Page 4
Friday, February 6, 1987
Daily Nebraskan
rial
Nebraskan
University ol Nebraska-Lincoln
Issnies meed results
Debate falls on deaf ears
The student-regent vote, the
recreational center, the al
cohol policy, night busing
and library funding. At the Daily
Nebraskan we call these issues,
"ASUN issues that never die," or
"UNL issues that the adminis
tration tends to ignore."
Three student parties, AIM,
NUdeal and UNITE, have an
nounced their candidacies for
the ASUN elections on March 11.
If you look closely at their
respective platforms, the items
look strangely familiar to those
presented last year by ASUN par
ties and to those presented the
year before that.
ASUN and these parties are
not to be criticized for their per
sistence. These issues are im
portant to the UNL community
and should be addressed. The
problem is that students are
making the only effort. Their voi
ces are falling on deaf ears and
have been for several years. Maybe
the administration is listening,
but where are the results?
Student-regent vote: ASUN
has attempted to become more
active on the Board of Regents
and feels a vote can be an influ
ence. The regents seem to feel
otherwise. ASUN is attempting
Ethics questioned
Politician pay-raise halt may be joke
The bad reputation of politi
cians as sleazes is some
times deserved. This week's
vote by the House of Representa
tives on a resolution to stop its
own pay increase is a prime
example. The vote did not stop
the pay increase from taking
effect.
Only if a resolution opposing
the pay increase is passed by the
Senate and the House within ;30
days of the president's action is
the proposal halted. While the
Senate voted against the pay
increase within the requisite
amount of time, the House's vot e
came on the 31st day after the
president's action was taken.
Representatives want to have
Tents keep camping
Table 'billboards' express ideas
Recently, the Union Board
refused to limit the access
of all student groups to
"table tents" in union dining
areas. Their action should be
applauded.
Table tents are those small
cardboard billboards that hide
the salt and pepper shakers on
union dining tables. They're used
for announcing events and giving
messages related to groups'
activities.
After some table tents con
taining a religious message were
Editorial Policy
Unsigned editorials represent
ofilc'ial policy of the spring 1987 Daily
Nebraskan. Policy is set by the Daily
Nebraskan Editorial Board.
Jeff Korbelik, Editor, 472-1766
James Rogers, Editorial Page Editor
Lise Olson, Asswiate News Editor
Mike Reilley, Night News Editor
Joan Rozac, Copy Desk Chief
) garner the vote again this
jar.
Recreation center: ASUN
has always supported a new
recreation center. But only now,
with the assistance of the NU
Foundation and the athletic
department, is the goal finally
being reached. What if the foot
ball team didn't need an indoor
practice field? Where would that
leave the recreation center?
Alcohol policy: Will this
ever get anywhere? UNL has a dry
campus, a psuedo-dry campus. If
you look hard enough, you can
find beer and liquor in just about
any residence hall, fraternity or
sorority. Currently, the alcohol
policy is being reviewed (drown
ing)' in an ASUN subcommittee
and probably will remain there
when the new ASUN executives
take office.
Night busing and library fund
ing are just two more things that
have been kicked around by
ASUN and the administration
with few results.
ASUN complains of student
apathy. But unless the gap is
bridged between students and
the administration, things will
not change. Students are getting
tired of hearing the same issues
and not seeing any results.
their cake and eat it too. They
want the salary increase, but
they want to be able to go back
to their home districts and say
that they weren't the ones re
sponsible; after all, they voted
against the pay increase. Hah,
hah.
It's not that congressmen don't
deserve a pay increase com
plaints about wages being too
low given the "two-household"
status of most congressmen are
justified. But they should be wil
ling to justify that to their con
stituencies if they really believe
in their moral desert and not
depend on empty, hypocritical
votes to ensure their own elec
toral security.
set out, some objections were
raised that the proclamation
made some members of the uni
versity community feel ill-at-ease.
A proposal was made to limit
their use only to listing the time
of events.
A commitment to the free flow
of ideas is especially important
in a university setting. That some
ideas made some people uncom
fortable is hardly a reason to
limit free exchanges. Kudos to
the board for rejecting such an
ill-advised proposal.
Editorials do not necessarily re-
fleet the views of the university, its
employees, the students or the NU
Board of Regents.
