4A
Friday, April 28, 1995
OPINION UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VIEWPOINT
THE ISSUE: MRS. E'S SECURITY
Ekdahl Dining Commons needs backpack monitors for diners
Spring is in the air; birds are singing, and back pack thieves are running amuck in Ekdahl Dining Commons.
With finals quickly approaching and book buyback nearing, the temptation to steal bags is even stronger for many people. One of the best place for a thief to go is the cafeteria, known as "Mrs. E's," because the residence hall governance has yet to do anything to curb the thefts.
Apparently, setting up a volunteer backpack drop is too expensive because no one wants to hire a person to monitor the bag drop. However, the problem has a few inexpensive solutions. First of all, how much can it take to build a wood cabinet to hold back packs? The average seventh-
Resident assistants, student senators or other student leaders could prevent thefts in future semesters
Monitoring the bags doesn't necessarily require hiring people especially for that job. Have resident assistants on Daisy Hill take turns at this job as part of their regular duties. With a rotating system, a resident assistant only would have to work at the bag drop every two or three weeks. Or student senators could volunteer to work there. This would be a wonderful way for them to keep in touch with their constituents, as they promised.
HEATHER LAWRENZ FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
grade woodshop student could handle that. Sounds like a good job for facilities operations.
THE ISSUE: CAMPAIGN REFORM
Efforts to enact term limits don't address real problems
The call for term limits sweeping across America is not only misguided but also the wrong solution to reforming Congress and state legislatures. The real solution is in campaign reform.
Twenty-two states have instituted term limits in hopes of curbing career politicians and injecting fresh blood into the political arena. While states have been quick to pass term limits, few have looked at reforming the campaign process.
The cost of running a campaign has grown enormous, leaving few Americans positioned to enter the political arena. Term limits might curb career politicians, but they will never allow the common citizen to pick up a platform and run for office. States are fighting the wrong battle in term limits. Around three dozen campaign finance and ethics bills were introduced to the Kansas Legislature this year, but only one-third of them had hearings. Only a handful of those bills ever
Campaign and ethics reforms would limit better the advantages many incumbents have against fresh opponents
made it to a vote, and none were passed. Term limits, however, were placed swiftly before the Legislature. Only after a long, drawn-out battle did they fail. The Legislature has its priorities backwards.
There needs to be legislation in place limiting campaign spending, keeping more precise track of campaign contributions, creating stricter penalties on candidates who accept illegal contributions and perhaps, implementing ethics codes. These are a few examples of ideas that would clean up the campaign process and lead to the election of positive politicians.
If campaign reforms were a priority instead of term limits, there could be legislation passed allowing the average American to better stop career politicians at the ballot box.
SPENCER DUNCAN FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
KANSAN STAFF
STEPHEN MARTINO
Editor
DENISE NEIL
Managing editor
TOM EBLEN
General manager, news adviser
CATHERINE ELLSWORTH
Technology coordinator
STEPHEN MARTINO
Editors
JENNIFER PERRIER
Business manager
MARK MASTRO
Retail sales manager
JAY STEINER
Sales and marketing adviser
News...Carlos Tejada
Planning...Mark Martin
Editorial...Matt Gowen
Associate Editorial...Heather Lawrentz
Campus...David Wilson
Colleen McCain
Sports...Gary Fey
Chocolate Sports...Ashley Miller
Photo...Jeremy Lane
Associate Photo...Paul Kotz
Features...Nathan Olson
Design...Brian James
Freelance...Susan White
Business Staff
Campus mgr ...Beth Poth
Regional mgr ...Chris Branaman
National mgr ...Shelly Falevits
Coop mgr ...Kelly Connethey
Special Sections mgr ...Brigg Bloomquist
Production mgrs ..J Cook
...Kim Hyman
Marketing director ...Mindy Blum
Promotions director ..Justin Frosolone
Creative director ..Dan Gler
Classified mgr ..Lisa Kueths
Jeff MacNellv /CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Despite extremist protest, gun control laws are needed
The images flashed across our television sets.
A shelled out federal building in midwestern America.
We immediately looked across the world for the perpetrators.
But now, in the wake of the horrendous attack in Oklahoma City, we as a nation must deal with radicals and terrorists. Not in Libya, Lebanon and Iraq.
But in Michigan, Arizona and Kansas.
Many of these groups believe that the government is trying to suppress the American people by limiting access to high-powered weapons.
These jingoists, extremists, should be feared. They hold stockpiles of automatic weapons and home-made explosives. But what is most frightening is the fact they will defend their Second Amendment rights until their clips are empty.
Like international terrorists, they believe in causes that are outdated and long-over. By enacting gun-control laws, the government is not trying to suppress the population but is attempting to protect Americans. America, like a curious toddler, is becoming too intrigued with the chamber, the crosshairs and the trigger. If this continues, we will end up shooting ourselves in the head.
When this country was founded, the Second Amendment had a reason to be so strictly obeyed. An undiscovered country, a lawless land and a just-born government had been founded upon revolution.
The facts are that America has no
And hopefully such horrendous violence will never show its face again.
use for automatic weapons; the government is not attempting to crush and rule the population, and guns kill thousands of innocent people every year in America. These are facts. Facts to which fringe groups are blind. What should be done? To me most of these
"militias" are well-intentioned citizens, taking upon themselves to protect their right to bear arms.
Then perhaps these fanatics who parade at the expo center can use the money they spend on ridiculous displays of armaments to buy themselves a life.
These arms cannot and must not include explosives and automatic weapons. Such things have no place in a society almost devoid of strife and political violence.
Yet it is not as simple as turning away ships when they come into port. The system and politics that have developed regarding the weapons trade are more complex than ever.
