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Opinion
Kansan
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
Published daily since 1912
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 Knupp, Technology coordinator
4A
Friday, October 31, 1997
David Keith / KANSAN
Examining
FCC tries to short circuit KAW; departs from founding purpose
The Federal Communications Commission recently barged into Liberty Hall and threatened to shut down the KAW radio station. This act shows that the FCC has deviated from the premises upon which it was founded. Its decisions to harass and dismantle microradio stations should be met with opposition from all who champion diversity within our society.
According to KAW station director Rich Wenzel, one of the mandates of the FCC, as dictated by Congress, is to encourage and protect diversity in radio. Microradio stations form niches on the air amid the conglomeration of commercial radio owned by big business. Wenzel said these niches must be protected because they represent an important form of diversity in
radio and citizen access to mass mega.
radio and citizen access to mass media.
So why does the FCC want to pull the plug on microradio stations such as KAW? They say it is because of the chaos. The FCC contends that it cannot allow a myriad of microradio stations to pollute the airway. It creates transmission traffic jams and leads to mass chaos. Thus, the FCC requires all radio stations to get a license.
However, the FCC only gives licenses to stations that broadcast at 100 watts or more. KAW only has 10 watts. An upgrade to 100 watts would cost more than the station could afford.
Wenzel gives a solution to the chaos problem. He said the FCC should use examples of Japan and Canada who check each radio station and ensure they are not interfering or disrupting
other signals. But there are doubts that the FCC is willing to boost its work load to handle such an endeavor, or that taxpayers are willing to shoulder the costs.
Wenzel also points out that commercial radio lobbies hard and puts tremendous pressure on the FCC to drive microradio stations out of the market.
The FCC is bluffing. The constitutionality of what they are trying to do to microradio stations is questionable. Those of us who want to protect diversity and ensure better access for all to mass media should call the FCC's bluff. Pick up a pen and paper and write to your congressman or directly to the FCC and protect microradio stations.
Nick Zaller for the editorial board
It's official: female referees in NBA
Making sports more gender equitable is a noble goal. Legislation like Title IX have done much to equalize the playing field for female athletes. This season, the NBA will use two female referees for the first time. This move is another laudable step in making athletics better for everyone.
Until now, female officials were used solely for women's sports. Basketball is a prime example. Until now, all of the NBA's 58 referees were men. Additionally, NCAA men's basketball games were officiated by men. By appointing two women to the NBA referee corps, the NBA has not only improved professional basketball, but set a powerful precedent for all sports at
all levels.
Preseason NBA games with female officials have gone well. No drop off in the level of officiating occurred, and there were no incidents of harassment or bad conduct.
However, some players seem lukewarm at best to the idea of women referees. Some players--such as the Chicago Bulls' Dennis Rodman--have implied that women simply aren't physical enough to officiate in a man's league. The misconception seems to be that women officials wouldn't be able to "cut it," and would be unable to handle criticism or physical contact from players.
ics are to be made more equitable; women--both as athletes and officials--must not be viewed as second-class. The world of athletics will never be complete until both sexes can compete on equal terms.
This mind set has to end. If athlet-
Thus, this step of introducing women officials into an incredibly popular and widely viewed sport is an important one. While the NBA's players might not be mature enough to accept female referees, the act is a big step in an important facet of athletics. If more sports and organizations follow the lead of the NBA, women will be that much closer to dunking an old stereotype.
Gerry Doyle for the editorial board
Kansan staff
Bradley Brooks ... Editorial
Jason Strait ... Editorial
Jodie Chester ... Neus
Jen Smith ... Neus
Adam Darby ... Neus
Charity Jeffries ... Online
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Tommy Gallagher ... Associate Sports
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Ann Marchand ... Special sections
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"When the President does it, that means that it is not illegal."
Broaden your mind:
—Richard Milhous Nixon
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It's the witching season for psychic-babble advice
Raving
Being the crusader for justice that I am, you can imagine my reaction upon hearing the news that fortune telling is illegal in Lawrence; I promptly
telling is illegal in Lawre rang up my psychic friend.
Robert MacRae opinion@kansan.com
Maybe you've seen that TV commercial featuring Esther Rolle, in which a man tells a woman "I love you" and she says to the camera "I know." That's the type of advice my psychic friend dispenses for only $4.99 a minute, and without all that bothersome emotional involvement my real friends demand from me.
Though I call my psychic friend for entertainment purposes only, her insight can be frightfully uncanny ... yet reassuring. It saves me the trouble of having to make up my own mind, and in the rare instances when I do something wrong or feel ratty I can blame it on my moon sign.
True, sometimes it takes my psychic about five minutes to remember who I am each time I call, but her eventual validation of my decisions is always more supportive than anything my parents or friends would ever dispense for free.
I have found a psychic's advice to be most helpful in matters of the heart. Why trust my own judgment, when I can pay a stranger to look at some cards and spout vague mumbo-jumbo over the phone?
