page 4
daily nebraskan
. friday, march 14, 1980
Nebraska is leader in First Amendment freedoms
Nebraska is well known in several
areas-football, gasohol studies and
agriculture quickly come to mind.
But perhaps the least known
quality in the state lies in First
Amendment rights.
Led by Lincoln Journal Editor Joe
Seacrest and lawyer Alan Peterson,
Media of Nebraska has kept the
doors open not only for the press,
but for citizens statewide to express
themselves freely.
The most recent victory for the
lobbying group was stalling action by
the Legislature's Rules Committee
on a proposed closed meetings rule.
As Seacrest said, "closed meetings
would depart from the Nebraska
Legislature's great tradition of open
ness." Media of Nebraska has had its
hands full with First Amendment
legislation since its organization in
1973. Of $he 597 Dills introduced
during last year's session, 85 had
something to do with the media.
The local media lobbied 22 bills
in 1979 and were involved in the
state's new open meetings, open
records, privacy and newsroom
search laws.
Nebraska was the fifth state to
enact legislation protecting news
rooms from unwarranted searches,.
Such action has been necessary since
police, armed with a search warrant,
ransacked a Stanford university
student newspaper office for inform
ation in 1977.
Highlighted by a U.S. Supreme
Court decision invalidating a gag
order in the Simants murder case four
years ago, the Nebraska media have
been highly successful in ensuring
First Amendment rights in this state.
Perhaps one can attribute such
success to cooperation between the
law and press. Nebraska is one of few
states to have voluntary bar-press
guidelines. Such guidelines provide a
neutral ground for both professions
to operate in the best interests of the
public.
Such cooperation is the only
approach to ensuring fair trial, free
expression and continuance of a free
democratic system. .
Abuses by the Fourth Estate can
be kept in check only through ensur
ing the opportunity for a, responsible
press.
Once that opportunity starts
slipping away, responsibility and
accountability will slip from more
than just the ranks of the media.
Speaking not only as future journ
alists, but as concerned Nebraskans,
we appreciate the efforts of the
media of Nebraska.
Harry Allen Strunk
Inflation-beater or buffoon ? Ford may try again
BOSTON-lhe Question about Jerrv ties not visible in any GOP candidate the Republican candidate debates, you decimate the Kennedy challenge.
BOSTON-lhe question about Jerrv
Ford's possible entrance into the Re
publican presidential race is whether it
is an exercise in nostalgia or a shrewd ,
and far-sighted political move.
'OP
u
There has not been such a yearning
in a political party for a candidate who
is on tiptoes to join the game since. . .
well, since the Democrats were doing
nip-ups over Ted Kennedy's broad hints
that he might run last fall.
And we all know how well that has
worked out.
Ford today is being endowed by
Republican leaders with heroic quali-
AN76FOR
since Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Jerry Ford slayed the dragon of infla
tion when he was in the White House
and cut the upward creep in the con
sumer price index to the almost unima
ginable rate of 4.8 percent.
' Jerry Ford stood firm with the
Soviets and promulgated defense poli
cies that would keep the nation strong.
Jerry Ford tamed the Democratic
Congress, without antagonizing its
members.
Jerry Ford "healed our land,"
The last was said of him by Jimmy
Carter, on the inaugural stand. The
other things are being said of him by
many of those who have been running
for the Republican nomination for the
past year.
To listen to the Ford references in
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the Republican candidate debates, you
would think that there would be a un
animous ballot cast for him in Detroit
next July, and a cascade of indepen
dents and Democrats supporting him
over Jimmy Carter in November.
That view of a possible Ford candi
dacy is unadulterated 100-percent-pure
political fantasy.
Let Jerry Ford step one inch across
the line to avowed ambition for a full
term, and those same Republicans will
be reminding people that this is the guy
who lost the White House to the inept
Jimmy Carter; the guy who forgot there
were Soviet divisions in Poland during
the second debate; the guy who-yes,
indeed-pardoned Richard Nixon.
If you don't think those matters
would be raised, then you probably be
lieved last autumn that Chappaquiddick
would be no problem for Ted Kennedy.
And if you think that candidate Ford
would not have his penchant for mala
propism examined closely by the cam
eras and the press, at least to the extent
that Kennedy's uhs-and-ahs have been
recorded, then you underestimate the
orneriness of us reporters.
