4a
Opinion
Tuesday, January 30, 2001
For comments, contact Chris Borniger or Nathan Willis at 864-4924 or opinion@kansan.com
Perspective
Adjusting hard after a relaxing winter break
As I walked out of Budig Hall after taking my last final of the semester last December, I felt a sense of exhilaration. As I looked ahead to the impending winter break, I saw nothing out an endless string of empty days. Three weeks full of life's little pleasures such as reading non-textbooks, human interaction, sleeping and eating activities I had forgone in the hectic spirit-breaking weeks before finals. At first, the debaucherous party that was winter break seemed like it would not forever.
But time has a strange and annoying
habit of playing tricks with your mind.
One day it was Dec. 19, the next it was 7
semester to begin.
Reality has come
storming back in the
past two weeks, and it
all starts with the
unnoying and insistent
ting of my alarm
clock. Even after two
weeks of attempting to
getting back into a
routine, I usually can
only wonder why my
room is filled with
blindingly bright light
at 7 p.m.
1. m, Jan. 16—time for
The realization that
this was the long-forgotten hour of 7 a.m.
not 7 p.m. hurts my brain almost as much as the light (which I deduce is the sun after a few minutes of sleep-weighted consciousness) hurts my eyes.
"Turn it off," I mumble to myself. I still don't know whether I mean the alarm clock (which I keep forgetting how to turn off), the sun — or life in general. After silencing the clock by throwing it across the room, I finally begin my morning routine
Sitting on the edge of my bed, I decide hat maybe I need to give myself a pep alk. "You can do it, self." I said. "Bathe, iress, leave. Bathe, dress, leave."
Myself responds with something imprintable, and, in the end, I have to Iraq myself Edward-Norton-in-Fight- Club style to the bathroom to begin my once-familiar before-school routine.
After completing the first three obstacles of my life back in reality, I am faced with a much more daunting task: the 4th Street hill.
The rusty screech of my brain grinding back into gear, the accumulating projects and papers I entered into my planer and my inability to speak coherently n class — each confirms my worries.
Before break, I could breeze up the hill with hardly a wasted breath. Now, as I tuff and labor, my calves on fire, I begin o worry that while winter break was 'un, it might have done more damage than good.
Last week, as I drove home from an exhausting day of class (coincidentally it about the same time I usually awoke from sleep during winter break), I conepted the means by which I could live in a continual vacation lifestyle. The most likely scenario I could come up with was a lucky scratch on a winning otterty ticket.
Unfortunately, because of my heating bill, I don't have a dollar to spare or a time to scratch the ticket with. My next idea is to find an older, multibillionaire sugar daddy, but one glance at my ripped jeans, uncut hair, and bleary eyes would probably send my rich man running.
A break is, after all, just that. While the endless, hazy days of the vacation past will be missed, it has been almost nice to see the sun reflecting off of good Budig Hall and to use my brain for something other than watching The Price is Right.
But, if any sugar daddies are looking.
I, like most KU students, have only one choice for life after winter break: Suck it in and get going.
Bainum is a Topeka junior in journalism.
Bruno Pieroni/KANSAN
By the Numbers
Chance that the murder rate in a death-penalty state was lower in 1998 than the national average.
20,000 Estimated number of Americans in prolonged solitary confinement.
Chance that the rate in a state without the death penalty was lower than the national average.
national average.
$4.92
Amount Florida State
employees donated to the
Bush campaign for every
dollar donated to Gore.
Americans who have ever belonged to a nonprofessional self-help group.
1892 Year in which the levered
voting machines used in some precincts — including Florida — were invented.
Source: Harper's Index
Perspective
Garden City an oasis of culture in Kansas
I get a fairly standard reaction from students who have heard of my hometown when I tell them it's Garden City. Usually, it involves their noses wrinkling up as they back away from me and snap, "That place stinks!"
It's the repugnant reaction that gets me the most. I'll agree, Garden City isn't home to the most pleasant odors. But it's not as though, just because I lived there for 18 years, my clothes and hair and skin have picked up the stench of the nation's largest beef-processing plant. At least, I hope not.
Instead, what I picked up from my time in Garden City has enriched me much more
than natural fertilizer has any dry, western Kansas soil.
Because the smell is so prominent and noticeable, people don't take the time to get to know the real Garden City. And largely, I think, because it's in western Kansas, people do everything in their power to discredit anything positive about it.
Students from eastern Kansas assume they are more culturally
Kristi Ellott
features editor
opinion@kansan.com
enriched because they are from bigger cities and have more access to cultural events. I'll never forget hearing a KU student who went to high school in Lawrence talk about how the state should give eastern Kansas schools more money because they were more deserving of (and more likely to be enriched by) cultural experiences.
egg rolls and dried octopus. I wondered if he ever had to remember the Spanish word for cantaloupe so that he could buy the best kind of frozen popsicle from one of the old women who pushed a blue cart with the words "La Polar" in the summer.
