Wednesday, March 2, 1983
Daily Nebraskan
liOOZOo
Nuclear if
A nuclear weapons freeze : it's not uni
lateral disarmament. It's not a foolish un
dermining of our nation's defense. It's not
ignoring Russian capabilities or desires. It's
not even a cutting of one single missile
from either side's nuclear arsenal.
What it is is common sense. If you want
to put a car in reverse, you have to put the
brakes on first.
Everyone probably has a passing notion
of the magnitude of the nuclear arms race.
Cauizeons -force WaslhiDimgtoini to fefem)
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Dave Milo
Mumgaard
Each year, both the United States and the
Soviet Union spend billions of dollars to
develop, test and install nuclear missiles in
the ground, on jets and in submarines.
Thousands of nuclear missiles, each having
many times the strength of the bomb that
devastated Hiroshima, quietly sit there,
ticking off the endless days, poised to
strike deep within the Soviet Union or
deep into the American heartland.
We have lots of these missiles. We have
so many, in fact, that the United States has
enough to blow up the Soviet Union 60
times, while the Soviet Union has enough
to do us in 40 times.
A nuclear weapons freez.e is simply a
recognition of the fact that enough is
enough. It has nothing to do with a
weakening of our defense. If a freeze were
to be imposed on both sides, both sides
would simply cease testing or making any
more nuclear weapons. The nuclear arms
race, screaming along, would end, leaving
us the task of dealing with the nuclear arms
that exist now.
Thisjs not some hare-brained, "crazed
radical" idea. It is not an idea propagated
by rabid peaceniks and unrealistic dream
ers. It is a rational, possible and desirable
way to cut through the contradictory and
confusing arms control agreement. The
fieeze is supported by older people, young
people, business people, Democrats,
Republicans, Catholics, Protestants, you
name it. William Colby, director of the CIA
during the Nixon administration, supports
it. So does Thomas Watson, the former
chairman of the board, at IBM. Mary Crisp,
former co-chair of the Republican National
Committee, supports it. The list is very
long, and the point is to make it even
longer.
Rarely in our history as a nation has
change in public policy come about with
out intense citicn pressure. At present,
our nation's policy is to keep building nu
clear arms because the administration feels
we are behind the Soviet Union in nuclear
weapons strength. This is, of course,
highly debatable. The fieeze movement is
geared to allow common citizens a chance
to speak out on an issue which, like it or
not, affects everyone's daily existence.
Support from all across the country for a
simple bilateral cessation of the nuclear
arms race will force the administration to
take notice and then negotiate with the
Soviet Union for a freeze.
If anyone still insists that the freeze
movement is a radical movement, ask him
or her to go to a meeting of freeze support
ers. I couldn't help but notice the diversity
of people at a recent Lincoln Freeze
Campaign meeting. There were little old
women wrapped in knitted shawls, profes
sors nattily attired in tweed suits, young
mothers holding their du'Idren and farmers
wearing bib overalls. The freeze movement
is a citizen's movement. It is a movement
of people concerned about their futures.
We have a chance next Wednesday to
speak our mind on the nuclear arms race.
The ASUN elections will have the "freeze
question" on the ballot and every student
on campus has the opportunity to voice his
or her concern. We ar not alone as a stu
dent body in registering our sentiment; for
instance, the University of Iowa student
body has already endorsed a nuclear
weapons freeze.
Just think, Nebraska will send more
than S7 billion to Washington during the
next three years for our administration's
continued buildup of arms. Meanwhile, our
university scrapes by, cutting important
programs because it lacks funds. The nu
clear arms race must stop, if only for this
one reason. Come and vote March 9 and
say to the nuclear arms race what
"MASH's" final show said to the
Korean War: "Goodbye, Farewell and
Amen."
SteoBDg a Momaim 5s (real mk In imumme
In any crowd of cheerful, positive-thinking
citizens there is at least one eternal
optimist who longs to believe that some
where, somehow there must be a form of
discrimination that is "fair," or even
"good" for women.
If such a person exists among you and is
not busy clapping hands for Tinkerbell,
allow me to introduce him or her to the
friendly neighborhood insurance industry.
V
X?
Ellen
Goodman
For two days last week, at congressional
hearings on a bill to "bail discrimination in
insurance and annuities, we heard a good
deal of testimony showing that women are
paying more andor getting less from their
insurance than men.
In the pension business, for example,
men and women often make equal pay
ments to buy an annuity, but women get
less than equal monthly payments back. To
get the same monthly amount as men after
65, women have to pay more before 65.
The industry, for its part, didn't deny
that it offers separate plans for men and
women. Rather they held aloft actuarial
tables, as if writ from the great Statistician
in the Sky. Anatomy is destiny, they
declared. Women live longer, they receive
more monthly payments, and so they must
pay more.
Insurers have made similar arguments in
terms of medical and disability policies
since this issue was first raised. They are
just following numbers : If women cost
more, they must pay more. What's fair is
fair.
But fair isn't always easy to assess. At
the crux of this controversy is the fact that
insurers choose to group people and then
make predictions about the behavior of
that group. They do not call this discrim
ination; they call it "risk categorization."
Now women are claiming that being
grouped by sex is equally discriminatory,
arbitrary and harmful to them as indivi
duals. The "average" woman, for example,
may have a longer life expectancy than the
"average" man. But out of every 100
women and 100 men, 84 of each sex will
die in the same years.
The all-too-chivalrous rebuttal from the
insurance industry now is that women
aren't really suffering under this two-track
system. Indeed, they insist, equality will
cost women dearly. But whenever someone
protests that equality will hurt women,
watch out.
There are two areas today in which
women pay less than men. Young female
drivers under the age of 24 are generally
charged less than young male drivers for
auto insurance. Women generally pay 10
to 20 percent lower premiums for life
insurance.
The auto-insurance difference is based
on the fact that young men get into more
car accidents than young women.
As for life insurance, women usually do
pay between 10 and 20 percent less for the
same amount of coverage. This can be
lower than the difference between compan
ies and is often wiped out by discounts
like non-smoker discounts.
But even if you include these so-called
advantages, the bottom line is simple. The
"break" that women get in auto and life
insurance is piddling. They pay dearly for
their sex when it comes to medical
coverage, disability coverage and pensions.
In one reasonable analysis compiled by
the National Organization of Women from
the industry's own figures, being a woman
can cost SI 5, 732 in insurance costs over a
lifetime. That, on anyone's tables, is a real
"risk category."
(c) 1983, The Washington Post Company
Ni Daily
soraskan
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Did your
juniorsenior
check laave
you feeling
a bit like
Alice's
rabbit?
Independent study can help.
If your juniorsenior check turned up
a class you meant to take but didn't,
consider independent study at your
pace and place. It could help you grad
uate on time.
For information, visit the UNL Divis
ion of Continuing Studies Independent
Study Department, 269 Nebraska Center
for Continuing Education, 33rd and
Holdrege. Take the shuttle bus from
city campus. Or call 472-1926.
500Milc
Campus I-
UNL does not discriminate in its academic,
admissions or employment programs, and abides by all
federal regulations pertaining to same.
Q