Thursday, April 16, 1987
Page 4
Daily Nebraskan
On
Nsfesaskan
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
SIMM.'
Oh, to be young
How many people out there
waited until the last day to
file their income taxes?
For the past few days the
media has persistently reminded
us that taxes were due last night
at midnight. A good bet several
people still didn't make that
deadline. For children, April is a
month of spring when the weather
starts changing, and trees and
such start blossoming. For adults
April has turned into a living hell
for most, especially those who do
not get income-tax refunds. Oh,
how one wishes to be young
again.
O Several states are begin
ning to change their speed limits
from the "slow-pace" speed of 55
mph to 65. New Mexico was the
first to make it legal, and neigh
boring states Colorado and Iowa
already have changed theirs. The
funny thing is that Nebraska
Sen. JJ. Exon introduced the
speed-limit bill in Congress, but
Nebraska hasn't changed its
speed limit. The bill is hung up
in the Nebraska Legislature be
cause senators are debating fines
for breaking the higher limit.
O The Omaha World-Herald
W WHITES WS BSSEBALL
Letter
Writing skills needed
A posted letter in the Nebraska
Union recently caught my eye. A senior
had written in appreciation of the ways
he had benefited from his term on a
certain board.
As I read, the content of the letter
faded into background as the writer's
numerous errors became apparent. He
used such non-words as "enumerous,"
"prowness" and "seeked."
I do not wish to embarrass this stu
dent, but to make him and other stu
dents aware of how important is their
ability to use the English language
well. I also wish to admonish teachers,
from kindergarten through graduate
school, to improve their own language
skills, if necessary, and expect the
same of their students.
My experience as a mother and
Letter Policy
Letters will be selected for publica
tion on the basis of clarity, originality,
timeliness and space available. The
Daily Nebraskan retains the right to
edit all material submitted.
Letters and guest opinions sent to
the newspaper become property of the
Daily Nebraskan and cannot be returned.
vmtMteoiffRSAHARnaiiffi. wmwM? vMWxPsm
' I
Jeff Korbelik, Editor, 472-1766
James Rogers, Editorial Page Editor
Use Olsen, Associate News Editor
Mike Reilley, Night News Editor
Joan Rezac, Copy Desk Chief
without taxes
reported yesterday that NU might
ask the National Collegiate Ath
letic Association for an early end
to the school's one-year proba
tion in football and women's
softball. Apparently UNL has made
internal changes in the athletic
department as requested by the
NCAA. Although the probation is
for a year and the teams have a
chance to get off early, was the
probation really a probation?
The NCAA placed Nebraska
on probation in October for vio
lating "extra benefit" rules. The
probation was without sanctions
on television and bowl appear
ances or scholarships. Really not
much of a probation.
O Finally, National On Cam
pus Reports noted that at the
University of Oklahoma dorm resi
idents are using too much toilet
paper (78,000-plus rolls last year)
and that Iowa State University
students don't want to use any of
it. ISU students, after circulat
ing a petition complaining about
tissue-paper quality, tested 18
different brands and chose their
top five picks. School officials
then picked which one would fit
"into the budget; "1 "'"' -;; -
for real education
teacher have made me aware of the sad
fact that many students are not receiv
ing a good education in language arts.
Some of their current teachers need
improvement in this area
How grateful I am that my high
school and university English teachers
of the 1950s expected excellence! I
challenge today's teachers to do the
same.
My advice to the letter writer and
others like him is to read and to enroll
in grammarwriting course taught by
the very best English professor you can
find. You should not consider your col
lege education complete until you can
express yourself in a clear and accu
rate manner.
PJ.H. Morrow
graduate student
Anonymous submissions will not be
considered for publication. Letters
should include the author's name, year
in school, major and group affiliation, if
any.
Submit material to the Daily Ne
braskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1 400 R St.,
Lincoln, Neb'. 68588-0448.
TO)
Final column explains reasons for utilizing expanded locution
Within several weeks I will have
penned my last words as a Daily
Nebraskan editorial columnist.
(Do I hear cheers rising from the offi
ces in Andrews?) More likely than not,
this spring will end my foray into the
world of remunerated journalism (more
cheers? come on, give me a break as I
shall turn my attention toward profes-
: i a anA ,rifin in .mnnmiM.
Over the last three years of DN
column writing, the single most popu-
lar criticism I've heard is that the
words I use are, on occasion, "too big."
