Friday, February 21, 1986
Page 4
Daily Nebraskan
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Film shows war's reality
u;
NL students can see what
some critics call "one of
the best movies ever made"
this weekend at the Sheldon
Film Theatre.
With the J)1 hour documen
tary film about the holocaust of
World War II comes a lesson
often forgotten: People must keep
memories of atrocities vivid in
their memories so they have lit
tle chance of recurring in the
future.
"Shoah" takes the viewer to
the scene of the infamous con
centration camps. It includes
interviews of survivors from those
camps and interviews with former
SS officers who reflect on how it
felt to help kill the Jewish vic
tims of Hitler's insanity.
More than 40 years have passed
since World War II; 30 since the
Korean War. Few UNL students
probably remember much detail
of any war. Few remember how it
felt to lose relatives in war.
Ellis Island
Build tributes, not
Chrysler chairman Lee
Iacocca's battle over Ellis
Island cost him ajob, but it
might have helped preserve a
historic U.S. landmark.
Iacocca, who was fired as chair
man of the Statue of Liberty
advisory commission, protested
the commercialization of Ellis
Island. The 27-acre island was
the first taste of America for
about 16 million immigrants, in
cluding Iacocca's parents.
The National Park Service
wanted to use only nine acres of
the island as a monument to
Locker rooms
The Daily Nebraskan has re
ceived several letters ex
pressing students' concerns
about the men's and women's
locker rooms in the Coliseum.
Their complaints of dirt and
dilapidation are warranted.
A walk through the locker
rooms shows walls that need
painted, broken lockers and dirt
in corners. One man even was
caught by the campus police
peeping through a hole in the
wall into the women's locker
Editorial Policy
Unsigned editorials represent
official policy of the spring 1986
Daily Nebraskan. Policy is set by the
Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board. Its
members are Vicki Ruhga, editor,
Ad Hudler, editorial page editor,
Thorn Gabrukiewicz, managing edi
tor; James Rogers, editorial asso
ciate and Chris Welsch, copy desk
chief.
Editorials do not necessarily re
flect the views of the university, its
Vickl Buhgi, Editor, 472-1766
Thom Gabrukiewicz, Managing Editor
Ad Hudlf r, Editorial Page Editor
Jimes Rogers, Editorial Associate
Chris Wel.vh, Copy Desk Chief
Some newspaper columnists
over the years have expressed
concern that the country's pros
pective leaders college stu
dents have little insight about
international conflict because,
they haven't experienced any of
the ramifications and sadness
associated with war. For that
reason, some theorize, those
people won't be as careful or
reluctant to avoid such problems
in the future. Through age, we
easily become removed from the
past.
That is why it's important for
people to continually learn about
the past. That's why the media
covered the anniversary of the
fall of Saigon so heavily. Society
learns from its past mistakes.
"Shoah" lasts m hours. Part
one will be shown at 12:30 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday. Part two
will be shown at 7 p.m. on those
days.
tax shelters
ethnic groups. The rest of the
island would have been converted
to a hotel and conference center.
To many immigrants and their
children, the island is as impor
tant a symbol of U.S. freedom as
the Statue of Liberty.
Instead of turning the island
into a tax shelter for the rich,
government officials should build
a tribute to the United States'
melting pot of cultures.
Iacocca lost a job, but he
stood up for what he thought was
best for the United States.
room.
UNL students pay fees that
supposedly help pay for building
maintenance and repair. True,
with recent budget cuts, UNL
maintenance officials can't do
any extensive renovations, but
simple detergent or plaster
doesn't require much money.
Several UNL athletic teams
use the Coliseum to compete
with teams from other universi
ties. Deteriorating facilities don't
speak well of UNL.
employees, the students or the NU
Board of Regents.
The Daily Nebraskan's publish
ers are the regents, who established
the UNL Publications Board to super
vise the daily production of the
paper.
According to policy set by the
regents, responsibility for the edi
torial content of the newspaper lies
solely in the hands of its student
editors.
dirty
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OF COURSE I5EfWWI5... WHO
know when siA m mum a mm wsi
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Nice car, cute children, a wife at home, and missiles
T!
I here is a mythical land not too far
away that we all can visit. Come
with me. I'll take you there and I
promise I'll bring you back. I promise.
The place is called Ronny's World.
To get there, we take a mythical trip
into the mind of president Ronald
Reagan.
When Ronny thinks of his world,
(Oh, it is a beautiful image) we see
visions of peace, rainbows and silver
lined clouds. But this is only a facade,
and behind this facade is reality. But
let's not talk reality. Ronny doesn't.
Imagine with me a scene in Ronny's
World.
In this scene, we see a cute two-story
home at the foot of a rainbow, beneath
silver-lined clouds. Isn't it pretty? A car
drives up to the cute little home and a
man steps out in an attractively-tailored
dark blue suit, a white man. See, there
are no minorities in Ronny's World and
so no need for affirmative action pro-
grams.
As the man (Daddy, we 11 call him)
steps out of his car, two cute little
children and a dog run over to greet
him. The children bounce around joy
full as Daddy walks to the house.
