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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 8, 1989)
Editorial (Daily Nebraskan University of Nebrssks-Uncoln Amy Edwards, Editor, 472-1766 \jcc Rood, Editorial Page Editor Jane Hirt, Managing Editor Brandon Loomis, Associate News Editor Victoria Ayottc, Wire Page Editor Deannc Nelson, Copy Desk Chief Curt Wagner, Columnist Ceiling caves in Students' safety wasn’t a high priority It’s just a good thing no one got hurt. Last weekend, as students enjoyed the Labor Day weekend, the ceiling of Burnett Hall’s language lab fell in, leaving extensive damage and a lot of asbestos behind for university dollars to clean up. Now, many students will not be able to use the labs to practice their language skills for at least two weeks, even though they are charged a $5 fee to use the lab. Ami as an emergency contractor struggles to clean up the dangerous asbestos and debris, students lose crucial lab time in their first weeks of school. Accidents are bound to happen. The only problem is — this one could have been prevented. Two years ago, Hans Gilde, assistant professor of modern languages and literatures, told maintenance per sonnel that the ceiling in rooms 305 and 306 Burnett needed to be replaced. He requested that the ceiling be nxed again tms summer. A good indication that Gilde meant business could have been that parts of a ceiling fell in this summer in the hall next to the lab. But Gilde said maintenance paid him no mind. “I got no response .... If they would have fixed that ceiling last summer, we would’ve only put out about 200 students. Now it’s 2,000,” he said. Obviously, a ceiling that poses a threat to students’ safety wasn’t high on university officials’ priority list. Nor is the presence of asbestos in many university build ings. Jerry Delhy, manager of building maintenance, said many buildings on both City and East Campuses contain asbestos. However, only those that show signs of wear or stress have the asbestos removed, he said. Judging from the way officials ignored last summer’s incident, that doesn’t seem true either. This weekend’s cave-in, which is sure to be expensive for the university, should be a big enough hint that unsafe ceilings -- and health-threatening asbestos -- need to go. A little foresight is worth the cost, in li>tes and dollars. -- Lot Rood for (He Daily Nebraskan DN mascot mix-up caused confusion i realize mat tor tnc casual Ne braska football fan, all those “mi nor” Big Eight teams tend to blur. And when there arc two from the same state, the problem is only inten sified. However, as a duty to my home state of Kansas, let me offer a few distinctions: There is a name difference: the University of Kansas (KU) as com pared with Kansas State University (KSU). Neither is found at the end of a yellow-brick road; KU is located in Lawrence, while Manhattan is the home of KSU. % Unlike their counterparts from a state a little farther south, neither football prog;am has either attained NCAA probationary status or amassed great winning records (wait ‘til basketball season). K-State’s official school colors are “purple and white,” while KU sports “crimson and blue” in true “scarlet and cream” fashion. But most importantly, contrary to what may be erroneously concluded from the graphic accompanying the Opponent Preview column of the Friday, Sept. 1 edition of the DN, the mascot of KSU is the Wildcat; the Jayhawk, a Kansas original, belongs toKU. I hope this clears up any confusion which previously may have sur rounded the subject. Christy Brown junior math Who rules what art is ‘obscene?’ I would like to ask a few questions of Andrew Meyer, that I doubt that you have the answers to. First, I’d like to ask if you know anything about the grants-to-thc-arts program. I am no expert, but I believe that money is granted to an institution (be it art gallery, museum or university), and that institution supports artists who have works in progress. The government doesn’t “buy” finished art, it supports artists so that they can produce their art. I find the examples given by Senator Helms to be personally repulsive, but who am I to judge their '"due? Now let me ask you my second question. Wl.o defines obscene? The Supreme Court has struggled with that issue for around 20 years, and still cannot come up with a viable, working definition. If the United States allows closed-minded twits like yourself and Senator Helms to enforce your morality on the entirety of a nation, where do we draw the line? Do we allow some fundamen talist to censor everything that is profane to his religion? Do we allow a feminist to ban all she sees as ex ploitive? Or do we allow all expres sion, whether it be repulsive or no, so as to allow all people the most impor tant freedom of all, the freedom to be different. Randy Eliason junior speech communications f WAv does *+hle+ic supporter fa.) I I cost $6.99 awd athletic I I supporter (b> cost $\SOO ? I I &•) fk) j A+MH*ic supporter (b.) was I loortv by TbrA Osborne. I Drug crisis vs. pennant race Ignoring problem only possible solution to ‘national scourge ’ “I think you’re wasting your lime,” said Slats Grobnik. In what regard? “Worrying about drugs. Forget it. Concentrate on the pennant races.” How can I forget it when it is, in the words of many a pundit, a na tional scourge? “Sure it is, but what’s the sense of worry ing about it