Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 30, 1990)
NelSra^kan Monday, April 30,1990 (Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board University of Nebraska-Lincoln Amy I id wards, Editor, 472-1766 Bob Nelson, Editorial Page Editor Ryan Sleeves, Managing Editor Iiric Pfanner, Associate News Editor Lisa Donovan, Associate News Editor Brandon Loomis, Wire Editor Jana Pedersen, Night News Editor Officials not exempt Public has right to hear both sides Student and faculty representatives Friday made recom mendations to improve the student code of conduct. Most of the changes are necessary ones, making policy clearer to help students and the judicial affairs office understand what is “allowed” at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Along with those revisions, representatives included a clause closing all student judicial hearings to the public. Ouch. In previous codes, the meetings were open to the public at the request of the defendant. There is a reason for open court meetings that those repre sentatives seem to be missing. When someone is charged with an offense, their name goes on police and court records, which are open to the public by law. The press reports those charges on the basis that the public has a right to know what is going on in the community. Open court systems allow the press and the public to follow a case which may concern others, hearing both sides of the issue. When defendants take the stand, they are able to give their side of the story - a side that docs not immediately show up in police or court records. During a meeting rnday, James Griesen, vice chancellor tor student affairs, said the change was made because of problems at other universities where defendants in sexual assault cases have opened judicial hearings to intimidate and embarrass the I victim of the assault. That argument is valid, but it also carries a frightening precedent. It places the decision of whether a story - or one side of a story - should be told in the hands of the government | (in this case, the university). The names of sexual assault victims are not run in papers to > protect the victim and save further harassment or embarrass ment. That choice is a newspaper’s responsibility -- not the respon sibility of the government. Griesen said the change also was recommended because of the Daily Nebraskan’s attempts to cover judicial hearings that adjudicated those cited for participating in snowball fights. Attempts is the right word. What Griesen failed to mention | was that the Daily Nebraskan was barred from those hearings - I even though they supposedly were open to the public under the i current code of conduct. It is too bad that officials at a public institution would consider themselves exempt from the laws governing the state which runs it. - Amy Edwards for ike Daily Nebraskan Seeking scapegoats dangerous I had a most interesting discussion with a young woman about the envi ronment and the solutions available to us last night. But during the course of that discussion she made a com ment that scared me. It reminded me that all of us possess the capacity of evil. Hcrcomment, “I think all Chris tians anti religionists should be killed! ” I paraphrase of course, but that was essentially her statement. Some Muslims would feel the same way about a lot of people, but for different reasons. Many of us remember and recog nize the horror of the Nazi Holocaust, when thousands of Jews were merci lessly slaughtered simply because of their faith or background. Hitler used them as his scapegoat for all of Ger many’s problems. Likewise, I have heard some environmentalists blame Christianity for our ecological prob lems. My warning to them, “Beware of seeking scapegoats or speaking and acting out of ignorance and hatred." Many Christian doctrines promote a non-material istic and self sacrificing lifestyle. They may not believe in the pantheistic or empirical ideologies of many environmental ists, but many of them would proba bly be willing to give up an awful lot for the good of everybody. Even if it were “For the Lord’s sake.’’ Another thing, before people go about judging Christians because they push their beliefs, it would do them well to remember that gays, femi nists, environmentalists, empiricists and many others seek to force their ideologies upon the church. Do not think they don’t! These militants can be just as zealous and loud about their beliefs as Jerry Falwell ever was, and just as cruel, judgmental and intimi dating. If you wantioputastuck-upChris tian to shame, do what he or she is supposed to do, show them under standing and kindness. It is like pour ing hot coals on their head! Say, maybe that old book isn’t as bad as it sounds! David A. Budka senior geography/cnvironmcntal studies ed&tmln The Daily Nebraskan’s publishers are the regents, who established the UNL Publications Board to supervise Editorial columns represent the opinion of the author. the daily production of the paper. According to policy set by the regents, responsibility for the edito rial content of the newspaper lies solely in the hands of its student edi tors. ^ ^ ym m ^w.