__Frlitnrial |
Mike Reilley, Editor, 472-1766
Jeanne Bourne, Editorial Page Editor
MaKmIcI/ fl Jen Deselms, Managing Editor
1 I Mike Hooper, Associate News Editor
Scott Harr;, i, Night News Editor
University of Nebraska-Lincoln _ _ _ _ , „ . _
Joan Rezac, Copy Desk Chief
Linda Hartmann, Wire Editor
Numbers decrease
Transfer students precious commodity
A recent drop in transfer
students at the Univcr
sity of Nebraska-Lin
coln shows the need for the uni
versity to improve communica
tions with community colleges
and students.
According to an article in
Monday’s Daily Nebraskan,
the number of transfer students
at the undergraduate level has
dropped from 1,043 last year to
938 this year. A study of more
than 600 student files showed
that miscommunication be
tween the transfer students,
UNL and the colleges was one
of several factors in the drop.
"the main problems lie in
interpretation of transfer cred
its. Fortunately, the UNL ad
ministration has acted swiftly
and has started searching for
information fora book that will
outline all transferable credits
from community colleges to
UNL. The book should be ready
by April.
Transfer students are a
unique breed. They attend the
smaller schools for a number of
reasons. Many of them opt for
smaller colleges that are close
to home. Others are financially
strapped and have to stay near
home. Some students prefi r the
smaller teacher-student ratio at
the colleges.
But in the end, all of the stu
dents arc attracted to the univer
sity and its programs. They
want to improve their education
by moving up to larger, accred
ited programs. To deny them
this opportunity because of
university red tape is ridicu
lous.
And it's not just the transfer
students who benefit. The stu
dents also are a precious com
modity to the university. The
university generally lures the
top-notch students from
smaller community and junior
colleges. Many of these stu
dents arc enrolled in the
university’s law, dental, busi
ness and journalism colleges.
Juvenile offenders on trial
Capital punishment question resurfaces with no easy answers
he U.S. Supreme C ourt heard
a case Monday that not only
will decide the fate of Wayne
Thompson, but could shape a facet of
the punishment of a certain type of
criminal — the juvenile.
According to a United Press Inter
national report Sunday, Thompson
was convicted for murdering his for
mer brother-in-law.
Charles Keene was found floating
in a river a month after he was mur
dered. He had been beaten, shot and
slashed in the throat, chest and abdo
men.
He had reportedly abused
Thompson’s sister.
Although this sounds like a “typi
cal” case, something we read about
often, it was anything but usual.
Thompson was sentenced to death
in an Oklahoma courtroom at the age
of 15.
1 wcnty-cignt suites permit execu
tion of juveniles. Indiana will allow
anyoncover 10 to be executed. A 1982
ruling pul Nebraska’s minimum age
for the death sentence at 18. That puts
our country in the same sphere as
countries like Bangladesh, Iran and
Pakistan, which some consider bar
baric.
Besides Thompson, there are 35
other people on death row who were
condemned for crimes that occurred
when they were between the ages of
15 and 17 — about 2 percent of in
mates sentenced to death.
Much has been said and written
about capital punishment, and there
arc many arguments either way.
Approximately 80 percent of the
American public is in favor of the
death penally for adults, but less than
50 percent are in favor of executing
juveniles. Nothing I could say in this
column would sway anyone away
from their personal values, beliefs and
opinions about this issue.
This is a complex and seemingly
unsolvablc issue that needs atteniion.
Monday’s Supreme Court hearing
provides a timely reason to discuss
this issue again.
Jeanne
Bourne
By the time a minor spends five to
10 years in the appeals system, people
tend to forget the defendant was
merely a child when the crime was
committed. But some could answer
w ith: What difference would it make
if a person were under 18 or over 18
when the crime was committed0
Issues regarding capital punish
ment in general that need discussion
include:
• Mistakes. Nine people have been
executed in error by our criminal jus
tice system since 1962. Should we call
that “justice”?
• Deterrence. Depending on the
statistics used, one can argue either foi
or against the death penalty, hut nevei
has there been undisputable evidence
that points either way.
• Expense. Reports have said it
costs anywhere from $30,000 to
$50,000 to house one inmate per year.
Vast amounts of tax money are also
spent on prosecution and defense
costs.
• Eye-for-an-eye theory. Some
people feel “justice” can only be
served when criminals are punished
with death for horrible crimes.
• Inhumanity. Opponents of the
death penalty say execution is lower
ing our society to the offender’s level.
They say it is sending mixed signals to
criminals: It is wrong to kill, but soci
ety kills as well.
No matter what one’s views are
about capital punishment, almost
everyone w ill concede that the crimi
nal justice system is in shambles.
There are no easy answers.
People can only become w hat their
socialization and circumstances allow
them. If juvenile offenders arc taken
completely out of their economic and
social situations, there’s hope for
rehabilitation. But in a society that
allows capital punishment, that’s
impossible.
Bourne is a senior news-editorial
major and Daily Nebraskan edito
rial page editor.
Readers upset over AIDS, columnist |
Letters
Jail and Bail raises
$1,609 for chanty
Our thanks to Steve Mossman, the
Interfraternity Council and
Panhellenic delegates for a great Jail
and Bail event. Last year’s total was
exceeded by $600. A total of $ 1,609
was raised for the March of Dimes
Birth Defects Foundation and will go
toward research and area programs.
We especially want to recognize
Mossman for all of his hours of hard
work and dedication.
