OPINION
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2004
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
www.kansan.com
EDITORIAL BOARD
Students must overcome fears to help save lives
We've all heard the horror stories. For no foreseeable reason, a person passes out after giving blood. Someone who knows someone we know got AIDS from donating blood. The needles give some people bruises the size of grapefruit.
The myths surrounding donating blood are mired in tales of good deeds gone wrong. Let's be perfectly honest: It might hurt when you get pricked with the needle. If your blood sugar is low, you might pass out.
All of these possibilities and many more are printed on the consent forms every donor signs before giving blood.
However, students cannot allow the fear of a bad experience keep them from donating blood. Also, if you've had a bad experience, you can't allow that to stop you from donating again.
The KU Blood Drive is a important event on campus because both the American Red Cross and the Lawrence Community Blood Center are in almost constant need of blood of all types.
The Red Cross' blood donations are shipped across the country to areas of need, such as Florida, where the blood was needed in the aftermath of the hurricanes this fall.
Meanwhile, the Community Blood Center's blood is shipped to many rural areas across Kansas
where blood is in low supply and high demand.
Both of these organizations are doing everything they can to save lives, and students need to step up to the plate and help them achieve this goal. According to the Red Cross, a one-pint donation has the ability to save up to three lives.
The fall blood drive at the University was last week. The final count for blood donations came in at 1,020, or just over 200 donations a day.
To the thousand or so students who donated blood, well done. Congratulations on saving over 3,000 lives. To the 96 percent of campus that did not donate blood, it's time to get into action. The next time a blood drive comes to the University, as long as you are eligible to do so, there is no reason not to donate.
If even half of the students on campus donated blood, the University could be responsible for saving up to 45,000 lives. That is a number well worth an hour of your time and a pint of your blood.
No one likes pain, and a fear of having a bad experience is understandable, but donating blood is too important to let fears stop you. During the next campus blood drive, stop by and give blood. It might hurt a little, but you can leave knowing that you personally saved up to three lives. That's worth a prick in the arm.
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So, I just drove by some fraternity and there's, like, 80 dudes on the front, like, thing and there's not a single girl and they're all in their underwear and I just think that's weird.
If you people don't start walking fast on these sidewalks, I'm gonna start kicking you in the butt until you do.
Man, I'd hate to be that guy. He has to water the plants on campus in the rain. A completely useless job. Man, that sucks.
Jengal
If I can teach a bunch of freshmen what the word "hegemony" means, then I can do anything.
or the first presidential election debate was a boxing match and 10 punches were landed, as a Republican, I must conceive that Kerry landed 52 while Bush hit 48. But that's still in the margin of error. Viva Bush!
I'd just like to thank ResNet for always being down and sending me a bill for $80. I appreciate it.
I have a question: When did you become such a nutbar?
I think I have too much Jolt Cola.
Janny Weaver
sales and marketing adviser
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Why do so many girls in Lawrence have boyfriends? Are there any hot girls in this town who don't have one? If so, give me a call.
Looking over the blood drive pamphlet, I realize that eating E's too much is the same symptoms as AIDS.
Malcolm Gibson
general manager and news adviser
864-7697 or mgibson@kansan.com
cleaning up after your roommate: $5 charge
Doing her laundry: $5 charge. Stealing her
alcohol while she's out of town: Priceless.
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nis diary; "I have told the secretary of war, Mr. Stimson, to use it so that military objectives and soldiers are the target and not women and children. Even if the Japs are savages, ruthless, merciless and fanatic, we as the leader of the world for the common welfare cannot drop this terrible bomb on the old capital or the new. He and I are in accord."
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STINSON'S VIEW
Zach Stinson/KANSAN
These days, you can't throw a stone inside a bookstore without hitting a book that denounces George W. Bush in one way or another. Most seem to deal with him telling lies, whether it be about Iraq—for which the jury is still out or his service in the military.
Democrats also guilty of lying
STEVE SPEAKS, IT MUST BE SO
What you don't see too many of are the books about John Kerry. It's not because Kerry hasn't told lies, because he has. It goes back to a phenomenon another liar divined.
Richard Nixon called his supporters the Silent Majority because of the conservative tendency to shut up and vote and get the job done that way.
This group is a stark contrast to most liberals, because liberals love to protest. It creates an image that they are getting the point across, which people buy into because the media report the protests.
In liberal Lawrence it's easy to believe that Bush's defeat is imminent, but the Silent Majority is back at it again. Bush's defeat is possible, but not likely.
But it leaves one wondering why no one ever hears about the whoppers that Democratic presidents have told. It's probably due to the "Silent" part in Silent Majority. Nevertheless, those fibs are out there, and they're about to be told.
