4A - THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
OPINION
THURSDAY,OCT.11,2001
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A new vocabulary to go with that new voice?
George W. Bush has never been comfortable with the English language. From "Verbosity leads to unclear, inarticulate things" to "We cannot let terrorists and rogue nations hold this hostile or hold our allies hostile," his malapropisms have already become the stuff of legend.
Since his infamous defense of a campaign ad allegedly employing "subliminable" messages, his gaffes have garnered as much ink as his policies. In fact, many would argue that W.'s most enduring contribution to American society in the first eight months of his reign has been the fodder he provides for a rejuvenated Saturday Night Live. The funniest aspect of the skit featuring Will Farrell as the president was that the viewer is unsure if the writers invented the word "compassionativity" or if W. gave it to them free of charge.
But among the many lessons the president appears to have learned since the horrific attack Sept. 11 on New York City and Washington, D.C., is that language matters.
This is no small realization for a man whom aides have sheltered from speaking extemporaneously since he was on the campaign trail. Sure, Reagan was an actor who became president, but there are days when W. is so tightly scripted, I wonder if he is merely acting as the president.
Of late, his scribes have been sharp. "We will not only deal with those who dare attack America, we will deal with those who harbor them and feed them and house them," says W. in a statement that is relentless in its repetition. Similarly, the idea that "freedom has been attacked and freedom shall be defended" sounds like a slogan around which the American people can rally.
Commentary
Kirby Fields
Guest columnist
opinionkansan.com
But there are still moments when the old George "Is our children learned?" Bush reappears, and these are moments when I question the capability of the leader of the Free World. When off-book W. allowed that we would "hunt down" those who are responsible, a statement that smacks of a Texas night with a case of Schlitz and an Easy-Rider-gunrack.
In an effort to up the ante on Papa's "Operation Desert Storm," W. initially referred to America's counterattack as "Operation Infinite Justice," a lame term on many fronts, not the least of which includes the religious connotation the word "infinite" carries in the Muslim world.
In short, the Taliban trumped W. when it invoked "Holy War," a term that chills me to the core. The Christian administration quickly dropped any talk of a "crusade" for obvious reasons. The latest moniker — "Operation Enduring Freedom" — admirably avoids both stirring and offending: It may not rally the troops, but neither
will it provoke the enemy.
The sentence that W. may regret the most, however, occurred in the hours immediately following the attack. "We're at war," he said. Of course, the media have exploited the term. "America's New War," touts one news channel. "America at War!" exclaims another. There is talk of preparing for a 'wartime economy.' George Will's latest Newsweek column suggests that America is moving back into the "war years."
But as veterans of the "War on Drugs" can tell you, fighting a war is difficult when you have no identifiable (or locatable) enemy, and the objectives are unclear at best, if not impossible. The administration has always prepared us to dig in for the good fight, but the latest estimation is that this "war" could last five years.
And if we are no further along the path of "enduring freedom" at the end of W.s term, what then? At what point do we win this war? When can we declare victory? When can we revisit peace? In his haste to define the events of Sept. 11, the president may finally have misspoken himself into a position from which there is no escape.
The past two weeks have found nearly every major news publication in America fawning over the president's newly emergent voice. Here's to hoping that a recognition of the power of the English language accompanies that still evolving voice.
Fields is a doctoral student in English from Lawrence.
FREE for ALL 864-0500
Free for All callers have 20 seconds to speak about any topic they wish. Not all of them will be published. Slanderous and obscene statements will not be printed.
For more comments, go to www.kansan.com.
my roommate's getting yelled at by a girl, and it's bringing down my high.
As I prepare to leave this world I have but two regrets: A) that I did not touch the domine effect on Stone Henge and B) that I did not build six flags over Baghdad.
My roommate and I were just talking about how we wanted to watch Silence of the Lambs and then I opened the UDKFree for All and it said, "Hello Clarice." That scared me.
(rock music blaring)
Have you checked out the Miss Kansas USA woman that was on the front of Tuesday's front page of the Kansan? Damn, she's gorgeous. Is she single?
Do you want to know why KU Info's number is busy right now? I have to take the time to call Free for All to defend us for the fact that we are providing a service for you that you can't seem to appreciate quite enough.
How much weed could a pot head smoke if a pot head could smoke weed? How much vodka and alcohol could an alcoholic drink if an alcoholic could drink vodka? How much class could a student skip if a student could skip class?
I'd like to commend the United States military for bombing the United Nations mine sweeping building. Way to go, guys.
I'm on crutches and today I saw a really cute boy. He was on crutches too. I think it's fate.
Hi, I just called about KU Info, and I think I sounded a little bit mad, but I actually wanted to express that I are really mad.
Haworth is the only building on campus that does not allow pets. What's up with that?
Today's the greatest day of my life. My roommate just proposed to me. Please put this in to show him how much I love him.
This year I only have one female roommate,
but last year I had five female roommates.
Looks like I'm losing by four.
My only female roommate won't get up and make a sandwich when I ask her to. What's up with that?
if you guys print me twice in the same day, I would die.
