Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY Kansan
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
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Friday, August 22, 1997
David Keith / KANSAN
Ranting
Increased parking fines, permits are a necessary evil, so pay up
The most hated department on campus gave us another reason to hate it. For the second year in a row, the Parking Department raised the cost of parking permits.
For those of you who have not purchased a parking permit yet, blue and red permits rose by $25. while yellow and University housing permits increased to $75 from $53 last year. In addition, parking fines were increased to $20 from $15.
The Parking Department is not out to bankrupt students, however. A little-circulated fact about the department is that it is self sufficient, meaning that the revenue from parking permits and tickets funds all Parking Department expenditures. That includes repairs on parking lots, new
Price for parking on campus is raised again, but the costs are needed for improvements.
lights (including the utility bill), and employee salaries.
So while the recent price hike may be a thorn in our sides, it is necessary to pay for improvements to our parking lots. For example, the Department resurfaced and extended a lot on Daisy Hill, creating 193 new spaces. Lines on lots on Daisy Hill were remarked and a parking garage was torn down and replaced with a new lot for Jayhawker Towers residents. And the department is still trying to increase lighting in the lots.
This may sound great if you live on Daisy Hill. But for anyone else, especially those students who purchase yellow permits that don't allow parking in improved areas, it sounds like you are getting the shaft. Not to worry, however. Eventually, the Parking Department will have to get around to improving yellow lots, and Daisy Hill residents will share in the cost of those improvements.
Spreading the cost around is the only way to raise enough money to accomplish anything. As Donna Hultine, the assistant director for the Parking Department, explained, the budget from last year was simply not enough to deal with the improvements needed for the University's aging parking lots.
Nicole Skalla for the editorial board
A fake license no longer a felony
The state legislation made the right decision in amending the false identification felony charge. As of May 1, 1997 it was changed to a misdemeanor
It is understandable that the state officials want to reduce the number of underage drinkers in Kansas, but issuing felonies was too harsh.
This is not a debate whether people should or should not be able to drink. We are all adults and can make that decision for ourselves. The sad fact was that underage drinkers were being faced with the same dilemmas that convicted murderers and rapists undergo - felonies on their records.
What impact can a felony have?
Every time you fill out a job application you would have to answer "yes"
when asked if you had ever been convicted of a felony. Realizing that murder is categorized in the same way, think of the impact this would have on you and your reputation.
Legislators made the right choice in lowering the penalty for false identification
That is not the only problem. Some professions are legally unable to hire someone who has a felony on their record. Some of these jobs include child care and law. Also effected are those in law enforcement, such as the CIA and the FBL. One drink could have cost you your future.
The law lasted one year and did a lot of damage. The Lawrence Municipal
Court averages 20 cases a month dealing with minors and alcohol. Think of how many people you know that have fake identification, it could have been them or you who received the felonies.
It is evident that Lawrence would be a prime spot for officers to investigate. There are more than 26,000 students at KU. 99% of college students nationwide describe themselves to be social or binge drinkers according to a recent Harvard study. The government has made its point in showing how they feel about underage drinking and the drastic measures they are willing to take to reduce it.
Drinking alcohol is different than holding a gun to someone's head. Drinkers are not convicts and should never have been treated as such.
Eryl Cochran for the editorial board
Kansan staff
Bradley Brooks ... Editorial
Jason Strait ... Editorial
Jodie Chester ... News
Jen Smith ... News
Adam Darby ... News
Charity Jeffries ... Online
Kristie Blasi ... Sports
Tommy Gallagher ... Assocate Sports
Dave Morantz ... Campus
Eric Weslander ... Campus
Ashleigh Roberts ... Features
Steve Puppe ... Photo
Bryan Volk ... Design, graphics
Mitch Lucas ... Illustrations
Mark McMaster ... Wire
Ann Marchand ... Special sections
Aerica Veazey ... News clerk
Advertising managers
News editors
Advertising managers
Dustin Skidgel . . . . .
"When we sell permits, we're not guaranteeing a space."
Broaden your mind: Today's quote
- Donna Hultine, assistant director of parking.
How to submit letters and quest columns
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.
Donato
Fhunsu
ufhnzu@ukan.edu
Guest columns: Should be double-
spaced typed with fewer than 700 words. The writer must be willing to be photographed for the column to run.
Raving
He can't save the world by himself, but he'll try
All letter and guest columns should be submitted to the Kansan newsroom, 113 Staufer-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 generic queries or comments, e-mail the page staff [opinion@kansan.com] or call 864-4810.
"I if you had been prime minister of the Congo, the country would not be in such a mess today," a professor told me the other day. Though probably a joke, thy
ne the other day. Though p words stirred serious thoughts in my mind.
But there is no cause for despair. The good news is that just as we can use the power in us to hurt and destroy, we can use the same power to heal and build. It is, in the last analysis, a matter of individual and collective commitment and will — the will to do good.
thoughts in my mind.
I was born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the country formerly known as Zaire. The central African nation just came out of a civil war that toppled former dictator Mobutu Sese Seko and installed Laurent Kabila as the new head of state. Since its independence from Belgium in 1960, the Congo has had many problems, some of them very serious.
Social problems are created by people and can only be prevented and solved by people. Each one of us is responsible. Every thought we think, every emotion we feel, every word we say, every act we commit either improves or worsens the world. We are, individually and collectively, in one way or another, responsible for the events on our planet. Our sins are both sins of commission and sins of omission.
