Daily Nebraskan
Wednesday, April 30, 1986
O
Page 4
NebraMcan
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
ASUN can't
It looks like the PARTY party's
final joke of this year's ASUN
election campaign has caught
up with them.
UNL's student court has repri
manded Steve Henning, PARTY
party vice president ial candidate,
for violating student "rights and
responsibilities" because he
openly asked students to mark
"Native American" on their ASUN
ballots. Some people have said
several other PARTY party candi
dates were involved, but Henning
was the only one considered at
the hearing.
Apparently, some of UNL's 49
Native Americans didn't think
the joke was funny. We tend to
agree, but for different reasons.
Some Native American stu
dents who spoke at the hearing
said Henning's actions poked
fun at Native Americans. They
evidently weren't happy about it.
But the little "joke" could
have larger ramifications for
ASUN. Fun is fun, but ASUN
already faces grave credibility
problems. Many students con
sider the group nothing more
than a resume stuffer. Others
complain that the group lacks
power and, thus, has a fruitless
mission at UNL. Henning's
actions, unfortunately, add a
t ouch of humor to ASUN's image.
That's something it really doesn't
need.
The joke also might affect
Deaver iroinps trust
Lobbying may be conflict of interest
Leave it to Deaver. James
Deaver, that is. He has asked
that a special prosecutor be
appointed to investigate the
controversy surrounding the
activities of the lobbying firm he
set up after leaving the Reagan
administration.
Some senators have accused
Deaver of violating conflict of
interest laws by lobbying on
issues on which he worked while
at the White House.
The federal law prohibits
senior officials from quitting
their jobs, then lobbying on mat
ters with which they were directly
involved. This ban stays in effect
for two years after leaving office.
Also, former officials are pro
hibited from lobbying fellow
officials with whom they shared
an office.
Deaver proclaims he is inno
cent of breaking any laws. The
initial question arose with a
reported talk between the dir
ector of the Office of Management
and Budget over the B-l bomber
in spite of the fact that
Deaver participated in White
House meetings on the bomber.
Deaver's explanation was some
what lame. He argued that be
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;
Vicki Ruhga, Editor, 472,1766
Thorn Gabrukiewicz, Managing Editor
Ad Hudler, Editorial Pay Editor
Jim Rogers, Editorial Payc Editor
Chris Welsoh, Copy Desk Chief
afford farce
ASUN election turnouts in future
years. Already there is a sadly
low number of students who
bother to vote in the elections. If
the elections continually come
off as comical, it's unlikely many
more students will bother to
take the time to vote in future
ASUN elections.
Several people already take
their votes for granted. If actions
such as Henning's continue, stu
dents won't think their vote
matters much because ASUN
would be perceived as a joke.
Right now, the ruling of Hen
ning's reprimand is unofficial. It
must be approved by other stu
dent judges including Chief
Justice Curt Oltmans andjudges
John Rood, Jillane Hinds and
Glen Allen.
On Thursday night, the court
ruled that Henning must apolo
gize via a guest editorial in the
Daily Nebraskan and a letter to
the Native American Student
Association. He also must give
five hours of service to Multi
Cultural Affairs office. If he fails
to follow through with these, the
incident will be put on his per
manent university record.
That's not a tough sentence,
but it's enough to prove a point.
We urge the other student
judicial members to follow the
unofficial ruling. A minority has
been offended, and ASUN really
can't afford another farce.
cause the OMB was not part of
the White House, he broke no
laws. Other allegations have
arisen about his lobbying involve
ment with Canada and acid rain,
a South Korean steel company's
fraud case and tax-break interests
in Puerto Rico.
The White House backs up
Deaver's claim to legal behavior.
Yet something even more serious
is at issue here. The "sleaze
factor" has risen again. As any
law student will tell you, ethical
behavior is hardly exhausted by
abiding by legal standards. In
matters of official ethics, the
public has an interest greater
than those expressed in legal
criteria.
Avoiding the appearance of
impropriety is as much a concern
as are legal violations. The
public's confidence in its repre
sentatives is a function of trust,
and trust requires the pursuit of
high ethical standards whether
the law requires it or not.
Deaver has abused the public
by trading the ties he developed
in "public service" for outrageous
pecuniary gains. Public confi
dence has suffered and irre
spective of any laws, that's wrong.
Ad Hudler, editorial page editor;
Thorn Gabrukiewicz, managing edi
tor; James Rogers, editorial asso
ciate and Chris Welsch, copy desk
chief.
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PME.WALDUEIM.
SOMEDAY YOU'LL BE
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ANDSAWRM
MOMENT
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Weaving the threads of wisdom
U.S. attack on Libya ill advised, increases terrorism
There is a difference between
possessing the right to pursue a
course of action and the wisdom
of a course of action.
While the United States certainly
had a right to retaliate for the death of
innocent Americans and the right to
prevent further attacks, it does not
necessarily follow that the U.S. decision
to bomb Libya was wise.
