Thursday, April 24, 1986
Page 4
Daily Nebraskan
Vicki Ruhga, Editor, 472,1766
Thorn Gabrukiewicz, Managing Editor
Ad Hudler, Editorial Page Editor
Jim Rogers, Editorial Page Editor
Chris Welsch, Copy Desk Chief
Nebralkan
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
SotoDa
Program deserves praise
UNL's administration de
serves a pat on the baek.
Amidst all the bad news
of budget cuts, faculty migration
and film censoring, admini
strators have started building an
extensive program to help curb
one of UNL's problems the
brain drain. Their efforts should
be commended.
UNLhad a 13 percent decrease
in merit scholars for 1985, com
pared with 1983-84 figures. That's
a decrease from the 1983-84
number of 162.
UNL officials admit they
haven't done much to attract
merit scholars in the past. They
haven't had to. Many simply
decided to attend UNL.
But competition has grown
and money and illustrious pro
grams have lured some potential
UNL merit scholars away. Admini
strators have taken the initiative
to correct the problem.
Beginning this fall, UNL will
sponsor an honors seminar for all
merit scholars to help create an
academic atmosphere several
merit scholars feel they can't
find at UNL
In addition, UNL is starting to
recruit aggressively. Instead of
waiting for a mailing list of
national merit scholar finalists,
they now subscribe to a list of
potential merit scholars, thus
increasing the possibility of
attracting some additional stu
dents. Lisa Schmidt, in charge of
the merit scholar program, says
she and her staff travel hundreds
Kids cam's write
Comprehensive exams are needed
Recent studies show that
writing skills of U.S. stu
dents between the ages of
13 and 17 have improved slightly,
but they still have a long way to
go.
Conducted by the Educational
Testing Service in Princeton, N J.,
the study found that only two of
every 10 high school students
could write a persuasive letter
usingvalid arguments and reason
ing skills.
Only one in three students
could write an imaginative paper
fusing relevant ideas,-ac?ording
jjf,o an article summarizing the '
; 'study in the April 14 Christian '
'Science Monitor.
Beading and writing skills are
vital to students' academic suc
cess and advancement in the
workplace. Citizens who cannot
read or write also hinder demo
cracy, because they lack the
information needed to cast respon
sible votes.
Many educators have stepped
up writing courses in high schools,
but the change must be made
earlier, during the
influential
grade school years.
In elementary schools, some
slow learners are passed from
m waonfied
of miles every year to Nebraska
high schools to recruit. In addi
tion, they visit Denver metro
politan area and eventually want
to recruit in the St. Louis, Kansas
City, Mo. and Wichita, Kan., areas.
UNL's efforts to attract intel
ligence shouldn't stop there.
When, the university recovers
financially, administrators should
funnel more funds to Schmidt's
office. Promotional materials and
travel expenses cost money. Some
of those additional funds also
could increase the $750 base pay
given to merit scholars to $1,000.
Why spend money to attract
merit scholars? First, one thing
potential merit scholar students
look for in a university is how
many merit scholars it has. Thus,
the more scholars the university
has, the more it will attract. In
addition, those fancy figures
catch the attention of quality
professors who otherwise might
not look at Nebraska.
True, merit scholars aren't the
only type of students who contri
bute to UNL. Several students
have great leadership abilities
but only average grades. We en
courage UNL, in its merit scholar
recruiting, to watch for these
students, too, who can contribute
just as much to the academic
atmosphere
It will take a lot of work to
reverse Nebraska's brain drain.
But UNL's administration has
taken a step in the right direc
tion. one grade to another, regardless
of their grasp of the basics. This
results in hundreds of high school
and college students having
severe learning deficiencies.
Much time and money is
wasted on remedial high school
and college courses to bring
these students up to an accept
able level.
To avoid this problem, the U.S.
Department of Education should
require annual comprehensive
'exams before students advance
to the next grade level.
Students who' could not pass
the: exam would have to. go to
summer school or repeaT their
current grade level.
Some parents complain when
their children are required to
repeat a grade level, but the
school officials should consider
what is best for the children.
They need to learn the basics,
even if it takes an extra year.
As children spend more hours
watching television, the need for
emphasis on reading and writing
becomes more important. Through
elementary and high school test
ing, U.S. educators can make
sure students have the necessary
writing skills.
AirasiMiuisis
VMM CANADIANS
HAD IN MIND? WHAT
ARE WE SUPPOSED TO
DO WHEN THESE POTS
FILL UP WITH ACID
RAIN?
U.S. misses poiimi
Palestine, not Libya, is at heart of
I have struggled over the past ten
days between feeling good about
the bombing of Libya and feeling
bad about feeling good. I have con
cluded that I am correct in my ambi
valence. The bombing was both justified
and unjustified. Rather, let me say (as I
hear Aristotle turning over in his grave)
that the bombing was justified given a
certain set of assumptions, but un-
justified because those assumptions
are wrong, but the assumptions that
are correct are not those that most
people opposing the bombing think are
correct.
