SAN
009
Opinion
United States First Amendment
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2009
United States 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.
Cohen: Not giving up on health care reform
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--million from the state budget,
bringing cuts this fiscal year to
$1 billion. Included in the most
recent cut was a $2 million
reduction in higher education
spending, adding to $106 million
in previous cuts in the past fiscal
year.
Professor, when you end a 10-minute long example with "But that's not going to be on the test," you have just wasted a part of my life.
Lew Perkins, please keep Mark Mangino as our coach. Please.
--million from the state budget,
bringing cuts this fiscal year to
$1 billion. Included in the most
recent cut was a $2 million
reduction in higher education
spending, adding to $106 million
in previous cuts in the past fiscal
year.
Fellow FFA readers, complete this: I wanted to finish writing my essay but ...
--million from the state budget,
bringing cuts this fiscal year to
$1 billion. Included in the most
recent cut was a $2 million
reduction in higher education
spending, adding to $106 million
in previous cuts in the past fiscal
year.
I wrote a 16-page dirty fan fiction story today in four hours, but I could only make it to 14 pages on my research paper that I had two months to work on. That just seems
--million from the state budget,
bringing cuts this fiscal year to
$1 billion. Included in the most
recent cut was a $2 million
reduction in higher education
spending, adding to $106 million
in previous cuts in the past fiscal
year.
30,000 more troops. I hope I get activated just to show you that a woman can fight.
I love it when people try to sound smart by using the word "whom," but don't actually use it correctly.
- - million from the state budget,
bringing cuts this fiscal year to
$1 billion. Included in the most
recent cut was a $2 million
reduction in higher education
spending, adding to $106 million
in previous cuts in the past fiscal
year.
High school: Gossip and immaturity. College: Gossip and immaturity, but with five times the sex and drinking.
--million from the state budget,
bringing cuts this fiscal year to
$1 billion. Included in the most
recent cut was a $2 million
reduction in higher education
spending, adding to $106 million
in previous cuts in the past fiscal
year.
I couldn't date a girl who drives a truck. It would make her seem more masculine than me.
--million from the state budget,
bringing cuts this fiscal year to
$1 billion. Included in the most
recent cut was a $2 million
reduction in higher education
spending, adding to $106 million
in previous cuts in the past fiscal
year.
I feel like I shouldn't have eaten that Snickers bar now. My dreams of becoming an Angel are fading.
Two words: dog, whistle.
I totally just watched the pregame video to pump me up to finish this paper.
My Western Civ. textbook just referenced Wal-Mart. Can I go home now?
I'm not even kidding, if you don't put out soon I'm dating your best friend, because he's easier
--million from the state budget,
bringing cuts this fiscal year to
$1 billion. Included in the most
recent cut was a $2 million
reduction in higher education
spending, adding to $106 million
in previous cuts in the past fiscal
year.
--million from the state budget,
bringing cuts this fiscal year to
$1 billion. Included in the most
recent cut was a $2 million
reduction in higher education
spending, adding to $106 million
in previous cuts in the past fiscal
year.
College has made me such a Facebook creep.
Does anyone want to watch "Space Jam" tonight?
My roommate is still in denial that there are more that 151 Pokémon.
--million from the state budget,
bringing cuts this fiscal year to
$1 billion. Included in the most
recent cut was a $2 million
reduction in higher education
spending, adding to $106 million
in previous cuts in the past fiscal
year.
--million from the state budget,
bringing cuts this fiscal year to
$1 billion. Included in the most
recent cut was a $2 million
reduction in higher education
spending, adding to $106 million
in previous cuts in the past fiscal
year.
