Merchandising monsters emerge
uc omcone soaped the
fountain. Did you sec
k-J it?”
On this tip from our friendly neigh
borhood Nebraska Union maintenance
man, I ventured out of the office to
behold the soaped foun
tain.
In a way, it was beau
tiful. Big suds billowed
out and over the plaza
like little clouds.
BroyhHI Fountain
looked like a giant
cappucino.
So why were the union
men shaking their heads?
Becau sc to them, i t was a 1 so a mess
— a nasty, scuzzy, big ol’ fountain
full of cappucino-likc foam. They,
couldn’t appreciate the beauty of
something they had to clean up before
the alumni came to town this week
end.
The maintenance men shook their
heads and blamed the suds on prank
sters.
Maybe the devil made them do it.
After all, this nation’s favorite pa
gan holiday, Halloween, is coming,
and all the ghouls, goblins, monsters
and trick-or-trealcrs will be out in full
force.
And I bet you a popcorn ball they ’ 11
be out at the football game, too.
The crecpy-crawlics arc already
all over the posters in the union, and
I’m sure they will be in the wood-and
paper monstrosities all over the fra
ternity lawns.
I walk through the bookstore and
see everything from candy to fake
severed limbs to greeting cards, and I
wonder “Who needs this crap?”
Maybe Satan is in the merchandis
ing business.
I’ve never sent a greeting card for
Halloween, and I don’t intend to start
now.
The cards must be for mature adults
who feel this is the grown-up way to
express those special Halloween feel
ings that we used to express by cover
ing the principal’s house with ma
nure.
Since I came to college, Hallow
een has been a good excuse to party,
but I’ve never gone to the time or
expense of putting together a nifty
outfit for these kcg-and-costume
bashes.
Maybe I was possessed by demons
a couple years ago when I walked into
the thrift store and decided a great
costume would be a toga and roller
skates.
Have you ever tried skating in a
bcdshcet in an apartment with carpet
and lots of stairs?
I had rug bums until Thanksgiv
ing.
Speaking of Thanksgiving, as soon
as the stores clear all the Halloween
crud off the shelves, I bet you a bite
sized chocolate bar that the crepe
paper turkeys, pilgrim hats and Indian
com will take their place before you
can say cranberry sauce.
Don’t we play another football
game against some team down in
Oklahoma on Thanksgiving?
Let’s not forget the Christmas
crapola. Manger sets, plastic Santas,
stuffed reindeer, stockings and candy
canes, ribbons and bows, wrapping
paper, poinsettias and a partridge in a
pear tree.
Nebraska might even get a bowl
game for Christmas.
Evil spirits arc behind this. I know
it.
Not to be a party pooper or any
thing, but I really hale merchandis
ing. It’s just a cheap exploitation of
otherwise perfectly legitimate tradi
tional American holidays.
It’s like seeing the prom queen
from high school prostituting herself
in a body suit for cigarettes.
Well, maybe it’s not like that, but
it’s the work of Old Man Splitfool,
I’m sure.
Of course we need holiday decora
tions, if only because I love sticking
things to my windows and walls.
We need festivity, frolic and fun in
our lives, so we throw parties and
dress in bedshcets and roller skates or
carve turkeys or go to football games
or unwrap presents that we pretend to
love but really hale.
But I’m afraid that the ^sense of
tradition has been lost. The real rca
' son we celebrate these holidays gets
buried in the celebration and the mer
chandising.
Which brings me back to Hallow
een.
Halloween, properly known as All
Hallow Even, began centuries ago
with Druids dancing around bonfires
in the autumn festival in honor of the
sun god to express gratitude for the
harvest. — „
A different sort of Thanksgiving,
in other words.
Anyway, these Druids believed that
Samhain, the lord of death, called up
the souls of those who had died in the
year and who, because of their sins,
had been confined to the bodies of
lower animals, and no, I am not mak
ing this up.
If you don’t know the origins of
Thanksgiving or Christmas, maybe
you ought to go back to grade school.
Do you feel enlightened? Do you
even care about the history behind
why you pain t your face green or wear
plastic fangs one time out of the year?
Be gone, then, ye apathetic fools,
or may Samhain confine your soul to
the body of a water buffalo.
Knowing the origin of our popular
holidays is important.
Otherwise, Halloween is just an
excuse to wear silly outfits, Thanks
giving is just a day to stuff yourself
silly, and Christmas is just a time to
give silly gifts.
If we forget why we do these things,
someone is going to ask “Who needs
this crap?” If no one knows, the cel
ebrations may be lost along with their
history.
And I like a good party as much as
the next ghoul.
So watch your football games, wear
your costumes, pig out, and tell your
aunt you love that 20-foot scarf she
made for you, but pause and reflect a
moment on the true meaning of these
special days before they’re lost for
ever.
Then party like you’re possessed.
Happy Halloween.
Paulman is a senior news-editorial and
history major and a Daily Nebraskan colum
nist and photographer.
(^) (^) (^)(^)(^)(^) (S^) (^) (^) (^) (^)(^)
@Hey-Halloween is only a few days away! ^
So come to Second Wind now,
/$\and check out our threads while
w the selection is good!
§ Second
A Wind
\g)
Vintage Clothing and Collectables ^5*
(j*~y 720 "O" Street (Under the Viaduct) (§7
(^)(S) (§)(§)(§)(§)(§)(§) @)(^)^)@ (§)(§)
See 8 countries
in one day.
