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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 3, 1984)
Monday,' December. 3, 1234 P2S3 4 Daily Nctreskcn - wfp.qiotlq Pin iipsn.Tr.m7i set , vuiiiuiyie I Tenrel II. Bell, US. education secre tary, has dons a commendable Job. He has consistently fought for higher quality education. He recently announced tnst he vu resign Dec 31. if Although President Reagan wanted to dismantle the Department of Education, Bell kept It together, and protected edu cation from deep cuts m well In the Nov. 2 1 Chronicle of Higher Edu cation, several education officials expressed dismay at Bell's resignation and said they fear hb successor will not be as staunch an advocate of education. Even if the new secretary b as adamant i o - o about quality of education, he or she may be appointed too late to have an effect on the 1080 fecal budget. , "We're feeling a little more sorry than we ever expected at his departure, and a little apprehensive about what may be coming," said William McNamara, direc tor of communications for the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. "I don't think we can envi sion right now a person who b more responsive or sensitive to our pleadings for public policy," he said in the Chronicle article.' In addition to fighting for improve ment in education and funds, Bell was a fTT n o motivating force behind "Involvement In Learning: Realizing the Potential of Ameri can Higher Education," a report that urged more funding for and enphesb on liberal arts and of the danger of "over specialized" majors without sufficient training in language or the arts. BeU sup ported the report's conclusions and had he stayed in office, he might have made an impact on the shape of education in the years to come. At the top of Reagan's budget cut list, alon J with agriculture programs, Is edu cational programs, including student lcana A strong America in the long run depends cn quality education. Ve all must hope Congress know s that, aad that 1 di any proposed cuts in education programs are carefully reviewed. Planned Pare nthood reports that about 20 centers hava been struck by Ores and explosions in the last year. The attacks have culminated nationwide protests against family-planning centers and abortion clinics. The central question in the abortion controversy b when dees the fetus become a human beteg with the rUhts accorded humans? Well probably new know the answer to that question, but we can safely say that these attacks are morally ' wrong and especially Ironic. Courts ignore history, lose logical reasoning pin he trouble with bussing for the pur I poses of integration, or as its op ponents would have it, forced bussing for the sake of miscegenation, is that the lie overwhelmed the troth. Politi cians talked of bussing as if it was some sort of social experiment in which the courts decided, for no discernable rea son, that it would be a good idea to bus kids half-way across town while their parents pulled their hair out in rage. That was the lie. 7 rs fcy Richard C?3 Gohen i ri i' The truth was that the courts only ordered bussing as a last resort. They ordered it only after school boards and politicians had purposely segregated the school system, after they had built schools and drawn boundaries so that whites and blacks would not no matter what the Constitution said go to school together. That, was when the courts stepped in. They ordered bussing when there was no other way to integrate a school system that had been purposely segregated in violation of the law. How W have something similar hap pening when it comes to school prayer. As with bussing, the issue has fallen into the hands of unscrupulous politicians who talk of taking God out of the class room or some such nonsense. An exam ple of that sort of thinking comes not from a politician, but from a cartoonist for the Tampa Tribune, Wayne Stayskal For Thanksgiving, be showed a group of Pilgrims on the beach at Plymouth, being warned by a policeman that praying is not permitted: "Hey, no praying here . .. This if a public beach!" Even for u cartoon - bt, this b sheer nonsense, but it reCecta the apparently widely held view' that the courts have banished prayer. This, of course, has been President1 ; Reagan's theme for seme ttr.e now,-, and he has been as wrong on this as he .was when he lectured Charlotte, N.Cn on the evils of bussing,- choosing -a city where, bussing works and works well From time -: to time, the president cites the case of some school kid who b ordered not to pray and implies that this or something like it b the intent of the courts and the evil liberals at the ACLU -who brought suit. It's possible that from time to time something Mice that does happen, but if it does it's because someone got the law wrong, not right The president, of all. people, ought to know that Like bussing, though, school prayer --and the role of religion in general is dis cussed as if ncthrtg prcccdrd the con troversy asi there b no hiitsry to it In the case of seheel prr.yir, thrre kr-j-ens to be a history cfkils burg cc to ssy prayers, cfrry3 crgcxizrd ty the school, of mir-crlty li is t Cs " zr.ztz to f : :I unwelcome, prcrrreJ dilircr.t . 4 - . f-. 7 .vv"'"!V -,v; pctrr . j ..... ;.. . r S v i V x . .;s4r " HO ...THIS IS A VZACH " 5 It is approximately for these reasons that the courts told the schoob to get out of the prayer business, saying that the Constitution- forbids the government to either interfere with or' promote religion. There 'is-' nothing in' the decision "that would stop seme Md from praying on his . orher wn tima. If there were, it would hot only be outrageous, it would be uncon stitutional .. As with bussing, the reason for the var ious court decisions regarding prayer has been. lost .Truth has been .overwhelmed by a lie. And. politicians, from the presi dent on 'down, discuss the prays? Issue as . if the courts, with nothing to da cn a slow day, decided to ' monkey, with religion. That's cheap politics, of -course, but it's -something worse than that. It's yet another example of that lomst of low blows: Blamfeg the victim. ' In the cast of bussing, organisations like the NAACP who for yesrs have been fighting school segragstion get blimed when their opponents' intrasigence finally compels a bussing crckr. in other -wordj, those who onjy insbt tliat tlie law be obeyed get biased for a remedy farced on the courts by those who braise the law to the Erst place. : ;-. . - ... - hi Ctlissl prayer, it works pretty much the same way. These who wanted ' cr.7 t3 protect -the rights of kids who tilt zt did net want to pray or did not like ti.e vsrding of the paxtkuhr prayer are beini blamed for McMns Ood school and for banning prayer everywhere ' from New England beaches o the hall ways of America's schools. Thanks to political expediency, thinp get turned upside down. In both bussing '.and school prayer, the majority is made, out to be the victim, and the real victim, the minority, b made to appear the oppressor. That's precisely what the majority wants to hear and that b pre cisely .what it gets told by many politl. : cians.They know where the votes are. It's their conscience theyVe mirpccd. - Daily n - Policy i Unsigned editorbla rnrim mti policy of the fall lCru whf.i.- They are written by this semestcrli editor to chief; Chris Welsch. . . Other staff members wiO write edito isis throughout the semester. Tnty wBl carry the authefs name after the Ibrl sentence. . Editorials do not necessarily reject tb iews of the unrvtrsay, its employees, the students or the NU Board of F-i The Daily Nebrssfenli pubESirs are the- regents, who established the UNL Publications Board to supervise the daW . production of the newspaper. A .-if r f ' i E i fr r - AST OiRECTOra At TA'tT jTJ C I St. f y TH r'y "iT-t- iii--3 Kwj te r',",' bf tetrd v--f -s 5lt'-f-,n j F.v.-it RtS ft tra t---.--,3 f3 sm r-f fJT k"9 fXJ eowwwsr-7 K. " it pro' xt-I it1. J.. . Th9 '1 F Pi , b" - "K-r i"T if-" ihwf;'lf P - J. c