Tuesday, September 11, 1034
Pago 4
Daily Nebraskan
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mHA' loan
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The Farmers Home Admin
istration plays a major role
in Nebraska's rural econ
omy. Without it, more than 10,000
farms in this state probably could
not have obtained loans. A large
portion of those farms probably
would have gone bankrupt.
Since 1 935, the FmHA has been
the last resort for farmers every
where in the United States. When
farmers couldnt get loans any
where else, the FmHA was, and is,
there.
Almost all of the loans made to
farmer by the FmHA have been
repaid, according to the Sept. 10
issue of Newsweek.
. . . mmr rt J 1 .. a fmt j .
FmHAhasfoursectors:thefarm- the business program isnt rignt z wj? rural j ids irom iwj to
er program - the biggest sector now. t at about $33 a Job. That s a
- handles farm loans; the rural Nebraska's FmHA has only 24 cheap way to create jobs too
Of Nebraska's about 10,000 bor- housing division; community pro- business loans, me tmau dusi- cne.ipiuM.rap.
rowers, 28 percent are behind in grams and business and industry, ness Administration makes all Even If the rural economy is
theirpayments,saidFrankMarsh, In Nebraska, Marsh said, the loans less than $500,000. In Neb- improving, ,as the 'Reagan lAdmbv
state director of FmHA. business and industry sector has raska's rural economy, not many stration claims, the need for the
The FmHA is one of the best been combined with the com- businesses need more than loan program may arise again,
and most enduring of the New munity sectonThe business sec- $500,000. The FmHA has tightened the lend-
Deal programs. It ha3 saved tor of FmHA guarantees loans to But the program, as a whole, Ing process to prevent bad loans,
thousands of farms. businesses starting up in towns should not be scrapped. and if there is no need for the
In 1972, Congress added the of 50,000 or less. Estimates by the House Agri- loan guarantees, the money is
responsibility of stimulating the Although the farmer and com- culture Committee show that the still in the US. Treasury a no-non-farm
rural economy to the munity programs are essential to loans to rural industries guaran- rfclhih-gdnpropcdaon ifever there
FmHA. According to Marsh, the Nebraska's agricultural economy, teed by the FmHA saved or created was one.
Catholic clergy break church-slate
barrier
A
t some point during this
long summer, the "wall of
sen ar at ion" between church
and state became a battleground.
Not the least well-armed of the
contenders were the Catholic
hierarchy assembled under the
anti-abortion banner.
First we had New York Arch
bishop John J. O'Connor saying
5
Ellen
Goodman
that he didn't "see how a Catholic
in good conscience can vote for a
candidate who explicitly supports
abortion." In tandem, Bishop
James W. Malone, the president
of the National Conference of
Catholic Bishops, said that Catho
lics couldn't draw a line between
"personal morality and public pol
icy." They were both taking spe
cial aim at Catholic politicians of
the Cuomo-Ferraro stripe who
are "personally opposed to abor
tion but ..."
Then last week, 18 New Eng
land bishops signed a statement
that put two issues at the top of
their moralpolitical agenda.
These things were to be consi
dered by voters above all others:
abortion and nuclear war.
To the amateur observer this
might have suggested that the
Catholic church is splitting its
ticket, since Reagan is seen as
more sensitive .to the unborn,
while Mondale is regarded as more
sensitive to the born. But the
bishops said that the abortion
issue comes first because: "While
nuclear holocaust is a future pos
sibility, the holocaust of abortion
is a present reality." Presumably
ir
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they will allot nuclear war prime
time during the nuclear winter.
Frankly, I am not one of those
who believe that every clerical
collar should come with a muzzle.
Clergy have every right to speak
on moral issues. They even have
the right to endorse legislation
and candidates. But when reli
gious leaders start to talk like
lobbyists and politicians, the pub
lic has to judge them as they
would any other public-interest
group, like The Sierra Club or the
National Rifle Association or the
National Abortion Rights Action
League.
At some point, we are no longer
getting a sermon but a mass mail-
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iro. is
ing. We are no longer a respectful
congregation but a skeptical con
stituency. It's altogether approp
riate to deal with the lobby this
way, to check their facts, to ask
whom they represent and whether
the public policy they support is
the best way to deal with the
issue.
The bishops imply, for exam
ple, that the "facts" on which they
rest their political case against
abortion that the fetus is a
person and that abortion is there
fore murder axe universally
accepted within the Catholic
church. But Catholic theologians
are still arguing about when the
fetus becomes a person. Before
the 18th century, the Church re
fused to baptize aborted fetuses
because they were not viewed as
human.
