neuro-conservatism and environmental psychology were continually put into practice, we would all be "the type of people" who care about and preserve our planet.
Jenny Stern is a sophomore majoring in Biology from Lawrence.
And it doesn't just stop with advertising and the ocean. In "Fostering Sustainable Behavior," environmental psychologist Dr. Doug McKenzie-Mohr combines behavior patterns and sustainable practices. Specifically, he discusses the Theory of Self-Perception. The theory states that if convenient opportunities exist for people to behave sustainably, then engaging in the act itself will shape attitudes. This theory revolves around the principle that people prioritize consistency; once they define themselves as, for example, "the type of person who recycles", then they will continue to recycle.
Dylan Lysen, managing editor dlysen@kansan.com
Will Webber, opinion editor
wwebber@kansan.com
Mollie Pointer, business manager mppointer@kansan.com
@KansanOpinion Beating 11th ranked Georgia Tech my freshman year! Storming the field was one of my best KU memories hands down.
Sean Powers.sales manager spowers@kansan.com
@SieARose
@AD Price
@KansasOpinion The time when Louisiana Tech's Quarterback forgot which team he was on and helped KU win the football game #MPV
CONTACT US
Brett Akaii, media director & content strategist
bakag@kansasan.com
Jon Schitt, sales and marketing adviser
jschitt@kansasan.com
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THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Members of the Kansan Editorial Board are Trevor Graff, Allison Koln, Dyla Lysen, Will Webber, Powder Pointers, Mona Power.
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