Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
Kansan
Published daily since 1912
Lindsey Henry, Editor
4A
Andrea Albright, Managing editor Tom Eblen, General manager, news adviser
Sarah Scherwinki, Business manager Brian Pagen, Retail sales manager Dan Simon, Sales and marketing adviser Justin Knupp, Technology coordinator
Thursday, December 4, 1997
W. David Keith/ KANSAN
Feedback
Christian athletes were not offensive to crowd
Gerry Doyle, I find many errors in your editorial about the Athletes in Action basketball game against the KU women's team
First, the fans that were at the game that night did not go there "to be preached at" and indeed, the game was very entertaining, both contrary to what you stated. The fans that listened to the halftime message were not "forced" to hear what the AIA team members had to say. There was nothing offensive in their message. Rather, it was an encouraging talk about exciting and powerful things happening in their lives because of Jesus Christ.
Finally, you said that that "KU basketball faithful and students should never be subjected to the kind of Christian crusade." If it was that big of a deal to you
—and anyone else who thinks like you do— then you should have left. Then you wouldn't have been subjected to such talk. But the crowd seemed genuinely interested in what the AIA athletes had to say and cared about their beliefs in the Creator of the Universe. I only wish and pray that you felt the same.
Julie Buchanan
Wichita sophomore
On McCuistion's personal account of animal testing
When faced with a complex issue, people have a tendency to take an absolute pro or con position rather than acknowledge any room for discussion. Clay McCuistion's column on Dec. 2 addresses two very different parts of the animal rights debate — medical testing on animals and frozen turkey bowling — and seems to think that to support the one requires him to support the other.
But this is not an issue of black and white morality; it is an issue of justifiability. The first case is a matter of animal suffering and death vs. saving human lives, whereas the second is animal suffering and death vs. wacky entertainment.
Though no columnist would write it in the "Kansan," it is perfectly reasonable to eat meat, for example, yet feel that throwing the same dead animal down a hallway (and into the trash) is disgusting and disrespectful. Or to be a vegetarian, easy in modern society, and still support animal research as an extremely useful tool in science. Or to support animal research in medicine but not in the making of eyeshadow. The beliefs that animal life has no value, or that its value equals human life, are the least reasonable and the most offensive.
Kevin A. T. Boyle Petaluma, Calif., Junior
Clay McCuistion's opinion article was good.
It takes guts to be a conservative college student. It also takes brains.
Chris Bartee
Olathe junior
Clay McCuision's response to animal rights activists in your Dec. 2 issue was fairly successful in its use of personal experience to justify animal testing for medical purposes. When he dealt with problems of human hunger and poverty, McCuition made serious errors.
McCuintion declares that human hunger must be eliminated before one can worry about animal abuse and implies that these problems are unrelated. What McCuintion fails to realize is that there would be fewer hungry people in this world if there were less reliance on animals as food sources.
Many more resources — such as water — are required to produce animal-derived nourishment that are needed for plant and grain-derived nourishment. When nations devote their economies to satisfying carnivorous appetites in prosperous countries such as the United States, more people in developing countries starve. Plain and simple.
Many more resources such as water
McCuistion also implies that animal rights activists are indifferent to exploitation of cheap labor overseas. Had he been at the recent protest rally at McDonald's in downtown Lawrence, he would have found that animal rights activists are leading the fight against such conditions. McDonald's uses Vietnamese children to make toys for their promotional campaigns and animal rights activists are
calling attention to this intolerable abuse. They are doing so because animal rights and human rights are part of the same moral continuum.
Ray Pence Casper, Wyo., graduate student
Rav Pence
Let's hear it for Hemenway and technological support
Students should know that Chancellor Robert Hemenway does have their best interests at heart. In November at the meeting of the Jayhawks for Higher Education, the Chancellor presented his agenda for the 1998 legislative session in Toneka.
One of the items he discussed was the 2-for-1 Technology Fee, wherein students would pay an additional $1 per credit hour with a commitment from the Kansas Legislature to match each students $1 with $2 of state funding. All of this money would be earmarked for technological improvements at the University.
The fact that the Chancellor placed this issue at the top of his agenda during his speech shows the degree to which he wants better technology here. The Kansas Board of Regents has also made the technology money a top priority on its fiscal year 1998 and 1999 budget request. It is more than coincidental that this is also a driving issue for the Student Legislative Awareness Board, of which I'm in charge.
It is very encouraging for students to see that this issue — their issue — is a priority for so many people. This is a remarkable instance where the administration, the Regents and the student body have the opportunity to work on a common agenda.
As the Legislative Director for students at the University, I would like to personally thank the Chancellor for his dedication to improving conditions for students at the University and working to give students at the University more value for money, more attention to issues that they care about and more foresight in planning for the future.
