EDITOR
Paula Lavigne
OPINION
EDITOR
Jessica Kennedy
EDITORIAL
BOARD
Erin Gibson
Joshua Gillin
Jeff Randall
Julie Sobczyk
Ryan Soderlin
Our
VIEW
In the
toilet
Greek ritual makes
campus look trashy
A majority of UNL’s greek houses
earned a spot on the National Register of
Historic Places this summer. The houses
were selected for the prestigious list
because of their well-maintained and high
quality architecture and because the hous
es have an educational significance.
Yet drive by these houses on any given
day in the past two weeks and it’s not their
glory that can be seen. It’s not the quality
architecture and well-maintained houses
that stand out. Nor is it the well-trimmed
grass or members playing a game of foot
ball in the yard that catches the eyes of
passers-by.
It’s the toilet paper.
aii tne nouses on greeK row seem to
have toilet paper waving from trees in the
front yards and strewn across the green
lawns. And it’s not just bits and pieces of
paper - it’s roll after roll after roll of two
ply, triple-roll Charmin.
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln
greek houses, especially the sororities,
have been toilet-papered, usually by their
new pledges “sneaking” to the house to
prank the active members before “retreat
ing” to some cleaner place. Sometimes,
houses douse each other in clouds of white
tissue to start a friendly rivalry.
But we’re not celebrating high school
homecoming here, kids. If the greek sys
tem has a GPA as high as it brags, let’s be
smart enough to make the university look
better than the broken stall in a Mississippi
rest area. Do it and clean it up (right away),
or don’t do it at all.
There’s nothing wrong with new frater
nity and sorority members celebrating
their houses. Sure, they’re excited to be at
UNL, and they’re excited to be part of a
new group of friends.
But celebrating togetherness does not
have to come at the price of destroying the
natural beauty of UNL’s campus. Because,
frankly, the rest of campus doesn’t share in
the togetherness and doesn’t enjoy the
whited sight.
If members of greek houses find unity
in slightly vandalizing their own property,
then they should find a way to clean it up
together, too.
In fact, the houses could use time spent
cleaning up the mess as a way to bring
their members together. There’s nothing
like a good cleaning to really make a group
feel more like a family, is there?
The paper, clumped in trees and on
lawns, makes campus look trashy. And
when it rains, like Monday, the toilet paper
becomes a sticky, messy goo of white.
And instead of a campus with a place of
history in its greek row, it becomes ugly,
tacky and tasteless.
The same rules apply here as in kinder
garten: If you make a mess, clean it up.
Let’s keep our campus beautiful - and
toilet-paper free.
Editorial Policy
Unsigned editorials are the opinions of
the Fall 1997 Daily Nebraskan. They do
not necessarily reflect the views of the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, its
employees, its student body or the
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A column is solely the opinion of its author.
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Haney’s
VIEW
Beware the dark side
Use anger as positive catalyst
mmrr.- b ^ ^
STEVE CULLEN is a
junior advertising major
and a Daily Nebraskan
columnist.
We all have a dark side to us. I
love my dark side and you would
love yours too, if you looked at it
the same way I do. Sometimes I
forget what a great pair we are, but
inevitably, I fall in love with it
again. Just last week, Tuesday to be
exact, we got back together again.
Here’s how:
I looked down on what I
thought was going to be a great
column. Instead a bloody, wheez
ing, suffering mess stared back at
me. A huge hole had been ripped
in its gut and intestines were
spewed out all over the page.
Getting your column chopped up
sucks. With heavy heart, I painfully
put it to rest by tossing it into the
trash and pouring my coffee over
it.
My fist clenched. My teeth
gnashed. Hello, dark side - and we
hit it off again. There was hell to
pay.
I stormed through the house,
grabbing an ax, a hack saw, some
olive oil and a skillet. I was going
down to the DN to roll heads and
- fry hearts with some fava beans
and a nice Chianti (name that
movie?).
After some subtle convincing
by the Lincoln PD, we all decided
it was probably best that I went
home and scheduled a “nice little
talk” with the resident psychiatrist.
They still have my skillet.
After getting off the phone with
the doctor, I realized I was still
juiced and had to do something! I
charged into my room and
slammed the door. Then (snap your
fingers really loud) POW! It came
to me. I started to write: “What a
great combination we two are,
anger and a task.” You wanna see
tfc
Anger is a production of our humanness,
a tool given to us to live and do certain
things in our lives”
something get done? Just put the
two together, shake vigorously and
pour generously over the problem.
Then, much like a Long Island
Iced Tea, smack - instant results.
While writing I realized (once
again) that anger is good. In fact,
all of those things we hold taboo,
like stress, anger and ego, are pret
ty damn useful.
Let’s face it, humans are bad in
general. We kill, maim, rape,
destroy, torture, oppress, enslave,
rob, steal, lie and cheat. We’ve got
the dark side in us. So I say: Let’s
do stuff with it.
Maybe you’re thinking, we
already do stuff with our anger.
The things we do are all evil and
all that comes from anger is evil. I
agree, in part. When these things
control us, we do bad stuff, and I
stand firmly against those things
as ends to themselves. But, to state
again, anger gets tnings done,
when we learn to exist with it. And
the results are often positive.
Allow me to illustrate some
defenses for my position: We
should make room for, and love,
our dark sides.
1. The American Revolution. It
almost didn’t happen. Most of the
population was pretty content
about being under British surveil
lance. BUT there were a few soon
to-be-Americans who weren’t
happy - they were pretty pissed off
and ready to put a bat to some
Brit’s head. They were so pissed
off, they wouldn’t shut their
mouths and eventually got every
body else pissed off about their
shared condition. This lead to The
Revolution and the end result: free
states.
2. There was a man by the name
of Malcolm. He was angry about
the position of his people. He
shook them out of their compla
cency by getting them pissed off
about what was going on. To this
day injustice exists, and the angry
keep the movement alive. The
angry are the heart of the move
ment. Anger is getting things done.
At this point some will say that
these examples exclude a central
factor in the conviction: hate - and
they’ll say hate is the same as
anger. Yet I know they’re not the
same. Anger simply means: wrath
ful. Hate means: loathing, aversion
and hostility. So true, hate is a pos
sible byproduct of anger,Jbut not a
necessary element. /
Anger feeds you lif£ - hate eats
you alive. Hate, by definition, can
not produce anything positive.
And that’s right, I unite life and
anger. Just as I would unite life and
joy. I do this as a second measure
in support for my theory. Not only
does anger get things done through
motivation, but anger is pure.,
Anger is just as truthful and pure
as joy. It comes from our center.
TfiP ppntpr u/ViPrp 11 rt-Vit anH
dark exist. When angry, there’s no
doubt about it. You’re alert, aware,
aggressive. It’s not questioned -
you’re alive. Allowing anger, using
anger, is connecting with the
purest of emotions in us. When fol
lowing gut feelings, best efforts
come forth and things get done.
Anger is a production of our
humanness, a tool given to us to
live and do certain things in our
lives. Anger has a purpose. Think
of it as an alarm that something
truly important to you is being vio
lated - so listen up! To deny anger
is to lie to ourselves.
Somewhere along the way,
we’re all told to be nice, smile and
hand out peace stickers to every
one. That’s not real. I’m saying it’s
OK to rage out for what you
believe in. Being a tight-wound
neutron bomb of anger is NOT
GOOD, but let ’er rip when you
have to. Get pissed off. Knock
heads. Make something happen.
Love what your dark side can do
for you and your cause.