TUESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2014
THE UNIVERSITY BAHY KANSAN
-
PAGE 4
opinion
TEXT FREE FOR ALL
Text your FFA submissions to (785)289-8351 or at kansan.com
Someone asked what football was, I honestly can't tell you, but parking is hell.
townnewhatesfootballparking
Only the drummle gets people excited for football season? Sadness #MarchingBandProbs
I'm always sad I can't favorite or retweet or like those perfect FFA posts
Do you think I can sell my bible on eBay? Need money for textbooks...
What kind of day is it? It's a great day to be a Jayhawk!!!
I've only been here a week and I've heard way too many jokes about the football team. Come on people, we can do it this year! I think...
burritogate strikes again!
I think the UDK should start a Twitter so everyone can be heard!
Editor's Note: We have had a Twitter account since 2008.
Can we stop riding bikes on the sidewalk? I've almost gotten hit twice today.
Thank God the "Guardians of the Galaxy" soundtrack exists so everyone can just walk around campus feeling awesome.
Go home and have a beer between classes. This is what it means to be a senior.
Things professors say: Get to know your syllabus. Become intimate with your syllabus. Take your syllabus out for a drink. JUST DATE YOUR SYLLABUS! DON'T IGNORE IT!
I don't care who you are or how
it is outside. Spandex is not an
acceptable pants option.
After 4 years of walking up and down the hill, I thought I'd be good up it after all summer. Nope.
Basketball players are like bunies... If you move too fast or make any loud noises you'll scare them away.. So play nicely.
Choosing to bike to school means choosing to take a sweat bath before and after class every day.
it is 100 degrees outside, and I am wearing a sweater in my building. Stop this inefficient madness KU!
FFA OF THE DAY
Can I call Safe Ride? I'm not drunk it's just too damn hot for this.
Ice Bucket Challenge fad will soon fade away
Pete Frates, a 29-year-old former Boston College baseball captain, has been living with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS/ Lou Gehrig's Disease) since 2012, and he helped launch the popular ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. But how many of you actually knew that? If you did, then great! I am glad some people actually research why they are pouring a bucket of ice water over their heads before they just go ahead and do it.
Some of you may also want to know why it was an ice bucket challenge in the first place. Why not stick raisins up your nose? Better yet, why not just donate? The reason
for the ice water is actually pretty simple. It was meant to be a punishment for someone who was not planning to donate money towards ALS. The challenge actually did not even originate with people who had ALS. It started on the Golf Channel as a way to donate money to charities that people cared about, and then it led to people donating to the ALS cause.
The problem is people are just pouring ice water on their heads, which does nothing more than raise awareness. Raising awareness is great, but count how many ice Bucket Challenge videos you have watched that truly discuss what ALS is or how it affects
By Rebeka Luttinger
@reebs11
people.
The fad of the ice Bucket Challenge video is just that a fad. It is one that will go away just as 2012's Kony campaign did. Are people going to remember to donate money to charities like ALS after the videos stop appearing on our newsfeeds? Would they have even participated in this challenge if their friends
or favorite celebrities weren't doing so as well?
In a few more years someone else will come up with another fun way to get people to donate to important charities. People should want to give money to charity because it is the right thing to do. They shouldn't feel like they need to show off to all of their Facebook friends.
Association.
I understand the ice Bucket Challenge — it's fun, it's different and it gets the message across. Helping raise money for treatment toward diseases, like ALS, is a worthy cause. After all, more than $80 million dollars have been raised in less than a month, according to the ALS
I just can't help but think some people are spending more money on the bag of ice than they are donating. The original intention of this unique challenge may have been good, but I believe it has gotten way off track. It sends the message that social media determines where money should be donated and undermines people's belief in the true cause.
Rebeka Luttinger is a sophomore from Dallas studying journalism
Students must respond to Kobach's challenge at the polls
Come strange
Some strange developments took place in Kansas this summer. There was the GOP Gubernatorial Primary in which a fringe candidate, Jennifer Winn, earned nearly 37 percent of the vote — and only spent a fraction of what Brownback's camp did. Against a candidate without name recognition and a pro-marijuana platform, Brownback should have come out looking uncontested. Instead, Winn tallied up well over a third of the ballots cast in what appears to have been a protest vote by the Governor's own party.
