Wednesday, November 12, 1986
Page 4 Daily Nebraskan 00
Editorial! .
Jeff Korbellk, Editor, 4 72, 1 766
James Rogers, Editorial Page Editor
Gene Gcntrup, Managing Editor
Tammy Kaup, Associate News Editor
Todd von Kampen, Editorial Page Assistant
Nebrayskan
Unlvtrtlly of Nbraika-Uncoln
Nobel campaigns
Lobbyists taint Peace Prize
Is nothing of value jobs,
political offices, awards or
whatever free from the
requirement that the winner
campaign to get it? According to
a recent article in The New
Republic, not even the Nobel
Peace Prize has escaped the
effects of sophisticated lobby
ing. This year's winner, Holocaust
survivor Elie Wiesel, has been
the beneficiary of an intense
campaign for his selection by
several of his friends, the article
says. The leaders of the cam
paign, New London, Conn., busi
nessman Sigmund Strochlitz and
Boston University President John
Silber, combined flattering let
ters about Weisel to the Nobel
Committee with a dogged effort
to get legislators in several
countries to nominate Wiesel for
the prize,
Silber, a colleague of Wiesel's
at Boston, concentrated on pub
licizing Wiesel's work on account
of victims of oppression around
the globe. Strochlitz, the article
says, was a bit more obnoxious.
Although he denied doing any
campaigning for Wiesel, The New
Republic quotes an unnamed
U.S. Senate staffer as saying,
"Strochlitz would show up every
winter and say it's time to write
letters again." Another Senate
aide said the campaign was "re
lentless and heavy-handed."
The efforts apparently were
successful. The article says
Strochlitz himself counted more
than 50 senators and 140 House
members, as well as 70 members
of the West German Bundestag,
who wrote the Nobel Committee
with praise for Wiesel. And this
U.S. child
Newspaper delivery
Readers may have been
shocked when they read in
Tuesday's Lincoln Star about
how India's Supreme Court for
mally freed 319 children from
their jobs as unpaid laborers in
carpet factories after a two-year
legal battle by an anti-slavery
organization.
Slavery and child labor are
banned in India, but children
were found working through a
system of debt-bondage. Child
ren were sold into work when
their families contracted the
children's labor in exchange for
loans.
The Bonded Labor Liberation
Front in India filed a petition.
Part of it read, "Children of ages
between 7 and 14 were ma4e to
do forced! labor, branded IUk
animals and .tortured into sua;
What is happening in India
may seem a bit extreme. Some
thing of that nature would be
unheard of in the United States.
Yet child labor is not uncommon
in the U.S., and one instance
could be deemed as immoral as
the situation in India. That job is
wasn't the first such campaign
for a Nobel laureate. Former
Japanese Prime Minister Eisaku
Sato won the prize in 1974 for
unclear reasons, the article says,
but he hired a public relations
firm to help his effort.
This isn't meant to suggest in
any way that Wiesel didn't de
serve the award. Wiesel has gone
to the far corners of the world to
meet with and expose the plight
of those oppressed from both the
left and the right. His plea that
President Reagan not honor Ger
man war dead at Bitburg last
year had the sincerity of one
determined that genocide such
as the Nazi Holocaust must never
happen again.
Active campaigns by or on
behalf of potential prize winners,
however, leave a bad taste in
one's mouth. It evokes the same
gut feeling as modern political
campaigns: The winner is not the
most deserving for that year, but
the one with the best P.R. cam
paign. Such an honor as the
Nobel Peace Prize shouldn't re
quire arm-twisting to get people
to nominate someone or organiz
ing a letter blitz to impress the
committee. The person's actions
alone should be sufficient.
Other Nobel winners Mother
Teresa, for example didn't
need sophisticated campaigns
to win the award. That's the way
it should be. As The New Repub
lic says, "Nobody wants to think
that the Mother Teresas of the
world bid for earthy reward." But
that's what it seems to take
today to win the Nobel Peace
Prize and that seems to
cheapen an award that should be
free of taint.
slavery
not worth the wages
made up of 10- to 14-year olds.'A
job of which consumers and
employers alike do not even give
a second thought the newspaper-delivery
person.
Delivering papers is not easy,
the hours are poor and the job
risky. Look at our neighboring
state of Iowa where two boys,
12-year-old Johnny Gosch and 13-year-old
Eugene Martin are still
missing. What kind of protection
do these children really have?
An editorial in the Nov. 10
issue of the Wall Street Journal
noted that newspaper persons
"should be dependably safe and
free from danger of kidnapping
or sexual or other abuse; the
work should be paid for squarely;
and some reasonable limit should
epiit on the amount of time
involved
y "None of these points is met,
not even in Lincoln, Neb.
ICyou read the story about the
Indian . children and . found if
appalling, take a look closer to
home. The situation really is no
better here, and thin could be
changed.
1,11
W $ REMEMBERS SOON fi m LAND
J vSlU ANP OFFER MMM(M AND
't --rS l4T' ' I THIS MJIDPEP KBIEI
Tlkere goes a long,
'Big John 'DeCamp 's loss heads Best
Well, the votes are all in, the tabu
lations have been completed,
and it is my pleasure to announce
the winners of this year's "Best of the
Ballot Box" awards. This prestigious
award is reserved for the unexpected
turns and the fascinating developments
that made last Nov. 4 an election-night
junkie's dream. Not since 1976, when
we stayed up till 5 a.m. waiting for
Oregon's six electoral votes to put
Jimmy Carter over the top, has the first
Tuesday after the first Monday given
such a delightful array of colorful can
didates. Here are my selections for the
Pick of the Pack:
Best Election by a Local Con
stituency goes to Nebraska's 40th
Legislative District for deteating Neligh
Sen. and general source of embarrass
ment John DeCamp. From bathtub
scandals to prom-queen contests, John
has kept us all just a little on edge in
recent years. I don't even know who
beat him, but who cares? KLIN's Ron
Dean will have to find another fatso to
push around now, but that shouldn't be
too hard. I'm available, Ron, and the
Daily Nebraskan could sure use the
publicity.
