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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 10, 1984)
Monday December 10, 1834 Pago 4 Daily Nobraskan o B MUM TO) mediates m to mid 4 4 ne world is enough for all of us," I i as a line from a song by The v. Police says. Sadly, one world is not enough when 5 percent of the popu lation consumes 40 percent of the world's resources and the population is expected to increase by at least 2 billion in the next 15 years. Two recent news events illus trate the effects of a shrinking world or its population. Speaking at Nebraska Wesleyan Uni versity last week, Robert Drinan, a law professor and Jesuit priest of George town University, told us the bad news. His words made me queasy. After his speech, I found my cockroach-infested "hole" comfortable and secure, even overly ade quate. Drinan said every sixth person in the world is chronically malnourished and one-fourth to one-half are illiterate. He also said half of the world's people have an average yearly income of less than $400, compared to $12,500 in the United States. An article in Wednesday's Omaha World-Herald described a visit to Ethio pia by Rep. Cooper Evans, R-Iowa. Evans, a member of the House Select Committee on Hunger, urged that food be distributed by airlift to speed its delivery. Poor roads and limited access, compounded by civil war in the northern provinces, have slowed food distribution. Some of the camps get only 20 percent of the amount of food they need, so only children and nursing mothers are fed, he said. The people have nothing left because they have killed their oxen and eaten the seeds used to grow food. Today is "Human Rights Day" in honor of the United Nation'3 adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the General Assembly in 1048. The declaration proclaims an expan sive set of guidelines describing the rights of people, as members of their respective governments. They include rights to ade quate standards of living, freedom from arbitrary arrest and -equality without regard to race, sex, religion, language and political and social affiliation. Population expansion and immoral politics make those rights a distant goal The declaration recognizes the moral obligation of the citizens of the world. However, human rights are being ignored throughout the world. Politics intervenes with morality. Our government hesitates to give aid to the diseased and starving in Communist linked countries. In Ethiopia, for exam ple, Drinan said the process of allocating aid was "slowed down because of that ideological difference." A writer for the "Nebraska Report," published by the Nebraskans for Peace, reported receiving a letter with the state ment, "The citizens of the world are at peace, only the governments are at war," printed on an envelope. Even an Archie Bunker couldn't turn a starving person from his door. But, it's much easier for a government. Because we are removed from such problems, we feel helpless or just dont care. We do not try to help change mat ters. Instead, we let the government take over while we offer little input or resist ance to policies it adapts. We can fight for international human rights individually. First, by becoming informed and letting government repre sentatives know about it. Write letters to both state and national representatives. Be coherent and straight to the point about what policies you support or con demn. Drinan said the efforts of Amnesty International's letter-writing campaigns have helped obtain the release of some political prisoners throughout the world. I know it doesnt seem like it helps and it takes time. But you probably don't feel like you're starving either and your body isnt digesting muscle tissue. We have the resources to alleviate most of the world's suffering. We have a moral obligation to the people of the world. The United States as a world leader can have a tremendous impact on the restoration of human rights. It should. Until then, we should all heed the words of Edmund Burke: "Evil grows because good men do nothing." By Julie Jordan Hendricks Daily Neferasbm Senior Editor wsr 1 if M HU &7 &tk rrc . 3 'vT, hi if nn i , I l I U H i I i jf J iff) l 1 l .7 ra i I i f I S I ' jfV w&OL , ..III ill -.L 'Sill l - !.V .li I V I X 1 i' J i. ill I! 1 " V v t W W mi REASAN IS TAKIW WIS WE OHM INVASION OF M CARIBBEAN AGAIN MS Wv Letters IjpOIAj ill All I US. J sniniers movni en ergy; ack et's start with two events, each very different from the other. The first was the left is in a lot of trouble. it was a jail nonetheless. Still, this is a demonstration y arrest of civil-rights leaders, most- in a time warp, a little stroll down Embassy in Washington. The sec- of the civil-rights movement. What ond was the lavish 70th anni- made these kinds of demonstra- versary party for the New Repub- tions powerful and effective in lie magazine. Taken together they their time was the fact that the tell you something: The American cops were not friendly and televi sion crews recorded scenes of violence that shocked a nation. It's not that