Opinion
Kansan
Published daily since 1912
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Spencer Duncan, Editor Sarah Scherwinski, Business manager Lindsey Henry, Managing editor Brian Pagel, Retail sales manager Andrea Albright, Managing editor Dan Simon, Sales and marketing adviser Tom Eblen, General manager, news adviser Justin Knapp, Technology coordinator
Tuesday, November 18, 1997
DAILY KENT STATER
Examining
Whoever stole basketball banners should be drawn and quartered
Basketball history at the University of Kansas is rich with tradition. The fans love the game, the school, the team. KU fans have always been known as passionate, classy supporters of the team. If this image is to persist, immature acts like stealing banners from Allen Field House must not happen again, and the stolen items must be returned.
Throughout the Big 12 Conference and the nation, the Kansas Jayhawk basketball program is highly regarded. It is coached by one of the best coaches in the history of collegiate basketball — Roy Williams. The team consistently has success on the court and in the classroom, and these kinds of performances bring adduction from KU fans.
Stealing anything is bad but swiping bits of KU history is sick. Think karma, people.
This worship cannot be blind, however. If a fan or group of fans took the retired jerseys of KU basketball greats Danny Manning and Lynette Woodard, they must realize that their acts reflect badly on the school — and the team. While punishment should not be withheld, the banners need to be returned.
Whoever took the banners should be punished. No matter how cool or crafty it might seem to infiltrate the best bas
ketball venue in the world and steal two historical items, it is neither of these things. Childish is a better adjective to describe the thefts. Hate the team, love the team, but don't think stealing KU basketball heirlooms makes you anything other than a thief.
The stolen items should be returned and the thieves punished. Just as someone who breaks into a private residence and steals a painting would be punished, so must the Allen Field House pilfers. Until the two jerseys are returned, the theft — and its reflection on the University and its fans — will be a technical foul on an otherwise unblemished 100th year of basketball at the University of Kansas.
Gerry Doyle for the editorial board
Feedback
Responding to racism letter by giving a native view
If Trent is tired of hearing about racism, then he should be the one to leave. It is his type of ignorance that fuels racism — the very thing he claims to be tired of hearing about.
I have many things to say to Trent Thompson about his response to Donato Fhunsa's column on racism. I would like to talk to Thompson face to face just so I could see for myself what kind of human could be so insensitive.
Trent seems to think he is a full-fledged American, but I have news for him. This great place now called America is not his homeland because he is not a Native American.
He may also be tired of hearing about how this land was taken from the Native Americans, but whether he is sick of hearing it, it is a fact that still exists.
I am a member of the Eastern Band of
Cherokee Indians, and because of the way I look and the color of my skin, I can relate to Donato Fhounsu's experiences.
If I were to bring my experiences to light, where would you send me, Trent? America is my homeland and my ancestors' homeland. We have been here a long, long time and despite people like you will continue to be here. The solution to your irritation isn't for people of color to leave but for small-minded individuals such as yourself to get off this great land and go back to where you came from.
I'd love to have that "man to man"
Thompson invited Fhunsu to — I have many things to say that can't be printed!
L. Shannon Swimmer Cherokee.N.C., freshman
I would like to ask him what "stripe in the Middle East" he is implying could be "stopped because one Iranian put down his sub-machine gun?"
I realize his article was not meant to be taken seriously, but casual associations such as his concerning fanatism in the Middle East are why ignorance persists.
Chicken column only adds to slant against Middle East
solve the world's problems with chicken.
Much of our media would like us to continue to reduce Iranians and other Middle Easterners to mere religious fanatics ready to kill and blow things up in the name of Allah or an insane leader.
I am writing in response to W. David
i am writing in response to W. David
satirical attempt last Friday to
failure to
As far as I can tell, there hasn't been anything recently involving Iranians using machine guns going on in the Middle East. If Keith would like to evoke problems in the Middle East, I suggest he choose something that is really causing problems rather than play to Americans' readiness to envision Iranians stirring up trouble for seemingly no reason.
