monday September 24, 1979
page 4
daily nebraskan
Poor should not
Recent events in the United States
have been traumatic for a country as
Utterly dependent on energy as this
one.
The Three Mile Island nuclear
accident last spring raised many
questions about the ability of Amer
ican technology to solve our energy
problems.
The summer's energy shortage,
with its high prices and long lines
forced many people, who previously
thought the crisis was just a plot of
oil companies, to admit the crunch is
be peiiali
&ed for energy problems
real.
The coming winter foreshadows
many concerns about the availability
of natural gas for heating homes.
All of this is a little frightening for
people who are used to lifestyles of
ease and luxury. Americans, in gen
eral, can no longer afford large gas
guzzling cars. Large houses which
will cost a fortune to heat and air
condition will be out of the ques
tion. And with more and more
money budgeted to meet energy
needs, less and less will be available
for luxuries and the little pleasures
or life.
, The question now is what to do
about it. And this is what Congress,
back from Its August recess, is con
sidering. President Carter's energy
proposals are getting looked at in de
tail including his proposal to tax
windfall profits on oil companies.
Under this "proposal the money
would be rebated to lower-income
families and mass transportation
plans.
Although the tax is widely popu
lar with citizens of the country, the
Senate, however, apparently is not so
enchanted with it. It now looks like
the measure will be amended with
the money to go to. other groups.
This would be unfortunate. The
poor already are suffering from high
prices caused When the rest of us,
refused to conserve ihd Increased the
demand for oil.
The poor who have contributed
the least to the energy Crisis should
not have to contribute most to its
solution.
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I would like to comment on a letter written by Kay
Schneider (Sept. 18), concerning the Unification Church.
Her research brings to mind the image of a student doing a
report on Black People in America with bibliography
materials produced solely by the Ku Klux Klan. She seems
to feel that we're all idiots ready to be led astray . Well . . .
I'm not your fool, Ms. Schneider. Along with many other
mature individuals, including some parents, t joined this
movement because I believe it represents hope for Amer
ica in fighting the plagues of drug abuse, sexual promiscu
ity and the general moral breakdown in our Society .
Never, and I repeat, never, have t ever been to hear a
lecture or workshop that included a measly three -hour
resting period complete with chanting andor singing, nor
1 ever been served minimal amounts of non -nutritional
food as a routine diet, as you propose.
On the contrary, a typical seven to eight hour sleep is
quite commonplace, in fact desired, in order that those
attending don't fall asleep during a lecture. The meals
eaten in the Unification Church are always wholesome,
nutritrious, and plentiful.
I do know that money raised goes to such worthy pro
jects such as the Unification Theological Seminary in
Barrytown, New York, where students are urged to study
a variety of religions taught by rabbis, priests and other
clergymen. The annual International Conference on the
Unity of Sciences, is attended by some 550 deans of uni
versities, professors and Nobel Prize laureates from 53
nations. And 1 might add, in conferences past, two profes
sors from UNL have attended. Money also goes to free
medical clinics and food programs in California, run by
volunteers, in which I personally have been involved.
Lastly, but not least, a university being built in upstate
New York, has been funded by donations raised by sweat
of dedicated members who are every bit in tune with their
faculties. Contrary to what to you believe, such spirit of
self-sacrifice and volunteermissionary work should be
applauded in a land where many are demanding higher
pay and more from the government.
I hardly think that such brainwashed zombies as those
you have contrived could do anything, much less that
which has already been produced and is helping thousands
of people dairy.
You have a wonderful gift of imagination-, Kay. It's
truly sad it's being put to such destructive purposes; you
have unjustly criticized the lives of many hard-working,
honest and sincere people. You've succeeded in further
confusing and distorting an already mangled issue.
Bruce Burris
Freshman, Arts and Sciences
The Daily Nebraskan welcomes letters to the
editor and guest opinions. Timeliness, clarity of
writing and originality are considered when selecting
material for publication.
All submissions are subject to editing and con
densation and cannot be returned to the writer.
Material should be typed if possible and sub
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number.
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Separation from professional schools
hurting liberal arts teachers, students
While 1 cannot comment on the specific details of the
action to' separate the School of Journalism from the
College of Arts and Sciences, I have some strong thoughts
about the general trend toward the isolation of various
professional programs from the liberal arts. I feel such
separations are damaging in the long run to both profes
sional education and the liberal arts fields.
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At their intended best, liberal arts backgrounds for pro
fessional education should provide persons entering the
various professions with a broad understanding, a capacity
for critical thinking, and an awareness of value issues in
volving the whole human community in its movement
from past through present and into the future. Certainly
we are already overwhelmed with a surfeit of professional
technicians with no sense of the human community, no
capacity for self-criticism, little sensitivity to broad social
issues, and little more than a narrow-scope competence to
be sold to any buyer for the higher personal, short-term
gain. Further isolation of professional education from any
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leavening in the liberal arts will hot improve the situation.
On the other hand, such separation also removes the
challenge to the liberal arts to improve their present, gen
erally dismal, record at providing that leavening which
they would like to claim. It seems to be a Sad truth that
many liberal arts professors and some whole departments,
despite their damning cries against "vocationalism" in the
university, have long put their major efforts into being
their own little "vocational" schools, centered on produc
ing as many little M.A. and Ph.D. replica of themselves as
possible, and generally ignoring issues of Quality, liberal
education at the Undergraduate and preprofessional level
for those who are not headed toward major work and
graduate enrollment in their specific field.
Part of this is explicable in terms of the self destructive
reward system in graduate universities like Nebraska,
where undergraduate teaching and advising are seriously
downplayed-only those who care about persons more,
than professional advancement dare give it much attention
-and the Teal rewards come from the research and writing
associated with graduate programs. Part of the situation is
also explicable in terms of sheer egoism-some of us are
mole flattered and give more attention to those who seem
sincerely to want to imitate us rather than by those who
are only temporary dabblers.
But, however, explicable, the situation remains the
same-much of the potential for liberal arts as a creative,
broading influence upon the mass of students who will
not be graduate degree seekers in political science
sociology, ct. al. is lost because of teachers and programs
that are as narrow in their competency, vision and interest
as the most crass of self-serving professionals. And, again,
the situation wiJJ only be exacerbated by further
separation of professional programs from arts and sciences
connection. The best action toward alleviation can come
only with closer associations in which both liberal arts
programs and professional school mutually challenge each
other toward tbeir best contributions to the long-term
good of the human community.
Larry Doerr
Commonplace-UMIfl;