Commentary
Senior finds ‘thrill’ in Lincoln
As a University of Nebraska
Lincoln senior, I’ve lived in this
two-horse town for four years. Four
school years, that is.
The first year shouldn’t even
count. I spent every available
moment in Omaha, talking about
Omaha or thinking about Omaha ...
... when I wasn’t planning what I
would do when I got to Omaha,
humming the Omaha song and
clapping wildly when anyone
mentioned my hometown.
Every Friday afternoon, as soon
as my classes were over — and
sometimes even before, I would grab
a change of clothes and rush to meet
my friend, and fellow freshman,
Robbie. He also had an Omaha
fixation (her name was Amy, and
she was still in high school).
Robbie, who wanted to be called
Rob, drove a white Geo Metro, and
he drove it fast. Sometimes on the
way to Omaha and home, the
Metro’s speedometer hovered
between 80 and 90 all the way.
We would hit the interstate,
leaving Lincoln by 3 p.m. — and
sometimes we’d make it to the
Papillion/Bellevue exit by 3:30 p.m.
Sure, it was dangerous, but I
didn’t care. I would lean back with
my eyes closed, listening to
Robbie’s too, too loud Cure tapes,
and imagine I was propelling
homeward at the speed of light.
I would just... thrill when I saw
the little, green “Omaha City
Limits” sign.
If Robbie wasn’t going home for
the weekend, I panicked. A fall
snowstorm almost grounded me in
Lincoln one Friday afternoon. But I
found someone going home.
The snow and ice forced us to
travel about 10 miles per hour, and,
looking back, I think we almost died
a few times on the way. But I didn’t
care. The overturned cars and semis
turned to the side of the road didn’t
scare me.
Rainbow Howell
“For me, Omaha was
more a state of
consciousness than a
place. ”
All I could think about was
getting home, going home. Nothing
was as scary as imagining an entire
weekend in Lincoln.
What was in Omaha that I
couldn’t stand being 50 miles away?
My family, my best friend, a
boyfriend who wasn’t really a
boyfriend. But it was more than that,
more than them.
For me, Omaha was more a state
of consciousness than a place. I
could handle things better there. I
could think better there. Even
sleeping and breathing was easier,
and the food tasted better.
Little by little, I got used to
Lincoln. More than anything, it just
became impossible for me to spend
so much time in Omaha. I needed to
study, to work on projects or at the
Daily Nebraskan.
And somehow, sometime during
the past three years, Lincoln became
home.
I didn’t even realize it until this
summer while housesitting and
working in Des Moines, Iowa.
When I was sitting around Des
Moines, in someone else’s house, on
someone else’s couch, wishing that
someone else’s television was
equipped with cable — I missed
home, and that, for me, meant
Lincoln.
As far as cities go, I still prefer
Omaha to the capital city. It has
more places, more people, more
stuff.
And I stopped there for a few
days on my way back from Des
Moines. I walked around die Old
Market district by myself one day.
Everything felt familiar, the streets,
the stores, die shabbily-dressed,
green-haired 12-year-olds lurking in
every doorway.
But I felt out of place. Like I had
traveled back in time and was 16
again. If I would have stepped into
die ice cream parlor, I was sure I
would see all of my high school
friends. We could sit together in a
wooden booth long after we finished
our waffle cones, making eyes at the
brown-eyed soda jerk.
As I turned each comer, I half
expected to run into a long-gone
version of me, knowing that my
younger self would probably be too
cool to make eye contact.
I still know that city better than
any other, remember a thousand
shortcuts, and feel like I belong
there. But the me that belongs there
isn’t me anymore.
After a day and a half in Omaha,
I threw together a change of clothes
and jumped in my car, hoping I
would hit the interstate before msh
hour.
I didn’t approach Robbie speeds,
but I treated die speed limit as more
of a guideline than a law. I counted
down the landmarks, the gas stations
and rest stops along the way.
