thursday, September 25, 1980
page 4
daily nebraskan
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Alcohol education effort top priority
In July Nebraska's drinking age went from 19
to 20, the result of legislative compromise after
a three-year fight by Grand Island Sen. Ralph
Kelly to raise the age to 2 1 .
Throughout his fight, Kelly pledged that he
would work to improve alcohol education in the
state and establish appropriate institutions, once
the drinking bill became law.
LB221 was only the first step, its supporters
argued, to decreasing teen-age drinking and reduc
ing alcoholism.
Now that the law is in place, Kelly and others
who voted for the bill are urged to make their
promises good, and to make those efforts as high
a priority as they made the drinking age bill.
Throughout the battle, it never seemed doubt
ful that Kelly and others were sincere in their
concern, so pragmatic alcohol education and re
habilitation bills can be expected from them in
the next legislative session.
It appears easy, too, to pass such measures in
the Nebraska Legislature, since LB22Ts oppon
ents argued that education was THE answer.
But we are concerned that the emotional peak
reached in passing the drinking age (and resisting
its passage) will have the Legislature tired of dis
cussing teen-age drinking.
Also, finding inexpensive means to better edu
cate young people and society as a whole about
alcohol is a great deal more difficult than raising
the legal age.
Politicians may not want to hear about alcohol
for awhile, because they heard so much about it
for so long.
But those on both sides of LB221 have an ob
ligation to try to enact some of the things they
argued for last year and the two years before. If
teen-age drinking was a heartfelt concern of our
legislators, they will work for effective measures.
Opponents to LB221 made enough suggestions
for education programs to fill a keg, and state
senators should search legislative records, their
memories and their collective conscience and
work to solve what they all agreed was a problem.
It might cost some money, andome programs
might prove ineffective. But both sides agreed
there was a problem that alcohol education would
help address. We hope they haven't changed their
minds.
Equality exists; except in soaps
The scene was supposed to dramatic. The woman had a
cover-girl face and "Playboy" body. The man, old enough
to be her father, was, neverthless, athletic looking with
just the right amount of gray around the temples. They
were just about to be married in an outdoor peremony in
someone's well-manicured lawn..
In the back was a frail-looking man, confined to a
wheelchair.
"Who gives this woman away?" asked the minister.
Silence.
The minister cleared his throat. The guests looked ner
vously toward the man in the wheelchair.
"Who will give this woman away." the minister repeat
ed. Finally the man in the wheelchair, in a weak voice, re
plied that he was giving the woman away.
"I thought that guy died," said one of the girls watch
ing the drama unfold in the Nebraska Union.
"Huh. I guess not," replied her friend.
Such is the type of intelligent conversation generated
. by soap operas. Yet on that particular day, the viewing
area in front of the TV on the south side of the union was
jammed with students, All watched the man in the wheel
chair fade out as he was supposed to give the woman
away.
I hate to say this because I know it sounds sexist, but
95 percent of the students watching the TV were women.
And every day since then, as 1 walk by that area, most of
the seats are taken by women.
It seems to me, that even in this day of sexual equality,
soap operas are still designed for women. Producers
apparently discovered the key to a woman's heart.
Women are as capable as men when it comes to teach
ing. In the newspaper business, females are as capables as
males in gathering news and writing it. The girls are as able
as the guys to fill management positions in business.
In all aspects of life, we should be equal. But flick on a
soap opera and watch the women flock to the tube like
hens to a corn shelling.
By adding to their shows a few unwanted pregnancies,
an affair here and there and maybe a murder during a slow'
week, soap opera writers have managed to separate the
men from the women.
I don't understand why. What is it about soap operas
that attract women and leave men feeling left out in the
cold? In the few glimpses I've caught of most soap operas,
the men treat the women like dogs. They beat them, get
them pregnant, abandon them and treat them like slaves.
Maybe deep down most women would like to return
to the old days when they could stay home and have kids,
making meals for their husbands and playing cards with
the girls on Thursday afternoon. Of course, if I said that
within an arm's reach of most women, they would gladly
blacken both my eyes.
And, my wife complains that I waste too many Sun
day afternoons watching football. She can't understand
what thrill I get out of watching grown men beat each
other up for the honor of a pigskin filled with air. I don't
understand it either; not any more than I understand why
girls watch soap operas.
I guess scientists have yet to explain certain biological
urges within us.
Propaganda 'wins'
cost United States
millions, Florida
It was a jubliant scene in Washington last week
when Cuba announced it was returning those two
Cuban hijackers to the United States.
A Lockheed Jetstar was immediately dispatched
to Havana to bring the culprits back in handcuffs.
And over at the State Department, Niles Bullfinch,
head of the Cuban Affairs Section, broke out the
sherry.
"I knew Fidel Castro would eventually have to
knuckle under to world opinion and send these hi
jackers back to us instead of throwing them into
Cuban prisons," said Bullfinch, happily raising his
glass.
"That's right, sir," said his eager young assistant,
Harley Festis. "Castro certainly couldn't stand
another crushing propaganda defeat."
"Another?"
"I was referring to the Freedom Flotilla, sir. As
you said when the first boatload of Cuban refugees
arrived in Miami, This proves to the world that the
oppressed Cuban people will sacrifice all to flee the
oppressive Castro regime. What a propaganda vic
tory that was!"
"Yes, as I explained to the president the other
day, I didn't know at the time how many more pro
paganda victories would be following."
"Just think, sir, 125,000 of them to date. Castro
keeps handing us these propaganda victories on a
silver platter. The man must be mad."
"So's the president, Festis. He figures that so far,
these victories have cost the country several hund
red million dollars and him the state of Florida, lie
now has 24 warships off the coast to keep any more
victories from sneaking ashore."
"Well, at least we put the pressure on Castro, sir.
Look how quickly he caved in and sent us these two
felonious criminals. Again."
"Again?"
"It just occurred to me, sir, that they were
among the 125,000 he originally sent us. When it
comes to victories, can we count them twice?"
"Not so loud, Festis. Maybe we'd better quietly
convict them and send them up for 20 years. Let's
see, it costs $1 1,000 a year to keep a man in prison.
So that's $440j000, plus the trial, plus ... Oh, I
hope the president doesn't get wind of this."
"What I don't understand, sir, is if we originally
welcomed these two freedom seekers as propaganda
victories when they fled Cuba, why didn't Castro do
the same when they fled the U.S.?"
"He probably couldn't afford it, Festis. One
more propaganda victory and we may go bankrupt."
"Gosh, sir, it looks as though Castro has us where
he wants us. Is there nothing we can do?"
"Wait, Festus, I've got it! Once we bring over
these two freedom seekers in handcuffs, we'll try
them, convict them and expel them back to Cuba as
illegal aliens."
"Brilliant, sir. And if Castro tries to send them
back a third time?"
"We'll blow 4em out of the water!"
Copyright Chronicle Publishing Co. 1980
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Editor in chief: Randy Essex; Managing editor: Bob Lannin;
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