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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 8, 1993)
OPT N TON Nebraskan 1 XV^/1 ^ Monday, March 8,1»93 Netjraskan 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 Fair treatment East Campus deserves required classes Hopefully someone will listen to Patrick Kroese, the senator for the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. He is fighting the system in the interests of East Campus, a voice that is often forgotten when discussing student issues. Kroese has authored a bill and gathered signatures to gamer support for a measure that would support offering basic, required classes on East Campus. Granted, not every class can be offered on East Campus. That is why the shuttle system exists. But some classes arc required of enough East Campus students to justify at least one or two sections being offered there. If the university is going to require students to take certain classes, it should be required to make the classes available to the students. For East Campus students, that means merely sending a professor across town — once, twice or three times a week — to teach a section. If that is too difficult for the university, for whatever reason, then something about the system should change. That applies especially for those classes — Economics 211, Accounting 201, Botany 109 and Zoology 112 — that arc re quired of a large number of students on East Campus. • Optimally, the university would guarantee that enough sections of those classes be offered on East Campus to fulfill the needs of the students there. Beyond that, the university should do as much as it can for those students. If parking is the excuse, it shouldn’t be. Students unwilling to pay for a reserved stall have to fight for parking spots to make it to class. Why can’t professors? If the fact that the colleges are located on Gty Campus is the problem, maybe the university should look into opening offices on East Campus for professors who teach there. That would make it easier for every one involved. Make room All will profit from national service plan Bill Clinton promised during the presidential campaign that he would invest in America if elected. Last week he took a concrete step to make good on that pledge. Clinton, speaking on the 32nd anniversary of President Kennedy’s creation of the Peace Corps, formally proposed a national service plan that would allow students to repay their college loans through community work. Describing the plan as the GI Bill of the 1990s, Ginton said it could “change America forever and for the better.’’ The program will start with 1,000 participants this summer and grow to 100,000 within four years. It is aimed at making college affordable to all while sparking interest in education, health, safety and environmental projects. The details of Clinton’s plan — such as whether it will be funded by Congress — have yet to be worked out. The program will have to be offered to many more than 100,000 students nationwide if it is to have a real effect in improving America. But the national service plan is good policy, and it should be supported. It will increase the number of college graduates in the United States and promote a commitment to service that we desperately lack. In an era of deficit reduction and spending cutbacks, there isn’t money for many new programs. Room should be made for Ginton’s plan, however. It will help both college students and the country. - I Staff editorials represent the official policy of the Pall 1992 Daily Nebraskan. Policy is set by the Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board. Editorials do not necessarily reflect the views of the uni versity, its employees, the students or the NU Board of Regents. Editorial columns represent the opinion of the author. The regenu publish the Daily Nebraskan. They establish the UNL Publications Board to supervise die daily production of the paper. According to policy set by the regenu, responsibility for the editorial content of the newspaper lies solely in the hands of iu students. * The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief letters u> 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 reuins the right to edit or icjecLall 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 property erf 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 any. Requesu to withhold names will not be granted. Submit material to the Daily Nebraskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 R St., Lincoln, Neb. 68588-0448. I OFFICE Of COLLEGE LOAN RE.PftfME.NT. * (fcUO HR. Weapon, 1 'NWWERtt*. * 'Wtt <tt)U> SEND WE Of TAKE. STUDENT SER«E VNORNERS CNER WERE. TO WEJlP OUT.