Editorial
[Daily
Nebraskan
editorial Board
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Amy Edwards, Editor, 472-1766
Ixc Rood, Editorial Page Editor
Jane Hirt, Managing Editor
Brandon Loomis, Associate News Editor
Brian Svoboda, Columnist
Bob Nelson, Columnist
Jerry Guenther, Senior Reporter
Quibbles ‘n’ Bits
Schools report survey results, protests
The Nuprin Pain Report, the first national study on
pain in the United States, reported that more people
18-24 suffer from stress and pain than any o'her
adult age group. Findings showed that more young people
experience pain than those over 65. The report said
college students are among the biggest worriers, and these
worries lead to stress, which can manifest itself physi
cally. According to the report, the most common causes of
stress for college students include too much to do in too
little time, exams, financial worries, relationships and
| family pressures.
•• The Daily Collegian
Pennsylvania State University
A former Kansas University student began a hunger
strike Nov. 1 because he said the Kansas Civil Rights
j Commission denied his civil right to file a retaliation
complaint against a Lawrence, Kan. corporation.
Fred Markham, 40, who left KU after 1979, said he
will continue his hunger strike until the KCRC agrees to
I accept his complaint
Markham is a freelance writer who filed an employ
ment discrimination complaint with the KCRC and the
Lawrence Human Relations Commission because, he said,
I he was discriminated against because ot his disability, ne
has cerebral palsy* which causes impaired muscular power
and coordination from brain damage.
Markham said he had applied for a job with the Kansas
company, but suspected he was being discriminated
against when another applicant was chosen for the job.
That person, he said, applied for the job past the applica
tion deadline.
•• The University Daily Kansan
University of Kansas
About 30 students at the University of Arizona pro
tested military research on their campus, and demanded it
be stopped.
A group called SCAN, Students for Creative Action
Now, marched Oct. 25 in front of a science building
where they believe Star Wars (Strategic Defense Initia
tive) research is' carried out.
Their demands included: that all Strategic Defense
Initiative research be kept off Mount Graham; that the UA
declare a moratorium on all military development; and
I that UA’s administration institute a “conflict studies
program” that would focus on studying peace.
( - Arizona Dally Wildcat
University of Arizona
..mi 111111111,,, ...
BMWs top ‘tired of’ list
This letter is in response to noth
ing, yet again, to everybody. I’m sick
and tired, tired of seeing college kids
driving 1987 and newer cars of the
BMW, Datsun, Mazda, etc. type.
Better call daddy and thank him once
again. I’m tired of seeing students
wearing $80 shirts and $150 jean
jackets. Are they still taking applica
tions where you work? I’m tired of
jocks in bars who leer and take up
space, then urinate on lawns or in the
street and laugh. It’s not funny. That
urine was once your brain. I’m tired
of walking into the only bar down
town that carries non-alcoholic beer
and being surrounded by pretentious
about not being pretentious “intel
lectuals, ** all wearing black. And,
“yes, blond is the natural color of my
hair.” And I’m sick and tired of
greeks.
I’m sick and tired of grossly over
priced Nebraska Union food with the
nutritional value of lard. I’m tired of
eating peanut butter and jelly sand
wiches. I’m tired of paying bills. I’m
tired,of having the smallest room in
our apartment. And I'm sick and tired
of Milli Vanilli, Janet Jackson, Phil
Collins... and the rest of that garbage
they play on the far right side of my
radio dial.
I’m sick and tired of gay rights!
Just what are you clamoring for? I
don’t care. Just don’t include me,
thank you. I’m tired of the pro
choice/anti-abortion thing. Just let
the woman decide to have he/she, or
in many cases, it, not some geriatric,
impotent, martini-soaked judge. I’m
tired of the drug war. Listen George
and Bennett, legalize and advertise
then we can all safely pollute our
minds. If I were a poor kid, living in
the gutter, in the shadow of quarter
million dollar homes, I’d sell crack
too instead of mowing Richie’s lawn
for a fiver. I’m tired of gpvemmcnt
biggies being arrested, then writing
books about the ordeal and making a
mint. I’m tired of Joan, Sally Jesse
whatever, Geraldo, Phil, Barbara and
soon-to-be-fat-again Oprah. And I’m
sick and tired of people telling me
that Christmas is now called the holi
days, not Christmas anymore, HUH?
Kurt Krugerud
senior
education
OKM GOT 50AE MOf*AENTV)M, LRT5J.
C GETOUT-n^RE WP CMVMGM... a
^^—1,-"
*> .
Definitions vary from mind to mind
Communication doomed from start; misinterpretations inevitable
d like to start this column with
a little language experiment.
I’m going to present to you
two pieces of text, each with its own
strange, poetic beauty:
1) An eagle flies high; it flies
higher than a seagull. But the crow
wings rapidly from tree to bush to
hedge. The same can be toie of life
and of death. Sometimes life flies
high, sometimes death wings rapidly.
