Editorial_ Nebrayskan University of Nebraska-Lincoln Mike Reiiley, Editor, 472-1766 Jeanne Bourne, Editorial Page Editor Jann Nyffeler, Associate Neivs Editor Scott Harrah, Night News Editor Joan Rezac, Copy Desk Chief Linda Hartmann, Wire Editor Charles Lieurance, Asst. A & E Editor Thone’s DN days 1950s ambivalence, to 1980s reality Editor’s note: Hundreds of former Daily Nebraskan staff members gathered this weekend to reminisce about their days as student journalists. Today the DN editorial board turns over its column to Ruth Thone, former DN staff member and former first lady of Nebraska, who writes about her memories of her days spent in Nebraska Union 34. hirty-five years ago, I spent a good part of my days and nights working at theDNin the basement of the Nebraska j Union. It was the best life I knew. My fellow staffers and I thought there would always he a place in the world for our energy, our abilities, our superior Intel ligenee. We worked hard and we were sure that our ideas and efforts mattered. We ate most of , our meals in The Crib, and par tied on North 14th Street on Fri day afternoons. We were a world unto ourselves. 'These memories aren’t ran dom —• as I learned this wee kend at a reunion of Daily Nebraskan and Comhusker staff members sponsored by the Col lege of Journalism. The memo ries — little episodes, aging anecdotes and other tales — illustrate and illuminate my life both then and now K e nown ed Nebt ask a bom scienusi arm am nor Loren r.iso ley reminds us t hat ihe teachers are not always to be found in school or in great laboratories. .what wt learn depends upon our own powers ofinsight. . .our teachers may hr hidden.' What we remember has powei to teach For instance: 1 remember rid ing tin old But lington passenger train from v oUsblufTtn Lire oin, tetiihly proud »,f my newspaper person s bang1 if cynicism won during my firs! t portingjob. one of several summers of taking tin swing shift and filling in for vacationing reporters on the Scott sbluff Si o' Herald. I also carried wit It me a bottle of bour bon. a gift from t he guys in the newsroom. 1 was glad to be one of them, a member of a wise cracking, hard drinking, stereo typical fraternity. That memory connects strongly vith my life today. Some years igo 1 gave up drinking and today 1 wonder how to exorcise the cynicism. In those days, I had too much i o do and too little time in which to do it. I was forever running late, burdened with the awk ward ness of never being ready, pulled together. I doubt that I made lists as religiously as 1 do today; perhaps there was no time between the full-time job on “The Rag" and the full-time job of going to school. Little time was left for going slowly, for play ing any way other than hard and thoughtlessly, for nurturing our selves and our relationships. We thought such things took care of themselves by osmosis. Today I take care of myself and value my relationships much more highly than back then. I still think, though, that a day or a week or a season has enough lime for everything 1 want to do, keeping me on the treadmill of “When I get the next thing done, then ril. . I dated the editor during my first year at “The Rag.” He did not recommend me to the Publ cations Board for a staff position but the board advanced me any way. Yet I continued to think, like most women of my genera tion, that my success depended on hitching my wagon to a star. We hardly gave it a thought, so deeply was it ingrained in us to project our hopes and dreams on a man. The myth dies hard for women, even today, and it takes a lifetime lit learn that we are responsible for ourselves. There came a t ime when 1 had to choose between lots ofactivi ties and concentrating solely on my main love, the Daily Ne braskan. Today 1 am still bewil dert d to find little time for writ ing. while I am bus) teaching classes, giving talks, doing peace and justice work, studying Span ish. helping at a soup kitchen, visiting my grown daughters and my mother and sisters, and find ing time to be with my husband and other friends. Back t hen, 1 set mv mind t o my heart's desire o! becoming editor of the Daily Nebraskan and reluctantly act eptedthat I would not become a M< rtar Board There an days now when 1 think l am still trying to become a Mortar Board. One « mesicr’v low grades aiso did n»>t h«‘lu my scholastic average. Then I -peat dispropor tionate amoun: > of time br ing a Delta Gumma and dating. That amorphous feeling that I can ha\<* it all by simply wanting it insb ad of making choices plagues im less today but is si id around. One finai story: 1 remember being interviewed by the Seat p*st scholarship committee for graduate study at the Columbia School of Journalism. I was engaged t o Charley Thorn*, rising young lawyer and politician, well known to the ei\ ic leaders of the Seacrest Committee. 