Opinion The University Daily Kansan
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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2010
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When professors play music before class I get flashbacks to my summer camp days. It makes it so hard to take it seriously.
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First I slipped and accidentally fell into the arms of my friend's brother and made out with him; then I accidentally slipped again and fell into her boyfriend's bed ... whoops how clumsy of me!
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Twitter is the new Xanga.
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I'm starting to get really, really, REALLY homesick. Can Thanksgiving please come sooner?!
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As Politico recently pointed out, every major contender for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination who isn't currently holding office and isn't named Mitt Romney is now a paid contributor to Fox
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I like men like my math professors, awkward and nerdy
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You got a fast car and I want a ticket to anywhere.
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So I got drunk and high on Saturday and grilled my shoe ... I just found that damn shoe I've been looking for it for three days now
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My professor said we didn't have the speaker because of national security issues, I know it's because you can't figure out
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I lost my virginity in the back of a Grand Marquis parked in a corn field, listening to AC/DC... now here's a classy broad.
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I just wanted to do hoodrat stuff with my friends.
--eyes?
If you're going to come to work high, can you at least buy some Visine and cover up those red
Reply all should NOT be an option!
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Why does it take more time to log into the computers in the library than you actually spend
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The freshmen are starting to find my sleeping spots on campus
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I hope that one day someone writes about me in the free for all, that would make my day!
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CAMPUS
Everyone needs someone to be a voice of reason
With media swarming all around us,it's hard sometimes to distinguish what's news, what's entertainment and what's just sad. But since we're human and have the capacity for compassion and sympathy, it shouldn't be too difficult.
Last month, an incident occurred at the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, also known as FJIJJ, during a party which left a student with head trauma. The student was transported to a Kansas City hospital via helicopter.
It would be easy to catalogue the incident as just another tragic happenstance of life, but it's not. Although not all the details are in, this incident seems like it could have been prevented, and the real story is, why wasn't it?
The news must go on, however, and with it comes the reports about underage drinking, about suspensions and about hazing, none of which really covers what's truly important. Amidst all the partying and fraternity high jinx, how could something like this have been allowed to happen in the first place?
Why wasn't someone, anyone,
there to say, "Hey, this may not be
such a good idea?"
Starting the Conversation
BY D.M. SCOTT
I know. We are all responsible for our own actions. But none of us live in a vacuum. As Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. said, "We are here to help each other get through this thing, whatever it is."
As a nontraditional student, I also understand detours. Mine took me away from school for ten years. In that time, I learned how important it is to have at least one person in my life that will tell me the truth.
It took me a long time to realize how important and how much I need other people in my life. I wouldn't have a life if it weren't for other people.
If you don't have someone in your life like that, you need one. Everyone needs that one person who cares enough to say the things we don't want to hear. Someone who isn't afraid to confront us
when we're messing up, to point out our faulty motives if needed and to. God forbid, end the party when warranted.
We can only hope the boys at the FIJI house learned this valuable lesson: When a "brother" leaves the party in an ambulance, it's time to end the party.
Yet when I hear students talk about Greek Life, I'm nervous about what they'll take away from the tragedy.
"Greek Life here at KU, the stereotype is we like to party, and it's true," senior Megan Geenens said in a September 24 KMBC interview. "There is alcohol everywhere. That's what college life is about, I guess."
I understand. The rigors of the Greek Life are demanding. All that is important.
But not as important as speaking up before things get out of hand.
I hope everyone will remember these basic tenets of civility—tenets that really shouldn't have to be stated. And hopefully all of us can learn how to be more accountable to one another.
Scott is a junior from Overland Park in journalism.
CARTOON
CONVICTED OF KILLING PEOPLE
DUE TO
SECONDHAND
SMOKE.
Election Time
With mid-term elections on Nov. 2, The Kansan wants to hear from you about the candidates and issue important to you.
The Kansan will run letters to the editor endorsing or commenting on specific candidates beginning Oct.19.Letters that appear to be form letters or not written by the author will not be published.
Send your letters to kansanopdesk@gmail.com
GUEST COLUMN
MIRIAM SAIFAN
Some discussions shouldn't be texts
People depend on texting too much as a communication tool. Don't get me wrong.
I admit that I do it too, but when texting becomes the whole communications toolbox as opposed to maybe the hammer or wrench, it might be an unhealthy dependence.
It used to be the polite and respectable method to make the time to break it off with your significant other and let them know it isn't working anymore by looking them in the eye and using your words wisely to end it.
Let's explore how texting has become the substitute for face-toface communication, or word of mouth with a phone.
Yes, a little awkward, but taking that personal time to do so can really mean something to the other person.
Break-ups
No matter if it is three texts long, or three words long, no one wants to be broken up with from a telephone screen.
It does help avoid awkwardness,
Today many people resort to the phone keypad to cut the ties.
As much as I would love to get a, 'We r dun. I'm sry, but shuzi just didn't write rite btween us," it makes me want to confiscate their phone until they turn 13, and learn how to spell.
