Thursday, September 11, 1986
Page 4
Daily Nebraskan
Editona
Nebrayskan
Jeff Korbclik, Editor, A 72 1 766
James Rogers, Editorial Faye Editor
Gene Gentrup, Matiayiny Editor
Tammy Kaup, Associate News Editor
Todd von Kampen, Editorial Paye Assistant
aatSTfiJ!!..
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
i
Ethics
Senators may
It wasn't long ago that the
impeachment and criminal
trial of former Attorney Gen
eral Paul Douglas raised serious
questions about the ethics or
lack of them of state govern
ment officials. Now it's happened
again.
Omaha Sen. Bemice Labedz
and North Platte Sen. James
Pappas have been charged with
felonies stemming from their
involvement in the petition drive
to put a lottery proposal on
Nebraska's ballot. Also charged
were Lincoln attorney Walter
Radcliffe, one of the Legislature's
most active lobbyists, and three
officers and a lobbyist of Lottery
Consultants of Nebraska Inc.
In one sense, this is a new
situation because a state sena
tor has never before been charged
with a felony while in office. But
if it appears that Pappas and
Labedz will have t o stand trial on
the charges, they should re
member the spectacle of the
Douglas impeachment trial. It
might then be best for them to
do what Douglas failed to do
until too late: step aside.
No one can peer into the
minds of those who got them
selves into such a mess over the
petition drive. But state law is
crystal clear. You don't circulate
a petition unless you're a regis
tered voter; you don't sign one as
a circulator and let someone else
do the circulating; you don't pay
circulators any more than ex
penses for their work. From the
evidence revealed thus far, it
appears the two senators vio
lated the law.
It's still not clear the two will
even have to stand trial. On Fri
Are we all crooks?
Survey raises questions about society
The findings of an unscien- 90 percent, said they had taken a
tific survey of UNL criminal drink while still under age. Sev-
justice students released last enty-six percent said they had
week are enough to make more driven while drunk, while 67
than a few parents wonder just percent had stolen something
what kind of kids they've raised, from a hotel or motel. Fifty-five
More than 50 percent of the percent said they had used mari-
250 students responding said juana and 23 percent cocaine,
they'd shoplifted, drank illegally, Particularly interesting is that
driven while drunk, vandalized, 8.5 percent of men surveyed said
used maryuana or stolen some- they had forced a woman to have
thing at least once in their life, sex at least once, while 27 per-
And more than 20 percent, still a cent of women said they had
considerable percentage, admit- bejejj jtb& Yictirasof6iicrL; incdr. .
ted to gambling or using cocaine, "dents. When it comes t
You may remmbcerinaefflre'ThJitters, the picture.. of
something like this before. That's those surveyed isn't pretty either,
because Chris Eskridge, the crim- Eighty-four percent said they had
inal justice professor who con- cheated on a test, and 36 percent
ducted the survey, gave 539 UNL had done so on a term paper,
students a similar survey last Eskridge was correct to point
year. out that the study was not a
What's interesting is that 75 scientific survey and doesn't carry
percent of those who answered as much weight as a Gallup or
the survey felt they were basi- Harris poll,
cally law-abiding. The numbers, However, scientific or not, the
however, tell a different story, survey makes you stop and think
On all but four of the 24 ques- about today's society. When 75
tions dealing with a given viola- percent think they're law-abiding
tion of law, at least one in 10 said but more than 25 percent admit
they had broken that law at least to breaking the law in one or
once. more cases, one wonders what
As might be expected, the meaning "law-abiding" has in
highest percentage of students, our generation.
want to resign
day, Labedz and Neligh Sen.
John DeCamp, the third organ
izer of the petition drive, asked
for injunctions against possible
prosecutions in the case on the
grounds the state law is uncon
stitutional. If the law is thrown
out, then Pappas and Labedz are
technically off the hook.
But if the law is upheld and
the case goes to trial, the sena
tors should consider that more
than their personal conduct will
be at issue. If Pappas and Labedz
remain sitting members of the
Legislature, many Nebraskans
also will be judging their gov
ernment as the case proceeds.
Government at every level is
already held in low regard by the
people, which is a dangerous
condition in a democracy. A cri
minal trial while Pappas and
Labedz remain in office will hurt
the Legislature's credibility as
surely as the attorney general's
office suffered during Douglas'
impeachment trial.
Even if the law is thrown out,
the appearance of impropriety
rising from the petition drive
would make it difficult for Pap
pas and Labedz to function as
elected officials. Because Pap
pas' term expires in January, he
could avoid resigning by with
drawing from his re-election
campaign. Labedz, who has two
years left in her term, would have
a tougher choice to make.
Pappas and Labedz are entitled
to their day in court if they must
stand trial, but the Legislature
shouldn't have to stand trial as
well. In that case, the two should
consider leaving the Legislature
for the sake of the body they
serve.
PI6HIF0KPIVEME , 'f j
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ilberalsoliitioiis are
Civil rights policy
The well-publicized dearth of origi
nal and creative liberal policy propo
sals can be traced to one characteristic
of the liberal mind: Its tendency to
engage in political reductionism. This
tendency results in appeals for the
state to address not only political prob
lems through the political process, but
also social and economic problems
where governmental intervention is
less obviously helpful.
