Editorial
Edwards, Editor, 472 1766
Nielson, Editorial Page Editor
Steeves, Managing Editor
Pfanncr, Associate News Editor
I Lisa Donovan, Associate News Editor
Brandon Loomis, Wire Editor
Jana Pedersen, Night News Editor
Cautious optimism
Mandela s freedom shouldn't be symbolic
It’s a time of hope, and a time for caution.
After 27 years of prison, Nelson Mandela has been
released.
The 71-year-old anti-apartheid leader and symbol of
freedom for South Africa left prison Sunday.
Praise has been lavished on President de Klerk for re
leasing Mandela and opening up possibilities for further
reductions on apartheid.
But Mandela is not really free.
IManoeia sun cannot live wnere ne wants, vote ior can
didates he wants or run for office. Neither can the rest of
non-white South Africa.
President Bush has pledged to help de Klerk ease
relations and move toward peaceable change. He also will
consult with Congress to review the five requirements that
de Klerk must meet to have U.S. economic sanctions
lifted.
In addition to Mandela’s release, the requirements
include lifting the state of emergency, legalizing political
participation for all parties, repealing laws that regulate
where non-whites can live and work, and beginning good
faith relations with the black majority.
Unfortunately, even if the requirements are met, South
Africa probably will not be equitably ruled. Beginning
good-faith relations is not the same as granting equality.
De Klerk cannot be allowed to use Mandela as a token.
Sure, he is out of prison now, but he never should have
been sent there in the first place.
Mandela’s release is a symbol of hope for South Africa
and the rest of the world. But de Klerk must be carefully
watched, and pressure must be kept on his government to
continue to move forward against apartheid
Otherwise, Nelson Mandela and his release from prison
will remain symbolic.
- Amy Edwards
for the Daily Nebraskan
‘Easiest’ solution not the best
We are told that abortion should
continue to be an alternative choice
for a woman to determine her own
destiny. That no one has a right to tell
another what to do with an unborn
human/fetus. The abortion issue has
many alternative arguments that may
be substituted where appropriate.
An unborn child/fetus is not a
human, but rather an unfeeling, un
thinking lump of tissue that has as
much individuality from its mother as
a fingernail that can be clipped off. I
once discussed this with a friend and
in the end we both concluded that a
developing fetus was human, there
fore making abortion murder. When I
asked him how he could still support
abortion, his reply was ‘‘I may need
to use it someday.”
What about all of the unwanted
children who are overpopulating our
world - are you going to take care of
them? I agree that overpopulation is
one of die most serious problems facing
our world today. It is responsible for
starvation, unwanted children and the
destruction of our environment.
Anyone who knows me knows that I
will support anything that will save
our environment. But docs the end
justify the means? Is killing our un
born children the way to solve our
problems?
Abortion is a moral issue, there -
fore a religious issue. In this country,
no one has the right to force their
religious beliefs on me. The question
of what rights bom and unborn hu
mans have is not religious, but rather
the very heart and soul of our
Constitution. Arc all humans protected
under the law or simply the ones who
can speak for themselves and afford
good lawyers?
I do not wish to attack individuals
for their beliefs on abortion. 1 am
saddened, though, that we are so eas
ily led to believe that the easiest way
out of a problem is the best way. I am
also saddened that many of us remain
silent in an attempt to appear reason
able and, in the process, sell our very
souls.
Tom Koemer
senior
natural resources
Don’t raise fees; make cuts
First, they hiked prices in the laun
dry room, then a $145 increase in
housing, now a proposed 20-percent
increase in parking fees.
The attitude around the University
of Nebraska-Lincoln seems to be
“Well, instead of reducing cost by
increasing efficiency, let’s just tack
on a few bucks and claim it’s just
annual inflation. After all, those rich
little college brats are made of money,
and they’ll never miss it.’’
Well, if they want to fund this
shuttle program or whatever else that
they plan to use the extra money on,
then do something that makes sense,
like only charging the students who
want to use the shuttle. After all, why
charge 20,000 students for a service
that many do not need to use? Or,
better yet, do away with the entire
UNL Police Department. All they are
is a nuisance to students and an un
needed liability to the school’s “tight”
budget. Can you think of one worth
while thing that the campus police
has done besides handing out parking
tickets? I didn’t think so.
Mike Gleason
freshman
computer science
Readers not required to think
Message: Every college student ready, starving for success
There’s been an interesting de
velopment on the editorial page
of the Daily Nebraskan in the
last week. Columnists have caught
some kind of bug which makes them
spout rhetoric about things totally
unrelated to abortion, the death pen
alty, laws and wars.
They’re reminding college students
that they all have emotions' and that
they all have times of reckoning --
things besides textbooks. I’m not sure
I like being reminded, but it’s a pretty
funky revolution as far as sophisti
cated student journalism goes.
