The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current, October 02, 1998, Page 4, Image 4

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

    EDITOR
Erin Gibson
OPINION
EDITOR
Cliff Hicks
EDITORIAL
BOARD
Nancy Christensen
Brad Davis
Sam McKewon
Jeff Randall
Bret Schulte
Quotes
OF THE WEEK
“It was obvious I pushed a button. It
took practically no effort to attract a
large number of people to get orga
nized.”
Retired UNL English Professor Louis
Crompton, on his presentation “Gay
Literature,” which prompted the Modern
Language Association to form the gay and
lesbian caucus of the MLA
“Don’t put them in a box, or don’t
just find a toe. Give us everything you
have.”
Leonard Crow Dog, member of the
Lakota Sioux, pleading for the return of his
ancestors ’ remains
“(Huard) said, ‘Stop hitting me.’ He
was starting to whine a little bit. But his
offensive line wasn’t giving him much
protection, and it had to get old, time
after time, having guys in his face.”
NU right rush end Chad Kelsay, on UW
quarterback Brock Huard s situation dur
ing the UW-NU game last weekend
“I’m trying to steer away from char
acter assassination songs. However, I am
getting sick of Howard Stern.”
Folk rocker Wally Pleasant, on where he
gets his song ideas
“They have no idea that they can
pedal for hours without seeing anybody.”
Robert Fuller, physics professor, on two
Dutch students’ plan to ride 187 miles
between Valentine and Norfolk as part of an
international exchange project
“No one working on the Kennedy
assassination today can ignore what the
review board did. The true debate now
begins.”
David Lifton, author of “Best
Evidence,’’ on the release of millions of
records on the assassination of John F.
Kennedy
“If we went on the sound, we’d catch
them in the middl^.of a stem. They’d be
off-balance, and we’d knock the crap out
of them.”
NU center Josh Heskew, on the tactic of
snapping the ball on the quarterback’s first
sound
“I believe the ‘race matters’ philoso
phy is wrong. It is morally wrong, and it
runs against the core of American cul
ture of equality that we have embraced.”
Ward Connerly, during his speech about
racial preferences and the government
“There’s no sense of fear, of messing
up, because we all will. It actually pro
motes a higher level of playing and
makes us better musicians.”
Cory Biggerstaff, one of the Monday
Night Big Band bass players, who invite
audience members to participate
“Basically, I just figure if I get angry
with myself, it doesn’t help anything. I
just let things slide and try and relax.”
Freshman golfer Amanda Sutcliffe, on
her thoughts about succeeding at golf
“The conversation is one that has to
be had. It has to be civil and done in a
way that moves people forward.”
John Harris, assistant to the vice chan
cellor, on Ward Connerly's speaking
“All we need are toys and corn dogs
and we’d be Gateway Mall.”
Clay Lewis, employee of The Location,
on the newly formed “punk mall ’ \
; 7 ? ' --‘-—i
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-Lincoin, its
employees, its student body or the
University of Nebraska Board of Regents.
A column is solely the opinion of its author.
The Board of Regents serves as publisher
of the Daily Nebraskan; policy is set by
the Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board. Tne
UNL Publications Board, established by
the regents, supervises the production
of the paper. According to policy set by
the regents, responsibility for the editorial
content of the newspaper lies solely in
the hands of its student employees.
x
Letter Policy
The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief
letters to the editor and guest columns,
but does not guarantee their publication.
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 name,
year in school, major and/or group
affiliation, if any. *
Submit material to: Daily Nebraskan, 34
Nebraska Union, 1400 R St Lincoln,
NE. 685884)448. E-mail:
ietters@unlinfo.unl.edu.
s»
Mook’s
VIEW
I Aft m ttNft OF GUY 1
I m LES61AR 1
|iwnuiftcswn& 1
I ft BtoUJTBIS BEST 1
I KEFT SECRET: 1
^pDbMMOW J
DN
LETTERS
(Censored) censorship!
I appreciated the inclusion of two
viewpoints on censorship in
Thursday’s edition of the Daily
Nebraskan, but I found many of the
points raised, especially those of
Lesley Owusu, to be objectionable.
I was particularly disturbed by the
statement “If people are allowed too
much freedom, many people will take
advantage of this right.” It has been
said that part of free speech is putting
up with other people’s right to free
speech, which I completely agree
with. The rights of others can’t be
taken away without detriment to oth
ers.
Mark Twain has written something
to the effect of: An ideal society is one
in which all members are guaranteed
the right to free speech, but all have the
prudence not use it.
Our society is not and cannot be
ideal, and legally enforced censorship
will not improve things.
