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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 11, 1985)
Monday, February 11, 1935" Dally Ncbrcskan r-1 i j O fi o -1 ! err: Hear A GUN, SHOT THE 7 TTTTTTK TIT! H f T. t t :T TTf T Gm AND BLEW UP T CP.?J GET gWFI all H Jnuol (1 rS' lw(liULJJ L. w,7-L U.t Vv.J Cw' S a 131! ever-increasingly, small family farmers are being forced off the land in the greatest numbers since the dast-bowi years of the Depression. The agricultural economy has reached the status of a legitimate crisis. Farmers can't break even. They miss loan payments. Rural banks colhtpsc. Bigger banks take them over. Some collapse and aren't resold. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation collects "bad" loans. More termers go under. More corporations bay the land. A way of life is being plowed under. If President Reagan's budget should pass, the small fanner will go under much sooner. Underneath a veil of compassion for small farmers, this administration would like to let the visible hand cf Adam Smith work its magic, wiping cut family farms. Even with price supports, eur.y credit and extended loans, the small farmer is going under. Without federal support, the small farmers who aren't breaking even will fold even sooner, speeding the industrialization cf rural America, putting the land into corporate hands. Reagan's program would pare away about half of federal agriculture programs over the next five years, from 17 billion to $39 billion. According to wire service reports, about 15 percent of the United States' commercial farmers with incomes of $40,000 or more might lose their farms without mere federal help. Reagan maintains the market economy will set an equitable price for farmers by itself. If farmers are going broke now, with help, there will be many more with less federal support. Admittedly, price supports and loans are only temporary solutions to the farm problem but the government has been operating as if those were permanent solutions to small farm woes. The Farmer's Home Administration and a number of other support programs for farmers have been used since the end cf the Depression. The government needs a new approach to the farm economy. Alex McCalla, a University of California economist, said in Sunday's Omaha Wcrid-IIeraid, "If we content to let the trends in farm size and production concentration continue until the vast majority cf output is produced by 200,0(50 large-scale farms, then let's be up front about it and quit talking about millions cf family farms." McCalla said that right now large corporate farms would be the most efficient way to satisfy the country's hunger at the lowest cost to consumers. "... a goal cf 'preserving the family fsrm' clearly has little meaning unless we are much more explicit about our structural and distributional goals," he said. In ether words, the government should either let the economy take its course or take some drastic action. A long term, or for that matter short term, price subsidy or loan program is not going to solve the family farmer's problems. The deficit, which makes our produce expensive to foreign buyers, needs to be trimmed.' Surpluses must' be eliminated. Supply of produce must go down in order for the price to come up. Long term adjustments in the economy are needed. In the meantime, the government must maintain current farm programs if the family farm is to be saved. If the current ccp.22rvs.tive fashion prevails, small farms proba bly won't be spared. In the administration's eyes, a more efficient economy is more important that the suffering of small farmers. tin n!S-.Arif N n EDITOR GENERAL MANAGER PRODUCTION MANAGER ADVERTISING MANAGER ASSISTANT ADVERTISING MANAGER CIRCULATION MANAGER - NEWS EDITOR CAMPUS EDITOR WIRE EDITOR COPY DESK CHIEF EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR SPORTS EDITOR ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR NIGHT NEWS EDiTORS GRAPHICS EDITOR ASSISTANT GRAPHICS EDITOR PHOTO CHIEF ASSISTANT PHOTO CHIEF PUSLICATIOM3 BOARD Chtto W&ch, 472-17C3 Stsa Rare K&fcteia ttiuman . C&rftcahr Surtttch . 7rd tl Tr?;.!: m Stac't Thonma . JuSs Jotiza ifsndrtefej 'Ad H;i!r . GsttY. Hysy SSva Tony Schasaus?! J 2,l Ssrtort Chris Cfcoa! 472-S7S3 PROFESSIONAL ADVISER Ccn WtKon, 473-7231 The Daily Nabraskan USPS 144-CSS) is published by tha UNL Publications Board Monday through Friday in the fall and spring samesitrs and Tuesdays and Fridays in the summer sessions, except during vacations. Readers er"nscuragsd to submit story ideas and com- m'ents to tha Dsily Nabreskan by phoning 472-1 763 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Fridsy. The public also has access to tha Publications Board. For information, cs!l Chris Choata 472-6723. ' Postmaster: Send address changes to the Daily Nsbraskaa 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 R St., Lincoln, N-sb. 625C3-C443. Second class pcst2s paid at Lincoln, HE "510. ALL KATin:AL CC?H!SHT tti3 DJULY rJZSrJ&XAri Q P.I III Ml t 