Letters to the Editor
Losing touch
June 1, 2007
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To the editor:
In spring of 2005, I was so relieved to see that a stand of silver maples and oaks upwards of 100 years old on the north-facing hill toward the Campanile survived the microburst. This week, however, I see they failed to survive the blundering, dunderheaded Kansas University sports program and one wealthy, misguided alum. The crater south of the stadium can probably be seen from space, a crater just the size for a football building of indeterminate purposes to celebrate a rather unremarkable team.
At least now I know why all the trucks heaped with sand and fill dirt have been tearing through the neighborhoods of Old West Lawrence for upwards of a month, and why they show no signs of stopping. I know I'll draw the ire of fans who seasonally need to traipse through our yards and drop their beer cups and hot-dog wrappers and pick our flowers on the way to the game.
I'm clearly losing touch with what's important in life.
Kelly Barth,
Lawrence
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1 June 2007
at 1:01 a.m.
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pelliott (Anonymous) says…
with you on this.
1 June 2007
at 1:08 a.m.
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RKLOG (Mark Andrew) says…
Well apparently a bunch of sweaty boys fighting over an inanimate air-filled ball is worth millions of dollars to some KU alumni. I tend to enjoy KU's open spaces, flowers (without picking them), trees and that kind of stuff. I guess I too seem to be losing touch with what's important in life.
1 June 2007
at 4:38 a.m.
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merrill (Anonymous) says…
Apparently some alumni and local big spenders feel spending tons and tons of money on the football program for special buildings and special suites(isolating themselves from fans) will somehow create a number one college football team.
I say money wasted. Why can't folks with tons of money to burn direct those greenbacks toward something of substance for the community they once lived in or still reside. Is self esteem building truly reduced to special suites that remove important people from real life experiences such as true cold football weather and wool blankets?
May I suggest using those big bucks to construct a state of the art Vocational-Technical Campus or Library,built to energy saving LEED codes of course, and donate those to the community. A major contribution towards the development of productive citizens. Now there is a real bang for the buck and I would believe self esteem.
1 June 2007
at 5:41 a.m.
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classclown (Anonymous) says…
I suggest putting roundabouts on the field. Could make games more interesting.
1 June 2007
at 5:48 a.m.
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merrill (Anonymous) says…
“classclown (Anonymous) says:
I suggest putting roundabouts on the field. Could make games more interesting.”
Probably does not meet dot/kdot guidelines. Obtaining traffic and speed data would be a challenge.
In this special case you presented money would be better spent on a Library or a Vo-Tech campus.
1 June 2007
at 7:19 a.m.
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crono (Anonymous) says…
Agreed on this one. Athletics is far tooo important at our dear university.
1 June 2007
at 7:59 a.m.
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moderationman (Anonymous) says…
If you don't want people walking over your yard, don't live next to the campus. You knew what to expect when you moved there. When the building is finished there will be less pavement and more green space with the removal of most ofLot 91and the addition of practice fields. Also, very few of the trees were removed. Of course none of those trucks were related to the additional building next to the Union or the refurbishing of roads on the campus since nearly alll of the soil from the “crater” is still next to the crater.
1 June 2007
at 8:12 a.m.
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lawrencian (Anonymous) says…
So, my question is, where is everyone going to park, when this project is done? If they're taking out “most of lot 91”, that means more traffic off campus to look for a parking space for a game, right? Just another reason to avoid being anywhere within a 10-block radius of the stadium on game days, as far as I'm concerned!
1 June 2007
at 8:43 a.m.
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pelliott (Anonymous) says…
moderationman (Anonymous) says:
If you don't want people walking over your yard, don't live next to the campus
Oh right, if you don't want people acting like pigs on your property, you move to another town. Or stay where you , moving won't help, pigs are every where. They like to blame you or any of their victims rather than take responsibility for themselfs. Get them. Be out there with a watering hose and spray them. People that don't take responsiblity for how they act or blame the victim for the crap acts of pigs are so out of their minds. The fault lies with the pig. Of course you might not want to get them but more people should report them. Call the police, they will blow you off since it is obviously a one time event,(the game) and no real damage has occured (to them) but if enough neighbors called, maybe we could live on our own land without trespassing pigs parading over it. I had a neighbor that regularly took a short cut through my yard on his motorcycle. I asked him not to. One night I stored some 2 by 4's in the lawn. Around 2 am i heard, thump thump. When he complained, i explained, wow at least I had cleaned the nails out of them, imagine if i hadn't, and how lucky he was. he called me a btch and i answered yep.
1 June 2007
at 9:08 a.m.
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lynnd (Anonymous) says…
pelliott that's funny. you're much nicer than i- were it my yard, i would have added extra nails to the 2x4's!!
1 June 2007
at 9:24 a.m.
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craigers (Anonymous) says…
I would agree that sports are not as crucial and important as the university does. However, some people live for these events and sports. They obviously think they are worth millions of dollars.
1 June 2007
at 9:54 a.m.
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Confrontation (Anonymous) says…
This “rather unremarkable team” will bring in a lot more business and money than Kelly or his/her tree obsession. KU's football team will only benefit from this new construction. Can a person truly be ignorant enough not to realize that construction work would take place on a college campus? Did he/she expect a quiet existence while living near a campus? I do agree that people shouldn't mess with your yard. I recommend that you obsess about it until you go psycho and have to be hospitalized -or- build an electric fence.
1 June 2007
at 10:20 a.m.
