THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY,MAY 11,2011
PAGE 5A
opinion
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The libraries should add "No couples" to their quiet zone signs, as they can never resist talking to each other.
Who wears a beanie when it's 90 degrees outside?
WHY IS IT SO HOT OUT?!?
Found an old paycheck while cleaning out my apartment; at least there was a reward for it.
Definition of senioritis: When your motivation to attend class is at an all-time low and your motivation to smoke pot is at an all-time high.
It's so hot in my dorm room tonight, I can't even sleep. Good thing I have articles to read, finals to study for... but most importantly a beautiful game I like to call "The Sims 3."
My brother just encouraged me to do a wet T-shirt contest to make money to pay for our cable bill. Wouldn't that mean he's trying to pimp me out?
You're the only person on Earth whom I would prefer being with than being single. That might sound sweet, but mostly everybody else just sucks.
My motivation is like your sex problem: it just won't come. Ever.
FFA kind of invented Twitter. Just sayin':
Today my professor set a piece of paper on fire using a magnifying glass, and tomorrow we get to see who can throw a desk the farthest. Engineering is so fun.
Accounting majors do it on top of the balance sheets.
My finals are worth 25, 25, 30, and 40 percent of my grades, which equates to paying $766 to take four tests and have two stressful weeks of studying.
When your kneepins are sweating,
you know it's hot out.
if guns kill people, then I can blame mis-speiled words on my pencil.
To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research.
I went outside once. The graphics were alright, but the game play sucked!
Happy couples, please stop rubbing it in that I'm single. My mom already reminds me all of the time.
Without bin Laden and the Lakers to hate on, I don't even know who I am anymore.
HOW TO GET INVOLVED
Interested in being a columnist or an editorial cartoonist for the opinion page next year? Email fall editor Kelly Stroda at kstroda@kansan.com.
Pre-natal care is not a privilege; it's a right
POLITICS
After celebrating our mothers on Sunday, we should take a good look at what our government is doing to protect maternal health.
Maternal mortality, the death of a woman due to complications in pregnancy or childbirth, is primarily a problem in the developing world, but preventable deaths still occur in the U.S. The maternal mortality ratio is higher in the United States than in 49 other countries. A nation that boasts such great technological advances in health care and such a high standard of living should not be a more dangerous place for a woman to be pregnant than 25 percent of the world's countries.
In the U.S., the maternal mortality rate among black women is almost four times the rate of white women. Amnesty International says that the obstacles some women face in obtaining adequate maternal health care in the U.S. include discrimination, language barriers and financial barriers. Race and poverty are obviously two major determinants of safety in pregnancy.
BY KELLY COSBY kcosby@kansan.com
Even though this is a prevalent issue, it often doesn't get the attention it deserves. This seems to follow the
trend of mothers not being as appreciated as they should be until Mother's Day rolls around—I think that many students would agree with that. It is time for us to make mothers a priority
Congress has become stagnant and unresponsive to the plight of pregnant women in our country. After failing to pass the Partnering to Improve Maternity Care Quality Act, our legislature now needs to make maternal health a priority. According to the Centers for Disease Control, many maternal deaths are preventable; it is unacceptable for Congress to continue ignoring maternal health when improved care could be saving lives.
ing public awareness and focusing on the standards for medical practices and the diversity of the workforce, this bill would address many of the current problems with maternal health.
Congress must pass the MOMS for the 21st Century Act, introduced by Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, a Democrat from California. By increas-
A significant shift in focus is necessary for our legislators to make this important decision to assist mothers.
In Kansas, the state government has passed some abortion regulations that seem to suggest that the health and well-being of mothers are not as important as playing politics. While some regulations are claimed to be in the interest of the health of the mothers, it is arguable that they effectively place political interests over maternal health interests.
In particular, the new parental consent law will place a larger burden on pregnant minors who may in fact be seeking an abortion (pre-viability) for their own safety or the safety of the child. This new law would require the consent of both parents for the minor to obtain an abortion, not just one parent.
In Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the Supreme Court held that a law requiring specifically one parent's consent was constitutional as long as there was a judicial bypass option. The
Supreme Court has not passed judgment on a law requiring both parents' consent; however, it is my hope that the Supreme Court will see this as an unnecessary addition to the process that places an undue burden on the woman seeking the abortion. There is still a judicial bypass option, but this should only have to be considered if the woman cannot obtain consent from either parent, not if she can obtain one parent's consent.
Only two other states (of the 24 that have consent laws) require consent from both parents. Obviously, this statute is about anti-abortion politics, not the health and welfare of the woman.
If our state legislature is any indication of some of the attitudes in Congress, representatives need to reevaluate their mindset and their commitment to protecting mothers. One way to do that is to address the issue of maternal mortality with the mothers' interests in mind, not politics.
Kelly Cosby is a junior in English and political science from Overland Park. Follow her on Twitter @ KellyCosby.
What's your best study tip?
on
twitter.com/KansanOpinion
M gerst12 Michelle
M_gerst12 Michelle @kansanopinion ALWAYS wait until the absolute last minute to study/print process books. Live life on the edge.
