The University Daily Kansan emphasizes the First Amendment:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2007 WWW.KANSAN.COM
CHAMBERS: Hip hop music and popular culture perpetuate stereotypes. Blacks need to take the ending of racism into their own hands. See Kansan.com for more opinions and Free for All comments
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
OPINION
PAGE 5A
OUR VIEW
Afghanistan focus distracted by Iraq
The global war on terror requires a prioritizing of resources and military allocation based on threat and urgency, and our current focus on the Iraq debacle may be impeding our progress in Afghanistan. Monday's surprise visit to Pakistan by Vice President Dick Cheney underscores a growing concern in both the White House and the Democratic Congress that the Taliban's resurgence is a worsome threat to American security.
President Bush was able to escape much of the criticism that came with the diversion of resources as long as our skeleton crew in Afghanistan kept the vanquished Taliban down. But as recent press reports note and Cheney's visit highlights, the Taliban and their Islamist allies are far from defeated. Taliban fighters last week seized an Afghan town after local police deserted their post — just one example of the recent upswing in Taliban insurgence and downturn in Afghan police competence.
Pakistan's recently negotiated "peace" with the tribal leaders in Waziristan, a northwest region of Pakistan, is little more than a ceding of control to dangerous factions by the government of President Pervez Musharraf. Cheney's visit was intended to scare Pakistan into doing more to crack down on local terrorists, using the specter of revoked American aid as an incentive. Pakistan, the fifth largest recipient of U.S. aid, has little choice but to comply.
The war in Afghanistan, quickly
fought and forgotten as our attention turned to Iraq, was always a dangerous endeavor. In an area where people have little devotion to any concept of nation, we ignored the influence and importance of tribal leaders and affiliation, to our great diplomatic detriment. Our efforts were hurt by our recruitment of suspect allies like Pakistan, whose precariously fragile government is one assassination away from collapse. This frightening scenario would create a power vacuum in a nuclear country with a sizeable terrorist population.
The Iraq imbrogio has created an unfortunate set of military circumstances: depleted reserves, Middle East instability and forced ignorance of other threats. Our commitment to the stability of Afghanistan must be immediately renewed, and the disruption of the al-Qaida network and Taliban resurgence must be top priorities. Despite Bush's insistence that finding Osama bin Laden is unimportant, weakening the networks in these areas is imperative.
Time will tell if the Iraq war has made us safer, but there can be little disagreement that our Afghan efforts have been crippled by the rerouted resources. While the streets of Basra and Baghdad devolve into civil war, the place that truly needs a troop surge goes largely forgotten.
McKay Stangler for the editorial board
Grant Snider/KANSAN
COMMENTARY
Responsibility to end racism rests on blacks too
Some people claim there is no longer tension between blacks and whites in America. However, because I am of both races, I see black-white relations differently from most, and whites are far from treating blacks equally. If whites judged blacks by the same criteria that they used to judge whites, they would stop allowing blacks to use racism as a crutch.
Catchphrases about seeing beyond color have become so commonplace that Stephen Colbert has seized them, saying he has "evolved" and doesn't "see race anymore". But there is a greater number of whites who don't address the issue because
they fear they will be labeled a racist.
But there are black people who would rather play the race card than play by the rules.
I know racism aimed at blacks still exists. And I'm not claiming that all whites and blacks act this way.
For instance, in Chamillionaire's "Ridin" he states, "This is a message to the law, tell em 'we hate you.'" Earlier in the song Krayzie Bone sings, "Doing the under while I puff on the blunt. . . Hope cops don't see me . . . With no regard for the law, we dodge 'em." Similarly, in "Heard 'Em Say," Kanye West states, "I guess
BY FRANCESCA CHAMBERS
KANSAN COLUMNIST
ORPINION@KANSAN.COM
they want us all behind bars, I know it."
Chamillionaire sings about hating cops with no repercussions, even though previously in the song his homeboy Kravitz thaunts their lawless actions, but if someone like Michael Richards calls a black
person a nigger, his reputation is ruined.
Maybe Kaney needs to explain to Chamillionaire and Krayzie that you cannot complain about racial profiling while giving cops reasons within the same song to profile you.
It's bad enough that we don't condemn this behavior. But what's worse is that West was one of Time magazine's top 100 artists and entertainers of 2005 because of "the influence of his medium . . . as well as the complexity of his message"
imperative or his message.
How true. West's message is quite complex; any criticism of the black community is racism, but not vice versa. He's exactly the type
of person we should praise for his positive influence on society
Because of people like Chamillionaire and West, blacks are stereotyped as thinking "the white man is trying to bring blacks down," and magazines like Time are teaching all races that this behavior is acceptable.
FREE FOR ALL
No one should be given privileges based on her or her race. But I shouldn't be complaining. After all it is Black History Month; even white people don't have an entire month devoted to them.
Call 864-0500
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 callers are not collected.
How much chuck could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could Chuck Norris?
-
lins to please stand still during the National Anthem?
Will someone tell Sherron Col-
of all incoming calls are recorded.
