bait
becker
A request and plea for help was aired recently in
the letters column of one of the local dailies.
Members of the eighth grade history class had decided
Nebraska needed a state fish because Oregon had one
"and we're a better state than Oregon."
Anyway, they were soliciting suggestions for the
fish to wear the laurels of the "Beef State." Fish
laureate, I suppose the finned beast would be called.
I assume the kids in the class don't have the power
to officially crown one of our ichthyk friends, but
one never quite knows the structure of government.
At any rate, the choice of a state fish is one that
should be approached carefully, keeping in mind the
contributions and benefits our modern Nebraska and
American society have reaped from the colorful fish
heritage.
For instance, the show business world owes a debt
to fish that will probably last forever.
Walter Brennan sustained his image for years by
reciting stories about sagacious old fish who Walter
could never catch. The 45 r.p.m. record version sold
like fishcakes back in the 50s. The public appeal, of
course, was that Walter was a little too stupid to ever
catch a carp, and, of course, every American could
identify with that.
T'r'out history, we've owed much of the impact of
much of our literary epics to the presence of fish as
central characters. For instance, bulls are fine, but
Hemingway would have had a hell of an allegory on
his hands if he'd tried to get the old man in the boat
to hook a bull in the middle of the ocean and then
tow it in. The tale was so unfathomable anyway that
the only hint of reality was the huge fish, with which
anybody could identify.
And our neighbors under the sea have also added
to our colorful American tradition of slang. For
instance, in the mid-19th century the phrase, to
drink like a fish," was coined. This necessitated the
invention of fermentation and the alcoholic beverage
in order that the phrase could be pat into use outside
the realm of academia.
As a result, the United States entered into and
floundered out of Prohibition, one of the most
exciting eras of American life, particularly in the late
1950s and early 1960s when it was glorified in a
grade B television series.
The program also involved an inordinate amount of
gunplay, and from that action came the phrase, "as
easy as shooting fish in a barrel." Fish themselves,
however, have refrained from using the phrase as they
were consistently denied entry into barrels until after
World War II.
Individual members of the fish breed have also
gained fame andor notoriety. Rcligiosos have often
been know to go into mystically induced trances and
utter, "Holy Mackerel."
So keep all that and more in mind when you send
in your suggestion for a state fish. After all, it's not
any scaled creature that can assume a spot with our
other state honoraries, the Cottonwood (recently
elected), the Goldenrod, and the Meadowlark. They'll
be waiting with baited breath, (ha, ha) I'm sure.
A bunch of stuff is coming up to keep you from
preparing for finals this weekend. The Union
Weekend Film folks are presenting a bunch of films
starting Monday. Love You, Alice B. Toklas, Viva
Max, and Paint Your Wagon will show May 1, 3 and 4
respectively. On Monday, the 8th, a free showing of
Charlie Chaplin, W.C. Fields and Abbot and Costello
shorts will accompany The Reivers.
The live Trash of the Thirties is on tap Saturday
night in the Union Ballroom.
And better yet, The Concert for Bangladesh is
showing downtown. It's probably worth seeing
although Ralph J. Gleason, in Rolling Stone, said that
it didn't quite live up to expectations.
john
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The liberal news media and Democrats of all casts, ranging
from George Wallace to George McGovern, are now taking to
the streets in a no-holds-barred assault on the President of the
United States and the Republican Party. Their aims are to
completely discredit the administration and prepare for a
Democratic takeover in November. It now appears, however,
that both of these goals will fail dismally, simply because the
record shows how patently false and hypocritical their
vehement attacks are. Here are some of the major issues in the
campaign:
Charge- The economy is sluggish, economic indicators are
down, unemployment and inflation are raging, and the pay
board favors big business and special interests at the expense
of the working man and the housewife.
