WEDNESDAY, JULY 28, 2004
OPINION
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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Strive for civic professionalism
Many colleges students, myself included, are in school to get an education that will lead to a job. Ultimately, the majority of us want to find work that is meaningful. In exchange, we will devote our time and our talents to our chosen careers. Is there anything more that can be expected of us?
I argue that there is something more that we all need to consider. As we work toward getting our degrees at the University of Kansas, we are receiving a great deal of training in how to be professionals. But are we giving any consideration to what type of professionals we should be?
I am not referring to the process of how we decide if we want to be artists, teachers or journalists. I am speaking, instead, about what happens after we have decided on a profession. I am talking about the value structure that will guide us in our professional lives.
perspective
If we simply choose to apply our knowledge and our skills, then we will be technical professionals. And we will be missing out on another professional path. The alternative path to being a technical professional is to be a civic professional.
A civic professional is devoted to the achievement of a strong democracy and to the attainment of full citizenship for all
Gerald Liss opinion@kansan.com
individuals. This means that the civic professional works for the infusion and the practice of democratic principles in all institutions. It also means a devotion to full citizenship by all Americans. This entails not only full political and civil rights for each individual, but also full social and economic rights. Without these rights, an individual cannot be a citizen to the fullest extent. When full citizenship is denied to individuals, then democracy itself is weakened.
In my field of special education, I have learned that professionals may treat individuals as clients or customers. But I have also learned that there is another way for professionals to treat individuals: as citizens.
needs nor the implementation of solutions.
When treating individuals as citizens, the civic professional uses the approach of serving needs that are identified by individuals. The civic professional does not seek to control the identification of
John McKnight, author of The Careless Society, warns us that professionals can do great harm. Using the example of professional bereavement counseling, McKnight argues that harm occurs when a community steps aside from its role of helping individuals or families deal with grief because the "professionals" now know best about how to deal with grief. The point McKnight is making is that professional interventions may have positive effects, but they may also have devastating negative effects, especially when imposed without sufficient guidance from those being served.
What the civic professional does is to respect the role of the individual in making decisions about needs. The path of a civic professional is one of service to your fellow citizens and to the larger democracy in which we all live. The true reward for the civic professional is the realization that citizens have not only the ability to identify their own needs, but also the ability to guide professionals in how — and whether — services are to be provided.
Liss is a David City, Neb., doctoral student in special education.
Nader can handle political duality
At a recent forum sponsored by Harper's Magazine, independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader quoted Robert Frost's definition of a liberal: "someone who has trouble arguing his own case."
With John Kerry this message is doubly important. Depending on which side you take, Kerry is occasionally tongue-tied, either because he is a meticulous political thinker with a lot on his mind or a fickle constituent-boot-licker who is afraid to speak off the top of his head.
Kerry and Edwards voted for the invasion of Iraq and the Patriot Act before making an abrupt turnaround and blaming Bush for both. Kerry claimed it was only Bush's handling of the occupation that he bewailed. But certainly the occupation would not have gone better if the $81 billion funding bill had failed to pass Significantly, Kerry voted against it.
Perhaps, however, the reason why Kerry "has trouble arguing his own case" is because of his deliberate decision-making process and attention to detail. Brian Mooney of the Boston Globe has called him a "legislative technician." These are laudable attributes, despite the impatience Americans show toward complications in politics.
Unlike Bush, Kerry does not see political, social and economic controversy in a black and white dichotomy. If he cannot improvise a quote succinct enough for the media's inane sound-bite culture, perhaps it is because of a deeper understanding of the issues.
perspective
Matt Gertken
opinion@hansan.com
Bah, nevermind. Unfortunately, neither the Democrats nor the Republicans have a better claim of understanding issues profoundly. As recent Democratic Party actions show, the freedom of the right to choose one's own candidate is no longer on their platform.
On July 23, Nader wrote a letter to Kerry denouncing the Democratic Party's attempts to keep him out of America's elections. Under the auspices of the party, Democrats have harassed Nader's petitioners, hired law firms and even staff members of Illinois' Democratic Speaker of the House (state employees!) to encumber petition processes, staged protests to disrupt ballot access conventions in Oregon and plotted various other contrivances.
Many indict Nader for goring Gore in 2000. In Florida, most importantly, Bush beat Gore by a measly 537 votes, while Nader received almost 100,000. Now, according to The Economist, a poll shows Nader at 3 percent in Florida, the same margin by which Kerry leads Bush there.
The Democratic Party responded by forbidding Nader from the Democratic National Convention in Boston this week.
You might be thinking, as I do, that Nader's platform is a bit ridiculous. Entirely opposing the WTO and NATO, calling for an immediate withdrawal from Iraq, etc.
But for Kansans, the claim that "a vote for Nader is a vote for Bush" is even less substantial, considering that Republicans will probably carry this red-blooded state for years to come.
So before getting all choked up about your favorite patrician Yale graduate, and passionately defend his clandestine ties to big oil or big lawyer barons, ponder casting a vote, or writing one in, for one of the few Americans canny enough to jostle the thrones of the duopoly.
Gertken is a Hutchinson senior in English.
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There's this guy playing bag pipes on Wescoe Beach and I think that's really cool.
In response to Melissa Shippy's article this week, I would like to say that, no. the tuition dollars that students pay do not pay for the parking department employees, we are a self employed department and none of the money that comes from tuition goes to us. So she can shove it up her ass.
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And secondly, I Love the '90s is on VH1, not E! Entertainment and the guy wearing the Rock Chalk shirt is Mo Rocca. And he didn't graduate from KU, he graduated from Harvard. He just thinks that we're that cool.
I'm so sick of all you little babies whining about getting parking tickets. If you weren't so stupid, you'd know where you can park and where you can't park. And little miss Melissa Shippy better get the facts straight before she writes an article that's nothing but lies.
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Yeah, this is for all you people who let your cell phones ring in the library, you should transfer to Mizzou, because Mizzou sucks and so do you.
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To the woman who said that homeless people are a problem to business—man, you're right. I agree wholeheartedly. How dare they not have any money? I bet they're just doing it to piss you off.
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Yo, I can't believe you guys still take columns in the summer. What's up with that?
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Yeah, I just saw the Chancellor walking down Jayhawk Boulevard, and I just wanted to say we have one of the healthiest Chancellors in America. Whoohoo!
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Yes, message to Melissa Shippy. Wouldn't it be nice if you just owned up to the fact that you parked illegally? You got the ticket and you are blaming an entire department for your mistake. Grow up.