Fauntroy and the others lack guts they're some of the same people who once stared down police dogs it's just that they dont have the oppor tunity to display it. Now let's go across town to the New Republic dinner. It was a black-tie affair meant to celebrate the New Republic's intellectual energy and vigor, all of which it has in abundance, but also its lib eralism, little of which is ever in evidence. But a town that's loath to acknowledge that the civil rights era is over is certainly not going to point out that the New Republic is no longer a journal of the left. Instead, everyone conspired to overlook that fact. As usual, it pV Richard Cohen The embassy protests are by far the more important of the two examples. Starting with con gressional delegate Walter F. Fauntroy (D-D.C), some 16 civil rights leaders 1 5 of them black have been arrested outside or inside thfc embassy. They have been protesting both apartheid and the Reagan administration's policy of blowing kisses at South African racism. So almost every day, a civil rights le TdeT appears outside the embassy, eeti, closer than thp ROfl feet a protestor is allowed and is took Henry Kissinger to put his arrested. All of this is supposed fln8er on tne problem wnen ne tn ha rominicoant nitk. u ifikpri th&t hi Rproi-p.nn ii nl invi- tations to the White House would merits s hould 'face campus 1 to be reminiscent of the old civil rights days when such tactics were used in cities and towns all across tne South. Students of UNL, you should be ageously move onward, busy with stamps. Get proud, get loud. And proud of yourselves. In addition day to day affairs, like "How am I soon, they'll add a big empty build to studying and battling the going to pay tuition?" Bad news ing supported by student fees. administration, you've been busy, doesn't bother UNL students be- How appropriate that the Lied With Gil due deference to Fauntroy and those who followed, the police this time are not armed with mace, dogs and clubs. No cattle prods are used and nn be withdrawn for associating with so many liberals. If the guests had truly been liberal, Kissinger would probably not have come. If you tsll these two dis parate events the New Repub lic dinner and the embassy dem- What we have is the style, but not Republic has become centrist if ...v. uai,, ui 4 cmi-rignis not conservative, so enthralled nrenoses are turnprf nn tha H Last January, the plans for the cause they have so much to be Center is designed to face away onstrators Both the mavorTnH A rJ ViS l Lied Performing Arts Center and proud of. For instance, we have from campus - the same direc- 22 3 that tne American political left used car lot were revealed to us. the seventh best library in the Big tion our decision-makers and of the arresting ooiice offirpr? i S y.? ?f ' C AndeiiGSswhat?Weneed$7mil- Eight. Our comnuter svstPm if adminktrators hvp hn fHn S!?Hu?S?5. .m5ers: imagination as well The New lion to fund it. It slid quietly one of the oldest in the nation, for years, through the Legislature like slime Our campus is uncluttered by Mike Howard down a slippery rock. The rich unsightly parking spaces. Most senior people of Lincoln who wish to see faculty members are not on food political scienceEnglishhistory Favarotti thank you. That's not alL Youll also help pay for Nebraska Bookstore's new multistory brick money-making machine. That extra $1 or $2 on textbooks will never be missed, will it? Then when the dust set tles, the NU Regents hike tuition Policy demonstration, a totally symbolic action that will probably fail if only because the civil-rights demonstrations of an earlier era succeeded so welL Non-violence makes for lousy television. But Fauntroy and the others are doing a good thins. ThpvVp educating people about the nature with itself that it didn't notice that Kissinger was toasting not the magazine's liberalism, but its conversion to his point of view. He alone had reason to drink. As for the demonstrators out side the South African Embassy, good luck to them. But they wont change the policies of the Soutn OI til oOulII AxFlC&Xft f?r)Virn mAnt Aftvfl!n a 4Virrmh- The Daily Nebraskan welcomes available. The Daily Nebraskan and the refusal of the Ti ui Tk- pan another 10 percent. They seem to brief letters to the editor from all retains the right to edit all mate- administration to recognize that administration either They're raise tuition and fees with about readers and interested others. rial submitted. a government can be both anti- foot soldiers of the American left as much trouble as one might Letters and guest opinions sent communist and eviL And Faun- moving backward hfause they encounter removing gas bubbles Letters will be selected for pub- to the newspaper become prop- troy and some of the others did hav ,m k rrfmnw for- from the intestinal trlct. Ucation on the basis of clarity, erty of the Daily Nebraskan and spend a night in jaiL I? wZ in a vZd Undaunted, W1L students cour- originality, timeliness and space cannot be returned. manner ofspeaking, their j4 but in4, Pest Wrttsra Group