WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2012
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY GANSAM
PAGE 5
opinion
Text your FFA submissions to 785-289-8351 or at kansan.com
A special thanks to the two exclamation points at the game.
I just want snoooooooow!!!
Don't flatter yourself, Evan Manning. I'm not wearing number 10 because of you.
If you yell the word on the back of the sign that is opposite from you at basketball games, I hate you and we can't be friends.
Watch out for that giant player they call Withe. He's a brick wall!
I need to get back into basketball shape. I just can't stay standing for that long!
Drunk me writes phenomenal essays
San Jose: the Magikarp of basketball
"San Jose used offense, but nothing happened!"
Three words: Withey. Block. Party
Does the FFA get picture mail?
Editor's Note: No.
Why do some people have white Colo Run shirts? Did they dodge all the colored powder bombs?
The way my grades are looking to be this semester, I think imma be good for one occupation: trophy husband.
There is no woo in tradition.
KSU is trying to become Missouri. When I posted about our triple double last night, someone told me it didn't count because it wasn't against a good team. Jerks
I'm all about supporting transgendered people, but gender neutral bathrooms is a little far-fetched to me.
There is no honor in fighting kittens..
McLemore, please don't one and done We are all begging you...
Fedoras are cool.
There was no horoscope in today's UDK... How on earth can I continue with my day when I don't have an unseen power telling me what to do?!
I wish there was a like button for FFAs
The front of the paper said "The downside of Twilight." I'm just wondering... is there an upside of Twilight?
Oh Lord. Those are not suits. They are khakis and sport coats. Barney Stinson would be appalled.
Dear engineering majors, you chose that major, remember? Quit whining. Sincerely, everyone else.
That moment when you forget what time your class is because you never go.
There is a huge tree by Watson that would work as a Christmas tree. Student senate, get on that.
This girl is Skying in the middle of class. And here I thought the one knitting the other day was bad enough
'Fiscal cliff' created by policy makers
GOVERNMENT
The words nscat cum and "recession" are being thrown around these days like confetti on Super Bowl Sunday. College students should be concerned that it even exists.
Affectionately referred to as "the cliff", the fiscal cliff describes the numerous laws that are set to change at midnight on Jan. 1, or the exact moment it becomes 2013. Some key changes are an increase in payroll taxes, automatic defense spending cuts, and the expiration of the President Bush-era tax cuts. In grand generalities, the intention of the fiscal cliff is to slash deficits. It is widely assumed, however, that such a quick deficit reduction will stunt the United States' economic growth. Some call this "going over" the cliff. In a sense, the cliff is supposed to serve as a deadline that motivates lawmakers to address the issues that make up the cliff itself, such as tax rates, long-term challenges that U.S. fiscal policy continues to face and the growth of the national debt.
Students like us should be concerned because this hasn't happened yet. The short term and the long term remain in question. Lawmakers aren't using the cliff as motivation to compromise some deadline to find creative solutions. Instead, they use the cliff to create fear to further their own policy goals. Democrats continue to beat their "Forward" drums while Republicans march endlessly to Reagan's beat. Democrats repeatedly try to raise the marginal tax rates on the wealthiest; Republicans continually call for spending cuts.
You know the drill: Cut taxes or cut spending, close loopholes or raise marginal rates, private or public. It continues. When C-SPAN doesn't put me to sleep, I switch over to C-SPAN2.
But this time it's different. It's different because the cliff wasn't created by years of erosion processes. Instead, lawmakers, for one reason or another, decided to create the cliff. They could vote to delay the cliff. They could work to gradually
and methodically adjust certain taxes, exemptions, loopholes, and the spending of certain programs. They could poke and prod at every law in the cliff until a reasonable course of action was determined. Then, with the cliff itself addressed or delayed, lawmakers could turn towards the future. Instead, they cannot do their job — deliberate, discuss, and decide — without putting economic consequences on the line. In a sense, factions within our federal government have ransomed our current economic steadiness, holding our near-future economic possibilities hostage by threatening to go over the cliff if their demands aren't met.
Consider a town that has no fire
station that pays others to put out fires at an increasing price. This becomes expensive. The mayor, however, can't agree with the city council on the best way to finance a fire station. What they do agree on is to set the house on the edge of town on fire. The blaze will engulf the entire town if nothing is done. Eventually they will find a solution because, well, they set their own town on fire.
