Wednesday, November 7, 1984
Daily Nebraskan
Page 7
Students need
change of pace
This letter is in response to an
article by Liz Burden concerning
whether or not students truly
care about their education (Daily
Nebraskan, Nov. 2). Excuse me
for taking so long to reply, but I
was, as you put it, to busy pre
paring for the important things."
I, like many students on this cam
pus, have been tied up with my
studies. I'm sure you are surprised
to receive a response to your
article. Believe it or not, there are
a good many minds out here. Not
only are there minds, there are
minds that can read, write and
respond to those persons who
see themselves as the last deni
zen of an educated society. Grant
ed, apathy does exist out here,
yet no individual can claim to be
the only considerate individual
among us.
It is ridiculous to assume that
students spend all of their time at
clubs, bars, and social activities.
As you said, they often are crowd
ed, but so are the libraries, study
halls and classrooms. Students
need their social activities as a
change of pace from the everyday
routine. If they spend no time
concerning themselves with fi
nances and education (as you
claim they do), then the universi
ty's system of suspending those
who don't make the grade soon
will eradicate the entire student
body, except for you, of course.
By the way, I'm surprised that
you, while researching your arti
cle, noticed the crowds at the
clubs and bars yet didn't seem to
notice them at the libraries.
Chris Kohtz
freshman
music
TV commercials
seduce electorate
As a student in the humanities,
I watched recent trends in politi
fcCal. attitudes with an increasing
sense "of revulsion. Such trends
were clearly demonstrated in
three recent editorials in the Daily
Nebraskan: Kevin Warneke's en
dorsement of the Reagan admin
istration (DN, Nov. 11), DN's en
dorsement of Walter Mondale
(Nov. 2) and Liz Burden's article
on student apathy toward edu
cation and its rising costs (Nov.
2).
Warneke takes the position that
taxing the rich would remove the
profit motive and hurt the econ
omy. WeVe heard that argument
before. In a related vein, Burden
points out that students are tend
ing to view college more as a
social event than an educational
experience. It was Warneke who
CAREER
DISCOVERY
DAY
THURSDAY, NOV. 9th,
9am4pm
CENTENNIAL ROOM
NEBRASKA UNION
CPAfJ
AN students from ail degrees are in
vited to attend. $3.00 per student.
There will be seminars on the Assertive
Job Search, Tips on Resume-Writing
and Interviewing other topics of
interest.
You will also have a chance to meet
over 40 employers.
For further details contact the Career
Planning & Placement Center. 230
Nebraska Union
made a plea for a fee increase to
support Homecoming. Homecom
ing is doing quite nicely with out
side funding from the private
sector. Does he secretly harbor
socialist values?
DN's editorial endorsement of
Walter Mondale points out, among
other things, that Reagan has
taken an unfriendly stance toward
education and toward all those
students whose parents can't af
ford the costs of college. On the
other hand, Mondale takes a pos
itive attitude toward education
and acknowledges government's
responsibility in this area
So why does Warneke endorse
the non sequitur president? Why
do students ignore rising costs
and declining quality in educa
tion? And why do so many people
choose to ignore the pressing so
cial, economic and foreign policy
issues which were mentioned in
the DN's endorsement of Mon
dale? The reasons are too numer
ous to fully cover here, so let's
consider the most pervasive one:
The Power of Television.
For the first time in history a
majority of the electorate watches
an average of four hours of televi
sion daily. This includes roughly
an hour of slickly-packaged com
mercials extolling the joys of
materialism and consumption (im
mediate self-gratification). Most
commercial programming rein
forces this same message. It is no
coincidence that Reagan recently
vetoed a bill to continue federal
funding for Public Broadcasting.
Could it be that we as a nation
have unwittingly bought their
product and sold our ideals to
the highest bidder? Those who
have the guts to seek an answer
to this question might start with
Tour Arguments for the Elimi
nation of Television," by Jerry
Mander. It can be found in li
braries. Jeff Engelmann
graduate student
modern languages and
literatures
'Ignorant' articles
disappoint student
I don't know why I picked up
your paper this morning, I usu
ally don't, out of sheer boredom I
guess. I read two articles. I could
Dlnl(alci5)ifil(dl(giniS
For you if your classes
conflict, work schedules
intrude, and you can't
always be where
you'd like to" be.
Earn University of Nebraska-Lincoln credit
studying at your own pace. For information,
visit the UNL Division
Independent Study Department, room 269
Nebraska Center for Continuing Education,
33rd and Holdrege. Take the shuttle bus
from city campus. Or call 472-1926.
UNL doss not discriminate
in its academic, admissions
or employment programs,
and abides by all federal
regulations pertaining to
same.
not believe some of the things you
people will print just to fill the
spaces left because you did not
have enough advertisements to
print.
