Opinion
Kansan
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Jodie Chester, Editor
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Friday, October 2, 1998
Editorials
Alcohol task force should focus on drunk driving, not who drinks
Weekends in college, for most students, are the times to leave the stress of the academic week behind and unwind with friends. According to a study by the Harvard School of Public Health, 44 percent of college students spend their weekends consuming mass quantities of alcohol.
The alcohol task force, composed of the mayor of Lawrence, Haskell Indian Nations University administrators and students, KU administrators and students, Lawrence bar owners and the Lawrence chief of police, has members who have lived in a college town and many of whom have attended college. Yet they are administering surveys to find out whether students drink.
The answer to no one's surprise is yes, which they will be able to confirm
The task force is administering a survey today to find out who drinks, how much and where.
with their survey. The task force should be spending more time figuring out ways to reduce the tragedies resulting from alcohol rather than surveying KU students to see if they drink and trying to change the culture of a social activity long-embedded in society
One of the greatest tragedies regarding alcohol consumption is that of drunk driving. Each day, eight young people are killed in alcohol-related car crashes, according to Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Last March Lisa Rosel, a KU freshman was fatally
wounded after she was hit by a car.
The driver of the vehicle was intoxicated. Such incidents could be prevented if something were done to ensure that no one would be inclined to drive their cars from bar to bar, party to party and then back home. An expansion of Safe Ride, KU on Wheels or an increased number of sobriety check-points should be the focus of the task force.
Restricting minors from consuming alcohol in bars and at parties will not solve the problem but rather disperse it to other places.
The ideal would be to eliminate underage consumption of alcohol. However, realistically, underage people will continue to drink. The probability of curbing drunk driving, however, is greater and should therefore be the concentration of the task force.
Emily Hughey for the editorial board
Community enrollment program helps fulfill University's mission
Minority enrollment at the University of Kansas rose again this year, making the student population more diverse than it has ever been before. However, not all of the University's tools for increasing student diversity are being fully employed.
The community enrollment program, which allows Lawrence residents older than 65 to enroll in unfilled undergraduate classes free of charge, should be more heavily promoted for the spring semester.
By putting community members older than 65 in desks that would otherwise be left empty, not only is
Teachers welcome students who want to learn for learning's sake.
the University doing its job of providing education to anyone who seeks it, but it also is expanding the types of education its students will receive.
Community enrollment takes place from 6 to 7 p.m. the night before classes begins for the semester. Residents participating in the program can take up six credit hours and receive a grade for their work.
common ground of the classroom.
The more popular the program becomes the more the University's more traditional students will be interacting with their elders in the
"I just wish that more people who were eligible for the program knew about it," said Diantha Johnson, a student in the community enrollment program.
The program also has proven to be beneficial for teachers, who enjoy the presence of students taking their classes purely out of a desire to learn.
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Ronnie Watcher for the editorial board
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Broaden your mind: Today's quote "The world belongs to the Enthusiast who keeps cool." — William McFee
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Perspective
Instead of debating about the abortion issue, I would like to speak for those whose voices were drowned out by angry rhetoric last week. The people I
Abortion industry not looking out for women
David
Perico
cinion@kanan.com
would like to speak for are the women who feel too much emotional pain to talk publicly about their unplanned pregnancies or past abortions.
Although pregnancy should be a time of happiness and joy for a mother, this may not be the case when a woman has to deal with an unplanned pregnancy.
Most women dealing with crisis pregnancies must face the ordeal without husbands, committed boyfriends or the approval of their families and friends. These circumstances can turn their pregnancies into a time of distress, shame, and fear.
This is where the biggest problem seems to lie, and finding solutions for this problem is what people must focus on if women and their babies are going to be spared the awful consequences of abortion.
There are a couple of organizations that you can call to get in touch with someone who will provide these kinds of assistance without charge. There is a student organization on campus called KU Students for Life. You can get their phone number from the Organization and Leadership Office in the Kansas Union. You can also call an organization here in Lawrence, called Birthright. It is listed in the Yellow Pages under Abortion Alternatives, and it's services are free.
A women dealing with an unplanned pregnancy or a past abortion should seek help from people who will reach out with love and compassion. If family or friends won't provide that support, there are many organizations in Lawrence and the surrounding area that provide a multitude of free services such as housing, counseling, adoption and medical care to women in crises pregnancies and women dealing with past abortions.
All life is precious, and I don't want to see any woman or her baby to suffer. I don't want to see any baby die needlessly, and I don't want any woman suffer like the women I've seen who try to talk about a past abortion. But, all I can really do about this issue is encourage expecting mothers to stop and think about from whom they are getting advice.
