of
OPINION
5A
FRIDAY NOVEMBER 14.2008
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Gay students shouldn't attend separate schools
I would like to commend Matt Hirschfeld on a very poignant piece addressing gay-geared schooling. Although it is nice to think that these young GLBT people may be able to freely express themselves in such an environment, they potentially miss a great teaching tool. Society at large was one of my greatest influences concerning how to handle my own sexuality, regardless of the love or hate I have experienced at its hands.
These lessons have run every gamut, from befriending those who never thought they might have a gay friend, to standing up against others who would
trample my very person based on my orientation. Such experiences strengthened me even during episodes when so much seemed uncertain.
Seccluding GLBT individuals in a false security bubble will only make matters worse when they enter schooling outside its embrace — let alone when encountering the world we live in at large. Learning with all peers also allows those harboring issues with the subject a chance to grow in tolerance. I give this initiative a pat, but let society as a whole grow together toward a future than essex orientation — of all types — for what it truly is: only another trait that further shapes those we love.
Brian Walters is a senior from Catherine
ASSOCIATED PRESS
On Nov. 12, KU Queers and Allies Executive Director Ryan Campbell sent an e-mail out to more than 550 student organization leaders over the Student Involvement and Leadership Center listserv. The e-mail contained one sentence factually describing the passage of California Proposition 8, followed by an open invitation to a rally. The text is as follows:
Rally e-mail should not be called 'politicking'
"California's recent approval of Proposition 8 ... has spurred the LGBT community and its allies to action. This weekend, protests will be happening in every major city in the United States, and I hope that you'll join us in our fight."
... Please refrain from sending those messages out."
"The listserv's primary function is to give registered groups, students and advisors at the University of Kansas an avenue for informing other registered groups and students of their events as they occur...[SILC] policy strictly prohibits debate, politicking and profanity on the listserv. Violation of this policy may cause the individual to be deleted from the listserv for the remainder of the academic year ... Please refrain from sending
This paragraph has become the focus of a mini-controversy within the SILC listserv community. About eight complaints about its political nature were sent to Aaron Quisenberry, SILC associate director. In response, Quisenberry sent out this message:
There are several reasons why this response is inaccurate and offensive. First, the Q&A e-mail would not fall under any definition of "politicking" that could be set forth by the University.
If the e-mail were "politicking," it would by definition ask you to vote a certain way or support a certain issue. Although the final sentence in Campbell's e-mail toes that fine line, it stays within the boundaries of an event invitation and
does not cross into garnering support for a cause. Merely mentioning the reason for the rally does not make it politicizing. For clarification, the university-wide policy statement on Electronic Information Resources states, "Registered student and campus organizations, such as the College Republicans or the KU Young Democrats, may use their membership listservs to notify members of meetings, speeches, and/or rallies." (Sect. 8.C.)
Q&A was doing just what an expressly political organization would do to promote an event. It was using the listserv to "foster a better understanding and celebration of diversity" (from the SILC mission statement) and to inform "other registered groups and students of [Q&A] events as they occur" (from the Quisenberry's above-quoted letter.)
Finally, it is unfortunate that a message about a Q&A event must be seen instantly as a political message. It is through no fault of their own that the very identity of the people in the organization is regarded as a political stance and not an issue of personal definition. To call this message political would be to categorize any message from the organization as a political "stance" and unfit for dissemination.
As a concerned KU student and supporter of Q&A, I would like to make a public call to Quisenberry and the SILC office to retract their condemnation of the Q&A e-mail, not just because of the technical error in categorizing it as "politicking," but to ensure that future messages from Q&A or other "diverse" organizations — Black Student Union, Hispanic American Leadership Organization, Comission on the Status of Women — are not categorically condemned by their possible political identities.
You can e-mail Mr. Quisenberry at aquienberry@ku.edu or call him at 785-864-4861.
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Will Obama's policy be any better than Bush's?
"And that's the flaw of the cash document. Then Sen. Barack Obama explained to ABC News anchor Charles Gibson in January. "It wasn't that he went after those who attacked America. It was that he went after those who didn't."
By consensus, the Bush doctrine is dead. Its tenure as an organizing principle of American foreign policy did not survive the Iraq War. Bush's policies, according to the president-elect, distracted America from more pressing security concerns, stifled its capacity for action, diminished its influence and hindered necessary cooperation with allies in common struggles.
Yet, the verdict on the Bush years remains open. Notwithstanding the exorbitant costs of the Iraq War, it remains to be seen if the alternative course proposed by President-elect Obama will yield better results at lower costs.
Make no mistake: The costs were high, but the Bush doctrine did yield results — results that years of containment and diplomacy failed to deliver on Iran and North Korea. Saddam Hussein is dead. The issue of Iraq has been dealt a final resolution, and only because of this will an Obama administration confront other matters that would have been impossible to manage with Saddam Hussein still astride the Middle East, thwarting American designs.
The test-case in-waiting that will reveal the wisdom or foolishness of Obama's critique of the Bush years is Iran, the primary source of instability in the Middle East.
With the political stakes high both at home and abroad, Obama is not wrong to prefer a diplomatic resolution. In the grandest fantasies of Democratic policy wonks, Iran would be offered a comprehensive diplomatic bargain under which it would abandon its support of terrorism and its pursuit of nuclear power in exchange for the lifting of sanctions, economic aid, access to Western markets and technology, nuclear fuel and other incentives.
