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.
EDITORIAL: The University either should have done a better job of clearing off campus sidewalks last week or canceled class.
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MONDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2006 WWW.KANSAN.COM
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Icy sidewalk conditions unsafe, unacceptable
A majority of students on Thursday had to do a triple salchow or a lutz just to get to class. As a sheet of ice covered campus roads and sidewalks, little was done to ensure the safety of students, faculty and staff. With no apparent treatment to the sidewalks, students were forced to walk though campus at a snail's pace to ensure not falling on their rear ends.
The University's priority when inclement weather hits is to treat the roads to make sure buses can make their stops on campus. While the roads were fine, administrators needed to evaluate whether the sidewalks were clear enough for students to safely make their way to class.
have warranted a cancellation, more could have been done to provide clear sidewalks for students.
By 9 a.m. Thursday the sidewalks near Murphy Hall were still untreated. No ice melt or sand had been poured and shoveling had not started. The stairs behind Fraser Hall were still covered with ice. Certainly Facilities Operations had its hands full, but when the University expects students to walk around in these conditions, it must make sure all walkways are clear.
The next time weather forces students to bring ice skates to get around campus, the University needs to consider shutting down shop until it can ensure that students won't break a leg walking to class.
Louis Mora for the editorial board
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Regulate marijuana industry to reduce use of harder drugs
Regarding McKay Stangler's Nov. 28 editorial on the late Milton Friedman, there is a middle ground between drug prohibition and free market legalization. Switzerland's heroin maintenance program has been shown to reduce disease, death and crime among chronic users.
Providing addicts with standardized doses in a clinical setting eliminates many of the problems associated with heroin use. Heroin maintenance pilot projects are underway in Canada, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands.
Marijuana should be taxed and regulated like alcohol, only without the ubiquitous advertising.
If expanded, prescription heroin maintenance would deprive organized crime of a core client base. This would render illegal heroin trafficking unprofitable and spare future generations addiction.
Separating the hard and soft drug markets is critical. As long as marijuana distribution remains in the hands of organized crime, consumers of the most popular illicit drug will continue to come into contact with sellers of methamphetamine.
Given that marijuana is arguably safer than legal alcohol — the plant has never been shown to cause an overdose death — it makes no sense to waste scarce resources on failed policies that finance organized crime and facilitate the use of hard drugs. Students who want to help reform harmful drug laws should contact Students for Sensible Drug Policy at www.ssdp.org.
FREE FOR ALL
Robert Sharpe
Policy Analyst
Common Sense for Drug Policy
Washington, D.C.
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 incoming calls are recorded.
If you have a "God" in your co-仆 `license plate`, don't cut people
off.
Hey, KU: If you are going to make us walk to class after an ice storm, at least salt the sidewalks.
There is an old saying: If you don't like the Kansas weather, all you have to do is wait five minutes.
To the girls that were mud wrestling behind Ellsworth: Please come back.
Seriously, Al Gore is full of crap.
Global warming does not exist, but
between songs. They were just trying to get a rise out of the London audience.
》 TALK TO US
Jonathan Kealing. editor
864-4854 or jkealing@kansan.com
The person who was on my rear driving through the sleet today: Go drive off of a cliff.
Happy first snow, or sleet, or rain. What is this weather?
I just got out of my class and it is snowing. You win, Mother Nature.
Chancellor Hemenway: My ears are cold, my toes are cold, I'm grumpy, the wind is making my nose red and I'm really angry that you didn't cancel class today.
between songs. They were just trying to get a rise out of the London audience.
between songs. They were just trying to get a rise out of the London audience.
Gabriella Souza, managing editor 864-4854 or gsouza@kansan.com
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
I wish it did because it is cold out.
John and Corey: Stop getting with psycho girls.
A quick memo to the ice that is falling: if you stop and we have class tomorrow, there will be a
You win
Why doesn't anyone ever say anything about the other basketball players? Rodrick Stewart, I love
Frank Tankard opinion editor
864-4924 or ftankard@kansan.com
between songs. They were just trying to get a rise out of the London audience.
between songs. They were just trying to get a rise out of the London audience.
you.
between songs. They were just trying to get a rise out of the London audience.
Erick R. Schmidt, managing editor 864-4854 or eschmidt@kansan.com
between songs. They were just trying to get a rise out of the London audience.
Dave Ruigh, associate opinion editor 864-4924 or druigh@kansan.com
Malcolm Gibson, general manager, news adviser
864-7667 or malbison@kansan.com
Kyle Hoedl, business manager 864-4014 or khoedl@kansan.com
Lindsey Shirack, sales manager 864-4462 or iShirak@kansan.com
OPINION
Jennifer Weaver, sales and marketing adviser
864-7666 or jweaver@kansan.com
BIOLOGY CLASS: LOST IN TRANSLATION
United they stand
Trators, Twits, Fools, Saddam's Angels.
They've been called that and a lot worse during the past three years. But the Dixie Chicks prevailed.
On Oct. 27, the Chicks and directors Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck released the movie "Shut Up And Sing." It documents the lives of Natalie Maines, Martie Maguire and Emily Robison right before and, for three years, after the notorious declaration Maines made during a concert in London. What did Maines say?
"Just so you know, were ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas."
Immediately after, the top-selling female band of all time found its records smashed, its music boycotted and its No. 1 song, "Travelin' Soldier," dropped from the record charts.
Americans had turned their backs on the band. When the Chicks offered to donate $1 million to the American Red Cross, the organization turned them down. Apparently the good-will charity was only willing to help out the needy when the giver supported its beliefs.