Abortion really is a tragedy. Some people may treat the it a ballot issue or political platform, but decisions about ending or preserving human life should never be treated so casually. Besides, it's not just a life that's at stake. What's at stake is a whole lifetime of happiness, good times and bad, and above all, love.
This mutual love between a mother and her child is one of the strongest bonds two people can experience. So, when a woman becomes pregnant and feels enough fear or despair or shame to consider ending the life of her unborn child, something has gone horribly wrong.
When expecting mothers have to deal with a crisis like this without the emotional support that they need, it's easy for these women to believe someone from the abortion industry who tells them that there is a quick solution for their problem. This is what makes it so despicable. The abortion industry makes a lot of money taking innocent lives under the guise of helping women.
Now, I don't claim to have all the answers to the problems women encounter when they face a crisis pregnancy, but I do know I have seen solutions to this sort of problem that work, for the mother and the child.
Is it someone who will profit from your misfortune or someone who won't fully explain the awful emotional consequences and medical risks of abortion? If so, you are listening to the wrong person.
Turn to people who really care about you and who will help you make a decision that you won't regret.
Perico is a Lawrence sophomore in majoring English.
Vegetarians place focus on animal welfare and health
Today is the birth date of Mohandas Gandhi; the Indian dissident known for his advocacy of passive resistance and vegetarianism. People all around the
Karl Hardy
Guest Columnist
world will be commemorating World Farm Animals Day in celebration of his philosophies about non-violence and kindness toward all beings.
The focus of World Farm Animals Day is to raise awareness concerning the plight of the world's billions of farm animals and to promote the vegetarian lifestyle.
needless suffering and death of sentient beings. I believe, and surveys support my opinion, that most people care about the treatment of animals. Yet while the overwhelming majority of people claim to be concerned about animal welfare, most people still support the meat and dairy industries. For their businesses to survive, the industries have to be as economically efficient and profitable as possible. Unfortunately, industry profitability and humane conditions for animals are in direct conflict.
Farm animals have been bred and given hormones so that their bodies can yield the maximum amount of meat and/or milk, without regard to the pain and suffering that unnatural amounts of body weight will cause. Cows, pigs and chickens are often kept in overcrowded, unsanitary conditions that lead to disease and stress-related fighting between the animals. Once it comes time for an animal to be slaughtered, it usually is done without analgesics by workers who are neither trained nor given the means to humanely kill the animal.
Vegetarianism focuses on caring about the needless suffering and
In addition to unnecessary suffering for the animals, the meat and dairy industries directly contribute to environmental breakdowns. In addition to the enormous amount of resources necessary to sustain animals (suitable land, water and pesticides), the huge amounts of animal waste resulting from cow, pig and chicken farms have caused severe environmental problems.
One of the usual questions I am asked in regards to vegetarianism is about nutrition. In particular, the supposed protein deficiency that vegetarians suffer from
The hypocrisy is obvious. People love and care for dogs, cats and horses, yet continue to support the meat and dairy industries at the expense of the animals' suffering, the environment and their own health.
However, in my experiences, most critics have not taken the time to think through the ramifications of their diet. Usually, their arguments are based on conventional, illogical ideology. Conforming to society's accepted ideology for the sake of remaining in line with mainstream values is not the way for anyone to make decisions that effect the quality of life on earth for humans and animals alike.
By eating a vegetarian diet, people can make a strong statement as to the future of humanity. The question is whether humanity is going to stand up for what is right or continue to put profit ahead of peace. Are we going to continue to harm and abuse our fellow sentient inhabitants of Earth, or are we going to set a moral standard of compassion and non-violence toward all beings?
Living a compassionate lifestyle is much easier than most people seem to believe. Vegetarian alternatives are offered at many restaurants, and many companies now make cruelty-free products. Like any idea contrary to convention, vegetarians and animal rights activists have their critics.
This fallacy is a direct result of the meat and dairy industries promotion of the famed Four Food Groups, which have been used to "educate" kids about the benefits of consuming meat and dairy products for decades. In reality, the American Dietetic Association, the nation's foremost authority on dietary matters, promotes a vegetarian diet as a means of reducing health risks including coronary artery disease, kidney disease and obesity. Also, studies have shown that vegetarians have significantly lower rates of cancer, specifically lung cancer and colon cancer.
In an age where technology should allow every person, indeed every living being, adequate nutrition, millions worldwide starve to death. Here in the United States, many, including children, suffer from malnutrition, even though more than two-thirds of the United States and one-third of the world's grain harvest is fed to farm animals.
As Gandhi said "The greatness of a nation, and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."
Hardy is a San Antonio, Texas, sophomore majoring in political science.