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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 14, 1986)
l-riday, February 14, 1986 Daily Nebraskan Pago 5 OF Course i still support k$er eicot'on. xihn everyone For k 'AICMCJ ICWU- - Couple 0P yeomd owe. Chris McCubbin and Carol WagenerDaily Nebraskan Producers need income to stay stable food source FARMERS from Page 4 that there will ever be a monopoly power, cartel or union that will be able to control prices, at least not among producers. There is too much land in the equation. So, farmers are price takers in the market place and proba bly always will be. Essentially what is happening now is that farmers aren't getting a fair price for their commodi ties in the market system, so people are paying a bit more for their food through taxes. Most people agree that it is wise to have a stable, reliable source of food. This requires that the people who pro duce the food can make a living at it. Farmers need to be able to support their families. They need to be able to replace tools and machinery as they wear out. And, finally, they should be able to make a modest profit (disposa ble income) that they can spend to buy land or other things they might fancy. We should realize that most farmers are having a tough time feeding their families, that sales of machinery are so low that manufacturers have merged and gone broke, and that many farmers are forced to sell their farms and equipment to others who can barely afford to buy them when the market is so volatile. Many are buying on hope rather than numbers; many are swal lowing their hope. I don't think farming is sacred as a way of life. On the contrary, fanning is definitely a business. But consider the possibility that it is a business that may not be able to survive the best at all times on market forces alone. The European Economic Community has subsidized its farmers for many years, as have other countries. They couldn't compete with the U.S. farmer without help. Why should our markets have to be open when theirs are not? We have come to expect government to be a cure-all for all the problems we encounter as a society. I am a die-hard against deficit spend ing too, but the answer needs to be rational. Reduce spending on non critical areas. Agriculture is a critical area. Per haps we should be willing to adjust our mentalities to include food security in the gray area of national interest. Farmers would love to let market forces control prices if the prices' would allow them to survive. They will again some day but we must sustain agriculture while we are waiting and working for that to happen. Welsch rightly pointed out that tech nology has been good and bad to agri culture. It has created the most effi cient food machine the world has ever known, while at the same time forcing prices and many farmers down the tube. Give farmers some incentive and they'll do a superb job. If the other sectors worked as hard at curing their problems as agriculture, maybe we wouldn't have surpluses mocking the starving of the world. There is something inherently wrong with a world that has starvation while bins overflow not so far away. And there is something even more inherently wrong with a nation where the people responsible for the food surplus also starve or go bankrupt. We stand at an agricultural cross roads. Retirement is about to claim many of our established farmers. We have the choice to.make fanning prof itable for their children and grand children by support when necessary or to prepare to suffer the consequences of treading on dubious ground. Rodney Wetovick senior political scienceEnglish student-farmer past state officer of the Nebraska Future Fanners of America Valentine s Editor's Note: This column orig inally appeared in the Feb. 9, 1982, Daily Nebraskan. Well, guys and gals, it's that time again. That magical time known as Valentine's Day, when guys take gals (or vice versa) out to dinner, at a place slightly fancier than McDo nald's. And, when the check comes, Bill Rush they lean over the candle-lit table and tenderly whisper to their date, "Could you lend me five dollars until my stu dent loan comes through?" It's a time when flowers are given. Unfortunately, about three-fourths of Letters Reader urges students to prevent 'sexual perversity' A recent letter urging student organ izations to "condemn discrimination based on sexual orientation" (DN, Feb. 6) merits a response. The terminology and line of reasoning used were typical of the worn out cliches posited by advocates of the homosexual commun ity. This letter is for those who feel homosexuals need to be rehabilitated, not integrated. First, the term "sexual orientation" implies that homosexuality is simply a given (such as race or gender). "Orien tation" is a neutral term which sets an 'Irresponsible cyclist' gives other riders a bad image I often ride a bicycle to campus and am well aware of the hazards of riding in t raffic, particularly after I was forced off the street by a motorist in October. I was distressed to see the photo graph of the "Cyclist Injured" (Daily Nebraskan, Feb. 1 1). I hope that rider's injuries were minor and that she is recovering quickly. I have to say that I also was dis tressed Wednesday when I drove my car around the Memorial Stadium loop to Readers call DN story on station KRNU 'one-sided It appears the Daily Nebraskan has a chip on its shoulder for the UNL Col lege of Journalism. First there was the recent story on the college's accredita tion visit, which was so successful that the College of Journalism was one of only two programs exempted from the state's budget-cutting ax. And now we have a one-sided story on the broadcasting department's radio station, KRNU. Yes, the format is tight. But a quick check of the formats of KFRX and KFMQ would show that this is typical among popular modern radio Earlier hypocritical This is in rebuttal to the letter to the editor, "Hypocrisy, liberalism said alive and well at Daily Nebraskan" (DN, Feb. 11). I would like to make several points to James Feyerherm. Feyerherm said the movie "Hail, Mary" is "an obviously tasteless film depiction of the life of Jesus." Because the movie has been shown in few places close to Lincoln, I doubt that you have seen it. On the issue of liberalism: Yes, it is alive in the offices of the DN and in the student body of NU. Nebraskans often are referred to as conservative, but there remains a difference of opinion. And that is the nature of an editorial. Reverse discrimination could taint professor