THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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ResNet sucks.
The definition of classy, throwing up off the balcony of Abe and Jake's at the pharmacy school formal.
We value grades over everything. And when teachers don't test concept, you have a lot of cheaters with good grades who know nothing. Myself included.
This veggie burger tastes a little off.
It needs a little more pepper and a lot
more beef.
F Physics!
Spring time, shorts time. Girls look sexier, guys look more awkward.
As a Topeka kid. Topeka's kind of lame. Why do you think I moved to Lawrence?
Suns out, buns out.
You know it's summer in Lawrence when all of the townies start wearing their Birkenstocks.
Boys that march in trat packs around campus — I dare you to walk alone. I DARE YOU.
The ghost of Naismith? I would rather believe it is the angel of Naismith that does good, not bad.
What's even wrong with hashtags?
twitterFTW
TUESDAY, APRIL 30, 2013
Don't you mean you "jayhawked" in front of that cep?
Anyone who says chivalry is dead can suck it. I've had four different guys open three different doors for me in the last 30 minutes.
If you are studying by yourself, don't sit at the big group study tables. Sincerely, unselfish people.
Okay people, stop saying spring has sprung. You're jinxing it!
Aw yest! Sundresses all over campus. I for one could not be any happier.
I actually used one of the phone charging stations today. Thanks for those, KU.
It would appear that legging have been traded for 80s mom shorts, aka tummy toppers.
Just saw a guy put his cigarette butt into a bush, when there was a place for it two feet away. Really?
Yes, I'm in a frat. Yes, I wear sunglasses. Why? CUZ IT'S BRIGHT OUTSIDE!!!
Judging your professors for bringing their kids to class? Clearly, they're not babies in Halloween costumes. That's adorable, people!
I see your boots are from the Buckle. You must be such a cowgirl.
I'm trying to read my textbook, but I keep getting distracted by my own cleavage.
FFA submissions are getting hostile.
Show some love KU!
HUMAN RIGHTS
Feminism a constant learning process
No one is, really, when it comes to navigating systems of oppression. No one is the biggest,
I'm fairly new to the world of feminism. Honestly, I know almost every single article I've put out this year has been about gender, queer rights, rape culture, or about civic engagement as a form of activism. I know that many people who know me personally consider me as their go-to for a feminist perspective on pretty much anything. I know my scholarship hall named me "Most Likely to Get Arrested at a Rally" (which is still on my bucket list). I know I adamantly proclaim myself a feminist, announce it as the top of my lungs, am constantly aware of my politics and of the way I interact with my surroundings because of it. But it's really only in the past couple of years that I've been illuminated to feminism. And I'm not an expert.
baddest feminist on the block, the one who gets it all, the one who has got this trying-to-actively-combat-oppressive-systems thing down pat. Not even Angela Davis is an expert. Not even Beyonce is an expert.
Oh sure, some people are far more illuminated to the reality of how racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism and more intertwine in a throbbing, insidious cancer that dehumanizes. There are tons of feminists and activists who are badass, who try their best to work to combat these systems, who try to make this world a little less awful than they left it. I hope I'm doing that — I do. The thing is. I'm still learning. We never stop learning. Because the day you think you know all there is to know about being a feminist is the day your privilege starts rearing its head.
We've all got baggage, and we've all got privilege. Everybody
has some form of privilege, which is often unearned, unasked for and unseen — but it still very much exists. And it affects your day-to-day interactions as well as your activism. I know I have some. And I know some people have far less privilege than others. But everybody has a little bit, if only because humanity has been cruelly creative enough to find innumerable ways to attempt to oppress individuals based on what should be arbitrary characteristics.
What happened to Trayvon Martin was whack, but there were
also tons of people who realized how whack it was. There are people like Dean Saxton, a student at the University of Arizona who last week held up a sign meant for the women on campus scrawled with the words "You Deserve Rape"—but there's also the dude next to him who held a sign saying "No Body Deserves Rape." There are the people who are perhaps never going to "get it" (that "it" being that individuals are not inherently lesser for being of a certain color, gender sexual orientation, etc.). But there are the people who are actively, trying super hard to get it and the majority of the time do.
But you're flawed. I'm flawed.
We're all trying, in so many ways at so many things, in our lives, and feminism is no exception.
We're flawed, so even when we "get it," the majority of the time, we're not going to every single time. Sometimes you're going
to miss why a certain portrayal of a character on TV is racist. Or perhaps see no trouble with a friend calling a gay man "one of the gals" when he might not be OK with it. Or way too many instances that occur day-in and day-out for me to list in an article that has of a cap of 700 words.
We've got to accept that we're going to mess up. And we've got to accept it when people point out that we've messed up. And we've got to own up to that messup, apologize and learn.
You and I will never be experts on feminism. But we can be aware. That way we mess up a little less, learn a little more, and inch even closer to being that big, bad feminist who "gets it" all that we want to be.
Or Beyonce. That'd be cool too.
POLITICS
US needs to address the hunger strike at Guantanamo Bay
Gwynn is a sophomore majoring in English and Women, Gender, and Sexuality from Oathe
T today, between 100 and 130 individuals of the Granantamo Bay fauil
Guantanamo Bay facility are participating in a hunger strike in an attempt to draw much-needed attention to their indefinite detainment. The situation is so dire, and a solution so overdue, that it deserves the serious consideration of every American citizen.
The Guantanamo Bay detention facility opened in 2002 to host captured individuals suspected of membership in terrorist organizations. The Supreme Court ruled in 2006 that detainees must be treated according to the Geneva Conventions, which include protection from torture and the right to a trial. However, in a 2009 Washington Post interview, Susan J. Crawford, a Bush administration appointee, confirmed that interrogators had tortured prisoners. 86 prisoners were cleared for transfer by a 2010 task force, but still remain detained.
