OPINION
МОКЛЮЧИНО
MONDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2004
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
www.kansan.com
EDITORIAL BOARD
Close election race ending Do your democratic duty
Fourteen months ago the 2004 campaign was already underway in small towns in Iowa and New Hampshire as Howard Dean, Dick Gephardt, Joe Lieberman and John Kerry, among others, sought the Democratic nomination against an incumbent president whose poll numbers rendered him virtually 'unbeatable' in the age of the war on terror.
Now, with fourteen days to go until Election Day, we find ourselves watching with considerable awe as both parties careen towards an election that neither can afford to lose.
National polls show a virtual dead-heat, as both campaigns have zeroed in on a list of no more than a dozen swing/battleground states. These are states whose citizens have been bombarded with advertisements and official visits for months now and will suffer one more blitz in these waning days.
The candidates fulfilled their role in the debates, but those events, which were remarkably more productive than most observers had expected, were way too early before the election and still provide a window for an 'October surprise' that is out of the control of either the president or the senator.
Nevertheless, the pictures of both candidates have been more or
less shaped, and in the broad strokes of the policies and personalities that we have seen thus far, the choice is indeed a clear one. For all of the grumbling from third party supporters about a lack of difference between the Democratic and Republican Parties, the party standard bearers represent diametric opposites in almost every policy and in how they would pursue those policies. Voters should be so lucky to have a choice like this
Thus, with but a fortnight to go in this historic (and some might say, excruciating) campaign season, voters have gotten precisely what 24-hour cable news networks and almost a billion dollars in expenditures can provide: a cliffhanger election. It will be dramatic for the pundits and it will be explosive for both parties (in ways that will become very apparent the day after), but for the vast majority of voters, it is a simple, yet thankless job: the fulfillment of a democratic responsibility.
For many students, this may be your first election. Please do not take it lightly (despite what you watch on The Daily Show); do not take it for granted (especially if your home address is in Florida); and do not procrastinate. We're all on the clock, and our fourteen days starts now.
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here still wearing sandals: Don't your feet get cold?
OK, I'm really ticked off about this policy on our basketball tickets. Really poor planning, KU. Really poor planning.
here still wearing sandals: Don't your feet get cold?
Hey, this is Satan! Vote for George Bush!
Uh..I don't know where my friend is, he ran off with some Chinese dude. We haven't seen him for about two weeks.
So, this is to the 90 percent of the population
When people hand me stuff at Wescoe, it's like they're saying to me, "Here. You throw this away."
for any questions, call Anne Clovis or Samia Khat at 864-4242 or e-mail at opinion@kansan.com. General questions should be directed to the editor at editor@kansan.com.
Who really calls the Free for All anyway?
for any questions, call Anne Clovis or Samia Khat at 864-4242 or e-mail at opinion@kansan.com. General questions should be directed to the editor at editor@kansan.com.
Should I be worried? My roommate has been sitting on the couch for a prolonged period of time eating chips and salsa with a spoon.
Yeah, I might be eating chips and salads with a spoon, but at least I'm not eating my dinner at four o'clock in the afternoon!
for any questions, call Anne Clovis or Samia Khat at 864-4242 or e-mail at opinion@kansan.com. General questions should be directed to the editor at editor@kansan.com.
I love KU Info. It rocks my world.
Daniel Colbert's letter to the editor could not have made a better point. I fully agree and think everybody else should listen.
图
Oh! You caught the Tater
Jersey pride, man. Jersey pride.
TALK TO US
Where's the trash onk on K-State section of the Free for all! I must have missed it.
Jenny Weaver sales and marketing adviser 864-7666 or jweaver@kansan.com
Dude, why do the Campus Coupons restrict my drinking options. Why?
John Kerry, why are you so tan?
Malcolm Gibson
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Zach Stinson/KANSAN
Palestinians must abandon terror
"To understand the difference between the Palestinians and Israelis, you have to understand the difference between arsonists and firefighters."
FRESH ARRAH
Larry Elder
Last month, Mazim Qumsiyeh, a Palestinian American and member of the "Wheels of Justice Tour," gave an account of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict based on half-truths. He insisted that there are not just two sides to the conflict, but thousands and even millions of sides. Everyone is entitled to their own "side," but that doesn't mean that all sides are morally equivalent or equally fact-based.
Delta Force, Kansans for a Just Peace in the Middle East, the ACLU and all the other sponsors of the "Wheels of Justice Tour" apparently believe that they are champions of the oppressed. In actuality they are champions of the oppressors.
The real oppressors are the Palestinian leaders and those who support them. Throughout the 73-year conflict, the Palestinians have used terrorism as a first resort. They have rejected "land for peace" deals every time they've been proposed: in 1937, 1948, 1949 and most recently in 2001. The Palestinian's main objective is the annihilation of Israel, not statehood. A 2003 poll released by the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion revealed that 59 percent of Palestinians believe that terrorists should continue to attack Israel even if a Palestinian state containing Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem is created.
