daily nebraskan
thursday, September 21, 1978
opinioneditorial
page 4
Packing plants need safety regulation
The plot is lifted right from Upton Sinclair's
The Jungle. Unfortunately if is not fiction.
About 35 meat packing workers out of every
100 are hurt on the job or afflicted by some occu
pational disease each year, according to the U.S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is a far cry from
the national average of 9.2 for all industries.
Statistics may not mean much, but most of the
injuries are horrible and leave workers damaged
for life. Recently a worker's arm was chewed up
in an auger at the Winchester Packing Co. in
Hutchinson, Kan. An exmployee at Missouri Beef
Packers in Wichita, Kan. lost his arm in an auger.
An American Stores Packing Co. worker in
Lincoln lowered a load of carcass hooks into a vat
for cleaning and the chain snapped. The cleaning
solution splashed on him and he suffered third
degree burns from the hip down.
The list goes on and on.
The Amalgamated Meat Cutters & Butcher
Workmen of North America, AFL-CIO says
when Vickie Bitikofer accidently stabbed herself
in the eye she was a victim of production
speedup, another casualty in her employer's drive
to maximize production and profits. Bitikofer
worked for Iowa Beef Processor Inc. in Dakota
City, now she's blind in one eye.
If the government won't step in and demand
safety be taught and provided for workers, it
may be time to boycott meat.
an
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Arab students: Sadat ignored previous commitments
Editors's note: This is the joint opinion
of the executive committee of the Organiz
ation of Arab Students.
For those who have adequate know
ledge of the Palestinian cause and the
problem in the Middle East, it is very
essential to revise the precommitments of
Sadat in Al-tfabat Conference in 1974.
It seems that Sadat has completely
ignored his commitments in Al-Rabat and
he went along giving up, step by step, most
of the Arab rights in this area.
He believes he is now in complete
triumph by attaining the goals set for him
purposely-what seems to be in accord
with United Nations resolution 242-over-looking
some of the vital abdications he
made concerning Gaza Strip and the West
Bank. Of course, one would realize that the
other main points of conflict have not
been negotiated such as Jerusalem and
Golan Heights which seem to be, in a
logical sense, a trap to get the Syrians and
the Jordanians to joint the group.
To deal with these two agreements, we
would like to enlighten the reader on some
of the commitments which have been vio
lated by Sadat in his efforts to achieve his
objectives:
Agreement on Sinai
1. The Israeli's withdrawal from Sinai
and particularly the settlements question is
subject to the Knesset's (Israeli Parliament)
approval. In addition, the withdrawal
should be accomplished in a period of
three weeks.
2. The Israeli withdrawal from Sinai is
also conditioned by disarmament of that
area which actually stands against what
Sadat demanded earlier, namely:
guest opinion
a. Complete Egyptian sovreignty over
Sinai.
b. The disarmed area should be on both
sides of the borders as Sadat announced,
knowing that the Israelis have already
gained lands through the changes in the
borders.
3. The establishment of military
air-bases in Naga's descent will constitute
a continuous and dramatic threat to
Jordan., Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Besides,
they will cost $1 billion paid by the U.S.
which supports the fact that Israelis are
blackmailing the U.S. government by
requesting billions and billions of dollars
for the past 30 years.
4. It is quite obvious that the resign
ation of Mohammad Kamil, the Egyption
foreign secretary, who was one of the most
moderate politicians, reflects the reaction
of the majority of Arabs and indicates that
Sadat was the loser.
5. Sadat has dropped his claim on Gaza
Strip to be given to the Palestinians. This
area was ruled by Egypt since 1948, and by
dropping it out of agreement, it means that
Sadat has denied the responsibility of
getting back this area that was occupied
by Israel in 1967.
II. Agreement II on the West Bank
1. Unfortunately, the agreement ignored
completely the PLO (Palestinian Libera
tion Organization) as the sole representa
tive of the Palestinian people in the West
Bank and the Gaza Strip, on which Sadat
himself agreed upon in Al-Rabat Arab
Summit Conference in 1974.
2. No doubt, there is a distinct
difference between autonomy and inde
pendence, whereas independent in itself
was the least the Palestinians could get for
themselves, so consequently the people in
the West Bank have completely rejected
the agreement. It gave them what is so
called "sharing in the autonomy."
3. The Israeli Prime Minister stated that
the Israeli forces will never withdraw from
certain strategic areas in the West Bank. He
added that even the United Nations peace
groups will not be allowed to take any pos
ition in the West Bank which contradicts
what Sadat claimed about the non-existence
of any Israeli forces there after the
five-year period.
4. a. The agreement ignored completely
the case of Jerusalem, whereas Begin con
firmed the indivisibility of Jeusalem which
will be eventually the capitol of Israel.
