Opinion
Kansan
Published daily since 1912
Jodie Chester, Editor
Gerry Doyle, Managing editor
Ryan Koerner, Managing editor
Tom Eblen, General manager, news adviser
Marc Harrel, Business manager
Jamie Holman, Retail sales manager
Dan Simon, Sales and marketing adviser
Justin Knupp, Technology coordinator
4A
Tuesday, September 29, 1998
Editorials
Students deserve recognition for peacefully harboring free speech
The vast majority of KU students should be commended for their candor in dealing with a potentially volatile situation last week.
With the exception of two incidents, students respected the Center for Bioethical Reform's First Amendment rights to voice their opinion and countered by legally voicing their own.
The graphic displays produced more questions than answers, but aside from the isolated automotive and assault-battery protests, those questions were met with earnest discussion.
Is abortion right? Do graphic photographs present a reasonable argument in and of themselves? Were they offensive to minorities and Jews? Where does the First Amendment stop and "too offensive" begin? Is abortion genocide?
For the most, part KU students handled a heated issue with grace and tolerance.
"Yes" or "no" answers to any of these questions could be, have been and should continue to be debated.
The Black Student Union led the way by providing an official forum at last Tuesday's meeting. Black Student Union Vice President Conway Ekpo said it was attended by students from
Hillel, HALO, First Nation, ProChoice and Students Against Racism. He said much of the discussion was "heated," "touchy," "necessary" and "conducive to understanding"—but never violent. It has been a long time since KU students have had to witness violence caused by social issues, but this traditionally liberal University has had its share.
What may be the most divisive issue of our time fell upon the KU campus, catching it almost completely off guard. The University community's tolerance, open-mindedness and respect for the Constitution were tested, and it passed.
Tim Harrington for the editorial board
KU administration dealt well with problematic basketball courts
The University of Kansas administration should be commended for listening to the concerns of students and keeping basketball courts available at Templein and Oliver Halls.
The original plans made by the University to construct a parking lot at Oliver and a visitor's center at Templin did not include significant plans to replace the courts that they would destroy. The visitor's center is something that the University has needed for some time. Building it was an immediate priority. The Oliver parking lot was in a similar situation.
Administrators responsible for organizing the new developments did not fully consider what would become of the basketball courts. Plans were announced that the basketball courts were to be razed to make room for the new building
New courts will be built before the old courts are removed.
and lot, students rallied and presented a petition to the administration stating their disapproval. The petition was signed by more than 500 students.
Primarily, the signers were from Oliver and the other residence halls. However, students from all areas of campus signed on. The students should be praised for their efforts.
tries to work with students whenever it is possible. In most of the projects, he asks architecture students for proposals. Many of his building projects have been influenced by students' ideas. His willingness to work with students' needs is an example of how the student-administration relationship should function.
After administrators had received the petition, they began to find ways to incorporate the students' wishes into the current plans. Warren Corman, University architect, said he always
The current plan concerning the Templin basketball courts is to leave the old courts in place. Building new ones before the old ones are removed is a top priority. At Oliver, one of the original courts has been left standing. It will remain so until a new set of courts, similar to those removed for the parking lot, are built in its place. The chain of events involving the basketball courts at Templin and Oliver shows how KU should work.
Kansan staff
Leonard West for the editorial board
Ann Premer ... Editorial
Tim Harrington ... Associate Editorial
Aaron Marvin ... News
Gwen Olson ... News
Aaron Knopf ... Online
Matt Friedrichs ... Sports
Kevin Wilson ... Associate sports
Marc Sheforgen ... Campus
Laura Roddy ... Campus
Lindsey Henry ... Features
Bryan Volk ... Associate features
Roger Nomer ... Photo
Corie Waters ... Photo
Angie Kuhn ... Design, graphics
Melissa Ngo ... Wire
Sara Anderson .. Special sections
Laura Veazey ... news clerk
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Broaden your mind: Today's quote
"We make our fortunes and we call them fate." — Disraeli
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.
**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 Premer (premer@kansan.com) or Tim Harrington (tharrington@kansan.com) at 864-4810. If you have general questions or comments, email the page staff (opinion@kansan.com) or call 864-4810.
Perspective
Deciding who you are is one of life's complexities
Do you know who you are?
Don't give the obvious answer: yes and then your name. The question still stands.
Do you know who you are?
Nick
Bartkoski
opinion@kanan.com
in today's world, I can't see how you could possibly know who you are. First, we're born. Then we spend the next five years being told who we are. I always felt like I was raised in a pretty liberal household. My dad never felt the urge to force me to play catch, nor did he ever tell me that it was my job to become a quarterback and make the family
proud. Still, there are some gender-identity issues that will never be completely erased. For example, no one ever told me that men don't cry, but I know that we don't — that it's not allowed. These are issues that don't need to be said, but they're put into the stew that ultimately is who we are.
So after we've spent about five years being told who we are, we're shuttled off to kindergarten. And then we spend the next 13 years in school learning and relearning useless things that everyone should know. We get summers off, but still we're put on a breakneck pace to "mature" without really being given time to rationalize our lives. Furthermore, it's interesting that the most important question, "why?", is one that's never addressed in this 13-year period.
The other thing that happens to us during this 13-year binge of learning is social interaction. Social interaction is evil. You don't learn you're fat from your parents or relatives, and even if you do, it's usually said in a tasteful manner. Another thing to consider is that what your family will call "unique" is what others will call "different" and sometimes even "weird." It's good to be unique, but no one wants to be different. It's even worse to be weird. We aren't born with these identities, and they probably should not be who we are. Unfortunately, they are, because someone thinks it's important that we learn to interact with society.
