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COMMENTARY: Bryan Dykman writes about the cynical, sometimes spiritual discovery of the late Kurt Vonnegut's books.
THURSDAY, APRIL 19,2007 WWW.KANSAN.COM
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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
OPINION
PAGE 9A
》 OUR VIEW
World concern can change environment
Last Wednesday at the University of Kansas, Robert F. Kennedy posed the following question about the environment: Why should we care? For students, this query begs immediate attention.
On a daily basis, we find food quickly; water flows in abundance from faucets in our homes. Gasoline is available with the swipe of a credit card. From our perspective, there is no pressing need to imagine particles of poison in our air or to visualize massive forests being toppled along with treasure troves of undiscovered species.
Products of a capitalist economy, we have been guided in the world by a dream of fast profit. We encourage unsustainable and exploitative policies, explicitly or implicitly, because they make cheaper products. We stand idly as profiting industries discredit environmentalists as crazed tree-huggers and politicians evade looming ecological concerns. Often, we disregard environmental topics as mundane issues on a liberal agenda.
Yet the environment, far more than a source of political issues, is the infrastructure in which we are inextricably entangled. It is the water, air and land that sustain life, the materials used to build cities, the resources that enable transportation and invention. It is, as Kennedy poignantly stated, our sole connection to that which is spiritual.
For its vital role in our lives, we should care. We should care because, piece by piece, we have been destroying this infrastructure. The consequences of our carefree behaviors are grim.
Chemical pollutants in our air spur sometimes-deadly respiratory illnesses. Toxins in our water damage our reproductive systems and cause retardation
in retuses. A 2007 report by The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change asserts that tens of millions will face food and water shortages by 2020 due to a lack of rainfall caused by global warming; the poorest will be hardest hit. The national security think-tank, the CNA Corporation, recently released a report authored by military admirals and generals that asserted that resource shortages caused by global warming are likely to spur "civil strife, genocide and the growth of terrorism."
Meanwhile, ecosystems are crumbling. The World Resources Institute reports that over 80 percent of natural forests on the planet have already been destroyed. The World Conservation Union lists thousands of animals that are threatened with extinction and asserts that humans are 99 percent of the cause for species' endangerment. The Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that, as a result of devastating fishing techniques, more than 70 percent of all fish species are dangerously exploited or depleted. Numerous other organizations spew sobering data on the deteriorating structure in which we live.
In a highly developed nation, we may be able to temporarily evade effects of environmental abuse. Ultimately, however, we cannot avoid the consequences, and the costs of our actions will be monumental. Our future generation will be particularly burdened, facing increased costs and risks and fewer opportunities to enjoy nature's unspoiled beauty.
If not for us, then for them, we should care.
Alison Kieler for the editorial board
》 LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Massacre should prompt more gun control
Just days ago, 33 students were killed in a tragic shooting at Virginia Tech.
I've spent almost no time in Virginia, nor do I know a single student who attends the university. I do know that they all woke up for class on the morning of April 16th just as you and I did. Groggy from the lack of sleep the night before, just like you and me, they dressed. Future doctors, businessmen, architects, social workers and engineers; they were simply living the only tragedy they should've had to: Monday morning. None of them should have become the headline on countless newspapers worldwide. Not on April 16th, 2007. These students should have been on the front page of the April 16, 2017 paper as Nobel Laureates or Pritzker Prize winners.
Though not a gun owner, I myself have shot a 9mm Beretta handgun and, believe me, it is not used to kill pheasant or deer. It is used to kill people. Students like you and me that didn't need to die so long before their time. Something beyond a week's coverage on CNN and a half-hearted apology from the NRA needs to be done to fix the gun problem in this country. There is no reason for these guns to fall into any hands, let alone the wrong ones. There must be change, or April 16th's Hokies may be tomorrow's Jayhawks.
1966, and Columbine High School of 1999 be remembered by equally terrible events like Virginia Tech of 2007? Why must we always have the hindsight in knowing that events like this could be avoided?
Why must awful tragedies like the University of Texas-Austin of
Nick Allen Boulder, Colo. sophomore
COMMENTARY
"So it goes."
Author's books not the same without him
I'm sure I'm not the first to say it regarding the loss of Kurt Vonnegut, but I'd like to think I am.
And so it did. I learned about his death from my roommate around 2 a.m. last Thursday morning. Instead of exchanging casual greetings or at least trying to not wake me up, he plainly informed me, "Kurt Vonnegut died."
