Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 11, 1995)
Commentary Wednesday, January 11,1995 Page 5 Delinquents find kinship in gangs Gangs and gang involvement ar< big issues in America today. On the news and in the papers, stories of gangs and related violence are ever present. . Every day, young people, elementary and high school-age, are getting into drugs and stealing and are dying. Over the past 40 years, more research has been done to try to learn and understand more about the people that get hooked into gangs. Questions of how, why and under what conditions people become involved with gangs are being answered. Theories and concepts of sociology are being used to aid in the understanding of gangs. . In studies and research, much emphasis is placed on delinquency. This, after all, is a factor in the individual gang member. It is a well-established fact that delin quency is an enormous problem in society today and that it must be understood. Gang involvement is most frequently associated with the lower-class male. Violent offenders and victims of violent crimes tend to be young, male and residents in urban areas. It is true that minori ties are more often involved in gan£ activity. As gangs have become a bigger problem and threat to society, social scientists and researchers have looked at and discovered the role society plays in the contribution to this problem. Everyone in society pushes to meet the values and goals set by it. But what happens when a young person fails? An influential book on juvenile gangs^“OeUnqjLi£ncy and Opportu nity,” explains three types of subcultures that exist among lower class male adolescents. It suggests that in order to achieve goals and Yousuf Bashir statuses they could not achieve by more legitimate means, the ways accepted by society, these youths have to turn to criminal and gang related activity. The first type of subculture is the criminal subculture. Members seek to gain power and social status through illegitimate means such as theft of property. In this subculture, there are ties between juvenile delinquents and adult criminals in a community. The adults transmit values and skills to the young. The young, in turn, learn these socially unacceptable values and continue to carry out criminal actions. Conflict gangs are subcultures that provide a way for adolescents to achieve a status in their peers’ eyes. Because relationships with ; adults in their lives are weak, and because juveniles lack legitimate access to achieving success, they establish their own success goals. Tough reputations and deviant means such as fights, are used to achieve goals. Retreatist gangs include juveniles who have failed to use legitimate means of succeeding. They do not have close ties with adult criminals in their community, and they lack skills to attain a status in a conflict subculture, so as goals ah^mreaT^to^^^^^ " alcohol abuse. g In discussing individual choice and behavior, a question arises of delinquents: Are they morally different from other juveniles? A problem of adjustment to these values arise, adding to the burden of their class and youth. These youths search for answers to their problems by developing a group consisting of members in a similar situation. They find they can communicate, interact and band together to seek a solution. The socially accepted mode of adaptation is to conform. To conform is to accept cultural goals, such as getting an education, and accept institutional means, such as going to school and studying hard. Innovation accepts goals but rejects institutional means. An example would be how gangs try to acquire scarce resources to get a better economic status, but they do it by stealing, which is not socially accepted mean. Retreatism rejects both cultural goals and institutional means. These people live on streets and join hands with gangs to make living and surviving easier. Another concept and mode of adaptation is rebellion. This involves rejecting society’s goals and means with their own. I believe that most gangs belong to this mode of adaptation because after these young people face the problem of not being able to meet society’s goals, they form gangs. The gangs form their own goals and means of reaching them, opposite of what society accepts. In my view the studies on gang delinquency, combined with the theories and concepts of sociology, help dramatically in the under standing of gangs. Only when society understands this widespread problem,*-canrfh&sures be taken-to improve it. Bashir Is seaior food science major and a Dally Ne braskan columnist. Greek system needs change I had a dream. It wasn’t nearly as profound as Martin Luther King Jr.’s, but it is appropriate with his birthday coming up next week. I saw people in the greek system organizing events, in the most grandiose nature, with ethnic and cultural organizations at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. My dream has been temporarily shattered. I spent the past semester at this university introducing cultural awareness to the greek system. Over the last three years, I worked my way into positions where I could do and say something, instead of having to listen to other people in my system that I don’t always agree with, and getting slammed for views I don’t hold. Believe it or not, there actually are greeks who know there is a blatant lack of communication between the greek system and various ethnic (and even non^ ethnic) organizations on campus. I’ve attended cultural seminars. I’ve spoken with John Harris, an administrator who deals with multi cultural issues at UNL. I’ve also presented resolutions and ideas to a group comprised of seven UNL ethnic and cultural groups. Boy, oh boy, did I receive feedback. Of course, not all of it I wanted to hear. But a lot of it, I expected to hear. My goal — my “King” dream — was to run for Panhellenic president (the head honcho of all the sorori ties) and make a change. I wanted to be a greek representative and say: “We need to begin implementing diverse programs into our system. We need to spend more time interacting and developing philan thropic events with other campus Unfortunately, on campus, the most visual greek leaders in the Lara Duda past haven’t represented the views of our system as a whole. It would be difficult for a leader to represent all beliefs, but regardless, people will continue to categorize that individual’s beliefs with those of the system he or she represents. Well, as you probably guessed, I didn’t get