Monday, November 1935
Page 4
Daily Nebraskan
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B resident Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev
are trading arms proposals like a couple of old card
j- sharks. Each one is trying to make his hand look the
-LL best, and his bet the biggest, without actually
risking anything.
You can't win in cards unless you're willing to back your
hand with cash, and you can't negotiate a successful arms
treaty without being willing to give up some of your arms.
Reagan said Saturday he would accept the Soviets'
proposed 50 percent reduction in nuclear weapons. Reagan's
interpretation of which weapon systems to reduce was
different than that of the Soviets, but he agreed in principle
to consider the offer.
That's an important step forward for the United States. If
the Soviet proposal was a bluff, it was a good time to call it
two weeks before the Nov. 19-20 summit meeting between
Gorbachev and Reagan.
Reagan sent Secretary of State George Shultz to Moscow to
discuss a new U.S. proposal with the Soviets. Not all the
details of the proposal have been released, but it deals with
regional conflicts as well as arms control.
Reagan's rhetoric about the plan indicates he is somewhat
more flexible about his Strategic Defense Initiative. The New
York Times reported Reagan said, "Each of us is pursuing
research on such defenses, and we need to be talking to each
other about it."
The U.S. proposals of March left no room for negotiations
on "Star Wars."
Reagan's U.N. speech last week, however, may cause more
tension and complicate negotiations. He seemed to be trying
to shift the focus of the summit away from arms, what the
Soviets want to concentrate on, to regional conflicts and
human rights.
Reagan proposed talks on Soviet expansionism in Nicar
agua, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Angola and Ethiopia. '". . . We
cannot accommodate ourselves to the use of force and
subversion to consolodate and expand the reach of totalit
arianism," Reagan said in the speech.
Expansionism should not be tolerated, whether it's Soviet
or American. If Reagan wants the Soviets out of those
countries, he should be willing to end U.S. aggression toward
Nicaragua and actions such as the U.S. fiasco in Lebanon.
U.S. officials have said human rights in the Soviet Union
will be discussed at the talks. There can be no doubt that
pressure should be put on the Soviets to improve human
rights, but the United States should focus on arms control
now. If successful, this summit could lead to others arranged
for specific topics, such as expansionism and human rights.
Progress on arms talks is crucial. The economies of both
countries have been damaged by enormous defense budgets.
The U.S. defense budget has contributed to the record federal
deficit. The Soviet Union's economy is weaker than ours.
Neither country can afford the billions of dollars it would take
to develop and deploy space-based defense systems.
If the United States persists with development and testing
of Star Wars, the Soviets will, too and to overcome such
defense systems, both countries would have to increase
nuclear arsenals.
If, however, Reagan and the Soviets concentrate on
reducing current stockpiles, allowing observers in both
countries for arms-reduction verification and scrapping
space-based defense systems, the summit might lead to
progress toward peace and healthier economies.
For the next two weeks, Reagan and Gorbachev will
continue the bluffing and the betting. The safety and
prosperity of the world rests on the way they play their hands.
The Daily Nebraskan
34 Nebraska Union
1400 R St., Lincoln. Neb. 68588-0448
EDITOR
NEWS EDITOR
CAMPUS EDITOR
ASSOCIATE NEWS
EDITOR
EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR
VicklRurjga, 472-1 768
Ad Hud'er
Suzanne Teten
Kathleen Green
Jonathan Taylor
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lan for Lied; planforNU
Last week two members of the Stu
dent Alumni Association came to
the Daily Nebraskan office and
showed the staff a promotional video
about the Lied Center for Performing
Arts.
Various local officials who spoke on
the video touted the center's obvious
benefits. It was aimed at silencing the
center's critics, many of whom are stu
dents worried that the money spent on
the Lied Center will detract from their
education.
Chris
Welsch
The center will have long-term eco
nomic benefits for Lincoln, NU and the
state, the video said. The center will
bring us culture, attract top faculty,
everybody else has one, and it's
such a bargain.
At this point, it wouldn't be smart to
turn back.
Most of the money for the center has
been collected, and the Lied Center
will do a lot of good things. Nobody
likes a good philharmonic more than I.
But something Gov. Bob Kerrey said
on that promotional tape stuck in my
craw.
He said something like: Fellow
Nebraskans, I support the Lied Center
for Performing Arts. It's something we
can't pass up. I know these are hard
times, but the greatest building in the
state, the State Capitol, was built dur
ing this country's greatest financial
crisis, the Great Depression. The peo
ple of this great state buckled down
and did it, and we've been the benefac
tors of that sacrifice.
