The Wichita Eagle from Wichita, Kansas • 11

SUNDAY APRIL 29 20071 THE WICHITA EAGLE 11A WWWXANSASCOMNEWS turn colleges Into the Wild West Armed citizen have stopped might spree I cannot help but think that things could have been different at Virginia Tech As a Tech student and a concealed-handgun nnfl permit holder I have request- HnM ed that die university allow 1 llv me and those who wish to be responsible for their own safety die ability to cany a legally licensed firearm as a means of self-defense The last thing America needs is to be increasing the number of guns in die hands of civilians bad enough that die civilized world is condemning America's pathetic gun culture in the wake of the massacre of students and professors at Virginia Tech by a crazed gunman who was able to buy a Gkxk 19 machine pistol and a WaftherP22even though be had a docu-mental history of mental illnPM- Some people are now suggesting that America needs more guns in die hands of civilians not fewer The suggestion a pure madness The National Rifle Will we be to help Darfur? ly Rap Jany Moraa cannot visit Darfur and not be changed by teeing the results of Fellow Kansan Dwight a government that allows vio- Eisenhower served our country fence hunger disease and dis- during a time when human dig- location to be used as weapons nity and human life needed defending After visiting a concentration camp at the end of World Warn he said things I saw beggar description The visual evidence and die verbal testimony of starvation cruelty and bestiality were so overpowering" Earlier this month we marked "Days of Remembrance" a time designated by Congress to com- memcate the victims of die Holocaust I visited Will mbs the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in imOlig Washington DC to thOS8 Wtlll see the collection of foal cham images and read the stories of death and WT UlSClHin dehumanization diat OT pride for hear Resident Bush fOT JUSuC8 speak about how die hDarfll? Jews suffered and about the importance of addressing genocide and death today in Darfur Sudan As co-chairman of the House Hunger Caucus I recently used as weapons against its own people It was an opportunity to see that we all have a cause to make sure that life prevails and Justice endures It is something that demands our attention We as a country and we as a world must come together to bring death and destruction inhumanity hunger and violence to an end At the Holocaust museum I saw the re from Isaiah 43: 10 says are my Today we are witnessing a new genocide As I reflect on die past and consider the future of Africans in Darfur I have to ado Are we going to wait until the proportions of death are similar to the Holocaust before we take action? The exhibit that moved me die most was the list of 10000 individuals who took action during the Holocaust They have been identified by die Israelis as "the Righteous Among the those who risked their lives to save innocent Jews during Nazi rule When the conflict in Darfur has ended everyone will fed sorrow for die unnecessary loss of hfe But will we as individuals and as a nation be among those who feel shame for inaction or pride for standing up for justice in Darfur? Today we must rise up to be new righteous force so that our children and grandchildren remember us not as a generation that turned away but as one that banded together to bring an end to the senseless pain and suffering inflicted upon the people of Darfur Jany Moran Is a Rapufalcan mambar of Congress from Hays without fear of expulsion or termination hum employment Tne associate vice president for university relations LanyHincker responded to my plea writing that belong in classrooms They never will Virginia Tech has a very sound policy preventing same ft is striking how this policy forces us as students faculty and staff to believe that an individual who is bent on causing irreparable harm will not do so because it is against universitypolicy This is what gun prohibitions do Tney provide areas where only those who have total disregard for die laws or policies in place are armed If any one of die students or faculty in Norris HaU had been able to defend him- or herself with a gun things could have been different Who knows now many of die lives could have been saved But wouldn't just one have been enough? A murderer does not care if having a gun is against the law The killer at Virginia Tech broke university policy and state law by carrying his guns concealed on campus Did die policy do anything to prevent those guns from being used in a classroom? we all see how ridiculous that is? This policy asks Virginia Tedi students faculty and staff to choose between their education and their lives Is that a choice we should be forced to make? jomplain that there will be bio the classrooms if students are armed There were no students or faculty aimed for their own defense and yet the feet remains that there was blood in die classrooms Had people been able to defend themsehes there could have been much less BmMoid Whs Is a graduate research assistant at Virginia Tech Association and its deep-pocketed financiers and gun-toting supporters must be checked in their zeal to arm licensed" civilians The ease with which unstable people can obtain guns and concealed-weapons permits is qipaUing Proposals to turn die groves of academe into potential hunting preserves should be rejected posthaste The answer to tragedies like Virginia Tedi the NASA Johnson Space Center snooting that Mowed a few days later Columbine the Pennsylvania Amish school and other acts of madness is for America to join the rest of die dvfiized world and prohibit die sale of semiautomatic weapons and hollow point ammunition designed for kills" While at it tighten die laws on who can own guns and cany diem concealed and prohibit gun show pawnshop and mail-order loopholes that allow premeditated mass murderers to obtain deadly weapons and ammunition The black day at Blacksburg should convince all rational Americans that if time to break the political backs of the NRA and its Republican and Democratic party supporters Our nation will be stronger and more civilized with meaningful gun controls Wayne Madam Is a contributing writer for Oiine Journal To cal Opinion Line dal 31 6-268-6300 Youl have up to 30 seconds to speak your mind You can also