The University Daily Kansan emphasizes the First Amendment:
press; petition
of religion freedom of speech assemble
JORGENSEN: The Fred Phelps wannabes who visited Wescoe Beach show the dark side of the First Amendment, but still must be tolerated. See kansan.com for more opinions and Free for All comments
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2006
WWW.KANSAN.COM
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
OPINION
PAGE 5A
The plan would be a blessing for some, who instead of paying $140 for a bus pass could hop on the bus for free.
OUR VIEW
But KU on Wheels numbers from September show that only 22 percent of students use the bus
Students who don't ride bus shouldn't pay for new system
Proponents of a merger between the Lawrence Public Transit system and KU on Wheels say it would provide students with better public transportation for free. But a merger could in fact more than triple student fees — and not just for those who ride the bus.
Currently students pay a "campus transportation fee" of $16 per semester. At last week's meeting between city and University officials, the consulting firm working on the merger suggested that the fee be increased to $50 per semester.
system on a daily basis, meaning 78 percent of students would have to pay more for a service they don't regularly use.
University officials see the move as potentially easing the congested traffic that flows through the University on a daily basis. They want to encourage students to take the bus instead of driving, but for those who will continue to drive or walk to campus, the move is simply a waste of money.
A fee that would more than triple the amount already provided by students just seems foolish. While a merger is far from finalized, the University should make other plans. Students are tired of footing the bill.
Louis Mora for the editorial board
GUEST COMMENTARY
Vote for the candidate not the political party
"Democrats, the saviors of the United States." It's the new slogan of the party. At least that is what they would like us to believe.
Now, I am not a Republican and this is not an article proposing that we allow the GOP free reign. Heck, I have hoped they would lose the majority since the Patriot Act was first thought up. However, where do we get off espousing the idea that the Republicans are the spawn of the devil?
For that matter where do Democrats or their supporters get off spreading the idea that the only hope we have to halt the avalanche of events that have occurred in the past two years is to elect a solid Democratic majority for the next two I keep seeing articles and commentary that scream to vote Democrat, no matter if their goals vastly differ from your own.
Both parties love pulling out the scandal card and have turned from talking about important issues such as the ever-shrinking social security fund, unemployment, crime or public schools. The only answers either party try to think up either cater to their voting bases or are calculated to needle the other side.
The answers to this country's problems do not lie solely in school vouchers or more extensive taxes on the lower- or middle-income brackets. Nor do they lie in more or longer standardized exams for which students have to study instead of trying to learn.
I agree with Lou Dobbs' recent assertion that both the Republicans
and the Democrats rely on the claim they represent the majority. However, that majority is derived from a smaller and smaller part of our nation's population. We no longer vote. We no longer try to have a say in what laws govern us. How can we complain about a government in which the true majority no longer participates?
The American people no longer have politicians who are moderate or talk about solutions because we stopped participating. The only people left to participate are those of the extreme right or left. We stand by as those left to participate legislate morality.
Both the Republicans and the Democrats have issues. Neither party is as pure as driven snow. Both have their corruption.
In the end if you vote Democrat, fine. If you vote Republican, whatever. Just please have a reason and a purpose for your vote. Do not vote solely to remove an incumbent from office.
Have a goal for your candidate. Find out about your candidate. What is the candidate's voting record? What are their platforms? Do not vote because of the party affiliation. Vote for your own personal reasons, and if you do not find the right candidate within the Democratic or Republican parties, vote for whomever else there is or write someone in.
Brianne Hanna Merriam senior
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Theft ruins KU visit
My wife and I, my cousin and her son and several of our friends attended the Kansas-Colorado game this weekend. Generally, I park in an alley close to the stadium and pay the $15 or $20 necessary. However, this time we parked in Lot 50, up by the School of Education building. Someone stole my cooler from the back of my pickup truck.
