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<u|) glistening white, no
saucer And sprinkled here and there,
as ii to keep a tablecloth fioin being
miffeted by the wind, chunks of black
x k lerinattons about the size if a
human wrist. ( oal. And ail ul this i was
seeing ihmugl a foot thick glass port
hole the size . . a kitchens electric
clock,
We vvt re gliding over Uo* i.ugi i area
i few acres of ocean floor into w huh
In* sinking vessel had disgorged a
muhII part of the paraphernalia of the
200 people traveling exuberantly on
t be maiden voyag< of the Tit anic a< ross
be Atlantic Ocean.
I wondered; Was that shoe 1 saw
covering a human foot on the night of
April 15, 1912V The answer ran t be
known certainly because the men and
women who died when the Titanic went
down were on the surface of the water,
frozen to deal h. The exception was the
engineers who fought Inavely below to
maintain electric power on the great
decks above them.
We stopped to fetch the teacup. By
common agreement, the entrepreneurs
have agreed noi to excavate personal
articles. But if you pick up (as we did) a
pock *thook, open it and find inside a
woman’s wristwatch, we do not toss the
wristwatch out.
The foraging resumed. We (the little,
$20 million French submarine Nautile)
were looking for three specific objects,
previously photographed, one of them a
man’s valise, the second a part of a
leaded window missing from the larger
window now reconstructed, and the
third, iht* loose-lying control levers
that had fallen from the bridge from
which t apt. Edward Smith had ordered
the engines to shut down after rh** ice
berg was hit.
"Turn to 130 degrees, then go for fid
meters,' the voice from the radio came
in, giving the instructions of the navi
William F.
Buckley Jr.
_T
gating coordinator aboard the mother
ship, the French Nadir, 1 1 2 miles
above us. Georges, the senior pilot,
lying on his chest, reoriented the little
sub in the indicated direction and wc
crept noiselessly forward, one meter
above the yellow sand. The copilot.
Pierrot, sat on his little chair. He
looked through his porthole, the top of
an isosceles triangle at the base of
which are the other two portholes. And
beyond the porthole, Pierrot has two
screens giving him a remote video view
of what lies immediately ahead. To lus
left are two more little video screens,
one ol them indicating the full view
action of the prosthetic arm, the mani
pulation of which permits the Nautile to
recover artifacts as dainty as a brooch,
done with the precision of a surgeon’s
scalpel, and inserted either into the
submarine’s marsupial or, if too bulky,
identified with a floating flasher, to be
brought up later in a basket made buo
yant by huge plastic corks.
Myjob, as “observer," was constantly
to strain my eyes to the right, lest w<
glide by the object ive, and to iirect
attention of Georges to any object i
thought especially interesting. My prob
lent is that i found everything espe
cially interesting.
It is all being carefully husbands
scrubbed and put hack in saltwat
tanks for pi enervation. A French nation
a I laboratory will take It from then
i hoy will have, to exhibit in museum
more than 100 articles taken from tl ■
ocean floor, including the doctor s
rhel we spotted and the gentlemen •
gold cufflink case.
The Nautile is a technological niir■»
• !e, hut if ever they decide at Disney
World to imitate it for public coitsump
lion, they will need to make generous
alteration?. On climbing out of tin
Nautile 9 1 1 hours after entering it i
reached fie a description to satisfy the
curiosity of a young American associate
of the sponsoring firm, who wanted t<»
know what it was like. It is, 1 said,
something like hiring John Kenneth
Galbiaith, Haystack Calhoun and Jackie
Gleason to move into a 1950 YolKswa
gen and play joint l> 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
