Kruger joined to carry on the family tradition. Michael Franklin on the other hand, signed the dotted lines with a different mindset. Franklin, Leavenworth, graduate student explains his reasons for joining the military.

Although Kruger and Franklin joined for different reasons, the two gay soldiers had to conform to the same rules and regulations; especially Clinton’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Policy. But don’t assume that their conformity has any influence on the separate soldiers’ opinions.

Surprisingly, Kruger agrees with the military’s homosexual policy, at least when it comes to the grunt work. “I don’t think the general military population is ready for homosexuality” Kruger said. “Especially in a war zone,” he added.

In March of 2003, the United States invaded Iraq and Operation Iraqi Freedom began. Sometime between late at night and early in the morning on the 13th of March, Kruger, a staff sergeant with the United States Air Force, was on his way to Camp Biap, a base approximately 10 miles west of Baghdad. As a mid-level intelligence soldier, SSG Kruger along with six other Air Force soldiers were being escorted by Marines for a top-secret mission.

Twenty minutes away from the camp, approximately 25 insurgents were patiently waiting for the small convoy. Once within range, the insurgents ambushed the convoy by throwing home made weapons similar to land mines at the convoy. “It was your typical flat desert terrain, and they just came out of nowhere” said Kruger.

One of the home-made bombs landed underneath the hum-vee carrying Kruger, his colonel, and their Marine escorts. The explosion amputated the hum-vee’s doors and Kruger was thrown from the vehicle. The colonel landed near him, with the Hum-Vee on top of his legs. Close by, another improvised grenade went off, causing the hum-vee to rock and possibly saving the colonel’s life.

“”There was enough of an explosion to shake the hum-vee so I could pull him out (from underneath)” said Kruger. Kruger recalls immediately returning fire.

Why then would a war-hardened gay veteran agree with Clinton’s policy? “In a war, you need trust” Kruger said. According to the U.S. Army’s Homosexual Conduct Policy, the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy is the answer to the lack of trust. “The challenge to all soldiers is to comply with the law that prohibits homosexual conduct while at the same time respecting the privacy and dignity of every soldier.”

Anyone who has been in the military, knows there are two basic kinds of soldiers; grunts and paper pushers. While Kruger thinks gay soldiers might be okay on the office side, he says homosexuality causes problems when grunts go to war.

“The grunt mentality is usually lower than the paper pushers” Kruger said.

He said that a vast majority of soldiers, specifically army soldiers, join because they have few choice outside of military life; either due to past crimes which force civilians to become soldier to get of out jail time, or high school graduates coming from low income families and wanting a better job than the local McDonald’s. It’s these low income, get out of jail free card holders that worry Kruger. “Usually, their first reaction is violence” Kruger said.

But Franklin disagrees not only with Kruger but with the policy itself. “If a gay man or woman wants to fight in the trenches, they should be able to, and be able to come home to a partner” said Franklin. Franklin joined the Army Reserves in 1994 and served his entire eight years until 2002. During that time, Franklin had to conform to the policy, but he didn’t agree with it.

Where Franklin perceives gay life in the military as hiding, Kruger views it as a balancing act. “You have to know when you have to be a certain person” Kruger said. Kruger dated a co-worker for three years and even lived with his partner. Kruger kept his personal life at home, living in a three bedroom house with his partner in order to avoid investigation.

By separating his personal life from his professional military life, Kruger was able to be a proficient sergeant. “I took care of my troops and didn’t let my personal life affect my work life” said Kruger. Kruger said that lots of people knew he was gay, but through earning their respect he was able to keep the focus off of his homosexuality.

Kruger compares his professionalism towards his troops to his work here in Lawrence.

Luckily, Kruger’s troops took care of him as well. After Kruger and the colonel were thrown from their hum-vee, the marines returned fire. “Thank God for them (marines), they saved our asses’ big time” said Kruger. During the initial attack, Kruger landed on a rock that punctured his vertebrae. After extensive back surgery in which Kruger’s whole left side had to be realigned, Kruger was given the option to sit behind a desk for the rest of his time or to be medically discharged. The staff sergeant chose the latter option.

Today the two soldiers are joined through another unifying organization, the University of Kansas. Here, Kruger and Franklin can be who they want to be, when they want to be without hiding or separating their personal lives from their scholastic future.

Spc. Grimmius jokes around with Sgt. Ellis as in Camp Biap, Iraq. Photograph taken by Marla Keown

Sgt. Page has fun waiting for his truck to get uploaded in Kuwait. Photograph taken by Marla Keown

Soldiers try to bind down a water buffalo. Photograph taken by Marla Keown.

Spc. Grimmius wrestles with Sgt. Bass as they wait for the roads to clear in Camp Biap, Iraq. Photograph taken by Marla Keown.

In 1997, Michael Dennis was a gradate student in communications at Purdue University when he received news that his father had been killed by a drunk driver. As the oldest of three children, Dennis found himself with the disheartening job of giving his father’s eulogy.

Dennis went over the basic skills he had learned in his communications courses to help him prepare a eulogy and found that he was unprepared for such a job. He sought advice from his then serious girlfriend, Adrianne Kunkel, who had being studying communications with an emphasis in social support and comfort to help him with the eulogy.

Years later in 2003, the now married Kunkel and Dennis used the experience as a basis for a three part series in modern eulogy study.

“It came from something personal and tragic in our lives and trying to respond how we knew through scholarship,” Dennis said.

The first paper in the series studied the public eulogies of Princess Diana, former Prime Minister of Israel Yitzhak Rabin and the eulogy of the Challenger astronauts given by President Reagan. Also included were the eulogy Dennis gave for his father, and a eulogy given by his father-in-law for wife’s grandmother.

Shortly afterwards the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated upon reentering the earth’s atmosphere, killing all astronauts onboard. Media outlets contacted Dennis for questions due to his previous research into the Challenger eulogy. This I turn lead to the topic for his second paper, where he dissects how Presidents eulogize fallen heroes. For the study he examined the eulogies given by Bush for the Columbia astronauts and the eulogy Clinton gave for victims of the USS Cole.

This month, the third paper in their study of eulogies will be published in the scholarly journal Death Studies. The paper, entitled “Grief, glory and political capitol: Presidents eulogizing presidents,” highlights the specific strategies used by presidents to eulogize other presidents.

In the study, Dennis and Kunkel examined the eulogies of Presidents Kennedy, Eisenhower, Nixon, and Reagan given by Presidents Johnson, Nixon, Clinton and Bush respectively.

Studying these eulogies, Dennis identified the eulogists most commonly praise the deceased in the form of deification, suggest action the deceased would have supported and attempt to offer a positive reappraisal of past actions.

First, Dennis identified the deification and appeal to destiny the eulogizers bestow on deceased Presidents. This is a trend that started when the Reverend Samuel Davies prophesized about the future greatness and historical significance of George Washington. Since then, every President has either invoked their religious appointment outright, such as Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush, or suggested that they were destined to occupy the position.

Another common tactic for eulogists is to advocate a program or cause important to the former President in order to help people cope and realize the former President’s dream. Dennis found the strongest examples of this in the eulogy of President Kennedy by President Johnson. It was this advocacy the help pass sweeping civil rights legislation and gave NASA momentum to land on the moon.

