Tuesday, November 25, 1986
Daily Nebraskan
TP
Nebraskan
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Gleam tine water
Industry should pay the bill
Water pollution gained
fleeting popular attention
t
in the early 1970s. This
' issue, along with many other
environmental issues, was over
l shadowed by other concerns as
the decade continuedLack of
'. popular attention, however,
doesn't mean cause for concern
has faded with public concern.
Unless preventative and re
medial steps are soon taken,
widespread groundwater contam
ination may soon become a sig
nificant public health threat.
Nearly half of the U.S. popu
Iaton relies on aquifers as the
major or only source of drinking
water. Yet as a result of the
almost 269 million pounds of
unregulated toxic chemicals
dumped each day, these water
supplies are increasingly threa
tened. Hundreds of manmade chem
icals have been found in under
ground water supplies. -These
: chemicals are most , often gar
bage from the production of other
goods. Only a handful of these
chemicals are regulated. Addi
tionally, the regulation that exists
is only a patchwork quilt of laws
at different governmentanyels,
. ' " A! federal omnibus law needs
to be implemented in order to
coordinate information gathering
as well as regulation.
In a day of federal deregula
tion, new federal quality initia
In-a paragraph" . . .
Stadium a good place for Farm Aid
Farm Aid III would be some
thing good for everybody all
the way around. Willie Nel
son, country music singer and
the organizer of t he two previous
Farm Aid concerts, contacted
Gov. Bob Kerrey about holding
the concert in Memorial Sta
dium. Not only would it help the
ever-needy farmers, but a con
cert of that magnitude would
help Lincoln's economy and give
exposure to UNL. Nelson hasn't
contacted university officials yet.
Let's hope he does.
: Two weeks ago the UNL
Faculty Senate unanimously voted
to support a $4.9 million salary
pool currently being considered
by the Nebraska Legislature. Each
campus in the NU system would
receive a share of the salary pool
in proportion to the disparity
between salary levels. It's en
couraging to see the faculty make
an effort to lessen a problem that
seems to be getting worse.
O Noteworthy: Frazer P. Willi
ams, a UNL electrical engineer
ing professor, is helping to find a
missing link in the Strategic
Defense Initiative technology.
Williams is the only UNL re
searcher contracted by the fed
eral government for SDI work.
Williams is looking into finding a
reliable triggering mechanism.
The Associated Press reported
that the Federal Higher Educa
tion Act will provide $2 billion
Jeff IWbelik, Editor, 472,1766
James Rogers, Editorial Page Editor
Gene Gentrup, Managing Editor
Tammy Kaup, Associate News Editor
Todd von Kampen, Editorial Page Assistant
tives will be difficult to imple
ment. Yet in spite of all the
advantages adhering to shared
State-Federal descision-making
capabilities, groundwater regu
lation is clearly one issue requir
ing Federal government inter
vention. Interstate commerce is in
trinsically tied to groundwater
pollution. Additionally, water has
been a traditional federal con
cern: After all, state boundaries
were originally drawn to reflect
natural divisions in underground
water deposits.
The cost of cleanup should be
carried by business not by
individual citizentaxpayers. Free
garbage disposal is not a right
inherent in the free enterprise
system. Today, businesses are
essentially allowed to shift a
costly business expense (garbage
disposal) to the public. The real
"free enterprise" solution is to
require that businesses assume
the cost of their own production.
Only in that way will production
truly reflect the cost of doing
business.
, It may already be too late to
heed the adage "an ounce of,
prevention . . .," but measures
should immediately be imple
mented to prevent further dam
age, as well as try to clean up as
much as possible the damage
already done
more in student aid this fiscal
year, but fewer students may be
eligible to receive the additional
funds. The Higher Education Act
raises federal student aid from
$8 billion to $10 billion for the
fiscal year that started Oct. 1. It
increases Guaranteed Student
Loans, Perkins National Direct
Student Loans, Pell Grants,
work-study aid and other stu
dent aid.
Doug Severs, interim director
of scholarships and financial aids,
said this doesn't mean that the
U.S. Education Department will
give any one university or college
enough money to make those
loans only a slight chance for
optimism.
O National On Campus Report
noted that the University of West
Virginia handles delinquent park
ing tickets in a different way.
People with overdue tickets pay
their fines with blood donations
to the campus blood bank. Vio
laters who weigh less than 110
pounds or have colds or diseases
still have to pay with cash. Not a
bad idea.
