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COMMENTARY: Historical perspective and insight is gained on a trip to the Harry S Truman Presidential Library and Museum. See kansan.com for more opinions and Free for All comments
MONDAY, JANUARY 22, 2007 WWW.KANSAN.COM
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
OPINION
PAGE 4A
》 OUR VIE
Eudget situation needs honest action
In testimony before Congress last week, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke worried of a growing threat to both the American economy and the federal budget. His concern was not the profligate war spending, nor the mounting national debt. Not even the astonishing spending rates and negative savings rates of American consumers worried Bernanke on this day. The most immediate concern in his eyes is the looming debt presented by unfunded entitlement programs.
Bering lawmakers by telling them the right time to address the problem was "about 10 years ago". Bernanke put into stark words exactly how serious this budget menace could become. Federal allocations for Social Security and Medicare will almost double over the next two decades if funding is not addressed, requiring more borrowing by the federal government to cover the shortfall. These events will coincide with the massive influx of retirements by Baby Boomers, further complicating an already discouraging prospect.
Early in the Bush administration, previous Fed chairman Alan Greenspan gave a similar warning but still endorsed the impending tax cuts, provided they were accompanied by reductions in federal spending. The promised cuts cut never materialized, lost in the shuffle of slow economic growth and the swelling costs of the war in Iraq. Washington's ruling party also discovered, like so many before them, that the ability to control budgets is the most transfixing and corrupt-
But the time for the trumpy of political concerns is over. No longer can our federal government continue to pass the bill for these entitlement programs to future generations. No potential solution, including budget cuts and tax increases, should be off the table in this discussion, as the consequences are too significant and ominous to be bogged down in tired soundbites and campaign retraits. Students should not allow elected leaders to pay lip service to such problems while hoping for a budgetary elixir years down the road.
Both sides have made modest attempts in recent years to address these problems, but the efforts have so far spiraled into little more than warring philosophical and political camps. President Bush's ill-conceived semi-privatization plan for Social Security was quickly trampled by relevant special interest groups and old-line Democrats who campaign on little else. Conspicuously absent from the Democrats' feverish opposition to the President's plan was any sensible alternative, aside from the same tired lines of "supporting our seniors" and "risky stock market gamble." Perhaps both parties now find themselves secretly yearning for the days of the Clinton surplus and his desire to "save Social Security first."
—McKay Stangler writing for the editorial board.
Call 864-0500
FREE FOR ALL
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img kind of power, a siren song of pet projects funded and reelections assured that is not easily innored.
Dear KU, next time there's a big ice and snow storm, maybe you should plow the parking lots before everyone gets here. Thank you!
Real fans should know that were allowed to wear blue AND crimson. Duh.
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So I pick up a copy of the UDK and there on the front page is a very large, full-color photo of a cup of urine. Wow, this newspaper is so classy.
Hey Free-for-All, we think you'd make a great RA, so you should apply online.
but thank you, thank you, thank you so much for slipping on the ice and biting the dust. Man, when your butt hit the ground, you made my day. Oh, I can't wait for that to happen again.
I just saw Malkenstien at Wal-Mart, and I think it's ridiculous, because somebody should be shopping for that man.
Oh man, the Free-for All is back in black, baby! Wow. Thank you for coming back Free-for All! Oh, I missed you baby. It was a long winter break, but the sun is finally shining back in Lawrence. Thank you, Jesus.
but thank you, thank you, thank you so much for slipping on the ice and biting the dust. Man, when your butt hit the ground, you made my day. Oh, I can't wait for that to happen again.
I know you're never gonna read this kid, because you're probably in like seventh grade,
Hey, if anybody finds my Math 290 book with some crazy drawings in it, let me know, because I need to retake the class and I want it back.
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How do they get the Twizzlers Pull-N Peel pieces to stick together, because when you pull them apart, they're not sticky.
Dear Free-for-All, do magic carpets have air-conditioning and heating?
Dear Free-for-All, you spend $200 on a fabulous pair of shoes. The next day, you discover they were made from baby seal skin. The store does not accept returns. Do you wear the shoes?
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I called Safe Ride, and Safe Ride wouldn't answer my call. I'm probably going to make a bad decision tonight. Thanks a lot Safe Ride, you served me well.
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If you have a North Face with your fraternity on it, you should kill yourself.
North Face is definitely the new pink. Go Jayhawks!
passed around the class, students quietly snicker. Gruwell snatches the picture and erupts at the class ignorance, comparing the cartoon to the propaganda distributed about Jewish people during the Holocaust.
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RA44-AR54 or npcs@kansan.com
"Freedom" journals stop violence
COMMENTARY
Based on a true story, the movie "Freedom Writers" tells the story of neglected, "unteachable" students living in gang-ruled Los Angeles neighborhoods during the post-Rodney King era of 1994.
Anyone who has seen "Dangerous Minds" might think that "Freedom Writers" is just another unconventional teacher makes a difference movie—but it's not. The extra time and effort the teacher, Erin Gruwell, puts toward her class deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.