A number of threads weave this
curious fabric. The first thread is spun
out of consideration of the relationship
between nations. At bottom, the notion
that the world is a "community" of
nations obscures international reality
as much as it clarifies. Nations, as
between themselves, live in a "state of
nature." This means that they simply
don't have the ability to submit disputes
to "a common judge with authority," as
John Locke put it.
This may seem like an obvious point.
But the implications of this simple
statement aren't appreciated enough
by the United States when considering
U.S. responses to terrorism.
In the state of nature, people can
mete out their own punishment. They
certainly have a right to do so, yet t here
are certain pragmatic considerations
that they would want to take into
account in pursuing such action.
They would have to remember that
while the right to be left in peace
doesn't diminish without a police force
or court system, individual actions to
enforce such rights are much less
credible. Unlike justice meted out by a
relatively neutral and disinterested
judge, when victims pursue their own
justice, emotions may get in the way
and they may simple be out to get "his
pound of flesh" rather than to do
Waldheim remains serenely ignorant
about knowledge of Nazi atrocities
"I
am Kurt Waldheim. During ignorant of the deportation or murder has seen some of the evidence against
the second world war, I was a of thousands in vicinities where he Waldheim and said he finds it insuf
young man, ambitious, some- acted as an intplliopnrp nffirer Tho fii
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to a war criminal. I knew of atrocities,
most of Europe did, but I could do
nothing to stop them. I am sorry now for
what happened. I realize that in a
minor way I bear some of the respon
sibility for the Holocaust. The shark of
Nazism swam in the sea of collective
indifference. I dedicated my life to
seeing that there will never be a
repetition. Never again."
Of course, no such words have
emanated from the mouth of Waldheim
Ins ead, the former U.N. Secretary Gen-
eral maintains that he was serenely
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justice.
It must be emphasized that the
victims' rights are not reduced in the
state of nature, but practical considera
tions may limit their willingness to
enforce their rights. In a not incon
siderable number of cases, victims
might reasonably choose to forego en
forcement of their rights because the
long-term costs of enforcement are
simply greater than the cost of the
crime.
James
Rogers
This is the case with the Libyan
attack. Given an international inability
to submit disputes to a common judge
as well as an inability (at least now)
to exhaustively deal with those who
terrorize a pragmatic factor of
whether the object of our action is in
fact attained by our action needs to be
considered.
If the U.S. attack on Libya actually
calls forth many more terrorist attacks
on innocents than would have occurred
absent the retaliatory attack, the action
hardly can be said to have been
warranted. The administration admitted
early after the raid on Libya that
terrorist incidents probably would in
crease. To fact, terrorist incidents have
quite clearly increased in number since
the raid.
This brings us to the second thread
of the argument. Symbolic action is
rarely a wise course of action in the
state of nat ure. For example, if one or
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iaZiS lurnea Lurope into an abattoir
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eohen
but Waldheim, nose buried in his work,
never noticed. There was nothing about
any of that in the reports he read.
has the world playing his game. The
president of Austria, a former jurist,
fey
2
two children are occasionally being
stung by bees, nobody will dispute that
the hive needs to be eradicated. But if
the hive cannot be eradicated, then it
hardly follows that a "second best"
opt ion is to harass the bees in the hives
as if to show one's resolve to eradicate
it if only one could.
All that is accomplished by such
symbolic act ion is that the bees' ferocity
is increased with a subsequent increase
in the number and magnitude of sting
ings. Everybody admits that the U.S. attack
on Libya could not have eradicated
Middle Eastern terrorism: The attack
was too small, and the real "hives" of
terrorism probably are in Iran and
Syria, not Libya.
The attack on Libya was symbolic,
intending only to demonstrate U.S.
resolve. But like the bees, symbolic
action, under these circumstances, is
not a "second-best" alternative to
eradication. Instead, the U.S. action
only has served to increase the ferocity
and number of terrorist attacks.
Given these considerations, the U.S.
attack on Libya was ill advised. Certain
ly in a perfect world, every wrong would
be righted, every crime would be
punished. But the world is not perfect.
There are pragmatic limits to the
pursuit of justice in the international
state of nature. Difficult as it may
seem, patience in the face of even
grievous irjury may be preferable in the
state of nature to the vindication of
one's rights.
It's a lesson that America must
learn.
Rogers is a UNL economics graduate
and law student and a Daily Nebrakan
editorial page editor.
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.
less say the same thing. Even Simon
Weisenthal, the premier Nazi hunter of
both fact and legend, waits lor evi
dence. Both he and the Austrian presi
dent say they find Waldheim's explana
tions unbelievable, but they are trained
to deal with proof and thus miss the
point. A senior Justice Department
official has his finger on it, though: He
v t - . i r a J
wants Waldheim barred from the United
States. But it will never happen. The
evidence will surely be lacking and,
showed itself to be morally obtuse,
See COHEN on5
