Friday, March 20, 1987
Page 4
Daily Nebraskan
On, O
Q.
abraskan
University ot Nebraska-Lincoln
Plain foic
Commit surplus
The UNL administration argues
that the $6.2 million student-fee
surplus (or slush
fund) is "good financial man
agement." We'll grant that pre
mise. The surplus developed from'
unforeseen revenues generated
after the late 1960s. Currently
money can be borrowed from the
fund only for new buildings, like
the student recreation centerin
door practice field. This money
could be only a loan and would
be paid back by ticket surcharges.
That sounds fair enough.
The concern arises with respect
to what happens in the year 2001
(strains of Strauss's "Also Sprach
Zarathustra" begin welling up in
the background now). In that
year, the bonds that the fund
apys for will be paid off, and any
surplus left will be turned over
to the Board of Regents.
2001 sounds like a long time
away, but it's only 14 years into
the future, and that's not so far
away.
Considering that the slush
fund came about from students
thinking they were paying for the
support of the university, a
commitment should be made
now to commit these funds for
Letter
Condoms no guarantee against AIDS
With the advent of spring break, I
thought it would be appropriate to
keep my fellow students up to date on
AIDS research. An interesting piece of
research appeared in the Journal of
American Medical Association (Feb. b)
written by Dr. Fischl (and others) from
the University of Miami School of Medi
cine, regarding the transmission of the
AIDS virus between spouses through
sexual contact. Fischl found that hus
bands or wives of infected persons who
have sex with their spouses without
using a condom usually contracted
AIDS. The AIDS virus was transmitted
in 8b' percent (12 of 14) of the cases
studied. Heterosexual contact with
the use of a condom resulted in 10
percent (1 of 10) of the spouses being
infected with the AIDS virus. In those
cases where the spouse abstained from
sexual contact, none of the spouses
were infected with the virus. The partic
ular point of interest here is the 10
percent who were infected even though
they used a "safe" sexual practice. The
10 percent infection rate is interest
ingly similar to condom-failure rates
given in discussion of contraceptive
methods.
What are my conclusions?
O We are often told to use condoms
in order to have "safe sex." It appears
that there is some risk even with con
doms. Since contraction of the AIDS
virus often results in death, 10 percent
is too high a risk. Education should be
aimed at reorienting our society to
think in terms of long-term monogam
Letter Policy
The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief
letters to the editor from all readers
and interested others.
Letters will be selected for publica
tion on the basis of clarity, originality,
timeliness and space available. The
Daily Nebraskan retains the right to
edit all material submitted.
Jeff Korbelik, Editor, 472-1766
James Rogers, Editorial Paye Editor
Lise Olson, Associate News Editor
Mike Reilley, Niyht News Editor
Joan Rezac, Copy Desk Chief
2
to academics
the future support of academic
aspects of UNL If the money
were placed, say, in an endow
ment fund, that would represent
at least one step toward finan
cial independence for the univer
sity. Of course, the objection is
that we don't know what finan
cial state the school will be in at
that time; economic prosperity
could return to the state, and
legislative purse strings could
again be open. Nonetheless, the
commitment of the funds toward
an academic endowment should
come now.
Given our current experience,
we know what cutbacks mean for
a school financially tied to the
whims of the unicameral. If times
were better, that would be the
best time to commit the funds
for future downturns in the
economy.
Everybody complains about the
lack of long-run planning. This
surplus fund represents the pos
sibility of developing a large pool
of money that the Legislature
wouldn't be able to touch. Plans
should begin now to increase
and foster the fund, but only if it
will be used for the future excel
lence of UNL.
ous relationships, not just condom use.
O Those who promote promiscuous
sexual behavior are, in part, responsi
ble for the spread of the AIDS virus.
Those in advertising need to see their
social responsibility and stop using sex
appeal as the major advertising scheme.
We need to choose to stop supporting
those companies who use sex to sell
products.
O There are still too many unan
swered questions about the transmis
sion of AIDS. There needs to be a con
certed national effort to coordinate
and fund medical research aimed at a
cure for the infected as well as eluci
dation of the transmission mechanisms.
In all the cases in this study, the
virus was transmitted through simple
heterosexual practices. It is not a new
revelation that the virus is no longer
confined to the homosexual popula
tion. One dangerous aspect of the AIDS
virus is that a person can be carrying it
for years and not know it. This study
also points out that females who have
AIDS can transmit the disease to males
as readily as the other direction. If I
wanted to catch the virus, I would go on
spring break with my mind set on hav
ing numerous or casual sexual expe
riences, mistakenly thinking that I am
safe because I've got a good supply of
condoms. (Don't take my word for it,
read the research.)
