OPINION
7A
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2008
THE UNIVERSITY HARLY KANSAN
MIKECOGH @ FLICKR.COM
Looking back as the anniversary of murder approaches
The plastic case was on a pedestal in the center of the room in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I stopped and stared into the case. No way, I thought to myself. The bloodstained oval glasses sat there. The white placard to the right confirmed what I had thought. These were the glasses John Lennon wore the day that Mark David Chapman killed him.
This image came back to me as the title screen of the great but disturbing film "The Killing of John Lennon" began.
The background was black as the camera panned across Chapman's deranged face. The phrase "All Chapman's words are his own" appeared.
The film tells Chapman's story through his eyes and in his own words. What is most startling about the film is how it shows an ordinary man slowly losing his grip on reality and descending into a world of megalomania.
At the beginning, Chapman lives in Hawaii with his wife Scenes of lush palm trees and shots of him at the beach abound. However, the bottle of alcohol inside of a paper bag that Chapman drinks while driving shows that something is wrong.
Later, Chapman gives his wife a copy of "The Catcher in the Rye" to read. After finishing it, she tells him that she doesn't understand it. Chapman starts to lose it. The incident then spurs a tirade that culminates in Chapman saying that she would understand him if only she understood the book and its main character, Holden Caulfield.
And so his obsession with the book begins. Chapman re-reads it several times within a few months. Soon Chapman convinces himself that he is Holden Caulfield and the catcher in the rye. The line between fact and fiction blur. They merge in and out of each other just like the film
walks the line between documentary and fiction.
The connection to Lennon emerges at the library as Chapman discovers a book about him. It is here that his anger with his wife and with himself finds an outlet.
Chapman becomes increasingly enraged as he sees pictures of the gaudy dress of Lennon as he thinks of songs such as "Imagine," where Lennon talks about imagining a world with no possessions. Chapman later learns that Lennon also owns a yacht, at least two vacation homes and several cars.
Chapman then decides to plot to kill Lennon. After buying a gun, he abandons his wife, travels to New York City and arrives outside Lennon's residence at the Dakota Building. However, before his rendezvous he sees the film "Ordinary People" and decides not to do it and instead returns home. The scene shows his last bit of humanity before killing Lennon just weeks later.
It was on a cold dark night on Dec. 8, 1980, that Chapman pulled the trigger five times. Lennon died as Chapman stood there with the gun. He didn't try to run or hide; he just stood there. At that moment, Chapman found his identity; he became the person who shot and killed John Lennon. As the movie poster reads, "I was nobody until I killed the biggest somebody on earth." However, finding an identity didn't save him. Soon after, Chapman regretted the murder and 20 years later the effects the death has had on Lennon's wife Yoko Ono.
Since 1981 Chapman has spent his time at Attica prison in New York, serving his sentence of 20 years to life. He will most likely spend the rest of his life there as he's already been denied parole five times, most recently in August. Regardless of what happens to Chapman, Lennon is not coming back. In his place his music lives on — with all its flaws and triumphs, from a human being, not a God, just like Mark David Chapman.
Mangiaracina is a Lenexa senior in journalism.
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THE EDITORIAL BOARD
FROM THE DRAWING BOARD
The Justice League of America Cabinet
The Flash is like the Secretary of Education Underfunded and rarely seen
Batman. He's like the President. He doesn't stop in very often, but he's in charge.
Wonder Woman is like the Secretary of State. She has lots of foreign friends and yells a lot
Superman is like the Secretary of Defense. He's really bloated and solves problems with violence.
See? You CAN learn stuff from comics.
MAX RINKEL
Where I found models of grassroots feminism
ing of feminism is still changing. I've never seen any of the following people sporting a T-shirt that screams FEMINIST across the chest, but each of these four people, in their own way, has contributed to the meaning behind the movement and has helped me understand what feminism means. You may have never heard of them, but it doesn't negate the importance of their actions.
It was started by a few women at the grassroots level and has grown into buttons, posters, T-shirts, slogans, banners, clubs, legislation.
magazines, books and educational programs. It comes in an array of sizes and shapes, and more importantly in a variety of different people. Feminism has evolved through many decades and in its beginning was not all-inclusive or perfect. It is not just about the white, middle class woman anymore.
I've taken the classes, researched and studied, but my understand-
MY MOM
MY GRANDPA
She's only 5 feet tall, but she has more gumption than anyone I know. My mother has always been a working mom, but that has never been a negative thing. She was the first person who helped me understand what the "glass ceiling" was. She has taught me what it means to work in an office dominated by men and that you can vote Republican and still be a feminist.