Griwell, played by two-time Academy Award winner Hilary Swank, is a fresh-out of college English teacher who wants to make a difference in the racially integrated Wilson High School in Long Beach, Calif.
Instead of being segregated by the school system, Gruwell's class is self-segregated into African Americans, Latinos, Hispanics and Cambodians.
When a caricature depicting one of the African-American students with big lips and a big nose gets
Cuieless to the harsh reality of the school she chose to teach, where students come to classes armed, fights break out daily and teachers are more like babysitters. Gruwell walks into the classroom with poise and excitement. She quickly realizes the situation she's gotten herself into.
BY JODI ANN HOLOPIREK
When the assignment is completed, Gruwell combines her students' stories and asks them to come up with a name to call themselves. They chose Freedom Writers after the Freedom Riders who fought against segregation during the Civil Rights Movement.
KANSAN COLUMNIST
OPINION@KANSAN.COM
In 1999, the Freedom Writer's came full circle by publishing their journal entries in "The Freedom Writers Diary."
Using Anne Frank's diary as her model, Gruwell gives each student a blank journal to write in. They can write stories, lyrics or poems or draw pictures in it to explain how they understand and what they think about.
This form of creative expression helped the Freedom Writers see the importance of their own lives and the lives of others. It's sad Gruwell's students had to learn about the ignorance and destruction of the Nazis before they could see the ignorance and destruction they were doling out.
If more teachers put the effort that Gruwell did into their work, "at-risk" students might respond better to education and find a path leading away from violence. However, with the No Child Left Behind rules now hovering over teacher's heads, they have little to no time to give to students individually. As a result, students are filling further behind because they're receiving less personalized instruction to help them succeed.
Many of the students that Gruwell originally taught graduated high school and college and helped her create the Freedom Writers Foundation. The foundation focuses its efforts on helping teachers learn how they can reach at risk youth by bringing students and educators together in an environment that promotes acceptance and embraces diversity.
Soon she has the students reading "The Diary of Anne Frank" and comparing the violence going on in the book to the violence they see everyday.
To learn more about this valuable organization, please visit www freedomwritersfoundation.org.
Holopirek is an Otis graduate student in journalism.
Remember 34th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade
>> LETTER TO THE EDITOR
A baby's birth is a blessed event, celebrated by family and friends as they welcome the newborn into the world. Nine months earlier, the baby's DNA played a complex symphony as the miracle of life began. Roe v. Wade shattered this peaceful scene in 1973, tossing aside 36 state laws. Roe is an embarrassment to the legal profession and complicates medical ethics for doctors.
Feminists including Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony vigorously opposed abortion as a form of male domination in society. Americans embrace a culture of life that values every individual and our law should too.
The Hippocratic Oath, through which doctors promised to care for and help patients and were forbidden to perform abortions, was forever changed by seven lawyers. Perverting rights designed for former slaves, the Court said "liberty" equals abortion.
Steve Johnson Overland Park law student
If Roe is ever overturned, we can decide abortion democratically as intelligent women and men.
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Truman library worth trip
Welcome back! It's time to transition from five weeks of sleeping in, working and getting sick of your family to months of getting to your 8 a.m. class late and wishing you could order pizza in Anschutz. To ease the transition, I have a road trip suggestion that is fun and relevant to the world today.
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Go to the Harry S Truman Presidential Library and Museum. It is in Independence, Mo., and is an easy hour drive from Lawrence on Interstate 70.
So before the semester gets too hectic and you call four hours of sleep a good night, do something different. Take a trip, learn about how to put our crazy world into context and finally, have a little fun.
Stuewe is a Lawrence junior in political science and American studies.
Go ahead, call me a dork. But the trip is worth the miserable Missouri roads and potential Tiger sightings.
The Truman Presidential Museum and Library is relevant for several reasons. First, it's entertaining. One exhibit leads you through typical American scenes from 1945-1953 that encompass Truman's years in office. You see a mother playing with her children, a refrigerator full of classic American food and a TV playing old Westerns.
In the next room you are faced with a different reality. Europe after World War II. In this exhibit there are bare cupboards and black-and-white footage lining the wall depicting starvation and government brutality.
The exhibits in the Truman Museum reflect a president and a nation in a time of great international turmoil. Sound familiar? Reflecting on our country during other crises we can understand how the conflict affected our nation.
As students at the University of Kansas we hold a privileged position in the world. It is our duty to repay this position by understanding our history and working to create a more positive international environment.
As Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and Truman scholar David McCullough wrote: "History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. History is who we are and why we are the way we are." It helps to take a look back at how America got involved in past conflicts and how Americans were affected.
Then, like now, America is far removed from the harsh realities of international struggle. When Koffi Annan gave his final speech as United Nations secretary general at the museum late last year he praised Truman's foreign policy and called for American leadership in the "Truman tradition" to face global challenges.
EDITORIAL BOARD
Gabriela Soura, Nicole Kelley, Patrick Ross, Courtney Hagen
Natalie Johnson, Alison Kueler, Tasha Riggins and McKay Stangler
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