Ttofc was
The Ws is a decade
When political and cultural
climates become stagnant and
apathetic, the public either
creates a new perspective or casts its
sensibilities back to yesteryear. In the
'80s, we have somehow become the
paradigm of a lost generation. No, I'm
not talking about the breed of globe
trotting bohemians Gertrude Stein
labeled back in her halcyon days. I'm
also not referring to the Beat Genera
tion, caught up in revolutionary sub
version. The youth of 1987 would love to
be a part of those countercultures, but
that's where the problem lies.
The last few years of a decade often
define the character of the era. If any
thing, the '80s will most likely be
remembered as the age of nostalgia, a
time when the youth yearned to be part
of their elders' pasts. MTV has started
showing old Beatles cartoons every
weekend, and a new version of the
Monkees has been formed to placate
all the teenagers and college students
who wish that it was 1967 again. In the
process, we have somehow created a
decade where retroactivity reigns over
the political and cultural kingdom.
In the most fashionable nightclubs
in Europe, the kids currently go wild
over "retro nights" when the DJs spin
old Smokey Robinson and Supremes
tunes. And in Japan the '50s are in
vogue. Numerous news programs have
done features on the Japanese youth
and their penchant for mock "sock
hops," poodle skirts and the James
Dean look. I used to laugh at all the
UNL Greeks who go to see the Finnsters
play cover versions of old '60s songs
until I went to England and saw punkers
grooving to Lesley Gore and Donny
Osmond oldies.
From Lincoln to Lisbon, the kids are
trying to build a time machine back to
the good old days when things were
supposedly cool, hip and culturally
coherent. Even Madonna, perhaps the
biggest superstar in teendom, has built
a career around retroactive underpin
nings. She thinks she's the reincarna
tion of Marilyn Monroe, and she's
copied everything about the star
right down to the fake mole, the c heesy
giggle and the bleached hair.
It seems that in the '80s we've
adopted a VCR sensibility, thinking
that we can relive the past simply by
hitting a magical rewind button. Sud
denly, it's the '50s all over again. Get a
good job, buy a house in the suburbs
and live happily ever after, right ? Only
Letters
Pay hikes should
be up to the voters
The act of our elected federal repre
sentatives voting themselves a hefty
pay raise is again an event worthy of
news-media attention. Must be a slow
day. I would be astonished only it'
someone found this news to be "new."
Congress has a great disclaimer this
time. After the raise became effective
the congressmen voted for it not to
start. Good move, considering it is legal
nonsense. Now, if anyone asks, each
elected representative can say, "1 voted
against the raise." Ask your represen
tative a better question: "Who voted for
the bill that made the raise possible
the first time?" Each time Congress
starts a new session they ac t like they
were all just elected and haven't any
voting record. Never mind that they
have been in office from four to 40
years.
Maybe it is time for the public, the
people who elected these good men
and women, to regain a little control.
Those elected are state representa
tives: why not pay them from state
funds? Only, make it impossible for
them to vote themselves any raises. The
raises could be voted on during all
statewide elections. If you don't like
the job he or she is doing, then cut the
salary. If they need money to run their
offices then use state funds. But we'll
tlaen, m tints mow?
marked by retrospective redundancy
now women no longer try to cook like
Betty Crocker and look like Donna
Reed the '60s showed them how
absurd that was. Fast forward and
wham! it's 1967, the "Summer of
Love." Drag out Daddy's old dashiki
and Mom's old paisley scarves, drop
some acid, put on Jimi Hendrix and,
gee, aren't we psychedelic and mod? So
simple, isn't it?
Perhaps, the most sobering expe
rience I've ever gone through occurred
at a retro concert in Omaha last
December. The Byrds, the Turtles and
the Mamas and the Papas (minus
Mama Cass and Michelle Phillips)
played for a crowd of screaming,
nostalgia-loving yuppies.
"Don't ever let your kids become
hipper than you," screamed the Tur
tles' lead singer. "We had acid, love
ins, Hendrix and Woodstock. What do
they have? MTV. Did you check out
Annie Lennox's hairstyle? Billy Idol's
sneer? Yeah."
Scott
Harrah
The crowd of clean-cut, gray-flannel-frocked
fans squealed with approval.
When our parents begin to make fun
of our weak cultural identity, that's
when I get a bit ill.
It seems that we have become so
nonchalant in our political attitudes
that even the mistakes of our past are
seeping into the social fabric under
neath our nostaligic noses. The false
traditionalism and post-war patriotism
we eradicated in the '60s are slowly
coming back along with the styles and
the sounds of those eras. Instead of
moving forward and heading towards
new ideas and expressions of the state
of the world today, we are heading back
into the manifestations and idiocies
that defined a time we left behind.
