EDITOR
Paula Lavigne
OPINION
EDITOR
Kasey Kerber
EDITORIAL
BOARD
Brad Davis
Erin Gibson
Shannon Heffelfinger
Chad Lorenz
Jeff Randall
Our
VIEW
Limited
access
Icy sidewalks keep
too many from class
Imagine spending three days
straight in a dorm room.
You can leave to eat, for a few short
spells. You can roam the halls and
maybe pop outside for fresh air. If you
feel brave, you can try to plunge
through nearly impassable streets and
walkways to see a friend a couple
blocks away.
Everyone else goes to class; howev
er, it’s hopeless **_
for you. ••
This was three If the
days in the life of
Tag Johnson, a university
student living in ,f ,
Selleck Residence can 1 uv
Hall who uses a what’s
mechanical
wheelchair. necessary...
Johnson, and ,
his friends with then it
disabilities, spent shouldn 'f
more time getting
to certain classes hold claSS.”
than they spent in
them last week —
after 12.5 inches
or snow made tne university ot
Nebraska-Lincoln a congested, icy
mess. Their motorized wheelchairs
fought the same elements that crippled
students’ vehicles along R, Vine, 14th,
16th and 17th streets. It was, at best, a
hassle for everyone.
And at the same time, those respon
sible for helping those disabled stu
dents - UNL administrators - were
spinning their wheels.
Johnson says that when he went to
the chancellor’s office to complain, an
employee told him the snowy side
walks would be taken care of. He had
the entire next day in his dorm room to
think about why they hadn’t been.
“This is bullshit,” Johnson repeat
ed. l am pissed oil. 1 wanna light
somebody.”
Landscape services, which had
some workers clocking 60 hours last
week, cannot pay employees overtime
to do all the work necessary to clear the
frozen mess.
If the university can’t do what’s nec
essary to make reasonably sure all stu
dents can get to class, then it shouldn’t
hold class.
But rather than pay those overtime
wages, the university lets students like
Johnson sit and watch the snow melt
and wonder what it will take to get
caught up in class.
Being able to go to class isn’t a priv
ilege. It’s a right all students get when
they write their checks and pay their
taxes.
Editorial Policy
Unsigned editorials are the opinions of
the Spring 1998 Daily Nebraskan. They
do not necessarily reflect the views of the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, its
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A column is solely the opinion of its author.
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the regents, supervises the production
of the paper. According to policy set by
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the hands of its student employees.
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Haney’s
VIEW
-'TilC KiNPER, totufc £e.RMMl Vh*(* ■ -
Holiday hoopla
True meaning is too often lost
KATYA OVCHARENKO is
a freshman English major and
a Daily Nebraskan columnist.
Jesus resurrected!
Veritably resurrected!
This is how people greet each
other on Easter in Ukraine.
Easter is our main holiday of the
year, unlike in the United States.
Here people consider Christmas the
most important holiday.
It’s really good that we celebrate
these Christian holidays, but, unfor
tunately, we have lost the real mean
ing of them.
Here, in America, I ve noticed
that almost everyone thinks about
gifts for a certain holiday, not the
holiday itself.
Long before Christmas, people
think of the presents they would
give to their friends and relatives,
they write long lists, and the next
two months before the holiday are
usually spent in the nearest shop
ping centers in search of gifts. A
week or two before Christmas, pre
sents are wrapped, labeled and put
into safe places. Behind this bustle,
we completely forget what
Christmas is and why we celebrate
it.
In the church I go to, right
before Christmas we were shown
interviews with about 10 students of
our university. Each of them was
just a passerby and each was asked
the same question: “What is
Christmas for you?”
NONE of them mentioned die
birth of Jesus; they all thoughts
about getting together as a family,
getting and giving presents and hav
ing long holidays.
In my country the situation isn’t
better. Though we are not so deeply
concerned about gifts, our religious
Christian holidays are still material
ized.
For example, when we have fast
ing for 40 days before Easter, most
of us (who choose to fast) think
about clearing our organs of harm
ful substances - not spiritual
refining.
It’s more important to
clean our houses and get the
homes prepared for this pure *
holiday than to prepare our
hearts for it, to cleanse our
souls before God. '
Easter in the U.S.A.,
according to the words of
one of my American
friends, became
a holiday for
children.
Children have
a great time
when they try
to find Easter
eggs, ostensi
bly brought
by the Easter rab
bit, but in reality, carefully
prepared by their parents.
In Ukraine we also paint / M
eggs, and we bake special
breads, and we cook so
much food as never before; 11 §
after 40 days of fasting, peo- J 1
pie want to stuff their stom- t |
achs generously. We have a f •jH
great feast that continues for . |1
several days. J9
I don’t intend to say that .
all the holidays, including
Easter, are perverted in this fWk
world. But I can’t*name any rMm
other holiday of the year in / 'Jr
Ukraine thlft brings people ) \
so close together as Easter Jjfm
does. It’s amazing to watch
how everyone goes to
Orthodox churches with
eggs, breads, water and
other food for the priest to
bless. Even non-Christians
go there. If someone tells
you that he or she goes to
Church once a year, it
goes without saying
that this “once” is JBr
In my native town
back in Ukraine, we have
a beautiful pond near the
only Orthodox church in
town. On Easter night people from
the whole town gather around it,
because there are not enough places
for everyone in the church.
They bum candles, and as
they stand near the water, the
light from the candles is
reflected in it. This view is
really beauti
ful. There are
two circles of
burning can
dles in the
darkness. You
see happy
faces, you
hear people
singing and
replying “Veritably
resurrected!” when the
priest passes by. The priest
blesses everyone with water,
saying, “Jesus resurrected!” I
have never seen so many peo
ple together as during the
Easter night.
It s a pity that very otten
we forget what it means for us
to celebrate Easter. We prefer
presents and a celebration of
stomach; we don’t think of
Christ and what He has done
for us.
Let’s take the best of the
traditions of celebrating
Easter and focus on its real
! meaning: Jesus resurrected,
veritably resurrected. He
washed us by His holy blood,
conquered death and gave us
everlasting life. Let’s cele
brate Christ’s victory!
m Matt Haney/DN
