Commentary If
Wednesday, Febmary 8, 1995 Page 5
Distance doesn’t lessen love
My Dearest Ma,
As-salam Alikum!
I hope this letter of mine finds
you in the best of health and brings
you all the happiness of the world.
I am well by the grace of thy Lord
in this faraway land, but am
missing you very much.
I have been receiving all of your
comely letters, full of love and
wisdom. I am sorry that I have not
been writing to you as I promised,
merely due to my otiose nature.
But do not doubt my love for you
even for a second, as I love you
very much and miss you more than
anything in this world. I know you
shall forgive me for my torpid
behavior.
Dearest Ma, my health is great. I
am exercising regularly, eating
meals on time and sleeping well.
Doing exactly as you told me. I go
to the mosque every Friday and am
trying to keep up with my daily
prayers as well. Studies are good
and within months I’ll finish
school.
So, Ma, don’t worry about me at
all. I have all the worldly comforts
here, but I wish you were here with
me. At night I cuddle up in the
blanket you sent me and look at
your pictures, and long for the days
when I was at home. Sometimes it
makes me cry. As the tears roll
down my cheeks, I close my eyes,
dream about you and go to sleep.
I still remember the nights, even
when I was 18 or 19 years of age,
when you used to sing me bedtime
stories and comb your fingers
through my hair and stayed until I
slept. I used to be embarrassed, but
never said a word because I
enjoyed it very much, and now I
miss those nights. No matter how
old I get or how gray my hair is,
I’ll still be little Yousuf to you, and
Yousuf Bashir
your love shall always be the same.
Thank you so much for the
delicious food you cooked and
sent to me. I loved it. Unfortu
nately, it didn’t last more than a
week. Please don’t send me
anymore food, for now I hate the
food here and loathe my cooking as
well.
It was great talking to you on
the phone last week. I had my eyes
closed while I was talking and felt
your presence right next to mine.
Your sermons, advice and caring
thoughts seemed to have penetrated
into my mind. Hopefully, those
days are not far when I shall be
among you again. *
Dearest Ma, I never did tell you,
neither do I have the words now to
thank you for, all you have done
for me. I recall the nights when I
used to come home late, and only
you would be up, praying and
waiting for me. I laiow you used to
be upset and worried about me, but
always greeted me with a smile,
put me to bed and then slept. Only
you, Ma. Only you. No matter what
I did, you never stopped loving me.
I always have seen and received
your selfless love; you have not
demanded anything in return. I am
so sorry that I have done nothing
for you. I was a spoiled little selfish
brat when I was there, and now
when I should be with you, I am far
from you.
And you still don’t complain!
Only a mother can have a heart that
altruistic, full of love and forgive
ness for her children. No doubt that
mothers are Allah’s masterpiece,
the best gift to His beings, and their
love an everlasting miracle.
How is Papa doing? I received
his letter the other day. Tell him
that I shall write to him soon. I
hope he is in good health and
eating regularly. I miss him very
much and looking forward for your
visit this summer.
I know that Papa hates my long
hair. Just tell him I have it for
spiritual reasons, and that all the
Prophets had long hair. I don’t
think he’ll buy this, but there is no
harm in trying. Tell him not to
worry too much about my appear
ance. Give my love to him.
How is my grandfather doing?
Papa wrote about his health, but
not in detail. I pray for his health
and long life. His love for me is
infinite. He expects a lot from me
and I would never let him down. I
try to always make him proud of
me. Tell Grandma I said hi, and
don’t let her work too much, as she
over exerts herself and gets sick.
I hope my sisters are missing me
also. But I haven’t heard from them
in ages. Give my love to both my
angels of love and laughter; that is,
Mariam and Sarah.
Everything else is fine. Achi
Bhai and Zedi Sahib are doing
great and sending their regards. If
you need anything from here, just
let me know. Give my love to all at
home. Take care and write back
soon.
Your loving son,
Yousuf
Bashir is a senior food science major and
a Daily Nebraskan columnist
Bar bill to benefit the awake
Imagine, my fellow students,
what our weekends would be like if
the bars in Lincoln stayed open an
extra hour. That’s one more hour of
interpersonal socializing, one more
hour to exercise our consummate
drinking abilities and, of course,
one more hour to enjoy the best
night atmosphere our college town
has to offer.
A bill proposed by Sen. Tim
Hall of Omaha would extend
alcohol sales an additional hour in
Nebraska. According to Sen. Hall,
Nebraska is losing money because
people go to Iowa after the bars
close in Omaha.
I wasn’t at all surprised to hear
the overwhelmingly positive
response from fellow students,
considering the bar-fond town that
Lincoln appears to be. All you have
to do is drive down O Street on any
weekend night.
Personally the whole policy
wouldn’t affect me. I tend to think
the bars are overrated as it is, and
adding an extra hour wouldn’t
make much difference. Also, I have
a difficult time staying up past
11:00 on any given night.
I realize there isn’t much to do
in Lincoln, but I tend not to find
these bar subcultures any more
exciting. While attending the
university, I’ve come to realize that
either you choose among the
various congregations of individu
als or you sit at home and watch a
movie.
There are the discriminating
individuals who enjoy passing an
evening in a quiet, more accommo
dating bar. Perhaps they could be
described as the intellectual,
coffee-house-type individuals who
care to sip their drinks over
stimulating philosophical conversa
tion.
Lara Duda
And then there are individuals
who prefer to spend their evenings
standing in long lines to eventually
get pushed and shoved into some
crowded, hazy-aired, toilet paper
lacking bar. Some may call this the
meat-market branch of college bar
night life.
