2006
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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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OPINION
WWW.KANSAN.COM
OUR OPINION
Downtown violence originates elsewhere
In early Oct. 2003, a man fired into a crowd outside its Brothers Bar & Grill, 1105 Massachusetts St. Ricocheting bullets and debris injured 11 people. A Topeka man pleaded guilty to the crime.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2006
As Lawrence has grown, it has become a hub of activity. There are frequent shows and concerts. This brings in people from outside the community who might not be the most courteous of visitors.
In March 2005, a convenience store on 23rd Street was looted by about 100 people, who were believed to have been at Last Call 729 New Hampshire St., before the incident. Although no arrests were made, the clerk on duty noted that several of the looters' cars bore Missouri license plates.
The shooting on Massachusetts Street has sent bad vibes throughout the Lawrence and University communities. City commissioners have voiced their reactions to what they rightfully see as a serious problem. An unscientific online poll by The University Daily Kansan revealed that while half those polled felt no real concern after the incident, 34 percent felt less secure and 12 percent said the incidents would keep them from going out as much as before.
The early morning incident was a link in a long chain of events and problems during the past several years concerning violence and crime. Students and their parents should be concerned, but also should realize it's not really a problem of the community itself.
No arrests have been made in this week's shooting, either, but the man who was killed was from Topeka. The other victim, who is hospitalized, is from Kansas City.
Issue: Violent crime in Lawrence
Stance: Put criminal identities in context.
An unfortunate consequence of these crimes is that Lawrence may gain a bad reputation. The University's image could suffer, too. Who wants to attend a school that is surrounded by violent crime? And who would send their child to such a place?
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People should realize that the people who committed these crimes are not the same people sitting next to them in class, cheering with them at a Jayhawk sporting event or walking down Jayhawk Boulevard. These individuals do not have the same ties to the community as the students.
Many of those involved in the recent crimes are college-aged, even though few have been associated with the University. We are concerned that the demographics of age and culture would cause those outside the city to associate the crimes with the University.
The bottom line is that the city should welcome people who want to enjoy Lawrence and gain from what it has to offer, but there are visitors who cause problems and concern. For their own safety, students should know what surroundings they're in and with whom, but they should not let these incidents get in the way of enjoying the local scene.
Kan.
- Ty Beaver for the editorial board
Free for all callers have 20 seconds to speak about any topic they wish. Kansan editors reserve the right to omit comments. Slanderous and obscene statements will not be printed. Phone numbers of all incoming calls are recorded.
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Free for ALL
So we're watching "Cops." The two people have mullets, the two cops have mullets, their baby that they're fighting over has a
mullet. Coincidence? No.
As I opened the UDK today and read the top ten places to sleep on campus, I'm a little dishearened by the fact that Murphy Hall practice rooms are not mentioned. I for one
them. They're a wonderful place to sleep if you enjoy music being played and/or sung, because I never leave.
Murphy doesn't mean it isn't included in the Kansan.
I just spent my entire physics lecture trying to divide by zero.
included in the Kansan.
'Infotainment' signals end of real journalism
COMMENTARY
PAGE 5A
That same summer, a Senate panel grilled professional baseball players about the use of steroids. As George Henson of Dallas said in a letter to the New York Times in August of 2005, "All the feigned shock and awe about Rafael Palmeiro's steroid use is about as newsworthy as the runaway bride." One couldn't turn on the television without seeing concerned, paunchy white men frowning down at gargantuan athletes.
There has been a slow, almost imperceptible, movement of the American media to focus on the fluff and ignore the substance. And, the forecast on the horizon is bleak. The traditional newsroom is becoming a relic. Large corporations have slowly gobbled up papers across the nation, and bit by bit have gutted newsrooms and left reporters to walk in their own entrails, so to speak.
American journalism is in trouble. This summer, while images of the "runaway bride" were splashed across our television screens, Turkey was denied entry into the European Union and the future of the EU stood on shaky grounds. Although this event would have lasting effects on the American economy and diplomatic relationships, the American press barely stirred.
er chances for journalists to catch a scandal. Increased tripe means we're more likely to alienate readers fed up with "infotainment."
MARK VIERTHALER opinion@kansan.com
Corporations tend to shy away from controversial stories, so the fluff is played off as "hard-hitting" news. Fewer reporters means few-
The Michael Jackson trial saw swarms of reporters, hitting on such "late-breaking news" as Jackson showing up in pajamas. With all the reporters clamoring and braying questions at Jackson from behind a fence, it wasn't so much a media circus as a media zoo.
We, as journalists need to get back to our roots. Perhaps not in the style of writing of the 1930s and 40s, but to the core of what the fourth estate is all about: Hard news that affects the public.
Journalism has to evolve if we want to stay relevant. But, we cannot lose our values along the way. A newspaper is not the place for headlines trumpeting the break up of flash-in-the-pan celebrities. The newspaper is a vehicle to change minds, to inform the public and to be the guardians of the people.
It's a profession that once harbored bulldogs like Woodward Bemstein and H.L. Mencken. We've never been popular, but now we're openly mocked. Now we have Geraldo.
A revolution must come from within the journalistic community. It's time to hit the streets, dig for information and let people know what is happening in the world and how it affects them.
Paris Hilton doesn't matter. Michael Jackson doesn't matter. The runaway bride doesn't matter. Celebrity doesn't necessitate a front page, above the fold article.