And when I came to that overpass
by Memorial Stadium with the great,
big, welcoming red “N”, I just...
thrilled.
Rowell is a senior news-editorial,
advertising and English major and Daily
Nebraskan managing editor.
College not a time to float
It’s difficult not to notice
freshmen coming to campus.
First-year college students wear
continuous grins on their faces, from
the week before school starts until
semester’s end. This year will be no
different.
This new batch of freshmen have
been smiling as they move into their
new living quarters. They have been
smiling as they buy their books early
and snatch anything embossed with
the Husker logo.
Frankly, all their damned smiling
is getting on my nerves. But I can
hardly blame them.
They are anxious for classes to
begin — so excited just to be here,
so happy just for the chance at the
college experience.
We upperclassmen once had
those feelings. But sadly, some
where along the collegiate road, that
enthusiasm died in most of us.
Maybe we started to take
ourselves too seriously. Maybe we
began to worry too much. Or maybe
we started taking this whole thing
for granted.
Earlier this summer, one evening
after helping my father at the farm,
the Old Man asked me if I was really
enjoying my college life.
Caught a bit off guard, I mum
bled, “Mmm... I don’t know.”
I stared at him.
I stared at his shirt, wringing wet
with sweat. I stared at his hands,
roughed and soiled from years of
hard labor at the grain mill — a job
he has had since die age of 17.
Then I stared at his eyes. In those
eyes, I saw more age than the old
man deserves. I saw some regret and
a few unfulfilled dreams. And I saw
Jamie Karl
“Now, three years after
my first day of college, I
have finally got it put
into perspective. ”
disappointment from the answer I
had just mumbled.
My father had not been fortunate
enough to go to college. As a result,
he was stuck with the alternative.
That alternative could have easily
been my situation, as well.
Now, three years after my first
day of college, I have finally got it
put into perspective.
College is a time when we must
succeed academically and find our
full potential. It is a time when we
need to learn responsibility and
independence. And, yes, it is a time
when we should discover who we
are and what we believe.
But most importantly, it should
be a time to enjoy ourselves.
College can be the most special
experience of a person’s life. And
here, there is no reason for it not to be.
UNL has so much to offer. Yet,
you must want to be a participant.
So many students, mostly upper
classmen, expect college lire to
come to them, automatically.
They go through their college
days, not wanting to meet new
people, not wanting to get involved
on campus. Then they graduate, not
knowing what they have missed.
So perhaps it has taken a while,
but at least I’ve figured it out in
time: You must picture this campus
as more than just the place where
your classes are held; you need to
accept this place as home.
You must see the people around
you as more than just your teachers
and classmates; you need to hold
these folks as your friends, as your
extended family.
You must do more than just take
up space on this campus; you need
to become a part of it.
If you go through college keeping
to yourself, you will go through it
very miserable. And you will
graduate very bitter.
Don’t take this all for granted;
college is a grand time of life,
indeed.
It is the time when we have few
obligations, allowing us to enjoy the
prime of life. It is the time for us to
mature and define who we are, while
we raise a little hell. It is the time for
us to make our abiding friendships,
inside and outside the classroom.
Bottom line: College is the time
for us to have die time of our lives.
I just wish it hadn’t taken me so
long to figure that out
Karl is a senior news-editorial major,
and Daily Nebraskan wire editor and
columnist
... doomed
This week
in history
Southeast Asiaheadlines 1975
summer world events
Highlights from the Daily
Nebraskan Back-to-School issue
August 20,1975 article titled
“Summer's world events**:
The World
The war in Viet Nam ended.
The Saigon government surren
dered unconditionally, and Viet
Cong and North Vietnamese
troops occupied the capital. In
Paris, the Viet Cong’s Ptovision
ary Revolutionary Government
announced it would adopt a
neutralist nonaligned foreign
policy in South Viet Nam.