I am referring to two articles
printed on Nov. 5, 1984. First to
Chris Burbach and his editorial
on "Baby Fae," I say ignorance
will allow some people to put
anything down on paper. Chris, I
say to you, "don't write another
word until you take a few basic
life science courses." Your state
ments are so ignorant and misin
formed that you offend the edu
cated ear. You, as well as others,
have said there was a human
heart for trasnplant. I have to ask
you was it compatible so rejec
tion would not occur? Chris, do
you even know what I am talking
about? I will tell you this much:
the issue must be a close match,
you just can't stick any heart in
any body.
The chances are one in a mil
lion that the heart would have
been compatible. The doctors got
the best match, it just happened
to be from a baboon. If all medical
advances had to be screened by
people like yourself, we would
still be going to the doctor to have
leeches suck our blood when we
don't feel well. Let's leave life sav
ing to those educated for it. Chris,
there's still hope for you. You
could always become the medical
editor for that wonderful medi
cal journal, The National Enquirer.
I've said enough.
Now as for Richard Cohen's
article, I don't understand how
or why this got into print. If
Cohen can't decide where he
stands on something, why burden
us with his indecision and just
plain bad commentary?
All I have left to say is that it
took Alk years to get me to read
your paper and all I got out of it
was disappointment. I must ad
mit, however, I still will pick up
your paper for the Domino's Pizza
coupons.
I don't ever expect to see this in
print because it rubs the wrong
way. I hope you surprise me. ;
Mark Driscoll
dental student
Editor's note: Barbach said a
hum tin heart was not available
for transplant at the time.
of Continuing Studies
Cssnpus l-s
Pre-med student
defends transplant
Chris Burbach's editorial re
garding the morality of trans
planting a baboon's heart (Nov. 5,
DN) was quite interesting to me. I
too have tried to rationalize and
evaluate the decisions made by
Dr. Bailey and the other physi
cians involved. My conclusion is
somewhat different, however.
As a pre-medical student with
extraneous involvement in medi
cine, I have learned to respect the
ingenuity and judgments of the
people in the medical profession.
Without a doubt these people
make mistakes as does everyone,
but that is a somewhat different
topic than the one at hand. I truly
don't believe that alternatives
were not considered. The choice
of a baboon's heart was nothing
but a logical solution to the
problem at hand. Infants do not
develop their immunity systems
until sometime after birth. Mater
nal immunity protects them until
the infant's own immunity system
"kicks in." The transdanted heart
was compatible to the infant be
cause the immune system had
yet to be developed. Needless to
say, "Baby Fae" is not "out of the
woods" yet. Rejection is still very
possible, but one thing is certain:
"Baby Fae" is alive and making
progress. I can't call that any
thing but positive and reassuring.
I guess my point is that ques
tioning Dr. Bailey is not a smart
thing to do unless you know some
thing about heart transplants. As
an editor of the DN, I don't feel
Burbach can judge the proce
dure of Dr. Bailey.
Another shortcoming of Bur
bach's argument is that the oper
ation shows "a disrespect for
human life in favor of medical
advancement." This is a riducu
lous statement. Respect for
human life is the foundation for
medical advancement. People in
the health-related fields have an
unquestionable desire to help
.I
7
t
w
5N
Everyone wears their
underwear outdoors,
don't they?
When it's pohpiopykne underwear, they do! It wicks away
moisture to keep you warm. It works! Need we say more?
At The MOOSE'S TOOTH
17th & HoSdrege 475-4453
a YXfe
s
mm ink ra
OUTDOOR SPORTS
not hinder the progress of
man. Medicine is a profession
that requires constant research
and revision. Its progress is the
result of experimentation. How
could we advance if we didn't1
experiment?
Robert Singer
junior
pre-med
'Twirlers 'question
selection process
Until now only one side of the
"guest twirler" controversy has
been publicized; our objective is
not to further aggravate the situa
tion, but to let readers know
many people seethe issue another
way. If band members really are
concerned about who twirls for
them, then why were there only a
small handful of them there to
see the tryouts? Had they seen
the ridiculous unsportsmanlike
conduct of the winner, their
opposition to share the field with
national and international cham
pions might have been lessened.
It is too bad that the band and
the directors could not graciously
accept the decision of a higher
authority as the two twirlers had
to accept the unfairness of the
judges' biased decision this spring
at tryouts. Furthermore, the un
professional show of disagree
ment which included prank and
threatening phone calls and the
mockery displayed by the band's
drum majors and directors during
the half time show is nothing for
students and faculty to be proud
of.
We feel this type of unfortunate
incident could be avoided in the
future if a more professional
selection process from the be
ginning is devised.
Lori Balke
senior
home ec. ed.
Judy Fish
sophomore
advertising
Camping
Backpacking
Mountaineering
X-Country Skiing
Reck Climbing