when nothing is going to happen?” That’s a negative attitude. We must seek solutions. “That’s what I mean. You can look for solutions, but you won’t find any solution because nobody can agree on what the solutions are.” For every problem, there must be a solution. “No there ain’t. That’s why I’m bald.” It’s not the same thing. This is a man-made problem, so man can solve it. Then why haven’t we solved it? It didn’t start the day before yester day, you know The grass and the coke have been pouring into this country for years. There ain’t enough rehab joints to take care of all the dopcheads. The judges can’t send the dealers to jail because there ain’t enough cells to hold them. The narcs say they can’t keep the dope out of this country. So what’s new?” What’s new is that the public rec ognizes the crisis and wants some thing done. “Sure, that’s what people say, but what do they want done?” Well, there are those who say that certain drugs should be legalized, controlled and taxed. That way the criminal middlemen would be taken out of it. Street crime would go down. The money we spend trying to catch the drug smugglers would be saved. And everybody in the Colombian government wouldn’t have to wear bulletproof underwear. 4 4 Ycah, but there arc just as many people who say that they don’t want to legalize stuff that turns someone into an addict and scrambles brains. You’d have the parents of every kid who died of an overdose screaming at their congressmen. You got all kinds of religious fundamentalists who are against everything they don’t do. And, who knows, the dope dealers might put together one of those politi cal action committees and start mak ing campaign contributions. So you can forget about legali/.ing it.” You’re probably right. But what about harsher penalties? Why not a federal death penalty for clear-cut cases of major dope dealing? “Because first Congress would have to pass a law. And they’d argue about it for so long that most of the dope dealers would die of old age before it got passed. And if it ever got passed, which I doubt, because a lot of do-gooders wouldn’t even want to execute Hitler, it would have to get by the Supreme Court. Then if it got by the Supreme Court, every dope dealer who got sentenced would put in so many appeals it would be like a pingpong game with the courts, and it would be the 21 st century before any of them was fried. So you can forget that, too.” Possibly. But then we must strike at the sources, stop the flow even if we must use the military. “Sure, but the only way we can do that is to send our troops into coun tries like Colombia. But Colombia says they don’t want us there. And even if they did, and we went in there, they’d start shipping the stuff from Peru. So then what do we do, go to Peru? Take over Mexico? We don’t have a big enough army to go into all the countries that are in the drug business. And the drug bosses would have their private armies shooting at us, and there would be dead Ameri can troops, and their families would ask what their kids are getting killed for. So what’s George Bush going to tell them - that their sons died to protect the life of some crackhead in Manhattan? So you can forget about that, loo. There must be a solution. “Sure there is. Everybody slop using dope, OK? Problem solved. Now let’s talk about if the Cubs can win it.’’ That’s unrealistic. We both know that there are many people who will use drugs regardless of the conse quences. So talking to them won't change their scif-dcstructivc, addic tive personalities. “Right. So why don’t we get a new motto. Instead of ‘just say no,’ let’s say, ‘It’s every brain for itself. ’ What does that mean? “It means that if you want to scramble your noodle, it’s your noodle, so go ahead and scramble it. ” That is a rather unfeeling altitude. “Maybe. But have you ever read about any Nobel Prize winners or Rhodes scholars croaking from a crack overdose?’’ No, but what has that to do with it. “What it has to do with it is that people with sense either don’t do it or know when to stop. But you can’t protect some dummies from them selves. So if they want to turn their heads into Jello, that’s their look out.” In other words, you want to ignore the problem. “Hey, Ronald Reagan ignored it for eight years, and they want to pul him on Mount Rushmorc.” The people who came up with that idea must be smoking something strange. “Sec? It’s everywhere.” © 1989 by the Chicago Tribune letter—^ The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief letters to the editor from all readers and interested others. Letters will be selected for publi cation on the basis of clarity, original ity, timeliness and space available. The Daily Nebraskan retains the right to edit all material submitted. Readers also are welcome to sub mil material as guest opinions. Whether material should run as a let ter or guest opinion, or not to run, is left to the editor’s discretion. Letters and guest opinions sent to the newspaper become the property ol the Daily Nebraskan and cannot be relumed. Letters should be typewrit ten. Anonymous submissions will not be considered for publication. Letters should include the author’s name, year in school, major and groupaffili ation, if any. Requests to withhold names will not be granted. Submit material to the Daily Ne braskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 R St., Lincoln, Neb. 68588-0448.