Something unusual: As
sociated Press reported that an
eight-point buck wounded by a
deer hunter's arrow attacked the
same hunter one day later, pin
ning him to the ground with his
antlers and cutting the man with
one of his own arrowheads. Let's
hear it for the deer.
The winter of obf discontent
1986 has had more to be in fear of than to be thankful for
It's two days before Thanksgiving
and politics is hardly on our minds.
We're all thinking about those extra
days off from school, relaxing and going
home to devour turkey and chat with
all our boring relatives. And when we
finally sit down to Thanksgiving dinner
Thursday, our father or grandfather will
tell us to bow our heads as he leads us
through a prayer of thanks. But this
year, what is there to be thankful for?
Our shelter, food, clothes, career, fam
ily and loved ones, of course. But what
else?
Politically and socially, 1986 has
been a year of turmoil and error. Things
started off in tragedy back in January
when the Challenger exploded shortly
after take-off. And what did we hear
from the media and the government?
"They died for our country," the social
commentators said. "They stood for the
American Dream and the New Frontier,
and died pursuing those virtues."
But others died, too. Several Ameri
can farmers' land was taken away by
the government. Many European and
Soviet citizens died as a result of the
Chernobyl incident. And a new batch of
Americans died from AIDS. But there
were no speeches about heroism for
those individuals. We just closed our
eyes and remained oblivious to them
because they weren't glorified products
of government like the space program.
On Thanksgiving 1986, we can be
thankful for being alive, but we must
hold the incidents and decisions of our
world in contempt and shame. Every
tragedy that occured this year was
blamed either on poor science, poor
decision making or faulty morale. But
were political officials telling the entire
story?
These are troubled, disturbing times.
We already know that. So why do we
insist on pointing our fingers at pur
portedly guilty parties instead of trying
to correct matters? When the Cher
nobyl accident occured, we blamed he
Soviets. "Those russkies just have no
idea how to use nuclear energy," some
of us said to ourselves. When we hear
about a farmer that's about to lose his
land, we think of a simple solution: get
into a new profession. When we hear
about a new AIDS fatality, the religious
right suddenly cries, "This is all the
result of a weak moral fabric. It is God's
will."
The Meese Commission tried to come
up with a solution to pornography. "It
exploits women and induces violence,"
Critics lambasting Iran overtures
discount hope of better relations
Twice in this space I have written
that I thought the whole Iranian
business was a lousy idea But
enough is enough. The Washington
Post did a terribly bright thing the
morning of the president's press con
ference: The editors collected ques
tions from big names, the questions
they would ask the president if they
were at the press conference. The idea
was to round up the toughest questions
possible. Herewith a sampling, with
what might have been appropriate
answers hv Mr. Rpaan
Q. (Walter Mondale) Do you really
believe that there are moderate ele
ments within the Iranian government?
And if there are, can there be any doubt
that our association with them will
diminish their influence if not elimi
nate their presence in the political
structure of Iran?
A. You never know. Everybody from
Time magazine to Margaret Thatcher
gave the impression that Mikhail Gor
bachev was a moderate. Come to think
of it, many people thought Yuri Andropov
would be a moderate. The question
really boils down to this: Ought the
United States to have a hand in t lying
to influence the direction of post
Khomeini Iran? We know the Soviet
Union is trying to influence the future
They said. "So we must ban it!" They
never took into consideration that if
pornography were banned, it would
merely become the new money-maker
for organized crime magnates.
The religious right is all for censor
ship when it comes to pornography
because they say it will strengthen
morals and eradicate the exploitation
of women, but what about the Equal
I
7 Scott
HUlldll
JUL.
Rights Amendment and the low salar
ies of women in the work force? "We
can't have equality for women," they
argue. "That would mean our daugh
ters would have to be drafted if there
was a war. And you know how proficient
women are with guns."
However, this is the type of reason
ing that prevails in a country such as
ours. The government felt that it was
necessary to waste millions of dollars
on a special research program that
would tell us more about what hap
pened at Cape Canaveral with the Chal
lenger. They also felt that we needed to
spend money on more missiles for our
selves and send arms to Iran . . . as a
peace offering, of course. But it wasn't
okay to spend millions of dollars on
research for one of the world's most
dangerous diseases AIDS. Even
when the Center for Disease Control
told everyone that the disease will
reach epidemic proportions by the end
of the decade, the government just
closed their eyes. "It's still basically a
homosexual problem," reactionary
publications like The Saturday Even
ing Post proclaimed. Are the umpteen
infants, plasma receivers and the new
risk group, heterosexual women; dying
because of a "basically homosexual
problem?"
