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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 2, 1987)
_Editorial_ Nebraska n University of Nebraska-Lincoln Mike Reilley, Editor, 472-1766 Jeanne Bourne, Editorial Page Editor Jen Deselms, Managing Editor Mike Hooper, Associate News Editor Scott Harrah, Night News Editor Joan Rezae, Copy Desk Chief Linda Hartmann, Wire Editor Snowball madness The party's over; enough is enough A Daily Nebraskan re porter who is a a mem ber of a University of Nebraska-Lincoln fraternity had a hard time studying Mon day night. It wasn’t because of loud music or talkative room mates. His concentration was broken, as well as the window in his room, by a piece of ice. The piece of ice was one of many items hurled at cars, Greek houses, residence halls and students that night. “I couldn’t believe it,” the re porter said. ‘‘There were people running all over the place, throwing bricks. I couldn’t be lieve how immature those people were.” Neithercan anyone else. Five arrests, about $10,(XX) in dam age and a few injuries resulted from the annual snowball fight between residents in Greek houses and residence halls. What started as harmless fun has snowballed into flat-out vandalism. There’s no excuse for what happened on this cam pus the last few days. And the immature behavior has spilled over beyond the snowball fight. Just take a look at today’s letters to the editor. The Greeks are blaming the resi dence-hall students. The resi dence-hall students arc blaming the Greeks. Folks, it really doesn’t matter who started it. All that matters is how to stop it. Ir students are to stay, state should offer move In a roundtable discuss ion with high-school students. Gov. Kay Orr said she hopes students will stay in Nebraska after they graduate. In a Tuesday Omaha World / lerald article, Orr said students should come hack to Nebraska — if they attend college out of state — because of attractions like a clean, safe environment, family traditions and "some of the finest people in the nation." We need more than that to motivate students to stay in the state. A clean environment doesn’t pay the rent, and family traditions don’t necessarily provide career opportunities. Although she said she hopes to create education and jot opportunities to encourage young people to avoid the so called “brain drain," some of her actions don’t show it. The gradual decline of our university to mediocrity, evi denced by faculty emigration and increasing tuition (namely surcharges), is not encouraging high-school seniors to invest four years of work and money here. Orr said she hopes the Em ployment and Investment Growth Act, LB775, will make the state more attractive to in vesting businesses and Nebraska’s young people. That’s a start, but the gover nor should keep the university in mind when budget issues come up when the Legislature opens next month. Editorial Policy ii Editorials do not necessarily re fleet the views of the university, its employees, the students or the Nil Board of Regents. The Daily Nebraskan’s publish ers are the regents, who established the UNL Publications Board to supervise the daily production of the paper. If nature calls, don’t answer Deviants leave embers of a conspiracy glowing in the woods Anew conspiracy has emer ged from the underbelly of American radicalism. It’s a conspiracy only cartoonist Gary Lar son could have predicted, if the bloody anarchist didn’t think every little twitch and rumbling in* the ani mal kingdom was a damn joke. The terror being perpetrated by the conspiracy crosses party lines. It docs not discriminate between Democrat and Republican. The conspiracy is holed up, literally, in the darkest re cesses of nature, and in the past few decades it has crept close enough to the essence of America to lie on the rug great-grandmother made and curl up in front of the fireplace. The threat goes by many names: Charles Lieurance -—-— Old Shcp, Fido, Bunnycakcs, Bambi, Snowball and Puss. It cats away at the fabric of America both natural and moral. It is characterized by hedonism and rampant sodomy, by a complete disregard for sacred burial rituals and by occasional spats of post-mortem cannibalism The conspirators are nowhere near as prolific as, say, the Irish Republican Army, but they arc more methodical. They adhere glibly to the terrorist adage that careful symbolic action is better than aggravated action any day. The conspirators have no day jobs or identification cards. They pay no taxes and, when accepting govern ment charity, do so unwillingly and rarely say thank you after the act of compassion. Although they could be allies of survival ist loons like Michael Ryan, with whom they share many charac teristics, they have formed no such alliances. So far the terrorism has been met with just force,even if the terror seems innocuous. It is a warm welcome to the clear thinking of our elected