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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 25, 1983)
4 Daily Nebraskan Monday, April 25, 1933 usages -A 1 O UJJ 1 t I- s o n u Netaska coold be real WDmnmeir rafflin uouieo Let's face it. The slate is broke. Nothing is going to change that fact in any great hurry. But who's to say that a short-term remedy is so had when a long-term remedy is not in sight? Today, the state lottery bill, LB.v( conies up for debate. And while the issue of establishing a state lottery is a sensitive one, Nebraskans deserve the chance to decide for themselves if they want one. Opponents of the lottery are deter mined to kill the bill or tack on amend ments that would make its passage un likely. As LB336 reads, a state lottery commission would be established, with proceeds from lottery tickets providing property tax relief through the general homestead exemption program. Rather than rush to create a system that has obvious shortcomings, it makes more sense to delay action and put it before the voters. That is what Legisla tive Resolution 10 aims to do - let the state decide on next year's ballot if they ate for it. The situation is similiar to that in Colorado. A Sunday Omaha World-Herald article said that Colorado voters approved the establishment of a state lottery on a ballot in 19S0. It finally got under way this year and its popularity and profit ability have surpassed original goals. Colorado expected to gross $60 million for the year, but that estimate has been changed to S(0 million. Colorado Gov. Richard Lamm did not want to start a lottery. Our Gov. Kerrey seems to be of the same mind, and will probably veto LB336. Bat if LR10 passes, Nebraskans would have the chance to decide for themselves if they think it's worth the gamble. If Colorado's success is an indication of what a lottery could bring to Nebraska, it's certainly worth a try. Supporteis say a lottery here could bring in $20 million. If interest is strong on the ballot, that could be a conserva tive estimate. Nebraskans have a love for taking chances - just look at the Ak-Sar-Ben racetrack - not what one would call an unprofitable venture. And in a lottery, ' j 1 "HAVE WARVflUTWfcU" j t, .- V 7. ., - Mi.X ' V the returns would be guaranteed - if not for the individual, for the state. The businesses that would sell the lot tery tickets would realize a profit; Nebras kans seem eager to buy Colorado tickets when available. According to the World Herald. Kerrey said he was told that Ne braska is "losing $100,000 to Colorado because of the lottery," and added. "Ne braskans are also going to Las Vegas and to New Yoik to see plays." Granted, money is always going to leave the state; the "good life" can only go so far. We'll never have the casinos. And they aren't about to transplant Broadway. But we could manage to print up a few million tickets without much trouble, if that's what Nebraskans want. It could be just w hat we need to bail us out. The state could be the real winner. Wait: Scaoy eoDowigllD fio make people do sometMinig Some time ago. 1 can't remember exactly when (was it atier James Watt's famous analogy between environment alists and Nazis?), former Wisconsin Sen. Gay lord Nelson said it was time for the gus in the white coats to come get the Secretary of the Interior. Nelson, who now heads the Siena Club, a major environmental group, is probably a little thankful for Eric i Peterson out such promising candidates as David Stockman, the bright little boy with the big, trickle down idea, and a president who co-staned with a chimpanzee. Two years ago. when he was at a dinner for fat cat Republicans in the San. Joaquin valley (the kind who live m fake medieval castles on their vineyards and hire migrant woikers to pick grapes at a piecework, starvation rate). Watt said. "I don't use the words "Democrats' and 'Republicans.' It's liberals and Americans." And we thought he was such a rabid partisan. But a half year later. Watt undertook in a letter on Ins off-shore oil drilling policies to insist that Jews had better support him if they know what's good for them: "If the liberals of the American Jewi!i community join with the oilier libeials of this nation to oppose these efforts, (to open up moie offshore drilling areas) they will weaken our ability to be a good friend of Israel." In January there was Watt's ultimate example of the failure of socialism: not the Soviet Union, but our own American Indian reservations. (Which I would say are the results of far too little state aid. and not too much; yes, I am one of those who think that throwing money at a problem can actually sometimes help.) XM raft Q ecifaom) ireHinnroirces dittos (bOr m tm , .; . Watt's push . "Nuke the Whales" posturing. Because Watt likes to talk so much, and so badly, his plans to dismantle his department aren't passed over and forgotten. And membership in environmental groups like the Skrra Club and the Audubon Society has jumped since Reagan and Watt took office. Watt is scary enough to make people do something. Watt has, entirely by himself, become the most detest ed and ridiculed member of the administration, beat in a 0 At one of those Washington parties that are more fun in the movies than they are in real life. 1 approached a real-life senator and brought up the matter of Chicago -this was before the election. Would it not be wonderful, I averred (I aver only at parties), if Bernard Epton, who initially never expected to win anyway, simply pulled out of the race? The senator flashed