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THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 12, 1S159
Religion department
needed at NU
The University of Nebraska should have a separate
department of religion. At present, students may take
courses at the Nebraska School of Religion and transfer
the credit to the University. Only in some colleges
however, may the credit be applied toward the
humanities group requirement.
This type of Integration set-up with a private
school not formally part of the University structure
is inferior to a well staffed and financed religion
department
One problem in setting up a department is the
attitude of some professors that religion has no place
in the university structure because it would be
an evangelistic (knartment. This is a rather narrow
view of what such a department should be.
John F. Wilson, assistant professor of religion
at Princeton, says that professors in a religion depart
ment should analyze religions rather than represent
a theological value. The analysis should examine a
theological value. The analysis should examine claims
of truth without advocacy of one claim.
If such guidelines are followed, the religion
department's place as an academic discipline becomes
apparent. Religion instruction becomes somewhat
analagous to a course, say In philosophy.
Interested persons, such as directors of campus
religion centers and college advisory boards, should
begin a study of the problems in setting up a depart
ment of religion and be prepared to make recom
mendations before the budget planning In the spring.
Times are changing
East Campus,
arise and wake
by Brace Cochran
Today the University of Nebraska is undergoing
new and exciting change. We, as students, are swept
from one controversy to another without any real
conception of the total scope of our campus numbers.
One evidence is the enormous quantity of
organizations with their committees which have sub
committees who divide into committees on other com
mittees and continue until a soul is simply lost. I
would like to meet just one student who is an authority
on every organization and committee that exists on
our two campuses. The task is overwhelming.
If one attempts to rationalize the failure of student!
to be more familiar with the total scope of campus
life (both academically and activity-wise), we might
conclude that in reality the student populace Is suffer
ing from a lack of communication.
Assuming that the communication gap docs exist
and is probably a major contributor to the lack of
complete coverage of all aspects of student life, it
becomes imperative that the communication gap be
closed. We have at our disposal, an implement to
initiate the growth of communication, the Daily
Nebraskan.
After existing, dormant, for umpteen years, the
East Campus now has a golden opportunity to become
active and alive in total University affairs. Since
the East Campus Is composed of over 15 per cent
of all university students including the Dental College,
Home Ec., Agriculture and soon the Law College,
East Campus should be better represented by the
Daily Nebraskan. There is actually a breath of hope
that this will occur. Next semester the East Campus
will be properly represented by an editor from its
own campus on the Rag payroll, providing i plan
now before the Pub Board is passed.
Through the employment of an East Campus stu
dent as an editor, I would hope that the relationship
f the twa sister campuses might be renewed and
a feeling of oneness of all University students
established.
So with i teaspoon of luck and a shake of op
timism, students on both campuses can become aware
of the total academic and social opportunities existing
at a united University of Nebraska.
Oh, and, by the way, for those of you who pay
attention to political rumors, there's one going around
now to the effect that Orville Jones will run for
the President of the Student Body next spring.
Times are Changing!
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Nebraskan editorial
Dear Editor:
We think It is relevant and
opportune to reply to some of
the misleading remarks made
by Mr. Terence O'Neill, the ex
Prlme Minister of Northern
Ireland, during his recent ad
dress at N.U. It may be of in
terest to note that the visit was
part of an extensive campaign
on the part of the Northern
Ireland regime to attempt to
Improve the image of an unjust
government.
Mr. O'Neill's stated belief
that the recent riots "have not
affected the average
businessman, Investor, worker
or tourist" Is nonsense. In
Belfast alone, the cupitul city
of Northern Irelund, damage to
domestic and Industrial
premises amounted to a stag
gering six million dollars. The
brutal deaths of seven
civilians, including two
children, can scarcely be con
sidered normul.
In the second largest city,
Deny, approximately one third
of the population established a
free city behind extensive bar
ricades, and excluded Northern
Ireland's legal authorities for
at least two months. Three
people died in the Derry
disturbances and many hun
dreds were left homeless in
both cities.
