OPINION THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2004 THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN EDITORIAL www.kansan.com University evolving with wireless internet proposal Since last semester, student senators have tried to provide students with wireless Internet access in several major areas throughout campus. Our campus is a few steps away from realizing that goal. Beginning Nov. 1, students may be able to surf the Net while relaxing on Wescoe Beach or camping out in Allen Fieldhouse for hours on end. The following areas around campus may also have wireless Internet access: Fraser Hall lawn, Budig Hall hallways, Snow Hall and large auditoriums. The University is one of the last Big 12 schools to implement wireless connections on campus. Funds from the Senate's reserve account will pay for this one-time $45,551 fee. The fund is supposed to be used for technological improvements on campus. Academic Computing Services has agreed to pay for annual costs so that students will not have to pay any additional fees. Wireless Internet access is a monumental achievement for the University of Kansas, which has been playing catch-up to the other Big 12 schools, Student Senate Executive Committee chairman Arthur Jones said. But students should not abuse this new privilege. Cell phones and Kansan crossword puzzles cause enough problems in class. Use the wireless Internet in Budig Hall as a valuable resource tool during class. Students would be able to search for articles or facts upon request from the professors or even prove them wrong. The administration and professors have requested these services for quite some time, Jones said. Do not show them disrespect by playing games while they're lecturing. Students can also use wireless Internet to make the most of their down time. Register for classes during breaks, catch up on the news between appointments or, if you must, talk to friends via Instant Messenger. Not everyone has enough money for a laptop, and some prefer desktops. But now, with technological advancement, laptops are more accessible. Students can check them out from the libraries. Wireless Internet is a gift that will immediately impact a substantial part of the student body. Besides, the rest of the country already thinks Kansas is hostile toward evolution, pop-music CDs and sex. Let's start to push our image forward and evolve into the technological era. Free for All Call 864-0500 Free for All callers have 20 seconds to speak about any topic they wish. Kansas 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. roommate were walking barefooted at 6:30 in the morning. Thanks for the ride! Every time I walk through the J.R. Pearson parking lot, some car starts following me. It's starting to get kind of creepy. roommate were walking barefooted at 6:30 in the morning. Thanks for the ride! roommate were walking barefooted at 6:30 in the morning. Thanks for the ride! Who cares about Broadband Man when Evil Kansas rocks my world? Hey! If this is only a Coca-Cola campus, how come there's a Pepsi truck uploading behind Athletics? So, has anyone seen the chair on the ninth floor of McCollum? Just curious. roommate were walking barefooted at 6:30 in the morning. Thanks for the ride! Yeah, I just want to say thanks to everybody who drove by us this morning. Me and my - First off, I'm not a hippie. Secondly, I walked into a "No Parking" sign, not a stop sign. Thirdly, I thought it was pretty funny to discover just how stupid I really am. - - OK, I think this advice for freshman girls that was printed in the Friday issue is really terrible. So, my revised advice for the freshmen girls: Reject insecurity. This guy in front of me has a sticker that says, "W stands for Women." I don't think W stands for women in George W. Bush. - - reeeeeeeeee-hawl That Allstate guy has such a cool jacket. I like the taco with the chili con carne you're a brilliant man, but I'm sorry, that was the most idiotic way to run a test I have ever seen in my entire life. 图 To my roommate who called in and said that I was so drunk that I let you write all over me: I did not let you, you took advantage of me and at least I wasn't caught on camera projectile vomiting. 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@kasan.com with your name, hometown, year in school or position and phone number. TALK TO US Henry C. Jackson editor 64-4810 or hjackson@kansan.com Donovan Attkinson and Andrew Vaupel managing editors 864-4810 or datkinson@kansan.com and avaupel@kansan.com Anna Clovia and Samia Khan opinion editors 864-4924 or opinion@kansan.com Malcolm Gibson general manager and news adviser 864-7667 or mgibson@kansan.com Justin Roberts business manager 864-4358 or advertising@tansan.com The Kansan.welcomes letters to the editors and guest columns submitted by students, faculty and alumni. Stephanie Graham retail sales manager 864-4358 or advertising@ansae.com EDITORIAL DONALD Laura rose Barr, Ty Beser, Ryan Good, Anna Gregory, Jack Henry-Rhoads, Kelly Hollowell, Nate Karter, Jay Kilmeld, Stephanie Lovett, Taylor Price, Neo Res尔, Ryan Scarrow, John Tran, Anne Weilherm and Michel Wood EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS The Kansan reserves the right to edit, out to For any questions, call Anna Clovis or Samaia Khan at 864-4924 or a mail at opinion@ kansan.com. General questions should be directed to the editor at editor@kansan.com. Author's name Class, hometown (student) Position (faculty member) GUEST COLUMN GUIDELINES The Kansean will not print guest columns that attack another columnist. Maximum Length 650 word limit LETTER GUIDELINES Maximum Length 200 word limit Also Include: **Instructions** Author's name and telephone number Class, hometown (student) Position (faculty member) SUBMIT TO Include Hard copy: Kansaan newsroom 111 Stairer-Flint E-mail: opinion@kansan.com STINSON'S VIEW Don't succumb to the dark side Though I am not quite one of the many die-hard Star Wars fanatics that I have come to know over time, George Lucas's re-re-release of the films on DVD Sept. 21 — for $70, according to USA Today — still seemed exciting when I saw the news last week. POLITICAL COMMENTARY At the exact same time I heard of the reappearance of a galaxy far, far away, though, we were reminded again by a campaigning vice president, Dick Cheney, of the impending end of western civilization - if Americans don't cast enough votes for Bush come November. Speaking at a rally in Des Moines, Iowa, last Tuesday, the Vice President warned, "Make the right choice. Because if we make the wrong choice, then the danger is that we'll get hit again, and we'll be hit in a way that will be devastating." This