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WILKINS: Look around you, and you will quickly notice that the KU population, which we take for granted every day, is racially unequal. See kansan.com for more opinions and Free for All comments
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2006 WWW.KANSAN.COM
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
OPINION
PAGE 5A
》 OUR VIEW
Philanthropy back in style for the rich
If there is one giant upside to the growing rich/poor disparity in the United States, it is this significant development: Philanthropy is vogue again.
OK, maybe it never really went out of style, but for a long time people made charitable contributions simply for the tax deduction. But check out the newsstands now: There's Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, each donating huge sums to fight AIDS and poverty. (Buffett's donation to the Gates Foundation was the largest single act of charity in American history.) There's the local Kauffman Foundation, lauded in The Kansas City Star for its excellent work. And sure enough, there's philanthropy's rock star Bill Clinton jetting all over the world raising money and awareness, and gracing the covers of political opposites Fortune and The New Yorker simultaneously.
Philanthropy is suddenly the hottest cause around. Giving is the new earning, and private capital, not public funding, is driving this trend. Hedge fund managers are lining up to give money to Robin Hood, a New York-based foundation made up entirely of celebrities and Wall Street's richest that combats local poverty. It is appropriate that the extraordinarily wealthy and successful hedge fund managers should lead the effort to help those less fortunate.
Charity has become such a popular gig that the hippest entity, the Clinton Foundation, doesn't even have any money. It simply coordinates efforts of the world's richest to fight poverty and sickness, depending entirely on the tireless efforts of the suddenly apolitical Bill Clinton. Who else could form a charitable partnership between Barba Streisand and Rupert Murdoch?
This all demonstrates that material success means little in principle if not accompanied by wisdom. Buffett has shown for decades that he is one of the smartest men in the world, but only now has it become clear just how wise he is. He knows that all the personal wealth in the world cannot obscure the fact that millions live in unfathomable poverty.
The confluence of celebrity and charity creates a wonderful opportunity for students to get involved at any level. Take Buffett's example to heart. Think about stopping next time you see an organization asking for donations on Wescoe Beach, and give what you can.
John. F. Kennedy once said, "If we cannot help the many who are poor, we cannot save the few who are rich." Let's be glad that advice is in style again.
McKay Stangler for the editorial board
Grant Snider/KANSAN
COMMENTARY
Zoom out and realize life equals change
Scrambling out of bed, you come to your second realization of the morning. Your midterm, the one that counts for a third of your grade, is today.
After smacking the snooze button for the fifth time, you just happen to squint at your alarm clock, which is emitting its nails-on-chalk board screech, and realize that you have 15 minutes to get to class.
Tearing the room apart in search for any pair of jeans, you glance out the window just in time to watch the last bus pull away, nearly mocking the fabulous start to your day.
Finally, only after waiting at every stoplight and parking illegally, you make it to class with less then half-an-hour to take the exam.
You run out the door, and of course what started as a drizzle of rain has become a pouring shower, perhaps to replace the one you missed this morning. You spend the next few minutes desperately trying to start the "piece of junk" while contemplating why you even bothered waking up.
Uttering profanities under your breath, you run down the hall to your roommate and beg her to borrow her car. Half asleep, she points to the keys on the floor and in a slumbered mumble says, "Good luck starting the piece of junk."
BY YELENA PAVLIK
KANSAN COLUMNIST
OPINION@KANSAN.COM
breath.
It's these days, when nothing can go right and everything that can go wrong does, that you need to remember one word: breath.
Yes, breathe. I am aware that this action essential to life occurs more than a dozen times a minute, but it is also this essential action that you have the ability to control. Yoga, meditation, even playing a musical instrument all require the control of
It's the days when you wake up and remember the fight with your significant other, when you and your best friend are still not on talking terms, when you are still broke and will be for at least another two weeks, when you are so stressed out with school and work that the more there is to do, the shorter time seems to become. The days you spill coffee all over yourself just as you finish the 12-page paper due in an hour and at the exact moment you hit print, the computer decides to have a seizure and resolves to stop working.
So inhale, exhale and consider the situation at hand. Be it an every day dilemma, or a tragic event, remember that all the problems we encounter just need perspective.
You have control of every situation. While it may not seem like it at the time, you are the only one who can control your reactions and as a result your actions to seemingly uncontrollable circumstances. While the world around may never cease to spin less than a million miles a minute, you still have the ability to slow down and take a breath.
