TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2011
PAGE 7
opinion
FREE FOR ALL
Text your Free For All submissions to 785-289-8351
Dear upperclassmen, we're two weeks in and I'm already sick of reading your freshmen jokes in the FFA column.
I'm all for the chalking but when I can't walk to class without the bottom of my shoes turning into chalk rainbows? I get a little tickled.
A purse, lunch box and a backpack on wheels. It's college, not the airport people.
When I first heard about FFA, I was really worried that the agricultural club was really big at KU.
To Whom it May Concern: Letters for Hogwarts admission arrive no later than 31 July. Should your letter not come, it probably means you're a sad little muggle living in a delusional dream. Sincerely, the Minister for Muggle Relations
Why can't class be like Mad Men? Just smoke cigs and drink scotch all day and not give a damn!
What?! I can TEXT submissions to free for all now!! GPA, youll have to take one for the team!
The book-style newspaper makes it a lot easier to hide when reading it in class. #winning
Editor's note: Look forward to tabloid style every football home game.
Sometimes, I wonder why I'm such a slut, then I go to class and see all the sexu KU guys and remember why.
Professor made me question is ice cream or sex better? Wait what?!
To the dame crossing campus on a 90's razor scooter. Please marry me. PLEASE.
Hey FFA girl needing boob names, how about David and Goliath?
The band does not apologize for how we look. We work really hard, Really, Hard.
Some idiots driving around in a Mizzou car. He's about to get frat attacked. Silly little tiger, KU isn't for you.
The FFA doesn't need to make fun of K-State's EcoKat. It makes fun of itself
Not making it on the FFA makes me sad.
Person who gets on a full bus on Daisy Hill and gets off at Eaton, we all hate you. Walk... it's 80 degrees!
I wish there were more lesbians in Lawrence that weren't really straight or someone else's sloppy seconds. FML
You only shake keys when WE kick off Do it right, boneheads.
So KSU football sucked it up this weekend, with a final score of 10-7 against Eastern Kentucky. I guess Ecokat at really got to them.
EDITORIAL
Kansas football fans are horrible. How do you expect someone to succeed when you refuse to support?
For once can people not say "home of the Chiefs" during the national anthem, instead respect the people who have fought & gave their lives for you! I doubt the Chiefs would do that. IT'S HOME OF THE BRAVE!
The speakers make the band sound off.. Get rid of them and just blow harder.
If you think Donald Trump's hair is crazy, you should see my husband's balls!
University must reconsider priorities
I'm disappointed were not gonna use pigeon mail to submit our FFAs. I have a pigeon ready to deliver. What a shame!
Not only is the Big 12 conference now a misnomer with nine teams, it's threatened with extinction if universities keep leaving.
Originally a healthy 12 institutions, last year's exit by the University of Colorado and University of Nebraska whittled the Big 12 conference down to ten. Then, Texas A&M University announced last week that it will leave the conference on June 30, 2012. Now Oklahoma University is opening its options and allegedly entertaining PAC-12 membership.
If Oklahoma leaves, eight
schools would compete in a uninformed conference. It can get worse if Oklahoma brings Oklahoma State University and Texas Tech University along, or if University of Texas and University of Missouri go separate ways on the backs of their media networks.
The six major NCAA conferences are important organizations that promote healthy, advanced competition at the collegiate level. They spur rivalries including University of Kansas and Missouri's Border War, and Oklahoma and Texas' Red River Rivalry. The Big 12 in particular,
Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little, who has a vote in the conference, and Athletic Director Sheahon Zenger have already publicly pledged a strong commitment to staying in the Big
12. But, in assessing the damage done to the conference from at least three members leaving, we hope Gray-Little and Zenger do what's best for this institution's image and moral fiber.
prides itself on close proximity and rivalries between member universities. A collapse of the conference, with the exit of universities including Kansas, will be devastating to NCAA competition. But moving to a different conference may come with greater financial rewards. So what does the University do in this situation?
The effect that staying in a diminished conference, or moving to a bigger conference has on student athletes, and the long-standing traditions with peer universities should be considered first and foremost.
To stay or leave is a hard decision. Even in a time of economic uncertainty, it shouldn't be based on the lucrative Big Ten network, PAC-12 expansion or SEC talent, but rather the Jayhawk culture.
Texas A&M pledged their removal after holding concerns about Texas' alleged recruiting advantage with its ESPN-backed Longhorn Network. The decision seems to be a financially oriented one.
There is more to a NCAA conference than a bigger navcheck.
The University must put a healthy institution ahead of profit.
Vikaas Shanker for Kansan Editorial Board
CULTURE
Society devalues meaning of sex
Besides the usual monotony of hot weather this summer, I noticed an unusual monotony of trashy television shows. It's a popular time for producers to air the most pitiful excuses for entertainment while we, the young and gullible, are meant to ogle at the television.
I noticed a theme throughout these shows: casual sex, but not just casual sex between adults who have jobs, support themselves, and can deal with the emotional and physical effects that inevitably come with sex. This was casual, meaningless sex between 14-20 year olds in shows like "The Secret Life of the American Teenager" or "Teen Mom". Oh, don't raise your eyebrows; we're all guilty of watching these sorts of shows.
Having sex, though, is supposed to be more meaningful. Now, I'm not advocating being a bunch of prudes and wearing chastity belts. I'm merely advocating for a middle ground and learning to respect ourselves and our bodies before partaking in the "hook-up" culture.
The last I remember, when I was in middle and high school the farthest thing from my mind was hooking up in my parent's basement with the pre-pubescent guy sitting next to me in pre-algebra. Even now, I have too much on my mind to think about casually hooking up with every random guy I meet at college.
