Editorial
(Daily
Nebraskan
Editorial Board
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Amy Edwards, Editor, 472-1766
Bob Nelson, Editorial Page Editor
Ryan Steeves, Managing Editor
Eric Planner, Associate News Editor
Lisa Donovan, Associate News Editor
Brandon Loomis, Wire Editor
Jana Pedersen, Night News Editor
Message is bold
c,__ >
Officials lack proper respect for students
A re students not as important as other people?
Judging from comments Saturday (Robert Allen)
and Monday (Ron Fuller), students don’t deserve the
same standards as the rest of the population.
Allen, an N U regent from Hastings, showed his disre
spect for students when he opposed a fine arts building for
the University of Nebraska at Omaha at an NU Board of
Regents meeting last weekend.
The building, projected to cost $11.5 million, has a
curved wall covered with red brick. Allen, who has
opposed designed architecture in the past, challenged the
need for the design on a university campus.
“It’s very fancy for a student,’’ he said.
So if the building were designed to accommodate the
NU Board of Regents, it might be OK?
Fuller, staff assistant at the UNL Police Department,
showed his lack of knowledge about students’ lives when
he raised opposition to a proposal introduced Monday by
Parking Advisory Chairman Doug Oxley.
Oxley’s proposal allows students to purchase the same
parking permits as staff and faculty members and compete
with them for close parking spaces.
Fuller opposed the plan because he thinks faculty spend
more time at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
“These individuals are here all the time for years,
while students are here only for four years and then
they’re gone,’’ Fuller said. “Students aren’t dealing with
the real world as much.’’
INot dealing with the real world.'
What about the large percentage of students who have
full-time jobs, or more than one part-time job, while
taking a full load of classes? What about those students
who do that while supporting a family?
Fuller is the one not dealing with the real world. Many
students spend their entire day on campus - not just 9
a m. to 5 p.m. — and work downtown or have to rush to
an evening job later.
Convenient, safe parking is a must for those students to
allow them to work to pay for school.
The regents passed the building proposal and the
parking advisory committee took some good action to
make parking on campus safer, so Allen’s and Fuller’s
comments at least did not halt some progress.
But they do send a message to students that they don’t
have the right people representing them and making
decisions that affect them.
Officials, who supposedly are in positions to make
educated decisions about the quality of education and life
for students, should be people v/ho realize that students
deserve that quality education and life.
-* Amy Edwards
for the Daily Nebraskan
opiplm^_
Deeds babbling annoys reader
Michael Deeds is babbling again.
In his Feb. 19 article, he criticizes
Michael Stipe, Sting, Morrissey and
other musicians for jumping on the
“cause” bandwagon. Apparently, he
believes they are doing this so their
records will sell. If he is ignorant
enough to think that the music these
people make is not solid enough to
sell on its own, he should not be
writing about music.
“Change,” Deeds tells us, “will
come when enough people think the
same thoughts.” Yes, Michael, you
are correct. Tom Petty and Michael
Stipe are both working to encourage
the same thoughts and force the same
changes. Calling Stipe and others
hypocrites or liars because iheir meth
ods are more straight forward and
outspoken is an incredible injustice to
them.
Deeds encourages artists to ‘‘use
their art forms” to make some good
out of the cause movement and then
backhands MTV for doing their part.
There arc people who arc with the
cause because it is in vogue, and
MTV may be among those, but if it
will get people to think about what we
are doing to our planet then it has
some worth to it.
Malcom Miles
senior
criminal justice
editorial —
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the official policy of the spring 1990
Daily Nebraskan. Policy is set by the
Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board.
According to policy set by me re
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Mind games are dangerous
Nightmares spring from subliminal late-night programming
4 4 T ook, I have Bush wait
. ing on line two, I have
1* three Supreme Court Jus
tices and Nelson Mandela on line
three, I have to fly to Moscow in two
minutes, and before I go, I have to
write a book on the origins of the
universe. I don’t care if God is in the
waiting room, you moron! I’m busy!
Should I fire you?”
“No, please don’t, sir. I realize
how incredibly powerful and busy
you are ... but it’s your mother.”
“Oh. Send her in.”
“Hi, Mom.”
“Bob, you look thin.”
“I’ve gained 30 pounds.”
“Have you been eating?”
“Yes.”
“Don’t lie to me. I’m your mother.”
“You’re right.”
“Here’s a potato.”
“Thank you.”
“Eat it!’*
“But Mom ...”
“Do you want your eyes to cross?”
