Opinion
Kansan
Published daily since 1912
Jodie Chester, Editor Marc Harrell, Business manager
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Tuesday, November 10, 1998
Editorials
Voter turnout was down overall, lowest in Kansas in four decades
Registered voters, both nationwide and at the University of Kansas should be alarmed and maybe, ashamed of their dismal attendance at voting booths this last election day.
This year's national voter turnout was 38 percent, almost one percent less than the last midterm elections in 1994.
Midterm elections typically produce attendance of 37 to 40 percent of registered voters. In this state, turnout was the worst in 30 years at 49 percent.
Turnout by University students appears to be significantly worse.
As the sole student-only district, the Allen Field House district only served 12 percent of the 1,033 voters in that district. In 1996, more than 50 percent of voters in the same district took part in the elections. The Allen Field House district encompasses all registered voters living on Daisy Hill or in Jayhawker Towers, only a short walk away from the Field House.
Thirty eight percent of registered voters voted in the election this year.
Though midterm elections typically produce fewer voters at the polls, this year's results still are undesirable. Nationally, slightly more than a third of all voters essentially decided who will run Congress for the next two years. And if the results from the Field House district are comparable to other districts involving students, we students should be concerned about our participation.
The majority of U.S. citizens appears not to think that voting is their civil responsibility. Even if the act of voting may not be seen as such, it is more important to set an example favoring political awareness to hinder the advancement of political disillusionment.
Politicians can and do affect our
lives on national and local levels.
Participants in the University community are typically more informed than other citizens. We have no excuse for not acting on these gifts of knowledge and awareness.
Equally frustrating is the sheer amount of voter immobility. The process of getting to a polling site and casting one's vote rarely takes more than a few minutes. Furthermore, there are so many easy ways to get registered. People renewing their drivers licenses can do so just by checking a box on a form; even here at the University, a student can register during enrollment periods. When we produce low turnouts, opponents to these easy-registering methods gain ammunition for their arguments against financing these operations.
If we are to learn one thing from this year's elections, it is that we must not allow society to slip into complete political ignorance. Let the voice of the majority, not the minority, be heard.
Chris Borniger for the editorial board
Feedback
Playing loud music is rude, not rebellious
It seems to me that there is some confusion about what constitutes youthful rebellion, and I feel it is only appropriate for me to clarify this issue. When it comes to blasting your music anytime and way you see fit, I just want to make one thing clear: When I want to listen to your music, I will ask you. Otherwise, keep it to yourself.
I think we all know full well that the current electronic nuisance statute is designed to put an end to
the noxious habit of filling the back of cars with subwoofers and power amplifiers, raising the trunk/hatchback lid, and acting like you are the only one listening to the music.
Rebellion is when you pierce or tattoo your body and you are the only one who suffers. Rebellion is when you are trying to break convention and better us all.
Rebellion is when you are willing to live with the consequences of your actions.
and turning off your amplifier. Rude is when you open your windows and pop your trunk/hatchback and crank your volume to the max. Rude is thinking it is your right to force your music tastes on others.
If it takes a $1,000 fine and six months of jail to force some people to understand the difference between rude and rebellion, then so be it. Maybe then we can ALL have some peace and quiet.
Rude is when you drive into my neighborhood (or anywhere near it) without turning down the volume
Ann Premer ... Editorial
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Broaden your mind: Today's quote
"One cool judgment is worth a thousand hasty councils. The thing to do is to
squeaky light and not heat." — Woodrow Wilson
How to submit letters and guest 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.
supply light and not heat." — Woodrow Wilson
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.
All letters and guest columns should be submitted to the Kansan newsroom, 111 Stuaffer-Flint Hall. The Kansan reserves the right to edit, cut to length or reject all submissions.
For any questions, call Ann Prerem (premer@kansan.com) or Tim Harrington (tharrington@kansan.com) at 846-4810. If you have general questions or comments, email the page staff (opinion@kansan.com) or call 864-4810.
Perspective
Common sense offers protection from legends
Clay McCusiton opinion@kansan.com
Halloween 1998 has passed. Surprisingly, no sorority girls were slaughtered by crazed serial killers. No menacing figures in black robes with hook-
Urban legends took the University of Kansas by the throat two weeks ago. A front-page story in the Oct. 28 Kansan told about those who feared serial killers.
menacing figures in black hands terrorized drunken partygoers.
This nonsense raises a question: How stupid are KU students?
Cynics might say we're knitting with one needle. I'm more hopeful. I don't think KU students are
stupid — we just don't think. We get caught up in a good story and end up scaring ourselves half to death.
Urban legends are fun. Everyone has told them to someone at sometime. Movies have been based on legends, and numerous books have been written.
Stories about a woman putting her wet cat in the microwave, modem taxes and alligators in sewers are kind of cool. A friend tells one to another friend, and the tale spreads, generally providing a few moments of light entertainment or — in the case of the creepy legends — a slight shudder.
Two weeks ago, it all went too far. Who really knows where the story started? Researchers who study urban legends suggest it began in the midwest in 1968 and resurfaced in Michigan in 1996. Whatever the origin, this year the legend arrived at the University: Sorority girls were going to be savagely murdered on Halloween.
Intruders were reported at sororities.
People became alarmed.
A connection was magically made. These intruders must have been the serial killers, surveying potential sites of their Halloween slash-fests.
