Editorial
p) 'I-. Eric Pfanner, Editor, 472-1766
LJA 1-iy Victoria Ayolte, Managing Editor
TW T -.1^ v ^ 1, ^ Darcic Wicgcrt, Associate News Editor
^ JL/ ^ JV d. XX Diane Brayton, Associate News Editor
Jana Pedersen, Wire Editor
Editorial Board Emily Rosenbaum, Copy Desk Chief
University of Nebraska-Lincoln Lisa Donovarli Editorial Page Editor
Quibbles ’n’ bits
Students suspended for eating garlic
Add garlic to gang-style clothing and Bart Simpson F
shirts on the list of things that offend public school
administrators.
Two Lake Worth, Fla., high school students were suspended
from school last week for three days after eating too much
garlic.
Each of the students, one of whom is a vegetarian, ate three
or four heads of the smelly tuber for breakfast before going to
school. They said they ate the garlic because of its supposed
ability to cleanse blood and keep blood pressure down, The
Associated Press reported.
Other students and school officials apparently were unim
pressed with the students’ science experiment.
Art works exhibit reactionary climate
Inspired by the trial of Cincinnati museum director Dennis
Barrie, the Brooklyn Museum in New York has put
together an exhibit of art considered objectionable over the
years.
After Barrie was found innocent Friday of obscenity charges
stemming from an exhibit of photographs by the late Robert
Mapplethorpe, the Brooklyn Museum and others interested in
freedom of expression can breathe an uneasy sigh of relief.
Only an uneasy sigh, because also last week, a Florida jury
found guilty of obscenity a record store owner who sold an
| album by the rap group'2 Live Crew. This week, the Crew
itself is to go on trial in Miami on similar charges for a night
club performance.
The Brooklyn Museum’s exliibit shows just how reactionary
\the current debate is.
Among the artworks in the exhibit are bronzes of lesbians
embracing, paintings of nude children and of a man urinating
into another man’s mouth.
Sound familiar? It was subjects like those that incited oppo
| sition to the Mapplethorpe exhibit.
But the Brooklyn Museum’s artworks that focus on those
subjects arc not Mapplethorpe photographs. And they’re not
raunchy raps, cither.
The embracing lesbians were created by Auguste Rodin,
who died in 1917. The nude children were painted in the 19th
century. And the urination scene is an 18th century Hindu
painting.
Even the most zealous of prosecutors would have difficulty
indicting those artists.
— Eric Pfanncr
for the Daily Nebraskan
Letter writer spouting piffle,
misunderstanding NEA intent
Mr. (Andrew) Meyer’s letter (DN,
Sept. 27) said something had “really
got me thinking.” I dispute this. In all
the years I’ve been at UNL, no one
has been so adept at expressing half
thought-out reactionary piffle as he.
Yes, motion pictures are consid
ered an art form, but many arc simply
commercial product. As the domi
nant art form they do not need the
help of the National Endowment for
the Arts to make “Postcards from the
Edge.”
Meyer obviously has a grave mis
understanding about what the NEA
docs. It underwrites artists and or
ganizations to make art reasonably
available loall Americans, ltdoesnot
promise to make the experience abso
lutely free. For instance, NEA money
underwrites the Sheldon Film Thea
ter, which brings movies that other
wise would not be seen in this town at
any price, and charges at least as
much as commercial movie houses.
Here’s the basics of the situation.
There arc certain services the private
sector would never find truly profit
able, and the voters want more access
to art than stingy corporate philan
thropy provides. Now, remember that
these volcrs arc taxpayers, so they tell
their elected representatives, those
hated congressmen, how to spend their
taxes. Here’s the point — the U.S.
government is supposedly “for the
people.” If the people want art, the
government is, by that principle, the
best supporter of it. Every taxpayer
who saw that banned Cincinnati ex
hibit of Robert Mapplethorpe's pho
tos and every visitor to our Sheldon or
Omaha’s Joslyn galleries already has
voted for the NEA.
Finally on the issue of offensive
art, I will not apologize for it but say
that every artwork will please some
and offend others. Many artists use
that as a sign of success. Things that
would please me might offend Jesse
Helms, but what would please Helms
would probably offend me. The solu
tion is not to eliminate everything
offensive but to provide options for
both and for each of us to simply
ignore what we don’t like. The NEA
has pleased far too many of our citi
zens and taxpayers to be eliminated
for a few cranks and philistincs.