So now we're adults, but we still haven't
Next thing you know, you're out in the real world, trying to find your own way. Maybe you have a family, maybe it's you and your cats. What's important is that you show up for your job, make your money, stash it away in an IRA and do little more than wait to die. Now, I don't want to seem overly morbid; hopefully, you get to have a little fun along the way. But the only major thing left to do is draw your final breath.
figured out who we are. When do we have time to?
Now that we're adults, we have two options; college or the real world. At college you get to design what you're learning, but it's still a very structured affair. There's no time to sit and figure out how we got here or where we're going. It's more important that we write some paper or read some book.
Let's pretend that somehow you do know who you are. That may not even matter because the other thing we do to keep our identities a secret is lie to ourselves. Sometimes we can lie more successfully to ourselves than we can to other people. Things that don't mesh with our world view we pretend don't exist. Things that don't agree with the personal biography we write for ourselves we chuck. Even when we've achieved truth, we ignore it.
Do you know who you are?
Life has no need for you to know who you are. There's just no time to figure it out. Besides, you're a much more valuable member of society if you don't know who you are since if you're still asking yourself how you can get around to questioning authority.
Do you know who you are?
I'm Nick Bartkoski. I'm an average guy in just about every way that counts. I've lost 20 pounds lately. I'm looking good. I'm a damn sexy guy. But when I was in fourth grade, people told me I was fat, and when I was in high school, I got rejected once.
There are two ways to deal with falling off a horse: Get back on immediately or shoot the horse, pretend it never existed and go inside to eat some Cheetos. Could you please pass the Cheetos?
So now, do you know who YOU are?
Bartkoski is a Basehor senior majoring in journalism.
State Fair visit offers a learning experience
If an alien species from a distant planet.
Everything I ever needed to know about Kansas I learned at the State Fair.
If an alien species from or even Missouri, were to visit Kansas with the intention of understanding our fair state, there certainly would be no greater expression of all things Kansas than the "Great Kansas Get-Together." Yes sir, I'm talking about the "Party on the Prairie" that is the Kansas State Fair.
Rodger Woods
ooin@inion@kansan.com
I had the chance to go to last week. Although I am a Hutchinson native (don't laugh, everyone
comes from somewhere), I have not attended the State Fair in more than a decade. I spent five days in Hutchinson working at a booth in the Industrial Building, walking, looking and trying to recapture my childhood. Here is a sampling of what I learned.
1) Kansans are not "cool." It may seem to be a blinding flash of the obvious, but it's true.
I watched more than 50,000 people from all across the state walk by not a "cool" one among them.
z) Most Kansans do not care whether they are cool. Any group of people that could wear T-shirts emblazoned with WWF personalities, button-down shirts with the sleeves cut off or anything with a "Power Cat" on it is obviously not attempting to be cool.
3) The highest value crop in Douglas County is soybeans. 46,000 acres were planted in 1997, yielding a farm value of $11,373,600.
4) A life size cow made completely from butter takes about 48 hours to sculpt.
5) All "games of skill" can be won if you consider spending two dollars to win a 40-cent stuffed snake a win.
6) Strawberry ice cream, especially when it's melting down your hands, can turn anyone into a kid again.
7) Lynyrd Skynyrd is named after a physical education teacher that tried to make the boys cut their hair.
9) Outrageous concession prices are not necessary to have a good time. For example, a Pronto Pup (it's a corn dog, and should not be referred to as a "Porno Pop" as my girlfriend did) is two bucks. Beer in the Grandstand is $2.50. A large root beer — without ice because it's chilled before serving — is a buck and a half. Compare those prices to the last KU or Chiefs football game you attended. Plus, parking is free.
(Lynnyd Skynyrd is not from Kansas, but they did play a show at the Grand Stand.)
8) There were two "pro-life" boots: Kansans for Life and Birthright. Only one "pro-choice" booth: Planned Parenthood. I am still looking for some deeper meaning in that but have not found it yet.
10) Campaign literature for the only Democrat who? holding a statewide office does not use the word "Democrat" anywhere on it.
11) People making no attempt to be "cool" probably really are "cool" after all. Except the ones wearing purple.
12) Racing pigs are running so fast because they get an Oreo cookie if they win.
13) A state trooper singing ballet not even have the excuse of being drunk, but everyone in the audience will clap for him anyway.
14) Llamas spit because they are scared.
15) Kansas has a growing wine industry.
There are six wineries, and three more are expected to open in the next two years.
Everyone who missed the fair is in luck. It will be back next September.
It is a pilgrimage every Kansan should make at least once in their life. Where else can you ride The Old Mill (in operation since 1916), check out the new John Deere and Case products, see a pig race, watch demonstrations of every kitchen gadget imaginable, win a stuffed animal (maybe) and perhaps take a barn tour and find out from where groceries really come?
Correction
Woods is a Hutchinson second-year law student and is not employed by the Hutchinson Chamber of Commerce
Conway Ekpo's column did not run in full in Thursday's paper. The last paragraph should have read: The way I see it, there is a choice to be made, but it has nothing to do with the 25-year-old Supreme Court case concerning abortion. This choice is one that we must all make, whether you're Black, white, Jewish, pro-choice, anti-abortion, it doesn't matter. The protests were here, and the damage has been done, but we all have the choice of whether we are going to let this organization affect and manipulate our emotions, our actions, and our lives with its shady tactics. The choice is yours.