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Pragmatic politics
Barry Pilger, a senior psychology major in the
College of Arts and Sciences, is the editor-in-chief
of the Daily Nebraskan.
The questions surrounding the mandatory
nature of student fees have been potentially nailed
down by two state senators in the Nebraska
Unicameral. LB 1271 has been introduced by
Senators Stromer and Craft with the intention of
stopping the collection of "any form of mandatory
student activities fees or charges."
A legislative bill affecting student fees is nothing
new. Terry Carpenter's LB 70 was brought to the
floor of the Unicameral over interim break as a
holdover bill from last year's session. It would have
discontinued student fee support for the Daily
Nebraskan and the UNO student newspaper, The
Gateway.
After substantially negative debate was
countered by the ASUN legislative liaison
committee, Carpenter's bill was indefinitely
postponed by a vote of 24-21, with four senators
not voting.
The very close final vote on LB 70 indicates the
caution students must assume when dealing with
the student fees issue. The World in Revolution
Conference on Justice in America is funded by
student fee monies. Just as the Time-Out
Conference on Human Sexuality last October
ignited controversy throughout the state, the
Justice in America Conference has similar
incendiary potential.
Controversial topics certainly deserve discussion
anywhere, especially in the academic community.
But at a time when the University of Nebraska is
under fire by members of the State Legislature, the
desirability of the proposed conference is
questionable.
The Union Program Council and the Nebraska
Union Board have both offered their endorsement
of the scheduled conference. The final fate of the
conference now lies in "the hands of the Interim
Program Arbitration Board, a group created by the
Board of Regents in January to consider the
appropriateness of programs to the University
community.
It was hoped that the World in Revolution
Conference would be re-scheduled by the Union
Program Council or the Nebraska Union Board to a
later, more politically favorable date. But now this
action can only be taken by the Interim Program
Arbitration Board.
If the Arbitration Board chooses to permit the
conference to proceed as scheduled, serious harm
to the University may result at the hands of the
Nebraska Legislature in the form of budgetary
setbacks and the passage of LB 1271.
Greatest show
on earth
Every semester the new Daily Nebraskan staff
makes changes in the paper that, at least, makes it
better in their eyes, and, hopefully, in the eyes of
the paper's readership.
A new graphic format has necessitated a change
in writing syle for staff reporters. This semester,
stories will tend to be of greater length and more
detail, while short feature material and
organizational notices will be contained in special
sections, Short Stuff, and Up & Coming.
The editorial page will feature local columnists
John Vihstadt and Janet White, UNL students.
Nationally, the return of Arthur Hoppe will be
noticed by all of his regular readers. Political
columns by Kevin P. Phillips and John P. Roche
will also appear weekly.
Paul Conrad politcal cartoons will run from
time to time. His political wit is published regularly
from coast to coast. Local cartooning on the
editorial page will be undertaken by a free lance
staff headed by talented veteran Greg Scott, a UNL
junior majoring in art.
This semester, a daily panel cartoon feature
known as FRED will also find its place in the
Nebraskan. His antics will be seen in every issue on
page two.
Advertising revenue last semester reached an all
time hieh. The outlook for this semester is equally
encouraging. Display and classified ads in the
Daily Nebraskan are still the best medium available
to reach the University audience.
The staff is planning an open house in the
office, 34 Nebraska Union in the near future.
If you have news, need a want ad, or just wqnt to
find out what the UNL newspaper is all. about,
come see us.
' '
Arthur Hoppe is a social and political
satirist from San Francisco. He
graduated from Harvard with honors,
and since has climbed up the
journalistic ladder at the San Francisco
Chronicle from copy boy to reporter
to columnist. Hoppe 's column, "The
Innocent Bystander" will appear
regularly in the Daily Nebraskan.
The Surgeon General's report that
cigarette smokers are not only killing
themselves but may well be killing
non-smokers in their immediate
vicinity was bound to have a drastic
effect on the lives of America's 44
million nicotine addicts.
Take any typical smoker. Take
Worthington Thripp Jr.
Twenty years ago in the halycon
days when smoking was the rage of the
Smart Set, Thripp cut a dashing figure
with his ivory holder, his
monogrammed lighter and his gold
cigarette case. Men admired him,
women adored him, and colleagues
predicted a brilliant future for him in
great American dipper industry for he
was obviously (1) sophisticated, (2)
brainy, (3) aristocratic and (4) his
father owned The Thripp Dipper
Works.
Then came the Surgeon General's
1964 report on the hazards of
cigarette smoking. Slowly, a subtle
change came over Thripp's life.
First his wife quit. Then his
secretary quit. Then his father quit.
One by one, Thripp's friends and :
colleagues underwent the agonies of
withdrawal. And when they had at last
kicked the habit they looked on
Thripp in an entirely new light.
No longer did they admire or adore
him. Now when he lit a cigarette, his
wife expressed a loving, if nagging,
concern; his secretary flashed a secret
little supercilious smile; his friends, at
best, showed bemused contempt; and
his father said, "Some day,
Worthington, this big dipper business
will be all yours if you show a little
will power."
So his marriage, his social life, his
career all suffered. But for the past
seven years Thripp hung gamely in
there, burning up two packs a day.
And always, if an argument over his
smoking arose, he had the final word:
"If I want to kill myself," he'd say
with an attempt at a devil-may-care
shrug, "that's my business." And
everyone grudgingly had to agree to
that.
Then came last week's new report
from the Surgeon General. Again
Thripp's life changed. But this
time ...
"Who's the other woman?" angrily
demanded Mrs. Thripp, looking up
from her newspaper at the breakfast
table and fanning away Thripp's
cigarette smoke.
"What other woman?" cried Thripp
in genuine innocence.
"Then why are you deliberately
trying to kill me?" said Mrs. Thripp
and she packed up and went home to
her non-smoking mother.
At the office, Thripp's secretary
frowned instead of smiled when he lit
up. And by mid-morning she applied
for a transfer back to the secretarial
pool at half the pay.
When Thripp accidentally blew
smoke in his father's face that
afternoon, the latter flew into a rage.
"Can't you wait for me to die, you
ingrate!" he shouted and both fired
and disinherited him on the spot.
So shaken was Thripp that in the
crowded elevator on the way out, he
absentmindedly began to light up. An
elderly lady promptly pummeled him
with her umbrella, a businessman
smacked him with a briefcase and the
others all piled on.
When he crawled put bowed and
bloody to report the attack to the
policeman in the lobby, the officer
shrugged: "You're fair game. Anybody
who kills you can plead self defense."
Since then, Thripp's been on the
lam. The only traces of him have been
a message lipsticked on a mirrow:
"STOP ME BEFORE I SMOKE
AGAIN!" and a more rational letter to
a newspaper: "There's 44 million of us
killers loose. You can't catch us all!"
But he underestimates the
vengef ulness in the hearts of those of
us who've undergone the agony of
quitting. It isn't his killing us we mind
so much; it's the pleasure we know
he's getting in doing so.
(Copyright Chronicle Publishing Co. 1972)
1
THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
MONDAY, JANUARY 24, 1972
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