Tuesday, March 6, 1934
Pago 4
Daily Nebraskan
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A debate Thursday featured vague
rhetoric, flighty language, and unkeep
able promises.
It wasn't the Democratic candidates
for president, but a group of UNL stu
dents mimicking them. ,
Three panelists, including me, asked
the six presidential hopefuls questions
admittedly vague ones because
each candidate was allowed two min
utes to respond. I did consider asking
all the candidates if they, like the Don
Ho party, would shoot a pineapple if
no one voted for them. I never did find
out.
When the questions were vague, the
candidates had no problem respond
ing in kind. When the audience later
asked specific questions, the hedging
began. Each group has plans they
intend to carry out through some mys
terious might of ASUN.
What follows is my impression of
each candidate.
Kevin Goldstein, US presidential cand
idate, promises increased student in
volvement with ASUN through im
proved lines of communication with
the UNL campus. A bi-weekly update
sheet, he said, would make ASUN more
visible to students.
Unfortunately, as is apparent by the
infmitisimal voter turnout, very few
people care about ASUN. I don't think
anyone would read a bi-weekly report.
I did, however, agree with his assess
ment of ASUN working best as a ser
vice organization rather than a politi
cal one. ASUN can accomplish things
like student legal services and a typing
center.
Ideally ASUN should have a vote on
the Board of Regents. The school is for
our benefit, we should have some
power. Que sera sera
Goldstein will make a wonderful pol
itician. He talks fast and uses lots of
catch phrases. If I was giving odds, I'd
take Goldstien 3 to 5. Political savvy is
the watchword here.
Mark Scudder, of the Aim party,
doesn't have the polished rhetoric it
takes to win. A member of the aud
ience asked if he was the actor who
played Niedermeyer in Animal House.
Niedermeyer was the overzealous
ROTC frat boy. It's a stigma that may
kill him politically.
Unite presidential candidate Mike
Geiger also had considerable control
of political mumbo-jumbo, but still
took a back seat to the spunky, sea
soned Goldstein. He will have to come
much what ASUN docs. Hence, Fashin
will probably fall by the wayside. Burke
did have a nice suit.
To summarize my impression of this
year's "serious" candidates: Dull.
Dull also is descriptive of this year's
joke parties.
The Don Ho party came out with
some good material. The plan to put
T TXTT sn : I tut- ...
uiu vmujjua hi it uuuoie ana the
Salvadorans rewarded
for human rights with
baseball and burgers
The United States has been criticized, and justifi
ably so, for the human rights abuses of the govern
ment in El Salvador. How, opponents of American
policy there ask, can a staunch supporter of free
dom and equality support a government that con
demns the majority of its population to peasantry?
And how can this North American pillar of peace
give weapons to a ruling class that murders any of
its subjects who question its right to own their land
and labor?
r
Christopher
Burbach
The contradictions inherent in the United States'
Central American policy seem to have finally wrig
gled their way into what some may call the narrow
minds of Reagan administration officials.
Those venerable statesmen have devised a pro
gram which is destined to negate contradictions
and quiet critics by erasing human rights' abuses in
El Salvador. And we won't even have to talk to those
nasty gorillas.
The program is brilliant. El Salvador will, in no
time, be a peaceful bastion of liberty and equality.
The country will be to the Southern Hemisphere
what the United States is to the North.
No, it's not land reform, or free elections, or
serious negotiations; anything like that would be
construed as concessions to those usurping Marxist
peasant thugs. Nor does the program decrease the
flow of American munitions to El Salvador. It even
allows the United States to retain a firm grasp on
the destiny of our little neighbor to the south.
The program, in effect even now, instructs Sal
vadoran army recruits in the ways of civilized peo
ple. Even as they are trained to do battle for their
masters, those noble young men learn to respect
human rights. One might well think of them as
knights, men of swords and letters. "Always save a
damsel in distress," they are told, and, "Give your
prisoners plenty of bread and water."
As soon as the young males from inner cities and
poor rural areas are knighted, they are taught the
"spirit of the bayonet." Once entrenched as martial
apprentice, the boys are taught to read French and
English. Then they ponder the works of Paine, Vol
taire and Dale Carnegie.
They learn to kill only people who are not on their
side. They boycott Soviet wares, donate blood and
exert peer pressure on those naughty members of
right-wing death squads. "If somebody asks you if
you wanta' shoot a nun, just say no. It's easy."
