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October 5,1992
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OPINION UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
IN OUR OPINION
Hate, not compassion is Fred Phelps' message
The message of anger and nate that the Rev. Fred Phelps preaches should be ignored. It is sad that in this day and age, when we celebrate and recognize differences in others, there are people, such as Phelps and his blind followers, who actually feel this way.
It is amazing that people, pastors in particular, can without compunction call for the death of human beings that are different than themselves, and consign their souls to hell. However, to hate such people in return, or even to take what Phelps says seriously, is to lend him far more credence and credibility than he deserves.
We are all here for a very short time. Our lives are far too short and precious to waste on the ignorance, fear, deception and hatred that Phelps spreads. Although it is saddening to see anyone choose to do so, the lesson that Phelps teaches us is that people who claim intelligence can be so very wrong. And for these people we can only feel sorrow for their mistake.
We should never meet hate with more hate, sickness with more sickness, despair with more despair. To do so would be a pointless descent into the same dark world that the Phelps and his followers inhabit.
Instead, we should reject the harm that Phelps would like us to spread. Hatred, anger and cowardice should be met with courage, compassion, decency and love. Ultimately, these are far more important sentiments than anything that is preached in Phelps' church.
MARK COATNEY FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
"Ladies, don't trv this at home."
QUOTES OF THE WEEK
— MR. LIFTO OF THE JIM ROSE CIRCUS SIDE SHOW WHILE LIFTING A CONCRETE BLOCK BY A CHAIN ATTACHED TO EARRINGS HANGING FROM HIS PIERCED NIPPLES.
"I felt like Rodney King."
— ROBERT CRANE, HUGOTON SOPHOMORE, AFTER A MOCK PURSE-SNATCHING FOR A SAFETY EDUCATION CLASS WAS MISTAKEN FOR THE REAL THING. CRANE WAS TACKLED BY ONE MAN, KICKED BY ANOTHER AND HAD HIS HANDS TIED BEHIND HIS BACK WITH HIS OWN SHOE STRINGS.
"When you think about that — ultimate gay bashing — you think of Fred Phelps."
— KJHK RADIO HOST JEREMY WILKENS. PHELPS, AN ANTI-HOMOXEUAL ACTIVIST, PARTICIPATED IN WILKENS' PROGRAM LAST TUESDAY.
"I don't expect him to get more than 5 to 7 percent of the vote nationally. He might hurt Bush in states like Texas and Florida, but he'll probably hurt Clinton as much in California. Basically, he'll be irrelevant."
ALLEN CIGLER, PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, ON THE IMPACT OF ROSS PEROT'S CANDIDITY.
"My ultimate goal would be that everyone of them would complain."
— TIM ALLEN, ASSOCIATE COMMISSIONER OF THE BIG EIGHT CONFERENCE, ON THE SCHEDULING OF CONFERENCE TEAMS.
- COMPILED FROM KANSAN STAFF REPORTS THE WEEK OF 9-28.
KANSAN STAFF
ERIC NELSON
Editor
GREG FARMER Managing editor
TOM EBLEN General manager, news adviser
SCOTTHANNA
Business manager
BILL LEIBENGOOD
Retail sales manager
JEANNE HINES
Sales and marketing adviser
TOM EBLEN
BILL SKEET, Technology coordinator
Asst. Managing...Alimee Brainard
News...Alexander Bloemhof
Editorial...Stephen Martino
Campus...Gayle Osterberg
Sports...Shelly Solon
Photo...Justin Knupp
Features...Cody Halt
Graphics...Sean Tevius
Business Staff
Business Staff
Campus sales mgr . Ackley Giangwon
Regional Sales mgr . Mellea Tetilr
National sales mgr . Brian Wilkez
Co-op sales mgr . Amy Stumbo
Production mgrs . Brad Brion
Kim Caxton
Marketing director . Ashley Langford
Sales manager . Judith Standley
Classified mgrs . Judith Standley
Letters should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 200 words. They must include the University of Kansas name and position, and the University of Kansas must include class and hometown, or faculty or staff position. Great columns should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 700 words. The writer will be required to right to respect or edit letters, gross column and cartoons. They can use a personal name instead of the university name.
Basic Instinct? Possibly Fundalmentalism? Maybe Christian? NOT!!!
Exodus 20:13 "Thou Shalt not Kill."
Bush record on AIDS is better than Johnson gives credit for
STAFF COLUMNIST
Last week, Earvin "Magic" Johnson resigned from his post on the Presidential Commission on AIDS, saying that George Bush had tricked him into believing that he cared about the AIDS crisis in this country. As a result, Johnson is now endorsing Bill Clinton in his campaign for the presidency.
Am I the only one who finds this strange? Johnson says that the president does not care about this issue. It is time once again to check some facts in order to inform the ignorant about the president's accomplishments and the issue at hand.
