Kim Stock
■s**
Problems take back seat to glory
A recent photo, appearing in an
April edition of “Time,” sym
bolizes a sick display of inhu
manity.
In this photo a young boy, under
the age of 10, is sprawled out on a
desert floor. He is so malnourished
that his body consists of dark skin and
sharp bones. His little face shows the
pain of not only agony, but of hope
lessness. Flocking around the boy, not
more than four feet away, is a vulture
carelessly watching the boy and obvi
ously wailing for his next meal. Be
low the picture reads this caption, “A
million southern Sudanese face star
vation. Here a child falters cn route to
a feeding center while a vulture
hoovers.
Disturbing? Yes. Gross? To say
the least. But, the worst thing about
this photo is not the picture itself, but
the photographer who look the pic
ture.
Think about it. The first instinct of
the photographer was not to help this
starving boy gel to the feeding center
and prevent his death, but rather to set
up his camera to take a picture. I’m
not saying that the photographer didn’t
eventually help this boy. Maybe he
did, but it was after he could capture
the boy’s moment of defeat.
What is wrong with us? We arc so
engrossed in pointing out the problem
that we forget to come up with a
solution. We would rather set up our
video cameras, wailing for a tragedy
to occur so we can tape it and then
send it to ABC. We love to disturb, we
lovelocause commotion, but, when it
comes to picking up the broken piec
es, we run like scared bunnies.
Hmm. It’s just like what comedian
Bob Goldthwail said in one of his
routines, “If you see me getting beat
up by 10 police officers in the inter
state, pul down your damn vidcocam
We are all scared of
change. We all love to
point our fingers at
the problem, but we
don't like solutions.
era and help me.”
Pointing out the problem is one
thing, solving it is quite another.
It’s like the rappers you see on
MTV who make money from phras
ing rhymes about how bad it is in the
ghetto. I’m not saying it isn’t bad in
South Central Los Angeles, but after
the rappers arc done in the studio,
South Central is a world away from
their cushy homes and BMW’s. Of
course Ice Cube says that for him,
“Today’s been a good day.” He gets to
pul down his plastic gun, take off his
costume blue flannel at the end of the
day and relax on a bed made of satin.
Yeah, we know how lough it is for
you.
Isn’t it ironic Dr. Dre, that after
you’re done with your performance
where you pretend you’re “putting
the chrome to the dome of a while Sox
hat,” you get to sip Asti Spumanti,
while the kids from Watts leave your
conccrtandgohomc to what you were
rapping about.
Then again, Oprah, Sally and Phil
arc guilty of the same crime. They
invite their troubled guests to their
shows, sit them in a semi-circle in
front of their audiences, and probe
their troubles. After the guests have
spilled put their guts on national tele
vision, audiences both in the studio
and at home cry, the guests, of course,
cry, and Oprah, while she sheds a few
tears, gains some more weight and
makes a nice 100 grand.
Has this all helped the troubled
guest? Probably not. But, we at home
arc satisfied, because at least our life
isn’t as bad as the guest. Of course,
Oprah is satisfied because she has
more money to buy jelly doughnuts.
Herc’slhcclinchcr.Tobclibcral is
to want change. To be conservative is
to oppose the changing of the status
quo. However, in the end we’re all the
same.
All the liberals who work for Green
Peace, sing about problems, and cam
paign for the big house on capital hill
make money off of pointing out the
problem. Yes, they disturb people.
But, these liberals make a mint off of
people’s agony. How is that any dif
ferent than Rush who goes after peo
ple’s mistakes as if they were his
prey? We’re all scared of change.
I mean that, we arc all seared of
change. We all love to point our fin
gers at the problem, but we don’t like
solutions. Every one of us, me includ
ed. Have I done anything in this col
umn but talk about the problem of
pointing out the problem? Where’s
my solution? I want to disturb you, but
help you? We’re all running away.
By the way, the photographer who
took the picture of the starving boy
with the hovering vulture, won some
photography award for it. Right now
he’s probably basking in the glory of
respected status and a nice raise in his
paycheck. As for the boy, who knows
if he was half as lucky.
Slock is a sophomore secondary educa
tion major and a Summer Daily Nebraskan
column 1st. .
VYhai Doks L'NL Think?
Do you think prayer should be in reinstated into UNL’s com
mencement ceremonies?
“I think that in a country that is
founded on Christian principles, that
prayer ought to be allowed.
Mark Larson
Junior
Psychology
“We have such diverse religious
backgrounds, thai il would be hard lo
make sure lhat everyone was satisfied
with whoever was giving the prayer.
Il doesn’t seem like, in that amount of
lime, they could representevery body.
A moment of silence gives everyone
an opportunity to reflect in their own
way. It seems the most fair.”
Jeff Gordcr
Senior
French
“I don’t think they should. A col
lege institution is where you go to get
an education, and if you get an educa
tion, you should realize that most
religions arc just superstition. They
can pray in church.”
Troy Park
Senior
News-Editorial
—Compiled by Brian Sharp
Ill | KRS Id IHI EDI IOK
Great Plains films
Why did your paper give no cover
age to the Great Plains Film Festival
at the Mary Riepma Ross Film Thc
ater during the last two weeks? I am an
employee there, but some of our pa
trons have wondered the same thing.
I know a newspaper is always gelling
grief from everyone under the sun lo
cover their events, but this festival
was a major event taking place in this
town and on this campus. During ihc
last two weeks, the Film Festival
showed some of the best new films of
last year, some of which have not yet
been shown anywhere else, as well as
bringing several important artists lo
speak lo Lincoln audiences. Appar
enlly, ihc DN found it more important
to run reviews of mediocre films their
readers had already heard loo much
about (do you really think nobody
will hear of Hocus Pocus if you don’t
write about it?).
Not that there were no good arti
cles, but why would you give an an
nouncement of a local filmmaker’s
auditions if you refuse to cover the
only venue for showing local film
makers? Docsn ’ t this seem rather back
wards? Even if you had some aversion
to local filmmakers, we invited inter
nationally known film and literary
artists like Michael Apted (dircctorof
Thundcrhcarl and 7 Up series), Joy
Harjo (Native American poet pub
lished in many college literature an*
ihologics) and Joan Micklin Silver
(director of Crossing Dclancey). These
arc not unknown people, and their
films were some of the most talked
about in the years they were released.
What rocks have your editors been
hiding under?
Of course, I don’t know why I am
bothering to complain about this, ev
eryone at UNL already knows that the
DN is the Lcs Nesman of newspapers.
This is just one more reason to give
you the coveted Silver Sow Award,
you guys deserve it.
Trevor McArthur
Senior
Teachers College
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