The University Daily Kansan emphasizes the First Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech. or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
HAYES: A recent trip to the Sistine Chapel reveals a common trend of circumventing the rules for selfish ends. See Kansan.com for more opinions and Free for All comments
WEDNESDAY, MAY 2, 2007WWW.KANSAN.COM
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
PAGE 9A
》 OUR VIEW
United States should keep eye on Russia after Yeltsin's death
The recent death of former Russian President Boris Yeltsin, while perhaps unsurprising given his taste for life's finer things, is nevertheless sadening. However, it gives the democratic nations of the world an important chance to renew the global discussions about the progress of peace and freedom around the globe.
Yeltsin, Russia's only democratically elected leader in its tortuous history, was a study in contrasts. His public zeal and championing of people's rights was inspiring, but his private life and governing style
leaned uncomfortably close to the Soviet style Russian citizens knew all too well. They say that power corrupts, and Yeltsin partially succumbed to that axiom; however, he also remained a proponent of the rights of the everyman.
Yeltsin gave way to Vladimir Putin, who, despite President Bush's testimonials about the integrity of his soul, appears to be far less committed to Yeltsin espoused democratic reforms. He has led a nationwide crackdown on opposition parties, detaining former chess wunderkind Garry Kasparov,
and has steadily increased the Kremlin's influence on Russian media. The most recent move is to require a nearmajority of programming devoted to positive news about the government.
We will no doubt need Russia as an ally as our fight against terrorism continues. Indeed to let such an important neighbor relapse into an apparatchik attitude could be harmful to our efforts at global peace.
It has become quite trendy in these, Fukuyama's end-of-history days, to speak of things in "post-national" terms. Democracy and economic liberalism, the lingua franca of globalization are said to have triumphed over competing ideological forces, ceding all battlements to the power of Western forces.
However, national borders and affairs still matter, especially in the case of a behemoth like Russia. Erosions of personal and media freedoms in a nominal democracy the size of
Russia are troubling, and speak ill of the future of democracy.
It's difficult to underestimate the importance of personal and political freedoms—we in America often take them for granted, devoted to the notion of free speech rights for all. But when we see a unilateral approach taken to restricting freedom in Russia, it reminds us that the mentality, if not the actual apparatus, of the Soviet mindset is in fact not moribund but thriving. This is probably unsurprising, given the czarist nature of Russian history, but should be troubling.
We will no doubt need Russia as an ally as our fight against terrorism continues. Indeed, to let such an important neighbor relapse into an apparatchik attitude could be harmful to our efforts at global peace. We should keep a close eye on the future of Russia, and watch for telling signs of erosion of our own personal freedoms. A KGB worldview in Russia is disturbing; in America, it could be downright frightening.
— McKay Stangler for the editorial board
FREE FOR ALL
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My lips taste bad.
I just saw a giant doughnut skating down the street. Typical Monday.
tree, again
Free for All, I got closelined by the
Update: Congratulations to the 56 men and women wearing green shirts and khaki pants today.
breaking the rules and not getting in trouble, it must be okay. Therein lies another disturbing trend—the assumption that coming out ahead requires rule breaking.
I went to Dallas this weekend, and Brandon Rush was on my flight, sitting two seats behind me. I was extremely aroused.
I want to thank whoever just threw a water balloon at me while I was tanning behind Ellsworth. I was starting to get hot.
Congratulations to every member on campus wearing green shirts and khaki shorts. All 51 of you, congratulation on wearing the shirt on the same exact day.
You're one in a million. Thunderstorms are God's way of giving hilpies showers.
giving hippie
I was thinking, if you were in a drawing class with really hot people, and you had to draw them, I bet you would screw up more easily, because you'd just stare at their face and not the drawing.
It was raining in Hash last night.
The girl at Yello Sub stamped my card twice, and it's not even double stamp day. I can tell it's going to be a great day.
To the Taco Bell employee who just told me I was behind Brandon Rush in line: You're cute.
COMMENTARY
Rule-breakers ruin fun
The sign says no photography. Silence should be observed at all times. I put my camera away and head inside, anxious to look around. Click, Click Flash!
What should have been the experience of a lifetime, visiting the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City, was damaged by numerous guests' inability to follow directions. Besides snapping away at the centuries-old frescos, they refused to stay quiet. It angered me that they treated the chapel like a tourist attraction and not a church.
I struggled to figure out why, despite being told not to, so many people took photographs and talked inside the chapel. In the end, I decided it had to be a combination of arrogance and the mob effect.
It's an alarming trend in our society — people assuming that they're somehow above the rules. It's considered cool to rebel. It's more fun to be bad than to be good. The signs must refer to everyone except them.
The mob effect draws in those few people who tried to resist temptation. They see the signs and do their very best to behave, but upon seeing other people breaking the rules, they ask, why not them? Why should they behave and get nothing while the miscreants come out ahead? If other people are
The mob effect draws in those few people who tried to resist temptation. They see the signs and do their very best to behave, but upon seeing other people breaking the rules, they ask, why not them? Why should they behave and get nothing while the miscreants come out ahead?
In the Vatican, snapping pictures in the Sistine Chapel has little effect other than showing immense disrespect and causing annoyance. In the real world, societies crumble
when people, en masse, decide that they can't be bothered to behave.
I know stealing cable is wrong, but my neighbor does it and I want HBO so I can watch "Entourage." The sign says no smoking in this area of the restaurant, but I don't want to move. The light turned red but I'm in a hurry, so it's okay if I run it.
This attitude of "me before everything else," be it public health, traffic laws or fine art, will eventually lead to outright moral decay. It may seem small and insignificant, but as it accumulates, it becomes much more damaging. The same disregard a person can show for a painting can become contempt for anything else, including other people. Taking artistic integrity away from dead men can easily morph into stealing more tangible objects from live neighbors. The bridge isn't nearly as wide as some would believe.
Leaving the cacophony of camera clicks and calling voices behind me, I leave the Chapel and collect a souvenir that doesn't involve selfishness: a postcard.
Hayes is a Lenexa sophomore in journalism and political science. She is studying abroad this year in Reading, England.
》 LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Thought of abortion forces re-evaluation of life
I remember a time when Nickelodeon didn't suck. "Hey Arnold," "Aaahh!!! Real Monsters," "Rocko's Modern Life" and countless other shows ruled my life. Chucky is still my favorite ginger kid of all time (Big Red is a close second). My childhood aspiration was to climb the Aggro Crag.
But one third of my generation didn't get that chance. They will never know what it's like to see "Freddy Got Fingered" or to call their parents after getting administratively disenrolled from physics 211 for not going to the first lab.
Forty-eight million people will
never have the chance to do anything because of a choice.
I've made a lot of dumb choices in my life. Answering "Reader beware: you choose the scare" to "What topping would you like on your pizza?" immediately comes to mind. If only I had known anchovies on the pizza would suck every bit of moisture from my body, I would have requested a specific topping.
Having pictures of aborted fetuses might not be the best way to change someone's mind on abortion. But it should make our generation think if our best friend or future spouse was
the one pictured on the side of those trucks.
When walking on Wescoe Beach, imagine one third more people walking around. When thinking about childhood friends, imagine a third again as many of them and the memories there could have been. When considering an abortion, imagine taking the training wheels of your baby's bicycle, imagine his or her first prom.
Abortion may be legal, but that doesn't make it right.
Zach Gardner Lawrence freshman
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EDITORIAL BOARD
Gabriella Sauce, Nicole Kiely, Patrick Ross, Courtney Hagen, Natalie Johnson, Alison Kieler, Tasha Riggins and Mckay Stangler