Opinion
/
Animosity check
Slumber party to test goodwill
No matter who wins Friday’s showdown between
football rivals Oklahoma and Nebraska, the after
math of the game will be a test of new world order
close to home.
Andy Massey, president of the Association of Students
of the University of Nebraska, has invited Oklahoma
students to iaKe
part in a slumber
party, of sorts.
Any Univer
sity of Nebraska
Lincoln or Univer
sity of Oklahoma
| student may present
a valid student ID
card to spend the
j night in UNL’s
1 Cook Pavilion for
\ free after the game.
t The only other re
k quirement is a
' sleeping bag.
Massey said
he made arrange
ments to open
i Cook Pavilion
because UNL
Robert Borzekotski/DN residence halls,
fraternities and sororities are closed during Thanksgiving
break.
“I want students to be able to go to the game,” he said.
“If I lived in Chadron and I lived in a residence hall, I
wouldn’t want an eight-hour trip home after the game.”
The decision to include Oklahoma students should
\ boost the number of sleep-over participants. But Ken
Cauble, chief of the UNL Police Department, doesn’t
expect too many problems.
Because students must check in by midnight and no
alcohol is allowed, problems should be minimal. Unfortu
nately, security officers can’t force students to check the
rivalry at the door.
But if the slumber party keeps students from drinking
and driving, it will be well worth the extra security effort.
Husker-Sooner games require a certain degree of
friendly animosity. Throwing of oranges and cups are
some signs of animosity gone too far at Memorial Sta
dium games of the past.
For Cook Pavilion Friday night, here’s hoping the
animosity grows no stronger than alternate strains of
Boomer Sooner and Hail Varsity.
— j.p
-LETTERS^ EDITOR
Students betrayed
by policy makers
I feel that we have been betrayed
by the policy makers at this univer
sity. It is obvious that they have no
sense of responsibility to the students
who attend, only to their own agen
das. They are not bothered by cutting
programs that students have made a
commitment to. This is disconcert
ing, because any small program could
be eliminated at the drop of a hat.
The objective of not awarding credit
for ROTC courses is to send a strong
message to the Department of pe
fense about policies regarding gays
and lesbians. It would be fine if they
did not hurt students currently in
volved in the ROTC program. How
ever, policy makershave overstepped
the bounds of fairness. In their cru
sade against the military, they have
treated these students much like pieces
in a chess game. There isn’t any concern
for the pieces except for their role in
“winning” the struggle. No one asks
the pieces whether they want to get
involved.
Although I’m not an ROTC par
ticipant, I am concerned about the
program-cutting policy at this school.
Who will be next?
Eric Nabity
sophomore
general studies
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ERIC PFANNER
Political chatter perilous sport
his column is not about Mario
Cuomo.
It is about sports, politics,
the mass media and Umberto Eco.
Eco is an Italian writer, the author
of “Foucault’s Pendulum,” “The Name
of the Rose,” other books and many
essays and newspaper columns.
A few years back, in one of those
essays, Eco talked about sports. Spe
cifically, about soccer’s World Cup,
at once the largest, most cosmopoli
tan, international and entertaining,
rowdiest, tawdriest sporting event on
Earth.
Billions of people watch it, live
and on television, every four years.
There are always flamboyant, arro
gant stars and exciting victories, as
well as riots, ethnic clashes and other
assorted violence.
Eco complains about the fans’ role
in sporting events such as the World
Cup. While he is not against sports,
he is against organized sports.
That is, he believes that athletic
activity, pursued on an individual basis,
is a positive outlet for a legitimate
human need to get rid of energy.
When that activity is pursued vicari
ously, by watching others vent stored
energy, sports loses its value.
Even worse, Eco says, it gives rise
to a chain of digressions. It starts with
the action on the field. The media
watch this action and give a secon
dary account on television or in the
newspapers. The fans, who read about
or watch the media’s version of sport
ing activity, are the tertiary level of
the sporting event. When Monday
morning quarterbacks — or, in Eco’s
case, Monday morning goalies —
gather around the office water cooler
—or, in Eco’s case, the Chianti bottle
— they become a fourth level of what
he calls “sports chatter.” The circle of
absurdity culminates when one me
dia organization, such as a newspa
per, runs an article critiquing the
performance of another media entity,
such as a sports broadcaster.
