Monday, February G, 1934
Paso 4
Daily Nebraskan
Insanity bill awaits Kerrey's signature
The Legislature last week took a
giant step toward improving Nebras
ka's legal system. Now, it is up to Gov.
Bob Kerrey to make the change into
law.
LB 183, sponsored by Sens. Carol
Pirsch of Omaha, Elroy Hefner of Cole
ridge and John DeCamp of Neligh,
would shift the burden of proof hi
insanity cases from the prosecution to
the defense. It passed final reading 27
1 8 Friday and now awaits Kerrey's sig
nature." -
The governor told the Omaha World-
Herald Saturday he is leaning toward
not signing the bill but said he will talk
to its sponsors before making a final
decision. The Legislature would need
30 votes to override his veto.
Kerrey is to be commended for seek
ing out both sides of the issue before
making a decision. But the hope here is
he will sign the bill and put an end to
the mockery some criminals have
made of the court system.
Opponents of LB183 argue that it
would be the first step toward des
truction of our system where suspect
ed criminals are innocent until proven
guilty.
They are wrong.
The bill has nothing to do with how a
guilty or not guilty verdict is reached.
Rather, it makes the logical assump
tion that a suspect is both innocent
and sane unless proven otherwise in
the courts. Nebraska law defines in
sane as being incapable of distinguish
ing right from wrong.
Instead, it seems that criminals have
used the insanity plea as an escape
from the punishment they have com
ing. As a result, many convicted murd
erers, in this state and in others, have
gotten off with only minimal sent
ences. Anything that can help put an end
to this nonsense would be a wise move.
Forcing the defense to prove insanity
seems to be a good move in that
direction.
Gov. Kerrey would be doing his fel
low Nebraskans a big favor by signing
LB 183. If he does not, Pirsch, Hefner
and DeCamp should make an all-out
effort to win an override from their
collegues.
Editorial
Policy
Unsigned editorials represent the official policy of
the spring 1984 Daily Nebraskan. They are written
by this semester's editor in chief, Larry Sparks.
Other staff members will write editorials through
out the semester. They will carry the author's name
after the final sentence.
Editorials do not necessarily reflect the views of
the university, its employees 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.
3y Letters
Staff's ethics doubted
I am writing in response to the editorial headlined
"Women's Resource Center ignoring majority needs"
(Daily Nebraskan, Feb. 3). As an unsigned editorial,
your entire staff must take responsibility for the
sloppiness and questionable ethics involved.
First, the article asserts that the WRC "... is leading
the campaign" to "ignore the majority's needs." The
WRC did not initiate the campaign and did not pres
ent the petitions to the Union Board. Its only action
was to agree to allow women to use the WRC space
as one of several places to collect signatures. Editors
as well as reporters have the responsibility to check
out their "facts."
The WRC is concerned about majority needs on
this campus; the needs of women, and men, who are
concerned about the safety (not mere comfort) of
women on campus. Many times I have entered the
lounge on the first floor to find women who are
reading, sleeping or nursing children in one of the
few private and (relatively) secure spaces on cam
pus. Thus far, I have seen no statements that ensure
that the "computer room" will be a secured area.
Thus, the many women on campus who would use
the computers will likely be concerned about the
security of this space once it has been turned over to
its technological (and unsupervised) purpose.
Finally, I would call attention to the pattern of
editorial comments and first-page coverage which
has consistently preceded the annual review of the
WRC budget. Without fail, an editorial such as this,
with a misleading headline and fabricated set of
"facts," or a new story concerning the WRC and its
"investigators" surfaces a few days before that
review for the general campus and the Committee
for Fees Allocation to digest.
I hold your staff accountable for the inaccuracies
and suspect timing of this editorial and others like
it.
Helen Moore
assistant professor and chair
women's studies
Editor's Note: The Daily Nebraskan apologizes
for any statements which implied that the Women's
Resource Center was solely responsible for the
petition drive to keep the first floor women's
lounge open. As stated in the preceding letter, the
effort was initiated by several Individuals who
used the WRC as a collection point for signatures.
