4 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, February 4, 2005 OPINION *£u& JASON Z. PESICK Editor in Chief SUHAEL MOMIN SAM SINGER Editorial Page Editors ALISON Go Managing Editor EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SINCE 1890 420 MAYNARD STREET ANN ARBOR, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com NOTABLE QUOTABLE The greatest tribute to the memory of the fallen is an exit strategy called success." - Sen. John Kerry, commenting on Presi- dent Bush's State of the Union address, as reported yesterday by the Associated Press. SAM BUTLER THE lNMJx AT oA F OUR N What's the matter with Kansas? JEFF CRAVENS IA'AWK LUES 01 s a liberal from this ultra-conservative red state, I have often asked myself that ques- tion. In recent times, Kansas has made national news for having a winning college basketball team, for pull- ing evolution from the state education standards and for the dog breeder who cut the baby from a Missouri woman's womb. Most people think of Kansas as some comical, mythological place. Unlike Nebraska, Oklahoma and Missouri - which all border Kansas and are fairly similar - Kansas has been immortal- ized by the Wizard of Oz. When I meet someone at a party or a bar, he never fails to smirk at his friend or point to the piles of snow outside and quip, "We're not in Kansas anymore!" In sober settings, when I tell people where I'm from, they usually ask, "Really?" or "No shit?" No, dumbass, I just thought it'd be funny to say I was from Kansas. If the conversation persists, they always ask, "So what's there to do in Kansas?" I like to glamorize the few "Dazed and Con- fused"-type stories I have from high school, but in general growing up in Lawrence, Ks was probably no different than growing up in most midwestern cities. I like to call Lawrence the Ann Arbor of Kansas. The University of Kansas, which takes over the town during the year, attracts more diversity than you might expect. The town and college are both liberal: My county was the only one in Kansas to vote Democratic in the past few elections. We let our first Starbucks into town only a few years ago, but the downtown is crowded with local coffee shops. Massachusetts Street, like Ann Arbor's Main Street, is shaded by trees and populated by trendy bars and res- taurants. But in addition to the dining couples, bar-hopping college kids and bored teenagers, some of Lawrence's rural youth come out of the woodwork on the weekends. They drive their trucks from Tonganoxie or Baldwin and park along Mass. Street at night to sit on the back of their tailgates and people-watch. In their boots and tight jeans, they add a quaint sense of com- munity, our equivalent to the smokers that sit in front of Rendez-Vous cafe or the harmonica guy on the Diag. Kansas in general used to be a progressive stronghold. One astute classmate of mine, when I mentioned where I was from, said, "Oh yeah, weren't you involved in those border wars... Bloody Kansas?" Lawrence used to be a bastion of the anti-slave Jayhawkers in the state - a town frequented by the notorious James Brown - and was burnt down many times by ruffians from Missouri. In the Progressive Era, Kansas farm- ers called for the government to regulate crop prices and over-production. Now, those same families, as Thomas Frank describes in "What's The Matter With Kansas," are demanding the government back off, to their own economic dis- advantage. Most of our rural farmers live below the U.S. poverty level, yet the state voted almost unanimously for a president whose tax cuts dis- proportionately helped the wealthy. In the '60s, University of Kansas students protested against Vietnam and for civil rights, but even then the state was overwhelmingly conservative. I'm not going to paraphrase Frank's explana- tion of what happened in Kansas, but I can see the tides turning, if only a swell. Four years ago, my best friends supported Bush; this November, they voted for Kerry. Kansas, like Michigan, now has a female Democratic governor. Kansas lawmak- ers are considering repealing an archaic capital punishment law where if the case for death penalty and life imprisonment is equal, the state previously chose death. The Republican district attorney in Lawrence has just been replaced by a Democrat. Why are conservatives losing ground to Democrats? Perhaps because every time I go home, I hear about another local kid going to Iraq. Over Christ- mas, I found out my friend Mike was getting sent to Iraq. Another guy I knew from high school marching band got sent home over the holidays when a bullet grazed his skull in combat. Many Kansans, along with much of the country, are won- dering why their friends and families must bear the cost of this war, which seems to be going nowhere. Many Kansans are also wondering how Bush's tax cuts are going to stop the plummet in education funding, which has caused massive teacher layoffs and the elimination of music and athletic programs in the state. Kansas may still be a little backward, as seen by our recently proposed ban on gay mar- riage, but growing numbers of us are ready to move forward. Cravens can be reached atjcrave@umich.edu LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Daily is 'misguided' on Social Security privatization To THE DAILY: In regard to the Daily's editorial (A misguided vision, 02/03/2005), it is nice to see that the Daily's new editorial staff is still as liberal and misguided as ever. As of today, Social Security is one of the worst investments the U.S. taxpay- er