Monday, February 18, 1805
Daily Nebraskan
Pago 5
ichard L Walker, the American arnbas
fY. sar to South Korea, has yet another
Kj explanation for how it was that a flying
squad cf security police roughed up a group of
Americans accompanying opposition leader Kim
Dca Jung hcrae to Seoul. The Americans with
Khi said the Koreans started the meliee. The
Korean government said it didn't start anything,
but the embassador has finally offered an
explanation that maks sense: He's blamed
Patricia Dorian.
Richard
Cohen
Actually, Walker blamed the entire coup of
Americans who had accompanied Kim to Korea.
Bat Derian is net only the best known member of
that delegation but also precisely the sort of
person who would step between the police and
an opposition leader who Korean authorities
have tried to kill in tho past. She has been doing
that sort of thing since the oid civil-rights days in
Mississippi.
Today Derian's passion is civil rights writ
global, which explains her presence at the
airport. She and the other Americans were
determined that what happened to Benigno
Aquino, the Philippine opposition leader who
was gunned down in Manila, would not happen
to Kim. If anything, it was the assassination of
Aquino that made a repeat, Korean style, unlikely.
But the death of one dissident in Manila is no
guarantee that another would be allowed to
remain alive in Seoul. Regimes run by thugs are
notorious copycats.
What is Ambassador Walker talking about?
Who cares if Derian and the other Americans
stelent defenders blamed
ill '" uy j
; '-
JOT
accompanying Kim broke their agreement and
refused to allow the Korean police to take Kim
off the plane by himself? They insist they made
no such agreement and that they did absolutely
nothing to provoke the police (yet another
Walker charge), but none of that really matters
anyway. This is a silly argument fueled by an
American ambassador who's forgotten what his
country stands for.
The fact remains that Kim is under house
arrest. The fact is that he can not even go to
church and that ministers who have come to see
him have been turned away by the police. The
fact is that he was once kidnapped in Japan,
probably by the the Korean CIA, threatened with
death, and dumped back in Korea. He's been
imprisoned, exiled and attempts have been
made on his life. He would be back in prison
today or, like Aquino, dead on arrival, if it were
not for the entreaties of the Reagan administra
tion. There i3 but one other fact you should know
wie
lee
about Kim: his crime. There Is none, unless It Is
near success as an opposition politician. In 1071,
running as the opposition candidate for presi
dent, he received mere than 45 percent cf the
vote, which, to previa seme perspective, is
better than Walter Mcndaie did against Ronald
Reagan. Mondale, though, went back to his law
firm. Kim was Jailed for the crlmo of dissent.
It could be, a3 the ambassador claims, that
the grand plans cf some very small minds went
awry when Kim landed in Korea. Maybe in the
crush, the police lest their cool. Maybe the
government really had intended for the cops to
be well-behaved. And maybe, even, Derian and
the other Americans panicked at the last moment
and refused to let Kim out of their sight. If they
did, they had their reasons. They, if not the
ambassador, knew that it was the police who
threatened Kim not the other way around.
The other way around is apparently the way
the ambassador and the Reagan administration
prefers it. It has directed its outrage at Dedan
and the others. For the government that over the
years has imprisoned him, kidnapped him, tried
to kill him, exiled him and now has him under
house arrest for the crime cf political opposition,
it has uttered only the mildest rebuke. This, like
the "constructive engagement" of U.S. South
African policy, is foreign policy without a soul
moral vacuity posing as realpolitik.
It hardly matters who, if anyone, broke an
airport agreement. What matters is that an ally, a
country whose independence was secured by
American blood, roughed up two congressmen
and two former American diplomats who only
wanted to protect the life of a political dissident.
The ambassador is right: Derian is the perfect
example of an American who can not be trusted.
At any moment, she's likely to do the right thing.
1S35, Washington Post Writers Group
Candidates mean business
ASUN ele
ctions
:eep saiiv
a glands g
oin
ne cf the tilings I love most about beautiful
Nebraskalanci is its change of seasons -thai
lingering moment between summer
and fall, or MI and .winter, like the moment
between supper and dessert" the last bite of a steak
slides down yum esophagus, your taste buds still
v
Chris
lurbach
reveling in the beef flavor even while your eyes
watch & spoonful cf chocolate mousse floating
towsxd your mouth. You're gonna miss the steak,
but that mousse locks good. It is the anticipation
of the mousse that keeps your saliva glands
working.
At this time of year, when winter's icy grip is
slipping and daffodil bulbs are plotting their
spring sprout, what keeps my saliva glands going
is the annual ASUN election. The election is to
me what a Gainesburger is to a famished pup
dogfood in a dish.
Like the seasons, each ASUN election is
different from the last year's. Some things stay
the same such as the overwhelming over
representation of Greeks in the parties and at
the polls, most of the parties' promises - the
way the candidates look, the inevitably unsuc
cessful attempt of a humor party to be as funny
as the legendary STUPID party and the total lack
of concern among most students. But some
subtleties do change. Like names. And, uh, well .
. .names.
The parties that have announced so far this
year have names as lovely as a tree Look,
Target, Change and SCUM. The names, like the
parties' platforms, indicate a radical departure
from past years. With the exception of SCUM,
none of the names are acronyms, at least they're
not intended to be. And they get right to the
heart of the parties' platforms.
Look wants students to "take a closer look,"
according to the story about their announcement
in today's Daily Nebraskan. Target wants to
improve on last years' Aim party slogan. Change
wants to keep the Nebraska Union open 24 hours
during finals week. And SCUM wants to disrupt
ASUN and the election process.
Maybe you're mc of those who never cared
before. With the kind of people we have discussing
the kinds of issues they're concerned about this
year, you had better begin to care. These
candidates mean business.
They want greater input from students, greater
credibility for ASUN, unity between students
and increased communication between students
and faculty. And they mean to get it.
Listen to some of these quotes from the
parties' respective announcement stories in the
Daily Nebraskan.
Gerard Keating, Target presidential candidate,
on equal representation: "We'll push hard for
residence hall turnout and develop issues that
they can relate to."
Kevin Goldstein, Change presidential candi
date, on his party's beliefs: ". . .advancing the
rights of students."
Tim Burke, LOOK presidential candidate: "All
we ask is that in the coming weeks students take
a closer look."
Jeff Baier, SCUM second vice-presidential
candidate: "Let's face it. UNL students don't
care about ASUN and its functions."
I think you get the picture. These are not your
average run-of-the-mill-yuppie-do-something-thatTl-lwk-good-on-aresume-candidates.
They're
different. Really.
eSiers
Peer pressure ... p-
it a m T -m - d s
uciftUHXsa irosa rags
But to return to junior high w hich
is in fact happening more and more
these days some people cannot
escape junior high, or actually like it,
and choose, in a sense, to stay there as
a lifelong thing, either because the
different is nervous-making and thus is
to be attacked, or because picking on
the different is, by definition, picking
on a minority, and is both safe and fan.
.Whatever the explanation, the be
havior should be recognized as feather
ed. We must hope that people can
transcend birds.
-. Why?
There is much that is beautiful that
doesn't look like a crow, but it takes, at
least, a meta-crcw to see it.
Tom Winter
associate professor of classics
icy
Letters' will be selected for pub
lication on the basis of clarity, orig
inality, timeliness and space avail
able, the Daily Nebraskan retains
the right to edit all material submitted.
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