Friday, February 7, 1986
Page 4
Daily Nebraskan
'Editoria
Nebraskan
Daily
jras
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
u
Research agency needed
The elementary lesson of bus
iness is that it takes money
to make money. This is the
clear-headed philosophy behind
Gov. Bob Kerrey's proposal to
create and fund the Nebraska
Research and Development Author
ity. The goal of the proposal is to
aid the development of new bus
inesses for Nebraska. The plan
would create a semi-private
agency that would seek coopera
tion between business, state
government and higher educa
tion. But the plan pushes beyond
merely structuring such cooper
ation; it seeks to provide seed
money for development. The
authority would fund research
projects directly and help find
capital for new product devel
opment. Although several million dol
lars would be required to set up
and fund the agency in its first
few years, estimates indicate that
within six to 10 years it would
pay for itself.
The proposal represents the
long-term thinking necessary to
lay the foundation for a sustai
Minority recruitment
UNL takes step in right direction
Vice Chancellor Robert Fur
gason's plan to attract
minority faculty members is
a step in the right direction, but
UNL still has a long way to go.
Furgason, vice chancellor of
academic affairs, set up a $25,000 brought to UNL, the real chal-
fund to be used to actively recruit lenge begins,
minority faculty members. The Minorities who see little chance
money would cover travel ex- for advancement are likely to
penses and allow UNL to adver- turn down job offers. It's up to
tise vacancies in national publica- UNL officials to make sure that
tjons doesn't happen.
' . .A .x , , UNL should strive for a more
The minority recruitment plan active minorit and
was needed In fact it s long concentrate on promoting hard
overdue. Of UNL s 1,062 faculty worki minorities and women
iiieiuueia, umy , v uc uiauv, ina-
panic, Native American or Asian.
With the newly established
fund, UNL deans and search
committees could bring in
minority candidates for inter
views, rather than the past prac
tice of interviewing only the sin
gle most academically qualified
candidate usually a white
man.
But simply having the money
available for interviews isn't
enough. UNL administrators
could correct the minority defi-
ciency faster if they established
a minimum number of candi-
dates to be interviewed.
Editorial Policy
Unsigned editorials represent
official policy of the spring 1986
Daily Nebraskan. Policy is set by
the Daily Nebraskan Editorial
Board. Its members are Vicki
Ruhga, editor; Ad Hudler, edi
torial page editor; Thorn Gabru
kiewicz, managing editor, James
Rogers, editorial associate and
Chris Welsch, copy desk chief.
Editorials do not necessarily
reflect the views of the university,
Vicki Ruhga, Editor, 472,1766
Thorn Gabrukiewicz, Managing Editor
Ad Hudler, Editorial Page Editor
James Rogers, Editorial Associate
Chris Welsch, Copy Desk Chief
omen!
nable economic recovery in Ne
braska. Outside the state's urban
areas, Nebraska has not felt the
effects of the economic recovery
enjoyed by the rest of the nation.
Long-term prospects for a return
fo a prosperous agricultural
economy are bleak. Production
in other countries has increased,
while overproduction consistently
characterizes domestic produc
tion. To avoid a continually slug
gish state economy, Nebraska
must diversify its economic base.
This takes investment capital,
with productive effects being
realized only in the future. Our
gratification must be deferred or
it will never arrive at all.
Political demands being what
they are, the tendency of policy
makers is to think only of the
moment. Certainly, emergencies
require immediate action.
However, the best solution to
fires isn't more fire trucks, but
buildings that are more flame
resistent. Similarly, simply stamp
ing out the immediate fire of the
ag crisis is required, but long
term construction is needed to
avoid the heat of future crises.
After all, the interviews are
important. Often less-qualified
candidates will shine in an inter
view, while the more-qualified
person might seem average.
Once minority candidates are
teaching here
As Furgason pointed out, Lin-
coin does have disadvantages
that hurt minority recruitment:
The city and state have
small minority population
O Private businesses compete
for minorities
O Other universities also com
pete for qualified minorities.
But if UNL offered opportuni
ties for advancement and con
centrated on hiring and
retaining minority faculty,
the problems could be overcome,
Furgason's fund and active-
recruiting proposals are the first
step.
its employees, the students or
the NU Board of Regents.
The Daily Nebraskan's pub
lishers are the regents, who
established the UNL Publications
Board to supervise the daily
production of the paper.
According to policy set by the
regents, responsibility for the
editorial content of the news
paper lies solely in the hands of
its student editors.
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'Hail Mary' decision shows concern
Cries of censorship flew this week
when it was announced that the
film "Hail Mary" would not be
played at the Sheldon Film Theatre.
Sheldon Art Gallery Director George
Neubert said the decision not to show
the film was a purely administrative
decision. He based his decision on the
supposition that the film would offend
many Lincoln residents, as it has of
fended the residents of many cities
where it was shown worldwide, spark
ing numerous pickets.
Randy
Donner
The cries and outbursts of students
and others yelling censorship show an
underlying double standard. Last year,
the theater chose not to show "The
Gods Must Be Crazy," a film by a South
African filmmaker, on the grounds that
the film had racist overtones and might
have offended some people. The same
degree of outburst was not seen at that
time, although the film was scheduled
to be shown.
