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Daily Nebraskan
Wednesday, February 10, 1933
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Fact one: Congress passed the gas tax
bill in the waning hours of its lame duck
session in December. Fact two: one
fatality, 66 injuries. 95 arrests and damage
to 1,700 trucks occured as the results of a
stiike by truckers against that bill.
The relationship between these two
facts is delicate. It may or may not be
described as a relationship of cause and
effect. But it is a relationship that needs to
be considered when one observes the
goings-on in Washington.
To Congress, the bill was a piece of legis
lation, a piece of paper in a pile of papers.
It was either supported or condemned by a
"yes" or "no" in a vote.
But for the truckers, who make their
living by transporting goods around the
country by way of the interstate system,
that piece of legislation obviously has vast
implications. So vast, in fact, that some of
them have resorted to extreme means to
prevent its implementation.
Yvonne Kern, secretary of the Nebraska
Chapter of the Independent Truckers
Association and wife of the chapter's presi
dent, said at an Omaha press conference
that her husband pays $6,000 a year for
state and federal licenses, permits and fees
to keep his truck on the road. If he is
forced to pay the new user and excise fees
that will go into effect as a result of the
new law, she said that amount will increase
to S9.200. In a nutshell, that is cause and
effect.
No one would approve of the violence
that has resulted from the Independent
Truckers Association's stiike against the
law. Michael Paikhurst. the national presi
dent of the organization, called the
violence the work of "a small group of
wacko criminals" who do not represent the
group as a whole.
The violence cannot be justified, but no
one would deny the existence of frustra
tion in the hearts of people who have seen
their livelihood threatened by the passage
of legislation over which they had little or
no control.
And no one would deny the fury
aroused in the striking truckers by the fact
that many other truckers refused to
support their fight against, the legislation
that they consider unfair.
It is easy to dismiss the stiike as un
important to anyone not involved with the
trucking industry. But everyone is affected.
According to United Press International, the
price for trucking lettuce, across the
country is 14 cents a head. That may be
the price paid, but the costs pa:d by in
dependent truckers come to 16 cents a
head.
And if the increase in fees takes place,
the costs will jump even higher, boosting
the price of those California oranges we dig
our fingernails into every day. There is a
long chain of occurrences that reaches link
by link from Washington to you and nie, a
chain of which we need to be conscious.
Cultwe mh figlhfis (racism
Our country has a problem with racism.
Racism did not go away with the civil
rights marches of the 1960s, the Voting
Rights Act, or the busing of students from
one school to another so they could learn
how the other half lives.
Rather, it exists as a lingering cancer in
side our country. Racism is based on the
idea that some people, because of their
skin color or ethnic background, are not as
good as others. We pride ourselves on our
Dave Milo
Mumgaard
democracy and on everyone's ability to
participate in the political and economic
processes, yet we have to acknowledge
that's just not true.
Today, racism is found most often in a
more subtle and covert form, as opposed to
the old days of segregated schools and
lunch counters. Yet the result is still a lack
of opportunities for those not of the
majority "color." No reasonable person
can justify the black teenagers present 60
percent unemployment rate. Thus, our
society continues to be racist and our goal
of a truly integrated society stays just that
much out of reach.
Moving the Culture Center from its pre
sent 16th Street location to Terrace Hall
would be a large step in a positive direct
ion. What better way to integrate different
ideas, backgrounds, and cultures than to
place them in the same neighborhood? Un
fortunately, a spirited fight evolved to keep
the student-funded Culture Center out of
the neighborhood.
One can't help but notice that most of
the litany of complaints about the move
have sounded rather weak. For one, there
was the initial complaint that neighbor
hood residents had not heard about the
proposed move, and here it was being
foisted upon them. However, I can
remember back in October when I read
about the proposed move in this paper, and
thought to myself how positive the move
would be. Secondly, the neighboihood resi
dents, noting the difference in function be
tween their Greek houses and the Culture
Center, were concerned about all-night
parties taking place.
Parties at the Culture Center are held
only on weekends, and then certainly not
all night. The center is also an adjunct to
the Nebraska Union, and as such, has
certain hours to follow.
There has also been the hushed talk
about security, for example, the increased
possibility of rapes in the area. This talk
infers that the Culture Center's present
location keeps this possibility low. Female
concern for security is always understand
able. But this blatantly prejudiced attitude
that the people who primarily use the
Culture Center (blacks, chicanos, native
americans) are more likely to jump out of
the bushes is false. Every reported first-,
second- and third degree rape on campus
this past semester (and there weren't that
many) had a white suspect.