The most common tactic Dennis identified was the positive reappraisal of past actions by the eulogizer. In his study, Dennis says Clinton, who eulogized President Nixon, used this tactic for both consoling and personal reasons. To a grieving public, positive reappraisal allows the public to find the “silver lining” in the cloud and make things seem not so bad. For Clinton, a positive reappraisal of a President plagued by scandal was all too personal, Clinton was deep in the midst of the Lewinsky scandal and hoped that offering a gentle appraisal off the Nixon’s positive action could help himself in the future.

“Speeches and historians really change the ways future generations view presidents,” Dennis said. “In fact, that’s what Bush is counting on right now.”

Dennis’ research has so far been limited to simply identifying tactics used by eulogizers, no research has been done on their effectiveness in helping a grieving audience. Dennis says further research needs to be done by rhetoricians to evaluate the effectiveness of these strategies.

President Johnson's Speech to Congress

President Eisenhower's Eulogy

President Nixon's Eulogy

President Reagan's Eulogy

KU fans disappointed by another first-round loss in Men’s Basketball can take solace in the national dominance of a very different kind of team: The University of Kansas Debate Team.

At the conclusion of the season last month, KU’s varsity debaters finished as the top ranked squad in the country based on National Debate Tournament points. Dartmouth and Harvard placed second and third.

Although it may be surprising that Kansas students are competing with and defeating Ivy League students, it is certainly no accident.

“Partly it’s tradition,” said Scott Harris, KU Debate Coach. “Debate has been an active program at KU for more than 100 years. The institutional support for debate has been fairly consistent.”

Indeed, Kansas has always been at or near the top in number of high school debaters and currently has more active college debate programs than any other state.

Despite the team’s undeniable success, some former debaters and coaches, as well as outside observers, think that the current style of debate at the college level is destructive to the educational value of the activity.

“I think college debate can get ridiculous,” said Daniel Singer, Leawood junior and former high school debater. “People make arguments that I don’t think they even understand. There are real-world reasons that any Affirmative plan is a bad idea. Why can’t teams just try to find those?”

Singer was successful in high school competition and would have loved to continue to debate in college had he seen the same value in the activity as he had before.

“I would have absolutely debated in college if it was just the best debaters from high school arguing with each other about concrete issues,” Singer said. “But arguing about whether a plan is anthropocentric is just a waste of time.”

The debaters don’t see things that way.

“While people say that it’s not real-world, the skills we learn are real-world,” said Lindsey Lathrop, Overland Park sophomore debater.

“The research we do and the critical thinking skills we develop are extremely beneficial,” Lathrop said.

Harris argues that the addition of critical arguments, when well-applied, can make the activity even more educational.

“With this year’s topic on increasing pressure on China, questioning the whole notion of how we conduct foreign policy and if leveraging another country is really something we ought to be doing seems to be an important, relevant question to ask in how we conduct our foreign policy,” Harris said.

“I think it is useful they are constantly being pushed to learn new things,” he added.

Everybody in debate agrees that the activity now involves more of a discussion of philosophy and procedural issues. Also common is the use of generic strategies for both the Affirmative and Negative sides in a round. But perhaps the most divisive characteristic of college debate today is the sheer speed at which the participants talk.

“Speed is traditionally not what we have promoted here in Kansas,” said Max Brown, a high school speech coach and frequent debate judge. “I think it not only leads to bad speaking style, it leads to bad thinking.”

Brown said that he judged the top six high school teams in debate at the National Forensics League national tournament in 2003, but was unable to vote for any of them because they spoke too rapidly.

“It gets to the point where it’s not about arguing, it’s about how many arguments you can get out before your speech is up,” Brown said.

The KU debaters think that this, too, is an unfair criticism.

“I think it (speed-talking) is probably more educational because it requires you to learn to think efficiently,” said Andrew Jennings, Silver Lake sophomore debater.

As for the argument that debate fosters a poor speaking style, Harris said that is simply not true.

“I’ve never seen an ex-debater give a public speech and not be effective,” he said.

Harris pointed out that competitive debate should not be viewed in the same way one would view a debate for the general public. College debates are judged only by qualified judges, often coaches, who are able to understand what the competitors are saying.

Despite this, the contemporary style of debate makes some former participants long for the old days.

“It was beginning to speed up,” said Bill Davis, a former debate coach and Washburn University debater, of his collegiate experience. “There was a team from St. Anselm's that was speaking rapidly and losing a lot of debates with irritated judges. The debates were still oriented towards the topic and not generic.”

Davis, who won four consecutive State Championships while coaching at Blue Valley North High School, says that the changes in college debate are hurting high school debate.

“I think it is destructive of high school debate, because the arguments are far beyond what any high school debater knows, or for most high school judges to understand,” Davis said.

On this point, Davis and Harris are in agreement.

“They learn buzzwords, they use catchphrases, they don’t learn the concepts themselves,” Harris said.

Still, Harris embraces the changes to the activity and rejects the view that the “old way” is somehow better.

“It’s not the form of an argument that makes it good, it’s whether the argument is good or not,” he said. “Debate is an activity that has always changed. Those changes have been incremental and based on what works.”

Harris explained that, unlike sports like basketball or football, debate is a competition with rules and practices that are created by the participants. Debate has no governing body and it has no rule book. Harris said that these characteristics allow for the opportunity to explore new possibilities and perspectives with each round.

“I’ve been in debate for 30 years now,” Harris said, “and every year I learn new things.”

Douglas County is one of the worst counties in Kansas for deer, averaging over 200 deer-related accidents a year since 1995. But in Lawrence, deep within the city limits, a small group of deer have found a home among busy streets.

Across 15th Street from Templin Hall, residents in the quiet Westwood Drive neighborhood see deer on a regular basis. Barbara Watkins, KU Academic Outreach coordinator, is one of these residents.

Watkins has a somewhat special relationship with the deer. She took care of a young deer she called "Fawn" during the summer of 2001, feeding it and helping it survive. Eventually, the deer grew too big and wildlife services received complaints from neighbors that the deer may become dangerous during rutting, or mating, season. Kansas Wildscape removed the animal from the area. But five years later, Watkins saw a familiar sight.

The young deer named "Fawn" explores Barbara Watkins' yard in summer 2001. Deer still inhabit the wooded area between Engle Road and Iowa Street.

“There are two twin does that come up from the woods and up into the street,” Watkins said. “We feed them grapes and corn every now and then.”

The animals graze in the grassy center of the circular Westwood Drive. They cross the street in complete confidence, forcing drivers to slow and sometimes stop for them to pass. The deer inhabit the wooded area between Engle Road and Iowa Street.

“I think I’ve seen them at least two or three times in the past few months,” Ryan Gilchrist, Wichita, senior, said. “I think they’ve been around for a while.” Gilchrist has been a resident of Westwood since August.

How do these large animals, living so close to busy city streets, survive and thrive?

The vehicle clouded Iowa lies close to the west. Fifteenth Street, congested with campus traffic, lies only a backyard’s distance away. Yet somehow, the deer don’t seem to mind. In fact, they’ve survived in these tight boundaries for a long time.

The Lawrence Solid Waste Division is responsible for the removal of animal carcasses from the road. According to Bob Yoos, the division manager, there have been no reports of deer being killed by vehicles in that area for as long as he can remember.

“I’ve had several reports on the outskirts of town, some near 31st and up west on Sixth, but never in that area,” Yoos said.

