Wednesday, August 24, 1933
Page 4
Daily Nebraskan
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Variety of issues cloud upcoming semester
It's the beginning of a new semester time to
gear up for another round of classes and to renew
old friendships.
For the Daily Nebraskan, it's time to renew a
commitment to the students, faculty and staff of
UNL.
This newspaper has made major changes in its
layout and design the past two years. It is, of course,
desirable to have a visually appealing product and
we will continue to take steps in that direction.
But our major commitment this semester is to
revitalize the content of the Daily Nebraskan, to
make sure that students are kept informed of the
events going on around them.
To paraphrase an ancient Chinese saying these
are interesting times.
Farmers in Nebraska and throughout the
Midwest are watching nervously as their crops are
destroyed by severe drought; politicians and voters
alike are gearing up for the 1984 elections; and
draft-age students throughout the country look on
as conflicts in South America and Chad threaten to
pull other nations into war.
The Daily Nebraskan soon will install a wire
service, enabling us to bring you news briefs and
breaking stories from around the globe.
Our top priority, however, will be to bring you the
news of Lincoln, especially UNL, and to do it fairly
and accurately.
The events happening right now on this campus
have the potential to greatly alter the structure and
role of the university.
NU administrators, in an attempt to maintain
some of the university's strong programs, are
studying areas which can be pared or eliminated
next year; administrators are introducing a three
year plan to bring faculty salaries up to par with
similar institutions; and the NU Board of Regents
has given preliminary approval to a budget plan
calling for a 10 percent tuition increase in 1084-85.
Students need to be involved in these and other
decisions as they are made by university officials.
And to be involved, students need to be informed.
That's where we come in. We give you our pledge
to bring you the news of the major issues t hat affect
students. We are, in short, committed to making the
Daily Nebraskan your major source of news.
We also are committed to involving more students
with the newspaper. Beginning next week, we will
run weekly student surveys on the editorial page.
This will allow more students to voice their opinions
on the major issues of the day, and, we hope, provide
a nice balance to t he regular editorials and columns
on our pages.
Our sports and entertainment sections also will
be soliciting your input. Both sections hope to run a
regular letters section, allowing readers to comment
on reviews and columns that appear on those pages.
The success of these and our other efforts depend in
large part on your contributions.
We are committed to making the Daily Nebraskan
a better newspaper. Your input through calls,
letters and visits to our office is vital to our
success.
Have a good semester.
Editorial Policy
Unsigned editorials represent of
ficial policy of the fall 1983 Daily
Nebraskan. They are written by this
semester's editor in chief, Larry
Sparks.
Other staff members will write
editorials throughout the semester.
They will carry the author's name after
the final sentence.
Editorials do not necessarily reflect
the views of the university, its em
ployees or the NU Board of Regents.
The Daily Nebraskan's publishers
are the regents, who established the
UNL Publications Board to supervise
the daily production of the newspaper.
According to policy set by the regents,
the content of the newspaper lies
solely in the hands of its student
editors.
Tom cireate tike emdimg
iim Mob ICeirey stony
One of the most popular trends in
kiddies literature today is the create-your-own-ending
publication. In these
lofty tomes, the imaginative tot is able
to choose the path that the story he is
reading will take.
If he wants a character to be cap
tured by a band of crazed pirates, he
turns to page 12. If he wants him to
catch the bad guys, he turns to page
13. If he wants to have the character
1
Mike Frost
disappear into thin air, he has him run
for ASUN.
This trend seems to have caught on
in other areas as well. The popular
high-tech video game Dragon's Lair is
based on this principle, for example.
There are even rumors that Gov. Bob
Kerrey has a five-year plan based on
this scheme. It's called:
"Governor Bob Goes to Town."
Gov. Bob is a happy man, the chief
executive in a state just like yours.
Unfortunately, he has become bored
with life in Lincoln, so he decides
something must change.
If you would like Gov. Bob to intro
duce the measures he promised dur
ing the election, read Section I. If you
would like him to become nationally
prominent, read Section II.
