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On page one of today's Daily Nebraskan is a comprehensive
examination of veneral disease by science writer Tom Hartford.
Hartford doesn't skim through his subject. After ou've read
this article you'll have a working knowledge of the symptoms,
causes, treatments, effects, and chances of contracting the two
most common veneral diseases, gonorrhea and syphilis.
VD is not restricted to Boston bars or San Diego sin-bins. You
don't have to be in the army to get it. You don't necessarily even
have to be immoral to get it. In fact, if you caught VD right here
in Lincoln, Nebraska, it wouldn't surprise anyone except perhaps
you.
The Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department certainly
wouldn't be surprised. Chairman George Underwood recently
reported he is treating 15 to 20 VD patients per week at the
department's free clinics. He calls it "a real gonorrhea explosion."
Hartford calls it an epidemic.
VD can be a nasty, sneaky disease. A small boil in your mouth
could be the only symptom you ever notice until your nervous
system collapses thirty years later.
There is one preventive measure that will ensure you'll never
contract VD. Don't have sexual intercourse with anyone. That
usually does it.
But if that measure is unacceptable to you, read Hartford's
article. In its thoroughness and detail the article is an unusual one
for a newspaper to carry all in one shot.
But if you have a heavy night-time schedule, coat the article
with plastic and keep it under your pillow.
Steve Strasser
Back to
the hen house
Contrary to popular opinion and what sorority sisters at the
University of Nebraska would like us to think, "gush rush" is still
alive and well on this campus. The byproducts of this acquired
disease were painfully apparent during Rush Week two weeks ago.
Perhaps it's just that after four years, one expects an
institution to progress. There seemed to be hints of this last
spring. Representatives to Panhellenic actually voiced their
opinions that songs, skits and insincere chatter were not the way
to get to know people. Some warned that freshmen this year were
too sharp and far too well educated to fall for the same old
sorority lines again.
They were right. Never have we been presented with a more
aware, mature class.
These people were looking for friendship, answers and a bit of
fun. They got songs, skits and insincere chatter reminiscent of a
hen house. And so we again saw freshman women with tears in
their eyes and laments of frustration on their lips.
Future freshmen of this University deserve better. Greek
houses on this campus must realize that rushing methods of this
sort fall short. . .short of what freshmen and upperclassmen
deserve. This surely is the route to oblivion. By changing rushing
methods, sororities may be able to pull the type of people who
will work to keep the Greek system alive.
There are good minds as well as good looks so prevalent within
a system of this sort. As has been said so many times before, this
is the year to follow through and make sure ideas are in fact put
into action. There may come a fall in the future when no voice
will point out a need for change. There will be no system left.
Laura Willers
Editor: Gary Seacrest. Managing Editor: Laura Wilier. Nawc Editor:
Stava Strasser. Advertising Manager: Barry Pilger. Publications
Committee Chairman : James Horner.
Staff writers: Bill Smitherman, Carol Strasser, Martha Kahin, Bart
Becker, Dennis Snyder, Vickl Polos, flomnn Rogers, Steve Kadel, H. J.
Cummins, Randy Beam, Lucy Lien, Ouane Leibhart. Sports editor: Jim
Johnston. Photographers: Bill Ganzel, Gail Folda. Entertainment
editor: Larry Kubert. Literary editor: Alan Boye, Lucy Kerchberger.
East campus writer: Terri Bedient. Artist: Al Chan. Copy editors: Tom
Lansworth, Jim C lemons, Sara Track, Jim Gray, Night editor: Leo
Schleicher,
BUSINESS STAFF
Coordinator: Jerri Hautsler. Ad staff: Greg Scott, Beth
Malashock, Jane Kidwull, Mick Moriarty, Jeff Aden, Steve Vates, Kay
Phillips, O, J. Nelson, Suri Goebel, Phil Merryweather, Larry
Swanson, Laurel Marsh, Kris Collins, Don Neddenrelp, Secretary;
Kathy Cook.
Telephones: editor: 472 2534, news: 472 2689, advertising:
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The Daily Nebraskan is a student publication, independent of the
University of Nebraska's administration, faculty and student
government.
Address: The Daily Nebreskan, 34 Nebraska Union, University of
Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska 68508.
Sir-: 1
4
by Tom Braden
WASHINGTON-Like a great
many other fathers in this
country (the number increases
each year) I have a child who
was arrested not long ago for
possession of marijuana. I risk
a personal account because it
seems to me to point to a
general conclusion.
The episode was memorable
for a number of reasons. First,
it was a physical shock.
Anybody who tells you that
you can take a telephone call
from a son who is in jail and
not reflect upon it for weeks to
come is a person who doesn't
care about his children.
Second, it posed a moral
problem. A father likes to
think of himself as protector of
children and defender of the
upright A son who is in jail for
violating the law is a problem
in allegiance.
Allegiance once decided, the
episode was costly. To be
reasonably certain that a child
does not serve the mandatory
three-year jail sentence, it is
necessary to hire a lawyer who
can convince the prosecuting
attorney that his duty may be
fulfilled by permitting the
child to plead guilty to the
offense for which a policeman
had stopped him (a defective
tail light) . Even so, this
particular child served three
days in jail.
Fourth, and most
important, the episode taught
THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
torn braden
A generation's complaint
me a lesson that I didn't want
to learn, namely that there is
justice in the prevalent view of
the young that they are the
victims of bad law and of
policemen who enforce bad
law selectively.
"Why did you lower the
penalty?" a police officer from
a small town in upper Michigan
asked an official of the Bureau
of Narcotics at a meeting
earlier this summer. "The only
way that we can get rid of
long-haird kids on tie Muhiydr
pe iinsula is to stop them on a
traffic violation and toss them
in jail after we find the stuff."
The official from the
Narcotics Bureau was
nonplussed. He had beer
attempting to explain President
Nixon's new federal legislation
which makes first offense
possessors guilty of a
misdemeanor and subject to
sentences of not more than a
year. It had not occurred to
him that the law against
marijuana was a law against a
generation.
And yet it can't be anything
else. According to a recent
poll, 39 of all college
students call themselves
"frequent" users of marijuana.
The figure is up 15 from last
year. Sixty-two percent of all
college students have tried
marijuana from one to three
times. Shall we enforce the
law? Shall we toss millions of
our children into jail?
H tlllV
President Nixon has taken a
small step in the direction of
permitting us to escape this
impossible choice. The new
federal legislation is intended
to serve as a model for the
states. It lowers the penalty for
possession and makes it
possible for judges to suspend
sentences and expunge records.
But it does not prevent
policemen from harassing the
young for doing what nearly all
the young are doing. Nor does
it satisfy one generation that it
is not being chivied about by
another. As the surgeon-general
of the United States, Dr. Jesse
L. Steinfeld has remarked, "I
know of no clearer instance in
which the punishment for an
infraction of the law is more
harmful than the crime."
Or. Steinfeld is not yet sure
whether marijuana should be
given a "clean bill of health."
But he points out that seven
U.S. Presidents smoked it and
he calls the suggestion of the
San Francisco Crime
Commission that we regulate
marijuana as we regulate
alcohol "impressive."
Meantime, we continue to
spend time and money trying
to enforce the unenforceable,
confusing ourselves by linking
marijuana with dangerous drugs and
giving our children an excuse
for saying that we are unfair to
their generation.
Copyright 1971, Los
Angoles Times
al'"r
PAGE 2
FRIDAY. SEPTEMBER 17. 1971