One of Americans' most treasured rights, the right established in1791 by the First Amendment and printed at the top of this page, is the right to free speech. The right is given to all American citizens. It is a right for which we fight other countries' wars.
However, the people of this country took it upon themselves to punish three women for taking advantage of that right. In the movie, a woman and her husband supported the country's actions by telling the Chicks, "Keep playing, keep making music, and keep your mouth shut."
》 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 Frank Tankard or Dave Bugh for 864-4810 or e-mail opinion@kansan.com.
General questions should be directed to the editor at editor@kansan.com.
If someone else had made that remark, would the country have reacted so strongly to it? As Maguire points out, who would have thought the all-American girls would save something like that?
No other Bush lambasting artist has endured as much criticism and controversy in the media as the Dixie Chicks. Not Bruce Springsteen, Moby, Bono, REM, Merle Haggard, Kanye West or Sean "P. Diddy" Combs.
Why did Americans react so harshly to the Dixie Chicks? Was it because they were a female band? Did they have so much power, with their top-selling CDs and chart-topping songs, that Americans thought their opinion would wield too much influence over the nation?
A Web site called Rock Stars Against Bush lists musicians who have shown opposition to the war in Iraq and President Bush. According to its list, only one other band has received a similar reaction by speaking out. Jethro Tull, a rock band from England that started in the '60s, was "banned by a number of U.S. radio stations after the band's lead singer was quoted saying, 'I hate to see the American flag hanging out of every bloody station wagon. It's easy to confuse patriotism with nationalism. Flag-waving isn't gonna do it.'"
If your neighbor, aunt, best friend or city mayor had said those same words, would you have called that person a "traitor?" Would you have said he or she was foolish and "deserved to be slapped around"? Or would you have just shrugged your shoulders and said to each his own opinion?
In the beginning, the group tried to explain Maines comment. It was a joke said between songs. They don't rehearse their monologues
Throughout the slurs, doubts and industry hoopla, life went on for the Chicks. The sisters, Maguire and Robison, went through in vitro fertilization to get pregnant. Both now have twin girls.
But as time progressed, they didn't see a need to defend what Maines had said. Instead, they chose to leave their fate in the hands of those who turned their backs on them. Robison says, "It is up to them to do the right thing. We have done nothing wrong."
LETTER GUIDELINES
While Robison was in the hospital waiting to have her twins, Maines called to ask Maguire (who was in the hospital room with Robison), "Does she have the US Weekly with Brad and Angelina (on the cover)?" In the next shot of the documentary we see the three of them sitting in the hospital room, magazines in hand, gossiping like teenagers.
Moments of shared joy with their families showed how similar they were to other people. For Halloween, each of the girls and their families dressed up in rocker gear.
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As the backlash against the Chicks grew, the strength and support the girls had for one another grew, too. They didn't back down from the fight. They stood together through the uproar and, as they said, it was the best thing that ever happened to their careers. It lit a fire under them that has yet to be extinished.
That is truly American.
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SUBMIT LETTERS TO
111 Stuart First Hill
1453 Jaynes Blvd
Lawrence KS 65045
784-843-4810 karynkum.com
Jodi Ann Holopirek is an Otis graduate student in journalism. She is a Kansan copy chief.
This fall in Kansas City five men were charged with coercing eight Russian students into forced labor. Forced labor is essentially slavery, and the eight students were allegedly forced to drive ice cream trucks around the city for less than a dollar a day.
GUEST COMMENTARY
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GUEST COLUMN GUIDELINES
De facto slavery still alive in U.S., abroad
The students were allegedly threatened and psychologically and financially pressured to keep working for the company, according to the Office of the United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri. They were allegedly required to fulfill selling quotas and if they didn't, the students would owe their bosses money.
While it may be easy to write off modern-day slavery as a problem in other countries, it is happening right in our backyard. Contact your senators and representatives and tell them to vote on the "Congressional Commission on the Abolition of Modern-Day Slavery Act" (S. 3787).
You may be asking yourself, why didn't the students run away? According to the U.S. Attorney's office, the men in charge of the operation told the students they had global tracking devices on the vans so they would know if the students went off their designated path. The students also knew no English, were first time travelers to the United States and many were in debt to the company holding them capture, according the office.
In August new slavery legislation was introduced to Congress to help establish a commission to address the slavery issue. The proposed commission would evaluate programs dealing with slavery, work on slavery prevention and educate high-risk populations. Not since the 13th Amendment has there been such extensive slavery legislation.
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**Also:** The Kansas will not print guest columns that attack a reporter or columnist
All these things could have combined to present a situation where escape did not seem feasible, and possibly even deadly.
This story may sound far-fetched, but unfortunately it is not. Slavery still exists in the United States and throughout the world.
The only way the government will know how important this issue is to the country is if we tell them. Have your voice be heard and help nominate this global injustice.
There are as many as 27 million slaves in the world today, according to a Congressional finding. They are forced to work in the sex industry, in agriculture, and hotel and restaurant work. The FBI estimates that slavery generates more than $9 billion every year and that slavery is one of the fastest growing international crimes.
Despite these staggering figures, not many know about modern-day slavery and what the United States government is doing to combat it.
Erin Obermeier Graduate student
EDITORIAL BOARD
Jonathan Kealing, Erick R. S. Schmidt, Gabriella Souza, Frank Tankard, Dave Ruigh, Steve Lynn, McKay Stangler and Louis Mora