daily nebruskan
friday, january 23, 1981
7 TPa n
Intoxication bill evades
helping problem drinkers
It is unfortunate lawmakers often
prefer to shield themselves from con
fronting problems head on by
stiffening penalties instead of seeking
solutions.
Such is the case with state Sen.
Sam C Lilian's introduction of a bill in
the Legislature this year to make
public drunkenness a crime.
According to the bill, an intoxicat
ed person could be arrested by a law
enforcement officer without a
warrant. The person then could be
held until the officer filed a
complaint and a warrant was issues.
The penalty for public drunken
ness could be up to three months in
jail, a $500 fine, or both.
Public drunkenness was decrimin
alized in Nebraska in 1977. The
reason expressed at the time was the
realization that people with drinking
problems need to be helped, not
punished.
The Legislature took steps posit
ive steps-toward helping individuals
who have drinking problems when
they passed another bill in 1980 to
aid alcohol treatment centers.
According to present law, police
can hold an intoxicated person in
custody for up to 12 hours, take the
person home, to a hospital or to a
treatment center. These are sound,
humane methods of helping people
who may have drinking problems.
Cullan, however, doesn't think the
treatment programs or centers have
been effective in helping solve what
he views as a serious problem.
The senator from Hemingford
maintains a lot of crime that occurs
is alcohol-related. He said, "Hauling
people in before they do something
more is preventing more serious
crime."
Although Cullan makes these
statements in defense of his proposal
to make public drunkenness a crime
again in Nebraska, it does just the
opposite and further substantiates
the necessity of going to the core of
the problem; that is, helping people
deal with drinking problems.
If Cullan's bill passes and public
drunkenness is returned to the law
books as a crime, the state stands to
lose up to S250.000 in federal funds
for alcohol treatment centers.
Losing that money, and in turn
the facilities to help people, would
be unfortunate because we then
would have individuals with prob
lems who would not have any place
to go for help, but instead would
have criminal records.
Lor some reason, that just doesn't
seem like a very responsible
approach to dealing with a social
problem.
Winter's sordid facts of life
return columnist to basics
Boston I am sitting in my kitchen try
ing to be profound. I am, however, willing
to settle for being coherent.
I have discovered that it is extremely
difficult to ponder the state of the world
while my breath is crystallizing in the air
above the table.
1 am. you see, yet another victim of
the natural gas emergency in Boston. It
has sent me back to basics the basics of
keeping warm at 55 degrees.
Soodman
In my own winter wonderland. I am
wearing the following items of clothing:
thigh-high wool socks, down slippers,
a flannel nightgown that will never be
seen in an ad for Frederick's of Hollywood,
a crew -neck sweater, a down vest. I have
taken off my mittens in order to hold onto
my coffee cup. I refuse for the sake of dig
nity to put on my ski cap before 4 p.m.
Fven before this emergency, the citizens
of New Fngland. circa 1980-81, were ex
periencing a revival of the Puritan spirit.
We were learning to understand the atmos
phere in which our eccentric, arthritic,
righteous, upright ancestors built a phil
osophy of endurance.
Maybe the people of Florida were chip
ping off ice from their oranges, but we the
hardier folk of New Fngland were chip
ping it off our children. Hosanna!
These were some of the sordid facts of
life this w inter:
More people in the Northeast used hair
dryers on their pipes than on their curls
The average plumber was hooked until
faster
The mouse which lived in my wall
moved to another house. It has a wood
stove.
My car learned to laugh sardonically
when I turned the ignition.
At any given moment. 10 percent ot
the population was waiting for the (iodots
of the eighties: (I) the oil company. (2)
the gas company , (3) the car mechanic.
But now I look back on those as the
good old days.
One night last week, the governor of
fered an upbeat speech about our state.
We the citizens sat wrapped in quilts
watching him like a creature from another
latitude. By 12 o'clock, the Bay Colony
had run out of degrees.
The next day we started running out ot
gas. The temperature outside went up
the heat wave went to 20 degrees while
the temperatures inside went down.
The natural gas emergency was brought
on by nature and mismanagement. But the
warning was out: Turn down today or
freeze tomorrow. Fven the gas-heated
schools closed, thereby giving our children
more time to spend in their nice coy kit
chens. By the weekend, those of us who had
chortled at our neighbors' oil bills were
trying to book space in their attics. Those
who were sure the oil crisis in the summer
of p)79 was a plot were sure the gas crisis
in the winter of i98 was a ploy. The only
things generating heat in my neighborhood
were conspiracy theories.
