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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 15, 1988)
Editorial | NelSraskan University ot Nebraska-Lincoln Cun Wagner, Editor, 472-1766 Mike Reilley, Editorial Page Editor Diana Johnson, Managing Editor Lee Rood, Associate News Editor Bob Nelson, Wire Page Editor Andy Pollock, Columnist Micki Haller, Entertainment Editor Quibbles & bits Student creates new KFRX call letters • University of Nebraska-Lincoln student Thomas A. O’Hara 111 tliought 7:30 a.m. was too early to get up and lister* to KFRX-FM’s format change Wednesday. And he’s letting everyone know it. Because of the hype surrounding the station's “last song scam,” O’Hara, a junior in engineering, assembled a top 10 list of new call letters for the station: 10. KNOB - Station for nerds. 9. KJLAN — White supremacist station. 8. KRAP — Broadcast of all announcements and deci sions by the Association of Students of the University of Nebraska. 7. KAbH — Give out money instead oi worintess Gold’s Gym memberships. 6. KLAS ~ Don’t play that stupid Hinky Dinky/Sarah Thompson commercial. 5. KOCK - Up-and-coming station. 4. KLIT - The station that goes off the air one time a month. 3. KRAC — Miami-based affiliate. 2. KORR - The station that ignores the university. 1. KROC - The station that plays nothing but commer cials about some last-song scam. • A gay/lesbian “kiss-in” was the event last month at a t Columbia University dining hall, according to National On-Campus Report. The campus gay and lesbian alliance staged the event as a protest against homophobia and actions of members of the school's football team in particular. The alliance claims an assistant football coach harassed ., a gay, dining hall employee after the coach saw the em- . . ployee kiss a male friend in the dining hall. The team's reaction to the kiss-in? Reserved. “I know they’re just trying to get a rise out of us,” said one player. •• Mike Keilley for the Daily Nebraskan Students ‘don’t appreciate’ suicide editorial We have a lew questions for you to think about in relation to your edito rial (DN, Dee. 13) concerning sui cide. Have any of your friends com mitted suicide? Have any of you thought about suicide? Would you appreciate some stranger categoriz ing the death of one of your friends in such a heartless fashion? Would any of you want everyone to read a truly tactless account of your demise? For whatever reasons that may have existed at the time, a friend of ours committed suicide. But he’s not just someone else to add to a list or use as an example to everyone else in the world. He is someone who touched our lives while he was here and will remain a part of our lives forever. Wc think that everyone should be more informed and more aware of the many stressful events that we all find inour daily lives. However, we do not think that it w as necessary to treat the death of a single student w ith so little tact and consideration. Those of us who may count ourselves among Roger Dartmann’s friends, acquain tances and neighbors on his residence hall floor do not appreciate the man ner in which the DN chose to handle the situation. You could have printed the editorial without mentioning Dartmann or at least without catego rizing, dehumanizing and disgracing him. We are probably not alone in our view of your column and we would urge everyone else who feels as we do let their voices be heard. Ryan Seacrcst Malcolm Miles senior senior English criminal justice Mark McElligott and 26 other sophomore friends mechanical engineering AH S reporting showed ‘rare sensitivity’ 11 n f.i weeks, the Daily Nebras ka ' h s shown a rare sensitivity an f reporting on the important ins ar.ti-gay violence and AIDS. One i’t help but admire the cour age ho'A n by “Adam” (DN, Dee. 5) ami rs in the University ol Nc br i ! neoln gay community lac in . v i >mbincd devastation of stigma homophobia and cata strophic disease. In contrast, we are appalled by the prejudice displayed by some students in opposing the allocation of funding to the Gay/L.csbian Programming Council. The need for student support for GLPC is based soundly on a lun damcntal educational tradition of this campus: That of challenging perva sive and entrenched bigotry with fact-based discussion. The arguments against funding amount to this: We have a history of insensitivity to the problems faced by gay people on this campus, combined with a lack of appreciation for what gay people have contributed to this university. •Most of us arc ignorant about these problems and contributions. We intend to remain so as long as possible. This line of reasoning demeans us all. Let’s be glad wefcave people willing to help us our igno rance and get on %ilrihc work ol learning to live with one another. Joel Brodsky Ph.D. candidate sociology Louis Crompton (Jay/Lcsbian Student Association faculty advisci LH_ II Columnist reflects on education ‘Real world' looms disjointed over graduating senior My Iasi column, my Iasi week al ihe University of Ne braska-Lincoln, my last laugh as an undergraduate. What do 1 have to say for myself, about myself after four years and a semester as a college student? Memories. We all have them; some entertain, but most bore those who did not share them. Thoughts. Yes, thoughts wc all have too, but it is not the fault of their creator if they do not entertain. Per haps they were not created for such purposes. In this last column I’ll share some of the thoughts I’ve had as graduation