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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 19, 1998)
EDITOR Paula Lavigne OPINION EDITOR Joshua Gillin EDITORIAL BOARD Brad Davis Erin Gibson Shannon Heffelfmgei Chad Lorenz Jeff Randall Our VIEW Honor a holiday Find activities to celebrate King Day Months of heated debate will come to a test today when university stu dents, staff, faculty and administra tors will celebrate the life of Martin Luther King Jr. While there is no»official universi ty holiday canceling classes, campus organizations have come together to offer almost six hours of events from morning until dawn. Unless you’ve rigged your class schedule free of Monday classes, you’re probably going to be sitting in a lecture hall somewhere from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. When you have the free time, there is an event to attend. But if there is a presentation that begs your atten dance, by all means, go. Go because you really want to experience cultures other than your own - or to find others who share your culture. Take advantage of this opportunity to see the university’s complex face of identities and beliefs. See the benefits of what happened when discussion healed the wounds caused by debate. y^^In doing this, you also can show the %dml^HStrators that whether there is an official holiday or not, nothing will prevent you from exercising your right to celebrate King’s honor. And, most importantly, show the university you would respect such a holiday by skipping class only if you attend a presentation associated with the day. Skip because you have an option, not because it is an option. Try to attend presentations that aren’t scheduled during your classes. If you feel you must attend a presen tation that conflicts with your class, make your intention clear to your professor as soon as possible. The professor’s response will be the litmus test as to whether or not a true university holiday would work in the future. Administrators speculate that 2001 would be the time, but maybe a positive attendance and reac tion could bump that date up even sooner. Some professors have made it acceptable, while some have stayed mute. Those who have offered this option to their students should be commended for their voluntary civil obedience to the desire of students to honor a man’s sacred pride. EuiuViifli ruiicy Urfeigned editorials are the opinions of the Spring 1998 Daily Nebraskan. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, its employees, its student body or the University of Nebraska Board of Regents. A column is solely the opinion of its atfhor. The Board of Regents serves as pubfcher of the Daily Nebraskan; policy is set by the Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board. The UNL Publications Board, established by the regents, supervises the production of the paper. According to policy set by IIm wuuM|k| rflOflAlUftlhilih t Inr IL»«« n tOi nrlnl me regents, responswimy ror me eoiionai content of the newspaper lies solely in the hands of its student employees. • * • \ laMMWtv The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief letters to the editor and guest columns, but does not guarantee their pubfication. The Daily Nebraskan retains the right to edit or reject any material submitted. Submitted material becomes property of the Daily Nebraskan and cannot be returned. Anonymous submissions will not be published. Those who submit letters must identify themselves by none, year in school, major and/or group affiliation, if anv. Submit material to : Daily Nebraskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 h SL Lincoln, NE. 68588-0448. E-mail: letters@unlinfo.uhl.edu. Cartoonists VIEW 9 Gold prices crowed aeiunc, continued Acr<us the \ A6AIM TOOAV BOARD W Wiw MAA/V' JEE Al THE I END oP THE /NHSTWIENT XAaig Of6og>.| I luUj] Mew fy-sJfi. I I 7W precision 12 7Vf Out**to A/gu/__I ^ jfw/lff T/M/M& — DN LETTERS Read on, MacDuff Unless your professors are pre scribing a heck of a lot more interest ing reading material than when I was in college, I was amazed to see your obvious reference to Lindsey Davis’ delightful series in your A&E promo for “Amadeus” on the cover of your January 15,1997, edition. I thought I was the only person in Lincoln who read her books - or am I missing something, and that reference to “Falco” means something else entire ly? Keep up the good work, your newspaper is great! Anne Erwin Lincoln I don’t want your sex Barb Churchill tells us that “sex education should include more of a rational approach to human behav ior.” (DN, Friday) Let’s apply her approach: ■ Tell a kid that sex is OK, and the kid will have sex. ■ Tell a kid that sex is not OK, but then slip him or her some condoms, and the kid will have sex. ■ Tell the kid some values and hope the problem will go away, and the kid will have sex. ■ TEACH the kid some values, including a healthy respect for the gift of sexuality, and you’re on your way to decreasing some scary statis tics. I know it’s difficult for a section of society (including Ann Landers) to understand that this beautiful gift of love and life is more than a weekend diversion. It’s hard to tell your kids to say “no” when you don’t do the same. But maybe it’s time to take a vested interest in our children’s lives, rather than give them some contraceptives and tell them to “go play nicely.” Contraceptives promote their own brand of ignorance. They tell our kids that everything will be OK if you have sex. Nothing can go wrong, because we, your loving adults, wouldn’t let you do something if it could hurt you. And if you get preg nant or sick, too bad. You must have done something wrong. Tell THAT to a pregnant 15-year old. Karen M. Benes senior secondary education - English The truth is out there I would first like to applaud the federal and state government in their recent decision to fund abstinence only sex education. Finally they are upholding their duty to maintain die highest possible moral standards in regard to sex education. Churchill criticizes the notion that “Just say no” is not morally right or humanly possible. Why is it that we can ask our children to “Just say no” to drugs and not to premarital sex? Does involvement in drugs have higher risks than involvement in sex ual relations? In our day of STDs and HIV, I THINK NOT!! Don’t we ask our children to overcome their human desire of curiosity when saying no to drugs? Why can’t we expect die same when it comes to saying no to sex? We aren’t animals, Ms. Churchill; we can control our sexual desires. The only thing I can agree with Ms. Churchill about is the need to educate students about contraception and STDs. How about telling-students about how small the HTV virus is and its ability to fit through pores of con doms? How about telling students about the truth about birth control pills and their link to cervical and breast cancer and possibly infertility later in life? Let’s not forget to men tion that these same pills act as possi ble abortificants (sic) and they are killing millions of babies before they are even two weeks of age!! Tell them they can be murderers! Let’s continue by telling them about sexually trans mitted diseases. It’s only logical to believe that they will act in a preven tative way by “just saying no.” I agree with you Ms. Churchill, let’s educate our children. But let’s tell them the truth!! Amy Clark UNL alumna