4A Friday, November 22, 1996 OPINION UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN VIEWPOINT Robinson lot should be available on equal basis The parking department's decision to limit the use of lot 90 during men's basketball games is unacceptable. It is a symptom of the department's inattentiveness toward the KU community. Lot 90, located south of Robinson Center, has 1,049 spaces. Most of these spaces, formerly available to the public on a toll basis, are reserved for contributors to the Williams Educational Fund. During the first men's game, all drivers who did not belong to the Williams Fund were turned away. Only 384 of the spaces were utilized, said Donna Hultine, assistant director of parking. For the second home game, lot 90 was reconfigured so that 700 spaces were reserved for Williams Fund contributors, and 300 are open to the public for a toll. However, with only 384 of the reserved spaces being used, the lot still is being misused. No consideration is being made for students or members of the public who don't have $250 to join the Williams Fund. Oddly enough, the parking department is not considered a part of the University because it receives no money from the state or from tuition. Rather, it is a support service, Hultine said. However, the parking department still has to follow state guidelines and can affect students by putting holds on their enrollments or transcripts. In addition to the 300 parking spaces in lot 90 that now are available to the public, there are about 300 more on that side of campus open to anyone, Hultine said. However, the number of spaces for Williams Fund contributors alone is more than the 600 spaces for the public. Clearly the priority is not with the students who help finance the parking department, but rather with individuals who donate to athletic scholarships. This is unacceptable. The parking department must take students and the general public into account. GERRY DOYLE FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD Army's handling of inquiry is sign of society's progress The allegations of sexual harassment in the Army that started at the Aberdeen Proving Ground training facility in Maryland have spread throughout the country. About 4,000 women have said that they were harassed or abused at military installations. The national media reported that men have been suspended or accused of sexual harassment and other sexual crimes. The coverage even has superficially discussed gender issues in the military. On the surface, it would appear that women have not made sufficient inroads in the military, or for that matter, any of the other patriarchal institutions in our society. But what's really going on and what the national media has not acknowledged, is that the military surprisingly has been open about the process and has encouraged women to call its national hotline to reveal incidents of harassment. This is a major victory for women trying to gain equal treatment in America. The world today is a far cry from the world in 1991, when Anita Hill, a respected law professor, was scrutinized by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Hill said that then-Supreme Court Justice nominee Clarence Thomas had made inappropriate sexual comments to her when she worked with him at the Education Department and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Who can even think of the Senate Judiciary Committee without hearing Hill without hearing the all-male committee continually trivialize the seriousness of her allegations? While political, cultural and socioeconomic forces may have led to a recent backlash against women for progress during the 1970s,the military's handling of the recent sexual harassment cases proves that women are at least being treated as a force to be reckoned with. NICOLE KENNEDY FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD KANSAN STAFF AMANDA TRAUGHBER Editor CRAIG LANG Managing editor MATT HOOD Associate managing editor for design KIMBERLY CRABTREE CHARITY JEFFRIES News editors DARCI L. McLAIN SARA ROSE Public relations directors AMANDA TRAUGHBER Edition KAREN GERSCH Business manager HEALY SMART Retail sales manager TOM EBLEN General manager, news adviser JAY STEINER Sales and marketing adviser JUSTIN KNUPP Technology coordinator Campus Suzanne Lóel Jason Strait Amy MoyVee Editorial John Collar Nicole Kennedy Features Adam Ward Features Bill Petulie Associate sports Carlyn Foster Online editor David L Teuka Photo Rich Devildw Graphics Nosh Musser Arndt Rothbock Special sections Amy MoyVee Wire Debbie Staine Business Staff Campus mgr ... Mark Ozmek Regional mgr ... Regina Haupt Asistant Retail mgr ... Dana Centeno National mgr ... Katie Nye Administrative mgr ... Heather Neale Production mgrs ... Den Kopec ... Lien Quobbeman Marketing director ... Eric Johnson Creative director ... Desmond Lavelle Project manager ... Jonathan Mass Impact mgr ... Dena Pislotte Internet mgr ... Steve Sanger Jeff MacNelly/ CHICAGO TRIBUNE Turkeys are victimized for Thanksgiving feasts Every year, millions of American families come together to celebrate and give thanks for the good in their lives. Unfortunately, the most common parts of an otherwise joyous holiday gathering are the senseless torture and thoughtless consumption of turkeys. Most people are unaware of how cruelly we treat turkeys before they become part of the annual November meal. The majority of turkeys are raised in factory farms where 15,000 or more birds are crammed together among their own feces and urine. They develop respiratory diseases, ulcers, blisters and suffer ammonia-burned eyes. Factory farmers dose the birds with drugs, vaccines and antibiotics to prop them up until marketing time. Even in the best conditions, modern turkeys are doomed to a life of pain and misery. Bred and fed to be pathologically obese, their bones break under the burden of their unnaturally large bodies. Oxygen deprived and overburdened, many turkey's hearts explode. Modern turkeys are so heavy and misshapen that they must be artificially inseminated to reproduce. In the United States, turkeys are excluded form the 1958 Humane Methods of Slaughter Act; consequently, many die a slow and painful death. Fortunately, the massive abuse of GUEST COLUMNIST turkeys does not have to mar your otherwise happy holiday. By having a vegetarian Thanksgiving, you can celebrate life and your freedom to start new traditions. Interestingly, traditional Thanksgiving meals are mostly vegetarian; potatoes, corn, cran berry sauce, green beans and pumpkin pie constitute a hearty and filling meal. In fact, Thanksgiving is an appropriate time to consider switching to a vegetarian diet. In 1992, the American Dietetic Association stated that vegetarian diets are healthful