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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 11, 1997)
Curfew criticisms LANE HICKENBOTTOM is a senior news editorial major and a Daily Nebraskan photographer and columnist. City officials want to impose a curfew on Lincoln’s youth, citing an increase in youth crime. The unoffi cially proposed curfew would require that those 16 and under to not be out and about after midnight. I don’t care if little Johnny is carry ing a bazooka down O Street, a cur few is the wrong answer. I will be the first to agree that a N curfew would curb youth crime. Let’s face it, if a 16-year-old is not on the street, he or she is a lot less likely to break any laws. But where does the City Council get off in deciding just who has a right to walk the streets at night? The decision Punish everyone, not distinct age group belongs to the parent. A curfew is nothing less than an unnecessary policy of age discrimination. Period. Government, whether federal, state or city, should not have a say as to which of its citizens are to be granted public access based on age and time of day. The Constitution was designed to protect citizens’ life, liberty and property. These are fundamental rights. It is a general American philosophy that these rights are granted because we are humans, not because the govern ment decides to give us these privi leges. Remember “Give me liberty or give me death!” I bet Patrick Henry would think a curfew is a bla tant government violation of liberty. The courts should realize this: Age discrimination is one of the last legal and blatant forms of injustice. Children waive the right to wear the clothes they want to wear in some schools when uniforms are required, but yet the law forces them to go to those schools. Drug dogs are allowed to sniff-search students’ cars parked at high schools without prob able cause. And now the city will be looking at keeping youth off public streets at night. It is the parents’ responsibility to decide when and where their chil dren are allowed to go as long as they are not breaking the law. With his or her parent’s blessing, a 16 year-old taxpayer ought to be able to walk out of his or her home no mat ter what time of day it is. Little Johnny has a right, not a privilege, to take a midnight stroll around the block long as he leaves his bazooka home. What if he does take his bazooka? Arrest him on the spot. There is.no reason to punish the innocent in order to reach the guilty. Many people would argue that too many parents do not have enough control over their children to take the responsibility of maintain ing a family-imposed curfew. Even so, a law-abiding youth in public is doing no harm. Adolescence is a time when the entertaining thing to do is just hanging out. Adults do it too, but the city has a plethora of late-night places for persons of age. The city’s answer for those who have no place to go after hours shouldn’t be complete denial to public places. City officials say that youth crime is the reason a curfew should be implemented in Lincoln; But in Monday’s Lincoln Journal Star, Lincoln Police Chief Tom Casady said that police working the night shift already have their hands full, that the hours between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. are a “peak period” for drunken drivers, fights and other violent crimes. I interpret this as Casady saying that a curfew would create more work for the already-too-busy late night police officers. But there is more information that can be read out of this Journal Star article. It appears the problem isn’t centered only around teen-agers. If the night is a peak period for drunken drivers, fights and other violent crimes, maybe we should just curfew the whole damn town. Preventing crime would then be easy! Simply arrest anybody who is out after midnight. Assume that any body not driving to or from work is a criminal. Hell, why should we limit it to after midnight? Crime occurs during the day, too. I think the City Council should propose to arrest anybody who is not working or in the process of going to or from work. But then what should we do about work-related crimes and traf fic violations? The solution: Arrest the whole town. People who are out of their house at any time for any reason are to be dragged by their ankles through town, tarred, feath ered and finally escorted to the gov ernor’s mansion where Ben can hand out spankings. To hell with liberty! The point is, if youth crime is on the rise then arrest and prosecute the offenders. Don’t pick out an emire group based on age and tell them they can’t enjoy the same liberty that you and I enjoy and expect: the free dom to walk a public street without getting harassed or ticketed. Let little Johnny hang out with his friends late at night. That’s what teen-agers do. Everybody’s doing it Uniqueness urges individualism, not materialism in the mainstream MATT PETERSON is a senior English and news editorial major and a Daily Nebraskan colum nist. As I sit on my couch watching