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September 24, 1987 University of Nebraska-Lincoln Vol. 87 No. 22
Parents, schools
battle book banning
By Kip Fry
Staff Reporter
While the Lincoln Public Schools are ob
serving Banned Books Week this week, one
Lincoln parent says the schools are acting
defensively.
“There is enough concern about the quality
of material that the school administration has to
defend their actions,” said Beverly Bennett.
Bennett and her husband have withdrawn their
own two junior-high-age children from public
schools to be taught at home.
‘I believe in my heart
that our kids have been
robbed.’
— Bennett
Bennett, a member of Tax Payers for Qual ity
Education, a Lincoln organization with 2(X)
members, maintains that there is no substance
in the public schools’ curriculum. She calls
many of the books “junk books.”
People for the American Way, a liberal anti
censorship group, recently released a report
that contended that Nebraska ranked first in the
nation in attempts to censor books.
“We’re trying to point out to the school
system that there needs to be more quality,”
Bennett said. Her efforts helped remove
“Quartsitc Trip” from the public schools’ li
brary, a book that she contends “incites lust and
sexual promiscuity.”
“Average people could gel cranked up eas
ily” reading the book, she added.
Bcnnell said she would like lo sec more
books by classic writers such as Robert Frost,
Walt Whitman and Carl Sandburg.
“I believe in my heart that our kids have been
robbed,” she said. “No one is challenged.” The
main priority of the school system, she said, is
to get students through school so they can
graduate, without any real emphasis on the
quality of education.
Banned Books Week is sponsored by na
tional groups such as the American Library
Association and the American Booksellers
Association. Lincoln Public Schools officials
placed the event on their calendar because they
thought it would be interesting, said Meg
Laucrman, assistant to the LPS superintendent
for communication services.
“We feel that the freedom to read is impor
tant,” Laucrman said. “Anything that has to do
with reading we support.”
It is important to distinguish between cau
tion and censorship and to realize that they arc
not synonymous, Laucrman said.
“As a parent, I hate to have someone else
decide what my kids read,” she said.
Bennett said she has been frustrated when
working with LPS because officials have taken
what she terms a “don’t-tcll-mc-what-to-do ’
altitude. While at one point in her life she
totally trusted the school system, she said she
can no longer do that.
“People there pride on being part of a plural
See BOOKS on 3
UNL student pleads innocent
to charges of sexual assault
A University of Ncbraska-Lincoln student
pleaded innocent Wednesday on charges of
sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl.
Ipalibo G. Wokoma, 25, was arrested Mon
day night after the victim’s mother, a former
girlfriend of Wokoma, reported the assault to
the police.
Lancaster County Court Thursday set
Wokoma’s bond at $10,000 at 10 percent,
provided he has no contact with the victim,
surrenders his passport to the court and has
daily contact with the Lancaster county
attorney’s office.
A court date was set for 9 a.m. Oct. 5.
Wokoma could face one to 50 years in
prison.
Wokoma, originally from Nigeria, said in
court Wednesday that he has been in the coun
try for five years and is married loan American,
said a spokesperson from Lancaster County
Court.
Crowd injuries prompt
UNL officials and students
to confront cup throwing
By Dorothy Pritchard
Senior Reporter
University of Ncbraska-Lincoln officials
arc launching an information campaign to end
cup-throwing fights at football games in
Memorial Stadium.
Jack Goebel, vice chancellor for business
and finance, said several UNL officials met last
week to discuss the cup throwing and decided
to handle it in the same manner they handled
orange throwing in recent years. They will
appeal to students.
“The most appropriate answer at this point is
to simply encourage the people in the stadium
to be considerate of one another,” Goebel said.
“We believe the typical Nebraska fan isn’t
going to do anything like that (throw cups) if
they know they might hurt someone.”
10 people were treated at the Sept. 12 Nc
braska-UCLA game for injuries related to cup
throwing. Several people got stitches for their
cuts.
Goebel said UNL officials appealed to stu
dents alter
oranges thrown during football games caused
injuries and “the response has been iremen
dous.”
ASUN President Andy Pollock, who at
tended the meeting,
said he will make a personal appeal to the
presidents of the
Greek houses and the Residence Hall Associa
tion.
“I hope the students lake it seriously,” Pol
lock said. “It’s just money being wasted. It
might be fun for a while, but there’s other ways
to have fun at football games. “
Bob Bruce, director of university informa
tion, said they will also flash scoreboard mes
sages to fans during the games and appeal to
UNL student organizations through the vice
chancellor for student affairs’ office. A letter
will be sent to several UNL organizations and
associations, Bruce said, as well as fraternities,
sororities and the residence halls.
“It’s gotten to the point where people arc
being injured,” Bruce said.
By appealing to spectators, UNL officials
hope stadium fans will be more “conscious of
their behavior,” Bruce said.
Goebel said officials are “weighing other
options” in ease the cup throwing continues.
Dotti Krist/Daily Nebraskan
The Mack Truck bulldog
Look, there’s a dog on my hood,
and there’s a demon in my toothpaste!
By Dan Dwinell
Staff Reporter
Labels, labels, labels. Consumers usually
take product logos for granted. But a closer
look can often dust off tidbits of company
history.
For instance, the bulldog on the hood of
a Mack truck symbolizes the product’s du
rability.
According to Larry Lewis, owner of
Lincoln’s Lewis Service Center Inc., which
sells and services Mack trucks, the trucks
were used in World War I. Many soldiers
said the trucks were tougher than English
bulldogs, Lewis said. After the war, the
Mack company began using the bulldog as a
hood ornament.
Several companies use a person to sym
bolize a company’s name.
Betty Crocker was born in the offices of
General Foods Inc., in 1921. The company
sponsored a Gold Medal Flour contest where
consumers asked questions about General
Foods products, said Kathryn Newton, a
public relations supervisor for the company.
In order to appear more credible to the
women who used the products, General
Foods created Miss Crocker. Betty was a
popular name, and Crocker was the last
name of the advertising executive who came
up with the idea.
In 1936 the first portrait of Betty was
painted, and the rest is history.
“It became a symbol of the quality of our
products, so it became a symbol for our
company,” Newton said.
Not all company labels are made up.
The name Sara Lee — found on assorted
desserts — came from the daughter of the
company’s founder. In 1949, Charlie Lubin
developed a new cream cheesecake to sell,
but he wanted a special name for it. He and
his wife were fond of their little girl’s name
— Sara Lee.
According to Betty McCarthy of the
Consumer Services Departmental Sara Lee,
Lubin started the Kitchens of Sara Lee and
began to sell other products, including Pe
can All Butter Coffee Cake. In 1956 the
label was sold ^Consolidated Foods. The
company changed its name to Sara Lee Inc.
in 1985 and is now a Fortune 500 company.
A 14-year-old Bavarian named Oscar F.
Mayer came to America in 1873. Mayer
spent the next 10 years as a Detroit
“butcher’s boy” and later worked in .
Chicago’s stockyards.
With the help of his brothers Gottfried
and Max, Mayer leased a failing meal mar
ket in 1883. First-day sales were an impres
sive $59. Five years later, the market was so
popular the owner refused to renew their
lease to cash in on the success.
The Mayers opened their own business,
and today the company operates a major
plant on the site.
A man named Boiardc opened a restau
rant in 1929 in New York. American Home
See MACK on 3
