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EDITORIAL: For far too long the Graduate Teaching Assistants Coalition and KU officials have been fighting. Who's right? Who cares anymore. Get it resolved See kansan.com for more opinions and Free for All comments
MONDAY, AUGUST 21, 2006
WWW.KANSAN.COM
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
OPINION
PAGE 5A
OUR OPINION
Let's get weirder
KU students, it's time to turn your backs.
For too long people have been trying to change the world in tired ways.
The rhetoric from the sidewalk-chalkers and the Inspirers of Idle Youth boils down to four things: Vote. Get involved. Volunteer. Protest something.
In other words, they say you need to turn off the TV and wake up to the world. Fair enough. But the next step — what to do — has been confined and regulated to the point that our generation's rebels resemble the mocha-drinking, iPod-listening parodies of 1960s protest figures you see today.
It's time for some new energy. On Friday, a group of people went through the middle of campus. Did you see them? They all wore weird colorful clothing and the one in the back carried a boombox with funk music blaring out the speakers.
This group out to freak the squares was also a copy of the 1960s rebel movement, straight out of the pages of "The Electric
Kool-Aid Acid Test." But there is a difference between them and today's mainstream activists, and it shows what has survived from the 1960s and what has been lost.
What has survived is a subdued version of the Vietnam protestors, with their activism always regulated by time, place and manner.
What has been lost is the spontaneous stuff. The weird stuff. Or even stuff that isn't necessarily weird, but isn't prescribed and predictable.
For instance, last year a KU student named Aaron Olsen, through his own initiative, started a garden on campus in what was formerly a weed patch near Smith Hall. The project wasn't revolutionary, but it was something new and that gave it a certain vitality.
Yes, it's time to turn your back on the tried and tired and worn-out action. And head someplace else.
Frank Tankard for the editorial board
》 LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Book prices are fair
The recent article "Student group works to keep college cost down" (8/17/2006) failed to provide an accurate understanding of the changing nature of today's college textbooks.
As the article noted, students have a variety of ways to save money on textbooks. Publishers are doing their
To help every student succeed, publishers offer thousands of options for textbooks and instructional tools at a wide range of prices. This variety allows faculty and students to use course materials that best suit their needs. Yet despite these advances, tuition and student fees have increased faster than the average new textbook price. According to Student Monitor, the average college student spent $644 on textbooks during the 2005-2006 academic year, a cost that has remained generally steady over the past three years.
As the cost of higher education continues to escalate, Americans publishers are helping students get the most out of their tuition dollar by helping them succeed. Contrary to the image created by your article, today's college textbooks may be the best long-term investment a student can make.
part by offering lower priced alternative texts in black and white, as well as the opportunity to pick and choose which supplemental materials students may want to use. Today, students have more choices than ever before in the textbooks and study tools that best suit their learning needs.
FREE FOR ALL
Stacy M. Scarazzo
The Association of American Publishers
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. Stlanderous and obscene statements will not be printed. Phone numbers of all incoming calls are recorded
First day of class and I'm already pissed off. What's up with no free bus the first week? Thanks, KU, thanks a lot.
Not The Crossing. Take me instead
heck?'
--heck?'
just had a sober moment where I was like, 'Dude, I have someone else's water bottle. How did it get switched with mine? What the
Hey Free for All, you know how people have those drunken moments when they're like, 'Dude, this is someone else's beer. I don't want to be nice' Well, I
know what's going on. 'Well, I
I'm drunk and I threw up.
If I were God I would take one big giant dump on Lawrence.
From now on there should be the regular Free for All and a "Snakes on a Plane" Free for All.
Free for All, I'm just calling to let you know that you are looking pretty good right now. But I'm pretty drunk, so you are probably looking better than you really are. So, what I really want to know, your bed or mine?
any other job, what really has to know, your bed or mine?
Life is for people who can't deal with drugs.
NO LIQUIDS OF ANY KIND.
DISCARD
SHAMPOO, BOTTLED WATER MOUTHWASH, DEODORANT.
Kevin Gayth 8-18-06
STAY
SCARED AND COMPLACENT.
》COMMENTARY
Progressives need to work harder
Enlightened citizens of the liberal oasis that is Lawrence, rejoice — the rest of the state is finally catching up to you. Earlier this month, in a statewide election high on publicity and low on voter turnout, Kansas relinquished its role as laughingstock of the late-night TV circuit (for now) when it ousted an anti-evolution majority from the state school board. Maybe those bumper stickers made a difference after all.
Taken with Bush's public approval nosedive, things seem to be looking pretty good for those on the left side of the spectrum, in Kansas and across the nation. Has the conservative movement finally run its course? Does Conan O'Brien need to start looking for some new material? Don't hold your breath. Unfortunately, as the saying goes, all that is apparent is not real.