Yoos said that several deer sightings have occurred in the wooded areas on Bob Billings Parkway, which they have for quite some time. Like the deer in the Westwood area, those deer rarely come into contact with traffic.

(Information for graph provided by Lloyd Fox, Kansas Wildlife and Parks Department, graph by Matt Doubrava.)

University of Kansas Professor Michael Greenfield, an animal behavior expert, said that these particular deer needed to adapt in several ways in order to survive.

“The critical factors may include ability to avoid vehicles, nocturnal behavior, and adjustments in diet,” he said. “All of these may be allowing deer to remain in the Templin Hall area.” He said as long as they can adapt like this, they can live well with humans, and there is no need to remove them. He is not surprised that the deer have made Lawrence their home.

“There’s a lot of food for them and there’s a lack of hunting,” Greenfield said. “As long as they can adapt, it’s perfect for them.”

Greenfield is a resident of Engle Road. He has seen the deer crossing Iowa Street at about 2 a.m. Greenfield and Bob Yoos believe that the deer have habitually learned the heavy traffic times, and it has become natural for them to avoid those vehicle rushes. They had to alter feeding patterns and times, adopting a more nocturnal lifestyle. The deer only travel across streets late at night or early in the morning.

Greenfield says that deer have only populated Kansas since the 1950’s, when forest areas became more common in the eastern part of the state. The deer moved here from areas like the Ozarks in Missouri. The population continues to increase. There used to be less than 100 deer per square mile. The numbers have increased to over 300 per square mile in the past few years.

"Fawn" lying down in the woods behind Watkins' house. Watkins owns about one acre of woodland that stretches towards Iowa Street.

The truth is they can cause a few problems. . Todd Olson, the owner of Critter Control, receives calls concerning deer in the city limits.

“I get calls on a weekly basis about deer damaging flowers and gardens,” Olson said.

Deer in Lawrence have a reputation with residents for over-grazing. Olson said they can cause severe damage to people’s property; mostly flower beds and vegetable gardens. Olson said he has heard of implementing a motion-censored “water cannon device,” which sprays the animals when they get too close to a certain area. The biggest threat, though, is to drivers.

“There is a risk involved,” Olson said. “Mostly with auto collisions. The only predators they have are cars.”

Experts agree that deer can become too tame; too comfortable with people. Feeding the animals is something they strongly disagree with. If they caused too much of a nuisance, there might be a request for their removal. However, that may never be the case. Although they have caused some yard damage and pose risk to traffic, the deer continue to flourish unopposed.

“I don’t think they should be removed,” Gilchrist said. “They add character to the neighborhood.”

Barbara Watkins doesn’t mind the damage some of the deer cause in her garden. She has learned to share her portion of Lawrence with them.

In an article Watkins wrote for her friends and family, she reminisced about her summer with the young deer in the woods behind her home. She wrote, “I saw trouble coming and cut a deal with Fawn. She could eat the hosta flowers, but not my beloved hosta leaves. She agreed, and we continued our peaceful coexistence.”

Ernest Martin is pretty well known at the Lawrence Humane Society in Lawrence. Martin, a convicted cocaine dealer, also trained pit bulls to fight in his home at 2133 Naismith. However, when the dogs were taken from his home, abused and hungry, he was not charged with animal cruelty. Starting July 1, things will change for Martin.

Since Kathlene Sebelius signed the bill to pass the new animal cruelty law on April 28th, if Martin is caught abusing animals again, he will have to add “animal abuse felon” to his record.

Midge Grinstead, director of the Lawrence Humane society is pleased with the change. “We recovered 9 obviously abused pit bulls from his property and I can’t tell you how frustrating it is that he was only charged for the drugs and not the abuse,” said Grinstead.

Grinstead says the amount of abuse that she encounters every day is unbelievable. Grinstead estimates she sees about 100-150 abuse cases in a typical year. She said what bothers her is almost all of those cases go without punishment for the caretaker of the animal. “When I took this job several years ago, I didn’t realize I would ever see some of the things I have,” she said.

This new abuse law did not come without a fight. It all began 9 years ago, when “Scruffy’s Law” was proposed, largely by Senator David Haley. However, when he proposed the law to the senate, he was barked and meowed at, and made fun of for his efforts.

Now, after yet another attempt in 2002, the bill has finally passed. The new law requires that someone who commits purposeful abuse on an animal will be required to spend at least 30 days in jail, and must have a psychological evaluation thereafter. Senator David Haley is very pleased with the decision.

“Labeling these latent predators as felons puts the public on notice of their propensity for violence and deviant behavior against a living creature. It gives the court system greater latitude in prescribing the mental health treatment these offenders warrant,” said Haley.

Cindy Sellars and Kurt with K-9 Rescue in Witchita march down Kansas Avenue in Topeka. Following the event, the group went to Gage Park in Topeka with the dogs. Photo By: Beth Breitenstein

The psychological evaluation was yet another change. “We know abuse is about power, but there is something mentally deficient about people who abuse animals in this way,” said Grinstead. Also, the person convicted will not be able to house or own pets for 5 years.

There has been a lot of research in psychology that attempts to explain animal abuse. Cruelty to animals is one characteristic of Conduct Disorder in children and adolescents as indicated in DSM-IV (The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association). It is Conduct Disorder that often leads to Antisocial Personality Disorder in adults. Dennis Karpowitz, a psychology professor at KU agrees. “Antisocial Personality Disorder is associated with individuals who are aggressive or violent with little sense of guilt or remorse, and they should be looked at as dangerous,” said Karpowitz.

The new law details

Official Web site for MagnumForce

Most recent Kansas abuse story

The National Humane Society

]]> tag:reporting.journalism.ku.edu,2006:/spring06/kuhr-musser//3.1326 2006-05-10T04:15:08Z 2006-05-10T22:52:56Z

Wee-Poo sounds like a nonsense word a young child would say. Actually it is a breed of dog. Designer dogs, like the Wee-Poo, are becoming more popular in the United States. But how does this crossbreeding affect the health and...

Kimberly Lynch http://reporting.journalism.ku.edu/spring06/kuhr-musser/ Wee-Poo sounds like a nonsense word a young child would say. Actually it is a breed of dog. Designer dogs, like the Wee-Poo, are becoming more popular in the United States.

But how does this crossbreeding affect the health and temperament of these new breeds?

David Nottingham, veterinarian at Baldwin Junction Veterinary Clinic, said it is hard to tell about the health of designer dogs because they are relatively new.

Nottingham said that the health of a mutt, which is a mixture of breeds, is usually better than purebred dogs.

The idea of hybrid vitality, or that different gene pools create a healthier animal, seems to be true a lot of the time, Nottingham said.

Christy Jarrett, a veterinarian at Jarrett Small Animal Clinic, agrees with Nottingham.

The mixed breeds, “maybe have fewer health problems,” Jarrett said.

But Lonita Kress, owner of GoldKress Kennels in Lawrence, said that the health of purebreds and hybrids are basically the same. “Every breed has health problems,” she said.

“Even breeding hybrids, you’re going to get the same problems,” Kress said.

Kress breeds only purebreds “I personally don’t believe in” breeding hybrids, Kress said.

Trying to figure out what the health of a hybrid or purebred dog will be can only be determined once the puppy is born, Kress said.

