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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 26, 1984)
Monday, November 28, 1834 Pago A Daily Nebraskan i 0 rl 0 i t asm f) 1M news9 1 mem SM MippSj OIL No one said it would be easy. Or fun. Or feed me. Or pay my bills. But if nothing else, a job at the university newspaper is enriching, for times shared with friend3 and the experiences good and bad that come with learning. One of the most common complaints about the press (there are many to choose from) is that it ha3 nothing better to do than report "bad news." As news editor, I'm supposed to sit down daily and plan for the day and the week all the thousands of interesting things happening on and around campus aU the important issues that affect us. Something we call "story ideas." I'll be honest and tell you there were days this semester when I sat down in despair to look at the storie3 coming in for the day and felt I was responsible for deluging you with world famine, assassi nation, suicide, drug abuse, and domestic violence all in one issue. JJut there are times, I've learned, when the press acts as more than only the bear er of "bad news." Early in the semester we ran a series of series. Probably one of the most effective, to me personally, was a series we did in conjunction with National Collegiate Alcohol Awareness Week in mid-October. The week following the series, a friend of mine admitted to myself and others that he was an alcoholic. More impor tantly, he admitted it to himself. I am moved by the reality that duties Ihad sometimes regarded as "only the job" are in fact more. People. People are every thing in journalism. This holiday, my friend is off getting professional help. Before leaving, he drop ped this note in my mailbox: "Thankyou for your patience and under standing. It's impossible to describe what goes through your head in the midst of a self-destructing disease but supportive sympathy is just about my last glimmer of hope. Thank you.. And I'm gonna try to get well." Despite the hardships of the job and the headaches, the complaints and the frustration of wanting to please all read ers and be everywhere at once, there are those special times like this, for instance when the press can act as a catalyst for healthy change, and inspiration, a hope for new life. Those are the times, espe cially, when being the press" ain't too bad. MlcMda Thuman D&SSy Nebraska Senior Editor torn , i -i i USA an 2a Letters Doctor: Student lacks facts I wish to respond to the guest opinion by pre-med student James E. Ruley Jr. concerning the Baby Fae case (Daily Nebraskan, Nov. 19). Ruley states: The first priority of a good physician and re searcher is to gather and analyze all of the facts before making a decision." Ruley broke that rule by con demning the physician who worked on the Baby Fae case. He does not have all the facts in the case and yet, on the basis of what he has read in the news, he makes a decision to condemn. Rule No. 2 is: "Do not trust what you read in the news media." Ralph A. Ewert, M.D. University Health Center 'Boss fan disputes criticism It seems to have become fashion able for anyone with a gripe to blame it on those decadent hooli gans who lined up for Bruce Springsteen tickets. At one time, I had already decided it wasn't worth my time to write a response to any obvi ously fragile attempt at logic that would be forgotten in a week, but after seeinganother self-righteous lettereditorial condemning Springsteen fans, I feel a slight need to defend myself. Spring steen fans have been blamed for everything from the MX, social decay, trashing our beautiful campus, alarming our fine alumni, interfering with the almighty Big Red crowds, keeping handicapped people out of the union to possibly even the heartbreak of psoriasis. This is ridiculous. Sam Umland, Liz Burden, Kema Soderberg and others: who are any of you to throw stones? All of you can condemn others for lining up for concert tickets when we haven't done anything socially significant, but I can't help but wonder, "what's the connection?" Do we have to say a Hail Mary and protest something unjust to earn a trip to a concert? What's the price to visit relatives? You say, Umland (Daily Nebraskan, Nov. 7), you doubt this student body has done anything to prevent the MX in Nebraska, yet I doubt you or your fellow editorial stone throwers have done any more than I have. I am also opposed to the MX, and to U.S. policy in Central America, and am far from apathetic about it, but a concert in Lincoln is something I can see' and attend now. These social idealisms are not, and they have no relation to each other. Last but not least, there was KemaSoderberg's alleged editorial Oct. 26, which probably started this nonsense. Was there a neces sity for big headlines saying, "Boss Fans Wreck Campus Havoc?" Wreck havoc? If a tent in the grass means havoc to you I shudder to think of your reaction in a real crisis. So, the point of all this is that if , you have a legitimate gripe or complaint, by all means say it. The only way most problems get