Page 4
Daily Nebraskan
Monday, February 24, 1986
atorlal
Vicki Ruhga, Editor, 472-1766
Thorn Gabrukiewicz, Managing Editor
Ad Hudler, Editorial Page Editor
James Rogers, Editorial Associate
Chris Welsch, Copy Desk Chief
Nebraskan
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Ed
W -V .1
Bydoef trouble
Eroding taxes
Gov. Bob Kerrey ignored the
cause of the state's budget
troubles when he criticized
NU administrators for their frank
comments on the university bud
get. Kerrey responded to comments
made during the Legislative
Appropriations Committee hear
ing, when some NU officials said
the quality of NU rests on legis
lators' shoulders.
Instead, Kerrey said, NU's prob
lems stem from the state's
troubled economy and an in
creasing student enrollment.
Not exactly. Kerrey and state
legislators should realize that
NU's budget problems and
the state's money shortfall
stem from an eroding tax base.
Nebraska's system is based on
the federal tax rate, which has
been reduced 23 percent in the
last three years.
Thus, Nebraskans should be
paying 24 percent of their fed
eral tax bills to the state to
maintain the same real tax rate
of 1981. Currently, Nebraskans
pay 19 percent of their federal
tax rate to the state.
NU administrators have a right
is
Agency is pressured by business
Everyone seems to want to
point a finger at one par
ticular person or entity to
place the blame for last month's
space shuttle disaster.
But before any accusations
are made, officials investigating
the shuttle tragedy need to con
sider one thing: NASA and its
space programs, including the
shuttle, are under constant pres
sure from the government and
big businesses that have a finan
cial interest in the space pro
gram. That pressure leads to
quick, panicked action.
Investigators have discovered
that workers associated with the
shuttle's booster the part
presumably responsible for the
explosion warned their man
agers that the shuttle shouldn't
be launched in Florida's low
temperatures that day. Manag
ers ignored the pleas and gave
NASA the go-ahead for launch
ing. The decision to override
educated warnings stands as proof
of the pressure NASA faces to
continually get its shuttles into
the air.
Congress, which controls
NASA's purse strings, appears to
expect too much from the space
program. The lawmakers want to
see some short-term benefits.
They expect the program to make
money, to be efficient and pro
ductive. Such expectations are ludi
crous. All space exploration is
designed for the future. Any re
search today won't benefit Amer
a problem
to blame the Legislature for NU's
problems. Perhaps they also
should blame Kerrey.
Kerrey and state legislators
should lead the charge for higher
state taxes or a divorce from the
federal tax system, so Nebras
ka's revenue would not fluctuate
with federal changes.
But neither Kerrey nor state
senators have told the state this
needs to be done. They insist on
cutting the budget to unreaso
nable levels, harming the con
stituents they pretend to save.
Finally, Kerrey's statement
that the negative aspects of NU
are overplayed was ironic.
Kerrey encourged NU to "focus
on the things we are doing right...
We should have pride instead of
feeling blue."
Yet, when President Reagan
did exactly that in his State of
the Union address, Kerrey de
nounced him as living in a fan
tasy world and compared him to
pro wrestler Hulk Hogan, who
gives inspiring but unrealistic
performances. .
Apparently, opinions change
when one is pinned to the mat.
pririty
icans now, but those in future
centuries. Congress appropriates
billions of dollars to the space
program and expects some
material gains. That is unfortu
nate. NASA evidently feels this pinch,
and therefore jumps the gun in
getting projects underway.
Also, businesses associated
with the space program could
tend to pressure NASA into pro
jects and flights it might not be
prepared for. NASA launches
satellites for several corporations
as well as test materials on the
shuttles.
The shuttle disaster unfortu
nately occurred at the same time
Congress began making its bud
get decisions for the next year. The
fate of NASA's budget is un
determined. Because space exploration is
an important investment for this
country, Congress shouldn't
spend any time deliberating
NASA's budget. Congress needs
to automatically appropriate a
specified amount every year, giv
ing the program the guarantee
that its budget will not be cut.
Otherwise, NASA will continue
to feel the economic pinch. It
will continue to buckle under
pressure from businesses with
money invested in the space
program.
They might not listen to manu
facturers of the shuttle's boos
ters next time when they warn
against a possibly dangerous
and fatal launch.
If legislators can 1 1
maybe they'll liste
NU administrators, students and
regents have reasoned, cajoled
and warned legislators about the
consequences of further budget cuts.
But, last year, senators cut the budget
anyway.
University advocates told them a
strong university builds the economy,
keeps young people in the state and
prepares the population for the future.
They told legislators that faculty
members were leaving for better pay,
that the brightest students were going
out of state for higher education. All to
no avail.
This year, like the punch line to a
bad joke, Nebraska coach Tom Osborne
came along to the Capitol to testify.
He told legislators that budget cuts
have impeded his recruiting and made
it difficult for some players to make it
to practice because of scheduling con
flicts. Potential Cornhuskers would
rather go to Iowa or Kansas, where tax
payers are willing to pay for quality
education as well as quality football.