Each month, a different soldier is named "Human
Righter of the Month." The award includes a paid
round-trip to McDonalds restaurant in Houston,
Texas, a musical score to the Pledge of Allegiance
and a season ticket to Chicago White Sox games.
One can only stand mouth agape and wonder at
the ingenuity of American foreign policy makers,
wherever they are. They have, once and for all,
proven their dedication to human rights and then
disgust for those who violate civil and moral codes.
Most astounding, however, is the fact that all this
hss been accomplished without compromising Ameri
can interests, whatever those are. '
up with something outstanding some
thing to catch the interest of the voters idea of honoring Don Ho brought a
ifheistowin.Heseemedtoemphas- smile to one's lips. But presidential
ize the policies of the current ASUN hopefulJohn Manchester wasnt strong
administration. ASUN s work over the in spontaneous humor. Still, Don Ho
last year is nothing to criticize. Legal my personal favorite,
services arc now in sight and we have The Roo party has been hurting for
the library on football Saturdays, but comic material from the word go. John
uazuka, presidential candidate dress
ed in remedy new-wave garb, looked
as if he misht produce a few good
laughs. Instead he ellicted several un
comfortable silences.
Again, ASUN elections are poDular-
raskan reporter covering the debate ity contests. Again, we have a limited
summed it up when she said the stu- selection.
dents would probably like Fashin to Again, I'm not going to vote.
disband. Voters simply don't care very Chris Wclsch
come election time, vvno win re
member? Tim Burke, Fashin presidential can
didate, said his party wants to do what
the students want them to do. He
didn't say much else. The Daily Neb-
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IfV 'if '1964 V.
Li' ?i OHe
Iecal pam and earlier' viability
help muddle 'abortion dilemma
For over a decade now, IVe seen the abortion
controversy keep political opponents frozen at their
poles of opinion. Neither side has been eager to
publicly discuss the full moral dilemma of an un
wanted pregnancy.
The anti-abortion people have downplayed the
crisis experienced by a woman who is pregnant
when she doesn't want to be. It is easier to describe
her plight as a temporary inconvenience. The pro
abortion people have avoided discussing the fetus.
It is easier to talk about the termination of preg
nancy. V v .
"" - " "' - - i
t Ellen
1 " -' Goodman
A few weeks ago, I fell into that trap when I dis
missed the president's statement that an aborted
fetus feels pain. His phrase was far too sweeping. In
the early stages of development, a fetus has the
automatic response of a plant or an amoeba. But my
response was far too casual. At some mid-point in
pregnancy, a fetus undoubtedly experiences what
anyone would fairly describe as pain.
The argument about "pain" is not an unimportant
one because it takes place at the center of the abor
tion dilemma. Today, the combat zone for our moral
ambivalence is that period smack in the middle of
pregnancy when pain and, increasingly, survival
becomes possible.
, .. Just eleven years ago, when the Supreme Court
legalized abortion, the justices said the state had a
legal interest in the fetus only when it was "viable"
when it could survive outside the womb with or
without artifical aid. They set that date at 28 weeks.
Even then, "viability" was less a moral term than a
technological one. But technology changed, gradu
ally and crucially. In 1973, only halfthosc born at 28
weeks survived. Today the odds are much longer. It
is even possible for a fetus born at 22 weeks to
survive. . - ,
The morally critical fact is that we can save the life
of a baby who can be legally aborted.
This collision occurs very rarely. In 1030, only 10
percent of the 1.6 million women choosing abortion
were more than 21 weeks pregnant. Many hospitals
have pushed back the cutoff date to 20 weeks.
t The number of live births resulting from late abor
tions is miniscule. Yet they loom large in our ethical
structure, and they should. As Dr. Thomas Murray
at the Hastings Center for life ethics says, "We knew.;
years ago that when people realized that we can
save the lives of babies who can be legally aborted, it
was all going to hit the fan. We have to preserve our
sense that we are not doing things too morally
contradictory."
That preservation is already evident. Fur fewer '
women have late abortions today than in 1973. The
conundrum is that these late abortions are primar
lly performed on teen-agers who find it hardest to !
cope wh the reality of pregnancy or, surely, moth
erhood. .They .are also chosen by women carrying
f-ji med fetHSes because most nnetic testing must .
still be done in the second trimester.
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