Thursday, March 15, 1934
Pago 4
Daily Nebraskan
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A recent article in the Los Angeles Times chro
nicled a growing phenomenon in America: The re
emergence of Richard Nixon as a respected public
figure.
Many have begun to praise Nixon as the man who
opened the road to China 'and achieved detente
with the Soviets. True statements all, and Nixon
should be commended for them. But, in our haste to
praise famous men, let's not forget the other side of
the coin. (Or, in Nixon's case, the thousand-dollar
bilL)
This is the same man who was driven from office
in disgrace, the same man who, had he not resigned
the presidency, would have been impeached and
removed from office. This also is the same man who
almost certainly would have been indicted if Special
Prosecutor Leon Jaworski had been so inclined and
if Gerald Ford had not pardoned him.
No one can deny that the Nixon administration
had its foreign policy triumphs, but there is a seam
ier side to that foreign policy that many of these
revisionist historians seem to have forgotten.
Nixon was the architect of a disastrous Vietnam
policy, a policy that saw this country entrenched in
Vietnam for four long years after he, took power.
And peace, when it finally came, was a peace that
could have been gained four years earlier.
Nixon's Vietnam policy, although stupid, wasn't
criminal. His efforts to overthrow Salvador Allende's
Marxist government in Chile were.
That bloody coup, and the dictatorship that
resulted from it, are direct results of the policy of the
Nixon administration.
Perhaps the most disappointing thing about this
revisionist drivel is that these people should know
better. These historians aren't evil people, and they
certainly arent stupid. Perhaps they are guilty of
the same kind of thinking that afflicted so many in
Nixon's White House, Le., results are the only thing
that count and how you get those results isn't as
important as the fact that you have them.
Even George McGovern, the man whom Nixon
defeated in the landslide of 1972, has recently
praised Nixon and even had a private meeting with
him to discuss foreign policy, or what passes for
foreign policy these days.
McGovern, of all people should know that a
government, no matter what its foreign policy may
be, has no legitimacy if it has no respect for the law.
Jeff Goodwin
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Realism, feeling advance
Ferraro's non-token bid
Hanging on the walls of Geraldine
Ferraro's office are all the artifacts
you might expect of the U.S. Repre
sentative from Archie Bunker's home
town of Queens, N.Y. There's the
requisite picture of Ferraro and the
pope. The picture of Ferraro and
Jean Stapleton. Even a picture of
Ferraro and another Italian, Sophia
Loren.
But in the corner near her desk is
something alittle special. It's a Christ
mas gift from her staff, a framed
poster of the game she's mastering.
; Yx Ellen
: & Goodman
It's called "The Woman's Campaign
Game." The square the congress
woman currently occupies carries
this notice: "You're twice as quali
fied as your opponent. YouVe work
ed twice as hard. The two of you are
now dead even. Move to his square."
Geraldine Ferraro, 48, lawyer,
mother of three grown kids,, wife,
three-term member of Congress, sec
retary of the House Democratic Cau
cus, an activist for women's issues
from a conservatve ethnic district
and insider and outsider, is us?d to
working twice as hard. She is now
moving closer, square by square, to
the one marked Democratic, vice
presidential nominee.
Since Gary Hart put a nail in the
tire of the Mondale bandwagon, the
1984 campaign has become wide
open to possibilities. If the recent
votes express anything, it is an amor
phous desire for something "new."
Ferraro has risen pretty quickly
from one of the women "mentioned,"
to a permanent place on the short
list, to the status of contender. She
is now becoming "visible," the art of
running without running.
What is attractive about the ener
getic woman from Queens is her wil
lingness to confront the central di
lemma of the Democratic Party in
1984: "How do you deal with all the
groups that have been so severely
impacted by the policies of this
administration . . . without promis
ing them the things they should
have but which you know damn well
because of the $200 billion deficit
you cant give them."
More impressively, Ferraro has
grappled with this question in her
own district and occasionally taken
heat for her honesty. "I go in and
say, Tou can't have it all If you
expect other people to sacrifice
you're going to have to sacrifice too.' "
Yet in 1982, she came out of that
working-class community with 73
percent of the vote.
In the next few months, Ferraro
has a chance to make a mark on the
party and on her future. At plat
form hearings in six cities, shell try
to hammer out "something that is
realistic and something that has
feeling."
