Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (July 19, 1990)
Editorial mnMnBDCWHHiKMHMBBMIMnQnMMHMMMHHHHiaHHMnHMBBnM NelScaskan Editorial Board University of Nebraska-Lincoln - — --— Jana Pedersen, Editor, 472 1766 Matt Hcrek, NewsEditor Brandon Loomis, Columnist John Payne, Entertainment Editor Daman Fowler, Sports Editor Brian Shcllito, Art Director Michelle Paulman, Photo Chief Parents to blame Band not responsible for suicide pact T he heavy metal band Judas Priest joined rappers 2 Live Crewib the eoUfttooms and newspapers this week, as heatings began on a lawsuit filed by tire parents of two | who formed a suicide pact, 1 P» suit alleges that hidden,4 * subliminal*’ messages in #wdU« lNplt% *T$t*h»d riass** album led to the formation of 1 K the suicide pact* ■ Whetho^ Judas Priest attempted to put subliminal messages ;• m its album or nor hm* the point, The mai issue is whether the hand members forced the young men to put guns to their heads. I" Obviously, the band members were mt with the youths at the dme of the incident. And if the bai#s album represents the | band in gs instance, bow could the band members assume ! testability for die purchase of their album by two youths with a history of drug, alcohol and physical abuse and psychi atric disorders? jue motneror one or the youths even has admitted to the court that her son had violent tendencies, yel she maintains that It was the album and not her own negligence that led to her | SOft'a death, it stands to reason that she believes a rock band had more responsibility for her sort's mental health and alleged f ffehliminal messages had more contioi over him than she did. I IMblt both 2 Live Crew and ludas Priest, the cowl system 1 has been asked to intervene and give the bands responsibility that should belong to parents. It is the parents' duty, not the i: musicians’, to monitor what albums kids listen to. if the parents of the youths who committal suicide thought the albums were harming their children, they should have taken the albums away, taken the stereo away or accepted the respon i siMlity of allowing thdr children to dioosc their own music. True, parents cannot monitor their children's every move. But a decision Recommit suicide does not happen instamane* nlty to intervene. The court should not hold the band resoon : gfelt parents* mistakes. « Jan* Pefctftcn , ; ■■ ^ -.. ^ ^ 0*****?*?**mt (What Others ThinLA Georgia requires drug test Effective July 1, 1990, all new state (Georgia) employees will have to lake a drug test in order to qualify for employment. Refusal to submit to the test will disqualify an applicant from applying again for two years. The law provides for testing of all student workers, professors and staff at the university. (University of Georgia) President Knapp will be faced with the chal lenge of attracting members of the academic community to the univer sity but only if they arc willing and able to pass a drug test. The statewide expense of the test and its complications will run into the millions annually. The lest costs approximately $50 per person. Where will this money come from? ... Is all this necessary? People who use drugs can’t perform their jobs. Is it worth it to alienate prospective students, professors and staff for the errors of less than 10 percent of the testces who arc expected to fail? The review process for individuals who appeal the test results has not been firmly established. What is an indi vidual’s recourse? What about the Constitutional rights of the individ ual--! the) right to privacy, the right to be protected from unlawful search and seizure without probable cause, the right to liberty and the right which protects you from being a witness against yourself? . . . -- The Red and Black University of Georgia I Time has arrived for field trips | Trips needed to get students into real classroom more often When I was tn fourth grade, my class went on a field trip to an historical Old West fort where pioneers had hung out when flaming arrows got to be too much for them. Forty screaming kids jammed on a Blue Bird bus, defiantly sticking arms out the windows, jumping out the fire escape just as the bus pulled away from Irene Rcither Primary School, vaulting spitwads eight rows forward at the geek who sat talking to the driver, putting banana slugs in girls’ hair - the mature fourth graders drool ing tobacco bile into enormous lakes on the green rubber floor - were on their way to see just how the west was won. Somebody brought a tape deck, and I remember Acrosmith doing a bad rendition of a Beatles song as we slopped for no apparent reason