Wednesday, January 29, 1986
Page 4
Daily Nebraskan
Nebraskan
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
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Thorn Gabrukiewia, Managing Editor - -v- "" '- ' jr ,'
AdHudler, Editorial Page Editor T"'Z , , ' , '
tomes toga, Editorial Associate , , -f ;, , ' ,
Chris Welsch, Copy Desk Chief - ', , ' ",',, x
AIDS
UNL should
Curioiia Nebraskans flooded
phone lines of the Lancas
ter County Red Cross last
week after NBC aired a TV docu
mentary about AIDS, acquired
immune deficiency syndrome.
The evening of inquiries is
evidence of the general public's
ignorance of the disease, which
attacks the body's immune sys
tems that combat diseases.
Fortunately, this ignorance
has prompted some university
officials and the UNL Gay-Lesbian
Student Association to
begin exploring UNL's policies
regarding the AIDS disease. The
association recently met with
Dr. Gerald Fleischli of the Uni
versity Health Center, and if
formation of an ad hoc commit
tee is approved, eventually will
make a report to NU administra
tors and the NU Board of Regents.
UNL needs a policy for AIDS
and AIDS victims.
Although no AIDS cases have
been reported on campus, poli
cies need to be established now.
If UNL had an AIDS problem,
paranoia and hysteria would
prevail. By setting a policy now,
decisions will be made by ra
tionalization instead of panic.
A question the ad hoc com
mittee would need to address:
Should AIDS victims be allowed
to attend class?
The answer to that question
should be "yes."
Contrary to popular belief,
people cannot contract AIDS
through tears or saliva. The U.S.
ASUM elections
More poll sites may help turnout
A proposal to add a fourth
ASUN voting site could pro
vide a central voting loca
tion and increase voter turnout.
If a site was added in Nei
hardt Residence Center, students
would have four convenient sites
including the Nebraska and
East unions and Nebraska Hall.
Critics say the extra site at
the residence hall would give
an unfair advantage to resi
dence hall candidates. That's
doubtful. Neihardt is a central
location, convenient for Cather,
Pound and Neihardt students.
But it's also convenient for stu
dents in nearby Greek houses
lining 16th Street.
The extra site would cost
about $400. But if it increased
voter turnout, it would be worth
while. Perhaps the site could be
added this year temporarily. If
the polling place does bring in
more votes, ASUN officials should
permanently add the Neihardt
site and consider adding others.
If not, the plan could be scrapped.
Since 1984, the number of vot
ing sites has steadily decreased.
In 1983, students cast votes at
NeihardtCather-Pound, Selleck,
adopt policy
Department of Health and
Human Services says that,
although those body fluids have
been found to contain the AIDS
virus, they haven't been respon
sible for transmitting the
disease.
AIDS can be transmitted by:
O Sexual contact with some
one who has AIDS.
O Sharing a hypodermic
needle with an AIDS victim.
Usually this occurs through blood
transfusions or sharing needles
for drug injections.
True, researchers and scient
ists continually are finding new
discoveries that shed more light
on the AIDS problem. But it is
mostly conjecture.
Based on information we now
have, attending school with an
AIDS victim would be a minute
risk. But it's a risk no greater
than jumping in your car and tra
veling two miles to school. It is
impossible to create a risk-free
environment.
Scientists are discovering more
about the AIDS virus every week.
Within a year or two, they might
find that AIDS can be transmit
ted through means other than
sexual contact or blood transfu
sions. When that happens, UNL
will have to revise its policies.
Nebraska has been fortunate
to avoid an AIDS epidemic.
Whether it will have one in the
future is unknown. But univer
sity officials need to take pre
ventative measures now to pre
vent possible panic later.
Abel-Sandoz and Harper-Schramm-Smith
residence halls, Westbrook
music building, the UNL College
of Law, Hamilton and Burnett
Halls, the College of Business
Administration and the Nebraska
and East unions.
Yet, when the number of vot
ing sites was reduced from 11 to
three, voter turnout changed only
slightly from 3,226 in 1983 to
2,350 in '84 and back up to 3,256
in '85.
The problem seems to be stu
dent apathy. But if ASUN offi
cials show they are meeting stu
dents' needs and are willing to
make voting convenient, turnout
might improve.
If the cost is the main deter
rent to a fourth site, perhaps res
idence hall officials and ASUN
senators could seek volunteers
to staff the Neihardt polling
place.
Thanks to a new voting system
that replaces the computer punch
cards with single voting sheets,
ASUN officials say they will save
money on elections.
It's time to put some of that
money back into the voting sys
tem to increase voter turnout.
"?,-. ''! '''1 khadafu uoarned V,?
Defense dollars are misplaced
U.S. military suffers because of high
Several weeks ago Soviet leader
Mikhail Gorbachev invited the
United States to engage in com
plete nuclear disarmament by the end
of this century. Although President
Reagan has always maintained that his
goal vis-a-vis nuclear armaments is
arms reduction rather than control of
the growth of arms, his positive
response was surprising.
However, if the United States joins
the Soviet Union in pursuing this laud
able goal, substantive problems in the
U.S. military planning and procure
ment system need to be addressed.
Unseemly political and economic
tendencies have developed from the
virtual carte blanche given the military
decision-making system in the past few
years.
