The University Daily Kansan emphasizes the First Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech. Or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
COHEN: Want to know what irony is? It's people who live a in democracy and don't cast their votes. Don't throw your vote away this election. See kansan.com for more opinions and Free for All comments
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2006 WWW.KANSAN.COM
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
OPINION
PAGE 4A
》 OUR VIEW
Dim lights, dim-witted city
Poorly-lit streets, heavy traffic and an abundance of pedestrians have combined to make Kentucky Street deadly, and the city must fix the problem now.
Kentucky and Tennessee streets are among the darkest and most frequented by vehicles in the Oread Neighborhood, an area heavily populated with student residents. Students walking to or from campus or nearby bars and restaurants need to be able to safely cross the streets at night. The city must install more lights along the streets.
The city could use the brighter, whiter lights that the University of Kansas uses to light parking
Only 13 and 15 dim streetlights shine along Tennessee and Kentucky streets, respectively, between Ninth and 19th streets. That's an average of 1.3 and 1.5 lights per block, though most of the lights shine at intersections. One streetlight on each street is broken.
lots and doorsteps. The city uses high-pressure sodium lights that emit a dim orange glow, unlike the bright, white metal halide lights used on campus.
A city ordinance requires streetlights at every street intersection and cul-de-sac. This often leaves dark stretches in the middle of long blocks. To combat this, the city could install crosswalks with flashing lights activated by a button when a pedestrian crosses the street.
Some residents might disapprove of additional lighting; they can simply close their curtains and blinds.
The lack of lights has become more than an inconvenience for students; it has become fatal. The city must rework its dim policy on lighting before another student dies.
Steve Lynn for the editorial board
COMMENTARY
If you say your vote doesn't count, it won't
Irony is a fun concept. According to dictionary.com, irony is "an outcome of events contrary to what was, or might have been, expected." Basically, it's the term applied to those "Well, I did not see that coming" moments.
It's like a free ride, when you've already paid, if you were to ask Alanis Morissette. It's how we describe Steve Irwin being felled by a stingray while Steve-O is safe and sound among grizzly bears and poisonous snakes.
In American society, we define ourselves by democracy. It's what is supposed to make us the greatest country on the planet, because it gives us, the people, power over the government. Yet to many, voting, the act of engaging in the democratic process, is irrelevant. If that isn't irony, I don't know what is.
Look at Kansas. It's traditionally a red state, where people with no experience in law enforcement can be attorney general as long as they are in the right party. There was even a book published not too long ago about how the Sunflower State has become so supportive of the Republican Party. What nobody seems to understand is how that can change with a little ambition on the part of the people who have, thus far, seen the democratic process as not worth their time.
I was speaking recently with a classmate when he explained to me that he does not vote because, quite simply, he doesn't believe that his vote matters. Apparently, this is a rather common mindset. If you don't live in a swing state, logic dictates that your vote will be swallowed up by the many people who support one side, or at least that seems to be what too many of us think. In truth, any state, county, city or high school drama club has large amounts of people who could drastically affect the outcome of an election, but don't, because they avoid the polls with the notion that they cannot make a difference either way.
BY BEN COHEN
KANSAN COLUMNIST
OPINIONKANSAN.COM
Party saw Democrat Kathleen Sebelius elected governor. While this may not have been a complete shot in the arm of Kansas politics, it did open up the possibility of a shift in the tides. Sebelius had surprised Kansans in 1994 by becoming the first Democratic insurance commissioner the state had seen in more than a century.
This year, she has one opponent that the Republicans have gotten behind, Jim Barnett, but she is less of an underdog. A study by SurveyUSA taken earlier this year had her in the top 20 in terms of approval ratings among all governors. Nevertheless, the Kansas Democratic Party has put a great deal of work into rallying not only the left-learning faithful, but the ever-valuable swing voters that some people don't seem to realize exist in this state.
None of this can predict the outcome of the elections. Nothing really can but time, and that is the beauty of democracy that sadly goes unnoticed by many. A vote for a Democrat in Kansas can mean a lot, just like a vote for a Republican in New York. However, if the people who could cast those votes don't see this, and go with the "one vote doesn't make a difference" notion, then very few people will vote at all, and politics in this and any other supposedly dyed-in-the-wool state really will be as predictable as they think.
That brings us back to irony. The irony here is that the apathy of so many people may very well be the reason that things happen the way they think they do.
In 2002, a split in the Republican
Cohen is a Topeka sophomore in journalism.
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Why even senators hate Student Senate
GUEST COMMENTARY
There is nothing like campaign season when it comes to Student Senate at the University of Kansas. The Gideons, the military recruitment officials and all the community service activists combined do not attack campus as completely or effectively as prospective senators do every spring.
So, where on earth are they the rest of the year? Furthermore, what ever happens to all those campaign ideas once senate is in session again? As a one-time student senator who was suspended by senate, I believe I can shed some light on the issue. Half of the platforms are just senators taking credit for things that are probably going to happen regardless of who gets elected, and the other half of the platforms are things that cannot be done. Either way, how much is accomplished has little to do with who's in Student Senate.
What goes on behind senate walls is top secret, and I could be killed for sharing this information. So, start calling me Deep Throat and read on.
I'm sure that, considering my opinion, you have begun to wonder why I ran for senate in the first place. Sometimes, only first-hand experience can end naive idealism.
Having been in senate, I feel confident that most of the time spent in senate meetings can be divided into three categories.
The first is pointless debate. I give the example of the Native American mascot ban of last year. That resolution was passed unanimously without any negative speeches. Regardless, we spent an hour talking about it. I am not even sure how the affirmative speakers managed to talk for an hour with no opposition. Considering the war in Iraq resolution and the gay marriage ban resolution of the year before, we were lucky to move on in an hour. The sad thing is that resolutions that state the opinion of the senate have absolutely no power whatsoever, and that is an hour of my life I will never get back.