Our houses aren't being set on fire. True economic disaster will likely be averted. It is unlikely that you walk into Wal-Mart fearing that the dollar bills in your pocket will suddenly be refused. It is improbable that you must return home and pick your best goat to barter for the allergy medicine that you so desperately need.
An observant townperson might say, "Did you really have to set my house on fire just so you all would have a stronger urgency to talk about how to pay for a fire station?" What's happening in Washington D.C. is very similar. The U.S. government is on an unsustainable fiscal path. It can't agree on how to correct its direction. The cliff was born.
It is ridiculous that lawmakers created the fiscal cliff to begin with. It is even more jaw-dropping to watch as lawmakers threaten to go over the cliff to serve their own interests.
Even though I may not have to trade my prize goat for Walmart's Zytrec any time soon, I will be looking for a job someday. I will try to deduct my mortgage loan's interest from my taxable income. I will be claiming every single tax credit I can. You probably will too. The policies decided now impact the future. For now, it is our responsibility to show concern for the whim that the U.S. government has for the people it serves. Just caring is a good place to start.
Ouyang is a junior majoring in petroleum engineering and economics from Overland Park. Follow him on Twitter
SOCIETY
Learn about transgender issues
@ChrisOuyang.
November is nearly over. To most people, this might mean a variety of things: finals are approaching. Stop Day is nearly here, winter is coming—but I can guess what isn't on most of your minds.
"Aw, Transgender Awareness Month is coming to an end!"
November is officially Transgender Awareness Month, a time to bring attention to trans issues, needs, and persons. And awareness is certainly needed, as most non-trans individuals have no idea what trans issues and needs are; hell, a lot of you might be unsure what transgender actually means. Let's do a little terminology breakdown.
Sex is the biological makeup of a person's anatomy including hormones, DNA, internal reproductive organs and genitalia. Gender is the social and cultural construction of identity a person chooses or has placed upon them, most typically distinguished as a masculine or feminine one.
So, for example: my sex is female, my gender is feminine, and society and I feel comfortable labeling me as a "woman". Transgender is an umbrella term for anyone who's gender expression varies outside of the female equals woman/male equals man system typically thought as "normal" by society.
However, gender outside a strict binary makes the majority of people in our society uncomfortable. If we see someone who appears to be distinctly masculine wearing a dress, we question (or mock) it. If we see someone who seems distinctly feminine speaking with a deep voice, we scratch our heads (or try to figure what the "problem" is). And, for those individuals who have an androgyne gender, who we are unsure are male or female-bodied, we react as if we're entitled to have an explanation (or, in some instances, that we're entitled to act violently).
But the fact of the matter is that a person's gender is not equivalent to their genitalia. Just because you have a penis doesn't mean you are a dude, and just because you have a vagina doesn't mean you're automatically a lady. A lot of people with vinasas do identify as women, just as many people with penises identify as men, but sex and gender is a not a Point A to Point B construction. Biology is fixed. Gender is not.
More people than ever are identifying as trans and are doing so at younger ages. This directly affects college campuses, where lots of young people, plus interacting with a greater diversity of people than ever, plus the unique opportunity to build a new identity, often equals the first instance that trans youth feel they can begin to conceptualize the idea of being trans and being out about it.
I can't make a breakdown of all the issues, politics and changes that need to be done concerning trans individuals, as that would probably take up more than a week's worth of the Kansan, and still would be insufficient. But, there are a few simple things you can do to prevent being an unintentional douchebag and help trans people.
If you see someone, and think they might be trans, or you're unsure how they identify, guess what? Not your business. I don't care if you're about to pee with curiosity—just stop. If it happens
1. DON'T ACT AS IF SOMEONE'S GENDER IDENTITY IS YOUR BUSINESS
that this is not just a stranger, but is someone you want or need to interact with, listen to see how they self-identify. If that doesn't make it clear, you can politely ask "What gender pronouns do you prefer?" Then use those pronouns.
2. IF SOMEONE YOU KNOW IS TRANSITIONING, ACKNOWL-ED IT
If someone you know starts to transition to a new gender identity, they might go through a whole slew of changes, in physical appearance, in pronouns, even in their name. And yeah, if you've known Natalie since kindergarten as Nathan, it might take a while to get used to. But just try. Validate their new identity. And if you mess up, and refer to them as their old name, or pronoun, just apologize and move on.