selection The recently published articles in the DN concerning the $25,000 fund set up by UNL Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs Robert Furgason for recruiting minority faculty members, prompted me to question the philosophy of spend ing more money to promote mediocrity at UNL I fail to see any advantage of giving cards o the people who give flowers never know that their loved one is allergic to them and will spend the night cuddled up next to a box of Kleenex. It's a time when overweight people will get a big box of candy hearts when they are trying to lose weight because their loved-ones complain they are too flabby. It's a time when we send cards and intimate greetings written by people we don't know, probably never will meet and probably wouldn't like if we did meet. It's a time when I'll do the same thing as I did last year. Last year I sent three women platonic valentines. I fig ure the odds of getting a reply would be greater if I played the field. I picked the cards very carefully. One said, "Let's be friends;" one said, "To A Special Friend;" one had Snoopy. Who can resist Snoopy? To be less threatening, I even said I hoped they had a nice Valentine's Day with their respective boyfriends. I ran agenda of normalcy when applied to the homosexual community. If the stu dent body and its representatives truly view homosexuality as an orientation, then certainly they ought not to dis criminate. However, if they view it as a perversion, they ought to continue discriminating. Secondly, the argument that gay lesbian students ought to be included simply because they constitute 10 per cent of the UNL community is falla cious. For example, what if 10 percent - of the student body were pedophiles park in the Morrill Hall lot. Coming toward me was a student, riding his bicycle on the ice left by the recent snowfall and freeze. Without knowing differently, I assume Tuesday's injured cyclist was riding safely and carefully, and had an accident nevertheless. But from seeing what I saw this morning (and, unfortunately, other mornings as well), I know there is at least one irresponsible cyclist on cam stations. KRNU is the equivalent to the news-editorial department's lab paper, The Journalist, in that it serves as a vehicle for students to get skills. KRNU is one of the few college radio stations in the country that helps beginning broadcasting students get early, on-air experience. This, in turn, opens the door to gaining part-time professional experience while still in school. During atypical semester, 60 to 70 students with a wide variety of mus ical tastes, have airshifts. Catering to everyone's tastes would be economi letter denies differences of opinion Then we come to homosexuals, gamblers, alcoholics and drug users. First of all, gambling is the only solely psychological dysfunction in the above group. Drug abuse is exactly that; abuse of a substance that induces a biological phenomenon. In case you have missed the past few years of alco hol awareness, alcoholism is also a physiological disorder that affects millions. Homosexuality is now one of socie ty's largest focal points. There are sig nificant differences between hetero sexual and homosexual biological makeups. Alcohol and drug abusers often directly injure themselves and society. There should be a continuing preferential treatment to a minority in selecting professors when the best candidate, who may be unfortunate enough to be white, has to be turned down for the sake of not displaying a "really lily-white" image of the uni versity. Would this money not be better unhe eded the messages off on my word processor. A friend saw what I was doing and said that he was reminded of a mass mailing effort. In a way, he was right. It did pay off in a way. Last year on Valentine's Day there was a letfer from the Army. They wanted me to enlist. It felt so good to be needed. I wheeled down to their headquarters to enlist. But, they took one look at me and started fliping through their manuals. They couldn't find what to do with me on their manuals. So much for a lasting relationship. Apparently, the three women I sent valentines to couldn't find me in their manuals, either. Maybe this year I should try sending them homemade valentines. How about a potato print valentine? Or a valentine made from pipe cleaners? Or a valen tine made from construction paper? Or, maybe I should just stick myself in a crate and send myself to a woman. But, that probably would get marked "return to sender." Rush is an undeclared graduate student. Brief letters are preferred, and longer letters may be edited. Writer's address and phone number are needed for verification. (people who sexually molest child ren)? Would we allow them to insist they ought not to be discriminated against simplyjbecause of their large numbers? The First Amendment certainly was intended to allow for diversity, but we should not allow special groups to twist its meaning so that it opens the floodgates of perversity. Tim Teebken junior arts and sciences pus who rides against traffic on a nar row, one-way street that has cars parked on both sides. Such stupid riding prac tices are dangerous and illegal. It's people like this who give the rest of us cyclists a bad name and subject us to criticism from motorists who have been inconvenienced and threatened or irri tated by illegal and stupid riding. Donald Gregory associate professor English cally unfeasible and would lead to a .chaotic, unprofessional format. In addition, we would like to correct one inaccuracy in the article. WNUR is not the nation's most powerful college radio station. In the Big Eight alone, Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma State boast more powerful stations. Mike Tobias senior broadcasting Mike Grudzinski senior broadcasting emphasis on what we can do to help those afflicted. But when we arrive at a state of being, such as homosexuality, we should learn how to understand and accept those who are different from us. Two of Feyerherm's points were that "Hail, Mary" was rightfully canceled and that since the students help fund the DN and all student-related pro grams, we should have a say in what we receive for our funds. Thus, students should be able to see the movies they want to and should watch for their own hypocrisy. Bruce Friedman freshman undeclared spent in recruiting high-caliber profes sors, regardless of their, ethnic back ground? Let's not start tainting our selection of quality educators with reverse discrimination. Al Emanuel sophomore mechanical erneerir.g