I could only shake my head at that student. I wondered if, in his time in school, he was able to march in parades that celebrated both beef and Cinco de Mayo festivals. I wondered if he saw dragon dancers roam through the hallways of his schools during Tet celebrations each year. I wondered if he learned Vietnamese fan dances and ate authentic tortillas, salsas, tamales,
I wondered if he had ever worked on a publication that printed its stories in three languages — English, Spanish and Vietnamese, or at a zoo, where on Tuesdays he could be a witness to the unofficial cross-dressers' gatherings around the bathrooms, and Sundays the large parties and barbecues of Hispanic families at the park.
I wondered if he grew up knowing that on any given day, he was just as likely to come across a low-rider blasting mariachi music, its front license plate sporting the Mexican flag, as he was to come across a beat-up pickup truck blasting country music, its front plate sporting a Confederate flag.
BriAnne Hess doesn't believe that. A fellow western Kansan, BriAnne had an opportunity last semester to work on an indepth story about Garden City. In this project, which is running in conjunction with The Wichita Eagle today, BriAnne talked to several people enriched by their experiences there.
I was able to experience all that while growing up. But according to my friend, I wasn't enriched by those experiences because I wasn't born on eastern Kansas soil.
Then, the next time you meet someone from Garden City, instead of backing away, you can warm up to a person who has been exposed to more than just bad smells.
Perhaps you can gain some cultural experience from Garden City, too. Before you make any final judgments about my hometown, I encourage you to read the story about it.
Elliott is a Garden City senior in Journalism and American studies.
Editorial
Bus system needs riders to survive
Years of lobbying brought a city bus system to town. Now, we have to support it.
During winter break, the Lawrence Public Transit System instituted a city bus system nicknamed "the T"—serving all of Lawrence, including the University.
After years of lobbying to bring the service to our community, students and Lawrence citizens must capitalize on this fantastic opportunity to ensure it remains.
Because the bus system is new, students and Lawrence residents are unable to purchase bus passes right now, but passes should be available within the next month. The cost for a ride on "the T" is fifty cents — half of what it costs to ride the KU on Wheels buses.
Representatives of the Lawrence Public Transit System say that turnout has been good so far. Since Dec. 16, nearly 5,000 people have used the buses.
KU students should take advantage of this means of transportation, especially on weekends when the University buses are not running. Some students do not own a car, so "the T" would be the perfect opportunity to take advantage of what Lawrence has to offer.
Many students are unaware of the new transit system. The city buses are easily recognizable because they are much smaller than those used on campus and are white with a "T" logo on the side.
Students without bus passes can take these buses at a much lower rate than the KU on Wheels buses. On days when it's too cold to walk to class across campus, students can catch the city bus.
There are many advantages to buses. Traffic has become somewhat of a problem in Lawrence as the population continues to grow. Buses will help solve the problem of clogged streets, as well as many other transportation debacles for the citizens of Lawrence.
Lawrence will benefit greatly from the new citywide transportation system. Let's give it some support so it will remain.
Katie Hackett
Katie Hackett for the editorial board
free for all 8640500 8640500
Free for All callers have 20 seconds to speak about any topic they wish. The Kansas reserves the right to edit submissions, and not all of them will be published. Slanderous statements will not be printed. For more comments, visit www.kansan.com.
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You know, it really makes me mad how every teacher thinks that they're my only class and gives me 80 pages each night to read.
(Editor's note): Maintenance workers at Meadowbrook Apartments gave the cat its name.)
Who gave the media the right to name a stray cat Momma Cat to invoke feelings of sympathy from the audience?
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I think Robinson gymnasium needs to put in a 10-meter platform so I can go bust some moves, because I can really bust some moves.
I decided that just because of parking situations on game days, I'm going back to being an Iowa State fan. Go Cyclones.
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I'd like to know why the students aren't a priority at this University.
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Roy's Boys and Roy's Girls really stink for making that bad Eric Chenowith sign.
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Does Shaun Peterson have any other reasons not to vote for Hillary Clinton besides the color of her clothes?
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If it's cold outside and warm inside, you wear a short shirt-sleeved shirt inside and a coat outside. Bigots suck.
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Why is it that our country fought for taxation without representation, and now 16-year-olds are taxed without being represented?
I don't think there's doubt in anybody's mind that the funniest word in the English language is shuttlecock.
What's with the cavernan art in the Fraser elevators? And quit erasing stuff in the bathroom stalls. That's my reading material.
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I just love Martin Sheen.
I just called to say I love you.
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