It is not simply that war itself is
unjustified. The merits of pacifism
aside, there does seem to be a very good
case for just war. That is, the decision
to go to war can be the conclusion of an
argument that begins with undeniable
premises and proceeds along lines of
irrefutable deduction or very strong
induction. There are times when, given
the circumstances, it is rational to go
to war. World War II certainly jumps to
mind.
Nor is it that this attack was, as
some columnists are so piously quick
to point out, the big guy against the
little guy. Size can be deceiving. Again,
world war 11 pitted two ot the largest
nations in the world both in land
mass and population against three
ittle shrimp nations with little shrimp
leaders. And it was all the big guys
could do to keep from getting pushed
into the sea. Besides, what rule says
that a little guy can get away with
.. wlllv &UJ.
Again, the bombing was not un
justified simply because it destroyed
civilian homes and killed children. It is
one thing to pledge to aim only at
military targets, and another things
entirely to suppose that only those
targets will be hit. When nations go to
war, innocent people die. We cannot
Unlikely tongue removal right solution
to protecting citizens from jabber jaws
I wish I could predict that it's the
beginning of a national trend, but it
probably isn't. Nevertheless, we can
still savor this one isolated incident.
It happened on a recent Saturday
night in a movie theater in Chattanooga,
Tenn.
Five teenagers were sitting together
and loudlyjabbering. That's what many
young people do when they go to
movies. They jabber.
I've never understood why people
want to pay money to get into a movie
house in order to jabber. There are so
many other places to jabber. On street
corners, in school vards. nn hJl
porches in hamburger joints
But some some strange reason, thou-
sands of people like to jabber in movie
say, "OK, we'll have a war, but let's be
neat about it." Either the move was
justified or it was not, regardless of its
extraneous results.
Finally, the injustice of the bombing
does not rest in there having been
readily available alternative action for
dealing with terrorists. We tried that,
remember? Our hard and fast European
friends are too worried about their own
backyards to be overly motivated by
artificial loyalties to a nation three
thousand miles from the action. And
who can blame them?
James
Sennett
But one thing is agreed the wave
of terrorist activitv cannot go on. Are
there more workable solutions? Well,
Reagan gave the world plenty of chances
and plenty of warnings, but apparently
no one saw it to be the serious problem
that he did.
But in the great dehate over thp
bombing, no one has bothered to ask
why the terrorist activities which
prompted it are going on, and specifical-
ly why they are of late aimed at the
United States. Here is where those
mistaken assumptions I promised you
come in.
Mideast terrorism is a direct result
Ul mc luldl uiacuon Dy ine wor d
community concerning the pleas of the
Palestinians lor a homeland. The United
States is an ardent supporter of Israel.
As such, we have blinded ourselves to
the bullying tactics and incessant
paranoia mat is the framework of
Israeli domestic policy. Israel is scared
to death ol the Palestinians, so we are
theaters.
And t hat's one of the biggest reasons
why hundreds of thousands of their
victims have stopped going to the
movies.
Mike
Royko
other membe s of Z JD.Denn: And
7 g tne usual re"
"shhhh" S inl"' Saying
their seats g ln
' eiwl
terror problem
obligingly scared to death of them as
well. The thinking is that a Palestinian
homeland juxtaposed to Israel would
certainly mean her downfall within a
generation. And the Israelis cannot
resist the Palestinian pressure without
U.S. support. Consequently, the Arab
world sees the U.S. as the single
greatest block to a Palestinian home
land and a fit target for terrorist
activity.
But the lesson of history is that
Israel can take care of itself. No less
than three times they have beaten back
Arab assaults in a matter of days. We
are dealing with some of the most
cunning military minds of this century,
who are operating with U.S. weapons
the most sophisticated in history. If
there is one nation in all the world that
does not need to be fearful of its
neighbors, it is Israel, The Arabs can't
beat them, even with a Palestinian
front on the West Bank. Israel knows
that, the Arabs know that, and we know
that. So why are we all acting like it
isn't true?
Perhaps it is time the United States
took a lesson from France on how to be
an international friend. Once the ir
rationality of your ally demands action
from you that could lead to unnecessary
destruct ion of the property and lives of
your citizens, it is time to face up to
reality. We have been hit by terrorists
and subsequently risked all-out war
against Libya because we are too scared
to admit that the Palestinians have a
legitimate gripe and Israel is dead
vvrnnt? ,n ts narnnn o hp pvp in
sticking up for friends as much as the
next guy. But when Israel's unreason
able fear means that bombs will fall
and my friends and neighbors will die, I
draw the line.
Sennett is a graduate student in philo
sophy and campus minister with College-
Career Christian Fellowship.
But these gestures are seldom effec
tive. Jabberers don't care if they disturb
others. If anything, they enjoy it, U
gives them a sense of power.
So, all a person can do is suffer
through the jabber, move to a different
part of the theater, or leave entirely.
That's unfair, but it's a result of a
glaring defect in our legal system.
If the system were fair, a person
would be fully within his rights to give
a jabberer a warning. Then, if the
warning was ignored, he could seize
the Jabberer by th throat and squeeze
until the nuisance was unconscious or
deceased.
Afew well-publicized strangulations
See ROYKO on 5