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
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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<LbuLbrin&
the Elvis back to the
people,
verdici in ihc slow, casy-to-undcr
siand English I can comprehend:
“We think maybe the young El
vis.”
I’m not sure how the Operators
came to this conclusion, but they do
know everything, so I’m sure they’re
right.
Why, it’s not even worth going to
the lime and expense of voting for the
mature Elvis. It’s a done deal.
But while the young Elvis might
win the actual poll. I’m going to go
out on a limb and make a prediction:
In the end, postal patrons will be able
to buy both stamps — that way, col
lectors will have to have two stamps
instead of one.
The Post Office of days gone by,
when friendly postmen always rang
twice and delivered your mail with a
smile, has been replaced with a lean,
mean Post Office, where letter carri
ers arc out to make a buck through
fanciful voles over sequined singers.
The publicity this stunt has won
for the Post Office is enormous.
However, does publicity really do the
P.O. any good? Most corporations
advertise to make people aware ol
their product and convince them ic
use it. I doubt a whole lot of people
around the country don’t know aboul
the Post Office.
Clyde: Hey, Emma, these “post’
people — you know, the guys doin
that Elvis deal — will take a letter
and give it to someone else for £
measly 29 cents!
Emma: You mean I don’t have tc
go around town anymore, delivering
Ill J mail IIIJT3VI1 .
Similarly, the Post Office doesn’t
have a lot of competition. When I
drop a letter in a mailbox, I don’t
choose which postal service will de
liver it for me based on who offers the
coolest stamps.
Maybe the Post Office is going
through all of this just to give the
country something to do. Perhaps the
leaders of the country take turns pro
viding entertainment to take the
masses’ minds off the issues. After
George Bush came up with the war,
the Post Office had to dig deep and
think of something truly grand.
Whatever the reason, it worked.
The King still holds sway over an
incredible audience in America, and
the young vs. mature controversy has
captured the attention of a nation.
H. Ross Perot, Texas ba/illion
airc, has declared his independent
candidacy for the Elvis stamp. He is
not going to run in the Young or
Mature Party, he said, but bring the
Elvis back to the people.
Perot said in a news conference
over the weekend that he didn’t want
the job, but if he had a mandate from
the people, he would spend up to a S1
quadrillion to run a “first-rate” cam
paign.
“Let me be your teddy bear,” he
told the nation on the Larry King
show.
The Post Office didn’t comment
on Perot’s entry into the Elvis run. If
citizens actually do write in Perot’s
name on their Elvis ballots, however,
the mail people will be forced to print
up Perot stamps.
Of course, there is that rule about
how a person must be dead to be on a
stamp, butcveryoneknowsElvis isn’t
dead, cither — he’s an actuarial sci
ence major who works at the Holiday
near 27th and O streets.
I want to know if the Post Office is
going to start listening to the public
on afi stamp decisions. For instance,
if we have a Michael Jackson stamp
one day, will it be the pre- or post
plastic surgery Michael? Should each
University Operator have their own
stamp, or should there just be a group
shot?
Maybe we could vote on what fla
vor the glue on the back of a stamp
should taste like.
I know what I would vote for: A
Ralph Nader commemorative set.
i
Phelps Is a sophomore news-editorial ma
jor, the Dally Nebraskan opinion page editor
and a columnist.