solved is when they are brought to light. But, to place blame on something unconnected or blown out of proportion is absurd. Leave the Springsteen fans alone. Your problems are not our fault, just as ours are not yours. Place blame where it belongs, not where it's convenient. Geoff McMurtry sophomore broadcasting THESE COUNTRIES m SEE AU1HE PQVSRTV ANPHUHeE&IREAy H V VIMI HI I If M 1 IT IN AMERICA i J Is 1 miflidMd oh J lit mm Memories e voke longing for boyhood days gone by "W t was yesterday. We rolled I down the last dusty mile in JL the old green station wagon and parked in the farmyard in front of the house. Grandma walk ed out, untying her apron, and Grandpa stood in the doorway. Both waited for the onslaught of children the green Ford was about to unleash. f .V ' i litis urbac t y n Daily r EDITOR GENERAL MANAGER PRODUCTION MANAGER PUBLICATIONS BOARD CHAIRPERSONS PROFESSIONAL ADVISER Chris Wcfcch, 472-17C3 Daniel Shattil Kitty Pollcky Nick Fclsy, 47S-C275 Angela fJietfcSd, 475-4S31 Don Wetton, 473-7301 The Daily Nebraskan (USPS 144-CSO) is published by the UNL Publica tions Board Monday through Friday in the fall and spring semesters and Tuesdays and Fridays in the summer sessions, except during vacations. Readers are encouraged to submit story ideas and comments to the Daiiy Nebraskan by phoning 472-2583 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The public also has access to the Publications Board. For informa tion, caii Nick Foley, 476-0275 or Angela Nietfield, 475-4331. Postmaster: Send address changes to the Daily Nebraskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 R St., Lincoln, Neb. 6S5S3-0443. Second class postage paid at Lincoin, NE6S510. ALL E.1 ATEP.1AL COPYRIGHT KZi DAILY ESHASXAN Grandma always hugged me first, I'm sure of it, and as I ran past Grandpa toward the kitchen for buttermilk and prune kuchen, he quietly said, "Christowhatfer" Grandpa always spoke quietly, except when Mike drove Dad's car into the ditch while having a little fun on the roads between the farm and our catfish lines in the Big Blue. But he must have been tempted to raise his voice when I spaced off my turn at Spit and Spite because of the suspense on "Jeopardy." "You playing cards or watching TV?" Grandpa asked. Pinochle was the big game in Grandpa's living room. Grandma taught me how to play pinochle in the kitchen while the big folks played around the card table with Grandpa in his rocking chair chew ing Redman. Grandma smelled like cinnamon roils, Grandpa like tobacco their house smelled like home. The cold upstairs bedroom had in it what Grandpa called a pee pot so we wouldn't have to go too far into the cold from the quilt- laden big brass bed. I fought with anyone who wanted to sleep with Grandma; once, when I lost, I tried to sleep under the big brass bed with the daddy longlegs. In the morning, after break fast, we ran to the barn to pet cows and watch them at the water tank! We climbed into the hay loft, where we played cow boys and cops and searched for tunnels. When the hay was high enough, we could swing from the pulley on the roof, slide abng the cable across the loft, let go of the hood at peak speed, fall into the hay and race to get back on the pulley. Back in the house, we played Chinese Checkers and listened to stories on Grandma's ample lap. We ate more kuchen and cinnamon rolls and spun around in the liv ing room swivel chair until it was time to go into town. We sat in one of Hebron's two bars, or both. Grandpa and Dad drank a beer and I had grape or strawberry Nesbitts and beer nuts. Everybody wore overalls and everybody knew Grandpa "Hey, Joe. Who's this? One of Max's?" . I wanted some overalls and a beer. But no Redman. We went back into town for mass on Sunday morning in Grandpa's '6-4 Ford Custom. Old Monsignor Rezabek looked and sounded the same at Grandpa's and Grandma's funerals as he did at their 50th wedding anniver sary "The Lord be with you," he drawled into the smell of cin namon rolls and chewing tobac co. Now only swallows fly through the hay loft. Nobody chases cows into the pond or shoots at toads with the old .22, and nobody is baking any prune kuchen in the kitchen. Somebody else cuts the milo and mends the fences, but nobody says "Christowhatfer." You can't go back, And I don't like it. I know it won't change, but I don't like it. Grandpa would say "Tain't funny." Tain't. Editorial . Policy Unsigned editorials represent official policy of the fall 1984 Daily Nebraskan. They are written by this semester's editor in chief, Chris Welsch. Other staff members will write editorials throughout the sem ester. They will carry the author's name after the final sentence. Editorials do not necessarily reflect the views of the university, its employees, the students or the NU Board of Regents. . The Daily Nebrsskan's pub lishers are the regents, who sta'blished'the UNL Publications Board to supervise the dally pro duction cf the newspaper. According to the policy set by the regents, responsibilkyfor the content cf the newspaper lies solely in the hands of its student editors. .