Tuesday, February 10, 1987
Page 4
Daily Nebraskan
fl.
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Jeff Korbolik, Editor, 472-1766
James Rogers, Editorial Pdge Editor
Liso Olsen, Managing Editor
Mike Reilley, Associate News Editor
Joan Rezac, Co; VsA- CVw
somsKan
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
1
VI x f VJif -
Eislsy mission
Honduras training unjustified
Sending the Nebraska Air
National Guard civil-engineering
unit into Honduras
is unsettling, not to mention
risky, dangerous and expensive.
In mid-April the Air Guard
will send more than 50 men and
women, age 19 to 58, whose pro
fessional skills range from farm
ing to computer programming, to
a two-week training session si
Palmerol Air Base in south-central
Honduras.
The base is 75 miles from
Nicaragua and 40 miles from El
Salvador, both of which are
embroiled in civil wars.
The Associated Press reported
that U.S.-backed Contra rebels
have staging areas along the
Honduran southern border and
B
Kerrey's knowledge needed at UNL
Dear Bob,
We are pleased to see
the generally good response
you have received from instruct
ing a course on the Vietnam War
at the University of California at
Berkeley. We hear that the six
week course is very popular and
you've been able to provide some
valuable insight to a subject that
is relatively new to university
students.
We only wish that you, a former
governor, would have stayed in
Letters
Orr not working for
Gov. Kay Orr is in Washington, and
God only knows why she is on this
junket. One thing is for sure, however;
Orr is not working for agriculture.
Thursday's press conference for the
introduction of the Harkin-Gephardt
Save the Family Farm Act had many
congressmen and senators in attend
ance, as well as vocal farm-state gover
nors and officials. According to a New
York Times article this week, 180 farms
are being lost daily, many in Nebraska.
Yes, Orr tells us that she is con
cerned about our agriculture and fam
ily farmers, yet she has ignored endors
ing this bipartisan farm bill aimed at
providing a higher farm income and a
higher value of farm exports through
Harrah wrong about '60s society
I grew up in the '60s. I was six when
John F. Kennedy was elected president
and 16 when the "love generation"
convened at Woodstock. I thought I
knew what happened during ' that
decade; that was, of course, before
Scott Harrah told me what really
happened (DN, Feb. 6). Gee whiz, did I
miss something.
While I acknowledge the ongoing
revivals of '60s clothing and music (I
really must get my Nehru jacket out of
mothballs), I don't recall that "tradi
tionalism and post-war patriotism" were
"eradicated in the '60s." (Curiously,
Harrah claims that such notions are
"slowly coming back." How something
can be eradicated and then come back
is baffling to me or to any educated
reader.
All I remember is Robert Frost read
ing "The Gift Outright" at Kennedy's
inauguration and American soldiers
make frequent forays against
government strongholds in Nica
ragua. Although most of the
security on the base is provided
by the Honduran army, the U.S.
Army has about 1,000 troops sta
tioned there. That's comforting.
Guardsmen have said that
training in Honduras does not
worry them. They said they are
training, not fighting. But of
course there aren't any guaran
tees. There never are. No one can
predict what will or could happen,
only what should happen.
The Air Guard could just as
easily train in the United States.
Training would be cheaper,
especially if they trained near
Nebraska. Most of all there would
be fewer risks.
IB
to
the state and provided UNL stu
dents with your expertise. Not
only on Vietnam, but on state
government or even success in
the business community. We hope
you consider this proposition for
the future. We are also urging
the administration to look at the
possibility. They should have
talked to you first.
Thanks for listening and keep
up the good work.
Sincerely,
The Daily Nebraskan
family farm act '
implementation of a popular-with-far-mers
supply-management program.
We all know that Orr is a fiscal con
servative; so someone should tell her
that government price tag would greatly
decrease under the Harkin-Gephardt
bill. The studies have been done, and
both Republicans and Democrats see
that this supply management program
is workable.
The Save the Family Farm Act is a
fiscally smart program desperately
needed in Nebraska so Kay, where
was your voice for Nebraska?
Jerry Koemer
senior
ag honors
dying, the Bay of Pigs and American
soldiers dying, Oswald killing Kennedy
and American soldiers dying, Ruby
killing Oswald and American soldiers
dying, James Earl Ray killing Martin
Luther King, Jr., and American soldiers
dying, Ohio National Guard troopers
killing Kent State college students and
American soldiers dying, whites killing
blacks and American soldiers dying.
Harrah's editorial is a jumble of
disjointed, overgeneralized, predigested
pap intended for an audience who he
identifies as a "lost generation" (now
there's an original thought). He ought
to turn off his MTV and unplug his
Walkman. Then he should set about to
repair his most obvious deficiency: a
lack of acquaintanceship with the
materials. Try reading.
David M. Cicotello
teaching assistant
English
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'Offing sun Airab
Anti-artistic pressure aggravates 'stupidication ' of America
Part one: The gloom-and-doom
British rock band The Cure writes
a rather pompous little song
based on the first chapter of Albert
Camus' philosophic novel "The Stran
ger." The title of the song is taken from
the central event in that chapter. It's
called "Killing an Arab."
