Opinion ‘Dead’ week lives UNL disregards students’ catch-up time Welcome to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Dead Week. The purpose of dead week is to ease students.’ tight schedules during what, for many, is the busiest week of the year, full of final projects and papers. Students are supposed to catch up on studies and prepare for the final exams next week that in many cases determine grades. _ in the asun office, our diligent student represen tatives arc on the prowl, ready to pounce on any dead week violations in the name of student rights. However, their efforts really aren’t nec essary, because it is nearly impossible to violate dead week regulations. Only certain kinds of ’ . examinations are allowed during dead week, but professors can get around that V by calling them “quizzes.” fcL New material can be intro duccd, pop quizzes can be fP thrown, classes arc held as 5 always. David Badders/DN does prohibit examinations — unless they’re laboratory, practical, make-up, repeat or self paced. Or, remember, unless they’re called quizzes. At UNL, dead week exists only in name. During dead week at many schools around the country, classes are cancelled altogether, giving students a full week to study for finals and wrap everything up. Here we have a mere ghost of a dead week. We walk around campus, referring to the week as dead, but there’s nothing dead about it. There’s nothing special about this week at all. It’s a farce. Either dead week should be reformed, or we should just bury it. Maybe dead week isn’t necessary. No one ever said college was supposed to be easy. But calling this week a dead week is no help to students — it’s a joke at best, and an attempt to pacify students through nomenclature at worst. Welcome to the University of Ncbraska-Lincoln’s Normal Week. Reproductive freedom essential I am not here to say how all women should feel about abortion. I am wondering why abortion is such a dilemma with people. I am wonder ing why it is even a controversy in the law and politics. I am curious why it has grown into such a violent subject. When the white men decided to form a government, they wanted to keep church (religion) and state (the law, power) separate. They, the found ing fathers, wanted to have freedom, equality and happiness. Of course, not all people have been and arc still not treated as equals. This is nol just about racism, sexism, inequality and bigotry. It is about the fact that who ever has the money and posiuon/stalus to create laws has missed the point: freedom. From Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary: Freedom: the state or quality of being free; especially a) exemption or liberation from the control of some other person or some arbitrary power; liberty; independence, b) being able to act, move, use etc. without hin drance or restraint. Equality: the state of being equal; likeness in magnitude or dimensions, values, qualities, degree and the like; the slate of being neither superior or inferior; as the equality of men; an equality of rights. Happiness: the enjoyment of pleas ure without pain; felicity an i satis faction. So, with some type of dcfit* ion to work from and the base of keeping church and state separate, v 10 or what made the issue of abo. on a moral or even.an cihical question? I can understand the need to have medical standards and laws to over see the clinics themselves. However, the choice itself must not be up for debate, it must be a freedom. The “gag ruling” should not even be in discussion, that was one of the free doms that began this great nation of democracy. Democracy: the absence of he reditary or arbitrary class distinctions or priviliges. Government by the people. Having options, choices, free will, a body and a brain is what we are all given. What we do with these is an individual’s right. This is, of course, simplifying the major dilemmas of our world, but it is what the beginning of the white government started as. Another problem that arises is what arc they talking about? I mean, what docs God have to do with the law and why cram an idea, philosophy, moral or ethical beliefs into the law when not everyone believes in the same religion or God? Again, this goes against freedom. If a woman docs not want to reproduce and finds out she is pregnant, it is her business alone and others must allow her to fnd out what her freedoms arc. Just the same, if a woman wants to reproduce, people must allow her the choice. In such a democracy, a woman must be allowed freedom of choice. Elizabeth Ball library assistant Love Library -EDITORIAL POLICY Staff editorials represent the offi cial policy of the Spring 1992 Daily j Nebraskan. Policy is set by the Daily < Nebraskan Editorial Board. i According to policy set by the re gents, responsibility for the editorial :onteni of the newspaper lies solely n the hands of its students. p£EP S&NCEi P\SCjCNEW. SC\EKT\ST ARE- S*u. UNCEEM* WCNm “MS RElME-S “TO -V&- EXG *lVtCR9. ALAN PHELPS Stamp of approval withheld w w .... . . ■ ■ ■■ —i __-:i_-iro Wop ba ba loo bop, a-wop bam boom. Someone is finally com ing to his senses about this Elvis stamp thing. And it’s about time. Ralph Nader, self-appointed su perconsumer, accused the Post Of fice of wasting some $300,000 on this little vote to decide whether a fat or skinny Elvis will grace a new U.S. stamp next year. “This is a costly triviali/ation and diversion of the Post Office’s main purpose: the dependable and reliable delivery of the mail,” he said. To me, it sounds like a tall order to be de pendable AND reliable. But then, Ralph Nader knows what he’s talking about. Although voters have to buy a 29 ccnt stamp to mail in their ballot, Nader said l million of them would have to be sold to recoup the expense. He said the Post Office would end up losing $300,(XX) before the final blue suede shoe fell. It all seems pretty fishy to me. I obtained an “Official Ballot” to see what everyone was all shook up about. The back of the postcard-si/.cd piece of paper has a huge “A” and “B” next to two boxes. "A” is, of course, for the young Elvis, while “B” is for the mature Elvis. I’m not sure why they include the “A” and “B." It says which box is for which Elvis right next to the letter designation. Perhaps the “A” and “B” make things go quicker at Elvis Cen tral. The front of the ballot has the place to affix the stamp you must buy and the address — Post Office Box ELVIS, Memphis, Tenn. Post Office Box ELVIS? Can we gel post office boxes named after people now? My parents have one, bulil’sjustabland No. 846. The folks at the Post Office were lucky they were able to reserve that P.O. box for this poll. The smartest people on campus, the University Operators, have ac cess to many documents and memos that we normal people arc too dumb to understand. I asked them which Elvis, young or mature, was winning. “Let me ask someone,” the opera tor I called said. She then conferred with the other Operators just out of the phone’s range. When Operators talk to each other, they use a special language or sometimes link their minds to facilitate a faster information ex change. The Operator then told me their H. Ross Perot. Texas ba zillionaire. has declared his independent candi dacy for the Elvis stamp. He is not going to run in the Yoans. or Mature Party, he sai