Why is Guantanamo still open? In 2009, President Obama signed an executive order to close the facility. Since then, congressional budgetary authority has prevented that order from becoming reality by blocking appropriations for the transfer of detainees - and each time, President Obama has approved the amended defense authorizations. Last March, the military requested $49 million to construct a new prison building on site for high-security prisoners. It's easy to see that those in power have no intention of releasing detainees any time soon.
On Feb. 6, a group of prisoners began a hunger strike to protest their continued indefinite detainment and treatment following a search of Qurans, or
holy books. It is not the first time Guantanamo detainees have refused food (hunger strikes were quite common in 2005 and 2006), but detainees' lawyers claim that this time the individuals show a special kind of desperation. Absent legal recourse or the hope of one day leaving Guantanamo alive, they have decided they prefer not to die quietly in prison. Intentionally starving themselves is their only way to demand attention.
It's unlikely the strike will prove effective. In 2006, military authorities broke an 84-person hunger strike by isolating detainees and utilizing "restraint chairs" to force-feed inmates. Currently, the military reports that 19 inmates are being force-fed, a practice rejected as unethical by the World Medical Association because it violates a patient's right to refuse treatment. Instead, the participating individuals will be kept alive to continue their indefinite detentions.
Earlier this month one detainee, Samir Naji al Hasan Moqbel, starkly described his position in the opinion page of the New York Times. Students – really, all Americans – should read his words, and realize the impossibility of imagining what life as a detainee after more than a decade of imprisonment at Guantánamo would be like. Two prisoners this month attempted suicide. Hunger strikes are a sign of desperation, and force-feeding
denies these individuals even the right to refuse medical treatment or the freedom to protest being held as a prisoner without being charged with a crime.
"I am a human being, not a passport, and I deserve to be treated like one." MooBel wrote.
It is true that those who oppose these human beings the right to live outside of the Guantanamo after a decade of imprisonment without cause can give reasons for their continued detainment. Critics of release can point to rehabilitation's poor track record; 11 previously released prisoners joined al-Qaida after completing rehabilitation, and Yemen's jails are questionably secure. Legally prosecuting those detainees suspected of committing crimes is also tricky, since evidence from interrogations may not be admissible in a U.S. court of law.
Those are valid criticisms, but they're not reasons why legally innocent individuals should be left to die in a military detention center in Cuba. The United States does need to develop a real, comprehensive plan for dealing with the people it has imprisoned – and it needs to do so immediately. Samir Najal al Hasan Mogbel, and others like him, are innocent. The government has agreed he is innocent of any crime and poses no security risk. He should be allowed to return home.
"I just hope that because of the pain we are suffering, the eyes of the world will once again look to Guantanamo before it is too late," Moqbel wrote. If he's right, that attention will be long overdue.
Gress is a sophomore majoring in political science and economics from Overland Park
SPORTS
CAMPUS CHIRPS BACK
What is you favorite summer drink?
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Jayhawks best fit for basketball recruit
Wiggins is down to four schools - Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina and Florida State. Any of the listed schools would make sense for Wiggins, and his strong family ties to FSU (both of Wiggins' parents played sports there) has been long thought to be the deciding factor in his recruitment. The opportunity to play with a plethora of future NBA talent at UK has Wiggins' attention — not to mention putting Wildcat's coach John Calipari in an all-too-familiar place of blue chip success. Following in Michael Jordan's footsteps at fellow blue-blood program UNC provides Wiggins an opportunity to become the next Tar Heel superstar.
Anyone who knows even a tiny bit about college basketball is well aware of the recruitment of Canadian high school prospect Andrew Wiggins. Those of us who are year-round followers of college hoops - and basketball in general - understand what's at stake for the Jayhawks in this recruiting race. The kid is a freak athlete and could help shape the game of basketball in ways reserved only for basketball royalty. LeBron James was even impressed when he got a firsthand look at Wiggins last year at James' skills camp. Suffice to say that the Jayhawks would propel their national championship chances tremendously were Wiggins to decide to come to Lawrence.
The Jayhawks offer Wiggins something of a unique and circumstantial appeal that the rest of the schools don't - a combination of blue-blood tradition, hefty playing time and a chance to play within the same state as his younger brother, Nick, who plays in Wichita State University. Coach Bill Self routinely puts players in the NBA draft, and the recent rise of sure-to-be top-5 pick in Ben McLemore couldn't have come at a better time. When it comes to landing former
Roque is a senior majoring in journalism from Overland Park
Four schools is a small list, but it's one that features a ton of competition for the Jayhawks. Can we out blue-blood the Tar Heels? Does UK have too much talent for one basketball to go around? And my biggest concern: Can we out-pitch Wiggins' parents about where to go to college for one year? The only one who knows any of these answers is Wiggins, and we all must anxiously await a final decision from a once-in-a-lifetime type of talent.
As layhawk fans, we've seen what one-and-done players can do to a promising college basketball season, and don't worry; I won't go into the gory details. Wiggins is different. No one thought Xavier Henry or Josh Selby was a future game-changer in the NBA — Wiggins is. He has now dragged his recruitment out into late April, and the longer he waits, the more obsessive "hoop crazies," like myself, become over his decision.
players in the NBA draft, however. Self falls behind considerably - especially in the lottery. Self's ability to coach and improve players is more important to me, but that's a whole different conversation. To Wiggins, he gets an elite college basketball coach either way with those two.
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