4A
Wednesday, April 5, 1995
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VIEWPOINT
THE ISSUE: CITY VOTING REGISTRATION
Volunteers enhance election
What has proven to be the most exciting City Commission election in many years motivated many concerned Lawrence citizens to register others, and perhaps inspire others, to vote. In Kansas, potential voter registration personnel can be deputized, and then the deputies may register voters in almost any location, with the stipulation that the registration event is advertised previously.
During this spring's city commission campaign, voter registration took place in the Kansas Union, in area churches, restaurants and even local bars.
There was concern that groups with limited special focuses were attempting to pack the vote in order to create a lopsided turnout on election day. However, even if the voter registration is taking place in places where only a narrow cross-section of the city's population is to
Deputy voter registration encourages public leaving only apathy to blame if turnout for election is small.
be found, such as in a fundamentalist Christian church or in the local gay bar, the registration event still must be publicly announced beforehand. If there was an off-balance showing at the polls this week, no one is to blame but an apathetic general public, which had even more opportunity to register to vote than in recent elections.
Congratulations are offered to those Lawrence citizens who have shown their concern for local politics and have sought to increase popular participation in our democratic government by becoming deputized to register voters. They are empowering the public to share in the system that was meant to serve the public.
JOHN BENNETT FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD.
THE ISSUE: GAMBLING LEGISLATION
Slots shouldn't affect Regents
Proponents of slot machine gambling are stooping to a new low. As the doom of the slot machine appears inevitable, a state House subcommittee has come up with a new way to drum up support. A subcommittee of the House Federal and State Affairs Committee voted to amend the bill authorizing slots at racetracks to commit the slot machine revenue to the Board of Regents capital improvements fund. While this may seem like a move of sincere generosity to the Regents, it is little more than a last-ditch effort to raise support for a dead cause.
Last year the Regents identified $280 million worth of improvements and new projects needed to upgrade facilities at their schools. This money is needed to raise existing buildings to code regulations and to add new buildings to campuses.
While the money has to come from somewhere, there is no reason to believe that the money will not be there if the slot machines are not implemented. The money
Voters shouldn't be swayed by the promise that money from the slot machine bill will go to assistance for Regents.
needed to keep the university system in Kansas competitive and up to code will not be neglected if slots are not approved.
Regardless of your opinion on slot machines and gambling in general, the idea of state leaders insinuating that there is a causeand-effect relationship between the slots and the money schools need is insulting.
If the legislators truly believe that the Regents' request is needed, then they will find the money to upgrade the facilities. But to neglect the Regents request until it serves the legislators' interests is unfair.
Slot machines should pass or fail on their own merit, or lack of it. Similarly, the Regents' request for funds will be approved or disapproved on its own merit.
Don't buy into the "put a token in, get a new budget out" approach.
CHRIS VINE FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Jeff MacNelly / KANSAN
People hardened to violence until it hits close to home
I never thought I would spend my spring break going to a funeral, but that's what I did. Had it been a distant relative who died or someone with a fatal disease, it might have been easier. But it was my mother's funeral, and she was murdered.
My grief aside, the reason I write this is to awaken people: Random violence isn't quite so random and doesn't happen only in areas labeled high crime. My mother lived in a nice suburban area in Tulsa, Okla, and she was killed in the most unlikely of places — a church. The killer has been caught and has confessed. He will be tried, facing a possible death sentence. He said in his confession that his motive was to rob her. Four dollars was missing from her purse.
This man had no record of violent activity. He lived in a halfway house for nonviolent criminals and worked as a janitor in the church where my mom worked as a secretary. Everyone said he was helpful and seemed to be doing well in the program. He was convicted of cocaine possession, and he could have been released as soon as one week from when this happened. He had, however, smoked crack cocaine before he committed the murder, according to the police.
KANSAN STAFF
Americans spend $49 billion annually on illegal drugs. So make them
Take a stand against violence. Refuse to watch movies such as "Pulp Fiction." The only way to change the public's opinion is to be the public with a different opinion. The same people who laugh at movies like "Pulp Fiction" would be shocked if some violent act happened to them.
I don't write this as a plea for sympathy. Rather it's a comment on the state of violence in the United States. The more we hear about these things, the less shocking they become. Until something happens to us. I don't want what happened to my family to happen to anyone else.
Support legislation against crime. New York City and London have approximately the same population, but New York City has almost four times the crime rate. Why? The availability of guns seems a likely factor.
legal, some say.
The legality of the drugs, however, had no bearing on what this man did. To explain what could cause a nonviolent person to become violent suddenly and commit such an act seems simple: Crack cocaine is highly addictive, and
Joy LaFrance is a Tulsa, OK, senator in English and German.
JENNIFER PERRIER
Business manager
MARK MASTRO
Retail sales manager
JAY STEINER
Sales and marketing adviser
less, violent act, like what happened to my mother, happens to every family in the United States before we do something about it?
During the weekend, a man went on a shooting spree in a New Jersey post office and killed four people. There was one article in the newspaper about it, and no more was heard. Are random shooting sprees now an everyday thing?
