Recently in Jonathan Hermes Category

Same sex couples in the Midwest now have the option of marriage following an April 3 Iowa Supreme Court ruling. Gay rights activists are rejoicing over Iowa's unanimous vote to lift the gay marriage ban.

Some same sex couples are now faced with the problem of choosing whether to get married or not.

"I think that couples are dealing, for the first time, with the option of marriage," says Dr. Wes Crenshaw, Psychologist and director of Family Therapy Institute Midwest. "I think it has become a much more immediate issue now that Iowa has lifted the gay marriage ban. Couples are now having to face the issue head on."

            Lawrence same sex couples are now facing the marriage issue, which could lead to problems among some couples.

            "The good thing about Iowa is that people outside of the state can go and get married, which has sort of changed the dynamic of a bunch of relationships," says Ryan Campbell, Overland Park, senior, and outgoing executive director of Queers and Allies, an on campus gay rights organization. "They have never had that option before. People are playfully suggesting it as a way of coping with it in the beginning."

            Dr. Crenshaw says the problems that could arise with gay marriage are gay divorces, custody battles, if they have adopted or are a surrogate, dividing possessions, and other things that straight couples have dealt with for a long time.

            "This is a pressing issue among couples who are now having to face the facts about marriage," says Dr. Crenshaw. "Because it is such a new phenomenon, I am seeing two couples presently who are dealing with this and I can think of at least two more off the top of my head."

            Partners who have been together for a while may have differing views on marriage. One partner may want to get married while the other doesn't. Dr. Crenshaw says it opens up a compatibility issue. The differing viewpoints that were always there are now coming to the front because of the lift on the gay marriage ban in Iowa.

            "I wouldn't want to get married in Iowa even if my partner did," says Matt Hirschfeld, Augusta, Kan., senior, who has been with his boyfriend for 11 months. "I want more of a traditional experience. I want to have a wedding and make plans. If it's not valid in Kansas than it's not worth it."

            In the United States, each state has to recognize another states ruling. If a same sex couple were to marry in Iowa, Kansas would have to recognize that marriage. Kansas, however, is far from becoming the next state to accept gay marriage into its foundation.

            "I don't think Kansas will open up any time soon," says Campbell. "But then again, Iowa was a surprise. I never expected the Midwest to have one of the first gay marriage states."

            Justin Buyous, Overland Park, junior, who is openly gay, says Lawrence is not the worst place to live and be gay.

            "As a freshman, I was very open and I wanted a place that would be accepting of what I am," says Buyous. "Lawrence has provided that for me."

            For many openly gay people, that is not enough. Campbell says Queers and Allies is trying to show people that being gay is no different than being straight. They recently held a Kiss-In in front of Strong Hall where both gay and straight couples showed public displays of affection.

            "I received a lot of negative feedback for the Kiss-In," says Campbell. "That just shows me that there is still a lot of work to do."

            Campbell is hopeful though. He says, "once more states lift the gay marriage ban, I think we will start to see more couples open to the idea of marriage."

            Since Iowa lifted its gay marriage ban, other states, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, have passed bills to lift their gay marriage bans. These states will join Iowa, Connecticut, and Massachusetts by allowing gay marriage. It is unclear whether or not the citizens of these states will accept the decisions made by their State. They will be able to vote for or against the bills in their next election. Until then, Lawrence same sex couples have the option to drive three and a half hours to Des Moines, Iowa to apply for a marriage license.

            "Iowa gave me hope," says Hirschfeld. "We're taking baby steps through all of this."

          Dave Clark walked into a brightly lit, off-white colored room. He was happy to escape the Houston heat outside, but inside felt uncomfortably warm. So this is it, he thought. It was his first day on the job at Johnson Space Center, home to NASA.

            "They sat me down in my own cubicle to take a background test," said Clark, a 2008 University of Kansas graduate. "There was a guy walking around the room looking over people's shoulders. I guess he was making sure we don't cheat on our own background. I was worried that they knew more about my life than I did."

            If that weren't stressful enough, Clark found out the man who hired him had been replaced and the only other KU student offered a job with NASA was fired before she even began. In Clark's own words: "it was a strange day."

            Clark, a graduate from the school of engineering, said he was looking for a job back in his home state of Texas. He attended an engineering job fair where he met a representative from NASA. The representative expressed an interest in Clark after talking with him for a half an hour.

            "He wasn't sure if he could get the job but we encouraged him to apply anyway," said his mother, Sharon Clark. "We told him it couldn't hurt. The worst thing they could do was say no. After that, everything just fell into place."

         Clark, taking his family's advice, applied for an engineering position and flew down to Houston for an interview. The first interview turned into a second, and the second interview turned into a third.

            "When he told me about NASA, I thought, 'Sure, big deal, you're totally not going to get it,'" said his sister, Kathryn Clark, Southlake, Tex., junior. "I was supportive enough to say, 'Okay, go for it.' My initial reaction changed after he had three interviews. Each time he got a step closer. They kept flying him down to Houston and I thought, 'Oh man, this is kind of serious.'"

            All of the interviews paid off. Clark graduated in May 2008 with a job offer at NASA. His family was shocked. It wasn't that they thought he couldn't do it; job prospects seemed unlikely for graduates because of the economic downturn. He moved to Houston and started work July 11, nearly a month after graduation.

            "I was a little worried," said Clark. "I came from KU, where most of my friends are, to Houston, a city I have never had much experience in. I wondered if I was going to be able to make friends. Everything happened so fast. This was all new for me."