The summit in Iceland failed to plow
any new ground in relation to the arms
race. Maybe Reagan was right about
sticking to his policies, maybe he
wasn't. But the problem of impending
nuclear destruction and chilly American-Soviet
relations is still with us.
Oh, and let's not forget Libya. Terror
ists bombed and slaughtered a ple
thora of innocent Americans and Israe
there. So should we?
Q. (John Steinbruner, Brookings Insti
tution) What provision have you made
in your dealings with Iran to ensure
that no more hostages will be taken?
A. Iran hasn't taken any hostages
since the U.S. Embassy episode. Hos
tages have been taken by fanatical pro-
William F.
BtlckleV Tf
J
Iranian groups in Lebanon. There isn't
any way to guarantee there won't be
more American hostages taken in
Lebanon except to keep all Americans
from going to Lebanon, and we don't
have the puwer to do this.
(J. (John Brademas. president of New
York University and former Democratic
congressman) In light of the fiasco of
Iran, the swap of a Soviet spy for an
American journalist, the failure of
Reykjavik to move toward effective
arms control, the skirting of U.S. laws
by sending an American arms-supply
plane to Nicaragua and the clumsy dis
i
1.
lis, so Reagan decided to bomb and
slaughter Libyans. "If necessary, we
shall do it again," he told us in his
televised speech. Violence begets more
violence, but Reagan didn't seem to
take that fact into consideration. As
always, he decided to use force instead
of economic isolation and working
together with allied nations to solve
matters.
The religious right, which is now the
predominant political faction in Amer
ica, always tries to use morality and
good old traditions like arms and mil
itary virtues to put things in perspec
tive. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld an
archaic, ludicrous sodomy law in Geor
gia, insisting that certain individuals
have no right to choose their own prac
tices in the privacy of their homes. We
are living in a tumultuous age where
morality and old values take prece
dence over true problems. It seems
that our government has wasted too
much valuable time on paltry matters
that hardly relate to the real predica
ments we are facing. Who cares what
two consenting adults do in their bed
room? Who cares about being able to
blow up the world 14 times instead of
only 12 times?
The U.S. government does.
As we celebrate Thanksgiving this
year, we must pray for the youth because
they shall be the real victims of all this
idiocy. The pre-teens and adolescents
who are living in these times are being
introduced to a fear that their elders
never had to face. Death, caused by
impending plagues and wars, looms
over their heads like an insidious
miasma, causing them to fear their
sexuality, their government and their
future.
Outside, the leaves are falling from
the tress and the air is tinged with a
bitter, dismal blast of discomfort caused
by the changing of the seasons. Soon
winter will be here and we will have to
sit and wait, relying on the passing of
the season while we tolerate the dis
comfort qf the cold. But hope will
always be there, in winter and in the
folly of these years.
So all we can do now is sit and
shiver, waiting in the silence of reason
and the limbo of justice and idealism
that lives in the corners of this spact
and time, drawing us ceaselessly into
chaos.
Harrah is a UNL junior English and speech
communications major and the Daily
Nebraskan Arts & Entertainment editor.
information campaign against Libya,
what changes do you plan to restore
competence and credibility to the con
duct of U.S. foreign policy?
A. Well, John, you were the Demo
cratic majority whip when the whole
mess in Iran happened. The adminis
tration you served swapped a couple of
Soviet spies for appropriate favors in
1979, after an interval of a few months.
On Reykjavik, our position is that when
the communists meet with us and we
fail to arrive at an agreement, that's the
fault of the communists, not of the
United States. The disinformation
campaign on Libya was clumsy, I agree,
and I'm going to ask Congress to go
back have another look at that rash of
post-Watergate post-CIA-Rockefeller
hearings legislation to examine whether
a commander in chief can effectively
operate under restrictions whose con
stitutionality is in fact problematic. As
to credibility, well, John, you were
defeated for re-election, an experience
I've never had. Any tips you want to give
me about how to avoid your fate would
be welcome.
Thank you very much, ladies and
gentlemen. God bless you.
Copyright 1986 Universal Press
Syndicate.
Buckley is the founder of the National
Review.
