4a
Opinion
Monday, December 4, 2000
For comments, contact Ben Voosen Embry or Emily Hughey at 864-4924 or e-mail opinion@kansan.com
Perspective
Speaking for the voiceless brings change
Yes, I was arrested. It's a little surprising to me how many people read the paper last Tuesday and saw those headlines. Seeing as I was an opinion page columnist, and I am a senior, and I find myself in the news often (a.k.a. I'm an activist), it's not that surprising that people have read my stuff or read about me in the Kansan. However, I think more people have mentioned this recent coverage because of the headline "Students arrested in demonstration."
So what would make me drive 16 hours to Columbus, Ga., only to stand around in freezing rain for two days, colder than I've been in a long time; get arrested by military police that were pretty unhappy with me and my 10,000 accomplices; and then six hours of processing, drive home? The answer is easy.
At the gates of P.T. Benning, I was surrounded by fellow students from around the country, yes, but there were others, and we students were outnumbered. This wasn't Seattle, and we weren't shouting. This event was very spiritual and solemn — it was a funeral. I was surrounded by nuns, priests, children, grandparents, monks, union leaders and the relatives of thousands that have been massacred and "disappeared." We were all saying one simple thing: We want justice.
Breeze
Luetke-
Stahlman
guest columnist
opinion@kansan.com
Close the School of the Americas.
The School of the Americas is a military training school for Latin American soldiers, and its graduates commit some of the worst human rights violations in the world. And you pay for it. That's the key: You pay for it. Since 1946, more than 600,000 have graduated from the school, and they have murdered thousands of innocent women, men, children and infants, in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Chiapas, Nicaragua and elsewhere. In 1993, the United Nations concluded that specific vicious and brutal acts involved graduates of the United States Army School of the Americas. Yet the school that taught them and continues to teach others remains open and accepts new students — to the tune of $20 million tax dollars a year.
The school says it's not that bad: that there are only a few "bad apples," that the school is the key to the war on drugs, that abuses are a thing of the past, that the infamous torture manuals were more or less consistent with U.S. law, and that the school now focuses on respect for human rights. However, it's all how you look at it. First, every time a human rights report comes from Latin America, some of the school's graduates are cited for violations, including torture and kidnapping. Second, while there are counter-narcotics courses offered at the school, less than 8 percent of the school's soldiers took these courses in 1997 while the majority took classes in military intelligence, psychological operations, and combat courses, and of the 33 courses in the school's new course catalog, only five are related to human rights. Finally, the torture manuals released by the Pentagon in 1996 advocate thorough anti-democratic tactics that seek to weaken civilian institutions, which is very much against U.S. doctrine.
Bottom line: I decided that if my government is going to take about 20 percent of my earnings in taxes, I have a say in how my money is spent. I don't support this. Right now in Congress there are bills in each house: HR 732 and S 873, cutting funding for the school and closing it. Write your reps and tell them you don't want U.S. tax money spent on the School of the Americas.
of the American就医.
Come on, folks. Kids are being killed because they are indigenous or poor and in the wrong place at the wrong time. Before Archbishop Oscar Romero was murdered by some of the school's grads at the altar of the chapel in a cancer hospital in El Salvador, he said, "Let those with voice speak for the voiceless."
I have a voice, and I used it. I am now banned from Ft. Benning for five years, and if I return, I could face up to six months in jail and up to $5,000 in fines. So now I turn to others to ask you to cross that line, to stand up for the voiceless. Someday, hopefully soon, we, the people, will shut this school down.
Laudie-Stahman is an Oatlie senior in economics and American studies.
Wayne Stayskal / TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES
Kansan.com poll
Last week's question:
What effect has the Florida election mess had on the country?
It has hurt American democracy.
Democratic spirit has risen across the nation.
It shows how disgusting politics is
it shows how disgusting politics is but hasn't hurt the country.
it'll make me vote from now on.
Notes This poll is not scientific. Numbers may not add up to 100 because of rounding. Number of votes: 14
Next week's question:
What should Student Senate do with excess funds?
Log on to www.kansan.com to cast your vote on this issue.
Perspective
College's critics confuse 'will of the majority'
When Libyan dictator and infamous America-hater Moammar Gadhafi comments on American politics, it's useful to listen, laugh and then do exactly the opposite. Here's Moammar on the Gore-Bush contest: "I advised the American friends to announce this now since this would lead to solving the problem, meaning that the one who wins more votes will be president and
the one with less votes will be deputy president."
Such unique thinking stems from the fact that Gadhafi is accustomed to his creative musings actually becoming the "solution." This is how Libya is governed; not by law, but by the will of one man.
It's scary, then, that protesters outside of Watson Library march under a flag bearing the likeness of another person before Che.
Ostensibly, the protesters wanted the Electoral College reformed or abolished and then replaced with direct popular election of the president. The idea has received support from symbolic figures other than Che, New York's Senator-elect Hillary Clinton being one.
