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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 16, 1993)
OPTNTON NeSkan | | lyyl T UMday, February 16,1993 / Net?raskan , • ; ■ J * Editorial Board University of Nebraska-Lincoln Chris Hopfensperger. Editor, 472-1766 Jeremy Fitzpatrick.Opinion Page Editor Alan Phelps.Managing Editor Brian Shellito.Cartoonist Susie Arth.Senior Reporter Kim Spurlock. Diversions Editor Sam Kepfield..Columnist Past due Clinton's bold program tough but necessary The party is over. We have spent the last 12 years having our presidents tell us what we wanted to hear. We were given tax cuts, rosy speeches and the record federal debt that went along with them. Rarely was mainstream America asked to sacrifice for the benefit of the country. Now that is changing. President Clinton will unveil the details of what is reported to be the largest deficit-cutting package in history Wednesday before a joint session of Congress. In a speech promoting his program Monday, Clinton said, “My message to you is clear: The price of doing the same old thing is far higher than the price of change.” Clinton is demonstrating what we have not seen from Wash ington in a long while: leadership. His program will almost certainly be unpopular because it will require people to sacrifice. It will be met with opposition because it will force us to address our economic problems today instead of putting them off for tomorrow. But it is also the nght thing to do. It Amenca does not put its financial house in order, the day is not so far off when we will no longer be able to maintain our standard of living and way of life. An important element of Clinton’s plan was his pledge to ask more Americans to participate in the effort to solve our country’s financial woes. The United States cannot reverse its decline unless all its citizens are willing to work to help in that effort. We all have an interest in doing so. If each of us does not work to make America better today, we will all have to live with the results of our neglect tomorrow. With the recent formation of the organization Students Trying to Remember America Isn’t a Giant Homosexual uTopian Society (STRAIGHTS), the freedom for circulation of ideas remains alive. The group, currently a newsletter-only organization whose leadership doesn’t seem to be too keen on revealing itself, has posted fliers all around campus and created quite a buzz. The fliers describe STRAIGHTS as a group formed “in re sponse to an article in the Kansas State Collegian... that implied that homosexuality was better than heterosexuality.” The flier then states that the organization members are disgusted at appar ent media opinion that “‘alternative’ (morally wrong) lifestyles should be accepted as normal_” Some people have been moved to label STRAIGHTS as an anti-homosexual hate group, questioning whether such a group should even be allowed to exist. But STRAIGHTS can exist, and it should exist. This group has a view to express, and it has every right to express it — just as the Bisexual and Gay and Lesbian Society (BaGaLS) has a right to exist, and just as Collegian columnists Brad Seaboum and John Hart have the right to voice their widely diverging opinions. The politically correct mind-set that dictates in favor of hate speech codes and the censoring of “unpleasant” words holds very little water and smothers the free flow of ideas that is so crucial to our society. STRAIGHTS may not hold a popular view to some people, but questioning their right to exist is a frightening action. * — Kansas State Collegian Staff editorials represent the official policy of the Fall 1992 Daily Nebraskan. Policy is set by the Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board. Editorials do not necessarily reflect the views of the * university,itsemptoyees.ihestudentsoriheNUBoardofRegems.Editorialcolumns represent the opinion of the author. The regents publish the Daily Nebraskan, 'rhey establish the UNL Publications Board to supervise die daily production of the paper. According to policy set by * the regents, responsibility for the editorial content of the newspaper lies solely in the hands of its students. The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief letters to the editor from all readers and interested others. Letters will be selected for publication on the basis of clarity, originality, timeliness and space available. The Daily Nebraskan retains the right to edit or rejecull material submitted. Readers also are welcome to submit material as guest opinions. The editor decides whether material should run as a guest opinion. Letters and guest opinions sent to the newspaper become the properly of the Daily Nebraskan and cannot be returned. Anonymous submissions will not be published. Letters should included the author’s name, year in school, major and group affiliation, if sny. Requests to withhold names will not be granted. Submit material to the Daily Nebraskan. 34 Nebraska Union. 