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Thursday, March 10, 1983
Daily Nebraskan
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Stalled talks draw
West Germain) ire
It is easy for Americans to chat about deployment
of this missile or rejection of that arms negotiations
option. But Sunday's West German elections demon
strate that their country is confused about being
caught in the tangled web of U.S.-Soviet relations.
Luckily, they arc not yet allowing that confusion to
mn rampant. The Green Party won only 27 of the 498
seats in the Bundestag, the lower house of the West
German Parliament.
The wo! Id is fortunate that the Green Party did not
win a laiger number of scats, because the Green Party
has nothing constiuctive to add to arms negotiations.
Then aim is desti active: to make those negotiations
moie fk".;t, if imt impossible, by breaking up 'he
Noith Atlantic 1 u a t v Organization of the United
8i.iics and Western hmope.
In theii "peace manifesto," the Gicen Party states
that it will woik against "the power-seeking and
offensive sttaicgios of the U.S.A. and . . . use even
iueatis to ivae NA'IO and represent her own interest
against 'he U.S.A."
These dest i '.;ctive aims aie t lie product of a feeling
of 1: 1 1 ! 1 1 aioused by the unwillingness of the United
States and Soviet Union to reach an agreement. Both
S'-Us are unrealistically frightened of each other. Tlie
WV-,! Germans are justified in responding to that lack
ot agi cement with anger.
But that anger should be used to pressure the
United State?, and Soviet Union into an agreement.
n- i to permanently tip the balance by presenting the
.Soviets with a Western Lurope in disanay.
Ot her parties on the left side of the West German
political spectrum are responding to the situation with
views .similar to those of the Green Party. They have
alo allowed their anger to obscure their logic and to
direct them towards destructive rather than construc
tive aims.
Social Deinoeiatic Party member Lgon Bahr hinted
to American national security assistant William P.
Claik at tlie recent Munich confeience that West Ger
many may sec!
Soviet Union.
a "security partnership" with the
Gone are the likes of Helmut Schmidt as this party
alio succumbs to the paranoia encouraged by Soviet
propaganda and by Ronald Reagan's stubborn hold
on pipe dreams bke the "zero option." The Social
Democratic Party lost support, however, and won
38.2 percent of the vote, down from the 42.9 percent
it won in 1980.
That leaves Helmut Kohl and the re-elected govern
ing coalition of his Christian Democratic Union, the
Christian Social Union and the Free Democrats. Kohl
is a consistent conservative, and his policies amount to
little more than a promise to deploy U.S. missiles and
the same kind of economic conservatism that is, de
pending ofi whom you talk to, responsible for both the
recession and the recovery in the United States.
Kohl's coalition won't bring anything new, but that
is a good thing when one sees what is waiting in the
wings, namely the rise of the Green Party and the
fin titer swing of the Social Democrats away from logic.
Kohl's coalition did receive a plurality, but not a
large one. The Green Party and the voices heard from
the Social Democratic Party are a pervading presence.
The election's message should be clear to the United
States, no matter what domestic economic woes the
West German people had on their minds when they
voted. West Germany is angry about the
unproductivity of U.S.-Soviet negotiations. The West
German people are angry enough to give groups like
the Green Party a voice, but not yet angry enough to
let go of the firm position of Kohl's government.
If the United States and Soviet Union stall any
longer, the anger may grow. It is our nation's respons
ibility to reach an agreement with the Soviet Union
soon that will ensure the safety of NATO. If the po
litical cobweb is not unraveled, then unreason and
paranoia may take free reign.
David Thompson
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Hueire's 010 rami
me no
One time, years ago. 1 asked a pretty girl, whom I
thought I knew, "What do you look lor from someone'.'
What do you hope to gain from a relationship?"
The questions weren't original. She'd asked me the
same thing a moment before. The questions were far
more frank and candid than anything I could've mustered.
Mustered, I didn't answer too quickly. I suppose I'd
a dim idea from an aerial philosophic view, but I couldn't
fish it out. The waters were such that I didn't want to
v' v8 I
David Wood
dive right in and make any possible waves. I said
something deep and murky and threw the questions
back in Iter face.