A representative of Central College Abroad
will visit The University of Nebraska
Lincoln soon with information on study
abroad opportunities in six European
countries, China, and Mexico. Debbie
Blaine, an international studies counselor
at Central College, will be at the study
abroad fair in The Culture Center from 9
ami. to 3:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 30.
Check it out!
• Carmarthen, Wales • Paris, France
• Granada, Spain • Vienna, Austria
• Hangzhou, China • Yucatan, Mexico
• London, England
• Leiden, the Netherlands
Central CollegeAbvOttd
■
Serving more than 5,000 students
from 600 colleges and universities since 1965. I
Health care system not immune
Our health care system is in dire
need of a make over.
The public is growing in
creasingly concerned about the lim
ited availabi lily and skyrocketing costs
of health care, and the situation is
getting worse.
In 1991, more than 35
million Americans, or
14 percent of the popu
lation, were uninsured.
Over the last 10 years,
the average cost of a
visit to a doctor has more
than doubled, from
SI8.50 to S42.08. Dur
ing the same time period, the average
hospital charge per day has nearly
quadrupled, from S285 to SI,019.
Unfortunately, the solutions offered
by President Bush and Bill Clinton
have been largely unrealistic.
Bush’s plan revolves around tax
credits and deductions. Tax credits,
or dollar-for-dollar decreases in the
taxes a person owes, would be doled
out among lower-income Americans.
Single people earning less than $6,050
wouldqualifyforalaxcrcditof $1,250,
couples earning less than S 10,900
would qualify for a $2,500 credit and
families making less than $13,250
could receive $3,750.
The deductions proposed by the
president would allow people with
incomes up to $80,000 to deduct
$ 1,250 if they are single, $2,500 for a
couple or $3,750 for a family.
The Bush plan doesn’t come close
to solving the health care needs of the
American people. Millions of Ameri
cans would remain underinsured. A
family earning $25,000, for example,
would only realize a small percentage
of the $3,750 they could deduct under
the Bush plan. After multiplying the
amount of the deduction by the rate at
which the family would be taxed by
federal, state and local governments,
the real value of the deduction would
be around $600.
In contrast, the annual cost of ad
equate health insurance for the family
would be nearly $2,000, leaving the
family or one of the spouse s employ
ers to make up the difference.
Bush claims the priceof premiums
would decrease if his ideas for reform
were implemented. Specifically, the
president believes small businesses
would join together to negotiate lower
prices of employer-sponsored health
insurance. He wouldalsocxcmpt them
from following state laws that man
date various insurance policy benefits
in order to allow them to provide
benefits of their choice.
Bush’s reforms won’t work. Small
employers arc unlikely to accept the
initial increase in costs that would
arise if they attempted to form coali
tions. Furthermore, the job market is
still depressed, and employers have
no incentive to increase benefits to
attract workers. In fact, many em
ployers are cutting back benefits to
save scarce resources.
Bush’s offer to remove benefit
package standards would suffer from
the same problems. Employers would
offer low-benefit, high-deductible
plans that would force employees to
use the expensive health care meth
ods the exemptions were designed to
avoid.
A comprehensive look at the Bush
plan shows that millions of Ameri
cans would remain underinsured.
Unfortunately, the huge scope of Bill
Clinton’s plan leaves almost as many
questions unanswered.
The major facet of Clinton’s plan
would eventually force employers to
contribute 80 percent of prem ium costs
for full-time employees and their de
pendents. The employee would be
responsible for contributing the other
20 percent.
Clinton claims he arrived at the 80
percent figure by computing the cur
rent average employer contribution to
employee insurance. Regardless, the
increased costs incurred would sim
ply be passed to consumers in the
form of increased prices and to work
ers as wage decreases or freezes. Other
businesses with minimal profit mar
gins could be forced to lay off em
ployees or go out of business.
Clinton also wants to create a Na
tional Health Board to seta ceiling on
health spending. While the idea seems
workable at first glance, such a limit
set by the board would be all but
impossible to enforce. Even if rates
for doctors and hospitals were fixed,
the number of services performed
couldn’t be regulated.
Furthermore, governmental price
controls have historically been
troublesome. The same treatment dif
fers from patient to patient and in
different areas of the country, soquan
tification would be extremely com
plicated.
No plan will be withoutdrawbacks.
Because Americans aren’t willing to
have anything less than the world’s
finest health care, we need to resign
ourselves to a continued governmen
tal presence in the health care arena
and massive costs. Our present sys
tem borders on socialized medicine
anyway, with the government paying
42 percent of all health care costs
under the guise of various programs.
The best direction for the future
includes a government-sponsored
basic health care plan for all Ameri
cans. If an individual wants care be
yond the basic plan, he or she can pay
the costs on their own. We must real
ize the costs of supporting the system
most people envision will be ex
tremely high.
If we want the best, we had better
be prepared to pay for it.
Bruiting is a second-year law student and
a Daily Nebraskan columnist.
. *
Sunday, November 1, 1992
7:00 P.M.
UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN
CENTENNIAL BALLROOM
CITY CAMPUS UNION
Sponsored by:
UNIVERSITY LUTHERAN CHAPEL 477-3997
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