“There is really no guarantee it’s genetics,” Kress said.

John Wilson, owner of Labradoodles by Janda, breeds poodles and Labrador retrievers to produce the labradoodle.

It depends on what breeds are being mixed in determining the health, said Wilson, whose business is located 20 miles east of Wichita, Kansas.

Click to Enlarge

He gave an example of breeding a dog that had a lot of health problems to one that did not have as many. The hybrid that resulted would have slightly worse overall health because of the bad health of the one parent, he said.

And yet, if a poodle that had a bleeding disorder were bred with a Labrador, which generally does not have the disorder, then the bleeding problem could be lessened to a great extent, Wilson said.

Two different types of dogs bred that had the same lifespan could potentially result in a hybrid that could live one to two years more than the average for each breed, Wilson said.

Shyann Coffey, who grooms dogs at Accent Pet Grooming, said the hybrids health is not necessarily better than another dogs.

The poodle and Labrador hybrid, the labradoodle, gets more ear infections because the ear is longer on the hybrid, Coffey said.

Some health problems for the designer dogs can result from environmental factors.

Katie Foley, operations manager of the Lawrence Humane Society, said they have seen poor health in hybrids, such as Labradoodles, but that is because the animals are often being removed from bad situations.

Backyard breeders, unlicensed breeders, who are operating solely for monetary gain, contribute to the litters of hybrids brought into the shelter, Foley said.

The litters of hybrids produced by the backyard breeders often have health problems because they are not properly bred. A lot the time the dogs are inbred, Foley said.

(Source: American Pet Products Manufacturers Association) Click to Enlarge. This graph shows the rising costs of caring for a pet. This is an important consideration when deciding which type of dog to buy. Designer dogs can sell for as much as $1500. (The figure for 2006 is an estimate)

The temperaments of hybrids may be a different story than the health though.

Anneka Farmer, manager at a PetSmart in Olathe, said several hybrid dogs come in to be groomed. Farmer has not noticed a pronounced difference in the temperament of the hybrid dogs from regular dogs.

“I think that the breeds are similar in attitudes that they are breeding,” Farmer said.

Farmer said even in purebreds their temperaments were not consistently the same.

Coffey said the temperament of hybrid dogs varies more than their purebred counterparts.

It is yet to be determined if the health of hybrid dogs is better than that of other breeds.

In the end though it, “comes down to genetics,” Wilson said.

Some useful links:

Designer dogs overpriced mutts?

What is a backyard breeder?

Which dog is your perfect match?

]]> tag:reporting.journalism.ku.edu,2006:/spring06/kuhr-musser//3.1319 2006-05-09T20:16:08Z 2006-05-10T22:00:39Z

Phumlani wakes from a deep sleep as sunlight creeps through his sheet metal roof. He rolls off the blanket that he shares with his sister and mother in their single bed. He stares at the kerosene stove and pot that...

Katherine Loeck http://reporting.journalism.ku.edu/spring06/kuhr-musser/ Phumlani wakes from a deep sleep as sunlight creeps through his sheet metal roof. He rolls off the blanket that he shares with his sister and mother in their single bed. He stares at the kerosene stove and pot that decorate their 12-by-12 shack. All of his possessions hang on a nail. He gets ready for a long day at work because his mother cannot. She has AIDS; she can’t even walk. He dreams of becoming a doctor, but quit school to earn money to send his sister instead.

Things are different now. Phumlani and his sister moved to a real home last fall thanks to one Johnson County charity.

Oceans of Mercy has been helping children like Phumlani since 2002 when Schaun Colin, Westside Family Church Missions Pastor, established the 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization in the basement of his coffee shop. Colin saves and supports the lives of AIDS orphans by trying to divert just a little of Johnson County’s excessive wealth to another continent. In the process, he has convinced one University of Kansas student that her life of privilege creates a debt that ought to be paid. There is one thing he wants KU students to know.

“They are the richest people in the world, and with that comes responsibility,” Colin said.

Maggie Gremminger, Shawnee freshman, joined Oceans of Mercy in 2004 after Colin visited her high school. As she watched videos of sick, happy, beautiful South African children who only possessed the dirt on their feet, she noticed her peers wearing Abercrombie jeans with keys to brand new cars in the pockets. These kids wanted to skip school, but the children on the screen were dying to go. She understood Colin’s cause, and the need for help.

The Situation

• South Africa has more people infected by AIDS than any other country in the world
• More than 260 babies are abandoned in the Eastern Cape region of South Africa every month
• On average in this region, there are 300 AIDS funerals every weekend

Sources: Schaun Colin and Traci Johnson

“I’ve grown up my whole life in the Johnson County cocoon,” Gremminger said. “I realized that I did nothing to deserve my life privileged life. It made me feel really wasteful.”

Like Gremminger, when Traci Johnson, Oceans of Mercy fundraising coordinator, learned about the situation in South Africa, she realized how sheltered she was in Johnson County.

“I see so much wealth and wasted wealth on cars and houses,” Johnson said. “It’s ok to have those things but make sure to give back.”

Anyone who earns minimum wage in the United States is in the top 5 percent of the richest people in the world, Colin said. With that comes the obligation to help the less fortunate.

Allison Kapsner, Blaine, Minn., sophomore, is doing just that. Kapsner spent 10 days in Uganda over winter break, helping her mother with nursing mission work. Kapsner realized that since she has the ability to help others, she needs to do it. Now, she is raising money to send Henry, an African teacher, back to school in the fall.

Photo provided by: Allison KapsnerKapsner stands with some of Henry's future students. Once Henry finishes college, he will teach at a primary and secondary school on Lingira Island on Lake Victoria in Uganda.

“He is great with all the kids and they love him, Kapsner said.” “He made an impact on my life and my mom’s, so we feel it’s the least we can do to help him. Not many people over there get help, and they all need it.”

There are 70 children waiting for Henry to finish college. He has two years left, but because school costs $2,500 a year, he can’t afford to continue. So far, Kapsner has raised $130 towards Henry’s tuition.

“I’ve been sitting on Massachusetts Street in African apparel with African instruments, and doing an African tribal dance that I learned from the children that Henry will be teaching,” she said.

Kapsner and Gremminger are doing their part to help the world, one life at a time. Rebekah Heacock, KU for Uganda president, said students need to dedicate themselves to an international cause, because what happens in Uganda or South Africa impacts the United States.

College is the time when people realize there are issues facing the world, and they want to help, said Anton Bengston, Center for Community Outreach codirector.

“It’s easy to come to school,” Bengston said. “One of the most important things is connecting what’s inside the classroom with what’s outside. It’s part of the maturation process.”

He said exposing students to situations outside of their comfort zones is good motivation to get an education in order to make changes for the environment, the homeless or the poor.

Photo by: Traci Johnson Mama Gladys Panda is the housemother and caretaker of the Children's Village.

Johnson said that simply being born in America is a blessing. Oceans of Mercy volunteers share this wealth with South African children who are not as lucky. The organization responds to the HIV/AIDS pandemic by providing prevention, care and support services for people living with AIDS. The Children's Village provides a loving, educational home for orphans and other vulnerable children.

Today, Phumlani is a ninth-grader who has been given a second chance. Because Phumlani realizes he is no longer underprivileged, he returns to his township to help others in need.

