Opinion
Page 4 Daily Nebraskan Monday, February 26,2001
ZM/yNebraskan
Since 1901
Editor Sarah Baker
Opinion Page Editor Jake Glazeski
Managing Editor Bradley Davis
Covering costs
Raising ticket prices
ultimately wise decision
Another year, another increase in season
ticket football prices at Nebraska, another
group of Comhusker fans more than willing to
dole out the cash. And people think there’s
something wrong with that.
Not us, not this time. When news broke
Friday that the department had chosen to
increase the ticket price of NU’s three mar
quee home games next season - Notre Dame,
Oklahoma and Kansas State - from $38 to $50,
there was some consternation among tradi
tional season ticket holders. My, how prices
had changed from the $25 per game docket
not long ago.
The Athletic Department says the increases
' are needed to keep up with competition and
cover departmental costs. The department
also stands to recover quite a bit of lost rev
enue with its new parking pass charges of $15
per game for passenger vehicle lots adjacent
to Memorial Stadium,
—^——mmmm $10 per game for all
If Nebraska other passenger vehicle
if NeorasKa lots $75 per game for
can charge RVs and £„ ger game
these prices, for reserved parking in
and the Lot 19.
market - NU Whether it’s needed is
season ticket one question. But recent
holders - can cuts in athletic depart
bear to pay ment suggest that these
(and trust us, increases are needed to
we know if cover increased costs
thoro'c thnc* ^ n0t forCe NU t0 CUt
therms those sports, keep in compli
who wonX ance with xitle IX and
there s act responsibly with its
certainly some funds. So it’s needed, the
who will in department says.
their place), But that’s beside the
then the point, which is this: If
Huskers are in Nebraska can charge
the clear. thes® Pnc®8- and the
- market - NU season
ticket holders - can bear
to pay (and trust us, we
know if there’s those who won’t, there’s cer
tainly some who will in their place), then the
Huskers are m the clear.
As the athletic departments like to consider
themselves self-sufficient businesses anyway,
we might as well look at them the same way.
As much as certain fans like to bemoan the
costs of an NU sporting event these days, they
pay it regardless. Who’s the sucker in that
case?
So if NU wants to jack up its prices for a few
of the big games and see if people will bite -
and they will, most assuredly - let them until it
no longer works. The ceiling will arrive at
some point or another, and when it does, the
department ought to be smart enough to lay
off the fans.
Student football tickets are a good exam
ple. As students have been spoiled with suc
cess, a giant raise in ticket prices there would
n’t likely work out as well. The department
may not care about such things, but contin
ued raises could result in the consecutive sell
out streak being in jeopardy.
It's a risk we assume the department is will
ing take about 12 years from now. In the year
2001, not only does the increase solve some
problems of funding within, but it proves that
the game has changed. NU has done many
favors for its season ticket holders and donors.
Those favors are about to come due.
Editorial Board
Sarah Baker, Jeff Bloom, Bradley Davis, Jake Glazeski,
Matthew Hansen, Samuel McKewon, Kimberly Sweet
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Unsigned editorials are the opinions of the Spring 2001 Daiy Nebraskan. They do not necessarily
reflect the views of the University of Nebraska-Urtcoin, its employees, its student body or the
University of Nebraska Board cf Regents. A column is solely the opinion of its author; a cartoon is
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NealObernieyer/DN
I feel her hand, I feel his fist
The rain pours, inter
twining the thundering jun
gle of the storm’s thick
foliage.
It feels light. I am falling
into a soft bed of roses. The
thorns on their stems are
trickling across - composing
the existence of my skin. A
gray spring snow globe coats
the world like Pepto-Bismol.
It all seems to slide - in
the air there is sudden, unimaginable silence - a
Mozart interlude in the symphony.
I cannot feel the fear.
The shadows flicker in the pounding. The
piano rolls, sloshing around inside of my head like
water.
My gut is clenched tight as if I had swallowed a
50 pound bag of sand.
Beneath the whispering sands of soft, murmur
ing background voices, the world shrink-wraps
itself, and everything and everyone becomes beau
tiful.
I am slipping out stage left. I am taking my bow.
I feel only the light soft touches of your fingers on
the back of my neck. I feel only my hand running
along your vanilla skin.
A fine mist of raindrops after-thoughts brushes
across the world.
The miniature drops race down windowpanes.
The words take shape.
They are the most painful piercings you could
ever imagine. A pain that seems to have its own
heartbeat.
Its own warm life rhythm.
The world stutters as they pierce the air.
You are tense as they pierce your body. You are
engulfed in fear.
The raw, suffocating human pain.
I feel her hand. I feel his fist. I spin circles
in the rain. 4
I spin circles in the mouse maze until ]
the world collapses into slabs of clay red oil ' J
paints. J
In my mind, I see an old Indian woman i
pounding maize. /I
The blunt stone in her hand becomes i I
an extension of her being. The deep f I
bronze skin figure and the strings of pep
pered hair pound the rubbed, dull end of 1
the tool into a primitive bowl. There is a rock- ’
ing rhythm in her movement, as if her exis
tence is teetering on a see-saw.
A low humming drones on the horizon and
pours out upon the open plains.
Puffing out like the thick clouds of a volcanic
eruption.
yC YOU
r seem
L- tenta
J| tive as
you reach
out your
hand to run
Pounded -1 feel only the wind twisting in her
hand.
