4a
Opinion
Wednesday, November 8, 2000
Perspective
For comments, contact Ben Voosen Embry or Emily Hughey at 864-4924 or e-mail opinion@kansan.com
First-time voter learns lessons of democracy
I'd been a long time since I'd been that excited to receive a sticker.
A smiling woman with a gray up-do and a scarf plumming around her neck like a red, white and blue lion's mane handed it to me. Instead of finding a place for it in a dog-eared Hello Kitty sticker book, I slapped it proudly on my chest. "I voted" it read.
"I voted." it read.
It was my first time ... obviously. The permanent half-simile on my face compared with the scolls of seasoned voters in the hour-long line surely blew my cover. But I didn't care. I was voting in my first presidential election. Finally, "Enlivening" appropriately describes the first-time-voter feeling. For 18 years I was kept silent. Although given the opportunity to voice my opinion in high school political science classes, I said nothing that had any official impact. For the three years since age 18, I've
been living under a political regime whose inception I had nothing to do with. Finally, at age 21, I have a voice, no matter how debatable it might be in this election.
I arrived at the polls Saturday with other advance voters. Upon entering the building, I got in line and it looked long — long enough to inspire one prospective voter to ask just how long.
Emily Hughey opinion editor opinion@kansas.com
A man looked at his watch and stamped his foot while another woman gave a loud, throaty sigh before both of them returned to their respective cars. I exchanged smiles with the recoiled volunteer and moved two steps ahead in the line.
"About an hour or so," the volunteer at the door answered sheepish.
An hour of standing gives you good time to think. It was one last chance to contemplate the issues and to let my mind wander. Although my decision already was made, the "your vote doesn't really count" devil on one shoulder batted with the idealist "you can still make a difference" angel on the other.
I stayed in line amid cranky suburban parents with their soccer-uniformed children, jolly-looking grandparents explaining the voting process to 7-year-olds, and 20 something students in ragged sweets browsing catalogs.
"Save some time," the devil said. "The Electoral College determines it all anyway."
The angel countered, "It's your civic duty and freedom to vote. The popular vote counts for something."
Despite the glares, heavy sighs and rolling eyes around me, the scene was heartening. Kids played in the halls, strangers casually discussed partisan issues and people read the morning paper. Blank-faced little kids stood in line at the Kids Voting polls so they could fill in the blanks and get free popcorn when they finished. Some people made plans to charter a plane on their cell phones while others in tattered sweat pants and old shoes stood empty-handed.
The spectrum of people at the polls refreshed me. Although no one appeared to be the same, and not everybody had the same motivations, every individual had at least one thing in common: They were all there to vote. Even though I didn't agree with a word the red-headed woman preached behind me, nor with the more delicate rhetoric of the middle-aged couple ahead of me, it didn't matter. It was enough to know that, no matter what any of us believed, we could let it be known officially.
When I ultimately reached the large, square room filled with rows of royal-blue plastic voting booths, I gave a satisfied laugh to myself. As I approached the front of the room, an elderly man waved me to the ballot table. He must have caught me smiling.
"Black marker's already in there waiting for you. miss." he said.
"Hello there," he said exuberantly. After handing me the ballot and the envelope and directing me to a booth, he winked.
I pored over the ballot, making sure each circle I chose was darkened like the example sheet posted in the booth. Then, after looking over it once more, I sealed the envelope, put it in the box and looked up to meet the glance of a gray-haired woman with sparkling eyes.
"Have a sticker, honey," she said, reaching out her hand.
"Thanks," I said with a grin. I then walked past the other voters and out the building feeling like a citizen with a voice ... finally.
Hughey is an Overland Park senior in journalism and Spanish.
Chan Lowe / TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES
By the Numbers
0 Number of incumbent Republican governors who have won the presidency since 1898
Number of incumbent vice presidents elected to the presidency between 1836 and 1968 Source: University of Nebraska Foundation
Number of Chevron oil tankers named after Condoleezza Rice, George W. Bush's foreign-policy adviser
Source: Chevron Corporation
106 Length in pages of Al Gore's 1969 Harvard thesis on the impact of TV "on the conduct of the revolutionary"
Source: Harvard Archives
68 Percentage of multi-penalty trials since 1976 that appeals courts have found to include "warrant, invoiced error." Source: Prof. James Liebman, Columbia Law School
Perspective
Certain phrases carry unexpected meanings
Choosing just the right word can make a "B" paper an "A" paper, or it can help us break the news to someone a little more smoothly. Choosing the wrong word (especially in a foreign language) sometimes has humorous results. Poor word choice doesn't usually have serious implications.
