4a
Opinion
Friday, August 25, 2000
or comments, contact Ben Embry or Emily Hughey at 864-4924 or e-mail opinion@kansan.com
Perspective
Start to think about casting your ballot
politics. Did someone say politics? Relax. It's just a mental exercise. Let's start by setting the scene. Let's suppose we're all guilty of subscribing to a particular public university called the University of Kansas. Let's suppose that public universities such as ours have a tendency toward the liberal side of things, meaning that we generally like to recycle old cans and bottles, and that we tend to cringe when we hear things such as nuclear submarine engines leaking radioactive waste off the Baltic coast.
We'd be leaning toward the liberal, I'm positing, because we don't feel the terms homosexuality and Christianity are mutually exclusive. You see how these scales are tipped.
What's the exercise, you simple enough. The question is, to Green or not to Green?
"Green?" you're saying. "But there's no point in voting Green, however disgruntled a voter I might be." Fact is, Nader hasn't got a chance of becoming the next American C.E.O., no matter how refreshing his candidacy is.
But as your mental aerobics instructor, you must trust me. I know when the workout begins. What I improve is
Ramona
DeNies
columnist
opinion@kansan.com
begins. What process has no decision-making process for political lightweight. We've got to think, work those cerebral cortexes.
The argument goes like this: Most of us are liberal student types and the "liberal" candidate is Al Gore. No doubt you, too, can overlook those watery, pixelated eyes on screen and believe he's unaffected by corporate interests unlike that nasty Dubya. Having faith in the benevolence of your leaders, that's called.
Sarcasm aside, the fact remains that American bipartisanism has become increasingly amorphous. Gore or Bush: what'll it be? Choose your poison, they'll most likely have the same effect. And we youngest of voters throw up our hands. Why bother when the candidates are virtually identical? What does it matter when politics continue ad nauseum, with the leading country of the free world steamrolling its way into the 21st century?
The question we must ask ourselves is, do we want to cast our ballots in the hopes that a third political party might gather strength and grow in credibility until it can challenge the antiquated bipartisan system? Or do we wish to simply avoid the inauguration of Bush.Jr.?
After all, as the argument goes: If you vote for Nader, you inadvertently vote for Bush. And in detracting votes from the Gore constituency, you fragment the "liberal" voting block, an awful position to be in, involuntarily paving the way for conservative ascendancy.
I must admit that I would have buckled and voted for Gore had I not been convinced of the long-term benefits of supporting a party that has recently been snowballing in popularity.
You see, when you elect a figurehead leader such as the president, you are, in fact, electing an administration appointed by that figurehead leader. When you usher in one party above another, the actual consequences for the nation reach deep into the roots of government. The question we have to ask ourselves is: Why are we not voting to represent our desire to legislate change?
The Green Party currently has the support of more than eight percent of Americans. Only five percent of the general election vote for any party grants that party access to federal campaign funding.
Essentially, if we do not vote Green, I wonder what it will take to engender a viable third party in American politics. We have since ceased to believe we are a black-and-white society. Why, therefore, do we persist in promoting a black and white political infrastructure?
If that eight percent proves stable, two major things will be accomplished: The Green Party will have proven itself viable to a public convinced it has no options, and it will oblige the reigning politicos to take heed of the radicalizing of the politics of the American people.
The question is posed. Sharpen your wits, fellow Jayhawks. Who do you think is thinking if you're not?
DeLéon is a Portland, Ore. senior in English and Latin American studies.
DANA SUMMERS / TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES
Heard on the Hill
Whose responsibility is campus safety?
"The KU security department should be responsible for the safety of students and professors on campus."
Usman Murtaza Pakistan junior
"I think each residence hall should have someone to help provide for safety, to escort people, especially girls, to their cars or wherever they need to go."
Amber Wilson
Garrett
sophomore
"I think people should take personal responsibility to ensure they don't put themselves in a dangerous situation. Maybe they should use something like the buddy system."
Seth Sundquist
Moundridge freshman
"The KUPD should be held responsible. Students should also take some responsibility on their own, but campus safety is chiefly the responsibility of the KUPD."
Genyse Whyte Baltimore junior
Perspective
Boring elections loom
Whenever someone mentions this election season, one word comes to mind: Yuck. My palate for politics is bored.
Until now, government always has fascinated me. When I was growing up, one of my primary reading materials was an unabridged Webster's Dictionary with a section containing profiles of all the United States presidents. The first things I read were summaries of their lives and administrations.