To begin with, we must stop the tremendous flow of military-style weapons being imported into this country. China and others make millions off the love for guns.
My hometown always had an annual gun show, ripe with semi-automatic and uzis. And it always made me think.
Is gun control the answer? The crime bill, which banned some of these weapons, was easily danced around. Manufacturers only needed to make slight changes in the model (in some cases, merely a name change would suffice) to continue selling their products.
It is ridiculous to even think someone is buying an AK-47 to hunt. Just how adapted have these geese become? Have beavers learned to hurl grenades? Obviously not. And obviously I cannot understand the thirst for such weapons.
It may take some time at the bargaining table and the think tank but to allow countries to import thousands of guns a day is allowing them to erode the country from the inside.
David Day is a Wichita Junior In English and Journalism.
Force all semi-automatics from the market. Make enthusiasts go underground to buy. Force them to look at their spending habits. Make arrangements to begin the end of imported assault weapons. I am certain they will have second thoughts disobeying the values of a country of which they are so proud.
It appears to me that stricter policies are in order.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Lecture contradicts multicultural campus
As the president of the KU Black Faculty and Staff Council and the adviser of the Black Student Union, I must write this in regard to David Horowitz's April 1 lecture.
The KU Federalist Society should have been more sensitive to the fact that Horowitz's blatantly racist lecture was on the same night that Dr. Carlos Cortes spoke at the pre-grand opening of the multicultural center.
I am not saying that Horowitz should not have been allowed to come to campus to share his beliefs on the "spread of racial thinking." I am saying that comments made by Horowitz, such as "Blacks should be grateful that white slave traders brought their ancestors from Africa to the United States," was a slap in the face to those of us who are trying to make the KU community aware of the importance of the multicultural campus.
In the future could you (KU Federalist Society) please check your campus calendar before you invite another person who shares Horowitz's beliefs.
Gregory Leon Frost president of Black Faculty and Staff Council adviser of Black Student Union
Story about sorority told only half-truths
Upon reading the front page article on April 17, about Alpha Omicron Pi, I, as a member of the sorority, felt compelled to write a response. Contrary to some, I am not upset that there was an article run about the sorority's problems, but I am displeased that the article told only half-truths.
Without going into details that do not need to be shared, I contest many of the insinuations. For example, all information by Lynette Personette, the sorority's regional director, was false. As an officer in the sorority, I know that it was not the women who said "no"
or "maybe" to the question about commitment who were asked to become alumnae. The story about the woman, Shannon Cavanaugh, seems to be missing a few important details that would completely change the appearance of what happened. Also, the number of those asked to become alumnae was completely exaggerated. Although that fact was placed under Cavanaugh, I noticed that it was not a quote. I feel that this story was not looked into enough to be printed, let alone be on the front page. The results have been false rumors, unnecessary questions and a disrespect to the sorority for not being able to give all sides. I would hope that, in the future of KU's paper, such staff writers as Paul Todd would try to do a little more work and put more effort into getting a more accurate story.
It is unfortunate that this sorority had to have more problems unnecessarily caused after already having to deal with a difficult situation.
Fear of Islam fueled initial accusations after bombing
Dastardly Baptists.
Looks like those are the religious crazies who bombed the federal building in Oklahoma City. They're the religious extremists who murdered all those children because of their own dementia.
Or perhaps they weren't Baptists.
STAFF COLUMNIST
Maybe Catholics.
Episcopalians,
perhaps.
Or Methodists?
There you go:
Methodist religious fundamentalists.
The point here is that whatever the religion of the three people who have been arrested so far may be, none of them are Muslim. But once the
nation became aware of the Oklahoma City bombing, the word "Muslim" leaped into the mind of every non-Muslim in the United States. You non-Muslim reading now should admit it: Somebody on CNN jumped to that conclusion, and you all initially believed it.
How did we reach this point, where an act of deliberate and indiscriminate violence takes place and we all think of a single group? Probably three reasons, and most Americans should be ashamed of all three.
The first is that Americans — and all people in general — fear what they don't understand. And if Middle-Eastern history has proven one thing, it's that most Americans and the American media don't understand Islam. When Americans think of Islam, they think of Saddam Hussein invoking the power of Allah to crush Iraq's enemies or a representative from the Islamic Jihad claiming the latest terrorist act was committed for Muslims everywhere. Those are the images the media beam into our homes every day, and that is the message we have absorbed.
I became aware of this at a young age when I watched the Libyan terrorist attack on a German disco in 1986 and the subsequent American counterattack. I remember asking my mother, "Why do Muslims like to kill so much?"
My mother smiled and said, "Why, Carlos, Christians have been killing for 1.986 years."
Good point. To this date, Christians have been killing people for 1,995 years. Most other religions have a similar track record. Islam hasn't cornered the market on religious zanies.
Let this be a lesson for all of us. We as a nation were too busy looking for Muslims to look for the real culprits. Next time that happens, the real culprits might just get away.
The second reason is that after such an attack, people want to blame somebody, no matter who it is. The American public has screamed out for vengeance. They wanted to get their hands on somebody, the same way you want to hit the wall after you stub your toe on something. Kicking the wall might channel your aggression, but it doesn't do anything to solve the problem.
The third reason is that Americans fear anything that is different. Most Americans are white. Many Muslims in this nation are from the Middle East, so they have darker skin than most Americans and speak with accents. And because Americans are afraid of these differences, they tend to vilify Muslims. Believing such folks are evil is much safer emotionally than believing Bubba and Homer next door are the guilty parties. In this case, it seems they are.
Carlos Tejada in a Lawrence senior in Journalism.
MIXED MEDIA
By Jack Ohman