approaches. Hopefully, these thoughts will relied what I've learned throughout my college life and education. une tning mat s i many nil me is that il I can’t think, I should read, and il I can’t read, I should think. If I’m doing neither, during my waking hours, I’m wasting my time. I wish I would have known this when I ar rived here. When I came to college, I h J this idea that somehow I should “gam knowledge.” Well, now I think that to simply know something is 'o it idle. Knowledge is learned by .seek ing it and understood by thinking about it. It is passed from generation to generation by communicating it. The relationship between professors and students is an example of this passing. I’ve learned from college (but not necessarily from any professor) that knowledge is a seed, belittled by what can grow from it. But knowledge is squelched and laid to rot when one refuses to nourish il and encourage il to grow into individual thoughts and ideas. Knowledge can become smothered by itself, even if continu ously replenished. I think this is one problem with the generation ruling our country today. A friend of mine, although I know he docs not know me, told this young listener that his age was retrospec tive. And:- as I’m sure he believed — so were those to follow. I only hope that our generation will not be also. Our elders, who believe so much in the past, have always told us that we “arc the future.” But I wonder il they have not just been implying that soon il will be our turn to clean up alter them. What a messy world we're step ping into. We trudge through the toxic mud oo/e and cough on the “narcotic tobacco ha/e” that our parents have happily belched in our faces. No, our world’s not clean, nor arc its streets, nor its people. I-—I When our bankers tell me that they d -i t see the day where we won’t be brought to our knees and forced to begi’ again, when biologists laugh, bee. ase it hurls loo much tocry , I feel the fear spin in my mind The feeling tempts me to understand it and tor tures me when I do. Sometimes — far UK) often --I’m forced to say “I don’t give a damn.” I look the other way. . I look away and realize that behind me looms incomprehensibly a mon ster of our creation, but which grow s out of our control. Its shadow stretches UK) long for me to ignore its present reality, and l admit that I’m scared when I think about it. As it grow s, all we do is shake our heads and hope that it will disappear magically, but we should be wonder ing when it will pounce upon us. Then, we won’t be able to turn cur heads. Generations before have turned their heads and blinded them selves with happiness, many in our generation seem to be enjoying the same attitude, but generations to fol low will not be so fortunate. Their check will be scarred when they turn it. From our past wc can not alienate lurselves. But why arc wc so relieved jnd satisfied to alienate ourselves from ourselves in the future? To me, it really does not seem fair. I’ve been told that our generation is apprehensive, and, if what I've said is any indication, it appears so. But it's hartl not to be w hen wc are taught that patience is the only way. “Don’t worry, be happy,” patience will make the shadow go away. We know these lessons are not right, but the reins gripped by those who preach them turn our heads. No, w e are not the creators of our appre hensions. Generations do not exist in a vac uum, completely developing their own attitudes, vices and ways. The “me generation” was only the reve lation of me value inherent in the mind’s of our country. The value lives today and will live tomorrow and will continue to cloud the reality that, in order to solve our problems, wc all must work together and give lust a little bit. All this may seem disjointed, but isn’t the whole world in which I’m about to leap. I’m looking forward, now, after some serious and depress ing contemplation, to jumping into the mess. Who knows, maybe we will straighten it out. Maybe we will see the day when the sick arc healed because of the value in their life and not in their pocket. Maybe we’ll see the day when success and the Ameri can Dream aren’t fulfilled by spitting on others. Maybe we’ll sec the day when black and while arc a description lor an outdated television and not the way we sec the world. Maybe we’ll see the day when reform is preferred to letting things fall to revolution. Maybe we’ll sec the day when happi ness is really facing the world. We can only try. Pollock Is a senior news-editorial major and isa Daily Nebraskan editorial columnist. letter—i_ ~ The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief letters to the editor from all readers and interested others. Letters will be selected for publication • on the basis of clarity, originality, timeli ness and space available. The Daily Ne braskan retains the right to edit all mate rial submitted. Readers also are welcome to submit material as guest opinions. Whether ma terial should run as a letter or gues? opin ion, or not to run, is left to the editor’s discretion. Letters and guest opinions sent to the newspaper become the properly of the Daily Nebraskan and cannot be relumed. Anonymous submissions will not be considered for publication. Letters should include the author’s name, year in school, major and group affiliation, » any. Requests to withhold names will not be granted. Submit material to the Daily Nebras kan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 R St., Lincoln, Neb. 68588-0448.