Let's begin with Harry Truman because there's not enough solid evidence to say whether Franklin Roosevelt knew Japan was going to scorch Pearl Harbor. Truman told the nation a few phenomenal falsehoods concerning the atomic bomb.
Upon discovering the payoff from the Manhattan Project, he had this to say in
STEVE VOCKRODT
svockrodt@kansan.com
So then he drops the bomb on Hiroshima, a city with virtually no military or strategic value, but all the dead women and children he could dream of.
As for John F. Kennedy, an elementary U.S. history class would indicate his transparent lies concerning Cuba and the Bay of Pigs. Said Kennedy, "I have previously stated and I repeat now that the United States intends no military intervention in Cuba."
But we know he was the ringleader of a botched attempt at getting Fidel Castro's own untrained people to turn on him.
Oh, and didn't the Democrats say something recently about Bush supposedly stealing the 2000 election in Florida, despite the absence of direct evidence?
It's been well documented, with direct evidence, that JKF, or more like
ly his campaign personnel committed election fraud in his 1960 victory over Nixon. Mafia leader Sam Giancana helped swing the vote in Illinois, a major battleground in what previously was the closest election ever.
"If it wasn't for me, [Kennedy] wouldn't even be in the White House," Giancana said in Richard Mahoney's Sons and Brothers.
The apple didn't fall far from the tree with his vice president, Lyndon B. Johnson. He made up an attack by the Viet Cong at the Gulf of Tonkin to justify a resolution that allowed him unprecedented executive control over the military.
So then recently, Bill Clinton lied about whether the genocide in Rwanda was actually genocide. This spared him having to actually do something about it, and then 800,000 people perished.
It's strange how quickly the Democrats are to forget — or deny — the lies its representatives in the White House told. To listen to many of them is to be told they run nothing but clean politics, and the only truth is is that neither side has, does or ever will.
Now we can see Kerry isn't as honest as most would like him to be concerning his military service. It shouldn't come as a surprise, but to the Democrats it clearly has. It's interesting to see how quickly he dropped the "I'm reporting for duty" posturing.
Maybe that's because the Silent Majority is finally sounding off about it.
Vockrodt is a Denver senior in journalism and political science.
Anti-Kerry chalking steeped in hypocrisy,ill-conceived logic
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Regarding the political discourse that I have seen on the campus sidewalks recently, I have just a couple of observations. One of the statements trumpets "Support Communism - Vote Kerry."
Dear editors.
As long as we are identifying America's political parties with debunked ideologies, I think a far more apt comparison would read, "Support Fascism - Vote Bush." After all, which party exhibits blind nationalism and the tendency to label all who do not agree with their policies as un-patriotic and un-American?
Another statement I saw said that Kerry would say "anything to be elected." Last time I checked, Kerry and Bush are both politicians, and most rational people would agree that politicians will say anything to be elected. But then again, no one ever accused Republicans of being rational.
THU
And finally, and definitely most disgusting and disingenuous, was the assertion that "al-Qaeda supports Kerry." Not only does this back up my
earlier "neo-fascism" assertion, but it lacks sense.
Andrew Duncan Wichita junior
Why wouldn't al-Qaeda instead support the man who has taken the focus off of them — the same man who has not only failed to capture bin Laden, but has also let bin Laden's name slip from his vocabulary? Just a couple of observations.
Chalking dishonorably uses memory of American deaths
I say this to the person(s) who wrote, "Al-Qaeda says Vote for John Kerry."
I do not care what side you stand on in this political race. What you choose to believe about the presidential incumbent and the candidate is based on your personal perspective. That is fine. That is democracy.
However, do not dare desecrate the memory of our fallen citizens and soldiers by using their deaths in a political mud-slinging act. Soldiers take an
Dear editors.
oath to defend this country against all enemies, foreign and domestic. They do not have the luxury of choosing Democrat or Republican. They are willing to kill or be killed for this country and ask only one thing in return; honor their service and their sacrifice.
Perhaps this chalker(s) need to review what honor truly means.
So congratulations are in order. You have just steeled your opponents to work harder to remove the presidential cancer that has infected the nation for the last four years and shown the independent voters what your true message is: Hate, division and deceitfulness is the American way! Well done.
Steven Mah
Topeka freshman
The Kansan welcomes letters to the editors and guest columns submitted by students, faculty and alumni.
The Kansan 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 850 words. To submit a letter to the editor or column, e-mail the document to opinion@kansan.com with your name, home town, year in school or position and phone number.
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