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BigDog (Anonymous) says…
Are any of these whiners the same ones who are complaining about us alumni who will be taking our money to Kansas City for the KU-Missouri game? If so, you should be glad that will be one less weekend the alumni and their families will be in “your town” messing up things and spending our dollars in the local economy.
1 June 2007
at 10:52 a.m.
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pelliott (Anonymous) says…
The money spent on sports is such a waste. Worst thing about the game being in kC is that some of the tail gate fans might kill people on the way home. Some of us don't appreciate the big money and the big pigs that sports bring out. If you enjoy sports ok. if you think spending a buck on something you enjoy entitles you to trash peoples yards, abuse wait people and take a back hoe to every green area on campus. You don't spend enough. Believe it or not some of us actually think the cool thing on campus is the education and the community. My god is not a halfback nor hoop dunker, nor your dollar.
1 June 2007
at 10:54 a.m.
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crazyks (Anonymous) says…
Are you people serious?
Oh, yeah, everyone says global warming is occurring, and we should do something to slow it down, if nothing else, but hell, take those trees down, it's only a few of them. Everyone knows that trees help out tremendously in cleaning the air (the disappearance of the rain forests should show you that), but hey, if they get in the way of football at KU and the millions of dollars we expect to make off of it, then take 'em down!! (sarcasm intended here)
Right, moderationman, if you don't like what the darling little KU students are doing, then you shouldn't live anywhere near the campus. Get real. What do you propose? That the city should bulldoze everything within a three block radius of campus, and declare it a no-man's land, and nobody can ever build anything there? Oh, wait, maybe a three block radius isn't big enough. How about five?
I'm sure the city would love that. Then they would be the ones who would have to go out after game days and clean up the mess.
How about personal responsibility? How about deciding to become an adult some day, and actually behaving like one? How about if all KU people, be they current students, alumni, or sports fans, realize that those places around campus are private property, stay off of them, and stop throwing their mess in everyone's yards? How about if police decided to monitor it sometimes, and everyone who wanders through someone's yard, or leaves trash behind, be fined out the a$$?
People who have no qualms about tramping through private property or dumping their trash on private property near KU will also have no qualms about doing it anywhere else, maybe even including YOUR yard, moderationman, which may be nowhere near KU.
Oh, yeah, confrontation, everyone should just be so eternally grateful that KU exists that they should be willing to put up with anything, including people who act like swine. After all, money is king, right?
And who cares about a few trees, huh, confrontation? It's not like most of them take a whole generation to grow to any substantial size, right?
Oh, they do?
Then I suggest YOU start showing some personal responsibility, and YOU should stop whining. Someday you might notice the impact the loss of a few trees can have. And if you insist on being a pig on game days, and can't find a trash can nearby, then take a damn garbage bag with you.
Let's blame everyone else in the whole world for everything, instead of admitting that we have an obsession over sports.
1 June 2007
at 11:34 a.m.
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Ragingbear (Anonymous) says…
Football sucks.
1 June 2007
at 3:21 p.m.
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RKLOG (Mark Andrew) says…
I got mean once and poured vegetable oil all over someone's windshield when I found a minivan rudely parked in my driveway during a game a few years back. I still get giddy all over when I think about them trying to wash it off when they came back :) MMMM Memories! I just made my own day!
1 June 2007
at 4:19 p.m.
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lacoov (Anonymous) says…
AMEN crazyks!!!!!!!!!!
1 June 2007
at 7:09 p.m.
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Ragingbear (Anonymous) says…
Should have had it towed RK. That would show them. A $200 scammer kidnapping their vehicle.
1 June 2007
at 9:58 p.m.
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pelliott (Anonymous) says…
Sports is so often touted as money making. It is such empty money, food, beer, dinner, gas. The real money from KU is more than students, staff, and faculty. Science, technology, business, education, those not only make the real world turn and grow, jobs, industry, technologyand quality of the labour force, family life is fueled by good education. That is more than cash on the weekend, it life careers and jobs and cures and whole factories, heck the real future. The outcome of a game or where it is played is fun but the outcome of the educational efforts can change the world. So no sports, isn't more important than trees, how people live, how they act. sports is not the important thing on campus, no more than the garage bands or the flower beds. The infrastructure built by pouring billions into sports is more comparable to the billions spent advertising fast food or the cosmetic industry. Sports doesn't even change our national health that much. It is truely grandstand, coloseums, once the lions have eaten the christians, the show is over, it is not even Shakespeare. Education, training, research, community are the things that will lead this country.
4 June 2007
at 2:11 p.m.
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Confrontation (Anonymous) says…
crazyks: It sounds like you really sucked at sports in elementary school. Also, did you exist before sports at KU? No? Really? Then, maybe you should have known about the sports before you decided to move near a football stadium. Plant more trees in your own yard. KU can do what they want with their campus.
5 June 2007
at 6:58 p.m.
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thusspokezarathustra (Anonymous) says…
Pelliott,
Your post demonstrates a great need for education or at least grammar & basic writing skills.
5 June 2007
at 7:25 p.m.
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crazyks (Anonymous) says…
I don't live anywhere near KU or the football stadium, confrontation…but thanks for caring…
So to you, football (and KU in particular) is king, money is king, and just to hell with everything else, huh?
Since KU is partially funded by my tax dollars, I figure I should have just as much input into what happens on campus as anyone else.
Have you admitted to having that obsession over sports yet? Admitting you have a problem is the first step toward recovery, you know…