The end result is a valueless, vi
carious activity far removed from the
physical athletic act.
In the United Stales, we are now
engaged in a dangerous bastardiza
tion of another, far more important
institution. We have turned politics
into nothing more than “political
We team that Tom
Harkin can win in
New Hampshire if he
panders to Dukakis
voting dyslexic
French-Canadians
whose daughters
Ottml Dartmouth, if
he can, train them to
stop saving. “We
want Mario."
chatter.”
I’m not really sure whom to blame
— the public, the media, the politi
cians or Mario Cuomo. Probably all
are equally responsible.
Politic ians start by making a bunch
of irrelevant twisting, turning, thrust
ing, parrying 6nd dodging motions on
the political field. More and more
politicians arc switching to Astro
Turf.
The mass media then “report” these
movements. Readers, viewers and
listeners of the media get polls, com
mentaries and analyses.
We learn that Bob Kerrey can win
in New Hampshire if he woos unem
ployed used-car salesmen from Nashua
who voted for George McGovern in
1972 and for George Bush in ’88.
We learn that Tom Harkin can win
in New Hampshire if he panders to
Dukakis-votii>g dyslexic French
Canadians whose daughters attend
Dartmouth, if he can train them to
slop saying, “We want Mario.”
Instead of learning more about the
issues, we get this secondary level of
political chatter. It causes the tertiary
level, in which the people start to
think they are the experts.
In a class the other day, I over
heard a conversation between two
students:
“Bob Kerrey can win in New
Hampshire if he woos unemployed
used-car salesmen from Nashua who
voted for George McGovern in 1972
and for George Bush in ’88.”
“Oh, really? I think Tom Harkin
can win in New Hampshire if he
panders to Dukakis-voting dyslexic
French-Canadians whose daughters
attend Dartmouth, if he can train them
to stop saying, ‘We want Mario.”'
Obviously, they read the same
papers that I do.
Unfortunately, while all of us are
now expert campaign strategists, none
of us know anything about any of the
issues.
The average person could tell you
all about Paul Tsongas’ lack of cha
risma or Bob Kerrey’s slips of the
tongue. He could go on and on about
what each needs to do to overcome
these handicaps and about what their
chances are of doing so. But he couldn’t
tell you the first thing about Kerrey’s
national health-care plan.
That would be fine if we were
talking about sports. I don’t care that
most people know more about Magic
Johnson’s smile than about the intri
cacies of the nickel defense.
In politics, however, it is danger
ous when the distinction between issues
and “chatter” no longer exists.
It’s dangerous, because while all
of us can be campaign experts, some
of us have to be voters, too.
It’s doubly dangerous when one ol
the political figures is Cuomo, who
takes the political chatter game full
circle, alternately jousting and danc
ing with the media, the campaign
experts and the voters.
But, as I said earlier, this is not a
column about Mario Cuomo. Frankly,
I don’t care whether he enters the
race.
In fact, by commenting about the
commentary of the political commen
tators, I am guilty of the crime 1
condemn. Better to shut up and watch
Monday Night Football.
Pfanner Is a senior news-editorial jour
nalism major, the Dally Nebraskan sopinion
page editor and wire editor and a columnist
-EDITORIAL POLICY
Signed stall editorials represent
the official policy of the Fall 1991
Daily Nebraskan. Policy is set by the
v Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board. Its
members arc: Jana Pedersen, editor;
Eric Pfanner, editorial page editor;
Diane Brayton, managing editor;
Walter Gholson, columnist; Paul
Domeier, copy desk chief; Brian
The Daily Nebraskan’s publishers
are the regents, who established the
UNL Publications Board to super
vise the daily production of the pa
per.
According to policy set by the re
gents, responsibility for the editorial
content of the newspaper lies solely
in the hands of its students.
i
