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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 19, 1979)
daily nebraskan page 7 Candidate seeks student support monday, february 19, 1979 By Randy Essex City Council candidate Eric Youngberg said Friday he considers it "amazing" that there is not a councilman in Lincoln who is sympathetic to students' interests, and said part of his campaign will try to show students that council decisions affect them directly. Liquor policies, housing, Lincoln Electric System rate structures, public transportation and bicycle regulations are some of the issues students should have input on, Youngberg said . He said the LES rate structure is "upside down," with the greatest burden falling on the lowest consumers. The council recently approved rate increases for LES, which amount to a seven percent increase for some residential consumers compared to a 5.5 percent increase overall. Youngberg also said students should be concerned with the "effective elimination of motorcycle parking in the downtown areas." The district election plan mandated by voters in Nov ember will provide university students with a representa tive they know they can go to, he said. Unsympathetic to students "In the past, a person would try to find someone on the council sympathetic to their problem, which didn't really work very well," Youngberg said. "Now council members will be directly accountable (to their constituents in their districts)," he said. The accountability will make the council members' jobs more work, he said, because more time will be involv ed in gaining citizen input. Youngberg said that as a council member he would be receptive and sympathetic to students. An employee of the state Technical Assistance Agency, Youngberg is working on his master's thesis at UNL. Youngberg predicts a dramatic increase in citizen input because of the district election system. He said neighbor hood organizations should be officially recognized by the council through passage of a resolution. Campaign issues As a member of the Community Development Task Force, Youngberg made a motion during an October meeting to eliminate the voting power of council members who sit on citizen advisory committees. He encourages council members to attend such meet ings, he said, but thinks they should not vote because they are given two votes under the present system. Youngberg said the local press has taken his statements about the proposed Northeast Radial out of context, and has made it sound as if the radial is his major concern when it is not. But, he said, his major campaign issue will concern the sensitivity and responsiveness of the council to citizen concerns. "Watson (Inc., the developer) was allowed to take the city for a ride," Youngberg charged. He said cutbacks that were allowed by the city after Watson entered into a contract detracted from the quality of the project. Original plans for the complex called for elderly hous ing at the top of the complex and a main bus terminal in the basement, he said. Decorative work and some store space were cut from the project later. Assistance program helps tax headaches A campus Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program offers to help relieve yearly tax headaches. The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program (VITA) is sponsored by the Internal Revenue Service and UNL's Beta Alpha Psi, a national accounting honorary. Staffed by seniors and graduate students, the program is available every year to answer income tax questions. The program was organized to alleviate the fear of being audited. The Internal Revenue Service hopes the service increases understanding of tax forms and encourag es yearly filing. VITA has existed at UNL for about four years, accord ing to spokesman Mike Wiltfong. The response is not as great this year as in the past, he said. Volunteers are in the Nebraska Union, ready to answer questions and assist in problem-solving until April 11, "Wiltfong said. The union calendar lists times and locat ions. No appointment is necessary. If Evm Monday fjire YWi vou CAN C AT 'J m. 50Ufj SPAGHETTI KftftSPti fiATlNG-THe past lL mm Marital equality cannot exist as it is now ERA proponent By David Ostdiek Wives will never be equal partners in marriages as long as their rights are in the hands of courts and state legislatures, the national president of Housewives for ERA said Saturday. In a speech at the Nebraska Center for Continuing Education, Anne Follis said America's laws, many of which are based on British common law, still include statutes which take away a woman's rights when she gets married. She said neither the state legislature nor the courts will eliminate the laws, which she said are based on the common law principle that "what's his is his, and what's yours and his." "We cannot leave our rights up to legis latives, and we can't leave them up to courts," Follis said. "We've got to have them in the constitution." One of the laws she cited included divorce cases in Vermont. In a divorce action, the courts can take jointly -owned property away from a wife if they feel she has "misbehaved," but the husband cannot have property taken away, she said. Children get preference If a husband dies in Alabama, she said, the children get preference over the widow in the will. If the wife dies, however, the husband gets preference over the children. Follis said a 1970 Ohio Supreme Court decision said the wife is "at most a superior servant to her husband; only chattel with no personality, no property and no legally recognized feelings or rights." If the ERA were passed it would place the burden for eliminating discrimination on the government, rather than on individuals, as it is now, she said. Women would not have to depend on the gener osity of courts, legislatures and husbands. Follis said both the press and minorities have constitutional protection, but that women do not have such protections. And anti-ERA forces, whom she called "oppon ents of equality." have misled the public about the ERA. she said. Pandora's box ERA opponents claim the word "sex" in the text of the amendment will "open a Pandora's box." The same people call the I RA a plot of militant homosexuals, she said. "Confusing the 1 KA with homose ual i! is confusing the sex ou are with the sex you do," she said, adding that a Wash ington Supreme Court decision said ERA would not open the door for homosexual marriages. Follis called anti-ERA forces a "nega tive, ultimately destructive anti-family force in our society," and said "It's time we showed them for what they are." Their pro-family stance is a way to mask their anti-equality stance, because oppon ents give women a false sense of security about their rights, she said. The ERA was first introduced in Congress in 1923. It was reintroduced every year until 1972, when Congress finally approved it. Of the 38 states necessary for ratifi cation, 35 have given their approval to the ERA. Last year Congress extended the deadline for ratification from March 22, 1979 to June 30, 1982. If the ERA isn't ratified by then, Follis said, women will not stop trying. Citing a biblical story in which a judge gave a women her rights because he was afraid she would bother him until he did, Follis said, "We are simply never going away." The Lincoln Lancaster League of Women Voters sponsored her talk. Emergency number is not for business UNL police would like to remind per sons calling the department that there are two numbers to use, and one is for emer gency use only. Police remind residents that the number to call for normal police business is 472 3555. A second number, 472-3550, is an emergency number and to be used only to report crimes in progress, or crimes that have just occurred, as well as incidents of violence or threats of danger to persons or property . Persons who call the eir.ergenc number with non -emergency business w ill he asked to hang up and call back on the non-emer-genc number, according to police. Used Chairs . . . from $100 Used Desks . . . from $19.95 Used Files . . . from $10.95 Used Tables . . . from $14.95 And more at LOW prices! (see ad in Sunday Journal Star) Monday and Tuesday only Mon.9am-&30pm Tues.9am-5pm All Makes office equipment co. 3333 "O" Street (plenty of parking February Is BLACK HISTORY MONTH Check on these programs: Mon., Feb. 19 -'Theological Interpretation of the Black Church", Union Main Lounge, 1 1 :30-1 00 p.m. Tues., Feb. 20 -"Black Belly Classic Basketball Game", Mable Lee Hall (Women's PE), 7:00 Wed., Feb. 21 -Black Speak - Heile Gerima (Film maker) 12:00 Noon, Room 232 Neb. Union; Commemorate Malcolm X - Culture Center, 7 00 p.m.. Guest Speaker - Phillip Thompson Feb. 18-21 Black History Month Art Display will be shown at the Gateway Mall Feb. 18 - 25 "Roots. Next Generation" will be shown at the Culture Center (popcorn served) Events to continue throughout the month Sponsored by University Program Council-Cultural Center, Special Services, Muhi-Cuttural Affairs, Malone Center, Nebraska Committee for the Humanities, Student Y
