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
AIDS discussion
Cameron must be met for panel to work
If the organizers of an
AIDS panel discussion
wanted to get some
thing accomplished tonight,
they would cut anti-gay-rights
activist Paul Cameron from the
panel.
Cameron has said he is sur
prised that public officials such
as Sen. Don Wesely of Lincoln
are shying away from a head-to
head meeting with him in the
panel discussion scheduled for
tonight at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln East Union.
The Daily Nebraskan doesn’t
blame Wesely and others for not
attending. Cameron, a Lincoln
psychologist, has earned na
tional attention for his views on
AIDS.
He has said that people with
AIDS should be quarantined
and that AIDS carriers should be
tattooed so they can be recog
razed as being infected with the
disease. He also has pushed for
AIDS testing for all hospital,
restaurant and school staff
members.
Cameron’s ridiculous,
homophobic ideas wouldn’t do
anything to help the discussion.
Panel organizer Virgil Na
bity said Sunday he wanted to
find someone representing ev
ery angle of the AIDS dilemma
in schools. The panel is spon
sored by Taxpayers for Quality
Education, a group formed for
concerned citizens worried
about AIDS.
The purpose of the panel is to
be a forum discussing AIDS
policies in schools, but it will
never achieve its goal if no one
is there to square off against
Cameron and put him in his
place.
Mate needs more jobs;
LB775 is worth a try
A controversial study by
Donald W. Macke, sen
ior partner of Econom ic
Research Associates, said
Nebraska’s new tax incentive
law will set the state back 16 to
20 years financially.
LB775, the Employment and
Investment Growth Act, will
provide tax incentives for cor
porations based on the number
of jobs created over seven years.
Seventy-one companies have
applied for these tax incentives
so far. An article in the Sunday
Omaha World-Herald reported
that the companies plan to in
vest $1.06 billion to create
8,962 jobs over the next seven
years.
Macke’s study claims corpo
rate income and sales tax reve
nue lost under LB775 won’t be
made up by new employees’
taxes for 16 to 20 years.
But Macke is overlooking at
least three important points:
First, as new employees
move into Nebraska communi
ties, their incomes will stimu
late the local economy, possibly
creating other jobs in the service
sector.
Second, if Nebraska is to
compete with other states it
must offer incentives for com
panies to move here.
Third, although opponents of
the bill argue that it gives tax
money away to companies that
would expand anyway,
actually it would encourage
expansion from established
companies and may provide the
impetus needed for outside
companies to move to Ne
braska.
Other opponents want the bill
to be amended to force compa
nies to disclose exactly how
much tax money will be saved
and how much money the com
pany expects to spend on the
project. Now, only the company
name, the location of the proj
ect, and the amounts of in
creased employment and invest
ment are reported.
Economic development has
long been a topic cm the lips of
state senators, the governor and
community leaders. Finally the
Legislature has taken some
steps to encourage investment
in the state. Let’s give it a
chance.
Iranian student seeks peace and freedom
I have been in this country for nine
years without ever going back to Iran
— my country of birth.
Unfortunately, at the time I came
here, Iran was involved in an Islamic
movement and then the hostage crisis.
Because of these issues, communica
tion with my family was getting worse
week after week. They weren’t able to
send me money, so I had to support
myself. I started as a dishwasher and
have worked ever since. I worked as
hard as anyone else, but I told myself
things would get better. I was going to
school and working at jobs that many
people wouldn’t have done. I was
doing them no matter how hard and
humiliating they were because 1 was
thinking of the light at the end of the
tunnel. It was not just me doing all this;
many Iranians were working at mini
mum-wage jobs. Many others had high
degrees and were very intelligent
But we Iranians have no control
over political issues. I personally anr
not involved with these kinds ol
things. I have other problems to solve
I know it is my country and I do love it
like lots of you in the United States
But you don’t want to fight; mos
people want peace and freedom,
don’t like to see any Iranians, Ameri
cans or Iraqians in the war. I don ’ t wan
to die for someone else’s mistake.
A few weeks ago, a story in the Loi
Angeles Times reported dial an Ira
nian burned himself in protest of th<
Iranian president coming to the Unite<
Nations and the war between Iran ant
Iraq. He loved his family and life, bu
he put an end to his life to tell u:
something.
Hassan Ferasati
industrial educatior
This is the real world, folks
Some people, it seems, cannot accept anything
"Out on the road today
I saw a Dead Head sticker on a
Cadillac.
A little voice inside my head
Said don’t look back ...”
Don Henley, “Boys of Summer”
Sure, I have trouble accepting
reality. It’s been a problem of
mine for some time now.
For instance:
• We live in a country where people
pay $40 to wear a shirt that advertises
a soft drink.
The shirts look like this:
• We go to an institution of higher
education that gives exceptional ath
letes free room and board, tuition,
books, and many fringe benefits to
play football.
Football is a game where outcome
will not stop wars, famine or disease.
However, we do not offer excep
tional scholars nearly as much in terms
of room and board, tuition and books,
or award them a hundredth of the rec
ognition.
Applied scholarly activity has
cured many diseases and fed more
people using less manpower and land.
No one, it seems, can stop wars.
A football looks like this:
Often footballs will advertise a
certain brand of sporting goods, like
Spalding or Wilson. Many footballs
are autographed by superstars of the
game. I’ve yet to see a football that
advertised a soft drink, though.
• We live in a world where the
national media deluges the airwaves
with news about an 18-month-old girl
who fell down a well. The whole coun
try sends best wishes and follows the
story closely until the little girl is st.fe.
Disneyland sent her a giant stuffed
bear.
Yet, every day thousands of little
girls never reach 18 months old be
cause they die of starvation.
