Page 4
Daily Nebraskan
Friday, October 31, 1986
TP J1
ditona
ic
" at
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
is
Nebraskan
Separate issues or throwout
Its title on Tuesday's general
election ballot is Referendum
400, but everyone who has fol
lowed the election campaign
knows it by another name: LJB662.
Few proposed state laws have
attracted so much ink, controv
ersy and confusion as this 1985
law.
Voters face a terrible dilemma
in deciding LB662's fate. So many
claims have been made about
what the bill would do that no
one really knows what they'd get
if they voted "yes." Due to that
confusion, we feel a "no" vote on
Referendum 400 would be wisest.
The 55-page bill boils down to
these provisions.'
OA11 elementary-only school
districts must merge or affiliate
with districts that have high
schools by Sept. 1, 1989.
ONo more than 45 percent of
the total operational costs of
Nebraska's schools can come
from property taxes.
OThe state sales fax will be
raised by 1 cent Jan. 1 in order to
povide money for increased state
ad to schools.
Within those three sentences
lie a host of possible meanings.
About the only thing voters know
for certain is that sales taxes
would go up if LB662 is retained.
That explains why the law cata
pulted to prominence in the gov
ernor's race, with Republican
Kay Orr calling LB662 a tax
increase and claiming that Dem
ocrat Helen Boosalis's support
for the law means she favors rais
ing taxes.
Boosalis responds that LB662
means property-tax relief, which
she supports. At that point, how
ever, everyone falls into a quag
mire. Does a 45 percent cap on
property-tax support for schools
combined with a sales-tax
hike equal property-tax relief?
Would the 1-cent sales tax
increase be enough to pay for
increased state aid? Who would
get the extra state aid? No one
really knows. LB662 doesn't say.
Broadcast Mag
Public radio, TV news too slanted
ome of the best program
ming on the electronic media
can be found on public radio
and public Some of the most
biased news coverage can be
found there, too. Both National
Public Radio and the Public
Broadcasting System recently
have undergone sus
tained criticism for biased jour
nalism. In the Oct. 27 issue of New
Republic, Fred Barnes grants that
some of the best examples of
radio journalism can be found on
NPR, but "the bad news is that
its news coverage is palpably
slanted."
This agenda dominates when
"NPR goes beyond breakingnews"
and engages in its many lengthy
"background pieces." The NPR
broadcasts of "Morning Edition"
and "All Things Considered" can
be heard on KUCV, Lincoln's
public radio station.
Jeff Korbclik, Editor, 4 721766
James Rogers, Editorial Page Editor
Gene Gentrup, Managing Editor
Tammy Kaup, Associate News Editor
Todd von Kampen, Editorial Page Assistant
a loser
The picture becomes more
chaotic when you turn to school
consolidation, which is how LB662
was born. Opponents say small
schools will be forced to close;
supporters say not. Supporters
say educational quality would
improve; opponents say not.
Opponents claim they'd lose their
right to decide how their child
ren would be educated; suppor
ters counter by saying such peo
ple actually would have more
control. Again, no one really
knows.
School consolidation and
school financing are complicated
and emotional enough as separ
ate issues. But as a result of
complicated political horse
trading, both issues ended up in
a single bill that almost everyone
connected with it, including Gov.
Bob Kerrey, has said is flawed.
The two issues were combined
to get state senators on both
ends of the bill to vote for LB662.
But that combination gives many
people good reason to oppose it
as well. Not only are the bill's
effects unclear, but many citi
zens who support goal A would
have to swallow an unacceptable
goal B whatever goals A and B
are to a person.
The confusion that has domi
nated the LB662 debate has
detracted from the discussion
over how to consolidate schools
or change financing, not to men
tion whether either should be
done at all. Far better to repeal
the law, keep the two subjects
separate next time and debate
each on its merits alone.
LB662's proponents say any
flaws in the law can be fixed by
the next Legislature, but the
political difficulties of that sug
gest that it's better to throw out
the entire mess. Because of all
the uncertainty and regardless
of whether school consolidation
and changes in school financing
are needed, the Daily Nebraska
recommends repeal of LB662 by
voting "no" on Referendum 400.
PBS has had a longer associa
tion with charges of bias both
from the right and from the left.
The charges typically are broader
than simply picking at the news
programs (like the superb "Mc-Neil-Lehrer
Report") and thus
must be more carefully exam
ined. After all, outside the "news"
context, opinion and analysis
are legitimate media goals.
