Opinion
১. ব্রাউজের ওয়ারি
vsH
Kansan
Published daily since 1912
Spencer Duncan, Editor
Lindsey Henry, Managing editor
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
Friday, October 17, 1997
Kevin T. Frost / KANSAN
Promise Keepers infringing on women's liberty with pact
Bill McCartney and his Promise Keepers are trying to pick up the pieces of America's broken families and seal them with a promise.
This promise includes overcoming racial prejudice.
practicing sexual and moral purity and returning to fundamental Christian doctrine. McCartney wants to strengthen morality among Christian men so that they will be better fathers, husbands and role models. The Promise Keepers' message seems to be one of hope, change and redemption.
So what's wrong with it?
Nick Zaller opinion@kansan.com
McCartney thinks the male should reassert a dominant presence within the family and take responsibility by returning to the Christian fundamentals. But these beliefs led to the subservience of
Then after ait, God punished Eve in the Garden of Eden by saying to her, "Thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee."
If McCartney uses this type message in his fundamentalist teaching, then we could be looking at another power step for man and a great leap backward for woman.
But this is the 21st century, and we live in America, the land of the free. We all want liberty. Do we all have it? Not all of us.
Women historically have been one of the most persecuted groups in world history. This country has proven no different from the rest of the world. Women everyday are sexually harassed, discriminated against and considered intellectually inferior. Women have achieved a great deal in the last century. There are women in every profession: government, business, the military, you name it. But has the overall perception of women changed that much from a hundred years ago?
Mary Wollstonecraft, the great feminist writer,
would be excited at the strides women have made, but she would argue the fight is not finished. She would look at the Promise Keepers and warn women to be wary. But she would not blame them for reasserting the traditional-male/female societal gender roles. Rather, she would be appalled at the women who are allowing the Promise Keepers to strip away their freedom.
Man's oppression of women and women's apathy is a two-way street, according to Wollstonecraft. Women should demand their freedom by cultivating virtue through education and reclaim what history has denied them by respecting them.
Take marriage as an example. Marriage should be an equal partnership. It's true that men must take responsibility within the family and the Promise Keepers should be commended for emphasizing this. But women must share equally in this responsibility. To conclude one person should dominate a relationship is fallacious reasoning and dissolve the equal partnership essential to marriage.
Yet, there are those who accept this tradition. They will say it is a male-dominated world and it will continue to be so.
This attitude is hypocritical in a country where oppression has historically been a volatile issue. Much of the cost of our freedom is now buried in the ground. Has the fight been buried with it?
The Promise Keepers should keep their promise to be better husbands and fathers. But they also should promise not to let their crusade infringe upon women's liberty. They should not return to the traditional ideology Martin Luther spoke of when he said that women should remain at home, sit still, keep houseand bring up children.
Zaller is a Tulsa, Okla., senior in Chinese and microbiology.
Our take on campus events, issues and personalities:
Subject The Spin Reason
The Spin We've been missing for three weeks,
because of computer problems. Shame on us!
Coca-Cola They have a new hotline to call when you have
a problem. But it is just an answering machine
so they never have to get back to you.
Enrollment Yeah, isn't this fun? Who doesn't enjoy
paying more money every year just so you
can't get any classes?
Kansas basketball After tonight will anyone remember that it
is still football season and the Jayhawks
could still go to a bowl?
Posting grades The University may be breaking the law by
posting grades. But don't worry about it,
it's only your privacy they are violating.
Daisy Hill voting For once, Student Senate should do some-
thing students actually want. Now that's a novel idea.
Student body president outlines Senate goals
ing hard on several student Student Senate has been
D despite the commotion of classes,tests and homework, Student Senate and the Executive Staff have been working hard on several student issues.
Scott
Sullivan
sullivan@facultyc.ucs.edu
Student Senes examining the role of Legal Services for Students, the implementation of the Course Content Proposal and working for health care benefits for graduate teaching assistants and graduate research assistants.
The issue of Legal Services for Students centers on producing a policy to allow students to be advised in disputes with
the University. Currently, Student Senate solely finances Legal Services, which represents students in legal disputes. Despite the $219,000 in student money allocated to Legal Services, it cannot advise students in a dispute with the University.
Finally, Senate addressed the issue of a Statewide Student Health Care Initiative at its Oct. 1 meeting. This initiative is the product of the State Secretary of Administration, Dan Stanley. Two regulations are being debated:
After significant research, in coordination with Legislative Director Samantha Bowman, the issue went to Senate for consideration.
Whether the University should be allowed to make an employer contribution toward GTA health care?
Whether the state should be involved in the implementation of health care coverage through a state-sponsored plan.
The resulting policy statement emphasized Senate's desire for local control, the utilization of our current student health system and a domestic partner clause. Senate has asked the State Health Care Commission to recommend the employer contribution be 75 percent. I will take this position to a hearing on the issue Oct.20.
The Course Content Program has passed the Senate Executive Committee and now a subcommittee is developing the method to accumulate the course information. The recommendation will go to University Council at the Oct. 23 meeting for consideration. If approved, the proposal will then be sent to the Provost's Office for implementation.
