Daily Nebraskan
Tuesday, August 5, 1986
n o n
O
Page 4
w at
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Nebraskan
Stbrange politics
Week's events erratic
This has been a strange week
for the U.S. and international
relations.
First, last week President
Reagan decided to extend wheat
subsidies to the Soviet Union.
The impact of the action is to
make American wheat cheaper
in the Soviet Union than domesti
cally. This action is ironic. The Rea
gan administration's antagonistic
posture toward the Soviet Union
has always been worn on its
sleeve. To then turn around and
sell cheap grain to the same
nation is quite strange.
If the goal of the action is to
help the American farmer, then a
more consistent action would
simply be to give farmers the
money, or for the U.S. to buy the
grain and burn it. At least in that
fashion we would not aid the
United States' primary geopoliti
cal enemy.
In other action, the New York
Times has reported that Sen.
Jesse Helms is being investigated
by the F.B.I, for alleged leaks of
U.S. intelligence information to
Chile.
Helms is by far the most vigor
ous supporter of the Pinochet
regime in the Senate. His position
as chairman of the Foreign Rela
tions Committee's Western Hemis
phere Subcommittee has been
used by him to castigate current
state department policies criti
ary
H
M
Protests should be peaceful
Finally, the controversial film
"Hail Mary" will be shown on the
UNL campus. Judge Warren
Urbom ruled the cancellation of
the film was because of improper
pressure applied to the Sheldon
Film Theatre by state Sen. Ber
nice Labedz. The film will play
August 17 and 18 in the Nebraska
Union Ballroom.
Dan Ladely, director of the
Sheldon Film Theatre, told a
Daily Nebraskan reporter Monday
that the decision to have the
screenings in t he Nebraska Union
rather than in the Sheldon
Theatre was because of incidents
at other showings of the film.
Ladely said there had been
demonstrations and damages at
screenings of the film in other
cities.
If demonstrations do happen
at the August 17 and 18 screen
ings, it is hoped that they will be
peaceful. If those who demon
strate claim they are doing so
Editorial Policy
Unsigned editorials represent
official policy of the summer 1986
Daily Nebraskan. Policy is set by the
Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board. Its
members are Bob Asmussen, editor;
James Rogers, editorial page editor;
Kent Endacott, news editor; Jeff
Bob Asmussen, Editor, h 72, 1 766
James Rogers, Editorial Page Editor
Kent Endacott, News Editor
Jeff Korbelik, Associate News Editor
Jeff Apel, Sorfs Editor
Charles Lieurance.lrte fc Entertainment Editor
cal of the Chilean government.
That a senator of the U.S. would
abuse his position by purposely
hindering his own government's
action with respect to another
government is outrageous. It
would be a scandal of major
proportions if the claims are
true.
The final foreign policy incon
gruity is the public reception
being accorded by members of
the American left to Nicaraguan
President Daniel Ortega. Ortega
was here to address the United
Nations regarding enforcement
of a World Court decision against
the U.S.
After his U.N. address Ortega
began a speaking and cocktail
tour of U.S. liberals critical of
current U.S. policy toward the
Marxist Central American govern
ment. Yet the wildly enthusiastic
response given to Ortega has to
be questioned.
Even if current U.S. policy is
ill advised, this does not mean
that Ortega is a saint. Severe
religious persecution, violations
of the right of free speech, and
attacks against indigenous popu
lations within Nicaragua are just
some of the injustices ascribed
to the Marxist government. That
such activities should be en
couraged by Americans who claim
for themselves the title of "hu
manitarians" is, at least, incon
sistent. screening
because the film violates their
Christian beliefs then they should
also maintain their Christian
beliefs and not destroy university
property.
Moving the film from Sheldon
to the student union is probably
a good preventive measure. If
damage should occur, better that
it be the more breakable Union
than the fragile art at Sheldon.
Those opposing the showing
of the film should accept grace
fully the fact that they lost the
case and not take out any frustra
tions on the property of UNL.
Urbom made his decision and
that decision will stand. Any
types of destruction by protesters
would simply be sour grapes at
this point.
No trouble should be expected
at the showings of "Hail Mary,"
but if there is any demonstrating
it should be controlled and
peaceful.
Korbelik, associate news editor; Jeff
Apel, sports editor; Charles Lieur
ance, arts and entertainment editor.
Editorials do not necessarily re
flect the views of the university, its
employees, the students or the NU
Board of Regents.
, BILL REHHOJlSr IS A PEttD HUSBW
AND FAM1LV MAN. BILL REHNOUIST IS OPEN ED
HONEST ATP A MAN OF TOWERING IMELKl
BILL REHNCUlSt IS A PORN LEADER AMD A
BRILLIANT LfiSALSCHoLAR.
Unseen violence insulting
Degrading themes pander to human weaknesses
For a show to be deemed suitable
for the entire family typically
means that it lacks overt portrayals
of sex and violence. Though the absence
of rivers of blood flowing before one's
eyes on a screen may be a necessary
condition for concluding that the enter
tainment lacks perverse violence, it is
not a sufficient condition.
Whenever violence is done to reason
able sensibilities, exposing young
children to the fare should be done
only with significant parental reflec
tion. For example, a professor recently
complained to me that he noticed a
rise in movie portrayals of academic
cheating in humorous contexts. He
cited such movies as "War Games,"
"Ferris Bueller's Day Off," and "Back to
School" as some of the more obvious
examples.