and nutritionally adequate, and they reduce the risk for chronic degenerative diseases including heart disease and cancer. Despite our personal role in the mistreatment of turkeys and other animals, we rarely think about the mistreatment when we sit down to a meal. How can we so successfully remove any feelings of responsibility we have about the slaughter of animals? We do so through the use of a mental trick in which we no longer think of the food "turkey" as an animal, and instead think of it as only an object for consumption. However, simply thinking of turkeys and other animals as objects does not make them objects, it only disguises our guilt and participation in cruelty. One very extreme but informative example of how well we mentally turn animals into objects occurs every year on the KU campus. It is a tradition at Ellsworth Hall to engage in "turkey bowling" just before Thanksgiving. In this disturbing "game," participants roll the frozen corpuses of turkeys and try to knock down bowling pins. To the people involved in this mockery of life, the dead bodies they handle and throw are not dead animals — they are nothing more than oddly shaped bowling balls. Consider the dead body of some other animal in a turkey's place, and this objectification becomes more difficult. It's hard for me to imagine how any compassionate person would support bowling with the murdered bodies of dogs, cats or rabbits. This disturbing celebration of death only emphasizes how we try to reduce our feelings of responsibility and guilt by thinking of the animals we abuse as unfeeling objects, instead of the sensitive, feeling beings they are. This year, wash the blood off your hands and plate by celebrating a vegetarian Thanksgiving. Michael Schmitt is a Harlenburg, Va. graduate student in social psychology. LETTER TO THE EDITOR Facts of Cyprus conflict not as Kansan reported We worked hard to arrange a demonstration exposing the Cyprus problem. The news article prepared by Ian Ritter, however, seriously undermined our efforts. A thoughtful writer might have noted this case is not one of forced marriage, as the quote he used suggested. Rather, Cyprus is a victim of a forced divorce, with one spouse still held hostage. The "Turkish Republic of North Cyprus" is an artificial "republic;" it is an internationally condemned and illegal military occupation of nearly half of the Republic of Cyprus. The entire island belongs to the Republic of Cyprus, and none of it belongs to Turkey or to any artificial "republic." Turkish International politics are complex. People may have their feelings hurt as facts are reported. In this case, citizens of the Republic of Cyprus have had 22 years of hurt feelings, as their country was invaded and illegally occupied, as Cypriots remain "missing," and as the situation is misunderstood by many people and frequently left unexplained, a victim of ignorance, carelessness and common mistakes in reporting. "Department Statement, Nov. 15, 1983." Department of State Bulletin. Vol. 84, No. 2062, Jan. 1984 Information for this letter was provided by: Gallas, Klaus. "Where the Heavens are Plundered." Frankfurter Allgemeine Magazin. March 30, 1990. propaganda may state otherwise, but these comments are factual. It is fair for you to print them. In fact, it is wrong for you not to report them. Relevant United Nations Resolutions can be found in the following: International Condemnation of the Turkish Cypriot Pseudostate, issued by the Press and Information Office, Nicosia, Cyprus. Hunt, David "The use of force in the Middle East: The case of Cyprus." Mediterranean Quarterly. Vol. 2, No. 1, Winter 1991. ■ Panayiotis Panayides Nicosia, Cyprus, graduate student in urban planning ■ Evangelos Tryfonos Nicosia, Cyprus, graduate student in business administration On the Hill, political activism is alive, but it is not doing well. Just as many interminable institutions, political expression continues. Similar to a marriage that continues only because two partners have grown used to each other, the relationship between the college campus and student activism drudges on. However, this marriage has become more exciting in past weeks. Strong student activism makes the University Tower of Babel I witnessed a group of students protesting the Turkish military's presence in Cyprus. Standing across the street, I was amazed to see a protest at the University of Kansas. I took a flyer and read, and I couldn't believe the injustices committed against the indigenous people of Cyprus. The day before, I discussed the machinations of the Mitsubishi Corp. and how their logging destroys rain forests. I talked about political executions in Nigeria with folks from Amnesty International. They informed me about Shell Oil's dominant presence in the country and its environmentally destructive practices. But if our government is going to be prodded to take radical action concerning the environment, human rights abuses, women's issues or homelessness, thousands of people must be heard in unison. A room full of activist groups, each screaming for change, would be understood by no one. A room full of activist groups articulating one common message would be heard by everyone. Strangely, for many students, learning about world conflict, social illies and injustices gives them a unique sense of power and makes them antagonistic toward the world. Finding common concerns through consolidating many competing issues will have to happen if changes in our world are to be made. That is effective politics. The goals that student activist groups pursue are rational and well-intentioned. They are pursuing the ideal of pure academics, not careerism. From that respect, we should venerate them. For these folks, no single issue is more important than other problems. They enjoy learning about them all. They look for outlets, but the problem is they find too many. OUT FROM THE CRACKS While some people window-shop down Massachusetts Street, these activists lazily explore Jayhawk Boulevard. These energetic freedom fighters shop for new political issues. But efforts to empower students through political activity only divide and frustrate them. Andrew Longstreet is a Liberty, Mo. senior in French and political science. How to submit letters Letters should be double-spaced, typed and fewer than 200 words. Student letters must include the author's signature, name. address, telephone number, class and hometown. Faculty or staff members must identify their positions. Send submissions to the Kansan, 111 Stauffer Flint Hall or by e-mail: opinion@kansan.com. The Kansan reserves the right to edit, cut to length or reject submissions. For more information, call John Collar or Nicole Kennedy, editorial page editors, at 864-4810. By Jeremy Patnoi