TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2011
PAGE 5
opinion
FREE FOR ALL
Text your FFA submissions to
785-289-8341
Why do the Chiefs have to make it so obvious that they're trying to go 0-16 so that they can draft Andrew Luck?
I'm sorry Cole, but you still look like you're a Missouri fan. Get that tooth fixed buddy.
Guys, you wonder why girls go to the bathroom together? We're opening the chamber of secrets. It takes at least two people sometimes.
Is there a censure on the FFA now?
There hasn't been a single post with a cuss word yet, and we all know they're being submitted.
Editor's note: You'll be surprised, the FFA is usually clean.
What are you doing under that tree?
That is MY sleeping tree! Vacate now or feel my wrath and doom!
Fraternity quote of the day, "Urinating on your futon because you are so drunk is just a good story for the morning."
Camoflauge backpack AND camofluge shorts? Really? Get together bro
You know it's bad when you're cleaning to procrastinate writing a paper.
Why is the band on the cover of the Kansan when Paul Pierce could have been?
We always camp at Allen Field house, duh freshman.
Of course I was the backpack stuffer. Apparently no one else realizes the Underground has FREE ketchup!
TCU, Oklahoma and Duke shirts on campus today? I thought this was Homecoming Week.
I talked myself into thinking I got 18 Chick-fil-A nuggets because they are good. I realize now, that I'm just fat.
The power doesn't always go out, but when it does I'm in the middle of shaving - the most interesting facial hair on campus.
I've been in here so many times these past few weeks, I feel like the world's most anonymous celebrity.
Hey guys, bikes are for riding in the street. Thanks.
I left the game at halftime Saturday to go to the Taylor Swift concert. Bad choice.
I am in college and I occasionally call dinner "din-din." What of it?
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It has been a controversial topic hanging over the 2012 Republican presidential debates this year, and a significant uproar has surrounded false claims about the human papilloma virus made by U.S. Representative and presidential hopeful, Michele Bachmann.
Bachman has openly criticized fellow presidential candidate Texas Gov. Rick Perry over his 2007 executive order to mandate vaccinations to young girls against HPV. And at a recent GOP debate, she criticized the vaccine to prevent cervical cancer by wrongfully deeming it "dangerous."
HPV vaccine is important for both sexes
Bachmann continued her with her fraudulent criticisms on
EDITORIAL
the Today show by claiming that the HPV vaccine can cause mental retardation in young girls who have been vaccinated. Bachmann said a woman whose daughter had received the HPV vaccine approached her and affirmed that the daughter "suffered from mental retardation thereafter"
The American Academy of Pediatrics issued a statement later that day saying that there is zero scientific validity to Bachmann's inflammatory remarks. They recommended that all girls around the age of 11 or 12 receive the vaccine because it is a "life-saving vaccine that can protect girls from cervical cancer."
Despite Bachmann's ignorant assertions, the vaccine has a superb safety record after over 35 million administered doses according to the AAP report and should definitely become a state-mandated vaccine.
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the vaccine is highly effective in preventing specific HPV types and the most common health problems that stem from HPV. And health officials have consistently assured the public that the vaccine is no more dangerous than the mumps, hepatitis B and measles vaccines that are mandated in most states. The real reason the HPV vaccine has become so heavily scrutinized is because, unlike other less-controversial mandatory vaccines, this one has
been politicized due to its association with a sexually transmitted disease. The vaccine is recommended for prepubescent girls in order to protect them hopefully well before they become sexually active. This makes parents unuse, but the facts are clear.
HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States according to the CDC. More than 25 percent of girls and women ages 14 to 49 have been infected, and 44 percent of those cases occur in women age 20 to 24. Millions of new infections occur each year, and researchers think that at least half of all adults have been infected at some point in their lives.
ing contraception and familiarizing teens with it, but those who preach abstinence should also pay attention to the numbers. Even if a female remains a virgin until marriage, if she marries a partner who has had sex with just one other person before her, that female is susceptible to HPV. And any kind of intimate genital contact can transmit the virus.
There are many fears surround-
The spreading of the misinformation just means that it's more important than ever to be educated and know the facts. Because of HPV's widespread nature and its public health effect, a mandate of the vaccine should be irrefutable.
— Stefanie Penn for Kansan Editorial Board
POLITICS
Social issues still key
When tea party protests erupted in the early days of the Obama administration, many observers hailed the rise of a new force in American conservatism, focused more on dollars and cents than contentious debates over abortion and gay rights.
The Tea Party Patriots broadcast its fiscal focus in its motto
- "fiscal responsibility, limited government, and free markets." Pundits speculated that under the tea party the Republican Party would take on a libertarian bent. Those activists brandishing copies of the Constitution and wearing tri-corner hats wanted government out of board rooms and bedrooms.
The New York Times wondered whether "faith and family" would lose their place "at the center of the conservative movement."
As the debate over President Obama's health care proposal unfolded, tea party members rallied against its individual mandate. This marked a departure from the days when conservatives were more likely to condemn, well, man dates.
It certainly made practical sense. After all, polls show that young voters overwhelmingly support gay marriage. And for all the noise made by conservative Christian activists, "no religion" was the fastest-growing "religious" group in the 2009 American Religious Identification Survey.
Alas, the current contest for
the GOP presidential nomination, a race fueled by candidates' bid for tea party support, reveals that the social conservatism remains at the forefront of the conservative cause. Take the hits Gov. Rick Perry (R-Texas) is receiving from rivals like Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) over his rescinded mandate that schoolgirls in
his state receive Gardasil, the anti-HPV vaccine. At the CNN/Tea Party debate on Sep. 12, Perry's vaccine order prompted a oncefriendly crowd to seemingly turn against him.