Bill
Allen
Somehow, people are able to bliss
fully ignore these children, unless
someone writes a hit song or makes a
hit video about starving people. That’s
goodfora year or so, until the song gets
old.
A giant stuffed bear looks like this:
Most of us have had a stuffed bear
atone time in our lives. I still sleep with
a teddy bear.
Most of us have always had plenty
to eat, too.
• We live in a world where religious
leader Jim Bakker had an affair and
was kicked off the air because of it.
Now, a few months later, he and his
drug-addict wife are looking for a
chance to get back on the air.
His former church secretary and
lover appeared nude in Playboy Maga
zine.
Playboy doesn’t usually print pic
tures of ugly women in its magazine,
but this was a sensational case and the
publishers figured they would sell
more copies with pictures of this
woman even though she wasn’t a
“bunny."
A bunny looks like this:
Obviously, this bunny and a Play
boy “bunny” are not similar.
• We live in a world made up of dis
posable razors, diapers, napkins,
plates, cups, forks, spoons and contra
ceptives.
All of which parallel our disposable
lifestyle with abortions, divorces, fast
food, casual sex and edible panties, or
so I’m told.
I have never eaten my own or any
one else’s underwear, but I imagine the
table would be set like this:
Still, some people wonder why I
have trouble accepting reality.
Allen is a graduate student and Daily Ne
braskan arts and entertainment editor. He
drew all the illustrations for this column.
Ethnic slurs promote faulty cliches
A woman of Polish ancestry
called me a few days ago,
ranting about a terrible insult
that had been directed at Poles by one
of the broadcasters who handled a
Chicago Bears football game earlier
this fall.
“He implied that Poles are stupid,"
the lady said.
Were you watching the Bears’ scab
game? I asked.
“Sure, how do you think I heard him
say it?”
Then, if you were spending a fine
afternoon watching that game, there
might be something in what the an
nouncer said about Poles.
“Why, you’re just as bad ...” she
began to sputter.
I assured her I was just joking and
promised to look into the alleged in
sult
And, as I discovered, broadcaster
Dick Vermeil had indeed made a
couple of remarks that offended Poles.
About 15 Chicagoans were so in
dignant that they complained to their
congressman, William Lipinski, who
called the CBS network to look into the
matter. He received an apology from
Vermeil.
I’m sure that all incorrigible ethnic
joke tellers are eagerly awaiting de
tails of what Vermeil said. OK, I will
satisfy your disgusting curiosity.
[ At one point, a player was a little
I slow in getting on the field for a punt
. formation, and Vermeil said some
l thing to the effect that it is OK for him
to be late because he’s Polish.
5 And later, taking note that the Bears
. had two wide receivers who were
. Polish-Americans, Vermeil said they
I were probably eager for the game to
I end so they could go drink beer and eat
l some kielbasa, which is sausage,
j Some non-Poles — especially
those of the WASP persuasion —
might wonder why this should offend
i anyone.
So I’ll let John Czemiak of Joliet,
111., explain. He’s another Pole who
was upset, and he dropped me a note.
“I resent the fact that Mr. Vermeil
was allowed to imply we arc slow, as
if being Polish was a form of mental
handicap. 1 also resent that Mr. Ver
meil implied that the greatest aspira
tion of a Polish employee is to finish
work so we can drink and eat Polish
sausage. I feel such bigots should be.
removed from the broadcaster’s
booth.”
Mike
R°yk°
Firing is a bit harsh, since Vermeil
really didn’t know he was being offen
sive.
As he explained in a phone inter
view, he chatted with the two wide
receivers before the game, and they
merrily noted how unusual it is for two
Polish-Americans to be playing that
position on the same team. And they
joked with him about going out aftei
the game to have a cold beer and
kielbasa.
And it is unusual. Most wide receiv
ers are black. But I assume that they are
not eager to finish a game so that they
can go drink whiskey and eat chitlins
and black-eyed peas, although ii
doesn’t sound like a bad idea.
“In coaching (he’s an ex-coach),
you joke about everything, including
ethnic background, because people,
the coaches, the players arc so secure
in their relationship that people aren’t
that concerned. I should have been
concerned, because obviously it of
fended someone.”
To be honest, I am disappointed.
The only reason I bothered to check
out the complaints of the Polish
American readers is because I was
curious and thought Vermeil had told
a couple of really terrible, offensive,
cruel jokes. Which would have proba
bly had me splitting my sides.
I mean, there’s the one about the
two Polish astronauts. Oops, but I can ’ t
tell that one in a newspaper. Or the one
about the Pole and the birth-control
device. I d< finitely can’t tell that one,
either.
But Vermeil’s remarks were not
nearly as gross as the Polish jokes my
Irish friends tell me, although I some
times have difficulty understanding
them, since they often talk with two or
three potatoes in their mouths.
What Vermeil has learned, to his
discomfort, is that ethnic, racial or
religious humor is no longer accept
able on the public airwaves or in the
print medium.
That is both good and unfortunate.
It’s good because many of the jokes
perpetuate inaccurate and unfair stere
otypes. It unfortunate because so many
of the jokes are funny.
Anyway, Vermeil says he is sorry
and he apologizes to any Poles he may
have offended. Since I am half Polish,
from my mother’s side, I accept half of
his apology because Ukrainians like to
tell Polish jokes.
Incidentally, Vermeil says his
name is French. So if he really wants to
make amends, during the next game he
should single out some player with
French ancestry and say something
like:
“He’s a little slow in getting out on
the field, but that’s OK — he’s waiting
for the American Army to show up.”
Now I’ve done it. AH the snail
eaters are going to be calling my boss.
Royko is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist
for the Chicago Tribune,
c 1987 by the Chicago Tribune
