EditoriaL__
Nebraskan
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Mike Reilley, Editor, 472-1766
Jeanne Bourne, Editorial Page Editor
Jann Nyffeler, Associate News Editor
Scott Harrah, Night News Editor
Joan Rezac, Copy Desk Chief
Linda Hartmann, Wire Editor
Charles Lieurance, Asst. A & E Editor
Big step forward
New nuclear issues class worth taking
Anew sociology class
next spring will teach
students about causes
and realities of the nuclear threat
— a giant step forward in terms
of liberal arts education.
Robert Benford, assistant
professor of sociology, said he
helped start a similar class at the
University of Texas-Austin that
has been offered since 1982. He
said he knows of a number of
universities that also offer simi
lar courses including Geor
getown University in Washing
ton DC.
Because nuclear war, weap
ons and power are a part of our
lives, students, who can begin
registering today, should seri
ously consider registering for
• this course.
Benford said he hopes to
make it a regular class but that
will depend on the response.
The course will offer infor
mation that students will need in
oraer 10 maxe miormea acci
sions about the nuclear debate,
Benford said in a Daily Nebras
kan article Friday.
To provide di ffcrent points of
view, Benford said, he wants to
bring in speakers from all sides,
including the military and peace
movements.
The nuclear issue is a large
problem that our society is just
beginning to deal with. Recent
controversy about eliminating
mid-range nuclear weapons by
the United States and the Soviet
Union is just one example of
how misconceptions and igno
rance about these issues can
affect people’s opinions.
Nuclear waste is also an issue
that needs to be discussed by in
formed people, not just by high
strung, emotional protesters.
Providing students with such
timely, practical knowledge
benefits the community as well
as the individuals.
Letters
Reader tells reasons
for Christmas retail
I read with interest the article writ
ten by Bill Allen (Daily Nebraskan,
Oct. 12) “Santa’s coming to town —
and staying,’’ as I have heard many
others complaining about the same
problem — Christmas being in the
retail stores months before Christmas
ever arrives. Having managed a retail
store that depended on Christmas sales
for over 25 percent of that store ’ s retail
yearly sales dollars, I would like to
point out, or clarify, some issues re
garding Christmas retailing.
Although there are many reasons
why stores begin to display Christmas
merchandise early, there are two main
reasons. The first deals with producers
and their demands and incentives for
the retail stores to order and buy their
Christmas items early. Many suppliers
either offer large discounts for accept
ing delivery of Christmas items early
(which helps the producer plan),
threaten that your items you desper
ately want to sell (for examples Care
bears in their prime) will not be
shipped unless you take delivery early,
or, in the “normal” course of business,
some suppliers have very early order
and delivery dates (Hallmark stores,
for example, place orders for many of
their Christmas items in January). In
any case, if a retailer has the Christmas
merchandise, they feel that they may
as well put that merchandise out and
attempt to make money on inventory
that is otherwise sitting in the back
room. Which leads to the second, most
important reason stores pul out Christ
mas merchandise early. People buy the
merchandise. Retailers in die United
States work with the capitalistic theo
ries of supply and demand. Items will
not be sold if there is not a demand for
these items. This is one of the “It’s
your fault, not mine” type of argument
that doesn’t hold up. How many times
have you heard people with pride (and
justifiably so) in their voice saying,
*‘I’ve got all my Christmas shopping
done early and now I can enjoy the
holidays’? Who doesn’t (myself in
cluded) already have a couple of boxes
of Christmas presents in their closet
and yet it is October? You can bet that
K-Mart, ShopKo, or any other retailer
would yank that seasonal merchandise
off the shelf if it didn’t sell.
Tim Moravec
continuing studies
business maior
Science and religion
have to be ‘objective’
James Sennett’s column (Daily Ne
braskan, Oct. 15) was interesting read
ing. It neatly exposes some important
aspects of the “science vs. creation de
bate.”
Whatever else it is, science must be
the objective investigation of ideas.
Scientists must be w illing to ask—and
be asked—outrageous questions. The
job of a scientist is to devise objective
means of answering questions—even
unorthodox ones. Sennett is thus en
tirely correct in saying that establish
ment scientists should seriously con
sider ideas and evidence advanced by
religious dogmatists. The converse is
also true, of course. Creationists inter
ested in using the methods of science
must be willing to objectively evaluate
even their deeply held beliefs.
