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assemble.
ERICKSON: Dear Rep. Dennis Moore: It's time to put financial pressure on Sudan. As long as the genocide in Darfur is ignored, more people will die See kansan.com for more opinions and Free for All comments
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 10,2006 WWW.KANSAN.COM
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
OPINION
PAGE 5A
OUR VIEW
Support women's team
This weekend starts the long-anticipated men's basketball season when Kansas takes on Northern Arizona Saturday night. And while the buzz continues to grow about the men, let's not forget to support our women's basketball team.
The women's team tips it off Saturday afternoon against Seton Hall in Kansas City.
Last year, coach Bonnie Henrickson's team jumped out of the gates by winning its first 12 games, including the Big 12
opener against Texas. With a 17-13 record, the team got an invite to the women's NIT and earned a postseason win before getting bounced in the first round.
The Jayhawks are turning the corner — in the past two seasons the team has more postseason wins than the men's team. They have lost some scorers from last year but have replaced them with exciting freshmen. Both Danielle McCray and LaChelda Jacobs have averaged double figures in two exhibition games.
With national attention and high expectations placed on the men this year, it's hard not to get excited.
But it shouldn't take a 12-0 start or a trip to the postseason for fans to start supporting the women's team as well. The support should start this weekend and continue throughout the season.
Louis Mora for the editorial board
COMMENTARY
Horror flicks need more Hitchcock
It's hard to beat the feeling of a true adrenaline rush. Your heart is pounding in your ears, your hands are shaking, your blood runs cold and your whole body feels light and tingly.
In the past, this much-desired feeling could be achieved right in front of your television set, while watching a scary movie. However, that heart-pounding, blood-racing, shaky feeling has slowly given way to stomach-churning, lost-my-appetite-for-popcorn nausea.
What were once brilliant storylines and twisted resolutions are now disgusting plots and predictable endings: Everyone dies except the repulsive antagonist because he must return for two or three more movies where, again, everyone dies.
What has happened to scary movies?
Some of the first frightening films date back to the 1920s, when audiences were petrified by the massive frame of Frankenstein and the Count's horrifying fangs.
Gradually, the movies started to shift. Monsters and zombies were replaced by the likes of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and the many disturbed characters born from the mind of Alfred Hitchcock.
All these films planted fear in the audiences without, amazingly enough, tremendous amounts of blood and guts. Viewers were captivated by the characters' creepy mannerisms and dialogue. Hitchcock
BY KAITLYN SYRING
KANSAN COLUMNIST
OPINION@KANSAN.COM
was proclaimed the "master of suspense" because he held his audience in an constant state of wonder.
Somewhere, this genre lost sight of that wonder and suspense that Hitchcock mastered. It seems that the whole idea behind these movies has changed. Back in the days of werewolves and crazed ravens, the intent was just to scare people, to give them the heightened adrenaline they craved.
Now, it appears the intent behind scary films is to display the many different ways a body can be maimed and to see how many people can be induced to vomit.
The genres of scary movies used to include "thriller," "scare" and "horror" movies, but have recently expanded to include "slasher" movies and the latest genre of "torture" movies to encompass the scintillating "Saw" trilogy.
The presence of violence in these movies is getting progressively worse, and people are becoming progressively more comfortable with seeing it painted in their living rooms. Why has the film industry become so driven by gore?
One reason why movies may have lost intelligent story lines and gained bloody ones is that it costs a substantial amount of money to make a good movie.
It does not cost a lot of money to make a really bad movie. In a film centered on violent acts, special effects can be less perfect, less believable, less expensive. If the script calls for limbs being sawed off, chances are Tom Hanks and Paul Newman aren't in line to take a part, so you don't have to worry about paying an arm and a leg, pun intended, for high-profile actors. Grusome horror films are low-budget all around: low-paid actors and actresses, cheap effects, cheap wardrobe and a cheap set since today's psycho torturers probably won't be staying at the Ritz Carlton.
Cheap or not, the scary movie business needs some work. I'm tired of starting a movie and shutting it off after 15 minutes because I can't stand all the abhorring effects. I'm tired of seeing previews for movies that fall right in step with the revolting DVD I just returned to its case. I challenge filmmakers to take a few steps backward.
I challenge them to return to a time of sharp suspense and unforgettable characters. I challenge them to scare me, not disgust me.
Syring is a Salina junior in journalism.
FREE FOR ALL Call 864-0500
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.
I'm kind of mad with today's horoscopes because it told me that it was going to be a 10-star day and my boyfriend broke up with me over Facebook.
Russell Robinson, I loved you before you were a leader of the basketball team. I love you because you kind of look like an alien and you smile after you make a good play. You are so adorable. I
I just solved the entire crossword all by myself — every little single box without waiting for
tomorrow's answers.
If you see a cactus falling, do not catch it.
I really liked school a lot better when I was told that I'm going to hell every day.
votes from beating Washburn in triple overtime, then KU should be receiving votes to be the next NBA
They might as well paint giant white lines across Jayhawk Boulevard, because everyone crosses wherever they want anyway.
votes from beating Washburn in triple overtime, then KU should be receiving votes to be the next NBA
Oh Kansas, your weather is more unpredictable than my period.
