Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 27, 1999)
EDITOR Josh Funk OPINION EDITOR Mark Baldridge EDITORIAL BOARD Lindsay Young Jessica Fargen Samuel McKewon Cliff Hicks Our VIEW AIDS in Africa Deaths won’t stop without education Africa, we need to talk. You have a prob lem, and your silence will be your own down fall. Denial is only going to make things worse, believe us. You’ve got an AIDS problem. A bad one. Looking the other way isn’t going to make things any easier on you. In fact, the problem will only get worse. It won’t just suddenly go away. Over the last 15 years, you’ve lost nearly 11 million people to AIDS. In some of your countries, as many as one in four people are infected. You, as a continent, are racking up four-fifths of our world’s AIDS deaths. It’s time to admit you have a problem. Benny Mwiinga, housing minister of Zambia, died a few weeks ago, and though it was widely speculated that he died of an AIDS-related illness, mum’s the word. Official denial has been the overriding response xo AIDS on your continent. AIDS is a disease that thrives on carelessness. We here in the United States know that AIDS can be spread through unprotected sex and shared drug needles. We’ve been inundated with it for years now. Avoiding AIDS is rela tively simple, once you know how. But your people don’t know how, Africa. They don’t even really know AIDS exists. People are dying in droves, and 44 Over the last 15 years, you ve lost nearly 11 million people to AIDS. In some of your countries, as many as one in four people are infected. You, as a continent, are racking up four-fifths of our world s AIDS deaths. nicy uun i know why. They don’t know that they can help themselves stay alive. You need to educate them to the risks and to practices that can stem the fatal tide. You need to own up to your problem and help your people. Maybe you need someone else to help - an intervention of sorts. We think it might be a good idea if you talked to the World Health Organization for help. If you won’t go to them to ask for help, maybe they should come to you. Every minute you hesitate is another minute for the disease to spread, not only with in your own continent, but abroad. Every day you wait is another day hun dreds of people die of AIDS-related illnesses. Every year is another year of death. Come clean, Africa. Don’t ignore your problem. Fight it. It won’t go away. Ever. Editorial Policy Unsigned editorials are the opinions of the Fall 1999 Daily Nebraskan. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, its employees, its student body or the University of Nebraska Board of Regents. A column is solely the opinion of its author. The Board of Regents serves as publisher of the Daily Nebraskan; policy is set by the Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board. The UNL Publications Board, established by the regents, supervises the production of the paper. According to policy set by the regents, responsibility for the editorial content of the newspaper lies solely in the hands of its student employees. » letter Policy The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief letters to the editor and guest columns, but does not guarantee their publication. The Daily Nebraskan retains the right to edit or reject any material submitted. Submitted material becomes property of the Daily Nebraskan and cannot be returned. Anonymous submissions will not be published. Those who submit letters must identify themselves by name, year in school, major and/or group affiliation, if any. Submit material to: Daily Nebraskan, 20 Nebraska Union, 1400 R St. Lincoln, NE. 68588-0448. E-mail: letters@unlinfo.unl.edu. Obermeyer’s VIEW Another APPi-iCAKTT For piRecroR of Parking- and transit SFRVicgS tduRS THF Facilities...__ I /SO^lFI W£«£tS\ f TAKE THE JOB, \ \ WREfiE WOULD / Ypn officeee^/, \ I /^rniZHAMCr A JOB / VOBSN'T AUTOMATICALLY grant / You AN OFFICE P*R 5£... YOU / WOULD, HOWEVER, ms THE RMJ I To Office SPACE...If You HR/B TROUBLE FfNWWG-AN Office, YOU MIGHT IaJANT i in a fbn hours early to \ BEAT TUB RUSH... AfR> If ALL ELSE \ fails, we have some other d OFFICES RCR055 TOWN, ANbYoU \ CAN TUST TAKE A BUS FROM N X^Tgg,.,_ Ya’ Want Fries Wit’ That? Uniforms in schools are not this stifling evil as portrayed in the closed minded column “Fashion Victim” by Kasey Kerber (Thursday.) In fact, having gone to both public and private schools, I experienced both sides of the issue, and I’d rather have a starchy white shirt and plaid skirt nine months out of the year than any fashion “creativity” that might be smothered. There are benefits to wearing a uni form in school. The statement that clothing “says a whole lot about your personality” is so hollow. I mean, c’mon, when you see someone looking like they walked right out of a Gap commercial, who says “now they’ve got a nice personality”? Clothing says more about your economic status than anything! People dressed in Abercrombie can be dry as burnt toast, but hell, they look good, right? The people in thrift store hand me-downs may not look so glamorous, but they could have the minds of poets and leaders. Or vice versa. Uniforms teach respect for one’s self through discipline and nearness. It’s training for the real world, because even the people at McDonald’s wear uniforms. It creates a sense of unity, because it’s an outward sign that you are a part of something bigger, whether it’s a school, club, work place or faith. Uniforms have the power to put all kinds of people from different backgrounds on an equal level so they can look each other in the eye and say, “So what are you really like?” umiorms can DreaK aown oar- a riers, not create ones, especially for \ creativity. There are better ways for ^ people to express themselves, like art, politics, sports and just conver sation. That’s the First Amendment: freedom to speak your mind, not wear labels. Try opening your mouth once in a while instead of letting the clothes do the talking for you. Melanie MenschUS sophomore®*® news-editorial No Thanks Necessary ^ In his Friday column on abor-g| tion, Mr. Baldridge tells us that a9 fetus is cognitively no closer to usp than a jackrabbit. We all need toS thank Mr. Baldridge for giving us IP another example of medieval quackery. DN LETTERS This is yet another example of the fallacy that “ontology recapitulates philogeny” Simply put, this idea holds that what something looks like in develop ment is what, in fact, it is. This kind of backward drivel should be recognized for what it is. The first step in subjugating any part of the human race is to deny its humanity. That is what enemies have done to each other from time immemorial and what slave-holding societies have done to their “property” as well. We must admit to the humanity of the voiceless fetus before we can begin to come to any understanding in this situation. Mark Buhrdorf senior classics Defending Delta Tau Delta Once again, in your attempt to dis tort the image of NU’s greek system, you have failed to mention a few things about the Delta Tau Delta Fraternity (Wednesday.) The fund-raiser they sponsored on Sept. 8 raised more than $3,300 for Clinton Elementary, but that didn’t make the front page or any page at all. You have also neglected to inform the campus about the hundreds of hours these men have volunteered in the community and the thousands of dollars they have donated to charity within the past year. In fact, they have been the recipi ents of the C. B. Schultz Award for Outstanding Community Service for the past two years. I would like to commend these fine men for their attempts to address all risks associated with a social function of this nature: They provided trans portation for their members and guests who might be drinking. It wasn’t held on campus but on private property with the permission of the owner. I am very disturbed that the dispos al of beer is such a big dilemma for the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Department. I feel very unsafe know ing that this is their main focus rather than the recent murders, thefts and many other problems the city of Lincoln faces. Sherie Chromy junior industrial & management systems engineering if HP Shawn Ballarin/DN