page 4
monday, august 24, 1981
daily nebraskan
pott
Unemployed controllers
must blame themselves
When members of the Profes
sional Air Traffic Controllers
Organization endorsed Ronald
Reagan for president last year,
they must have thought they were
getting a friend in the White
House.
They must have thought
Reagan was committed to easing
the plight of controllers who
complain about their work con
ditions. And they must have
thought that when they stamped
their collective feet loud enough,
Reagan would respond to their
liking.
But, when PATCO began talk
ing strike this summer, Reagan
and Transportation Secretary
Drew Lewis said a strike by fed
eral employees against the govern
ment was illegal and members
would be fired.
PATCO members went ahead
with strike on Aug. 3, and in
effect, fired themselves. Reagan
gave the federal mutineers 48 hours
to return to work - an extension
he did not have to grant - but they
refused to return. Of all the
decisions Reagan has made during
his presidency, the decision not to
submit to the demands of the
controllers must have been among
the easiest.
As employees of the federal
government, air traffic controllers
signed an oath saying they would
not strike. When PATCO issued
its demands for higher salaries
and less work, Reagan had to
uphold the U.S. Code saying that
civil servants cannot hold their
jobs if they participate in a strike
against the government.
To allow some federal employ
ees the right to strike is to allow
all federal employees the right to
strike. And to allow that would be
a serious breach of the president's
duties.
No one forced these people to
work for the government. They
knew when they were hired the
obligations of their public service.
PATCO simply chose to ignore
them.
So now, three weeks later, air
traffic has not yet returned to nor
mal frequency and intermittent
strikes by controllers overseas give
PATCO members a morale boost
and pilots and passengers headaches.
Too much is being made of
Reagan's adamant stand against
PATCO. He is merely upholding
the job he was elected to. He cer
tainly recognizes the right of col
lective bargaining but not when
the right to strike has been waived
by employees.
The government did offer
PATCO a S40 million increase in
salary and benefits this summer.
Not only did members reject it,
but they demanded 17 times their
original request or they would
strike.
Air safety has probably been
diminished. Anytime that many
regulars are replaced by the
second team, the quality of ser
vice has to decline somewhat.
But still, the nation's air traffic
continues. Maybe not as fast,
maybe not on schedule, but it
continues.
The next time federal employ
ees band together and strike ille
gally, they may think twice before
telling the government to "take
this job and shove it."
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Three shootings keep world safe till December
They say bad turns come in threes. If that holds true,
then the world can rest easy until December 1981. We've
had our three shootings for the year.
First came the Dec. 8 slaying of John Lennon. Less
than four months later, in March of this year, our pres
ident was struck by an assassin's bullet. And then, in just
more than a month, the headlines read "Again' - the
Pope had been shot.
Lennon's death brought thousands to the gates of New
York's Dakota apartment building; the thousands brougnt
tears and vigils for the ex-Beatle and his surviving wife and
son.
Following his death came an outpouring of media
attention and public alarm about the availability of hand
guns. Mark David Chapman, the 25-year-old assassin from
Hawaii, had killed a legendary man with a .38-caliber
handgun and a cry of disgust for guns rose from the coun
try. One man, though, stood firm in his opposition to gun
control. Ironically, he was the next victim.
Ronald Reagan, 70 years old and 70 days the presi
dent, was struck in the chest as he exited the Washington
Hilton Hotel on March 30. Accounts of the. shooting
circulated quickly complete with details of the bullet's
(sMfri nebrasEian
path and the president's operation room humor - as the
United States and the world sighed. We sighed relief that
"Yes, he would live." We sfghed despair that "No, no one
is immune."
And again we heard about gun control. Television
news shows, newspapers and magazines played up the
fact that one of the strongest advocates of the "right to
bear arms" lay victim to his own beliefs. Then the din
died and it was calm and once again no positive solution
was found to stop people from shooting people.
So John Hinckley, Jr., the bizarre loner who report
edly shot Reagan out-of love for a movie star, went to
prison and the government did a study on the responsive
ness of tlje Secret Service.