Kent Roberson
graduate student
agronomy
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Submit material to the Daily Ne
braskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1 400 R St.,
Lincoln, Neb. 68588-0448.
Prejudice will always prevail in 'Tupperivare-time' America
Rows of small, quaint shops, stu
dents, protesters and panhandlers
litter the sidewalks of Telegraph
Avenue in Berkeley, Calif. Twenty years
ago, this small college town north of
San Francisco became the home of '60s
radicalism and everything that makes
up the term "progressive." Today, it
still leads the league in liberalism.
As I walked through the streets in
early January, I was amazed by the
sense of freedom that seemed to flow
through the temperate winter air. Most
of the students were on Christmas
break, but a lot of people were still out.
' . f.. r . . .
Street vendors selling their goods. A
man asking for donations for the anti
apartheid fund. Burned-out street peo
ple asking passersby for a spare quar
ter. Gay couples strolling arm in arm.
Punkers blaring their boomboxes. Yup
pies sitting on benches reading New
Age magazines. And a group of men
playing bongos.
Of course, I thought this isn't typical
collegiate America Berkeley is merely
an idealistic paradise isolated by its
radical ideologies and attitudes.
When the NOFAG party article was
published in the DN last week, I wasn't
at all surprised. How typical of UNL, I
thought. There comes a time when one
hears about so much idiocy that it
becomes routine. Eventually you start
to give up worrying about it and instead
delve into your own little world and
your own circle of friends who share
your sentiments.
Monday, The Associated Press ran a
national wire story about the unwel
come trend of bigotiy on college cam
puses across the country. It cited the
following incidents:
O On Jan. 26, a cross was burned in
front of Purdue University's Black Cul
tural Center. On Feb. 19, the words
"death nigger" were carved into the
office door of a counselor in the School
of Sciences.
O Bates College in Lewiston, Maine,
canceled classes on March 4 and held
an all-day teach-in on sexism after two
male students pinned condoms and a
picture of a penis on a female profes-
Iranscam sinks Reagan's reputation
while administration jumps off-board
Like a direct hit on a battleship, the
IranContra affair landed squarely
on the Reagan administration and
caused extensive damage. Some crew
members (Poindexter, North) were
killed outright; others (Regan) died
later of their wounds. The captain him
self was injured, though not fatally.
What remain are the jobs of damage
assessment and damage control. How
many guns have been knocked out? Is
the steering mechanism still working?
Can anything, or everything, be repaired?
Just how badly (to abandon the met
aphor) has President Reagan been huit
by this whole controversy? In some
respects, very deeply indeed; in others,
much less so.
Of course, one's estimate of the
damage to President Reagan will depend
to some extent on one's notion of
exactly what there was to damage. If,
like writer Garry Wills, you think of
Ronald Reagan as essentially just an
illusionist a bemused purveyor of
amiable dreams then, like Wills, you
will conclude that little has been lost,
because there was so little there to
lose: Reagan has not so much collapsed
as simply "evanesced."
Others, however friend and foe
alike take a more serious view.
Before the Iran affair, President Rea
gan bestrode the political landscape
like a colossus. His enemies feared his
popularity and his famous "Teflon
coating," which prevented criticism
from sticking to him personally. His
admirers were looking forward to the
victory, in 1988, of whichever Republi
can could best persuade the voters that
he was a clone of Ronald Reagan.
All of these attitudes are now open
to serious question. At a minimum, the
liberals have stopped being mortally
or's door.
O University of Chicago oflicials
reported in December 1986 that a
stream of anti homosexual mail was
sent to homosexual students' friends
anH families, including Christmas cards
wishing all homosexuals dead.
O A University of Colorado frater-
nity recently distributed a poster on
Martin Luther King's birthday of a
black woman with the caption "Come
Play With Me!"
"I think it's clearly part of a national
mnnd." said Robert Johnson, director
of minority studies at St. Cloud State
it : "I tliinl
University in Minnesota. "I just think
the Reagan administration has made it
easier to express these sentiments."
Scott
Harrak
"J
f
The incidents the article reported
on were only a sampling of the bigotry
that prevails on campuses today. UNL
is, of course, not immune to such acts,
It is nothing we haven't heard before,
Bigotry is an American tradition, fueled
by the WASP values of suburbia and
traditional gender and racial roles. The
'60s opened our eyes to what we had
been doing for decades, but it didn't
change the world for eternity. Narrow
minds will prevail as long as there are
anxieties, misunderstandings and pre
judices to fuel them.