There was also a joint, mass endorsement of a Democrat for governor by more than 100 current or formerly elected Kansas Republicans, the former minority leader in the Kansas House, Paul Davis, Brownback's opponent in this fall's race. Possibly the strangest development of all is how these events inspired a frenzy of recent national news
coverage unusual to Kansas elections.
This November's election results are far from certain. The governor's race may have been enough to make Kansas politics relevant, but it's not the only election you can make a difference in this fall. However, there is one man on a mission to keep you from being that difference — Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach.
Kobach is the nation's trailblazer in protecting his right to prevent voters from not re-electing him. Kansas is taking the lead around the country as a result of Kobach's initiative to, for the first time in history, require proof of citizenship for voter registration as part of a two-tiered voting plan. Kobach's campaign has been built in response to widespread voter fraud, a malady for which he has provided the antidote. Where others may have lacked the steely gumption to attempt such a thinly-veiled
stunt to protect their office at the expense of citizens' rights, Kobach did no such balking.
As it turns out, voter fraud is not quite the threat to life as Kobach has made it seem. The Wichita Eagle pointed out that when Kobach presented evidence supporting the need for the rule change, he found only seven individual cases of fraudulent voting in Kansas over the past 13 years.
The real problem with these new restrictions on voter registration is cruelly ironic. His requirements are poised to cost many people the same right he claims to protect. As a result, many students registering to vote for the first time will face a more
complicated task than they would have in the past.
Evidently, Kobach feels that the real danger of diminishing participation in the democratic process by creating greater obstacles to civic engagement pales next to the imaginary peril of voter fraud. With no evidence to support his claims of widespread voter fraud, Kobach's endgame is clear
The truly frightening part of this "House of Cards" scheme is how most students, the group most affected by the change because they recently became voters, remain unaware of these transgressions.
— to have fewer votes in the ballot box on Election Day. Voter suppression is a telling campaign tactic.
Not everyone has been fooled though, as Kobach has enemies in both parties. In the GOP primary a moderate Republican, Scott Morgan, used his campaign to shed light on Kobach's dubious
behavior, though he did not receive enough support to stop him. We have one last chance for a return to normalcy with Jean Schodorf, another challenger committed to stopping Kobach this time in the general election Nov. 4.
Kobach's plan relies on your unwillingness to respond to his challenge. In the past, student apathy has allowed our representation to be misused and Kobach is counting on students and young people to let that happen again. If we let this misdirection keep us from voting, we will only validate it
When you exercise your right this fall, don't vote for the guy who tried to keep you from showing up. Protect yourself from Kris Kobach and vote.
Clay Cosby is a senior from Overland Park studying political science
KANSAN CARTOON
INTERESTED IN SUBMITTING YOUR OWN CARTOON?
EMAIL: EDITOR@KANSAN.COM
The R's Bird Brainz College Days" by Rocky Smith
CAMPUS CHIRPS BACK
What do you think about the ALS ice bucket challenge?
Follow us on Twitter @KansanOpinion. Tweet us your opinions, and we just might publish them
@hwinthrop1
@KansanOpinion so long as people are actually donating, why not cool off for a good cause?!? #icecibaby
@minnimouse63
KansanOpinion it's a great way to rai$e awareness but people should donate too. Even if it's $1, a little goes a long way for research
@Kaydubbed
@KansanOpinion What started as a good philanthropic idea has devolved to Facebook narcissism devoid of the original vision.
LETTER GUIDELINES
HOW TO SUBMIT A LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Send letters to opinion@kansan.com. Write LETTER TO THE EDITOR in the email subject line.
@ben samson
Emma LeGault, editor-in-chief elegauft@kansan.com
The submission should include the author's name, grade and hometown. Find our full letter to the editor policy online at kansan.com/letters.
Madison Schultz, managing editor mschultz@kansan.com
Hannah Bartling, digital editor
hbartling@kansan.com
Length: 300 words
@KansanOpinion We're raising awareness, one well-watered patch of grass at a time.
Cecilia Cho, opinion editor
ccho@kansan.com
Christina Carreria, advertising director ccarreria@kansan.com
CONTACT US
Tom Wittler, print sales manager twittler@kansan.com
Scott Weidner, digital media manager
sweidneri@kansan.com
Jon Schlitt, sales and marketing adviser
jschlitt@kansan.com
---
THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Members of the Kansasian Editorial Board are Emma Legault, Madison Schultz, Cecilia Cho, Hanna Barling, and Christina Carranch.
+