4A
Wednesday, September 21, 1994
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
God exists in the preservation of earth's beauty
COLUMNIST
DAVID ZIMMERMAN Conservative Christians cynical about environmentalism should look closer.
Last Saturday, in Kansas City, the Catholic Church sponsored a musical. The musical, called "Earth Awakening," used music, scripture and a letter from the pope to encourage Catholics to be more environmentally conscious. It is a response to a pastoral letter written by the pope in 1900 urging Catholics to take more action to protect the environment.
Even though I am not Catholic, I find myself agreeing that Christians, indeed everyone, should be taking more action to preserve and protect the world around them.
I have found that most conservative Christians are extremely cynical toward taking action to preserve the environment. I am not excluded from
this group — last year I frequently razzed my roommate for all his environmental propaganda.
For all my cynicism, I was inconsistent. I enjoyed being in the outdoors — camping, backpacking, hiking and that sort of stuff. You have not lived until you have awakened in the bottom of the Grand Canyon to see the sunlight softly and gradually highlight the reeds and oranges of the buttes and mesas. I have never appreciated God's beautiful creation more than when I was sitting on top of Horn Peak in Colorado, reading the Psalms and absorbing the complicated beauty of the mountains around me — aliteral mountain-top experience. Attimes like these, I cannot understand
how people can say there is no God. How could I not want to preserve this beauty for others to share?
Most conservative Christians approach the environmental issue with defenses up. This is because, so often, environmentalism is equated with strange, pantheistic ideas about an earth goddess named Gaia. However pagan the idea of Gaia, she isn't the only reason people should protect the environment.
Christians often throw around the word stewardship. A steward is someone who is entrusted to care for the master's belongings. Most of the time, this concept is applied to money — we should take good care of the money God has entrusted to us. This
means we shouldn't waste our money, spend it poorly and, basically, throw it around. In the same way, we are stewards of this world. We shouldn't waste it, spend its resources poorly and throw it around.
Another reason so many conservative Christians aren't environmentalists is because it could distract from more important issues. First and foremost, Christianity is about a God who came to the world to pay the penalty for the sins of his people. Many times, Christian groups have forgotten this in the context of other issues. For instance, the Salvation Army used to be about bringing the gospel message to the people. Lately, it has been distracted from this mission in order to
focus on feeding the poor. Feeding the poor is a good and noble action — which Christians are called to do — but what good does it do in the eternal scheme of things to have a full belly but confined to the fires of hell.
their caution is correct. We shouldn't let environmentalism become the overriding issue for Christianity. However, because the saving grace of God is the key issue of Christianity, we should try and preserve the world's beauty. "The heavens declare the glory of God," says Psalm 19, "The skies proclaim the works of his hands." An ugly world full of pollution does not do this.
David Zimmerman is a Wichita senior in communication studies
VIEWPOINT
Commissioner's tax plan deserves to be defeated
It's too bad County Commissioner Jim Chappell is not up for re-election in November.
Although we cannot vote the man out of office,we can at least ensure that his outrageous 1 percent county-wide sales tax increase will not pass.
Chappell has decided that the only way to make sure "transient" students pay their fair share in the community is by increasing sales tax.
What he fails to realize is that all Lawrence and Douglas County residents will be affected by such a tax increase and that very few of those residents are likely to go for such an increase.
But that is not the only failure in Chappell's reasoning.
Part of the court system that sees those students is the traffic court.
The commissioner contends that part of the tax increase would go to pay for the gross numbers of KU students clogging the court system.
What Chappell doesn't mention is the tremendous amount of revenue Lawrence receives from traffic fines and parking tickets.
This is revenue that allows the town of Lawrence to maintain such a large police force.
Another failing in Chap-
pell's reasoning is that students do not pay property tax. Part of the sales tax increase, he says, will go toward relieving the property tax of Lawrence residents.
Contrary to Chappell's public statements, students do pay property taxes when they pay their rents.
It is highly unlikely in a city where rent is high that property owners are not including the cost of property tax in the monthly rent they charge students.
Chappell himself should be well aware of this considering that he owns rental properties and a property-management service called Chappell Land Company.
It is obvious that Lawrence and Douglas County would not be what they are without the University and without the students and professors and jobs it brings in.
At least it is obvious to everyone but Jim Chappell and anyone who supports his poorly reasoned sales tax increase.
The best thing students can do for Chappell is to get out and vote against his tax increase and, when the time comes, do him the favor of voting him out of office and saving him from making a bigger fool of himself.
DONELLA HEARNE FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
KANSAN STAFF
JEN CARR Business manager
STEPHEN MARTINO Editor
CHRISTOPH FUHRMANS Managing editor
TOM EBLEN
General manager, news adviser
CATHERINE ELLSWORTH
Systems coordinator
CAMERON DEATH Retail sales manager
JEANNE HINES Sales and marketing adviser
News ... Sara Bennett
Editorial ... Donella Heame
Campus ... Mark Martin
Sports ... Brian James
Photo ... Daron Bennett
Mellasa Lacey
Features ... Traci Carl
Planning Editor ... Susan White
Design ... Noah Muuss
Assistant to the editor .. Robbie Johnson
Editors
Business Staff
Campus mgr ... Todd Winters
Regional mgr ... Laura Guth
National mgr ... Mark Mastro
Coop mgr ... Emily Gibson
Special Sections mgr ... Jen Pierer
Production mgrs ... Holly Boren
Regan Overy
Marketing director ... Alan Stigle
Creative director ... John Cartton
Classified mgr ... Heather Niehaus
Letters should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 200 words. They must include the writer's signature, name, address and phone number associated with affiliated with the University of Chicago or a university, town or faculty or staff member.
