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TUESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2001
OPINION
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
KANSAN FILE PHOTO
Border Showdown is waiting at home
I was in fourth grade when I told my parents I wanted to be a writer. My mom smiled and said, "Ah, journalism," shortly followed by "the University of Missouri." My dad chimed in with, "the best journalism school in the country." That was the day my future was decided.
My parents met at Mizzou, and my aunts and uncles also attended the school. I was brought up to be a Mizzou baby, child and adolescent. I was dressed in an MU cheerleading outfit until late elementary school and could sing the fight song at the age of seven. My family visited the campus at least once a year, and I have probably attended more MU football games than KU football games over the course of my life. My dad made an MU shrine in our basement, and on game days, he answers the phone with "Go Tigers!"
My cousin, Megan, and I had planned to attend MU together from the time we could talk. Megan is six months older than me, and she is one of my closest friends. She was the next one to fall in the line of Mizzou attendees, but I chose a different path.
I guess you could say I didn't understand the rivalry. College sports weren't something I became interested in until I became a college student, and I could never wrap my mind around the tension between KU fans and MU fans. It wasn't until after my family moved me into my dorm room and was ready to leave that I realized I might have broken their hearts. My brother called me a traitor as he pushed past me to the door, and it suddenly became clear to me that this transition might be harder than I anticipated.
To me, both KU and MU were simply two schools in two different states. They both had something to offer, and I could be successful attending either. But to my parents, the decision meant so much more.
My mother reluctantly took me on a KU college visit after we had compared in-state tuition to out-of-state tuition. I fell in love with the campus, the people and the atmosphere. I was very impressed with the study abroad
programs and equally impressed with the journalism school. I thought I could be at home here, despite the many years I was told MU would be my home.
The decision was difficult, and I swayed back and forth. As I struggled, my cousin told me she knew I was one to go against the grain, and she was right. A part of me simply wanted to prove them all wrong.
I became a layhawk, despite my parents' best efforts. My dad told me he thought KU was a good school, and he simply wanted me to be happy. I can honestly say I have never been happier.
Of course, I set myself up for the ridicule and the jokes. Last year, my parents, aunts and uncles never ceased to inform me of how overrated my football team was and were also very quick to point out that the jayhawk is a mythical bird.
This year I sit in my aunt and uncle's house listening to the MU fight song and watching my cousins hang black and gold streamers across the ceiling. They are all making bets on the score, a victory for Mizzou.
But when it was all over with a 40-37 KU victory, they will hug me and tell me good game. They will laugh with me and give me high fives, and despite our differences I will still be a part of the family.
We will wonder what might have been as my cousin drives back to Columbia, leaving me behind.
I will go back to Lawrence, a city I have come to love more than Wichita. I will go back to my friends, my life and my school. I will go back to the best four years of my life, and I can't blame my parents for wanting me to share their same experience during the best four years of their lives.
Sometimes we have to break out of the cycle of tradition, write our own stories and direct our own lives. I plan to make a name for myself with my degree from KU in my hands, and I will break the mold that was made for me.
I will teach my children the Rock Chalk Chant, and when they grow up, if by some crazy coincidence, they decide to be MU tigers, I will let them, but not without the jokes and the ridicule, of course.
Brown is a Wichita sophomore in journalism and political science.
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TYLER DOEHRING
FROM THE DRAWING BOARD
MAX RINKEL
What we should learn from Wescoe Beach
Attracting hordes of loud detractors, half of whom are as irrational as you, can be fun, but if, at the end of the day, all you do is offend those hordes instead of truly challenging them, your point is lost, and your cause can go nowhere.
The problem with any of these types, the people who are dedicated enough to a cause to go out to any hostile environment to express themselves, is that they don't see how their method can hurt their message. When you position yourself as the ultimate voice of a movement, you need to make sure that people are willing to really listen.
Cohen is a Topeka senior in political science.
Be loud. Be obnoxious. Get people to pay attention to you no matter what. To some, this is the right way to get a message out. Somewhere, a group of people will sit around a table, trying to figure out the best way to tell people something, and at some point they will agree that the best course of action is to be annoying.
We see it on campus every week. A message is chalked on the ground everywhere you look or a certain flyer is taped to any and all open surfaces. Maybe somebody is standing on one of the planters on Wesco Beach, shouting their message to the irritated masses.
