Friday, August 15, 1986
Page 4
Daily Nebraskan
ji
Bob Asmussen, Editor, 472,1766
James Rogers, Editorial Page Editor
Kent Endacott, News Editor
Jeff Korbelik, Associate News Editor
Jeff Apel, Sports Editor
Charles Lieurance, A rts & Entertainment Editor
Nebra&kan
University ol Nebraska-Lincoln
Editor says
immer emd
E
gads, not another "So Long
to the Daily Nebraskan"
editorial.
At the conclusion of each
semester's Daily Nebraskan, or
in this case at the conclusion of
the summer Daily Nebraskan, it
seems the editor writes a sappy,
sentimental journey through the
past semester's DN. Along with
this is the usual praise for the
loyal employees that have made
the semester "an experience I
will never forget and one that I
will always cherish."
What's really needed on this
last day of publication is a check
of how we did what we said we
were going to try to do. Political
candidates are always faced with
the question of accountability
for the promises that they made
during the campaign. Editors of
student papers should be expec
ted to at least try and answer
those questions, too.
One thing we promised was to
listen to our readers. For those
few readers that cared to be
heard, we did listen. Question of
accountability on that point is
answered in the affirmative.
Another promise made was
that the Daily Nebraskan would
have a good staff. Without get
Left or right?
DN welcomes competition
The times, they do seem to be
a changin'. For over two decades
now, many have considered col
lege campuses to be the unques
tioned purveyors of liberalism.
And within American universi
ties the student newspaper has
been considered one of the more
strident expressions of this lib
eralism. Now there are some that be
lieve that this true protector of
the liberal tradition seems to
have undergone a change of heart.
The Wall Street Journal re
cently reported that the Center
for National Policy, a liberal
think-tank has called a group of
students together to discuss the
"creation of liberal newspapers
on the nation's college cam
puses." Some student newspap
ers are considered too consist
ently conservative and that there
is a liberal "void" on college
campuses.
Some think that the Daily
Nebraskan has moved in a too
conservative direction. For exam
ple, earlier this summer, a lib
eral student columnist received
a letter from a reader asking
whether he had been forced to
stop writing columns because he
was too liberal and was now only
allowed to report. (Of course, no
such action had been taken.)
The belief that the DN is too
conservative, however, exists only
among a comparative minority.
'so long'
ting sappy, let's just say that this
summer's staff met and surpassed
this editor's expectations.
This summer's staff was able
to handle the difficult dilemma
that was presented with having
only two days a week to publish.
Timeliness was hard to maintain
in the stories, yet even when
timeliness had to be sacrificed,
the DN staff was able to shed
new light on stories that had
been heard previously from only
one side.
The mix of "new" news and
"old important" news seemed to
be a good one. All the major sto
ries were covered, even if they
were a few days old.
We hope that we were able to
serve our summer readers to the
best of our abilities. We know
that we tried as hard as we could
to present a readable and infor
mative paper.
Our only problem was that
when we went to press on Mon
day, the big story seemed to
happen Tuesday. When we went
to press Thursday, all the big
stories seemed to happen on
Friday. All we can hope in the
future is that the news does a
little bit better jab of adhering to
our schedule.
Thank you and, of course, have
a courteous day.
There are many more that still
believe the. DN is a heavily left
leaning newspaper. Recently, for
example, a right-wing magazine
disparagingly quoted a DN edi
torial as evidence that campus
newspapers are as leftist as al
ways. Additionally, conservative
Christians on campus have plans
to publish an occassional "alter
native" paper.
We can hope these attempts
at founding additional papers on
college campuses succeed. Uni
versities are uniquely situated to
facilitate the positive exchange
of ideas. Papers expressing di
verse ideological positions are
certainly ideal realizations of
such a goal.
Universities need alternative
voices. All in all newspapers over
the past 20 years seem to have
been too uniformly liberal
manifesting more of a herd in
stinct rather than a reasoned
commitment to liberal princi
ples. The solution to such a prob
lem, however, is not to have a
bunch of college newspapers tur
ning out conservative material in
a similarly unthinking fashion.
Competing newspapers serve as
the best solution to the problem
of the herd instinct in college
newspapers and perhaps a
mong the student body as a
whole.
; ri-.i-7iTn.Mii 111 i" KT " "1 . 1 n
iwes
Columnist asks, 'How
I photocopy and keep articles that I
find interesting. This sometimes
inadvertently introduces me to other
articles as well especially if the
issue is a symposium issue. For exam
ple, when I photocopy a journal article
many times I get the last page of the
previous article and the first page of
the following article. If the issue is a
symposium on one topic, these articles
may be interesting as well.
Jim
Rogers
This phenomenon recently occurred
when I photocopied an article out of a
philosophical journal titled "Ethics"
which published a symposium on rights.
The last line in the article just proceed
ing the intended article caught my eye.
Quoting somebody named Rhees, the
author concluded, "For the man devoted
to liberty, there is nothing which makes
liberty important, and he has no reason
for his devotion."