She had an unfair advantage, having made bold the
query ;n the first place. She answered instantly , shocking
me a second time. She said what she wanted from a
relationship was, in one word, three letters, fun.
I was flabbergast. I told her she had the wrong boy.
I made it clear to her that 1 wasn't fun and promptly
terminated the relationship.
I've encountered similar attitudes since. I once knew
a guy who seemed intelligent, but was alarmingly casual
about school. He had an expansive personality and an
exuberant character, as is often the case.
He told me, one day, "I'm cavalier. Hang me. College
just happens to come at a bad time for a young adult.
When you've got both youth and the opportunities of an
adult, you've got to let out the slack. Quite imaginably,
you may never again in your life be so free and have as
much fun as you get in your college days. When it's
your last chance, you go for it. Good looks, health and
vitality are downhill hereon out. College, really, should be
a good time. We're all in this together."
If these were only the crackpot notions of scattered
harebrains, I'd write them off and say, "Later, folks,"
as indeed I did. But they're hardly lone loonies howling
at the moon. Nights crawl with deviants with such twisted
value schemes. In plain daylight, students can be found
who openly confess that their behavior and better judg
ment are, on occasion, warped by a childish fondness
for that three-letter word "fun."
For this very column, I personally sampled the UNL
student body, keeping a scientific eye open for average
types. Incredibly, six of the seven passersby I polled
told me, without a blush, that, yes, they liked to have
fun. The other respondent called me fresh and winked.
I think it's disgusting, this shameless display of moral
decrepitude. Today's campuses run rampant with slug
gards, slackers and slouchs who think fun is some kind
ot agruable value. Had I known when 1 enrolled, I
would've enlisted instead.
By now, I've learned to avoid classmates outside of
class. How often have I watched the sad scenario played
out?
They approach innocently, saying, "Let's get to
know each other." I usually play deaf, but still, one
line afternoon, there they come, stopping by the house
and asking me to join them in a prodigal evening of
wasting time, money and personal dignity.
"Oh. come on," they always say. "You'il have fun."
"I don't have fun," I tell them over and over. Yet the
coaxing and cajoling keeps up. as if having one more
person along with them justifies their pack mentality.
"What's its use, fun?" I ask them.
"It's fun," they wantonly argue.
"That and a dime doesn't buy coffee," I prudently
say. "Who needs fun when there's daylong responsibility
and TV?"
"It'll be fun," they persist, becoming indecently
tedious.
"Whoops. Time for schoolwork," 1 eventually say,
opening an engrossing text.
Whenever I say, "1 don't have fun," they somehow
always manage to hear, "Gosh, 1 really don't know what
fun is." But what I'm saying is, if they listened, "I don't
have fun because what does it get me?"
Sure, I've had fun, one time. But the next day, 1
had a headache, a mysterious bruise, couldn't afford
dinner and was hopelessly behind in my schoolwoik.
People said I'd done silly things. I vowed it'd never
happen again.
Having fun is just a tacky masquerade for goofing
off, and goof-offs have no business in a vigorous society.
Fun unquestionably should be outlawed on campuses,
as that's where tomorrow's responsible adults are sup
posed to be being shaped. Fun is a fake luxury allowed
children because kids aren't grown up enough to have
the true luxuries bought of dutiful toil. Fun is time
wasted when you're busy pursuing the real happiness
of material gain.
So leave me alone. I've got lots to do.
EDITOR MrsiHonz
GENERAL MANAGER Danial M. Shattil
ADVERTISING MANAGER Jerry Scott
PRODUCTION MANAGER Kitty Policky
MANAGING EDITOR Michiala Thuman
NEWS EDITOR Sue Jp$n
NIGHT NEWS EDITOR David Wood
ASSISTANT NIGHT
NEWS EDITOR Leslie Boellstorff
GRAPHICS EDITOR John G. Goccke
ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR Patty Pryor
SPORTS EDITOR Bob A$mui$en
ART DIRECTOR David Luebke
PHOTO CHIEF DaveBenti
ASSISTANT PHOTO CHIEF Craig Andrwen
ASSSIS1ANT
ADVERTISING MANAGER Carol Fehr
PROFESSIONAL ADVISER Don Walton. 473 7301
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