The vice-presidential spot has al
ways been a matter of calculator
politics. What could Ferraro bring
to the ticket? In one bold move, she
could change Mondale's image as an
old-style politician wedded to the
past; On a Haft ticket, Gary and
Gerry would be the envy of any TV ,
anchor team. Among other things,
the contrast between them and
Reagan-Bush could be a stunning
statement about the changing of the
guard;
As for a constituency, Ann Lewis,
the Democratic political director,
says that Ferraro has the ability to
reach across the spectrum of the
Democratic party" from the elderly
and blue collar ethnics in her dis
trict to the national constituency of
women. "What the Democrats need
to win," says Lewis, "is voter turnout.
How do you energize voter turnout?
What kind of nominees turn on and
turn out the voters?" She believes
that a woman candidate could make
a positive difference, and so do two
thirds of the top Democrats polled
by Gallup. '
Ferraro has spent time thinking
about the platform and about mak
ing a race for the Senate in 1 986. She
admits: "The -odds are very great
that if someone said to me We need
you,' I would say 'I'm ready.' "
But she also says directly that no
woman will be brought on the ticket
as a token. Any woman would have
to bring her own political strengths.
The bottom line isn't male or female,
she says, but "can we beat Ronald
Reagan?" For that comment, move
the lady from Queens three squares
ahead in the political game.
1SS4, Tha Boston C!ojs llmt paper
Ccrr-paTij'AVsjhL-toa Post V.'rJIsn Group
, Letters
Reaction excessive
We write this letter in response to
the overwhelming reaction that the
"Serendipity" cartoon (Daily Nebras
kan, March 5) has received.
This has been the most blatant
example of overreaction and stretch
ed intentions that we have seen here at
UNL A simple one-liner with an ele
mentary illustration has spurred a
bevy of exaggerations about the origi
nal intent of the column.
March officially has been proclaim
ed "Nebraska Humor Month" by our
governor, Bob Kerrey. If people (be
they Hispanic, Caucasion, et al) can
not sit back and take a good, long look
and laugh at themselves, (especially
this month) then who CAN they laugh
at? Remember the adage: "Laugh at
yourselTand the world laughs with
you."
This cartoon does not "patently por
tray Hispanics as sombrero-laden im
morals," as Olivia Guerra said, (March
12) nor does this cartoon "depict that
domestic violence is something to laugh
at," as Janet Ward has suggested
(March 12).
The cartoon was merely a play on
the word "tequila," which just happens
to be of Hispanic origin, and had "her"
as the object. :
Granted, this article may have been
avoided by the editors, but people with
a sense of humor need not be offended
that this simplistic cartoon was pub
lished, for it is emotional overreaction
that causes friction between the sexes
and between ethnic groups.
These conflicts are not caused by
guileless one-liners.
Greg Witt
sophomore
engineering
and 2 other students
AAUP's visions belie facts
Recent articles and distribution by
the American Association of Univer
sity Professors portray unionized Rut
gers University as the flagship of aca
demic Utopia. Having recently visited
that institution on three occasions, I
must report that my observations do
not corroborate this vision.
Guest
Opinion
First, if the financial status of their
faculty is superior to that of NU facul
ty's, they hide their largesse well If
they owned Mercedes or even Cadillac
cars, they evidently were not driving
them on the days I was there.
If the faculty members are superior
performers in the academic world,
they have not made their administra
tors aware of it. They recently have
gone through major external reviews.
The results were not complimentary
and the administration has moved
major elements of the faculty into dif
ferent colleges or units with the intent
of improving the quality of the pro
grams. Promotion and tenure propos
als are being screened very rigidly by
the adminstration.
In order to bclzter funding, the admin
istration has proposed that Hatch Act
funds, historically directed toward re
search in agriculture, be opened for
general use. To save money, the admin
istration wishes to place all Cook Col
lege faculty members on acadmic-year
(nine-month) appointments an ex
cellent idea if you can get plants and
animals to stop growing during the
summer months. To generate dollars,
the administration has begun long
term leasing of "unused" areas of the
campus for industrial development,
including areas of the Cook College
campus.
Although UNL faculty members may
gripe about facilities, compared with
Rutgers we are much better off. They
have nothing like Kimball Hall, the
Nebraska Center, ETV, or the propos
ed Performing Arts Center (inciden
tally, has anyone thanked Dr. Varner
or Dr. Massengle for their efforts to
obtain this facility?).
The AAUP is singing the siren song of
something for nothing. The subliminal
message is that "we can get more
money for you without any effort on
your part and we can shield you
form the administration so that you
will not have to work a3 hard." If AAUP
can successfully peddle that line, I'm
going to look into buying stock in
AAUP.
W. E. Splinter
. Head of
. UNL Ag Engineering Department