I
OPINION
Nebraskan
Thursday, March 17,1994
Nebraskan
Editorial Board
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Jeremy Fitzpatrick
Rainbow Rowell. . .
Adeana Left in. . . .
Todd Cooper„
JeffZeleny.
Sarah Duey.
William Lauer. . . .
.Editor. 472-1766
.Opinion Page Editor
.Managing Editor
___........... Sports Editor
.Associate News Editor
Arts & Entertainment Editor
.Senior Photographer
kl)l IOKI \l
Test of character
Loudon to show integrity by paying fines
Like most Association of Students of the University of
Nebraska elections, this year’s was followed by a stack of
complaints and alleged campaign wrongdoings.
The ASUN Electoral Commission will respond to these com
plaints today at 4:15 p.m.
Of 17 complaints to be addressed, 12 allege violations by
members of the victorious VISION party.
The commission should take all complaints seriously and
administer fines when necessary and just.
Although poster violations may not seem serious or malicious,
ASUN election laws should be upheld. If the commission is not
stem, future campaigners may not take the laws seriously.
The VISION party, led by President-elect Andrew Loudon,
should be especially cooperative with the commission. Loudon’s
term has not begun yet, but his behavior today will preview what
type of leader he will be next year.
VISION has already been fined $82 for four earlier complaints.
Loudon has said he will pay any fines levied today to put the
situation behind him.
Of the 12 complaints against VISION, seven are for alleged
improper posting of signs, two arc for alleged phone solicitation —
which violates no laws, two arc for alleged door-to-door solicita
tion, and one is for allegedly taking down competitors’ signs.
If the complaints against VISION are valid, Loudon could face
substantial fines. But his cooperation will show maturity, integrity
and a commitment to ASUN law.
What a waste
ASUN displays frivolity with nameplates
Do you want to know where some of the more than $140,000
of your student fee money is going? The same money that
ASUN approved for itself last year?
Nameplates.
Our student government, the Association of Students of the
University of Nebraska, showed Wednesday why it sometimes
deserves little respect.
ASUN senators voted to approve $550 to purchase “45 durable
metal placards for the incoming executives, senate and CFA
members to be used as long as future senates deem appropriate”
ASUN graduate senator Charles Hamilton said the nameplates
were needed because the current plastic and paper placards made
ASUN and the Committee for Fees Allocation look unprofessional.
Plastic placards do not make ASUN look unprofessional.
Spending $550 of student fee money on unnecessary nameplates
docs.
Students at the University of Ncbraska-Lincoln might as well
have burned the $550 that will pay for the nameplates. The money
will be completely wasted either way.
Mark Byars, senator for general studies, wrote the bill and said
it was an act of unselfishness for next year’s senators.
But Byars’ bill and the senate’s decision do not represent virtue.
They instead represent senseless government waste at its worst.
If you arc unhappy about where your student fees are going, you
can do something about it. You can call your ASUN senator and
ask him or her what ASUN is doing with your student fee money.
I m ioki \i l*oi u \
StafT editorials represent the official policy of the Spring 1994 Daily Nebraskan Policy is set
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Irish law resists move to left
Editor's note: The following is a
guest column written by Edmund
Roche-Kelly an Irish student about
changes in sexuality and law in Ire
land.
ct’s skip Mass and make love.
condoms. Pink, blue, purple
with yellow stripes, strawberry, mint,
roast beef and baked potatoes, apple
pie with custard — any shape, flavor
or color you desire.
Yep, we’ve got ‘cm all. It’s about
time, too. It was 20 years ago that
legislation was first introduced to le
galize contraception in Ireland. It’s
only been two years since we could go
into a shop, ask for a pack and get it
without being excommunicated, con
demned, vilified and run out of town
by the parish priest.
So, for your edification, here is a
potted history of the transition of the
humble rubber from Satan’s greatest
triumph to fashion accessory.
In 1974, the Irish Minister for Jus
tice introduced a bill to provide 1 imit
cd contraception to the Irish public.
That bill was defeated by the leader of
the government party, showing the
remarkable solidarity of Irish politi
cians. In 1979, the European Com
mission on Human Rights ordered the
government to provide contraception
as a health service. The people of
Ireland had to decide if we could have
birth control available for married
couples for family planning use only.
(We couldn’t have people making love
just for fun, now could we?)
