Opinion
..—■
Blacks’ unification too late
Recent allegations of racism in the
Daily Nebraskan involving the “Bald
win Issue” may cause the DN staff to
change its ways concerning the treat
ment of minorities, but we doubt it.
We doubt it because when everything
is said and done, it will be business as
usual at ol’ Nebraska U. A letter
appeared last week in support of
Baldwin (“DN ignored Baldwin’s
humanity,” DN, Jan. 24) and it was
justified; but the truth of the matter is
that it was a sad week for Black men
on this campus. Stories about MLK
and his dream were all over the news
while another man may have his dreams
shattered by an illness he may not
have known about. The letter preached
of brotherhood, humanity, respect and
unity but Blacks as a people do not
practice these ideals until it is too
late.
The problem we have with this
whole ideal is that Black people arc in
a resting and torpid state. Only when
a man is beaten by numerous police,
or run down by a mob of whites, or
humiliated in a degrading photo do
we — as Black people — come to the
aid of one another. It is a DAMN
shame that wc talk of a dream that has
yet to happen. How can we overcome
when we continue to dream ... a man
has to be asleep, inactive, dull, numb
and dead to dream. For a dream is
nothing more than passing thoughts
in a sleeping person’s mind.
How can African-Americans talk
of bonding as one human family w hen
we refuse to wake up and/or stop
dreaming long enough to begin lov
ing ourselves and unify as a people?
Everyone else is awake and eating
breakfast on the bounteous opportu
nities of the world while wc continu
ally hit the snooze button.
Stephen M. Davis
senior
journalism
Joseph L. Ryan
senior
sociology
Baxter G. Gamble, Jr.
graduate student
Press freedom justifies photo
In light of the many opinions of
fered involving the ease of Scott
Baldwin, 1 would like to bring up two
points that I find extremely impor
tant. One, the Daily Nebraskan exer
cised freedom of the press. This hap
pens to be included in the First Amend
ment of our Constitution. Two, this
incident was indeed unfortunate.
However, 1 believe the photo would
have been printed regardless of the
color of the accused individual. The
DN is not responsible for the actions
of Mr. Baldwin. Are some of us for
getting that someone completely
innocent is suffering as a result of Mr.
Baldwin’s alleged actions?
Furthermore, I resent being stere
otyped as a member of a “racist insti
tution” (except for football Saturdays).
I do not consider myself a racist and I
insist on being treated as an individ
ual, a human being with my own
thoughts and feelings, just as I feel
everyone else should be treated. The
fact remains that we arc each indi
viduals separated by the color of our
skin, religious background, economic
status and soon. We control our own
actions.
I strongly support the publication
of the photograph by the DN. The
individual is accused of doing some
thing wrong. His color had nothing to
do with his actions and it was the
result of his actions that were printed,
not that of his color.
Stephanie G? Johnson
junior
criminal justice
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ALAN PHELPS
Few escape football mania
1 don’t know what the score of
the Super Bowl was. I’m not
even sure who won. Neither do
I know how the Bud Bowl turned out.
And I don’t really care.
I know that the Washington Re
dskins battled the Buffalo “Bills” for
the Super Bowl trophy/crown/what
cver. I know that it happened yester
day. That’s the extent of my Super
Bowl knowledge.
I was more interested in whether
Bill Clinton scored than Jim Kelly.
I have been watching the recent
debates over team nomenclature,
however. Teams such as the Redskins
have come under fire recently be
cause of their apparently “politically
incorrect” names. I can see why Na
tive Americans object to having a
group of people prancing around the
country calling themselves “Redskins,”
although I have a bigger problem
with the “Bills.”
What, exactly, is a “Bill”? I sup
pose whoever named the “Bills” was
referring to “Buffalo Bill” Cody,
slaughterer of the Wild West.
“Get it? Get it?” the aforemen
tioned namcr probably said, running
around the Naming Office, bothering
everyone.
However, to my knowledge, Cody
never spent much time in Buffalo,
N.Y. He had a ranch in North Platte,
where today everything is somehow
related to him, and hundreds of people
make their living selling Buffalo Bill
ashtrays, big ol’ belt buckles and those
annoying pop-can-insulator deals.
I don' t think Buffalo Bill ever even
heard of football, and I seriously doubt
he played the sport. He was too busy
hanging out with Russian princes
bringing the buffalo to the brink of
extinction.
