THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, MARCH 14, 2011
PAGE 5A
opinion
I think I am the only person who, instead of taking gas money, exchanges it for alcoholic drinks.
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Picture Jersey Shore mixed with True Life mixed with at least three other reality shows multiply that by 10,000,000 and you will have my life.
Best quote ever from my Dad:"With Craigslist, you have to be a whore."
So true, so true.
My mother just found out the saint she named me after was sainted for having an orgasm. That was a fun conversation.
Girl: Why do guys like boobs? Guy:
Why do girls like breathing?
Realized: No matter the time of day, men in long, creepy trench coats never mean well when they say, "Hello there, ladies."
Please abide by the rules of the road: STAY IN THE RIGHT LANE. In hallways AND stairwells!
Dear Mom, The date went well. We practically had sex. Love, your first born
Know who wears Birkenstocks?
Dwight Schrute. Way to live a classy life. bro.
Sometimes you have to let yourself have a day of trashy TV and cream cheese icing.
Why do Sweet Tarts taste better when they are shaped like chicks, ducks and bunnies?
Independent Living: having a pound of Skittles for supper.
Any homework/exam this week or next week is pointless. Brains are on Spring Break already.
Fake Patty's: The only thing keeping Manhattan alive.
I guess we did to Texas what K-State couldn't do to Colorado. #noweowtexas.
I think we should refer to him only as Admiral Reed from now on.
I just burped and it tasted like perfume. WTF did I do last night?
I was mad that all of my friends have spring break a week before ours. Then I realized that our first weekend back is the Final Four. Hello study-feed basketball watching. Well played, KU.
Started wearing sunglasses in class to avoid being blinded by the bright-colored frat shorts.
You know you've been in Lawrence too long when Birkenstocks start to look appealing.
Just heard a woman call someone and wish them a happy birthday. While she was peeing.
Japanese lives should matter more than U.S. interests
INTERNATIONAL
I lived in Okinawa, a tiny island off the coast of Japan, for three and a half years. It is a small island; so small that you can drive the entire length of it in a day.
I was young when I lived in Okinawa, but my memories living in Asia are the first of my life; sliding down the dangerous but thrilling roller park slides, taking my shoes off at the door of a restaurant, sitting cross-legged on the floor to eat and playing with my Japanese neighbors even though we didn't speak each other's language.
This morning I find myself wondering what's happening to that little neighbor girl who used to share her Hello Kitty candy with me.
The video and photographic coverage of this disaster has been the stuff of Hollywood. Giant waves swept cars, boats and airplanes off their paths mixed with debris of buildings and trees. Houses that were not torn apart by the earthquake were washed away by the waves; some were seen on fire in Kesennuma city in Miyagi Prefecture, near Sendai.
Early Friday, March 11, Japan was hit by an 8.9 magnitude earthquake, the world's fifth largest earthquake in the past 100 years. The earthquake prompted a tsunami with 30-foot waves.
Casualty estimates are still coming in. As of yesterday, NHK, Japan's public broadcasting network, reported that 1,300 people had been confirmed dead. However, in Minami-Sanriku, a coastal city that was struck hard by the tsunami, 10,000 of the 17,000 residents are missing. The Washington Post estimates the final death toll to exceed 10,000. The prime minister of Japan, Naoto Kan, has called the disaster the country's biggest crisis since World War II.
The initial earthquake was followed by more than 50 aftershocks — most of them were recorded at a magnitude of more than 6.0.
Naturally, this catastrophe has caught the attention of the world media. The coverage is detailed and the images and video of the quakes and the following tsunami are shocking. But American media couldn't
leave it at that.
Before the death toll in Japan is even calculated, our national media jumped straight into speculations about Hawaii and California. American press made the decision to focus on our home front.
I am aware of how important it is to warn people in the line of the tsunami's trajectory. Precautions must be taken to avoid additional loss of life. But does it have to be the overriding focus, the headline of every article?
the beach. Put your sunscreen down until tomorrow, we are oh-so-sorry about this inconvenience. All the while people are dying in Japan, trapped in their houses and cars, but hey, we need to know if our weekend plans should be postponed a few hours.
ABC News quoted Brian Shiro of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center saying, "Some places in California will see 6 feet, in some cases 9 feet. This could certainly be a bad day for people on the beach. If you have a house right on the water ... it could be flooded."
That's right. Sorry Americans, you can't spend your Friday afternoon at
This "If we don't see it firsthand it doesn't matter to us" mentality has to stop. There shouldn't even be an "us" versus "them." It should be a a "we," because we are all people and when anyone dies it should matter to everyone. I have never been more disappointed to be an American.