Having made that important point,
Sennett proceeds to illustrate the diffi
culties of dialogue between scientists
and non-scientists.
He starts by exhibiting a degree of
imprecision that makes his presenta
tion hard to discuss. His errors of fact
and interpretation may be the result of
either fuzzy thinking or misinforma
tion. I think, though, that he misrepre
sented the ideas of catastrophism and
uniformitarianism intentionally so
that he can paint science into a comer.
He uses inaccuracies to identify
“troubling issues” about “the ice age
and formation of mountains.” From
there he goes on to suggest that all of
science is somehow questionable. In
the end, then, Sennett presents a clear
example of the intellectual dishonesty
that unfortunately characterizes much
of a creationist rhetoric.
Peter Bleed
associate professoi
anthropology
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1
Modern-day moral witch hunt
Fingers should point to false sense of values, not at victims
Ask Cybill Shepherd. These
days, you’ve got to be mor
ally upstanding to peddle
meat.
Shepherd’s not running for presi
dent. She’s just your average Holly
wood star who wants to cash in on her
fame with a few product endorse
ments, namely American beef.
But some ranchers think Shepherd
is morally unfit to represent them in a
beef commercial with the slogan,
“Real Food for Real People.”
According to a national wire story
The Associated Press ran last week,
some ranchers want to fire Shepherd
from the beef campaign because the
brazen hussy conceived twins out of
wedlock.
Two days before her marriage to
Dr. Bruce Oppenhcim, the star of the
TV show “Moonlighting” told the
press that she was pregnant with
twins, the article said.
Ranchers were unhappy with
Shepherd earlier this year because she
said she was trying to “cut down” on
red meat for health reasons. As the
December renewal dale for the cam
paign nears, ranchers are strongly
questioning whether or not Shepherd
should continue plugging beef.
Donovan Yoachim, a member of
the Cattlemen’s Beef Production
Board, told AP that he has received
several letters from ranchers com
plaining about Shepherd’s question
able morals.
He added that although Midwest
ern ranchers have a beef with her, the
commercials have done quite well on
the coasts.
Evidently, Shepherd’s situation is
just another cog in the machinery of
I "
moral censure America currently is
obsessed with. We’re at the apex of a
modem form of McCarthyism I call
The 1980s Moral Witch Hunt.
Ranchers want Shepherd to be a
“real person” who promotes “Real
Food for Real People.” As today’s
social mores seem to say, “real
l*!ople” aren’t human. They are, in
stead, immortal pillars of pristine
ethics who can do no wrong. Real
people are not the following:
• People who cheat on their
spouses.
Scott
Harrah
• People who have drug or alco
hol problems
• People who, God forbid, have
premarital sex.
• People who have AIDS.
• People who cheat on tests in col
lege.
• People who get pregnant before
marriage.
• People who aren’t Christians.
• People who are gay.
• People with political convictions
other than those of the American
mainstream.
• People who realize red meat isn’t
always the most healthy thing to chow
down on.
Although some of the things men
tinned above aren’t necessarily noble,
they are all part of life’s peccadilloes
and are quite common.
The ranchers have a right to choose
whomever they want to represent
them. It’s also true that an endorser’s
character could affect sales and prof
its, but if they truly wanted an all
American paradigm to represent 1
them, they should have done some '
investigative work before they chose
Shepherd.
As a journalist, I have ambivalent
feelings about the media’s treatment
of scandal. Sure, the press sometimes
sensationalizes an issue, but it also
mirrors society’s sentiments about
morality.
Maybe it’s time for America to stop
worrying about who’s doing what to
whom and focus on public figures’
credentials instead of their headline
and coffee klatsch gossip potential.
Gossip is fun when it’s used in a
humorous tone, but when we start
destroying careers with it, then we’ve
gone too far.
In this year of slinging mud, per
haps it’s time we realized that our
traditional values simply do not work
in the modern world.
We should stop blaming the scan
dal victim and instead pinpoint our
anger on the false sense of values that
created the hoopla.
So the next lime you read about
someone in a situation similar to
Cybill’s, remember Joan Crawford’s
infamous line from ‘‘Mommic Dear
est”: “I’m not mad at you — I’m mad
at the dirt.”
Harrah is a senior news-editorial and
English major and a Daily Nebraskan night
news editor.
—. 1
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