e-mal comments 50 words or fewer to opinewichitaeaglejCom Why would anyone want to be our next president? Just look at all the problems waiting to be solved that King George Bush has created What a concept saving the Earth from overheating by restricting the number of toilet-paper squares -Please adopt an orange cone Help grt them off the streets A Maize church administrator said that when it was purchased the land was but farmland" Last time I checked farmland grew all the substances that we eat from the earth Without food and water we have no life If guns kill people then pencils misspell words cars make people drive drunk and spoons made Rosie fat Blaming die end of Medicare and Social Security benefits on die expected influx of the baby boomen is a cop-out The blame rests squarely cm the shoulders of Congress and the attitudes of its members Do meteorologists take a minor in theatrics? Just give the weather and stop being so dramatic please Someone said a misspelled sign must have been made in China Everyone knows kids in China are smarter than US kids That comment had to come from one of the scholars of the Kansas school system Just because you were there at conception should not rive you visitation rights to a child Maybe the police will stop crying now that they have their raise You get into police work to get rich We may finally get something in Wichita to bring people here and all I hear is com-plaining If you like casinos go that simple If you like the food in jail then be a criminaL Kansas is not a Wild West conservative Republican state Nor did we elect a gun-hating liberal Democrat as governor We are Kansans who elected a well-respected leader GET AN EARFUL OF OPINION LINE To feten to actual cafe goto Kansasdcomopinoa Online extra To read additional Opinion Line cafe go to KansasjcomopWon BY GARRY TRUDEAU CNCSK AW nonces KWH-TOACmtST rmAKtvms smciigot UBKSRXK ON MV cm FHOW mwuarr MHVp ENTERPRISE wd freer Cf WoNWlO MAW RED? in a visit to Darfur While there we met with government officials and relief workers and saw the conditions that human bangs ate living in today Since the beginning of this conflict in February 2003 450000 people have been lolled and more than 2 million citizens have been displaced from their homes and villages Thousands of people are without food and water and are dependent on relief organizations for survival This trip made me aware of a level of human suffering that no meeting no television news story and no book could One Summit this test US ant to know whether the White House has any real strategy to stabilize Iraq? Then pay attention to what happens or doesn't happen at a crucial meeting Thursday and Friday in the Egyptian resort of Shann d-Sheik 'jte ti Vrl event is a regional conference of leaders ST1 TRUDY SSL attended by Secretary of State Gonddeezza Rice and maybe by Iranian Foreign Minister Manoudiehr MottakL Hie reason the meeting is so important: The American troop surge is only a tactic which work unless it fits into a broader regional strategy Such a strategy would require determined US diplomacy to convince neighbors to help stabilize die country rather than arm its militias It would also require a frank US dialogue with Tehran no sign yet of White House willingness to put full support behind the broad regional strategy needed President Bush rebuffed the call by the bipartisan Baker-Hamflton Study Group report for just such "a robust diploinat-fc So I asked one of die State most talented diplomats Undersecretary of State Nicholas Bums point man on Iran whether die Sharm conference was just for show He insisted it crossed some bridges to decide to have this conference (whose first lower-level meeting took place in Baghdad on March 10) WeVe now agreed to sit down with die Syrians mid Iranians at die table We actually would like to see if this conference could be helpful to stabilizing So what is the goal? "Our No Tissue will a not about rounding up the usual suspects Ifs about the unusual suspects? Suzie Ahlsband of Viaioneering Wichita speaking to Topekana launching a community visioning effort There was no place in the wedding ceremony that we had to support the same person for president" Former Sea Howard Baker telng a Lawrence audfence that he supports Fred Thompeon for president whie hie wile former Sea Nancy LandonKassebaum supports John McCain live off the land more than most candidates can given that a grassroots candidate" Sen Sam Brownback on his back-ofthe-pack fundraising totals in the 2008 presidential race WKPKKH6 cfiNtnamf mLua NOT UHU0U90KXU0N6 week will be reducing the flow of fighters across the border of the neighbors into Bums said UJ officials also want to discuss how the neighbors could give Iraq more economic political ana humanitarian support Gould the goals of die conference be broadened? Neither Sunni Arab states such as Saudi Arabia nor Shiite Iran want Iraq to collapse lest that draw diem into a sectarian proxy war over Iraq's corpse Gould not an regional conference work to set up new security rules for die region requiring Iran not to meddle in Lebanon or Gulf states and Sunni Arab states to stop aiding Sunni insurgents? thinking hard now about what our realistic ambitions should he said That depends a lot on degree of seriousness or not that the Iranians give to this" and whether Iran sends a interlocutor" to Sharm Washington deplores suspect nuclear program and aid to terrorist groups and Tehran suspects America wants to use Iraq as a base to unseat its regime So Iran helps radical Shiite militias to Meed US troops Once the Sharm talks start "We wouldn't exdude bilatoal contacts (with Iranians) as a Bums said thaft not the focus of what we are US policy toward Iran is focused on containing pushing back Iranian attempts to expand its power base in the Middle East because we think going to be against our interests and most of the countries involved" he said Containment of Iran may be necessary on certain issues including the nuclear question but cooperation with Iran is essential to save Iraq Without a broad diplomatic strmegy for the region the surge is headed nowhere Without a coherent White House vision behind iL the Sharm meeting achieve what Iraq needs Tmdy Rubin Is a columnist for Iha PhRadefoNa Inquirer DOONE5BURY mintm tmnnt ammi OHTUHAPS nnzmzr.