Page 4
Friday, May 1, 1987
Daily Nebraskan
coiaicoiriiaj
JetT Korbolik, Editor, 472-1766
James Rogers, Editorial Page Editor
Lise Olsen, Associate News Editor
Mike Reilley, A7t AVu'S Editor
Joan Rezac, Co) Ds7c Chief
NsSrafe'can
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
SPRMS
Am wmmie Te'SmsH
Rationality demands pay hike
On our last day of regular
publication, it's sadly fit
ting that we should again
note how the Nebraska Legisla
ture has failed the university
and, hence, the entire state.
Yesterday the unicameral voted
down a budget amendment that
would have allocated several mil
lions of dollars to raise profes
sors' salaries. So what's new. So
little is left to be said on the
matter.
Over the years the DN has
consistently argued for higher
salaries, and yet salaries have
continued to lag and dispirited
professors have begun to leave in
increasing numbers. The case for
a raise is self-evident. After all is
said and done, the reticence of
the unicameral is simply beyond
comprehension.
Mo meed to regulate
FCC crackdown a break with policy
The Reagan administration
has consistently held itself
out as pro-deregulation. In
dustry after industry has been
the object of its laissez-faire phi
losophy. This philosophy has also
been applied by the administra
tion to the mass media usu
ally regulated on the basis that
the public owns the limited
number of airwaves. This expres
sion in the mass media is evi
denced by the administration's
antipathy toward such regula
tions as the fairness doctrine.
But the administration is only
so consistent, and deregulation
is allowed to go only so far. To
wit: the FCC recently issued
warnings to several radio sta
tions that broadcast highly offen
sive material, material that is
racial and sexual in nature.
The king -of raunchy radio is
Howard Stern. (Readers may have
seen him in one of his several
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Editorial Policy
' Unsigned editorials represent
cSIeial policy of the fall 1987 Daily
Nebrssksn, Policy is set by the Daily
Kcbrssksa Editorial Board.
The Daily Nebraskan's publishers
Ere the regents, who established the
There is no argumentative
point of contact with opposing
senators: What could possibly
motivate their contempt for
higher education in Nebraska?
Unfortunately, too often politi
cians do not reap what they sow;
they won't pay as much as other
Nebraskans for the death of pub
lic post-secondary education.
They are not advancing the
public interest in their anti
education vojing habits. And if
they believe they are promoting
Nebraska's interests, they are
simply insane. The problem is
that you can't reason with a
crazy person. If he says the grass
is not green, or that the sky is not
blue, he won't, he can't listen
to reason. One can only hope
that the senators regain their
senses and see how desperately
wrong they are.
"Late Night with David Letter
man" appearances.) While nobody
holds that Stern is not offensive
that's why people listen to
him his offensiveness is not
necessarily prohibitable. As one
ACLU type has argued, Stern's
broadcasts are "well within the
bounds of (constitutionally)
protected bad taste."
Certainly the FCC's action is
counter to the laissez-faire push
of the rest of the administration.
The market can work here as
well as in other areas. Stern
seems to be quite correct that
the solution to the problem for
those who find his show ques
tionable is to turn off the station.
If enough people do that then
the marketplace will solve the
problem in a way that is consti
tutionally forbidden to the
government: The market will shut
Stern down.
UNL Publications Board to super
vise the daily production of the paper.
According to policy set by the regents,
responsibility for the editorial content
of the newspaper lies solely in the
hands of its student editors.
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American malaise, pessimism not inspired only by Iran
Three veteran Washington Post re
porters, beating the bushes around
Knoxville, Tenn., in search of
grassroots opinion, reported that they
have come upon "strikingly negative
feelings about the direction of the
country and the performance of Ameri
can leaders, including President Rea
gan." What's more, they say, Knox
ville's "words of disappointment,
cynicism and concern" are echoed
right across the country in poll after
poll: "Measures of pessimism, worry
about the future and distrust of govern
ment are all on the rise."
Just why did David Broder, Haynes
Johnson and Paul Taylor choose Knox
ville for their doorbell-punching expe
dition? Their opening paragraph ex
plains that "for generations, the people
of Knox County have been character
ized as conservative, patriotic and
Republican." In other words, this
apparently started out as a snipe hunt
to see if Iran et al. had seriously dam
aged Ronald Reagan with his core con
stituency, but turned up evidence of a
more general and more interesting
malaise.
The reporters rightly contrast the
present mood of the American people
with the one that characterized them
in 1984 when (according to the Repub
lican commercials) it was "morning
again in America" and Ronald Reagan
was the embodiment of all the grand
old virtues. Today, they report, there
has been "a clear shift" toward gloom,
doubt and disillusion.
