4A the university daily kansan
opinion
thursday,october 16,2003
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Free for All callers have 20 seconds to speak about any topic they wish. Kansan editors reserve the right to omit comments. Slanderous and obscene statements will not be printed. Phone numbers of all incoming calls are recorded.
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I apologize to all of the carpenter ants in Malott Hall for mistaking them for termites.
I can't stand it any longer. People, please put the UDK inserts in the trash cans.
Why are all of the Chi Omega girls so hot?
What the hell? Why can't people learn how to park their damn car? Parallel parking is not a hard concept. Learn how to do it and make some more parking spots on the side of the road.
Can I eat the pears on the pear tree, or will I die? If I die, that would actually be really bad.
Wheever said calculus was fun is on crack.
The best part about hating people is that I never run out of great ideas.
I want to hold it and love it and name it Squishy.
I got to return some videotapes.
letter to the editor
Liberal editorial cartoon draws no alternatives
So I'm sitting here reading Friday's Kansan (yes, I know I'm a few days behind) and I come across Lance Meneley's Stupid Sandwich editorial cartoon.
Which starts me wondering, why is it that you liberals simply insult officials you don't want in office instead of attacking their policy and presenting an alternative? Instead of painting Arnold as a dumb Austrian weightlifter-turned-actor, why not give reasons you disagree with his economic policy and examples of what you think should be done instead?
If capitalism is really this great disease as you say it is, shouldn't your focus be on curing it? Instead, you repeatedly choose to slander conservatives while offering no alternative course of action, demonstrating that your "open-minded tolerance" is extended only to those who agree with you. And Mr. Menelle, sandwiches are named for what is in the middle, for example ham and cheese, not for what's on the outside.
Darren Reed
Garden City
sophomore
Jennifer Wade for The University Daily Kansan
Brownback policy smacks of McCarthyism
perspective
Didn't our high school U.S. history classes teach us anything about the "Red Scare" this country experienced throughout the 20th century? A new law proposed last spring and still under deliberation would serve as a deterrent against criticism of Israel on America's college campuses. Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania introduced the police state-style "thought control" legislation. College campuses could soon be involved in a witch-hunt comparable to Wisconsin senator Joseph McCarthy's (no relation, folks) attempts to pit Americans against one another as potential communists.
It just so happens that Santorum's primary support comes from a familiar, local face: Kansas senator Sam Brownback.
The news of the Santorum-Brownback legislation proposal appeared in the April 15 issue of The New York Sun. According to the report, Santorum, along with several Republican members of the Senate, had invited representatives of a number of powerful Jewish organizations to attend a private meeting on Capitol Hill in order to discuss the senators' concerns about growing criticism of Israel on college
Ben McCarthy opinion@kansan.com
campuses.
The so-called ideological diversity legislation suggests cutting federal funding from American colleges and universities if those institutions are found to be permitting professors, students and student organizations to openly criticize Israel, which Santorum considers to be an act of anti-Semitism.
Under the bill, the federal funding formula under Title IX of the Higher Education Act will include ideological diversity as well as sexual equality in education as a perquisite for federal funding. Brownback has his own scheme in the works that would call for a federal commission to be established under Title IX to investigate allegedly anti-Semitic incidents on college campuses.
will have one of its very own involved in a plot to intimidate students and professors from expressing critical and subversive ideas. From the Kansas Board of Education decision in 1999 to remove teachings of evolution from the classroom to the recent Dennis Dailey fiasco that took place last May, education in Kansas has been unable to avoid draconian ideology from being injected into the curriculum. Now, Brownback has helped reposition Kansas at the cutting edge of fifth-century thought. Brownback and his chums are readying the "fifty-nifty" states to experience McCarthyism all over again, and the media has hardly made a peep about the topic.
It seems almost fitting that Kansas
News of the Santorum-Brownback initiative is on the minds of leaders in the educational community. However, representatives for universities and educational organizations are being shy about commenting, recognizing that they, too, could be accused of "anti-Semitism" by simply referencing the subject. This type of silent cowardice is inevitable in the face of an all-out McCarthy-style assault by the good senator from Kansas.