Samantha Bowman Legislative Director and Wichita senior
Kansan staff
News editors
Bradley Brooks ... Editorial
Jason Strait ... Editorial
Jodie Chester ... News
Jen Smith ... News
Adam Darby ... News
Charity Jeffries ... Online
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Eric Weslander ... Campus
Ashleigh Roberts ... Features
Steve Puppe ... Photo
Bryan Volk ... Design, graphics
Mitch Lucas ... Illustrations
Mark McMaster ... Wire
Ann Marchand ... Special sections
Lacheline Rhodes ... News clerk
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Jeff Auslander . Marketing
Chris Haghrian . Internet
Brian LeFevre . Production
Jen Wallace . Production
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Tyler Cook . Creative
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Rachel O'Neill . Classified
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Broadon your mind:
"Well, there ain't no use to sit and wonder why, babe, if n' you don't know by
**Letters:** Should be double-spaced typed and fewer than 200 words. Letters must include the author's signature, name, address and telephone number plus class and home- town if a University student. Faculty or staff must identify their positions.
Robert Zimmerman
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All letters and guest columns should be submitted to the Kansan newsroom, 111 Stauffer-Flint Hall. The Kansan reserves the right to edit, cut to length or reject all submissions. For any questions, call Bradley Brooks (brooks@kansan.com) or Jason Strait (jstrait@kansan.com) at 864-4810. If you have general questions or comments, e-mail the page staff (opinion@kansan.com) or call 864-4810.
Raving
Searching for the best way to seize your rights
Maybe I've been a little rough on the cops this semester, but they give me so much to be angry about. Take the following scenario:
"If you guys don't want to get pulled over and searched, I'd get rid of the road maps and air freshener."
Christopher Bulgren
opinion@kansan.com
This was the advice offered to me by a highway patrolman after he searched my car in Hooker, Okla. My buddy Jason had been driving my car. The cop told him that he would get a warrant to search the car if Jason didn't grant him permission to do so.
Jason, being the kind soul he is said,
"Sure." We didn't have anything to hide.
After an hour of standing in a ditch while
Hollibilly Jim rummaged through my personal belongings and inadvertently honked my horn with his gut, we were on our way with a speeding ticket for our troubles.
This officer, like many others, violated and intimidated us simply because of our appearance. Let's face it: cops look for a certain kind of driver. If you're wearing funny sunglasses or driving a rental car with out-of-state plates, you might have drugs in the car.
These types of parameters were set up to stop the dispersion of drugs. But they have turned into a nifty little way to search anybody's car. They are applying these profiles for drug runners to anybody who looks suspicious. If I want to look suspicious, that's my business. That doesn't mean I'm running cocaine out of South America. Appearance is not pertinent. Cops enforcing a law through the use of profiles is inappropriate, but this is the standard they use.
I recently got a flat tire while driving on the highway. Three cop cars pulled up to see what was going on. I was about 10 seconds into my "Good evening, officer" bit when I remembered that I had orange hair. The cops seemed a little put out by it, but there was no overt attempt to search the van. However, while I was changing the tire, a cop walked around the van with his flashlight looking in the windows. What the hell is that? I get a flat tire and you're obliged to sneak a peek?
With Christmas and spring break on the way, be aware of your rights. Police need a warrant to search your car. Make them get one even if you don't have a brick of hash or a dead body in the trunk. Police consistently strong arm drivers into granting consent to search a car. Don't fall for the intimidation tactics — it's your right to say no.
Second, insisting that police get a warrant is not an admission of guilt, even though the police may tell you it is. This is just another trick developed by the good old boys club known as the highway patrol. The Oklahoma cop told me that because I wanted him to get a warrant, he could conclude that we were hiding something. What a shifty way to dance around the Fourth Amendment. Clinging to my rights is not an admission of guilt.
It's time to communicate to the cops that skirt your rights that it's time to serve and protect. Make them get warrants. You shouldn't be harassed because you fit the so-called profile of a druggie. This isn't about drugs. It's about making our public servants protect us, not harass us. I'm sure drug busts look good on a cop's record. But that doesn't mean we should forget about the ours rights.
Odds are that they won't be able to get a warrant. I don't think a reasonable judge would throw the Fourth Amendment — covering search and seizure — out the window because someone is wearing a tie-dyed shirt. If they do, it would be an unreasonable interpretation of the amendment.
Sure, we probably need to control the flow of drugs such as cocaine and heroin in this country. But it just doesn't make sense to pursue law breakers in an unconstitutional manner. Don't we have a right to own property? Isn't there a level of privacy that corresponds to that property? Police wouldn't search your home because of what you're wearing. The same needs to hold true when it comes to automobile searches.
Bulgen is a Lawrence graduate student in journalism. He is at the end of his tether.