I agreed with him, but 1 think the
unseen violence to commonly held
sensibilities is much more insidious.
Two of the more perverse instances
of onscreen "entertainment" are
"Bambi" and "The Andy Griffith Show."
In the Andy Griffith Show (A.G.S.)
the relationship between Sheriff Taylor
and Barney is nothing short of con
temptible. Sheriff Taylor's manipula
tion and patronization of Barney is
scarcely better than the detestable
treatment accorded to Catherine in
Henry James' work, "The Washington
Square."
Rehnquist's past actions show
sensitivity to his own feelings
Despite what his critics say, it's
pretty clear now that Justice
William Rehnquist has a long
history of being sensitive to the rights
of individuals.
For instance, it has come out during
Senate confirmation hearings on his
appointment as chief justice that Rehn
quist once owned a home in Phoenix
that had a covenant barring sale of the
home to anyone who wasn't white.
And he presently owns a vacation
home in Vermont that has a covenant
barring sale of the home to Jews.
This shows that Rehnquist if he
knew about the covenants is
sensitive to those who believe it is their
right not to live in the same neighbor
hood as blacks or Jews.
When the existence of these coven
ants came out at his confirmation
hearing, Rehnquistsaid that they were
illegal and couldn't be enforced, which
is true, and that he didn't know about
them when he bought these homes.
I suppose it is possible that Rehn
quist wasn't aware that the covenants
existed. Real estate transactions are
loaded with documents that have a lot
of small print that nobody except the
DON'T GET UPPITY I W
J rw
! Y
In the story Catherine was a woman
of great integrity: obedient to parental
authority, devoted, and naive. She did
not enjoy the quickest of minds and so
earned the contempt of those "obvious
ly" more "brilliant" than herself. Con
sequently she was much abused by
those that should have been closest to
her. Indeed, as to her suitor, "her faith
in his sincerity was so complete that
she was incapable of suspecting that
he was playing with her . . ."
Jim
Rogers
The major distinction between Henry
James' treatment of Catherine and
Barney's treatment in the Griffith Show
is that James wants to make the reader
offended at Catherine's treatment,
while in A.G.S. they use Barney's
exploitative treatment as a point of
entertainment.
In A.G.S., Barney is manipulated by
the sheriff always, ostensibly, for his
own good. This is insult to injury. The
situations always turn out much worse
than they would have absent the
sheriffs intervention: Barney is sub
sequently played the greater fool be
cause of Sheriff Taylor's paternalistic
meddlings. The "lesson" of the Griffith
lawyers bothers to read. That's why we
hire lawyers to make sense out of all
the small print and legal jargon.
Of course, Rehnquist is a lawyer. An
outstanding one, in fact. First in his
law school class, chosen for the prized
position of clerk to a Supreme Court
justice, and now about to become chief
justice of that court.
Mike
Royko
It's also been disclosed that as a
young attorney in Phoenix, Rehnquist
once wrote a letter that was printed in
a newspaper expressing his opposition
to a proposed anti-discrimination law
in that city.
Of course, Rehnquist says he has
since changed his mind on this issue,
and that he was just a young fellow
when he wrote that letter. And that's
true. He was just a young man with a
brilliant education and a law degree
frcm cue of the finest universities in
YU
rPn
1. 1 -;L. J
Show is one that no child should learn:
It's funny to see people used to their
own detriment by one that holds himself
to be morally superior precisely due to
the meddling.
Bambi represents another theme that
is hardly appropriate for family "enter
tainment." The pantheism of Bambi has only
one lesson: humans are evil. The
hypocrisy of the film's protoenviron
mentalism is too absurd to ignore. On
one hand humans are portrayed as the
most beastly of beasts. On the other
hand humans are not accorded the
right of all other animals to amorally
alter their environment. Any human
"intrusion" is considered immoral.
Thus, humans are neither superior
to animals so they may justly use
animals for their own ends, nor are they
the equal of the other animals so
they may at least kill for their own
ends. The consequence of such a theme
is to encourage guilt-wrenched humans
that can neither consider themselves
above the brute, or even on a par with
the brute. Man doesn't even have the
rights of the most beastly carnivore.
I am obviously not advocating the
censorship of these programs. Instead,
I argue that the "least common de
nominator" effect results in "enter
tainment" that panders to human weak
nesses rather than uplifts. To consider
such perverse themes to be suitable
family fair is perhaps the greatest irony
of all.
America.
Then there was the memo he wrote
while he was clerk to a Supreme Court
justice in the 1950s.
In the memo, he supported an 1896
Supreme Court decision that upheld
school segregation.
But he now says that what he wrote
only reflected the prosegregation views
of the man for whom he was clerking.
Which shows that he was sensitive to
the feelings of his boss.
Of course, writing a dissenting memo
would have required that Rehnquist
actually believed that school segrega
tion was wrong at that time. But when
he was asked what he believed, he said
he couldn't remember.
Considering that this was an issue
that led to one of the landmark Supreme
Court decisions of our time, it's sur
prising that he can't remember what
his personal beliefs were.
Or maybe he just doesn't want to say
because of his sensitivity to his own
feelings.
1986 By The Chicago Tribune
.Distributed by
Tribune Media Senices, Inc.