40 years of parking in alleys and in yards near and around the stadium and losing nothing, when I finally park in a KU pay lot, my small beer cooler gets stolen. Thanks, guys. This has left me with a great feeling about game day on the hill.
My point is that after more than
Dr. John S. Hetlinger Class of 1972
Dave Ruigh, associate opinion editor
864-4924 or druigh@kansan.com
IRAQ WAR CATCH- PHRASES
Grant Snider/KANSAN
In two weeks I will tell you about the best spots on campus to have sex, but this week I want to address the "religious" visitors the University of Kansas unexpectedly had a week ago today.
Free speech exploited
Kyle Hoedl, business manager
864-4014 or khuedl@kansan.com
COMMENTARY
Last week two men traveling to campuses across the country "preaching" to students paid Wesco Beach a visit. In essence, these guys were cheap knock-offs of Fred Phelps. They are on the junior varsity hate team.
I put quotation marks around a lot of these words because this is what they were claiming to do, though no one actually believes them.
Phelips, and the few who "teach" and picket like he does, have worn out their "Anything you are or do means you're going to hell" message, and they have also exploited our First Amendment.
As I said, the two men who came last Wednesday are minor league haters in regard to Phelps and his following. The anti-homosexual message that Phelps won't shut up about has become absurd. His most notorious antic has become picketing the funerals of American soldiers killed in action — his "logic" being the soldiers are going to hell
because they defended a country that harbors homosexuals.
Lindsey Shirach, sales manager
864-4462 or lshirach@kansan.com
I expect Phelps and his following would pick my funeral, because I'm a Kansas City Chiefs fan. The Chiefs primary color is red, and when red is mixed with blue it turns purple. And purple was the color of the Teletubby everyone said was gay. Thus, I am obviously going to hell.
The logic is stupid. I don't know why they chose sign making and chants as a career. It is not very lucrative, and their signs have shown a limited vocabulary. Here is an idea: Get a real job.
Let's take a look at another aspect of picketing, preaching and protest- ing. Many of us who have been subjected to the three P's have said, "How can they do that?" or "How can they say that?"
Although the message is often hateful, our First Amendment allows for it. As a columnist and
comedian, I value our country's First Amendment and my right to say whatever I want. Without free speech, I'd be out two jobs.
Phelps also enjoys the First Amendment. It allows him to steal people's attention for five seconds as they read his one-liners while he pickets some random event. Some have argued that Phelps has done more for the First Amendment than most people in history. He has pushed the envelope to a level no one else has and gotten away with it.
Malcolm Gibson, general manager, news adviser
864-7667 or mgibson@kansan.com
Jennifer Weaver, sales and marketing adviser
864-7666 or jwever@kansan.com
However, Phelps and the traveling ramblers from Wescoe Beach are not using the First Amendment for good — they are using the right as a weapon to target those they think are inferior.
There isn't much we can do to stop people like Phelps and the two gentlemen who wore ugly red shirts and yelled at us last Wednesday. We can just laugh at their ignorance.
The yelling Wescoe beach guy and his steward the cameraman didn't have much success with their attempt to be remembered, though. I forgot their names when I was writing this article.
Jorgensen is a Baldwin City senior in journalism.
» LETTERTO THE EDITOR
Moral nation should help Darfur
The ejection of the United Nations envoy last week is one more attempt by the Sudanese government to conceal its genocide. We must stand up against the genocide in Darfur.
If we are to be the moral nation that we so often claim to be, then we cannot stand by and let one group of people wipe out another group of people.
When we signed the U.N. charter, we vowed to intervene when any genocide occurred. Since the United States has labeled the situation in Sudan as a genocide we are compelled to act.
We cannot call ourselves moral or Christian and simultaneously take no action to stop the wholesale slaughter of one group of people by another when we have the power to stop it. The U.S. has the strongest
military in the world. The responsibility to protect the powerless falls on the powerful. We have the power to end the suffering of millions. We must act.