It's a good point and our current
fiscal problems don't hold a candle to
the depression, making the point even .
stronger. -
But it has a flaw. Through World War
I and II, through the depression, reces
sion,, even through Richard Milhous
Nixon, Nebraska supported the univer
sity and the goal of an educated, adap
table, intelligent populatioa
Now Kerrey and a passel of short
sighted legislators are planning to cut
Nil's budget along with those of other
state institutions.
That will hurt the quality of educa
tion, reduce the number of people who
can afford to go to school and chase top
scholars and professors out of the
state.
If the people of Nebraska are tough
enough, and foresighted enough, to pay
for the Lied Center, as Kerrey wants
them to be, then I think they're fore
sighted enough to pay taxes to keep
the university in its present mediocre
conditio;!.
I voted for Kerrey because of his
promises to stress the importance of
higher education to the people and,
I thought, get them to pay for it. But
that's a politician for you: They change
their tunes more often than fat ladies
at the opera.
In a couple of years, the Lied Center
will be standing. Then Nebraskans will
have the Capitol and an opera house
that they bought in hard times. And
they'll have a crumbly university of
sorts. It will keep turning out thou
sands of graduates, the state's busi
nessmen, farmers, thinkers and lead
ers, but they won't be as smart as they
could be.
The Capitol and the Lied Center,
however, will turn out precisely what
this state doesn't need more of: politi
cians and fat ladies who sing.
Welsch is a senior English and journal
Ism major and a Daily Nebraskan copy
desk chief.
TV preachers thrive on gullibility
There's no reason why any reason
ably intelligent, modestly edu
cated person in this country can't
be earning a handsome living. Not as
long as there are people like Sadie out
there, just waiting to give you money.
I don't know how many Sadies I've
talked to during the years. Dozens.
Probably hundreds. I've lost count.
They watch the TV preachers or read
the ads in the goofy newspapers and
magazines sold in the supermarkets,
and they believe that Mother Wanda or
Father Bobby Joe can drive away their
misery, cure their aches and pains,
make them lucky in love and persuade
their cats to use the litter box.
They are so trusting that they eagerly
march down to the S&L and draw out
some of their savings to send to a
stranger.
Take Sadie, a real person who lives
on the North Side of Chicago.
Although Sadie is 70, widowed and a
bit addled, she still hopes to find
romance. She has a specific man
targeted. She wants to marry her doctor.
The doc, however, doesn't seem to
share Sadie's amorous feelings. It's not
even certain that he's aware of them.
So, a few years ago Sadie decided
that if she was ever to drag the doctor
to the altar, she would reed a miracle.
What better place to look for a
miracle than in one of the supermarket
publications?
"I read about this minister in one of
those magazines," Sadie said. "I don't
remember which one, but it wrote
about some of the miracles he had
performed."
Such as?
"Well, it said that he once grew real
teeth from dentures in a man's mouth."
A useful skill.
"Yes. So I called him and told him
thdt I wanted to get married. He said
that he was good at that kind of
thing, and if I really wanted it and
believed in it, he could do it. He would
pray, and it would happen.
"But he said that I'd have to send him
some money. I asked him how much. He
said I should send him as much as I
could. He said the money didn't matter
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Mike
Roylco
to me because I'd be marrying a rich
man, and I wouldn't need my own
money anyway.
"He said I couldn't get married
unless I did it that way. So I jotted
down his address and started sending
him the money in small bits. About $25
or $50. Sometimes $100."
How much did these small bits
amount to? -
taS ?,Mure-1 think U was about
58,000. All I know is that I don't have
much left, and I'm still not married. So,
k i ?HkVto d0 get my money"
back. I don't think it's fair. He said he'd
get the doctor to marry me, and he
cidnt.
You have canceled checks?
"I had them. But I don't have a big
place, and when they started piling up
I threw them away. I didn't think I'd
ever need them. Of course, there's still
time for me to get married. I called him
(the mail-order preacher) a few weeks
ago, and he said he was still praying."
His knees must be calloused by now.
"But I don't have much faith left in
him. If he didn't get me married by
now, I don't think he ever will, do you?"
I would have my doubts.
"Can anybody get me my money
back? Maybe I could try somebody
else."
Without canceled checks as evi
dence, it's doubtful. But we will try.
So I called the preacher at his office
or church or pawn shop or whatever it
is that he takes his calls in Florida
"Yes, I have spoken to her," he said,
in an oily voice. "But I never called her.
She called roe."
She says you clipped her for about
eight grand, promising that you would
get her hitched to the old geezer of her
dreams.
"I never told her to send money. I
told her we accept donations. And it
wasn't anything like $8,000. That's
ridiculous. I'm sure it was no more than
$700 or $800."
She says she wants it back.
"Oh, I can't do that. It's already
gene. I travel a great deal in my work to
preach from various pulpits, and the
donations are used to cover my travel
expenses."
Please scs ROYKO on 5