Friday, February 17, 1C34
Daily Ncbrcckan
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Leave it to some ASUN candidates to
come up with an emotional proposal,
back it with illogical arguments and
use it to win support from the student
body.
This time, it is the United Students
party and its plan to have the UNL
Police Department stop towing cars at
night. Representatives of the US party
last week presented the Parking Advi
sory Committee with a petition con
taining the signatures of 2,000 stu
dents who oppose night towing.
It cannot be considered any great
accomplishment to get that many stu
dents to sign the petition. In fact, it is a
safe bet that most students would sign
a petition favoring the end of all tow
ing or even the end of giving parking
tickets.
But that is not how any system of
law enforcement works. Those who
stand to be punished because they
broke some regulation cannot deter
mine what the punishment will be.
It is necessary to have parking regu
lations to maintain some semblance of
order oh this campus. In turn, the UNL
police give tickets lots of them
because many students choose to
ignore those regulations. If the stu
dents choose to ignore the tickets as
well, they must be prepared to pay the
consequences.
Representatives from the Student
Watch Group have correctly pointed
out that night towing presents a safety
problem, but the fact remains that
students know the rules as well as the
risks they take by not following those
rules.
Tickets issued by UNL police all state
that vehicles with unpaid violation
notices are subject to impoundment
after 20 business days. As an addi
tional courtesy, the police send re
minders to students who have unpaid
violations and whose card3 are regis
tered with the department.
College students are supposed to
learn, among other things, how-to
accept responsibility. The university
in this case, the police department
clearly has met its obligation to make
its policies known to the campus com
munity. It now is up to the students to
choose their response.
The wisest choice would be to park
in authorized areas, but since many
students choose to do otherwise, they
must be willing to pay the price.
If, after a fair amount of time, park
ing tickets remain unpaid, it is not
unreasonable for the police to im
pound the car at any hour day or
night
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Mexican president faces crises Mural moving, too?
of economy, population, politics
One year ago a new president of
Mexico took over a desperation situa
tion... A nation $80 billion in debt with an
annual inflation rate of 250 percent.
In 1081 you could exchange 26 pesos
for one American dollar.
By the end of 1982 it took 1 50.
Unemployment in Mexico was 50
percent plus.
Cy Paul
off Harvey
Then along comes President Miquel
de la Madrid. In one year he has made
enough improvement to deserve to be
listened to about our role in Latin
America.
Mexico still is in deep trouble: deep
debt, official corruption, rampant crime,
and desperate poverty.
And there are "outside pressures";
some 40,000 Guatemalans live in refu
gee camps on the Mexican side of that
border. Fifty thousand more are hid
ing elsewhere in the country, a poten
tially explosive force. .
Yet, despite what' would appear to
be his country's desperate need for
some outside help, he is inviting us to
stay home and mind our own business.
He says United States intervention
in Latin America can only worsen
things.
De la Madrid gives us some reason
for hope but Mexico remains a time
bomb on our border.
De la Madrid, American-educated
and well-intentioned, remains a pri
soner of his long-entrenched PRI Revo
lutionary Party with a top to bottom
tradition of graft and corruption;
This good-ole-boy chain of command
limits his prerogatives for substantive
change.
And Mexico is presently doomed by
a B-bomb of its own making, an uncon
trolled proliferation of its population.
Every land reform, which breaks big
farms up into small ones, leaves the
small farms in the hands of inexpe
rienced and inept managers. So Mex
ico, once an exporter of food, now
imports food even its sugar.
Too little food and too many mouths
to feed.
And that is the population presently
spilling across the Rio Grande, bring
ing Mexico's problem here.
1S34, Los Angeles Times Syndicate
It seems that a decision has been
made to take the first floor lounge in
the union to accommodate the current
academic fad the computer. I have
read the pros and cons of the argu
ment and take no position on the mat
ter, but I do have a concern.