Naturally, the Catholic Church got
all up in arms about this, condemned
those who didn’t regard contracep
tion as immoral, told us that sex with
out the possibility of procreation was
offensive to God, and pointed out the
rhythm method was good enough any
way, now wasn’t it? There’s some
thing strangely ironic about a bunch
of supposedly celibate men dictating
our sexual policies.
Anyway, the idea got through,
though many chemists refused to stock
“those filthy things,” and you nearly
had to get a papal dispensation and a
letter from your mother before you
could get any form of birth control.
You had to be married too, with at
least two dozen children.
You want condoms, wc got
You couldn’t say, “Sure, aren’t
we all good Catholics who
don’t even know what sex is till
our wedding night,” when the
number of HIV-positive patients
was going up all the time.
The bill introduced was referred to
as “an Irish solution to an Irish prob
lem" and provided plenty of raw ma
terial for stand-up comedians. By 1984,
we were judged liberal enough to let
condoms be sold to anyone older than
18, but they could only be stocked by
pharmacists.
This means you could get a rubber
if you lived in the city, but God help
you if you lived out in the country in
the bastion of the Catholic Church
and were a regular producer of follow
ers of the one true faith. Finally, in
1992, ordinary shops could sell
condoms to anyone older than 16, and
furtive trips to the pharmacist with
fake IDs ended.
AIDS was the turning point in the
campaign to allow widespread distri
bution of contraceptives. People felt a
bit silly saying there was no use for
them in Ireland. You couldn’t say,
“Sure, aren’t we all good Catholics
who don’t even know what sex is till
our wedding night," when the number
of HI V-positivc patients was going up
all the time.
Finally, the presenter of I rish Tele
vision’s premier chat show.“The Late
Late Show,” on at the ungodly hour of
9:30 p.m., demonstrated how condoms
should be used. He put one on his
fingers, just his fingers. (Pornography
is not a major feature of Irish Televi
sion.) The floodgates opened, and the
government was embarrassed into let
ting us all have them.
There still exists a core of opposi
tion to anything faintly liberal in this
country. There was outcry six months
ago when it was proposed that homo
scxualitybedecriminalized.but thank
fully, the objectors were ignored.
Various groups exist with the sole
purpose of preventing any of these
newfangled liberal ideas from con
laminating our society. The most pop
ular group is the Society for the Pro
tection of the Unborn Child.
They must be disgusted by the Ire
land they see around them. Condoms
in the shops, gays on television, pre
marital sex—with only the continued
ban on divorce and abortion to get
them through the day and into the
nights of unprotected sex (missionary
position only, of course).
All this to produce more funda
mentalists, who must fight the good
fight and the evils of proposed divorce
legislation and, who knows, maybe
abortion in a year or two.
Still, we’ve come a long way since
the ’50s and ’60s, when the Catholic
Church could bring down the govern
ment over radical health proposals
like free medical care for women and
children, and when priests controlled
the censorship board.
During the ’50s, censorship was
Ireland’s only growth industry. At
one point there were books banned at
the extraordinary rate of 50 a day. One
can only conclude books were banned
on the basis of their covers.
Some claimed getting banned in
Ireland helped sell books abroad. If a
writer was hit by the censorship board,
it was like saying he’d actually been
offered sex in a brothel.
A group of Irish men decided that
J.D. Salinger’s “The Catcher in the
Rye” was considered unfit for public
consumption.
Looking at sexuality, censorship
and the law in Ireland is like taking a
long, slow swim through a sewage
bed, but sometimes you just have to
laugh.
Kdaiuad Kocke-KHly ii * Junior aiatbe
mtki major at Irialty College la Dublin,
IreJaad, aad a guest colunaiit.
I I Ml Us in I III I lil in|<
‘Good meat’
In response to Paul Kocsler’s col
umn (DN, March 14,1994): Today’s
fanners and livestock producers are
some of the most conservation-mind
ed people in the world. They are also
some of the most efficient when it
comes to how many people they feed
besides themselves.
If Koestcr took some basic animal
science classes, he’d probably go back
to eating some good meat.
Stephen Goodrich
professor
military science
Equal rights
In response to Christopher
Winkelmann’s letter against equal
rights for homosexuals (DN, March
11, 1994): The 14th Amendment
states, “No state shall make or enforce
any law which shall abridge the priv
ilegcs and immunities of citizens ...
nor deny to any person within its
jurisdiction the equal protection ol the
laws.”
I fW inkelmann cannot be fired from
a job or refused housing or beaten up
for being an ignorant, white hetero
sexual, than neither can a homosexual
person.
Adam Buttress
freshman
political science
