Monday, January 24, 1933
Daily Nebraska n
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Abooiooii: Moral, ono'5: "federal Esstme
Saturday marked the 10th anniversary of the U.S.
Supreme Court's decision to legalize abortion, and the
issue is as volatile as ever.
On Jan. 22, 1973, the court ruled that a woman is
entitled to an abortion by the 14th Amendment's "right
to personal privacy," but the right is "not unqualified,"
allowing government to limit abortions after the third
month of pregnancy.
About 2,000 people marched in downtown Lincoln
to show their opposition to the ruling. The protest drew
national attention, as similar demonstrations were held
in other states.
In Washington, D.C., where the number of abortions
out-number births, about 26,000 gathered for a national
anti-abortion march.
Though the findings are sometimes inconsistent, ac
cording to U.S. News and World Report, the public seems
to be shifting toward more support for the rights of the
unborn.
For those who oppose abortion, the question is a
moral one. It seems unlikely that the abortion decision
will be reversed, but President Reagan restated his anti
abortion stance and endorsed a bill that would prohibit
federal funds for abortion.
The recent "Respect Human Life Act," introduced
by Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., contains some controversial
Items regarding when human life begins, but the adminis
tration's stance on federal abortion funds is appropriate.
Since an amendment in September 1977, federal
funds have been unavailable for most abortions. In the
year before that decision, government -funded abortions
numbered 295,000 - and S50 million, U.S. News' figures
said.
Fifteen states (Nebraska not included) and the District
of Columbia currently provide $55 million a year for
more than 200,000 abortions. That's a lot of money
spent for something that many taxpayers object to.
The Hyde bill would also exclude federal money for
abortions covered by government woikers' health insur
ance, abortion research and family-planning programs
that promote abortion. The latter alone would cut a large
portion of the $124 million given yearly to groups like
Planned Parenthood. Such groups could be required to
separate their abortion-related services from other forms
of counseling.
Re3gan upheld his belief Saturday by saying that
"God's greatest gift is human life and that we have a
duty to protect the life of an unborn child."
Though Reagan and some top officials are strongly
against abortion, legislation is slow to get passed. Maybe
it's because proponents on both sides are over-eager to
push their views on each other. They tend to clump
together a list of unrelated provisions that, taken to
gether, are not supported by a majority.
When this happens bill after bill, year after year,
both sides end up wasting their breath - and our money.
The pro-life, pro-choice issue is too involved to be covered
by sweeping generalizations and legislation.
Let's keep the issue specific enough to act on. Hyde
has the right idea in keeping federal funds out of it -but
let the medical and ethical questions stand up to
their own tests.
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Silence A menace to cavil csslits?
The U.S. Constitution has, according to a New Jersey
judge andt the American Civil Liberties Union, been
ravished. The instrument of this outrage is a New Jersey
n T1 S
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George
Will
law which the judge says "is unconstitutional on its face
and as applied, in that it violates the First and Fourteenth
Amendments. . .and that immediate and irreparable injury
will result to plaintiffs ..."
Whoa! The law that is pregnant with such awfulness
says:
"Principals and teachers in each public elementary
and secondary school . . . shall permit students to observe
a one-minute period of silence to be used solely at the
discretion of the individual student, before the opening
exercises of each school day, for quiet and private con
templation or introspection."
According to the ACLU, that violates the constitution
al guarantee against "establishment" of religion. What is
the irreparable injury - that a minute of silence will
cause to anyone? No doubt a few children and parents
will find it offensive that someone may use the minute
for prayer.
But since when is it an "injury" to be offended by
what might be going on in someone's head? Such chaos is
what a society comes to when it believes that every griev-
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Computer system 'a dlsastes
It's very interesting that the computer
scientists, who work in closed and coherent
systems, were the ones who started a sit
in at UNL Chancellor Martin Massengale's
office - how called an "extended visita
tion." But since computer programmers
put systems together, they know that
when systems fail to apply, something
Eric
1 Peterson!
has to come from outside the "ordinary
channels."
And the system isn't working. Lester
Lipsky, a UNL computer science profes
sor, has called it "archaic, decaying, dila
pidated and a disaster."
Any UNL student who has taken a
computer science course has known long
white nights in overheated terminal rooms
waiting for a place to open, often seeing
the system go down and a lot of half
completed work with it. The terminals
are old and slow and the system itself
has more than reached its capacity.