Fact- The coming months w21 see continued expansion,
accelerated growth, and a general, broad-based recovery of the
nation's economy. The gain in the gross national product
(GNP) for the first quarter of 1972 was 11.8 per cent,
compared to 7.6 per cent for the fourth quarter of 1971 and
$.2 per cent for the third quarter of the same year.
Unemployment is dropping and all experts expect it to be
below 5 per cent at the end of the year; a record 81,200,000
people are at work compared with 79,500,000 last August,
according to me current issue of U.S. News & World Report
magazine. Total retail sales, a good index of whether or not
people are spending their money, are np 6.6 percent to $432
billion, and an to sales are np 3.4 per cent since before the
freeze to $1 0.3 billion. Building construction is op 1 5 per cent
to $120.3 bffiion.
Furthermore, the cost of living, since controls, has gone up
at an annual rate of 2.8 per cent, the lowest increase since
1966 and well within the goal set by the Price Commission.
The Labor Department recently reported that the cost of
living for March rose a mere two-tenths of one per cent.
Seasonally adjusted (discounting increases that normally come
during the month) the Consumer Price Index remained
unchanged for the month-the first time this has happend
since November, 1966. At the same time, average earnings of
workers recorded the biggest March increase in seven years.
Additionally, there are simply no grounds for the repeated
charge by organized labor that wages nave been held down
while prices have disproportionately risen. In tact, the
opposite is true. The average worker in a non-farm industry
now earning $131.73 a week, $2.70 more than his pre-freeze
rate, and translating into an actual purchasing power rise of
$1.88 a week since August, when controls were first imposed.
Farmers have a weekly purchasing power gain of $9.19, and
civil service employes an increase of $7.09 a week. In short, if
people vote their pocketbooks in 1972, it will be the President
who stands to gain.
Charge- The administration is insensitive to minority needs.
Fact- The Nixon Administration has done more for
minority groups than any other past administration. The new
fiscal 1973 budget for the Office of Minority Ecterprise is over -$100
million represents a 263 per cent increase over the 1969
funding level. During the 1970-71 academic year, the nation's
112 predominantly black colleges received $12$ million in
federal aid, a 16 per cent increase over the previous year.
The budget for the Health Services Administration for
Indian Programs increased $19 million to $163.7 million for
fiscal 1972. Six out of 11 Bureau of Indian Affairs Area
directors are Indians, as opposed to only one when the
President took office.
There is now a Cabinet-level Committee on Opportunities
for the Spanish 'Speaking. Mexican-Americaiu holding high
federal appointments include Romans Banuelos, the treasurer
of the United States, and Phillip Sanchez, director of the
Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO).
And for a group that is not a minority but has been treated
like one, the President has appointed more women to
high-level positions in Government (GS-16 and up) than were
appointed by both previous Democratic administrations
combined -Nixon: 75 women in three years; Johnson: 27
women in five years, two months; and Kennedy: 1 8 women in
two years and 10 months.
Charge- Despite Nixon's promise in 1968, the high rise in
crime continues unchecked, and the Administration is doing
little to curb the drug epidemic.
Fact- Significant progress is being made in the war against
street crime, organized crime, and drugs. New FBI statistics!
reveal that the crime rate is down to its smallest increases since
1966. In 1969, the crime rate was up 12 per cent, in 1970, 1 1
per cent and in 1972 hist 6 per cent-half what it was during
Nixon's first year.
Moreover, serious crime actually decreased in 52 of the 1 56
major U.S. cities with populations exceeding 100,000,
including Omaha. With regard to drugs, the budget of the
Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs has been increased
to $55 million for fiscal 1972, and the amount of confiscated
illegal drugs has risen nearly 500 in the past three years. On
the international front, the U.S. government has signed treaty
agreements with several nations, including France, Mexico, and
Turkey, to limit illicit global drug traffic.
A close examination of the record shows the drastic and
comprehensive measures the Nixon administration is taking
towards solving today's most pressing problems. The results
show just how much is being accomplished.
FRIDAY, APRIL 28, 1972
THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
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