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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 14, 1986)
Monday, April 14, 1986 Daily Nebraskan Society becoming conformist Two items in the April 9 Daily Nebraskan sparked my thoughts into writing this let ter. The first item was Jim Rogers' column that started off with a discussion of malaise. I must admit that I didn't even read much past the beginning of the article. The discussion of malaise was enough. Malaise is a feeling that has come over me with increasing frequency in the last several months. The cause, I feel, is the wave of conser vatism that has come to pass since President Reagan took office. I have trouble figuring out how the radical hippie generation of the 1960s has grown up to produce this conservative society. Guest Opinion My personal observation of this society which I have considered possibly to be just the result of an early mid-life crisis is that an aimless zest for exploring life is missing. The seriousness with which people appear to be approaching their daily activities seems astound ing. The piousness that is used to defend this style is nauseating. Pot smoking is once again considered a devil's activity, even in the past tense. The word "drugs" is practically as hush-hush as is the word "sex" in church. Pro-choice people are murderers. Criticizing the government is un American. If we aren't careful, the United States will have a "sea of red" knocking at its southern bordei. And most insidious of all, Congress has held a hearing to disuss the content of rock 'n' roll lyrics. Roll over Thomas Jefferson! As a youngster in the '60s, I grew up watching the Vietnam body counts and hearing hippies advocate the rejection of "the system." This sys tem, it was told, was producing robotic people all of the same nature. The establishment dictated the one, right set of morals, and the one, right way to be. The '60s were supposed to change all that. A new society was to be born that let people be what they wanted to be. It was to be a society that rejoiced in the diversity of people. Mutual respect of differences was to replace antagonism and discrimination. But what happened? Did the bulk of the hippie generation shun the system, and after standing toe-to-toe with the desperate reality of life revert back to the security of June Cleaver? This reversion is what DN columnist James Sennett has advocated. It appears that time has gone backward. Peo ple again are preaching a "single way to be." Military spending is up to be sure that this single way makes it. Born-again nuclear testing is our insurance policy. I remember reading an article somewhere a long time ago that said the Midwest tends to produce creative people because it has no strong identity like the South, New England or South ern California. The lack of identity, in a sense, let people become whatever they felt like because there were no guidelines. I challenge the people who read this to find their own guidelines and to fight proudly for the right to test the ones given to them. The second time that spurred this letter was the picture of Frank Zappa wearing a tie. Joe Haley graduate student economics Letters Greeks contribute for more than one reason In response to John J. Lowry's letter (Daily Nebraskan, April 9) on the philanthropy projects of Greeks at UNL, I wish to make the following comments. First, I would like to acknowledge the admir able contributions that U.S. fraternities and sor orities make to various local and national chari ties, but we must examine further the other purposes for the energy Greeks spend on philan thropy. Lowry should reassess his definition of phi lanthropy. To me, and I believe most others, philanthropy is the free giving of time, effort or money for a humanitarian cause with no other goal than to help the particular cause. Lowry openly admits by writing his letter cri ticizing the amount of DN coverage UNL Greeks Contraception is 'waste of money' receive for their "good deeds" that one of the major goals is to get publicity and recognition for a particular house or for the Greek system as a whole. I think most will agree that true philan thropists give out of kindness, not selfishness. Last, I ask the members of the Greek system to re-evaluate the reasons they are involved in philanthropy projects. Most will openly admit it is because they care or are civic-minded, but are you not also under pressure from your individual national fraternities or sororities, councils and house officers to perform charitable acts to gain recognition and prestige? Scott Reighter sophomore political science "The health center's birth control pills are about 80 percent cheaper than those at the average community pharmacy." That was the opening line of a front page article in the April 13 DN. This is "kind of a courtesy thing," according to the article. Also, "by providing the pill at an affordable price, big companies may be keeping some students in school." Why not take this "affordable" money and use it to help with the cost of schooling instead of wasting it on the pill or any other form of birth control? Can't students live without sex until they are married? Even after marriage, you can live very happily without artificial contraception. Basically, what is being said between a couple who uses a form of birth control is, "I love you, except for your fertility." Don't we have enough control over our own bodies? If we don't, we are lowering ourselves to the level of an animal, like a dog. It also was stated that "the student also feels secure with the pill's 99 percent effectiveness rate." What about the 1 percent? There is only one form that is 100 percent effective, and that is abstention. Why did the student have to "hide her birth control pills from her mother and be careful about who she tells"? Her conscience must be telling her it isn't right, or else she wouldn't have to do this. It's too bad that the negative publicity about the side effects of the pill is wearing off. It's still wrong to use something that isn't pro-life, and the side effects still exist. I fail to see how the pill or any other artificial contraception lets humans "be fruitful and mul tiply." Mark Maresh junior ag economics Lack of industrial policy hurts COHEN from Page 4 the oil industry. In a scale based upon need, it is not even the independents or their inves tors and certainly not the major producers or distributors. Instead, it is the people who are out of work, the many thousands of them in the industry and all the rest who rely on the industry in one way or another. They hardly get mentioned. In fact, you would think that the Texas unemployment rate of 8.4 percent is comprised of nothing but capped wells. In a national TV appearance, White acted as if to mention people would be an insult to Texas' spirit. Nonsense. Once again, the Reagan admin istration's refusal to have even a semblance of an industrial policy is ruining the lives of thousands, maybe millions, of people. Workers who had lost their jobs in the mills of the North not so long ago were told to stop crying, enlist in the army of the Protestant Ethic and march to the Sun Belt. That's where there were jobs aplenty, a cornucopia of entrepre neurial opportunity. Now some of the same people who went South to work, are out of work. Time to hit the road again. These are the invisible people of the cur rent oil crisis or boom depending, of course, on how you look at it. They almost never get mentioned and the plea for either higher prices or an import fee is almost never made in their name. Conservative dogma has so permeated the American fabric that it is considered just plain dreamy to say that peo ple are being hurt and lives ruined. I can't tell you what the proper course for the government should be whether is should intervene or allow the market to work its (black?) magic. I do know that out in oil country, which is unusually also cattle and farming country, a depression has settled over the land. The economic tripod of a region has been kicked out from under it and George Bush and Mark White notwithstand ing it is not national security that is suffer ing, but the people who live there. No one has put a cap on their pain. 1S8S, Washington Post Writers Group Cohen writes an editorial column for the Wash ington Post. r N ii , -. v. . n X Paul VonderlageDaily Nebraskan It's a bird, it s a plane . . . . . . it's Christi Dewhirst, a sophomore in Teachers College, preparing to land in the arms of her partner Todd Wheeler, right, a sophomore agricul ture major. The action took place Saturday in the Yell Squad tryouts at the Bob Devaney Sports Center. AND TAPES! Top Artists! Major Labels! Our sale on classic records and tapes is going on NOW! (R(o) (Q(o HURRY for the best selections at big discounts! The BOOKSTORE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA Books n' more! Lower Level, Union Plaza, 14th & R 472-7301 Monday-Friday 8:00 a.m.-S :30 p.m. Saturday 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. Closed Sundays Services Available: Copying, Photoprocessing, Typewriter Rental, Western Union, Special Orders, Out-of-Print Book Search. Gift Certificates Bookstore Postal Service Page 5