When did we first begin desen-sitizing ourselves to foreign deaths? Americans weren't involved in the situation in Japan until there was a possibility that it would affect us.
Jessie Blakeborough is a sophomore in international studies and journalism from Baltimore. She's also a writer for the Kansan Editorial Board.
EDITORIAL CARTOON
Nicholas Sambaluk
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
In response to "Animal slaughter for human consumption is morally indefensible," I know many good people who maintain a strict vegetable diet. Frequently, the same individuals assert the rights of animals as a basis to their eating habits.
Still, I wonder how they can justify their judgmental, patronizing frowns when I support local commerce, carry out basic animal physiology and uphold my beliefs on animal rights. Why are some people compelled to label omnivores as ignorant, narcissistic boors when their lifestyle are as, if not more, destructive than a person who eats meat occasionally?
With 300 words I cannot adequately reply to each of the points made in Friday's column, but I will, however, address the moral "indefen sibleness" of an omnivore's diet.
If a non-human animal retains the same rights as a human — that is equal privilege to a free life without slaughter, exploitation and slavery — it's necessary to hold all animals accountable for their actions uniformly. As beings of equal right we have a responsibility to uphold the
intrinsic value of life.
As stated in the column: "Because of issues at birth or injury, some humans are less intelligent than animals." Valid point; I've seen videos of Missouri fans that make chimps look like hair-covered Einsteins. Yet, as we see in nature, chimps are omnivores. How can we let their murderous acts against other creatures continue? They can learn sign language, damn it!
Therefore, as nature's most intelligent animal, we humans have an obligation to redraft the Bill of Rights to include non-human animals in order to stop nature's madness. We might have trouble keeping chimps on the stand from eating their own poop, but to protect animals everywhere we must begin by making murderers answer to their "indefensibly" corrupt behavior.
And as the supreme models of moral goodness, I insist vegetarians create this necessary revision — get to work.
If your tweet is particularly interesting, unique, clever, insightful and/or funny, it could be selected as the tweet of the week. You have 140 characters, good luck!
Bobby Burch is a senior from Wichita.
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As we have seen, 267 people in the U.S. have been exonerated because of DNA evidence, according to the Innocence Project, an original dedicated to helping wrongly convicted people. This is clearly a step in the direction of a fairer and more just judicial system.
But most cases still do not incorporate DNA evidence. In those cases, there is less of an opportunity for organizations like the Innocence Project to help those that might be wrongly accused from arguing their cases.
In a victory for improvement in the Justice system, the Supreme Court ruled on March 7 that convicted prisoners can seek DNA testing as a civil rights action to have their convictions overturned.
There are plenty of arguments made about the death penalty being a deterrence or "worth the price" of a few innocent people dying at the hands of the state. I will not discuss those issues here, but I hope students openly discuss them with each other.
Death penalty should be abolished while reasonable doubt continues
GOVERNMENT
The most compelling argument against capital punishment is the possibility of executing innocent persons and - innocent or not - the devastating effects on the family members of those executed.
In that case, what about death row inmates who may be innocent? Regardless of whether they have DNA evidence to help them plead their cases or not, the stakes are irrefutably higher when it is the question of life or death.
In making our decisions about whether or not we support the death penalty, it is important to remember that homicide by lethal injection creates another set of devastated family members and loved ones. It is, in some respects, trying to rectify loss by creating more loss.
We supposedly reserve death row for the worst of the worst — only
BY KELLY COSBY kcosbv@kansan.com
those cases in which we are sure beyond any doubt of the perpetrator's guilt. But that has not stopped us from wrongly convicting and sentencing to death at least 138 people.
In 2004, Cameron Todd Willingham was executed in the state of Texas, and since then, investigators have proven that none of the evidence used to convict Willingham was valid.
There is sufficient doubt that Troy Davis is guilty, yet he still sits on death row in Georgia.
House Bill 2323 would abolish the death penalty in Kansas. Currently the bill is being considered in the Kansas House, and support for the legislation is growing. In order to push the bill forward, it is imperative that students and community members voice their opinions. Students should call their representatives to make it known they no longer support such an antiquated form of "justice"
Clearly the practice of capital sentencing is arbitrary and certainly not reserved for cases without any shadow of doubt.
The Kansas Coalition Against the Death Penalty website (ksabolition.org) provides more information on how to support the bill.
Kelly Cosby is a junior in political science and English from Overland Park. Follow her on twitter @KellyCosby.
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THE EDITORIAL BOARD Members of the Kansan Editor Board are Nick Gerik, Michael Holtz, Kelly Stroda, D.M. Scott and Mandy Matney.