It was this feeling of defeat. I suppose it's a sort of universal feeling, when an icon dies, because we have a couple of choices: a. pick up the heavy load that he carried and continue his cause. Or b: think, that's too bad and send in a few dollars to the new charity established in his name.
I'd like to stick with option a. I feel I owe it to Kurt. In my very secular life, he was the closest I
ever came to a religious experience; a copy of "Slaughterhouse-Five," a pack of his famous unfiltered Pall Mall cigarettes, and a little cynicism.
Well, maybe a lot of cynicism.
And armed with my book and a tightly rolled piece of tobacco filled symbolism, I began reading and trying not to slobber too much on the cigarette's tip, because when you do, the tobacco has a way of sticking either too or in between your teeth.
BY BRYAN DYKMAN
KANSAN COLUMNIST
OPINION@KANSAN.COM
People don't smoke to look cool, they smoke to practice coordination: try reading with one hand, ashing with the other, and using your tongue to flick tiny pieces of
tobacco out of your mouth, all while crossing your legs.
And so it went.
I felt I was really reading the novel, not just turning pages or preparing for a
tribute edition of "Cat's Cradle." Yet we'll forget him. If he's not here leading us, we won't be able to follow. Soon, he'll be reduced to a chapter in Norton's next volume of American literature.
test, but somehow, really preparing for life.
Like I said, maybe a lot of cynicism.
There is such a huge difference between having the book and having the man: the book can grant the experience, but it's the author who can continue to write them. In my brief experience, I felt like I was communing with the living man, because I knew he was out there doing the same as I was. With him gone, can it be the same to sit and smoke with the book, knowing he will never light one up again?
And in the midst of my preparation, he dies. And I'm back to those initial two options. As I flip through the New York Times, I'm pressed to decide quicker than ever. I get this feeling while reading a story about his life that we'll make a big deal about it now. National Public Radio will interview two or three people close to him and Barnes and Nobles will release a
Dykman is a Westwood freshman in English.
》 LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Students should be allowed right to defend themselves
Although the smoke hasn't cleared from the horrific tragedy at Virginia Tech on Monday, it's never too early to take a look at how to prevent such incidents from ever occurring again. If the wave of school shootings of the late 1990s are any indication, a strong risk of copycat shootings exists.
With this in mind, campuses such as ours that have banned all firearms are in danger. I think now is the time to seriously reconsider
giving students the rights to defend themselves, just in case. In a worst case scenario, campus safety probably would not get there until it's too late. Somebody intending to do damage isn't going to heed the existing laws, which only serve to penalize those who want to exercise their right of self defense.
Dan Holmes
Olathe sophomore
》 LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Hope springs from tragedy
Thirty two people were killed a couple of days ago at Virginia Tech. My heart goes out to each and every family that lost someone. Losing a loved one is never easy. It is even harder when they are lost in an unexpected and senseless act. It is not hard to look at the situation with anything but despair. We wonder to ourselves how anyone could do such a thing. But we mustn't lose hope at a time like this. We need hope now more than ever.
It isn't easy to have hope after tragic events like this one. But let us not overlook the acts of heroism that took place. While the bullets that were flying, amidst the chaos
that was that tragic morning one professor sacrificed everything for his students. Seventy-six-year-old professor Liviu Librescu used his body to block the door so that the gunmen couldn't enter the classroom. He gave his life so that others could live. On that morning in Blacksburg, Va., one act of pure evil was countered with one act of pure good. That action cost the professor his life. When the dust settles and this tragic event is just a memory we will remember the violence but let us not forget the acts of heroism.
Conor McCartney Madison, Wis. junior
FREE FOR ALL
Grant Snider/KANSAN
Call 864-0500
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it sucked!
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recorded.
Free for All, is it wrong that I gave a guy a judge in the booty with my car just to see what it would
feel like?
Why do people wear sunglasses on cloudy days?
To the guys trying to catch the squirrel down by the lake: We saw
What?
》 TALK TO US
Hey Free for All, can you turn a cardboard box into a transmogrifier? Because that would be awesome. Okay, you should get
on that
I brushed my teeth last night.
"D-bag" or "dirtbag" "Dirtbag" is a more versatile, heterosexual insult, nicer, and generally less offensive
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Hey Free for All, what do Austin and a tomato have in common? Neither one can play the saxo-
KU, what's our emergency plan?
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I've already been to the mall and
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It's ok Free for All, we found Meg.
it really bothers me that people say "douchebag" so much. We need to start using the term
Free for All, do you have a Facebook?
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