EDITOR Josh Funk OPINION EDITOR Mark Baldridge EDITORIAL BOARD Lindsay Young Jessica Fargen Samuel McKewon Cliff Hicks Kimberly Sweet i Our VIEW Mommy dearest Sororities should have voted on policy Sometimes Mommy doesn’t know best. Sometimes sorority presidents don’t know best, either. They both mean well. When sorority presidents and social chairwomen decided to sign their chapters onto a sorority-wide alcohol policy, some talked to their chapters. Others may have taken a vote. Some may have glossed over that part altogether. The presidents seemed to be for the policy, but a lot of social chairwomen dragged their feet. Some sorority mem _ bers didn’t •• want it at all. As with It is good to ™ ° ,,s 1 0 Panhellenic have policies, each ^ chapter should SOlTieOTie to have decided look OUt for w't*1 a vote of its J members. you but not In the past, j j Panhellenic has gOOd tO have had a pattern of something crammed Chapter vote. And many down your times UNL’s .7 . Panhellenic is tnroat. forced to ask —— chapters to vote on a policy because the national Panhellenic man dates it. This time was different. Sparked by a concern from presidents about the potential for binge drinking at pre-football game parties, the presidents stepped in, like mothers, and decided what they thought was best for their chapters. Panhellenic representatives point out that the agreement basically reinforces a rule that is state law and university policy. They also said the policy is a show of sup port for a national Interfratemity Council program to have every college fraternity dry by the year 2000. Regardless, each sorority did not vote on the policy, and now they are forced to abide by it. It is good to have someone to look out for you but not good to have something crammed down your throat. And although Panhellenic representa tives said the majority of women were sat isfied with the policy, some women are not. We appreciate that Panhellenic repre sentatives acknowledge the fact that the way the policy came out wasn’t fair. Panhellenic representatives said they learned from it, and we hope the same mistake is not made again. Editorial Policy Unsigned editorials are the opinions of the Fall 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, 20 Nebraska Union, 1400 R St. Lincoln, NE. 68588-0448. E-mail: letters@unlinfo.unl.edu. Oberme yer’s VIEW I COUNlQL FiiJAUlV BROKg 1 I DCWN ANt> Let us light \ FIREWORKS TouiGrHri A DN LETTERS Queer Thinking Josh Moenning (“Be a man” DN, Tuesday) has found a valid concern in the formation of the modern male identity: wussification. When a society accepts the sanc tion of homosexual “love,” it inevitably will accept the blurring of gender lines, to the point where even the male role models are willing to cross the line into femininity. This is a problem because hetero sexual people are not complex or original enough to think in terms other than a male-female dichotomy. So, for the sustenance of all that is right about society today, we must fight the good fight against wussifi cation. Males must reinvent themselves by returning to their traditional roles of imperviousness (which, by conse quence, will require females to return to their traditional roles as well), and by rejecting the quasi-male standards that homosexuals have infected our society with. Jake Glazeski (a queer) senior music/math Feminine Intuition Josh Moenning, is this for real? The “wussification of men”? There are so many things wrong with that idea that I don’t know where to start. Although you don’t mention women in your article, as a woman I feel a direct insult by what you are implying: that men are becoming too sensitive, that we should conform to stereotyped gender roles, idealized and shoved down our throats by Hollywood and the media in general. Maybe as a man you’d like to believe that men are stronger than women, or at least need to act so, but I challenge you there. I have a different definition of strong, and it has nothing to do with football or John Wayne. I would respect a man much more for being who he is, disregarding some macho, testosterone-filled ideal and showing a bit of compassion. A strong man is not intimidated by being placed on an equal plane with the rest of the human race, even women! Sarah B. Schenck senior art Falsies What’s disturbing about Josh Moenning’s column’s emphasis on old-style film actors is the fact that the characters played by Bogart, John Wayne and the rest were quite obvi ously fictional. Basing your life’s conduct on a fictional character is far more dis turbing than the “wussification” that Mr. Moenning seems to be so terri fied of. If any man takes the advice pre sented in the column, he will be liter ally acting like a false man. Paul Ward graduate student English Damsels in dis Dress Maybe we should all wear a dress on Friday in honor of wussification day. Karie Fahrenholz UNL law student Stand and Cheer This goes out to Lucas Johannes (Letters, Tuesday), greeks and all those who attend the football games. First of all, there is no excuse for the greek members around you to be standing on the benches. They have chosen to identify themselves with an institutionalized group and live their lives by certain standards and lead by example. It’s nice to see the fraternities are turning out such fine, young gentlemen (sar casm intended). Secondly, I don’t know what plan et Lucas lives on, but the football tickets we buy do not say “general admission.” If they did, I’d be at every game by 9 a.m. sharp to fight for seats on the 50-yard line. At each game for almost four years, I’ve kicked people out of the great seats my friends and I pur chased. I arrive 20 minutes early every time and think I deserve a seat in the sixth row and will stick to my guns to get ‘em. We bought them as a group through the lottery system; heard of it? Greeks have as much right to sit together, too. So, why were you barg ing into their OBVIOUS block of seats? Brett Otte senior finance Greek Speaks Why is it that the DN and others repeatedly bash the greek system? To my understanding, the greek system promotes a strong support system throughout our years of college, which quite frankly, I don’t know where I’d be without. We laugh, have a good time on weekends (yeah, I guess that means we like to throw a couple back at the bars and at parties) and establish a “home” away from home by creating special friendships with others. As a whole, we have raised thou sands of dollars this semester for our philanthropies. With the help of oth ers (greeks, non-greeks, professors, friends and parents), my sorority raised over $2,000 to support Children’s Cancer Research while having a good time eating Village Inn pancakes on a Thursday night. Not only does our house help out the community, but so do other hous es. There are ice cream socials, bas ketball tournaments, the Laura Cockson Memorial Scholarship Fund, green eggs and ham (literally), spaghetti feeds (my favorite) and pumpkin carving contests. And all these support someone or something dear to us: a stroke patient, cancer patient, diabetes, glasses for an underprivileged child or someone who was killed by a drunken driver. But to me and so many others, it will always be one way and that is this: We’re damned if we do, damned if we don’t. Remember, our positives by far outnumber our negatives. Lora Peterson senior English member of Tri Delta Sorority PS. Write TSa r} 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 "R" St., Lincoln, a or e-mail