The criticism has come from editors,
journalism professors (though from few
Drofessors in other fields) ana, oi
course, irom mnumeraoie siuaems.
The more charitable critics have sat
me down and argued that by not
employing words that everybody could
understand, I was frustrating my osten
sible purpose in being a columnist:
persuasion. The less charitable accused
me of obfuscation and elitism. I rejected
(and reject) the claims of both.
The first time I recall becoming
aware of language use itself was as a
seventh-grader reading George Orwell's
"1984." In the book, the state was
engaged in attempts to "destroy" words
in order to limit the ability to think
independently. By eliminating words,
"anti-social" feelings would be left
inchoate and thus unexpressed. Dissa
tisfaction with the regime would be
limited to one person who couldnt shorter, more readily understood words to do so.
label the dissatisfaction and certainly found in the dictionary definition. Rogers is an economics graduate stu-
couldn't verbally bond with other But bare-bones dictionary definitions dent, law student and Daily Nebraskan
would-be dissidents. don't account for the fleshier aspects editorial page editor.
Reagan shouldn't be made to blame
for rasli of c oirrcidental scandals
As a liberal friend of mine put it,
the Jim and Tammy Bakker scan
dal is really just gravy, a gift from .
heaven. Just one more in an, astonish
ing explosion of scandals marking the
end of the Age of Reagan. Bakker,
Deaver, Boesky, sailor (i.e., Adm. Poin
dexter and Marine Lt. Col. North):
more disgrace than can fit in a nursery
rhyme. A pride of scandals.
And now a couple of Marine guards
at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow are
charged with giving the KGB the run of
the embassy at night. They allegedly
fell for the old 'honey-pot" technique
lured with love. This comes after Walker,
Chin, Pollard, Pelton, Howard and the;
first FBI agent ever convicted of ever
charged with espionage.
What is going on here? Has the fin de
siecle hit early? The instant conven
tional wisdom is that these scandals
mark the cultural collapse of Reaga
nism. Now that the wizard's Teflon
magic has worn off, it seems, the rot at
the core is finally revealing itself.
Bakker represents the religious right;
Deaver, the Reagan entourage; Boesky,
Wall Street; North, et al., the ideologi
cal true believers. All fall down.
There is no doubt that Reagan has
reached the nadir of his political effec
tiveness. Six years ago he got Congress
to approve a riverboat gamble of a tax
cut. Last week he begged his own party
for one Senate vote to sustain his veto
of a lousy highway bill and was rudely
rebuffed. But the end of Reaganism?
Reagan's principal influence on the
culture has been to promote self
reliance and self-interest (ak.a. free
enterprise or selfishness, depending on
your politics), easy patriotism and
good feeling. What has scandal-time
done to these ideas?
Self-reliance is here to stay. The
same day that Reagan lost on the high
way bill, the Senate passed a "work
fare" measure 89-0. The consensus for
welfare reform that forces people out of
dependency is universal. Democrats
know that declaring the superiority of
the market for solving social problems
is a test of political seriousness. And
while insider trading has tarnished
Wall Street's image, it has not made a
dent in the cult of the entrepreneur.
The very word breathes romance. Ten
years ago the entrepreneur was a mere
It
The message of Orwell was clear:
Words are those things tnai anew
humans to objectify what's "out there"
and consequently, words are those
things that give rise to the social pro-
cess called thought. Few words mean
little thought.
At this point many of my critics
nhiprted to mv line of reasoning. They
would sav that thev weren't arguing
against the use of unique and helpful
words in my columns; rather, they were
concerned about the seemingly gratui-
tous use of one big word where several
smaller and more generally understood
words would suffice. Now, as in times
pasi, imusipieauiuruieauueyuwiein
a more suDiie aim exaneu view ui
words.
Jim Rogers
Words are not strictly analogous to
numbers in arithmetic. When adding,
the whole sum is expined by the
numbers summed: Small numbers pre
cisely sum to larger numbers. 2 2 4;
11114. But this process does not
V,
not entirely work for words. Each "big" their thoughts and who, in their search,
word does not simply mean the sum , literally stretch my thought and capa
totalofa set of shorter words. I view the bilities. To have treated my readers
phrase of shorter words in a dictionary (few though they be) in any other way
purporting to "define" a term as a min- over the past three years than in the
imal definition. That is, the bigger way I wanted to be treated, is to have
word "at least" means the phrase of
businessman, 20 years ago a capitalist.
