Editorial
(Daily
Nebraskan
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Amy Hdwards, Editor, 472-1766
Lee Rood, Editorial Page Editor
Jane Hirt, Managing Editor
Brandon Loomis, Associate News Editor
Victoria Ayottc, Wire Page Editor
Dcannc Nelson, Copy Desk Chief
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Action is overdue
Regents’vague stand shows uncertainty
A SUN President Bryan Hill already has taken steps this
semester to confront one of the worst problems facing
the University of Nebraska-Ltneoln campus - homo
pnooia.
Hill has been working on ways to educate the UNL com
munity about the meaning of the NU Board of Regents’ new
anti-discrimination policy. Many hoped the policy, initiated
last spring, would state specifically that discrimination on
the basis of sexual orientation would not be tolerated.
However, thanks to Regent Margaret Robinson, the board
enacted a vague policy forbidding discrimination on the
basis of “individual characteristics.”
Surely, sexual orientation is included in the policy, al
though the regents didn’t want to come out and say it.
‘ ‘Individual characteristics” is a wimpy generalization, and
does little to combat a serious problem.
i ne regents policy cannot stand on ns own.
Hill currently is working with Chancellor Martin Massen
gale to send a memo out to all staff and faculty to let them
know that sexual orientation is included in the new policy.
He also is working with Affirmative Action Officer Brad
Munn to design a poster that would help clarify the policy for
students.
It's too bad for Hill that the regents failed to take a strong
stand on the issue of homophobia when considering their
new policy. If they had, Hill wouldn’t have to waste his time
letting everyone know what it means.
-• Lee Rood
for the Daily Nebraskan
Repression brings violent acts
The recent flurry of abusive and
intolerant behavior toward gay
people has resulted in the death of a
fine young man who was educated at
UNL and was holding a responsible
position in the community. It is a
terrible tragedy for his family, friends
and this community. The blame for
Lincoln becoming a fertile field for
abuse and intolerance must be shared
by all those who have engaged in it.
As a juvenile probation officer in
Phoenix in the early 1960s, I worked
with several casesol juvenile assaults
on gay adult men. The victims were
physically assaulted, their property
was stolen and their residences were
vandalized. The young men involved
had not only ruined the lives of their
victims but had also ruined their own
lives.
These tragic even us led to a scries
of training sessions for court person
nel to sensitize them to the problem
that was confronting the community.
I will always recall the sessions with
Dr. Sydney Smith, a clinical psy
chologist who eventually became
pari of the staff at the Menninger
Clinic. One of his major points was
that young men who engage in vio
lent and abusive behavior directed at
gay people are probably having seri
ous difficulty with their own sexual
identity. So-called “gay bashing” is
a means of lighting against onc’sown
sexual confusion and doubt, accord
ing to Dr. Smith and other mental
health professionals. In other words,
people who arc secure in their own
sexual identity don’t have to prove it
to others.
It would be much belter if these
young men could find legitimate
ways of resolving their psychological
and emotional conflicts instead of
directing their confusion and anger at
other people. 1 hope the community
of Lincoln, including the university
community, can muster the will and
the resources to deal positively with
this problem before further tragic
episodes occur.
Fred Holbcrt
associate professor
criminal justice
‘Flea-market art’ tax angers reader
Normally, Sen. Jesse Helms is
far too conservative even for me.
However, I have to agree with him
this time.
Why should my hard-earned
tax dollars be used to support
something I don’t like? I don’t
consider a crucifix in a jar of urine
to be art, I consider it sacrilegious
and disgusting, and I’m not even a
Christian! My money should not
be used to keep in a museum a
painting I wouldn’t even glance
toward at a flea market. Next thing
you know, idiots like Def Leppard
or Mbllcy Crtlc will claim that
their so-called “music” is really
art (what a joke) and ask Congress
for some of my money to produce
their next album. If I were to spend
my money to affect trash like that,
it would be to keep it off the
shelves.
I’m ail in favor of an artist’s
freedom of expression, but when
my money is an issue, that’s where
I draw the line. If a person wants to
sec a painting, let him pay for it
himself. Unless I’m taking some
one out to be nice, I’m not going to
spend my money on something
I’m not going to see.
I’m just waiting for this left
wing, pablum-puking (how 1 long
for the days of Morion Downey
Jr.) commie-pinko, liberal do
gooder rag they call a newspaper
to print an editorial condemning
Jesse Helms’ actions. Considering
the massive amount of journalistic
integrity I’ve seen in the Daily
Half-asskin in the past, any of their
editorials belong in another paper
- like the National Inquirer (sic).
