ni 1 self-control
Time to find love in a girl-hates-boy world
This is a story about Jack and
Diane, “two kids doin’ the best they
can”...but Jack fell down and broke
his crown. Diane hid the body and
skipped out of town.
Welcome
to the war ot the
sexes.
Man vs.
Woman. Or
Woman vs.
;Man.
We all
know the story.
uur meiuug
dream is to fall
in love, marry that special someone
and have our parents hate him or her.
Yet we pull a good deal of fish out
of the sea that we can describe only
with the phrase “throw-that-butt
ugly-lookin’-thing-back-and-pray-it
fargets-how-to-swim. ”
This causes some of us to lose
faith in the opposite sex and, well,
eventually hate men or women.
Take this fact into consideration:
If you enter the word “love” into the
database for a Sam Goody SoundSite
computer, you get a total of 16,001
song listings.
I wonder how many songs you
would get if you entered the phrases
“come back honey”, or “I miss you
almost as much as my fans....”
u—
Without a doubt, most songs out there are
about losing love or seriously screwing up
its image.”
Without a doubt, most songs out
there are about losing love or
seriously screwing up its image.
Don’t believe me? Then take a
close look at Billboard Magazine’s
“top five” songs in the nation.
At No. 1 we have Los Del Rio’s
“Macarena” (a girl cheats on her
boyfriend because his “two friends
were sooooo fine”). Moving to No.
3, we find Keith Sweat’s “Twisted,”
(his girlfriend has left him).
Then there’s No. 4—Celine
Dion’s “C’mon Ride the TVain,” no
wait, that’s the No. 5 degrading song
by the Quad-City DJ’s. The name of
Dion’s song is really “It’s All
Coming Back to Me Now” (she lost
her lover).
The only “true love” song in the
top five is Donna Lewis’ No. 2 “I
Love You Always Forever,” which
was inspired by a novel written
before she was bom. Love was an
IS ' ■/, .
entirely different thing then.
OK, so true love is not too
prominent in music, and the sexes
sometimes hate each other....
The question soon arises: Why?
It’s rather simple in my opinion.
Men and women think on entirely
different levels. Their minds just
don’t work the same way, and there’s
evidence to back up that claim.
Look at surveys for example. A
survey was sponsored recently to
determine how men and women felt
about first dates.
In the survey, twice as many men
felt the first date was a “success” if
they got a good-night kiss or saw the
sunrise with their date.
Meanwhile, more women felt it
was a success if he called the next
day or planned a second date before
the first one was over.
Should we take from this that
women are more sensitive and men
are more “pleasure-driven?” Perhaps.
But keep in mind that the survey
itself was sponsored by L’Eggs
Silken Mist Hosiery, a pantyhose
company. Not too many “pleasure
driven” men wear hose.
So we shouldn’t necessarily base
our opinions of the opposite sex on
music, conversations gone wrong or
surveys. What should we base them
on?
Well, our judgment.
It’s really time to lode past the
past and all the hype that’s been
given to the “battle of the sexes.”
Women, give men a chance. Men,
do the same for women. Most of us
will end up together anyway. Why
not respect each other’s differences
and feelings along the way?
Alanis Morrisette put it best when
she appeared at the MTV Video
Music Awards. She had been labeled
time and time again as a “male
hater,” yet made a small speech when
she accepted her award for “Best
Female.”
She said: “A lot people have
called this the year of the woman...
but we love you men too.”
Kerber is a sophomore news
editorial major and a Daily
Nebraskan columnist.
Our rights are restricted by arbitrary ages
Try answering these three
questions without answering “get a
fake ID”:
(1) What do you tell an eager 13
year-old who wants to work at the
neighborhood
grocery store but
i;an i ucuausc uic
law says you
have to be at
least 14 or 15 to
have a j ob?
(2) What
do you tell an
intelligent, well
uuwuimi
year-old who wants to vote but can’t
because the law says you have to be
18 to have any say in the govern
ment? \ J
(3) What do jrau tell a responsible
19-year-old who wants to go to the
bar with his or her friends for a drink
after work but can’t because the law
says you have to be 21 just to hold a
beer?
