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Dear editor.
Once again the Rodeo Club went ahead with the
rodeo-thct exercise in futility where they try to thrill the
city folk.
There are some of us who don't think it's such a good
deal. What fun is there in seeing helpless animals misused
and prodded into outrageous stunts? It's just as sickening to
have women out there wrestling and twisting on a small
goat, tied to a stake.A pathetic sight, and degrading to man
and beast.
If the rodeo members have riding skills or want to drill
in unison to s!iow off their nice horses, that is a horse of
another color.
. exnJnitina animals-no thank you. How about
k -does anyone else care to speak out on this? .
There is growing sentiment in the country against this
outdated form of exercise. Couldn't we in Nebraska take
the lead?
A. Hageman
Dear editor, .
I read the metric "Tirade" of Keith Landgren in
"Desperate Remedies" (Daily Nebraskan, April 10). It was
interesting, had a substantial message and was masterfully
done. His conclusion, though hopeful, will not be realized.
State Sen. Ernie Chambers
-TV V
s. 1
I WILL
NEVER
RESIGN
lit 9 1
It 1
That's what they always say.
Veterans' thrift
It's most disconcerting that many young men and
women who beat the odds and survived military service
in Southeast Asia have returned to the United States to
find themselves casualties of the system thct sent them
there.
It seems that tho Veterans Administration (VA) is
lamentably slow in dispatching checks to veterans for
their job training or education. One Lincoln couple
waited 312 months for the husband's first check. When it
arrived, it was for $7.35, although the wife claims the
amount expected was much more.
The couple still awaits more than $800 owed for the
first four months of this year.
In other local cases, the University shares the blame,
along with federal and state VA offices. Another woman
said she could write a book about the headaches she and
her husband experienced with the VA in being issued
their checks. She and her husband, both veterans
attending UNL, had to borrow money to get by and for
a time "lived on bread and water." Her first check was a
month late; her husband's was 312 months overdue. The
reason, according to the local VA office, was that the
University sent in its enrollment lists late. " '
Problems concerning University studies and veterans'
benefits are exacerbated when the vet changes courses,
goes from full-time to part-time status or changes
schools. But it's unfortunate that the University hasn't
exercised rridre responsibility in bulidozing'aside the
ever presenfred tape in aiding veterans in their attempts r
to get through school while maintaining an adequate
standard of living.
The veterans should not have to be penalized for the
bungling of the VA or the tardiness-or unconcern-of
the University.
Mary Voboril
Marvel
has faith
in voters'
perception
State Sen. Richard Marvel arrived late to make his
campaign speech. The Unicameral had just adjourned, and
ho looked a little harried. Even when he took the floor, the
senator from Hastings still looked miikly unhappy until he
spotted the blackboard, and found a piece of chalk. Only
then did he seem to forget the speech, and begin a lecture
on applied political science.
After all, it was only natural. He has taught political
science nearly as long as he as practiced it in the Legislature.
The result h an unusual juxtaposition of the academic and
the practical. It makes for a remarkable politician.
Ha began to talk about the functions of the Unicameral,
the governor and the parties in a "nonpartisan" state. In
passing he commented on the present governor's political
skill.
Then came the practical talk: the frustration of trying to
get around a line item veto, the difficulty of fighting a
Democratic governor who listed as one of his three biggest
tasks as governor the building of a party machine; the
difficulty of confronting him, period, when he never seems
to hold to a position for more than 10 minutes.
Throughout, Marvel combined theory, technique and
experience in a way few people can match.
mart) cannon
with water policy, and dozens of others concerned with
natural resources and energy. That is inefficient Tfw
directors must spend too much time getting coordinated,
and there are endless jurisdictional problems. To solve this
and similar problems. Marvel is thinking of proposing a
more functional reorganization of the state administration.
The state has several long-range plans for highway
development, but last year 38 of the new highway
construction authorized was not included in any plan. Are
our highways so badly built that we need to spend 40 of
our money making "emergency" repairs? Or are the plans
so poorly laid that they could be 40 off every year? Or
could it be that the governor had an "emergency" need to
dispense some patronage? Marvel thinks that either way,
tSe taxpayer is badiy served, and he thinks he can do
bettr,
Exon was elected on a wave of opposition to the state
income tax th brand new-and to the Kact that his
predecessor had gathered more than $30 million in the state
treasury. Right now the state's surplus is $55 million.
He lists one of his greatest accomplishments as governor
as balancing the budget, always a worthy achievement,
except that the state constitution requires it already. Nearly
every year since the state was formed the budget has
3 I
l ,1 A
Marvel h running for governor after 15 years as a state
senator, 13 of those years as chairman of the Legislature's
Appropriations Committee, and 11 years of teaching
political science. Although he is highly qualified for the job,
I think his greatest attribute is his attitude toward
government. Exon is like a fox. He likes to be all things to
all men, and he often seems to be more concerned with
political advantage than with the state's progress.
Marvel is more like a lion-he tackles problems head on,
and has no patience with those who do not. There is no
pretense about him, no crepe paper trimmings. Wily, he
isn't. He is more Inclined to see government as a matter of
getting things done, whereas Exon thinks of attaining
positions.
tcr Imtsnm, tm counted up wven stats isgeficies dialing
In announcing his candidacy for re-election, Exon listed
three achievements of his administration. First, the
balancing of the budget, secondly, the strengthening of the
state's Dsmocratsc Party (at the expense of the rest of us);
and a third claim which is the most outrageous of all.
With great to-do, he claimed responsibility for lowering
income taxes, as he had promised to do in his first
campaign,
Marvel finds this a little irritating, because it was Marvel
who led the fight, against Democratic opposition, to lower
the taxes. And he successfully resisted an attempt to raise
them again. Exon even lobbied in the Capitol rotunda
against increasing the stata food salts tax credit.
Marvel has a lot of faith in the ability of Ncbraskans to
dig out the facts, and to choose between sham and
substance. Although Exon has made much noise and
political smoke, his own re-election speech in effect admits
that there have been few achievements that benefited the
state.
Marvel is banking on the voters seeing this. It wiil be an
uphill battle, as it usually is against an incumbent, but
wouldn't it be nice to have a governor who makes sense?
page 4
daily nebraskan
thuriday, ;pril 18, 1974