For Ford, as for Kennedy, the pass
age from potential to actual candidate
would be a passage from a soft senti
mental haze to cold, unflattering light.
But if you understand that, there are
still reasons to think that Ford is more
than a mirage for Republicans seeking a
candidate for the White House.
The private judgment of many of the
country's top pollsters-including the
one who serves Jimmy Carter, Pat
Caddell-is that Ford is potentially the
toughest opponent that Carter would
face.
The reason, very simply , is that Ford
has been there. Ke has done the j6b.
More than any other Republican, he
would strip Carter of the incumbency
advantage which Carter has used to
Uniquely in the nation, Ford can dis
pute Carter's Rose Garden pronounce
ments about the most serious questions
on national security, and diplomatic and
economic policy. And he can do it from
a position of equal authority.
But if Ford looms as a formidable
general election candidate, there is still
good reason for Republicans to hesitate
about luring him into the race at this
late date. His entry could well scramble
the picture and damage, rather than en
hance, the possibility of anyone achiev
ing the unstated but well-understood
goal of stopping Ronald Reagan.
By the end of this week he will have
missed the filing deadlines for 21 pri
maries with 908 of the convention's
1,994 delegates. The late primaries are
not the best for Ford. In the states that
will vote between May 3 and June 3 this
year, Reagan rolled up a 553 to 446
delegate margin over Ford in 1976. And
that was when Ford had the White
House and a tested campaign organiza
tion available to him.
There is one other point-party
unity. In his "come-get-me-I'm-waiting"
interview with Adam Clymer of the
New York Times last weekend, Ford un
leashed the ultimate rhetorical weapon
that "moderate" Republicans always
use against conservatives. He said
Reagan "can't win" a general election.
That is an argument absolutely guar
anteed to enrage conservatives, who
have had it thrown in their face ever
since the days of Barry Goldwater and
Bob Taft. If Ford beat Reagan out of
the nomination again, with that kind of
argument, he would face a party split
worse than the one he says cost him the
presidency in 1976.
That, too, is part of the reality he
enters, if and when he steps across the
line.
(c) 1980, Tha Washington Pott Company
As I was walkins out of Law Library the other day. I
noticed a sign that read "Black armbands for silent pro
test of capital punishment." After seeing that box of
black armbands, I just had to write this letter. Something
about this protest, specifically the people involved, dis
turbed me deeply, therefore I will direct my thought of
this message to these people.
Since I am well aware of your constitutional arguments
against capital punishment, good ones for sure, my point
here is not to reignite old disagreements about capital
punishment. So let's toss the matter of legal rights of a
condemned murderer aside for now and let's take an
objective look at the matter from a little different view
point. Let's take a satirical look at a situation where the
murder victim is not some obscure person you read about
on page 32 of the newspaper, but let us say it's your sister
or brother or even you -yes, you! One evening you are
walking to the library and two guys decide they want
your money, so they take it. But in the process they
nonchalantly beat you until your heart stops beating. And
as you lay there dead with all your constitutional rights
protecting you, these gentlemen saunder off chuckling
and counting your money.
But even worse, say an incident like this happened to
someone you deeply cared for; think about it! Now after
an occurrence such as this, are you going to tell me you
wouldn't want to "nail" these guys in a personal vendetta
type way? If you can honestly, HONESTLY, say no, then
I believe you have just defied something known as human
nature. I can't say for sure how I would feel about capital
punishment after something like this would happen to me.
Although I think I could sitting here now, and even
though friends of mine have, I know I couldn't. But my
point is you can't eitherl How can you say or anyone for
that matter, make an honest evaluation of capital punish
ment from a situation you haven't or probably never will
have had experienced. Don't we tend to protest contro-
s 11 tiGis eM?
versies like ranita! nnniohmAnt fmm a mAAA Hream
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world of books, bee , and easy times. It seems to me if
you wanted a real convincing argument, you should en
list families of deceased murder victims to protest capital
punishment with you. I think people would tend to listen
to these first hand experiences, rather than to you. I know
I would.
To conclude I must admit it kind of sickens me to
think of somebody being gassed or electrocuted. But what
really makes me sick is the thought of capital punishment
being totally abolished, in other words no last resort
option of punishment to hideous, outrageous crimes. And
in eliminating capital punishment altogether, you are
saying "Nobody can deserve that kind of punishment, not
even if that person killed me!"
Steve Jack
SeniorMechanical engineering
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