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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 12, 1997)
[ I ' f f EDITOR Doug Kouma OPINION EDITOR Anthony Nguyen EDITORIAL BOARD Paula Lavigne Joshua Gillin Jessica Kennedy Jeff Randall Erin Gibson Our VIEW Shout Out Don't waste chance to make a difference Take $6.88 out of your wallet or purse. Throw it away. Bum it. Rip it up. Feed it to a squirrel. Eat it yourself. In any case, toss it out. You might as well do it now — before you decide to ignore the Association of Stu dents of the University of Nebraska elections today. The $6.88 is how much each student pays in annual student fees to support ASUN. And every year you do not vote in the ASUN elections, a group of students—who are voted in by less than 10 percent of the student body — spends $180,000 worth of your money. Do you know where? Do you care? You should. If you have to pay for an outside modem connection, you should. If you’re worried about what will hap pen to money the university reaps in from a beverage alliance that may leave you drink ing Surge every day, you should. If you don’t have time to lobby the Leg islature, but want someone to represent stu dents’ interests, you should. If you’re worried about losing that last, precious parking space, you should. If you think someone should remind the administration that students attend this uni versity, you should. ^ The problem is you haven’t. Voter turn out keeps sliding lower and lower, and ASUN keeps getting further and further away from students. Low voter turnout isn’t an anomaly for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln because it’s a problem in national elections too. While in the grand scheme of things, the ASUN presidency is a stick man compared to the statue of the U.S presidency, the closer poli tics get to us, the more of an impact — and result—we’re going to see. If you don’t vote, don’t complain. Here’s your best chance to make your voice heard. Instead of wasting the $6.88 (that’s two lunches or a medium pizza), spend the 60 sec onds it takes to scribble a few dots on a sheet. Instead of letting ASUN senators slide into office by a handful of students, let them know UNL is watching. Force them to realize that the students who voted them in expect them to carry through. Then, instead of wasting your money, you’ll be getting a bargain. Editorial Policy Unsigned editorials are the opinions of the Spring 1997 Daily Nebraskan. They do not necessarily reflect die views of the Univer sity of Nebraska-Lincoln, its employees, its student body or the University of Nebraska Board of Regents. A column is Solely die opinion of its author: The Board of Regents serves as publisher of the Daily Nebraskan; policy is set by the Daily Nebraskan Edito rial Board. The UNL Publications Board, established by the regents, supervises the production of the paper. According to policy set by the regents, responsibility for the edi torial content of the newspaper lies solely in the hands of its student employees. Letter Policy The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief let ters to the editor and guest columns, but does not guarantee theirpublication. The Daily Nebraskan retains the right to edit or reject any material submined. Sub mined material becomes the property of the Daily Nebraskan and cannot be re turned. Anonymous submissions will not be published. Those who submit letters must identify themselves by name, year in school, major and/or group affilia tion, if any. Submit material to: Daily Nebraskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 R St. Lincoln, Neb. 68588-0448. E-mail: letters@unlinfo.unl.edu. Mehs ling’s VIEW Blowing Smoke This is in response to Kasey Kerber’s article “En fuego” (DN, Monday) on the perils of selling cigarettes on campus. I’m very interested in knowing what his viewpoint on drinking is. I’d imagine this “pure as the driven snow” young man could write another lengthy column about the evils of alcohol consumption. Assuming he opposes alcohol drinking by minors (which is consistent with his “holier than thou” columns) why, then does he write for a paper that publishes articles on beer and hangovers and has bar ads (Wet T-shirt Night at the Foxy Lady)? From his moral high ground, he lectures us to take a stand, giving the damaging statistics (forgetting to mention the ugly clutter of cigarette butts on campus), and he elaborates on the reasons we should not sell legal cigarettes to legal-aged adults (the majority of students are old __L A_1_.*_AA_\ viivsugii ias u^cuvuv/is;. Mr. Kerber, could you please give me the stats on how many classes are missed because of hangovers, how many clothes are stained from vomit, how many people are hurt in bar fights, how many students have unprotected drunken sex, how many cars are damaged from alcohol related accidents and how many people are injured and killed from alcohol abuse and then justify yourself contributing columns to a paper partly supported by such sales? Do you put a price on the value of a student’s health? Or are you willing to support an industry that supplies products of known and documented harmful effects? Which way do you lean — toward the personal benefit of a DN column, or toward the drunken stupor your employer might be helping to create? Enlighten me on why it’s wrong for a university to monetarily gain from the sale of a legal item to students of legahage, but it’s OK for the same university’s campus paper to benefit from the advertising of alcohol and beer specials, when an overwneimingiy larger numoer oi students aren’t old enough to legally partake. ~ Kasey Kerber, take a stance. If you believe alcohol drinking is bad, and encouraging minors to go to bars is as bad as selling a pack of smokes to a 20-year old, stop writing for the DN or get them to stop DN LETTERS « Matt Haney/DN printing these ads and articles — otherwise you’re taking a step back. By the way, I’ve been known to over-drink and over-smoke, and I don’t condemn or necessarily support others who do the same; my parents own and operate a liquor store — selling their wares (includ ing Camels) to the legal-aged persons who patronize them. I don’t care if cigarettes are sold on campus — they’re more expensive at the union than at my local gas station — I also don’t have a huge problem with the liquor ads in the campus paper. If the union and DN can positively benefit from these things, the choice to participate in using them should be entrusted to these adults we call students. My problem is that I absolutely don’t appreciate being lectured to by young men and women who preach from their writers’ pedestals about certain “evils,” overlooking other similar issues for their own self gain. Joan Brion senior math Prevent Tragedy The tragic irony of two articles published in the DN two weeks ago is startling. The first appeared on Feb. 27 titled, “Speaker shares date rape story, seeks prevention.” Katie Koestner spoke to students at the university to share her story of an acquaintance rape. She suffered while in college. Her purpose was to inform students about the methods of protection and prevention they can employ. Ms. Koestner is a nationally known speaker. Her story has come to the attention of HBO, which is producing a docudrama about it. And yet the majority of this very brief article was buried on Page 6. Sadly, the following day, Feb. 28, five whole sentences appeared on Page 8 of the DN recounting the sexual assault of a student in a residence hall. A university police sergeant provided the information, including the fact that the victim knew her assailant. One of Ms. Koestner’s points was that 84 percent of rapes are committed by an acquaintance. Why am I not surprised by this fact? This crime is very real on campus. And a great deal of action must be taken to prevent it. I am appalled by the lack of importance this paper has given both of these significant events. I believe that the DN should be leading this campus in raising the students’ awareness about date rape by giving these stories the importance they deserve. Lisa Rieck freshman veterinary science More Effective In response to Matt Will’s reply on smoking: 1) I don’t care if you smoke or if you enjoy it, as long as it doesn’t bother me. That is why smoking is no longer permitted inside most buildings. 2) Should the university sell cyanide capsules? I mean, it’s the ultimate in stress relief, so why not? No?? Cigarettes directly cause death too, so why should they sell them to students? As for sugar and caffeine, they don’t bother anyone else and they don’t cause death so no one cares about that. 3) I understand that part of your reason for writing is to persuade your audience of the inaneness of Kasey Kerber’s column. Perhaps if you had taken a subtler, professional approach it might have been mgre effective than threatening to “get... on your (his) ass.” Zach Niemann junior music performance . - •: 15
