4a
Opinion
Monday, September 18, 2000
For comments, contact Ben Embry or Emily Hughey at 864-4924 or e-mail opinion@kansan.com
Perspective
Parody needs free speech protections
Parody is a much more sincere form of flattery than imitation.
If nothing else, parody
If nothing else, parody is funnier. Brad Quellhorst and Lee Dunfield would probably agree. The two Lawrence High School seniors are the publishers of the Low Budget, an underground newspaper whose name pokes fun at LHS' official paper, the Budget, and whose content pokes fun at just about everything else.
Some of the Low Budget's headlines included "Veterans Park set on fire to discourage smoking" and the remarkably creative "Clinton to release recording debut: 'Oops, I Did Her Again.'"
One person who wasn't laughing when the Low Budget was launched two weeks ago was Dick Patterson, LHS principal. Patterson
was quoted in the Veterans Park story as a supporter of the burning. In response, he suspended the two students for two class days, citing the newspaper as "disruptive."
Patterson also told the students they could no longer distribute their newspaper on the LHS campus. More disturbingly, the two were warned not to print a second issue regardless of distribution methods, Quellhorst said.
Chris
Bormiger
managing editor
editor@kanan.com
School administrators and students often are at odds; when one's right to freedom of speech is in the middle of the struggle, the situation gets messy.
By outlawing the Low Budget at LHS, Patterson set a dangerous precedent. If one group of students is prohibited from distributing materials on campus, then no group should be allowed to distribute — or say — anything that hasn't received the principal's approval.
Misinterpretation of First Amendment rights happens at the University, too.
As freshmen, two of my roommates and I created Templin Revolution. Freshmen made up the majority of the residence hall's inhabitants; we formed the Templin Revolution Web site in sarcastic protest of the all-sophomore hall government.
The site featured a modified photo of Templin with an atomic bomb-style mushroom cloud looming above. The site also included a quote, attributed to an employee of the Department of Student Housing, containing several profanities and thinly veiled threats.
Obviously, we didn't want to overthrow hall government or nuke Templin; it had just been renovated and was practically like a hotel (compared to the other, considerably more decrepit residence halls). But from reliable sources at the KU Campus Internet Association and the KU Amercian Civil Liberties Union, we heard administrators were livid and wanted to sue and/or expel us. Instead, the publicity that followed shined a lot of negative light on the administration, so the lawyers — thankfully — never came knocking on our door.
Freedom of speech usually protects the freedom to be a smartass, to have a warped sense of humor. Those are abilities I truly treasure. And what better way to criticize or call for change than through parody, through satire? After all, Quellhorst and Dunfield didn't think the official LHS paper represented them. Nor did my Templin roommates and I think hall government represented us.
But when the tone of something published doesn't fit what administrators deem "appropriate," those administrators often encroach on freedom.
I'm thankful that they rarely win. Patterson relented last week and allowed Quellhorst and Dunfield to distribute the second issue of Low Budget in the halls of LHS. Templin Revolution never was sued and still exists today, now as a student-rights activist organization.
We don't have to check our constitutional rights at the doors of our schools.
And before our educational superiors attempt to pull in the reigns on harmless parody, perhaps they should do some checking of their own — to see if they still have a sense of humor.
Visit the Low Budget and Templin Revolution online at www.lowbudget.20m.com and www.templinrevolution.com.
Dana Summers / TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICE
Kansan.com poll
Last week's question
Are you satisfied with Jack Flanigans' new dress code?
Yes, I see no problem with the new code.
Borniger is a Wichita senior in Journalism.
Yes, but the old code wasn't racist anyway.
No, nothing can make up for the racism in the original dress code.
No, the new code still discriminates against African Americans and other races.
Note: This poll is not scientific. Results may not add up to 100 because of rounding. Total votes: 94
This week's question:
Should the two Lawrence High School students who created the Low Budget, a satirical newspaper, have been reprimanded for distributing copies on campus? Log on to www.kansan.com to cast your vote.
Perspective
United States should walk away from U.N.
Rising from the ruins of World War II, the United Nations seemed to embody the loftiest ideals — an organization founded "to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war" and "to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights."
It was the civilized world's supreme act of penance for the most destructive war in
human history. The United Nations would be a lasting monument, demonstrating to posterity that humanity had finally learned its lesson
— we'd resolve conflicts
forevermore by spilling
ink, not blood.
But though its words were peaceful white, its core was communist and
Blood was what Joseph Stalin had been spilling in the Soviet Union for two decades before the United Nations' formation.
Thus, it's fitting that the United Nations' first secretary general was Alger Hiss, the American diplomat later exposed as a Soviet spy. It's fitting that, in 1982, the Senate Judiciary Committee said America's U.N. delegation contained "the greatest concentration of communists that this committee has ever encountered."
