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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 25, 1968)
tl11NfHlfaWa''&'li,' 11,1 rrrmMwimm THE DAILY NEBRASKAN Editorials Commentary Page 2 Monday, March 25, 1968 NAACP problems After an NAACP meeting Sunday at which an attempt was made to organize a youth council within the group, it was apparent the chapter has severe problems. The NAACP has been spurned in other cities by Negro groups espousing militant ac tions for obtaining civil rights. There are no organized militant groups in Lincoln, but their absence has not improved the NAACP'i pres tige or effectiveness. Dr. Patrick Weill expressed frustration ever most of the NAACP meetings and bemoaned the fact that the students who could organize a youth council weren't even at the meeting. Of the 20 high school and college students at the meeting about one-third were Negroes. Some white students are very sincere in their desire to help the Negroes' problems in Lincoln and their work can be beneficial. But it isn't the ..white students who are being discriminated against and it isn't the white students who really under stand the problems facing the Negro. There are several areas in the Lincoln school system, and at the University especially, in which a youth group headed by Negro students could work. For example the University'! housing policies regarding discrimmination are totally ineffective. Landlords reportedly discriminating in their choice of tenants are never prosecuted. Other loopholes in the housing policy allow a landlord who has been taken off the list to rent again to another Univer sity student An NAACP youth council might also be effec tive in changing the curriculums in both the high schools and colleges in Lincoln. Several students at - the University have been trying to introduce a Ne gro histry course but thus far only a small num ber of students have shown any interest in the project. The NAACP meeting Sunday showed that only . through the efforts of active Negro students can "an NAACP youth council be organized. The local chapter will hold another organizational meeting within the next ten days, and hopefully the at tendance ratio will be reversed. Cheryl Tritt Wayne Kreuscher Unsullied victory - " In Nebraska, according to Time magazine, 1" "Johnson may gain his first unsullied victory of 1 the year in a directly contested race." - ; "The state (Nebraska)," Time explained, "is " markedly hawkish, the Democratic regulars seem ingly loyal. Last week former Gov. Frank Morri son took over leadership of the Johnson campaign organization. The anti-Johnson sentiment seems too slight to support one challenger, let alone two." Perhaps myself and thousands of other Nebras kans who are registered Democrats can easily be put off as a "slight" sentiment, but I hope not. Perhaps some "regular" Democrats are im pressed by Morrison, but then the rest of us must be considered "irregular." (Phil Sorensen may no longer live in Nebraska, but his word against John son certainly carries more weight with me than Morrison.) Again the anti-Johnson, pro-McCarthy or pro Kennedy Democrats might be "slight", but it's my bet that we include the largest majority of Demo crats (and many Republicans) under the age of 30 in the state. Hopefully there are also thousands of other enlightened Nebraskans above 30 who agree with us. I'm anxious to see who the "regular seeming ly loyal" Democrats get to pass out their litera ture before the primary this year. Another recent statement that I think needs more explanation is one made by Gov. Tlemann last Friday. Tiemann was indirectly quoted as say ing: The progressive nature of the Republican ad ministration has won the support of Nebraska's young people. If by this comment Tierrsnn meant he person ally has won the support of Nebraska's young peo ple, he's right. Both young Republicans and Demo crats respect the governor for his frank comments, - hard work and progressive ideas. But the governor should have added that be is r respected and supported in contrast to the state's - other top Republican office-holders such as Curtis, IHruska, Denney, Cunningham and Martin. MM A young person can respect Tiemann. The I others, who represent the state in Congress, are a -constant embarassment and often stand for every "thing young people today find distasteful I It's pitiful that Nebraskans are judged nation- - ally by Curtis and Hruska's vltra-conservative vot Ilng records (not to mention Cnrtis's antics on the - Senate floor such as his recent accusation against a supporter of the public disclosure amendment.) Or take a comment like Cunningham made in Omaha last week. He suggested that the U.S. fol low Barry Goldwater's advice and "slice off the eastern seaboard and let it float out to sea." (Real ly I'm embarassed to even repeat this comment made by one of the people who is supposed to represent Nebraskans.) As for Denney fortunately Claii CaHaa is running again. One last political statement that deserves at ; tention. Nixon was quoted in Wisconsin as saying , hi thought the demonstrations against 0 r v i 1 1 e I Freeman by University of Wisconsin studenU "raise . very great dangers" that the nation will "present an ugly image to the world." The students should have given Freeman . long a distinguished member of the cabinet a I chance to speak. ; But is it really possible after America's con- duct of the war in Vietnam for the U.S. to present any worse of an "ugly image to the world" than it already has and, if Nixon has his way, will continue to do. LKiU, to otic ofTtlg- fSaHgUi oh Tut Bw8 mar j- i kt i V V.