page 4
daily nebraskan
thursday, September 7, 1978
opinioneditorial
Nixon's attempted comeback audacious
r -
It might be a good time to bring
out the old posters of Richard Nixon
that say "Would you buy a used car
from this man?"
This former president displays an
unbelievable amount of audacity and
brashness. He is the first president in
the history of the United States who
resigned from his office to escape im
peachment. Then Nixon was pardoned by
Gerald Ford, his vice president who
inherited the presidency.
Now reports are being released
about his retreat at San Clemente
where he talked about his comeback.
That's right, his comeback.
After the Watergate incident, the
rigged election, the break -in at
Democratic headquarters, the cover
up, the erasing of the tape which left
an 18 minute gap, the illegal spend
ing in his 1972 campaign, Nixon has
the gall to even talk about coming
back to public life.
Many of his associates are still in
jail. Others are living in seclusion.
And yet, Nixon is trying to weasle
his way back to public life which is
demonstrated by his latest venture,
hosting a $250-a-head fund raiser at
San Clemente for county Republi
cans running for office in Orange
County, Calif.
On a political scale, county offices
are rather small, but if this is a step
ping stone to bigger and better
things, the country ought to be on
the look out.
Yet, it must be an amusing sight
to observe Nixon at a fundraiser
talking to conservatives, where parti
cipants who actually shelled out
$250 to attend, swallow what he
said.
Another thing that makes Nixon's
attempt at a comeback more disgust
ing is that during the whole Water
gate ordeal he never expressed any
remorse.
Nixon damaged his party's reputa
tion and if he associates himself with
any national republican figure Nixon
can only harm his efforts.
The former President was caught
flimflamming the country and
damaging individual's respect for
government and politicans. He stood
by and let his associates go down for
the count, and what may be con
sidered more damaging is the possi
bility that the American people will
again embrace Nixon.
Polls have shown that people are
more willing to forgive Nixon now.
Some may consider it acceptable
to forgive the former president. But
to grant him access back to politi
cal life after not spending one day
behind bars for his crimes is un
thinkable, even though it is un
likely Nixon will make a grandiose
comeback to political life.
One can hardly call living in se
clusion in his lush San Clemente
estate, while suffering disgrace, a
punishment.
Final-offer arbitration, not strikes, cure to disputes
The strike, as a means of settling labor
disputes, is a cure that isn't very much
better than the disease.
Maybe that's the voice of panic. I don't
think so, but heaven knows there is enough
to be panicked about. You've seen the
news stories about the strikers: police and
firemen in Memphis; Philidelphia sanita
tion, health care, clerical and recreation
workers; New Orleans garbage collectors;
Louisville firefighters; Cleveland police.
The public interest involves much more
than just inconvenience. Striking law
officers constitute a threat to the public
safety. Garbage rotting in the streets
threatens health.
William raspberry
Just last week, there were news reports
of striking firefighters standing and
watching while fire engulfed a block-long
section of downtown Anderson, Ind.
A better way
In some of these instances, strikes are
illegal. But legal or not, they are dangerous
and, finally, unacceptable. There has to be
another way, a better way.
In fact, there is another, better way,
though both management and labor have
been reluctant to employ it. I refer to the
procedure known as final-offer arbitration.
The procedure would not affect the
ordinary collective bargaining process.
Workers and their employers would con
tinue to try to hammer out agreements
between them, with the normal give and
take such bargaining entails. Final-offer
arbitration would come into play only in
those cases where the bargaining process
breaks down, where there is an impasse.
Neutral board
At that point instead of strikes, lock
outs and the rest -the union and manage
ments would each submit their final pro
posals to an independent, neutral board
which would then choose one of the pro
posals as the final contract.
The board would have no authority to
modify or combine the features of the two
proposals. One of them would be the final
settlement, period.
The attractiveness of the idea for me is
the way it encourages brother parties to get
down to brass tacks. You don't leave in
outlandish demands or ridiculously small
wage offers if to do so would increase the
chances of the other side's proposal
becoming the final contract. Each side
would be motivated to get rid of its own
absurdities.