This opposes Sadat's earlier demands, the
U.N. 242 resolution and the Arab nation's
aspirations.
b. They have further agreed that there
would be no new settlements in the West
Bank for the period of three months
until the agreement will be validated by
the two sides.
5. Sadat, in his accord with the Israelis,
ignored the legitimate rights of the
Palestinian People to return to their
homeland in the occupied 1948 territories
(Israel). Sadat also did not mention
anything concerning the Palestinians who
are dispersed among the Arab countries
and the rest of the world. However, he
inaccurately identified the Palestinians,
who have the right to share in the auton
omy, as only those who live in the West
Bank.
Lone Ranger's offer can't make up for today's inequity
It's an hour before dawn. It's very dark,
very wet (the rain has been coming down
for some time now), and very quiet.
Stopped at a red light, I watch the reflec
tions in the street and for a moment get
the distinct impression that I'm caught in
some sort of time warp.
Linda Ronstadt is on the radio doing
something or other with Chuck Berry's
"Living in the U.S.A." She keeps drop
ping the tone on the 'A' in U.S.A. in
either a poor parody or poor tribute to
somebody, but I don't remember who. At
any rate it's driving me nuts.
We're so glad we're living in the U.S.A.,
yeah we're so glad we're living in the
U.S.A., everything you want we got right
here in the U.S.A
Far side of tired
It's a long light, and I'm beginning to
look for a large white rabbit with a pocket
watch. I want to get home so I can go to
bed. At this point Pm on the far side of
tired.
Otherwise, it's business as usual today.
School will segue in to work tonight, and
work will segue back into school tomor
row. Hot times in the city
There is a man coming up beside me in
the left lane. He is wet and is making very
little progress. I perceive that this is be
cause he is on foot. He is walking a pretty
lame -looking white horse behind him. One
of them is wearing a mask, and it sure isn't
the horse.
He motions me to roll down my
window, and I do, getting a face full of rain
in the process. He wants a match. Sorry,
don't smoke. He sighs and takes ft in stride
Reaching into his saddle bat; he comes up
with something. For a fleeting instance I
am seized with an inexplicable fear that it
is Christian material, but it turns out to
be much too small to be a pamphlet.
A silver bullet
"Here," he says, "Perhaps this will
identify me."
"A bullet?" I ask.
"Yeah," he says, "it is a little tarnished.
If you scrape some of the grunge oft of it,
you 11 find it to be silver."
michael zangari
All of a sudden, I am very glad I am not
a werewolf. Some people can go their
entire lives without knowing how lucky
they really are ....
"I'm the Lone Ranger."
"I know," I said, "I saw the convention
sticker on your lapel."
"Oh" he says as he takes back his bullet.
His eyes bore into mine like he expects
something, but I have very little to say to
him. I wipe the rain from my eyes and
make a valiant attempt at conversation.
"Nice weather we're having ..."
'What do you want
"Cut the crap," he hisses, and I am
suddenly very afraid. "Look, Pm sorry I
got hot with you. It's just that IVe been
walking these streets for a lot of years. 1
hurt. Indirectly you have kept me alive
when I would have just as soon gone
quietly away and died." He sighed loudly
and looked into my eyes just a little
gentler, "No Pm asking you, what do you
want?"
I think hard. "I really don't know," I
say, suddenly afraid of hurting him.
"Things are so different now. The good
guys aren't really that good anymore, and
the bad guys don't seem as bad in that
light. I mean to say that things aren't as
easy as they were. I could ask you to go
rob a bank for me, but the money would
be worthless in the face of all the inequity
we face daily."
No job guarantee
'Can you guarantee me a better job
someday when you yourself are reduced to
doing aftershave commercials?"
"Can you bring home the dead from all
the worthless wars and revolutions? Can
you topple a U.S. puppet government in
Iran or heal the gaping wounds in Ethio
pia? Or even on a small level, can you
restore the sanity to even one hurt and
lonely person in this city?"
Suddenly I feel a little foolish mouthing
my own cliches at him. In sudden frustra
tion I quietly ask him, "What are you good
for?"
After a long silence he breathes another
heavy sigh and admits "I don't knowj
and adds quickly, "but you need me."
Too late-he's gone
The ranger climbed on top of his horse
and tipped his hat. "Adios," he said, and
rode through the intersection against the
light.
In a blind frenzy Pm suddenly out of
the car chasing after him screaming "Come
back! Come back!" but it is too Lte, he
is gone.
Back in the car, I realize that I have lost
him for good this time. Ronstadt has
stopped singing, and asks, "Who was that
masked man?"
I say "Listen Linda, I really don't think
you'd understand." And the stop light
remains scarlet.
to.
ft,
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