the MTV Video Music Awards for the fifth time in as many days, and attempting to make some sense out of Marilyn Manson’s cold cream induced tirade, one question pervades my thoughts. What’s the point? My question isn’t directed toward the idols of altemativity (like Manson) so much as their idolaters. Odds are, that after the show, old Marilyn goes home, feeds his dog, grabs a beer from the fridge, and watches Sports Center in full anti Christ regalia. And while his loyal fans mimic the empty rebellion of the performer by shrouding them selves in black and avoiding the sun at all costs, Manson, the business man, is laughing all the way to the bank. a iew more equally rnetoncai questions come to mind. Why are so many people opposed to the main stream? What is so appealing about the alternative lifestyle? And how many people must subscribe to alter nativity (no, it isn’t a real word, but it should be) before it becomes the mainstream? If I were a social psychologist, I would shrug off this trend as a healthy (with the notable exception of some extreme forms of body piercing) means of rebellion for thousands of teens across the coun try. However, it would seem that this particular “trend” has broken the boundaries of rebellious teendom and become a full-blown cultural phenomenon. Apparently, far too many young people today - finding an incapacity to think independently from their peers - have accepted dressing differently and claiming unconventional tastes as the viable alternative. Now, you may ask: “How do I know if Fin alternative?” A recent Edge radio advertisement begins with the hopeful words, “Define alternative,” and proceeds to play sound bytes from the 10 or 15 plat inum hits that The Edge plays an average of 20 times per day; what’s more, since there is no viable alter native to The Edge, it fundamentally cannot be alternative in itself. And while I may not be able to define the alternative phenomenon any better than everyone’s favorite radio sta tion, I can promise that if you are offended by any or all of the follow ing paragraphs, you are probably a part of it. First of all, shopping at the Salvation Army, if you are not in need, is not cool. What’s more, there are quite a few destitute old men out there who’d give up their whiskey flask for the artificial fur and Naugahyde Shaft coat that you “just had to have.” Secondly, no matter what anyone may have told you, no one past the third grade will respect you for hav ing collected every Pez dispenser known to man. . . And all those bumper stickers holding your piece-of-crap Chevette together can prove to be a real safety hazard considering the innate com pulsion every other alternative driver has to see if you are a fan of a more obscure band than they are. When it has become this easy to roll off stereotypes about a counter culture, one must begin to question the countertivity of that culture. Before I make too many cor duroy-clad enemies, let me briefly appeal to the “alternative crowd.” I’m not as opposed to the status-quo impaired as I may seem. I’ve known, and loved, some of the most alterna tive individuals I’ve met. When I first met my high school sweetheart, her wardrobe consisted of nothing but black, glam-rock T shirts - she was alternative before the term was even coined. My first college roommate smoked so much pot by age 20 that he now forgets’ things he never even knew. As close as I thought I was to these people, however, I’m afraid I never under stood the point of their unconven tionality. Perhaps these pebple feel the ~ need to look differently so as to dis tinguish themselves from the igno rant panorama of conformity around them. But aren’t we different enough without compounding our differ ences? People were compromising their differences long before Airwalk and Vision Street Wear came along. I’m not demanding that anyone stop dressing the way he or she likes; nor am I asking that anyone renounce his or her support for obscure, no-talent bands. I only ask that the local salmon population consider more constructive ways of swimming against the mainstream. I know you’re mad at the world and its pervading hypocrisies. I know you hate the beautiful people and everything for which they stand (by the way, they really don’t stand for much of anything ... usually they lean against something more sub stantial, and quite often they just fall on men- collective laces;, l know how much you hate the ignorant masses and their wholesale accep tance of societal sedatives (big-bud get movies, professional sports, reli gion, etc.) And for the most part, I’m right there with ya\ But does wear ing a funny little hat and drinking far too much coffee really satisfy your - uniqueness? There is an altema- _ tive to alterna tivity, and it is individuality. - ^ No matter you*1 - wear or J*~~*~*“ how many extremities you pierce, you unique until you to accept that will never be materialistic in nature. So consider joining us in the mainstream. It’s really not so bad. After all, every body’s doin’ it. Sam Vetter/DN