Editorial
T)clllv Amy Edwards, Editor, 472-1766
_ T 1 *'« Bob Nelson, Editorial Page Editor
t* ^ O lx’ ^ -f-% Ryan S,ccvcs- Managing Editor
1 ^ 1^1 1 JRk Cm. X L Brie Planner, Associate News Editor
Lisa Donovan, Associate News Editor
Editorial Board Brandon Loomis, Wire Editor
University of Nebraska-Lincoln Jana Pedersen, Night News Editor
—
Dry campus archaic
UNL officials should follow senators1 lead
A bill introduced last week to lower the legal blood
alcohol content for motorists is one more positive
step in the fight against drunk driving in Nebraska.
LB 1114, sponsored by four state senators, would lower
the legal blood-alcohol level from .10 to .08.
The bill’s sponsors say the decrease is needed because
new evidence suggests drinkers become impaired at lower
blood-alcohol levels than previously thought. A study by
the American Medical Association show that drivers
already are impaired when their blood-alcohol content
reaches .05.
I Sen. Sharon Beck of Omaha, one of the co-sponsors ot
the bill, said, “We’re not trying to infringe on anyone’s
right to drink.” She said the bill is needed in Nebraska
because drunk drivers kill, maim or injure many innocent
people every year.
Beck is absolutely right. LB1114 infringes only on the
ability of drunk drivers to kill innocent people.
Nearly half of all traffic accidents in Nebraska are
alcohol-related. By implementing a lower legal intoxica
tion level, senators would send one more word of warning
to a drunk man or woman contemplating a drive home.
The driver may still claim to “feel fine,” but with a lower
legal level, a driver may realize that “fine” is not
enough.
But along with being a strong voice against drunk
driving, this bill once again should be a message to UNL
officials that drunk driving is the primary evil of alcohol,
and that they, too, could have a significant impact on the
number of drunk-driving accidents.
The university has maintained a dry-campus policy
with the archaic notion that if students can’t drink on
campus, they will not drink. Obviously, students who
want to drink will find a way to drink. If they cannot
drink on campus, they will drive to drink off campus.
The idea is a simple one. By making UNL a wet cam
pus, officials would protect students by allowing them to
drink within walking distance of their home.
State senators realize that drunk driving shatters lives.
It is time that university officials and parents of UNL
| students realize that a dry-campus alcohol policy can also
shatter lives.
Bob Nelson
for the Daily Nebraskan
Nebraska football predictable
I have followed twcniy-three years
of Nebraska football. Two national
titles and at least four o»ccr “should
have been” titles have gone the way
of history. The old saying, “You can’t
win them all,” or, “We’ll get them
next year,” has pacified the majority
of fans for some time now. And for
some, the old grin-and-bear-it routine
seems to work. But enough is enough
already. A change in the game plan is
needed when predictability becomes
the rule and not the exception. A
change in the game plan is needed
when a faithful viewing fan can rec
ognize the same formations and the
same play scenario year after year,
hoping that the other team hasn’t
watched TV.
As with the bowl games and other
critical games, the same reasons why
the team was not able to win keep
coming back. Where is all the fire?
Where is the spark that was so indica
tive of Nebraska football?
David Berger
Houstonians for Nebraska
rorget the oils; Remember Jesus
This is a response to Jim Hanna’s
column (DN, Jan. 17). SAY, JIM!
Not bad predictions, but I look for
Christ’s return and Armageddon in
the 1990s (I hope!). The ’60s were
cool? As a child I watched America
slip from an industrial giant to a blith
ering industrial backwash in the ’60s,
and my childhood dreams hopped
aboard the last Burlington California
Zephyr bound for oblivion. No, the
’60s were not cool.
As to your fear of a return of late
1970s culture, I happen to be very
fond of Air Supply, SuperTramp, Dan
Fogelbcrg and STYX. As for the rest
of the ’70s, maybe it would be best to
leave it on the trash heap of the ages.
In the passing of the “me” gen
eration 1980s, may I offend Whitney
Houston in saying that the greatest
love isn’t of self but in giving up your
life for others. I cry for Christendom
today, for even the elect arc deceived,
and we seek more after the world than
treasures in heaven.
Remember now, ye who seek pleas
ure, all of man’s works arc vanity and
vexation of spirit and fall to the fire of
judgment. Ironic, isn’t it? We no longer
sing, “May God thy gold refine, till
all success be nobleness and every
gain divine.” Can you music majors
name that tune?
Well, Jim, God bless you in your
new semester, and, Lord Jesus, surely
Thou art the Alpha and Omega. I
pray, “Quickly come!”
Mark D. Budka
- senior
history
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<--X-.'tt N.War,
Winter in Nebraska is hell
The only fun is making people think you re from somewhere else
Spring has sprung, at least for
the moment.