at various points of interest where, I assume, something important once had happened. I think we were on the Oregon Trail or something. The geek by the driver kept getting off and taking pictures of cannons and plaques, while the rest of us traded or stole Twinkies and made ugly noises with our armpits. Finally, the bus stopped in front of a dumpy looking wooden structure with watch cubicles protruding from each corner, and my fourth grade class exhaled one collective “Oh brother ” in recognition of the teacher’s inevitable explanation of the stupid things we were to see. Actually, the outing proved more exciting than most of us had antici pated. After suffering through some trivia about early American trade and the slaughter of thousands of Ameri can Indians at this particular locale, we got to dip string into lard to make candles. That was really coo! We each dipped a string into the boiling vat of fat, then let the string cool before dipping it in again. There was no getting us away from that display, as we dreamily stared at the vat, imagining the cruel things that could be done with this bubbling glob. In deed, lard balls proved effective geek repellent on the busridc home. Some of my classmates also en joyed carding the wool, but I was just pissed off that they wouldn’t let us shear the sheep. Such is the nature of grade school field trips. And it is rarely any differ ent in high school. When I was in ninth grade I went on a school trip (this one at great personal expense) to Europe. My family saw it as a sort of oncc-in-a-lifctime learning experience, and in fact it probably was, since I will never have that much money in the bank again. Brandon Loomis « mm.... Surprisingly, thal trip did turn into a learning experience. I learned a lol about electronics. On the first night in a German hotel, my roommates and 1 took apart the television so we could hook the speaker up to a Walkman. While we were at it, since the set was one of those with a separate button for each channel, we depressed each button before replacing the outer panel, so that the television constantly switched from station to station. In Switzerland, my friend Mall peed on a BMW from our fourth story window,* and we littered the street with at least 200 paper airplanes. It was more or less a do-what-you want field trip, so in Paris, while the teachers took some of the students to either Versaillcsor the Louvre (I can’t remember which since I saw neither) my friends and I convinced most of the group to go for pizza and a night of bowling. You can’t tell me that a night in Paris is not an education, but now that I think of it, Versailles proha bly would have been pretty neat. The scene was repeated in Lon don. While the responsible folks went to Buckingham Palace for the chang ing of the guard, three friends and I went to Abbey Road and got an old lady to photograph us walking across the street — Matt in his bare feet. The old lady (not, I think, entirely sane) adopted us as her “American sons” and tried to get us into the recording stud io to sec her nephew M ick Jaggcr. It didn’t work, probably because the - London Philharmonic Orchestra -- not the Rolling Stones -- was recording at the lime, so we got on a double decker bus with her and had a fun lime giving her the slip at the world’s biggest department store (or at least that’s what she said it was). Later that night, at a medieval castle festival, we all got a little tipsy from downing mead and banging on the tables while shouting, “Bring on the wenches!” Two or three people threw up or. the bus back to the hotel -- one on the lap of a chaperone - and we were grounded for the last few days of the trip. I have not been on one held trip since I’ve been in college, other than those I’ve taken on my own time. But I wish 1 had. I'm a serious student now (meaning that I am for the moment through with throwing lard balls, jumping from fire escapes and peeing on BMWs). If I went back to Paris, I'd go sec Versailles. If I went back to that fort. I’d listen to the tragic stories of Indian slaughters, and I’d card the wool. I’m a history minor, and no profes sorever has brought my class to Harry Truman’s home in Independence, or Malcolm X’s birthplace in Omaha, or even the Betty Ford Rose Garden. I’m also a political science minor, but no professor took me to the 1988 vice presidential debate in Omaha. The time is now for field trips. We must rise up to fight ignorance. We’ve got to get out of Burnell Hall and into a real classroom more often. Loomis is « senior news-editorial major and the Summer Dally Nebraskan editorial columnist.