“If each young person helped or reached out to someone in need, think of the effect we could have…in our neighborhoods, our classrooms, our community and the world,” Johnson said.

Source: Schaun ColinIn 2005, Oceans of Mercy established a Children's Village on a farm outside of Port Elizabeth, South Africa. The money for this purchase was raised over a period of two and a half years.

]]> tag:reporting.journalism.ku.edu,2006:/spring06/kuhr-musser//3.1312 2006-05-09T05:40:45Z 2006-05-10T21:24:57Z

Kansas is stuck between a wind turbine and a hard place. Renewable energy, such as the wind, could help the state reduce the emissions, by-products released by power plants, from coal, gas and nuclear plants, add more jobs and add...

James Pinick http://reporting.journalism.ku.edu/spring06/kuhr-musser/ Kansas is stuck between a wind turbine and a hard place. Renewable energy, such as the wind, could help the state reduce the emissions, by-products released by power plants, from coal, gas and nuclear plants, add more jobs and add revenue in places where there otherwise would be no revenue, according to Tom Sloan, State Rep. 45th District.

Even with the current debates raging involving wind energy in the state, one local business makes their living in the wind business.

There is one big problem with the high hopes for wind energy in the state though, location.

“Wind energy is a lot like real-estate,” Scott White, Assistant scientist for the KU Energy Research Center said. “It is all about location, location, location.”

Lawrence, on the other hand, is not that location.

White said that a good location would involve somewhere with steady wind and existing electrical transmission lines. White said that most companies who are developing wind energy in the state want to site their farms near current transmission lines. Adding new transmission lines could run $1 million a mile, so there is a bottleneck in certain areas of the state, White said.

New transmission lines in the state could alleviate some of the bottlenecks currently in place. Sloan agrees that new transmission lines are appropriate.

“The potential for wind energy in Kansas is very very great.” Sloan said. “But it will take transmission line construction to make it possible.”

According to White, the Flint Hills are the most ideal spot in the state right now for wind energy because of the sparce population and the unobstructed hillsides. Wind blows better in this area and ,of course, there are existing transmission lines, but Ron Klataske sees it differently.

Klataske is the Executive Director of Audubon of Kansas, a non-profit organization that is involved in the preservation of the prairie chickens and the Flint Hills in Kansas. You would think that a "green" society would be on the same page as others when it comes to wind energy in the state, but again it all comes down to location.

Top 5 States for Wind Potential* in the United States.

States	Wind Potential
Kansas	1705
Texas	1693
North Dakota	1693
Nebraska	1378
South Dakota	1269

*Measured in terawatt hours per year from wind,geothermal, biomass, and landfill gas.
Source: Kansaswindpower.com

The search for the right location has incited a fight in Kansas with most of the resistance coming from the Flint Hills.

“We support wind energy in the state, but just not in the Flint Hills,” Klataske said. “It is all dependent on proper siting.”

Klataske said that only 5 percent of the original Flint Hills prairie is still intact and that he does not want to see power companies destroying the landscape. Although Audubon of Kansas supports the new Spearville wind farm near Dodge City because it does not harm the delicate Flint Hills. Back here in Lawrence, Jennifer Delislie, President of the Jayhawk Audubon Society, agrees with Klataske’s position.

“We support wind energy in the state of Kansas,” Delisle said. “There just needs to be some guidelines for proper siting.”

With the current debate raging in the Flint Hills, one local company has come up with a solution that they think might solve the answer to the Flint Hills problems.

Jennifer States, Managing Director for JW Prairie Windpower, said their company has came up with a new concept called community wind. The Lawrence-based companies new concept is different from exisiting wind farms because there are smaller groups of turbines, which are connected to smaller distribution lines, said States.

These wind farms are located near communities so the economic advantage for the communites are more beneficial because the land owners get a return on the profits as well as investment in the project, said States. Along with this, the use of smaller transmission lines makes the projects more able to get underway now because they won't be near the bottlenecks that every other wind farm project is wanting, said States .

JW Prairie Windpower is involved in several wind projects in the state right now, but nothing is definite beacuse they are just waiting on the utility companies to join the deal.

"Our Morris County Wind Farm is fully developed and ready to go," States said. "We just need a power company to pick it up."

Jennifer States, Managing Director for JW Prairie Windpower, explains how the data for wind speed is collected. This is done to determine if a location is viable for a wind farm.

Westar, the largest utility in the state, has been apprehensive with the use of wind energy because it is not economical to them right now, according to Gina Penzig, Senior Reprentative for Westar Communications Media.

Penzig believes that wind energy needs a “good hard look” despite their apprehension for the energy right now, but she also agrees that location will be key for wind energy in the state.

“Location will be one of the many factors in whether wind energy succeeds in the state,” Penzig said. “There are other factors, but location is an important one.”

Aquila, another big utility in the state of Kansas, believes location is important. Kurt Floerchinger, Media Relations Specialist, said that wind energy is definitely an alternative for energy.

“We feel that wind energy is an option worth considering,” Floerchinger said. “We have already started to pursue other types of energy in the state.”

Aquila is currently purchasing wind energy from the Gray County Wind Farm in South Eastern Kansas.

With the future of wind energy still unknown, location has seemed to be an important issue, but Penzig will remind you that the future is up in the air.

“Wind energy definitely has a future in the state,” Penzig said. “What it is I am not certain, and I don’t think anyone knows for sure either.

For more Info:
Kansas Energy Information Network
Kansas Energy Council

]]> tag:reporting.journalism.ku.edu,2006:/spring06/kuhr-musser//3.1298 2006-05-08T21:37:50Z 2006-05-09T02:10:21Z

On Dec. 1, 2004, Colleen Walker, Ted Walker, T.J. Walker, Sarah Walker and Karron Schwartz all got tattoos. By 7 o’clock that evening, all five of them displayed permanent memorials to their family member, Ryan Walker, who died one...

Kelly Lanigan http://reporting.journalism.ku.edu/spring06/kuhr-musser/

On Dec. 1, 2004, Colleen Walker, Ted Walker, T.J. Walker, Sarah Walker and Karron Schwartz all got tattoos. By 7 o’clock that evening, all five of them displayed permanent memorials to their family member, Ryan Walker, who died one year earlier at age 17.

Colleen first thought of getting a tattoo when she saw other memorial tattoos at Compassionate Friends, a group for parents whose children have died. Colleen and her family decided to all get tattoos on the one-year anniversary of Ryan’s death.

“I would have never gotten a tattoo if my son had not died,” Colleen said.

The family drew five original tattoos in memory of Ryan. The designs ranged from roses to Batman to angel wings. When other people see the Walkers’ tattoos, the family shows them off rather than hiding them.

“It gives us a chance to talk about Ryan,” Ted said.

Tattoos becoming more accepted by mainstream society is not a new trend. However, while tattooing is often seen as a teenage fad, 44-year-old Colleen, 46-year-old Ted and 63-year-old Karron are part of a lesser-known tattoo demographic. According to a 2003 poll of 2,215 adults by Harris Interactive, 16% of all Americans have at least one tattoo and about one in 10 Americans over age 40 have tattoos.

Not all 40-plus tattoos are old military symbols. Men and women alike are visiting the tattoo parlor for the first time after age 40. This age group gets tattoos for as many different reasons as the college-aged crowd.

