Tuesday. November 7. 2000
The University Daily Kansan
Section A · Page 5
Letters to the Editor
Bush's DUI, cover-up reflects poorly on leadership ability
When allegations arose that Governor George W. Bush was charged and punished with driving under the influence, the governor confessed to this past action. Bush also blamed Vice President Al Gore's campaign with the conspiracy of this issue surfacing days before the election. Al Gore should not be held accountable for Bush's mistakes and Bush's decision not to make this announcement prior to the leak.
How dare the Republican Party continue to and fully emphasize the demoralization that occurred in the White House when their own supported candidate for presidency does not even know when to draw the line. Sexual misconduct and substance abuse problems are two very distinct issues but they are comparable. They both rely on morals and values that the two political speaches preach.
Gore has strongly stressed his separation from President Clinton and the Lewinsky situation in this campaign and has made this irrebutably apparent. Focusing on the issues has been this candidate's real drive, and personality aside, he could stand up to be a decent president.
Bush chose to endanger the lives of others when he chose to drive under the influence. He still will not admit to his prior drug abuse problems, which are already publicly acknowledged. Contemplating the detrimental effects this potential president would have as a role model on future generations is especially undesirable.
Now, it is time for the voters to choose the respectable candidate that will inevitably affect the lives of other's across the nation. Al Gore is the best candidate for this ideal.
Jayme A. Aschemeyer Wiggins, Colo., freshman
Both Democrats, Republicans solicit votes via the telephone
In the Nov. 3 Kansan, Jason Fendrick wrote a letter criticizing Phill Kline's campaign for making phone calls to him concerning the 3rd District congressional race. It hardly seems fair to present only one side of the picture, so I thought I would try to fill in what he left out.
The Democrats do the same thing. I received a call today asking me to vote for three Democrats
— including Kline's opponent — two of whom I am not eligible to vote for. Somehow that seems even worse than simply calling with campaign information. The Democrats didn't even give me reasons to vote for them.
Even worse, I later received an e-mail from a Libertarian candidate for U.S. Congress — via my KU e-mail account. I don't know if he took my address from KU sources (of questionable legality), but he surely wanted my vote. Even though I'm out of his district.
So the actions of Kline's campaign don't seem to be too unusual. Perhaps Fendrick needs to learn a bit more about politics before he decides to vote based on phone calls.
Agron D. Profitt
Aaron D. Profitt Overland Park sophomore
Use of organization's name damages credibility, hurts mission
Well, Leonard Magruder was right, I'm enraged. Oh, I was only slightly annoyed at his treatment of gender issues and somewhat appalled by his pseudo-intellectual rhetoric. I didn't get mad until he had the nerve to sign his screw, "Leonard Magruader, President, Sons and Daughters of Vietnam Veterans."
Even though his letter (Kansan, Nov. 3) was ill conceived, I forgive Magruder for being wrong. What I can't forgive him for is his sleazy attempt to steal the patriotism of Vietnam veterans and graft it to his own reactionary agenda. The treatment of U.S. servicemen during Vietnam was a national embarrassment. When veterans or their children meet and discuss these issues, it preserves our national memory and ensures that the same mistakes will not be made again.
However, Magruder's attempt to the his dislike of the feminist movement to the experience of soldiers in Vietnam is disingenuous and insulting. In fact, Vietnam gets only a single off-handed reference in his entire diatribe. Magruder's attempt to legitimize his ridiculous positions by signing the name of an unrelated organization is intolerable. Doing so undermines both the credibility and the mission of Sons and Daughters of Vietnam Veterans.
Robert Chamberlain
Topeka junior
Letter reveals writer's ignorance, intolerance of women's movement
Frankly, Leonard, I'm not so much constipated with outrage, as I am disgusted and saddened by your ill-informed, misogynistic letter to the editor (Kansan, Nov. 3). I actually felt a bit nauseated after my first read-through, but I have now composed myself enough to respond.
Oh, where to start.
