EDITOR
Erin Gibson
OPINION
EDITOR
Cliff Hicks
. ■ ' -j
EDITORIAL
BOARD
Nancy Christensen
Brad Davis
Sam McKewon
Jeff Randall
Bret Schulte
Our
VIEW
A noble
decision
Moeser, officials do
right thing with remains
University officials made a seemingly
unprecedented and bold decision Tuesday to
bandage harm caused ty the inappippriate dis
posal of American Indian remains on campus.
The decision seemed unprecedented
because Chancellor James Moeser approved a
proposal to repatriate bones after it was read by
representatives of r7 tribes at 3 p.m. Tuesday.
Often, sweeping university decisions are
made only after weeks of gaining approvals by
various boards and committees.
But that day, Moeser and other University
of Nebraska-Lincoln officials met with tribal
representatives starting at 9 a.m. and waited
for an hour outside the meeting room while the
proposal was drawn up.
They may have been thinking about the
American Indian remains since some were
discovered in Bessey Hall last fell, but Moeser
only took a minute to think over Tuesday’s pro-)
posal before he gave it a solid thumbs-up.
That decision was admirable because it
required a significant level of cultural under
standing and swiftly gave away what, to many
not close to the issue, sounded like nothing
more than university research material and a
precious bit ofEast Campus landscape, as well
as a significant commitment of university time
and resources.
According to the proposal, the university
will return the remains of about 1,600
American Indian people, enclose areas of East
Campus where incinerated bones were scat
. teredin 1965 and. 1967, examine records to
identify culturally unaffiliated remains and
release identified remains within 30 days.
That approval was dually bold.
First, it was bold because it could set a
precedent. Any university that holds culturally
unaffiliated remains should feel pressured to
re-examine those remains and, if needed, repa
triate those bones and make amends with the
proper tribe’s descendants.
The decision was also bold because
administrators decided, in this case, that one
people’s cultural and spiritual beliefs weigh
more heavily on the scale of justice than do the
goals of otters’ scientific research.
Surely it would have been easier for
administrators to claim the man who incinerat
ed remains in the 1960s was ignorant and no
longer employed by UNL, and the rest of the
bones were obtained legally. They could have
taken a public relations black eye in stride and
left repatriation in the dust, but they did not.
Instead, their decision may have opened
the door for other groups to oppose research
and scientific test material. For administrators,
it could mean many more meetings, many
more apologies and many more sacrifices.
We commend the university and involved
officials for their nobility and sensitivity in
dealing with a matter that some researchers
once steeped in secrecy and ignorance.
Though the damage done cannot be
repaired, we hope it can be soothed.
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Mook’s
VIEW
-"
Passing the buck
Society’s shirkers need to assume responsibility
JOSH WIMMER is a
senior news-editorial
major and a Daily
Nebraskan columnist.
Hey, folks.
OK, last week, as you may
remember, I urged you to drink,
smoke and make merry.
(I guess, though, if you fol
lowed my instructions to the letter,
then you probably don’t remem
ber.)
Anyway, rumor has it, a few of
our university administrators were
a little upset.
They didn’t think it sent an
appropriate message to you, my
fellow students.
And they probably didn’t think
it portrayed this university in a
particularly flattering light.
They’d probably have preferred
something like this:
Don’t drink and drive.
Smoking kills.
Use a condom.
(Ora dental dam, when appro
priate.)
And this concerns me a little.
You see, the J-Dogg doesn’t
work for the Man.
And while I’m sure these folks
have our best interests in mind -
university administrators always
do, after all -1 feel compelled to
remind them that life isn’t safe and
pretty all the time.
This paper isn’t a public rela
tions brochure for the university.
. Even if it were, I just can’t see
a lot of potential students being
turned off by drinking and sex.
(“Whoa! Chicks and beer? Get me
outta here!”)
This paper also isn’t a hand
book to college life.
I think you’re all old enough to
know by now that drinking can be
dangerous, smoking is unhealthy,
and sex should be safe - even if
using a condom doesn’t feel as
good, which, no matter how “ultra
thin” it is, it doesn’t.
In fact, if I did devote an entire
column to preaching the evils of
substance abuse, I don’t think any
of you would read it.
Because, let’s just admit it -
those columns mostly suck.
I don’t see it as my job to tell
you those sorts of things.. This is
good, because I’m in no position
to say any of them.
Anyway - this will relate - in
USA Today a few weeks ago, some
dad wrote in all pissed off at
Michael Jordan, who had the
nerve to smoke a cigar after help
ing the Bulls win a sixth NBA
championship.
Christ almighty.
He’s Michael Jordan. I don’t
know anything about basketball,
and even I have to admit he’s
superhuman on the court.
I think he’s earned the right to
smoke a cigar.
This guy was ready to blame
Jordan if his kid started smoking,
because Michael Jordan is a role
model.
iic s a uasKciuan piayer.
Dads are role models.
5 If parents’12-year-old kids
start smoking and they’re that
pissed off, they should look at
themselves first.
Winona Ryder gets flak all the
time, too. Parents fume at her for
smoking in her movies, she’s said.
She tells them she’s not a role
model. She’s an actress. And she’s
right.
If you think kids start smoking
because someone in a movie does,
you’re as crazy as those people
who accused Black Sabbath of v
making teen-agers commit sui
cide.
And on a note closer to home, •
I’d like to talk about my Godzilla
cup holder now.
I love Godzilla. I thought the
film was just fine, and I touch
myself when I watch the cartoon.
So naturally, my heart skipped
a few beats when I walked into
Taco Bell, and they were offering
a Godzilla cup holder for just,
like, $2.49.
You hang it on your car door,
and it holds your beverages while
you drive, looking fearsome the
whole time. Pretty simple.
But it came with instructions.
And three warnings.
The first warning said not to
let your little kid eat the cup hold
er.
The second cautioned that, if
the beverage held by the cup hold
er were hot, it could spill and bum
someone.
And the, third warning remind
ed you not to bump into the cup
holder while you were driving and
crash your car.
Is it any wonder the French
think we’re stupid?
I mean, if we’re gonna put
warnings on things, we should put
it on the stuff that deserves them.
Your TV should be labeled:
Warning! “Win Ben Stein s
Money ’’ could appear at any time.
Matchbox 20 albums should
read: Warning! If you buy this,
you ’re going to suck.
Of all things, girlfriends
should have warnings plastered all
over them. And ex-girlfriends
should have to walk around in
blaze orange carrying signs that
read: I could go nuts for no reason
RIGHTNOW.
mu 1 digress.
My point is, somewhere along
the line, stupidity infiltrated our
society...
No, check that. Irresponsibility
infiltrated our culture.
Sometime, probably in the
’80s, people decided they weren’t
going to blame themselves for
spilling coffee. Or for their kids
drinking. Or whatever.
So they started suing people,
which was annoying. But it’s pro
gressed now, and it’s worse.
Companies are forced to do
everything they canto prevent idi
otic lawsuits being brought against
them.
Basketball players, actors and
other public figures are supposed
to be living saints, because other
wise, parents say, the children of
America will be junkies when they
grow up.
And newspaper writers aren’t
supposed to even joke about sex or
drugs.
I don’t buy that.
I know you, my readers, aren’t
stupid.
And, for the life of me, I hope
our administrators - who must,
after all, think that we are smart
enough to devote their careers to -
as well as the rest of the “adult”
world, figure it out for themselves.
