Opinion
United States First Amendment
MONDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2009
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
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--and being turned away by the people who are supposed to offer help only further harms the victim.
Why does frat food turn to frat poop so quickly?
--and being turned away by the people who are supposed to offer help only further harms the victim.
Whenever I'm doing my business in the residence hall bathroom and somebody walks in, instead of scaring the shit out of me, they scare the shit back in me.
--and being turned away by the people who are supposed to offer help only further harms the victim.
My grandma just added me on Facebook. It's terrible.
I stare at a boy in my political philosophy class. Sorry dude, I just get distracted and stare sometimes.
--and being turned away by the people who are supposed to offer help only further harms the victim.
I really should be studying for my Midterms. Instead I'm earning my Pokemon badges
--and being turned away by the people who are supposed to offer help only further harms the victim.
I just lost $133 at Harrah's Casino while my buddies both won more than $100. FML.
--and being turned away by the people who are supposed to offer help only further harms the victim.
I hate when I go to light up a fat blunt at a party and all of a sudden everyone becomes my friend.
--and being turned away by the people who are supposed to offer help only further harms the victim.
I hate it when people overdamascize losing their virginity. Sex, like bacon, is a good thing that needs little justification to enjoy.
I woke up with three clasises and a bar of lavender soap. Where the hell did I go last
--and being turned away by the people who are supposed to offer help only further harms the victim.
Apparently you went somewhere that smells REALLY good.
--and being turned away by the people who are supposed to offer help only further harms the victim.
"Hannah Montana" makes my world go round.
--and being turned away by the people who are supposed to offer help only further harms the victim.
Did any one else see that creeper guy in the tree hut at the top of 14th Street?
--and being turned away by the people who are supposed to offer help only further harms the victim.
I wore an Elmo shirt to a massive party this weekend. To say the least, the females loved it.
--and being turned away by the people who are supposed to offer help only further harms the victim.
Does it ever cross your mind that I smoke because I'm trying to kill myself slowly? Yeah, think on that for awhile.
--and being turned away by the people who are supposed to offer help only further harms the victim.
L-town, You make my world go round. I'm crazy about you!
--and being turned away by the people who are supposed to offer help only further harms the victim.
Taylor Swift: Was it really necessary to talk about Abigail's sex life in your music
--and being turned away by the people who are supposed to offer help only further harms the victim.
Having sex with bacon is my new goal in life.
I didn't drink all weekend
Does that mean I can eat
Chinese food for dinner
tonight?
--and being turned away by the people who are supposed to offer help only further harms the victim.
EDITORIAL BOARD
Victims of sexual assault should not be turned away
Lawrence Memorial Hospital sending sexual assault victims to another hospital because of a lack of certified nurses, as had happened on Sept. 19 to two students, is unacceptable. Reporting rape and sexual assault is difficult enough,
KANSAN'S
OPINION
Lawrence Memorial Hospital and the Douglas County District Attorney's Office are working together to get more nurses Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) certified. In a letter that District Attorney Charles E. Branson wrote after the Sept. 19 incident to Gene Meyer, Lawrence Memorial Hospital president and CEO, Branson repeated his "offer of assistance in recruiting nurses as volunteers for SANE training."
practice as a SANE nurse until they have proven to be competent. It is required that the nurses get recertified every three years.
According to the International Forensic Nursing Certification Board's Web site, SANE certification requires nurses with a minimum of two years of experience to complete a sexual assault program. This can be done through a 40-hour class or an equivalent three-hour credit course at an accredited institution. They must then have supervised
Janice Early-Weis, Lawrence Memorial Hospital director of community relations, said nurses would have to travel to Tennessee
to take the class, but the hospital pays for all travel expenses and the cost of the class. With the SANE certification costing the nurses nothing,
why nurses aren't getting certified. "Not every person is suited to do that kind of procedure and exam." Early-Weis said. "It's very emotional."
the questions must be asked as to why nurses aren't certified
Another aspect of the certification that may turn nurses away is that they may have to testify in court.
She said that it's a very technical and complex procedure.
In his letter to Meyer, Branson also offered his assistance to "provide courtroom training to your SANE nurses so that they would be more confident in their expectations of what would happen if they would be called to testify in court."
Nick Flaucher, Olathe nursing student, said a lot of nursing students didn't know about SANE
certification. He said a professor had never mentioned it in any of his classes.
Although the University doesn't offer SANE certification, it's important for professors to let nursing students know what it is and how much certified nurses are needed.
Early-Weis said there were currently six SANE-certified nurses at Lawrence Memorial Hospital. Six nurses is not enough to accommodate the number of sexual assaults that take place in Lawrence.
The recent attacks have shed light on a problem that needs to be fixed immediately. Branson should be applauded for the work he has done with Lawrence Memorial Hospital to get more nurses certified.
The University should work to create a course that certifies nurses, allowing nurses to become certified in Lawrence. Despite the obstacles facing nurses who want to get this training, this important and much needed certification should be a priority. Lawrence Memorial Hospital should not be forced to turn away victims because of a lack of certified nurses.
EDITORIAL CARTOON
Kate Larrabee for The Kansas Editorial Board.
RETREAT!
NICHOLAS SAMBALUK
LGBT
Leaving the closet: a coming out story
Coming out of the closet is a defining moment in every LGBT person's life. It's more than just the moment you decide to tell someone you are LGBT; it includes that moment and every moment afterward for the rest of your life. With coming out, you can find yourself loved and accepted, rejected and disowned, or even in physical danger.
Sunday was National Coming Out Day, an annual holiday observed every Oct. 11 to bring more focus to LGBT issues and awareness. In honor of this holiday, I would like to share my coming out story to bring the LGBT world a bit more into your reality. For those of you working toward coming out or already are out, it is my hope you can find some comfort in my story. For everyone else, I hope you find amusement and a better understanding of what it means to come out.