The difference is that the film might
have offended the newly raised racial
consciousness of people because of the
recent newsworthiness of South Afri
can arpartheid, and this film, "Hail
Mary" would offend only some Chris
tians, Roman Catholics in particular.
People seem to reason that offend
ing a Christian, particularly a Catholic,
is all right. It happens all the time. That
is partially true, it does often happen
i n
f
Kissinger's urge for service right,
but race for N.Y. governor wrong
The news that Henry Kissinger is
thinking about running for gover
nor of New York brings many
thoughts to the nimble mind. Among
these is the question of whether he has
considered that he will have to sell his
country home in Connecticut, that
people (like me) will joke about the
"secret bombing of New Jersey" and
Richard
Cohen
that, against Mario Cuomo, he will be
running as the WASP. The real ques
tion, though, is: Why doesn't he run
instead against Sen. Alfonse D'Amato?
Yes, D'Amato, the hack from Hemp
movie not ce
that one thing or another in our society
offends the moral basis of Christianity.
The reasoning may be partially true,
but it is not all right.
Recently there have been a number of
well-known and some not so well
known Christian leaders announc
ing their candidacy for public office
ranging from local and statewide elec
tions to national races for the presid
ency. Often these candidates are sum
marily dismissed on the mythical
grounds of the Constitution guarantee
ing a separation of church and state.
On the matter of religion, the Constitu
tion states that "Congress shall make
no law respecting the establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free exer
cise thereof . . ."
That does not translate, no matter
how you read it, to a total separation of
church and state.
It is encouraging to see that so many
Christians are willing to take a politi
cal stand and defend their beliefs, even
against the cries that morality is being
forced on the populace. If they were
members of any other group ethnic,
racial or other, minority or majority
they would not immediately be dis
missed for presenting their views to
society.
A black man or woman speaking
about racial discrimination is not dis
missed by people as readily as a Chris
tian man or woman, or any religious
man or woman for that matter, is dis
missed when speaking on the subject
of religious discrimination.
This seems particularly ironic since
many politicians are fond of calling our
society a Christian nation.
Calling the United States a Christian
society, or as it is sometimes now
stated a Judeo-Christian society is
stead. In his statement, Kissinger said
he has always wanted to serve. But if he
should serve anywhere it should be the
U.S. Senate. He has been trained for the
Senate. The Senate could use his
foreign-policy expertise. The Senate
has foreign-affairs committees, over
sees the CIA and confirms (or rejects)
important presidential appointments
such as secretary of state.
We all know D'Amato. He was the
senator who suggested the Congres
sional Medal of Honor for Leon Kling
hoffer, a civilian and a victim, not a
soldier and a hero. He is the senator
who is allergic to issues and addicted
to constituent service. He is the sena
tor they call an "assemblyman," a
caseworker for New York state who has
brought the mentality of a ticket-fixer
rslii
for beliefs, views
calling our nation something that it
isn't. We live in a pluralistic society,
with many views, each of which deserve
consideration on its merits. This is to
say that the view of an avowed atheist
should be considered as much as the
views of an orthodox or fundamentalist
Christian. But, unfortunately, that has
not proven to be true in our nation.
Inevitability the views of the avowed
atheist win out out as he or she raises
the cries of constitutionally guaran
teed separation of church and state.
The result then, instead of a body of
legislators legislating morality, is a body
of legislators legislating immorality, or a
based on the wants or "rights" as some
may broadly interpret them, of the
individual, and seems totally to ignore
the greater aspirations and goals of
society as a whole. Thus, what a large
portion of society may term as objec
tionable to their moral fiber and as an
impediment to the advancement of
society, like pornography, is given the
legislative OK as a personal right.
Pornography is used here to illus
trate, as an example, how Christians
are offended daily, and their views
dismissed daily under the guise of leg
islated morality in our society.
The cancellation of the film "Hail
Mary" was not, as it has been accused,
an act of censorship. The film has not
been suppressed and taken out of cir
culation as censorship would imply.
Instead it showed a public institution
that, unlike most institutions, reacted
to the beliefs and views of a large seg
ment of society and chose not to act in
an abrasive, offensive way.
Maybe our society of pluralistic views
is taking steps to become a society that
cares about those views.
Donner is a UNL senior journalism major.
to the seat once occupied by Jacob
Javits and Robert F. Kennedy.
The awful truth for Henry Kissinger
is that no matter what his brilliance, he
has always been merely staff. There is
no shame attached to that, but there
are occasional irritations. It is said
that Richard Nixon made an occasional
crack about Jews in Kissinger's pres
ence and then, in a Resignation Eve
ceremony, asked him to kneel and pray
as the ax of Watergate was being
lowered by an indignant public. Kis
singer did as he was asked, writing in
some length about the incident in his
book. Nixon kissed it off with a brief
mention in a book of his own. Such is
the staff man's lot: What he thinks is
sunshine is merely shadow.
See COHEN on?