Injustice has been extensive
in Northern Ireland, with
Catholics being discriminated
against by local and regional
governments, in matters of
employment, housing and
franchise. A cursory examina-
Open Forum
tion of the Cameron Report on
Disturbances in Northern
Ireland, a report which has
been formally accepted by the
Northern Irelund Government,
shows these allegations to be
unquestionably true.
In County Fermanagh, a
predominantly Catholic area,
the County Council employs
some lt)6 people of whom only
10 are Catholics. It seems the
Government has pursued a
deliberate policy of Industrial
development in predominantly
Protestant areas. As a result
the percentage of the working
population unemployed reaches
astronomical figures in
Catholic towns and cities such
as Derry (12.7 percent), Newry
(14.5 percent) and Strabane (25 '
percent!).
The Northern Irelund Con
stitution has not provided for
"one-man one-vote" in elec
tions to the Northern Ireland
parliament and local
authorities. In parliamentary
elections property owners and
University Graduates have
been grunted additional votes.
In local elections no property
has nteunt no vote.
in addition the corrupt prac
tice of gerrymandering has ef
fectively disenfranchised a
large percentage of the
population in cities like Derry,
where a Catholic majority of dfi
percent returns a mure 40 per
cent minority on the city coun
cil, voting invariably following
a strict religious line. Thus in
Derry it takes 2,500 votes to
elect an anti-Unionist can
didate, but a mere 650 votes to
return a Unionist or Govern
ment candidate. We would like
to emphasize that Derry is just
one example of many such in
stances. Under O'Neill's leadership an
attempt was made to redress
these real grievances of the
Catholic c o m m a n 1 1 y . Un
fortunately his honest efforts
were thwarted by the extremist
section of the ruling Unionist
party, which has perpetrated
these Injustics for its own ends
since the Inception of the state.
His forced resignation Indicates
the strength of this faction and
makes one pessimistic of future
reform.
Forty-eight years after the
founding of the Northern
Ireland Government it might
be apt to refer to the words of
King George V on the occasion
of the formal opening of
Parliament in Belfast. "I ap
peal to all Irishmen to forgive
and forget and to join in mak
ing for the land they love a new
era of peace, contentment and
good will." How deaf some of
his subjects were.
Yours faithfully,
Donal J. Burns
Brendan B. O'Shea
Americans want
war with rules
by Frank Manklewici and Tom Braden
Washington An unconscious yearning does much
to explain American shock at the massacre of My
Lai.
Unconsciously, Americans want the war In Viet
nam to be like the wars they've fought before. They
want "fronts," "battle lines;" progress in cities found,
taken and held. They want to think of their boys
upholding the right fighting against enemy soldiers
upholding the wrong.
The press, because it also yearns, has by and
large given the people what they want. The dally
communique from Pentagon East becomes the wire
service account of action in Vietnam. The body count
Indicates "progress," and it is always the "allies"
that comfortable, reassuring and In this war totally
meaningless word who are making It
There have been exceptions to this standard fare
and those exceptions filmed scenes of U.S. troops
burning villages or written reports by special cor
respondents on the use of chemicals have shocked
a public, longing for. the familiar past
The result of yearning is that Americans were
unprepared for My Lai. Vice President Spiro Agnew
was right but for the wrong reasons. The press,
yielding to Pentagon direction and public expectation,
has largely failed to make Americans see what this
war was.
Take, for example, the public testimony of Capt.
Ernest Medina. It reveals the problem in whole.
His orders, he said, were to destroy My Lai and
its livestock. He did not find it in the least ex
traordinary to receive an order not to kill women
and children. The village, he explained, was a "free
fire zone," meaning a shooting gallery Into which
death could be poured without nice distinctions about
innocent people. Customarily, he explained, it is
permissible anyhow to shoot anyone who runs, and
his words recalled the familiar complaint of Vietnam
veterans: "Sometimes it's awful hard to tell the
difference between a run and a fast walk."