First, how dare you suggest that that number of claims of rape is wildly exaggerated. So sweet of you to offer those misrepresentative statistics from Berkeley and Princeton. I mean, we all know that rapes only "count" when they're reported to campus security, right? Just because the rapes weren't reported doesn't mean they didn't happen. And what about the other hundreds of millions of women who don't attend one of those two universities? Here are some real statistics for you (according to the U.S. Department of Justice):
- Somewhere in America, a woman is raped every two minutes.
In 1996, 307,000 women were victims of rape, attempted rape or sexual assault.
In 1996, only 31 percent of raps were actually reported to law enforcement officials.
elected in two minor congressional elections
One in six rape victims is under the age of 12.
The most startling aspect of sex crimes is how many go unreported, many because of fear of reprisal from the assailant. What's also sad is how many women are raped or sexually assaulted and don't even realize it because of our society's inept definitions of those terms.
So, we feminists are pretty much just making up the rape crisis to further our male-bashing agendas? Well, Leonard, don't forget to mention how we also "found" the domestic violence crisis, the female genital mutilation crisis and the dowry deaths crisis, just to name a few more. Oh yes, we've been busy "finding" these hundreds of millions of victims, just to promote our agenda.
And I really wish that you would have elaborated on how the feminist movement betrays the freedom of the South Vietnamese, the middle class, democracy, religion, patriotism and intellectualism. I have to admit, I'm a little confused there.
So, let me ask you, Leonard, have you ever been to Womyn Take Back the Night? I'm going to assume no, because if you had, you would know that the night is NOT about emphasizing vulnerability or basking in the status of "victim."
It's actually just the opposite. Suzanne Stutman, professor of women's studies at Penn State University, put it best when she said "we must march, we must protest, we must legislate, we must raise our voices into the darkness so that no children be allowed to fall, no victims surrender in silence and shame. In doing so, we take back the night."
Explain to me how that's passive. If you felt so concerned that night, watching from your upstairs window, then we were obviously doing something right. Did you feel a little uneasy? Scared that your role as oppressor will be taken from you? You should be.
Brittaney Parbs St. Louis, Mo., senior
more issues had to be brought up. We have made it known that we are not all happy out there. We have made it clear that people are getting tired of the corporate-dominated system and want a change. If you don't believe that, go listen to Gore's speeches before and after the Democratic convention. He became an instant egalitarian. We will exit this election as one of the most powerful watchdog groups in the nation. We will also have, by our estimation, our five percent of the vote
Green Party refuses to be strawman of Gore platform, Democratic Party
Since the beginning of our campaign for Ralph Nader, we in the Green Party have altered the course of the election. We have made it so that
The recent anger we have felt from the Democrats has resulted in paranail and blame to immense levels, most recently in this very paper. The Kansan poll showed Nader with 98 percent. One of the editors, mad because someone must have tampered with it, sent out a fairly personal attack on Nader supporters. First, yes, someone probably did mess with the poll. That is not hard to see. But the Green party did not sanction it.
A week ago, there were about 130 votes and Nader was around 53 percent. This actually agrees with a recent Time magazine online poll of over a million people, which prevented people from voting more than once. This is not to say that we have 53 percent of the vote; rather, it tells you what party has the most people out there looking for information. We were disappointed in the results of the Kansan poll as well, because we believe Nader would have done very well without the repeated votes.
Second, and most importantly, polls are extremely misleading. They must be watched with extreme caution. Not only are they easy to tamper with, but they are imperfect in form. We should always look at the criteria, and where the responses come from. For instance, the criteria for a Gallup poll this summer required that a person had voted in the past two presidential elections. This eliminates the majority of college age voters as well as many disenfranchised voters who may vote now.
The first thing to point out is that we are not wayward Democrats. We are not votes being stolen from Gore. We are the Green Party. If there was only a choice between Gore and Bush, most of us would not vote for the office of president at all. In the recent weeks there has been a mounting disturbance amongst the Democrats. Gore has decided that the reason he is behind in the polls is not because his record is awful or that people don't trust him, but because the Greens are taking "his" votes away. This is a bizarre concept to hold in what is, ostensibly, a democracy. We were under the impression that our votes belong to us. Apparently Gore disagrees. So much for free speech.