Kansan staff
Carolyn Brown Overland Park senior
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Broaden your mind:
"I got mv mojo workin', but it just don't work on you."
-Muddy Waters, the greatest blues man ever.
How to submit letters and quest columns
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All letters and guest columns should be submitted to the Kansan newsroom, 111 Stuiffer-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 stuff (opinion@kansan.com) or call 864-4810.
Smoking useful as tool for finding social harmony
Raving
John Colbert
opinion@kansan.com
In recent years it has become fashionable for politicians, activists and journalists to speak out about the harm caused by cigarette smoking. The result of their collective bitching is a
string of increasingly restrictive laws meant to regulate one of America's favorite pastimes.
These people constantly rant and rave about the negative effects that smoking can have on a person's health. These people are overlooking the fact that smoking serves an irreplaceable role in many people's lives. While some people won't rest until every last butt is stamped out, they neglect to recognize all of the useful purposes that cigarettes have in our world.
These efforts inevitably fail because they always sound great on paper but are impossible to implement in real life. After conducting an extensive study over the past couple of years I believe that I have discovered what may be the Holy Grail in this search for social nirvana.
For example, it seems like every day somebody comes up with some new scheme that is supposed to bring people together, encourage racial harmony and create a kinder, gender nation.
That solution is cigarette smoking.
My theory as to why smokers seem to be so accepting of one another is because they are an oppressed group of people. All smokers face some form of prejudice and intolerance every day of their lives. This oppression coupled with the social nature of smoking has caused smokers from all walks of life to share a common bond that cannot be ignored.
For some reason when people are forced to feed their nicotine addiction in a specified area it is as if they are obligated to interact with their fellow smokers. This is in sharp contrast to something like riding an elevator where it is considered a social faux pas to indulge in conversation with your fellow passengers.
The reason that I believe this is because I have yet to see anything that brings people from differing backgrounds together quite like the activity of smoking.
A perfect example of the power of how smoking can bring people together occured while I was in high school. One night my friend and I were driving around late when we hit a bicyclist. The bicyclist went over the hood of my friend's car and managed to gouge his leg on the hood ornament.
My friend's first reaction was to grab a crowbar with the intention of beating the crap out of the guy. Fortunately tempers cooled when the bicyclist asked if he could burn a smoke from my friend while we waited for the paramedics to arrive. By the time the ambulance had arrived my friend and the bicyclist were getting along pretty well, considering the circumstances. It was almost like one of those M&M commercials.
The biggest use of tobacco products aside from consumption and for cultural harmony is as a form of currency. It doesn't matter if you are in Southern Lebanon or Leavenworth Penitentiary, if you have a pack of smokes with you there is no telling what you can buy. If you are in a foreign country and pull out a pack of Winstons or Marlboro Reds, it is amazing how many friends you suddenly make.
The really great thing about this system is that there is no such thing as an exchange rate or inflation. A cigarette is more or less worth the same — depending on the brand — no matter where you are in the world. It almost makes you wonder why the United States doesn't convert our system of currency to a tobacco standard.
Just look outside any building on campus especially on a cold day — and you will see what I am talking about. There will be a group of people standing there smoking and indulging in conversation. The first thing that usually comes to my mind when I see this is that these people probably wouldn't talk to one another in a million years if they weren't smoking.
Hell, if that happened, we might just see our economic and social problems go up in smoke.
Colbert is a Lenexa senior in mechanical engineering.
Forget courses, real learning is outside of the classroom
It is cold and nasty. I switched to a wardrobe of sweats and found an old, warm hunter's orange toogbang in my closet at home. When it's below zero, most people really don't care what they look like.
This is not to say I've learned nothing useful in college. The most important thing I've learned is study skills. I've learned that I don't have any. I learned to budget time for studying, but I also learned that I will end up spending this time shopping downtown. I have also found that the library is an evil place, where the books you need will either take hours to find or have disappeared into a mysterious void.