But Medina went on: He saw 20 to 28 civilian
bodies, and he didn't bother to count how many
were those of women and children. He felt a little
uncomfortable when he discovered that the woman
he shot had been unarmed, but she had moved
and he had a right to be afraid. The 20 to 28
bodies did not seem to him to evidence atrocity
or deliberate action against civilians.
The terrible truth is that Medina was describing:
a rather typical day of battle in a war which la
largely a war against civilians.
In the past four years, 300,009 of them hart
been killed, mostly by U.S. troops, mostly by bombing.
The Senate subcommittee which released these figures
cannot say how many of these dead are Viet Cong
and how many are "friendlles" or "gooks," at the
soldiers say neither can anybody else.
We kill civilians because the enemy is among
them. We kill their livestock because it may feed
the enemy. We use chemicals forbidden in the United
States because although they may cause deformed
births they defoliate so that the enemy can be
found. By these standards, can Medina be far from
the mark in suggesting that there was no "atrocity"
at My Lai?
The press Is guilty, not for doing what Agnew
said it was, but for not doing it enough. It failed
to bring home to Americans that they were sending
their uniformed sons into a battle not primarily
against other uniformed sons but against civilians,
women and children and aged men. Americans have
never understood that there are no young men In
the villages. Voung men are gone to the uniformed
ARVN or are out in the countryside with the civilian
clad Viet Cong.
The American people are guilty, toe we didn't
want to hear it the way it was.
In a war where friend Is distinguishable from
foe only by what is in his heart and mind, you
can always win the count of bodies, but you must
always lose the count of souls.
DAILY NEBRASKAN
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Most of us believe that Christmas should really
J a time for sincere expression and not the com
mercial trash that stores push every year. Christmas
Mi a time for giving, for shelling out more than
e can afford.
99 B!e?y f 9 wot pence for Christmas this
year, but how many of ns art asking for nothing
more? ilow many of ns are concentrating our energies
a that one present this year? It's aa expensive
present and bard to find, but It Is essential In cleansing
this society ef the hypocrisy which has spoiled the
last few Christmases.
If we art sincere in our pledge to work for
peace, then, coupled with the Holiday cheer, peace
workers should abound.. If wt want peace, why not
put our Christmas spirit into the canvas of Lincoln
and the week-end activities?
We've got to get out into Lincoln and talk to
the people. Lincoln is basically a liberal community.
It supported Kennedy and McCarthy In '68. The
McCarthy and Kennedy people hud to work hard
to win supporters. It took thousands of hours to talk
to all of Lincoln. Tlie McCarthy people did the Job
with a few hundred canvassers, as did the Kennedy
people. They went door-to-door with questions to nsk,
answers to predictable questions, and, most of all,
a genuine desire to talk to people about the issues.
It Is a process which requires time and patience.
The Moratorium speakers Friday afternoon can
provide an opportunity to discuss the war, to answer
questions, perhaps to spark a discussion among some
who haven't given the war mueh thought.
The music Friday can be a reluxcr for the peace
people. And Saturday night's entertainment is an op
portunity for us to See an excellent light show as
well as two good bands. Also scheduled for Friday
is the vigil lasting into Saturday. The vigil, like
the memorial and march in October and the November
activities, is a display of our sorrow for those who
have died in the war. A vigil Is an uncommon way
of expressing one's sorrow. It Is sorrow restrained,
(or friends killed In the conflict, it is standing silently
as a rertiinder to the rest. It involves the conviction
of ending the war, the killing, and the hating.
So turn your Christmas energy into peace energy,
and work in the December Moratorium.
There is no reality, except in action Jean Tuul
Sartre
-kr-'viv
it
If only lliereM been a Vietnam Moratorium five jears ago . .
