Pago 4 Daily Nebraskan FridaV' November 12, 1982
ditoida
UoS. ready to be friends with new Soviet leader
The announcement of the death of Soviet President
Leonid Brezhev Thursday coincided with the celebra
tion of Veterans Day, when thoughts on war and peace
are traditionally resurrected.
Brezhnev, while taking pride in being an "architect
of detente," led the Soviet Union to become a global
military power. During his 18 years in the Kremlin, he
built up a five-million-man army, one of the world's
largest military operations.
Despite this military buildup, Brezhnev did play an
active role in the final negotiations of SALT 1 and SALT
II. Analysts say that his death will hinder advancement
of current arms control discussions as the Soviets will
lack "strong, creative leadership" during the expected
lengthy transition period.
Brezhnev, who was 75, was criticized for failing to
prepare younger men to replace him. As president and
Communist Party chief, he will likely be succeeded by
a group of leaders rather than a single one.
The critical question is who will take charge of the
Communist Party. There are no clear-cut successors,
although government sources cited Brezhnev's aide
Konstantin Chernenko and former KGB Chief Yuri
Andropov as probable contenders.
The two factions most likely to emerge would em
phasize either military strength or economic improve
ment. The tone now adopted by the United States could
affect their emphasis and our resulting relationship.
Former U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union, Walter
Stoessel, has stressed that this as an important time
to inwove East-West relations. He said our nation should
maintain a united, firm position, "not a provocative
one," to indicate that we are prepared to accomplish
this' goal. He said the situation presents some opportuni
ties that we should take advantage of.
President Reagan, in a Veterans Day address, seemed
determined to do just that. He extended his hope to
expand relations with the new Soviet leadership so both
nations "can cooperate to mutual advantage."
The greatest mutual advantage both nations could
share is a sense of security rather than conflict. In ap
proaching the transition period and new leadership in
the Soviet Union, let's hope both administrations keep
this in mind.
And let's hope President Reagan was corrent in saying,
"I believe our peoples, for all their differences, share a
desire and dedication to peace."
Margie Honz
Collectibles: We save them
just because we like them
In the third drawer in my kitchen, 1
have assembled one of the largest collec
tions of blue plastic coffee scoops in the
Northern Hemisphere. I don't know
precisely how I came to be curator of
" coffee scoops, but it happened gradually,
coffee can by coffee can. I just didn't
throw them away.
Coffee scoops are not the only accumu
lated works in my possession. I also have
a year's supply of disposable plastic shower
5fj Ellen
Goodman
caps, the kind that you get in expensive
hotels where they charge you S6.50
for a continental breakfast and you steal
the extra jam as reparation. I also have
the jam jars.
These collections seem perfectly rea
sonable to me - certainly when compared
to other such museum-quality items.
My aunt, a nice woman although short
for her height, has four-dozen empty
plastic ice-cream containers stacked neatly
under her sink.
My mother has covered more door
knobs with rubber bands during her life
time than she has had doors. A friend has
washed and stored enough of the small
wooden skewers from supermarket slush
kebab to reconstruct the original tree.
Now I suppose you want to know what
we plan to do with these things. But the
truth is that if we were planners, we
wouldn't have collected coffee scoops
and rubber bands. We would have col
lected diamonds or DeLoreans.
What we are is savers and we will do
with the skewers and shower caps what
every compulsive does. We will save them.
I don't .want to overstate my member
ship among the saved, or savers. I am not
the sort of person who saves used Pop
stele sticks for the Christmas gingerbread
house. Nor do I see a lamp shade in every
milk carton or search for helpful hints
on the use of ripped pantyhose.
But I am like a lot of people who find
the one prize in the Cracker Jack box
of the disposable society and can't ever
throw it away.
There are people to this day who have
cartons of empty plastic L'eggs containers
in their possession. They are not trying to
incubate new knee-hi's. They just like
them.
There's a neighbor in my life whose
entire misbegotten plant collection comes
from avocado pits and the babies of a
grown-up spider plant that is as fertile
as it is ugly. Her kitchen looks like a
Plant Rescue League, but she can no more
throw out a cutting than a kitten.
A lot of us are saving "for a rainy
day." The waste-not-want-not psychology
has gripped my aunt, who also has shirt
buttons cataloged since 1942. Her plastic
containers are security against the day
when the capitalists have strip-mined
all the plastic.
But they also include a friend who has
never been able to thin out the mess
of wire coat hangers she gets at the cleaner,
because someday she will need all 200 of
them. Her husband, a wine lover, has one
of the best-equipped cork cellars in the
Last. Should we ever break off diplomatic
relations with Portugal, the land of the
cork trees, he will be able to single
handedly supply the entire valley of
Sonoma.