statement hit John Kerry below the belt on defense and crossed an enormous political line by attempting to manipulate electorate fear into votes for the Bush camp. That got me thinking that George Lucas's timing is impeccable. We have a president who isn't all that unlike Luke Skywalker. George Bush Sr. is W.s"light father," the president who made valid attempts at internationalism, and as recently as 2003 gave his George Bush Award for Excellence in Public Service to vehement anti-war liberal democratic senator, Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.). SEAN PAUZAUSKIE opinion@kansan.com Dick Cheney, hovering on W.'s other shoulder, has proven by his recent statements to be the most outspoken fear-mongerer of the Bush administration. He is our president's "dark father" or in a more intergalactic parlance, our country's Darth Vader. It is unfortunate for the country and the nature of this election that the pessimistic, nasty, bristish and short ex-Halliburton CEO gets to run around the country spreading scare tactics like he does and will until the end of the campaign. If Republicans such as Cheney are serious about fighting fear and promoting security, they wouldn't allow Congress — which, according to an Aug. 9 Gallup poll, has a public approval rating of just 40 percent because of its inactivity — to abandon attempts to secure our ports and airports through federally funded cargo inspections, in favor of expanding tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. Cheney and his cohorts only spread fear and no-bid war contracts. The choice between tactics in this election season is clear. At the SUA Open Forum last week, (which takes place every Wednesday on Wescoe Beach, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.) Scott Whitney from the Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center warned students against what he called the "siege mentality," a constant fear complex that envelops communities entrenched in terrorism, such as Israel and Palestine. If we allow politicians such as Darth Cheney to slowly and loudly breathe fear into the discourse this election season, our psychological security will be on a dangerous even plane with our nation's security. Those who use the politics of fear should remember Yoda's warning: "fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate and hate leads to the Dark Side." For the sake of truth and sanity in this election season, we should weed the fear out of politics. Questions of who is right and who is wrong should be debated in earnest; the fight between who is good and who is bad should be left on DVD. Pauzauskie is a Topeka senior in English and cell biology. Bush not as foolish as critics say STEVE SPEAKS2, IT MUST BE SO Since my column a couple weeks back that identified the liberal qualities of this campus, particularly the faculty, the Free For All has had peppered, yet consistent, accusations of either liberals or conservatives being idiots. "Liberals are idiots," or "conservatives are idiots," it will read. It makes for a grand-slam match of Moron Tennis where thoughtless degradations are volleyed back and forth through countless sets with no tiebreakers. I've long been opposed to our fine paper's inclusion of an idiotic filler such as the Free For All. But just this time, it actually provided a service. STEVE VOCKRODT svockrodt@kansan.com But it got me thinking about the people who always say our president is a fool. I heard more of these comments being thrown around carelessly after his speech at the Republican National Convention. Bush preempted his own enemies with a comment about how it took even Arnold Schwarzenegger to point out his grammar isn't always the greatest. It made me laugh, but I know it infuriated his enemies who still don't seem to get it. So at the end of the day, how are we to figure which ones are the idiots and which ones aren't? There's probably no way to know for sure, but based on the content of the Free For All, I can deduce in my mind that those making the comments are idiots. seem to get. If the polls are of any indication, the joke will be on them in November. THURS Bush's legacy seems to ride on making people think he's a bona fide dumbass who stumbed his way to the presidency. But remember, he's a Yale and Harvard graduate. Remember, this is the Ivy League. Not to be an elitist, but the rigors of an Ivy League education isn't something just anyone can handle. Perhaps that's why those universities only accept approximately 4,000 of dozens of thousands of applicants. he makes no other books. But people think he was out burning the books every Firday night, trying his hardest and still couldn't get the job done. If I were a betting man, I'd put Besides, it's not as though Yale is handing diplomas to just anyone. And sure, there's the whole bit about how his father supposedly pulled strings to get him in there. Bush's dad was a low-level politician when he was in college. Why would Yale care enough about his dad's status to be manipulated? FOG read status to be made pleasurable. So then we'll hear about the fact the President was a C+ student, something he makes no bones about himself. CONTINUED "The coming Boyd her for need tl legal potenti to a jur ID my money on Bush spending more time at New Haven's equivalent of Mass St. here in Lawrence, doing what it is people do there instead of pounding away at the library. And he still got Cs. "We fully b with o right t vu CONTII She look increase tice he Sho four f C KU you noti busy legem may rep in The lesson that has presented itself time and again — and yet his critics fail to learn — is that Bush's whole persona works well at getting people to think he's dumb. Once you think he's a fool, people then don't expect much. But then when he succeeds, his success are amplified. It's no secret that most voters in this country don't know the issues, and instead rely on visceral experiences in making their decisions. "How do I feel about my job?" "Is there enough money in my bank account?" "Does it burn me more to see soldiers come back dead or see fellow countrymen die at the hands of terrorists?" Questions such as these dictate a huge percentage of a voter's behavior. For a lot of these voters, a candidate such as Bush, who comes off as the average Joe creates an appeal because it fosters the image not too unlike themselves. My point? Instead of trying to paint Bush as a fool, his critics should focus their criticisms elsewhere, and get their own candidate to get his own story straight. Unless they want those chants of "Four more years" to be another reality. Vockrodt is a Denver senior in journalism and political science. A