- I-. , t mt?a Andy Corrigan Joseph Alsop . Study shows key is education Washington For the short run, the poultice programs re commended by the Presi dent's riot commission may help to make the coming truly nightmarish. More jobs, even if artificial ly created; better housing, even if tax-stimulated; a more rational welfare system, even if tax-stimulated; a more ra tional welfare system, even if very costly all three are measures which will obvious ly improve the quality of life in our great urban ghettos. But the real questions is not which' are the b e s t poultice programs. The real question is how to cut away the can cer itself. And this cancer of segregation, of race hatred, of lack of equal opportunity for our Negro fellow-citizens can never be cut away, so long as nine-tenths of the adult Negro population are educa tionally as well as racially se gregated. They are now to segregated by schooling vastly inferior to the normal blue-collar aver age that it unfits them to com pete in modern American so ciety. The reason for this ed ucational segregation is quite simple: economically and so cially handicapped children need much better and more expensive schools in order to peg even in their learning with more fortunate middle-class children. This has now been shown, at any rate by implication, in a most remarkable study Dy rrots. susan M. Stodolsky, of the University of Chicago," and Gerald Lesser, of Har vard. This study has its faint ly comic aspects, as most ed ucationalists' studies tend to have. For example, in order to avoid those dreadful words, race and nationality, the two professors have invented a new word, "ethnicity." The guts of the study is a series of tables showing result of tests most carefully admin istered to middle-class and poor Jewish, Chinese, Negro and Puerto Rican first-graders, primarily in New York. The t e 8 1 s were then re checked, with identical re sults, in Boston. In Boston, middle-class and poor Irish children were added to the list. The figures on the last group were not in the study, but were given by Prof. Lesser to this reporter. The children were tested for their verbal, reasoning, nu merical and space-conceptual attainments. Most interesting ly, the middle-class and poor children of each racial group showed identical curves. Thus the Chinese children were low verbally, being bilingual at best, but high on everything else. The Negroes were high verbally but low on numbers, and so or. and on. In all cases, including the Irish, the middle-class scores were far above the scroes of the children. Overall, the Chi nese tested highest; the Jews came next, and the poor Ne groes tested lowest. But the middle-class Negro children (mainly from segre gated schools in the New York tests) did very well in deed, above the middle-class Puerto Ricans and not far from the Middle-class Jews and Chinese. , To underline the point more sharply, the middle-class Irish children in Boston tested substantially lower than the middle-class Nfcgrd children except on space-conception. But the poor Irish children tested far above the poor Ne gro children. Family culture, then, so strong with the Chinese, the Jews and, in some measure, the Irish, counts for a good deal. But the cruel factor,' poverty - versus - middle - class origins, counts for far, far more. The Stodolsky-Lesser study, to begin with, casts the grav est doubt on the conclusion so facilely drawn from the so called Coleman Reptor. For the Negro children in inte grated schools are, in the great majority, middle-class Negro children. Thus their superior performance, attri buted by Coleman to integra tion, is far more likely to be attributable to their family situation. The great need, in any case, is to find ways to improve the schools in poor neighbor hoods, so that the children's class handicap is overcome. This means starting them in prekindergarten, or even a year earlier than that, when their speech handicaps are It means special measures to give each child continu ous schooling, without the constant transfers from school to school that charac terize what may be called wel fare neighborhoods. It means all the other things included in New York's More -Effective Schools program, so unfairly denigrated by s e 1 f serving Educational theorists. It means an ongoing program, like the abandoned Demon strate Schools Project in New York which had much suc cess, even at the difficult high school level, before it was id iotically and hopelessly de based into the unsuccess ful Higher Horizons project It means, in short, an im mense expenditure on train ing more teachers, building more schools and vastly im proving existing schools to cure the segregation by de flclent education of the chil dren of America's Negro mi nority. But if the tax rate of every rich and middle-class Amer ican has to be doubled in or der to avert the American nightmare that now threatens it will be a sound investment in the American future. God save our country soon, one can only say in farewell. The draft: laws and loopholes EDITOR'S NOTE: This Is a CPS review by Richard An thony of Conrad Lynn's book How to Stay Out of the Army. This slim paperback is not what its title suggests a guidebook to aid the reader from being drafted. If any thing, its contents are better described by its subtitle, "A Guide to Your Rights Under the Draft Law." It clarifies some of the complexities of the Selective