Section I: Bob speaks out in favor of
some support for the University sys
tem, a restructuring of the tax system
and backs Ted Kennedy for president
in 1 984. He loses re-election by a lands
lide against Grand Island Sen. Howard
Peterson.
Section II: Bob decides he wants
national prominence. First, he must
convince the national press that he is a
lot like John F. Kennedy. A brilliant
ploy, says Bob's public relations man.
If you would like Bob to emulate JFK
politically, read Section III. If you
would like him to emulate JFK's cha
risma, read Section Iv.
Section III: Bob speaks out in favor
of stronger education, a higher corpo
rate tax and backs Ted Kennedy for
president in '84. He loses re-election by
a landslide against Neligh Sen. John
DeCamp.
Section IV: Bob decides he must
emulate the late president's style. First
he points out that he and JFK have
much in common: They are both injur
ed veterans, both young, both Nebras
kans. Soon, though, the press tires of this
guise. Bob must come up with some
thing else. And quick!!
If you would like to see Bob open a
theme park on 70th and A streets, turn
to Section V. If you would like to see
him run for vice president, read Sec
tion VI. Isn't this fun?
Section V: Bob opens Nebraska's first
theme park out on 70th and A streets.
The public forgets him and he loses the
Democratic primary in a landslide to
Sen. Edward Zorinsky. This doesn't
bother the now former governor. "After
years of running a theme park, I'm
used to Mickey Mouses," he says.
Section VI: Bob decides that if he is
to be successful in his pursuit of the
vice presidency, he must not just align
himself with any presidential candi
date, but rather, with all of them.
Unfortunately, the Republicans win
the election, and Bob must go back
home.
Back home, however, people are dis
gruntled. They say Gov. Bob hasn't
paid enough attention to their con
cerns. He hasn't helped education, he
has done nothing for the state's tax
structure and he backed Ted Kennedy,
among others, for president in '84. Bob
realizes there is only one thing he can
do.
If you want Gov. Bob to run on his
record, turn to Section VII. If you want
him to pull one last trick out of his hat,
read Section VIII.
Continued on Page 6
Welcome Back
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UNL City Campus, looking northwest from the Nebraska Union
Court sews social fabric into law
The facililty of U.S. Supreme Court
justices in writing distorted opinions
in civil liberties cases was severly
tested this summer by state Sen. Ernie
Chamber's objection to paying a
Eric
-r . Peterson
chaplain for the Nebraska Legislature.
And once again, the justices proved
capable of overcoming the obstacles of
clear logic and the Constitution.
The main argument that Chief
Justice Warren Burger, who wrote the
majority opinion, used in the
Chambers case was that "the practice
of opening legislative sessions with
prayer has become part of the fabric of
our society." This overturned earlier
decisions by the federal district court
that legislative chaplains could not be
paid with public money, and an
appeals court decision that there
could not be public chaplains, at all.
I'm with the appeals court, and with
Ernie Chambers. The First Amend
ment forbids establishment of religion
by the government, and the practice of
hiring chaplains clearly is a recog
nition by governmental authorities of
mainstream religion.
It forms part of the same current as
the "In God We Trust" motto on our
coins (a motto which, incidentally,
only began to appear on U.S. coinage
during the conservative 1950s), the
now illegal practice of organized
school prayer, and Eisenhower's and
Reagan's periodic exhortations to
holiness.
Really, I cannot find that these
public endorsements of religion make
us any better, or even more religious;
and only a superficial kind of God
would be satisfied with a few mumbled
rote prayers and his name on a
quarter. Governmental endorsements
of this kind form a kind of overlay of
religiosity which some conservative
politicians have tried to put on the
surface of the country's public life.
And yet not everybody can agree
with or feel comfortable with public
endorsement of bland religious senti
ment. E.B. White wrote that his wife
Katherine was very disturbed by
Eisenhower's declaration of a national
day of prayer; it made her feel isolated
and separated from American public
life, as many people are made to feel by
knee jerk, cheap symbolism of the kind
Jerry Falwell would approve.
Continued on Page 5