“I think I’ll murder a few thousand
more buffalo today,” he used to say.
“What the hell is football?”
I could, perhaps, understand a team
called the North Platte “Bills,” but 1
guess that wouldn’t make a whole lot
of sense, cither. Besides, North Platte
probably doesn’t have enough people
to support an NFL team, although it
docs support the mother-of-pearl-in
lay shirt-snap industry.
For some strange reason, I found
myself watching Ron Kurtcnbach, the
public access television god, on Sat
urday. The spectacled cable orator
was asked some question or another
about football, which led him to launch
a long diatribe about how football
was a reflection of American history.
Football, he said, was about domi
nation and territory, colonization and
oppression. It was war, and one side
won by overpowering the other.
At least those grade-school imagi
nations had some basis in reality,
unlike one of the Super Bowl’s new
est institutions, the so-called Bud Bowl.
The Bud Bowl mystifies me. It
seems as though it has become almost
as big as the Super Bowl itself, which
i$ totally insane.
1 have friends who actually MADE
BETS on the Bud Bowl. There arc
odds on the thing. Thai’s right, the
computer-animated beer bottles that
go through a fake game once a year
determine the fortunes of people 1
know.
It used to be simply a Bud-Bud
Light rivalry, but somehow Bud Dry
has gotten into the act. The Bud Bowl
is so great, I guess, it takes three
teams to play it — even if none of
them have feet or hands.
One of the fake teams always seems
to have some clever way to win the
“game.” I wonder how mere bottles
would do in a real gridiron shoot-out.
I would bet even my grade-school
friends and I could do a respectable
job against them. I’ve fought beer
bottles in my time.
The biggest drawback of my self
imposed Super Bowl blackout is the
lack of conversation 1 will have to
day. I don’tknow how many out there
arc in the same predicament as my
self: The guys arc all talking about
the Super Bowl, and I have nothing to
say. Well, here are a few tips on what
to do when they find out you were at
the nerd meeting and didn’t see the
big game:
First, stop, drop and roll. Then,
slop, look and listen. Then look both
ways again! And don’t run! Or take
candy from strangers, unless it’s re
ally good candy, like a Special Dark.
Next, when the panic is over, think
calmly to yourself, “What would Dan
Quaylft do?” Then, go play golf.
Go get a good massage. Bake some
bread. Remember that this, loo, shall
pass.
During the weekend of the Super
Bowl, the hoopla was so pervasive
that it was hard for anyone to escape.
Today, enormous amounts of hot air
around the country will be dedicated
to thrs one event. -
Thankfully, Super Bowl mania
DOES die down. The crowds who
didn’t care about football last week
will go back to not caring again. The
TV airwaves won’t be monopolized
with meaningless predictions.
Best of all, people will go back to
drinking their beer instead of watch
ing it play organized sports.
Phelps is a sophomore news-editorial ma
jor, the Daily Nebraskan opinion page editor
and a columnist. ‘ , • ' ■>
When / was in the
first and second
grades we couldn 7
play football at mv
school because some
kid once broke q leg,
prompting the admin
istrators to lock up all
of the footballs.
And I just thought it was a bunch
of guysplaying a game.
The Cable King had something of
a point, however. Because football is
popular only in this country (and
Canada, if you count that as a sepa
rate country), it must say something
about the American people. Why do
we like to sec men in shiny suits duke
it out? Why do 40 or 50 million
Americans glue their eyes to one game
every year, although they may live
hundreds of miles away from wher
ever the two teams hail?
A lot of these people don’t watch
any other football all season. What
drives this inhuman orgy of glorifica
tion? I think it has a lot to do with
sportscastcr Greg “Bryant’s Brother”
Gumbcl, but that’s just one man’s
opinion.
Some people such as myself arc
not affected. I’m not sure why I never
really got into football. When I was in
the first and second grades, we couldn’t
play football at my school because
some kid once broke a leg, prompting
the administrators to lock upall of the
footballs.
My friends and I still played, but
we used an invisible ball, which led to
all sorts of arguments. Maybe if we
hadn’t allowed passing, we would’ve
finished more games without degen
erating to fights.
So my “football sense,” that grand
instinct all American men arc born
with, was warped from an early age.
The game I knew as football that we
played every recess consisted of a
bunch of boys chasing air and battling
about non-existent interceptions.
