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Eco 2: out of class
While the University seems to have an
ample; if disconnected, classwork setup for
ecological studies, it appears educational areas
outside the classroom are not doing as well.
Inquiries this week revealed that most
educational non-classroom agencies now
display little or no interest in ecological
problems and their solutions.
Nebraska Free University, (NFU)
frequently heralded as a great step in
educational enrichment currently has no
course directly relating to problems of the
environment. Often a leader in developing
coursework in areas difficult to add to
department schedules, NFU seems to be sadly
lacking in environmental studies.
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studies in the classroom are enough. They are
wrong.
It is essential that every possible
educational tool be used to solve our
ecological nightmares. Unless the problems of
the environment are solved, any other
concerns will be totally insignificant.
Promises promises
As time goes on and excuses get thicker, it
appears more and more likely the promised
ASUN student cooperative may become yet
another rotten egg laid by that august body.
Last spring before the election, high plans
for a cooperative to save students a great deal
of money were professed. It was estimated by
many candidates, who were later elected to
office, that the proposed cooperative would
be off and running in the fall.
It was primarily for organization of this
cooperative and other ASUN projects that
ASUN executives were granted salary raises
for their summer work. This summer, ASUN
President Bruce Beecher received $516; First
Vice President Sam B rower, $155; and
Second Vice President Michelle Gagne, $363.
Last year the three executives earned $100
each for their summer work.
Unfortunately, the cooperative did not
appear immediately this fall. Early estimates
indicated the cooperative would be ready to
operate by Oct. 15.
But now the story has changed again. The
starting" date for the cooperative has been set
back indefinitely because of procedural
hassling. Whether the grand co-op will ever
really get off the ground is uncertain.
Students can only hope that in this
instance campaign promises prove to be more
than just promises.
Jim Gray
' I ..." " ' - fc. .
A second major non-classroom innovator,
the Centennial Education Program, also is
nearly' devoid of environmental study. Only
one student in the Centennial program now
works with environmental concerns. Since the
Centennial College started in 1969, many,
students have been involved in ecological
study in- connection with projects on
taxation, agriculture, law, nuclear power and
wildlife. Apparently the Centennial students'
emphasis has switched away from the
environmental-an injudicial shift.
The non-involvement of these two
out of-classroom educators in environmental
concerns directly reflects the nearly universal
lack of student interest in this field.
Apparently students feel environmental
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fitted
Ted Kennedy and the McGovern spectacle
The latest Democratic spectacle, McGovern, now is
well into its third act and, at no surprise to anyone, a
most interesting understudy has been brought in to
stir a little attention with the American audience,
The media floodlights now are fixed upon that
qifted N?w England actor, Massachusetts Sen. Edward
Kennedy. Due to visit at least 20 states before the
Nov. 7 folding date, our star thespian hits the road
with the McGovern troupe in its series of last ditch
engagements as if he himself were the chief
attraction. Kennedy apparently is not afraid to be
associated with what no doubt will be the biggest box
office flop of the 20th century.
The McGovern show is, of course, simply a dress
rehcarjol for Ted Kennedy, who wants top billing for
himself come 1976. A perfect public buffer for his
comeback attempt, it is the return to the road of
presidential stardom which was so rudely detoured at
Chappaquiddick three years ago. Banking heavily on
the far-fetched theory that the American people have
forgotten that infamous and tragic July night in 1969
when Mary Jo Kopeckne's life was needlessly
extinguished (not to mention all his other
misjudgments and improprieties), Kennedy also is
relying on the magic of the Kennedy name authored
by his late brothers and on the seemingly
"untouchable" status accorded him by the liberal
news media.
Kennedy merely is a straw man whose image of
gieatness and aura of supreme righteousness has been
created through the immense powers of persuasion of
the mass media. If this man's name were Edward
Jones instead of Edward Kennedy, he most certainly
would hold no public office whatever. Edward Jones
would now be serving a prison sentence for drunk
driving, leaving the scene of an accident and possibly
manslaughter for his part in the Kopeckne affair. Or,
at the very least, he would be ostracized from all
levels of society through the basic concept of human
decency.
Behind this shallow veneer of attractiveness built
around him by an adoring national media, Kennedy is
a person utterly devoid of morals. This man, who felt
not a qualm about having others take tests for him in
college and who now cheats socially and sexually
without social stigma on his wife Joan, cruelly
misuses the great love and respect of the American
people for his dead brothers into the catalyst for his
own cheap and selfish political aspirations, It must be
clearly understood that this man resembles John and
iohn vihstodt
font
Robert in no way other than likeness and name.
President Kennedy had the promise of becoming a
great president, as did Bobby, but I am of; the opinion
that their younger brother has neither tle ability nor
the moral aptitude to achieve greajness or even
mediocrity.
This man, now trotted out as a tower of stature
and statesmanship, has nothing to do but sit still and
look pretty. In a concerted effort to accentuate the
positive and ignore the negative, the news media both
here and abroad have materialized Kennedy's current
image out of thin air. They cast him as if he were a
major, if not omnipotent, force in American politics,
al though the truth of the matter is that he has been a
most ineffectual U.S. senator.
Why else would he have been defeated for
re election as Democratic whip by his own party
colleagues in favor of conservative and obscure Sen.
Roberty Byrd of West Virginia? Why else would he
have submitted the name of a corrupt and
incompetent political hack and close family friend,
Francis X. Morrissey, to a Federal judgeship in
Massachusetts only to have it forcibly withdrawn on
President Johnson's orders after it became obvious to
even his fellow Democrats what a disastrous
nomination he had made?
He has acted out the role of Mr. Big to the hilt,
spewing out hi, gilded words of wisdom on virtually
every subject known to man, and the cameras
dutifully have passed this along to a misled American
public. We all heard Kennedy earlier this year call for
active U.S. intervention in the North Ireland and
India-Pakistan controversies and at the same time
condemn American "meddling" into the "local"
affairs of Southeast Asia. His stance on foreign policy
matters seems to be one of get in where we are not
and get out where we are.
It is clear to all that this pretender of a fallen
dynasty has, from the very inception of his adult life,
shown a startling propensity for error-error in
judgment and error in decision. This country's future
depends on public knowledge of this man. So long as
he pushes relentelessly onward towards the highest
office in the land, we cannot forget about him. And
we will not forget-about Chappaquiddick, about his
rejection by fellow Democrats in the Senate, about
Francis X. Morissey, about his familial infidelity
about his sensitivity to alcohol, about his wreckless
driving, about his college cheating. No, Edward
Kennedy, you are. not fit to be President of the
unnea biates.
page 4
daily nerjfaskan
Wednesday, October 4, 1972
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