This newspaper opposes the petition drive,
however, and believes that because the WRC
allowed signatures to be collected in its edee, it
must accept responsibility for the content of the
petitions.
More letters on Page 6
f
1984
Hypocrites punish unwed mother
If they ever give a college boar i test to students of
hypocrisy, I am sure the teenagers of Marion Center,
Pa., will score way up in the 700s. Teenagers are
always the great hypocrisy spotters in our culture.
The past few months, they've had a lot of extra
practice in this small rural town. -
UAL
Ellen
Goodman
The central characters of the case that has put
Marion Center on the sociological map include 17-year-old
Arlene Pfeiffer, her five-month-old daugh
ter Jessica, the school board and the National Honor
Society.
Arlene, a high school senior, was class president
for three years, student-council president last year
and a member of the honor society since 10th
grade. But in August, she gave birth to Jessica and
decided to keep her. In November, Arlene was
kicked out of the honor society by her high school. In
January, the school board agreed to her removal.
Now Arlene is taking her case to the Human Rela
tions Commission and the Equal Employment Oppor
tunity Commission.
What is at issue is not her grades they have
remained high but two other qualities the honor
society demands: "leadership and character." The
question is whether an unwed mother has lost her
"character," whether she would "lead" others in the
wrong direction.
It is easy to follow the trail of hypocrisy in this
move against Arlene, easy as a multiple-choice ques
tionnaire. To begin with, the school didn't strip
Arlene of her honor society epaulets because she
had sex, but because she "got caught." About 37
percent of the 16-year-old teenagers in this country
have had intercourse. Arlene was judged to have
less character than those who didn't get pregnant.
Then too, if Arlene had not had her baby, she
surely would have kept her membership. A little less
than half of the teen pregnancies end in abortion. So
she was judged to have less character than a girl
who chose abortion.
Perhaps it would have been all right if Arlene had
given her baby up for adoption. Or if she had mar
ried. No one, for that matter, ever questions the
character of an unwed teenage father.
Indeed, it is difficult to identify exactly what piece
of Arlene's behavior sex, pregnancy, motherhood,
singleness, none of the above the school wants to
punish. This difficulty speaks to the confusion of the
adults in this situation.
A generation ago, unwed pregnancy produced a
shotgun marriage, an illegal abortion, or a six
month stay out of town. A decade ago, a pregnant
teenager could be barred altogether from schooL
Now those of us who shepherd kids through the
high-risk years know that early parenthood is still
the surest, most direct route to a diminished future.
But we are told that some of the young mothers who
have kept their babies were inspired by fairy tales of
Hollywood love-children. Many of us now share an
underlying anxiety that if we make unwed mother
hood appear acceptable, we may make it more pos
sible, and then more likely. If we pin a medal on
Arlene Pfeiffer, does she become a role model?
"They said," recalls Arlene Pfeiffer, "that by lead
ership' I might lead others to do it to get pregnant.
But I don't go around saying 'stand in line and get
pregnantNor do girls follow the leader into preg
nancy. For all our anxiety, we have no evidence to prove
that lifting a sanction produces a bumper crop of
babies. On the contrary, we know that teenagers
don't get pregnant, because they want to.
The saga of Arlene Pfeiffer who mothers by night
and gathers honor grades by day, who lives at home
with parental support and child-care, is an excep
tion. If we are afraid of lauding her success, it is
largely because of our own failures. We've done a
poor job of discouraging early sexual activity. A
poor job at getting teenagers to take more respon
sibility. tu30? Alene she fa Pursuing fairness through all
the flak of hypocrisy and ambivalence in Marion
Center, Pa. I think she's giving the adults p. lesson in
character" and "leadership."
18S4, The Boston Globe Newspaper Company
Washington Post Writers Grocp