Suddenly, McCarthyism is back.
Numerous right-wing groups and even
some feminists sent letters about por
nography to convenience-store chains
last summer. The Meese Commission
told the 7-Eleven chain that if it didn't
remove copies of Playboy from the
shelves, the public would be informed
that smut was for sale just down the
let the state auditor, the guy who by
law must make the state budget bal
ance each year, run the books.
The consequences of our act must be
examined. When each representative
loses at the polls, he or she should be
eligible for state unemployment, the
same as the rest of us.
"Do you get to retire when your boss
replaces you?"
Mike Miller
senior
engineering
Basham blasted;
views 'warped'
As I read Lee Basham's Feb. 4
column regarding the "conservative"
view of men, I was appalled by his total
lack of logic and evidence for his
statements. It would seem that the
reader should be awed by his great
knowledge and ability to think, yet it
becomes obvious that he is reaching for
evidence to justify his pseudo-intellectual,
left-wing claims and using the
Daily Nebraskan as a legitimate forum
to expound the trash.
His first point, that children are
defined as subhuman if a conservative
government reduces child support pro
grams, is mindless at best. Like taking
a quote out of context, Basham drops
this example in our laps without
explaining the background of the deci
V $
corner.
Later this month, Americans will be
subjected to 14 hours of anti-Commie
propaganda called "Amerika." And for
what reason?
If Reagan had been president in
1972, we would never have tolerated
Irangate. But in 1987, the attitude
seems to be, "Gee, Ron, you made a
mistake, but at least you were fighting
for democracy. Should we ask you to
resign or impeach you? Naw. You're
only human, but a true American who
will fight to the end against Commie
regimes."
What set the '60s apart from other
generations was its tremendous amount
of activity. In fact, the '60s youth was so
politically conscious that they would
jump onto any cause regardless of how
worthwile it was. Today, a "politically
conscious" people are more likely to
stand around proclaiming themselves
either "liberal" or "conservative" in
stead of taking an active role in issues.
This has been especially true at this
paper in the past few years.
And so we sit in our little time
machines, squeezing every symbol out
of the past that we can. We add color by
computer to old films to give them an
'80s premise. We make new versions of
old songs, packaging them as new pro
ducts for a new generation. By the end
of the decade, what will there be left to
rehash?
Perhaps we are all living in a time
redolent of Fitzgerald's "The Great
Gatsby," in which Gatsby says, "Can't
repeat the past? Why, of course you
can!" Such a belief eventually led to
Gatsby's destruction, but we are hardly
characters in a novel. We are, instead,
washed-out, lifeless figures rummaging
through the ashes of forgotten fires,
searching frantically for something that
is no longer palpable. A modern identity.
The last passage in "The Great
Gatsby" sums up the situation best,
for, like Gatsby, we have become fol
lowers of the green light:
". . . the orgiastic future that
yea r by year recedes before us. It
eluded us then, but that 's no mat
ter tomorrow we will run fas
ter, stretch out our arms farther
. . .And one fine morning So
we beat on, boats against the cur
rent, borne back ceaselessly into
the past. "
Harrah is a senior English and speech
major and t he Daily Nebraskan arts and
entertainment editor.
sion, hoping that we swallow his inter
pretation as true. But, of course, sub
stantiating his skin-deep intellectualism
is impossible, as it has no basis in fact.
He proceeds to make an all-encompassing
claim that conservatives have
treated humans horribly throughout
history, but again fails to support him
self with any evidence. He also seems
to have conveniently forgotten that
regimes that claim Marxism as their
guiding force have destroyed perhaps
50 million of their own citizens in
attempts to reshape society into that
left-wing Utopia.
Finally, his idea that fundamentalist
Christianity is the root of all this con
servative evil is beyond belief. Not to
mention his linking it with Stalinism
(which, if true, shows the left to be
equally as evil). Perhaps he overlooks
the many programs which we evil
Christians head to help the poor in
worldly and spiritual ways.
In conclusion,. Basham's rumblings
are symptomatic of the left's inability
to deal with a reality that does not
match their warped perception. They
simply blast their drivel at us, without
regard for facts, swallowing the intel
lectually weak. As a conservat ive, I do
not claim a monopoly on morality, but I
do make some attempt at objectivity
a lesson that is lost on Basham.
Kevin Terrell
Lincoln
