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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 11, 1986)
Tuesday, March 11, 1986 Page 4 Daily Nebraskan TT T O o fl VHAi-ii . Netera&kan University of Nebraska-Lincoln Scudder best for UNL The most promising candi date in this year's ASUN race is Chris Scudder of the Excel Party. Scudder's enthusiasm sets her apart from the rest. She has been involved in ASUN and knows the group's limitations. Yet she has fresh proposals, such as travel ing the state to gain support for the university, providing late night bus service to East Cam pus and publishing booklets of inst ructors' teaching evaluations for students. Despite Scudder's strong points, her party has some weak nesses. Excel's first vice presi dential candidate, Dan Hofmeis ter, has made some sexist and anti-gay statements at recent ASUN meetings. But we hope Scudder's influence will counter Hofmeister's backward attitudes. Excel's second vice presiden tial candidate is stronger. A former president of Abel Hall, Tony Coe adds another dimen sion a residence hall perspec tive to Excel. Coe's track record is impressive. He was active in the Harper-Schramm-Smith training table controversy, questioning housing officials' decision to donate part of Smith Hall for a women's training table. On balance, the Daily Nebras kan's endorsement goes to Excel. The Party Party runs a close second. Party executives were the most realistic. Dur'.ng an interview with members of the DN editorial board, Party candi dates often acknowledged that ASUN was powerless in most Petition percentage should be kept tate senators soon will dis cuss a resolution that would make it a little more difficult for Nebraskans to get an issue placed on the ballot. The proposal is ridiculous and defeats the purpose of a democratic check -and-balance philosophy. Sponsored by state Sen. Lee Rupp of Monroe, LR 318 would change to 10 percent of the number of signatures needed to get an issue on the ballot. Cur rently, 7 percent of Nebraska's registered voters have to sign a petition. Rupp says he introduced the bill to provoke legislative discus sion about the petition process, which hasn't been debated for several years. The issue apparent ly gained Rupp's attention be cause of Nebraskans' recent per severence in getting the school consolidation and mandatory seat-belt laws onto the November ballot. Our state and federal govern ments are structured so citizens have final say over any legisla tion. Voters elect legislators who in turn influence the judicial and executive .branches. Some politicians worry that voters wield too much power and Vicki Ruhga, Editor, 4721766 Thorn Gabrukiewicz, Managing Editor Ad Hudler, Editorial Page Editor James Rogers, Editorial Associate Chris Welsch, Copy Desk Chief situations. The party's only goal to legalize alcohol on campus was realistic. But in times of tight budgets and course cancel lations, students should be more concerned with the future of the university than with securing alcohol on campus. Another problem with Party is that its first and second vice presidential candidates will be first-year law students next fall. Experience has shown that first year law students have little, if any, time for extra-curricular activities. Most of Party Party's senator ial candidates also are seniors, which probably explains the party's realistic attitude. But if elected, the seniors will have to resign after graduation. Party Party's realistic tone is one that should continue in ASUN elections. The DN nearly en dorsed the Party Party. The third serious contender, Impact, reflected the current administration too closely. All three executives were white male Greeks, who tend to agree with administrators' points of view. Impact candidates did not have as strong a grasp of issues when interviewed by the DN edi torial board. They seemed to know little about the "Hail, Mary" cancellation or the lack of minor ity faculty on campus. Although this year's ASUN campaign lacked the excitement and exposure of past races, stu dents should take the time to vote. e's voice can place too many bills on the ballot. "Maybe we're reaching the point where we'll have 150 to 200 issues on the ballot every year," Rupp said in an Omaha World Herald article. Even if voters did manage to get that many bills on the ballot, senators should consider the implications. If voters put 200 issues on the ballot, it would clearly indicate that senators aren't representing their con stituents well. The referendum process is a built-in safeguard to ensure that senators don't over look anything or misrepresent their constituents. By introducing the bill, Rupp definitely has sparked some dis cussion about the petition pro cess. That's good. Such processes . need to be reviewed periodically to evaluate their effectiveness. But let's hope senators are smart enough not to pass Rupp's bill. Doing so would be a step toward limiting the public's voice in government. And if for some reason sena tors do pass LR 318, maybe Nebraska voters should band to gether, pool their signatures ami put the bill up to its final test public opinion. ' 1 Americans ignorant of Soviets Personal contacts can foster better understanding Why do Americans insist they know so much about something they have no credible know ledge of? The United States has a multitude of diverse newspapers, magazines and radio and television stations. Ameri cans often boast that their media freely express opposing views in the press and on the air. But the minute the Soviet Union is mentioned, the United States becomes a one-broadcasting station, newspaper or magazine country identical to the image that various world media sketch of our country. Americans have deve loped an astonishingly stereotyped con ception of the Soviet Union. An English