Growing up in a generation of young men not known for being feminists, my grandpa has learned about women from his three sisters, three daughters and two granddaughters. Constantly supportive, he always asks questions and teaches as well as learns from us. Last week he asked me what "misogyny" meant, and then after looking it up he said, "I like philogyny better." Philogyny is the love or liking of women as opposed to hatred. This reminded me that it is important to remember to focus
I could say something about all of the women's studies professors I've had at KU, but Milton is one of the greatest. He has taught me, along with his other students, that men are part of the fight as well. One of my favorite memories from this semester is having class outside, and he was so engrossed in conversation with the class and
MILTON WENDLAND
on the positives and progress as well as recognizing the problems.
his lecture, he yelled, "Vagina power!" while using exuberant hand gestures as a group of frat boys walked by.
Instead of assigning a final exam, our class did grassroots activism projects to help further the LGBT movement.
He has shown that men can teach women's studies classes and be just as effective as women.
CLAUDIA FREANEY
Claudia has one characteristic that two years ago I would have considered an automatic removal from the feminist category. She's a sorority girl.
But she happens to be one of the most down-to-earth feminists I know. She has restored my faith in
sororities and helped me overcome my own projected stereotype. She is her own person inside and out of her house and hasn't let a projected image overtake her personal opinions or identities. All college women, whether interested in the greek life or not, could learn from her example.
...
A grandfather, a professor, a working mom and a sorority girl all taught me something about feminism. These are just a few of the examples closest to me who have taught me just as much as
any class, article or research could They are not the top four feminists in the world, the country, or eastern Kansas, but their different ages, genders, occupations and religions that make up their worldviews demonstrate a movement that survives through example.
Thornbrugh is a Lenexa sophomore in women's studies and creative writing.
editorials around the nation
Unfortunately for Barack Obama, "ready on Day One" has turned out to be more than a theme of the campaign that got him elected. It is now the understatement of his impending presidency.
Forget the honeymoon; we need Obama now
Given the worsening economic storm and the lack of confidence in the Bush administration's handling of the gathering mess (when last seen, Bush was sporting a poncho in Peru), neither Obama nor we can afford to wait for the parades and balls to usher
in his historic presidency.
Obama must be in nigh gear before Jan. 20, Inauguration Day. He has sent numerous signals that he gets that.
Obama appears to have gathered smart and wise people to populate his economic team and correct the worst U.S. economic crisis since the Great Depression.
But the selections of members of his economic team was meant to bolster confidence.
We are reminded that we have only one president at a time — as if we need any reminder, given everything
crashing on us — and Obama cannot give the reins an overt grab now.
We need their big thinking now, but constitutional formalities insist on a transition period. We're certain it won't be down time for Obama & Co.
The Courier-Journal
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Dear Kansan editors, put this in a newspaper, and I will send my hot friends to your office.
If you get on the TV at Allen Fieldhouse, please wave to the camera and not the TV.
I saw a guy with black and white plaid tight jeans on. Does he not own a mirror?
To the dumbass from Missouri in front of me who blocked traffic in front of the parking garage: You suck.
--out by them.
--out by them.
This Friday is the last discussion with my Social Psych TA, and she still hasn't made a move. Don't make me live like this!
I can't do my swim workout because there is a basketball game in two hours. Somehow that doesn't make sense.
--out by them.
Bring back the old basketball chant!
I love KU, but we need to learn how to make a layup.
You just described every liberal in Kansas in your column.
--out by them.
--out by them.
I've just asked my roommate to bring me some pants.
You don't sit at basketball games unless it is halftime or the game is over.
--out by them.
Preaching Darwinism is a lot like being constipated. It doesn't matter how hard you push it. It is still a load of crap
With my backpack on, my shadow kind of looks like a turtle wearing a scarf.
--out by them.
Did anybody else notice the
word therapist is just the rapi-
st crunched together? I did
and now I'm highly freaked
out by them.
Pizza Shuttle just sits in my stomach for days. Then there is one awful day where it all
---
I'm convinced that GSP Dining Hall gets E's leftovers.
I don't mean to hurt you but
I mean this with all my heart:
Your butt stinks
Who the hell vandalized the Union?
I kind of miss that demented looking little girl from the old Pizza Street commercial.
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