图
Studying really late sucks.
Although these anthrax incidents are frightening, it's going to be OK, because there have only been 18 incidents of air-borne anthrax in the past 100 years.
rey, everybody at KU, if you have a problem with KU info, stop calling it. It is a free service and we are here to provide information to the students if you are so inclined. We don't particularly like being bashed in the Free for All, especially since we are sitting here making a minimum wage salary, answering questions for all you people on our time. Thank you very much and have a great day.
IN DEFENSE OF FEMINISM
Dear editor.
I would like to make a few comments regarding the column written by Robert Chamberlain entitled "Feminists Ignore Half of the Problem." I understand that the point of his argument (that some feminists do not look at "women's issues" from a dual-gender focus) is well meaning, but it is really hard to understand this meaning when it is completely surrounded by closed-minded remarks.
I would ask on behalf of myself and other feminists that Chamberlain not pigeonhole all feminists into one ideology. The definition of feminism (which I am guessing Mr. Chamberlain learned on the first day of Women's Studies 201) is the belief in the equality of the genders. While I do agree that there are some feminists that do not pay much attention to the problems facing men, I know a lot more that do care and do want something done about it.
I would also ask that Chamberlain act like a good political science major and cite his sources and statistics rather than just mentioning them as though they fell out of the sky. He sure did a nice job of laying out the pathos, but when I tried to find the facts behind these arguments, they were nowhere to be seen.
Lisa Koch
Oes Moines, Iowa, senior
SANCTIONED JOKING
As programming chair for comedian Pablo Francisco's performance and in honor of celebrating Hispanic Heritage month with "Celebrating our Heritage, Building our Traditions," neither I nor the Hispanic American Leadership Organization (HALO) ever thought that a comedic performance should take priority over academics.
In fact, it is frustrating to hear comments, both verbal and written, about what took place behind the scenes without even knowing what took place.
Dear editor.
It is even more frustrating to read a letter to the editor saying, "This reflects poor planning and consideration for classes."
It is frustrating that some assume it is the fault of HALO or Student Senate. It is even more bothersome that such statements were printed without even consulting any HALO member.
HALO followed every procedure necessary to plan and arrange Pablo Francisco's performance. The Wescoe location was only chosen after all other locations that would accommodate our projected numbers were unavailable to us. In fact, our first location was in Budig Hall and was denied because of special testing and classes going on at the same time as the performance. We were then referred to Wescoe.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Considering the extreme effort put in the planning of this event, there should be no fault placed on HALO. We consider academics to be the top priority. However, no one had the right to disrupt Francisco's performance in the way he was interrupted, especially because of the time, effort and cost put into this event.
Anissa Ann Vitale Shawnee senior
Out of courtesy, I give my apologies for the disruption, but it certainly could have been handled much better on the other end.
So why didn't this office take the same consideration for Wescoe, or at least inform us of this matter? To have this type of performance you need to go through a University Events Committee that approves a location and type of event going to take place.
SHOCKED AND DISTURBED
In response to Meghan Bainum's column "Genitals are jewels to be treasured," I am shocked and disturbed by the content of the article. After reading the article I was in disbelief. Did the article really encourage me to masturbate or get together with a friend, throw off our clothes and "give one another a look"?
Sexuality is personal. Questions that
arise should be discussed with doctors or sex therapists, but not in the Kansan. What credentials does Bainum have anyway?
Also, from the Sept. 6 issue I find it ironic that only a few pages after the endowment quests for $500 million, Bainum tells us for our pleasure, the wetter, the better. I am curious how many generous alumni would be thrilled with the fact KU is promoting sexual relations with friends and masturbation.
Erin McGiffert Leawood senior
WAR CAUSED BY FANATICS
Dear editor,
Americans, who in general ignore history and foreign affairs, have often, when forced by the crushing weight of events to pay attention, learned the wrong lessons from history.
On Sept. 11 we learned that history had not ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of communism, that the outside world with all its dangers and demands still existed; that our era of prosperous self-absorption had ended.
of Nazi genocide and world conquest.
Before Pearl Harbor, the millions in the isolationist America First movement rightly wanted to avoid repeating the senseless slaughter of World War I, but wrongly failed to see the mortal danger
In the post-World War II era, our political leadership, obsessed with containing communism, feared only the dangers of a Munich-style appeasement and ignored the beckoning quagmire that was Vietnam.
Now it seems that a good number of pacifist-minded Americans are recalling our disasters in Vietnam in trying to relate to our new war against terrorism.
But it is not to Vietnam that we should relate, but much further back in time. History has looped back at least as far as the 17th century, to the Salem witch trials and the 30 Years War, and even farther back to the Inquisition and the Crusades, when people and states burned and slaughtered one another in the name of religion.
This war suddenly thrust upon us is not about our indifference to or even active support of regimes that perpetuate the social and economic misery of millions.
It is all about a group of fanatics who, just as in the days of the Inquisition and the Crusades, are willing to slaughter thousands of innocents, as well as themselves, to bring about the supremacy of their interpretation of God.
Michael Cloffeter KU security officer Public Safety