If it plays out according to this outline, then Obama will face few obstacles in keeping his promise of a responsible withdrawal from Iraq. The region will stabilize, and Obama will probably easily win re-election in 2012.
of liberal faith that Bush's obstinacy has been the only barrier to regional rapprochement.
If Obama fails, then Bush was right, and it is not unlikely that pre-empotion, the cornerstone of the Bush doctrine, will again see its day, this time brought to you by Democrats.
But if Iran declines to come to terms with "the Great Satan," then a quick, responsible withdrawal from Iraq will be impossible, and Obama will find himself in the shoes of his predecessor, confronting the world's most dangerous regimes as they seek the world's most dangerous weapons.
But what if the architects of the Islamic Revolution of 1979 have no intention of dealing with America? Reacting to Tuesday's election results, Seyyid Hossein, a 30-year Iranian school teacher, told The Guardian, "Obama's victory could improve things because he has his head on his shoulders. But I believe the regime doesn't want better relations with the U.S. It wants to have a big enemy to frighten people and maintain its rule."
The Bush years demonstrated that pre-emption is a bad option, but it may yet prove to be the least bad option on a policy menu filled with worse options.
It remains a self-serving article
Armstrong is a Dallas senior in business.
How businesses profit from breast cancer
The wind blows the pink ribbons as the light grows too dim to reflect the plastic faces of the pink buttons. In the distance, the thuds of sneakers against pavement cease. All is quiet except for the panting after the race — the sound of a movement exhausted.
More than a half million women die from two causes annually: heart disease, which claims nearly 350,000 women, and lung cancer from smoking cigarettes, which kills more than 178,000 women, according to the Mayo Clinic and the Centers for Disease Control.
In a distant third sits breast cancer, which is responsible for 40,000 deaths in women each year — about the same number of people who die from car accidents each year.
Preventing car accidents and reducing smoking and heart disease in women receive almost no attention compared with breast cancer, even though the last two are the two biggest killers of women.
DIONGILLARD @ FLICKR.COM
"race for the cure." In her journal article in Social Text, professor and author Samantha King writes that the original intent of the movement has been lost.
"Nancy Brinker, founder of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, tells how she approached an executive of a lingerie manufacturer to suggest that they include a tag in their bras reminding customers to get regular mammograms. The executive told Brinker, 'We sell glamour. We don't sell fear. Breast cancer has nothing to do with our customers.'"
Rallying support for breast cancer is easier because it is more marketable. Who doesn't like breasts? Healthy breasts are sexy whereas healthy hearts and lungs are not.
Everyone is familiar with anti-smoking campaigns: the black lung pictures, the stained teeth, the deformed jaws. You won't see people walking around with such shirts, but you will see pink ones for
Corporations that profit off this horrible illness are the most sickening aspect of the breast cancer awareness movement.
In her 2007 article, "Breast Cancer for Fun and Profit," Suzanne Reisman talks about a Campbell's Soup campaign in 2006.
"In return for the additional sales, Campbell's agreed to donate $250,000 to benefit 'breast cancer awareness initiatives across the country' as part of Kroger's larger
initiative to raise $3 million for the cause. While it sounds great, the Campbell's donation amounts to a measly 3.5 cents per can."
Let's follow the 3.5 cents to The American Cancer Society. The non-profit charity watchdog group American Institute of Philanthropy reports that only 60 percent of this money actually goes to program expenses like fighting cancer. Three and a half cents become about two.
Other diseases could be used to sell more products, but according to Reisman, "It is much easier to exploit a fear of breast cancer than that of other diseases. Many women feel a strong link between their femininity and their 'breasts.'"
When I now see the pink ribbons, buttons or T-shirts of the breast cancer awareness movement, beneath the pink. I see black.
In the end, I know it is this obsession with pink that has allowed far too many lives to turn to black.
Mangiaracina is a Lenexa senior in journalism.
To contribute to Free for All, visit Kansan.com or call 785-864-0500.
No wire hangers
My headphones sound like a crappy fuzztone in a fishbowl.
Mmm,chicken
何
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Damn girl, you look fine in them jeans, but you would look even better with me in between.
These boots were made for Rock Chalkin'.
To the girl in my political science class: Why would you say something that idiotic in front of more people than the one in your mirror?
After spending the week in Arkansas, I am glad to be back at KU where the women are hot, not dirty.
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Women will fake an orgasm for the sake of a relationship, but men will fake a relationship for the sake of an orgasm
Today my bro wanted to sit up front in soc. Bad idea.
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To the Alpha Gamma Delta girls who came into my store 10 minutes before closing, you were the rudest people I've ever encountered. Who knocks something over, laughs about it and then walks away from it? Seriously. Get some manners
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I love me some cottage cheese.
To all you girls wearing leggings as pants, I can see every dimple in your cottage cheese ass. P5. Uggs plus leggings equals fashion faux pas.
I challenge any teacher to tell me I can't do something. Please say it again because I love proving you wrong.
Dear hot bus driver, please quit coming to my apartment and eating all of the alfredo.
Free for All, you got me going from six to midnight for you all the time.
Hey person who almost hit me on Naismith: Yeah, you did deserve that rock in your back window.
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I just called you for phone sex, but all I got was the answering machine.
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Do you look in the toilet after you go? I know I do.
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Why does Watson turn into bro central after 9 p.m.?
@KANSAN.COM
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