American Helicopters evacuat
ed about 1,000 Americans and
6,0-00 Vietnamese from Saigon in
the hours before the capital
surrendered. In all, more than
100,000 Vietnamese fled their
country.
An American cargo ship and
its 39-member crew were
recovered after the vessel was
seized by Cambodian gunboats
and taken to the island of Koh
Tang, 30 miles off the Cambodian
coast. A force of about 160 U.S.
Marines attacked the island in the
mistaken belief that the crew of
American and Soviet
manned space vehicles
were linked
successfully 140 miles
above the earth, Apollo
astronauts Thomas
Stafford, Donald
Slayton and Vance
Brank exchanged gifts,
traded space-craft
visits and shared
meals with Soyuz
cosmonauts Alexei
Leonov and Valery
Kubasov.
the Mayaguez was being held
there. The crewmen, who had
been taken to the Cambodian
mainland, were released by their
captors.
The Defense Department said
15 Americans were killed, 50
wounded and three were missing
following the operation, in
Thailand 23 other GIs were killed
when their helicopter crashed
while they were being flown to an
air base for possible use in the
Mayaguez rescue.
President Gerald Ford told
other leaders of the 15-nation
North Atlantic Treaty Organiza
tion in Brussels that the United
States would keep its forces in
Europe at full strength until an
East-West agreement on mutual
troop reduction is fashioned.
Ford and die leaders of 34
other nations signed a document
on European security and cooper
ation at a summit meeting in
Helsinki, Finland. The summit
made legitimate die borders of
East European nations.
The Organization of American
States (OAS) voted 16 to 3 to end
economic and diplomatic sanc
tions imposed in 1964 against
Cuba. The United States was
among die nations voting in favor
of a resolution letting OAS
members determine their trade
and diplomatic relations with
Cuba.
Portugal’s military regime
curtailed the role of political
parties in the government and
announced plans to help imple
ment the military’s goal of
socialism.
Indira Gandhi, prime minister
of India, was found guilty by a
judge of corruption in her 1972
election campaign. Shortly
afterward Gandhi began a
crackdown against political
opponents while assuming greater
power by declaring a national
emergency.
The Suez Canal was reopened
to traffic eight years after its
closing during the 1967 Arab
Israeli War. Egyptian President
Anwar Sadat said the reopening
of the canal constituted a “contri
bution to peace.”
Vice President Nelson
Rockefeller turned over to
President Ford the Rockefeller
Commission’s report on the
Central Intelligence Agency, and
said the study turned up some
CIA wrongdoing but no wide
spread illegalities. Meanwhile,
Sen. Frank Church (D-Idaho),
chairman of the Senate Select
Committee on Intelligence, said
he has evidence that die CIA was
involved in “murder plots.” The
commission recommended that
external controls over the CIA be
strengthened.
CIA Director William Colby
released a report that admits the
agency and its agents “over
stepped proper bounds” and
carried out “improper actions” in
illegal domestic activities. But
Colby said the misdeeds were
“few and were quite exceptional
to the thrust of the agency’s
activities and have been fully
terminated.”
Alice Olson of Frederick, MD.
said she would sue the CIA for
the “wrongful death” of her
husband, Frank Olson, who
committed suicide in 1953 after
the CIA gave him LSD without
his knowledge.
American and Soviet manned
space vehicles were linked
successfully 140 miles above the
earth, Apollo astronauts Thomas
Stafford, Donald Slayton and
Vance Brank exchanged gifts,
traded space-craft visits and
shared meals with Soyuz cosmo
nauts Alexei Leonov and Valery
Kubasov.
The three American astronauts
were hospitalized in Honolulu for
treatment of lung irritation caused
by inhaling fumes that filled the
Apollo space craft during its re
entry.
President Ford urged Ameri
cans to welcome refugees from
Vietnam. Ford told a press
conference that he was “disap
pointed and very upset” by
opposition of some Americans to
bringing the refugees to the
United States.