Part two: The song is discovered and
aired by certain individuals who feel
that killing Arabs is kind of a neat
thing to do. As Robert Smith, a member
of The Cure, puts it, "('Killing An
Arab') is being used increasingly by
certain reactionary factions of the
media, most notably by some particu
larly brainless and irresponsible DJs,
as a part of a wave of anti-Arab feeling
currently existing in some parts of
America."
Part three: After complaints from
Arab groups, The Cure and Elektra
Records, the band's American record
company, send out an open letter to
AOR and college radio stations request
ing that the song "Killing An Arab" be
given no further airplay.
And so it goes. This little drama is a
reflection in miniature of the ongoing
process of the stupidication of America.
We are rapidly becoming a race of
educated idiots.
Our national idiocy is perhaps best
demonstrated in our rapidly developing
antagonism to the arts. America has
always loved low art slapstick,
cartoons, trivial love songs and
that's a very positive aspect of our
national character. If the American
people hadn't been open to the "lower"
art forms, if we hadn't been able to
judge our entertainment on criteria
other than technical excellence, the
world would have never heard about
jazz or the blues, and rock'n'roll would
never have happened at all.
But now our national love of simpli
city is becoming a national fanaticism
for simple-mindedness. Look at tele
Government-subsidized bastardy:
welfare destroys American family
fall the harm that ill-considered
liberal nostrums have done to
this country, the damage caused
by the federal welfare system may well
be the worst. The fact that it was
inflicted unintentionally, from the
highest of motives, is irrelevant save as
a spectacular example of how wrong
headed the pure of heart can some
times be.
The keystone of the welfare arch is
Aid to Families with Dependent Child
ren (AFDC). Like most liberal inspira
tions, this one began with the percep
tion of a "need," which the expenditure
of tax revenues could supposedly meet.
In this case it was that of impoverished
vision. Look at hit movies. Look at the
recording industry. Ninety-five percent
of today's records are meaningless,
formulated cliches. Ninety percent of
the rest were recorded at least 10 years
ago.
And, most tragic, the fractional
percentage of the playlist that is new
and meaningful is inevitably interpreted
by the masses on the most superficial
level.
The classic recent example of this is
the adoption of Bruce Springsteen's
Vietnam lament "Born in the USA" by
millions as a jingoistic anthem in the
tradition of Charlie Daniels' "In Amer-
Chris
McCubbin
ica," and Reagan's subsequent attempt
to adopt Springsteen as an icon of the
new right.
This principle is true even of The
Cure's song, which was played predom
inantly by the supposedly more intel
lectual college and alternative stations.
I don't like what The Cure and
Elektra are doing about this controversy.
I can't argue with it; The Cure is a
British band, so they understandably
don't give a rat how stupid the United
States becomes, so long as their name
doesn't get dragged through the dirt.
And Elektra, of course, is only concerned
with eliminating -bad publicity and
protecting the corporate coffers.
But with all due respect to The Cure,
Elektra and the Arab community (which
seems to have been decent about the
whole thing), I hope that there are a
few literat e, rational DJs out there who
know a little bit about The Cure and a
widows, left by the premature death of
their husbands to bring up minor
children alone. The Tip O'Neills of the
William
A.
Rusher
world dashed to the rescue and quickly
succeeded in making a bad situation
infinitely worse.
As Rep. Jack Kemp has pointed out,
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little bit about Camus and will still
play the song, and who will then try to
explain to their listeners (slowly, and
in words of not more than three
syllables) why killing Arabs, or killing
anybody, is not such a great thing to do.
I'm worried that the current solution
to the controversy sets a bad precedent
about giving in to pressure groups. Not,
specifically, the Arab groups who
protested "Killing An Arab." They had
some legitimate cause for complaint,
and they were quite reasonable about
the solution. But there are other
pressure groups in this country
book burners and fanatics whose
attempts to suppress art on "moral"
grounds are in reality only attempts to
gain control over the minds of the
population.
Perhaps even more dangerous than
would-be little dictators are basically
well-meaning but uneducated people
like Vicki Frost, who has recently
protested in U.S. courts teaching
American schoolchildren about some
of the world's great works of art with
arguments like, "A central idea of the
Renaissance was a belief in the dignity
and worth of human beings. The painters
of this time glorified or elevated the
human form. God is to be glorified, not
man."
I don't know what steps can be
taken to educate a society so-enamoured
of its own ignorance, but I am sure that
it is necessary to attempt to educate
the people and not to crumple hope
lessly under uniformed criticism. Chal
lenges to, and misinterpretation of, art
like "Killing An Arab," which aims at
significance, should be met agressively,
with conviction and solid facts. Other
wise America cannot help but become
the illiterate, totalitarian "paradise"
that the forces of suppression yearn for.
McCubbin is a senior English and
philosophy major and Daily Nebraskan
IHvorsions editor.
if you subsidize something, you get
more of it. As soon the the news got
around that there was cash to be had
for being a single mother with minor
children, the number of such mothers
began to increase dramatically. I know
of one girl in San Francisco who had a
perfectly good job in a hotel but decided
it would be more fun to raise a baby
instead. So she quit her job, got hersel'
pregnant, gave birth to the baby anc
settled down to raising it. Uncle Sam.
through AFDC, is picking up the bills.
Far worse, however, was the impact
of AFDC on many young couples strug-
See RUSHER on 5