Friday, June 28, 1985
Pag8 4
The Nebraskan
arm
11 (TA
A
Domestic violence
needs to be taken
more seriously
U.S. District Court jury in Hartford, Connecticut, may have
set a leal precedent Tuesday for the treatment of domestic
violence.
The jury awarded $2.3 million to Tracey Thurman, saying
29 Torrington police officers violated her constitutional rights by
failing to protect her from a stabbing and beating by her estranged
husband.
Associated Press reported the case marked the first time a
federal court agreed to hear the civil lawsuit of a battered wife.
The jury also awarded $300,000 to Thurman's 3-year-old son who
witnessed the attack, for emotional damages. The 1983 attack left
Thurman partially paralyzed.
Thurman had said police failed to give her complaints about
her husband's harassment as much consideration as they would
other types of complaints because her complaints stemmed from a
domestic dispute.
The issue of whether domestic abuse should be treated the
same as other crimes is as complex as it is controversial. "The
Nebraskan" believes a crime committed in the home is still a
crime and should be delt with the same as other crimes. Arrests
should be made.
However, there can be no blanket solutions to this problem. It
must still be handled case by case. If police officers are assigned
to protect a woman from her husband and nothing happens, they
may be liable for a crim ; committed elsewhere if there wasn't
enough police to prevent it.
Jo Ann Dunn, Domestic Violence Program Consultant for the
Nebraska Department of Social Services, said police have thought
that if they could calm a domestic dispute, no arrests need be
made even though a crime may have been committed. She said
police treated domestic dispute cases differently than other cases
because they see a domestic dispute as a family issue.
"This (case) makes the statement that we'd better start treat
ing this as any other crime," Dunn said. "I'm all for anything that
says let's start treating this thing seriously."
Dunn said the case may have an effect on the treatment of
domestic disputes because police departments may begin looking
at their procedures to see if they would be liable in a similiar case.
The domestic abuse problem is widespread and does exist in
Nebraska. Dunn said the 23 domestic violence programs in
Nebraska received a total of 12,915 calls from July 1984 to Febru
ary 1985.
The Nebraska Legislature considered a bill in the last session
that would make arrest mandatory in domestic violence cases
where a crime has been committed. The measure was not passed.
Sen. Shirley Marsh is still researching the issue. The bill should be
presented and considered again.
Editorial
Policy
Unsigned editorials represent official policy of The Nebraskan,
summer 1985 edition of the Daily Nebraskan. Policy is set by The
Nebraskan Editorial Board. Its members are Stacie Thomas, editor
in chief; Gene Gentrup, news editor; Kathleen Green, associate
news editor; Sandi Stuewe, advertising manager; Mary Hupf,
assistant advertising manager; and Jim Rogers, editorial columnist.
Editorials do not necessary reflect the views of the university,
its employees, the students or the NU Board of Regents.
The Nebraskan's publishers are the regents, who established
the UNL Publications Board to supervise the production of the
paper.
7 II
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Education fades 'unrealistic' dreams
The biggest shame about a college
education is that it takes away most
of our unrealistic dreams, and all
we're left with are dreams of financial and
career success Along the way it's easy to
lose much of our innocent ideals and naive
expectations.
But then, I guess that's part of growing
up, and anything's better than being stuck
at age 15 the rest of your life. Remember
the zits, the heartbreaks and the most
important thing in your life? All those
went away in a couple of years and people
were saying you were just starting your life
while you thought you had just finished
the roughest part. Now you know better,
I
i
7
Bill
Allen
As the last oi those unrealistic dreams
slip away you start to look into the future
with an entirely different attitude. No
longer is life one long party where you
invited all the guests and the booze is all
free.
No, lately I've even considered the sce
nario of getting a real job, settling down
with my wife, having kjds, living in the
suburbs, buying a station wagon and fulfil
ling my part of the American dream. Con
sidering, mind you, I haven't made up my
mind for sure yet.
The scary part is that more and more
the deciding factor is whether I would
choose that option for less than $25,000 a
year. It's scary partly because the figure
used to be $50,000 and mostly because it
means giving up on a lot of dreams.
Whan nimnla tteoA fn polr m what I
wanted to do for a living I would always
say, what do you mean, I'm already living?
Then they would look at me funny and say,
no I meant what do you want to do for a job.
Then I'd say I wanted to live on the beach
and write novels.
I still do, but dammit, that American
dream keeps popping up in the back of my
mind, and to think I used to puke at the
very thought of a station wagon. Now I've
figured it out to where my wife, Cindy, will
drive the station wagon and I'll drive a
four-wheel drive Ford truck, metallic black
with silver trim and giant mud wheels so I
can drive over cars when I'm leaving con
certs. Now, if I could just talk Cindy into
the station wagon.
