East Campus should avoid paranoia, apathy
Ron Cllngenpeel is a Daily Nebraskan
East Campus staff writer.
. by Ron Clingenpeel
During the time I have worked on
East Campus for the Daily Nebraskan,
I have found that two definite feelings
exist-paranoia and apathy.
Paranoia seems to be the main
feeling, because students on East
Campus always seem to be afraid of
what others think of them and their
campus.
I find that this paranoia isn't the
fault of the students there now, but of
students who lived there before them.
The University was established
under the Land Grant Act, and since
this is primarily an agricultural state
the College of Agriculture became the
largest college . on campus and
remained that way for a long time.
During this time there was little
discrimination and students from both
campuses got along well together.
But as the state and the people
became more interested in other ways
of life than farming, City Campus
enrollment grew.
City Campus students began taking
over many of the functions of the
University community, and as times
went on they began to keep up with
current styles.
East Campus students, for the most
part, didn't follow style changes and
the result was that they were ridiculed
for their life styles.
East Campus students started
believing that their counterparts on
City Campus were discriminating
against them and they passed this
feeling on to new students. Today,
most of the students on East Campus
feel that in order o be someone or to
get somewhere, one must be from City
Campus.
They seem to feel that anyone from
that campus will only be out to put
them down.
Many situations I've encountered
start with the East Campus student
making it very clear that he doesn't
want anything said that will make him
or his campus look bad.
This paranoia about how East
Campus is represented could be easily
remedied if East Campus students
would just be themselves and not
worry about how they are seen by
others. ' ,
With a few exceptions, most of the
students on East Campus don't seem
to care about how this University is
run or what can be done to bring
about change.
staff.
Rarely do East Campus students
take an active role in University
politics, and in last spring's election I
estimate that about one out of every
20 students from East Campus voted
in the ASUN election.
During the voter registration drive
last spring, it was reported that not
one East Campus student registered at
the booth provided at the East
Campus Activities building.
Yet, it is these same students that
don't like the way the University is
running things. They don't like where
their new union will be built, and they
don't like the buses they have to ride
between the campuses.
I'm glad to see that some students
on East Campus are throwing off
paranoia and apathy and are striving to
better relationsJ. 'between themselves
and students frofffaCity Campus. But
I'm wondering what it'll take for" those
other paranoid and apathetic students
to wake up and realize that if they
really want to get somewhere, they'd
better get on the bandwagon and do
something for themselves instead of
watching it go by.
No one will hear you unless you
speak, and no one will listen unless
you speak with a sincere heart.
Dear editor,
Your article "The Homosexual and VD" (friday,
Oct. 20) was misleading and incomplete.-
For instance, although it is true, as your source
said, that some gay people "have as many as 15
sexual partners each week" and "the average is less
than five," the truth is that the average is much,
much less than five. The way the statement stands
gives the impression that gays are sex maniacs.
Also, use of the word "homosexual" as a noun
reflects the erroneous assumption that people are
either "homosexuals" or "heterosexuals" and gives
no sense of the emotional and social attachments
which may be present in same-sex relationships.
The word "gay," as used by the gay liberation
movement implies neither an obsession with sex nor a
limitation to the same sex.
Although it may be true that fears of legal
harassment are groundless in Lincoln, there are other
kinds of harassment which may serve as equally
powerful deterrents to seeking treatment.
Last spring, I visited the Lincoln-Lancaster County
Health Dept. because of a urinary infection I thought
might be a symptom of gonorrhea. While talking with
a doctor, he ascertained that I was gay. His reaction
was to start lecturing me on the evils of
homosexuality. Then he told me that the only reason
I had come to see him was that I felt guilty about
what I had done.
A few months earlier a friend of mine who clearly
had symptoms of gonorrhea was denied treatment
altogether when the doctor found out he was gay.
The statement by Lester Jensen that not more
than five "homosexuals" had visited the health dept.
in the last three years is totally absurd.
I personally know more gays than that who have
visited the department. Besides, in most cases there is
no way anyone would know who was gay unless ha
volunteered the information.
The University Health Service nurse who said
"when they come in they are usually infected in
either the mouth or the rectum" is reflecting the fact
that the only people she can be reasonably sure are
gay are people infected that way. People Infected in
the genital area may or may not be gay.
' That bit about active and passive partners is
ridiculous. The vast majority of gays do not copy
those traditionally heterosexual roles.
The words "active" and "passive" do not describe
accurately either the level of activity or the person's
personality, and what a person does in one sex act
cannot be used to predict what he'll do in another sex
act or with another partner. I thought that myth
about active and passive partners disappeared long
ago.
Women are hardly mentioned in the article. It is
instructive to note that in a lesbian relationship it is
almost impossible to transmit VD.
The rudest insult about the article is that a staff
writer of a campus newspaper writing about a
minority represented by a campus group failed to ask
members of that group for their own experiences and
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"We'll have a coalition government over my dead bodyT
fears concerning harassment and other aspects of the
situation and relied solely on the testimony of
non-gay health care personnel.
In this day and age, no other minority group
would be treated this way; only gays are still ignoreo
and stepped on.
I think the Daily Nebraskan owes the gay
communitv of Lincoln an apology for this
misrepresentative, poorly
article.
researched and insulting
Larry Fine
Poor word choice
front page (Daily
was disappointed
to
no
Dear editor,
I found the cartoon on the
Nebraskan. Oct. 23) amusing. I
however, in the choice of the word used
demonstrate surprise or amazement: "Christ,
wonder ..."
The name Christ means "Annointed One" and was
given to Jesus because he was annointed of God (Acts
10:38). The cartoon's use of Jesus' name in this
manner is inappropriate. Was any thought given to
this? If not, perhaps it is another example of parrot
vocabulary, that is, repeating often heard expressions
without thought.
Christians have instructions regarding the use of
i
daily nebraskan
the name of Jesus Christ (Deuteronomy 5:11).
Though many may not feel compelled to follow this
instruction, many do. Consequently, they consider
the use of the Lord's name in such a manner to be
objectionable. Does not responsible journalism then
suggest that such expression be avoided?
David L. Dierenfeld
Beetlemania
Dear editor:
As much as I appreciated the article on wine by
Larry Kubert (Daily Nebraskan, Oct. 24), I feel that a
possible source of confusion in the presentation
should be clarified. He referred to a beetle-like insect
called the phylloxera which was responsible for the
temporary demise of the European wine industry in
the 1800s. It sho Id be noted that the grape
phylloxera, phylloxt j vitifoliae (Fitch), cannot, in
any stretch of the imagination, be properly termed a
beetle-like insect. It belongs to the order Homoptera,
not Coleoptera, and its physiognamy is so
substantially different from that of a beetle that there
is absolutely no room for confusion.
Brett C. Ratcliffe
Curator of Insecjs
University of Nebraska
State Museum
page 5
thursday, October 26, 1972
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