Agent gives up guarding President
to follow 'entrepreneurial spirit'
One of things a public relations
firm does to earn its fee is create
public interest in its clients.
And one of the ways it does this is by
sending press releases to newspapers
and broadcasting stations telling us
why we should interview their clients
and provide them with publicity.
I seldom pay attention to these news
releases because I've always believed
that people who have interesting sto
ries seldom hire a public relations firm
to help them tell it.
And in Chicago, with our brand of
politics, it's often the slippery charac
ter trying to hide something who is the
most fascinating.
But a news release came in the other
day that caught my eye. I'm sure if you
read it, it would have drawn your inter
est, too.
The opening paragraph said:
"After working for seven years as an
agent of the U.S. Treasury Department
guarding the President and Vice Presi
dent plus other U.S. and foreign digni
taries, as well as investigating gun and
explosive violations, Sam Holt needed
more excitement in his life.
"Only this time he opted for . . ."
You must concede that it is a pro
vocative beginning. But what comes
next?
. .-vvWT ...
. A, . .... ,11
freedom symposium
would you like your
Referring farther up the page, the
author contends that freedom does not
take a policy position above "normal"
policy issues. That is, just as some men
prefer highways and bananas (as con
sumer goods), other men prefer free
dom and apples.
He writes, "Liberalism is to be
regarded as a form of moral and politi
cal practice, a species of partisanship,
rather than as a deduction from con
ceptual analysis of or from rationally
certified principles. Arguments and
considerations may move people to
adopt liberal (i.e., classical or 19th
century liberal) positions on specific
issues, and they may deepen (or weaken)
liberal commitment where it already
exists.
"No sort of reasoning is available,
however, which can bring about unity
among exponents of rival political and
moral traditions."
He claims, then, that the only method
of argument is to argue from people's
taste for freedom in some areas to their
recognition of the "freedom taste" in
other areas. Sort of like arguing that if
you like steak, you ought to like prime
rib.
According to the author, the propo
sition that "freedom is good" is no
more compelling to an individual
brought up in a, say, non-Western cul
ture that does not value freedom, than
the proposition "dog soup is good" is
compelling upon the Western man's
Indulge me for a moment. Try to
guess what federal agent Sam "opted
for" when he felt the need for more
excitement in his life.
Come on, let your imagination roam.
Put yourself in federal agent Sam
Holt's place.
You've been guarding a president
and a vice president, scanning those
big crowds for crazed assassins. You
know how easy it is, in a nation of guns
Mike
Royko
and loonies, for someone to work their
way close, draw, open fire. If it happens
1 you'll have only a split second to react,
to get between the gun and the presi
dent. So you watch their eyes, looking
for the strange gaze, and their hands,
alert for the sudden movement.
After that kind of career, where do
you turn to get your adrenalin flowing
even more?
Think. If you were a federal agent
who decided that tracking down evil
types who build bombs or sell illegal
arsenals was too tame, what would you
if v
steak and dog soup?
conscience.
Responding to Nobel prize-winning
economist Hayek's conception of free
dom, the author observes: "What Hayek
resists is the recognition that a con
ception of individual rights can be
defended only as abstraction from pol
itical experience.
"A liberal conception of individual
rights must accordingly be seen as no
more (and no less) than an abridge
ment of maxim and considerations
intimated in a historically specific pol
itical tradition. It can have nojustifica
tory force for any one who is not already
in some measure attached to the tradi
tion it seeks to explore."
The claims of the article itself merit
reflection. Basic questions of political
life are all too often ignored. In the
modern welfare state and with increas
ing claims of censorship and other "a
bridgements" of freedom and choice
arising, reflection on what constitutes
freedom and its contours is of some
importance. I think I disagree with the
author's conclusion (although I'd need
to read the entire article to find the
entire argument for his claim). But the
question of why freedom is important
and what, precisely, makes it impor
tant is something which could use a
little thought. Well, make that a lot of
thought.
Rogers, typically an economics graduate
and law student, is picking up some
math hours this summer.
do for kicks?
Maybe leading jungle safaris? No,
that's become too easy even the
tents are now air-conditioned. Setting
out to scale Mount Everest? Maybe, but
it's been done so often. Diving to find
the wreck of the Titanic? Someone beat
you to it.
Do you give up? Is the suspense get
ting to you? You want to know what
Sam Holt did to bring even more
excitement into his life? OK, brace
yourself. The news release goes on to
say:
". . . Only this time he opted for a
new type of business venture.
"Presently, Holt, 38, is president and
co-founder of the New Orleans-based
franchise system Zack's Famous Fro
zen Yogurt."
Doesn't that get the pulse racing?
He sells frozen yogurt.
And it makes sense to me. One day
you're yawning through the routine of
looking for assassins or mad bombers
and you say to yourself:
"Sam, is this all there is? Get some
gusto in your life. Get out there and sell
some yogurt. Franchise, man, fran
chise." .
What could be more logical in this
See ROYKO on 5