The desire to directly elect America's president, however, amounts to little more than simple-minded majoritarianism. The nation's founders rightly understood that good government depended on more than just rule by majority. It required kinds of majorities. Majorities that respected minority rights
Andrew Marino columnist opinion@kansan.com
Guevara — and demand rule by the simple aggregation of will.
and interests, reflected more than just fleeting sentiment, took time to make decisions of gravity, and promoted union and consensus were preferred. Our Constitution was adopted, which, along with the Declaration of Independence as principled guide, has been and was meant to be the enduring voice of the American people. From this document, America's rule of law is based.
Al Gore could not have just made camp in friendly, populous territory (California, New York) and George W. Bush in his (Texas and the rest of the South) and have expected to win under the Electoral College system. Both realized this and more or less campaigned across the country. The Electoral College requires candidates for president to put together certain kinds of majorities. They cannot be too regionally homogeneous. The winner needs some minimal mix of urban, suburban and rural voters.
The Electoral College is an integral component of the founders' design for wise rule by the consent of the governed. Its virtues are many, but it takes more than just thinking by slogan ("The people should decide, not the process," one graduate student at the site of the demonstration told the Kansan).
Other American governing institutions thwart simple majority rule. Would said demonstrators wish to abolish the U.S. Senate, Supreme Court, presidential veto — heck, the Constitution — as well? (The sad answer is: probably, but that's a whole other column).
The American Constitution is a complex work of principle, philosophy and compromise and has established a more than 200 year track record of comparative excellence. Those who practice sidewalk statecraft should question themselves more carefully before they urge us to question it.
Marino is a Prairie Village senior in political science.
Editorial
Winter is a time for all celebrations
Public institutions should recognize all holidays, regardless of religion.
December has become a tightrope of holiday political correctness. For public schools and universities, December brings the challenge of accommodating everyone's religious beliefs and celebrations without sponsoring any of them.
Universities and public schools should accommodate all students who want to celebrate a religious holiday, as they would allow students to celebrate an important sports game or an awareness month.
Students have the right to freedom of speech and expression and no one should prevent them from celebrating a holiday that is important to them. While schools should allow student expression, they should not promote any holiday and should acknowledge all holidays equally.
Because Christmas is a holiday celebrated by many Americans, it is an important part of American culture and students should be able to observe the holiday however they choose. Schools should provide information about all holidays and let students choose what they want.
Chancellor Hemenway has said, "I think the best way to honor any one tradition is to honor them all." Instead of trying to wipe out all traces of religious traditions that might offend some people, we should respectfully recognize all the traditions that do exist, without expecting anyone to participate. We should protect our rights to free speech and expression above all else when it comes to religious holidays. Nobody should be told they can't observe a holiday as they wish. Nobody should be made to celebrate a holiday he or she doesn't want to observe.
The traditional Christmas tree was taken out of Strong Hall because some students were uncomfortable with its promotion of the Christian holiday. The University did well to replace the tree with banners celebrating Chanukah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Native American Celebrations, Hispanic Celebrations, Chinese New Year and a banner that said "Celebrate them all."
Public schools and universities can teach about all world religions as part of the curriculum, and allow students to observe as they choose.
Erin Adamson for the editorial board
Free for All callers have 20 seconds to speak about any topic they wish. The Kansan reserves the right to edit submissions, and not all of them will be published. Slanderous statements will not be printed. To read more, go to www.kansan.com.
--me Free for All isn't smart much like me.
I live on the seventh floor of Oliver. I think more of an investigation should be looked into the alleged rape before it's announced.
me Free for All isn't smart much like me.
If people spent as much time on homework as they do on the Free for All, maybe they'd be here next semester.
me Free for All isn't smart much like me.
Concerning the Black and White article, KU is located in the middle of the heartland, in a predominantly white state. What do they expect?
me Free for All isn't smart much like me.
When will KU basketball play real teams?
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The bathrooms in Strong Hall are from the 1800s.
I'm tired of people complaining about the gas prices.
me Free for All isn't smart much like me.
me Free for All isn't smart much like me.
I'm adamant about the Kansan not printing articles about sex. Next thing you know, you guys will start publishing pornography. Let's focus on real student issues, not only sex.
Why is it that girls always complain that guys treat them badly and then, once in a relationship, they treat guys badly?
--me Free for All isn't smart much like me.
Greeks and nongreeks should worry about their own business.
me Free for All isn't smart much like me.
Why is it that when guys get with girls, they forget about their friends?
--me Free for All isn't smart much like me.
if you have general questions or comments, e-mail the page staff (opinion@kansan.com) or call 864-4924
Why is it that every time I have beer cans all around my room, someone pulls the fire alarm at Oliver?
It's official. The Kansan is now on par with the National Enquirer.
Rhode Island is neither a road nor an island.
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The swim team is good.
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