4A
Wednesday, August 24.1994
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
CARSON ELROD
Accept your neighbors, even the scary ones
Neighbors can be one of life's greatest annoyances, but they are essential to the
college experience.
Neighbors are part of college life, just like dorms and people who say "Oh yeah, I really know what you mean." The neighbor is a phenomenon that can be a blessing or a curse depending on the neighbor. There are many different categories of neighbors to be on the lookout for.
I try to be the "Supercool" neighbor. This means that I go out of my way to make things work. I try to introduce myself, communicate that I will be living next to them and usually take them a bag of Oreos. This sets up an environment conducive to comfortable co-existence. (It breaks the ice.)
Commonly, in the dorms you will run into the "Hi, I'm a permanent attachment to your room" neighbor. These neighbors are some of the
tamest, but can often become rather annoying. They will know you're home like a cat knows when a can of food is being opened. They will be at your place in less than a jiffy to make sure that any thought of homework you might have had is completely destroyed. You can rid yourself of these neighbors by becoming the "Mooch" neighbor and asking them for money every time they step into your room. "Hi, great to see you. Do have a ten spot for me?"
"Mooch" neighbors transcend the dorms and find their way to everyone sooner or later. Beware of the "Mooches" because they will disguise themselves as the cute and innocent "Friendly borrower." "Could I borrow some more cookies? Can I borrow
some detergent? Might I borrow your car? Do you think I could borrow your girlfriend?" But one day you will wake up naked on the cold floor, with a puddle of drolw as your only possession, and realize something isn't right.
In any living space you can run into the "Scary neighbor." This is the neighbor that you see rarely and hear often. You might be sitting in your room and hear through the plywood wall a small explosion followed by a loud yelp of "It worked! It worked! Enough with these chimpanzees! Now for that nambay-pamby cookie-giving neighbor of mine." Should you encounter the "Scary neighbor," any of the pawn shop owners here in town would be pleased to show you a lovely line of firearms to maximize your
Second-Amendment rights.
Often you will have the "Party-time" neighbors. These neighbors rage until dawn daily. They may be fine during the day when theyhibernate,but at five in the morning,when you are lying in bed mouthing the words to the thirty-fifth playing of "Hey Ladies,"you wish that you could go upstairs,make your way through the barricade of empty kegs and tell them the Beastie Boys are asleep in L.A.
Finally, there are my neighbors. Cindy Crawford, Elle McPherson and Niki Taylor really liked the Oreos.
No, really. They want me to be in their next Sports Illustrated shoot. The truth is my neighbor introduced himself by telling me he was going to "kick my ass" if it didn't turn my music
down. At least he's not an introvert.
Needless to say, I fed his housewarming gift to a John Deere power mulcher.
Neighbors should be recognized for what they are; neighbors. They have their lives to live just like you do yours. We can't always be thrilled with them. However, living together isn't that hard if you are patient and understand that they are trying to get through this whole thing just like you are. The potential for friendship is there. Neighbors can turn out to be an integral part of surviving college. However, if you don't watch your step, they may injure you.
Carson Eldrod is a Topeka junior majoring in history and theater.
VIEWPOINT
NAACP's former director jeopardized group's integrity
Executive director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Benjamin Chavis, Jr.. was dismissed by the
board of the nation's oldest civil rights organization for what Chairman William Gibson termed "conduct
Chavis himself has made that point in an attempt to defend himself. But the use of NAACP funds could only exacerbate its financial situation. Such
BENJAMIN CHAVIS, JR.
He claims he tried to save the NAACP by paying off his accuser. To truly save the group
he should have
inimical to the best interests of the association."
resigned.
The most controversial of Chavis' actions was the misappropriation of $332,400 of the organization's money in the out-of-court settlement of an impending sexual harassment suit, an action critics have charged was one of many costly decisions Chavis has made without consulting the board.
Chavis contends that such a lawsuit would have severely damaged the reputation of the NAACP and that any court settlement would have far exceeded the amount of the out-of-court settlement to which he agreed. In the interests of the NAACP, he settled the dispute using the association's money, and such action was in no way inappropriate, he reasoned.
However, the NAACP was said to be in the red prior to Chavis' tenure as its executive director.
action would only serve to further harm the economic situation of the association.
Indeed, had Chavis truly
had the best interests of the NAACP in mind, he should have stepped down immediately after the sexual harassment charges were leveled against him. He should have declared that the charges had the potential to cause significant harm to the association's moral authority and its integrity and that he could not carry out his duties as executive director while fending off such accusations. Following his resignation, he could then have focused his attention on the sexual harassment case, while the moral and financial integrity of the NAACP was in no way jeopardized.
Decisive and selfless action in the form of Chavis'resignation upon revelation of the sexual harassment charges would have been to the benefit not only of Chavis himself, but also of the NAACP and the whole civil rights movement.