I am not the prime minister of the former Zaire or Venezuela. I am not the U.S. Secretary of State. I am not the Secretary General of the United Nations. What I am doing now may not have that kind of visibility, but I am working to make this world a better place for everybody to live. Every night I go to sleep in peace, knowing that the world is a little bit better because I have been here and I have done my part to improve it.
in the meantime, I have traveled around the world, and have become both a Venezuelan and a U.S. citizen by naturalization. Because I was required to study each countries' history to become a naturalized citizen, my knowledge of the problems that affect the nations deepened. So, when the professor told me about the "mess" of the Congo, my mind went to work.
inquiry, we might hear or read that the government or society causes this problem or fails to solve that other problem. But if we dig further, we might realize, for instance, that society is an elusive entity. For, what is society but a community of people like you and I?
As a new academic year starts at the University of Kansas, I am excited about the many opportunities I have to make a difference in the lives of people. Am I a dreamer? You bet. Am I nuts? I do not think so, for human history has shown that positive change usually starts with only one person. As Shakti Gawain has put it, "the most powerful thing you can do to change the world is to change your own beliefs about life, people, reality ... to something more positive and begin to act accordingly."
The KU community is actually a world in itself. It comprises students from about 120 nations (a mini United Nations). We are all here to participate in that wonderful enterprise called higher education. From here, we will take our respective places in the world. We might become political, business, religious, or academic leaders, or take humbler positions in the various fields of human endeavor. No matter where we decide to reside we will be living in a world that is becoming a literal Global Village.
Because we are destined to live in an increasingly interdependent world full of shared challenges, it is useful to probe the following questions: How do social problems like those faced by the Congo, Venezuela, the United States, or any other country develop? How can they be solved? Who should solve them? In making this
Phunsu is a Lawrence graduate student in French.
King-sized Elvis Presley a hunk of burnin' love
T. ord a Mighty, I feel my temperature risin'.
Unless you've been living under a rock, you probably know that last Saturday was the 20th anniversary of Elvis Presley's death. And, in celebration of The King, thousands of fans, or
fanatics, depending on how you view them, gathered at his home in Memphis, Tenn., to pay homage.
All the while, Turner Networks and VH-1 reran entirely too many bad Elvis movies on TV. I don't enjoy 30 hours of anything, especially Elvis.
But with that said, I do have a small confession to make: I am an Elvis fan.
Ashlee Roll opinion@kansan.com
There are two types of Elvis fans: Those that like the younger, thinner, talented Elvis and those that like the *Aloha from Hawaii* Elvis. Generally, those people partial to latter-day Elvis also are those that claim to own his toenail clingings and believe he's still alive.
Although I don't own any personal Elvis artifacts, and I'm pretty convinced he is dead, I am partial to the later Elvis—the bloated, jumpsuit wearing, lyric forgetting, karate chopping, Las Vegas Elvis.
Elvis' final image was the inevitable result of a red necked that just had entirely too much money
for his own good. For
now the most visited home in America (it just surpassed the White House. What does that say about our country?).
In pictures, Graceland always looked simple and neat. But upon entering the home of The King, I realized it was really the home of kitsch, and laughed non-stop throughout the tour.
The tour was conducted by headphones. And the voices of Kris Kirstofferson and Priscilla Presley quietly tell you that Elvis redecorated in the '70s, as if the blue velvet curtains with the bright yellow trim didn't give that little factoid away.
The tour guides also inform you that the dining room is where Elvis ate. I never would have guessed that. But I learned that Elvis once ate meatloaf for dinner 26 days in a row.
They tell you that the kitchen of Graceland was one of Elvis' favorite rooms. Apparently the 300 pounds he was carrying around wasn't a big enough clue.
But my favorite room at Graceland was the TV room. Three TVs nestled among the blue, yellow and white Corinthian leather. Not to mention the gigantic TCB with a lightning bolt painted on the wall. Those of you with a social life might not know that TCB was Elvis' motto. It stands for 'takin' care of business in a flash'.
You might be a redneck if... the "motto" on your wall matches the "motto" embossed on your plane, that matches the "motto" on your jewelry. Which, by the way, is available in one of the seven gift shops at Graceland.
The disappointment of Graceland was that the tour never took us upstairs. For $17.50, I wanted to see the whole place, including the bathroom where Elvis had a "heart attack" while takin' care of a little personal business.
Comedian Dennis Leary once said that someone should have shot Elvis in 1958, so that we could remember him in a good way, instead of bloated and fat, dying on the toilet. I am inclined to agree with Mr. Leary, and apparently so is the
Presley estate. There are no traces of fat Elvis memorabilia anywhere on the premises.
Every exhibit — the cars, the guns,
the bad outfits, the unused gym —
expressed to me that Elvis was a very lonely man, who used money to buy happiness.
Pictures of a young Elvis at Sun studios show a happy man. Had he just stuck with a nice little house, a couple of pink Cadillacs, a few hit records, he might not be the joke or the enterprise he is today.
Now, when most people think of Elvis, they think of him with a black hair-helmet and pasted on smile singing about a smorgasbord in a bad movie.
But whether you like him or not, I learned that he deserves a little respect, all fat jokes aside. He was generally a nice celebrity and as a young man he revolutionized the music we call rock and roll. Long live The King.
A huh-huh.
Roll is a Raleigh, NC., sixth-year senior in journalism.