AN
08
OPINION
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
9A
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2008
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Jon Goering/ KANSAN FILE PHOTO
Should we celebrate more Plan B use at KU?
Friday's Plan B article contained only lowered expectations and the encouragement of irresponsible behavior ("Plan B use increases on campus;" Nov. 7).
Through sex, new life is created. Separating the two is irresponsible and a denial of physiology.
Think of the rich pharmaceutical companies who so desperately want women to buy this pill, shot, implant, etc., all which potentially cause major side effects.
Plan B's Web site says this: "Plan B prevents pregnancy (mainly by stopping the release of an egg from the ovary), and may also prevent the fertilization of an egg (the uniting of sperm with the egg). Plan B may also work by preventing it from attaching to the uterus. Plan B
If a man and woman have sex during a time when the woman could become undesirably pregnant, that is irresponsible. Real responsibility is a woman knowing when to have sex and in the context of a stable relationship. That is self-respect, not treating fertility as a disease.
will not affect a fertilized egg already attached to the uterus."
"It" refers to an embryo, which attempts to attach itself to the uterus. According to MedTerms.com, abortion is "the premature exit of the products of conception from the uterus"
Your readers need to know that Plan B can be an abortifacient, contradictory to Planned Parenthood.
Should we really be celebrating a 36.5 percent increase in Plan B sales on campus?
Maybe the drug manufacturers, Planned Parenthood and the medical centers sharing in the profits should celebrate. Does this reflect KU as a campus of responsible, intelligent, self-respecting young adults?
Many women today have been duped into thinking that in a world of authentic feminism they can involve themselves in any kind of destructive behavior at all. Now they just have the "power" to ignore or cover up the consequences.
Want to really respect your self? Know yourself and have the discipline to use sex in a responsible manner.
Jennifer Garrison is a senior from Shawnee.
editorials around the nation
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Next Secretary could give funds to Detroit
A modest sigh of relief is in order with the announcement that the U.S. Treasury Department will not hand over billions of dollars in federal aid to facilitate a merger between General Motors and Chrysler.
Treasury officials told the Detroit Free Press they were too busy managing their new stake in banks and other financial institutions resulting from the $700 billion rescue package to get in the car business. And a lame-duck Bush administration is not eager to inject billions of taxpayer dollars in a merger that could lead to 40,000 layoffs. That's
40,000 jobs lost even if Uncle Sam pays up and the merger goes through.
But the next Treasury secretary may not share those reservations. Sen. Barack Obama said he'd like to double the $25 billion in loan guarantees already promised to help Detroit retool its assembly lines to build "clean" cars.
However, any further federal assistance would be a huge mistake. The current $25 billion loan package comes with no guarantee that U.S. consumers will buy clean cars from Detroit instead of vehicles produced by its Asian and European competitors.
- Rocky Mountain News
Nov. 2 editorial
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FROM THE DRAWING BOARD
TYLER DOEHRING
Could gay schools be 'separate but equal'?
At first I was elated — it would have been a dream to attend a similar school in my middle- and high-school years. But this feeling was quickly followed by skepticism.
I once called a middle-school classmate a bitch. She told the principal, and when he asked why I called her that, I told him it was because she called me a fag. He asked why this offended me and told me it was just a word. I was too young and confused to defend myself, so I was punished. Nothing happened to her.
My middle and high schools weren't the most hateful of places, but the words "faggot," "queer" and other negative epithets littered conversation and rarely saw consequences. This memory was evoked when I was reading that public school officials in Chicago are recommending the approval of a "gay-friendly" high school.
The main reason for the proposed school, called the School for Social Justice — Pride Campus, is to deter the harassment and violence toward LGBT students, which causes them to skip class and drop
out at increasing rates. Eighty-six percent of students reported being verbally harassed, 44.1 percent physically harassed and 22.1 percent physically assaulted at school in the past year because of their sexual orientation, according to a 2007 nationwide study from the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network. The rates for students missing class for this reason were also drastically different: about 32 percent for LGBT students and about 5 percent for heterosexual students.
The proposed school would not be exclusive to LGBT students but instead meant for any students looking for other schooling options, such as a higher quality education or another schooling environment. It would also be aimed at students who have feel they have been victims because of their sexual orientation.