Trevor McArthur
senior
teachers college
DAsMN
Overtime too late, bill is due
Congress overextends credit, but maybe they can charge it.;
No more business as usual.
Those words came from
President George Bush this
weekend, and he wasn’t kidding.
Saturday, “non-essential” federal
offices started to shut down.
You heard about it. It was all over
the radio, on TV, across the front
pages of the papers and in conversa
tions at grocery stores.
But if you haven’t heard the set-up
for the game, here’s a brief instant
replay:
We have a federal deficit.
It has to be paid.
Congress is having a lough lime
trying to find a way to pay it.
Bush and the Democratic leaders
of Congress worked out a five-year,
$500-billion deficit reduction plan that
called for more than S60 billion in
cuts in the Medicare program and tax
increases.
u was acicaica in me nouse on
Friday.
Democrats don’t want to cut fed
eral spending. Republicans don’t want
to raise taxes.
Bush told them they had to do
something.
At 12:01 a.m. EDT Saturday,
appropriations for federal services ran
out.
Congress had passed a bill that
would permit the government to
operate for another week while law
makers tried to reach a decision.
The president vetoed the bill Sat
urday.
An attempt to override the veto
fell six votes short of the two-thirds
majority needed.
And “non-essential” services started
to shut down.
So what the hell are “non-essen
tial” services?
Federal parks. Social Security
offices. The U.S. Attorney’s offices.
The Internal Revenue Service. U.S.
Immigration and Naturalization Serv
ices. Veterans Administration medi
cal centers.
Not all will be affected in the same
way. Social Security checks will still
be sent out, but people who do noi
receive benefits and want to apply foi
them may have to wait. The same
goes for people who want to apply for
a change of status with Immigration.
And the VA hospitals will accept
patients, but they may have to go
somewhere else for anything other
than basic care.
the non-essential
Amy
Edwards
services, whal are the essential ones?
The U.S. Post Office. Federal pris
ons. Air Traffic Control. All military,
and anything else deemed necessary
for national defense and safety.
Of course, Congress could get its
act together and send a proposal through
today, and by the end of the Colum
bus Day weekend, more than 2 mil
lion federal employees could go back
to work.
But if they don’t, how will this
affect you?
You can’t go to sec the Statue of
Liberty over the weekend.
And if you’re used to getting fed
eral money for loans, and arc thinking
about applying for one to pay that
hefty tuition bill that came due two
weeks ago, think again. You may
have to wait a while.
No problem. They’ll have this
straightened out by the end of the
semester.
Sure. But whal about by the time
pre-registration starts? That’s not too
far away.
And it you haven’t paid your tui
tion for this semester, you can’t regis
ter for classes next semester. You’ll
have to go through general registra
tion and you might not get the classes
you need to graduate in May.
But don’t worry about it. Our leg
islators are working long hours now
to figure out a way to fix the federal
budget and get those programs started
up again.
Why, you ask, didn’t they start
working those long hours before the
bill came due?
Well, it’s kind of like getting that
huge Visa bill in the mail in July.
You can’t afford to pay it, so you
stick it under all the other bills that
you have to pay to keep the electricity
and phone turned on.
In August, you start getting nasty
notes from Visa.
You’re embarrassed because you
couldn’t afford the payment, and you
start scrambling to find a way to put
the bill collectors off for a little longer.
You don’t want the bill to be sent
home for Mom to see.
So you borrow money from Mom
and tell her you need it to pay for a
book that has been added to the read
ing list in your American Literature
class. You pay Visa a minimum amount
at the end of the month — say, S10 —
and forget about it lor a while.
BySept. 15,aS7.50servicecharge
has been added to the bill and you
have to pay it again.
You start to get mad at the people
who keep sending you bills and swear
you’ll never charge another dime on
your credit card.
By October. Visa has cut off your
credit line until you start paying your
bills again.
So you add more hours at work and
complain that the people at Visa are
heartless bloodsuckers who don t
understand how lough it is to live on
your kind of budget. Your mother is
pissed off at you and lectures you
about how you’ll never have a solid
credit line and your father will veto
her plea to help you after graduation
She refuses to help you out and
tells you that you have to not only
work longer hours, but you’d better
start culling down on those “non
essential” things.
Like food. And rent. And that trip
to the Statue of Liberty.
Unless, of course, you find an
other way to pay the Visa bill. Apply
for an American Express card ami
charge it.
I wonder if'Congresshasan Amcx.
hdwardsisa senior news-editorial major
and a Daily Nebraskan columnist.
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