After discussions with the administration, a task force is being formed to examine this policy and offer solutions. This group will consist of student members of the Legal Services Advisory Board, the Director of Legal Services, a staff member from the University's General Counsel, and a representative from the Office of Student Life. This task force will formulate a policy that would both allow students to be advised by Legal Services and provide the means for Legal Services to have the information necessary to provide sound advice regarding the University's grievance procedures. Several administrators have already shown an open mind toward this change.
Don't let that day come without voicing your opinion and urging Senate to act on your behalf.
Another important issue that Senate has been working for is the passage of the Course Content Proposal.
This proposal would provide facts and outlines of courses that would be available to students before enrollment. This program would outline the instructor's definition of their teaching style, their expectations of students, the cost of books, estimated size of the class and the instructor's grading policies and emphasis on tests or papers. Access to this information would give students a better understanding of what their class would entail before enrollment. This
proposal would help students substantially with enrollment and provide information that, coupled with open faculty evaluations, would establish an irreplaceable tool for students.
In one way or another, these issues affect every student at the University. You may not think that Legal Services for Students is important until you become the victim of a University error and Legal Services cannot advise you. You might think that Course Content doesn't matter until you go to a class and it is nothing like you expected.
As always, you can reach me at sullivas@falcon.cu.uksans or 864-3710.
Sullivan is a Leewood senior in political science and the student body president.
Classic literature serves a dual purpose in life
I admit, I'm nosy. When an opportunity arises to peer into someone else's life, I will. No. I'm not a Peeping Tom or anything quite that disturbing. But if I happen
something that distinguis to overhear a conversation that sounds interesting, I listen.
Warren Garlock
opinion@kansan.com
Recently I was lying down on the Wescoe balcony, being lazy as usual, and a couple of girls sat down next to me. Being male, and therefore interested in girls, I listened to their conversation.
Admittedly, most of the conversation was pretty boring and I quickly began wishing these two ladies would leave so that $ ^{1} $
I get some rest and sun. One of the girls did complain about a literature class she was taking. She felt that it was boring, a lot of reading, didn't see the point in reading a bunch of stuff written by some dead guys. As I couldn't sit up and respond (I'm sure that would defeat the purpose of eavesdropping), I figured I'd write them a little note in the "Kansan" telling them what I think about literature.
Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of literature is that it exists at all. What purpose could 200-year-old writing serve? It could be used to line bird cages, cat litter boxes or even to wrap birthday presents or fish. Before the advent of toilet paper the Sears catalog was staple of outhouses across the nation. That is until Sears started printing their catalog on smooth glossy sheets of paper. With all of these other quality uses for writing, why keep it to read?
Someone once said, "Those who forget the past are doomed to relive it." I'll have to dig up the bird cage to find out who said it but the point is clear. Most of us have difficulty correcting mistakes we've made in our own lives. Every morning I awake and walk to the bathroom only to discover that the floor is about three degrees warmer than the surface of Pluto. Dealing with this problem has given me the unique ability to suspend myself in mid-air with my feet slightly higher than my waist.
If we have difficulty learning from our own mistakes, imagine the difficulty we must have learning from others. The difficulty level would only be exponentiated if we had no idea what mistakes have already been made. Thanks to literature I'll know never to employ a person by the name of Brutus or fall in love with a girl named Juliet. Nor will I
ever go on a boat cruise with a one legged captain searching for a white whale.
"Knowledge is Power." I think that quote is being used to soak up oil in the garage that seeped from my car. Funny thing about knowledge; there is an infinite amount of it and everyone must start at the beginning. Darn shame too ... makes it awful difficult to reach the end. If anyone knows of a shortcut, I'd appreciate knowing. We would never be able to build airplanes if we didn't know how to build a fire first. Which gives me an idea for some of Dante's works.
Humans have a basic need to be happy. Perhaps literature is a guide to happiness; teaching us about the lives and emotions of others and making us better able to live within the confines of our own lives and emotions. Maybe Ralph Waldo Emerson and Washington Irving really weren't that good at writing. Maybe Herman Melville's writing is better suited as punishment for inmates in other countries (we cannot use it in the United States because of cruel and unusual punishment laws). Then again, perhaps they have some insights that we do not ...
The real beauty of writing is that it enables us to have the same knowledge as others without having to experience their same trial and errors. It's something of a head start in the race to infinite knowledge. We learn from those we've never met and some we might rather not meet.
Literature entertains. For some reason much of literature seems to be about the suffering and misery of others. Certainly the Romans thought the suffering of others was truly entertaining as did Conquistadors. And those involved in the Inquisition and witch trials and some of today's creators of television shows find much pleasure in causing others to suffer.
One of the drawbacks of having the freedom to choose and make decisions is that we also have a responsibility to do so wisely. So before we test Emily Dickinson's writing so see if it will stand up to a loaded gun or throw Melville's works overboard or use Edgar Allen Poe's stories to guard against misbehaving ravens, maybe we should read them first. Then we can make a responsible choice
It's OK if you choose to miss out on centuries of experience and enjoyment but you might want to know what it is you'll be missing out on first. And if you still come to the same conclusion reading e.e. Cummings let me suggest that you use it to line the lower case of a bookshelf.
Garlock is a Leavenworth senior in engineering.