Service System, and it does offer some tips for those who don't want to be drafted. Lynn, the author, is a law yer from New York who has been specializing in draft cases for more than 20 years. He hates the war in Vietnam, and sees his book as a means to combatting the war. In the first section of the book, besides explaining what all the classifications are, from I-A to V-A, Lyon offers a few Interesting notes about classification procedures. He points out, for example, that membership in a left wing group sometimes is good for a I-Y classification (which means that the individual so classified is "not currently qualified" for service.). He also describes the current fight over the ministerial, or IV-D, classification, which re volves around Muhammed All's attempts to gain recog nition as a Muslim minister. On the other band, Lynn does not really explain how to keep from being classified I-A. i!y enough, he includes only tw paragraphs on the kinds ef physical disabilities that results in exempticcs. The kind of information usually passes by word-of-mouth, and some definite guidelines would be helpful. Another shortcoming of the first section is Lynn's failure to emphasize that a unani mous vote by a state appeal board means the appealant can't take his case to the Presidential appeal board. The second section is the meat of the book, and it is likely to be of real help to those who plan to leave the country or to apply for con scientious objector status. The brief chapter on going to Canada explains how an American can become a "landed Immigrant" there without giving up his U.S. citizenship, and tells how im migration can be arranged by mall. Lacking from the chap ter, however, is an explana tion of Canada's new point system for immigrant's skills, education, resources, etc. The longest chapter in the book is that on conscientious objection. Lynn devotes most of it to discussion of the Seeger case, a Supreme Court case in which the court de cided that belief in a Supreme Being was not required for a man to be granted C. 0. sta tus. He points out that as a re sult of the Seeger case, local draft boards and state appeals boards are given the job of distinguishing a religious ob jection to war from one that is moral or ethical. Lynn be lieves that boards will be re luctant to draft CO. appli cants because of the ambigui ties created by the Seeger de cision, and that the courts are likely to rule in favor of many of those whose boards decide against them. This chapter, too, has its short-comings, however. Lynn Daily Nebraska Vol. 1, No. M Muck 26. IMS eooodoisss pHtai, paid at Uaeoia. Neb. TEiJCPHONES: Editor 472-ttM, News 47a-JM. PatWHt 47V WW. fubacripUon rata are 14 par aatnaalar at t lor tba ecademle year. Published Monday, Wednesday. Thursday and Friday during tha school year, swept during vacation and nam periods, by th rUulents of th University of Nebraska undxr tha Jurisdiction ot tha Faculty Subcommittee oa Student Publication.. Publications half be free from censorship by the Subcommittee or any person outside the tJotvenlty. Warn bars ef Die Nebraskan are responsible for what they cause to be eriot-d. Member Associated Collegiate Press, National Educational Advnrttsuif Service. EDrroBIU. STAFF Editor Cheryl Trlttt Manaalnjl Editor Jack Toddt New Editor Ed Icenoclei Nlfht News Editor J. L. Schmidt; Editorial Pane Assistant June Waeoner: Assistant H. nnl &aw Editor Wilbur (.entry: h ports Editor Goorae Kaufman: Assistant Sports kulllar Bonnie Bonneaji: News Assistant Lynn Ptaoeki Staff Writers- Jim Evtneer, Kerb Martin, Mark Gordon, Jan Parka. Joan McCullouj(h, Janet Maxwell. Andy unnlnrnsm, Jim Paderesn, Monica Pokorsy Phytlui Adon. Kent i'-ockvm. Breat Kklnner, Nancy Wood. John Dvorak, Keith Williams: Senior Copy Editor I. erm (Jut'-w'hs'k; Cncy Editors: Betsy f enlmore, Dave Filial. Jane Ikevs, Molly Murrell. Christie atetiwertzkooft Phou(rapner Mike Hsyman and Dea Ledely. Bl'fUKEM gTAfT Business Manager Glenn Priendti Production Maaaser Charlie Butari Pta tlonal A4 Manager iaeu Machey: Bookkeeper and classified ada manager Oery HoJIinssworth; iWsinesa aecretarv J.n h..im.n i buhscripUon Msnaear Jena buu wmiiiea uu irons, uaa Looker, JUUur Dial IB, low auaufBies, Inotm UtYla, loam Wumacua, doesn't take up the question of what happens to men who conscientiously object to Viet nam rather than wars in gen eral the "selective C.O.s". There are no provisions for this sort of objection under current draft law. He also falls to emphasize that a CO. is supposed to have reached his convictions as a result of "religious train ing and belief". In practice, this means that a CO. appli cant has a far better chance by 'getting non-combatant or alternative service if he can prove to his board, by means of statements from his mini ster, lists of pacifist organiza tions he belongs to, or what ever, that he is a sincere and religiously-motivated pacifist. The last major chapter of the book tells how a poten tial draftee should proceed if his case goes to court. He suggests, for example, that a defendant in a draft case al ways ask for a jury trial, be cause one or more jurors are likely to be impressed by a defendant's sincerity even if none of them cares for his p o 1 it i c s. He recommends bringing large numbers of supporters to court, and get ting as much publicity for in dividual court cases as possible. YWCA interviews YWCA will hold interviews for committee chairmen and assistants Wednesday after noon from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. in