I think I just saw a frat boy wearing yellow Crocs. What is this world coming to?
I just wanted to say 40-year-old men need to chill with the spandex when they are jogging.
Hey KU students, can we stop listening to the religious fanatics on campus? We are all a lot smarter
If K-State is receiving Top 25
图
than that
Man, depression commercials make me depressed.
If Britney and Kevin can't make it, who can?
iStudent
expansion team.
Kansan staff: I was disappointed you endorsed candidates this election. Your job is to present the facts. The readers can decide for
I just want to know if CJ Giles would like to be a part of my camping group.
I swear, if one more person knocks on my door telling me to vote I'm moving to a dictatorship.
themselves.
Do you want to hear a joke? K-State beating us in basketball.
图
iWalking to Class
iStudying at the Library
ilgnoring a Lecture
GRS 06
COMMENTARY
Dear Rep. Moore: Want my vote in '08? Hit Sudan's government where it hurts
Dear Congressman Dennis Moore:
People are needlessly slaughtered by the day, and we barely raise an eyebrow or lift a finger. Now, according to BBC News, the conflict is spreading into the neighboring country of Chad, where even more people are dying.
Congratulations on your reelection Tuesday. You probably feel pretty secure in your seat after trouncing your challenger to secure a fifth term as a U.S. Representative from Kansas' Third District. And you should feel secure, with national momentum swinging your party's way.
But I'm writing to tell you that, as a constituent of yours, I won't be giving you a free pass. I'll be paying close attention to you during the next two years. And I want you to take action to end the conflict in Darfur, Sudan.
Grant Snider/KANSAN
And this is why I want you,
Congressman Moore, to act to end
As much as my heart cries out for Britney, I think genocide is a bit more important. This is why I'm angry.
But the U.S. mainstream media would rather alert us about Britney and K-Fed's divorce.
As many as 400,000 people have died in Darfur, 2.5 million have been driven from their homes and countless women have been raped.
When Leonard Pitts, a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, stopped by the Kansan newsroom during his visit to the University this fall, I asked him how he decided what to write about.
This issue means a lot to me — so much that I sound like a broken record on the subject at times, as I'm sure more than a few bored University Daily Kansan readers would tell me. But I can't help but write about it.
- "I write about whatever's pissing me at the moment" Pitts said.
Sounds reasonable enough to me. And, for lack of a better term, Darfur is what's pissing me off most of the time.
BY MATT ERICKSON
BY MATT ERICKSON
KANSAN COLUMNIST
OPINION@KANSAN.COM
the deaths in Darfur.
You've voted for several pieces of legislation aimed at helping Darfur. Thank you.
But DarfurScores.org gives you a "C" for your action on Darfur because you haven't done much else.
challenge you to be a leader on the issue of Darfur. There are several ways you could do this.
You can help ensure protection for states and universities that decide to remove their investments from companies operating in Sudan.
You can also lobby the state legislature to divest all the state's pension funds from corporations doing business in Sudan. I know the thought of our state's money helping to fund genocide troubles me greatly — doesn't it trouble you as well?
You should reach out to Sen. Brownback for help pushing for Kansas state divestment. Help put Kansas' money in places where it won't fund the taking of innocent lives.
You, Congressman Moore could help push for legislation that will protect states' rights to invest their money as they see fit. Send the message that this country cares more about innocent lives in Sudan than it does about the stock prices of international corporations.
Countless other steps can be taken to end the atrocities
You, Congressman Moore, could help push for legislation that will protect states' rights to invest their money as they see fit. Send the message that this country cares more about innocent lives in Sudan than it does about the stock prices of international corporations.
Darfur Peace and Accountability Act, championed by Sen. Sam Brownback from Kansas, was signed by President Bush in October. But, thanks to lobbying by the National Foreign Trade Council, the law lacked a section that would have guaranteed states the right to divest from companies operating in Sudan.
The National Foreign Trade Council represents more than 300 multinational corporations, according to The Washington Post. The Council has already sued the state of Illinois for its dissection law.
in Darfur.
Nicholas
Kristof, New
York Times
columnist,
sugested several
in a recent colum-
n.
shoot children.
For instance, you could push for more talks with China about Darfur. According to Kristof, China has sold Sudan the guns its soldiers use to
You could join with other people in the House and the Senate to tell President Bush he should have talks with other Arab and African countries about the atrocities their neighbor Sudan is committing.
The possibilities are many.
What's important is that you take a powerful, public stand on Darfur.
No change can happen until someone publicly points out the need for change. The U.S. media, who should perform this job, have been asleep on the Darfur issue.
Will you help Congress wake up if so, you will have my vote com 2008. If not, I'll be listening awfully closely to your opponent.
Jonathan Kealing, editor
864-4854 or jkealing@kansan.com
Will you help Congress wake up?
Erickson is an Olathe sophomore in journalism and political science.
Erick R. Schmidt, managing editor
864-4851 or eschmidt@kansan.com
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EDITORIAL BOARD
Jonathan Kealing, Erick R. Schmidt, Gabriella Souza, Frank Tankard, Dave Rugh, Steve Lynn, McKay Stangler and Loca Mora
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