Daily Nebraskan
Friday, Aprs! 27, 1934
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Local residents who vote in the May
15 primary seem to have a choice of
three similar candidates in the District
1 race for the Nil Board of Regents.
Challengers Don Geis and Don Fricke
and incumbent Edward Schwartzkopf,
in recent interviews with the Daily
Nebraskan, each stressed the neces
sity of long-range planning to improve
the academic program at the Univer
sity. In May, voters will be asked to
make their choice among these three
men. The top two vote winners will
advance to November's general election.
Schwartzkopf, the current board
chairman, clearly has the advantage in
experience. He has been on the board
since 1967 and has earned the respect
of fellow regents and patrons of the
university. His experience also earns
him the Daily Nebraskan's endorse
ment for the primary election.
That experience is vital One-fourth
of the current board members have
less than two years experience. With
the multitude of problems facing insti
tutions of high er education, the regents
need the continuity that Schwartzkopf
can provide.
Schwartzkopf often has been accused
of showing too much concern for the
athletic department and too little con
cern for the academic standing of the
university. Perhaps he has, at times,
shown special interest toward sports.
That can be expected from a former
UNL football player.
But he has not shown a lack of con
cern for academic quality. People who
attend regents' meetings find
Schwartzkopf to be one of the board's
most informed and influential
members.
During his career, he has helped
push through increased faculty benef
its, the Toward Excellence program
and the Bereuter stipends. Last week,
he told the Daily Nebraskan that one of
his goals is to help develop benefits,
such as insurance and retirement
funds, that are not taxable. Faculty
members who depend on the univer
sity for their entire income, he said,
have few possible tax deductions.
Schwartzkopf recently retired from
the Lincoln 'Public Schools, but his
many years of service there is evidence
of his dedication to education. That's
the kind of dedication and experience
the university needs to help it through
the troubled times ahead.
Geis and Fricke are to be commended
for caring about NU, but Nebraska res
idents and the university community
would best be served by another six
years of Ed Schwartzkopf on the Board
of Regents.
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Letters
Still innocent
The fraternity to which I belong currently is being
investigated for alleged violations of the university
code of conduct. Since code of conduct violations
are fairly commonplace and are investigated prac
tically every week, I didnt really think much of the
investigation. Unfortunately, this alleged miscon
duct has received an inordinate amount of public
ity. I, therefore, have but one request. I ask that the
people of tne university community remember that
an individual (or organization) is innocent until
proven guilty, and until this guilt is proven, people
should not jump to conclusions or make hasty
judgments. If you don't know all the facts, please
don't talk as if you do.
Don Graff
senior
finance
Exams a supplement
Concerning the column by Bill Allen (Daily Neb
raskan, April 24). It occured to me that if this article
is taken at face value, the university is supporting
cheating.
It is common knowledge that many departments,
as well as Love Library, have active and current test
files. Those who have bothered to glance at those
files realize that frequently, if not always, they con
tain tests that are no longer in use. The use of these
exams are to supplement, not to replace normal
study habits.
I am tired of certain individuals who consider
themselves to be journalists, but in fact are only
running off at the mouth about things which they
seem to have very limited knowledge about. This is
the type of individual that would watch the movie
"Animal House" and consider himself an expert on
the Greek system. Or go see the movie "Police
Academy" and claim to know everything on the use
of firearms. I am not contending that your ideas are
altogether wrong, but merely suggesting that you
base your feelings more on fact rather than fiction.
Mike IQsin
junior
criminal justice
Reagan paranoia, U.S. inivsnUon
77
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CIA-manipulated mining ofNicaraguan ports, an
act of was under international law, reveals the lack
of limitation in the Reagan attack on Central Amer
ica. The domino theory under which the president
and his aides operate that the United States is in
imminent external danger because of a spreading
wave of Soviet subversion in the western hemis
phere is not a subtle one, adaptable to changing
situations.
( I ' Eric
s I Peterson
The harbor mining was only the most recent arid
extreme of revelations about American involvement
in Nicaragua and El Salvador and before that,
Guatemala, Chile, Cuba, Mexico . . . the list does not
get shorter. , )Vhat's new about it is the sudden and
important escalation of aggression of aggression in
American policy. Even old cold warriors like Ariz
ona Sen. Barry Goldwater, the same guy who wanted
to use nuclear bombs on Hanoi, were angry about
administration secrecy regarding the minings.
