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_ ~
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