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HOLLIMON-STOVALL
Ant-icipating the end
Never too late to start investing for the future
Although it’s traditionally a
wintertime story, I think it’s appro
priate to tell now, since the end of
the academic year is approaching.
This is the story of the grasshop
per and the ant.
How the busy
little ant works
hard all summer,
storing and
saving, while Mr.
Grasshopper just
whittles away his
hours — chirping
underneath my
window all night
and how things look to other people
— I can’t imagine how exhausting
that must be. Even those chicks on
“Melrose Place” take their makeup
off at night.
Then there are the geeks — those
who put their time into saving the
planet or the resurgence of tie-dye
and hemp clothing. We admire their
dedication but we think they’re a
little strange anyway.
Then there are the Mr. Ants
among us—people who seem to
spend all their time (gag!) on other
people, like — teachers. What on
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ourselves. My mother teaches, and
at Boys Town no less—as if public
school kids aren’t enough of a
challenge. After seeing her pay
stubs, I have to wonder what exactly
it is that keeps her doing it — she
claims it’s the three months of
summer vacation, but I find that
hard to believe.
What I do believe is that it’s the
people like Mr. Ant who reap all the
rewards, although all the time they
spent could have been on them
selves, and not just in a monetary
fashion. Well, Mom does clean up at
Christmastime in the gift depart
ment.
Over the years people have come
up to me and asked if I knew Sandy
Stovall. (Mom and I kind of look a
lot alike.) Former students and co
workers all tell me how great a
teacher she was or how much fun
she was to work with.
I used to think that my mom had
a certain amount of “niceness” she
could use in a day and that she must
have used it all at school, because
the woman they were talking about
and the woman who came home at 5
were not the same person.
Now I understand just what the
ant is up to — he’s not just busting
his behind for his own ftiture, but for
those around him as well because
that’s what it takes to keep the
anthill going.
I am a firm believer in a good,
solid investment. In fact, when most
of my friends were buying CD
players, I got an IRA. If you’ve
never considered it, lode into a good
retirement fund or some aggressive
stock if you can afford it, but don’t
forget—the really smart money is
on the people around you.
Hollimon-Stovall is a senior
broadcasting major and a Daily
Nebraskan columnist.
Matt Haney/DN
Kasey
KERBER
Freedom to be
Thankful that voices at UNL are not squashed
It happened about a week ago.
I was sitting in a packed room,
jotting down every detail of an
ASUN inauguration ceremony, when
one of the parting ASUN officers
used his final
speech to lash
out at the DN.
He
decided not to let
the issue go until
he had called the
Daily Nebraskan
a “so-called
seeker of truth”
and labeled our
writers and
editors of the DN.”
And it was at this moment that I
remembered a distinct quote: “Never
pick a fight with a guy who buys ink
by the barrel.”
But I wasn’t in journalism to get
the “last word” or stoop to mud
slinging.
I was reminded after the meeting
by Professor Paul Kelter, Outstand
ing Educator of the Year for the
second straight year, that the officer
in question was displaying a
freedom other students across the
country might not have — to speak
their mind and get away with it.
Kelter’s point was that in many
private schools and institutions, the
student paper or the student govern
ment can be dissolved if they say
something the university opposes.
And Kelter’s point is a valid one.
From our side, there are a lot of
people who don’t like the Daily
Nebraskan; some people in the
administrative office probably like
us as much as scrubbing with a
Brillo pad.
Yet we’re never shut down —
even if our articles sometimes paint
the university in a less than favor
able light.
But some small school papers are
literally censored to the point that
they submit their paper to the
administrative office before publica
tion. They are told what to keep,
what to change and also what should
not appear under any circumstances.
And the same applies to ASUN.
When our student government
passes resolutions against university
policy or university actions, the
administration never brings down its
weight to dissolve ASUN.
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some colleges, there is the matter of
power. Unlike ASUN, there is no
strong voice for these governments.
There’s no deciding where student
fees go or bills to pass to say that the
administration was wrong.
The students’ voice, instead,
becomes a mere whisper.
And don’t get me wrong — I’m
not just talking about high-priced
- private institutions or community
colleges. There are schools far larger
than us that don’t enjoy the same
freedoms. V
Take the University of Florida,
for example. With 35,000 students,
it has a significantly larger popula
tion than UNL. It is also perceived
as one of the most liberal schools in
the nation.
But don’t bother trying to find a
student paper on campus — because
there isn’t one. The only paper they
do have is called The Independent
Florida Alligator and it gets no
university support whatsoever.
It has little money. It can’t afford
to pay its writers. And because its
writers aren’t paid — no one wants
to work there.
Which spells out a crappy paper
that no one reads, cares about or
even fights with.
Just think about that when the
DN angers you. Think of the
alternative — a paper that has one
page for sports, one page for arts
and entertainment, little color (if
any) and papers that aren’t available
in every building on campus.
Let’s be frank — this university’s
paper and student government enjoy
a liberty hundreds of others don’t.
And do we abuse it? Maybe. But I
don’t believe we ever try to. We
simply make mistakes and learn as
we go along.
And whether the learning process
entails writing an article on some
thing better left untouched or using
your final student government
speech to insult a reporter who
doesn’t give a damn — we’ll all
learn in time.
And until then, we should
remember the unique freedom we
have and respect it.
Otherwise there could be a day
when we’ll lose it.
And that would be a loss few us,
the students we write for or the
students we represent.
Kerber is a sophomore news
editorial major and a Daily
Nebraskan columnist
long driving me nuts.
Anyway, come cold weather, Mr.
Ant is chillin’ underground,
popping whatever it is ants eat into
his mouth, not giving a second
thought to Mr. Grasshopper’s
untimely demise.
Whenever my man told me this
story, it always seemed to be in
conjunction with me watching TV
or her putting away food in the
freezer. As a result, I have a guilt
complex about too much TV but I
feel incredibly productive with a
, Gladlock bag in my hand.
What I’ve come to realize about
that stay is that it isn’t so much
about wasting time as it is about
investing it.
There are lots of people like the
grasshopper. They invest all their
time and energy into their image
Matt Haney/DN