One also cannot help but notice the
irony in Regent Schwartzkopfs proposal
that the Culture Center move into the old
Whittier Junior High on 22nd and Vine
streets. First this would totally defeat
bringing the Culture Center more into the
campus mainstream. Second, Regent
Schwartzkopf, being as he is a Lincoln
Public Schools employee, should re
member what Whittier was thought of as
for so long: the school for the poor, the
blacks, the Indians. Thus, in some people's
minds, moving the Culture Center to
Whittier would not be much of a move.
It is clear that those opposing the move
should reach deep within themselves and
investigate their motives. In fact, one
alumnus of a fraternity in the area was so
misinformed that he reportedly said that
members of his fraternity had to pay for
their house, and he didn't want them to
have to pay for someone else's. The
Culture Center is not a state-funded
fraternity nor is it a student-fee supported
sorority, as some may think. It is every
one's Culture Center, working to preserve
important cultures that otherwise would be
lost under the overpowering majority's.
The chance to have different cultures meet
and associate is an excellent reason to
move the Culture Center to Terrace Hall.
The move gives us an irresistible chance to
strike a blow against racism on our campus.
; Wv, oX-
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Another example of the chain's exist
ence is the recent information in which we
read that Congress is consideiing strength
ening immigration regulations, vshileat the
same time we read about the riots that
erupted in Miami, a city that is 58 percent
Hispanic. Several stories may even appear
on the same page of a newspaper, and we
need to connect them in our minds.
The stiike ended alter 1 1 days, and the
Independent Truckers now have a piece of
paper signed by 35 members of Congress
who claim that they will do their best to
remedy the problem. Perhaps a committee
will be formed to look into the situation.
Perhaps the truckers' lobbyists will in
crease their activity. Perhaps some more
legislation will be passed.
Still, it is important to keep in mind the
slender thread that runs between the pass
ing of papers, the raising of hands and the
living of lives. The thiead is easy to toi
get but nonetheless it serves as the founda
tion for the system of government under
which we live.
David Thompson
1
Letters If
Molloy represented select interests
It is distressing to note that after eiaht
years of experience, the Student Advisory
Board of the College of Business Adminis
tration has not poured its enormous re
sources into a more profitable enterprise
than B-Week. The promoters of this ex
travagant event seem to have forgotten
that they represent not a school for busi
ness people similar to a training school for
mechanics or secretaries, but a university
for higher learning.
As representatives of the university they
should not have chosen John T. Molloy,
author of "Dress for Success," as the key
note speaker of B-Week. Molloy twists the
truism, "It's not what you know, it's who
you know" into "It's not what you know,
it's what you wear."
The advisory board should have known
better than to promote such anti-intellectual
thought. Board advisors and CBA fac
ulty should not support views so contrary
to their .-own interests. Next year I hope
they will bring a speaker (perhaps a lead
ing economist?) who will tell us how to
think, rather than dress, for success.
Ben Knoll
senior, arts & sciences
ASUN elections an ineffective mockery
Scott Johnson's letter (Daily Nebraskan,
Feb. 10), contends that, contrary to Mike
Frost's urgings, we can benefit ourselves by
voting in the upcoming ASUN election.
The core of his argument appears to be his
statement: "According to Frost's theory
... a change could only be for the better."
It does not seem to me, upon re-reading
Frost's column, that he ever denies this. He
claims, rather, that no change will come
from the election. A study of the ASUN
election process strongly supports this
claim.
Upon examining the results of the past
three ASUN elections, I found an extreme
ly large correlation between the amount of
money spent by a party on the campaign
and the amount of the vote received by the
party's presidential candidate. One might
expect to find such a correlation; however,
the degree was surprising. Since the
amount of money a party can spend is dir
ectly tied to the number of candidates it
has, it is not astonishing that large parties
invariably win. A small party, regardless of
the high quality of its ideas, has little or no
chance of getting its candidates in office.
Laige parties, unfortunately, do not
tend to produce change. Their platforms
must be satisfactory to all their members,
ensuring that only the blandest and least
controversial proposals are Brought forth.
Too, most such parties are led by ASUN in
cumbents who have a greater desire to hold
office than to improve conditions at this
university. The result: the same tired, in
effective ideas and meaningless promises
are dragged out every spring, thrown about
for the delight of the voters, and taken
back to ASUN after the election.
It is useless, then, to attempt to elect a
group of people with innovative ideas and
plans. Attempts to induce the ASUN
Electoral Commission and the Senate to
change the regulations to introduce a
measure of competition and a hope of
victory for small parties have proven
equally futile. Frost has suggested the only
answer available to us; to refuse to vote.
Bill Flack
senior, physics
More letters on Page 5