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
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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
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