BY BEN WILKINS
KANSAN COLUMNIST
OPINIONKANSAN.COM
At best, this month's elections should be seen as a partial victory for liberals. The religious right may have lost its power to the content of our state's textbooks, but its candidates won several seats in the state House of Representatives. And Jim Barnett
won the Republican gubernatorial primary with the backing of the farright Kansas Republican Assembly. Sorry to have to break it to you, progressive-minded students, but conservatives aren't going anywhere. Don't get me wrong — there's nothing I'd like more than to see them disappear. But the fact is that these days conservatives are the only ones out there doing the hard work of base-building that has to be done in order to gain political power.
Case in point: the anti-immigrant group FAIR spent decades under the radar, building support for its cause in cities and towns across the country, before immigration became such
a visible and controversial issue.
To bring the issue closer to home, students from Wichita might remember the massive anti-abortion demonstrations staged by Operation Rescue in the 1990s. Would the recent nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court have been so conservative were it not for the grassroots movement against abortion? Probably not.
Conservatives are winning because they have managed to capture the hearts and minds of many (but by no means all) ordinary Americans. Progressives, meanwhile, have seemingly lost their appeal. However, this wasn't always the case.
For example, in the early sixties, black and white students from around the country spent their summer vacations in the Deep South, under the constant threat of death, conducting voter registration drives among disenfranchised black sharecroppers. They did so not just in an effort to give help to the "needy", but because they realized that positive change in America comes from below, not from above. They were right
— the political system in America
underwent a drastic transformation as a result of their work
That mindset has been lost over the years. Nowadays, progressive-minded college students are more likely to disdain average Americans than to find common ground with them. More often than not, if they come from the Midwest, this leads to an intense desire to leave everything behind. I've lost count of how many friends of mine, disgusted with all things relating to Kansas, have fled their home state to the relative comforts of liberal havens such as New York, Chicago and — worst of all — San Francisco.
There's nothing inherently wrong with that, but it's no way to make social change. Conservatives will continue to make gains if the cynical, anti-populist mentality of liberals persists. And until we start pointing the blame at ourselves, instead of our fellow Kansans, things will only continue to get worse.
Wilkins is a Kansas City, Kan. senior in history.
COMMENTARY
Do your part, volunteer to help others
I was walking out of another unoriginal attempt at a blockbuster movie, arguing with my 11-year-old sister about what she called Hillary Duff's "brilliant performance" and thinking about where to go for dinner.
Then I caught sight of her: a woman no older than 30, wearing a ragged shirt, torn jeans and in need of a shower. Her unwashed face screamed misery as she sat in the alley between the theater and the parking lot with a cardboard paper sign asking moviegoers to spare a buck or two for her dinner.
Momentarily I was overcome with a terrible sting of sadness, shadowed by an odd guilt, for which I could not place an exact reason. I reached for my wallet to find that all I had was a debit card, no cash — and immediately felt worse.
BY YELENA PAVLIK
KANSAN COLUMNIST
OPINION@KANSAN.COM
to go back to the movie theater with a sandwich and hot coffee in hopes of showing the woman that the world had not forgotten her.
I stopped my car and looked around the theater and alleyway, but she was nowhere to be found.
early the next morning I decided
Driving back, the guilt from before situated its way into my thoughts. The countless opportunities and daily luxuries I had been given spiraled in my mind, and what bothered me most was that I had never considered them as such until that moment.
General questions should be directed to the editor at editor@kansan.com
An old proverb says that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link; then a society can only be as strong as its weakest members.
If we devote more time to the rich and famous — constantly reading and watching shows about them, spending thousands of dollars on their movies, music, sporting events and clothing lines — then the people next door who wonder where their next meal will come from, how they can help their sick child, where they should go when it starts to rain — if we spend countless hours promoting our own well-being, despite what it may mean to the rest of the world, caring more about ourselves, our worries, problems, goals and dreams.
- that shows exactly how strong our society is.
Go through your closet: There is bound to be an outdated pair of jeans, some T-shirts that are nearly
glued to the hangers from non-use or a pair of old sneakers you will never wear again. Take them to a donation center.
Maybe instead of spending that extra hour each night watching re-runs of "South Park," you could stop by the shelter and see if they need a hand. Join a children's community outreach program and spend an hour or two a week playing board games with some fifth-graders. Pass by the donation box and drop in the loose change that would end up under the cushion cushions anyway.
Helping can mean as little effort as taking a minute after checking your e-mail to visit www.theungerite.com, where the click of a mouse can help fund a school or support a child healthcare program.
Pavlik is a Plano, Texas sophomore in journalism.
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Jonathan Kanklin, editor
864 - 425A or jealting at kansan.com
Erick R. Schmidt, managing editor
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Gabrielle Souza, managing editor
864-425A or gozuo@kansan.com
Frank Tankard opinion editor
864-425A or funkerd@kansan.com
Dave Ruigh, associate opinion editor 884-4924 or druigh@kansan.com
864-4924 or druligh@kanan.com
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864-4014 or khoedi@kanan.com
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864-7867 or mjgibson@kanan.com
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》 SUBMISSIONS
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EDITORIAL BOARD
Jonathan Keating, Erick R. Schmidt, Gabriella Souze, Frank Tankard, Dave Rugh, Steve Lynn, Louise Mora and Mara Caputo
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