Monday, August 30, 1982
Page 4
Daily Nebraskan
el
. iditona
'Sale of the century' reduces
land surplus sanely, sensibly
It seems the land of plenty has too
plentiful a reserve of land.
The federal government, therefore, has
launched what is being dubbed as the 'land
sale of the century."
The decision is economically sound:
When you're short on cash and long on
assets, sell the assets to raise the cash. It's
done everyday in the business community.
But when the U.S. government puts
land on the selling block, some take
offense. Specifically, environmentalists
balk. They fear the government will over
sell its land, opening the way for overgraz
ing of grasslands, overmining of mineral
rich lands and overdevelopment of barren
lands.
Portions of a recent Time cover article
on the land sale puts it in proper per
spective. By the beginning of 1983, Time reports,
the Reagan administration wants to sell
307 parcels of land, equaling 60,000 acres.
Within the next five years, the magazine
says, the administration wants to dispose
of 35 million acres, only 5 percent of all
government holdings.
The sale is being arranged and supported
by Secretary of Interior James Watt, who,
along with Reagan, believes the United
States "owns far more land than it needs or
can manage." Both believe unneeded land
should be sold to private owners, Time
says.
The sale of 5 percent of 740 million
federally owned acres hardly is cause for
alarm. The government is not aiming to sell
all its open spaces to private bidders who
will then erect condominiums, hotels and
shopping malls. In fact, the administra
tion's handling of the project indicates it
is taking great pains to diminish alarm.
For example, Time tells us:
-Lands in the National Park and Nat
ional Wildlife Refuge systems will be
exempt from sale, as will be Indian Trust
lands and wilderness areas, wild and scenic
rivers, national trails and national con
servations areas. These lands equal 400
million acres.
Land parcels will be offered first to fed
eral agencies, then to state and local
governments. Only then will sales be open
ed to the general public.
Those standards should soothe conserva
tionalists afraid that acre after acre will be
pillaged to turn a profit. Before the land is
offered to private enterprise, hundreds of
federal, state and local agencies - fearful
of land exploitation - will have the oppor
tunity to purchase and protect it. In the
private sector, groups committed to land
preservation will certainly have their turn
at bidding.
The land, which Time said is used little
or not at all, costs the government more to
maintain than it is worth. But the sale of it
will net $17 billion during five years.
"What better way to raise some of the
revenue that we so badly need than by
selling some of the lands and buildings that
we don't need?" Time quotes Watt as say
ing. Although the profits from the sales
hardly will make a dent in the national
debt, Watt is right. Government has too
much . land and government has too little
money. The sales will relieve both
situations.
And considering the built-in protection
for parks and wilderness and the respon
sible method of selling - not to mention
the desirability of purchasing land - Watt
and company couldn't have planned a
better business venture.
Blue-eyed blonde discovers beast within beau
ty
There were a lot of responses to the "Hot Legs Con
test" columns, and when the young woman told me she
wanted to talk about it, I tought she might have been one
of the contestants. She was 21, blond, blue-eyed, and -by
all objective standards - beatiful.
"The columns made me so unhappy," she said. "If the
attitudes of the women you quoted in those columns
really represent the way a large percentage of women feel
these days, then I'm really worried."
She said that she realized she had been born lucky.
She grew up in an affluent suburban family, and she said
fffc Bob Greene
that she had been remarkably attractive since childhood.
She said it without any sense of conceit; it was just a fact.
She told me she had never had a boyfriend and never
wants one.
"I spent my childhood in tears because males could not
resist my 'cuteness,' " she said. "My father's friends would
come over, and they would put me on their laps and hug
me and breathe their stinking alcohol breath on me. Even
now I remember how trapped I felt, being held by them.
I grew up hating them - hating all men.
"They told me: 'By the time you reach your teens,
nobody will be able to keep their hands off you.' And I
believed them, literally. I went to grade school, and I had
no desire to be with any of the boys in my class. I was
disgusted at the very idea of males. . .
"I found out very early that if you're an attractive fe
male, you're going to get someplace. I found out that
people concentrated on that above everything else. In
school, I found out that if all other methods failed, I
could get good grades by emphasizing my good looks.
