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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 23, 1994)
Page 4 OPINION Nebraskan Wednesday, February 23,1994 Nebraskan Editorial Board University of Nebraska-Lincoln Jeremy Fitzpatrick.'.Editor, 472-1766 Rainbow Rowell.. ..Opinion Page Editor Adeana Leftin..Managing Editor Todd Cooper...Sports Editor JeffZelenv . ..* . . . r . ; . .Associate News Editor Sarah Duey.... ., t -vr ...__ . .Arts & Entertainment Editor Willian Lauer.... .,.. Senior Photographer t Dl lOKI \l The Big Twelve Merger with Southwest means revenue The Big Eight Conference made the right decision by inviting four Southwest Conference teams to join the league. According to the Associated Press, an informal offer was extended from the Big Eight to Texas, Texas A&M, Baylor and Texas Tech to become part of the conference. SWC schools Rice, Southern Methodist University, Texas Christian and Houston were not invited, according to the reports. The merger would be good for the University Of Nebraska Lincoln and the rest of the Big Eight. It would bring four quality schools into the conference. That would mean the Big Eight would be in a stronger position to negotiate for television rights when the current College Foot ball Association contract expires after the 1995-96 season. The large television market in Texas would mean more Big Eight games would be televised. The increased revenue from the games would help all schools in the conference. It is unfortunate that college football has become a big business with television contracts worth millions of dollars. Amateur athletics should not revolve around corporate decisions made for financial reasons. But unless the system is changed, Nebraska has to compete within that framework. The Big Eight should push to complete the merger with the Southwest Conference schools to ensure it will survive and prosper in an uncertain future. Cheap skate Focus on scandal degrades competition Enough is enough. Not long ago, Tonya Harding became a household name. Americans were fascinated by the attack on her competitor Nancy Kerrigan. We couldn’t stop asking questions. Was Tonya involved? Did she know? Every newspaper, national magazine and television news show fed hungry Americans details about Harding’s life, her colorful family, her failed marriage. As the U.S. Winter Olympic team was chosen, we all won dered if Harding would be permitted to go. After the team landed in Lillehammar, Norway, Harding remained in the spotlight. Even now, daily reports tell what she does in practice, what she wears, how many times she falls, if she looks tired or indifferent. Tonight, both figure skaters will begin competing. The time has come for the media to put an end to the hype surrounding Harding. There are no developments in her case. There is no news to tell. When she takes to the ice Wednesday, the media should focus on her skating and the skating of her team members. Members of the media should not cheapen themselves and the Winter Olympics by focusing so tightly on Harding. They should not assume Americans are only interested in scandal. Besides, there’s no need to further hype the Harding/Kerrigan competition. America will be watching. I Dlloui \l I’m K '> SufTeditorials represent the official policy of the Spring 1994 Daily Nebraskan. Policy is set by the Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board. Editorials do not necessarily reflect the views of the university, its employees, the students or the NU Board of Regents Editorial columns reprMMt the opinion of the author The regents publish the Daily Nebraskan They establish the UNL Publications Board to supervise the daily production of the paper. According to policy set by the regeots, responsibility for the editorial content of the newspaper lies solely in the hands of its students. __ l l I 11 It I'OI l( \ 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 reject all material submitted. Readers also arc 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 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 any. Requests to withhold names will not be granted Submit material to the Daily Nebraskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 R St., Lincoln, Neb 68588-0448 Ikn$LV^ ©w Wealth CARET NO WORR\E$ SHE'LL FIT NO PROBLEM. i Crossword I’ve just finished reading Rainbow Rowell’s entertaining piece that ap peared in the Feb. 17, 1994, DN. I regret to inform Rowell that Eugene T. Maleska permanently retired from crossword-puzzle writing — as well as other mortal activities—in the fall of 1993. So it is unlikely that Rowell will be able to question him about his creative methods. 