monday, September 18, 1978
page 4
daily nebraskan
opinioneditorial
Yelling incident and destroyed reports leave questions
Last week reports were filed by a
University Police officer and a stu
dent security supervisor at the UNL
Police Department. The reports
claimed that NU Regent Kermit Wag
ner of Schuyler yelled at them for no
reason Saturday, Sept. 9, before the
football game, accusing them of not
doing their job.
The officer identified Wagner
from a group of Daily Nebraskan
photos as the man who yelled at
them.
After a police check of the license
number, it was confirmed that the
car was registered to Wagner.
Regent Wagner denied the inci
dent occurred and said it must have
been a case of mistaken identity.
The reports were supposed to go
to UNL chancellor Roy Young, ac
cording to Robert Lovitt, assistant
Vice Chancellor for Business and Fi
nance. Copies had been received
by Police Chief Gail Gade and
Vice Chancellor for Business and Fi
nance Miles Tommeraasen.
Friday it was learned that the two
reports were destroyed on Tuesday,
according to Lovitt. Tommeraasen
admits to destroying the reports,
Gade never kept a copy and Young
never saw the reports.
Why were only two copies made?
That is not usual practice for the
university. And why did Gade not
keep a copy to back up what his
officer said?
Wagner, when confronted in
person in Schuyler Thursday
evening, again denied the incident
happened and said the report was the
result of mistaken identity.
He refused to answer simple ques
tions. When asked about the photo
identification and the license check,
Wagner refused to comment. He re
fused to say if someone else was
driving his car. He also refused to say
if he was in the parking lot where the
incident occurred and he even re
fused to say if he was at the football
game.
Wagner was not returning report
ers' phone calls. Messages were left
for him at his home and business in
Schuyler, at Regent's Hall and with
his CPA with whom Wagner had an
appointment Thursday afternoon.
His CPA confirmed that he had
gotten the message. This was the rea
son he was contacted in person in
Schuyler. Wagner also dodged
questions with his no comment
replies.
Then it was learned the regent
left for Europe.
Wagners timing is convenient.
The Daily Nebraskan considered
the police report newsworthy, but
the follow-ups were written because
of how Wagner and administration
officials handled themselves.
Wagner's refusal to answer
questions raises heavy suspicions.
The license plates check out, so who
was driving? A twin-brother?
If Wagner admitted he lost his
temper, there would be no reason
for a follow-up, but he didn't.
The fact that Wagner yelled at
security officers is bad enough. It
shows that he was not conducting
himself in a manner worthy of a
public official. But his refusal to
answer simple questions demon
strates that Wagner's integrity is in
question.
And that's a question that needs
an answer.
Speechwriter Fallows loses
every day struggle with routine
etters
Two years ago, one of the reasons I had
positive feelings about Jimmy Carter was
his hiring of James Fallows for speech
writing. As a contributor to several nation
al magazines, Fallow's reporting and
analysis reflected the social idealism of a
questioning rather than a settled-in liberal.
Colman
IDcCarthLj
He was well-regarded among journalists,
and when he went to the White House I
had no sense of his going over to be willing
ly mugged by "the other side." In power or
out, Fallows would side with candor and
decency.
Two years and thousands of anonymous
words later, Fallows is leaving the presi
dent. Although he has thought about
Jimmy Carter-they are kindly notions,
free of any parting-shot venom or inside,
dope -what is more fascinating about
Fallows is his introspection about his own
two years near the high command.
In-box routine
"It's a daily struggle," he says, "to keep
my mind from becoming 'routinized.' It's a
struggle I think I've lost. It's so easy to
stop fighting, and just come in every morn
ing to do what's in the in-box. This is the
crisis of the times-keeping the large in
stitutions from turning us into zombies."
Fallows will not be carried out coma
tose, but he does confess that much of his
original zip has drained.
Continued on page 5
I am trying to locate my natural mother
and am in hopes that one of your readers
will be able to help me. Her married
name is Amelia Moore. I was born May
31, 1926 and adopted July 3, 1926 by
Albert and Rachal Peterson.
I believe Amelia and her family lived in
the area referred to as "Russian Bottoms"
in Lincoln. In 1943 Amelia located me
through Judge Reed's records. She kept in
contact with me until 1950 when I moved
to Pittsburgh, Penn. In 1959 I moved to
Redwood City, Calif, and lost all contact.
After much correspondence with no succ
ess, I decided to reach out to the news
media for help.
Any information leading to the
whereabouts of Amelia Moore would be
greatly appreciated. Send all corres
pondence to the following address.