But a Coca-Cola ad that has run in the Kansas this semester chose the wrong
"caught red handed"
carried serious consequences.
Season Titus,
HAWKLink student
coordinator and member
of the Diversity Peer
Education Team, said
she heard complaints
from students and faculty
about the term.
"When I saw it in the paper, I was shocked," she said.
"Caught red handed" was one of several offensive terms used in common discourse that DPET discussed. The
term has two possible origins, she said. It could be of European origin, referring to being caught with bloody hands after a murder. The other explanation, which more people seem to accept, is that "caught red handed" refers to Native Americans and the misperception that they are prone to stealing.
Either way, the phrase took on a whole new meaning for me after hearing this. Like other words, it has become such a part of common speech that its origins
Erinn Barcomb
readers'
representative
reader@erinn.com/kansan.com
have been forgotten by many people. How many people in junior high and high school knew that when saying they were "gypping" class they were using a phrase derived from negative assumptions about gypsies?
In discussions of racism and prejudice, we often talk about people being ignorant. Generally we conjure up the image of someone who is stubborn and refuses to learn or change his or her ways. Many times, though, ignorance is just a matter of not knowing, especially when we are removed from the origins of a phrase like "caught red handed."
In conversation, such a slip-up would be embarrassing and offensive for the people involved. When the phrase is used in an advertisement circulated across campus, the mistake becomes more difficult to forgive. I'm thankful that the ad has changed its tone and now uses the phrase "caught in the red zone."
Although the Kansan news staff isn't involved with the creation or placement of ads, we have to take some responsibility for content. In many ways, I think advertising has the potential to be more disturbing and offensive than news or opinion content that readers disagree with. News and opinion have a basis in reality. With advertising, we are free to create whatever scene, scenario or image we want, no matter how far from reality.
As readers, we need to evaluate ads with the critical eye we use to look at news and opinion pieces.
As people fighting ignorance, we need to choose our words carefully.
Barcomb is Wichita senior in journalism.
Post-election season calls for activism
Editorial
Voters can't stop being involved just because the election is finished.
The elections are over, and soon there will be a new president-elect with new ideals and a new vision for the future of America. Once each person cast his or her vote, there was no way that the decision could be reversed as to who would serve the next term as President of the United States.
There are many ways to become involved, not only at the federal level, but also at the state and local levels as well. This week we did not vote just for president but also for Congress and many other officials. This was the time to exercise your right to vote and have a voice in what would occur in the next four years.
Whether the next president is Gore or Bush, we should not let that discourage us from continuing to work for our own beliefs concerning different issues. Continue to support your candidate and do what you can to stay involved in the politics of the nation.
Many people will be disheartened if their candidate is not elected, but that should not make a person apathetic to what happens next. The fact that their candidate is not in office should motivate them to get out there and work even more to endorse their party and their candidates for office.
The new president will change the way things are in this country and that is why it is important that Americans exercise their right to take part in elections and express to their representatives what they would like to see happen for the country. That is the only way to get anything done, and we are very lucky, as American citizens, to have that right. People should not dwell on the outcome of the election, but rather look into the future and find ways to make a difference, even if only a small one.
Katie Hackett for the editorial board
Free for All callers have 20 seconds to speak about any topic they wish. The Kansan reserves the right to edit submissions, and not all of them will be published. Slenderous statements will not be printed. To read more, go to www.kansan.com.
There's got to be a way where I can vote for Clinton again.
My roommate's a fountain of ignorance, and it's overflowing.
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We don't ration water, so you can take showers everyday. So do it.
If you don't want to be the only minority in your class you should probably go to a different school with higher minority rates.
What's this whole election thing I've been hearing about?
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I have to skip class so that I can go home to vote on Tuesday.
To those who don't know anything about Nader, you should think about seat belts in cars and then thank Nader.
Let's get Dennis Miller off Monday Night Football.
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What good is it to be a nice guy if they always finish last?
Happy Sadie Hawkins Day!
Instead of calling them greeks, we should call them geeks.
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Having the basketball game after the football game was so redeeming.
回
What happened to all the happy nonsense that used to be in the Free for All?
Thanks to Abercrombie and Fitch, we can all tell who's in a fraternity.
Anyone who sings Who Let the Dogs Out? in public should be fined.
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Free John Crider!
I wish my car were faster. I have a Geo Prism, and it's pretty slow.
2.
At the end of the semester, the UDK should print a best of Free for All section.
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If you have general questions or comments, e-mail the page staff (opinion@kansan.com) or call 864-4924.
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