I am. however, thinking of a solution.
After a 24-hour tour of sunny , steam-heated
New York City . I returned to the Bost
on airport to find a line of people, three
deep. They were all desperately trying to
buy the halt-price Fasten) coupons to Cal
itornu. C ontinued on Page 5
Stamp out pesty personals
I guess it was inevitable.
Once again at the start of this semester,
I harbored secret, but vain, hopes that our
campus newspaper wouldn't be burdened
and scandalized with those disgraceful
attempts at journalism.
Yes. the Daily Nebraskan must again
suffer through a semester of personals.
rjarnclis
I have to force myself to turn to the last
page of the paper and scan the seemingly
endless advertisements. When I think of the
time wasted creating personals, vivid
images Hash through my mind. A student
goes home at the end of a semester and his.
parents ask him if he got the grades to get
into medical school. He says. "No. bm 1
sure wrote a lot of good personals."
There have been many trends in the per
sonals from the "rock vs. disco" and
"greek vs. dorm" verbal wars to the current
"I saw you in the Union. I smiled and vou
got sick. Please call 466-1017 if interest
ed." But the most persistent of the trends
has to be the one using percentages: "90
percent of all people at lL are actual
human beings, the other 10 percent are
journalism majors". Brutal, but to the
point.
I have to admit I was once the subject
of a personal and it did include percent
ages. I really don't like to think about it.
but it went something like, "98 percent ot
Fditorials published in the Daily
Nebraskan with no by line are written
by Kathy Chenault. editor for the
spring. 1981 semester. The name ot
any other staff member who may
write the main editorial will be print
ed at the end of the article.
Fditorials printed in the Daily
Nebraskan represent the official edi
torial policy of the spring.
Daily Nebraskan. but do not neces
sarily reflect the views of the Univer
sity of Nebraska, its employes or
the NT Board of Regents.
The NT Board of Regents is the
publisher of the Daily Nebraska.) ami
has established a Publications Board
to supervise production of the news
paper .
the UNL women are sexually active, the
other 2 percent know Kent Warneke."
What made it even worse was that m
engineer (gearhead in layman's terms!
roommate mathematically computed it and
told me the correct percentage was actually
1.97564. I told him to go play in the bath
tub with an electric slide rule.
But it seems that no matter how much I
or anyone may rant and rave, we're
destined to have personals. They're some
thing similar to an initiation into a fratern
ity before you're a member of UNL, you
have to have a personal about you in the
newspaper. That brings about a rash of
"Here is your personal. I told you I'd pin
it in for y ou. Now you owe me two bucks."
I would like to start a crusade to stamp
out personals. Maybe I could recruit the
football team and some ASUN senators to
help guard the steps going down to the
Daily Nebraskan. If the football team
misses tackling people, the senators can
bore them to death with rhetoric.
But I have to admit the real reason I
don't like personals in the Daily Nebraskan
is that I'm 100 percent positive they are
read more often than this column.
UPSP 144-080
Editor Kathy Chenault; Managing editor
Tom McNeil. News editor: Val Swinton. Associ
ate news editors Diane Andersen, Steve Miller,
Assistant news editor: Bob Lannm; Night news
editor Kdthy Stokebrand; Magazine editor Mary
Kempkes. Entertainment editor: Casey McCabe.
Sports editor Larry Sparks; Art director: Dave
Luebke; Photography chief: Mark Billingsley
Assistant photography chief: Mitch Hrdhcka.
Copw editors Mike Bartels, Sue Brown, Pat
Clark. Nancy Ellis, Dan Epp, Maureen Hutfless.
Ahce Hrmcek. Kim Hachiya, Jeanne Mohatt.
Janice Pigaga.
Business manager Anne Shank; Production
manager. Kitty Policky. Advertising manager
Art Small; Assistant advertising manager
Pike
Publications Board cha irman Mark Bowen,
4730212 Professional adviser Don Walton.
473 7301.
The Daily Nebraskan is published by the UNL
Publications Board Monday through Friday
during the fall and spring semesters, except
during vacations
Address Daily Nebraskan, 34 Nebraska
Union, 14th and R streets, Lincoln, Neb . 68588
Telephone 4 72 2588
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