thursday, february 17, 1977
page 4
daily nebraskan
Letter content reflects
'ninth floor' ignorance
Benjamin Franklin once said, "If a man
empties his purse into his head, no one can take it
from him." Some college students must be
emptying wooden nickels into their heads if the
letter below is any indication of the contents of
their heads.
The letter from the Ninth Floor Society for
Deportation of Nigerians is frightening to read.
Perhaps the ignorance of the author stems from
an unpleasant experience, a sheltered background .
or a lack in the academic services of this univer
sity. Although we thought it was our obligation to
print the letter, we thought that it could not go
without some editorial comment.
Clyde Stearns wrote his guest opinion on Roots
to say that many of the attitudes toward black
people during the slave days and reconstruction
period still exist today. It's true that prejudices
take a long time to heal, but this is ridiculous.
The letter by the Ninth Floor too clearly
illustrates that those feelings still fester in today's
society.
We hope that this letter represents only a small
segment of the "educated" college students on
this campus We go to college to learn more than
facts and figures'. The hardest tests in the real
world are not true and false.
We must open our eyes and look inside each
other. The present must not reflect or perpetuate
the prejudices of yesterday.
letters
Grave injustice v.
Regards the Feb. 10 guest opinion by Clyde
Stearns, we feel a grave injustice has been done. Mr.
Stearns, in answer to peoples 'lack of emotion toward the
plight of the slaves as portrayed in Roots, lists several
factors overlooked in the television drama. I was tempted
to believe Mr. Stearns until he committed the fatal mis:
take. While listing his "hierarchy of importance" he notes
that darkies, spooks, niggers and coons (as they were
known in those days) were located below even cats and
dogs. Well, Mr. Stearns we hate to disappoint you, but
you are wrong. We still call blacks those things today.
Ninth Floor Society for
Deportation of Nigerians
Exaggerated statement
I most certainly sympathize with the indignation that
Clyde Stearns and every other black American must feel
when viewing the history of race relations in our country.
In his guest opinion in the Daily Nebraskan, dated Feb.
10, Mr. Stearns purported to correct the misconceptions
regarding slavery, which the recent television production
of Roots gave certain people. I agree that the most cruel
atrocities suffered by blacks at the hands of the white
man were,-not depicted. However, I disagree with Mr.
Stearns analysis of the "hierarchy of importance." I also
disagree with the 100,000 figure quoted as the number of
blacks wantonly put to death by whites after the Civil
War.
Slave labor was the backbone of the plantation
economy, and slaves were relatively valuable property. A
plantation owner did not make money by physically abus
ing his slaves, and they were certainly well above the level
of a dog or a wagon in the "heirarchy of importance." I
know that sounds facetious, and I do not mean to imply
that their niche in the absolute order of things was in any
way desirable. Indeed, it was not. But Mr. Stearns lost
credibility when he exaggerated his statement to appeal to
emotion rather than reason.
This is especially true when Mr. Stearns stated that
blacks were killed by the 100,000s during Reconstruction.
In his book, Strain of Violence, Richard Maxwell Brown
showed that from 1882 to 1951, 3,437 blacks were
lynched in this country. Of course, even one lynching is a
tragic legacy for today's generations, but Mr. Stearns
ought to be more meticulous in his research. Alex Haley
spent 12 years writing Roots.
VanSchroeder
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American complaints chill landlord
N Scene: The Heavenly Real Estate Office. The Land
lord is happily puttering about, creating still another
galaxy, as his business agent, Mr. Gabriel, enters, a sheaf
of papers in one hand, his Golden Trumpet in the other.
The Landlord: Ah, Gabriel, do hand me that spangle of
stars, the one hanging over that cobwebby jar of moon
beams. I really should dust ...
Gabriel: Excuse me, sir. But I thought you'd want to
know about those tenants of yours on that little planet
you love so much, Earth. I'm afraid they're complaining
again.
The Landlord (sighing): Not those Americans again,
Gabriel? ;
Gabriel: Yes, sir. Those in the East are demanding you
turn up the heat and those in the West want you to water
their lawns and be quick about it. Really, sir, sometimes
they seem to think of you as their janitor.
The Landlord: Their janitorGabriel?