I wanted desperately to get the good grades, and 1 learned
that my male teachers liked it if I dressed up and paid
attention to them. It worked. It made me sick.
"It turned out that I was a good student on my own.
The school told my parents that they wanted to put me in
an accelerated program, for gifted students. For the first
time in my life, I was excited about something. . .But
my parents refused to let me be part of the advanced pro
gram. They told me that 'good-looking girls shouldn't
have that kind of pressure,' and that 'we don't want to
chase the boys away from you, do we?'
"I went out for plays in high school. I knew there were
other girls who were much better actresses than me. But
the faculty directors looked at me and said, 'Oh, she's so
cute, we'll put her in this part.' I got cast in a leading
role, as a princess. . .Everybody said I looked like a prin
cess. "My girlfriends thought I was a prude because I never
went out on dates. But 1 couldn't think of anything I
wanted less. I'm the only person I know among my
friends who hasn't been to bed with anybody. My girl
friends say, 'What do you think is so special about you?
What areou waiting for?' They don't understand that it's
not a matter of principle. . .1 just don't want to be that
close to any male.
"Even now, I see every day that men react primarily to
a woman's looks. . .If I'm at a party where people are
drinking, all the men at the party keep refilling my drink;
they think it will make me a little more receptive. And
when I'm not, my girlfriends will say, 'You're 21 years
old. You're supposed to be experienced. Go for it. He
likes you.' They just don't understand how I feel.
Continued on Page 5
Readers respond to evacuation ofPLO
Your political cartoonist had it all
wrong on Monday, Aug. 23.
It was David (Israel) vanquishing Go
liath (Palestine Liberation Organization).
It is Israel that is small and has been fac
ing a hostile, numerically superior enemy
since its creation in 1948. It is Israel that is
the victim of a double standard of morality
(when the PLO kills Olympic athletes,
bombs schools at Maalot or shoots tourists
jg Letters
on beaches, it is never condemned by the
United Nations).
It is Israel that is economically pres
sured; no one is exercising a boycott a
gainst companies that trade with the Arab
world, but Arab nations have a boycott
against companies trading with Israel.
It is Israel that is politically pressured.
Does the Soviet Union or Arab block
rule out any use of the weapons it supplies
the PLO?
Why did your cartoonist personify
Israel, calling his Sharon, but not person
ify the other character by calling his Yassar
Arafat? Is it because Arafat has yet to earn
sympathy from anyone who remembers
his calls for a holy war, his pledge to wipe
the sovereign state of Israel off the map or
all the atrocities he has committed?
If you want to engender sympathy
for the underdog, it is Israel that needs
your support - not the organization re
jecting negotiations, hiding its bases and
arms among civilians and then holding
them hostage for months.
Murray Frost
research coordinator.
Center for Applied
Urban Research, UNO
The Daily Nebraskan article titled
"Evacuation Brings Momentary Defeat"
(Aug. 26) is a completely one-sided view
of the Palestinian problem and a gross
distortion of the events created by the
Israeli invasion of Lebanon.
The author of the article suggests
that Israel wouldn't have invaded Lebanon
if the Palestine Liberation Organization
and the Palestinians weren't there. If the
Palestinians are In Lebanon and all over the
world, it's because they were forced from
their homeland of Palestine which the
Israelii have occupied since 1948.
Everybody has a dream; for the Pales
tinians it is to return to their homes which
are now occupied by American, German,
Polish, Russian or Moroccan Jews whose
only link to Palestine is a religious one.
Thousands of innocent people, have
been killed or left homeless by the invad
ing Israeli forces in Lebanon. But even if
the Israelis kill at the Palestinians of West
Beirut they can't exterminate the 4 million
or more Palestinians scattered all over the
world.
The PLO is not a "terrrist organization"
as was stated by the author but a legitimate
representative of the Palestinians, of their
aspirations and struggle for independence.
The evacuation of PLO fighters from
West Beirut is the result of the persever
ance and heroic resistance of the Pales
tinians and 500,000 civilians of West
Beirut. It is also the result of outcries of
anger and indignation from world leaders
and organizations in reaction to the kill
ings and atrocities committed by Israel
in Lebanon.
irvi a . A.Berrada,
UNL graduate agronomy student
NepraMcarL,
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