offi cials that the terrorism has been hailed lethal ly in its four-toed tracks. Although other aspects of this or that administration may reflect a cer tain impotence and blindness to cru cial details, the reaction to this con spiracy has been swift and nearly re flexive. The conspiracy began subtly. While riding one day on routine mili tary maneuvers in Puerto Rico, Teddy Roosevelt’s horse, Nathaniel, threw him. The rotund president-to-be got up, dusted off his khaki pantaloons, gave the patented Roosevelt smile, snapped his riding crop twice for ef fect and shot the animal dead with his pearl-handled pistol, John John. One of the first instances of animal terrorism was dealt with sternly, but fairly. The White House dining hall, Nov. 26, 1962: The Kennedys — Jack, Bobby, Jackie, baby John John, and the rest of the clan — sit down for Thanksgiving dinner. Thcre’sa lovely bowl of roses in the center of the table. Jackie picked them herself just hours earlier. A little bell tinkles in the kitchen. Bobby and John, who were watching “Some Like It Hot” in the casual room, enter the dining hall. Jackie comes in Yrom the kitchen and fluffs up the rose petals. Enter the turkey, a 20-pound but terball. A While House cook, Juanita, noticed that as she shoved the stuffing into ihe bird’s hollow innards, the hole curved up at the edges in a headless evil leer. She neglected to inform the proprietors of Camclol. Two hours later, the presidential family was quite ill. The 20-pound turkey was flown to Walter Reed Medical Center and a doctor there said he noticed “some sort of evil grin” where the turkey’s neck had once been. After tests, Walter Reed doctors called back to Camelot and informed the presidential family that the turkey had given them a mild ease of food poisoning. Jack loaded up the family .45 automatic belly gun and handed it to Robert, who, being attorney gen eral, had more right to use it. Robert walked into the kitchen, where Juanita was washing the Thanksgiving dishes and singing “Cuba, Jewel of the Isles,” and proceeded to unload the belly gun into her clean, white apron. At Walter Reed, doctors scraped the leering tur key into a waste can and thought no more of it. On a routine fishing trip, President James Earl Carter, a man raised on the apparent rural Southern courtesies of animals as depicted in the fine Disney film “Song of the South,” was con fronted by a beast even Uncle Remus couldn’t have befriended. A killer bunny came thumpcty-lhumping through the glade toward the president and was wrestled to the ground hand ily by secret security guards who questioned the bunny, interrogated the bunny,grilled the bunny and made a delicate fricassee in white wine sauce. The president emerged from the forestunscalhed, toting acouple of small trout and laughing nervously. Recently the beasts of the hoof and paw have become more daring. Secret Service officers were going over an area of the runway in Topeka, Kan., on which President Ronald Wilson Re agan was scheduled to land the first week of October, when two terrorist pups wandered onto the runway and began to copulate flagrantly. As any animal lover (read: pinko) knows, once dogs or cats begin, er, going at it, they cannot simply be disconnected at the whim of those decent enough to perform the act indoors, at least par tially clothed, with the lights off. To explain this would require rather graphic diagrams or verbiage not usually associated with this editorial Page. The Secret Service immediately i realized what it was the animals had planned: Camera crews would move in and just as the president emerged from Air Force One, they would rack focus from his smiling, happy visage to these two dogs humping away. Surely the beasts saw this as an oppor tunity for some kind of anarcho-syndi calist commentary on this illustrious administration. Security officers first beat the dogs with sticks, but they continued to copulate, still more fla grantly. Attempts to pry the animals apart were futile. Well aware that the iaoa _ _ _ _ _ r_•_I l I 'mn wuc an cut in aiiniidi equal ■ ireatment under the law, the security I officers were hesitant to draw their I weapons. Finally, it was apparent that I the only way to end this subversive I behavior was to take arms. They then I proceeded to shoot the animals to I death and drag the carcasses off the* runway, saving the president, and thefl United Suites, extensive embarrass-* rnent. The world was spared headlines* like “Uncontrolled Dog Sex Seen As Symbol of an Era, Analysts Say.” ' Certainly the animals have bee® less than effective at staking thei® claim in the world of terrorist radical-fl ism, somewhat less effective than,* say, the Red Brigade or the Baader-I Meinhoff gang and more effective I than, say, the Apple Dumpling Gang. I Still, it is worrisome that in the elev-1 crly placed holes in trees and in theB frequent tufts of util grass that