I was hooked. Something struck me about all the esteem the president commands. I must have read those profiles hundreds of times. Immersed in reverence for the presidency, I memorized every mundane detail about their lives. Many of my friends refuse to play Trivial Pursuit with me as a result.
Public service still engages me, but I find myself growing more disenchanted with it. So do most young voters.
Just look at the rates of voter turnout for 18- to 24-year-olds. In 1972, half of the voters in this age range voted. Since then, that rate steadily has declined. In 1996, fewer than one in three went to the polls. In 1998, fewer than one in five voted.
Those numbers are catalysts for movements such as Kids Voting Kansas, in which I participated as a high school senior. The organizers of this program hypothesized that fostering an interest in voting would increase the likelihood that they would vote when they turned 18.
Chris
Borniger
managing editor
editor@kanan.com
I still believe in voting. If I don't go to the polls, how can I complain about the people who make the rules? That's a right I wouldn't surrender for anything in the world.
But I can already see that I'm going to dread this trip to the voting booth. In this case, it truly is a case of choosing the lesser of two evils.
What happened to the idyllic image of democracy I envisioned from reading my history textbooks in grade school? It's been obliterated and replaced with images from CNN and C-SPAN of nonstop bickering, hollow jargon and disturbingly adamant partisanship.
On the one hand, there's Al Gore — a walking nap. On the other hand, there's George W. Bush, the one who's financing his campaign with a checkbook the size of the state he governs. Both are sons of prominent politicians. Both are wealthy white males. Yuck, indeed.
How do we break the vicious cycle of voter disenchantment? Young people say that they want a voice, that they want lawmakers to listen. Why should I kiss your ass, the elected official retorts, when statistics show you probably won't vote anyway?
It's exhausting. The way things are going, we'll need to be bribed with Abercrombie & Fitch coupons. Or with beer.
In the political chess game, we're not even relevant enough to be pawns. Frankly, I'd rather play Trivial Pursuit. If only I could find an opponent. Sigh.
Borniger is a Wichita senior in journalism.
Free for all is the telephone public forum for the University Daily Kansan. 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.
Has anybody else heard that new band 2Gether? They rock.
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How come rappers don't talk about big butts anymore?
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What's up with Robinson? It's only open, like, an hour or hour and a half every day.
图
I'm tired of public toilet seats not being made large enough for men of larger girth.
I don't understand why recording artists are mad at Napster. Now they can get all their music for free, too.
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I really like the crossword puzzle,but why are the answers right there?
Editor's note: From now on, the answers to the day's crossword puzzle will appear in the next day's issue.
Editorial Suspension of players good start
Athletics department still needs to do something about accused football team members.
Though the athletics department's decision to suspend the two Kansas football players accused of sexually assaulting a female soccer player last spring is a step closer to a resolution, the department has more to do.
Though one player had already been expelled for poor grades, the athletics department refused renewal of his scholarship and suspended him from the team. The other player is in academic good standing but on probation pending the results of district attorney Christine Tonkovich's investigation.
The department should have acted sooner in dealing with the football players' actions. Action against the athletes was delayed almost six months, a time too long to deal with complaints as serious as the female soccer player's.
The athlete who remains at the University will still be eligible to compete this fall. Considering the gravity of these complaints, the football player should be barred from games until Tonkovich makes a decision whether the district attorney's office will prosecute.
Doug Vance, assistant director of media relations for the athletics department, said probation was the penalty closest to suspension from the team.
According to a statement issued by the female soccer player, both football players touched her inappropriately. Since both men supposedly participated in the sexual assault, both men should receive the same punishment. The remaining football player's inclusion on the team raises questions regarding the convenient academic dismissal of the other player.
The KU athletics department's in-house handling of the situation was poor enough to begin with. The follow-up investigation and the football team's disciplinary actions were the department's chance to clear its tarnished image by providing clear closure to the scandal and taking a strong stand against sexual harassment. The athletics department and the football team's actions have not resolved doubts in the back of people's minds about the department's commitment to take sexual assault seriously.
Barbara Ballard, assistant vice-chancellor of student affairs, said she was conducting an independent review of the athletics department's off-campus sexual harassment and sexual assault policy. She said that her report would be forthcoming soon.
In the mean time, the athletics department should take decisive action by barring the remaining player from games until Tonkovich's decision is made.
Joe Jarvis for the editorial board
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