Owusu also states in her article
that she will “take an overall view on
(censorship).” Her article focused only
on the necessity of the censorship of
sex anu violence, wmen are omy a
fraction of the main debate on censor
ship. The serious problem with censor
ship, which went completely unmen
tioned, is the power that censors have
to deprive the public of information.
In George Orwell’s “1984,” he por
trays a society that is under heavy gov
ernmental censorship. The book has
nothing to do with kids not being
allowed to hear violent music lyrics or
look at pornography; rather, it deals
with the entire public being denied the
right to know what is going on in the
world or in their own community.
This same type of censorship is
active in today’s media. However, the
censorship is not coming from the
government, but from the businesses
that are in control of the mass media.
In his book “The Media
Monopoly,” Ben Bagdikian reports
that more than 80 percent of the
Western news media is controlled by
fewer than 10 global corporations.
Through various mergers and buy
outs, this number becomes smaller
several times in a decade. Through this
corporate power, anything that may
not sit well with the executives will be
excluded from the news, even if the
issue is something that the American
public should know.
For example, General Electric, one
of the world’s largest corporations, and
also the world’s leading producer of
i---—-r-'...■■■
nuclear arms, owns NBC and The
Washington Post, along with about
two dozen other corporate giants. If
there is an impending threat to the
public that is because of an error on the
part of General Electric, do you think
that NBC and The Washington Post
are going to report heavily on why
there is a possible disaster. Will they
report the possible disaster at all?
This is but a small example of how
censorship involves much more than
keeping kids from watching ‘Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles” or listening to a
2 Live Crew album. I just want to show
that there is much more to the issue
than was reported.
Zachary Stork
freshman
undeclared
On equal ground
I would like to take this opportuni
ty to respond to the letter “Equal
Time?” (DN, Friday). On August 26,
the first Wednesday of school,
Homecoming royalty applications
were made available to all students.
After placing applications at
ASUN, RHA, UPC, Multicultural
Affairs, Vice Chancellor James
Griesen’s office, the Culture Center,
the Campus Recreation Center,
Student Involvement, Greek Affairs
and the Wick Alumni Center, I person
ally drove to the Athletic Department
to deliver applications for each of the
three tracks. These applications were
to be due Sept. 9 at noon. There is no
nomination committee. Each person
who applies for Homecoming does so
on his/her own initiative; however, a
recommendation from a faculty mem
ber is part of the application require
ments.
The publicity for Homecoming
1998 was more extensive than last
year. In addition to the many venues
one could pick up an application, fliers
were given to all student assistants,
and student organizations, and an
advertisement ran in this paper die
entire two weeks of the process.
I am sorry more athletes did not
apply. My goal was to have more peo
ple apply than last year, especially in
the athletic track. However, by provid
ing so many options to pick up an
application, I thought everyone who
wanted an application would have had
the chance to do so.
After the conclusion of the appli
cation process in early September,
Homecoming Committee members
decided to expand the allotted time for
applications, which will now begin in
early April, 1999. It is ASUN’s hope
that perhaps this is a less busy time for
students, and more applications will
be filled out I feel I did everything in
my power to encourage a diverse
group of applicants to apply.
Therefore, I do not agree that our
actions were negligent.
Becky Richter
senior
communications studies
Homecoming Royalty coordinator
I said what?!
I have read through the letter I sub
mitted to the Daily Nebraskan several
times, and I have yet to find where I
made any sort of reference to skin
color. However, (Wednesday) when I
read the paper, I came across a cartoon
(Mook’s View) depicting an individual
in a hooded robe saying “Down South,
we gdferally still dress for comfort”
I hope that no one on campus ques
tions why racial tension arises at UNL.
Publishing that picture in the paper
was using about as much common
sense and racial sensitivity as burning
a cross in a fraternity lawn or using the
word “nigga” in an e-mail distributed
to a large number of students.
T 1_t _ * 1 x. x x!
x liavt xx^v^i txaxux^u wj uc guuxcijr
politically correct. However, I am
intelligent enough to know that not too
many positive things can come from
an individual in a Klan robe. I did not
write this letter because I have a prob
lem handling criticism or satire.
I would have found it humorous if
“Mook” had stereotyped me as a
tobacco spitting, backwoods, incestu
ous redneck, but don’t portray me as a
racist.
I am the chairman of the HSSRA
Health Education Committee. The
responsibilities of the HEC committee
entail racial/sexual awareness. For
some reason, I don’t think it is a great
idea to depict the chairman of the stu
dent organization in HSSRA promot
ing racism. V
I would like to ask “Mook” to
think a little more before he draws any
more cartoons for the Daily
Nebraskan. A bottle of Southern
Comfort wearing a dunce hat might
have been funny, but a Klan robe usu
ally doesn’t make many people smile.
Tim Mahaffey
senior
psychology
WS. Wr ite
"Soc/c ‘"I
......_„„ ____