Reasonable compromise
As it works now, absurdity is an integral
part of the process. Management offers too
little, because it knows if will have to
bargain up from the original offer. Labor
demands too much, because it knows it
will have to bargain down. Theoretically,
the adversary nature of the bargaining
process will work to produce a reasonable
compromise. Usually it does.
But often it doesn't, and when it
doesn't, final-offer arbitration seems to me
a reasonable recourse. I find it particularly
appealing in the case of public employ
ment. But it makes just as much sense in
private disputes, including the one that has
shut down New York City's three major
newspapers.
So why isn't it being used more widely?
1 1 KWkVHN
TA
The short answer is that neither labor nor
management finds it attractive. Even
mediators don't care much for it, although
many of their reasons strike me as either
misleading or obscure.
Appeals to scholars
L. Lawrence Schultz, director of arbi
tration for the Federal Mediation and
Conciliation Service, once told me that
final-offer arbitration has its chief appeal
among "commentators, scholars and intel
lectuals," a formulation that makes clear
his own coolness towards the idea.
One reason foT his lack of enthusiasm,
he said, is that the routine recourse to
final-offer arbitration would lead both
T
sides to sit back and wait. "Certainly,
neither side would be inclined to make
major concessions," he said.
Which strikes me as just the reverse of
what would probably happen. I cannot
imagine either labor or management failing
to make the concessions it believed neces
sary to make its proposal the more reason
able of the two under consideration.
But when the basic collective bargaining
process has broken down and the choice is
to knuckle under or strike, final-offer arbi
tration makes sense -a lot moTe sense than
the specter of firefighters watching a town
burn down.
(Copyright), 1978, The Washington Post
Company.
i
mm
Humanity behind bars of chimp's world
resurrection.
cancel my subscription to the
-Jim Morrison
What happens when nightmares become
reality?
The line between the two can some
times seem very fine indeed. Two months
ago, the following news item sent chills up
and down my spine.
michael zangari
As you have probably heard, scientists
are teaching chimpanzees to communicate
with humans using sign language. In the
process they have discovered that the
chimps think of themselves as human.
For instance, when sorting photographs
of people and chimps into two piles, the
chimps will generally put a photograph of
their natural parents into the animal pile
while putting a photograph of themselves
into the human pile.
In another instance, Washoe, the most
famous of these chimps, when introduced
to other chimps for the first time referred
to them distain fully as "black cats" and
"bugs", and had trouble adjusting.
The saddest case in the release, and the
one that has me off on this current
rampage, involves a chimp by the name of
Allee.
Allee was raised by humans, but was
forced to give them up when he moved to
the Oklahoma Research Center. When
introduced to the other chimps, he seemed
cheerful enough, playing with them like
dogs and cats.
The scientists there say that eventually
"something clicked' with Allee. He began
screaming, quit using sign language, and
sank into a severe depression.
He realized he was a chimpanzee.
Having been on this campus for four
years, I am not unfamiliar with the
Twilight Zone, but this seemed to hit on a
fundamental fear of mine.
More terrifying than waking up each
semester and discovering that I am a stu
dent, is the fear that some day-maybe 10
years from now -I am going to wake up
and discover that I am all the people I've
never wanted to be.
Tli ere are certainly worse fates than
living out the plot of a bad B movie, -marrying
the queen of my nocturnal em
misions, being content in a sedate job, and
having 2.3 children to mess up my illu
sion of control, but at the moment I
can't think of many.
Everybody has dreams, crystal ships
that carry everything they hope to be.
There are few things as fragile. It is so easy
to be trapped into a job because it is easy
to fall into, or worse yet, because it is easy
to be comfortable. And no, it's not a crime
to be comfortable, but in many cases it is
expensive, and the dreams are the first
thing to be sacrificed. They don't go
dramatically when you are sedate, they just
slip quietly away.
There must be some natural process that
cushions that blow. If you are never fully
aware of the loss, I imagine it can even pro
vide some sad smiles in your memory.
It is ultimately facing the dream's mal
function that provides today's nightmare.
It's that sinking fear that someday, some
thing will click. Ill begin screaming silent
ly, quit communicating and sink into a
severe depression.
And 111 realize I'm all too human.