John McCool guest columnist opinion@kansan.com
Whether by shootings, forced famines or rotting in gulags, 20 million people had been murdered.
Such facts were overlooked, though, and the Soviet Union became a permanent Security Council member and was duly recognized as a "peace-loving nation."
The tradition of welcoming murderers into the family of peace-loving nations continued tragically at the recent U.N. Millennium Summit. Guests included Fidel Castro, Vladimir
Putin, Jiang Zemin and Bill Clinton, who said. "There are assembled here more people with the power to create peace than have ever gathered together in one place in the history of the world."
Given its history of schmoozing dictators and coddling communists, it's no surprise the United Nations has become a platform from which the world's worst oppressors spit anti-American venom and ratl against American imperialism.
They would give U.N. institutions more revenue by instituting a global tax, thus defying the U.S. Constitution, which gives Congress the sole power to tax. They would ratify an international criminal court that could overrule American judges and lead to bogus war crime trials of Americans. They'd build a U.N. Army, with American soldiers led by blue-heLMeted foreigners. And they'd revoke the veto power of the United States, downgrading our democracy to the level of the world's sewer-dwelling despots.
The Charter would create a governing body claiming to supersede the authority of the U.S. President, Congress and the Supreme Court. Supporters want the power to monitor and regulate international corporations — meaning they could control American businesses, set prices and punish companies for noncompliance.
And now, the 150 member nations are debating something sinister — the Charter for Global Democracy — an apocalyptic blueprint for world government.
The United Nations is a scheme for world government, undermining American independence and trashing James Madison's Constitution in favor of Castro's charter.
We can seize this moment by renouncing all ties with the United Nations, bringing our troops home and setting a moral example for all genuine peace-loving nations to follow.
McCool is an Evansville, Ind., graduate student in history.
Editorial
LHS sends wrong signal by censoring
Students' creativity should be encouraged, not punished.
When two Lawrence High School seniors passed out copies of their self-published alternative newspaper, the Low Budget, they had no idea their First Amendment rights would be infringed upon. They were unofficially suspended by LHS principal Dick Patterson, who said the newspaper was disruptive. Instead of unofficially suspending the two students, Patterson should have asked the boys to distribute the paper elsewhere and appreciated the paper for what it was — a witty parody
Patterson later allowed the students to distribute the second issue, but their right to do that never should have been in question.
Applying the First Amendment right of free speech to high schools is difficult. High school students are citizens, yet as minors, the school maintains the right to censor their activities on school property. The content of the official LHS newspaper, the Budget, is protected by law and only the editor of the paper, not the administration, can censor it.
However, unauthorized publications on school property don't have the same protection.
But the Low Budget wasn't disruptive. It didn't spur on any student riots nor encourage the whole school to walk out. The boys said some teachers passed it out in class. There was nothing disruptive about it until the principal overreacted.
In a meeting the day after the newspaper was distributed, Patterson told the boys they would face suspension if they distributed the newspaper again, anywhere. Such a threat is beyond his power to enforce legally. High school is supposed to get students ready to join the adult world. In the United States, adulthood is supposed to allow people to express themselves freely. Youthful participation in society's dialogue helps the country grow.
High schools should applaud students who speak their minds and publish their ideas.
While other kids were lying on couches watching TV, these two put together a Web site and newspaper.
Erin Adamson 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. Slanderous statements will not be printed. To read more, go to www.kansan.com.
Is it just me, or are girlfriends the most frustrating people in the world?
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You know, sometimes life can get you down. You just have to keep smiling and roll with the punches.
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I think it's wonderful that in this time of water shortage that the sororites and fraternities have green grass and water slides.
I don't think parents should name their kids Jesus because it could give them a big head.
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It's ridiculous that the Kansan didn't print anything about Fred Phelps being in front of the Kansas Union Friday.
Everyone should take off the Calvin pissing on the motor company stickers. They're a bad idea.
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The doctor said my nose would stop bleeding if I kept my finger out of it.
Do you have to be a dork to live in the dorms?
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Where are all the 7-Elevens in Lawrence?
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Are you fed up with the rusting locks in Budig Hall? Time and time again, peeping toms have observed others' release of excrement.
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Do we have nothing better to do with our time than standing and arguing with an overweight, drunken redneck?
I saw some old people who were holding giant purple signs that said "Gayhawks." I just thought they were K-State fans.
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If Fred Phelps is so anti-gay, why is he always staring at my unit?
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I think instead of Donald Duck,
it should be Donovan Duck.
The University should stop hiring minority faculty members and teach their current ones English.
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If you're worried about STDs and don't want to get them, don't have sex.
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