France and Britain both objected to the minings,
and the contadora group of moderate Latin Ameri
can countries has, according to political columnist
Anthony Lewis, called for "the total elimination of
all armed violence, direct or indirect, against Nica
ragua." Newsweek sources said Secretary of State
George Schultz had his doubts about the action, but
didn't have the guts to take a stand against it.
The mining of Corinto, Puerto Sandino, El Bluff
and several other ports, intended as a crippling
blow to the already suffering Nicaraguan economy,
was done by speedboats which used a CIA ship as
their base. This mining corresponds with a more
and more direct American intrusion into both El
Salvador and Nicaragua. -
U.S. reconnaissance planes are helping the Sal
vadoran air force locate guerrilla encampments.
The Washington Post has reported that the mining
ofNicaraguan harbors is only a holding action and
that the "covert" war there will be stepped up after
Reagan's re-election. Vie New York Tiroes hzs said
"contingency plans are being drawn up for the pos
sible use of United States combat troops in Central
America"
In response to the New York Tirzcs story, a three
page statement by Schultz, CIA director William
Casey, Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, and
national security adviser Robert McFarlane was
drawn up: "We state emphatically that we have not
considered, nor have we developed plans to use U.S.
military forces to invade Nicaragua or any other
Central American country,". . . ; . .
Americans have little reason to believe such'
assertions. We have been lied to before, and pro
fusely. If America does not get into a direct war in El
Salvador or Nicaragua, it will be because people are
more savvy about Presidential lying and Cold War
newspeak than they used to be. And so, apparently,
are people in Congress, who adjourned for Easter
without voting for any new aid for American sub
versive efforts in Nicaragua.
Unfortunately, this is no permanent defeat for the
administration's policies in Latin America. There is
every reason to expect that Reagan and the old boys
will continue to press war, covert or open, on Cen
tral America, until it is clear such efforts will not
work and people are tired of them or until a Demo
cratic president is elected and returns to a more
conciliatory, humane and workable solution to
problems with our neighbors.
Divided loyalties harm Third World
Life is full of ironies. Sometimes people who
should be friends end up enemies because of their
own human weaknesses and the situation they are
in.
This tendency also is prevalent among nations.
Very often we find nations opposed to each other
when they should, in fact, be united.
This is especially true of smaller nations that have
been dominated by the superpowers. Very often, in
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their blind hatred and suspicion of the superpower
that has dominated them, they turn in admiration
to another superpower.
In doing this, they ignore the injustice perpe
trated by the second superpower. This injustice
often includes the domination of small countries
that are similar to the ones admiring the super
power. Let me give some examples.
As a native of the Caribbean, I have experienced
firsthand the disastrous effects of European and
U.S. domination of our countries.
The history of this intervention, culminating in
the recent U.S. invasion of Grenada, has produced
an, almost wholesale admiration for the Soviet
Union among many Caribbean and Latin American
people.
In expressing this attitude, they have ignored the
Soviet domination of Eastern Europe. Thus, they
end up justifying the oppression of nations similar
to their own. - -.
This tendency works the other way, also.
Many Eastern Europeans, suppressed by the
Soviet Union since World War II, justify U.S. domina
tion of Latin America because they are afraid of
increased Soviet influence there. .
In the cases of both peoples (Latin Americans and
Eastern Europeans) there are many who talk about
freedom and independence for themselves but are
unwilling to grant that right to others.
The basic reason for this is a human weakness
that afflicts not only nations but also individuals.
This is the tendency to ignore the experiences of
others and to interpret and deal with the world
solely on the basis of one's own experiences.
Eastern Europeans who judge every world situa
tion on the basis of whether it increases or de
creases Soviet power are guilty of this attitude. So
are Latin Americans who judge international events
on the basis of whether they increase or decrease
U.S. power.
Tne irony, of course, is that Latin Americans and
Eastern Europeans have a lot in common since they
both have been dominated by neighboring super
powers that have imposed dictatorships on their
nations.
In the case of Eastern Europe, Soviet domination
has hindered economic development. In the case of
Latin America, U.S. exploitation actually has im
poverished the region.
The tragedy of the situation is that the human
weaknesses Latin Americans and Eastern Euro
peans share with all of us and the insecure position
in which history has placed them probably make
their cooperation less likely than their antagonism
in a world divided and manipulated by superpowers.