As for my blue coffee scoops, unlike
all these other people, I actually have a
few sane reason for enlarging my third
drawer display area.
The scoops are great for playing
in the sandbox, and in 20 years I might
have grandchildren.
I can siring them together and make
a neat necklace.
Sooner or later the coffee people
will stop putting them in the can. but I
will have a lifetime supply.
Then, wastrels of the world, you can
all cat your hearts out.
(c) 1982. Washington Post Writers Group
2DcJ
Letters
Understanding needed
I must object to the implication made in
the (Daily Nebraskan, Nov. 10) article
"Trainees to assist mentally ill patients"
that all chronically mentally ill people
spend their time in and out of hospitals,
andif they're not there they "spend their
time in boarding homes or are just left out
on the streets."
The "treatment" of the chronically
mentally ill starts with the writing of
articles such as this one. It's time our
society treats this matter with sensitivity
and most of all, understanding. The under
standing begins now. I am not putting
down the trainee program. It is an excel
lent idea and there definitely are people
who need this kind of help but, please, let's
not make the "plight" of the chronically
mentally ill even more desperate by
portraying all of us as incompetents or un
able to handle day-to-day living.
I have a major mental illness medically
termed bipolar disease. Most people know
it as manic-depressive illness. As a manic
depressive I have spent time in the hospital
twice this year (for a total of 1 1 days) but
upon dismissal have been able to lead a
very useful and productive life. This
distinction must be made. Not all chroni
cally mentally ill people are always and
totally incapacitated by their illness.
I will never be cured and my treatment
consists of daily medication - not that
much different than the diabetic who has
to have an insulin injection daily. I always
will be a manic-depressive and I am not
going to remain passive for I am not asham
ed of the truth. It is this sort of ignorance
which I will not tolerate any longer.
Nancy Skelton
secretary, Teachers College
More letters on Page 5
DeCamp forced to recognize
the law applies to him, too
"Take physic pomp; Expose thyself to
feel what wretches feel. Tliat thou mayst
shake the super flux to them And show the
heavens more just. " - King Lear
State Sen. John DeCamp of Neligh (or
rather Oakdale) has been forced once again
to recognize that, before the law, he's just
another one of us wretches. DeCamp made
the mistake of forgetting to reregister to
TO Matthew
x Millea
vote when he moved from Neligh to nearby
Oakdale. Since under the Nebraska Con
stitution a candidate for Legislature is in
eligible to take office unless properly
registered on Election Day, the Unicameral
might have to get along without Mr.
DeCamp this coming term.
DeCamp has locked horns with the law
before. Most recently, he failed to pay
several thousand dollars in back taxes on
rental property he owns in his district.
Then, as now, DeCamp protested that
those acting to enforce the law were out to
get him. ("I don't know what kind of game
is being played," DeCamp said. "It's pretty
desperate tactics.") Once he'd calmed
down a little, he also explained that he had
temporarily overextended himself because
of the bad economy. I can't be certain of
this, but something tells me that if one of
the senator's tenants was a little late with
the rent and pleaded the poor state of the
economy . . .
DeCamp probably is overextended
financially since he can't seem to keep
track of just what it is he owes, according
to the Lincoln Star.. Although he moved
from the trailer he used as his Neligh
address, DeCamp said, "I think I still
own the trailer."
Well, whatever. The point is that the
lawmaker does "have a lot of property
around there." That's why DeCamp
thought it would be a good idea to extend
the sales tax to services. The sales tax is the
state's most regressive tax because it hits
the unemployed, the poor, the aged, stu
dents and so on, the hardest. Still, DeCamp
greatly prefers a new sales tax as opposed
to increasing the income or (gasp!)
property taxex.
To make a long story short, the rest of
the wretches in the Legislature wouldn't
even consider DeCamp's sales tax proposal.
It seems it was slightly beyond the body's
powers during a special session. You might
even say it was illegal.
It might be fun to speculate on what
DeCamp's next move might be, presuming
they let him keep his seat in the Uni
cameral. Having exhausted his tax
approach, he'll probably get back to some
earnest budget slashing.
Hey, do ya 'spose hell call the univer
sity a "sacred cow" again? Psychologists
refer to this phenomenon as projection.
Editorial
policy
Unsigned editorials represent the
opinion of the fall 1982 Daily Nebraskan.
They are written by this semester's editor
in chief, Patti Gallagher.
Other staff editors write one editorial in
her place each week. I hose will carry the
author's name after the final sentence.
Editorials do not necessarily reflect the
views of the university, its employees or
the NU Board of Regents.