page 4
daily nebraskan
tuesday, january 27, 1981
Twisted logic displayed
in call for higher speeds
State Sen. limit1 C'luimbcrs is
applying twisted logic in his attempts
to justify a legislative bill he has
sponsored to raise the interstate
speed limit from 55 to 65 miles per
hour.
Chambers contends those who
favor keeping the speed limit at 55
mph because it saves livos and con
serves fuel are wrong. In fact, he not
only says they are wrong, but also
asserts raising the legal driving speed
on Interstate 80 would be safer and
more fuel efficient.
The Omaha senator said lower
spt .d limits cause constant stops and
starts that waste gasoline.
This explanation for defending
higher speed limits might be worth
considering if traffic on Nebraska's
interstate was regularly bumper to
bumper. But it isn't. There are
few, if any, cars forced to stop or
slow down because of the current
speed limit.
But even if this logic was sound, it
isn't consistent with other reasons
Chambers offers for raising the legal
driving speed on the interstate.
A higher insterstate speed limit.
according to Chambers, would en
courage drivers to leave other roads
and use the interstate. This would
only add to the possibility that a
driver would be forced to stop or
slow down more frequently.
Chambers also says citing a de
crease in the number of traffic fatal
ities as a reason for keeping the
speed limit at 55 mph is erroneous.
He said these figures are not restrict
ed to interstates statistics, but in
clude city streets and highways.
However, there is no way he can re
fute the fact that traffic deaths have
decreased since 1974, which just
happens to be the year the speed
limit was lowered.
Perhaps the most ridiculous and
certainly the most frightening
fense Chambers gives for the b
his belief that interstates were
signed for speed.
Wrong. Interstates were
for travel hopefully safe.
travel.
The bottom line is this: Lower
speed limits conserve fuel and may
save lives. Aren't those results worth
spending a few more minutes on the
road?
ue
1 is
de-
designed
efficient
rffpA I ftRREST THY SOUL FOR . lVi twit SK a thousand i
t-AlWl . DISOBEDIENCE TO THY rT" SENOTKS iw wmr the
Hunting teaches city writer about life, not death
Editor's note: This is the second article in a five-part
series.
My eyes were stinging from the perspiration that
poured down my face. I could hear every breath I took,
and the air hurt as it filled my lungs. My legs felt as if they
were attached to the ground, and sharp pains shot up into
my hips. My gun grew heavier in my hand.
We had been in the woods for almost five hours. Now
we were midway up a long, snow -covered hill, and I didn't
think I was going to make it. My hunting companions
Roy Bli..ard. CD. Duncan and Bo Griffith -trumped
after the three dogs, in search of grouse to kill. I thought
I was going to be the one to die.
bob greene
In my notorious column on hunting. I had made the
following statement:
"(Hunters) call themselves 'sportsmen.' What a ke.
Unlike other sports, hunting takes little agility, no physi
cal conditioning, no speed. Any slob with a gut lull ot
boo.e can go into the woods and if his weapon is power
ful enough, if his telescopic sight is strong enough stand
a good chance of making a kill."
Now, on my hunting trip in the hills of West Vuginia.
I was learning that I had been flat-out wrong about at
least one thing. Whatever else can be said about hunting,
there is nothing physically easy about it and as a city
living newspaperman who is used to hailing a cab rather
than walking five blocks. I was finding it out in the most
stark and graphic way.
For the first three hours of our hunt. I was doing all
right. We were doing much more physical work than I had
tried in years wc were in the middle of a forest, lifting
our legs through deep snow, plunging our feet into froen
creeks, climbing over branches and broken logs. I was so
determined not to make the other hunters wait for me
that tor awhile I made it on pure adrenaline. But now,
with that steep, snowy hill reaching toward the sky in a
seemingly endless incline. I felt my strength evaporate.
What an experience it was, though. I wasn't sure how
it was affecting my theoretical view of hunting I would
have to think about that when the day was over, and 1
was back in my hotel room but I was seeing things so
beautiful that I often wanted to stop and just stare.
The West Virginia countryside was so gorgeous it could
make you cry. We were miles from civilization other than
our own breathing, and the crunching of our boots in the
snow, there was not a sound to break the stillness, l.ach
time we would come over the crest of a hill, or turn a
corner in the woods, some startling new vision would pie
scnt itself. The trees outlined against the snow, the valleys
unmarked by human endeavors, the solitude o the deep
forest for a person used to the crunch and clatter of the
city, the whole thing was a joy, a gift.