            Joining NASA seemed like a long way to come for a guy who created Pirate Tuesdays as an excuse "to dress like Pirates and drink like Pirates." Clark's friend and fellow pirate, Andy Ippel, Overland Park, Kan., senior, said he was surprised by the NASA job offer, only because he thought Clark would stay at KU for graduate school. Ippel said Clark's choice made sense.

            "I worked as a mechanic and he would join me in fixing things up," said Ippel, who's known Clark for three years. "We loved working on his scooter and I would explain things to him. He doesn't just push numbers, move a pen the right way, and talk like a robot. You need someone who has actual understanding of these things and can talk to people. That's one of Dave's skills, his ability to talk to people and work with people."

            The abilities that Ippel described helped Clark save NASA $45,000 in repairs and earned him a raise in his first year on the job. "I think they've realized he's an important asset to the program," said Mrs. Clark, gushing with pride.

Eileen Hawley, former director of external relations at NASA, who works for KU now, said that adjusting to life at NASA wouldn't be too hard for incoming college graduates.

"Despite the long hours, Johnson Space Center is like a giant college campus," said Hawley. "There is a rumor that the government bought the land from Rice University in 1963 and set it up like a college campus in case the space program fell through."

            Hawley said Clark's job is important. Clark, an operations and maintenance engineer, has to keep every piece of equipment up and running or else it could be detrimental to the entire program.

            In Clark's short time at NASA, he has already witnessed a space shuttle flight and a hurricane. Last September, fear of Hurricane Ike forced Houston to evacuate. Clark drove home to Dallas where he traded in his camaro for a truck. He disguised himself as part of a work convoy led by police into Houston to clean up after the hurricane. He earned the Hurricane Ike Clean-up Award from NASA, thanking him for his help. There was significant water damage to machinery. Clark's team worked day and night to have everything up and running by the next week. Clark says it was quite an accomplishment. He still can't believe they were able to pull it off in that short amount of time.

            Clark, who has settled into Houston life, said it is starting to feel like home. He made friends in his apartment complex by sitting out by the pool with a cooler full of beer. He still drinks with the same people he met on his second day in Houston. He said he couldn't go too crazy because he is on-call 24-hours-a-day, seven days a week. When asked if that meant no more pirate Tuesdays, he laughed.

            "I definitely have responsibilities now that I would never have dreamed of in school," said Clark, on a telephone call from Houston. "I love this job. I don't mind the hours. It feels like I am stepping into history. It's satisfying in ways I never imagined."

Dave Clark, right, takes his mother, Sharon Clark, on a tour of Johnson Space Center. Clark, a former KU student, moved to Houston last summer to work for NASA.

People lined up early Thursday morning to load their trucks with compost. Lawrence Wood Recovery and Composting Facility opened its gates to the public at 8 a.m. People either chose to have compost dropped into the beds of their trucks for $10 or they shoveled it themselves for free.

            Pat Kehee is one of the early birds braving the cold weather to pick up compost for her gardens.

            "We decided to come out early this year because last year, by the time we left, there was a line around the corner," says Kehee. "Today is so cold it probably won't get as busy. It will sell out by the third day though."

            Lawrence has been giving away free compost as early as 2001. Carl Herd, senior maintenance worker for the city of Lawrence, says that the compost sale has nearly tripled in size since they first started giving away compost eight years ago.

            The Lawrence Solid Waste Department picks up yard waste, a mixture of grass, leaves and small brush, every Monday starting in March and continuing through December. The organic waste is then transported to the Lawrence Wood Recovery and Composting Facility where it is mixed and grinded and then set aside and periodically mixed to help speed up the decomposition process. The compost has to be checked for problems before

it can be given away or sold.

"We send the compost to a lab in to have it inspected before we sell it to the public," says Cassandra Ford, waste reduction and recycling specialist for the city of Lawrence.  "We test for herbicides and pesticides. We also have salinity tests, ph tests and maturity tests, which test for ammonia and CO2. This tells us how finished the compost is."

            Ford says that if the compost comes back positive for chemicals, as it did in 2005 when Colpyralid, a powerful herbicide that was taken off the market for killing people's yards, was found in the compost. The sale had to be canceled and the compost had to sit another year before it was safe enough to give away to the public.

Bob Yoos, solid waste manager for Lawrence, says that the sale benefits the city of Lawrence Solid Waste Division because it reduces the cost of taking curbside pickup waste to a landfill.

"We save around $120,000 to $140,000," says Yoos. "It varies from year to year depending on the amount of rainfall. We have saved up to $240,000 during a good year. People tend to cut their grass more during wet years resulting in more compost and more money being saved."

Compost is sold twice a year, during spring and fall, along with mulch, which is sold through Lawrence Parks and Recreation. Ford says that spring numbers are twice as high for picking up compost because summer is on the horizon. Lawrence Wood Recovery and Compost facility prepares more for the spring but it all depends on what is ready. Last spring there were close to 1700 vehicles over the course of three days to pick up compost, which sold out before the end of the third day.

Pat Kehee, now finished shoveling compost into buckets, is loading all of her tools into her trunk. She is ready to take the compost home to her gardens.

"Lots of bulbs are coming up," she says. "I will put this on top of the gardens, not to bury the bulbs or anything, just to scatter it. It's fabulous because it is perfect compost and you can't ask for better. It's free too. Who knows how much longer this is going to last."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbVi8MCNAV8