Any discussion of the political econ
omy of armaments must take note of
President Eisenhower's brooding
assessment of two policy systems that
pose dangers to republican government.
Eisenhower termed the first policy
system the "military-industrial com
plex." This, he observed, is a "conjunc
tion of an immense military establish
ment and a large arms industry" with
great influence and a "potential for the
disastrous rise of misplaced power . . ."
The continued existence of the
complex is beyond doubt. For example,
Department of Defense information
indicates that only 50 contractors
receive almost 50 percent of military
contracts. Most major weapon systems
are produced by only a few firms,
according to economist Tom Riddel. As
a result of the defense sector structure,
Riddel concludes, "there is a presump
tion that its performance will involve
high prices, poor product quality and
possibly collusion."
Besides the development of a military-industrial
complex, Eisenhower
also warned "that public policy could
itself become the captive of a scientific-technological
elite." His fear was
ime to rethink truths about Ghetto
In 1968, Walter Cronkite returned
from Vietnam with a reporter's
conviction: "It seems now more
certain than ever that the bloody
experience of Vietnam is to end in a
stalemate." Others had reached the
same conclusion earlier, but it took TV
and Cronkite a powerful combina
tion to really make the difference.
In the video age, only an anchorman
can sound retreat.
Now the same network CBS
may have done the something similar.
Bill Moyers, just back from Newark, has
reported on what he found there. In a
documentary called "The Vanishing
Family Crisis in Black America," he
says that the inner-city black family is
almost no more. Children beget chil
dren and they, in turn, have others.
Kids are raised only by their mothers, and
that policy-makers would become trap
ped by a scientific elite who saw only
increasingly sophisticated technology
as the solution to the nation's woes.
What Eisenhower did not foretell
perhaps the thought was too frightful
was that these two policy systems
would converge into one, to the detri
ment of U.S. domestic and military
policy.
The conjunction of these systems
has lead to an unhealthy, yet popular
notion that U.S. security is increased
only via more technologically advanced
weapon systems.
(7
Jim
Rogers
The problems with such an empha
sis is that technological sophistication
is always quite costly. Even with the
recent large increases in military
spending, less technologically enticing
defense systems have suffered to
the detriment of legitimate U.S. secur
ity interests.
Columnist Jim Fain recently reported
that the Georgetown Center for Stra
tegic and International Studies esti
mates a future reduction of at least 25
percent in conventional capability be
cause of the cost of new weapon
systems.
The problem is greatly magnified in
light of Gorbachev's most recent prop
osal: NATO's conventional forces are
already sadly outmanned and outgun
ned in Western Europe. Yet it is exactly
these forces that will be called upon to
pick up the slack were Reagan to agree
to Gorbachev's offer.
After six years of large military
budget increases, it would be ironic if
fathers take no responsibility for their
children. One man Moyers talked to
had six children with four women. He
recited his accomplishment with a grin
you wanted to smash a fist into.
fCJ Richard
1 Cohen
The disintegration of the poor black
family has been reported before. It is
not news that almost 60 percent of all
black children are born out of wedlock,
nor is it news, in Moyers' words, that
"in the black inner city practically no
teen-age mother gets married."
The news is that the one-time press
secretary to Lyndon Johnson is saying
- tech weapons
the United States felt too militarily
weak to accept the Soviet arms pro
posal. Increases in defense spending have
been wrongly channelled into high
tech arms systems rather than neces
sary conventional force build-up. Blame
for this can be placed squarely upon
the distorted symbiotic relationship
between the military and the arma
ments industry. Technologically sim
ple defense systems hiring more
soldiers or constructing more gas
masks are hardly as exciting, or as
profitable, as high-tech weapon sys
tems. Also, technologically simple defense
purchases can come from many firms
rather than the handful of corporations
that have an inside track on high
powered military research and devel
opment. The few corporations that
would lose their profitable, privileged
position in high-cost, high-tech wea
pons development have a vested inter
est in avoiding conventional force build
up. But surprisingly and unintentionally,
a ray of hope may have been offered to
the U.S. public in the guise of the
much-maligned Gramm-Rudman deficit
reduction law.
The law requires automatic and pro
portional reductions in military and
social programs. As a result, the law
can't help but focus public attention
on efficiency and cost-effective use of
the defense dollar. When priorities are
set by public opinion, common sense
has a better chance of success than
technological narrowness.
Efficient use of defense funds is no
longer a luxury that Amerians.can
afford: It is a requirement that, if
ignored, threatens the success of sub
stantial portions of U.S. domestic and
foreign policy.
Rogers is a UNL graduate economics
student, a law student and Daily Nebras
kan editorial associate.
this. If Cronkite was the spokesman for
the cautious center, then Moyers is
at least by repute the voice of Great
Society liberalism. He suggests it has
gone off the track.
The first finger Moyers points is at
the welfare system. In his interviews,
he asks single mothers and vagabond
fathers if their lifestyles would be
possible without welfare. They all say
no. The women live for the monthly
checks and their men, fathering babies
on commission, come around for their
take.
The second finger Moyers points is
at contemporary values or, more pre
cisely, the lack of them. Men proclaim
their masculinity through irresponsi
bility. Illegitimacy is commonplace and
without shame. .
See COHEN on 5