0r'- -' r 2 X I if : I 1 V L, i M 1 . Sfc. .' t irrr. 1 : ' t- s n 1 GOErrz i CLEANER 5, T f 0 ,1 (I Jrnfi j t j in SIlS (S3TT0) i (TDTltC Cl-mn)'! nnocent verdict reflects frustration of society 1 was on mai xor ettestptdd mamr it riter tour pill's his dy on the subTsy. Today, you can buyBemh ard Goetz T-shirts tad at iesst three dilTerent bocks telling ihs subway vig ilsnte's story. - Shoot a cc?!3 of bhek kids, and you're a hero. L;:; J' ' Chris It's Rot r.rch:r.ts capitalising on Goetz's crime that bothers me it's normal, healthy capitalist to sell what people will buy. The fact "that people Vv'ant to buy such junk comes closer to the root cf this perversion the Grea test American llcto is a viknle. I liked it better when he wore a cape end couldn't Cy st?sl. Do you resiezsber when the Greatest Aiaericsa Hero stood for truth, justice tad the American Wgy? When crime filters v:z:t z:iLZz d ?,i:h f rcveRtfag cr.r.3 tf.d cp pith niirg criminals? When the good g'-rjs didn't shoot the bd $ ays in the bsxk when they had them on the run? Superman never ssid, "Gosh, Lois, I wish I rodd havo kiikd thea all." ThiP-S3 sre different, now. As much of the media has 'claimed tad as Eomhard Goets's "Foilly Ftud-UJce'" like trial proved, v.e ce a feustraJted society, fed up with crime and the fail ure of cur criminal justice eystem. WeVe beccise rsdst and bloodthirsty. . "Self defense ! That's the number cna answer! Survey csld, 23!" Kiss the fsrsman, Eichsrd. Who won when Goetz's innocent verdict csme down? Goetz end his law yer. And the guys who sell T-shirts. The rest cf us lost But we're happy about it. We bay the rationalization for Goetz's crime that his act wis a symbolic blow fcr the masses huddled iiisst crime. We've made that rstionsMzatica fcto a justification, so much so that we could sympathize with Gostz when he said he wished 'he would have had enough biillsts to kill $.11 cf them. And what if he had? Hundreds cf Hudk Finns would tell hun-drsd.! c? Aunt Sallp in hundreds of homes across America, "Nobody got hurt Just cf n ... a couple Our society's radsa snd bloodiust lends a new perspecthrs to the old comparisons between the United States and the dscin Earns Empire. Once the link was tenuously based on sod omy and venerea! disease. Now, it can be extended to include each society's object of hero worship the Romans' inbred slobbering perverts and our gussiisging Goetz. ' The vigilante's act was no shining symbolic heroism, as we seem so des perate to see it. It gives us no hope for a better future; on the contrary, it leng thens the shadow of the past Goetz's elevation to hero status mesns we have grasped violence as the answer to cur troubles: we'll respond to killing with mere killir-g. Instead cf searching for and fighting anst the causes of crime, well snsks scapegoats. Instead of ccrrecting car sjsim cf justice, we'H abandon that principle fcr a quick fk cf lead. ' And why net? It's cry, it's popular and it sells T-shirts. 1 T8 i hi yy fm s cnance ior surviva H W . X. .1 t . .. . li i ines to tescn cecrie is ?r..i, cr.ri- '' plei probI.ii3 cannot, be sc'.-cd by ;!e solutions. The nuck y:z?"-c Ct 2 fe. y V & cf reci- Ever since the Vntii LLin tr.i ti.e Soviet Union acquired the &li'.ity to pro duce nu J:ar w.spcnr, the r.vxicor prob-l-.m 1 uccrtaed ta f rc7 d'r.-xir j m cur p:c::nl p cf lliv-jri! A::ui?i D::tn.-cti:n. ih:3 p:Lcy b h:::d nj an tl 3 i.v-i Wft I t-U6at--i.t Wwu--jl Vii"' fc... kv?J t ' ? t l.n !--.- 5 r ...'!, 1 J r ""l j' - ' r - n. . . J - . V y ..... , . & & . s. . v: b as f " ' S " ,!--. "'t-. v been destred. Perhaps this policy is best described by its acronym MAD. " One of the inherent flm? ftfrth oi R1AD is that it gives the president cf this naiion nuw latitude in the event nucsegr missiles being launched to- the United States. Or. ----- j-. v dent has is to surrender and phensiyle damage to occur to our natio The other option is to launch mr v.Hn. ' fiiavuiiVU m retaliation and thereby proceed to de trey the world m u shodd noted that the possibility ex a nucisar missile being hunched m- m2zm m smaller unstable nations ascu nuclear fLese Idea aba provides no solu tion, as it fdls to even relate to the prob lems cf the policy cf !1AD. For the first time since the benning of the arms race, a potential alternative, bsisd on a ccfensa f inst tsilistic mm files, is cmcr":r concert, con ncrJy vd:n?i to S3 Zt:i Wirs or the Str s tf r n-' ? ,.-.r fcnn om- Clesily, an altemath-e is needed. Eugene V. Rostow, former director of the Arras Centre! Disarmament Agency, siys pr4 t,4j vvwiwiis cilea lead to an agreement to &low more wejns. The 7 er.crc 1 r :"i v::'"c."j in cuter space Af.cr a Kuclsar nb-Ua is launched, ue beam, traveling at or near the speed of light, would be able to strike down the Ha-wi3 il fil.. - - - - " " As Ben Eova, president cf the National Spsxe I;;'l:t3 rA 'T. 3 red impor tance cf FciL'ir.t F.Cci'a's tnr Wars c:r.cc;t h e-.: i:c - - :::'.b-lty cf a siiLI a-:y f: n tr.v;-d a pc'icy cf t, -1 lpJt-.-f -;... I