To say that the current leader of our nation does not care about an issue this important is not only irresponsible. It is wrong. In the past four years under Bush, spending for AIDS related research has increased to more than $80 million a year. In addition, countless dollars and much energy has been directed toward informing people about the dangers of this dreaded disease. AIDS has more funding than any other illness in the United States. More money is devoted to this cause than research for both cancer and heart disease. Does that sound like an apathetic government?
AIDS is an illness that is spreading throughout the population. Four years ago, many people did not even know that AIDS affected people who
were not homosexual or IV drug users. They did not know what caused AIDS or how to prevent catching HIV. That problem has been greatly reduced. The onslaught of information available to the general public about both awareness and prevention has increased dramatically since President Bush took office. Are we really supposed to believe that all of this has been accomplished against the wishes of the Bush administration?
Many aspects of Johnson's position and that taken by the Clinton/Gore ticket are frightening. First, it wrong to cast Johnson in the role of a hero. He was a great basketball player, and his efforts to inform the public about the limitless boundaries of AIDS is admirable. However, we must
remember that Johnson is not an innocent victim. He did this to himself, and therefore cannot blame society or the president. Nobody told him to sleep with all those women. He must now face the consequences of his irresponsible behavior. It is not right for him to say the president does not care about us when Johnson didn't even care enough about himself to act in a safe manner.
The second issue that needs to be addressed is the amount of money given to AIDS research and information programs. The purpose of government funding is to find a cure, but the amounts of money given to this issue are extremely high. More people in the United States are afflicted with cancer or heart disease than have HIV, yet we give more money to the latter cause. I am not saying cut AIDS funding, but in a time when people are complaining about the government spending too much money in one place and ignoring other issues, it is hypocritical to complain that President Bush is not earmarking enough money for this issue.
While talking about hypocrisy, let's address the stance taken by Bill Clinton and Al Gore. Along with their liberal supporters, they assert that government has no right to involve itself in our private lives, as seen through
Bush's desire to criminalize abortion. However, the democratic candidate wants to increase the government's role on the AIDS issue.
Hey Bill, which way do you want it?!!
Either the government plays an active role or it does not. To say they shouldn't come into our sex lives by telling us we cannot terminate a pregnancy if we so desire but can take part in how we conduct our sexual exploits is hypocritical in any context.
However, abortion rights are not being discussed. How much the existing government cares about the AIDS issue is looming large. Rush Limbaugh pointed out in his show recently that HIV is a virus, and no virus known to man has a cure. The common cold and the flu are incurable once contracted, and to expect an overnight success in the quest for a cure for AIDS by pouring additional millions of dollars into research is asine.
We should not be pointing the finger at George Bush. Instead, we should be criticizing those who make these unfounded comments and the people who are too stupid to use the information available.
David Frankel is a St. Louis senior majoring in political science.
Kansan rejects anti-abortion point of view
In a recent lecture on campus, Nadine Strossen, president of ACLU, defined unprotected speech as speech that threatens an individual. Apparently the advertising staff at the Kansan does not define unprotected speech in a like manner.
Their policy on printing ads is that they will not print an ad that discriminates against a group of people. However, the staff is not even consistent in following that policy. Army recruitment ads are published despite the army's controversial discrimination against gays. But an ad paid for by KU Students for Life promoting a recent lecture given by Juli Loesch Wiley, anti-abortion feminist, was not printed in its original form for several reasons. One of those reasons was that a
PATRICIA TRAUSCH
line from the ad was labeled discriminatory. The line read, "Juli Loesch Wiley, author of the book, *Pro-Life Feminism: Different Voices*, will provide proof that PRO-CHOICE-ANTI-WOMAN." I was told that the last part of that statement discriminated against those who consider themselves "pro-choice." I fail to see the threat in that statement.
Another reason was stated by a member of the advertising staff that read, "We cannot print anything that hasn't been shown (proven to be true) on this campus." There go articles from the Associated Press on national and global events — they haven't been "shown on campus."
Along with the other reasons given for the refusal to print the ad as submitted was another, in which I was told that the ad could not be printed because I did not "have a survey saying that 90 percent of the people believe that (pro-choice=anti-woman) to be true." Truth is absolute and cannot be swayed by Gallup polls. The disasters that have
occurred when people have ignored the truth because popular opinion differed from it include the Nazi reign of terror and slavery in the "land of the free and the home of the brave."
There is a distinct lack of tolerance from the advertising staff at the Kansan for the truths voiced by KU Students for Life. This is occurring in an age when the god of tolerance is being worshipped and preached in college classrooms nationwide without regard for the truth. Apparently this tolerance is selective, so we must ask ourselves if, man age when the god of tolerance begets contempt for the truth, is it too much to ask that we tolerate the truth?
Patricia Trausch is a Spring Hill sophomore majoring in English.
501 Bluez
By Moses Smith