"Quantity is actually more important
than updating," Lipsky 'said. "Massive
access is what we are lacking." Enroll
ment in the computer science depart
ment has tripled in the last 10 years,
while funding and courses, to say the
least, haven't kept pace.
"As more segments of the economy
recognize the use of computers, the job
market for computer literate people in
creases," Lipsky explained, to the point
that "there are three times more jobs than
qualified people in some areas."
Every college and department has its
problems. The computer science depart
ment simply has felt the Thone budget
crunch before anyone else and worse than
anyone else.
Another part of the problem is the
failure to anticipate the present demand
for computer science training. Lipsky
pointed out that the business and engineer
ing colleges also have bulging enrollments,
but have the advantage of a long tradition
in planning for the future. Those colleges
have sometimes "overproduced" and some
times "underproduced" students for the
job market so they have some way to
estimate college needs in the future. Be
cause the computer science department
began in 1968, Lipsky said, "We've never
reached a norm from which we could
fluctuate."
There's an ironic twist to the situation.
At the same time UNL is in overload, the
president of Union College across town
announced that there will be computer
terminals in every residence hall room
next fall. The small Seventh Day Adventist
college is spending nearly half a million
dollars to get computers for its students,
and is making sure they use them; the
faculty voted to require a two-hour com
puter literacy course for all students.
It would be hard to compete with their
move into the computer age because
Union College is much smaller. "The
needs of their entire college are less than
the needs of this department," Lipsky
said.
But they have faced reality, in one of
its aspects at least, which is something
some state senators and administrators
seem to avoid because of the limits they
choose to put on whatever they are look
ing at. What will they do with computer
scientists sitting quietly in the chancel
lor's office? The sight could knock some
blinders off and bring truths home to
roost.
Letters
Gandhi was truly a 'man for the time'
Steve Abariotes' review of the mnvie
"Gandhi" (Daily Nebraskan, Jan. 21.)
was excellent. Abariotes was probably
ambiguous: "The minute grain of rationa
lity at the center of Gandhi's logic is
imperceptible, even to him, yet powerful
enough to move millions to passively
resist." I am certain that Gandhi was
aware of the course of action he had
launched, keeping in view the diversity of
India.
I had the opportunity to witness the
location shooting of the movie in India
by Sir Richard Attenborough.
Gandhi was truly a 4 'man for the time."
Einstein remarked on hearing of Gandhi's
death that "the future generation will
scarcely believe that such a man walked
on earth." To cite an incident, my father,
who was actively associated with the In
dian freedom movement for more than
20 years, related this to me.
The Rev. Charles Andrews, a British
missionary, and my father had helped a
man, who had come from the distant
south to Gandhi's place (Wardha) re
questing some financial help. Gandhi
bluntly told him that he cannot give him
any money, but offered him a job in his
house doing regular chores. The man
was disappointed and penniless. After a
few days, he came to my father and asked
for help. My father and Andrews, an
intimate and colleague of Gandhi, gave
him the necessary money. The news some
how reached Gandhi's ears. The next
morning, after the end of prayer meeting,
Gandhi called my father and asked him
omitted
to vacate the place immediately. My fat
her was aghast. Gandhi's anger was that
the man could have saved the long journey
from his home town to Wardha, and spent
it usefully, rather than "beg" him. And
by his act, my father had "robbed" the
man of his self-esteeem by "doling"
out the manna. The issue in question
was the principle.
While the movie is a welcome addition
to the growing work on the man, the
irony, in this case, is that the media seems
to be the message.
V. Raghunath
Native assistance
in movia
While the review of "Gandhi" (Daily
Nebraskan, Jan. 21,) was fair in its treat
ment of the film itself, your reviewer
revealed his cultural myopia in not
acknowledging the Indian contribution to
a film about India. Nothing was mentioned
about the performances of the talented
Indian actors or that one-third of the
production costs were met by the Indian
government, (lest we assume that it was
produced by Columbia Pictures, which
only handles its distribution).
The most amazing statement, though,
was that a reknowned musician like Ravi
Shankar was ignored for his own accom
plishments and merely identified as a
"Beatles' mentor."
David Woodman
Graduate student, life sciences