Guest columns should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 700 words. The writer will be photographed.
The Kansan reserves the right to reject or edit letters, guest columns and cartoons. They can be mailed or brought to the Kansan newsroom, 111 Stauffer-Fint Hall.
Sean Finn/ KANSAN
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Kansan editorials lack importance
If I choose, I could certainly pick apart and find all the fallacies, inaccuracies, and downright ramblings of Mr. Zimmerman. However, I would merely like to request that the Kansan take the suggestion of one student who would much rather read opinions of more journalistic, as well as topical, issues than the
With all due respect to the University Daily Kansan and the many awards the paper has received, I wish to express my dissatisfaction for the recent editorial ("opinion") page for this semester, as well as the previous.
Perhaps this dissatisfaction is best exemplified by the editorial in the Kansan on Aug. 31, titled "Life's meaning found in faith, not rock lyrics." We had a crime bill pass the Senate, the "Haitian Coalition" was formed the day the editorial appeared (as was reported on the front page of the Kansan) and a former graduate assistant from the University had been found guilty of rape, as well as acquitted of a similar charge. With all these events, as well as many other issues too numerous to mention, to select from to compose an editorial, why did the paper choose to print this particular one?
Kansan has been presenting.
While the rock group Kansas has its own subtle form of topical journalistic merit and while the obvious importance of relating one of its songs to finding God could come in handy one day, maybe the editorial board could watch the evening news and come up with an issue someone might even have an opinion on, and dare I say it, care.
Jeremy Plummer Kansas City senior
Editor's Response:
We appreciate letters such as these, as they give us an opportunity to clarify the intent of our page.
The purpose of the opinion page is to provide readers with several viewpoints, which can be as broad in spectrum as a national event or as narrow in focus as a minor everyday occurrence. They can be serious. They can be funny. For this reason, the editorials and columns occupy separate portions of the page every day.
The viewpoint section that runs down the left side of the page is composed daily by the editorial board, which consists of 13 individuals from various schools within the University as well as varying schools of thought. Editorials, by definition, state the opinion of the paper.
Twice a week the board meets to discuss and to take a position on certain issues that affect the University or community. These issues, for the most part, take on a more serious tone. We attempt to consistently focus on the issues most important to KU, including issues of national or international significance.
Unfortunately, we do not always have the time to address every issue we feel is pertinent. We apologize at times, our editorial section falls short of providing all the information a student needs and wants.
In contrast to the editorial board, our columnists provide their own individual viewpoints. It is our opinion that the columnists we have hired for this semester represent a broad base of beliefs and styles. The subjects range from weighty topics such as rape or the crime bill to lighter topics such as time management or involvement in University organizations. With occasional editing, the columnist is his or her own boss. In other words, whether we disagree with a columnist's viewpoint is irrelevant.
If, on the other hand, readers such as Mr. Plummer find fault in our hiring practices, then we suggest submitting a column that would give us a reasonable alternative.
Donella Hearne editorial editor
Matt Gowen associate editorial editor
ERIKA RASMUSSON
There is a virus, silent but ever present, that is threading its way through campus and into the hearts and minds of female students and staff at the University of Kansas. This virus is fear, and it is threatening to become an epidemic.
Rape coverage does nothing to quell fears
The Kansan has been giving the issues of rape and assault full coverage this year and not always to rave reviews. However, I can't help but think that almost any coverage is positive because it puts these important issues where they need to be — in the spotlight and on the front page. And, unfortunately, there has been plenty of news to report.
Since August, when I returned to school, it has become apparent that perhaps Lawrence, and KU's campus, is not as safe as it has been in years past. I've seen filers posted that report a man assaulting women in northwest Lawrence. He is still on the loose. And according to a recent Kansan article, "the number of rapes reported on campus has increased 400 percent since last year ... " 400 percent!
That number alone is enough to put more than a little bit of fear and apprehension inside me. And I'm not alone, either. A professor of mine has called the police twice within the past two weeks because of a strange man (or men) lurking outside her house. On one occasion, a man streaked through her yard naked. On the second, a man actually got up on her back porch and unscrewed the light bulb she had turned on hoping to ward off intruders. So much for awareness. Apparently safety measures don't always work.
I'm to scary cat, nor is my roommate or any other woman I know. Still, a can of mace does little to quell the nagging fear that buries itself in my consciousness every time I must walk on campus at night. I can't help but be aware of the dangers. And sadly, the statistics seem to support my fears.
It is assaults such as these, as well as rapes, that put fear into women's hearts, making us feel unsafe in our own apartments and on the campus we call home. These are the thoughts that I think of when I must walk to my parked car in the dark, wondering if an offender is lurking in the shadowy trees or behind another car. It is thoughts such as these that have kept my professor in Kansas City some nights, rather than face coming home to an empty house at night.
Erika Rasmusson is a Minnitonta, Minn,
senior in magazine journalism.
MIXED MEDIA
By Jack Ohman