But this seems to be something our generation has come to expect. Sex, especially on college campuses, is shoved into our faces and presented like something no more meaningful than going to get your teeth cleaned at the dentist.
Do we really kid ourselves that we can have care-free sex and not have emotional consequences like many of these shows would have us believe?
Yes, these shows do tell us the physical consequences, but notice how usually everything is fine and
dandy in the end. And as viewers we can immediately disengage.
In reality, we can't disengage and make the monsters go away. What we do with our bodies especially when we're young has both emotional and physical consequences. In those olden days long ago when entertainment had some sense of decency, seeing sex on television was akin to seeing pigs fly. It just didn't happen; it may have been implied, but more important than sexual gratification was the actual human being and the significance behind a relationship. Sex is not an insignificant part of our lives. When we devalue sex, we lose what is so essential to our humanness - love.
I speak especially to young women. Did the sexual revolution go too far? Did we go from objectifying ourselves as subservient to men to objectifying ourselves as merely sexual objects? Wasn't the whole idea of the sexual revolution to give us choices? Then why does entertainment present us like this? Why at college is hooking up with someone you've just met a norm?
There's a piece missing - respect. We have to respect ourselves and really think about our actions before we dig a hole too deep and do something we'll regret.
As we enter a new school year and adulthood, we have to ask what we want for ourselves, not what society expects us to want.
— Knutsen is a sophomore in classics from Overland Park.
KANSAN.COM WEEKLY POLL
If the Big 12 folds, what conference would you want Kansas to be a part of?
Big Ten Big East Pac-12 SEC Other Go to Kansan.com to cast your vote
CAMPUS CHIRPS BACK
Does K-state's EcoKat have any redeeming values?
Follow us on Twitter @UDK_Opinion
Tweet us your opinions, and we just might publish them.
Baldwin023
@UKK Opinion No, looks like a coked-out troll.
the_colby_zone
@UOK Opinion #EcoKat is at least gonna help KU win the Eco Challenge
sillymusiceek
@UDK_Opinion #ecokat was good for bringing back '80s superhero style...
That's about it.
plrappel
@UDK, Opinion #EcoKat is a good
button, but a terrible idea for a
mascot. It is... well... garbage.
HUMAN RIGHTS
4th rescheduling of execution date shows system's flaws
Within the next couple of weeks, death row inmate Troy Davis from Georgia may receive his execution date for the fourth time.
Troy Davis was sentenced to death after being convicted for the murder of Mark Allen MacPhail, a police officer in Savannah, Ga. The sentencing occurred over 18 years ago, and since, the case against Davis has fallen apart.
Obviously the emotion and anger surrounding the murder of a police officer is deep, and rightly so. But such circumstances appear to have led to what is likely a false conviction.
Often the most important things in a murder case are physical evidence and the weapon used in the crime. In the case against Davis, there was no physical evidence linking him to the murder, nor was the murder weapon ever found. That meant that any conviction, especially one in which the prosecution was seeking a death penalty in sentencing, would need to have strong witness testimony.
In 1991, the jury found the witness testimony to be strong enough to issue a guilty verdict. But since then, new details have come to light that suggest the information on which the jury based its decision is not entirely valid and is certainly not strong enough for a conviction.
Since Davis' conviction and sentencing, seven of the nine non-police witnesses to the crime recanted or contradicted their testimonies, and many have claimed they were
In March, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Davis' appeals.
Davis now awaits his fourth execution date, which could be issued any day. His last chance is for the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles to stop his execution.
It is no wonder many human rights organizations and advocates have taken an interest in the Troy Davis case. The lack of evidence against Davis provides no concrete case against him, and it is not consistent with a death sentence. His case is a clear representation of how flaws in the justice system make the use of capital punishment unjustifiable.
Coincidentally (or not), one of the two witnesses who have not recanted or contradicted their testimonies is the primary alternative suspect in the case, Sylvester Coles. Nine people have signed affidavits implicating Coles for the murder
to make certain statements or provide testimony implicating Davis
Troy Davis is not just an isolated case. Kansans should be aware of what is going on with Troy Davis because this kind of case could happen in any state that still uses
The problem is not unique to any specific state. The list of exonerees from death row includes defendants from over 25 different states. Thirty-four states still have capital punishment.
As long as we have a justice system that makes these kinds of mistakes (as we most likely always will, since we are imperfect), we cannot employ the death penalty. It is not in the state's interest to toy with a human life.
Proponents of the death penalty often argue that we should reserve a death sentence for only the worst of the worst criminals. Isn't that what we are already supposed to be doing? And clearly, Davis cannot be considered the worst of the worst when the case against him is falling apart. Obviously that approach is not serving justice.
- Cosby is senior in English and political science from Overland Park. Follow her on Twitter @KellyCosby.
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Kelly Struda, editor
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the death penalty. The Death Penalty Information Center lists 138 individuals since 1973 who have been cleared after being sentenced to death. This includes one man, Frank Lee Smith, who was sentenced to death in Florida in 1985 for rape and murder. DNA evidence later proved his innocence, but Smith died in prison before he was exonerated in 2000. Smith spent the last years of his life awaiting lethal injection as punishment for a crime he did not commit.
Clayton Ashley, mimage editing
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Mandy Mattey, opinion editor
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Vikaa Shanker, editorial editor
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THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Members of the Kenan Edison Board are Kelly Stroda,
Jon Peterson, Jonathan Shannon, Vikas Shankar, Mandy
Matthey and Steven Penn.