Stumped? Me too.
Each of these-questions deals with
a different aspect of the same
problem. America’s youth are'being
disenfranchised, alienated by a
government that treats them like a
horde of foolish dolts.
Get a job
Now, when 1 was 131 wasn’t
exactly game for a job at Hy-Vee yet,
but there are kids out there who are
<I’m related to some of them). They
want to make their own money and
get off die parental dole, but what are
their options? Paperboy or baby
sitter? Those are fine jobs; I was a
paperboy for more than four years.
But not everyone is suited to be a
paperboy or a baby sitter. Unfortu
nately, if you’re not of “working age”
as defined by the government, your w
u
- ' 1 ‘ •’ ■" • : W v - ..
Government makes numerous decisions
that affect people under the age of 18.
However, the only‘power’minors have is
to mount whatever protest they can mus
ter and hope their concerns fall on sym
pathetic ears.”
. .__ : ■
hands are tied. What does that tell a
young person about the value of hard
Why can’t parents decide when
and whether their child is ready for a
certain job? There is no need for a
government-defined working age
except perhaps for wards of the state,
in which case the government serves
in a parental role. But for kids with
parents (be they natural, adoptive, or
foster parents), the decision can be
made within the family's own
framework of values.
NO REPRESENTATION
When I was 161 was definitely
ready to vote. It seems that many of
my classmates were ready to vote few
someone else. (I shamefully admit
that I was the only one in my class
who supported Bill Clinton in 1992.
Now I know better.) I’m well aware
that college-age people are rather
apathetic when it comes to voting.
But is that a function of being
young? Or is it the result of 18 years
of political disenfranchisement?
Government makes numerous
decisions that affect people under the
age of 18. However, the only
“power” minors have is to mount
whatever protest they can muster and
hope their concerns fail on sympa
thetic ears. But since minors can’t
vote, elected officials don’t have to
listen to them. Thus teen-agers
become accustomed to the idea that
they are powerless, that no one will
listen. So it should come as no
surprise that once they’re able to
vote, they don’t care any more.
A truly representative government
would not disempower those affected
by its decisions. Persons under 18
who care enough to vote should have
that right. Again, parents can play a
role in deciding when their children
are old enough to participate in the
democratic process.
Barred
Back when I used to drink,
alcohol was rather hard to get. I was
in high school. Tb get beer you had
to go from store to store until
sdmeone failed to card you. And
nobody wanted to lug a bunch of
beer outside at the end of the night or
leave it in their cars where it could be
found. So we usually drank as much
as we could, all at once, while we
actually had it. Would it have been
the same.if wecould legally buy
alcohol whenever we wanted?
The United States has%hat
Psychology tbday recently called the
most “draconian” drinking laws in
the Western world. Ours is the only
Western country to limit the purchase
and consumption of alcoholic
beverages to persons age 21 and
over.
One need only lode at the
Prohibition Era to see what a disaster
alcohol prohibition is. In the 1920s,
alcoholism became a major problem
and once law-abiding citizens were
criminalized for their leisure activi
ties Tbday, we have the “mini
prohibition era,” in which some 40
percent of college students regularly
indulge in binge drinking, with high
school students following in step.
Law-abiding college students must
often resort to illegal means such as
fake ID’s just to get a beer.
The government’s drinking-age
laws are inexcusable and should be
eliminated. Parents can decide when
or whether they allow their children
to drink. Adults, whether over or
under 21, have an inalienable right to
conduct their lives as they choose,
provided they do not violate others’
rights to do the same. Drinking a
beer is not such an infringement.
Just A number
Nothing special happens the
instant a person turns 16,18, or 21.
All of these ages are arbitrary. If
politicians truly believed in “family
values” and “personal responsibil
ity,” they’d let individuals and
families decide how old is old
enough to work, vote and drink.
Wiltgea is a junior broadcasting
and meteorology major and a
Daily Nebraska columnist
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