3. EDUCATE YOURSELF
The internet is a beautiful place, and not just because it has a seemingly infinite amount of cat videos. There are tons of resources to learn more about trans people and issues, and all for the low, low price of free! Gendercentre.org is a great resource, including an online suggested reading/viewing book and film list, and lots of kits and fact sheets. GLAAD.org also has a good section on their website devoted to some basic Trans 101, as well as links to resources. Also, your lovely campus has a kick-ass Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies department—why not take advantage, and take a class that has content relevant to trans people?
So go out, and finish Transgender Awareness Month with a bang; you'll be the coolest progressive kid on the block.
Gwynn is a sophomore majoring in English and Women, Gender, and Sexuality from Olathe. Follow her on twitter @AllidoisGwynn
CAMPUS CHIRPS BACK
@SammyEngelson
@UDK_Opingh Watch workahols
for motivation #furrrrSureee
@cbelmont15
@UDK_Opinion Caffeine. Wang
Burgers. All nighters. #finals2012
@MorganLCox
@UDK_Opinion One word. Coffee.
@bikiniturtle
@UDK. Opinion sleep, cry, eat, cry,
try studying for five minutes, eat,
complain about finals, cry, repeat
HUMOR
Say no to Internet abuse in classes
By AJ Barbosa
abarbosa@kansan.com
It's common to hear someone urge you to "be confident, but not too confident."
It's an easy phrase to understand, unless you're like me and you overanalyze stupid things like good advice. Obviously, that phrase implies that things can often go wrong if you're overconfident. But confidence isn't a tangible object; there's no barometer for measuring where you or anyone else stands. It's all relative.
I think I have a pretty good idea of what "too confident" looks like. And it looks like a Macbook Pro in Budig 120.
Unless you transferred here as a junior and already knocked out your gen-ed requirements, or unless you're majoring in some obscure field that doesn't require the typical freshman "weed-out" classes, you've likely spent a good amount of time in the crowded lecture halls of Budig or Wescoe. Most professors who teach these courses allow students to use their laptops, and since there are so many students, there's really no way to make sure people are diligently taking notes and not messing around on the Internet.
Or if they're "too confident" — carelessly and publicly clicking through anything and everything — they shouldn't be.
If you've never sat behind someone with negligent classroom-browsing habits, ask your friends; almost everyone who's slowly withered away in Budig 120 for a semester and sat behind some creep who spent the entire class period furiously stabbing the right-arrow key as pictures from some clueless blonde's (aptly-named) "HAMMERED ON THE BEACH: CABO 2012!!!!" Facebook album. It's uncomfortable, but trust me: It gets even weirder once they stop, tap the left-arrow until they're back to a swimsuit shot, and sit there staring — idly and creepily — at her sun-kissed boobs.
I've seen a good number sketch-balls do this throughout my never-ending, miserable journey to fulfill my elective requirements. Luckily for me, that's the weirdest it's ever gotten.
But, like most things in life,
there's always someone out there
who has it worse than you.
I've heard stories from people who were left stunned, confused and discomforted as the random person in front of them thoroughly analyzed every megapixel of their own Facebook profile. Your pride tells you that, if you caught the person in front of you Facebook-creeping on your profile, you'd have the stones to stop them and ask them what in blue hell they're doing. Think about it realistically, though; you'd probably be so weirded out that you wouldn't know what to do. You'd just sit there as you're getting cyber-violated before your very own eyes.
If you're sitting behind someone who's confidence has reached a new zenith, they may even choose to combat the soulsucking boredom of a Math 105 lecture with a visit to their favorite porn sites. This is rare because, obviously, most people have a little self-pride and wouldn't dare indulge their smut habit in public, especially when there's a remote chance someone behind them will catch on. But, if you've learned anything so far in life, you know that there's always a few people out there who never fail to destroy your faith in the human race.
I've long since bought into the school of thought that eloquently professes "snitches get stitches," so I'm not going to encourage you to rat them out. But, if you're stuck behind someone who's right in the nitty-gritty of a poorly-produced shower scene, you might want to say something. We go to class for a lot of reasons — to learn, to daydream, to check Twitter
— but I'd challenge you to find one person who enjoys watching their porn at 11 a.m. over someone's shoulder in the middle of a psychology lecture.
The deadline for spring transfers at Mizzou is this Saturday, though. So, if you know one of these people, you still have a few days to do something about it. On behalf of everyone who's ever been stuck sitting front row to someone's laptop-porno session: Please do something about it.
Barbosa is a junior majoring in journalism from Leawood. For more hilarity, follow him on Twitter @AJBARBROSA.
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