teacher who did a survey of American high school students once said, "Americans know about as much about the Soviet Union as they know about Mars," but while they realize that they know very little about Mars, they have no doubts about their "know ledge" of the Soviet Union. Although some Soviets may laugh at this remark, the results of some opin ion polls make one wary and even frightened. The New York Times, for example, recently found that 44 per cent of Americans do not know that the Soviet Union fought in World War II, and 28 percent believe that the Soviet Union was an ally of Hitler's Germany. Birth control experiment continues as does conflict over teens and sex The pickets are gone now. So are the television cameras. At the sprawling Jean Baptiste Point DuSable High School in Chicago, the loudspeaker announces meetings of the pep squad and the senior lunch committee. And in Room 156, the med ical clinic is open for sports checkups, eye exams, bumps, bruises and birth control. Back in September a newspaper here ran a headline about this clinic: "Pill Goes to School." The furor brought more attention to the black inner-city high school than it had received since opening day in 1935. Judy Steinhagen wasn't surprised. To this day, the pragmatic principal of DuSable, a school with a 58 percent dropout rate, admits, "People who left high school 30 or 40 years ago and don't have teen-agers were shocked. I will be the first to say that the schools probably shouldn't be in this (birth control). But kids today are sexually active. It's a Band-Aid situation." This particular Band-Aid is trying to salve the injury that comes to children when they bear children. It is some thing that happens commonly in this neighborhood. The South-Side high Most Americans have little interest in what is happening abroad. The few exceptions are those events that most directly effect the United States, such as the Vietnam war. This phenomenon can be partly explained by geographi cal, as well as historical factors. For a long time, U.S. foreign policy was isola tionist, and encouraged people to be concerned only about events directly affecting their country. Patrick Meister It is difficult today for Radio Moscow or the Pravda to influence ordinary Americans. Broadcasts from Moscow come to the United States only by short wave radio, which cannot be received by most U.S. radio stations. To list en to Moscow, one must spend extra money and make an extra effort. The U.S. mass media is the primary culprit in creating ignorance because they have convinced their audience that they are the most truthful and comprehensive sources for learning world affairs. Additionally, U.S. mass media have developed a hyper-paranoia equating all types of school that graduated the mayor of Chicago now draws from what is argua bly the poorest urban neighborhood in the United States. Here, in 1983, 436 babies were bom to women between 10 and 19 years old, 300 of them to women of high-school age. Most of them joined the ranks of welfare. In 1985 alone, American fami lies like these, families that started Ellen Goodman when the mother was a teen-ager, cost taxpayers $16.6 billion. It is these numbers and these cost figures that have pushed the issue of teen-age pregnancy into the headlines and encouraged experiments like the one at DuSable. Today there are only 40 high-school clinics that give birth con trol counseling. Only nine in the coun try actually dispense condoms and pills. Nevertheless, the opening of this clinic hit a sensitive nerve. Americans censorship with blatant lies. Concerted ideological indoctrination has infected the American conscious ness with a dangerous virus: the con stant expectation of a nuclear attack from the East. One gets the impression that many have never heard about Soviet peace initiatives. Instead they have been persuaded that Russians are hostile. But every cloud has a silver lining. The deliberately planted sense of fear prods more Americans into an active struggle for disarmament and preven tion of a nuclear war. This leads to familiarity with Soviet policies and proposals. This is a slow process, but a growing number of Americans are begin ning to realize that the United States, not the Soviet Union, is blocking the normalization of relations. Contacts between our peoples have enormous value because nothing can dispel misconceptions as well as per sonal experience. The summit meeting in Geneva played an important role. I hope that Americans received truly objective and honest information that will help them gain a deeper under standing of the Soviet Union's real intentions. I also think President Rea gan could have gained more than merely the realization that Gorbachev is human. Meister is a UNL senior in accounting and business administration. still argue about the best form of pro tection for their young. Many of us think there is an inherent conflict between encouraging teen-agers to say no to sex and making it safer when they say yes. Even Dr. Doris McCulley, clinic dir ector and a 1965 graduate of DuSable, says: "There's not 'a' solution. There's a significant role in teaching moral ethics. But right now we need to stop the hemorrhaging." The tourniquet, as they see it and apply it, is birth control, easily available, free and confidential. "We see everything from asthma to early labor," says the forthright nurse practitioner Louis McCurry, who wishes the public and press would care as much about teen-age health as teen age sex. "In the first two months, 10 to 15 percent of the kids we screened couldn't see well enough to read. We had six cases of diabetes, a lot of hypertension." They won't do an official count until the first year is over in June, but anec dotal evidence suggests that there is now one pregnancy for every six last year. See GOODMAN on 5