"Happy Birthday Dad! I'm gay!" OK, so my coming out experience didn't go quite like that, but you can be assured my father's 48th birthday was definitely memorable.
"Happy Birthday Dad! I'm gay!"
I was confused about who I
was and suffocating in my ever-shrinking closet. The people I was closest to were the very ones I was petrified to tell. Looking back, I realize I had nothing to worry about, but some of the horror stories of kids getting kicked out of their homes or ostracized by their friends had me at near-panic attack level.
I spent my junior year of high school building up the courage to talk to my parents. I was almost ready to tell them when that fateful birthday dinner happened. For a few months prior to this night, I had spoken with my siblings about me questioning my sexual identity. They pressured me to come out to our parents. Several times they even tried to "out" me themselves as blackmail when wed get into sibling fights. It never worked, but it made me more wary about how my parents and others would react
Anyway, back to dinner. So we're
sitting in a booth waiting for our meals when my father asked about the latest in our lives. I started to respond when my sister blurted out, "Lauren's bii" Oh. My. God. As I sat there wondering if life as I knew it was going to be the same ever again, my mother hugged me. She said how proud she was of me before turning to my sister and grounded her for outing me. My father finished his beer, ordered another and told me it's OK — he loved me for me.
Whew! I know how lucky I am to have all of my family supporting me. But many LGBT people aren't so lucky, which is why coming out is so important. Finding that strength in oneself to do something not knowing what the reaction will be takes a lot of courage, and the more of us who come out, the more we can inspire others to do the same. Though you may not get the same reactions I did, know that you're not alone and that there's plenty of supportive people around you with caring hearts.
Bornstein is a Lawrence senior in women's studies.
DIVERSITY
Sexual lifestyles beyond LGBT
Sunday was national Coming Out Day. Similar to the Day of Silence and Gay Pride Week, most of the attention centers on lesbians, bisexuals, gays and transsexuals. But there are more sexual orientations and sexual lifestyles than those, and each one is difficult to reveal in American society.
With the Mormon compound scandals, involving religion-based, underage poly-marriages, and shows such as "Big Love," polyamory's prominence in the media is increasing. Even so, it's still in its baby stages compared to other sexual rights movements. People may still assume that polyamory automatically includes Mormonism and non-consensual, underage marriages. The truth is, polyamory is just another sexual lifestyle.
Poly families consist of three or more people in a committed relationship — sometimes they all date each other, sometimes someone's girlfriend has her own girlfriend and so on. Despite the argument about where polyamory fits in with swinging (partnerswapping) and open relationships (a relationship in which lovers can form outside romances), polyamory is a valid form of love, as are the other two.
Then there is fetishism. Fetishism is much more in the public eye than polyamory "bondage" is constantly used in crime dramas — but by no means more accepted.
Many people view fetishism as a product of mental illness. But in 1994, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV changed its criteria so that consensual sadomasochism — a mixing of pain and pleasure — on its own is not considered an illness. In order to qualify as an illness, the manual said, "the fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviors (must) cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning."
Sadomasochism is not uncommon, either. The 1990 "Kinsey Institute New Report on Sex" found that "five to ten percent of the U.S. population engages in sadomasochism for sexual
— more variations of fetishism exist than is possible to list here. However, the report does show that clinical professionals are starting to view sexual "deviants" as not so deviant after all.
I inevitably, questions of morality come up whenever discussing non-mainstream sexuality. In my interactions with members of the poly communities, I've definitely run into unpleasant people, but no more than I have when hanging around mainstream society.
Fetishists live by a strict motto: "Safe, sane and consensual." I haven't met a group of people more concerned with the mental and physical health of their partners than fetishists.
"If a child is raised in a home where the adults are honest, open, loving and consistently present, physically and emotionally, it's not going to matter whether those adults are monogamous or polyamorous," Sid Mansfield, a child and family therapist, said in an article in the Tucson Weekly.
As for polyamory, practitioners must refrain from triteness and jealousy for their relationships to work. The poly families I've known have been great communicators. Their children also benefit from constant adult supervision, akin to the support a traditional extended family could provide.
There's nothing inherently wrong about either of these life-styles, and yet people who follow them are still unable to come out for fear of professional and child-care related repercussions. They deserve just as much recognition in their struggles on Coming Out Day, and they deserve just as much respect as the rest of us.
Lytton is a Kodiak, Ala., senior in creative writing.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR Proposed bill will benefit students Federal Perkins Loan but as proposed Loan F to be available Direct Loan Pro
In response to Tuesday's letter to the editor, "Student loans too important to cut," I am writing to clarify that H.R. 3221, the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act now before Congress, would only change the way the Federal Subsidized and Unsubsidized Stafford Loans, Federal PLUS and the Federal Grad PLUS loans are administered. This bill would not eliminate these federal educational loan programs. If Congress passes this act, students will continue to be awarded Federal Direct Loans as they are now.
There are some proposed changes in this bill to the
This act would also be beneficial for students in that it provides $40 billion over 10 years to increase the maximum Federal Pell Grant to $5,500. The act would ensure annual Pell amounts would increase annually thereafter by the rise in the Consumer Price Index plus one percent.
Additionally, the bill proposes significant simplification of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) to make the process much easier for students and their parent(s) to complete.
Brenda Maigaard is the director of the Office of Student Financial Aid.
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THE EDITORIAL BOARD Members of the Kannan Editorial Board are Begnai Hawley, Jessica Saina Bannon, Jennifer Chin, Caitlin Thornbuck and Michael Holtz.