4A = THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
OPINION
1
FRIDAY.OCT.5,2001
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KNIGHT RIDDER TRIBUNE
LETTERSTO
THE EDITOR
NEED FOR PRAYER
Dear editor.
Prayer is a wonderful thing. It's a unifying and pure expression of love, kindness and the desire to do good for our fellow man. How could anyone disagree with prayer? Isn't that like disagreeing with love? Speaking openly and honestly about phrases like "under God" and "God bless America" is difficult for many nontheists; the risk of looking like a hate-monger is very real.
Diane Godfrey deserves much praise for her opinion column ("God and religion not needed for dealing with tragedy," Sept. 28) expressing her refusal to give up her agnosticism. There should be no mistake about it, refusing to pray is not an expression of hate, and questioning prayer is not a refusal to mourn. Expressions of hate arise when people expect us all to pray. Just as, in a "National Day of Prayer" America can express pure love and kindness for those killed and then declare war the same day, we know—like Diane Godfrey and her imaginary feasts as a little girl—that you can hope, wish and pray all you want, but unless you really take action, nothing happens.
Rob Helmstetter
Kansas City senior
President of SOMA
(Society of Open-Minded Atheists/Agnostics)
CRITIQUE OF PROTESTERS
Dear editor.
I was disappointed to read Robert Chamberlain's column "An open letter to the protest community," Oct. 3) and find that his critique of the protesters was, for the most part, light and empty. Instead of addressing the issues behind their cause, he derided them for such trivial things as not coming up with their own songs or wearing different things.
A critique of the peace protesters is thoroughly justified, and it deserved more thought than Mr. Chamberlain gave it. Our country sits braced for the next attack from a group explicitly committed to the destruction of America.
We have been forced to arm our airports, ground our crop dusters, and prepare for the most evil and unthinkable acts ever imagined. And in the face of all of this, we have a group here in Lawrence with the nerve to tell us to sit quietly and discuss the psychology of the perpetrators of such monstrous actions. We are told to think about what America could have done to provoke its own attack, as if this was a legitimate political move from a government who just couldn't find the paper to write a letter.
Not only does this group defend pacifism by touting the morality behind the destruction of its own country — namely, anti-capitalism — but it does so in the name of "peace." If "peace" is the state of sitting on one's hands, resigning oneself to forever cleaning up after the wreckage of terrorists and mourning the loss of loved ones, then I unequivocally choose war.
Réchelle Cauthon
Overtand Park junior
President of KU Objectivists
This is not an emotional cry for revenge. This is a calm but urgent cry for true peace, which will never exist so long as these terrorist nations are allowed to continue.
PERSPECTIVE
Police officers should focus on more important offenses
Every day the Kansan has a section titled On the Record. It is a section that prints the crimes reported on campus. Every day it seems to be getting longer and longer and I don't think it will be too long before it has a table of contents attached to it. It is unfortunate that this many crimes occur on campus, but it is even more unfortunate that the police seem to be wasting their time on more minor offenses.
Speeding and parking tickets have long been part of the repertoire, but lately there has been a new one added.
Recently I read of 13 KU students who were issued citations for selling cups that could be used to consume a cereal malt beverage. Now to me, cereal malt beverage sounds like a recipe that you would see on the side of a Cocoa Puffs box, not something you can be issued a citation for. Undercover cops who were attending the parties busted the 13 students.
It's a real shame when students are getting issued citations for that type of charge, while other students are getting assaulted in parking lots and gas stations across the campus.
Commentary
Marc Ingber
Columnist
opinionakansan.com
First, there are lots of house parties every weekend, and there always will be no matter how many get busted. Obviously the same is true about theft and assault. They are always going to happen.
However, the time it takes for the police to stake out a party and send in undercover officers to issue and write out citations would be much better spent trying to cut down on the assaults, thefts and car damages.
I'm not saying that police should disregard parties all together. It just seems that when reading On the Record, this campus has enough broken taillights and smashed wind-shields to move the auto repair guys seven income tax brackets higher.
Assault and battery is a much more serious subject than the selling of cups
that could or could not be used to consume cereal malt beverages. Many victims of assault end up in the hospital and in addition to having to recover physically, they have to recover from the trauma of the actual event. Students at parties have the choice of whether they are going to buy a cup. Assault victims don't have a choice at all.
Rather than break out the radar gun to bust someone going 30 in a 20, or wait by the parking meters for the time to run out, the police should try to stop more serious crimes. They need to spend more time trying to stop assault, battery and theft and less time shopping for clothes and checking out the latest styles so that they know what to wear to fit in when they go undercover to bust a party.
Hopefully if this is done, the On the Record section of the Kansan will be quite small, not something that I will have to buy Cliffs Notes for.
Ingber is a sophomore from Golden Valley, Minn.