Osborne reasoned that if his players
are suffering, everyong else at NU is,
too.
Don't mistake me; I'm glad he went.
He is, sadly and ironically, the most
influential and well-known man at this
university. Legislators probably woke
up long enough to hear what he said.
One even asked if Osborne would prom
Philippine election results illustrate
president's knee-jerk conservatism
Picture Ronald Reagan. OK, now
picture him as a giant knee. Now
here comes a doctor's rubber
tipped hammer shaped like the Philip
pines. The hammer hits, the knee jerks
and the president immediately comes
down on the side of authority. The pres
ident is the genuine art icle. He really is
a knee-jerk conservative.
Since Reagan's initial statement
about the Philippine elections, there
has been some backing and filling,
some hemming and hawing and the
required dispatch of Philip Habib, the
winged messenger of futility, on yet
another dumb mission. But at the criti
cal, almost Rorschach moment, the
president looked at the ink blot of the
Philippine archipelago and saw the
Berkeley campus of yore protest and
pandemonium. As the kids say, he
freaked.
Of course, Reagan could hardly men
tion Berkeley. After all, he was not
articulating a thought, but an emotion
what in Washington passes for
ideology. That strongly felt emotion
prompted the nonsense that leaped
from Reagan's lips when the issue of
the Philippines was raised at his recent
press conference: No proof of vote fraud
I (St
Hp
ISN'T DEMOCRACY
WONDERFUL?
ise to beat Oklahoma next season if the
budget isn't cut.
All of us here for intellectual stimu
lation thought that was really funny.
Hardy-har-har, as they say in the car
toons. But I'm not picky; if senators won't
listen to reason, maybe, just maybe,
they'll listen to the Gipper.
There is nothing as intimately my
own as my life. To be sure, I have
responsibilities to others: friendships,
loves, obligations for work. Ultimately,
though, what I do or don't do with my
life is up to me.
Chris
Welsch
Along with the right to live my life
the way I chose, I should have the right
to die the way I chose.
The Legislature is considering a bill
that would legally recognize a patient's
"right to die." It would honor requests
for the withholding or withdrawing of
life-support for those with terminal
conditions. The bill, LB754, would rec
ognize what is popularly called the
existed and, besides, both sides had
used violence.
The average American, lacking a
Habib but having a TV set, knew the
president was wrong. The bodies bled
on camera and the fraud was palpable.
Richard Lugar, a conservative senator
from Indiana and once a favorite of
former president Richard Nixon, had
certified it. Ferdinand Marcos was a
cheat.
Richard
Cohen
Notice that Reagan's statements re
garding the Philippine elections were
not all that different from those he
made regarding South Africa. There,
too, he said that there was violence on
both sides. It seemed not to matter to
him that one side was the government,
with all its guns, and the other side,
while numerous, was powerless. It
seemed also not to matter that the
government was protecting privilege,
ID'
"fell
(ft)
M
W to
EH
near re
n to Clipper
"Living Will."
A "Living Will" is a statement signed
and witnessed by a person still in
sound health who wants to guarantee
that if he is incapacitated and recovery
is out of the question, he will be
allowed to die with dignity.
If you have cancer or are in a trau
matic car accident, and your brain is
dead or you are in an irreversible coma,
the doctors would legally be free to
"pull the plug." To me, existence with
out human interaction, without a mind,
existence supported only by machines
and tubes, is worse than death. It is life
without dignity.
A "Living Will" does not abrogate
the duty of the doctor to do his utmost
to save a life. Nor does it impinge upon
the rights of others. It allows the per
son who writes one to make a decision
about how he will die.
Anyone who finds the idea repug
nant for religious or ethical reasons
need not have one.
LB754 deserves passage, even with
the enormous welcome of important
legislation in this session. At least 10
other states have passed similar bills
into law. LB754 would guarantee a right
that would give many Nebraskans more
comfortable lives and dignified deaths.
Welsch is a senior journalism and Eng
lish major and a Daily Nebraskan copy
desk chief.
racism and the raw abuse of power.
What only mattered was that it was the
government authority. It had to be
right.
For Reagan, this is a theme. At the
same news conference at which he
inarticulately articulated his position
on the Philippine election, he defended
his record on civil rights: "I was doing
things about civil rights before there
was (a government) program." Maybe
he was. But when the individual efforts
of countless individual blacks converg
ed into an often rambunctious civil
rights movement, Reagan recoiled and
opposed civil-rights legislation.
In the end, facts and reality some
times overpower Reagan's conservative
instincts and, almost imperceptibly,
things change. U.S. policy towards
South Africa is not what it once was
although to many blacks there it
hardly matters. When it comes to the
Phillippines, something similar will
happen. In due course, Reagan will
inch away from his initial rhetoric and
policy will dutifully follow. Trouble is,
it may hardly matter.
See COHEN on 5
O