‘ W0 - T^’S.SS^V" ”*"' tSK©'* **“• SUff^NiU. Higher education is blind faith No one really knows what going to college will get them into A i least one couple was married in The People’s Republic of China this weekend. I’m sure there may have been a few others, but there was only one that was newswor thy enough for me to hear about and then pass on to the oblivious masses. I’m not really sure what the court ing ritual is like in China, but appar ently these two went through all that. Some of this is just speculation, but 1 assume they were engaged fora spell. Then — and this part I’m sure of -- they had a nice little wedding cere mony. Not until the groom tried to con summate his conquest did he dis cover that she had one of them Y chromosomes. A hairy chest. A pe nis. Obviously, though I have to take a few summer courses before I gel out of here, I am caving in and writing one of those cnd-of-the-ycar/gradu ation columns. During parts of this column, 1 shall portray myself as the teary-eyed social animal, wondering where all my college buddies will be in 10 years, how many children they will have created, how many of my friends will have died at parties while participating in bi/arrc drinking games. At other times, 1 will seem the angry young man, let down by soci ety, spuming its norms and expecta tions, heading for the mountains and a new life as a beaver trapper. At still others, you will think me Ward Cleaver. Consider this: The Chinese groom is me -- for the sake of argument. The Chinese bride, however, is not, as you may have hypothesized, my wife. Rather, she is my four years at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, my college education, my key to the world. (This section will cover the angry young man in me.) I have paid my dues. I have expended countless hours trying to get inis alleged woman into bed. Custom, unfortunately, has dic tated that premarital sex is not per missible. I must wail until this, my big day, to discover what life really is like. What is the meaning of life? The answer is at my fingertips. If I can just get through the vows and the recep tion or whatever we do here in China, I will be a man. Then, on the eve of my nuptial bliss, I do indeed discover the mean ing of life. Our purpose in. life is to keep searching for our purpose, which always seems just out of our grasp and always will be. Do you understand what I’m say Brandon Loomis ing 10 you? No matter how hard you try to conform to the blueprints for American life, you could end up marrying a man, or a woman or someone who might not be to your sexual liking. So I've worked four years at this thing, and I’ve thought about it for a lot longer than that, and now I’m at the same point where I was when it all began. Upon graduation from an accredited university, I'm supposed to have all the answers. Instead, I have even more questions. Take this, for instance: I can ex plain the jet stream, the Coriolis force and the phenomenon of stalactites. I don’t, however, know how or why salmon travel thousands of miles only to return to their precise birthplace to spawn, and even if somebody thought they could explain it to me, I’d be doubtful. I’ve learned about 54-50 or Fight, but I can’t decide whether I want lobe President of the United States or a goldpanner in the mighty Yukon. I’ve learned the importance of environ mental protection, yet, I still get the urge to cut down an evergreen and count the rings. Four years ago, I decided that I couldn’t make any decisions about my future, so I’d let college do that for me. Now' I’m rich with knowledge and $25,000 in debt. But I think college was a good thing. After high school, I knew only the 50 state capitals, the Pledge of Allegiance and the workings of the two-stroke engine. 1 have spent four years interacting with people who have different perspectives and inter ests. 1 have had real-life opportunities to reaffirm my values, and I feel pre tty good about the way I have treated people. I’m ready to have children and to bring them up to be positive forces in the world, and I vow not to have more than I think the Earth can sustain. They will wear Osh Kosh overalls and ! will affectionately dub them Tapeworm and Sloth. I will love and respect them, and I might cry when they graduate. They will re member me as the loveable guy w ho thought too much. tThat was the Ward Cleaver passage.) And my college experience has left me with many, many memories of good friends and crazy midnight expeditions to university officials’ houses, which my educated brain will distort and bloat into the most won derful times known to mankind. 1 will remember exploring sexuality with fellow student journalists at editorial board meetings. I will, through some illogical neurological thing that seems to occur in all human brains, remem ber fondly my hellish days and nights as a news editor at the Daily Nebras kan. 1 will giggle boyishly when look ing back on my days as a news re porter, when I ruined many a young iad’s life. I will miss the Cays in July, silling on a sand bar in tfe middle ol the Platte River, trying to catch cat fish but really not knowing what I was doing. It’s great to be young and in love and full of uncertainly, and ready to embark on a world which isn’t really ready for you. It’s great to be thin enough that your grandchildren will never recognize your graduation pic tures. I hope it’s just as great later on. I hope I don’t mind being fat. 1 hope I don’t wonder what it was all for, and if I might not have done better just to work on a fishing boat and live on canned baked beans. I hope this whole thing doesn’t turn out to be a man. Loomis is a senior news-editorial major, the Daily Nebraskan wire editor and a columnist.