1 ’ m certain that he would be pleased to know the DN continues to offer his challenging puzzles even after his death. Nora Keith secretary Barkley Speech-Language and Hearing Clinic Discrimination I don’t care what color an individ ual is who sits behind a desk at the Multi-Cultural Affairs Office, as long as he or she is mature and responsible. I guess there are those who believe they can’t tell problems to someone of another color because they think they’ll be discriminated against. Well, that’s their problem. These people arc so worried about percentages and color, they don’t re alize they’re discriminating against colors already behind the desks. Is it that they aren’t qualified to listen to your whining, or do you feel you are too good to talk to them? I don’t believe one minority isn’t qualified to understand the problems of another, as if the lessons one has learned don’t apply to the other. Jobs aren’t distributed by color. They are distributed to whomever is most qualified. If you tell someone they didn’t get the job because they aren’t the right color, you haven’t fixed the problem. You’ve only changed its shape. I don’t believe Sam lCepfield(DN, Feb. 16,1994) is the radical extremist some people have made him out to be. He made some good points. If other people would listen to his words, we wouldn’t have many of the problems we’ve got. Christopher W. Winkelmann sophomore mechanical engineering Kepfield I want to take this opportunity to thank Sam Kepfield for his numerous “profound insights” over the years. If it hadn’t been for these, I might have thought the world was made up of “shiny happy people, holding hands.” I’ve been through plenty of crap in my life. (I’ll spare you the details.) I wouldn’t doubt that many of the peo ple Kepfield made blind generaliza tions about in his Feb. 16 article have experienced a great deal worse. I’m I i 111 i<s i(» 1111 I'm iou tvell aware of how nasty the world can 3e, which is the very reason I’m still righting it. I refuse to take a “lie back and ;njoy it” or “if you don’11 ike it, get the heck out” approach, and I encourage Dthcrs to do the same. Yes, life is messy, the world can be a cruel place, and people can be jerks. The universe is based on entropy. Why then bother believing in heaven? After all, it’s just a Utopian dream. Why encourage abstinence or safe sex? Or punish people who have mo lested. raped or killed another human being? Why enforce any laws, for that matter? Why treat the mentally ill or discourage suicides? Why not just “get used to it?” Because if we didn ’ t, we’d be even crazier than we are now, and we’d be Amy Schmidl/DN shooting ourselves in the head. Mental laziness — simply saying, “Oh well, that’s just the way the world works” — is easy. Making changes and taking chances requires practice, dedication and efTort, more than most of us are willing to give. People who are willing to dedicate themselves to making such improve ments, in spite of all the inherent risks, deserve our admiration and re spect. We can’t “fix" all our problems, but that hardly absolves us from the responsibility of trying to make im provements. Also, I’ve noticed that Kepfield is the first to scream himself hoarse and stamp his feet when things aren’t go ing his way, or when the grass might be turning a little too green in some one else’s yard, as evidenced in his articles about feminism, health care and other issues. Peggy Haas senior general studies Justice I feel there was no justice in Sam Kcpfield’s article about the Mexican American Student Association and its fight to make changes at the Univer sity of Nebraska-Lincoln (DN, Feb. 16). Change is just what this campus needs. MASA is boycotting the Multi cultural Affairs Office to get the message across that we need to be a more diverse campus. They have been asking for these changes for years now, but nothing has been done. The DN has made MASA out to be the bad guys, but in reality, they are good guys, trying to find a solution to a problem everyone talks about — hiring behind closed doors. MASA is speaking out for those people and groups who are too afraid to speak out for themselves. This is not a fight to get more Hispanic professionals at UNL. It’s a fight to have equal representation of professionals irom different back grounds on staff throughout the cam pus. MAS A is not in tnis ngnt aione. The Vietnamese Student Association will help MAS A in this fight. It’s true that VSA declined to help with the boycott, but that does not mean VSA will not help in other forms of protest ing and working with the administra tion to reach some kind of agreement. Many VSA members are individually supporting MASA’s boycott. UNL talks about diversity, but in reality, we know it’s all talk. The boycott is focused on the Multi-Cul tural Affairs Office because it is the best place to start changing the hiring practices on campus. The office may already seem di verse to some people, but if you take a close look at the department, races are not equally represented. There are six African Americans, five whites, four Hispanics, one Na tive American and no Asian Ameri cans. If the office knew it needed to become more diverse, they should have considered that hiring an Afri can American would not help them become more diverse. One would think hiring an Asian American would make more sense, for there is a need for an Asian Amer ican to represent the growing number of Asian students on campus. 1 support MASA in its fight, and 1 encourage everyone else to look into this and join in the fight. It should not be a fight for MASA only, but for the entire campus. Let’s be a campus that does more than just talk about diver sity. Tram Nguyen freshman VSA member
