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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 27, 1976)
frklay, february 27, IS73 paga4 daily nebraskan y y - - When former President Richard Nixon resign ed, following disclosure of the pervasive corrupt ion of Watergate, many looked forward to the end of Nixon-style poli tics. But Nixon left a token of remembrance to the American people. And that token could literally strangle the American system of liberty that helped end dn. Wagergate. That token is Senate Bill 1 , cdmmonly known as S.l. . . A S.l is a 753 page revision of the United States Criminal Code. It is the culmination of a nearly 20 year effort to pull the scattered federal criminal statutes together into an organized form. A 1966 Congressional committee began study of the code and presented a report that was far too liberal for lawmakers to agree on. Sen. John McClellan, D-Ark. and Nebraska's own Sen. Roman Hruska provided a dissenting report which gained the approval of then-President Nixon at the height of his "law and order" crusading days. In 1974, the compromise emerged-S.l . Legislative travesty Inside the pages of that legislative travesty are proposals that would: -Effectively narrow the freedom of the press by establishing criminal penalties for disclosure of any material that was deemed by vague and arbitrary standards essential to national security. In other words, reporters who sought to disclose governmental misdeeds, as in the Watergate case, would be subject to massive legal repercussions. -Severely limited public protest and impose heavy penalties for violations. -Excuse governmental misconduct if the parties involved believed that what they were doing was part of their job or in the line of duty. -Increase the use of government wiretaps. - -Stiffen government penalization of victimless crimes at a time when that punitive philosophy is being severly questioned and in some cases, fcv instance marijuana possession, rejected by individual states. -Limit constitutional rights given to the accused and make insanity as a defense nearly impossible to claim. Duplicity most haunting Most haunting of all in the bill is its duplicity veneration of criminals in the government and no compassion for criminals elsewhere-whatever the circumstances. It is a measure that destroys citizens' peroga tive of keeping a watchful eye on the government of a democracy. Anyone interested in protecting his democratic rights would be wise to write members of the Senate and House Judiciary Committees and also to their individual representatives. Letters to Hruska would be in order; he is a member of the , Senate Judiciary Committee. In this Bicentennial year, S.l must be defeated. Sam Adams' call to action strikes just as necessary a chord in 1976 as it did in 1776: "Let us disappoint the men who are raising themselves upon the ruin of this country." Vincc Boucher vinp st Will E m m m m m m ifreoulofd TA's are bracinq themselves for blitzkrieg By Michael HiHigoss "Hilligoss," Leonik began, "There are several items in which your readers should be taking some interest. The VSI senses an imminent attack on graduate teaching assistants." "Really?" I said . "What are the signs?" "Three things," responded Leonik. "First, there is the regents' plan to review the quality of undergraduate edu cation at UNL. Second, there are the recent comments of State Sen. Douglas Bereuter (a former professor at UNL) that the quality of undergraduate teaching at UNL is undermined partly by the extensive use of graduate teach ing assistants. And finally, there is the faculty work-load survey which is now in progress." "What's the connection?" I asked. Leonik took a deep breath. "First," he said, "The work-load survey is going to show that in several depart ments graduate teaching assistants are carrying as many as ' 50 per cent of the teaching contact hours with under graduates. Second, this finding will confirm Bereuter's suspicion that too much of the undergrad teaching is done by TAs. And third, the regents will have a new scapegoat, . the graduate teaching assistant." "Pretty amazing," I said . "Yes, it is," he agreed. "It's amazing because there are several points that will be skipped over in the admini strative and legislative analysis of the situation. For ex ample, with TAs doing so much of the teaching, will any one ask what the regular faculty members are doing with their time? And assuming that the regular faculty mem bers aren't goofing off, will the Nebraska Legislature be willing to foot the cost of putting a Ph.D. in front of every classroom? And most important, will anyone really ask why the teaching done by TAs is considered inherently inferior to that of full-time doctorates? Will anyone expose such a conclusion as the assumption that it is?" "What can I do?" I asked. "If you can," said Leonik, "Try to get the following points to Bereuter: (1) TAs are frequently the most enthusiastic teachers that many undergraduates will ever have. They have a sense of idealism and love for learning not yet dulled by trying to teach at UNL for twenty