Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
FOLMBSEE: ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE IS OVER-HYPED
COMING FRIDAY
THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2009
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FREE FOR ALL
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Hi Free for All! I missed you so much. Welcome back to KU. Prepare for a shit show.
--what the public option is. It is a government insurance plan for people who don't have coverage already.
Hi Free for All. I can't feel my eyebrows.
--what the public option is. It is a government insurance plan for people who don't have coverage already.
Slip and Slide and Ralph that Hudson.
--what the public option is. It is a government insurance plan for people who don't have coverage already.
--what the public option is. It is a government insurance plan for people who don't have coverage already.
To our hot Aussie friends who we met on the way back from Rec Fest: We'll be eating at Mrs. E's at 6 p.m. for the rest of this week. See you there.
1:23, it only works if you tell them to call the number for a good time and to ask for jenny
--what the public option is. It is a government insurance plan for people who don't have coverage already.
Believe it or not, some people are actually in college because they enjoy furthering their education! Radical, right?
--what the public option is. It is a government insurance plan for people who don't have coverage already.
I got my lunch box packed,
my shoes tied tight. I hope I
don't get in a fight! Back to
school, back to school.
--what the public option is. It is a government insurance plan for people who don't have coverage already.
Damn you construction!
Give me your number and I'll text you.
--what the public option is. It is a government insurance plan for people who don't have coverage already.
--what the public option is. It is a government insurance plan for people who don't have coverage already.
Minnie Driver. Wow. Good stuff in Good Will Hunting.
If you wanna see Minnie Driver in something awesome, watch Grosse Pointe Blank.
--what the public option is. It is a government insurance plan for people who don't have coverage already.
Her birthday suit? Because that's the only thing I want to see her in
--what the public option is. It is a government insurance plan for people who don't have coverage already.
When I do laundry I separate my white clothes from my blacks, does that make me racist?
--what the public option is. It is a government insurance plan for people who don't have coverage already.
You don't text me.
--what the public option is. It is a government insurance plan for people who don't have coverage already.
Why in the world is everybody excited about going back to CLASS. You know, papers, tests, quizzes? CLASS
--what the public option is. It is a government insurance plan for people who don't have coverage already.
I want to work for NCIS.
--what the public option is. It is a government insurance plan for people who don't have coverage already.
Can I have yo' number? Can
I have it? Can? Can? Can? Can?
Can I have it? Can? Can I have yo'
number?
--what the public option is. It is a government insurance plan for people who don't have coverage already.
I have a total girl crush on Abby
--what the public option is. It is a government insurance plan for people who don't have coverage already.
PAGE 7A
LIBERAL POLITICS
Public option opponents' ideas lack substance
A lot of ink has been spilled lately over the health care debate.
President Obama has been trying to push through sweeping reforms to health insurance in the United States this summer, and some of the reactions have been frustrating, to say the least.
The plan, in a nutshell, was to grant all Americans health insurance. This would come by establishing a government program to cover people who, for whatever reason, do not have prior coverage.
Now, I want to come back to
Those who do, either through preexisting policies or programs like Medicare and Medicaid, would keep their coverage. For those without a current plan, there would be a "public option," a policy available to everyone.
For whatever reason, this "public option" has ignited a firestorm of criticism. Members of Congress around the country have held town hall meetings to discuss it with constituents, and depending on their ideology, have either met with applause for opposition; or unending rabble as punishment for support.
Typically, this is because they can't afford private health insurance. Take this in: it gives people who can't afford it coverage. This is designed primarily for middle-class Americans who earn enough not to qualify for Medicaid, are too young for Medicare and aren't covered by programs designed for veterans or, um... members of Congress.
So what is the problem? I have watched town halls on television, listened to pundits, and waded through the comments on a poll on Facebook (which is almost as painful as sitting through a Glenn Beck rant).