The following were written for a Reporting II class taught by Malcom Gibson, professor of journalism.
My mother never comes or goes without notice.
By Allison Day, Merriam graduate student!
When we get separated in a store, I only pause for a moment and listen — listen for the rhythmic creaking of my mother's braces and the tap of her heels as they hit the floor in one solid motion.
My mother had polio when she was 8 years old, and she has used crutches and braces or a wheelchair to move since then.
My husband, Ryan, once said my mom was a paraplegic, and the image shocked me. I had never heard my mom described like that, nor had I ever considered her to be incapacitated like "paraplegic" suggests.
She teaches special education full time, makes the best coconut cream pie from scratch (including the crust), cleans the bathroom compulsively, teaches Sunday school and drives a car. She does everything and often more in a day than I do.
To me she is able to do almost anything.
She was lucky compared to some. She didn't have to lie in an iron lung, but she had numerous surgeries and a year of grueling physical therapy that forced her to miss school.
They wanted more than just one child, but my mother really was unable to care for a baby. She needed both hands to move her own body. She couldn't carry me and run to the kitchen for my bottle at the same time.
She later went to college and lived on her own before she met my father, married him and had me.
I haven't always been supportive of my mother's handicap. I've often resented it and her for forcing me into her unique world.
Growing up, one of my favorite things was to have my mom scratch my back. She used the half-dollar-sized calluses on her hands, roughened from years of gripping her crutches, to rub my back. It felt so good because her hands scratched; they didn't tickle.
The call of "Allison, can you get something for me?" was a familiar one.
But she is different.
I would quit what it was doing and go to the kitchen, usually to climb up on the counter and get a bowl down from the cabinet or carry a pan of boiling water from the stove to the sink.
When my mom came to my elementary school for meetings, all the kids swarmed me at recess after she had left and asked me, "What's wrong with your mom?"
"She had polio as a girl," I would mumble.
I blamed her does not be able to go camping like "everyone else does" on family variations.
Through the years, though, I've learned that my mother has provided me with something few mothers can give to their children.
I wondered why my mom was the one who had to be different. Why was she the one with, as I heard one child describe them, "the sticks?"
She has given me a daily example of courage, tenacity and selflessness. The comments like, "Your mom is so wonderful," no longer annoy me. Instead, I answer back "Yeah, she is."
I realize now that it's because of her character, not her disability, that she never comes or goes without notice.
By Susie Gura, Clarendon Hill, Ill, junior
The black night was colored by the red and blue lights of police cars and ambulances as they arrived at the accident. The car was totaled, and he was on a gurney.
About 20 of my friends were spending our annual weekend at a cottage around a keg reminiscing about high school. No parents, no rules, no responsibilities. Or so we thought. Now who was going to take responsibility for this? It was time I grew up. After all, it was my car — my dad's to be exact — and it was my boyfriend.
My friends told me I had to call my parents. It was a l.a.m., I woke them up. I couldn't explain myself through my tears and I was fighting with them not to come. I told them I could handle it myself, I was wrong. I was 20 years old and had no handle on the situation or else it would have never happened. No officials would tell my friends or I anything because we weren't family members, but his family and mine were at home three hours away. They were coming.
We left for the hospital with optimistic thoughts because one of the passengers in the accident was already recovering at the cottage. We arrived expecting to find Pat with a few bumps and scrapes, but he was being helicoptered to a different hospital.
I sat in the waiting room wondering how I was going to explain this to my parents. I have never felt so alone. I was going to be the one who had to explain the situation when both his parents and mine walked through the doors with questions. Pat should have never been driving, but no one knew he left. How was I going to explain that? It was time I swallowed my fears, looked them in the eye and told them the truth.
My parents were the first to arrive and the only words to come out of my mouth were, "Tm sorry." His family came shortly after. Pat's little sister was terrified that her brother was going to die, but the thought never crossed my mind. I began to look at the real situation and not be concerned with the smashed car or my parents' shattered thoughts of me.
We drove 45 minutes to the other hospital and were ushered in by hospital personnel who explained the situation. Pat wasn't coming home anytime soon.
Pat was in intensive care and would remain there for four days until his surgery.
When I saw Pat for the first time after the accident he was in a drug-induced coma. It was a sight I thought I would never encounter. My dad turned to me and said, "This is when he'll need his friends the most."
1
Pat had surgery to repair his smashed skull. It was only supposed to take four hours; it took longer.
While I wandered the halls of the hospital, I began to cherish my family and friends because they were the reason I was getting through this. The fear I felt was brought upon me by myself. Face up to fears and life will teach you a lesson. That night, those few weeks, that summer will always be a turning point in my new-found strength I have for myself and for others.
Pat recovered and my parents got a new car. The details of the accident are behind me, but my strength and sense of responsibility will never fade.
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