The second area where senate spends time is pointless infighting. In the same meeting as the mascot ban, we discussed a bill regarding physical polling sites during senate elections. Less than 20 percent of students vote regardless of how the system is changed, and senate is still jockeying for superior political position with debate on the system. That debate took another hour, and the only people who will ever care were sitting in that senate room.
The final area where senate spends time is pointless rubber-stamping of funding allocations. On the one hand, getting funds to student organizations is a necessary task. On the other hand, few people understand how totally superfluous senate's role is. About three weeks ago, I was in a senate meeting that was almost totally devoted to funding legislation. At the end of the meeting we had allocated about $10,000 to various student groups. We did this without serious debate on any issue. At the cost of $10,000 of student money, we all got to go home early.
Every spring, candidates exert impossible amounts of effort into annoying the general public just so that every fall a not small minority of them can quit or get fired. This is because the three basic things that senators get to witness once senate is in session are pointless debate, pointless infighting and pointless rubberstamping. What do these three things have in common? That's right, they are all pointless. And that is why even senators hate student senate.
John Connor
Overland Park senior
Former student senator
» LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Comic strip makes light of serious issue
The Sept. 19 "Boy Eats World" comic about a boy wishing his "grass was emo so it would cut itself" was fully inappropriate.
It makes light of a serious issue that faces many young people today. Although I have never had any personal experience with self-injury, I have known people who have, and it
really is a vicious cycle that becomes psychologically addictive and nearly impossible to stop without outside intervention.
It's more than just marks on one's skin; a report on the BBC's Web site states that 10 percent of visits to British medical wards are a result of self injury. For the Kansan to print
a comic making light of this condition that afflicts so many people, undoubtedly including some of our classmates at KU, shows poor judgment.
Dan Holmes
Olathe sophomore
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.
There is a guy giving blood on the front page with tattoos. Didn't the Red Cross just recall a lot of blood because of that?
To the giant blood drop on Wescoe: Are you single?
It is blood drive week. Be warned.
is it weird that my grandpa now has a Facebook?
Lawrence drivers aren't the problem. It is the people from Overland Park.
Hey, my grandma died last night. When I ran into McCollum to get clothes for the weekend, KU Parking wrote me a ticket. You can
people that flood into Budig and don't wait for people to leave.
SUCK
My newest pet peeve is the
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To the kid who is bashing on Hash: Hash is for free love and no one here loves you.
Blue sweater girl in front of Bailey: Keep your cigarette butts in the trash can. You are a bad
perso
KU Libraries is number one. This pencil is a number two. Find the problem in this sentence.
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Is it just instinct for people to slow down in front of cars when walking across a crosswalk?
COMMENTARY
Albright a model in class
BY LIZ STUEWE
KANSAN COLUMNIST
OPINION@KANSAN.COM
As we walked out of former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's lecture Wednesday night at the Lied Center, my two best friends, both bright, active young women, exclaimed, "She is my new hero!" I couldn't help but feel the same way.
What is it about Albright that is so appealing to women at the University of Kansas? And what can we do as Jayawks to bring some of her brilliance into our own lives?
Another admirable quality about Albright is that she cleared the path for women in politics. When she became secretary of state under President Clinton in 1997, she was not only the first woman to ever hold the office — out of 64 total secretaries of state — but at the time she was the highest-ranking woman ever in American politics. Going first is never easy, and she did it with an eloquence and grace rarely seen in today's world of negative politics.
Albright is proof that gender does not determine political ability. In a world full of messages such as "Why don't you lose some weight?" and "Why aren't your boobs a little bigger?" it is easy for women to feel that they just aren't smart enough or capable enough to participate in politics. It is easy to feel like the world doesn't take women seriously. And watching Albright on stage made us feel like here, right here on the KU campus, is something the world cannot deny. Women are powerful.
How can we incorporate the ideals embodied by Albright in our everyday lives? First, stay informed of international events. One of the most important things demonstrated by her time in office dealing with issues such as Afghanistan, Bosnia and conflicts in the Middle East is that Americans cannot ignore what is going on in the rest of the world. Keep up on the news, seek out independent news sources and critically examine those you do find. Secondly, never be afraid to be the first — the first woman on your flag football team or the first woman president of the United States of America.
With the model set by Madeline Albright, we can all learn to be strong, civic-minded leaders and help make this world better for the next generation.
The first thing that makes Madeline Albright so special is her radiant intelligence that was immediately obvious to everyone in the room. She received a standing ovation for merely walking on stage. Not many people in the world, male or female, could accomplish the things she has. Secondly, it is her humor. She proved last night that a well-timed joked can sometimes say more than a lengthy, serious speech.
TALK TO US
Stuewe is a Lawrence junior in political science and American stud-
Jonathan Kaeling, editor
6845-8544 or kaeling@kansan.edu
Erick H. Schmidt, managing editor
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Gabriella Sozza, managing editor
6845-8544 or grazz@kansan.edu
Frank Tenkard opinion editor
6842-9244 or shankard@kansan.edu
Dave Rugh, associate opinion editor
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kyo Haedl, business manager
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864-7666 or jwever@kansas.com
The Kansan welcomes letters to the editor and guest columns submitted by students, faculty and alumni.
The Kansan reserves the right to edit, cut to length, or reject all submissions.
For any questions, call Frank Tankard or Dave Rugh at 864-4810 or e-mail opinion@kansan.com.
General questions should be directed to the editor at editors@kansan.com.
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EDITORIAL BOARD
Jonathan Kealing, Erick R. Schmidt, Gabrielle Souza, Frank Tankard, Diane Ruigh, Steve Lynn, McKay Stangler and Louis Mora
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