4 Jun2A,l?0 Summer Nebroskan
Perspectives
. Head shops surrender
Aci to legislative pressure
Latent racism rampant
in American politics
By Randy Essex
Last fall, I was shocked and later
probably out of sheer denial amused,
when a UNL professor told me that con
servative politicians have failed to tap
their greatest asset in appealing to the
American public.
Latent racism.
George Wallace, the professor said,
owed his marginal success in presidential
races to tapping racism to a greater ex
tent than any other recent national poli
tician. It was uneasy amusement I found in
this, and as the year went by, that feeling
of disbelief disappeared. He wasn't kid
ding, and there is nothing funny about it.
Declared "unelectable" by Gerald
Ford, Ronald Reagan, known as an arch
conservative, and probably owing much
of his success to that reputation, breezed
to the Republican nomination.
Surprised by George Bush in the Iowa
caucuses, Reagan campaigned hard in
New Hampshire, and told a revealing
"joke" designed to offend everybody
from ducks to Mafia dons. But he won
overwhelmingly.
Democrats in California's 43rd Con
gressional District also endorsed a man
who believes in white superiority in their
June 3 primary, when they chose Tom
Metzger, California Grand Dragon of the
Ku Klux Klan as their nominee. That's
right Democrats the party al
legedly dedicated to civil rights and so
cial justice.
But Metzger would have only one vote
out of more than 400 in the House of
Representatives.
Harold Covington, the leader of the
U.S. Nazi Party, won 43 percent of the
vote for the Republican nomination for
North Carolina attorney general. Unlike
Congressmen, attorney generals can pros
ecute (or persecute) people without ma
jority approval. Giving a Nazi a mandate
to determine who to prosecute, which
laws to challenge and which ones to pro
tect almost certainly would slow progress
toward social justice, at least in one
state, and would increase the caseload in
federal courts, wasting time on racist
esses 1
I read about Covington and Metzger
in a syndicated column by Kevin P. Phil
Hps, who seems genuinely concerned
about die rise of facism in America. But
it strikes me that not enough people are
similarly concerned, perhaps because
they are not informed, but maybe be
cause they really feel that way.
One cannot help but wonder why the
meaningless phrase "Let's make America
great again," inspires so many people to
support a man with no experience m fed
eral government, and why, if Reagan is
successful, that slogan probably will be
the rallying cry of conservative candi
dates throughout the 80s,
It is overly simplistic to believe that
changes in international affairs since
World War II were caused by a lack of
American military strength, or that in
creasing that military strength will
change the world back to the way it was.' '
And it wasn't really so great then. People
went hungry while Americans developed
an industry to take off fat.
The same sort of insensitivity occurs
concerning domestic "greatness."
Time magazine, in an analysis of the
black Americans' situation in 1980,
quoted a black leader as saying the only
time anyone cares about blacks is after a
riot. Then, in describing Washington's
ghettos, Time wrote that vice, narcotics
traffic and other evils were going on "all
too close to the White House."
Harlem and Watts are as bad, espe
cially for their residents, as the ghettos in
Washington. But Time didn't think the
vice in those ghettos was as bad, appar
ently because no one could see it. That is
a reflection of the disease that appar
ently is spreading unchecked in America.
Inner city blacks may be prone to
burning their neighborhoods again out of
frustration. And the white people may be
prone to burning crosses again, and elect
ing movie stars, KKK Grand Demons
and Nazis, as a solution to domestic and
foreign problems.
Social justice and all the other holy
sounding goals set by our constitution do
not seem to represent the will of the ma
jority. Power and comfort, at any cost,
are what "we" want, whether it is possi
ble to return to the 50s or not.
It is not possible, and supporting offi
cials who seek that sort of fantasy is
nothing more than a refusal to face up to
modern times, and the result will not be a
"great" America, but one unready to face
the world that has changed while we
sought nostalgia.
Hollywood won't ' e able to make a
movie that stops the necessary redistri
bution of wealth and power, nor will it be
able to produce a president who can.
Thirty percent of the people in the world
possess 70 percent of the wealth. If ma
jority rule is what America believes in, it
is easy to see why our influence is declin
ing. And the KKK can bum many crosses,
but the smoke will not cover the prob
lems faced by the poor, many of whom
are black. But if the UNL professor was
right, most of America doesn't believe
poor blacks and other poor people have a
problem.
But they do, and it cannot be ignored,
or soon everyone in this country will have
a bigger problem; trying to figure out
what happened to the American dream,
which we chased long after we should
have been awake.
By Kim Wilt
Terry Moore isn't going to sell bongs
anymore. Terry Moore owner of Dirt
Cheap isn't going to sell bongs, pipes, pa
pers, clips, spoons, screens or anything
else that could be classified as "drug par
aphernalia" under Nebraska's new law
banning the sale of such items.
Dirt Cheap, one of Lincoln's "head
shops and hide-outs for the '"60s disen
chanted" is going out of the drug acces
sory business. So is Homers Record's and
Tapes, recent expatriate from the Old
Market, and maker of one of the more
likable local commercials ("H-O-M-E-R-S,
Homer's has the very best re-cords,"
sung to the tune of the Nestles Chocolate
jingle).