I have recently discovered that I
am human. As such, I guess I’m en
titled to follow the trend. You’ll like
this, because you can read it and not
feel like you’re required to think. If
you decide you would like to think,
please skip to the last few paragraphs.
For years I’ve been a loner sur
rounded by people who care about me
but can’t really tell how I feel. I know
that I’m not the only one in this situ
ation, so I’ll write about it. Fellow
losers are advised to use me as a
prototype.
i went to second grade in Cape
Charles, Va. It’s a small coastal town
which 1 think has progressed to about
1930 by now. On the first day of class,
my teacher, Mrs. Bull, identified me
as an outsider — someone who had
gone to kindergarten and first grade
elsewhere, someone who could add.
For the rest of the year, my job was to
take unfortunate idiots, two at a lime,
into the closet and teach them how to
tie their shoes and tell time.
This changed the course of my
life. From then on, I was to be bitter,
pessimistic and self-reliant. I was
deprived of my second-grade educa
tion and alienated from classmates. I
developed a life-long opinion that
there is no hope for the world. I de
cided that if I was to learn anything, I
would do it on my own. I began to
believe that people would never talk
to me unless they wanted something
from me.
Moving halfway across the coun
try every year didn’t help much ei
ther. With no time to make real friends,
I developed a pattern of entertaining
myself. I got good at it. By the time I
came to the University of Nebraska, I
had enough of an immunity to social
life that I was able to get by without
any friends for two years, unless you
count that one girl.
No longer.
Here we are, college students, ready
^ Brandon
Loomis
to embark on the world of success,
biding our lime until graduation by
squeezing into local bars and feeling
like we belong. Somehow, I’ve learned
that part. I’m beginning to open my
mouth periodically as well. I used to
worry that what I had to say was
usually unimportant, so I didn’t say
it. Now I’m more worried that I’ll be
unimportant. I thought public school
was supposed to lake care of these
problems for me.
The message/mcaningAhrust/gist:
Every college student is ready and
starving for success. Few know what
success is. I do. Success is having
both insane aspirations and a simple
but stable happiness to fall back on
when you fail. If you haven’t failed,
you will. You need more than your
self to overcome your failures. You
need me.
Lots of people pay money to ad
vertise themselves as singles in news
papers. I get paid to do it. That’s
America, and 1 love it.
/ am 21 years of age, 6-foot-2 and
155 pounds (4.2 percent body fat). /
like folk, blues, jazz, rock, soul, clas
sical, punk and John Philip Sousa. 1
am fluent in English. Somebody sliced
my shoulders out of my columnist
photograph, so be aware that my
neck really isn't that long. I have a
3.8 grade point average, which is to
say that 1 could easily spend abso
lutely no time studying this semester
and still graduate. I only need four
hours of sleep every night. I live on
the edge: I’m $22,000 in debt. My
mom went to high school with Goldie
Hawn. I have a million or so whim
sical tales I could tell if properly
provoked. I'm hot. I prefer women.
So the Cape Charles dilemma is
being put behind me. Not only am I
no longer afraid to approach people --
in this case,women - and tell them
exactly what I’m thinking, but I am
not afraid to approach 8,000 or 9,000
of them at once. I realize that when
those backward second graders gath
ered around me at lunch break to
giggle and watch me chew in my
curious manner -- with a closed mouth
- they weren’t laughing at me. They
just didn’t understand me. If I would
have opened my mouth, spewing
creamed com and an explanation, they
would have been enlightened, and I
would have felt less distant From
now on I resolve to cat with my mouth
open, at least whenever I am in Cape
Charles.
I have had this really weird phobia
all my life: Maybe I’ll tum into a
conformist. Maybe I’ll be like every
one else. But now I’m beginning to
realize that nonconformists arc the
worst conformists of all. They spend
more time making sure they’re not
wearing what everyone else is than
conformists spend trying to look like
their peers. I can derive my sense of
individuality from my own head. I’m
going to go out at night, drink Anhe
user-Busch products, tell jokes and
act like everyone else. I deserve it.
I’ve been saving up for it. I shan’t be
gone long, you come loo. (The illiter
ates should be informed that i plagia
rized that last sentence).
I’m going to close with a twist on
a nifty adage, profession or whatever.
No man is an island. I guess that’s
true, but some men certainly live on
islands. I’m swimming toward shore.
Toss me a boogie board.
Loomis is a senior news-editorial major,
the Dally Nebraskan wire editor and a colum
nist.
klteg==^~ -
Readers also are welcome to sub
mit 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.
Anonymous submissions will nol
be considered for publication. Letters
should include the author’s name,
year in school, major and group affili
ation, if any. Requests to withhold
names will not be granted.
Submit material to the Daily Ne
braskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 14(X) R
St., Lincoln, Neb. 68588-0448.