AlexBover90 Alex Bover
AlexBoyer90 Alex Boyer @kansanopinion I never pull all nighters. Set a time where you will guarantee to cut yourself off to sleep before a final.
sillymusicgeek Andrea Wilson @kansanopinion Eat marshmallows while you study. They taste good, and having something to chew on can help you focus.
ENVIRONMENT
Creative thinking can eliminate the waste from a night out with friends
I have a friend who claims that she's come up with a system for making a Chipotle burrito bowl last for four meals. Unfortunately for my waistline, my bowl is always empty before anyone else has even unwrapped a burrito. But, like my friend, I still take the bowl home with me.To be honest, I often take other peoples' empty bowls home with me too because they are compostable.
Chipotle, in all of its environmental genius, designed its packaging to be recycled and composted. The foil burrito wrappers can be recycled and the cups and bowls are paper, which can be composted. This is significant because recycling aluminum is 95 percent more efficient than sourcing brand new aluminum and composting organic matter such as vegetation, paper and food scraps provides us with great soil for producing more food. If you take your cup and bowl home with you and add them to your compost pile, they will break down in a matter of weeks, leaving you with a little more dirt and your community with a little lighter landfill.
Actually, many restaurants are starting to use compostable cups, which I think is great. What's not so great is that these restaurants aren't providing a compost disposal option and they aren't doing anything to educate their customers about composting at home. Right now, the only way to dispose of these items in the restaurant is to throw them in the trash. This means that they will end up
BY RAEANEH HANDSHY
rhandshv@kansan.com
inside of a plastic bag, which will take 10 to 20 years to decompose in a landfill. So what's the point?
If the restaurants did a better job of educating customers about composting, maybe more people would cart their trash home with them like I do. However, this isn't the best system, since you are rarely going right home from eating fast food and this can easily lead to unintended science projects in your car.
As I write this, I have four bowls from Chipotle in my car from last night's dinner with friends, and one of them is not empty. I know my car is going to smell for a few days and that my friends think I'm a little crazy for bringing their trash home with me, but I'm going to make soil for a fantastic garden, and I feel good about keeping our trash out of the land-fill. Now my friends know that the bowls are compostable. And now, so do you.
Handshy is a first year MBA student from Lawrence.
CULTURE
If sexuality is a choice, then it's a choice for all
In February 2011, Lady Gaga released her next hit, "Born This Way," breaking iTunes records. In this song, the pop-bubblegum (or rock-bubblegum?) sensation attributes biology to her bisexuality (hence, she was "born [that] way") and intersects her Judeo-Christian beliefs with this attribution singing that "A different lover is not a sin/Believe capital H.I.M."
On May 2, 2011, Rep. Steve Simon from Minnesota, in an attempt to persuade his uncertain electorate to vote against a 2012 bill banning same-sex marriage in the state, asked, "...[.]If it's true, that sexual orientation is innate, God-given... [h]ow many more gay people does God have to create before we ask ourselves whether or not God wants them around?"
Questions and claims regarding the origins of homosexuality are clearly still salient in our culture and politics, as neither social scientists nor scientists can prove one or the other, and people often use religious beliefs to give divine ethos to their assertions. Who cares,
BY JAMES CASTLE jcastle@kansan.com
In studies conducted in 2005 and 2008, Don Haider-Markel and Mark Joslyn, who happen to be professors of political science at the University, found significant correlations with beliefs about the origins of homosexuality and support for, or opposition to, gay civil rights. The authors conclude that, if a person believes homosexuality to be a choice or the result of environmental factors, he or she can predict a lack of support for pro-same-same policies from that person. Conversely, those who believe homosexuality to be the result of biological factors are much more likely
right? A lot of people, apparently.
to support gay rights. Explanations for this have to do with whether these urges can be controlled, and thus can change (opposition), or if the individual has no control (support) and cannot change.
Independent research groups, such as Pew and Gallup, often ask the question, "Do you believe homosexuality to be a choice?" Given the political climate, it's understandable for the researchers to word the question in such a way, but do people understand the implications of this wording? The questions assume being gay or lesbian is something to be researched and that other sexual orientations toward sex (because there are other things that make up our sexual orientations) are not, because there is no question as to the origins of heterosexuality, right?
Homosexuality is a part of a person's orientation, and if you believe homosexuality to be a choice,you are implying you believe sexual orientation toward sex to be a choice. You are also implying you believe other sexual orientations toward sex to be a choice,including
I am not arguing whether sexual orientation is a choice (though the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association both agree it's not). And I'm not arguing that it's the result of environmental factors or biology, it could very well be either or both.
But when you are asked whether you believe homosexuality is a choice, ask yourself whether your sexual desires for another person are a choice. Think more broadly about orientation. Is your gayness or lesbianism a choice? Is your bisexuality a choice? Did you choose to be straight? Is it the environment? Or were you "born [that] way"?
Castle is a junior from Stilwell in political science and human sexuality studies.
bisexuality, heterosexuality, etc.
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