Andrew Meyer
“The Silly Sophomore’’
pre-med
Illegal-‘a big, dangerous bleep’
Bleeping undesirables could hurt people or heighten rebellion
For a young boy, there may be
nothing more fun than watch
ing network television at
tempt to show an R-rated show.
I remember sibling in front of the
TV wondering exactly what nasty
word the censors had decided to keep
from me with a sterilizing “bleep.” 1
loved mysteries and my power of
deduction was acute.
My thoughts usually went some
thing like this:
“OK, the girl said ‘I’m so
“bleep” “bleeped” I could kill the
“bleep.”’
Now, the first bleep has to be ci
ther the f-word or the big damning
God word. The second one must refer
to p--cd and the third, since it refers to
a her husband, has to refer to him by
his lack of a father or by one of the
many names for his sex organ.
The only time all this wasn’t fun
was when l’d ask my mom to confirm
my interpretation of the dialogue.
She’d say my first and middle
names, gasp, say something like
“Don’t you ever...” and then try to
tell my father what I had done without
saying the nasty words that caused
the problem in the first place.
The joke in all this is that each
lime I was protected from vulgarity, I
had to rehash each vulgarity I already
knew to figure out which one the
television censors had bleeped. So,
for each bleep that saved my virgin
cars, I thought of ten more. People
complain that the boob tube destroys
the imagination. Not true. Bleeps
allow the imagination to soar.
Some time during my junior high
years, HBO and Cincmax came to my
hometown. My parents dealt intelli
gently with the sex and vulgarity, and
television lost a lot of its luster.
Nonetheless, the damage had been
done.
Without the taboos of bad lan
guage and sex, my male bonding
would have been much more diffi
cult. What would my friends and I
have talked about? Dirty words and
human sexuality without the adult
world bleeping them lose their nov
elty very quickly. Dirty words be
come flat rhetoric, human sexuality
becomes human. That’s no way to
bond.
So I must thank the Incredibly
Righteous in the mold of Jesse Helms
or Newt Gingrich for trying to protect
my morality. If my environment
hadn’t been sterile, the wild perversi
ties that spawn friendship and imagi
nation might have been lost. Granted,
my friends and I are a little malad
justed in terms of women and lan
guage, but we have a good time.
So it seems the only real damage
ol hiding undesirables is a few more
filthy-mouths and sexual hang ups.
And unless you’re Ted Bundy, that’s
not terribly dangerous.
But when governments of any si/.c
attempt to hide or bleep anything
other than obscenity, somebody gets
hurt.
The national drug problem is a
prime example. No matter how much
the federal government tries to censor
the influx of drugs, people still will be
exposed to them, and if they want to
use them, they will use them. You
don’t slop people from wanting
something by making it harder to get.
Scarcity drives Americans. The only
remedy is curbing the desire for
drugs. When you make vulgarity
taboo, it becomes a sweet forbidden
lruit. The same is true with drugs.
And on a dry campus like the
University of Ncbraska-Lincoln, the
same is true with alcohol.
The premise of the dry-campus
idea is that by making it illegal to
drink on campus, students won’t
drink.
I have met few students who didn’t
drink on campus because it was ille
gal. Those who didn’t drink on cam
pus because it was illegal drove off
campus where it was legal. Then they
drove back to campus legally drunk.
Obviously, by denying the existence
of drinking on campus, the admini
stration is endangering students’
lives. It’s safer to walk drunk than
drive drunk. If students can't walk
drunk, they will drive drunk. The
danger of driving drunk is apparent,
so the danger of dry campuses should
be apparent.
And by making drinking taboo on
campus, drinking becomes rebel
lious, like saying the f-word. The
rebellion of drinking becomes an end
in itself.
But all these things have been said
before. The argument against dry
campuses is that they are dangerous
and promote alcohol abuse. So what
are the arguments for our dry cam
pus?
It’s a way for the university to pass
liability on to the individual. If a
drunk student got injured on a wet
campus, the university could be re
sponsible. If a student dies driving
back to a dry campus, the university
could not be responsible. It's simply a
matter of university officials washing
their hands of a problem. A nice, big
dangerous bleep.
So it seems the only way the
administration will ever be more
concerned with students and reality,
is if a student dies and his or her
parents realize the university was
responsible for their child’s death.
The parents probably never would
win such a suit, but the parents of
UNL students might begin to realize
that bleeping an issue, whether they
think it vulgar or not, is no way to
solve a problem.
But like usual, even with a trag
edy, you can be pretty sure that
change for the better will take a
bleeping long time. Until then, think
safety and responsibility first. After
that you can worry about campus
rules.
Bob Nelson ts a senior news-editorial major
and a Daily Nebraskan columnist.
—
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