Worst Election by a Local Con
stituency goes to Nebraska's 42nd
Legislative District for its unfathoma
ble re-election of North Platte Sen. and
accused felon Jim Pappas. When things
like this happen, I get real nervous over
the "Nixon comeback" rumors. Pappas
wrote a letter to the DN recently, and I
managed to find one coherent subject-verb-object
sentence in its 20 or so
column inches. I guess literacy and
integrity are far down on the North
Platte priority list.
Best Leading Actress in the
American foreign policy at its apex:
U.S. an international rescue squad
When Lyndon Johnson sent the
Marines into the Dominican
Republic in 1965, the official
justification was to safeguard and
evacuate endangered Americans. To no
one's surprise, our boys stayed on a bit
to put down a communist threat and
install a friendly (and, mind you, a
democratic) government. That is how
we used to do things: When for tradi
tional geopolitical reasons we needed i
to intervene, the rescue of Americans
was a convenient pretext.
Rescue is a pretext no more. It has
become an end in itself, a primary,
- Olsessivend of American diplomacy.
In the process, American foreign policy
has become a slave to hostages. From
the Vietnam POWs to the Mayaguez,
from the Iranian to the TWA hostages,
from Nicholas Daniloff to David Jacob
sen, American diplomacy has moved to
Lost Cause goes to Democratic gub
ernatorial hopeful Helen Boosalis, who
announced to her supporters at 11:55
p.m., "It's gonna be a long night, folks,"
then returned to the platform 25 min
utes later to concede defeat. There was
James
Sennett
something about the emptying hall and
the unanimous predictions of the news
services that gave her the feeling no
one was going to stick this one out till
the Oregon votes came in.
Most Appropriate Shift of
Power goes to the Massachusetts
congressional district that elected
Robert Kennedy's son, Joe III, to take
the seat of retiring political institut ion
Thomas "Tip" O'Neill. Vaughn Mead
er's 1962 mandate that all good citi
zens should vote for the Kennedy of
their choice is once again ringing
appropriate. Let's hope our insensitiv
ity to the need for handgun control
doesn't make yet another generation of
Hyannis Port heroes an endangered
species.
Most Exaggerated Election
Result goes to the news media's
unnecessary, superfluous, tautological,
repetitious and redundant rehearsal of
the Democrats' power coup in the U.S.
Senate. In this hurried rush to predict
the end of the Teflon Presidency, we
have overlooked the fact that roost of
the new Democratic seats went to
an astonishing degree from the tradi
tional pursuit of national interest to
the rescue of individuals. We have
become an international rescue squad.
And now, with the McFarlane mis
sion, the individualization of American
Charles
Krautham
foreign policy reaches its apex. Iran
has revealed that, in September, Presi
dent Reagan sent Robert McFarlane
and four others on a bizarre diplomatic
mission to Tehran. According to the
speaker of the Iranian parliament, they
came bearing Irish passports, a Bible, a
fill; ,
rag mail
of the Ballot Box
Southern "Boll Weevils," who were
elected largely because they said noth
ing against and not a little for the
Gipper. There was no mandate from the
people against the policies of the
administration.
In a last blaze of rhetorical glory, Tip
O'Neill proclaimed, "If there ever was a
Reagan Revolution, it's over now!" Meet
me after the 1988 elections, Tommy,
and we'll talk.
Finally, the award for Most Over
looked Election-Night Fact. The
governor's race was not a "squeaker."
Kay Orr won, and she won (relatively)
big. At least she did not win by 50.01
percent of the vote, as we were led to
believe she should. The win was con
vincing enough to be projected by the
TV networks and major news services
less than three hours after the polls
had closed.
Once again, the big loser is that
most blatant example of neo-astro-logical
non-news sensationalism, the
pre-election poll. You sophisticates uil
excuse us common folk if we just vote
our conscience and don't cooperate
with your high-flautin' ways.
Well, now that's over and we can get
on our two-year march for the White
House. From Kemp to Cuomo; from
either Dole to another Jackson; through
Hart, Bumpers; Laxalt (Laxalt??), Robert
son and even that guy from New Jersey
that no one has ever heard of, it should
be a grand and glorious struggle. I hear
rumours that George Bush already has
taken up residence in Iowa. What do
they do for fun in the Soviet Union,
anyway?
Sennett is campus minister with College
Career Christian Fellowship and a gradu
ate student in philosophy.
cake in the shape of a key (it never
reached its destination: hungry revolu
tionary guards polished it off at the
airport) and a planeload of weapons.
Which brings us to the bizarre part:
the deal being discussed. In exchange
for helping to "curb terrorism" and
release American hostages held in
Lebanon, the United States would help
Iran to get spare parts for its war
against Iraq. Now, nothing would be
more destructive to American interests
in the Persian Gulf than an Iranian
victory over Iraq. And nothing prevents
that outcome more than Iran's techno
logical inferiority. The high-tech wea
pons bought by the Shah are on the
shelf for lack of spare parts. Restoring
the flow could be a crucial factor in
helping Iran win the war.
See KRAUTHAMMER on 5