Gabriel: And not a very good one at that. They say
you've dumped 14 feet of snow on Buffalo and only a
innocent bystander
slap and a dash over the Sierra. It sounds as though
they're accusing you of malfeasance in office.
poing too far
The Landlord (frowning): By me, Gabriel, they go too
far! . .
Gabriel (raising his Golden Trumpet): They're definite
ly undesirable tenants, sir. Shall I sound the Eviction No
tice? The Landlord (raising his hand): A moment, Gabriel.
Check the utilities clause in the original lease. Did we'
agree to provide heat?
. - .'
Thsedora M. Dsrnstein ;
Gabriel (checking): Yes, here it is: "Landlord agrees to
provide one (1) sun to warm planet." But they don't use
that much any more, sir. They prefer to bore holes in
your earth and burn up your fossil fuels instead. But,
fortunately, they've almost used these up.
The Landlord: Fortunately, Gabriel?
Gabriel: Yes, sir. You see they claim you put all the gas
and all the oil in all the wrong places so they keep muck
ing up the oceans and gouging out your mountain
meadows to bring it where they want it and even then
there isn't enough to ... .
The Landlord: But, Gabriel, why don't they simply
harness the free, clean energy of the sun I gave them?
Busy building bombs
Gabriel: Mostly habit, I'd say, sir. Then,, too, they
don't have the time or money to explore solar power.
They're much too busy building thermonuclear bombs.
The Landlord: They plan to warm thenselves with
bombs, Gabriel?
Gabriel: Not exactly, sir. The Americans plan to warm
the hides of the Russians or maybe the Chinese and vice
versa. In any event, if they all devoted one-tenth the
effort to developing solar energy that they do to develop
ing means of blowing up your planet. ..
The Landlord: Do you mean to say, Gabriel, that the
Americans are ten times more afraid of the Russians than
they are of blizzards, snow and ice?
Gabriel: It would appear so, sir. (Raising his trumpet.)
Really, sir, by any sound rule of property management,
these reckless vandals should be
The Landlord: Not yet, Gabriel. Instead, let us visit
upon them more blizzards, more cold, more droughts and
throw in a flood or two while you're at it.
Gabriel: As punishment, sir, for their blasphemy?
The Landlord (smiling sadly): No, Gabriel, in hopes
that they will learn before it's too late that all men are
brothers.
(Copyright Chronicle Publishing Co. 1977)
Some go too far in using 'commute
Trips forth and back. A word that has not gotten very
far and hopefully (yes, hopefully) will not get very far in
the future is illustrated -in this sentence: "The Grahams
used to live in Peekskill, north of New York, a 90-minute
commute each way." The only dictionary in which
commute as a noun appears is the Barnhart Dictionary of
New English Since 1963. That dictionary cites two
examples of its use, both of which appeared in magazines
in 1968. To some ears, including mine, lis an ugly word.
Conjunction superstitions. Calling attention to one of
those rectangles of last June in which a paragraph ended
with the sentence, "And that, we hope, is that," Mrs.
Dorothy Green of Westchester, Pa., writes that she was
taught it was incorrect to begin a sentence with a con
junction. Many of us were taught the same thing and the
advice here is to forget it. That is the advice of most
authorities on usage, one of whom notes that sentences
bernstein on words
... AWA0.
(guess urn, govs?) (SWF (Tawa07
beginning with and were in quite proper use as far back as
the 1 0th century and "the Bible is full of them."
The only valid warning is not to begin sentences with
and so often that the usage appears to be an affectation.
All that has been said here about and applies equally to
but. The prejudice against however as a sentence starter is
stronger, but no more reasonably based.
The test for the proper placement of however Ai that
the word should be so positioned that it casts contrasting
emphasis on what precedes it. Here is one example of
good positioning: "The union has been investing its
pen&ion funds in a variety of bonds in normal years. Be
cause of this year's fiscal crisis, however, the union has in
vested heavily in city obligations." A second example;
The jury had been expected to bring in its verdict in the
Jones murder case yesterday afternoon. However, the
foreman of the jury developed influenza overnight and the
deliberations had to be deferred." That however not only,
properly begins a sentence, but also could properly begin
a paragraph.
(c) IS 77 Ttwodort M. Bernittin
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