skirt the fl woodlands of our nation, there is an* unnoticed, often inaudible and invis-B ible, haired for all we hold dear in this* country. They’re there in the dark® waiting for the right moment to throw* us off the horse of imperialism, u® poison us with the salmonella of inter-B species communism and to offer afl virtual Sodom and Gomorrah of ani-B malistic pornography to a population B made weak from TV and motion pic- ■ lures. Waiting. Lieurancc is an art, philosophy and Knglish I major and Daily Nebraskan assistant arts I and entertainment editor. Letters Griesen tells students 'end unsafe activities' On Monday night, more than 3(X) individuals became involved in what turned out to be a violent confronta tion. More than $9,(X)() of property damage was sustained, and at least 15 students required emergency medical attention. Several of the injuries were serious and costly, and we arc con cerned that one student may lose vi sion in one of his eyes. Clearly, this was not the “harmless „ snowball fight” that I’m sure many students thought they were going out to join. Whenever large crowds as semble and begin throwing objects at each other, it is difficult to avoid an escalation of the battle. It takes just a lew thoughtless and irresponsible individuals to make a crowd scene like this turn ugly. That is exactly what happened on Monday, as snowballs gave way to ice chunks and then rocks and pieces of lumber. The only way to avoid the kind of serious destruction and injury that occurred on Monday is to not set the stage for such an occurrence. Thus I appeal to all responsible University of Ncbraska-Lincoln students to refrain from joining many snowball fights no matter how innocent they may seem at the start. Monday night’s melee resulted in four arrcsLs, and 1 expect others to follow as identifications are con firmed and facts arc documented. These students, and others still being cited, also will face disciplinary ac tion for violation of the UNI. Student Code of Conduct. University discipli nary action may result in sanctions ranging from conduct probation to suspension from the university. Stu dents whochoose to participate in any future disturbances may expect even greater efforts to identify individuals and hold them accountable for their actions. Collectively, you have the power to stop this destructive behavior sim ply by refusing to participate in crowd actions of this type. Please agree to personally refrain from such activi lies, and encourage your friends lo do the same. With your help, we can pul an end lo a very dangerous activity that is developing into an unwelcome tradition at UNL. James V. Gricsen vice chancellor for student affairs Fight hurts UNL image, campus and students I was very disheartened these Iasi couple of days to witness the contin ued destruction of the University oi Nebraska-1.incoln campus. The destruction of property and injuries to people that occurred as a result ol the so-called ‘‘snowball fight” is fruitless. I am a member of the Government Lia.son Committee and head up the fight to try to save the university, which is becoming more and more difficult. Why can t our energy be directed in a more positive way? Incidents like this give the student body of the uni versity a bad image, and slate senators read the newspaper and form an opin ion that is very hard to change. You wonder why the students arc always faced with higher tuition. It is because the regents and senators are led to believe that the students obvi ously have an excess of time and money from incidents just like this. Right now. the best thing that could happen to the university is that we improve our image. Somehow things have changed; it used to be a privilege to go to college, but now it is a scam. Why don’t we improve our image by spending our lime and money in a more |K>sihve manner. We are nearing the end of the semester, and showing an interest in learning would be a first step. With a more positive image, my job in lobby ing the senators for additional money, eliminating videotaped classes and improving the faculty would he much easier. Nathan Gciscrt junior Co-chair. Studenls-on-call Government Liaison Committee Annual fight snowballs into student arguments I’m generalizing when I say that I’m disappointed with the student body at the University of Nebraska Lincoln. I’m referring to the snowball lights. I understand that thcGrccksare responsible for Sunday’s bout, but what happened Monday was die fault of residence-hall students. They complain that they are discriminated against in the Association of Students of the University of Nebraska. If the residence-hall students organized as well as they did Monday night on their window-smashing excursion, they could win the student-government election. Oh, one more thing, let’s charge the Residence Hall Association for the windows. Shawn Mcllnay sophomore journalism Delia Tau Delta