monday, October 23, 1978
page 4
daily nebraskan
opinioneditorial
S
Register to vote Vietnam vets are shuffled out of sight
your voice can
affect issues
Apathy need not characterize this
campus.
Important choices that directly
affect students will be made this
election and students must realize
they can make an impact on the
issues.
Every issue and candidate on the
ballot will affect students. This elec
tion we will choose senators, state
legislators, regents and the governor.
These leaders control the university
budget, how our fees are spent and
to some extent how we conduct our
lives.
If students are upset about
decisions the regents have made, now
is the time to research what kind of
voting behavior they have exhibited
and actively voice approval or dis
approval of your regent.
Your vote can make a difference
when one considers that about half
the registered voters turn out for an
off-year election.
Registering is a simple process and
should not be overlooked.
An easy way to register is to take
a jaunt down to the City-County
building on 11th and K streets.
Registrations takes place from 8:30
a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Vietnam veterans are accustomed to
being slighted by the Carter administration.
But the newest affront has to be painful in
still another way. Early this year, the presi
dent directed that by April the administra-
tion would announce both a full review of
the problems of the Vietnam-era veterans
and the administration's legislative plans to
ease those problems.
Colman
(TlcCarthL)
The review and proposals appeared last
week-six months late, and only four days
before Congress was scheduled to adjourn.
The symbolism couldn't be missed: As
Vietnam fades from memory, the warriors
who still suffer its effects also can be
allowed to fade from view. What's one
more delay?
More unsettling
Veterans saw another symbol that may
be even more unsettling. It was not the
president who came forward to announce
his new policies, but the vice-president. To
mid-level government officials dealing with
day to day veterans' problems, this is a
signal that the pressure isn't on. With the
president not making himself visible and
without giving an extra push from above,
why should those in the bureaucracy below
go all out?
The difference between an extra effort
and the attitude expressed last March by
a Carter assist ant -"the White House feels
no more concern over veterans' rights now
than over other areas"-is a major reason
the Council on Vietnam Veterans was
bitterly disappointed by the President's
proposals.
Bright side only
Its director, Robert Muller, is a Marine
veteran and lawyer who is confined to a
wheelchair due to combat injuries.
He said that "during Vietnam, it was
suggested that we leave Southeast Asia and
declare ourselves victors. That appears to
be the administration's policy regarding the
Vietnam veteran: Let's look on the bright
side of things and say that the veteran is in
fine shape."
The president's review, which did
indeed cite favorable statistics in veterans'
employment, education, and services, said:
"It is a tribute to the caliber of those who
served that most Vietnam-era veterans have
already adjusted very successfully to
civilian life."
Irks critics
What irks critics like Muller is that after
the review acknowledges the harsher real
ities 21 percent of the veterans earn less
than $7,000 a year, high rates of suicide,
alcoholism and psychosis-it offers limited
remedies at all to help the significant
minority that is still hurting.
For example:
-On the GI Bill, the old inequity of
veterans in some states being forced to pay
higher tuitions than veterans in other states
is not dealt with.
-The administration, after long
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opposing the extension of a 10-year de
limiting date on the GI Bill, now supports
the plan for the educationally or econom
ically disadvantaged. This still leaves out a
large number of other veterans.
-In unemployment, the administration
relies heavily on public service jobs through
the CETA program. But this program had
earlier goals which went unmet. Eight
months were needed to put an official
charge of the veterans' jobs program. But
in less than a year, this appointee was
asked to resign, and no permanent replace
ment has been found. This go-round -taking
a long time to find someone who
wasn't up to the job, and the leaving the
job unfilled -illustrates the lack of support
for the program from the White House.
In promising to grant assistance to
veterans seeking discharge review, little
could be done to reduce the lengthy 12 to
18 months to complete the process.
Nothing is mentioned about the outreach
efforts to inform the eligible veterans. Only
after the ACLU won a suit last August did
the Department of Defense notify 47,500
"bad paper" veterans that they might be
eligible for reconsideration. Even then, that
number is less than 10 percent of the
eligible.
Bill costly
During the long delay of administration,
a coalition of 14 Vietnam veterans in Con
gress was at work. It has proposed a
comprehensive bill that fully addresses the
major problems. It is costly about $1
billion, against the $250 million package of
the president.
It is true that funds are tight. But one
source of possible money is in the pending
veterans pension bill. The House Budget
Committee said that the money going into
this costly legislation for non-service dis
abilities could be better used for Vietnam
veterans.
And this leads back to the question
raised by Robert Muller: Can the admini
stration be content with the bright side or
does it have a solemn commitment to deal
more vigorously with the dark side-the
less visible grievances that have yet to be
resolved?
(Copyright), 1978. Th Washington Post
Co.
Some childish students justify regents playing parents
Last night I had the unenviable task of
convincing my sophomoric roommate that
"In loco parentis" was not the Eastern
Nebraska version of the Panhandle's loco
weed. I told him it was the theory that the
Board of Regents act in place of our
parents while we are students here at UNL,
thus giving them authority to declare I
can't have my natural mother in my room
before 10 a.m.
He claimed my explanation made sense,
but then, he's always been good at
humoring me.
michael gibson
"However," he said, "I must observe
that while the theory can be differentiated
from the weed, whomever dreamed up the
former must have consumed a considerable
amount of the latter.
"Furthermore, I suspect that since the
regents show no sign of recovery, somone
must be allowing the noxious weed to grow
here on campus, probably the student
body."
Children or not?
By this time I was wondering if the
Regional Center had room for this
obviously semi-sane Scot.
"I haven't lived with you that long, "he
answered." Just observe that when a regent
says students are children and should be
treated as such, the students insist on
proving him right.
"When the blizzard closed school last
year, how many students spent the day
catching up on homework and how
many spent it hurling iceballs at motorists,
disrupting traffic and promoting general
disorder?"
I had to admit student actions that day
were a major factor in Chancellor Young's
decision to open school the next day,
whereupon my gloating roommate pro
duced a newspaper clipping entitled "Re
gents squelch mandatory speaker fee."
"Remember how we all denied that con
servatives didn't have a chance to voice
their views via the speakers program? Yet
how many of us were interested in letting
Vf KNOW KIR THING COUP BE W0$5 - W COHp HAVE BEEN
7 UCK IN HEKt Wlln n KtrUKI CK.
Westmoreland air his opinions?
Roomie zoomed in for the kill.
"Students want more control of their
lives and their student fees. So let a regent
say our elected government, ASUN.
shouldn't be given more power since it
doesn't represent all students, and we ve
hemently disagree with him via the highest
turnout in ASUN recent history: 15
percent."
I scoffed and told him that he was just
pointing out isolated cases.
"True," he said, "But with one case of
rowdyism, a regent thinks he can justify
voting against the will of the students. If
he's looking for an excuse to vote the way
he wants instead of the way he should, just
one beer bust in a residence hall can 'arJ
has' done the trick.
Liberty means responsibility
"Besides, if students are so unhappy
about the regents, or about government
officials in general, why do they tolerate
them?"
I was going to argue until I remembered
that people 18 to 24 years old have the
lowest voting percentage of any age group
in the country.
"But changing things takes effort," he
continued, "as much effort as going down
to the CountyCity Building and registering
to vote,"
I stalked out of the room, livid with
rage at his cynical attitudes about young
people and shouted something about stu
dents being free not to care.
"Perhaps," he continued, "but as a
fellow Scotsman named Shaw once said,
'Liberty means responsibility -which is
why most men dread it. "
