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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 22, 1993)
-4 OPINION Letters Readers speak up on the space 111 . . shuttle, gun control lw6ull6Su3y and other topics in cc/oc "Letters to the 00/00 Editor." \ Ctoudyrwd^nKl ■jQfl<t jm snowers today, rage **. Thursday, continued chance of showers. __ 'V Clinton plan could shuffle student health options By Alan Phelps Senior Reporter President Clinton’s prescrip tion for the nation’s health care system, which he pre sents tonight to Congress, would pro foundly change students’ insurance options, a UNL professor said. Keith Mueller, director of the Ne braska Center for Rural Health Re search, said many students fall below the poverty line, working for small employers who can’t afford employ ee health plans — just the type of person Clinton’s proposal aims to help. “They’ll have the same kind of health insurance coverage as I do, working for-a large employer,” said Mueller, a political science professor who teaches classes about health care systems. However, Mueller said there was a flip side. Students not covered by their parents’ insurance would be forced to help pay for health plans, he said. While employers and the govern ment would pick up most of the tab, Mueller said, students and other citi zens without health insurance still would pay about 20 percent of the annual $1,800 single-person health plan cost — about $360. “They would have to buy health insurance,” Mueller said. “For col lege students who think themselves invulnerable, this would be an added expense.” For their money, Mueller said, stu dents and others buying into the stan dard plan would receive a minimum set of health benefits. That would include coverage for hospital stays, visits to doctors, mental health care, free preventive care and low-cost pre scription drugs, Mueller said. The cheapest plan most students now qualify for is through the Univer sity Health Center. For about $420 a year, students can buy coverage for accidents, illnesses and hospitaliza tion. UnderClinton’sproposal, Mueller said, students would be able to choose from several competing plans offered by partnerships between other clinics, hospitals and insurance companies. All the choices would have to include about the same services for about the same price, which Mueller said was a good deal. “You wouldn’t get anywhere near that for $1,800 in the open market,” he said. However, once citizens chose a v' certain partnership, they would have to use that health care provider. In the See HEALTH on 3 X appeal ' ■ * ' Stad McKee/DN Sideshow band members Paul Tisdale, front, Bemie McGinn, left, and Rich Higgins often sleep in their van, Phoebe, while on tour. The three friends classify themselves as members of Generation X. Lincoln’s Sideshow won’t argue with slacker stereotype By Amy Hopfensperger Staff Reporter At 25, Paul Tisdale is homeless. He’s jobless. He’s a college drop-out. Paul Tisdale is a slacker—just ask him. Tisdale, drummer for the Lincoln-based band Sideshow, agrees that he is the epitome of the slacker stereotype that has been tacked on young men and women of the ’90s who belong to Generation X. In fact, he said, he accepts the role. Other band members, singer/bassist Bemie McGinn, 23, and ?uitarist Rich Higgins, 6, make up a trio that *t seem to mind being labeled as having Generation X mind-set —a way of thinking that is a far cry from the age )ld American dream. Buying a home in sub Dy a white-picket fence is not exactly Higgins’ life-long goal. “I think having a great job and a great house is wonderful,” Higgins said. “But that is my parents saying, ‘Finish school, get a job, and get a house.* “That is success for them, but I don’t see it happening to me.” Tisdale said achieving personal and cre ative success appealed more to him. “If I am doing what makes me happy, why should I struggle for what people call success?” he said. ^But does that mean I lack ambition?” Such ideas of success have led to failure in social and political arenas of the past, he said. “Our parents gave up,” Tisdale said. “They didn’t distribute the wealth, they neglected the needs of minorities, and they bought into the entire ‘me’ generation. “And look what that left us.” See BAND on 2 Students nearly lost lives helping hungry Bosnians By Jeff Zeleny Senior Editor On July 20 Abbas Ali made a promise to himself and to many Bosnians as he left a prison camp in Chapl ina, Bosnia: No matter what happened, he would not forget them. It was a promise Ali almost died trying to keep. Ali, a chemical engineering major at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, was arrested for transporting food and medicine into Bosnia and was held in a detention center for 20 days in July. The night Ali was summoned from his , cell, he said, his fellow prisoners told him the | end of his life was near. “They said, ‘If you get killed, we 11 all be killed. If not, spread the word,’” Ali said. That is exactly what Ali, 25, is doing. Even though the Bosnian region is far from the United States, he said, Americans have the power and opportunity to make changes. Ali and UNL graduate student Suleman Ahmer began their relief mission to the war tom Bosnian region in October 1992. For nine months, the two traveled by truck from Croatia into Bosnia bringing food and humanitarian relief. On June 30, their efforts were halted. Ali and Ahmer, both of Pakistan, were stopped at a military checkpoint inside the Bosnia-Croatia border. They were searched, beaten and taken to jail, Ali said. About 5,000 prisoners were held in the large Croatian-controlled detention center, Ali said. Ahmer and Ali were taken quickly to a small room with28 other prisoners who were accused of being spies. “They (Croatian guards) started interview ing us and thought we were spies," he said. “They were planning to kill us the same night. They were all ready; the guns were all loaded." But a sick prisoner occupied all the guards’ time, Ali said, and they were never again threatened with death. After the sick prisoner died, Ali and Ahmer saw much more death. “In front of me they killed many prisoners,” Ali said. “Not by gun, but by smashing heads against the wall.” While in the prison, the two students saw Bosnians of all ages suffer and get beaten. But Ali said the Bosnians’ spirits remained high and their energy was never lost. See BOSNIA on 6 Time passes, but pain persists for slain student’s family By Dionne Searcey Senior Reporter For Candice Harms’ father, time heals no wounds. One year ago today his daughter was abducted. Her body was found 12 weeks later. “I guess we’re getting by,” Stan Harms said. “We don’t cry as much, but it still hurts just as bad every time we think of her, which is 24 hours a day.” Candice Harms had faith in God, he said, and that has been a great comfort to Harms and his wife, Pat. “We know that she’s with God,” he said. “In some ways we’re envious of her because we know that she’s there, and we’ve got a long way to go. A very Ions way, unfortunately.” The pain continues, Harms said, as he follows the resultsofhearings lead ing up to the first-degree murder trial ofKoger Bjorklund, who was charged in the slaying. “It hurts to see criminals have the laws protecting them so much, and the victim didn’t have any rights at all,” Harms said. “We just pray that justice will prevail.” Harms said he had tried to find good in the tragic situation. “To me, if society wakes up and deals with criminals the way they are supposed to, that’s going to be good in the long run because it’s going to help society,” he said. More good has come, Harms said, because the disappearance of his daughter prompted students to take their own safety seriously. “The awareness itself of what hap pened has made people more cau tious, which is good in a way, and it’s sadina way that people have tobe that cautious,” he said. Sgt. Ann Heermann of the Lincoln Police Department said the publicity and media attention given to the case made many Lincolnites think about -44- . In some ways we’re envious of her because we know that she’s there, and we’ve got a long way to go. A very long way, unfortunately. — Harms fathar nf ala in I INI atiuiant their own safety. “This is a case that got so much attention that people thought about their daughters, they thought about their sisters," Heermann said. “It's really heightened the fear the community had for being a random ¥ ¥ victim,” she said. Such fear, Heermann said, can be healthy. “It can be good if it keeps people <• on their toes and makes them more See HARMS on 3