I used to have several pretty silly
dreams that no longer seem plausible,
though I must admit life was much simpler
when they were. I'm sure most people go
through this, even if it were nothing more
than when people used to ask you what
you wanted to be when you grew up and
the little boys wanted to be fireman and
cowboys and the little girls wanted to be
nurses or ballerinas. I wondered where
they learned those role discriminations. It
wasn't from me. I wanted to be the first
male first lady in the White House. I mean,
gee, she gets all the press and doesn't have
to work.
My more pubescent dreams were pretty
sensational really. As a matter of fact I
still want to host the tonight show after
Johnny Carson retires. And I could do it,
too, and for one tenth the money. I've
always wanted to be a professional come
dian. Ever since I can remember IVe wanted to
be a writer, and I could probably still
make a living writing in some form or
other, but it's not the same as what I had
in mind. It's not the same as the desire I
once had to make other people feel how I
felt when I read all those Tarzan novels
when I was a kid. It's not the same as
making people feel the multitude of emo
tions and ideas in such short novels as the
"Great Gatsby" and "The Old Man and the
Sea."
Oh well, at least I've gotten rid of the
really wild dreams. Since IVe been mar
ried to my pretty little wife IVe erased all
those dreams about being stranded on a
desert island with 20 Playmate centerfolds.
Besides, a couple of my friends have been
and they said it's not that big of a deal.
What really gets depressing sometimes
is seeing all those people on T.V. who do
seem to be living out their dreams. Like
Carson, for instance, or Sylvester Stallone,
or Geraldine Ferraro, or Mick Jagger.
But remember I haven't decided yet, and
I've still got a year cf school to go. Who
knows, you might yet see me in the South
Atlantic sailing with Jacques Cousteau on
the Calypso.
I sure hope the boat has air conditioning.
Nebrabkaorii xjs..,,,... -
I . T;-gggar.
EDITOR
GENERAL MANAGER
PRODUCTION MANAGER
ADVERTISING MANAGER
ASSISTANT ADVERTISING
MANAGER
CIRCULATION MANAGER
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PUBLICATIONS BOARD
CHAIRPERSON
PROFESSIONAL ADVISER
Stacie Thomas, 472-1765
Daniel Shattil
Katherlne Policky
Sandi Stuewe
Mary Hupf
Brian Hoglund
Gene Gentrup
Donna Slsson
Julie Jordan Hendricks
Mike Rellley
Bill Allen
Jeff Korbelik
Donna Slsson
Mark Davis
Kathleen Green
Chris Choate
Don Walton, 473-7301
The Nebraskan (USPS 144-080) is published by the UNL
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ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 1S3S DAILY NEBRASKAN
By Christopher Hamel
Editorial Columnist
There comes a time in every person's
life when an experience has such magni
tude that it escapes fair representation by
ink and paper. This is mine.
I was standing on the crest of a bluff
overlooking the Missouri River in Northern
Cedar County and not 40 feet above me lay
a golden eagle suspended in air. I was
impressed with its size. It sported a
wingspan not much less than my own, but
I was also filled with a sense of pride.
It was not the symbolic pride that
Americans are quick to associate with a
bald eagle. It was a pride better described
by the feeling one would have if Bob
Dylan's car broke down outside your house
and it was your phone he needed to use.,
It's a pride associated with rare ex
periences. The rarity of this experience became
two-fold, as did my pride, when another
eagle glided over the top of the burr oak
behind me and joined the first. Then came
a third and within seconds that oak tree
gave birth to what I counted to be over 20,
golden eagles. They hovered so close that I
was continually positioned in the shadows
they cast.
I soon realized that I was amid a rather
grave situation. In an instant of emotional
metamorphosis my pride turned to fear
and I descended the bluff as quickly as
possible.
I took to the sumac for cover and scam
pered from bush to bush in hopes of get
ting to my car which lie V miles away on
Rattlesnake Road. Occasionally I would
stand erect and scan the skies. I was a bit
distraught to find that they were Allowing
me at an altitude less than the tops of the
bluffs that surrounded me.
A half a mile later their pursuit ceased
and with many over-the-shoulder glances I
returned to my car. In retrospect I realized
that the bluff on which I stood was a
nesting area for the eagle's young and that
I proposed a threat. Their actions were not
arbitrary or unwarranted.
The magnitude with which I introduced
this essay lies not in the rarity of seeing
more than 20 golden eagles, nor does it lie
in the unsettling experience of possibly
being their prey. The magnitude has more
to do with man's underestimation of
nature's innate power.
Naively, we have begun to perceive the
intelligence that distinguishes man from
the rest of nature, and which has also
taken us from the trees of Africa to the
highrise apartments of New York City, as a
power that has rendered us indestructa
ble. Certainly, had I any of the weapons
invented since the dawn of civilization,
the eagle story would take on entirely dif
ferent connotations. But I didn't. Like the
eagle, all I had was myself, and in that
light came a valuable insight into man's
actual status in regards to nature. This
insight suggests that in reality man is still
as diminuative as he was when the first
Homo sapien was forced to crawl under a
bush to hide from the big bird in the sky.
No more, no less.