EDITOR
Doug Kouma
OPINION
EDITOR
Anthony Nguyen
EDITORIAL
BOARD
Paula Lavigne
Joshua Gillin
Jessica Kennedy
Jeff Randall
Erin Gibson
Our
VIEW
Weed whacker
Public view of AD
rooted in misconception
Beverly Ledbetter, a private consultant
hired to examine the climate for women ath
letes at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln,
presented her report Tuesday afternoon.
Surprise! It was good. It was very, very
good.
She found, during a six-month study,
women student-athletes at the university liked
the Athletic Department. They liked the way
athletes support each other. They liked the
coaches and supporting staff.
nowever, Leuoener saiu, uie aimeies sne
interviewed did not feel comfortable with the
public’s perception of the NU Athletic De
partment and its programs.
Athletes said a few bad seeds had ruined
the grand and successful garden that is the
NU Athletic Department, and have given the
nation the impression that the garden is over
grown with weeds.
Although women student athletes have
said the perception is wrong, that statement
goes only a small distance toward changing
the public’s attitude.
Ledbetter suggested a series of reforms
the department could make to help change the
public’s negative opinion of NU athletics.
To start, the department could hire more
women in senior staff positions, provide
clearly marked channels for complaints of ha
rassment to be reported and make some physi
cal changes in facilities, she said.
Instead, perhaps the most effective means
of altering public perceptions would be to hoe
the garden — to get rid of the weeds before
they have a chance to take over the better
plants.
Athletes should meet stringent require
ments of both academic and moral character
to set foot in an athletic competition, whether
it be on the football field, the basketball court
or the wrestling mat.
The quality ot NU athletics means the
university can recruit the nation’s best ath
letes each year.
NU does not need the weeds to fill in its
garden.
An athlete who will disgrace the univer
sity and the state is an unnecessary addition
to a team and an unaffordable risk.
Granted, the university cannot know
ahead of time whether an exemplary fresh
man will become an assailant or drunken
driver by his senior year.
But coaches, who know players and their
talents well, must know who problem athletes
are. They must know to keep close watch over
those athletes and discipline them fully for
the first rule infraction, no matter how small.
But until UNL learns the elusive secret
to keeping all athletes felony-free, the univer
sity must accept the fact that media watch -
only the best athletes in the best programs.
NU will take the bad press for as long as
we keep the top athletic programs. Let us hope
that’s a long, long time.
Editorial Policy
Unsigned editorials are the opinions of the
Spring 1997 Daily Nebraskan. They do not
necessarily reflect the views of the Univer
sity of Nebras ka- L incoln, its employees, its
student body or the University of Nebraska
Board of Regents. A column is solely the
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.
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ters to the editor and guest columns, but
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Mehs ling’s
VIEW
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DN 1
LETTERS
Who’s Next?
I cannot believe the DN would
allow this statement to be printed in
a newspaper that is paid for with my
fees:
“Homosexuality is not something
that should be protected and not
discriminated against such as race or
gender, but is a plague that affects
many lost people.” (JJ. Harder’s
column, “ A broken bond”, DN,
Friday).
1 am personally offended. In light
of the recent tensions on campus in
regards to race (e.g. cross burning),
how can you people justify printing
an article that calls for discrimina
tion against homosexuals? The right
to free press you say Mr. Harder?
How about a person’s civil rights
to attend a public institution without
facing discrimination? Or live their
lives any way they want to as long as
they don’t harm anyone? With each
new article you write Mr. Harder,
you show your immaturity and
ignorance.
it is truly remarkable. Adolt
Hitler decided that brown-eyed
people were inferior to blue-eyed
people and should be put to death.
You had better hope no one proposes
this now or you and I will be in
trouble, subjected to cruel experi
ments without anesthetic to change
our “wrong” eye color to the
“acceptable” eye color.
Anthony Nguyen shows a great
deal of common sense in his article
when he uses the analogy of interra
cial marriages not being accepted
(or legal) in the past. Mr. Harder,
you can discriminate all you want in
the privacy of you own home but
don’t subject the students of this
university to your propaganda.