Zoom in and out of your current circumstances. Look at the little picture. Is the situation so ridiculous that the only thing left to do is laugh about it? Or zoom out to the big picture. What can you derive from even the worst experience?
Think about all the things that you value, and step back to realize that just because a certain part of your life is not working out exactly as you hoped, the world goes on.
A well-known quote I first saw on a bumper sticker of a car says it all:"Life is change, growth is optional."
Pavlik is a Plano, Texas, sophomore in journalism.
I just got a new iPod and the new earphones are freaking me out. They are like aliens. I'm stoned.
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I was on my way to class today and I saw a bobcat. I'm not kidding.
I have a public service announcement: Dunkin Donuts is open 24 hours a day.
By the time I reach Lawrence, the place that I call home almost seems like a distant memory. On most days, I would be hard pressed to find a fellow Kansas Citizen among my classmates. Meanwhile, "JO" license plates are about as common on campus as fake blondes and motorized scooters (don't get me started).
This is for the guy reading Playboy in Mrs. E's: Most people wait to get home to do that.
Throwing your cigarette butts on the ground is unattractive.
My drive to school each morning reveals a central fact of life at the University of Kansas, which goes unnoticed by many students and faculty: The University of Kansas is a center of privilege in a starkly divided nation.
I'm out the door by 6 a.m. I take Benton Boulevard to Independence Avenue, past groups of young teenagers waiting for buses to take them to unaccredited high schools that barely function. I take Independence to Prospect, overlooking a City Hall that has failed its citizens' educational needs for as long as I can remember. From there, it's only a few minutes to the highway, where I pass through cities like Mission, Leawood, Overland Park, Olathe — places with some of the best public schools in the country.
To the people that complain about Safe Ride: It is a free service. Either stop complaining or be
BY BEN WILKINS
KANSAN COLUMNIST
OPINION@KANSAN.COM
It only takes me about 45 minutes to get to school every day — I come from Kansas City — but I might as well be entering another universe.
For Hispanics, the numbers are even more staggering — 3 percent of the University's student body is Hispanic-American, -while more than 8 percent of the state's population is of Hispanic origin.
average) the percentage of black students at the University is even smaller,at 3 percent.
The University is not alone in this predicament. A recent NPR story reported that black enrollment at UCLA has dropped nearly 60 percent in the decade since the state outlawed the use of race in university admissions. Situated in the midst of a county with more than 1 million black residents, the number of African-American students in UCLA's incoming freshman class for 2006 is — wait for it — 96.
If the University of Kansas is to be a university for all Kansans, as well as for others across the country, some big changes need to be made. Education is the main pathway to success and security in this country. That path is blocked off for far too many Americans. Unfortunately, things are only getting worse. As many students who rely on aid can tell you, college is getting harder and harder to pay for as the years go by, largely because of recent cuts in student loan programs under the Bush administration.
Higher education is just one area in which the strides toward equality achieved during the Civil Rights Era have been steadily, methodically dismantled by the political descendants of the old "white resistance" to desegregation.
economic status is the final, determining factor of who makes the cut at the University.
If I were a gambling man, I'd bet that wealthy people in areas with top-notch school districts — or those who can afford private school — account for a disproportionate chunk of the freshman class each year, while low-income people across the region, regardless of race, send only a select few.
Access to University should be equal
Much of this privilege falls on racial lines:It's no secret that llohson County is mostly white, while Kansas City, Mo.,is largely black and Hispanic. The statistics show as much.In a state with a relatively small black population (5.9 percent, about half the nation $ ^{a} $
COMMENTARY
Clearly, there are no easy answers to this situation. In the minds of some, no answer at all is needed, because things are just as they should be. I don't have the space here to argue with people who think that racism and inequality are no longer issues, or that most KU students are actually here solely because of their "merits." You'll probably get laughed at for saying that type of thing in my neighborhood — but like I said, this campus and my neighborhood are universes apart.
But race is not where the issue ends in many ways, it's not even where it begins. Access to education isn't a purely black and white issue. Social class is a more hidden, but just as present, factor in University enrollment. It may even be said that, at the end of the day, socio-
Wilkins is a Kansas City, Mo., seniorm in history.
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