OPINION
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2004
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
www.kansan.com
Consumer buying power can make a statement against fur Dear Editor:
By now, most people know that real fur is about as fun as having a steel trap clamped on your leg.
As Jayme Aschemeyer, aptly put it in her Oct. 18 Kansan column ("Fur fashion trend cruel mistake"), "There is just no reason to decorate oneself with fur."
PETA members have been busyworking undercover at a Michigan chinchilla farm to reveal the cruelties of fur farming, lampooning designer John Galliano in an ad proclaiming "Fur Is Worn by Beautiful Animals and Ugly People," and photographing Oscar-winner Charlize Theron and her dog for an anti-fur ad to be released this winter.
But the most important voice in the fur trade is the consumer's: fur-selling companies are more likely to change their ways if they hear from customers.
Horrified by rabbit-fur earmuffs or a fox-trimmed jacket? Let the company know!
Animals caught in the wild for their fur often face days of agony in traps, tearing flesh and breaking bones in a struggle to get free.
On fur farms, they spend their entire lives confined to cramped, filthy cages, constantly pacing back and forth from stress and boredom.
They are poisoned, gassed, strangled, or electrocuted before their fur is torn from their flesh.
No compassionately correct person would be caught dead wearing the dead these davs.
See the horrors of the fur trade for
yourself by watching PETA's video expose at FurlsDead.com.
Heidi Renee Judy People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
If China or Russia had invaded Iraq, the United States would have been screaming "Aggressor!", but when we do it, it's in the name of freedom. We do not stand alone in the world. We are a part of a greater global community.
Secure your future by voting in the upcoming elections Dear Editor:
Please exercise your right to vote this year. Study the facts and the issues and ask yourself which candidate is better qualified to lead us forward in the global world which our children and grandchildren will inherit.
Are we better off than we were four years ago? I think not. Unemployment is up; gasoline and utility prices are high; and health insurance costs gobble up the rest of a paycheck.
We are in debt over a war that should never have been fought. More than 1,000 soldiers have been killed and a great many more are wounded.
And for what? A president who dug in his heals and wouldn't work with the other countries in the world.
Kansas voters are independent thinkers. It's time to assert that independence and vote to put the right person in office, not to follow a party line.
It's time for a change. Vote John Kerv.
Anna Wilhelm Holton KU Parent
Call 864-0500
Free for All
Free for All callers have 20 seconds to speak about any topic they wish. Kansan editors reserve the right to omit comments. Slanderous and obscene statements will not be printed. Phone numbers of all incoming calls are recorded.
For more comments, go to www.kansan.com.
ball tickets. I'm not having a very good day today.
图
Yeah, is this KUInfo? What's the procedure for impeaching student senators?
I'd like to thank my sociology professor for cancelling class today so that we could stand in line for four hours to get basketball tickets. This is ridiculous.
I'm freezing cold, I had a flat tire this morning, and I've been standing in line for three hours to get KU basketball tickets. I'm not having a very good day today.
Why is it that I am more afraid to step in front of a bike than I am of a car on campus?
Thank you, Lew Perkins, for my wonderful day at Allen Fieldhouse.
图
Somewhere up in Basketball Heaven,
Phog Allen is crying right now.
Given our choice in this election, a choice between a stupid liar and a marginally smarter liar,I think the only truly patriotic thing that any of us can do as Americans today is to get in the car and move to Canada.
If JFK had been in Vienna instead of Berlin when he said, "Ich bin ein Berliner." He would have actually said, "Ich bin ein Vienner." Which means, "I am a weiner." But you have to admit, it's really post-modern when the president of the United States is going around saying, "I am a jelly donut."
brain certainly knows a lot more about language than is immediately evident.
There is definitely something wrong when people miss class to wait in line for tickets for three hours.
Andy Knopn should definitely sleep with one eye open.
brain certainly knows a lot more about language than is immediately evident.
TALK TO US
TALK TO US
Henry C. Jackson
editor
644-4910 or bjackson@kansan.com
Donovan Attkinson and Andrew Vaupel managing editors 864-4810 or datkinson@kansan.com and avaeli@kansan.com
Anna Clovis and Samia Khan
editorials
864-4924 or opinion@kansan.com
Justin Roberts business manager 864-4358 or advertising@kansan.com
Jennifer Weaver
sales and marketing adviser
864-7668 or jweaver@kansan.com
Stephanie Graham
retail sales manager
864-4358 or advertising@tansan.com
Malcolm Gibson
general manager and news adviser
864-7667 or mgibson@kansan.com
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS
Laura Rose Barr, Ty Beaver, Ryan Good, Anna Gregory, Jack Henry-Rhodes, Kelly Hollowell, Nate Klarin, Jay Kilmeld, Stephanie Lovett, Taylor Price, Neo Rosar, Ryan Scarrow, John Tran, Anne Waltmer and Michel Wood
The Kanan reserves the right to edit, cut to length,
or reject all submissions. Letters to the editor should be
no longer than 200 words and guest columns should not
exceed 650 words. To submit a letter to the editor or a
column, e-mail the document to opinion@kanan.com with your name, hometown, year in school or position
and phone number.
For any questions, call Anna Clovis or Samia Khan at 864-4924 or e-mail at opinion@kansan.com. General questions should be directed to the editor at editor@kansan.com.
The Kansan welcomes letters to the editors and guest columns submitted by students, faculty and alumni.