And it is a nice house. In Ronny's
World, everybody has a nice house.
Since Ronny doesn't seem to see
homeless people, we don't see any pro
visions for them in his world.
Oh, look. There is an attract ive woman
in a size 4 designer house dress step
ping onto the porch of the home. Isn't
Nerds get revenge: Athletes to study
In Texas, high school athletes are
being asked to pass their courses
before suiting up for games. In
Georgia, a one-time teacher won a $2.6
million award from the University of
Georgia after being fired for opposing
favored treatment for athletes, and the
NCAA has raised eligibility require
ments for athletes. Something is hap
pening. Call it the "Revenge of the
Nerds."
All across the nation, high-school
and college sports programs are being
scrutinized and awful things are being
found. A professional football player,
an alumnus of a fine school, is arrested
and found to be functionally illiterate.
College coaches complain their ath
letes are graduating from high school
unable to read play books. At the Uni
versity of Georgia, the now-celebrated
Jan Kemp says that athletes were
admitted who received a flat 400 score
on their college boards what you get
for merely having a pulse.
Cynics can celebrate. America can
claim to have abolished sexism in the
exploitation of young people. Both men
and women are now exploited for their
bodies catching passes in their own
distinctive ways. But pardon me for
suspecting that the effort to reform
POHffNeiL
no is nonar aw
she attractive? Let's call her Mommy.
Mommy wipes ner nanus on tne disn-
towel she is carrying and smiles plea
santly as she pecks Daddy on the
cheek. Then Mommy shoos the entire
family into the house for dinner.
Mommy has spent four hours prepar
ing dinner. Mommy doesn't work out
side the home. She enjoys doing this for
her family. No women work outside
their homes in Ronny's World. In Ron
ny's mind they don't need to.
Randy
Donner
During dinner, Daddy reads the news
paper. Mommy sees a story concerning
a "wall" of missiles that is being built
around the country to protect Daddy
and his family from an evil empire.
Mommy wonders about the necessity of
such a thing. Finally she asks, "Dear,
why do we have to build a wall of mis
siles against our enemies? Aren't we
supposed to be at peace? That doesn't
sound like peace to me."
Daddy, astounded that Mommy com-
mented on such a matter, pauses before
he answers.
"Well, dear, you women just can't
understand missiles, defense, or polit-
ics."
school sports had little to do with
exploitation of men, women or in
particular blacks. It has to do,
instead, with the nagging sense that
the nerds were right all along: that we
have been celebrating the wrong values.
Richard
Cohen
The thing about excellence in sports
is that it seems to be, and very often is,
a gift. You either have it or you don't. If
you have it, and if you're young, you
don't have to work very hard at it. Cer
tainly that is the message conveyed by,
say, Jim McMahon, the quarterback for
the Chicago Bears. He drinks, he par
ties and he hits his receiver the next
morning.
That sort of thing makes sports a
target. The U.S. celebration of the
extemporaneous, of the carefree of
all things associated with youth has
cost us. Japan, to us a nation of nerds,
is beating us all over the place. The
Japanese may play baseball well and
f
aw
"You're probably right," Mommy
responds, pondering the thought.
"Would you like some more roast
duck?"
See, in Ronny's World women aren't
involved in politics. Nor are they sup
posed to be able to think rationally
about politics. In fact, women aren't
supposed to think about anything at
all, except their families and their
homes.
The oldest child pipes up and asks
her daddy to explain the phrase "poor
people" that she read in a history book.
Daddy, of course, knows how to answer.
"Poor people," he says, "are some
thing that we don't have. We used to,
but then the government quit provid
ing assistance for the poor people to
live. So, we don't have them anymore."
"Oh," she said, not knowing what to
think.
The rest of the meal was silent.
Mommy and her daughter thought about
justice and peace (but didn't voice
their thoughts), and Daddy kept his
nose in the newspaper.
Now that we've had this brief view of
Ronny's World, it is time' for us to leave.
Come back to reality with me. Of
course, this trip was pure fantasy. But
sometimes fantasy parodies reality.
Isn't it unfortunate that Ronnv's idea of
reality is a fantasy,
Donner is a senior journalism major and
a Daily Nebraskan associate night news
editor.
ski like champs, but in this country
they are seen as the antithesis of what
youth culture stands for. They work
hard. They study. A U.S. student gets an
average of a half-hour a day in home
work; in Japan it's two hours. In the
United States, 32 percent of 4-year-olds
attend school. In Japan the figure is
63 percent. The typical U.S. student
has one year of high school math; in
Japan it's three.
The figures don't necessarily speak
for themselves, but the results do: The
average U.S. student is spoiled. That is
the popular judgment, too, of the U.S.
woker, especially the blue-collar worker
the ones who made all those shoddy
cars. It hardly matters that both the
worker and the student are scapegoats
for awful decisions made by others
(management, school boards). The fact
remains that the judgment is in: Amer
ica has to work harder. Japan, for one,
says so.
The result is that sports has become
something of a scapegoat. As George
town's basketball coach, John Thomp
son, has pointed out, the real problem
is not the occasional athlete who enters
college an illiterate and exists the
See COHEN on 5