We are members of the Green party. We are not "minions," but rather free thinkers. Not one of us is here for a less-than-thought-out reason. There also is no one who completely agrees with Nader on all issues. This not a sign of mistrust, or lack of enthusiasm, but merely differing opinions. Nader comes closer to our beliefs than any of the others, including all other independents. For this reason, we support him.
Here is the point: If Gore were a person we agreed with, then we would vote for him. He is not. He has neglected most of the issues he ran on in the past. We are not lost Democrats. We will vote our conscience and encourage others to do so also. We do not appreciate the sudden hatred. If Gore loses the election, it is his own fault for ignoring large parts of the population, not ours for being those parts. We are here to stay. We will be making our voice heard from here on out. In the words of Gandhi: "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."
Galen Turner
Mary Nall
Sarah Hoskinson
Aaron Paden
Dalyn Cook
John Paden
B. Cooper Priess
Brian Sanderson
Chris Bartley
Aaron Jacobs
KU Green Party
BARGAIN MATINEES INDICATED BY () STADium SEATING * ALL DIGITAL
| Set - Sun | Daily |
| :--- | :--- |
| 1 Meet The Parents $^{b2}$ | (1:15) | 4:05, 7:09, 9:30 |
| 2 Bedazzled $^{b2}$ | (1:40) | 4:45, 7:40, 9:50 |
| 3 Lucky Numbers $^{b2}$ | (1:35) | 4:40, 7:20, 9:50 |
| 4 Pay Forward $^{b2}$ | (1:20) | 4:20, 7:15, 10:00 |
| 5 Remember the Titans $^{b2}$ | (1:35) | 4:15, 7:55, 9:65 |
| 6 Charlie A's Vance $^{b2}$ | (1:55) | 4:55, 7:55, 10:05 |
| 7 The Legend of Bigger Vance $^{b2}$ | (1:00) | 4:00, 7:10, 9:55 |
| 8 Charlie A's Angels $^{b2}$ | (1:25) | 4:25, 7:55, 10:35 |
| 9 Meet The Parents $^{b2}$ | (1:45) | 4:50, 7:50, 10:05 |
| 10 The Exorcist $^{a}$ | (1:10) | 4:10, 7:10, 9:05 |
| 11 The Little Vampire $^{a}$ | (1:00) | 4:25, 7:00, 9:25 |
| 12 Blair Witch $^{a}$ | (1:55) | 5:00, 7:40, 9:55 |
PLAZA 6
2339 DOWA
841-8600
Sat & Sun Daily
1 Almost Famous* " (1:45) 4:30 7:00, 9:30
2 Lost Souls* " (1:45) 4:40 7:00, 9:30
3 The Contender* " (1:50) 4:40 8:00, —
4 Dr. T and The Women* " (1:45) 4:30 7:00, 9:30
5 The Legend of Drunken Mist * (1:55 4:35) 7:05, 9:35
6 The Ladies Man* " (2:00) 4:45 7:10, 9:40
★ NOVEL • BASES • SERIES • ADVERTISING
• SHOWCASE • STORY TRAILER
W Hollywood Theaters
SOUTHWIND 12 3434 UWA
A12-0865
Spencer Museum of Art
Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum
THE GILDED AGE
Closes Nov.19
Gallery hours: Tues., Wed.
Fri., Sat. 10-5; Thurs. 10-9;
Sun. 12-5; closed Mon.
785-864-4710
www.ukans.edu/~sma
John Singer Sargent, Elizabeth Wintrop Chanier,
1893. Smithsonian American Art Museum,
Gift of Chanier A. Chapman
The Gilded Age is one of eight exhibitions in *Treasures to Go*, from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, touring the nation through 2002. The Principal Financial Group® is a proud partner in presenting these treasures to the American people. The Spencer Museum venue is supported by the William T. Kemper Foundation-Commerce Bank, Trustee; Barbara Barber Weir; and the Friends of the Art Museum.