Opinion THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
United States 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.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 28, 2010
PAGE 8
WWW.KANSAN.COM
To contribute to Free for All, visit Kansan.com or call (785) 864-0500.
To the girl wearing the neon pink, oversized sunglasses with the sequined headband hanging from the rearview mirror: Are we still in the 90s?
Everything is made up. Even time.
I'm only excited for school to start so the FFA will be spicy again.
The Exchange pool needs its own reality show. Oh wait, It's called "Jersey Shore."
I want my innocence back.
I once read Kafka to impress a boy.
Kansas City > Manchester. Suck it, England!
--during my six-week European excursion.
USA!
I'm 19 going on six.
Oh beer, you make Mondays bearable.
TRAVEL
Nothing compares to first-hand experience
TIRASPOL, MOLDOVA — A Moldavian journalist I met quipped that three days in his country is only long enough to understand the wine. I'd argue it's only long enough to find a reason to stay longer.
Moldova earned a spot in the American news stream for a brief period in April 2009. Disputed election results and accusations of fraud culminated in a political uprising that lasted days.
By the end of the week news outlets lost interest and Moldova quickly disappeared from their collective news feeds. As a result, many Americans forgot about this small Eastern European country — myself included.
Protesters stormed parliament, three people died and one of the world's first "Twitter Revolution" was underway. (Though Twitter's actual role in the demonstration remains questionable.)
That is until two months ago, when I added Chisinau, Moldova's capital, to the itinerary of cities I'd visit
Foreign Telegraph
BY MICHAEL HOLTZ mholtz@kansan.com
Before my June 14 departure, I spent several nights researching Moldova, Europe's poorest country.
What I found in news archives, YouTube videos and Wikipedia entries was equally fascinating and disturbing. I read stories about economic struggle, a national identity crisis, corrupt government officials and nearly every form of illegal trafficking, including human, organ, weapons and even Tyson chicken.
Yet no amount of research could
have prepared me for my trip to Kirilemi, a small village in Western Moldova. Dasha, a young Russian I met on the train from Kiev, Ukraine, to Chisinau, invited me there to visit her and her grandparents.
I took her up on the offer and arrived in Kirileni six days later. Of course there were the obvious signs of poverty and rural life: rutted dirt roads, farm animals wandering freely and houses made from steel roofs and mud bricks. But it was a peaceful village with few signs of corruption, political unrest or trafficking — a place of little interest to most people.
Dasha and her family were warm and gracious hosts, as equally interested in me as I was in them. Though their living standards fell far short of most Americans', they appeared content. Dasha even boasted that while many villagers still rode horse and wagons, her grandfather had not one, but two cars.
This quaint and peaceful side of Moldova is rarely presented in American mass media. To experience it you must go there yourself.
That's not to say I expect everyone who reads this to catch the earliest flight to Chisinau. But in a time when an infinite amount of information is available at the click of a mouse, it's easy to substitute the virtual world for the real world.
No number of YouTube videos, Wikipedia entries or Flikr photo galleries could adequately represent Kirileni. The same holds true for any village, town or city in any country anywhere in the world.
When it comes to understanding the world,it took me a village to realize there is no substitute for firsthand experience. We must discover it for ourselves.
— Michael Holtz is a senior from Topeka majoring in journalism and political science.
POLITICS
Racial injustices continue to occur
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."
This was one of my favorite quotations from Martin Luther King Jr's famous "I Have a Dream" speech. He argued adamantly that we must not allow racism and hate among Americans of different colors. Yet racism still exists today and it isn't improving. There have been many instances of racism since President Obama has taken office, but I only want to concentrate on one.
During the 2008 presidential election, two members of the New Black
Guest columnist
BY SETH ROBINSON editor@kansan.com
Panther Party stood outside a polling station in Philadelphia. They resembled police officers with their uniforms. One of them also had a nightstick. They shouted, "You are about to be ruled by the black man, cracker!" Mostly, they targeted white voters in an effort to gain more votes for Obama by black voters. Do you feel the love here? Not only is this racism, it's also against the law.
Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 states that "No voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure shall be imposed or applied by any State or political subdivision to deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color." Indeed, these two men were caught on video violating this law by abridging the right of citizens to vote based on race or color.
This case was filed in Bush's Department of Justice at the end of his term.
Eric Holder, the attorney general appointed by President Obama, recently dismissed the case, despite controversy over why it had been dropped. The fact
that the case was dropped only exacerbates racial tensions. Essentially, these blatant racists of the NBPP were given a slap on the wrist for breaking the law. What would MLK think about that if he were alive today?
I remember Obama saying during his campaign that he would unite everyone. Yet people seem to be more distant than ever. He is merely fueling the fire by allowing Holder to dismiss the case. Again, judge people by their actions — in this case, intimidating voters — not by the color of their skin. As soon as this happens, I believe racial tensions can improve.
Robinson is a senior from Houston majoring in civil engineering.
HOW TO SUBMIT A LETTER TO THE EDITOR
LETTER GUIDELINES
Send letters to opinion@kansan.com
Write LETTER TO THE EDITOR in the e-mail subject line.
**Length:** 300 words
The submission should include the author's name, grade and hometown.
Find our full letter to the editor **policy** online at kansan.com/letters.
Kayla Regan, campus editor 864-4924 or kregan@kansan.com
Brianne Pfannenstiel, editor
864-4810 or bpfannenstiel@kansan.com
CONTACT US
Feliks Yamnik, business manager 864-4358 or fyamnik@kansan.com
Kate August, sales manager 864-4358 or kaugust@kansan.com
Malcolm Gibson, general manager and news adviser
864-7638 or mgbison@kasan.com
Jon Schlitt, sales and marketing adviser 864-7666 or jschllit@kansan.com