me the smile of dismay and said, "But he can win." There is in that remark all you ever need to know about politics - its ethics, its philosophy, its morality. It it n ' (- Richard y' -')( Cohen is, like football, bridge and, until recently, war - about winning. After winning, there is nothing else and all the cliches apply - winning isn't everything, it's the only thing, and all of that. And that, I suppose, was what was on the minds of the Republican Party (if a party can be said to have a mind) and the White House (ditto) when they threw themselves behind the candidacy of Epton, a reluctant and unlikely front-man for white racism. The word from the White House and from Republican spokesmen everywhere was that the GOP could not lose in Chicago. Either it would get itself a mayor or it would get itself the loyalty of countless blue-collar voters. Never mind the nation and never mind even Chicago: the GOP could not lose. For that reason, the Republican Party gave Chicago its best shot. It dispatched John Deardourff, a media master respected for both his talents and honor, who promptly dove right into the mud. It was he who coined the tag line "Epton - before it's too late." And it is too late for him now to say that he could not understand how anyone could read race into it. In fact, it might be too late for the Republican Party to get out of the corner it has painted itself into. Somehow, the party of Lincoln has managed to transform itself into the party of Jim Crow. If it has not become identified with white racism, it has at least become the party you turn to when you want to express some sort of racist sentiment. Blacks, of course, know this. They are now so solidly Democratic it's hard to believe that they were once just as solidly Republican. Franklin Roosevelt altered that, but it is not too much to say that the black vote was up for grabs until almost recently. Then, GOP opposition to virtually all-civil rights legislation, exemplified by the vot ing records of such presidential candidates as Barry Gold water and, much later, Gerald Ford, all but iced it. Chicago put it away. If is, of course, foolish to argue in the context ot politics about morality when the only morality recognized is the numbers. And the numbers, the GOP concluded, were on its side in Chicago. At most, it could have a mayor in office, making it harder for the dead to Cast their usual Democratic ballot come 1984. But at mini mum, the election would accustom normally Democratic blue-collar voters to the strange sensation of voting Republican. Having done it once and having not been struck dead as a result, the voters then were supposed to be able to do the same thing in 1984. You could make the argument that the Chicago election was a perfect example of media hype. There is something to that. Chicago is not America- It is not even a But Watt's most recent caper, replacing the apparently too dissolute Beach Boys with Wayne Newton, went too far even for the presidents and the Missus. The First Couple, who. as quoted in a recent Mike Frost column, "couldn't go New Wave . . . on the beach!!" admitted to liking the Beach Boys. All this criticism, even the implied criticism of Nancy Reagan herself, ;s not likely to put James Watt's job m trouble, because every ridiculous thing he says only en dears him more to the New Right. That is piccisely his gieatcst alue to the Reagan ad ministration. James Watt functions in the same way that, say. Eleanor Roosevelt did in her husband's administra tion. (I hope that whatever divine powers there be do not stroke me down for comparing the two.) Eleanor Roose velt did. and Watt does, keep the "extremes" happy. Meanoi's involvement in civil lights was enough to keep the left from ever becoming disaffected with the New Deal and James Watt is pure balm to the wounded pride of those who think Reagan has sold out to Washington. Bad press was enough to get Anne Gorsuch Burford out of her job, but each new assertion by Watt only makes him more secure in the heart of Jesse Helms, and there fore in his job. ft few lacks typical big-city. Its Democratic machine protected it like an indulgent .mother. And by wagging a threatening Finger at Washington, D.C., especially during Democratic admini strations, Chicago managed to live in a racial time warp. Sometime in the next decade, Chicago will have to move into the 1980s. But media hype in an age of media hype is not some thing to ignore. Whatever the actual ramifications of the Chicago election might be, one for sure is a hardening of the image that the Republican party is not for blacks. And if it is not for blacks (or women or the poor), then it is not for anyone who cares about social justice. And unless you believe that intolerance is the wave of the future, that things will get worse and not better, then what the Republican Party won in Chicago was the right to be on the wrong side of history. A couple or more contests like this and the GOP will, like its Chicago standard-bearer, not go from victory to victory, but to oblivion instead. (c) 1S83, Th Washington Post Company Letter Policy "rt fi-i-rrrtim'nt-;ti5.5-Jit'.titM(f irMtf mttititi tf f iititi iMinittniit ' u .1 kXSSSMimmW "UU'lJi, i.,lmm' IMP" ' Letters SPTIt fn fhf nfw;nrmtr fnr nnhliotinn hemme - - ----- - ' ,f.v.f'... ' UUIlVUilUII vv'.- the property of the Daily Nebraskan and cannot be re turned. The Daily Nebraskan reserves the right tc edit and condense all letters submitted. Submit all rmtfprinl in thr Hiil Nebraska Union, 1400 R St., Lincoln, Neb., 68588. 11