Wednesday, december 13, 1978
page 4
daily nebraskan
opinioneditorial
Rights of US. and world people should not be ignored
Monday marked the 30th anniversary of the
United Nations Universal Declaration of Human
Rights and it seems fitting that this week has been
declared Human Rights Week.
More than 50 nations have ratified the United
Nation's Human Rights Covenants, and Presi
dent Carter has asked the Senate to approve
them.
The Covenants include: freedom of thought,
right to peaceful assembly, freedom of associat
ion, including the right to form labor unions, and
fair, public and speedy trial for criminal charges.
They also include the right to work under just
and favorable conditions, the right to an adequate
standard of living, including food, clothing, hous
ing and social security, the right to education and
to health care, the right to participate in cultural
life and to enjoy the benefits of scientific
progress.
The covenants also prohibit governments from
engaging in torture, arbitrary arrest and detent
ion, and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment
or punishment.
The countries that sign the United Nations
Covenants must report to the United Nations the
progress thev are making in finding jobs, health
services and other basic rights for people in their
country.
Congress should take Carter's suggestion and
ratify the covenants.
The American people must look carefully at
the covenants and demand that people of all
nations enjoy the same rights we have guaranteed
in the Bill of Rights.
America has been a leader of human rights
throughout the world and we must continue to
fight and strive for everyone's rights.
We must demand that the United Nations care
fully investigate countries which have already
signed the covenants and continue to ignore
them. Such countries include: Chile, Peru, Vene
zuela, Iran, and USSR.
Signing of the declaration would obligate the
United States to look into American working con
ditions and raise them to a safe and adequate levl.
It would reaffirm the rights of women and
ethnic minorities and would encourage better
education for all people in light of the increasing
functionally illiteracy rate.
The United States must not ignore the rights of
its own people or the rights of anyone in the
world .
Our failure to sign the United Nations Human
Rights Covenants will reflect upon our leader
ship throughout the world and it will show our
prejudices in the development of international
human rights.
Zorinsky stirring speculation, controversy over political plans
Amid speculation that Sen. Edward Kennedy might
challenge President Jimmy Carter for his party's presi
dential nomination, Nebraska Sen. Edward Zorinsky has
managed to stir some speculation and controversy over
his future political plans.
The Lincoln Journal, Monday, reported that Don Wag
goner, Zorinsky's 1976 campaign manager, was in Mem
phis at the Democratic midterm convention to push
Zorinsky as a vice-presidential candidate in 1984, possibly
as a running mate for Kennedy.
"This effort takes a lot of manuevering. 1
did not go there and immediately announce that 1 was
pushing Ed Zorinsky for vice president. 1 did go to get to
know administration officials and key delegates,"
Waggoner told the Journal.
Laying groundwork
The Associated Press, in an article printed in the
Lincoln Star, reported that Zorinsky had confirmed Mon
day that Waggoner was in Memphis "laying the ground
work" for a possible Zorinsky vice presidential bid.
But, the Omaha World Herald reported Tuesday that
Zorinsky said he is not running for vice president, but is
more interested in making sure Nebraska is best represen
ted on the Senate Agriculture committee.
"If I were interested in being vice preisdent, I would
have talked to Sen. Edward Kennedy, who has offices
across the hall," Zorinsky told the World Herald.
I. kent wolgamott
Reached in Omaha Tuesday afternoon, Waggoner said
he went to Memphis on his own, primarily to be with his
long time friend, Evan Dobelle, former chief of proto
col now employed by the Democratic National
Committee.
No challenge
Waggoner said he did meet with some delegates and
members of the administration but the meetings dealt
with future involvement by Waggoner in political cam
paigns. "I never once said anything about Ed Zorinsky for
vice president at any time to anyone."
Since Zorinsky was also in Memphis serving on an
agricultural panel at the convention, Waggoner said he and
Zorinsky were together at several times but did not talk to
anyone about a possible vice presidential candidacy for
Zorinsky.
However, Don Pieper, assistant managing editor of the
Lincoln Journal said the Journal's story "hasn't been
challenged yet."
He said the quotes printed in the Journal were direct
and accurate and those quoted were changing their stories
after they thought about what they had told the Journal.
Pieper said that Waggoner did not have to directly men
tion Zorinsky while laying the ground work through
meeting people and making contact.
"He was spreading the fertilizer," Pieper said.
This is my last column of the semester and probably
my last regularly scheduled column to appear in the
Daily Nebraskan, although I may write occasionally in the
future.
Those of you who have read this far are probably the
regular readers of my column, and to you I say I hope 1
presented some interesting, informative and controversial
information and opinion in the last year. I enjoyed
writing, thanks for reading.
etters
The comments made by Bruce Nelson
in the "Guest Opinion"of Dec. 11, 1978
have incited me to write this letter. He
made some rather childish remarks in his
letter regarding the errors made by the Or
ganization of Arab Students in their guest
opinion on Dec. 4, 1978. It is unfortunate
that those Arab students did not carefully
proofread their letter and correct those
errors before submitting it, but what is
more unfortunate is Mr. Nelson's petty,
linguistically prejudiced criticism of the
misspelled words and "mind-boggling" syn
tax of the Arab students' letter.