We must ask Santorum and Brown-
back how and when it became a crime for an American, college student or otherwise, to criticize the policies of a foreign country. Those who call for an investigation of university campuses willing to question Israel's policies are the ones who ought to be investigated. There is, after all, a limit to how much influence a foreign country can have on the state of free speech in the U.S., before it begins to threaten the very foundations of our democracy. What needs to be discussed and investigated is the silent influence of Israel and its agents on the American political process. It is intolerable for academic institutions in a free society to be subjected to Brownback and Santorum's updated version of McCarthyism, and left unable to candidly discuss global politics and foreign policy matters.
perspective
The message being sent to the University of Kansas and other universities is clear: Lay off Israel! In the spirit of Brownback, let me be the first to say, "Ah shucks, those Israeli air strikes in Syria were something else!"
Long live Brownback and long live the free-speech police.
McCarthy is a Lenexa nontraditional student.
Citizens unite: Senseless acts of violence, crime means something wrong with Lawrence
What's going on in Lawrence?
On Oct. 9, my wife and I went to bed as usual in our cozy little home in the University of Kansas' Sunflower Apartments, located up the hill from the stadium at 11th and Missouri Streets. About 3 a.m. Friday morning, someone threw a rock through our dining room window, jarring us awake in fright. I cautiously began to investigate, only to determine that whoever the vanal(s) were, they'd apparently left. I called the KU Public Safety Office, and officers came out and took a report. Neither of us slept the rest of the night.
My point for sharing this is to ask the simple question,is something wrong in Lawrence?
I've been a resident of Lawrence since July 2000. When I moved here from Michigan, a friend there told me that Lawrence was a cool little town that would remind me of Ann Arbor or Royal Oak. Both are friendly towns with a lot of "character." They also assured me that crime was less than what I experienced in the metro-Detroit area.
GUEST COMMENTARY
Dan Suitor
opinion@hansan.com
Unfortunately, I'm not so sure I like
the "character" of Lawrence as of late. In the past two months, there have been several highly publicized "personal crimes" in the papers.
On Sept. 17, a woman was assaulted at 11th and Tennessee Street while walking home from work at 2:30 a.m. On Oct. 3, a woman was allegedly assaulted at knife-point in the Lied Center parking lot. On Sep. 28, a 21-year-old male decided to shoot his gun near its Brothers Bar & Grill at 11th and Massachusetts. A student's truck was vandalized on Oct. 1. Two separate incidents of robbery took place between Sept. 19 and Sept. 24, on Ohio and Iowa streets.
What has happened to this town, or,
more to the point, this society, that
But my wife and I were in our own home! We were in bed, asleep and presumably safe when some individual(s) decided they would throw a rock through our window. Perhaps they were drunk and thought it would be funny. That possibility does little to assuage my concerns that something may be wrong in this town.
I guess that in some of the instances I've described, the argument can be made that "one just needs to be more careful," because there are "bad" people out there (i.e. don't walk alone, walk in groups, be mindful of your surroundings, etc.)
people have lost their concept of respect, citizenship and basic human civility?
I remember being raised by my parents under the adage, "Do unto others as you'd have them do unto you." I'm sure most are familiar with some variation of this "golden rule." The problem is, I believe it's lost. How else can one explain the escalation of crime in a town like Lawrence?
I know, I know, it's a college town and it potentially "attracts" criminal types who view the population as easy pickings. But I still struggle with the
My point is not to place blame. I realize law enforcement units and administrative agencies do what they can to prevent crime.
whole concept of treating another human being with such disdain and indifference that one simply does what one pleases, with little concern or care for whom their actions affect.
My point is to urge people not to engage in this type of behavior, and just as important, to report senseless crimes if you witness them.
I hope whoever threw the rock into our home is reading this. I hope someday that he feels the genuine fear, terror and now anger that my wife and I feel for being violated last week. I hope the next time he decides to do something stupid like that, he'll think before they act.
I also hope that if anyone reading this happened to witness this event, they do the right thing and call either Crimestoppers or the KU Public Safety Office. The citizens of Lawrence must unite to eliminate such senseless acts from our fair city.
A
Suior is the scholarship hall complex director.
.