Nonetheless, after more than
50 congressmen called for a review
of PBS programs, the PBS board
of directors moved to review
their programming.
The autonomy of NPR and PBS
from both governmental and
commercial control is one source
of its high quality, albeit slanted,
coverage. NPR and PBS should
become more balanced in their
presentations because it's right,
but not because they were forced
by threats of funding cutbacks.
A date with tike Grim Reaper
Intoxicating evening turns into tale of Halloween horror
This is the scariest Halloween
story I know. Because it it true.
It happened to two UNL stu
dents, Margaret Millea and Jeff John
son and their friends a few years ago.
And it could happen again to anybody.
Even to you.
They went to a Halloween party at a
"haunted woods" about 20 miles east
of Lincoln. Margaret remembers walk
ing through the wooded acres with a
guy that looked like the "Grim Reaper"
and seeing the "graveyard" with names
of her friends printed on the stones.
And then came the man who jumped
out of the woods with a screaming
chain saw. Everybody likes being scared
on Halloween. As long as it isn't real.
Jeff was bored. He spent most of the
night drinking by a bonfire with his
date. He didn't get scared until later.
It was a college party and people got
drunk. Too drunk to drive the 20 miles
home, but they did anyway.
Margaret was in a '66 Mustang with
her date and another couple. The car
didn't have seatbelts. She hunched
down, tired and drunk, and fell asleep.
Jeff and his date followed the Mus
tang for several miles. It kept speeding
up and slowing down. Finally Jeff just
kept the needle at 55, put in a tape and
tried to concentrate on the two-lane
strip of highway that would bring him
home. The Mustang skipped ahead.
Margaret doesn't remember hitting
the car.
"It was real detached. I remember
waking up and the car was rolling. I
was looking around and no one else was
moving. I was really disoriented. . . I
realized we were in the ditch."
She yelled at her date, in confused
and angry fear.
"I finally realized he was slumped
over the wheel and the windshield was
gone." She tried to open the door, but
the passenger side of car had bowed
and she was trapped.
"I'm thinking about Starsky and
Hutch episodes 'the car's going to
blow.' " She kicked the door open with
both legs and then pulled a girl who
was riding in the back out of the car.
She couldn't walk, so Margaret dragged
her 30 yards and then ran back to the
car and lifted her date's bloodstained
face. He was unconscious, and she
Letters
DN policy 'informal censorship'
The "informal censorship" of the
Daily Nebraskan is both shocking and
intolerable. The DN advocates itself as
a student newspaper a training
ground for future journalists and a
campus newspaper a forum for
diverse opinions that are proper for a
university.
In regard to the recent Holocaust
controversy, the DN refused advertise
ment from an individual who was trying
to exert his opinion. Running or not
running the advertisement would not
have affected the Holocaust Confer
Jewish federation lauds DN decision to
We are writing as members of the
Lincoln Jewish Federation to express
our appreciation for your appropriate
refusal to carry an advertisement sub
mitted by William Curry which ques
tions the occurrence of the Holocaust
and the careful and thoughtful process
you went through in reaching that decision.
The term "Holocaust" denotes the
systematic murder of six million Jews
at the hands of the Nazis during World
War II. Five million non-Jews also were
murdered. The fact of the occurrence of
the Holocaust is beyond debate or
question. We Jews are particularly sen
sitive to the occurence of the Holo
caust since our total destruction, the
"Final Solution," was a principal
objective of Nazi Germany. Two out of
every three European Jews were mur
dered, which constituted one-third of
the world Jewish population. There can
be no confusion between the occur
couldn't stop crying.
Jeff had reached the crest of a hill.
"There was all this debris in the
road, like pieces of metal and glass and
rubber." His date asked him what hap
pened. "God, I don't now," he said. .
They pulled over and turned around.
By the time they got back, Margaret
was standing in the middle of the road,
covered with her date's blood and her
own. She was screaming, crying and
incoherent.
Jeff and his date saw the Mustang at
the bottom of a 15-foot ditch. The
engine was on fire. They dragged Mar
garet's date out through the broken
windshield and carried him, uncons
cious, across the highway. They easily
lifted out the remaining passenger,
who kept insisting he was "OK." He
had a double concussion.
-
t
Lise
Olsen
K
.A ..
J.
Another car stopped and then went
up the road for help.
But Margaret and Jeff say they waited
for what seemed like a really long time
before help came.