Those in the tattoo field say that people get tattoos for three main reasons. Tattoos often display an emotion. This can be honoring the dead, displaying religious affiliation or celebration of a milestone. Tattoos have evolved from black-ink art to elaborate artwork, which has led to tattoos becoming a fashion statement for some. The third group of people gets tattoos solely for the allure of permanent body art.

Trudy Lough, like the Walkers, got a tattoo for an emotional reason. Lough is 48 and her daughter is a sophomore at KU. She got her first tattoo, a grapevine on the back of her right forearm, just one year ago.

“I had wanted to get one since I turned 40,” Lough said. “So after I lost my job last year, I just decided one day to do it.”

While Lough may seem unusual getting her first tattoo in her 40’s, her situation is much more common than many people may realize.

“When I got my tattoo,” Lough said, “the artist said that their average customer is a divorced woman of 38 years old.”

In contrast to the sentiment of Lough and the Walkers, Cyndi Hurst liked ankle bracelets but thought they were too much of a hassle, so five years ago she decided to get one tattooed on. The ankle bracelet idea evolved into a rose on her calf with the names of her children. She later also had a toe ring tattooed on her left foot. Hurst was 46 when she got her first tattoo.

“I never really thought about it younger,” Hurst said. “I guess I was 45 and rebellious.”

Some people, however, wait their entire lives to decide exactly what to ink on their bodies forever. George Marakas got two tattoos around age 50. He always thought that tattoos were interesting, but could not think of anything he wanted. Marakas finally decided on a dolphin and a dive flag to symbolize being a master scuba instructor for 20 years. Marakas says that the ideas surrounding tattoos in American culture have changed during his lifetime.

“The social sigma of the tattoo has changed,” Marakas said.

According to Rachel Robinson, a KU graduate student studying Polynesian tattooing, “tattoos first and foremost concern identity formation.”

This identity formation is not limited to bikers and rebellious teenagers.

“So far as people over the age of 40,” Robinson said, “perhaps they have had some life-altering experience – divorce, new job change, etcetera – and tattoos serve as a temporal and permanent souvenir to mark that particular rite of passage into a new phase of life.”

According to the Harris poll, many people with tattoos identify as being sexier, more spiritual, more rebellious and more attractive because of their tattoos. Non-tattooed individuals polled generally only saw tattooed people as more rebellious than people without tattoos.

“The recent trend is that tattoos have shifted in our western culture to what was once a ‘stigmatization,’ only the most undesirable individuals receiving them – sailors, carnival entertainers and people in prison – to what is now much more common and tolerable, although this too is dependent upon things such as age, gender and nationality,” Robinson said. “Tattoos today are seen more as a trend of fashion.”

Like any demographic, not everyone over 40 likes tattoos. The Harris poll found that 17% of those surveyed with tattoos regret getting their tattoos. This is most often because of a name on the tattoo, but can also be due to fading, poor placement of the tattoo and bad decision-making.

Doug Hayes, 46, got a heart tattoo on his arm at age 19 when his friends talked him into it. He always regretted the decision and felt that it hurt him in the workplace. He decided to have it removed in 1998 when he was 38. Even though Hayes had one for nearly two decades, he despises tattoos.

“I don’t like them,” Hayes said. “I think they’re disgusting and I don’t know why anyone would want to do it.”

Tattoos moving into the mainstream allowed the Walker family to get tattoos in memory of Ryan without serious social criticism. Colleen and Ted had not thought of tattoos in the past.

“Our generation didn’t grow up getting tattoos,” Colleen said.

The one unchanging fact of tattoos is the permanence of the tattoos themselves. The Walker tattoos serve as a daily reminder of short Ryan’s life.

“When you go through the loss of a child,” Colleen said, “the hardest obstacle is to think that someday someone will forget.”

Considering a memorial tattoo? Learn more before you go to the tattoo parlor.

How does the whole tattoo process work? Check out this step-by-step guide.

Student activists are involved with fewer
angry protests these days, but not because
they don't care. David Linhardt explains
how student activism in the oil crisis has
evolved into a sharp, media-friendly affair.

KU Info returned last month, and KU Info’s fans can thank student activists for it. Justin La Mort, Cherryvale senior, trumpeted KU Info’s importance to students during its absence.

For students wondering how many trees are on KU’s Lawrence Campus, they can go to the new KU Info office in the Kansas Union. But until the middle of the spring semester, KU Info was a no-show. La Mort and other student activists helped restore the famous piece of KU’s student services. (There are about 17,000 trees on campus, by the way.)

Student activism today is a world away from the angry protests of the 1960s and 1970s, said Karl Brooks, assistant professor of history and environmental studies.

Brooks protested U.S. involvement in the Vietnam conflict during his years in high school, and by the time he reached college he turned to more conventional forms of politics.

Seeing how the media came to be gatekeepers in even local debate, Brooks saw that activism needed to evolve. For one demonstration, he dressed up as a salmon—sign in one hand, and fishing net in another—to demonstrate against actions Idaho’s governor was taking that Brooks felt would hurt Idaho’s salmon population.

The salmon suit had its desired effect: Brooks and his issue were the focus of photographers and TV news crews.

Students watch the "Oil Shockwave" panel demonstration at the PowerShift Conference in the Kansas Union. Panel participants simulated how a massive disruption in oil supply would threaten daily life in the U.S.
Photo by David Linhardt.

Brooks sees student activism today—especially KU student activism—as far more media-savvy than that of the past. More students angrily protested on college campuses during those years, but now they know how to grab TV and newspaper coverage.

“More students know what’s going on in the world, though fewer of them may understand the political process itself,” Brooks said.

La Mort agrees, and attributes his success to simply knowing how to handle the press.

“Using the media and controlling the terms of the argument are essential,” La Mort said. “Mobilization is fundamental to give incentive to legislators if they want to keep their jobs while at the same time providing them political capital as cover from the lobbyists.”

La Mort is president of KU’s ACLU chapter. He fought unsuccessfully last month for the Lawrence City Commission to alter a noise ordinance that local privacy activists found intrusive and unfair. La Mort joined with the Delta Force coalition from Student Senate and marched on City Hall on the eve of their consideration of the change.

Despite the commission’s refusal to make changes to the law, La Mort sees a chance for student activists to push for a change once more in about six months.

“It depends on what you count as success,” La Mort said. “Front page two days in a row on campus and [the Lawrence Journal-World] plus some press in the Washington Post and Drudge was a surprise.”

Ethan Nuss, Salina senior, helped organize the PowerShift energy security conference at the Kansas Union on April 29. The conference was sponsored by 20/20 Vision, a non-profit organization dedicated to reducing oil dependency.

Alongside Rep. Dennis Moore (D-Kansas) and Tom Collina, 20/20 Vision executive director, Nuss urged a Woodruff Auditorium audience of more than 240 to wean themselves from addiction to foreign oil.

Student activist Ethan Nuss explains how
students can impact today's high gas prices.

Nuss saw students’ lack of big lobbyist power as a benefit.

“The beautiful thing, the advantage we have as students, is that we don’t have the money,” Nuss said. “The biggest resources we have are passion and people. If we can organize around that passion, then we can mobilize for change.”

Nuss wants to continue his work with 20/20 Vision next year by taking the fight to reduce oil consumption to Topeka. Like the grassroots organization that pushed the Kansas Legislature to pass the constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, the movement to reduce foreign oil dependence could have similar staying power as gas prices stay near $3 a gallon.