Brian J. Brislen
senior
sodology/communications studies
Editor’s note: In regards to the
writer’s comments on student fees,
95 cents of the $194 students paid
this semester helps defray the
Daily Nebraskan’s printing and
circulation costs. These refundable
Fund A fees constitute approxi
mately 4 percent of the paper’s
total operating budget. The
remaining 96 percent is self
generated, mostly through adver
tising.
It’s the Principle
I must commend J.J. Harder on
his column “A broken bond” — it
takes balls to write something so
conservative in a college newspaper.
You clearly have a very warped
idea of who this God that you love
so much is. Every word in your
column is the spawn of fear and
hatred. The God I believe in is the
exact antithesis of these things.
Our country was founded on the
FREEDOM of religion, yet the
religious right hinders the rights of
those who choose not to be Chris
tians. If there are people who
disagree with your personal set of
morals, does that make any of them
less of a person?
Attribute the lack of “family
values” to the prejudice you encour
age, rather than to an American
citizen’s right to be free. If you think
God loves a person any less if they
are gay or lesbian, you are mistaken.
Wouldn’t God be happier if you
spent your time loving your fellow
man, rather than wasting your time
hating him? Perhaps Matthew 5:43
48 will shed some light on the
subject for you.
as xor your argument mat
marriage is for procreation, you are
wrong. Marriage is, first and
foremost, about a spiritual love
reflecting God’s love. Any other
thing, such as procreation, is
secondary. Also, if people don’t
want to have children, they are still
allowed to marry.
Whether they have children or
not, whether they are different sexes,
religions, races or the same, is
inconsequential, as long as they
reflect God’s divine principle of
love.
Jennifer Seitelbach
freshman
English and political science
Not my God
As I walked into Andrews Hall
on Tuesday I was suddenly taken
aback by a noxious odor. Further
investigation proved that it was the
foul stench of hypocrisy — emanat
ing from the Daily Nebraskan. On
Page 71 learned that hate crimes
have steadily risen at the University
of Missouri where graphic and
graffiti was cataloged in vast
amounts into their “hate log.”
Incidentally, 70 percent of the • J
epithets were aimed at homosexuals.
I thought to myself, “How nice it is
that I do not attend a university
where homophobia is documented at
such a phenomenal rate of occur
rence.”
I was chagrined to remember that
I do. I remembered the words of
poor, misguided and religiously
brainwashed J.J. Harder in “A
Broken Bond” in Friday’s DN. I
turned to the DN opinion page to see
if anyone had rightly written in to
attempt to curtail young J J. before
he had the chance to convince others
that homosexuals deserve no rights.
The only response was from
freshman Josh Dieckmann, another
grossly misinformed person whose
head is so full of religious dogma
that there is no room for anything
else. I’m sorry Josh, no matter how
you may justify it in your head, you
do have something against gays,
quite a lot against gays.
How frightening it is to me that I
go to a university where Bible
thumping, self-righteous fanatics
will actually try to convince me that
the God I believe in would condemn
to hell someone, because of his or
her choice in life. I would like to
point out, if I may, that I did not use
the word “lifestyle,” it’s a life, not a
lifestyle.
T ¥ _¥ ¥_1- ¥ J_1__ •
j.j. turn jusu, i uuxx x ucxxcvc ui
the God you do, one who, if we
follow your verbatim interpretation
of scripture, hates homosexuals,
blacks, Jews and other minorities.
Pay attention you two, and all others
out there who tow their narrow
mined line, people have a right to
their own lives. Stay out of them.
Practice your conservative
platform of less government and
stop trying to legislate morality. So
homosexuals want to get married, let
them. I seriously doubt any of them
would want to marry you. I doubt
any girls would want to marry you,
except maybe the vacuous ninnies
with vacant stares who are as
equally mentally and morally
challenged as you. In short J J. and
Josh, grow up, take some sociology
classes, open your mind and stay out j
of people’s personal lives.
Andrew Muller
junior
political science
11
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