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Dear editor:
In Wes Albers' editorial on Feb. 27, he implies that he doesn't
think the top level Watergate conspirators (Ehrlichman, Haldeman
and Mitchell) were committed to lengthy enough terms in prison. I
disagree completely.
Regardless of whether one looks at a prison sentence as
payment of a debt to society or as rehabilitation, I don't think
prison can have any constructive effect on these men. They have
been exposed as liars, humiliated, degraded and chastised. And
while I in no way condone what they have done nor pity them for
the aftermath, I do think they have suffered enough.
Let us leave them to themselves and continue from where we
are more cynical, maybe, but more careful about who we entrust
with our country's leadership.
' Dan Smith
Family farms
Dear editor:
Consumers . who are discouraged by the seemingly endless food
price increases should be interested in several bills which will be
heard by the Legislature's Agriculture and Environment Committee
on Thursday at 2 p.m. These bills LB203, LB214, and LB363,
introduced by Senators Burbach, Bereuter and Burrows,
respectively are concerned with regulating the entrance of
corporations into farming.
Why is it necessary to regulate corporate farming in Nebraska?
Testimony before the U.S. Senate on May 31, 1973 by Richard D.
Rodefeld of the Sociology Department of. Michigan State
University, provided the following conclusions concerning farms:
"Hie continued erosion of the family farm and its replacement by
corporate farms, means two things to the majority of Americans
who do not live in rural America: continued depopulation of rural
areas means continued crowding in the cities and suburbs, with a
reduction in the quality of life both in the city and the
countryside. Corporate control of agriculture inevitably means
higher food prices."
The members of the North Central Public Policy Education
Committee in their publication Who Will Control U.S. Agriculture
have stated the following: "If large agribusiness conglomerates gain
control of the production and marketing of a substantial portion of
the food supply, it is assumed they will use techniques that are far
from perfectly competitive. With extensive control, these units
would be able to regulate prices arid boost profits unless they are
restrained by the actions of government."
Supporters of corporate farms say that there is greater
efficiency in a large scale corporate farm than in a family farm.
Several studies by the U.S. Department of Agriculture have stated
that the efficiency of large corporate farms is based more on such
factors as loopholes in tax laws rather than actual farm operations.
Competition, not corporate farm "efficiency", will keep food
prices from soaring out of sight. It is time we realize that the
family farmer, not a corporation, is able to offer the consumer the
highest quality food at the lowest price.
John R. Gulick
Bland people
Dear editor:
I agree with Amy Struthers that the blandness of marriage is its
worst enemy, that it is the worse possible end to a relationship.
However,, to blame marriage and married life for the blandness in
the lives of the marriage partners-is a gross overstatement of the
case. '
This attitude fails to consider the personalities of the parties to
the creation of a bland marriage. It appears to me that dull
marriages are created by dull people, and it is a mistake to blame
the institution of marriage for that dullness.
Bland marriages are made by people who, like Amy Struthers.
place primary emphasis (second, in fact, only to a bag of Doritos
in their homes on Section B of the newspaper.
Doug Murphy
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Editor's note: Ernie Cervantes is a junior majoring in
sociology.
A Chicano is a Mexican-American with a nonAnglo
image of himself. He resents being told Columbus
"discovered" America when the Chicano's ancestors,
the Mayans and the Aztecs, had founded highly
sophisticated civilizations centuries before.
Chicanos resent Gringo pronouncements that they
are "culturally deprived" or that their Spanish
language is a "problem." The Chicano culture started
before that of the Pilgrims, and Spanish was spoken
in America before English. The "problem" is not the
Chicanos' but the Gringos' because they don't speak
Spanish.
Having told you that, the Chicano will then
contend that Anglos are Spanish-oriented at the
expense of Mexicans.
They will complain that when the governor dresses
up as a Spanish nobleman for the Santa Barbara
Fiesta, he is insulting Mexicans because the Spanish
conquored and exploited the Mexicans. It is as if the
governor dressed like an English redcoat for an
Independence Day parade, Chicanos say.
Just when you think you know what Chicanos are
'getting at, a so-called Mexican-American will tell you
that Chicano is an insulting term. He may even quote
the Spanish Academy to prove that Chicano derives
from clucanery, meaning dumb, stupid, lazy and
shiftless.
A Chicano laughs at this and says that such
Mexican-Americans have been brainwashed by
Gringos and that they are Tio Tacos (Uncle Toms).
Tins type of Mixican-Arncrican doesn't like the word
Chicano because it is harmful to his Anglo-orientated
Wednesday, march 5, 1975
mind. Chicanos call these types of poor people Brown
Gringos (Coconut).
What then is a Chicano? If you have to ask, you
will never understand, much less become a Chicano.
For those who like simplistic explanations,
Chicano can be defined as short for Mexicano. For
those who prefer complicated answers, Chicano may
have come from the word Chihuahua-the name of a
Mexican state boarding on the United States. This
version contends that Mexicans who migrated into
the United States from Chihuahua adopted the first
three letters of that state, "Chi," and then added
"cano" for the latter part of Texano.
Such explanations, however, tend to miss the
whole point. Mexican-Americans, the second largest
o o
minority in the country and the largest in the
southwest states, have al-vays had difficulties deciding
what to call themselves.
In New Mexico, they call themselves
Spanish-Americans. In other parts of the Southwest,
they call themselves Americans of Mexican descent.
Why, ask some Mexicans, can't we just call
ourselves Americans?
Chicanos are trying to explain why not.
Mexican-Americans, though native to the Southwest,
are on the lowest rung scholastically, economically,
socially and politically. Chicanos feel cheated because
they are cheated-cheated of peace, prosperity and
freedom as granted by tne United States
Constitution, cheated of decent wages, cheated of
pride in their own race. We want change now.
Mexican-Americans average eight years of
schooling as compared to the black man's 10. Farm
workers, most of them Mexican-Americans in the
Southwest, are excluded from the National Labor
Relations Act. Also Mexican-Americans often have to
compete for low-paying jobs with their Mexican
brothers from across the border who are willing to
work for even less. Mexican-Americans have to live
with the ugly fact that the word "Mexican" is the
synonym for someone dumb, stupid and inferior.
That is why Mexican-American activists (Chicanos)
proudly identify with the word Chicano- as an act of
defiance and as a badge of honor.
Mexican-Americans, though large in numbers, are so
politically impotent that in Los Angeles, home of the
country's largest single concentration of Mexicans,
they have no one of their own on the city council.
This, in a city politically sophisticated enough to have
three black councilmen.
Chicanos, then, are merely fighting to become
"Americans", able to enjoy those rights stated in the
U.S. Constitution and intended for all.
We will not be free until our Puerto Rican, black
and Indian brotheis in the United Slates are also free
from the oppressive and colonial rule of this system.
We are not free until our brothers in Latin America,
Africa and Asia are liberated. Our struggles are
basically the same. We must unite to end
discrimination, injustices and to rise out of poverty.
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