I have learned about fashion. The first month of my freshman year I dressed up for class. Then, winter came. If you have not enjoyed a Lexington, Kent, winter, let me tell you: it sucks.
I've learned about nutrition. Contrary to popular belief, you can live on foods like chili dogs, Lucky Charms and french fries. I've also found religion,
It has taken me more than two years, but I have finally reached an epiphary. In my halcyon days of high school, I had a lot of dimly-preformed conceptions about the "College Experience." I was right about one thing: College is definitely a learning experience. But it wouldn't matter if I were majoring in biology, business or illegal drug manufacturing, because the great majority of what I've learned in college has nothing to do with the classroom.
real education doesn't come in the class room.
I can hear it now: "But class is important! We have to go so that we can make something of ourselves!" Now I'll grant that class is important because taking classes is how you get grades. Grades are good. But the odds are favorable that anything you cover in a university course you'll never encounter again.
Consider the plight of pititable pre-med students like myself. We take classes like physics and organic chemistry to prepare for the MCAT, which is ostensibly a measure of our medical potential. I have known a number of physicians, and never once have I heard any of them mention a coefficient of static friction or a synthesis reaction.
Finally, I've learned about priorities. I sleep too little and worry too much, but I'm still managing to have a blast. The moral lesson to be learned here? Don't neglect your classes. But don't neglect to save some time for the other lessons college can teach.
This column was written by Jarrett Greer, a columnist for the University of Kentucky "Kernel."
In 1997, after the loss to Arizona, I had the bad sense to be in the same place again. Never before had I felt like my life was in such peril. I stood amidst the drunken chaos until I caught a flying beer bottle, still half-full, squarely between my shoulder blades. That was enough for me. I spent hours cleaning beer off my shoes both years, but I treasure the memories.
Making the moral argument on bowling
Feedback
I was assistant complex director at Ellsworth Hall last year and I fought fervently against turkey bowling when I first learned of the tradition. I am a vegetarian for moral reasons, but I thought it would be more effective to use different moral reasons in my objection to turkey bowling.
I learned that I had no clue what a real party looked like. In 1968, when the 'Cats basketball team was national champions, I had the good fortune to be at the intersection of Euclid and Woodland, the epicenter of the postgame celebration. Never before in my life had I seen complete strangers slapping high fives, exposing themselves publicly and consuming large quantities of alcohol. It blew my mind.
and I'm considering construction of a lavish shrine to Caffeine, the mythological god of college students.
I've learned about foreign languages. Much of this has been in the science and math classes I've taken. Many of my teaching assistants have not exactly spoken the King's English. In fact, I'm not certain they were speaking any form of English at all. That's OK, though. I'm pretty sure that I could now find work as a Pidgin English translator if my medical career falls through.
I also have found a special sympathy for teaching assistants — hiring a disgruntled, overworked student to handle a class full of other disgruntled, overworked students for slave wages sounds like a sure recipe for a psychotic incident, but they adapt much better than I would. I'm a country boy, and when I came here, I had a noticeable accent. I thought it would go away, but I suspect it has gotten worse.
It is a moral wrong to intentionally waste food for the purpose of entertainment when millions of
people in this country and all around the world go hungry every day. So many people would do anything to be able to put a turkey on the Thanksgiving dinner table, yet the hall government of Ellsworth Hall proposes bowling with turkeys instead of donating them to soup kitchens. Thankgiving — a time for giving thanks for what we have and for thinking about those who are less fortunate than ourselves.
I definitely agree that it is a moral wrong to kill animals and use their carcasses for entertainment
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purposes. It would be quite an accomplishment if PAL and other concerned members of the community could get turkey bowlers to broaden their sense of morality to include nonhuman animals. But we cannot expect turkey bowlers to acknowledge the moral worth of animals when they don't even understand their moral obligation to their fellow human beings.
Doulas D. Kivett
Morristown, Tenn., graduate student