Mr. Nelson's comment "I suppose
writing well is difficult to master for revo
lutionaries who are busy being 'com
mitted' " was as ludicrous as it was stupid.
As a tutor of English as a second language
for foreign students at the University, I
can attest to the fact that writing well is
indeed difficult for foreign students, whe
ther they are "revolutionaries" or not. It is
no easy task learning to write well in
another language but foreign students
devote great effort and time in improving
their writing skills in English.
Perhaps the Arab students' opinions
concerning the Middle East situation might
be deserving of "all the ridicule others can
muster," but their attempts at expressing
these opinions in a foreign language are cer
tainly not deserving of such ridicule.
Mr. Nelson found the errors "entertain
ing, but not nearly as amusing as the
knowledge that the piece was written col
lectively." Mr. Nelson seems to be a per
son easily delighted by the trifling language
errors made by foreign students. The mis
spelled words and the syntax of the Arab
students' letter are not so mind-boggling.
but the asinine comments made by Mr.
Nelson certainly are!
Nancy Marie Wood
Graduate Student
Racist sarcasm
In response to Mr. Nelson's article
(which attacked the article written by the
Arab Students in Nebraska), I must point
out that his is an example of intellectual
ism that centers on "bad grammar" (of
which Nelson accused the Arab students).
Nelson's article seems to be flavored with
racist sarcasm and intellectual arrogance.
For example: "An example of the awe
someness of Arabs working together"
perhaps?) Let it be known to Mr. Nelson
that this type of racist attitude is the foun
dation of "facism."
Apparently, it is easier for Mr. Nelson's
intellectual capabilities to attack something
rather than to provide a meaningful and
positive solution. The Arab students pro
pose a "democratic-secular state" as an
attempt to solve the Middle East situation.
What does Mr. Nelson propose? Mr. Nel
son's article appears to be void of any
meaningful content or constructive critic
ism. That's too bad, because it is such a
long article. As far as the bad grammar is
concerned, let Mr. Nelson write his article
in Arabic once, then we will see who is
pompous.
Steven SalUe
Partial criticism
Monday. Dec. 11. I read the graduate
history student's criticism of the OASN's
guest opinion. I must say I was shocked to
read such a partial criticism especially from
a history student. It seems to me that this
writer had a misconstrued understanding
of what the Arabs were trying to say and it
was poorly written as the criticized
opinion, with one important difference:
fhe guest opinion was written by a foreign
student and one should not forget that
English is not their native language. Writing
well is difficult for us! Maybe instead of ar
guing a poor choice of words the writer
(Dec. 11) should have defined facism.
(Maybe he did not know either!) Facism is
(after Webster) a political philosophy,
movement or regime that exalts nation and
race and stands for a centralized autocratic
government by a dictatorial leader, severe
economical and social regimentation and
forcible suppression and opposition.
As a foreign student from a democratic
country, I observe how the majority of the
young people in America take for granted
the many freedoms they have and cannot
fully understand how it is living in a non
democratic country. It is time that people
open their eyes and their minds to other
countries, and races and not hold the belief
that the "American way of life is the only
way of life!"
OASN did not rebuke the Jews. They
only pointed out the fact that the Jews
made a bigger issue than other persecuted
people of World War II. If one examines
the situation the Jews were in at that
period of time one would feel justified to
complain, too!
By the way, the Palestinian question
cannot be simplified, it can onlv he clari
fied! The passage "kind of dumrm" shows
me how little understanding this student
has of history. The quote "the appropriate
noises are coming out of hislarnyx, but his
brain is not involved as it would be if he
were choosing his words for himself re
fers to how masses of people may follow a
cause or idea with enthusiasm but without
seeing the negative points which might
result.
In the circumstance of Hitler and Ger
many, this is true, but the situation of the
Palestinians is definitely a different matter.
Palestinians were watching their lands
taken from them by force by the British
mandate (prior to 1948) and given to
Israeli settlers who have homelands outside
Palestine but chose to take others. The
British were helping the Israelis but were
crucifying the Arabs. In 1948, the British
left Palestine when they were quite positive
that the Israelis are armed enough to es
tablish their own country. The Israelis did
not only establish their own country but
kicked 80 percent of the Palestinians
outside the "new state". The Palestinians
want to go back to their homeland, what
will they do if Israel did not give them this
right since 1948?
However, I agree a mass of people may
use words or expressions (like facism ) they
may not know the meaning of. because
they are told or believed it will bring about
the "change" or "improvement" they want
in their own way of life.
I believe the Palestinians have the right
to "get
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