MICHEAL PAUL FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
KANSAN STAFF
STEPHEN MARTINO
Editor
CHRISTOPH FUHRMANS Managing editor
JEN CARR Business manager
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 Heime
Campus ... Mark Martin
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Photo .. Daron Bennett
        Melissa Lacey
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Planning Editor ... Susan White
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Assistant to the editor .. Robbie Johnson
Business Staff
Campus mgr ... Todd Winters
Regional mgr ... Laura Guth
National mgr ... Mark Mastro
Coop mgr ... Emily Gibson
Special Sections mgr ... Jen Perrier
Production mgrs ... Holly Boren
... Regan Overy
Marketing director ... Alan Stiglic
Creative director ... John Carton
Classified mgr ... Heather Niehaus
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THE U.S. CONSIDERS BLOCKADING CUBA...
Matt Hood / KANSAN
WE SHOULD CONSULT THE BLOCKADE EXPERTS
Crime bill would put prisons in perspective
So Bill Clinton and his congressional cronies want a crime bill. eh? You may be interested in reading some of the changes brought about by this bill.
If you watch as much television as I do, you may have seen the world renowned crime expert, Charlton Heston, warning that the bill creates a loophole through which criminals can escape any mandatory sentence. What Heston does not tell you is that the only people eligible for such treatment are nonviolent felons, many of them incarcerated for possession or sales of certain drugs.
But under Title V of the bill any person convicted of a "serious" violent crime who has two prior convictions of either "serious" drug offences or
Several weeks ago after watching four men on a national news show bicker over the bill, I became curious. Surely, there was more to it than the assault weapons ban or expansion of capital crimes. Several hours later, after a few phone calls and a trip to the library, I hunched over a 77-page summary of the bill.
Such a change in the law reverses a trend in U.S. drug war tactics which had previously sent peace-loving pot heads to the pen to the tune of one in six federal inmates.
COLUMNIST
DAVE HULL
"serious" violent offenses or any combination thereof will automatically quality for the grand prize of mandatory life imprisonment.
What exactly constitutes a serious drug offense? I'm afraid the bill's summary does not say, perhaps possession of a firearm and an illegal narcotic, or maybe selling or possession with the intent to sell such a substance.
In addition to tackling the problem of repeat offenders, the bill has an answer for those pesky judges who have been crying prison overcrowding with increasing frequency. The plan is really rather simple, although it probably won't win the approval of Amnesty International.
Overcrowding would be a thing of the past under the new plan. Congress would investigate the feasibility of converting three recently closed military bases into prisons.
And, as if that weren't enough, Congress would further eliminate the possibility of overcrowding by prohibiting federal courts from holding prison or jail overcrowding unconstitutional, except where an individual inmate proves that the crowding causes the infliction of cruel and unusual punishment. Another provision will eliminate ceilings for the number of inmates in many prisons. This part is retroactive. Without a doubt, it will lift a great burden for states with overcrowding problems.
Another bold move in the crime bill is the provision authorizing the removal from federal correctional facilities of anything that increases strength or fighting ability of inmates.
Congress should be commended for its efforts. Perhaps one day it will muster up the courage to strip violent offenders of a right that millions of law abiding Americans don't even have—health care.
Dave Hull is a Wichita senior majoring in history and philosophy.
Figures and facts aren't everything
For many of us, getting an education is a process of accumulating facts. We spend hours memorizing charts, equations and molecular structures in order to pass the class, get the hours and earn a piece of paper that says we have an education.
Facts are important, but an education is made up of more than just information. The most important aspect of an education is beyond the simple data we absorb in class. It is in understanding the underlying reasons behind the information we hear
If you were a student of physics, you would learn about Newton's three laws. You might take these laws and come to the conclusion that the universe is a system of orderly laws. To some, an education stops here. But this is only the start of an education. Someone fully educated would be able to answer the question, "Why is the universe like this?"
Some might jump up at my examples and say, "There is no answer to those questions!"
That may be true, but I think some hide behind that statement so they do not have to make the effort to look.
That is the tragic flaw in most people's education. Many do not take the time to look for the answers to the big questions: Why is there pain and suffering in the world? Is there a God?
Answers to these questions are important because they give our lives meaning. In fact, knowing the answers to these questions is more important than knowing the facts that generate them. This is because the answers affect us in more profound ways. You say the amount of energy and matter in the universe is constant — big deal! However, if the universe is governed by a loving God, the implications can change my life.
One reason people do not search for the deeper answers is the way our educational system works today. We simply are not confronted with deep questions in our classes because the answers cross the line of separation of church and state. Too many people take refuge behind the First Amendment so they don't have to search. The First Amendment does not mean that we cannot search on our own.
There are a lot of places to search for the answers to questions like these. You could take advantage of Spiritual Awareness Week (Sept. 19-22), or go to church with a friend.
Take advantage of the resources at your disposal and search for the answers that are not on the final.
HUBIE
David Zimmerman is a Wichita senior majoring in communication studies.
By Greg Hardin