WEDNESDAY, JULY 18, 2007 | OPINION | WWW.KANSAN.COM THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN | 7
Opinion
》 LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Association bothersome to alums
This is an open letter to the KU Alumni Association:
I graduated from KU in 1993 and have been a proud Jayhawk ever since then. I've promoted the joys of KU every where I've been — Chicago, San Francisco, Amsterdam, Washington D.C., Oklahoma City, and Los Angeles, where I currently live.
Ever since I graduated, I have received mailings from you, entreating me to join (and donate to) the KU Alumni Association. Had I the means, I would have done so.
Unfortunately, I haven't, and I still can't. And yet the mailings still come. No matter where I live, you track me down. I have moved frequently over the years, and I have never, once, provided you with a new mailing address. And despite that, I have always received a new mailing from you, asking me to join the KU Alumni Association.
Until now, I often wished I could become a member of the Alumni Association, and I was flattered to discover that you had tracked me down, and had I the money, I would have contributed. This goodwill ended today.
Last week I received a mailing from you stating the following:
"Now we can save you $327.96 or more a year on auto insurance."
Everything you say, and everything you do, affects all of the students of KU, past, present, and future. My time at KU was priceless. Don't cheapen it by selling car insurance.
As a graduate of KU, I find this despicable. The KU Alumni Association is an association that should be setting standards for excellence. It is an association that should be sponsoring proud activities that people like me can gather their friends together around. It's an organization that sets the tone for all past and future students.
Wilton Paul Risenhoover Class of 1993
Grant Snider/KANSAN
》 LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Distortion and deceit are heart of every good relationship
I've finally figured out why establishing and maintaining romantic relationships fail. It is because of honesty that "best policy" people continue to zealously ignore!
Yes, it is true; the perfect relationship is one that relies completely on distortion (1/2 truth) and lying (no truth).
Distortion comes into play in establishing a relationship. Males rely on distorting their image with excessive displays of material wealth, wretched insults, and preening. Females rely on pungent perfumes, tight-fit clothing, and makeup to distort their image. Both do so to make each seem greater than each is.
However, once in a relationship, distortion takes the back seat to lying. This is because distortion becomes too hard to pull off. Knowledge of the other partner's habits, actual material wealth, and appearance ruin its primary usefulness. Though it's actually easier to disprove a lie (since it is less true) both partners expect the other
to tell the truth so don't immediately recognize lies.
It is through questions that these lies become apparent and eventually lead relationships to destruction. Eventually you'll find out your partner lied about something important to improve his or her ego and it will create conflict. You'll find your conscience clean, but you'll also find yourself alone—perhaps slobbering over a ten-dollar bottle of wine while listening to Manfred Mann's "Blinded By the Light."
The reason people avoid telling the truth in a relationship is because its usefulness is far less than that of lying. Lying will never be able to trump what the imagination can manufacture, because the imagination can produce the perfect response to any question. Also, truth is too often inconvenient—whereas lies or distortion are never inconvenient.
Thus, the perfect relationship is one where both sides are always lying or at least deceiving one another through some type of distortion. Both tactics
only ever fail because the lie or distortion isn't creative enough to convince the other person you're telling the truth, or because an outside source intervenes to tell the truth. Tattle tail...
Likewise, the worst relationships involve the most truth. To the comment, "Do you like my dress?" you wouldn't reply, "I thought it was above average, but not as good as Angelina's at the Oscars." Or, you wouldn't reply to, "What did you think of my story?" with, "I thought it was shallow and immature." Remember to duck when the swinging arm comes your way.
Again, truth is an evil thing in romantic relationships. Realistically, avoid it as much as possible! A healthy relationship will find both sides continually bored and speaking in platitudes. Also, remember to stock an arsenal of romantic comedy clichés and euphemisms and you'll be fine.
Nick Mangiaracina Lenexa senior
FREE FORALL
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Dear Kansan, try to put the right clues with the right crossword next time. You put the clues for crossword number two with crossword number one, and you put crossword number one clues with crossword number one. And I have to spend all the time
that I could have completing the crossword trying to figure out which the hell ones the clues went with.
Come on, man.
clues for number three have no grid, that made it really challenging.
When you made the clues for crossword puzzle one go to the grid for crossword puzzle two and the clues for number two go to number three, that just made it a little more difficult. But when you made the clues for number three have no grid.
people that I know. Not only me, I was talking to someone the other day and they said that by far the coolest person on Earth has to be absolutely you. And the way you dress is like
Down the street...Everyone just wants to be in your presence because you make everyone feel so good. And not only that, I think you, actually, you are probably one of the coolest
you are so colorful and flavorful. I need to go shopping next week, can you go with me? You are really starting to look sharp these days.
still have it. Good luck!
Hey Sophia, I was in the Duke TIP program a long time ago when I was 12, but I didn't get to go away to college. But they gave me a thesaurus. I
Has it beeped yet? Okay. Sittin' in the middle of a dirt road drinkin' beer. That's about it. With my best friend Lindsey, here. Rock on. How do I know it's over? Where's the red
--button?
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