Anyway, now that the holi
days are over, Christmas specials are
done with, and the Cornhuskers have
lost another bowl game, what is a
Nebraska student to do?
For tho;>e of you that have lived in
the Com State all your lives, the
monotony of this season never affects
you. Just turn on the idiot box, maybe
study a bit, get bombed and talk about
how well the Big Red will do pum
mcling Big Eight teams next season.
For those of us not from the
complex, we must come to terms
with the suicidal depression of winter
and spring. We have no beaches, no
professional sporting events and no
political diversity. Nebraska has no
large metropolitan areas, unless you
consider Omaha one, no mountains,
no international boundaries, few, small
lakes, little cultural exchange ....
Must I continue?
OK, you gel the picture. We are
surrounded on all sides by nothing
and have a long way to drive to get
anywhere. So, to you people of differ
ent lands, states and worlds, my ad
vice to you is to pretend you are
elsewhere, like everyone docs from
here. Pretend Omaha is a large me
tropolis, that the Racers are a profes
sional team, that Trailridge is a mini
ature Vail, and pretend that down
town Lincoln is the fashion Mecca of
the world. And just dream until sum
mer.
You can sleep only so long. Then
what? Well, in my seven years of
experience here in Lincoln, winter
offers two diversions to the ho-hum
of college proper. One is to buy clothes
to impress upon others that you are
not from this state. Page through the
fashion tabloids and create a worldly
wardrobe depicting yourself as a trav
eling man or woman.
Second, with your new fashion
statement, go to the bars.
What? You’re not old enough to
go to the bars? Tough donkey-doo to
m * +
you. In a few years, you,loo, can
attend the bar scene. For those of us
who arc not minors, Lincoln offers a
wide array of night life, mostofwhich
is quite sad and imitative, but you
must remember, this is the winter
dream state.
Sometime in the future, I’ll write
about my favorite hobby, but for now,
fashion is the concern.
Kurt
Krugerud
Fashion is something everyone can
do, providing you have cash or credit.
Look in the mags, the stores, in class,
on the streets and in the bars. Every
where, everything recks of new clothes.
Great, new, brilliant, expensive
outers, lovely colors, cool stripes,
beautiful pastels . . . everyone all
dressed up with no place to go. Re
member, just dream and believe it
doesn’t matter how good you arc, but
how good you look.
Actually, it doesn’t cost all that
much to refurbish that old winter
wardrobe to a presentable quality.
For me, fashion consists of the same
crap I wear all year round, except, of
course, the new undies mom bought
me for Christmas.
I might jazz things up a bit by
wearing dirty stuff inside out, or
wearing a tic w ith my stained whites
to look real cool. Yet, in comparison
to the richics from 16th Street, and
with my meager salary, there is no
way I can compete ... I mean, look
good.
Those of us who pay our own way
here must improvise by buying things
from Goodwill, coordinate it in some
way, and think to ourselves that being
Bohemian is cool.
Fashion, lo me, means liulc. It’s
like an old, loud, rusty car with tom
seats. You can wash it and wax it and
it still looks likes--. I’m ugly, fat and
short, so no matter how* far I extend
the credit limit on my Visa, I’ll still
look ugly, fat and short. I do have a
little pride, so to hide my clothes and
body, 1 wear a long coat all year.
Coats arc the “thing” this year,
especially leather coats. They’re
everywhere. Needless to say, I do not
own one, for I can find better things to
blow $200 or more on. Yet, if you
want to play the game and look real
luscious for the nightly meal parade
at the bars, a leather coat is a must.
Except for me. I don’t wear leather.
I can’t parade, because midgets arc
usually laughed at in a parade.
My roommate, Jon, bought a leather
coat the other day He said, “Look at
this, isn’t it cool? ' I said that it was.
Then he asked, “Guess how much it
cost.’’I had no idea, but I took a stab
at it and quoted $200. A big smile lit
up his face while he announced some
outrageous figure in the mid-$500s.
“Women dig leather,” he said.
I gulped down the rest of my dry
peanut butler and jelly sandwich and,
for once, had no reply.
Men, women, girls, boys, men from
San Francisco, punks, paraders and
lootbaii players all wear leather these
days. My dad used to w ear a leather
jacket in the 1950s. He said he was
mean, hated school, smoked ciga
rettes, fixed cars, drank Grain Belt
beer and farmed. I doubt many leather
wearers display these fine qualities
today. Leather once was a symbol of
rebellion, an anarchistic statement
toward the establishment. Brando worn
one in the movie “The Wild One.”
I don’t wear leather. I just sit on
the bar stool, arching my head up for
a better view, swill beer and watch
the parade.
krugerud is a secondary education senior
and a Daily Nebraskan columnist.
j jWy] -._z.z
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