tha Nebraska Union, accord ing to Barb Ramsey, YWCA officer. Thirty cents worth of love This was to be the semester of the Quiet Revo lution and now nine weeks into the term I sit waiting with bated breath for the silence to end and the murmur of this Quiet Revolution to begin for students now seem to be talking without speak ing and hearing without listening. Where are the instigators of this Quiet Revo lution certainly not hiding behind masks or then we look to the student governing (ex cuse the contradiction of terms) powers for the answer ... Spring may be the herald of new life for na ture lovers but it obviously has done little to al leviate ASUN's plight. An uneventful year dominated by the typical Nebraskan's "tongue-in-cheek" attitude will reach its crecendo next month at election time. With everyone seeming to agree on everything and "everything" being equated to nothing of signifi cance more than a continuation of the "ya sir, boss' routine it appears that ASUN and its "hope for the future", i.e. candidates, offer no answer to my query of the whereabouts of the Quiet Revolu tion. My concept of this revolution, however, may be in error could it be that this happening is oc curring in quarters of lower stature. The recent AWS executive election seems to rule out the possibility of any Quiet Revolution taking place there. With only 26 of the members casting votes (the winner receiving only 10) it would appear that either women students are apathetic or they didn't care to choose from the lesser of the evils (I adhere to the latter of the explanations). During campaign time the AWS hopefuls show ed some promise of Instigating this Quiet Revolu tion in the form of liberalizing restrictions on their constituents but when the results were final the air was cleared of flack and suddenly we "have to evaluate the past programs before Instigating any new ones," (hardly the action of revolution aries) ! With ASUN and AWS shirking at the call of this Quiet Revolution who is there to turn to IDA SDS.. Since IDA is still trying to discover whether, they are a coordinating body or a governing body I tend to rule them out. Last year SDS at least provided local color for the campus but this year NOTHING. Yes, there too, it seems that no revolutionaries (quiet or loud) are to be found. Let it never be said that I have more than "thirty cents worth of love" for a Revolution that is so quiet that it cannot even be heard. Campus Opinion Dear Editor: ;j Open house? Co-ed visitation? In loco parentis? Subcommittees and on and on and on . Cur iosity led me to write my freshman cousin attend ing the University of the predominedtly small-town state of Oregon, at Eugene. After relating to her our above memtioned controversy, she wrote the following concerning the U. of O. policies, etc: "V. of O. has dorm open house regulations, too. The boys always have maximum hours (all that the Student Conduct Committee will allow) and tha girls dorms usually vote for less. Ours are Fri. 8:30 p.m.-l:00 a.m. and Sunday 1-7 p.m. You can have your doors shut." Incidentally, at the University of Oregon, as sha mentioned in one of her earlier letters, any stu dent can live virtually anywhere he or she desires after his or her freshman year. If the U. of O. were a "Berkely" I wouldn't have been surprised. Relatively speaking, the prob lem of a staisfying "open house" policy approaches the ridiculous. Greg Vogt Dear Editor: One day in February recently, in the town ol Wahoo, Nebraska, a certain political science class from John F. Kennedy College staged a mock take-over of the local high school. Under the guidance of Professor R. L. Wiseman, the local students were subjected to the reality of a Com. munist rule for one day. It has been stated that one-fourth of the students at first thought this to be the real thing. I am only sorry that the whole student body did not react in this manner. It would have been Interesting to note if the stu dents would have been able to cope with the prol em when they realized that their present way ol life was coming to an end. Having attended JFK College for a part of my college career, I had the opportunity to have Professor Wiseman as an instructor for one semes ter. During this time I came to know him as a man of personal Integrity, who believed that as a college instructor his job was that of teaching his students something that would be beneficial to them. It is too bad that his critics on this cam pus overlooked the gains to be made and pointed out that what they believed to be faults. Maybe the techniques used were not the best to be employed under the ideal circumstances. As teachers these critics should have realized that tue manner of instruction must sometimes be al tered to achieve the desired end. Mr. Wiseman with. the help of his students, attempted, and in the eyes of many of those involved, it was a sue cessful attempt, to point out how more than one half of the outer world lives today. If this demon stration made just one person realize how much his American heritage means to him, then. 1 would say that it, indeed was very successful. For this would mean that there would be one person who would have less chance of becoming the typi cal apathetic college student and American citizen. In closing. I would like to say that I am sure that many of the people of Hungary in 1956 and other Iron Curtain countries wish that their own probate Communist take-overs had not, in fact been real. ' Loren Hoclscher f