People panicked. There was a story on the
It's harder to keep our composure. To be calm we have to process information around us. We have to think critically. When the words "serial killer" and "murder" are passed around, the natural response is to throw common sense out of the window. The story may be false and the source unreliable, but those are frightening words.
But we cannot let these stories be cause for anxiety. Once fear begins to grow and spread, it's hard to stop.
Fright is a simple human reaction. When we are afraid, we tense up, expect the worst and prepare to defend ourselves against the enemy. It's a survival reflex.
Panic has no place at the University. If students apply basic safety precautions, they have little to worry about. Students always should lock their doors and protect their valuables. We should not let Halloween scare us into being safe — it should be habit.
evening news. An article was written in the Kansan, which attempted to dispel the validity of the legend. But printing a story gave students more to talk about. My grandmother called me and asked about the "nut cases around the sororities." She was concerned about my safety. I had to assure her I wasn't in mortal danger.
What was the cause of all this hoopla? It was a scary story somebody heard from somebody else. It was obviously an urban legend that was meant for chills and a chuckle.
Thankfully, the time of psycho killers and revenge-seeking, hook-handed men is finished. Perhaps the noticeable lack of murdered sorority girls will make people think twice about spreading these rumors. Then again, maybe someone's heard a story about a creepy New Year's monster that rises from the grave each December 31 to wreck his horrible vengeance on hapless revelers.
I can hardly wait.
McQuistion is an El Dorado sophomore in pre-journalism.
Ventura's win a product of voter disillusionment
Forget the mild upset of Vince Snowbarger; the hot political story is in Minnesota. Not since Purple Rain has a situation been held in Minnesota.
Ventura's win is a strange event in a dull political climate.
so much attention been p where our generation has finally shown up and elevated a sub-cultural icon into a political one by electing Jesse "The Body" Ventura.
Established pundits across the country have only begun to lift their jaws from the floor, but although bizarre, Ventura's win is not without explanation and is as refreshing as a June morning in Minnesota.
Jonathan Muskey
opinion@kansan.com
There are four major factors behind this November surprise.
First, the personality of Ventura's opponents worked in his favor. Polls show that Americans are looking for the anti-candidate, and Minnesota found a ringer for the job. Ventura's former life in bubble-head entertainment gave him just the right amount of exposure to attract some attention from voters disillusioned by professional politicians. Both the established Democratic and Republican candidates came off as stiff, highly tailored, empty suits and Ventura found support with his informal, working-class persona. He was the anti-elitist good guy who became more likable with every phony TV ad bought by his opponents.
Second, he galvanized a constituency not reached by modern politicians - young people. Forty-nine percent of the people who voted for Ventura were between 18 and 29 years old. He carried the young white male vote - huge in snowy Minnesota. The same TV dustpans that carry memories of "The Body" in pink spandex emptied their political frustration into the Ventura candidacy.
Ventura gained respect out of our generation's childhood reverence. We grew up watching his act, but the tactics of the other candidates backfired and created a theater perfectly suited for Ventura. When the Democratic and Republican candidates refused to attack Ventura like they did each other, it looked like these traditional candidates didn't take him seriously.
Although they were trying to be nice, Humphrey and Coleman were actually feeding resentment against themselves. Ventura is a former superstar to our generation, and when dorky politicians thumbed their noses (however politely), it brought out the Wrestlemania in their fellow Minnesotans.
Finally, Minnesota's political culture facilitated the emergence of Ventura. At first glance, it might seem an unlikely place to vote a former pro-wrestler to the state's highest office. Minnesota is more educated and politically sophisticated than most states, but it also has a quiet rebellious side that digs an underdog like Ventura. Minnesota has an egalitarian culture in which fairness is an optimum value. Ventura was a perfect virtuous spoiler.
Nobody voted for Ventura because they agreed with his philosophy; neither he nor most voters claim a coherent political platform. Although Ventura's win is due in part to theatrics, he positioned himself as a credible candidate by appealing to a mixture of libertarian, conservative, liberal and populist themes that tug at the ideologically impure majority. Although his opponents themselves were not strict ideologues, he ran on a party ticket (Reform) that stressed a businesslike realism that enticed the antithetical electorate.
Ventura outmaneuvered his opponents by refusing to accept dirty Political Action Committee money.
It's a total WWF atmosphere, where the easily identified good guy is cheered on by the emotional gut feeling of the quarrelsome spectator.
Let's continue the wrestling/politics comparison for the third explanation of Ventura's win. Lines between good and evil in the WWF can inexplicably change during the course of a match. In much the same way, Ventura the candidate capitalized on the ideological ambiguities of the voters.
Consequently, Humphrey and Coleman weren't able to politically pigeon-hole him. With nearly a third of the country registered independent, people have as much allegiance to a party or an ideology as Hulk Hogan had to Jake "The Snake" Roberts. Pragmatism supersedes loyalty for wrestlers and voters alike, and it doesn't matter much if you previously supported someone in the ring or in office.
The mainstream media and politicians ignored him, and this played well with Minnesota's rally-around-the-victim mentality.
The question now is whether Ventura will be camel-clutched as governor after winning the main event. It will be hard for Ventura to gather support from a Legislature filled with Democrats and Republicans. Ventura did, after all, make both of parties look silly before a national audience. If any state can be patient, it's Minnesota. This election showed the power of the youth vote. Hopefully, the capitol in St. Paul won't resemble the same work environment that first brought Ventura into the national spotlight.
Huskey is a Salina senior in political science.