Arlene Lynch
541 Del Medio Ane.No. 127
Mt.View, Calif. 94040
'Childish' regents
It's good to know that the campus
police are on the ball, doing their job and
not brown nosing the regents. It's too bad
that one of our regents acted like a child
towards the campus police. One can only
conclude that some of our regents act like
children and should be treated as such.
Charlie Grossimon
Totally insane
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This letter is a response to the Sept. 13
opinion of C. M. Max Dalrymple. I have
read many funny, stupid and insane editor
ials, but Mr. Dalrymple's letter takes the
prize for all three.
I am not defending the CIA, but simply
pointing out that Max Dalrymple seems to
be a little disturbed or maybe totally
insane. I would bet Mr. Dalrymple sits
around all day in a locked room so the CIA
won't grab him.
I must remember that even people like
C. M. Max Dalrymple are entitled to their
opinion, no matter how idiotic.
J.R. Muir
MECA 'faction adopts motto don't get mad, get even
History abounds with rebel groups who
liberated their peoples from the yoke of
oppression. Colonial America had the
Minutemen; World War II Franch had the
Underground; and UNL has MECA.
Even now, the Monday Evening Club
Amended is on the verge of attaining
power, just as the Minutemen and French
did. MECA's five-year plan is to seek out
new forms of life and civilization at UNL
(if there are any), to explore the strange
new world of the steam tunnels, and to
boldly go where no man has gone before:
Regent's Hall.
Like its predecessors, MECA disdains -negotiated
surrender, but seeks total
control of UNL from within. MECA has
infiltrated the highest -or lowest -levels
of student government by placing members
in ASUN, RHA, UPC, the Student Court,
the Nebraska Union Staff and the
Innocents Society. Even the Board of Re
gents boasts of at least one MECA member.
Infiltration policies
Indeed, MECA's infiltration has already
shaped UNL polices. Last year the Univer
sity Task Force on Student Fees closed
its meetings to the pubb'c the same week
MECA closed its minutes. And was the
person who ordered the MECA Constitu
tion be forever secret the same person who
keeps dragging the Regents into their
permanently secret executive sessions?
michael gibson
But UNL has problems in copying
MECA's professional subversion. Last
week, for example, a Daily Nebraskan
reporter had no trouble uncovering a
campus police report concerning a high
UNL official. However, only a week
earlier, when MECA kidnapped another re
porter and drove her to New Orleans even
she didn't know she had been kidnapped.
Obviously I had to investigate. At 1 1:30
pjn. Wednesday I slunk up to the secret
entrance to MECA's infamous smoke
filled front room in Harry's Wonderbar.
Forced torture
The knife wielding president forced me
to repeat the Greek alphabet backwards
three times while a match burned in my
hand (you should see what we do to
non-members!)
I then watched in awe as he quelled a
coup de etat, appointed an ambassador to
England, and announced the acquisition of
title to a new Omaha skyscraper.
It was then that our Sicilian Chief of
Assassinations and Terminations reported
on MECA's latest military operation: the
successful sabotaging of the first three
weeks of school. Construction of several
parking lots had been delayed, ousting 500
students from their spaces, class registra
tion lines had been stretched from
Teacher's College to Broyhill Fountain,
and long distance phone service in the resi
dence halls were disrupted for a week.
Ransom demands
The ransom demanded was enormous:
rescheduling of Nebraska's expected bowl
game to Final Exam Week, a $1.50 per
credit hour increase in tuition and con
struction of a $25 million domed football
stadium for UNL's Lincoln Airport
campus.
Unfortunately, the administration
refused to cooperate because they thought
everything was going normally. Not only
that, they mistook the ransom note for the
minutes of the last Regents' meeting.
Although the plan failed, MECA
members decided not to get mad -just
even. Another WARGASM has already
been scheduled to retrain our MECAnized
infantry in military maneuvers so realistic
that casualty rates of 100 percent are
expected.
Card section demise
Yes, some people still smirk at MECA,
unaware of the wrath and terror of its
power. Few know that the football card
section met its fate after angering MECA;
fewer still realize that the Lincoln Police
felt compelled to provide a full police
escort for MECA's May Day march on the
State Capital.
And some condemn MECA for its sub
versive tactics, its outlandish protests
against the ridiculous bureaucratic
problems most students complacently
accept and its constant rebellion against
the parental wisdom of the Regents.
Then again, as Thomas Jefferson said,
perhaps "A little rebellion now and then is
a good thing.''