**Maximum Length:** 650 word limit
**Include:** Author's name
Class, hometown (student)
Position (faculty member)
**Also:** The Kansan will not print guest columns that attack another columnist.
GUEST COLUMN GUIDELINES
Zach Stinson/KANSAN
LETTER GUIDELINES
Maximum Length 200 word limit
Zword limit
Include: Author's name and telephone number
Class: hometown (student)
Position (faculty member)
SUBMIT TO
E-mail: hard copy:
opinion@kansan.com Kansan newsroom
111 Stauffar-Flint
Perfect speech impossible to reach
Nobody's perfect
LANGUAGE RULES!
Specifically, no one is linguistically perfect.
Everyone makes mistakes in the language they use — even us, the grammar geeks, who just flouted subject/object agreement with "everyone" and "they."
The combination of a complex and freewheeling language with its only-too-human users can never be 100 percent error free: mistakes and errors are to be expected (passive voice, we know).
Mistakes and errors expose the brain's impact on language. Have you ever noticed that when you say a wrong word, you almost always say something that is somehow related to the word you meant? Somehow, most of the time, the brain misplaces nouns with other nouns and verbs with other verbs. Or, someone will say a word that sounds like the intended word; for example, in a big important meeting last year, one of us said 'dramastically' instead of 'dramatically.'
In addition, transposed words often have closely related meanings. During this year's second presidential debate, President Bush accidentally denounced "Senator Kennedy" as "the most liberal senator of all." He was close — Kennedy is a politically famous name, and the names 'Kerry' and 'Kennedy' have a lot in common. We're not trying to pick on the president, but his Kerry/Kennedy transposition is a good example of an inadvertent error. Sigmund Freud attributed close word relationships in slips like this to the repressed unconscious. That may be a bit extreme, but the
APRIL BENSON AND LAUREN STEWART
opinion@kansan.com
Errors and mistakes also reveal important attitudes about language. One of the most prevalent attitudes in modern, educated society is that linguistic mastery corresponds with intelligence. That is, the more correctly one speaks, the more likely that people perceive him or her as intelligent.
While this correlation makes sense in some respects, because American society generally associates intelligence with education, and education with proper English, it is hard to deny the reality that intelligence comes in many forms. Linguistic ability doesn't necessarily reflect spatial or musical intelligence, for example. Even if people can't use language flawlessly, there's more to being smart than sounding smart.
Why do people still associate intelligence and standard English? Maybe because improving one's language seems like a manageable task. The whole idea of teaching/learning grammar in public schools relies upon the assumption that language is manage-
ante, or that anyone can 'master' it,
because so many people do.
Thus, it is easy to depreciate the intelligence of people like President Bush because of linguistic flaws. Bush has had plenty of opportunities to learn proper grammar, yet he still doesn't always use forms of the "tobe" verb correctly. For example, Bush has publicly remarked that "this is historic times" more than once (October 2003, April 2003), and in June he changed the statement to "this is an historic times."
The President's frequent grammar gaffes (as catalogued in plenty of Web sites, books and articles) sometimes seem to be part of his informal speaking style and image. Mistakes, errors and casual words like "gosh" have become part of Bush's "everyman" persona. In the third Presidential Debate, he acknowledged that his wife "speaks English a lot better than I do. I think people understand what she's saying." Does Bush choose not to improve his English?
Even without considering his political decisions and affiliations, Bush doesn't enhance his image as an intelligent person through his choices of language patterns. Whether this helps or hurts him depends on the audience.
But just as there is more to leadership than linguistic prowess, there is more to language and intelligence than perfection.
Benson is a Grand Island, Neb., senior in English and music. Stewart is a Wichita senior in English.
Keep wall between church, state
POLITICAL COMMENTARY
We live in a time when issues with religious subtext dominate our political discourse. Leaders consistently blend religious, legal and political arguments when it comes to abortion, stem-cell research, gay marriage, the Pledge of Allegiance and even the war in Iraq. This divisive dialogue has brought the idea of separation of church and state under much scrutiny.
The constitutional aspect of church and state separation demonstrates the true brilliance of our Founding Fathers. Many people immigrated to America in search of religious freedom; it was the civil rights issue of the day. Religious freedom is an ideal intrinsically tied to the first American settlers and therefore the American experience.
BLAKE SWENSON opinion@kansan.com
This election year the line between religion and government is often blurred. It is important that we understand the historical development of this American value.
that there must be a separation between the religious and secular worlds to protect the integrity of religion.
The metaphor of a wall separating the two institutions first appears in 1644. Evangelist Roger Williams references the biblical thought that there exists a "wall of separation between the garden of the church and the wilderness of the world." Williams believed
James Madison, the original author of the Bill of Rights, also vigorously fought to separate church and state. His fight began in 1785 with his "Memorial and Remonstrance against Religious Assessments." Madison wrote it in response to the proposal by the state of Virginia to institute religious taxes. In his report Madison tells us that governmental assistance to religion will only divide society into religious factions and whomever is in power will decide which creed the government will support.
Thomas Jefferson references the importance of religious freedom in 1779 with his "Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom." Jefferson feared that if there was no wall of separation that the religion of the majority would lead to the persecution and oppression of minority religions.
In 1789 Congress passes the Bill of Rights and the First Amendment outlines the separation of church and state. It states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."
Finally, the Vinson court applies the establishment clause to the states in Everson v. Board of Education of Ewing Township. Justice Black delivers the opinion of the Court and writes, "In the words of Jefferson, the clause against establishment of religion by law was intended to erect a wall of separation between Church and State."
In this time when the country is so divided it is more important to understand the ideals that make this country a beacon of hope. There is a reason the United States is so unique: It's called the constitution, so go read, learn and spread the word.
Swenson is a Topeka senior in political science. He works for the Kansas Democratic Party.
---