One of the most common sights on the Beach is Brother Jed, the ever-lovable power-cord enthusiast with the deep tan, graying hair, wearing a wide variety of dapper suits. Once a month or so, Jed will appear on campus, ranting and raving about how we are all sinners, fornicators, masturbators and various other fun terms that most college students do not find as offensive as he thinks we do.
If it isn't Jed, it is the latest anti-abortion (I refuse to call them pro-life) group that has valiantly ridden into Kansas to tell us that if we are not vehemently on their side in this particular hot-button issue, then we are sinners, killers, Nazis and liars. Usually, they supplement this with large banners bearing graphic pictures of aborted fetuses. Apparently, pointing out that a medical procedure isn't pretty is supposed to be a deterrent.
And then there are the small political parties. Be it a national
election or one for student government, third parties tend to have a hard time gaining a foothold. All too often, this leads to smaller parties focusing their campaigns less on their own platforms and accomplishments and more on any perceived faults in their opponents.
Lord, help anyone who disagrees with them. If you find yourself listening to somebody campaigning for a small party candidate, and you don't immediately leap up and exclaim that they have forever altered your perception of politics and society, prepare for a deluge of insults about how you are ignorant, elitist or a sheep. Sadly, I have yet to hear a Libertarian call me a sinner. Get with the program, guys!
editorials around the nation
Lame-duck sessions will stav unproductive
The Democratic leadership came back after the election with three goals — a bailout for the automobile industry, a second economic stimulus package and an extension of unemployment benefits.
Congressional lame-duck sessions are notoriously unproductive, and this one is no exception.
Only the relatively uncontroversial granting of a three-month extension of the benefits passed as Congress was leaving town for Thanksgiving recess.
The problem with these sessions is that the lawmakers who are retiring or have lost their seats have no incentive to be accommodating while the victorious party has every incentive to wait for the new Congress to be sworn in.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The lawmakers deadlocked on an auto industry bailout, with Democrats generally
wanting the money to come from one source, the Republi-cans generally from another, and neither of them happy about a plan for a turnaround by the Big Three.
There
was a generational change, but it was due to outside factors like the actuarial tables and the criminal courts.
The Senate's longest serving Republican, Ted Stevens, lost his bid for re-election, saving his colleagues from expelling him for his conviction on corruption charges. Stevens is 85.
The House removed another long-serving lawmaker, Rep. John Dingell, 82, as chairman of the House Energy and
Commerce Committee, where he had been either chairman or ranking minority member since 1981.
He will be replaced by Rep. Henry Waxman of California's 3rd District.
Reporting on the change, The Washington Post enthused that Waxman's "victory signaled the rise of a young, more environmentally conscious party." Waxman is 69.
— The Knoxville (Tenn.) News-Sentinel
Nov. 24 editorial
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I saw my cat licking the turkey, and I didn't tell anybody.
I got back into my hometown, and all of my friends are playing Magic the Gathering.
--for the epic Border War?
We are at the KU vs. MU game, and there are definitely people in the car next to us having sex amongst all of the tailoring
Wow, so now they are making Rock Band for 4-year-olds.
Back off campus police, I am trying to go to the library at two o'clock Sunday night, just
I just wanted to know who else went to the KU vs. MU game and had the ticket office tell them that KU oversold tickets.
--for the epic Border War?
I miss Tommy.
I've had my boyfriend for almost three months, and I don't want to break up with him because I feel bad.
--for the epic Border War?
To the girl who stole my heart almost five years ago: I still love you.
--for the epic Border War?
Why can't Facebook be a major? Did that just make me sound really obsessed with Facebook?
--for the epic Border War?
I haven't stopped listening to the "Twilight" soundtrack in a month. It's amazing.
Hey hottie at the Rec who was checking me out while I stretched: Same time tomorrow?
I'm an RA, and I hate stupid deskies who don't know how to do their job and call me for pointless things. But there are a few deskies who aren't completely incompetent.
--for the epic Border War?
Pepto changed my life. Thanks Pepto!
My mom is watching "Brittney:
For the Record" right now.
Remind me again why I came
home this weekend?
--for the epic Border War?
So the Border Showdown will be in Arrowhead for four more years. I guess Lew Perkins needs more pocket change for a new Corvette.
I finally played "Portal" today.
I have to admit. I tried a little
on the inside when I had to
throw Cubie in the incinerator.
Is it wrong that I spent this weekend in Europe, yet I would have loved nothing more than to have been in KC for the epic Border War?
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