Why? Well, people seem wary of com
ing into Dirt Cheap, according to Moore.
Are sales down? Not particularly, but
he does admit to a "drop-off in traffic."
If the traffic is dropping off, how can
sales be steady? Maybe stooges for organ
ized crime, answering to a boss in New
York, are buying all the paraphernalia en
masse, and plan to sell them to state sen
ators' grade-school children. Maybe peo
ple are buying bongs and rushing out to
sell them to their friends who are afraid
to be seen going into Dirt Cheap. Regard
less, Dirt Cheap is still about the only
place left where you can find a complete
set of Kurt Vonnegut's works, if you
want to.
The bookstore will be combined with
the record store into one building, so that
no one will have to face dirty looks or
fear for his or her social standing by
being seen entering it. Records are re
spectable. The sudden fear of the proprietors of
Dirt Cheap and Homer's is interesting, to
say the last. Homer's unearthed a
spokesperson, who remaining anony
mous, told the Lincoln Journal that the
store is quitting the bong business be
cause "there's too much controversy."
Apparently.
The other reason given for Homer's'
discontinuation of drug paraphernalia
sales is that "not enough of our business
is devoted to it."
Oh, come on.
Denying that the entire bottom floor
Letter to the editor
In recent days the media has focused a
great deal of attention on the budgetary
crunch faced by UNL. Many of these
stories and editorials have reported op
tions which are being considered by the
university to meet the educational need
of the students, while at the same time
staying within the budget constraints im
posed by the Legislature and the NU
Board of Regents, and the impact the
various options would have upon UNL
students and faculty.
One of the options proposed was shift
ing the financial responsibility for 30 to
50 sections of freshman English from the
College of Arts and Sciences to the Divi
sion of Continuing Studies. This was pro
posed to assure the availablility of these
offerings to students.
Some of the news stories and editori
als strongly suggested that such a shift
would result in a reduction of the quality
of instruction offered to students. This is
not true.
There are two built-in controls which
assure that the quality of courses offered
through the Division of Continuing Stud
ies are comparable to those offered in the
traditional residence program.
First, all credit earned in any course
offered by the Division is granted by the
academic colleges and departments of the
university, not by the Division of Contin
uing Studies. The content and quality of
the course is governed by the department
of your business is devoted to the sale of
bongs, clips, papers etc., is not not going
to win sympathy for your fight against a
poorly-written bill that already has been
hobbled by a temporary restraining ord
er. That doesn't seem to bother Homer's
and Dirt Cheap owners, who were plain
tiffs in a suit challenging the law's consti
tutionality. Moore has written the other
13 plaintiffs, who are members of the Ne
braska Accessories Trade Association,
about his decision.
"The whole suit may fall apart if
enough stores drop out," he told the Lin
coln Journal reporter.
Pipe Dream in Omaha seems willing to
follow the lead. An employee there com
plained that the younger buyers aren't
buying anymore, which is logicalbecause
NATA members have signed a statement
pledging not to sell to anyone under 18.
It hardly seems sensible to patronize a
store that you know isn't going to sell to
you. The clientele is older, she said, and
"many people ask about the statute,"
Well, weren't stores hoping to get an
older clientele from this under-18 ban?
Furthermore, it seems only natural
that people would ask about the statute.
After all, it affects the goods they are
buying. In fact, about the only thing that
does not seem logical here is the reaction
of the store owners.
They have gotten the restraining ord
er, and they voluntarily have met the
state halfway by not selling to young cus
tomers. Dirt Cheap evenhad placed a
cheery "business as usual" sign in its win
dow. So why the drop-out, why the sudden
concern about "image" and the denial
that paraphernalia is a significant part of
business?
Stores that sold bongs and pipes dur
ing the days when it was much more of
an underground, daring thing to do, and
who advertised themselves easily as head
shos ought not to be accused of cowardice
too quickly.
No, the problem seems to be more of
an "oh, to hell with it," attitude, and the
feeling that the law isn't worth fighting
against. Dirt Cheap and Homer's had
what looked like a successful challenge to
a ridiculous law, and for some reason
they just have given up.
and college responsible for the subject
matter area.
Second, and most important, the in
structors who teach courses offered
through the Division are recruited, hired,
and assigned by the departments and col
leges, with the administrative approval
of the Division of Continuing Studies.
The departments and colleges maintain
responsibility for the content and quality
of instruction, while the Division accepts
responsibility for program administra
tion. Faculty utilized by the Division are
renumerated for instructional purposes
only. They are not asked to do research,
serve as student advisors, provide other
public service, or accept committee as
signments as is expected of a faculty
member of a regular full-time appoint
ment. Therefore, a faculty member is
paid a higher rate for a typical depart
ment appointment than for teaching a
departmental course through the Divi
sion of Continuing Studies.
It should be noted that faculty sti
pends paid by Continuing Studies Divi
sions across the nation have traditionally
been low. Concern for this isssue is re
flected in various professional journals
and in discussions at national meetings in
continuing education. Perhaps this re
flects our nation's failure to fully support
letter continued on page 5
Another perspective