I don't know what you are talking about, Free-for-All. I looked all over my chemistry class and I didn't see a naked
Chambers is a Paola freshman in journalism.
like Ohio State? If we were ranked No.25 in the country and beat the No.1 team in the nation, we wouldn't rush the court, but they're No.1 in the nation and they played a worse team, and they still rushed the
country.
court, because we expect to
guy
You know what separates schools like Kansas from schools
You know why Kansas is classy and Ohio State isn't? Because we don't rush the court no matter who we beat, especially when we're No. 1. They should expect to win a game
Everyone is angry that we always rush the field during football, but can somebody tell Ohio State that they're No. 1 in basketball, and you probably shouldn't be rushing the court if you're the best team in the
-
like tha
-
-
Hey Free-for-All, guess what?
Keep it a secret, but I just found out my grandparents were swingers. Keep it a secret!
To my chemistry class: It was way too cold outside to come to class naked
-
I thought it was bad when I called Safe Ride from Manhattan, but what was really bad was when they told me the wait would be 15 minutes.
-
To the girl who peed in the
-
GSP parking lot on Friday night Totally saw you!
To the girl in the Underground who was crying hysterically and yelling at her mom: The next time you want to break out, don't do it in public.
Delta Force: Ten years running. Ten years losing.
-
-
To the girl in the AMS class who thinks feminists are hairy, egotistical man-haters: Have you learned anything in college?
KANSAN.COLUMNIST
OPINION@KANSAN.COM
That will fund eight video projectors and speaker systems that a group could check out the same way one would a laptop at Anshutt. They would allow students to create their own outdoor theaters by broadcasting videos onto the side of their house or some building on campus.
BY SAM SCHNEIDER
We have many important, yet unused by most of us, campus fees that do a lot of good. Let's add one more to benefit us all. By simply increasing our current required campus fee of $320 to $323 per semester
— a mere 9/10 of a percent — we could experience the spring semesters sitting on picnic blankets, slipping juice Juice and watching the clouds form shapes overhead.
Well take $1,400 and buy two paddle boats for Potter's Lake. With our remaining $35,300, we will create a stockpile of marshmallows, graham crackers and Hershey bars for smore parties on the grills by the lake. Estimating on the high end at $4,000 for that, we find $31,300 remaining.
Global warming failed to live up to its kype this winter and those of us who still have nightmares of ice-sheeted campus sidewalks have worn out the ears of our friends with snide remarks about the weather.
— Sam Schneider is a Topeka junior in English.
>> TALK TO US
Unlike the mixer events we do during Hawk Week, the entire purpose for this money would be to provide new avenues for friends to harp on the days and breezes of spring.
Gabriella Souza . editor
864-4854 or gsouza@kansan.com
COMMENTARY
Nicole Kelley, managing editor
864-4854 or nkelley@kansan.com
Patrick Ross, managing editor 864-4854 or press@kansan.com
First, "Springtime Enjoyment" would place a table in front of Strong Hall stacked with picnic blankets available for checkout every afternoon. Wed spend about $20 a blanket for 50 blankets, totaling $1,000. In addition to the blankets, on Friday at noon, we would set up another table with free picnic lunches on it. Beginning in March, we could cover it with brown-bag lunches and little juice boxes every Friday through the remainder of the semester. I estimate the cost, figuring 4,000 lunches a week at $3 per lunch, to be about $108,000. After all this we still have $36,700 to spend.
I have renounced complaining, however, and have decided instead to take advantage of this spring. I formally propose to our campus political parties, Delta Force and United Students, that they create another required campus fee. I would like to call it the "Mandatory Springtime Enjoyment Fee."
"Mandatory Springtime Enjoyment" would cost the same as the "recycling and environment" fee. Each of us would pay $3 per semester in campus fees, which would yield a yearly amount of $145,700.
Courtney Hagen, opinion editor
864-4924 or chagen@kansan.com
Natalie Johnson. associate opinion editor
864-4924 or njohnsoniikansan.com
'Spring fee guarantees fun for all
Lindsey Shirack, business manager
864-4014 or ishirak@kansan.com
Malcolm Gibson, general manager, news adviser
864-7667 or mgibson.jakamsan.com
Jackie Schaffer, sales manager
864-4162 or jschaffer@ikansan.com
Jennifer Weaver, sales and marketing adviser
864-7666 or jweaver@ikansan.com
>> SUBMISSIONS
The Kansan welcomes letters to the editor and guest columns submitted by students, faculty and alumni.
The Kansan reserves the right to edit, cut to length, or reject all submissions.
For any questions, call Courtney Hagen or Natalie Johnson at 644-8100 e-mail opinion@kansan.com.
General questions should be directed to the editor at editor@kansan.com.
LETTER GUIDELINES
**Include:** Author's name, class, hometown (student)
or position (faculty member/ staff) and phone number
(valid only for students)
Maximum Length: 200 words
SUBMIT LETTERS TO
111 Scaffare Flirt Hotel
1455 Ijayama Blvd.
Lawrence KS 60454
785-844-1690 kakao.kaman.com
Maximum Length: 500 words
GUEST COLUMN GUIDELINES
**Include:** Author's surname; class; hometown (student); position (faculty member/staff); phone number (will not be published)
Also: The Kansan will not print guest columns that attack a reporter or another columnist.
EDITORIAL BOARD
Gabrielle Souza, Nicole Kelly, Patrick Ross, Courtney Hagen,
Natalie Johnson, Alison Kuehler, Tasha Riggs and Mckay
Stangler
---
1 2 3