Sometimes it is said that death wings
from tree to bush to hedge. Some
times, it does not
2) When a sperm and an egg go
together to make a baby, they touch at
two contact points; they fuse. It’s like
nuclear fusion except it’s human fu
sion. There is a mass loss of a proton
in the form of a heal abstraction. One
heat abstraction goes up, and the
electron spins arotlhd and comes
down into the proton to form the
mind, and the mind can be reduced to
one atom.
One of these passages emanated
from the mind of a human being (al
though a schizophrenic one, mind
you). The other from a computer
program - it was constructed in a
strict algorithmic fashion. Can you
identify the non-human paragraph?
No big deal, really. Both are a bit
off the beaten path that the unwashed
hoards define as “normal.” But it
does bring us to the issue of what we
term human communication. What is
it? Given that we accept the above
examples as language, then we must
interpret both as an attempt at com
munication.
oasic iorm: me passing oi an iaea
from one mind to another. Right.
Well, let’s talk about that. The idea
you wish to impart must go through
your own subconscious and con
scious filtration process. What hap
pened the last time you tried to share
this idea? How do you judge your
audience’s capacity to accept the
words? Should you sacrifice your
true intent? Your behavior changes to
keep yourself on that socially ac
cepted, whitebread side of life.
OK, so once you figure out the
rudimentary language you need to
use to share your idea, you put it into
words. Since we are in Middle Amer
ica, it is reasonably safe to assume
English. Now, is your idea of a word
the same as mine? Not even close.
Language is more complex than
that. It is not a static object, it is a
dynamic process, and even the defi
nitions contained within a dictionary
are (at best) limited approximations
of the concepts that exist in the minds
of individuals. We add flavors -
shadings to words - as we add expe
riences to our lives.
As a child, love was defined as
your favorite cereal. As young adults,
hopefully by now it’s changed. At
any rale, the concepts we carry
around in our heads cannot be forced
into the neat, tidy packages offered
by dictionary definitions.
But, more importantly, the words
may not carry the same connotations
to you. The perfect example of this is
“friend.” To some, it may mean a
close sharing of experiences -- some
one for whom you would take a bul
let. To others it might mean the per
son they sit next to in History of
American Stupidity 400.
Communication is doomed from
the beginning, and I have yet to
mention the purposefully deceptive
shadings to our language. Not to slam
too hard on our political establish
ment, but they have given us so many.
Can you say TAXES? No? Well, then
try “revenue enhancements.’’ Or
“police action,’’ instead of “Yeah,
we’re kicking some butt in that little
war. (So much more erudite in tone,
don t you agree?) The Reagan and
Bush administrations have taught us
that people don’t lie anymore -- they
misspeak. Moreover, materialism is
a taste lor the I iner things,” Contras
are Freedom Fighters, and even a
zygote is a baby.
But, th is kind of language-fiddling
is not limited to political arenas. And
it does not always intimate (that’s a
verb, plebes - look it up) criminal
intent. If you’re caught with a beer in
a dorm room (they call them resi
dence halls now), you are “docu
mented” - not “written up.” The
labels given to people with handicaps
have evolved to “physically chal
lenged” and now to “differently
abled.”
Which label do they prefer? The
answer to this question lies within the
individual — in their own personal
lexicon. Language is deeply per
sonal; the ideas lie within the mind of
the speaker.
Or do they? The first passage
above seems to contain at least a
thread of meaning, but it’s all in your
head. It was created without the
honor of having coine from a mind at
all. It was generated by a crude artifi
cial intelligence program.
This raises a question: How much
of the meaning in what we write lies
in the language itself? Or perhaps
more importantly: How much lies
within the mind of the reader?
All too much, if you ask me. I
think that this might be why people
are misled so easily. It might even
explain why some people can read
the convoluted philosophical ram
blings of weak thinkers, and leave
with a sense of enlightenment.
The deck is stacked against com
munication taking place between
people.
As a columnist, my subject matter
is limited to ideas that might not be
considered too esoteric. I am encour
aged to write about things that the
“average” person would like to read.
(Thifik fast: Name something that the
apathetic masses care about.) I filter
my ideas as they go to the page, trying
to avoid using certain words that are
beautifully descriptive, but unprint
able.
The piece is read by my editors
who mutter * ‘discombobulated,” and
fight the temptation to print Mike
Royko, and then the copy editors
have the chance to pul their grimy
little hands all over it.
In the end, it is read and misinter
preted by somebody whose mind fil
ters it on the way in. Then that some
body says, “Oh, look, he ended a
sentence with a preposition!”
What this says to me is that at
tempts at communication seemed to
be destined for failure from the out
set. Sometimes it seems that there is
little point in even trying.
Do you follow me?
Longsine Is a senior computer science and
mathematics major and a Daily Nebraskan
columnist.