Opinion
Nebraskan
Editorial Board
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Chris Hopfensperger. .Editor, 472-1766
Dionne Searcey...Opinion Page Editor
Kris Karnopp.Managing Editor
Alan Phelps.Wire Editor
Wendy Navratil. Writing Coach
Stacey McKenzie.Senior Reporter
Jeremy Fitzpatrick...Columnist
Top colleges
Survey shows UNL education a bargain
The University of Ncbraska-Lincolnis finally on top.
Well, at least in the top 101 when it comes to ranking the
best values of U.S. universities. j
UNL was included in the book, “101 Best Values in America’s
Colleges and Universities,” which was published by the Center
for College Enrollment and Tuition Issues in Bridgewater, Mass.
The center, which also publishes a newsletter for high school
guidance counselors nationwide, compiles the book annually.
This is the first time UNL has been included in the report.
UNL’s name in positive ink will definitely help the campus’s
image when high school seniors thumb through the book in search
of a college that will suit their needs.
But if wasn’t all that long ago when UNL didn’t fare as well in
another national survey.
In September, UNL was included in a U.S. News & World
Report entitled “America’s Best Colleges.” In that report, UNL
was placed in the third quartilc, somewhere between 103 and 153
out of the country’s 204 “national universities.”
UNL had been ranked in that quartilc for the past few years.
There seems to be some discrepancy between the two sets of
results. Together they seem to say that an education at UNL is
good enough for as cheap as it is. What a bargain.
But high school students and others looking for a university to
call home should not lake results of such surveys at face value.
Look into the criteria that were used in judging the schools.
Check into the number of universities polled. Study the credibility
of the survey.
Then let the numbers be a guide in decision-making.
Nuclear threat
President's 'football' should he shelved
For years, the president has carried some sort of immediate
connection to the controls of the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
Since the Eisenhower administration, the bag that contains
the controls has been known as the “football.” In 1977, it was a
black leather attache case with a telephone and two pull-up
antennae.
It’s time for the football to be pul in the trophy case. The
president no longer needs to have his finger on the button at all
times.
Brook Blair, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute and a
former launch officer in a Minutcman II missile command silo,
agrees.
Blair is writing a book on the problems of nuclear war planning
and also traces the past of the football, a history even Blair says
should end.
“With the end of the Cold War,” Blair said in a Ncwsday
story, “a case could be made for reducing the alert status of
nuclear weapons and, thus, the need for the president to have
constant access to them.”
Some people fear that such a move would be the first step
toward isolationism, an international stance that hurt the United
States in the past.
But their worries arc unnecessary. The Cold War is over. The
threat of nuclear attack is almost nonexistent.
Dropping the ball and reducing the alert status of nuclear
weapons now would display a commitment to completely ending
the nuclear threat. It would not put the United Slates at risk.
Staff editorials represent the official policy of the Fall 1992 Daily Nebraskan. Policy is set by
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Malcolm’s X more than a logo
friend and I were rappin’ the
other day about X.
Specifically,, the wearing
of X on hats and T-shirts and the like.
At issue was whether people should
wear the X and not be aware of for
who or what Malcolm X represented.
- My friend’s response
was this, “It doesn’t
matter what people do
or don’t know about
Malcolm.”
Interesting how we re
fer to him by his first
name only, as though
somehow we all know
him personally. It’s not
hip to say Malcolm X, simply
Malcolm.
“We have the right to wear the X,”
my friend said. “White people don’t
because the X stands against them and
the things they believe.”
This is where our circular debate
began.
To wear the X, I said, and not know
who the man was or more importantly
what he stood for was an affront and
sent an empty message.
Alter an, wny ao people wear an a
or “Save the Planet” shirts? Because,
ideally, they want to show others and
themselves where they stand; that they
are connected with the message be
hind the slogan or symbol.
But my friend said the dynamics
behind the symbol didn’t matter.
“The X is a sign of our blackness,
our heritage. It’s a positive symbol
that represents a positive black man
who spoke out against an unjust soci
ety. And when people wear it, they arc
carrying on that positive message.”
Again, I disagreed.
The broad theme behind Malcolm’s
message was self-respect and Black
pride.
So, I find it ironic when I sec a
brotha wearing an X hat in a rap video
and throughout his ode to Malcolm
are metaphors of raping black women
or casually referring to them as
“bitches and hos.”
Or another irony shows a brotha
beating another brotha down because
he disrespected him by looking at him
wrong.
And what about when the X stands
prominently on the back of a young
brotha who glares down at another
brotha who he just eliminated, shot
down as easily as he would a pop can
on a tree slump.
Arc these realities of self-respect
and Black pride?
So what, my friend says. “They
still have the right to wear the X.”
As an indifferent piece of clothing,
yeah. Anyone can wear it.
B u t i t ’ s not the hat or the sh i rl or the
X that carries significance and ex
pression. It’s the spirit of the action
embodied in the X. The pride and
courage behind what Malcolm spoke
out about.
Therefore, I concluded to my friend
that a person who wears the X and has
no idea what it means is as inanimate
as the hat on his or her head.
That pisses him off because he
thinks I’m selling out black folks. I
tell him that black folks who wear the
X blindly or as a fad arc selling out
themselves.
Throughout our conversation, I
realized that it was almost impossible
for m y friend to adm it that some of the
fault that lies at the root of the stale of
black people in this country rests
within ourselves.
Needless to say, neither one of us
convinced the other. But at least we
rapped about our different opinions.
A day or so after our conversation,
I happened upon a conversation some
brothas were into. One of the dudes
who had on an X hat, shirt and Malcolm
button, assuredly said it was inevi
David Badders/DN
table that Malcolm was killed be
cause he was too powerful.
“Malcolm was deep. Anytime
white folks sec a black man getting
tot) powerful they find a way to kill
him,” implying that a white man shot
Malcolm.
I looked at his hat and walked
away, wanting to say something, but
reticent. Maybe I was wrong. But for
him to wear that garb and not know
the shameful twist of fate that ended
Malcolm’s life is ...
Suddenly, it seems, Malcolm is a
folk hero to an angry, empathctic
generation; a resurrected leader, as
sassinated in New York City 27 years
ago, with a radical-for-the-timcs mes
sage that was nearly lost to history
until 1990, the 25th anniversary of his
death.
Angry and frustrated black folk
reached into history for a reference of
empowerment, seeking a leader who
espoused all that they were feeling at
the moment.
I am not intending to write a movie
review about Spike Lee’s new movie.
I haven’t seen it yet.
Rather, this isacommentary on the
message and merchandising surround
ing the legacy of Malcolm.
Lee’s movie and all the
EXTRAordinary hype transforms
Malcolm into a EXTRAordinary be
ing, robbing us of the capacity to
speak out critically like he did about
racial injustice, apathy and the lender
subject of black self-respect.
Malcolm, by his own standards,
was just a man fed up with a society
that dismissed him simply because
his skin was black.
He was angry, not radical. He was
courageous, not all-powerful. He re
spected himself and his blackness and
vehemently sought that same respect
from society for all black folk.
The rediscovery of Malcolm, what
ever the form, is wonderful because it
forces a lot of black people to revise
their way of thinking and question
their lot in America.
But, if you’re not down with
Malcolm’s knowledge, then an X on
your hat is fake. Wear him in your
mind. Wear him in your heart.
X by itself is meaningless. It’s
nothing but the 24th letter in the al
phabet. The “real X” stood for and
meant much, much more than that.
Moss is u graduate student in anthropol
ogy and a Daily Nebraskan columnist.