The study, released by United Press International last
week, listed 1 1 recommendations for tighter presidential
security. Among them is allowing the Secret Service to
pages long and costing heaven knows how much, also
commended the special agents and hospital involved in the
shooting and stated "the assassination attempt was made
by a single person with a small caliber weapon in day
light." Revealing stuff.
The third in the "bad turns" was the mid-May shooting
of Pope John Paul II. As the pontiff toured St. Peter's
Square in Vatican City, a papal crowd of thousands
watching, a 23-year-old Turk, apparently an international
terrorist named Mehmet Ali Agca, shot at him.
The world's sentiment seemed to echo that of a news
man in Detroit as quoted by Newsweek magazine: "We
shoot presidents periodically, bu nobody shoots popes."
But the fact is we do shoot popes. And we shoot presi
dents and we shoot Beatles too. One wishes the solutions
were obvious. We can document the lives of assassins and
would-be assassins.
We can speculate their motives. We can step up security
forces to protect our heroes and leaders. We can' do stu
dies that tell us what we already know. -We can talk about
controlling weapons and we can even make progress
toward that end.
But the truth remains that there are few, if any, solu
tions to prevent kooks from taking shots at our popes,
presidents, and performers. We can only hope for this
year - we've met our ciuota of th
Brimming prisons demand attention
UPSP 144-180
Editorials do not necessarily express the opinions of the Daily
Nebraskan 's publishers, the NU Board of Regents, the University
of Nebraska and its employees or the student body.
Editor: Tom Prentiss; Managing editor: Kathy Stokebrand;
News editor: Steve Miller; Associate news editors: Dan Epp, Kim
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Publications Board chairperson: Margy McCleery, 472-2454.
Professional adviser: Don Walton, 473-7301.
The Daily Nebraskan is published by, the UNL Publications
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Address: Daily Nebraskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 14th and R
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WASHINGTON - You're going to be hearing a lot
about non-prison sentences, victim-restitution contracts,
mandatory community services and other alternatives to
incarceration during the coming years: Not because soft
hearted liberals are taking over the criminal justice system,
but for the simple reason that we're running out of prison
space.
oOOEmjuO raspberry
According to the Bureau of Prisons, the number of
UJS.and state inmates is up 61 percent since 1969 - from
98 per 100,000 population to 140. Twenty-eight states
and the District of Columbia are under court orders to re
duce overcrowding. Local jails, intended to hold suspects
awaiting trial, are crammed with sentenced convicts be
cause the states have run out of space for them.
True, there was a 8 percent decrease in the number of
federal prisoners between 1979 and 1980. But according
to Benjamin H. Renshaw, acting director of the Bureau of
Prisons, most of that decrease resulted from the fact that
the federal authorities have begun concentrating their re
sources on white-collar and organized crime, leaving it to
state and local law enforcers to deal with bank robberies,
auto thefts and most drug offenses.
The safest prediction is that the trend will continue up,
perhaps even accelerate if the Reagan cuts in social
programs are not accompanied by offsetting gains in
employment. 6
The knee-jerk response to the increase in criminal con
victions and overcrowded prisons will be to build more
prisons. But building and staffing prisons is an expensive
proposition, whose main effext is to postpone, rather than
solve the problem. Sooner or later, nearly every convict
will be more of a threat to society than when he went in.
lne more logical approach is to make increased use of
non-prison alternatives, at least for nonviolent offenders.
Continued on Page 5
Editorial policies
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byhne are written by-Tom Prentiss, editor for the fall
W81 semester The name of any other staff member who
the artfcle WiU be printcd at end of
nolfnf allprlt,fd ,in the My Nebraskan represent the
policy of the fall, 1981 Daily Nebraskan, but do not
its employees or the NU Board of Regents,
the nL?A Nebraskan's publishers are the members of
JrfS? Re-genls' who have established a Publications
Wd taoTJF daiIy Potion of the newspaper,
the P0bcy set by the rc8ent$. the con"nt
tudenUdUo t newspaPer lics solcIy to the hands of its