But the results of that poll won't surprise anyone who recalls the 2000-01
ARRAH NIELSEN
opinion@kansan.com
Barak-Clinton peace proposals when Yasser Arafat was offered a Palestinian state with a capital in Jerusalem, 30 billion dollars in refugee compensation, and "about 97 percent of the occupied territories" according to the March 24, 2003, issue of The New Yorker. Arafat rejected the offer and made no counterproposal.
Qumsiyeh called Israel a "colonization effort." This is profoundly ridiculous. Israel comprises roughly 1/600 of the land mass of neighboring countries and possesses the military might to control the entire region. But the only time Israel gains territory is when it is attacked by hostile neighbors which was the case in 1947, 1948, 1967 and 1973.
Qumsiyeh made much of the fact that more Palestinians than Israelis have been killed in the conflict. But he didn't mention that this figure includes Palestinian suicide bombers, Palestinians killed from the tradition of firing live ammunition at protests and funerals, Palestinians killed making bombs and Palestinians who die because they refuse medical attention.
Phyllis Chester writes in The New Anti-Semitism that, "On the Israeli side 80 percent of those killed were noncom
batants, most of whom were women and girls. Of the Palestinian deaths over 95 percent were male. Palestinians purposefully went after women, children, and other armed civilians, and Israeli's fought against armed male soldiers who were attacking them."
Terrorism should not be rewarded with statehood.
The moral relativists can insist all they like that "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter," but no reasonable person fails to grasp the difference between unintentionally killing civilians in a military operation in response to an attack (as the Israeli army has) and deliberately machine gunning to death 18 nursery school children and teachers (as Palestinian snipers have.)
Far from being an imperialist oppressor, Israel serves as a shining example to be emulated. Though Israel contains no oil reserves, it has a vibrant economy with a gross domestic product approaching western European nations. It is the only country in the region with a free and open press and a democratic government where citizens of all nationalities and religions enjoy equal rights.
If the Palestinians desire a future of statehood, peace and prosperity, they'll abandon terrorism as a tactic and focus on a compromise instead of hate and terrorism. Israel has sacrificed greatly for peace, but the Palestinians must hold up their end of the bargain. The lives of the innocent depend on it.
Nielsen is an Andover senior in anthropology and history.
Fur fashion trend cruel mistake
"Millions of fur-bearing animals — including foxes, raccoons, minks, coyotes, bobcats, lynxes, opossums, nutria, beavers, muskrats, otters, and others — are killed each year on fur farms by anal and vaginal electrocution and in the wild by drowning, trapping, or beating," according to www.peta.org.
Where is PETA — People for Ethical Treatment of Animals — when we need it? Its presence feels nonexistent as real fur once again sadly trumps the fashion runways.
JAYME ASCHEMEYER
opinion@kansan.com
Welcome to the harsh actual world. Express World Brand is now selling baby pink rabbit earmuffs for a mere $32. Express has come a long way since being my fashion staple in high school — its models keep getting skinier, its clothes keep getting skankier and now its accessories are controversial so the middle class can afford real fur too.
GUEST COMMENTARY
Thank God, I already cut up my Gold Membership card.
Fake fur, with all of its lifelike quality, flourished last season when fake fur collars were accelerating and trend setters like Sarah Jessica Parker donned
Two years ago Christmas was ruined when my mother received an absolutely gorgeous fur coat. I was so appalled that she could wear it without shame and wondered why she did not automatically think of animal cruelty. Apparently, my mother still cherishes this coat, but I still feel justified in my disgusted response. As the new fashion trend of the winter takes hold, I despondently feel that our generation is lacking this
the essential element. Currently, Paris Hilton can be seen with the real thing, with her dog in tow. What a message that brainy Paris is sending. I wonder how she would feel if poor Tinkerbell's foot was stuck in a trap and he suffered for days? But if Paris is doing it, well, then it has to be in style.
same compassion in exchange for greed and signs of affluence.
As a vegetarian and a cat owner, I feel guilty for even smashing a bug inside my house. How can these trend setters be content with themselves after literally taking the fur (and skin) off of another animal's back? There is just no reason to decorate oneself with fur.
In Newsweek's recent fashion expose on fur, Julie Scalfe wrote that this un-PC stance is "an attitude more and more people seem to be adopting." Wonderful, for the 2003 record 1.8 billion dollars in sales on real fur. But most of what makes trends simply a fad involves liberation from basic needs. Fur is no longer a necessity to survive harsh winters. Real fur involves real animals that real people have chosen to wear, regardless of the costs. Please educate yourself before going winter shopping and making the tragic mistake of purchasing the new BCBG rabbit poncho. Someday, some rabbit may thank you.
Aschemeyer is an Aurora, Colo., senior in human Biology and psychology.
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