Ot course, it was easier for me to love it because we
were having very little luck Hushing grouse fiom the
underbush. The harsh weather had driven the birds into
the sights of my gunning companions. I was secretly
happy that the birds were staying put. and alive; the
hunters had made no kills.
But to hear my hunting companions tell it, the actual
shooting was only a part of their pleasure. The things I
was enjoying the sights I was encountering in the woods,
the pleasure I was deriving from pushing myself forward
up and over the hills- were what they said that they, too.
loved. We disagreed on the morality of killing animals
but they told me, as we walked together, that the grace
and tranquility of being here in the middle of raw nature
had a lot to do with why they hunted.
I could give them an argument about that if the joy of
the scenery and the exhilaration of the physical effort
were what drew them here, then why not carry cameras
instead of guns'.' but right now I was in no condition to
argue with anyone. Just keeping up with them along the
trail was all I could think about, and I checked to make
sure the safety on my shotgun was in position. I wasn't so
sure that, if tilings got any worse, I wouldn't be dropping
the weapon.
And yet there was pleasure even to this. If I evei felt
this full of pain in the city, all I would have to do is
pick up the phone or summon a colleague for help. Here,
though, if I didn't make it out of these woods. I wasn't
going to get out. There was no way tor a vehicle to come
back here, and we could shout for days and not be heard.
There was a kind of happiness to that. I came from a
world where there was always a variety of solutions to
every potential problem. So did the men I was hunting
with, lint out here with that world left behind all wc
had to depend on was ourselves. My hunting companions
didn't talk about it much, but I could tell they were awaie
of it, and honored it.
I didn't know if I was going to have to make the real
decision the decision about whether to shoot at a bird
but I was grudgingly admitting to myself that the feelings
I was having out here had a lot to do with living, and not
much to do with dying. I knew that could change in the
Hash ol an instant but now, crossing over a ridge with my
three hunting companions, I was feeling the brtst I had in
years.
(c) 1981 Field Enterprises Inc., Field Newspaper Syndicate
O
UPSP 144-080
Editor: Kathy Chenault; Managing editor: Tom McNeil; News
editor. Val Swmton; Associate news editors: Diane Andersen,
Steve Miller; Assistant news editor: Bob Lannin; Night news
editor Kathy Stokebrand; Magazine editor: Mary Kempkes;
Entertainment editor: Casey McCabe; Sports editor Larry Sparks;
Art director: Dave Luebke; Photography chief: Mark Bilhngsley;
Assistant photography chief. Mitch Hrdlicka.
Copy editors: Mike Barteis, Sue Brown, Pat Clark. Nancy Ellis,
Dan Epp, Maureen Hutfless, Alice Hrmcek, Kim Hachiya. Jeanne
Mohatt, Janice Pigaga
Business manager. Anne Shank; Production manager. Kitty
Policky, Advertising manager Art Small; Assistant advertising
manager: Jeff Pike.
Publications Board chairmao Mark Bowen, 473-0212 Pro
fessional adviser Don Walton, 473 7301
The Daily Nebraskan is published by the UNL Publications
Board Monday through Friday during the fall and spring semest
ers, except during vacations
Address Daily Nebraskan, 34 Nebraska Union. 14th and R
streets, Lincoln, Neb ,68588 Te!epnon 4 72 2588
Material may be reprinted without permission if attributed tc
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Second class postage paid at Lincoln. Neb . 68510
Mm to the editor
Articles criticized
I wish to make a remark regarding the reporting of
the abortion controversy. It concerns Beth Headrick's
"news story" on the front page of the January 23 Daily
Nebraskan. Ms. Ileadrick wrote columns last semester
in which she supported the pro-abortion position (or
"pro-choice" if you hke) To assign her to the task of
objectively covering both sides t the quest ion was cer
tainly expecting too much. She ends her "news str"
with this sentence "t rider the Human Lite Amendment,
a pregnancy caused b rape could not be terminated."
This sentence a) is not related to the preceding discussion
b) is not attributed to any ot tle people she was suppos
edly reporting on, and c) is not supported by any reter
ances or arguments. It is a pureiv editorial comment and
has no place in that story or on any page other than the
editorial page.
I hope that this sort of bias will be eliminated in the
future.
Terry (Tiristlieb
Graduate College
Lditor's note: The end of the original story on the
abortion controversy was deleted by mistake. The report
er has included the response by the president of UNL
Students for Life to the statement that appeared at the
end of the story Doug Novak had said women rarelv
get pregnant from rape. He added if a woman does be
come pregnant from rape there are arious organizations
that offer counseling and adoption services to help the
victim understand just because the rapist committed
a crime, the baby still is innocent.