For God's sake, President Theodore Roosevelt gave us the name "muckraker" because reporters were willing to crawl on their hands and knees through the fifth to get the story. What the hell happened to that?
It is a knife my heart to see readership declining in newspapers. It makes me nauseous to see the break of Brad and Jen as the second headline on BBC
It doesn't have to be sensational; it doesn't have to send the country into turmoil like the Watengate stories. It can be as simple as preventing a city commission from screwing over the "little guy." Carl Hiaasen, Miami Herald columnist, often bemoans the dangers of not being a watchdog for the people that your paper serves.
The journalistic community owes it to readers. We are a waypoint between point A and point B, and it's high time for a new golden age of journalistic integrity. For the rest, let them read People.
Vierthaler is a Dodge City junior in journalism.
COMMENTARY
As society changes, women change leadership
It scares some and empowers others. The ever increasing presence of women in leadership positions in the present generation is a far cry from mere decades ago.
The 21st century has revolutionized the professional mobility of women by leaps and bounds. However, it's undeniable that obstacles still exist in our society's opinion of women, and even some women's opinions of themselves.
Yet while the system is still hardly equal opportunity, many women are visible as leaders. And what's more is that beyond holding leadership positions, they're doing well. They're successful.
women have embraced positions from CEOs to senators, and in doing so are slowly providing society with a comfort and a confidence in the ability of women to handle two roles that society had previously viewed as impractical and incompatible: Being a woman and a leader.
At any given time it is possible to see women in positions of prominence. Diane Sawyer reigns over ABC broadcasts, Condoleezza Rice oversees foreign relations and Melinda Gates was recently named one of Time magazine's Persons of the Year for her philanthropic involvement.
KELLY COCHRAN
opinion@kansan.com
This growth is of profound importance not only for the people who couldn't or wouldn't accept the professional and leadership equality of the sexes, but also for the women who need to see their own abilities reflected in other women who have done well.
The most prominent leadership position is the presidency, and in the upcoming 2008 election, we will no doubt be seeing Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., as a Democratic nominee. She is a highly viable contender because of her overwhelming success as a senator.
While the United States has not yet had a woman president, other nations have. Consider the recent election of Chile's president.
Michelle Bachelet. A medical doctor and former minister of defense, Bachelet is embracing ideals that should help eliminate the hostile dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.
Her goals of improving relations with neighbors and pursuing free trade and open market policies have instilled confidence in the Chilean population. But what's most refreshing and most important about the election of Bachelet is that her history and ability overshadowed her status as a woman.
In other words, she was elected not because she was a woman, but because she was the best person for the job. This principle should begin to redefine the world's way of leading. This is the kind of achievement that should not only
Instead, it's when we've embraced the method of electing leaders based solely on their ability and qualifications, when age, sex, race and religion become as unimportant as hair color that leadership will truly revolutionize.
speak to women, but should set an example for anyone that leads and anyone that follows.
The increasing leadership and success of women is important not only for females, but for leadership as an institution.
It is important for our society to reach a point where we aren't following leaders simply because they identify with our own sex, our own race or our own religion.
- Cochran is a Mission sophomore in journalism.
Obstacles obstruct women in politics
During Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun's introduction before her speech at the Dole Institute on Tuesday, the associate director of the institute, Jonathan Earle, threw out a set of statistics that shocked me. Although 45 percent of Americans thought women would be superior to men in domestic policy, only 23 percent said women would be better than men in areas of national security. What? Do people really think that Bush has been doing that great of a job? Come on, America. This is the age of Tae Bo and Pilates. Women can kick butt just as well as any man.
COMMENTARY
There is also a general noninterest in voting in primary elections. What most of America does not understand is that we have to get a woman on the ballot before we can vote for her. We haven't managed it yet. One reason for this, cited by Moseley Braun on Tuesday, was that women, as non-traditional candidates, have trouble getting money to fund their campaigns. Sen. Elizabeth Dole made it very clear that she had to withdraw from the election race due to a lack of funds, citing the "75 or 80-to-1 cash advantage" her rivals "enjoyed" over her. Moseley Braun also made a reference to her own "shoestring effort" and admitted that she had not been able to collect enough campaign funds to make it through the first primary election.
That statistic makes a strong example, however, of prejudices that are holding us back from electing a woman president. In an era of gender equality and television programs like "Commander In Chief," it seems like most of the public is ready and willing to see a woman in office. Although there is still a group of "good old boys," who refuse to entertain such a "preposterous" idea, I believe they are in the minority.
These reasons merely mark the terrible gender prejudices and apathy toward national issues that still breed in America. I think that America should be ashamed that we are still so far behind in equality in the political arena. America needs to get it together and break one of its last standing gender barriers, and we need to do it soon. Once we elect one woman, it will cease to be such an obstacle to elect another. It doesn't matter whether it is Hillary Rodham Clinton, (although she would most definitely have my vote) Condoleezza Rice or Carol Moseley Braun herself. The time has come, as Moseley Braun has said over and over again, "to take the 'Men Only' sign off the White House door."
♦ Cassie Gentry is a Piper freshman in English.
So, if most of America is ready to put a woman in the White House, why hasn't it happened yet? I believe it comes down to the fact that the wrong people are voting. According to the U.S.Census, there was 21 percent more Americans 65 and older registered than 18 to 24 year-olds in 2004. I think most people will agree that the older population is less likely to make a radical political change than younger students.
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