* — India Mark Baldridge, in his article, “Sewer aroma swells in India" (DN, Feb. 25,1993) seemed to be trying to give a completely negative image about India. Most of the things he mentioned are true, but are not in general applicable to all places in India. In his attempts to be hypercriti cal of India, he only chose to h ighl ight the dirt, dust, sunk and stench of India. He didn’t even care to mention something more pertinent like the his toric places, tourist attractions, the variety of food one can get there and the kind of sculpture that is nowhere else. India, with 50 percent of the people being illiterate and about 30 percent of the people living below the poverty line, has its inherent problems for a variety of reasons. But India is devel oping and it's only a matter of lime (which, though, could be quite long) before India becomes developed. We still wonder how Baldridge could write an article that was so one-sided and exaggerated, hurting the feelings of so many Indians. If we, for instance, were to write about our stay in the United Stales, we would never even think of mention ing anything about the high crime rate, drug abuse and the growing num ber of cnildren with single parents, etc., lei alone highlighting these as the only things that one could notice here. Instead we would write more about its beauty, culture, historic places, etc., especially under a column like inter national journey. All we want to say is that one can write something good or bad about anything ifone really intends todoso. But when writing something about a country, the minimum responsibility of the writer is to see that what is written should fairly represent the positive and negative aspects involved. Selecting only the negative aspects only rcBccls his base and narrow minded intentions. Prabhakar Vangala Pratap Checkati graduate students mechanical engineering' Limbaugh On March 2, Jim Anderson of Lin coln wrote to the Daily Nebraskan, charging Rush Limbaugh with mak ing “very derogatory statements about others, usually simple one-liners, all based on distorted or non-related facts. In fact, there was very little substance to the program at all.” I, for one, am so glad Anderson gave us that unbiased opinion, based on the many facts that he so well illustrated in his writing. Anderson, I would like to give you a little advice about writing a critique. Make sure you know what you arc criticizing, and state an example of that criticism. Anderson, you have just done what you claimed that Limbaugh has done — made a de rogatory statement with very little substance. Doug Stephens senior industrial education James Mehsling/DN ‘Entertainer’ Rush Limbaugh is an entertainer, that is all. Unfortunately certain indi viduals, in America in general, and on this campus in particular, have lost sight of inis fact and consider him to be something more. Rush Limbaugh presents his po litical ideology and personal beliefs in a very articulate, rational and inge nious manner. He is neither disin genuous, nor docs he distort facts. He is very specific about his arguments and the data that he cites. It is truly dim-willed for someone to come forward and misrepresent facts and attack a man’s character because of simple political disagree ments as Jim Anderson did in last Tuesday’s Daily Nebraskan (DN, March 2,1993). I will not comment on Anderson’s disillusioned ravings about Limbaugh personally. Much more revealing are his closing comments. He basically states that radio and TV talk shows arc important, but that they can be mis used. He goes on to question how communities and the world benefit from the .. intolerance, fear and ignorance” of the Rush Limbaugh snow. Anderson, you are entitled to your viewpoint, but it sounds to me like you arc wandering dangerously close to censorship. 1 realize that you have probably become addicted to your daily overdoses of the conventional liberal-speak of the mainstream me dia. And I understand that a lone conservative viewpoint in an ocean of liberalism is a slap in the face to those of you who have grown accustomed to the above. But you should be care ful about suggesting, even remotely, that Limbaugh should be shut up be cause he doesn’t serve a nurpose that you deem appropriate. Such an alti tude has the striking flavor of “intol erance, fear and ignorance.” I wish that in the future you would engage in a serious exchange of ideas in rebuttal to Limbaugh’s stated con victions and save the nebulous ora tory for the playground. Thomas K. Eads junior chemistry Smoking In this day when flag burning,por nography, whom one sleeps with and rap-sodies of cop killing and genital mutilation arc deemed legitimate forms of political, artistic, or self-, expression, it is amazing that it has never occurred to the anti-smoking do-gooders in the administration that smoking is often a form of expression. Aside from the clothes one wears, smoking is one of the most eloquent forms of nonverbal self-expression available. Hollywood actors from Humphrey Bogart toTom Cruischavc long used cigarettes to convey an attitude of recklessness, intensity or nonchalance. Pipes, on the other hand, can express thoughtfulness, serenity or social standing and stability. With cigars one can express power, suc cess, even indifference to the plightof the common man. Most important arc the significant sexual expressions that smoking can convey. These run the gamut from cupidity to sexual frustration. For the feminist movement, smoking ciga rettes was for a long lime a symbol of women's liberation. Early Commu nists and radicals used cigarettes as a symbol of democratic solidarity against the schemes of the proverbi ally cigar-chomping capitalist, and almost all early leftists smoked. Even today smoking takes on very strong class overtones, being enjoyed primarily by the lower and middle classes of our society, while the edu cated liberal class claims to be en lightening the masses by forcing upon them its new brand of puritanism. But then the left has long since given up trying to be the champion of the com mon man, and its new condescending arrogance would make even Marie Antoinette blush. Chas Baylor graduate student classics