The most interesting subculture,
or fad as it may also be referred to,
consists of those individuals who
congregate so they may regress
back to the days of blue eye
shadow and bell-bottoms. I’m sure
we’ve all fallen prey to this scene
at least once in the way of a ’70s
theme night.
I, however, try to keep my disco
attempts limited to the exclusive
viewing of my closer friends. And I
am no more willing to get primped
up so I can stand in a sweaty, loud
hole in the wall then am I capable
of pretending to be an intellectual.
But to get back to the proposal,
the whole thing is set up for
economic reasons and not to
enhance the night life at Nebraska
universities. And since the majority
of students would benefit from die
policy, I’ll try not to let my
personal frustrations interfere
anymore with the majority’s
overwhelmingly positive view of
the bars.
If you are part of the majority,
don’t get excited yet; this proposal
has been tossed around the Ne
braska Legislature for the past
seven years and continues to be
temporarily shoved back in the
cellar.
Another argument by Sen. Hall
on the positives of the policy was
that if drinking establishments were
to stay open an additional hour,
patrons would be supervised by bar
employees and the patrons’
drinking would be in a controlled
environment.
That means that after we get that
extra drinking hour, we’ll go home
to bed instead of hitting the after
hours parties, right?
Sure. Maybe. It’s a nice thought
anyway.
However, the part about being
supervised by the bar employees
proposed a sort of diverted pleasure
for me. I don’t know about you, but
from the bar employees I’ve
encountered, I don’t get the feeling
that they’re supervising the well
being of their customers. Actually,
they seem more like irritated baby
sitters who are sick of dealing with
dyslexic-sounding, child-like adults
trying to keep themselves from
falling over.
Not that I blame these people.
But it is a little far-fetched to
consider them a preventive source
against drunken driving.
However, if Sen. Hall thinks that
we patrons would be in a safer
environment, more power to him.
If the bill helps those students
who can stay up past 11 pjn., then
I guess I’ll be elimbing on the
bandwagon.
Just wake me up when we get
there.
Dads Jailor aews-edltorlal aad Eagtlsfe
major aad a Dafly Nebraska! colonist
Foster must foster
right kind of sex ed
The nomination of Henry W.
Foster Jr. to replace Joycelyn
Elders as surgeon general is
another sign that the Clinton
administration has completely
failed to understand the message
of the last election. It continues
to impose on this country people
and policies rooted in a philoso
phy that has proved to be an
utter failure.
Foster was less than forth
coming about his views and how
many abortions he has per
formed. Even the pro-choice
Kansas Republican Sen. Nancy
Kassebaum said she was dis
turbed by the misleading
information given to her by the
White House concerning Foster.
But there is more to this than
misinformation and
disinformation. Foster has close
ties to Planned Parenthood,
which has a view of sex and
education that has exacerbated,
not solved, one of the major
problems our country faces.
Planned Parenthood is not
interested in changing sexual
behavior, but rater in avoiding
the unwanted physical conse
quences of premature sex. Yet
one has to wonder why it has
ianeu so miseraoiy in acnieving
that objective. California may be
the best state to judge the results
of the philosophy held by
Planned Parenthood and its
devotees, who include the
nominee for surgeon general.
Mike Males, a graduate
student in the doctoral program
of the School of Social Ecology
at the University of Califomia
Irvine, has studied tabulations
from the California Center for
Health Statistics covering 46,500
births among school-age (ages
18 and younger) adolescents in
the state in 1993. In 85 percent
of these births the fathers’ ages
are identified. The statistics
show two very different types of
“teen-age” motherhood.
The first involves peer
schoolboy partners, ages 18 and
younger, who average about one
year older than their girlfriends.
These are the targets of the
Elders-Foster-Planned Parent
hood condom squads and the
focus of the chastity vs. condoms
war. Boys in this category
accounted for about 13,400
births among schoolgirls in
California in 1993, only 29
percent of the total.
In 33,200 births among
California girls ages 11.-18 (71
percent of the total), the father
was a post-high school adult man
averaging more than 22 years of
age — five years older than die
mother, on average. These adult
fathers, who are responsible for
Cal Thomas
nearly three-fourths of the
40,700 births among senior high
girls, average nearly 23 years
old. The adult men who father
half the 5,900 births among
junior high girls (ages 11-15)
average 22.1 years of age, six
and a half years older than their
mothers. In 6,000 births among
California schoolgirls in 1993,
the fathers were over age 25.
Also surprising was that one
fifth of the births fathered by
schoolboys (about 3,000) were
by adult, post-school women.
As Males notes, this isn’t
about “children having children”
or “teen motherhood.” It is adult
sex with school-age youths.
For more than 30 years,
Planned Parenthood and its
disciples such as Elders and
rosier nave targeted elementary
school children with their brand
of sex education. Elders wanted
to teach elementary kids how to
masturbate and use condoms.
But in California in 1993,
elementary schoolboys fathered
no children. Senior high boys,
though, were responsible for 41
percent of the births and adult
men fathered more than 50
percent of babies bom to girls
between ages 11 and 15. —
We are deceiving ourselves
when we think we can
make adolescents behave
differently than the irresponsible
adults who surround them and
who pump sex into everything
from movies and television to
music and advertising.
We would be far better off
working to reduce the 71 percent
figure (post-high-school adult
men fathering children with
teen-age girls) than focusing on
the 29 percent figure (peer
schoolboy partners).
Foster isn’t really “Elders
Lite;” he is Elders reincarnated.
Her ideas have been proved not
to work. His are just more of the
same. We deserve a surgeon
general who will focus on the
real health needs of the country,
not condone those whose
behavior is detrimental to our
society’s well being. When is
this administration going to get
it?
(c) 1995 Los Aigeles Times Syndicate
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