EDITORIAL BOARD
Quality schools need funding
Though the most recent round of state budget cuts largely spares the Board of Regents, state officials must recognize that quality schools are one of the wellsprings of economic recovery. Ambitious goals for the state's institutions must be accompanied with funding in the future
The budget situation looks gloomy in the foreseeable future. Gov. Mark Parkinson recently cut an additional $260
At the same time, the economic situation leading to these budget cuts makes continued high quality instruction at the state's universities even more important. The country's economy has retreated from the edge of disaster it flirted with a little over a year ago, and it has gradually started to grow. Any recovery that
has taken place has been jobless. Unemployment continues to grow and is expected to peak above 10 percent nationally.
With this job market, graduates will have an even harder time finding work if their recently completed education is impaired by budget cuts. The University has already had to cut course
selections and lay off 200 people because of previous cuts this year.
to truly increase the academic standards of Kansas schools. Gov. Parkinson expressed a desire to see a Kansas university among the top 50 universities ranked in the U.S. News and World Report within the next 10 years.
State and university leaders have also expressed a desire
Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little has also laid out plans to increase graduation rates, attract high quality researchers and generally improve the University's reputation.
These efforts to increase the quality of education in the state and at the University specifically should be applauded. Gov Parkinson and Chancellor Gray-
Little recognize the value of high quality education to the state's reputation and economy. Some of these changes and improvement might even be possible with little additional expenditure, such as implementing more rigorous admissions standards. Eventually, though, higher quality education will require a return to previous levels of funding.
Leaders throughout the state need to recognize the value of higher education, and its need for increased funding to achieve many of the goals they have laid out. If Kansas wants to emerge strongly from previous difficulties and make a place for itself in a changing economic landscape, it will need a well-educated workforce. Though current and pending budgetary situations might make increased funding difficult, further cuts must be avoided. Once possible, leaders should move quickly to restore the state's higher education budget so that Kansas universities and their graduates can reap the rewards of a quality education.
EDITORIAL CARTOON
— Alex Doherty for The Kansan Editorial Board
NICHOLAS SAMBALUK
RELIGION
Faith and finances on TV
I'm a sucker for late night tele vision - not Letterman late, or even Fallon late. I'm referring to the 2 a.m. programming engrossingly brilliant enough to make Snuggie a cultural phenomenon: the infomercial.
Infomercials primarily exist to sell three things: cooking gadgets, workout gadgets, and, perhaps at their most bizarre, religion.
One recurrent infomercial I've seen features an elderly preacher advertising prayer cloths, appropriately colored green, that purport financial prosperity upon the owner.
Somewhere among salesmen pushing ShamWows and Bowflex-bearing fitness models there stands the televangelist, a distinctly American icon with one foot in faith and the other somewhere in pop culture.
Others offer messages of self-help rather than spirituality, declaring that through a steadfast forging of positive attitude, great material blessings — a new house or car — will soon be on the way.
Messages like this form a strain of American theology commonly called the prosperity gospel — the notion that if you show great faith, God will bless you with overflowing financial success and provision. With the national unemployment rate above 10 percent and more out-of-work folks up watching TV at 2 a.m. than
The most recent issue of The Atlantic features a story by Hannah Rosin chronicling the prosperity gospel in recessed America. Rosin notes that despite all economic conditions, the religious movement is still going strong. She notes that leaders of the movement — on TV and in lavish mega-churches across America — often encourage a faith that fuels extreme financial optimism, viewing risk-taking as a bold act of faith.
ever, such a message of providence is certainly appealing in economically desperate times.
Because of this, she claims followers seeking upward mobility in recent years contributed to the seemingly irresponsible spending in the housing market, contributing to its demise.
Though the article provides some strange food for thought, perhaps most indicative is what it reveals about the responsive nature of faith in America. Rosin notes that religious pursuit of the American dream once meant a steady, disciplined work ethic
and trust in a providential God. A faster, busier America of miracle diets and day trading now encourages a "culture of chance" viewing "grace as a kind of spiritual luck".
Sitting on my couch in the televised glow of men in suits and green prayer cloths and sermons of a "me first" faith, I can't help but notice the stark contrast between what I see before me and the lives of past Americans for whom faith was a vehicle of positive selfless change.
When Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his "Letter From a Birmingham Jail," was he more concerned about God providing his bail money or about the struggle facing thousands of underprivileged Americans? When Dorothy Day founded the Catholic Workers Movement, did she envision grandiose mansions or houses of hospitality where the poor might simply find rest?
Compassion International, a faith-based charitable organization, says it well: "The opposite of poverty isn't wealth. The opposite of poverty is enough."
Neither King nor Day had infomercials, and yet something about their brand of selfless faith spoke louder than any sales pitch.
Hafner is a Great Bend junior in journalism.
STUDENT LIFE
A welcoming reminder
T
hanksgiving has come and gone.
We dined with family and friends. We dutifully watched the Detroit Lions lose. We had a gloriously slumbered afternoon. We were thankful.
But now we're all back on campus. It's the final two weeks of classes and everywhere people are stressed. Somewhere on campus someone is inevitably cursing their schoolwork or dying a slow death in a library.
We were so thankful. So what happened?
Well, as it turns out, it's a lot easier to be thankful when you're surrounded by family and friends, not a textbook in sight, chowing down on a scrumptious meal without a care in the world. Things look a lot less rosy when you're staring down a blank screen for a paper with a due date only hours away or when it seems there's always one more thing to study.
Day-to-day student living is draining. The demands of our schooling naturally force us to have a narrow focus. We only see the next assignment, the next paper due, the next test coming. We live for the next weekend.
Although college needs to be rigorous and challenging, too often when our focus becomes this narrow, our lives become about performance. Individuals begin to tie their worth and esteem to GPAs and test scores.
For me at least, the times when I have this form of tunnel vision are the least enjoyable. No matter how high the grade was or how well the column was written, I'm always at least a little disappointed.
Which is why, perhaps, the warm fuzzies of Thanksgiving quickly blow away in the cold air of Mt. Oread and why
We may not live in a stressless and carefree world but we don't have to live in a thankless world. Thanksgiving's gift is that it reminds us of the big picture, which for many of us can look a lot better than our day to day challenges. The key is to have some of that perspective in each day and each week.
Thanksgiving breaks us out of routine. For a day, we live in a world without any real responsibilities or work to be done and we find ourselves making lofty statements about who and what we're thankful for. The problem is that world doesn't really exist.
Maybe it's a few minutes spent relaxing at the end each day or taking time each day to think about family and friends back home. Or maybe it's setting aside one day a week to rest — no homework, no obligations, just rest.
it's easier to be thankful on Thanksgiving.
But whatever it is, we all need something that reminds us that we're human and that despite all the problems and challenges that cloud our daily lives, in the end, most of us have it pretty good.
Because goodness knows, it's a reminder we need between now and finals.
Shorman is a McPherson sophomore in journalism.
WHAT'S UP WITH THAT? Facebook statuses
Let's face it, we've all put up a new Facebook statuses about the massive workloads we face during the waning weeks of the semester. I've done it, you've done it, your friends have done it.
It's OK, because those things serve to give us a place to generally express ourselves. Despite this, the "FMI" craze really shouldn't apply.
Your L should only be Fed when you are personally being put upon. Since you aren't, try being less selfish. Consider "FAOI" — F all of our Ls.
As I already mentioned, everyone has a hard load leading to finals week.
Cohen is a Topeka senior in political science.
The coming of cold winds and early sunsets at this semester's end invariably mean that finals are upon us. And after so many drowsy hours on Watson's third floor you might feel the need for cathartic release.
Grab some coffee. Watch Hulu.
Have a cigarette. But please, under no circumstances treat your Facebook status bar as if it were a window into your book-weary soul for all 786 of your best friends to see.
I am of course referring to statuses during finals week that look something like this: "OMG an0ther all niter at Anschutz. Finals week is SUX! FXL!!!!11"
— Hafner is a Great Bend junior in journalism.
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