I've gotten that the public option is "tyrannical," "Orwellian," and "communist." Protesters at public meetings,
some planted by insurance companies and the Republican Party, some just angry, have claimed that the public option is secretly a plan to take away their existing plans and replace it with something inefficient, modelled off of the systems of countries such as Canada and England. Prominent Republicans, including former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, publicly insisted that the plan would subject extremely sick hospital patients to "death panels" which would decide if they are worth the cost of treating.
Ask somebody what part of the insurance reform legislation includes this provision, and you are likely to get an awkward pause and a quick changing of the subject, what with the fact that it doesn't exist.
Sadly, discourse over such a significant piece of legislation, one which could have profound effects on the health of our country, has been reduced to emotional outbursts, childish faux-protesters and outright lies.
Cohen is a Topeka senior in political science.
JAMES FARMER
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Recent news you might have missed.
Adam Bubler/KANSAN
The number of locations in Lawrence nominated to become top tourist destinations in the Kansas City area by The Kansas City Convention and Visitors Association. The Spencer Art Museum was nominated as a favorite art museum or gallery and Lawrence as a top day-trip destination.
The number of Kansans predicted by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment who could come down with H1N1, also known as the swine flu, in the next two years. KDHE estimates that 10,000 Kansans have already been infected by the virus.
Tvler White/KANSAN
THE CONTEXT
Andrew Dye/KANSAN
THE CONTEXT
The number of people who have filled the position as chancellor of the University of Kansas. Bernadette Gray-Little, who previously was provost at the University of North Carolina, became the 17th chancellor on Aug. 15, replacing Robert Hemenway.
THE CONTEXT
Weston White/KANSAN
THE CONTEXT
The number of wide receivers — Dezmon Briscoe and Kerry Meier — named to the Biletnikoff Award Watch List, the award given to the best receiver in the country every year. The University of Kansas is the only school to have two wide receivers make the list.
STUDENT LIFE
Life is too short to plan; Enjoy college instead
While most college students are sad to see the end of sum
mer and the start of classes, I am glad. I spent the summer at home staring at clocks and counting down on calendars. I begged time to move quickly so I could return to Lawrence and my life as a college student.
Now as I begin my junior year at the University of Kansas, the X's on my calendar are proof that time does pass, even though we can't feel it.
I always have several goals as I begin each semester. Some goals are achieved and some have remained on my list since I began making lists.
I will need to face the world in a short two years and make my place among employees, office buildings and salaries. But as I sit here, halfway through college, I know that I don't have it all figured out, and my calendar reminds me that time won't wait.
For this semester I plan to add "figure life out" right below "stop procrastinating" and "quit biting nails.' Maybe I will mark it off my list this semester.
Maybe, by December, I will finally know exactly where I am going and exactly where I need to be. But maybe I won't, and maybe I never will.
My first two years of college have passed by as quickly as my summers have been slow, and ironically now I wish time would stop. As a junior I am expected to have it all figured out. As a junior I am required to declare a major and to plan a career path.
As a college student I have become overwhelmed with the need to plan. I have convinced myself that the perfect
combination of classes during perfectly organized semesters will make me the most prepared to face an unstable job market. I have become obsessed with attempting to draw the perfect road map to success. But then again, is success really something to be planned?
We have been told all our lives to "live life to the fullest," and of all the things we do not know, one's future is the most uncertain. Yet we plan and we schedule and we never pause to think that perhaps there is beauty in never knowing.
Time will not comply despite how much we might beg it to speed up or slow down. We just keep living while growing older every day. In two years the world will be waiting for me, and I can only hope I will be ready.
As the summer comes to an end and a new year begins, I feel pressured to form a plan. I feel the stress of needing to figure it all out.
But for now maybe the best plan for success is to simply let time pass. At the top of every college student's to do list should be "enjoy these four years", because as we have been told, and as with all good things, this will go much too fast.
Brown is a Wichita junior double majoring in journalism and political science.
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THE EDITORIAL BOARD
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