pagQ4
daily nebraskan
monday, march 5, 1979
v-'
Freedom of speech abuse causes anger, amrioyaiice
Contrary to popular belief, free
dom of speech is not a freedom
limited to Iranian and Arab students
on this campus.
The spectacle created at Yitzhak
Rabin's speech last Thursday proved
for the second time this year the lack
of understanding or respect some
foreign students have for this
country's freedom of expression-the
same freedom they are extended and
use so freely.
The former Israeli prime minister
managed to get through his speech
mainly because he could shout loud
er than the taunts of 'Liar and
'Jerk. He finished, but not without
an angry interruption by NU Regent
Ed Schwartzkopf who said he "came
here to listen to this man speak.'
Schwartzkopf was not alone in his
desire to hear Rabin. That's what the
overwhelming majority of the audi
ence were there for and the actions
of the noisy protestors violated every
member of the audience's right to
hear Rabin as much as they violated
the speaker's rights.
The angry, vociferous students
interrupted even their own com
rades' questions at the end of the
speech.
This country's zealous guarding of
the freedom of speech is based on
the idea that truth is easier found in
a forum of many different voices
than in a single commanding voice.
It is obvious, despite efforts of the
Organization of Arab Students' lead
ers to avoid disruption of the speech,
that many students last week wanted
only one opinion "heard-their own.
The dissenting students had every
opportunity to express their opin
ions during their demonstration in
front of the Union immediately be
fore the speech, and through the
signs they carried into the Union
Centennial Room.,
Campus feelings run. from annoy
ance to hostility toward the various
Iranian and Arab protests. But with
the exception of a little blaring
music from a fraternity, these
protesting students' right of dissent
has been respected
With the cost of bringing political
speakers to this campus so dear, it is
a shame that once we get them here
we can't listen to them. . .
Anne Carothers
Rabin visit helps to put thaw
on chilling speakers program
Spring came Thursday, and, as Tenny
son romantically wrote, in the spring a
young man's fancy turns to thoughts of the
prospects for peace in the Middle East.
Actually, it was appropriate that the
smog-encrusted snow was melting just in
time for the arrival of Yitzhak Rabin,
spokesman of a land where snow is as rare
as peace.
Rabin, former Israeli Prime Minister and
ambassador to the United States, is an
undisputed, although admittedly subjec
tive, expert on the Arab-Israeli conflict.
But while the crowd that heard Rabin's
speech learned much about the Middle
East, they may have learned even more
about the Middle West-Harvard of the
Plains division.
In the first place, they should have been
surprised that Rabin was even here. After
failing the test for being a 'non-political
speaker' (A rare creature somewhat akin to
the jackalope, unicorn and the Loch Ness
monster), Rabin could not be paid by stu
dent fees.
Reshaped history
Thanks to the NU Board of Regents,
- who 'decided a year ago that political
speakers were hazardous to our health, we
nearly missed hearing a man whose actions
have reshaped history.
Fortunately, the Chancellor's Office,
the Faculty Convocation Committee and
the University of Nebraska Foundation dis
agreed with that opinion and admirably
donated the money needed to pay for
Rabin.
But there were other, less praiseworthy
things that Rabin's coming said about
UNL.
Before his speech a group of students
protested Rabin's appearance. It was then
that an unnamed fraternity decided to
unfairly stifle the protesters by setting
their 140-watt stereo speakers in their
windows and turning the- sound up full
blast-right in the middle of Rabin's press
conference:
Rude hecklers
But those protesters, whose rights had
not been respected, apparently believed
that one wrong justified another, and so
heckled Rabin throughout his speech.
Their shouts were' not as disruptive
Jrit those during Westmoreland's speech
last fall, but they were equally rude and
unwarranted.
Perhaps more importantly, the heckler's
efforts again backfired. Although the
Arabs' case is perhaps as strong as Rabin's,
the hecklers' actions generated "only antipa- -thy
end little if any sympathy for their
cause,
- 'And then there was Lincoln Regent Ed
Schwartzkopf. Although he and Omaha's
Kermit Hansen were the only Regents last
: year with the courage to stand up for free
; rpccch by supporting UNL's speakers pro
Erarn.Schwartzkoprs' action Thursday
. rJit, while nobly motivated,' was dis
heartening.
Concern
Rabin, who has verbally sparred with
the world's leading politicians, handled the
hecklers quite well and probably
considered their remarks easier to deal with
than Billy Carter's.