After I told her that my British better half and I have maintained a transatlantic relationship for a couple years now, she said she sensed that Christian was the right man for me. When you pay psychics that amount of money, you expect them to agree with everything you say. They'd better, or Esther Rolle is getting a call.
However, according to a different psychic I once called, I should resist Satan's bidding and attend to the Lord's work by marrying a good Baptist girl. That's the last time I call a psychic who advertises during the "700 Club" and whose celebrity spokespersons are Angie and Debbie Winans.
Anyway, I have continued to flaunt Lawrence's anti-fortune telling law by setting up my own palm reading business. I'm told I have knack for it. After taking a person's hand and sufficiently absorbing their aura, I can make a few predictions, like
"You had spinach casserole on Tuesday and haven't brushed your teeth since" or "Someone said you could fit into a size 12 ... and they were lying" or "I see you leaving soon on a journey, and you shall be $5 lighter in the wallet."
As you can see, it's easy breaking into this supernatural racket. Too easy, maybe.
Once, while browsing through Barnes & Noble (I browse there, but never buy), I came across a book on witchcraft. A friend I was with at the time mentioned that his roommate had already bought that same book, and that she was cooking potions at that very moment.
Intrigued, I asked that my friend show me around his roommate's den when she was gone. One night, while his roommate was out buying organic eye of newt at the Community Mercantile, my friend showed me around his supernatural roommate's bedroom.
The room had a cosmic atmosphere thanks to the moons and stars and other celestial symbols she had stenciled across the ceiling. Swaths of natural-fibers dyed with exotic prints hung from the walls. I cautiously approached her closet, which my friend said now housed an altar. I pulled back the heavy curtain and saw a milk crate strewn with candles and mirrors and small wooden boxes. The cloying scent of incense hung in the air.
It was all so Pottery Barn! Plus, she had a Parker Brothers ouija board, a batch of sacred Hobby Lobby beads, and some Mikasa stemware especially designed for seances. With these accoutrements, who wouldn't want to get in touch with her inner goddess? I commented favorably on the color scheme, and we hustled out of there.
I asked my friend what his witch of a roommate did. Apparently witchcraft a la' Barnes & Noble involves the making of brooms, soap, and potpourri. It all sounds suspiciously like an episode of "Martha Stewart Living." The irony being that centuries ago Martha would burn at the stake as a witch for any number of reasons, not the least of which being her domestic products at K-Mart. Discount store chic ... now that's the work of the devil.
I think I'll call my psychic friend and see what she thinks.
MacRae is an is a Lawrence graduate student in urban planning.
Twenty-one creeps up, so does responsibility
let's party!
Let's party!
It's my birthday. Go me.
Turning 21 is the most anticipated
birthday for almost every college student I
know. I am no exception.
Although it seems to have taken an eternity, I was forced to wait exactly the same amount of time as everyone else for this life changing event.
Now that it is within my grasp, the all-important question remains to be asked. How am I going to celebrate? Well, as if that takes a lot of thought. I am going to drink until I just can't drink anymore.
Anna Attkittie
opinion@kanasan.com
For some, that level is much higher than mine. For me, that probably means that I will have about five or six drinks in the course of the evening. Call me a wuss, but I am a small person, you know.
There will be no more guilt from my family. No more fear of the police. No more feeling inferior because I am the youngest person in the room, and the only one capable of ruining everyone else's good time. Now I can be the good time.
I will go dancing. I will go to places that I never could have gone to legally before. I plan to use my imagination and try new things.
What exactly are fuzzy navels and mind erasers anyway? I may have to find out.
I plan to find a nice bartender and give him all my money, if he's nice to me. I might even get a nice young man to buy me a drink or two.
After hearing horror stories of my elders passing out at 10 p.m., or starting to puke at
nine, I even had the misfortune to watch a crazed 21-year-old drink herself sick, just last weekend. I have held my friends hands as they pass out in strange places. I have read stories in the news of freshmen drinking so much in one sitting that it killed them.
It may seem cliché in this semester of drinking related deaths across the country, but please be careful. Don't drink and drive, and don't ride with someone who has been drinking. Most of all, practice safe sex. There is more than one way that drinking can kill. And for goodness sake, there are condoms in almost every major bathroom in the city. Buy one, or two, or three.
Being the stick in the mud that I am, there are a few things that I will not be doing things that I urge everyone to avoid. I don't care if they are part of the 21 experience.
I am not that stupid, and I am not a freshman. I vow, here in this paper that my mother is probably reading, I will not make myself sick. I will come out of this birthday alive. I will drink more than I should, but find a way to keep it down. I will not be a statistic.
Just because you drank till you were sick for three days on your 21st does not mean you are entitled to force me to do the same. I will fight back or fall down, which ever comes first.
Now that I have berated all of you, and given myself a stern talking to, I am ready to celebrate. I will keep my vow.
But, for now, let's party! I mean, I like coffee but caffeine can only take one so far before it looses its mystique.
Go me. It's my birthday.
Artkisson is a Lawrence junior in journalism.