years. (2) Those TAs who are given full course responsibility (rather than just lab or discussion sections) almost always have recent master's degrees and are about as "up" on re cent developments in their discipline as anyone needs to be for teaching many undergraduate courses, especially in troductory ones. Investigate quality, not qualifications (3) If it really is the case that TAs aren't qualified to teach, then Bereuter's time would be better spent inves tigating the quality of graduate education at UNL He might note that the full-time professors he wants to do more undergraduate teaching are the same profs who are. responsible for training the TAs who currently are doing the teaching. (4) Bereuter may not realize that UNL can't always at tract the best graduate TAs simply because of administra tive red-tape. There are a number of departments who are not authorized by the administration to make firm fi nancial offers to prospective TAs until July or August of each year. By that time, the best TAJ already have ac cepted offers at other universities. Now that, Sen. Bereuter, is a real problem that needs to be solved." Leonik gripped his empty coffee mug with a ven geance. "I'm one graduate student," he said, "who wont be made a scapegoat without a fight!" Quest opinion Bicentennial no gala event for Blacks By Clyde Steams . - I have heard various opinions in regard to whether the black people should participate in the Bicentennial. I feel that black people have nothing to celebrate. In the history of the United States, the black man has fought for freedom-as a matter of facj, the black man is still fight ing for his freedom. The only thing the black man has in his past worth celebrating is the fact that he wasn't bom white, unjesshe (the black man) feels uninhibited to celebrate the last 200 years of being hated while living in the United States, the greatest nation in the world. This nation, which has taken over the land of the American Indian, has made the Indians the prisoners of their own land. This nation has admitted foreigners of the world only to exploit them and obtain inexpensive labor. This nation has millions of people living in poverty, but instead of helping these people, Americans prefer to pump billions of dollars into other countries. For 200 years the Black has been going through changes such as these. Black people were taken from their homeland, enslaved , and made to work in the white man's plantations. y During slavery days the black man was considered lower than a second class citizen. As a matter of fact, in some cases he was even considered less valuable than the livestock. He had no rights a! all. Ilk only worldly pos sessions were the clothes on his back. Hie black man was not allowed to attend the same schools as the white man. He was not allowed to eat at ths some restaurants or drink from the same water foun- . tain as the white man. Ik was not even allowed to sit on the same bus next to a white man or woman. If a black man wss caught looking in ths general direction of a white woman he would be prosecuted, convicted and put to 'dwth for rape. , . ... " Ths black tnsa has been killed in mass numbers by the white man's hands. We find that lynch in gs were a specta tor sport for southern whites in the late 1800s. For many years black men and women were used as experimental subjects. The Tusiegee study was one of the many genici dai studies done on black peopie. in this study, 400 biack men were injected with syphillis to study the long- and short-term effects of the disease. Many died; the rest went crazy or blind. Some were bed-ridden; some crip pled and some just suffered. ' Now the black man is in a situation where he constant ly is being discriminated against and looked down upon. Although there have been laws passed against acts of dis crimination, they are not effectively reinforced. The black man lives in a culture within a culture. The ghetto! If he expresses himself as being from that culture he is considered a social outcast, a misfit, "a coon!" But if he decides to discard hi heritage, his friends, neigh bors, and parents, to adopt the white man's lifestyle, he is rolph by ton wheeler WEUt.WUCtAim LOOK HAPPY I AM i .... i a: .- k a i I jk- I figimed oar mm M sow v Do ma v. considered "a hell-of-a-guy." There are also no true black people's birthdays recognized as national holidays. Government employes get off work for George Washing ton's birthday. Why not for George Washington Carvers birthday? I don't even know why black peopie e bother to celebrate the Fourth of July. They were still in slavery on that day 200 years ago. During his 400 years in the United States, the black man has been despised, oppressed, lynched, discriminated against, enslaved, made examples of, experimented on, beaten, killed and constantly hated by some. For this people want us to celebrate? No! Blacks are a proven people and I know that the Blacks, my people feel the same way I do. Clyde, Stearns is 1 sophomore majoring to SP Education. fflws mr qiqyqu" GET A JDS 6o. WW ASs tETTEA CORPORATION. ,TUWTMA fZJTTi f Qj MB we mis,-