Student activists today aren’t very similar to those of the past. Gone are angry and potentially violent demonstrations. Instead, students use media-friendly, camera-ready events and careful soundbites to maneuver an issue they feel passionately about.

“As with most things, realizing there is a problem is the first step to fixing it,” La Mort said. “The change I’ve seen is that people are talking and repeating the points we’ve been hammering.”

For more information:

Resources and guides for student activists
A brief history of student activism around the world
KU ACLU's key issues for student activism

Three Saudi men sit in the back of an alcove on the fourth floor of the Kansas Union speaking Arabic and pass around a laptop computer with an Arabic music video flashing across the screen.

A few minutes later, Sonja Combest, Baldwin City sophomore, walks into the alcove and surveys the group already sitting on couches and around small tables. Some of the students stand up and shuffle seats to make room for her.

Combest greets the men in Arabic, and the conversation begins.

The three students are among 96 Arabic students at the University of Kansas this semester. All international students who study at the Applied English Center at the University of Kansas can practice their English by meeting with other KU students in organized conversation groups. But this semester, the number of Arabic-speaking students has increased, so one lecturer at the Applied English Center organized conversation partner exchanges for these students.

Middle Eastern Student Population at the Applied English Center

The number of students studying at KU from Middle Eastern countries has increased over the past years. See the statistics by clicking on the graphic.

Judy Bonifield, a lecturer for the Applied English Center, started the new groups this semester for Arabic-speaking students who begin English classes at the Applied English Center, and for students studying Arabic. The groups meet at five times throughout the week on a volunteer basis, but students can attend as many or as little of the one-hour exchanges as they wish.

“My hope was to offer a time for language and cultural exchange,” Bonifield said.

Combest got involved after learning about the new groups in her Arabic 220 class. It was only the fourth semester she had studied Arabic, so she was a little hesitant of taking on such a responsibility.

Mohammad Al Hadab, second from left, with friends and family before leaving Saudi Arabia to study at the University of Kansas. Photo courtesy of Al Hadab.

There are typically five or more Saudi students at the discussions, but the conversation starts slowly, switching between English and Arabic.

“I have realized it's better to jump right in and not be afraid of making mistakes. Otherwise, everyone just sits around and stares at each other -- it's very boring and no one learns anything about Arabic, English, or otherwise,” Combest said.

The students in Combest’s groups are from Saudi Arabia, have only been studying at the University for four months. The students talk about their families and share photos of their relatives taken on their last day in Saudi Arabia. They also laugh about popular music idols from the Middle East and find pictures of their soccer-playing idols as Combest and the other American students retrieve their homework and books from their backpack to seek help on their Arabic homework.

According to Chuck Seibel, director of the Applied English Center, the number of students from Arabic-speaking countries increased slightly in the fall after several semesters of decline, but this semester the number of Arabic-speaking students studying at the Applied English Center rose from 18 to 96 students.

Most of the Saudi students enrolled in the Applied English Center have been granted scholarships from the Saudi Arabian government or private companies. The scholarships allow them to earn their bachelor’s and master’s degrees at an American university, and then return to Saudi Arabia to work. The increase in scholarships granted in the foreign countries has lead to the increase in the students studying at KU.

“My country needs engineers, computer and electrical,” said Mohammad Al Hadab, Saudi Arabia freshman.

Applied English Center Student Population by Country

Students studying at the Applied English Center represent many countries. See the most represented countries by clicking on the graphic.

Matt Alsalmy, Saudi Arabia business law student, sat on a sofa with a computer on his lap and laughed at the discussions happening around him. Combest explained that he brings the computer to help him translate pieces of the discussion so he can understand the conversation better.

“I think I've gained a lot of patience and a lot of humility being involved. I've learned how to take the time to slow down and make the effort to be understood, or to understand someone else,” she said.

The conversation continues around the alcove as the American students finish their homework and everyone talks about their days.

Muhammud Alshahab, another Saudi Arabia freshman, said he likes to exercise at the Student Recreation Center, cook, which he admits he does not do well, and play PlayStation in his apartment.

Combest reminded Alshahab to pronounce his summer plans carefully; he hopes to enjoy Florida’s beaches over break.

The hardest part about the conversation exchange groups for Combest is balancing this additional activity with her other studies.

“I know a lot of people have counted discussion groups out, because they think there's no time for them. I'm so glad I didn't allow myself to make that excuse, because this is a great opportunity to become comfortable speaking Arabic and getting to know people from another culture,” she said.

Map of Saudi Arabia

Many students studying at the Applied English Center are from this Middle Eastern country. Click to enlarge. Image by: Jennifer Denny

For Al Hadab, the hardest part about adjusting to KU buying clothes.

“The weather changes all the time!” he said.

It seems he is adjusting to the frustration of being a KU student just fine.

The quiet conversation is interrupted by a reel of laughter from Alsalmy, who found a picture of Homer Simpson on his computer.

Combest laughed and said, “They love to try and teach me dirty words, but I think it's in good spirits, hopefully. They'll say ‘When your professor asks for the homework, tell her this. She will like it very much.’”

Useful links:

Applied English Center

Facts about Saudi Arabia

Arabic Studies at KU

Conversation Group information

Collectors, shop owners, card show hosts and vendors all agree that the hobby of sports card collecting is on the decline. People are busy with other activities such as video games and television, they say, and companies now print so many cards that people aren’t especially attracted to the hobby any more. Some collectors also say the focus of the hobby has turned from collecting for the love of it to doing it for money.

Brian Hoffman, owner of Sports Dome, said when he collected in the 1980s there simply wasn’t as much to do as there is now. It’s not that Hoffman has not tried to pique kids’ interests. About six months ago he started running an ad in local youth magazines with a coupon for a free pack of cards. All kids had to do to receive their pack was bring in a picture of themselves wearing a sports uniform. Hoffman would then choose a “Sports Dome MVP of the Month” from the entries and sponsor them by running the picture in the Lawrence Journal-World. So far, only one has brought in the coupon.

"I think we’ve finally lost out of the Gameboys and Nintendos of the world,” he said. The Internet has also played into the Sports Dome’s decreased foot traffic, Hoffman said.

This Honus Wagner tobacco card is one of the most valuable cards in the world. It went for over $1 million in a 2000 Ebay auction. Photo courtesy of www.wikipedia.com

“Ebay has killed my card industry. Just killed it,” he said.

But for others in the industry, the Internet has opened the door.

Mandy Fuerst, vice president of events and marketing of Tristar Productions, which puts on several sports card and collectible shows across the country, says that the Internet has amplified their business.

“It’s augmented what we do. It’s an advantage for collectors and different exhibitors across the country outside the locally hobby stores,” Fuerst said. She added that the Internet also makes collectors more knowledgeable and price savvy.

But the fact that people dwell on prices in the first place may be hurting the hobby as well.

“They don’t digest all the information on the card anymore, and it’s sad,” said one collector who frequents Sports Dome, but doesn’t want to be named. He said he has collected for 50 years, and added that the card industry is now too prolific to attract interest like it used to.

“They’re produced in such mass quantities. Cards from when I was growing, you can’t get any more of those. I was paying a penny a card,” he said.