On the west wall of this lounge is a
three-panel painting by a Nebraska
artist, Elizabeth Dolan. I believe this
mural was part of the original furnish'
ings of the Nebraska Union. While Eli
zabeth Dolan is not a nationaily-re-knowned
painter, her works achieved
a local fame and I believe the mural
should be preserved. Somehow her
style does not go well with computer
land. Can someone tell me what is to be
done about the mural?
Beverly A. Cunningham
Lincoln
Rotten potatoes
Just suppose I have a basket of rot
ten potatoes. You have a basket of real
good potatoes. I come to you and
demand to put my rotten potatoes in
with your good potatoes to improve
the condition of the rotten potatoes.
You would say, "Man, you've got to be
out of your mind!"
This is exactly how the Nebraska
Education Association leaders aro t.
ing to corrupt the Christian quality of
the independent Christian schools.
The State of Nebraska, including the
courts, the Legislature and Gov. Ker
rey are tools in the hands of the cor
rupt NEA. Non-union teachers are
heckled and harassed in the teacher
meetings to force them to join the
NEA.
It is primarily the NEA that is trying
to destroy the Christian school Why
would we citizens let these union
bosses put a ring in our noses and lead
us around with a chain?
Christian schools have cleaned up
their act to get cleaner and better edu
cation. It is the NEA teachers who
need to be tested and have their pupils
tested each year.
We have been robbed! Give us back
our freedom!
Donald Virts
m Lincoln
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SL, Lincoln, Neb. 68583-0448.
Witch doctor lobby puts voodoo in schools
Warning: The following column contains many
sordid untruths.
I've concluded that it isn't too bad of an idea to
teach creation science in the public schools. If we
ever decide to do thi3, we might want to follow
Haiti's example.
7 .
' Krishna
J Madan
In that country, the witch-doctor lobby recently
got the parliament to pass a law requiring the public
schools to teach voodoo science.
The witch doctors apparently were upset because
students had been taught that the weather is
caused by atmospheric conditions. They considered
that to be a great violation of the country's religious
tradition.
Things now are much better in Haiti Students
there are now taught that two shakes of a witch
doctor's rr.ttlo and a twitching of his ear will pro
duce rain.
The secular humanist discipline of meteorology
and climatology are out. All the books pertaining to
these fields now are being burned in the fires around
which the witch doctors cast their incantations.
Of course, it hasn't snowed in Haiti as yet. How
ever, the snow-loving president of that country has
taken steps to address this problem.
He recently commissioned a voodoo science ex
pert from Louisville who reputedly has "awesome
meterological powers. This expert has claimed re
sponsibility for December's frigid weather, saying
that itwaspunishraentforNebraska'ssinful teacher
certification requirements. "er
This expert plans to fly to Haiti by helicopter and
to make a dramatic entrance in the midst of a bliz
zard. Rumor has it that the whole lot of voodoo
science experts in Louisville may join him if their
school remains permanently closed.
These fine religious scientists would not encoun
ter anv oroblems with uvii
Haiti since Haiti docs not have teacher certification
laws. Indeed, Haiti does not even have a teacher's
0 ,
But. anvwav. let's r- h.t?v f ,rantn :
" - - .Liju science
.There n ens slignt problem with teaching this sub
ject in the public schools. The problem is that each
religion has its own creation story.
Of course, this is easily solved. Well merely teach
the American version.
Well just omit creation stories that originate in
other parts of the world, especially those that origi
nate in the Middle East a region that only seems
to produce religious and political troublemakers.
The American version of the creation story is, of
course, that of the American Indian. So, well have to
begin by teaching about the Great Spirit in the pub
lic schools.
We could also please those who want prayer in the
public schools by requiring all students to recite a
prayer to the Great Spirit five minutes before classes
begin. In addition, we could require students to par
ticipate Li various American Indbn religious rituals
during the school day.
To further address the concerns of those who talk
about the lack of moral education in the schools, we
could start teaching traditional American Indian
values such as sharing and community ownership of
- property.
I'm sure that this will phase net only religious
authorities but sho business end ravcrnment lead
ers. '