EDITOR
Paula Lavigne
OPINION
EDITOR
Joshua Gillin
EDITORIAL
BOARD
Brad Davis
Erin Gibson
Shannon Heffelfinger
Chad Lorenz
Jeff Randall
Guest
VIEW
Olympic
advances
Gender equality,
new sport mark games
Indiana Daily Student
Indiana University
Bloomington, Ind. (U-Wire) - Friday
marked the opening of the Winter Olympic
Games in Nagano, Japan. While the Winter
Olympics don’t get nearly as much attention
as the more traditional Summer Olympic
Games, this year’s games will be notable for
two reasons.
First, more advances toward equality
between women and men continue in athlet
ic competition. Note the inclusion of
women’s softball in 1996. Secondly, the
games are still marred by the occasional
silly “sport.” For the first time in Winter
Olympic history, a sport will be introduced
in both a women’s and men’s category:
snowboarding.
Although this is iust an exhibition snort.
the move represents a much needed
advancement toward gender equality in the
field of sports. For a long time, new
Olympic sports (except those few that have
been traditionally considered women’s
sports) have been introduced only for male
competition, ignoring half the population in
the process. Through the years women’s
competitions have gradually been added to
complement the already existing men’s
teams. But unfortunately, many of these
additions have come about only recently.
For example, just this year, the first female
Olympic ice hockey competition will take
place, although women have been playing
the sport for almost as long as men.
On a more negative note for some peo
ple, the Winter Olympic Games bring out
another, somewhat more superficial issue:
Are all these sports really worth the atten
tion we give them? Of course, the definition
of what exactly constitutes a sport is highly
debatable. But events such as the luge and
aerial skiing seem to be nothing but silly,
daredevil stunts.
This year, curling will be introduced as
an event. Curling, for those out there who
don’t know, is a sport involving a surface of
ice, stones and brooms. This is not to say
this game isn’t challenging, but it doesn’t
seem to demonstrate the athletic prowess
for which the Olympic Games were intend
ed.
Whether people watch the Olympics
intently or ignore them completely, they
should be aware of the fact the field of
sports is experiencing a slight, albeit tardy,
advancement. Gender equality in athletic
competitions is still far from a reality.
Maybe once that problem is solved, we can
then tackle the task of getting rid of all of
those silly events.
HMMMfcV
Unsigned editorials are the opinions of
the Spring 1998 Daly Nebraskan. They
do not neoessarfly reflect the views of the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Its
employees, its student body or the
Unwereity of Nebraska Board of Regents.
A column is solely the opinion of ib author.
The Board of Regents serves as pubfisher
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the Daily Nebraskan Edftorial Board. The
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content of the newspaper lies solely in
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isnsrr—n
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DN I
LETTERS ||
Live and let live
Klaus Marre, one of the DN’s
esteemed columnists, beat a very
dead horse in his column “An eye for
an eye” last Friday.
Marre wrote that he agrees with
the oft-quoted biblical passage “An
eye for an eye,” using the quote as jus
tification for the death penalty. I won
der, does Mr. Marre know that one
passage in the Bible also allows the
killing of prostitutes and adulterers?
Many religious leaders, the Pope
included, have long since discarded
the simplistic logic of “an eye for an
eye,” and have chosen instead to
oppose capital punishment for any
number of reasons.
Like Mr. Marre, I am not reli
gious. Rather, I oppose capital pun
ishment because I don’t want to live
under a government that believes
human beings are incapable of
change. I do not want people convict
ed of multiple capital offenses
released from prison; I support life
sentences without parole. But I sub
scribe to the fundamental notion of
rehabilitation; I know that men and
women can change.
For example, I believe that when
Robert Williams was executed in
December, he was not the same man
who committed violent crimes years
ago. He became a peaceful, religious
man; a brother, uncle and good friend
to many. He was a role model for his
peers in the penitentiary. He had
come to terms with the choices he
had made and strove every day to
become a better person.
Finally, a little known fact In this
century, 71 Americans have been
found innocent of their crimes after
being executed. That’s 71 too many
innocent lives lost to political maneu
vering or unjust trials. For these and
countless other reasons, I support the
goal of Nebraskans Against die Death
Penalty: Abolition Before the Year
2000.
Sara W. Pipher
senior
anthropology
Media mogul
Professor (David) Hibler is not
racist; he is worse. He is an intelli
gent, unprincipled man who carefully
manipulated the media into providing
a soapbox for his theories.
He constructed a piece of prose
that was carefully legal, but was guar
anteed to push that great big flashing
racist button. If you noticed, he did
not resDond to the racism comments.
but offered up his going-to-war-with
Iraq theories.
His prose was not sent out to just
his classes in what could be construed
an educational setting. It was sent out
unsolicited to a large enough audi
ence that guaranteed the response he
wanted.
He should not be ridiculed or
mocked; he should be feared. He got
the media to do everything he wanted
them to do.
Tim Myers
Information Services
A call to action
In light of the events that have
taken place over the course of last
week die time has come to focus die
attention of the public on the cus
tomer of the university - the students.
Whereas the media may have por
trayed this incident only as one of
[1
m
racial intent, we feel that this is also an
issue of the lack of sensitivity shown
on the part of Dr. David Hibler as a
faculty member and a potential
spokesperson for the university.
As a university, our diversity can
be amongst our greatest strengths.
However, in order to foster Ihe
strengths of that diversity, all members
of our university community must be
sensitive to the diverse ideals that exist
within the community. In order to fos
ter such sensitivity, it is not necessary
to suppress messages of any individ
ual. However, it is the responsibility
for individuals to express messages in
a respectful and responsible fashion.
We are offering the opportunity for
members of our university community j
to express their diverse opinions in a
respectful and responsible wav this .
afternoon in the Nebraska Uniyn. The *
Association of Students of the |
University of Nebraska will be spon- 1
soring a discussion concerning the ■
campus climate in relation to diversity 1
and sensitivity among both students j
and faculty.
The ultimate goal is for the stu
dents and student organizations to
come together with hopes of increas
ing lines of communication in order to
accomplish a positive result from what
is currently a negative situation. As
students of this univarsity, we can all
assist in making our university a better
place. Today you can help make UNL
a better place by coming to die union
and letting your voice be heard, and
more importantly, by listening to the
voices of those within our community.
Curt Rnwe J
ASUN president
N. Omar Valentine
APU governmental affairs liaison
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