I admit that easy patriotism, Reagan
style, is gone. No more Olympic-size,
Fourth-ofJuly, flag-waving orgies. But'
Reagan's influence lives on. Democrats,
" long envious of Reagan's way with the
flag, have figured Out how to recapture
it, and this is the essential ingre
dieht of Reaganite patriotism with
out exertion. The newest way to stand
up for America is protectionism. In-
; stead of Soviet bashing, we have Japan
bashing. Easy patriotism isn't gone. It
has merely changed form.
Charles
KrauthamM
As for good feeling, it never was the
result of Reagan's "magic" or sunny
optimism. It was the result of a growing
economy. Reagan was no less magical
or optimistic in 1982 when he sank in
the polls and lost 26 House seats in the
midterm election. People feel bad when
there is a recession on. They feel good
when the economy is good (and there is
no war going on). And we have had the
longest postwar expansion on record.
Until the market collapses, the era of
good feeling will last. With the Dow at
2400, the country could learn that
Tammy Faye had strayed, and bear the
pain.
If the collapse of Reaganism is bunk,
how then do I account for this cluster
of scandal? Consider airline crashes.
Each one has its own unique, internal
Editorial Policy
Unsigned editorials represent offi
cial policy of the fall 1987 Daily Ne
braskan. Policy is set by the Daily
Nebraskan Editorial Board. Its mem
bers are Jeff Korbelik , editor, James
Rogers, editorial page editor, Lise Olsen
associate news editor, Mike Reilley'
night news editor and Joan Rezac. com
desk chief. w
Editorials do not necessarily reflect
tk DM
of words. Each word has an intricate
meaning uuaier auuuuiiumg K nuS
meaning cluster provides subtle nu-
ances and tinges of flavor to the differ-
ent words. In this sense there are not
straightforward XYZ phrases wholy
explaining a certain word. Each word
has shadings, contrasts and mental
associations that make it different
from otherwords. Although one word in
abstraction makes no sense, the sys-
tern of words and uses we call language
gives each word its own identity,
English is a language with a wealth
of words; each should be relished and
savored for allowing us to give vent to
on wcoui i.Uwu m no, hu uuia iuiu
vyuuiuouuh uo. iiuiuoaicaiYunueioiia
a pleasure; objects to be enjoyed.
I don't claim, and have never claimed,
to be a wordsmith. I am shamed by the
number of times I don't reach for the
dictionary when I should. The refusal
to do on my part is a perverse will to
ignorance. Yet in spite of my lapses, I'm
committed to using the wealth of words
already at my disposal as best I can,
and I appreciate authors who search
for the term that better communicates
patronized and scorned them. I refused
cause, finite and usually determinable
(loose door, tired pilot). Why then do
they seem to come in clusters? Because
if they didn't, they would be evenly
spaced, and even spacing is mathemat
ically highly improbable. (Consider five
crashes in five years. If they were
evenly spaced they would occur on the
same date each year. Not Very likely.);
Mathematicians call this apparent
clustering Of random events a Poisson
distribution. -
Same with scandals. There is, after
all, nothing terribly new here. Some
presidential aide or other is usually
under suspicion or indictment. (Eisen
hower's Treasury secretary ' pleaded
guilty last month to felonious tax eva
sion. Pattern, please?) Wall Street has
always had its swindlers. Tent evange
lism is probably as clean as it has ever
been. Compared with Aimee Semple
McPherson, who disappeared for a
month-long tryst, then reappeared with
a phony story and the retained loyalty
of her flock, Jim Bakker's 15 minutes of
fame and shame with Jessica Hahn is
embarrassingly small-time. And spies
have always been with us.
The only thing that deserves to be
laid truly at the feet of Reagan and
Reaganism is the Iran scandal. Beyond
that, don't believe what you read. The
rest is coincidence. Clustering. Until
shown otherwise, I stand with Poisson.
Ask yourself: If Mondale had won,
would Dennis Levine have said no to
Ivan Boesky? Bakker to Hahn? Would
the Moscow Marine have turned down
his KGB honey?
1887, Washington Post Writers Group
Krauthammer is a senior editor for the
New Republic.
the views of the university, its employees,
the students or the NU Board of Regents.
The Daily Nebraska's publishers
are the regents, who established the
UNL Publications Board to supervise
the daily production of the paper.
According to policy set by the regents,
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