Little better example of the ineffec
tiveness and the counterproductiv
ity of such an approach exists than
in the arena of civil rights.
First, nobody questions the legiti
macy of governmental action in sup
port of the traditional civil rights con
cerns; there is an unquestionable politi
cal core to these types of civil rights
issues. After all, the proposition that
all people should be treated equally
before the law.
I'm not disputing that increasing
protection of civil rights affects eco
nomic and social circumstances. For
example, enforcing a right to public
education obviously affects social and
economic outcomes. I'm not speaking
of situations in which the object of
regulation is still political or civil
and what the governmental school sys
tem does is clearly political.
Rather, the distinction underscored
here is that there are political ends
which political means can address,
and there are also social and economic
ends which the political process is ill
equipped to address.
Black economist Thomas Sowell ar
gues in his 1984 book "Civil Rights:
Rhetoric or Reality," that the shift over
the past two decades in the "civil
rights" agenda from political questions
Mommy, do Texans eat quiche?
The passing of the days of red-eye
uu1 yu iuuii ii uuuii uiy sen iu ueciare
.ihe.taaohp image of Texas as being
!1& dead. ijqmi;: 1
' ''.I'JVilt, tU J "D..ULL 1
uefc muy duu auu ouuua Keep on
wearing their snakeskin boots and
Stetson hats, cooking whole steers on
spits, bellowing for blood at football
games, singing about Willie and Way
Ion and the boys and remembering the
Alamo.
But it's all over. I have conclusive
evidence before me of the wimping of
Texas.
It's a breathless announcement about
a new wine called get this, pardners
"Texas First Blush."
The wine is a product of a Texas
vineyard called Ste. Genevieve.
The announcement out of Fort
Stockton, Texas, says:
"It's refreshing, crisp and just a lit
tle bit effervescent. That describes
Texas First Blush, an exciting and
should offer equality
to socio-economic problems distorted
the inner logic of the original, compell
ing civil-rights argument: "Many Amer
icans who supported the initial thrust
of civil rights, as represented by the
Brown v. Board of Education decision
and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, later
felt betrayed as the original concept of
individual opportunity evolved to
ward the concept of equal group re
sults. . . .
'"Equal opportunity' laws and poli
cies require that individuals be judged
on their qualifications as individuals,
without regard to race, sex, age, etc.
'Affirmative action' requires that they
be judged with regard to such mem
bership . . ."
v
Jim
Rogers
The distinction being made here was
lucidly summerized in a quip found at
the end of Sowell's book: "The right to
vote is a civil right. The right to win is
not."
That the politically oriented "civil
rights" approach has been counterpro
ductive in recent years is evidenced by
the inability of the approach to articu
late reasonable political solutions to
the primarily social and economic pro
blems plaguing minority communities
in general, and the black community in
particular.
The social problem of the destruc
tion of the black family is a case in
delicious new white wine with ' impn.
... a special tasting by celebrities
of the first bottles of Texas First Blush
will be held at events in Austin, Hous-
Mike
Royko
ton and Dallas the second week of
September.
" 'We wanted Texans to have a re
freshing early wine, Henri Bernabe, a
partner in Ste. Genevieve Vineyards
said, especially during the warm months
I 171
mtdated.
instead of victory
point. During the discussion among
some black leaders following a network
documentary on the crisis, the most
salient point was not really what was
said, but how it was said. Overtly polit
ical rhetoric was avoided by even the
liberal participants, while the more
(historically) conservative language of
community and responsibility was adop
ted. Similarly, two decades of attempting
to solve the economic problem of black
poverty through the political process
has produced few social results of
value (and may have been seriously
counterproductive to the fabric of the
black community. These days, however,
the rhetoric of some of the black lead
ership has changed from arguing eco
nomic equality as a civil right to sup
porting business development programs
modeled loosely after the success of
the Italian-American Bank of Italy (now
called the Bank of America).
The bottom line is this: The political
process is ill-suited to serve as the
panoply of answers for whatever ails us.
Serious distortion results when we try
to force political solutions onto prob
lems originating in social and eco
nomic institutions. Any political philo
sophy that ignores this fact runs the
risk of being rejected as impractical in
the long run.
The thrust of liberal policy initia
tives over the last 55 years or so has
been to seek political solutions to
problems irrespective of the source of
the problem. Today such attempts no
longer work, and continued attempts
to force the fit in spite of the facts are
not only foolish, it's reactionary.
Rogers is an economics graduate and a
law student.
of late summer when it would bej
is intjjieiLCii nave men iw"h
wines, we felt that Texans should have
a nouveau of their own.
"Ste. Genevieve is helping establish
a newTexas tradition: a thirst-quenching
wine made in Texas for thirsty Texans.
"Texas First Blush is the very blos
som of youthful wine for delicious and
multi-purpose drinking. It's light and
easygoing, capable of being appreciated
and understood through enjoyment."
Oh, I can see it happening now,
down around the Pecos territory.
"Howdy, Bubba."
"How-do, Billy Bob."
"Let's git us a drink, Bubba."
"Best danged offer I've had all day.
"Barkeep, some service here."
"What'll it be gents? Three fingers ot
red-eye? Or some bourbon with branch
See ROYKOonl