- Stop buying drugs. You may think that you are buying them for your own enjoyment, but you're actually supporting a much larger system that promotes violence.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Fee increases not universally supported
the need for it can cause people to do things that they may not do otherwise — such as committing murder for$4.
Again Student Senate has displayed its uncanny knack for rejecting student views and has again, for the fifth time in two years, raised student fees. Since the Fall 1993 semester, student fees have gone up $31 — an 18 percent increase.
So what can we do?
STEPHEN MARTINO
Editor
DENISE NEIL
Managing editor
TOM EBLEN
General manager, news adviser
CATHERINE ELLSWORTH
Technology coordinator
A few months ago I saw the movie "Pulp Fiction." Now, I'm not a fan of violent movies; Disney's my favorite. But this movie really bothered me. It bothered me that people actually laughed at the violence in this movie. The more we laugh at violence, the less bothersome it becomes, until it happens to us. Are we going to wait until some sense-
What is amazing is not just the rate at which fees have ballooned in just four semesters but the comical rationale Senate leaders have used in raising fees. This year we have been told that everyone would benefit from being taxed $4 a semester to "improve" Robinson gymnasium. Does everyone really use and thus benefit from Robinson? Even more absurd is the recent $7 fee increase to "better
Business Staff
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STAFF COLUMNIST
Editors
Perhaps more spirit and fan participation would have enabled Kansas to advance to the Big Eight tournament title game.
With the Senate elections coming in about a week, students will have a chance to elect a new student government that was philosophically opposed to new fees. Unfortunately, however, we have been doomed with two coalitions led by candidates for student body president that either supported our recent $7 hike or wished to raise fees even more. So, while the Board of Regents may be attempting to keep tuition down, count on Senate to keep hiking those fees.
I attended the Iowa State vs. Kansas basketball game during the Big Eight tournament and was very disappointed to hear the Cyclones' fans outyell those from Kansas. There is no reason for this to happen at our home away from home. The fans and the Crimson Girls let the team down. The cheerleaders perform at games to inspire the fans. Only once did they start a chant, when Jacque Vaughn tied the game and sent it into overtime.
fund various student organizations." Does anyone really even know what organizations these are, and more importantly, does anyone care? Some senators ever believe that the $7 increase wasn't enough.
Bill Gist
Leawood senior
KU fans, spirit squads lacked enthusiasm
Nancy Roe Kansas graduate
Beware of the April onslaught of the politicus wannabeus
You can recognize politicus, most usually, by its smile — a
"Excuse me, would you like a button for the ___ coalition?"
Tell them you're not a student here. Tell them you are, in fact, a special agent of the CIA who's been assigned to investigate the private lives of young politicians in hopes of finding evidence of counterinsurgency or sexual deviance (preferably both).
Then, small groups of these politicki roam on or near Wescoe Beach, where they are attracted to unsuspecting student voters, much as hyenas gravitate toward sick antelope.
You know what that means. Once again it's springtime in Lawrence.
Ask them what the issues are.
This is sometimes a real stumper.
"Enough with the sarcasm," you say. "Enough with your puerile Mutual of Omaha analysis of our most hallowed student institution... After all, Student Senators are people, too."
In other places spring is signaled by the greening of grass and the budding of trees. But here at the top of Mount Oread, spring reveals itself
smile larger, toothier and more empty than a normal human's. You can also recognize it by its high sociability, especially in the first few weeks of April as the Student Senate elections approach.
- Ask them what their positions on the issues are and why. See above.
STAFF
COLUMNIST
through the local flourishing of a peculiar breed of animal: politicus wannabeus, a rogue and ugly branch on the human evolutionary tree, a branch that desperately wants to be elected to some thing.
As debatable as that point may be, I'll allow it — "assume the best," and all that.
But as an amateur public servant in journalistic guise I feel it's my duty to give a few tips on how to defend yourself when these so-called "people" accost you on Wesco Beach in a shameless, full-throttle and quintessentially American attempt to use you for your vote.
Listen to their spiel, not a lot and then say, "Do you have anyone named Nixon on your coalition? And if not, why?"
Ask them what their shoe size is, and how that relates to their campaign platform. While they may not be able to give you a good answer, you'll have fun watching them try to respond without offending you, the all-important voter. If you enjoy their first response, follow up with something like, "How do you spell 'bourgeoisie' and what does it mean to you?" See how long they can keep it up before screaming, "Shut up, you idiot! I don't want your vote! Shut up!"
Tell them that before you'll vote for them, you'll need a line-item justification for every cent of the student fee that goes to Senate.
So here are some possible counters when they start talking to you, asking you to vote for them or simply gang-tackling you while their leader puts a campaign button on your backpack.
Chris Reedy is a Topeka junior in English and philosophy.
■ Ask them who their political idols are. Don't vote for them if they say, "JFK" or "Gingrich." The first, because it's too cliché. The latter, because, well, just because.
The list:
MIXED MEDIA
By Jack Ohman