is required to make. Every summer when I receive my paycheck, I cringe at the fact that some $32 of my hard-earned money is going into a system from which theoretically, in 50 years, I will receive $32.30 in return. I don't know what makes liberals so excited about a 1 percent return rate, but for some reason, it just doesn't turn me on. At this point in history, the likelihood of even receiving that money is incredibly minute. A financial advisor for Ray- mond James once told me, "You are more likely to see a UFO than the money you are investing into Social Security." When the program was initiated after the Great Depression, it was effi- cient enough so that 10 workers could share the load of one retiree. In the near future, one work- er will have to bear the load of two retirees. The Daily and liberals alike try to paint the picture that private investment is defined as going to the casino or racetrack and investing taxes. The private investments under President Bush's plan would be secure investments that could yield a far greater return than the meager 1-percent Social Security returns right now. These invest- ments would dump billions of dollars into the U.S. economy and do nothing else but fortify our fiscal strength for the future. Please stop insulting the average taxpayer's intelligence and hard work by acting so ignorant. William Kerridge Engineering sophomore Only organ donors should receive organ transplants To THE DAILY: Your story about the Gift of Life competition (Organ donor battle expands, 02/01/2005) high- lighted the tragic shortage of human organs for transplant operations. More than half of the people who need an organ transplant in the United States die before they get one. Most of these deaths are needless. Americans bury or cremate thousands of life-saving organs every year. More than 6,000 of our neighbors suffer and die needlessly every year as a result. There is a simple solution to the organ shortage - give organs first to people who have agreed to donate their own organs when they die. Giving organs first to organ donors will convince more people to sign donor cards. It will also make the organ allocation system more fair. About 70 percent of the organs transplanted in the United States go to people who haven't agreed to donate their own organs when they die. People who are too lazy or too selfish to register as organ donors shouldn't be eligible for transplants, as long as there is a shortage of organs. Anyone who wants to donate his organs to others who have agreed to donate theirs can join LifeSharers. LifeSharers is a non-profit network of organ donors who agree to offer their organs first to other organ donors when they die. They do this through a form of directed donation that is legal in all 50 states and under federal law. Anyone can join for free at www.lifesharers.com. LifeSharers has 2,878 members, including 59 members in Michigan. David J. Undis The letter writer is the executive director of Lifesharers. VIEWPOINT Hear no evil, see no evil BY BRIAN STEPHENS Last year, while sitting among a mix of white and black students at the East Quad cafeteria, I brought up the topic of homo- sexuality for discussion. All of the black males, almost in unison, seemed to stir uncomfortably for a moment and left the table one-by-one. When the last guy left the table, he threw up his hands in des- peration and said, "Why did you have to bring that up? No one wants to talk about that shit." Well, I want to talk about it, so there. There is, unfortunately, a tacit rule in the black community that condemns the dis- cussion of homosexuality in any favorable context. It is seen as monstrous, unnatural and most of all, the greatest sin against God. Even now, the black community is sturated with the nall of HIV and AIDS. gay men as married, sex-driven animals whose main desire is to spread HIV to their wives. Perhaps these men wouldn't feel a need to pretend to be heterosexual and get mar- ried if the likelihood of being ostracized by the community weren't so high. If the black community was at least tolerant of lesbian, gays, bisexual, transgender of color, perhaps, just maybe, they would form meaningful and monogamous relationships with one another rather than indulge in clandestine acts of unsafe sex and skullduggery. These black pastors ought to preach to their congrega- tions about the importance of acceptance, regardless of sexual orientation, rather than digging an irreparable chasm between the black community and the LGBTs of color. Despite the polarizing environment, many gay black men have deftly adapted, usually by picking up a girlfriend along field Hills, we are referring to a kind of "ungaydar-able" men who put masculinity fiber allis. The impasse between LGBTs and the black community is so iron-clad and compounded that one cannot hope to change it - all one can do is stand before its cruel and twisted majesty in awe. Many blacks exalt Langston Hughes, Alice Walker and Audre Lorde as some of the greatest writers and poets of our time. The fact that these individuals were gay, bisexual and lesbian are assiduously swept under the rug, forgotten. There is a nuance here that is somewhat disturbing. Why does the black community seemingly accept these people and not others? If, for example, you were Tevin Campbell who was "outed" in 1999, you'd be ostracized by the community and never sell a record again. As we enter Black History Month, will we celebrate Audre Lorde's poetry? Certainly. Will we I~ ~ WIU llA ~~3 U4 LVL - L U~ L V'~