1400 R St., Lincoln. Neb. 68588-0448. Deadline beats hopeful candidate A day late and a dollar short — the story of my life. Maybe being late is in my genes; I was bom three weeks past the due date. Or perhaps my constant tardiness is a rebellion against my mother’s insistence that we arrive at the family reunion,dentist’s officeor wedding at least a half an hour early so we can sit around and wail for the family, the dentist or the bride to show up. “Well, at least WE were here on time,” she says, as if the whole Cen tral Standard Time zone should change to Mother Standard Time. Me, I run on Michelle Paulman Time — MPT for short — which is anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour later than what most people’s watches say. Yes, I am the poster child of pro crastination, the diva of disorgani/a lion. I would forget my brain if it weren’t encased in my thick skull. Plus, I’m broke. This is not to say that I don’t have a cent to my name. But I have debts to so many people and institutions that all my money is earmarked for some one else, and I’m trying desperately to hang on to it as long as I can. Being broke is tough. A friend of mine went for three days without eat ing because she didn’t even have enough money for a package of Ramen. bo upon receiving my DN pay check at the end of January, I imme diately bought $60 worth of soup and mac-and-sheese dinners. Now that crunch tirrie is here, at least I won’t starve todcath. Addoip the fact that: a) I have no money, and b) my head is like a sieve, and you understand why my student fees are still unpaid and therefore $20 more than they should be. And as if that weren’t enough to ruin my month, I also missed the deadline to apply for ASUN elec tions. ... -...' Golldamit! I missed my chance to throw my hat into the ring to be stu dent body president during my last Voice ^ Trent Steele was right. The whiny cry of “empty promises’’ has begun, and its source is the directionless, finger pointing editorial staff of the Daily Nebraskan. Its Feb. 11, 1993 whimper of “Voiceless” shows just how clueless they are about student interests supported by the VOICE plat form. What’s the DN’s problem with parking? Itis an old issue. That doesn’t make it any less important to the people who are 15 minutes late to class because they can’t find a park ing spot. I urge the editorial staff to tell students that they don’t need gravel lots paved after they have stepped in I missed my chance to throw my hat into the ring to be student body president during my last year here and play footsie under the table with Regents Chairman John Payne. year here and play footsie under the table with Regents Chairman John Payne. I can see it now — the Boyz/Babes In The Campus House party. As presi dential candidate few the BITCH party, I would make the following propos als: • students may pay tncir ever increasing fees by creating and donat ing works of modem sculpture. • All snow that falls on campus will be piled on the quad by Love Library for a new class on tunnel digging. • Along with pluses and minuses, the grading system will also include asterisks, ampersands and that little “at” symbol on the “2”Jcey on key boards. • Graduate assistants will be re quired to speak English like Bob Uecker. --*—*— • A “bicycle czar” will be created to take complaints from cyclists who, in trying to conserve fossil fuel and an ankle-deep mud puddle, and the disabled students should be satisfied with only having a few sidewalks subject to snow removal. Stand out side the cashier’s desk in the adminis tration building and tell all students that they should really be able to pay more in student fees. If these are “wrong problems,” then please tell me what the right problems are. One VOICE issue “worthy of dis cussion” was preparing a voice for students in the unicameral, yet the DN says that VOICE is silent about bud get cuts. VOICE certainly does not support cuts, and the voice they pro pose to create in the Legislature will undoubtedly reflect student interests parking stalls, happen to run over groups of pedestrians who are dumb enough to be standing around in high traffic areas. • Those who complain about hav ing to walk more than five minutes to get to class from the parking lots will be able to pull up right in front of their buildings, where their vehicles will be sledgehammered beyond recogni tion. • Buildings will go to pot. What the heck. • Homecoming will go to pot. What the heck. - • Anyone who calls the student body president a bitch shall be lied to Old Glory and publicly flogged. Alas, all this will never be. And alack, 1 also missed the dead line to get my Fund A student fees returned — a whopping $7.89. Oflhis,$2.92goestoASUN,$4.13 goes to the University Program Coun cil, and a whopping 84 cents goes to the Daily Nebraskan. What will 84 cents buy you these days? Not ASUN, not UPC, but a year’s subscription to the Rag. However, “students claiming a re fund will lose benefits provided by Fund *A* users during the spring se mester 1992-93,” the ad says. That means no more free papers on your way to class, I’ll bet. The fees police would be right there by the newsstands to look for those greedy students who bear the “Scarlet Fund A Refund.” No more uodiainer s inserts ior you, buddy boy,” they’d say as they haul off some poor slob with $7.89 in his pocket. For a lousy 84 cents, he could of had a DN. But there are no police or scarlet letters; all students can have a DN whether they throw in their 84 cents or not. Gosh, it’s a wonder I have any money at all. Paulman is a senior news-editorial and history major and a Daily Nebraskan colum nist and photographer. I: - in this area. In fact, all issues on the VOICE platform come straight from the mouths of every type of student on our campus. For the editorial staff to call those issues old, stupid, ignorant, nonscnsible, done and silly shows just how much they care about the con cerns of the people who pay a portion of their printing costs for their paper. Perhaps if the DN editorial staff got outside the office and onto the cam pus like Keith Benes and the VOICE party has, they could become enthusi astic about making our everyday lives on this campus better. Mark A. Byars freshman general studies