Jeff found the second car almost by
accident. A friend was shining a flash
light down along the ditch and caught
something shiny about 20 yards away.
"It was another car. It looked like a
Chevy Nova turned into a Toyota Ter
cel," Jeff remembers.
The driver was wearing a tuxedo, red
bow tie and cummerbund. He hung
unnaturally out of the windowless auto.
He had no pulse.
"There was the smell of death
fresh death. You want to say blood,"
Jeff remembers.
The passenger in the car was equally
dressed up in a rabbit coat; she was
still breathing but badly hurt. Jeff
learned later that the pair was on its
way home from a pre-nuptial dinner.
The driver was to have been his broth
er's best man.
The rescue squad finally arrived.
ence. Its sponsors claim the confer
ence is "set." All that could have
resulted was a discussion on the reality
of the Holocaust right or wrong.
Furthermore, it appears that our
public forum (the Daily Nebraskan) is
mixing its editorial and business deci
son a definite no-no in this case. It
seems hypocritical for the DN not to
accept advertisements that in no way
represent the viewpoint of the DN,
while at the same time complaining
about the lack of ad revenue that res
tricts space for editorials from students.
rence of the Holocaust and any other
subject, including the existence of
Israel.
The fact that the editorial board of
the Daily Nebraskan may have hesi
tated for even a moment over whether
to publish a blatant and deliberately
anti-Jewish lie about historical facts
only underscores the need for our gen
eration and future generations to study
and learn about the Holocaust so that
the mistakes of the past will not be
repeated.
Letter policy
The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief
letters to the editor from all readers
and interested others.
Letters will be selected for publica
tion on the basis of clarity, originality,
timeliness and space available. The
Daily Nebraskan retains the right to
Margaret remembers being put into an
ambulance with her date and the other
two passengers. She didn't know that
someone had died. She didn't know
how badly her date was hurt, and she
didn't know he had already been
charged with motor vehicle homicide.
Later, the charges would be dropped,
when police investigators discovered
that the other car had crossed the cen
ter line and the now-dead driver also
had been drunk.
Then Margaret got to the hospital.
"They were giving me stitches and I
didn't even realize I was cut." After the
doctor treated here she caught her
image in a mirror. "I freaked out," she
said. Her date had multiple injuries
and was in intensive care for weeks.
When she went to see him, he looked
"like a mummy."
"He had one tube going in and one
tube going out. Nutrition and waste. I
grabbed his hand and he managed a
weak smile. I told him, 'People have
tried to get out of kissing me, but this
is the best excuse I've ever heard."
When Jeff drove home from the hos
pital that night he put on his seatbelt.
He always wears it now.
He didn't sleep much that night.
Margaret didn't sleep much either.
"I couldn't stand sleeping with the
light off for a week," she said. She
didn't drive at night for three weeks,
and for months when she rode in a car
on a two-lane highway and another car
passed, she would shiver uncon
trollably. When she learned about the death,
she felt an irrational guilt.
"I did feel sort of responsible in a
really bizarre way. There are people
that wish that is was me instead of him.
Nobody wishes death, but it's just a
tragic situation."
But she was angry, too.
"I was victimized by a drunk. If my
date had been at fault and he'd been
dead, how could he deal with the guilt?
It's almost better if the guy who caused
it doesn't have to deal with it," she
said.
She's angrier still when someone she
knows drives home drunk or high.
"Somebody died."
It was Halloween.
Olsen is a senior news-editorial major.
I am not accusing the DN of having a
liberal or conservative bias; I am com
plaining that its ad policy is simply
informal censorship that restricts free
expression. Please limit your editorial
discretion to the "Letters" page and let
the ad department raise some bucks.
Maybe more letters like this will make
it to print.
Jerry Roemer
senior
ag honors
ASUN senator
refuse Holocaust ad
Th e Holocaust is not just a matter of
Jewish concern; it affected, and con
tinues to affect, all of humanity. One of
the lessons of the Holocaust is the
result which can occur when good peo
ple remain silent in the face of bigotry,
hatred and evil.
We thank you again. You have done a
significant service by responsibly deal
ing with a difficult matter.
Yale Gotsdiner
Robert L. Nefsky
Lincoln Jewish Welfare Federation Inc.
edit all material submitted.
Letters and guest opinions sent to
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Daily Nebraskan and cannot be returned.
Submit material to the Daily Ne
braskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 R St.,
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