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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 26, 1999)
EDITOR Erin Gibson OPINION EDITOR Cliff Hicks EDITORIAL BOARD Nancy Christensen Brad Davis Sam McKewon Jeff Randall Bret Schulte Quotes OP THE WEEK “He was a pretty good student But apparently there were a lot of things we didn’t know.” Robert Beggs, foster parent of murder victim Brandon Pickinpaugh ' “A lot of times they start out, ‘This is a really dumb question.’ And you want to say, ‘I’ve had dumber.’” Colleen Huls, switchboard supervisor, on the kind of daily interaction the opera tors have with callers “All I ever used to do was go to school and work, but now I can’t Everybody treats me like I am sick.” Mindy Kellogg, parvovirus sufferer, on her condition “The support that Nebraska receives is unparalleled from top to bottom.” John Cook, NU associate head volley ball coach, on one of the reasons he’s returning from Wisconsin “The key to the city? I wouldn’t give us a key to my mom’s house.” Art Alexakis, Everclear singer/gui tarist, on the band s being presented with the key to the city of Lincoln “That’s a question like asking your daughter when she’s going to get mar ried. I’m going to answer it the same way she would: ‘None of your damn business.’” Nebraska Volleyball Coach Terry Pettit in response to being asked when he s going to retire “When the games get this big and get this tight, you try to put your best chance to win on the floor. Whatever that combo is, that’s what I’m going to do.” Danny Nee, NU men’s basketball coach, on what he s doing to get the best results “Even in that case I don’t think the state should take a life.” Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers, in response to a racially motivated murder of a black man in Jasper, Texas, and in sup port of LB 76, which would abolish the death penalty in the state of Nebraska “It’ll be easy to play defense here - there’s no room to escape.” Dwayne Harris, Lightning defensive lineman, on playing in Pershing Auditorium, dubbed the "Thunder Dome” “It has that kind of beat that gets your feet tapping and your hands clap ping.” Community Gospel Choir of Lincoln member David Barnes, on the choir’s music “My feeling is that the language is so broad that, in fact, we may be taking a step backward.” Lincoln Sen. Chris Beutler, on new leg islation that would have banned smoking in all state-owned buildings, including residence halls Editorial Policy Unsigned editorials are the opinions of the Spring 1999 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 author. The Board of Regents serves as publisher 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 the regents, responsibility for the editorial content of the newspaper lies solely in the hands of its student employees. 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. 68588-0448. E-mail: letters@unlinfo.unl.edu. Horsey’s VIEW The Apathy and the Agony I am writing to Voice that we, the Apathy party, are running for student government (ASUN). Our Focus is: We care about student government as much as you do. Our candidates are: Charles A. Cusack, President George Langelett, First Vice President Charles Tatton, Second Vice President We are sorry that our names are not on the ballot - we never got around to filing the necessary paperwork. If, in a similar fashion, you decide not to get around to voting, that’s OK - we con sider every vote not cast a vote cast for us. However, since we don’t think the election officials will see it our way, if you do decide to vote, please write our names in. £ On a final note, this is the only advertising we can afford, unless * Coca-Cola contacts us in die near ^ future. (Hint, hint...) f Charles A. Cusack ' graduate student computer science founder of Apathy Rock the body We would like to take a moment to publicly congratulate Karen Miller, Jennifer Schulte, Michelle Buller and all the other people whose hard j work made Wednesday’s Body fi Bazaar such an important event in fm highlighting Eating Disorder Awareness and Prevention Week, mk Just by the number of students and staff wandering through the myri ad of educational booths and interact ing with representatives from numer ous UNL organizations and local agen cies, it would seem that the event was successful, especially in terms of expo sure. The university community would be a better, more stimulating environ ment, if these types of social issues were more frequently addressed in such an open manner as this. However, while looking about we observed something that caused us to stop and scratch our heads. Had our eyes deceived us or had we just seen a Mary Kay Cosmetics booth? Could be since we had also spotted a Clinique representative down the hall. Hmm? We quickly scanned the small piece of purple paper someone had handed us about this week’s theme, “Celebrating Every Body.” Affixed to it was a small purple ribbon, with the instructions to wear the ribbon “as a reminder: to accept yourself - the whole package that is; to not compare your body with that of another person; to accept that DN LETTERS bodies come in a variety of shapes and sizes... and this makes life interesting; to focus on how you feel, not on how you look; and to not let your body define who or what you are ... you are more than just a body.” The contradic tory nature of this whole situation began to make our heads spin. How could these two companies, whose very existence relies on women feeling ugly, inadequate and inferior, come to be involved in this event? While we realize that this week is primarily intended to bring attention to the preva lence of and damage caused by eating Feb. 24, another flier appeared on campus, including on personal bulletin boards of UNL faculty (my own, for example), and plastered on doors and departmental bulletin boards of the Women’s Studies Program and other departments and programs. These fliers were not appropriate. They had no sponsoring organization’s names and they contained offensive and threatening speech: “Man-Hatin’, Abortion-Lovin’, Marriage-Despisin’, Gay Agenda-Promotin’, Biology Loathin’ FEMINAZIS: You best BEWARE.” first, I object to fliers without names, people who will not take v responsibility for their speech. Second, I object to the threatening tone, espe cially on a campus which has recent ly had “Deer Season = Queer Season” chalked on the side walks I and other faculty, staff and students had to walk on to i get to our jobs and classes. Third, I object to the term “Feminazi.” This term is offen sive to Jewish people and all who abhor the actions of the Nazis, including the murder of 6 million Jews, homosexuals, gypsies and political dissidents. I did not attend Ms. Buchanan’s speech. However, I talked to some one who was there. Ms. Buchanan included in her speech a denunciation of name-calling. However, when this person questioned Ms. Buchanan about the flyer and the term “Feminazi,” she v' Melanie Falk/DN disorders, it also seems to us to carry a much larger, and possibly a more important, message of self-acceptance. In later conversations with several other students, it was made evident to us that we were not the only people who had noticed this glaring oversight. Tony White junior environmental sociology Lindsey Smith UNL alumna, 1998 Lincoln It’s no joke A few days ago, fliers about Bay Buchanan’s talk at UNL, “Failures of Feminism,” appeared on campus. They were appropriate, with the names of the sponsoring organizations, Young America’s Foundation, UNL Students for Life, UNL College Republicans and die University Program Council. said it was a joke and not to be taken seriously, that the people involved should “lighten 15).” This is an old cliche, that feminists don’t have a sense of humor. To me nothing about the Nazis, the Holocaust or the contin uing violence of some men against women is funny. I ask the student groups who spon sored Ms. Buchanan’s speech to take responsibility for this flier. If they did not sanction it, they should find out who financed it and distributed it, and publicly denounce their actions. I do note that Rich Parsons and Josh Moenning identify themselves as the chairman and secretary of the UNL College Republicans in their letter to the DN on Feb. 23, a letter in which they also use the term “feminazi.” They should campaign to make it known among their groups that anonymous and offensive speech is not what they are about, if that is the case. Barbara DiBernard professor English and women’s studies