“What?”
“Did you take your medicine?”
“I don’t have any medicine.”
“I didn’t ask if you had any medi
cine.”
“You’re right’’
“Did you take your medicine?’’
“I’m not sick.’’
“Well, of course you’re not. You
took your medicine.”
“No, Mom, I mean I wasn’t...”
“Take more!"
If I remember correctly, the night
mare took a weird twist there. Things
started crawling out of things they
shouldn’t have, and my mother pulled
a pill the size of Divine from her hip
pocket. I woke up sweating from my
eyeballs and screaming “I’M NOT
SICK! I’M NOT SICK!,” at which
time my landlord (also a mother)
pounded on the floor and screamed
through the vent, “Are you sick?” I
said no. and she said something about
warm milk and turning down tne tele
vision.
Childbirth, my mother likes to tell
me, feels like pulling a bowling ball
from your ear. She also has compared
giving birth to pulling a bathtub from
your nose, a dishwasher from your
mouth and a Toyota Landcruiser from
your navel.
Because of the physical torture of
childbirth, mothers take revenge on
the child by becoming “concerned.
With this “concern,” the mother can
justify stuffing a child with pills or
pieces of food that arc the same size
as the child was at birth. The chdd
will physically benefit from the
mother’s concern, but will be wak
ened in the middle of the night by
nightmares when he or she is 22.
Well, I’m quite a ways into my
22nd year, so I’m used to these kind
of nightmares. In fact, I kind of like
them.
But for some reason, this one was
different. It was kind of disturbing.
So I crawled out of bed, grabbed a
glass of milk, turned down the vol
ume on my Zenith and began watch
ing a 30-minute commercial that was
already in progress.
Bob
^ Nelson
I’m sure you’ve seen these com
mercials. Some rabid businessman
rants and raves in front of a heavily
paid studio audience about his $89.95
cassette collection that, if purchased,
will make you a millionaire or at least
really popular with the ladies. Then,
after a few minutes of raving, the
commercial breaks to a commercial
for the cassette tapes.
Yeah. A commercial within a
commercial. It’s like those really
horrible nightmares you have in which
you wake up only to find out that you
didn’t actually wake up. They’re
horrible because after you wake up
again, you spend most of the follow
ing day wondering if you’re still asleep
in bed.
But it’s a brilliant scam. A human
parasite and a big promise preying on
downwardly-mobilc insomniacs who
see themselves at broadcast time two
eternities from substantial human
interaction or self-actualization.
More or less, it’s television at its
filthiest, stripped of the glamour and
subtleties, and aimed point-blank at
the pockelbook of the naturally re
jcctcd. Loneliness ana lanurc are goia
mines in all advertising, but late at
night, nobody has the lime or money
for the sheep’s clothing.
The commercial I watched had an
ex-sitcom star (who I had thought
died some years back) and Fran Tark
ington helping some guy sell his tapes.
All three men said that if I bought the
tapes, I would be so successful that
George Bush, three Supreme Court
Justices and Nelson Mandela would
call me and let me put them on hold.
I’m not sure if they were joking.
One of the tapes these guys were
selling was a “subliminal message
tape.” They said if you play the tape
while you sleep, you'll wake up be
lieving that you have the capability to
be successful.
If you’ve ever seen ‘ ‘ A Clockwork
Orange,” you realize the potential
dangers of “improving” people by
manipulating their subconscious. Now
add the fact that twisted money-grub
bing human parasites are “improv
ing” depressed insomniacs, and 1 think
you’ll realize that we have a problem.
I’ve had dreams related to televi
sion before. I’ve woken from riding
the range v hile a cowboy movie was
on my television. I’ve dozed-off just
before “MASH” and dreamt about
Vaudeville.
Bui this was the first time 1 ve
woken from a dream that related to a
commercial in which tapes were being
sold that could improve me while I
slept. 1 don’t know what it all means.
It just seems kind of sinister and pa
thetic.
I think I’m just used to having my
subconscious shaped by someone who
is doing it in my best interest. Parents
do all the horrible things they do out
of love, which beats the hell out of
someone doing it for money.
Making human beings is a touchy
business and a power that should be
kept from unconcerned individuals.
Maybe subliminal, tape-recorded
messages should be outlawed.
Or maybe 1 should just turn off the
television before I fall asleep. Mom
always said I would burn out the
picture tube.
Nelson is an editorial columnist, the Daily
Nebraskan editorial page editor and a senior
news-editorial major.
I UHaEB
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