John Bruc e/Daily Nebraskan
Writer asks 'comrades to unite and fight
By Trevor McArthur
Staff Reporter
“I’m bored.”
She looked down at the newspa
per, then out across the room which
seemed so empty and quiet.
I agreed. It was something I had
been thinking, but now she brought it
to the front of my mind. Wc were in
The Crib, a study and socializing
section in the Nebraska Union. At
least it was big in the socializing
scene in the group I ran and sal with.
I remembered the previous year, and
now it was so quiet.
The smokers. They chased away
the smokers and now there was no
daytime social scene. I don’t know
who ‘they’ were, but ‘they’ banned
smoking in the place where all the
smokers hung out.
Ku
Seemingly worse was the accep
tance that followed it, even by the
people most affected. There is no
spirit of protest or outrage anymore.
Things like this happen and ‘they’get
away with it. The only consolation is
that the anti-smokers now have to put
up w ith all the smokers who fled to the
restaurants. Smoke is most annoying
when you’re trying to cat.
It’s not this incident that upsets
me, but with all the injustices of the
world, when no one says a thing and
just lets them go on. Yes, 1 am
ashamed to have to include myself in
that group. But now I feel like a little
righteous indignation. I think it’s time
to yell for some action.
But what on? Well, the smokers
should be able to take care of them
selves. I recently spoke with the
leader of a new group calling them
selves “the other PLO,” the Pall-Mall
Light-up Organization. The leader,
the ‘Grand Mall’ as they called him,
promised they would recognize the
rights of non-smoking areas to exist
but that “there would be no peace
until there is an independent home
land for Marlboro men and women.”
This stirred me. In the bottom of
my cynical heart, I was moved that
something could be done and I set
about trying to remember some
wrong done to some group I was in
that I could get torked off about. Then
it hit me.
As I sulked through the hall of the
union, mad at the world but mostly
angry that I didn’t have a specific
target, I found myself walking near
the wall by the press of midday traffic.
Suddenly, a door flew open nearly
destroying my nose and $2,000 worth
of dental work that made high school
such a hell. It was the door of the
Ladies’ Lounge.
Perhaps I should explain this term
for the newcomers, since it’s been
quite a while since 1 last spoke on this
issue. At the front of the Nebraska
Union, on the west side facing The
Crib, just about 10 feet down the hall
from the Women’s Resource Center
and the Association of Students at the
University of Nebraska offices arc a
pair of doors which bear the title
“Ladies Lounge.”
I’ve never been inside it, but I’ve
heard wondrous descriptions of a
carpeted room with comfortable
chairs and couches, a tastefully deco
rated place to sleep, talk or sit and
study. There arc doors marked “la
dies” lounge on all three floors of the
union.
Men gel a lavatory with ceramic
attached to the floor and walls. We do
gel a choice of air hand driers or paper
towels, but you have to pay for the
weight scale.
I try to be a liberated, thoughtful
guy (had to reach back to the seventies
for that phrase). I have all the right
liberal attitudes and try to say all the
right liberal things (Really —it’s not
just i^osc to pick up smart chicks).
YtSTall I gel is dumped upon (since
we’re talking about restrooms).
IIIUIC. II IK'IC. 1 III Mill IIUI
sure who to be mad at, but I know what
to be mad about now. There was once
a men’s lounge just down the hall
from the women’s, but it was ra/.cd to
install a bank by that mysterious
‘they,’ and no one eared. So now I
have a purpose, a cause, a struggle,
Mein Kampf, Death to the Infidels..
. Sorry ... 1 got carried away. But
now the problem is what to do. 1 shall
call upon the long dormant energy of
the 1960’s. Let it erupt like a volcano.
We shall follow the example of our
spiritual fathers at Berkeley long ago
and occupy one of the lounges, and
not give it up until we make the estab
lishment tremble.
We’ll list our demands, which
include a place for us to be as crudely
masculine as theirs is tastefully femi
nine. We’ll talk to the media, hang out
windows, and sing songs like “We
Shall Overcome” and “All We are
Saying is Give Us a Lounge.”
I suppose we’ll have to grab the
lounge on the 2nd or 3rd floors, since
it would be too easy for the women to
marshal resources from their other
center across the hall on the 1 st floor,
and ASUN might try to get involved.
I don’t know how to organize this,
so I’ll have to get a general feel for
how many arc with me on this. Any
one who agrees (and progressive
women are welcome to the group;
we’re working for equality, not just a
fight), stand by Broyhill Fountain at
noon tomorrow. Belter yet, stand on
the rim of the fountain. The sitters
won’t be counted.
And anyone who wants to lead the
movement should stand in the foun
tain. Comrades, come together, right
now, over me.
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