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Daily Nebraskan
Friday, September 14, 1934
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midst all the political garbage that
A Lincoln residents will have to sort
JlJL through on November's ballot will
be a referendum for a new city landfill. It
seems the 48th Street landfill Lincoln
uses now will be full in r. feu years.
The Lincoln City Cou .cil approved the
referendum Moru' w so that the Public
Works Department can begin preparing
end developing a new site B3 soon as
possible.
The Question is not whether we need
landfill a fancy word for dump. The
garbage doesnt just get dumped there;
iVs buried. The question is how it should
be funded.
The city council's proposal would fund
the $ 1 .5 millon project through t he sale of
general obligation bonds. The city pays
the bondholder's interest by increasing
residents' taxes. In this case, Lincoln's
$2.40 per $100 property valuation base
would increase
Property taxes have been in the spot
tlight many times lately. Farmers want
theirs lowered, and so does everybody
else in Nebraska. Understandably so. A
landowner with property vsdued at $50,000
has to pay about $1,200 in property taxes
yearly at the current tax base.
But the option a user-based fee is
potentially worse, at least for university
students. ,
Now, UNL and the state and federal
government agencies in Lincoln do net
support the landtU with property taxes.
Because of their public status, they are
exempt. But these institutions use the
landfill most, said Steve Burdic execu
tive director of the Small Farms Action
Group. Burdic works on a recycling and
compost pilot project at the landfill with
the Citizens for Environmental Improve
ment If the city initiated a user-based gate
fee to help fund its new landfill which
could happen if voters reject the referen
dum the biggest users would get the
biggest bills, UNL among them.
Think about how much trash comes
out of UNL The Daily Nebraskan staff
alone throws away enough scrap to fill 1 5
trash cans a day. Currently, UNL doesn't
have to pay to have it taken away. But
who would pay for it if the city began
using a gate fee? Probably the students,
through increased tuition and fees.
UNL students have enough to pay for.
Although property owners in Lincoln will
nave to take the brunt of it, UNL students
who are eligible to vote on the referen
dum should support it end keep their
own costs down.
L&nri n&pple
E&i!y NeLixx.ia tlxH Editor
Ptfpsoit misguided: 'Miss A
9
merica does
not exist
he greatest spectator sport in America is notfoot
ball or baseball It's watching pretty girls, and
that uvnl change."
Albert Marks Jr., Miss America Pageant chairman;
Newsweek magazine, Sept. 17 issue.
'Tom raw T haw somebody with short legs and a big
behind be Miss America ..."
Liz Burden
Alarguerita Piazza, 1983 contest judge; Newsweek
magazine, Sept. 1 7, issue.
On this, the eve of the 58th annual Miss America
p..t. ta, te tter t xste y.ttH &raten Institution,
faiv.ivus &tfcu&s& i'i ,f4.j a Jtvii perpetuates. Ol coxit&a
this year we cannot have a discussion of the pageant
without commenting on the Vanessa Williams debacle.
If you recall, Williams' reign began as it ended amid
controversy. Albeit, this controversy was not because of
something she could control (Le. her actions), but some
thing she could not (Le. her skin color). The public
reception of the first black Miss America was mixed
Some members of the black community debated her
black consciousness and the age-old schism concerning
blacks and the beauty aesthetics of this society. Some
whites were certain that Williams is black, and were
forced to confront their feelings on having a black woman
represent their "ideal American woman.' After aH, she
didnt look like the girl next door to some of them.
Some blacks argued that her crowning was a cosmetic
step forward when the Reagan adisi&isirztion was
pushing cnii rights and affirmative action backward.
So3i2 rtizzs arg-ed that her crowning symbolized the
progress ti.n has cae in race relstiortships and
that blacks had finally arrived in mainstream" America.
Some blacks wondered whether Miss America was really
something that a black woman should aspire to, given
the position of most blacks in this society. Some women
had the same question concerning all women.
THE PAGEANT touts itself as a "scholarship con
test," saying it is the single largest source of scholarship
money for women in the country. However, as the quotes
preceding this article indicate, the monies are distrib
uted according to criteria that have very little to deal
with academics. If we take Piazza's view, which must
resemble that of contest participants and official? or she
wouldn't be a judge, most American women would net
stand a chance of becoming Miss America their legs
are too short and their behinds too big. Yet Miss America
is supposed to be (according to pageant tenets) the,
embodiment of the feminine gender, she is supposed to be
tbem. Shs is not. If she b that wxni should strive to be,
then woiueA should strive oty for Isms less sad eun&U
behinds.
i . -
I am upset to find out that I am a player in the
country's largest spectator sport, according to Marks.
Yet I axn not paid as much as the players in the second or
third largest sport namely football or basebali If
female-watching is America's greatest spectator sport,
ti.en no wonder the Equal Rights Amendment didnt
pass.
After months of the public looking at 'Williams, in
waltzes Bob Guccione. And the Penthouse Pictures par
ody began. Vanessa may have been wrong; Guccione was
excuse the English but it's to the point "wronger"
and the pageant was "wrongest."
Williams was wrong to expose herself to exploitation
on the part of both the photographer who exploited her
body, and a pageant which, at best, places paramount
importance on legs and buttocks; a pageant which was
designed with an ideal of beauty that is not indicative of
her race. (The pageant did not allow black3 for the first
several years of its existence).
Guccione was "wronger" for submitting to the Ameri
can ideal of capitalism at someone else's expense. And
the pageant is "wrongest" for continuing to use an entity
(all-American girls) that doesn't exist to parade bodies
in swimsuits for capital gain, and then claim moral
superiority.
And there b more controversy. Miss Ohio, who pleaded
to contest to shoplifting charges two years ago, will be
allowed to compete in this year's pageant
WHILE NO contest admits neither guilt nor inno
cence, it results in a sentence being handed down. If I
remember correctly, under current law, shoplifting is a
crime, while a consenting adult posing for pictures of
any type is not I find Marks' justification for letting Miss
Ohio compete, in light of other happenings this year,
insufficient
He said, "I, for one, refuse to go on a witch hunt when '
there are no witches."
Apparently Miss Ohio may have been legally wrong
but morally correct in Marks' eyes, while Williams was
within legal bounds but morally wrong. He doesnt seem
worried about harm to the pageant's image in the case of
Miss Ohio.
Guccione is also popping up again to plague the page
ant, announcing that he not onby has more pictures of
Williams, but that he has pictures of one of this year's
contestants.
Maybe all this controversy is trying to tell us that the
pageant ideals are out of line with the reality cf Ameri
can women, although it may be in line with other Ameri
can principles (Le. capitalism and exploitation). Or
snaybe the pageant has never been in Ens with the reality
of women, wmcn tne contestants have always realized
but kept hidden; real women do make mistakes.
tt n Daily n
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