Banjo strummer sings the song
of a country surrounded by hell
M
ostly Dave Hardy writes songs
about dead chickens. The string
band he plays with, Poultryge-
ist, sings about those ghosts on WOW
sometimes and at the Zoo bar.
He wrote just one protest song before,
a ditty called "Don't Sign Away the
Family Farm," which he performed in
Omaha's Central Park as a petition
drive for the recall of Initiative 300.
He picked up his banjo in protest
again. This time for peace? No. This time
for a country about the size of Tennes
see. A country surrounded by hell.
"We're sending the Guard to
Honduras
They say it 's for practice, not war
And maybe we 71 teach Nicaragua
To keep off McCounaughy 's shore
Imagine that a group of guerillas is
holed up in Grand Island's Conestoga
Mall. Shoppers, men, women and child
ren, are getting hit by stray bullets in
the insanity. Nobody knows what the
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every store. U.S. military advisers are
headquartered at the Stuhr Museum.
Now imagine Interstate 80 without
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It certainly isn't hard to see why, and
it has remarkably little to do with the
current Iran controversy. Such atti
tudes were inspired during the 1970s,
of course, by America's bugout in the
Vietnam War, Nixon's squalid adminis
tration and the near-total collapse of
American will under Jimmy Carter at
the time of the Iran hostage crisis. But
these were all history by the time
Ronald Reagan was elected president,
and it is far more recent events that
have blackened America's mood all
over again.
William
A.
Rusher
There is, for example, nothing terri
bly new about corruption in politics,
but recent revelations of its gargan
tuan scope in New York City (to take
just one glaring example) give future
politicians an imposing target to shoot
at. The Democratic leader of the Bronx
has been convicted of fraud; the former
borough president of the Bronx is
under indictment; the man who held
both comparable jobs in the borough of
Queens committed suicide to avoid a
similar fate; half a dozen other high
city officials have been convicted or
indicted or have resigned under fire.
the sculptures and rest areas. Then put
some kids with donkeys on the
shoulders. At the Platte River, women
are washing their clothes on rocks and
drinking the river water when they're
thirsty.
, Olsen
1
4
Honduras is less than 100 miles from
Nicaragua about the distance from
Lincoln to Grand Island. Closer are the
death squads and terror of El Salvador.
Nebraskans from places like David City
are there nailing boards, fixing kids'
teeth and drinking Lowenbraus. They
complain about the dryness and the
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tanned, and most seem to be enjoying
themselves away from home. It's like a
vacation.
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And the story in other cities and states
right across the country is much the
same.
But the politicians haven't been hav
ing all the fun. Wall Street is reeling
under the impact of revelations that
prominent figures such as Ivan Boesky
were robbing ordinary investors blind
with the help of inside information.
The sports world has been given a
black eye by revelations of drug use
among some of its most admired per
sonalities. As for the U.S. Marines, sev
eral of them are under arrest for giving
the Russians guided tours of the secret
corners of at least one of our embassies
abroad in return for the favors of KGB
floozies. Turn to religion for consola
tion and you run into Rev. Jim Bakker
sneaking out of a motel room after a
roll in the hay with a church secretary.
Is it any wonder that Knoxville is blue?
On the other hand, it is fair to note
that many of these cases of wrongdoing
came to our attention only because the
Reagan administration brought them
to light. It has stood, and still stands,
for far higher standards of behavior.
Naturally, Reagan's enemies fondly
hope that revelations yet to come in the
Iran investigation may tarnish him
irreparably. As to that, Knoxville is
suspendingjudgment until all the facts
are in; but it hasn't happened yet. Like
Cyrano, Ronald Reagan still has his
white plume.
1987, Newspaper Enterprise Assn.
Rusher is the publisher of the National
Review.
Kids are hungry in Honduras. They
surround American tourists and beg.
The country has about five or six paved
roads, none near the size of 1-80. No
shopping malls anywhere. Catholic
churches everywhere. A lot of faith but
little hope.
Downtown in Tegucigalpa a pair of
10-year-olds yelled at Nebraskan jour
nalists, including 1011 photographer,
Molly Miller, trying to send some of the
story back home.
"Baseros!" they yelled. Bastards.
The fighting isn't here. People don't
seem afraid to say what they want to
American journalists. But "they all look
like refugees," Miller, a 1986 graduate,
remembers.
Kids about five years older than the
ones downtown guarded her hotel. The
15-year-olds, dressed in khakis, fatigues
and boots, carried automatic machine
guns. Their fingers never lef: the trig
gers. So if Bereuter asks for your sup
port, Just say no!
See OLSEN on 5