Deep in the recesses of myself, there is a
picture of a man standing. Poetically,
he is composed in the face of chaos
and tears. In a black suit, white
shirt, black tie. Shoes shined -
black book. He is powerful in his .
clenched nobility.
I can feel the palms of my
fingertips running over
the ridges of his hair.
Silence in his thick
black '50s style
glasses. I feel his
fist in the air. I
crawl inside and
bloom as if I
am a magi
along me
thorny hides of
these words.
They slip their
cold metal existence
into the world.
Everything seems to
mp writhe in anxious inklings
Wap/ of pain.
The heartbeat pounds, and
you twist
If you, she, he, I let go - there is
poetry here.
There is poetry in fear.
The pounding of the piercings. The
rhythm of the word fear. The steel cold of
the rain.
Poetry weaves in and through all of
jxistence and covers us like a warm blan
cian opening
my hand to
reveal a
dove.
The rays
of poetry
splice the
brilliant heat
of the sum
mer that
steals in
beneath the
sheets of
rain.
I find
myself in
them.
I find
suste
nance.
K.ei. urapes across our oouies nite a spring
shower on a sunny day when there are no
clouds in the pale blue sky.
Outside, the thick heavy drops pound
into me.
They seem to sink in the air and shatter
on the water resistance of my skin like
porcelain China dolls.
I am among the throes of an epic duet
of two titans crashing like the rolling
waves of a massive black sea. This is
where I find myself lost.
i ieei ner nana. i reel ms nsi.
The cool exhale of the sweet, sugar
rain, pounding gently into my being.
The poetry of it becomes euphoric.
Scott Eastman/DN
Please write back!
oommentsY uuesuons <
Write us at
letters@dailyneb.com.
i
I ain't'fraid
of no (holy)
ghost
“Querulous
ness of mind
tends in fact
rather towards
irreligion; and it
has played, so far
as I know, no
pan wnaiever in
the construction JerSjTiy
of religious sys- Patrick
terns”
-William James, "TheVarieties of
Religious Experience”
Dear Mr. Holy Ghost,
I don’t really believe in you, and I
hate to bother you because I know
you’re busy doing whatever Holy
Ghosts do, but, you see, I have a rather
pressing problem, and I think you’re
the only one who can help me with it
I was reminded of your existence
the other day after seeing these posters
hung all over campus by the Abundant
Life Campus Ministry.
Apparently, the Ministry is putting
together a Word Seminar for February
26 and 27.1 believe the posters were
written by George W. and proofread by
Dan Quayle.
Anyway, to quote:
"The baptism of the Holy Spirit is
one area many Christians have avoid
ed because of a lack of understanding,
confusion, misconception and some
times controversy (sic). But the Bible
has a lot to say about it. The Word
Seminar intends to address this sub
ject with an in-depth (sic) Biblical
view.”
So if you help me with my little
problem, I’ll loan your servants my
New American Pocket Dictionary.
Admittedly, it’s a few years old, but I
still think it's a fair trade.
Now, I suppose my problem really
deals with Matthew 12:31-32:
Therefore I say to you, any sin and
blasphemy shall be forgiven men, but
blasphemy against the Spirit shall not
be forgiven. And whoever shall speak a
word against the Son of Man, it shall be
forgiven him; but whoever shall speak
against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be
forgiven him, either in this age, or in
the age to come.”
You see, a few years ago, I came
across this verse and thought I had
stumbled upon a virtually foolproof
way to get a little peace of mind from
my Mom’s and other Christians’ con
stant attempts to re-convert me.
I immediately blasphemed you,
both orally and in writing, and thought
I had therefore made myself immune
to any future attempts at “salvation”
(or should I say subjugation).
Now, the last time my dearly
beloved Mother mentioned that all
atheists repent before they died, and
that she would pray for me, I became
flushed with excitement: I held the
trump card!
Or so I thought.
After reciting the verse and telling
her of my previous blasphemies, my
Mom only paused for a moment and
then said:
“But Jeremy, you can’t blaspheme
something you don’t believe in; so
when you try to blaspheme the Holy
Spirit, I know that you still, deep down,
believe in it.”
Now, you can’t imagine my frustra
tion. But what could I do? If my Mom
was right, and I could only blaspheme
you by admitting I believe in you, then
that would kind of ruin the whole
point.
However, I received slightly differ
ent guidance from my friends at the
Christian Apologetics & Research
Ministry (www.carm.org). They
informed me that: “There is no biblical
support for a believer committing this
sin. It just hasn’t happened. Also, if you
are worried that you may have com
mitted the sin and can’t be forgiven,
then don't be concerned. If you are
worrying about it, then you haven’t
committed it. If you are worried about
it, then that is a sign that you have not
committed it. If you had, you wouldn’t
be concerned.”
I like to think of myself as a reason
ably intelligent person, but admittedly,
I don’t exactly understand this pas
sage. But from what I can make out,
I’m in a pretty bad position.
If my Mom’s right, I can’t blas
pheme you without confessing that I
believe in you; but according to the
Research Ministry, if I believe in you, I
can’t blaspheme you. What gives? I’m
saved if I do, saved if I don’t!
Like I said, I know you’re pretty
busy and everything, but if you could
help me out with this, I would really
appreciate it.
It’s not like I’m asking you to give a
coherent explanation of the Trinity or
something. Maybe we can stipulate
that if I knew how to blaspheme you, I
would do so?
I mean, you’ve got to give me a little
bit of credit: I’m doing the very best I
can.
With the Utmost Sincerity,
Jeremy Patrick