If we are to be a moral nation in this world then we must stand up against immorality anywhere.
Conor McCartney Madison, Wis., junior
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You might be a redneck if your car spontaneously combusts in the dorm parking lot.
Jamatha Knaipil, editor
684-4544 or feakling@kansan.com
R. E. Schrubb, managing editor
684-4544 or escolmind@kansan.com
Gabriela Souza, managing editor
684-4544 or escolmind@kansan.com
French Tankard opinion editor
684-4544 or frankand@kansan.com
I wish I could play the bagpipes for many reasons.
OK, this is a serious question:
Would you rather be able to roar like a lion or fart confetti?
To the Hashie that owns the blue mountain bike: I borrowed your tire pump for my unicycle. Thank you.
To the guys who found the topleast girls passed out in the McCollum hallway: Sorry.
Todd Reesing is Kansas football.
I just saw "Saw ill" and I am surprisingly hungry for a steak.
I just saw a black cat. Is that a bad sign?
Hey UDK, we have a women's swimming team. Why don't you write about them?
I got 10 free subs from Jersey
Mike's last week. How much did
everyone else get?
I just ate a Skittle and it tasted like turkey. I need to stop smoking.
Flavor Flav is a pimp.
Do you know what Kansas looks like?
I went to a small high school. The entire population of Spearville can sit in Budig 120. That doesn't make me an inbred idiot and that doesn't mean I went to school in a one-room schoolhouse. I went to school in a high school like everyone else, only smaller. I knew the name of everyone in the school. People who live in small towns in western Kansas love Cabella's because we like to hunt and fish. We have our own culture separate from people in big cities. We have our own dialects and accents. Our way of talking doesn't mean were uneducated. We have our own ethic food. We aren't inferior people.
Hoyt is a Spearville senior in Journalism.
BY DAN HOYT
KANSAN COLUMNIST
OPINION@KANSAN.COM
Did you know that there is a lot more of Kansas on the other side of Wichita? If you think that Colorado starts 10 miles west of Wichita, pay attention. I would like to tell all KU students that you live in Kansas now. Regardless of where you lived before, you live here now and you should know the basic geography of the state.
COMMENTARY
If you're here you should know Kansas
I used to go to Dodge City Community College. That doesn't make me any less smart than you. That doesn't mean I wasn't ready for a "real" college. People who go to community colleges other than Johnson County Community College are getting just as good an education as people at JCCC. "JuCo" means any junior college, so if you say, "I used to go to JuCo," and someone asks, "Which one?" You should respond with "JCCC." I've seen many KU students get blank looks on their faces when placed in that situation.
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Secondly, to all you Johnson Countians, you sound ignorant and egotistical when you have no idea what the rest of the state looks like and you've lived in Kansas all your life.
For any questions, call Fank Tankard or Have Hugh
at 844-8190 or e-mail omission@kansan.com.
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General questions should be directed to the editor at editor@ansan.com
Now that I've brought up the cowboy culture, I want to remind my readers that not everyone in western Kansas is a cowboy. I hate country music with a passion. We do not wear cowboy hats to work. Most people don't even own cowboy hats. In western Kansas, we don't ride horses. We drive cars or, most likely, large trucks. We also have Internet. You wouldn't believe that I once had a professor who didn't think we had Internet in western Kansas.
Dodge City is in Kansas, not Texas. I can't count how many times KU students ask me where I'm from and I tell them, "I'm from Spearville, near Dodge City." They respond with "So you're from Texas." Dodge City was the setting of the hugely popular television and radio show "Gunsmoke." The show was about living and settling the American West. In short, it was about cowboys and gunfights.
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EDITORIAL BOARD
Albe: The Kansan will not print guest columns that attack a reporter or another columnist.
Jonathan Realing, Erick R. Schmidt, Gabriella Souza, Frank Tankand, Dave Buligh, Steve Lynn, McKay Stangler and Lloora Mots
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