Tell me to my face and maybe we can be friends, or at least I can hold on to the little respect I have left for you.
but the blow to someone's ego can be just as bad.
Words written on a screen are so much different than actually saying them either by phone or to someone's face.
Intoxicated or not, it seems to be easier for people to come off stronger through written word than by word-of-mouth.
Cockiness
For example, the ever popular:
Sexting.
Personally, "Com over 2 my place, ben getting smashed all nite, and wud lu to see you," at 2 a.m. just really doesn't interest me at all.
Or, maybe you are fighting with someone.
I've been there. It is definitely easier to text fight than actually talk.
After an endless cluster of words, it sucks the energy out of you, and talking might have been worth it.
Professional/college appointments:
Texting your professor is a horrible idea, unless they suggest it.
Teachers don't really appreciate,
"Hey teach. Can't make it to our
appt 2day. I am just 2 hungover loi."
My computer is vomiting red squiggy lines from all the misspellings, and I am sure teachers feel the same way.
Don't tell your boss you are going to be late through a 25-word text.
As a news editor, I'd probably respond with, "Ur fired lol."
Well, maybe not that drastic, but call or e-mail with proper grammar and spelling.
Use your texts wisely, not something to lean on because the other tools in your communication toolbox require a little more effort.
Lol.
From UWIRE. Dara Barney for The University of Idaho Argonaut, at the University of Idaho
GUEST COLUMN
Social media multiply pain,scope of bullying
In the wake of several suicides involving gay teens ranging in age from 13 to 19, "cyberbullying" has quickly become the buzzword du jour.
These events are a stark reminder of what those of us in the gay community already know: being gay isn't easy. But while the issue of anti-gay bullying is very real, cyberbullying is not simply limited to straight people targeting gays.
Since the early days of chat rooms, message boards and instant messaging, there has been an opportunity for people to attack others with little or no consequence.
Don't be fooled. Talking about rather than to someone isn't a defense for bullying.
Given the ability of social media to reach a broad audience of both passive and active users, there's no telling how many people may witness the attack.
The big difference now is that because today's cyberbullies use tools like Facebook and Twitter, many don't even bother to conceal their identities online and then use passive-aggressive tactics to attack their victims.
What's worse, because these online tools are designed to facilitate sharing and discussion, what might start as one attacker can quickly turn into four or five.
Imagine the torment and embarrassment of being bullied by one of your peers on the playground in elementary school. Now imagine that, instead of just your classmates, you have hundreds or even thousands of people watching.
And if you think this only happens to teens, think again. Bullying is a byproduct of insecurity, and there are insecure people of all ages.
For instance, a few weeks ago members of the gay community took exception to a comic I wrote and a response I co-wrote, both of which were published last month in The Kansan.
The day the comic ran, I had received both a tweet and a Facebook message calling the comic "trash" and telling me to "get a life."
Two others retweeted the comment, effectively cosigning it. One other posted a similar response.
He was back on the attack a week later after an openly gay student tweeted that "the best way not to perpetuate a stereotype is to not conform yourself to it in the first place." His response was to call the disenter "a spinster" and suggest that only someone who had no social or sex life would make such a statement.
When our response ran the following day, the same student posted a comment calling me "overweight" and a "hypocrite," before making various sexual insinuations. Before long, others jumped on the bandwagon posting similar messages.
Such incidents are all too common and, unfortunately,are thought by many to be rather innocuous. They're not.
As a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, I can assure you that even the slightest one-time occurrence can have life-changing consequences. And bullying can have life-ending consequences.
No more lives need to be lost to see there's a simple solution. If you want to stop bullying, stop bullying.
- Scott Winer is a cartoonist for The Kansan.
Responses to the news of the week on Kansan.com
Chatterbox Responses to the news of the week on Kansan.
"A loophole in the law? More like a poorly written 'quick fix' law. I could have told you this would happen even before the law was passed. There are literally hundreds of varieties of chemicals like JWH. Furthermore, primarily through online retailers, there are tens of products just like K2 and K3 currently available. Prohibition is obviously not the correct solution here."
— "Zero" in response to "Updated drug evades police, law" on Oct. 6.
"You don't get it and I am done with this. I have no responsibility to instruct you. You think we put Pinochet in power for fun. Trained Guatemalans for fun. The School for the Americas has done more to free the people of Central and South America than communism ever did. There is no vacuum in history. If the Soviets were not so tyrannical and imperialistic we would not have had to set up barriers against them. Denying the role the Soviets (allies to National Socialist Germany) in the growth of tyranny is a tool the Soviet agents use in this country. Way to play their game. Too bad you are doing it for free, you might as well get paid for your diligence."
—"metacognition" in response to "Basic Training" on Oct. 5.
"America didn't free anyone. They removed the democratically elected leader and put in Pinochet instead. He then went on to kill people. The USSA did this."
— "zomgzomg" in response to "Basic Training" on Oct. 5.
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