Things worsened for Perry when he defended a Texas program giving undocumented immigrant students to receive scholarships to state universities. Perry's remark that the sound of one's last name shouldn't dictate one's prospects for success won him no favors with the audience.
Polling shows that the tea party is essentially a movement of down-the-line conservatives. The Pew Research Center in 2010 found 26 percent support among tea partyers for gay marriage, against 42 percent among all voters. Fifty-two percent of all voters endorsed legalized abortion, compared to 34 percent of tea party supporters. Indeed, on gay marriage, 53 percent of tea partyers gave religion as the main reason for their stance – in line with the 52 percent of non-tea party Republicans.
Even Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas),
the tea party favorite and supposed libertarian, opposes abortion and gay rights and denies the theory of evolution.
If the tea party were really all about fiscal conservatism and a live-and-letlive attitude on social issues, former Gov. Jon Huntsman (R-Utah), a supporter of Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-Wisc.) drastic Medicare overhaul and a dramatically revamped tax code, would be the GOP frontrunner. Of course, the civil union-supporting, evolution-accepting, climate change-acknowledging Huntsman is out of step with the tea party's social conservatism and anti-intellectualism. Huntsman, who's languishing at around one percent in the polls, thinks he can break through among GOP voters with a message of limited government and social toleration. Were it not for the seven children he and his wife Mary Kaye have, I'd assume he also thinks one can fornicate through the mattress.
Luke Brinker is a senior from
Topela majoring in history. Follow
him on Twitter @LukeBrinker
CAMPUS CHIRPS BACK
Can girls ask guys on dates? Do college students even date anymore?
Follow us on Twitter @UDK_Opinion.
Tweet us your opinions, and we just might publish them.
@UDK. Dainton I don't know about other college kids, but I don't go on dates anymore. Not by choice.
@UDK Opinion dates are awkward. Stick to the romantic stuff, like getting drunk at a bar.
lukesingleton
celtarchaeo
@UDK_Opinion Girls can not only ask out guys, they should!
SAMgoinHAM
the_colby_zone
@UDK_Opinion most of the time chivalry is still expected, so the guy asks the girl. I think Lawrence allows plenty of opportunities to date.
CULTURE
Hope for arts
As I opened up The New York Times on Sept. 16, I knew I must have been mistaken; there is a performing arts center opening up in downtown Kansas City?
It's true. Kansas City, Mo. has recently opened up the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, highlighting performances in ballet, opera, symphonies, and theater shows. All of a sudden, we have the opportunity to alter the normal arts rhetoric we have become accustomed to using the past several months.
Can we call this renewed hope? While the Kauffman Center is in Missouri, its proximity to Kansas raises notice. Five years ago, I doubt anyone really knew that Kansas budget pitfalls would be put to the test as they were, and who knew it
Before getting too excited, I should establish some ground facts: the Kauffman Center was privately funded using absolutely no taxpayer funds (somewhere around $413 million). Construction began nearly five years ago, in October of 2006.
Obviously, the Kauffman Center is unique in how it came into being, but it still has the opportunity in my eyes to incite new excitement in those struggling to move forward from lowered states arts budgets scares and irresponsible leadership, most notably from our own governor, Sam Brownback.
This opening has more than just a mild affect on our culture, especially with the constant renewal of talks stemming from budget cutting on both the federal and state levels.
Arts programs have been easy targets for the government to cut spending. After all, what's so important about art, anyway? Many of us undervalue how essential they are to our culture. But with this opening, we have a refreshing source of optimism. In the face of cuts and scrutiny, an exclusively artistic endeavor is poised to hopefully flourish.
Kelly Stroda, editor
864-841 or katiodesan@kanan.com
Jeel Peterson, managing editor
864-841 or jeelpeterson@kanan.com
Jonathan Shorn, managing editor
864-841 or johnshorn@kanan.com
And why not? They aren't some dangerous venture that must be repressed. This is the time to prove to everyone that the arts belong with us, always. They shouldn't be thrown aside as a sure threat to one day become extinct.
CARTOON
HOW TO SUBMIT A LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Just ask the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.
Salsbury is a senior in English, History of Art, and Global & International Studies from Chapman. Follow him on Twitter @brettmichael
The arts enrich our culture. The arts give people jobs. The arts attract businesses and tourists and generate revenue. The arts give our future generations something to remember us by. Their importance should be common sense.
Clayton Ashley, managing editor 864-4810 or cashier@kansas.com
Maryn Manly, opinion editor 864-4924 or mematvey@kansas.com
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What Gov. Brownback and his supporters need to realize is that no matter how hard they may try, they will not quell the arts. Music, performance, literature, traditional art, education for all of it and everything in between will always have a place in our culture and in our hearts and minds. Why are some so convinced that all of the arts are attached to some ideologically liberal name tag that must be squashed before they impose some risk, detriment or weakness to our society?
And the Kauffman Center is living proof of those people's existence.
would result in such attempts to drastically cut arts funds? At the same time, there are a lot of people who clearly care deeply about the arts and will stop at nothing to continue bringing its issues to light. Those supporters will always be there.
LETTER GUIDELINES
Vikaas Shanker, editorial editor 864-4924 or vshanker@kansan.com
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Garrett Lent, business manager
643-4358 or glenn@kansan.com
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643-4477 or green@kansan.com
Malcolm Gibson, general manager and news adviser
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THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Members of the Kansai Editor board are Kelly Strode,
JPeterson, Jonathan Sherman, Vikas Shanker, Mandy
Mandry and Stefano Steinman.