The standards and curriculum for the school would be in line with other schools in the district, and the curriculum would incorporate lessons about sexual identity in history and literature classes.
It's clear that LGBT students are suffering in their pre-college years, a time when students figure out their education futures. Transferring schools, missing class and dropping out is not an option for students who want to continue their education.
A similar school, the Harvey Milk High School in New York City, opened in 1985 and now has a 95 percent graduation rate for its students, well above the city's average of 52 percent. This school is different from the Chicago-proposed school, in that it requires students to be at risk of dropping out because of harassment.
I've never lived in a large city, but from my own experience of growing up in a small town, I don't think this proposed school would help the LGBT community.
Hate breeds hate, and to single out LGBT students would only increase the open hatred toward them. It would decrease tolerance and acceptance among the students harassing LGBT students. By removing LGBT students, it succeeds to the idea of "separate but equal," an initiative that I thought the U.S. had already learned from. The harassing students need to be educated about tolerance and acceptance. And they need to be punished if they exhibit hateful behavior of any kind.
When I was in middle and high school, I would have loved to attend this type of "gay-friendly" school. But I'm older now,and have realized the benefit of surviving such adversity.
Hirschfeld is an Augusta senior in journalism.
JOI@FLICKR.COM
Why we should receive texts for canceled class
It's freezing cold outside. You drag yourself out of the warm bed, throw on some clothes and trudge to class as the Kansas wind whips your face. Little did you know that on your commute to campus your professor decided to cancel class and alert everyone via e-mail.
Maybe you don't check your e-mail when you wake up and you certainly don't check it when you're walking to school. There's also the chance that you don't check it on your break between classes.
Professors should have the ability to send a text message to students when class is canceled. This would prevent unpleasant surprises and unnecessary walks, drives and bus rides.
We've all been in this situation before, but the worst part is there's technology that could've kept us in our warm beds; texting.
technology. More than a year ago, the administration started funding a program called Message Blox that does exactly this, according to an April 2007 Kansan article.
The funny thing is, we've been working on implementing this
Implementing a program like Message Blox should be seriously considered because nine out of 10 college students own cell phones.
They beat me to the idea, but I don't see the fruits of their labor.
We already have a text program
Message Blox would allow student groups, teachers and the administration to send out mass texts. Not only would we have the convenience of being informed that we can sleep in, we could also get information from students groups we're involved in and class groups we're working with.
So why hasn't anything been done with Message Blox?
for emergencies as a part of the KU alert system. As of October 2007, 17,000 have signed up for it.
Everyone wants to stay in a warm bed when possible, and it'd be great if we could do that more often. Systems like this one would definitely help us all do that.
Stewart is a Wichita senior in journalism.
FREE FOR ALL
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If you don't know how to park, don't drive
--waist level.
--waist level.
I haven't been this excited to get a sticker since I was six. Yay elections!
Do you guys have Battle toads?
--waist level.
I went from hating the wind to loving it in the time that it took for a mini-skirt to fly
--category.
Attention football fans: This is the new kickoff chant. Kick his
--category.
The elections are over. Take down your signs.
--category.
Listen, Free for All, man. I don't know what you're doing right now, but you need to get your butt in gear. Get yourself back on the Internet. I know I complained about it and said it was stupid, but there are many ways to fix it.
--category.
--category.
If you buy Ralph Lauren at a thrift store, is it still bro?
This quote sucks. I'm not going to say it. It's not worth it.
I love clean boots.
Hey Kansan, next time you give KU's offense four stars and Nebraska three stars, check your stats. Nebraska is ranked higher in almost every category.
The Kansan's fact of the day was wrong. North America begins with an N and ends with an A, and South America starts with an S and ends with
an A.
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The stairway in the art building smells like weed.
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This girl in my classes is really cute. I'd rather bang her roommate, though.
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Haha, Pi Phi got TPed this weekend
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Mom?
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To all the Chiefs fans out there: Another Sunday, another disappointment.
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When you talk dirty to me, whisper and it turns me on.
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Your column sucked.
All I see is senior day buses and "in training" buses. I've been waiting 45 minutes. There's no 31st and lowa bus.
@KANSAN.COM
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