president. Thankfully, the woman that was elected shares my views and realizes we need to do something. I was, however, elected to another executive position, but one not nearly as visible. And then, three days later I got another job — thus, here I sit. I know I’m not alone. People do like people. I think there are a lot of people who are compelled to learn about other people’s beliefs and backgrounds. But ignorance is not bliss, and I see this ignorance encompassing our campus. I think a little more education, a little less stereotypes and a little more v listening might get us out of this embarrassing rut. For instance, some people in APU don’t know about all the things greeks do for humanity, the environment, or how culturally aware they actually can be. On the other hand, some people in the greek system don’t even know what APU stands for (it’s Afrikan People’s Union). organizations. We need to let this campus know we’re ready to take the heat for the reputation we’ve obtained, because there are a large percentage of us who don’t fit that perception. (We’re not all racist, elitist Republicans.)” Nevertheless, Lincoln, Neb., is not exempt from the illusions of racism, but as of now, we don’t even seem to have a foothold for progress. There are places in this world, and even in this community, that have gotten past some of the typical conflicts tied with prejudices that our campus still has. Maybe to some, this is all out of line or a little idealistic, but I tend to see the good in the greek system, and I know there are non-greeks who agree things need to change. If more of the greek system and other ethnic and cultural organiza tions would just start talking to each other. And I’m not giving up. The greek system nationwide has given a lot to humanity. I fear though, at our campus, not very many greeks or non-greeks are changing or seeing the necessity to become better educated with other cultures. In the meantime, the world is getting smaller, and believe it or not, we’re going to be forced to understand people with different backgrounds than our own if we want to live together peace fully. We can’t keep ignoring this issue at our own university, and we may as well stop all of our dream ing because in die long run we’re not helping ourselves. So, despite a few personal alterations on how to spend my time this year, I still have a dream. Dada is ajuior aews-edltortal aad English major aad a Dally Nebraskan cotaunalst Unethical Chung asks weird questions Sure, Connie Chung was unethical in the way she treated Mom Gingrich. No question about it. But she’s also weird. The TV creature has created a flap in politics and journalism by tricking Newt Gingrich’s mom into calling Hillary Clinton a nasty name. In a taped interview with Mrs. Kathleen Gingrich, 68, Chung asked Mrs. Gingrich what her boy, Newt, had said about President Clinton. The question led to the following exchange: Mom Gingrich: “Nothing, and I can’t tell you what he said about Hillary.” Chung: “You can’t.” Mom Gingrich: “I can’t.” Chung: “Why don’t you just whisper it to me, just between you and me.’ Mom Gingrich: (In a loud whisper) “She’s a bitch. About the only thing he ever said about her.” But obviously Ms. Chung was fibbing when she said “just between you and me.” The cameras were still running, and now it seems that Ms. Chung really meant some thing like: “Just between you and me and the millions of people who will tune into my show when we let out the word that you—Newt’s mom—called Hillary a baaad name.” various 1 v executives are now saying that it was Mom Gingrich’s own fault, that she should have realized that with the cameras still running, anything she said was on the record. But Mom Gingrich is 68 years old. While that doesn’t make her addled or senile, it means she is of a generation that still believes that you can trust people and take them at their word. So there she was, talking to a reporter, but not some scribbler from the neighborhood paper. Ms. Chung is a network star, big heat, as much a celebrity as most of the people she interviews. Would so prominent a figure as Ms. Chung lie when she said “just between you and me?” I’m sure that possibility never even crossed Mom Gingrich’s mind. She might have even thought that she was engaging in “girl talk” about her boy, “Newtie.” (Incidentally, his mother called him “Newtie,” I didn’t, and that ought to be what he’s mad about. He should tell her, “Mom, I am (now the speaker of the House, so please don’t call me Newtie anymore because unscrupulous members of the press will think it is funny and they, too, will start calling me Newtie, and that will diminish Mike Royko my aura of being an incredibly powerful leader of men and shaper of history. Please, Mom, guys named Newtie don’t shape history.”) But to get back to the sly Ms. Chung. Of course she knew that she used trickery and deceit to get that “bitch” quote out of Newtie’s mom. And she should admit it. Why not? People will understand. All she has to say is something like: “Yes, I tricked her, but consider my perilous position. Network news is a vicious jungle and I had to bite and claw to get where I’m at and I want to stay there. We live by the ratings, and people aren’t going to tune in to be bored by some old doll bragging about what a smart lad her Newtie is and how he always flossed. Not when they can get something cheap and flashy just by clicking their zapper. So if I can get something cheap and flashy out of an interview with Newtie’s proud mom, can you blame me?” Actually, little harm has been done. Newtie, as his mom calls him, was given the opportunity to go on TV and defend his mom against the unethical and unscrupulous network vipers. Speaking up for one’s mom never hurt any politician. And it made for more lively news than a debate over changing some House rules. What Hillary Clinton should do is ask her own mom to give an interview to Dan Rather and whisper that she thinks Newt is a pudgy wimp, which would even the score with Chung and Mom Gingrich. I mentioned earlier that Chung is weird. Yes, she is. In all my years in this work, I’ve never heard a reporter say: “Why don’t you whisper it to me?” What kind of question will Ms. Chung try next? “Am I getting warm?” Or “Why don’t you tell it to me in Pig Latin?” Or “Stamp your foot once if the answer is yes, and twice if it is no.” Just between you and me, I think Connie Chung is a real... Want to play 20 questions? (C) 1995 Trlbaae Media Services, lac. OR ORCL Ed Gamble