PERSPECTIVE
Test anxiety comes without reason but is very real nonetheless
Sweaty palms and fingers shakily place my notebook into my bag. I know I've held out as long as I could, but now it's time to face the music. Today is the day that I am scheduled to take the first test of the semester. Whether I'm prepared, I don't know. But in a couple hours it'll all be over, and it's too late now to worry about it — so why am I so worried?
Tests are a bit more tricky. When a test is in progress, we no longer receive help from our peers — it's our wits against the wits of our teacher. Not only do we have to know the material we're being tested over, we're also required to be able to relay that information in the manner in which our teachers prefer.
Akilah
YaDullah
Columnist
opinione kansan.com
I walk to class, reciting the memorized phrases and concepts in my mind, as I flash distracted smiles to passersby. Maybe I should have looked over my notes again, or reread that one part of that chapter I didn't quite grasp. I knew this day would come, then why didn't I make sure I was better prepared? By now, we've all pretty much confirmed the classes we're enrolled in, dropped those classes we don't want, and have our schedule set. Up until now, school was just fun and games. Sometimes we go to class, sometimes we don't. We take notes and doodle a bit, to try and stay awake. And class participation is a cinch—just listen to everyone else, reword what they say, and add some personal experience.
Commentary
And sure, we can psych ourselves out to believe that reading the highlighted phrases that students before us felt were necessary, is good enough. We can ask around and get a feel of how the other people are preparing for the test, hoping no one is prepared, so we can all just laugh it off, not worry about it, and hope for a curve. We can't all be flunked, right?
We can comfort ourselves in knowing we went to most of the class sessions, so are at least familiar with the material, and the test will act as a refresher. We can stay up all night, with our textbook open in front of us, while we stare at the television or talk the night away — that counts as studying, and I studied for hours! We can mentally prepare our guessing skills on multiple-choice questions. The answer is there, I know it is. ... With study guides, study sessions and study groups, we should feel like we're in good shape. But we usually don't.
There's always that flutter in our stomachs that never quite leaves. The furrowed brow, casting a
shadow over our overconfident smile. That question in the back of our minds, "Am I ready? Did I pay attention enough in class? Do I deserve a decent grade?" And of course, we could just suck it up, buckle down, and study.
But then, there's that what if—what if it's a really easy test, and any time spent studying would be wasted? Or there's the flip side: What if we study and still fail?
But excuses and what ifs won't get us anywhere. We are always afraid of the unknown. And the more we study, the more we know. I know it's always very tempting not to take studying seriously, but preparation is a part of school. It's a part of life. And usually, the test is never as bad as we think it will be. (Sometimes it's much worse, but not usually.)
We make some stupid mistakes, some lucky guesses — that's just the way it goes. At least when you study, you can justify your grade by saying you at least tried.
So in the mean time, study hard, and gook luck on your class exams. If you're fortunate enough to have already gotten the first one out of the way, have fun relaxing until midterms.
YaDullah is a senior in journalism from Overland Park.
FREE for ALL
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For more comments, go to www.kansan.com.
I'm a participant in KU's ROTC program. One of the finest people in that program is Robert Chamberlain, who at the end of next semester will be commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Army. Make sure you get all the facts before you label someone as a hypocrite.
画
Doughnuts. Think about it. Keep thinking.
Now you get it.
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Osama bin Laden likes small boys
To the person who says Spencer Research Library closes at 10, I work there and we do close at 5 m.
If God hadn't meant for us to eat animals, why did he make them out of meat?
Hey, I had the flu last week. Can I be on the front page of the sports section too?
What happens when someone who wears their heart on their sleeve walks around shirtless?
Sometimes being in college is exactly what you imagined it to be when you were 5:
Staying up late and eating Lucky Charms for dinner.
To the girl who spilled boiling hot coffee on me today. An apology would have been nice.
图
If Terry has the flu, that means he won't be coaching? That'd be great.
Hey, I'd just like to nominate Craig Martin for the Coolest Professor at KU Award. And if there isn't such a thing, they should definitely make one.
If I had a nickel for everytime I called FFA, I'd have six nickels.
Yeah, this just a little FYI for the Robert Chamberlain critics out there. He is enlisted. Thank you.
Will someone tell the preacher out in front of Wescoe to go to church? We don't want to hear it.
A plea to the campus sidewalk chalkers:
Don't write where people sit.
This is for the brave young lady who spoke to me after the panel discussion at the Law School yesterday. I hope everything goes well, good luck and hang in there. Thank you.
I love the powdered soap in Fraser. It's way better than the powdered coke, man.
In my short time in college, I've learned that there are too many freaks and not enough circuses.
Killing Osama bin Laden will only create a murder. Holding him prisoner will inspire his comrades to take hostages and demand his release. So instead, after he's captured, why don't we fly him to an undisclosed hospital, have surgeons give a complete sex-charge operation and then return "her" to Afghanistan to live under the Taliban?
All people named Mandy are from Portugal.
If you're going to quote the Simpsons, then get it right. It's "Me flunk English, that's unpossible."
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