But as the shouting died down,
Schwartzkopf apparently decided that
Rabin was incapable of defending himself
and so proceeded to give the hecklers a
tongue-lashing which, though well-deserved,
also proved that In loco parentis applies to
UNL students and Israeli prime ministers
alike.
Yet Rabin's appearance did say some
thing good about UNL students: they were
there. Despite the spring weather, Mork
and Mindy and the pressure of mid-term
exams, the Centennial Ballroom was full of
students who came to hear and to question
Rabin.
And if so many students are concerned
about something other than football, are
concerned about something other than
Nebraska, are concerned about their own
lack of knowledge, then despite the three
inches of snow drifting outside my win
down, perhaps spring is still coming.
MEHACHE1,OL&UPDr,
OL PAU..."
In the buff exposure degrades men too
By Arthur Hoppe
Playboy, the magazine for consenting
voyeurs, managed to get itself a page of
publicity in Time by embarking on a pho
tographic essay project entitled "Girls of
the Ivy League."
As a first step, Playboy attempted to
take out an ad in the Harvard Crimson of
fering $400 to any coed who would pose
in what is referred to in the Ivy League as
"the all-together."
0GQD(2X3M
,4
Needless to say, the Harvard Crimson re
jected the ad amidst cries that such photo
graphs "degrade womanhood." This is ab
solutely true and I feel strongly that Play
boy, having garnered its publicity, should
abandon its otherwise ill-conceived project
forthwith-for the good of all concerned
First of all, due to more stringent
college entrance requirements, the average
Ivy League woman has an IQ 23.4 percent
above the national norm. Keeping that in
mind, let us recall the study Dr. Homer T.
Pettibone, the noted; physical anthropolo
gist, made in 1968 of. 12,316 American
women in which he proved conclusively
that the size of a female's bosom was-in
direct inverse proportion to the size of her
brain.
Knowing the artistic taste of its male
readership, these figures should cause Play
boy to give up on "Girls of the Ivy
League In favor of, say, 'Girls of the
South Dakota College of Auto
Upholstering.'
With that out of the way, let us ask
whether nude photographs of women de
grade womanhood in general. Yes, they do.
You may well wonder what I, a mere man,
know about the subject. Plenty.
It so happens I attended Heathcliffe
College, at thst time one of the most
prestigious Ivy League schools with none
but accredited geniuses in residence.
One accursed day, a photographer from
Swinging Girl magazine slinked on to our
campus and offered any full-time student
$25 to be photographed in what was then
known as "the buff " That was big bucks
in those days and six of us weak-willed in
dividuals succumbed to mammon.
How well I remember the morning
Swinging Girl with its story on "Boys of
the Ivy League" hit the stands. The results ;
were disastrous. -
For a good two weeks, my phone rang
night and day with obscene phone calls
purportedly humorous obscene phone
calls, which are the worst kind. Swinging
Girt, its readership devastated, ceased pub
lication the following month. And it was
seven long years before a Heathcliffe man
was able to obtain dates with a Vassar
woman.
To this day, I will occasionally run into
women of my vintage at cocktail parties
who blurt out, "Say! Aren't you the fellow
who posed with the volleyball . -.
But I must carry my burderfof shame to
my grave. And if nude photographs of men
degrade men, then nude photographs of
women degrade women. J
As for you, should you think the entire
issue -is nonsensical, may you wake up to
morrow with a staple in your belly button.
Copyright Cruvnide; Publishing Company
1579''"" ' f ;-. ' -
I was very intrigued by several American -reactions
to the heckling of Mr. Rabin's
speech
The first was by a university official
.who protested ithis infringement of free
speech.. , . . " :. 1
His reaction; was typical of the selftf
righteousness :of self-centered Americans
who are moved to action only when they
themselves are personally: inconvenienced.
If this official is so concerned about free .
. speech he should do something about a
situation where Mr. Arafat and other lop
Palestinian leaders are prohibited from
touring this country and giving their view
point of the Mideast.
He should do something about the sad
; fact that the PLO (the sole legitimate rep
resentative of the Palestinians as recognised
by the UN) is only allowed one office of
information in the United States.
He should 'protest to the news media
wruch.'until 1973, only allowed pro-Israeli
reports to reach, the American people; and
which is still anti-Palestinian. '
; v If this official is willing to do these
things I suggested, I will then take his pro
testations about free speech seriously.
Continued on PS