The question of whom exactly
the bishops represent beyond
other bishops is also a bit
murky. They do not speak for 53
million American Catholics. Cath
olics share the same conflicts and
attitudes toward abortion as the
rest of Americans. Less than 20
percent of them agree with the
bishops' support of a ban on all
abortion. Indeed, at least in Mas
sachusetts, Catholic women have
abortions at the same rate as
women of other religions.
One of the things that may
have prompted the hierarchy into
electioneering i3 the public image
of pro-choice Catholic politicians,
especially Geraldine Ferraro. As
Frances Kissling of Catholics for
a Free Choice says, "Ferraro is
such a visible sign of the Church's
inability to control the Catholic
people. Here is a woman cn the
front page every day who doesn't
agree with them and goes about
the business of being a Catholic."
But if the bishops prefer to
think of themselves as represent
ing God or His will, we get into
even deeper religiouspolitical
trenches. There has been no divine
revelation on, say, the Hyde
Amendment. It is perfectly legit
imate for any citizen, including
Catholics with deep qualms about
the morali ty of abortion, to argue
over "pro-lie" legislation. Would
re-criminalizing abortion, mean
less loss of fetal "life" or more loss
of female life?
Furthermore,, the Church has
art internal quandary about its
own responsibility for unwanted
pregnancies. On the very day that
Bishop Law was taking a political
stand againt abortion, the pope
proclaimed that even "natural
family planning," the rhythm
method, the one form of Church
approved birth control, was also
questionable.
e
In any great civilian war, poli
ticians like to claim that God is on
their side. If God is unavailable, a
volunteer clergyman makes a for
midable recruiter for the party.
Archbishop Law protests, "I dont
want to be a political boss." But if
a clergyman talks like a political
boss and walks like a political
boss, he must be judged like apol
itical boss.
1SS4, Tha BosS&n C'.zti N&wspsper
CcnxpsyAVih!n;;n Post WrStera Group
r1i
ourteen years ago, then President
Nixon, in a message to congress, set
forth a truly remarkable call for a
new relationship between the U.S. govern
ment and Native American tribes. He
asserted that "the time has come to break
sers
decisively with the past and to create the
conditions for a new era in which the
Indian future is determined by Indian
acts and Indian decisions."
Sadly, however, Nixon's remarkable
proposition went unheralded in the ensu
ing years and similarly remarkable legisla
tion implementing the called for "decisive
break" with the past was never passed.
Since that time, with few exceptions, VS.
policy toward American Indians has borne
sorrowful witness to the old adage "out of
sight, out of mind."
e ior new
The time is overly ripe to rectify the
problems that have plagued" Native
Americans because of federal misman
agement and oppression. The obvious
next question is that of what steps ought
to be taken in the search to rectify the
situation as best as possible. Three fun
damental steps ought to be taken by the
U.S. government to ameliorate the prob
lems that have been created for Ameri
can Indians.
First, a fundamental shift as to the end
goal of US. Indian policy must occur. To
date, according to a U.S. Senate Report,
"the dominant policy of the Federal govern
ment towards the American Indian has
been one of coercive assimilation." Re
nouncing the goal of Indian assimilation
requires a rethinking on the part of
policy-makers of well intentioned, but
misguided, legislation.
Apparently benign policies such as the
"Indian Civil Rights" act and massive
infusions of social program funds are
viewed by many with suspicion. Professor
Lawrence Barsh, Foreign Affairs Counsel
Til Ol QYl -,
OTP a. ..
to the Mikmaq 'Grand Counsel, asserts
that although these policies are in some
ways helpful to Native Americans, "from
a political perspective " they are viewed
as signs of "increasing administrative in
corporation rather than emancipation."
In order to avoid making an already bad
problem worse, U.S. policy-makers sim
ply m ust insure that any program intend
ed to aid American Indians is consonant
with notions of tribal sovereignty.
The second step in our program to
"break decisively with the past" is to set
up afuH scale Rectification Board to deal
exhaustively with tribal land and mone
tary claims. Similar cases already are
pending in courts where Indian tribes are
making land and compensatory ckiris.
The creation of a separate Rectification
Board would hopefully encourage the
development of expertise amongst the
adjudicators in sorting through the
enormous legal complications that &ese
types of cases attract.
Continued cn Pas- 5