For too long I've been fooling myself
into believing that we can somehow
change America's attitudes. I've finally
realized that we' can't.
There will always be people who get
enjoyment out of making fun of people
who are already struggling to cope with
the mainstream America that fills col
lege campuses, corporations, the govern
ment and the bureaucracy. Today it's
the NOFAG boys; tomorrow it will be
something or somebody else. I can't see
why some are so threatened by women,
afraid of Reagan. ('The magic," Lou
Cannon of the Washington Post exulted,
"is gone.") They are happily at work
constructing new and discreditable
concepts of their tormentor as a
devious and deliberate liar, as a senile
nonentity, etc. And conservatives must
necessarily wonder whether, when they
invoke his name in future years, they
will be evoking memories better left
unevoked.
William
A.
Rusher
The net effect of the Iran controversy
on Reagan's personal reputation prob
ably will have to await the conclusion
of the various probes now under way.
But what about its effect on the ability
of his administration to launch new
policies or promote existing ones?
This, oddly enough, probably will be
small though only because the
prospects for governmental gridlock
were bordering on certainty anyway,
after the Democrats captured control
of the Senate last November.
In areas where Reagan can call the
shots without having to ask permission
of Congress e.g., short-term military
operations or negotiations with the
Soviet Union I would counsel his
conservative friends not to be unduly
discouraged: This president has not
lost his appetite for active competition
with the Soviet Union, nor is he about
to give away the store.
Looming behind the fascinating
1
--. -u. V
uiueicm idica ui acAuai preieiences,
When people like the members of the
NOFAG party start announcing their
ridiculous hang ups about a cultural
minority, we should laugh instead of
protest. The reason? It's their uninten-
tional way of showing how false, cor-
rupt and insecure the WASP "majority"
truly is. That's right, boys, the joke is on
you. The "fags" aren't the funny ones
you are. The "fags" are already
damned to the depths of hell, so why
bother? You instead showed us all that
some "limp-wristed pansy sickos"
threaten you There's no need to feel
that ucjv VVhv cnmoi w vmi'll linn
that way. Why, someday you'll live a
normal life, marry some hot babe and
have children. And soon your wife will
become fat and start hosting Tupper
ware parties, while you struggle from 9
to 5 to pay for your dwelling on the
outskirts of town and the new micro
wave. And there will be church ice
cream socials and block parties to
attend. You'll have to bring a covered
dish like all the rest of the neighbors.
When you're all old and gray, you'll be
able to say to yourselves, "Gee, haven't
we lived a a normal life!" So don't feel
so bad about all those minorities.
They'll never be invited to your block
parties anyway. When you see those
"horrible niggers" on the street, don't
panic! They'll be forced to live in the
ghetto and also won't be invited to your
block parties or ice-cream socials.
So when you see all those awful
minorities living their sleazy, uncon
ventional live, just relax and be satis
fied knowing that you're lucky enough
to live a normal life. Unlike those
cretins.
So the next time you see a "fag"
making eyes at you or some "nigger" or
"redskin," think of how deprived they
are and feel pity instead of fear. They'll
never know the unparalleled glory of
eating a casserole out of a Tupperware
serving dish. Just don't be the one to
serve the food, guys.
That's women's work.
Harrah is a UNL senior English and
speech major and the Daily Nebraskan
arts and entertainment editor.
question of the immediate political
consequences of the Iran controversy is
the larger and much graver issue of
what it implies about the sheer ineffi
ciency of the American form of govern
ment as a means of coping with the
modern world.
Every president must devise policies
to deal with foreign problems. Every
Congress will insist, not unreasonably,
on being consulted if American funds,
let alone lives, are to be expended in
pursuit of those policies. A system of
government under which the presid
ency and the Congress can be, and usu
ally are, dominated by rival political
parties, and in which the media use
their publicizing ability and emotional
influence without restraint for partisan
purposes, may be a great way to maxim
ize human freedom, but in policy terms
it is a prescription for paralysis and (all
too often) disaster.
When the ashes of the Iran controv
ersy are cold, and its dramatis perso
nae have all received their respective
rewards and penalties, this country
will have to confront and, if it is to
survive, resolve that underlying problem.
1987, Newspaper Enterprise Assn.
Rusher is the publisher of the National
Review.
Editorial Policy
Unsigned editorials represent offi
cial policy of the fall 19S& Daily Nebras
kan. Policy is set by the Daily Nebras
kan Editorial Board. Its members are
Jeff Korbelik , editor; James Rogers,
editorial page editor; Lise Olsen, asso
ciate news editor, Mike Reilley, night
news editor and Joan Rezac, copy desk
chief.