OPINION
Net?raskan
Thursday, August 11,1994
Nebraskan
Editorial Board
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Deborah D. McAdams.
Malt Woody ..,.
Martha Dunn . . . ...
Derek Samson ..
Brian Sharp... • ...
EDI IOKI \l
Editor, 472-1766
. Features Editor
Cppy Desk ChieJ
. . . Staff Reporter
Sta ff Reporter
Students lose
Getting educated becomes greater struggle
This is our final issue of the Summer Daily Nebraskan tor
1994, and some of the news was good news. Students arc
getting a new family health program, improved computer
rooms and more financial aid options. The university received
over S4 million in donations, and the earth wasn’t wiped out by a
potential fusion reaction caused by a scries of comets that hit
Jupiter in July.
The bad news is that higher education, me gateway ot sen
improvement, is never going to get any cheaper. Unfortunately, as
the price of education rises, so docs the inaccessibility of educa
tion for those who need it the most. In June, we reported the cost
of attending a four-year college increased 77 percent between
1980 and 1990. More recently, the cost of financial aid has also
increased as total grant hinds were reduced in favor of loan
programs.
Education always gets caught in the crossfire ot administrators
and legislators. School officials demand more money. Legislators
refuse. School officials threaten to cut essential programs. If
legislators don’t bend, students lose. School officials rarely
consider the superfluity of their own substantially paid positions.
From the minimum wage vantage point of many students, very
few people actually deserve over $ 100,000 a year. Particularly in
Lincoln, where the cost of living is still a well-kept secret.
The students who take their College education for granted will
probably be least affected by rising costs. Some people arc
destined to go to college, even if they arc brain dead, because they
have wealth. A few will attend college by virtue of academic or
athletic skills. For a very large number of people, college will
always be a struggle. They will struggle with finances, home
work, fatigue and doubt. They have the least to lose and the most
to gain.
Spiraling education costs simply compound the struggle. The
individuals who can’t overcome the surmounting obstacles of
education may not be reflected in enrollment statistics, but their
potential contribution to society will be wasted on the self-interest
of politicians and school administrators.
P.S. Write Back
The Daily Nebraskan wants to hear from you. If you want to voice your
opinion about an article that appears in the newspaper, let us know. Just
write a brief letter to the editor and sign it (don’t forget your student ID
number) and mail it to the Daily Nebraskan, 34 Nebraska Union. 1400 R
Street, Lincoln, NE 68588-0448, or stop by the office in the basement of
the Nebraska Union and visit with us. We’re all ears.
I lit lout \i l’< >1 i< \
Staff editorial s represent the official policy of the Summer 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 represent
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 regents, responsibility for the editorial content of the newspaper lies solely in the hands of
its students
I I I 11 l< l*i H 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 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 oftbe Daily Nebraskan and cannot be returned. Anonymous submissions will not be
published. Letters should included (be 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.
MD-'bOO .
OP OS.^
Mi ii vmmad Moiiii ddin
Money can’t buy you happiness
What is happiness? tveryone
wants to be happy,everyone
is in search of that lost pearl.
If you ask someone who is penniless,
he would say the wealthy man is the
happy man. A prisoner’s reply would
be happiness is freedom, and the sick
man’s response is health is happiness.
It means that the happiest must be
the one who has all of these things.
Unfortunately mostofthe time it is not
true, and it’s human nature for every
one to believe that he or she is the
biggest sufferer on this planet earth.
One philosopher beautifully portrays
this status quo:
“If all the worries of the world arc
accumulated and everyone is allowed
toexchange his worries, noonc will be
satisfied.” He goes further to say that
if the worries arc equally distributed
evenly, then everyone, no matter how
great his problems, will consider him
self the biggest loser.
One of those monstrous problems
is the virtual disintegration of family
structure. The author Clare Boothe
Luce succinctly summarized it, “To
day half of all the marriages end in
divorce, separation, or desertion. The
marriage rate and birth rate are fall
ing. The number of one-parent and
one-child families is rising, more and
more young people are 1 iving together
without the benefit of marriage. Pre
marital and extramarital sex no long
er raise parental or conjugal eyebrows.
The rate of reported incest, child mo
lestation, rape and child and wife abuse
is steadily mounting. Runaway chil
dren, teenage prostitution, youthful
drug addiction and alcoholism have
become great, ugly, new phenome
na.”
This phenomena is caused by the
immense influence of television, mov
ies and advertisements. Everyone’s
life is unknowingly being dictated by
these brainwashers. Whenever a per
son watches an advertisement in which
a very beautiful, seemingly happily,
If we just ponder the repercus
sions of the felling of a beautiful,
fragile family tree nurtured with
so much care, love and com
promise, we will be astonished to
see that most of the social prob
Ilems enumerated by Clare Booth
emanate from this single social
disease.
married couple is driving in a most
luxurious car or living in an ornate
palace-like house, they begin to bc
1 ieve happiness is the outcome of such
attainments. So they set goals that are
invariably hard to meet and begin a
wild goose chase. They arc always
obsessed with the thought of earning
more and more money, al though when
they started out their sole objective
was to be happy. Obviously they didn ’ t
want wealth for its own sake. They
wanted to use it as a means to an end.
On their way to make dreams come
true, they work fifteen hours a day,
leave the bed early in the morning and
hit it late at night. Maybe at work they
successfully pretend to be the most
smiling personality, but within there
is always a burning desire to amass
wealth.
Severe family problems arc a natu
ral aftermath of such a hectic life.
Every other day they get mad at their
spouse or kid and the verbal abuse
may end up physical. What could be
expected of someone who stays in his
or her house not more than a few hours
a day, including sleep. Finally, dis
gusted with these daily quarrels, peo
ple decide to get rid of all this. Divorce
or at least separation comes to mind as
the only way out.
The crux of the story comes when
people come to own the things that
they used to believe essential for hap
pi ness and find that they paid too
much for them. Such things can never
give permanent happiness. The hap
piness sacrificed in the course of at
taining these trivial material posses
sions is much more than pleasure of
such attainments. It is always a happy
family 1 ifc that gives permanent, ncv
cr-ending love. Happiness is the source
of comfort in hours of distress. Noth
ing can compare to the enjoyment a
childlike mistake of your kid can bring,
except the comfort that words of en
couragement and love from your
spouse can bring. The apparently ver
bose. overused words of advice from
your mother, which may seem to be
worthless, reflect affection, sincerity
and thoughtfulness. These are the lit
tle things that count.
If we just ponder the repercussions
of the felling of a beautiful, fragile
family tree nurtured with so much
care, love and compromise, we will be
astonished to see that most of the
social problems enumerated by Clare
Booth emanate from this single social
disease.
. The moral of the story is while
evaluating one’s progress, one should
always keep in view these little things
that arc not so little.
Muhaaiaiad Mohiuddia I* a graduate »tudeat
la electrical eaglaeeriag aad a Dally Nebras
kaa coluaialst.