Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 24, 1973)
editorial Kfi s y Casulty of war There is something strange about the way we Americans react to the death of a national political leader. And if we are mourning the passing of a former president, then the incongruity of some of our tributes becomes even more pronounced. Perhaps it is the nature of our democratic system to deprive us of true national heroes. It is difficult to idolize S?nah when we are simultaneously aware Kfobis deeds and his misdeeds. And, it seems, we are able to put aside our accusations and forgive him the latter only after he is gone from the spotlight and no longer threatens us with his differences of opinion. Lyndon Baines Johnson, thirty-sixth President of the United States, died Monday at his Texas ranch. This is not meant to be a criticism of the predictable way in which most Americans will mourn his death. Nor is it written as sort of "anti-eulogy." Johnson was president during the time of political coming-of-age for most of us who are college-aged today. The beginnings of our political consciousness are deeply rooted in the decisions of the Johnson presidency. Following his narrow election to the Senate in 1948, Johnson rose quickly into power, eventually becoming the Senate Majority Leader. During the Eisenhower Administration he was instrumental in the Congressional passage of the first major civil rights measure in a generation. It is this and other laws, which he later liked to call "compassionate legislation," that will surely secure LB J the historical favor for which he always seemed to long. On Nov. 22, 1963, an assassin's shots in Dallas catapulted Lyndon Johnson into the presidency. The next year became a period for piecing together the unfinished business of John Kennedy's government. In 1964 LBJ was re-elected president over the Republican opponent Barry Goldwater by the greatest popular majority in history. Then he started on his own national reforms. Kennedy's New Frontier was exchanged for LBJ's Great Society. There was a declaration of a War on Poverty. Aided by a large Democratic majority in the Congress, Johnson was able to achieve the enactment of more of his programs than perhaps any other American president. His manner was often reminiscent of his former Senate leadership role. The Civil Rights Law of 1964 had won Johnson the support of black leader Martin Luther King, Jr. In 1965 LBJ launched an attack on the poll taxes which had denied many black people the vote in several Southern states. The War on Poverty prompted the beginning of the Head Start program and direct federal aid to education. But the promise of a Great Society was never brought to fulfillment. More than anything else, it now seems, it was Johnson's decision to commit the United States to the defense of South Vietnam that blurred his vision of a new America. As the American involvement in the Southeast Asian conflict deepened, Johnson found his countrymen growing less willing to "reason together" wiht him about Vietnam-or anything else. Opposition to the Vietnam involvement forced the war into the position of the foremost issue of national policy-and of national conscious. President Johnson, himself, became the focal point of the antiwar protest at home and around the world. The war overshadowed all of his earlier accomplishments. Perhaps more than any other man, Lyndon Johnson became a casualty of war. After he left the White House, LBJ cited what he believed to be the burden of the presidency. "The problem of an American president is not doing what's right The president's problem is knowing what's right," Lyndon Baines Johnson, 1908-1973. Tom Lansworth Ffracas fe v.. uuvuv, ... ,-. rw..-.vv. ; sitENCE PLEASE ;J p -fj ... . . . - - I if . ' J . "L ' " ' '' W ' ' ' '" ' ' ' '. oci QLo ' ffl, , . S-4 . t i ' ' , fUSSell ' iinnnm SHS .M?atln 1 The council on Student Life, the ASUN president, last semester's Daily Nebraikan editor and various administration brass have huffed and puffed a great deal about the crisis that threatens to split the university, the football ticket crisis. However, none of these august individuals has come up with a plan that would satisfy everyone. Their plans would satisfy only their immediate inferiors (their constituents). Gelow you will find such a plan, exemplifying the best traditions of Nebraska football and America. The football ticket crisis is simply this; torn students have the audacity to sell their inexpensively bought football tickets to non-student football fans, sometimes turning in a profit. This is prohibited and some student tickets told this way, were confiscated. ASUN President Bruce Beecher outdid himself in opposing ticket confiscation, whereas others quietly applauded those students finally getting theirs. Here is a situation where we can have the best of all possible worlds. Those two magic words come to my mind, profit and football. Surely these two phantasmic strongholds of American culture can co-exist. What do we now find at the university, but fans who need (or want) football tickets and students who need (or want) more money. The only way to satisfy both of these torments of Tantalus is to build more seats in the football stadium and allow students to sell those tickets. Recognizing that there are certain students who need (or want) more money than others, prospective sellers of tickets should be required to submit a financial statement showing a sufficient monetary need or should be required to take a battery of psychological tests showing a sufficient level of greed. Once these students, are selected, the tickets should not be wildly passed out. We all know that Americans no longer have a laissez-faire economic system. Student sellers should be required to fill out an inordinate number of forms in order to comply with ticket selling regulations, thus, simulating the Catch-22's and red-tape present in the present economic system. . This syitem would both provide fans with, more tickets and bring needy students into the system, as well as giving greedy students some organized practice at getting ticket profits. Further educational opportunities could be provided by setting up a "futures" market for football ticked, whereby fans could bid on tickets as much as a year in advance. One problem remains. If this system is to be fair, only those fans who have gotten a ticket by some hook or crook should be allowed in the stadium. But, here again, we find a great educational opportunity for students at the university, as well as the chance to provide a service for the country. The only way to keep out persons who don't have tickets is to fortify the stadium. The present flimsy fences and lax security will simply not do. Four departments of the university, as well as advice from East Germany, will be needed for this undertaking. Engineering students could design the fortifications, asking for East German advice so far as the laying of mine fields, barriers and deployment of tanks is concerned. Architecture students could try to undo whatever monstrosities the engineers designed. Engineering students would then, of course, be required to redesign the whole project to make it workable again, thus requiring a re-return of the architects. Zoology students could select the best kind of ferocious creatures to place in the moat surrounding the fortifications. Finally, ROTC students could man the various weapons sy items once the fortifications were completed. In all, a total educational experience. America would benefit from this plan. Students would gain new respect for profits. If the fortifications worked, prisons the world over, as well as Howard Hughes, could model their fortifications after those of the Memorial Stadium. The possibility exists for the University of Nebraska to have two wonders on campus: the fortified Memorial Stadium (to be renamed Fort Devaney), as well as the proposed football olaver monument over Interstate 80. J page 4 daily nebraskan Wednesday, January 24, 1973 Kwlv- Ha..y