Mike Williamson, owner of Bryan’s Collectibles in Raymore, Mo, has been a collector since the 1940s. He agreed that the mass quantities of cards have hurt the hobby.

Card making companies, like Upper Deck, have tried adding pieces of players jerseys or thier autographs to cards to lure collectors. This card features both. Photo courtesy of Brent Schultz (click to enlarge)

“Collectors only want things that are hard to find. That’s the reason they collect them in the first place,” Williamson said. “If you make a million of something then people aren’t going to want it.” Williamson sells at various expositions across the nation, including Tristar’s. He said that collectors had a big interest in the mid-1980s through the early 90s, but by 1992 large retail stores like Sears took an interest. To compensate for this, card companies started printing more cards. That chased off collectors, Williamson said.

The Major League Baseball Player’s Association has stepped in within the past year to try to solve the problem by limiting the number of products a manufacturer can produce. One stipulation was that companies were not allowed to make rookie cards of players who were not on a team’s 25-man roster or hadn’t played a game with the team the season before. On April 20, The Wichita Eagle reported that the Topps company had accidentally produced and distributed about 100 cards of Royals third baseman Alex Gordon, a player who did not meet those requirements. During the next week, Gordon’s cards were going for up to $3500 on Ebay.

Fuerst attributes the focus of value over the love of collecting to Beckett magazine, and to Professional Sports Authenticator. Beckett is the standard price guide for the card industry, with pricing for basketball, baseball, football, hockey and auto racing. Professional Sports Authenticator is a grading system that gives cards a rating of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest. It takes in to account factors such as sharpness of the card’s corners, how it is centered and glossiness. The difference between a card being rated nine and a card rated 10 can mean hundreds of dollars.

Brent Schultz, Lawrence sophomore, regularly buys and sells cards on Ebay. He says he does it for the pleasure and the money.

“For me, it’s a fun way to make money doing something that I’m interested in,” Schultz said.

He has collected since the second grade and uses the hobby as a way to help pay for rent. Two years ago when he was short on cash, Schultz decided to take his chances at obtaining an extremely rare Lebron James rookie card which only 23 were made. He bought a dozen boxes on Ebay that potentially contained the card at $9 per box. He found one of the cards and sold it online for $340: A profit of $232.

Hoffman used to have customers come to his shop just to talk about sports.

“That’s what I miss. At the height of it I’d have 40 guys see me every two weeks. I’d spend 15 minutes with each guy just talking sports.”

In September 2005, Sports Dome moved a block from 9th and Massachusetts to their now-larger location. Because of the decrease in card sales, Hoffman now specializes in more clothing, hats and collectibles such as sports clocks and pennants, and needed a bigger space to house all of it. Though the shop has traveled across Lawrence four times since Hoffman opened in 1992, and his card business has declined, one thing will stay the same. The wall of cards in the back will be there.

With its focus on the subconscious and other, inner, causes of problems, psychotherapy is firmly planted in the social sciences. But an alternative, Christian psychotherapy, allows therapists and clients to blend secular science and religion into therapy.

Christian psychotherapy, part of a growing Christian-based therapy trend, allows therapists and clients to incorporate religion and faith into the therapy.

“I think that we have to be respectful of where the client is and what the client wants,” said Annette Norris, a therapist with Shane M. Jones & Associates in Topeka. The practice also has an office in Lawrence.

There are at least two other Christian psychotherapy practices in Lawrence: Christian Psychological Services and Jennifer Groene.

Norris estimates that 80 to 90 percent of her clients want their religion or faith to be a part of their therapy. Those who do not want religion incorporated into their therapy usually come to Norris on the recommendation of friends or an insurance company, Norris said.

She could not cite the exact number of patients she serves because of the varying lengths of time between visits. But she said her colleagues and her are consistently busy. The rising popularity of Christian-based therapy is illustrated by the growth of the American Association of Christian Counselors, an arch-organization of Christian-based therapists.

The organization began in the late 1980s with about 700 members, said George Ohlschlager, a spokesman for the AACC. Today, membership totals about 50,000.

“I think many Christians are seeking and demanding Christian counseling,” Ohlschlager said. “Similar values makes for a better counseling outcome.”

Depending on her client's needs, Norris said she might interpret Scripture or pray with a client. Mostly, though, the Bible is used to interpret a client's problems.

Mary Louise Fry, who operates a Christian-based therapy practice in Olathe, said she might analyze biblical lessons of forgiveness or tolerance with a client. While other forms of therapy might offer recommendations that conflict with a client's belief system, Fry said Christian psychotherapists can draw on the Bible and religious tenets to offer advice that does not conflict with the client's world view.

“In my situation I would not necessarily use Scripture in my practice,” said Fry, who counsels Christians as well as Muslims, Jews, and atheists. “But if that is something that would help them, then we will utilize that.”

Norris agreed that she might not incorporate religion into therapy. But Christian psychotherapy allows her to focus on the moral aspect of a problem. Other forms of psychotherapy ignore the moral aspect and focus entirely on the inner causes of problems she said.

Norris said the Bible provides therapists with”the baseline, the litmus test” for talking about specific problems and their causes, forgiveness and morality.

She compares the work of Christian psychotherapists to the counseling offered by a priest or pastor, but she said Christian therapists are trained counselors who can offer impartial advice. Norris received a Master of Social Work from the University of Kansas.

“The one advantage that we find we have is that some people go to their pastor but feel uncomfortable talking about their issues,” Norris said. “We provide a neutral third party.”

All of the therapists at Shane M. Jones & Associates are Protestant – a mere coincidence according to Norris.

Norris said some religious leaders are more comfortable than others in providing counseling. Regardless of their comfort level, religious leaders are often busy with the daily duties of running a church. They often don't have the time or specialization to offer professional counseling or prescribe medication. That is where Christian psychotherapists come in.

Shane M. Jones & Associates, like many of the Christian practices in the Lawrence and Kansas City area, is a non-denominational organization with close ties to area churches. Most of Shane M. Jones & Associates' clients are referrals from local priests or pastors, Norris said.

Pieter Willems, senior pastor at Mustard Seed Christian Fellowship in Lawrence, views Christian psychotherapy practices as “para-church organizations” that complement church-provided counseling.

Willems, who has a master's of counseling degree from the University of Kansas, said he feels comfortable counseling members of his church. However, if an individual comes to him with a specific problem that he is unable to handle, Willems said he often refers them to one of the Christian therapy practices in Lawrence.

Although Christian psychotherapy has ties with churches in the community, Willem said some members of the church see a contradiction in the term “Christian psychotherapy.”

“People in the church would shy away from that label,” Willem said. “Psychotherapy has a strong humanistic aspect to it. That doesn't fit real well with Christian view points.” He added that humanism places man at the center of human existence, whereas Christianity places God at the center.

Norris said the debate extends into the Christian psychotherapy practice itself.

Norris: Sample Bible Verses

(click to enlarge)

“There is a debate in the field whether you are a psychotherapist that happens to be a Christian, or are you a Christian who does psychotherapy,” Norris said. “From the evangelical community I've heard words like 'sold-out.'”

Norris doesn't think the two terms are mutually exclusive.

"You don't have to set aside your Christianity to be a psychotherapist. Likewise, you don't have to set aside your rational, reasonable mind to be a Christian," Norris said. "It all works together."