1 did not recognize my own ambivalence. I was applying for tin* scholarship to graduate school while declar ing loudly that 1 was to be mar ried and join my life to a life already committed to politics. Willy Leman's wife in “Death of a Salesman” says, "So attention must be paid. . .attention must be finally paid. . If I was not paying attention 35 years ago, you may be sure that in the intensity of middle age that gift has been given to me today. A conservative or a liberal? Bork's ‘neutral-principled ’ approach shuns both philosophies With all the hysteria over Robert Bork’s nomination to the Supreme Court, public confu sion run rampant. Many wonder what the controversy is all about and why people either adamantly support oi oppose his nomination. Liberals will tell you that Bork is a Neanderthal monster who would force women into back-alley abortions and allow the police the right to break down your door in the middle of the night for no reason at all. Conservatives will tell you that Bork is the champion of unborn babies and will do whatever he can to ensure their right to life. Both are wrong and for good reason. For it is reason that should rule over result. What both groups fear or favor is a result-oriented Bork. Far from being ideologically parti san, Bork holds fast to a "neutral principled” approach irrespective of whose ox is being gored. Bork has said: "The sin of wanting judges to do good things simply because the electorate won't do them is not confined to liber alism. Conservatives have been known to be infected with that desire, too." What is the difference between being result-oriented and neut ral principled? Being neutral principled or practic ing "judicial restraint" means believ ing that judges should interpret the Constitution and the laws according t<> neutral principles, without reference to their personal views as to desirable social and legislative policy, insofar as this is humanly practicable. This is based on the belief that policy making is best left to elected representatives as opposed to judges who are not elected. Being result oriented means believ ing that law s an "living” and should In* amendable to adapt to changing cir cumstances and values. This theory gives judges a lot of discretion to change laws to fit their views of society. Both judicial philosophies should be followed. A judge cannot be just one way or the other. Public policy is so impor tant to judicial decisions that a judge cannot always wait for Congress to determine public opinion. Yet, a judge is prohibited from "legislating” with o Joel " Carlson his decisions because only Congress has the power to legislate. Both philosophies are needed, yet the Supreme Court has been domi nated for many years by result oriented justices. As a result, liberals have turned to the courts as a forum to achieve their social agendas that could not gain popular support in Congress. In a year in which we celebrate the bicentennial of our Constitution, it is appropriate to allow the original fra mers a chance to comment. Alexander Hamilton wrote that the judiciary was the "least dangerous” branch, because it had neither "force nor will, but n rei judgement” and because it could take "no active resolution wha t»■>«'■ ’ in policy matters when that wnuid require a choice among compet ing ! gitimate social values. Our system of justice was designed to resolve disputes and not reshape society according to the whims of even well-intentioned judges. Daniel Webs ter once warned “that the Constitution was made to guard against the dangers of good intentions.” He noted that there “are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters.” Bork represents a growing sentiment that the judiciary has become the “mas ter” branch of government. In Bork's words: “When the judiciary imposes upon democracy limits not to be found in the Constitution, it deprives Ameri cans of a right that is found there, the right to make the laws to govern them selves. As courts intervene more fre quently, they teach the lesson that democratic processes are suspect, essentially unprincipled and untrust worthy.” Bork does not carry an “agenda" with him. He has criticized those who have. This includes the right-wing acti vism of the pre-1937 Supreme Court that struck down much of the social legislation of President Roosevelt. On the liberal front, he has called into question the controversial Roe vs. Wade case that created a right to privacy out of thin air. Unfortunately, the liberals are res isting his confirmation. Sen. Joe Biden, chairman of the Judiciary Committee and presidential hopeful, has reversed his earlier support for Bork. At the time of his earlier support, Biden said: “I'd have to vote for him, and if the (special interest) groups tear me apart, that's the medicine I’ll have to take.” The liberals think that opposing Bork will win them the White House. My advice to Biden: Swallow hard. Mondale’s prescription of special in terest Quaaludes killed him in 19 states. < art son is a thinl year UNL law slud« nl Submarine s pothole glance yields Titanic artifacts, insight I i was unmistakably a man’s outdoor walking shoe, and it appeared a-, if be.ng exhibit* d bv Abercrombie dt . 1 li from a painting by Salvador Dali Beneath the shoe and surroundingIt was bright yellow sand A few feet to h light, att 4 a Bach toccata on a two console organ. No one larger than 5 foot ti can — ever — stretch out his legs A cold aluminum luu bisects tin stomach if you are lying down peering out of the porthole (there were <> 1/2 non stop hours of that), and it does the same t o your hack if you t ry t o lie down (you will) on the 90 minute trip down, and the 100 minute trip up. You can sit with your knees bent, but must not lean back. You might push one of those thousand toggle switches — who knows, the one that will add your watch and shoes to the collection on the ocean floor. It is one hell of an enterprise. 1987 t ’nlvrrHul Pi-cnn Syndicate