Jennifer Schizas
directoi
Comhusker Division
March of Dimes
AIDS a civil-rights
and public-health issue
Your recent call for letters concern
ing AIDS with slanting toward the
-afety of school children only builds
the hysteria and moral furor around
this disease. While many Biblc-bcat
ers are anxious to cast the “moral lighi
and truth” on AIDS for whatever po
lineal or religious advantage, AIDS
must be dealt with as a civil-rights and
public-health issue.
With more than 1 million Ameri
cans now infected (not including the
47,355 dead as of Oct. 28 in the Unitec
States), we must simply ask what pol
icy will serve the interest of those
affected (dignity, compassion, health
care) — and choose a common goal oi
preventing new infections.
This two-prong approach wil
make the civil-liberties lawyers am
gay activists recognize the duly of the
infected to not further spread the dis
ease, and the hard-liners and moralist
to acknowledge the claims ol the in
feclcd to protection.
Controlling AIDS is a national pri
ority. It is not a continuation of the
sexual revolution that Jesse Helms,
Paul Cameron, Jane Fonda or gay
activists arc trying to “win” or “lose.”
These people must quit fighting old
wars and develop a comprehensive
approach to AIDS, civil rights and
health care.
T rry Rocmcr
senior
ag honors
Commonwealth gone,
but far from forgotten
On Nov. 1 on the north steps of the
State Capitol was a true revelation of
the heart and core of the Common
wealth fiasco.
Basically, rotten representation of
the people’s rights by the unicameral
(as a body), greed on the part of the
banking industry and total lack of
proper actions on the part of our recent
governors, our courts at all levels
(city, county and state) and most cer
tainly the American Bar Association
as represented by the state attorney
general’s office (past and present).
Jurisprudence at its worst. No justice
done, noteven close. Information and
facts galore. No action. The news
iiicuiu was nui u>o innovative ai any
time. Why? They have the investiga
tive reporters. We pay for new news.
The fourth anniversary of the
Commonwealth closing is past, and to
the “Good Old Boys” in the Capitol,
all departments (judicial, legislative
and administrative), a reminder of a
remark that was made at the first
public meeting at the McPhcc School
by and of Commonwealth depositors
, and I quote a remark by a senator’s
■ secretary: “It will all blow over in six
months.”
It hasn’t blown over and it should
I never subside, at least as long as the
: participants at all levels of the legisla
tive, judicial and administrative bod
* ics arc still aiding and abetting in
many ways. This manipulated injus
tice to humanity must honestly be
resolved.
Among those who arc trying is Dr.
IlfMIMlll'lllMlllMIIIIMIIMMIMIIMMlI
Michael Breiner, who has the guts and
staying power with more than just a
few bucks at stake. May the bankers,
news media, lawyers and certainly
our government representatives try to
measure up before they have the gall
to look in the mirror at their own
image and be proud of what they sec.
The lawyers did well and arc prosper
ing regularly at the victim’s expense.
Breiner is not a politician, a lawyer
or a news reporter. He did the work
mentioned above at no cost. Did any
one learn anything or feel ashamed of
their shortcomings? If not, why not?
Roy F. Gray
Davey
Writer doesn't know
Socio-political history
In his column on the rcccni stock
market crisis in Friday’s Daily Ne
braskan, Curl Snodgrass commits
historical rcductionism and factual
manipulation, and is ignorant of gen
eral American socio-political history.
The following corrects a few of his
manifestations:
• The 1920s and 1980s arc not the
only periods to experience a widening
gap between rich and poor. The de
pression years of the 1930s actually
increased the gap at a faster pace.
• Citing vague statistics on bank
ruptcies is misleading. Snodgrass
makes no differentiation between
small businesses and large corpora
tions. Flc conveniently omits that
small business start-ups are an indica
tion of economic prosperity, although
they do have a very high rate of failure
during their first years. This is only
one explanation for high failure rates
in the 1980s.
• Accusing Reagan of the reinstitu
tion of a hands-off economic policy is
another fallacy. Snodgrass forgets
that Jimmy Carter not only deregu
lated gas prices but started the deregu
lation of the airline industry. Contrary
to his statements, the 1920s were not
..........i; i. i •:
a period of complete withdrawal from
the economy by the government. The
federal government did play a role,
albeit indirect, in fostering economic
development; although it was the
1930s that saw the beginnings of the
era when direct government interven
tion would become the norm.
• Thursday’s Lincoln Journal
stated that the 1986 deficit spending
decreased bccauseof a grow th in reve
nues due to recent changes in the tax
structure pursuant to Reagan’s eco
nomic policies. On the other hand,
Snodgrass would have us believe that
these lax changes arc the same as the
tax reforms in the 1920s, w hich were,
in pan, reversals of policies that had
been enacted to support the war effort s
of the Wilson administration.
• Snodgrass says,“People are gam
bling on the market, not investing in
business as the stock market was in
tended.” Apart from his presumption
in telling us what was intended by the
stock market, he ought to realize that
investment in the stock market in any
form is speculative, regardless of
when it’s done. Contending that this
speculation is exacerbated by compu
terized trading is more nonsense.
Earlier, Snodgrass had said that the
crashes of 1929 and 1987 were related
to investor realization of inflated
prices, thus contradicting his own
mistaken assertions.
•World War II brought the country
out ol the Great Depression, not
FDR’s New Deal policies, hence they
wouldn’t necessarily be any more
appropriate now' than they were then.
Snodgrass connects the firing of
the air traffic controllers and the col
lapse ol PATCO to the so-called
“union-busting” ol the 1920s. Being
federal employees, it was illegal for
the air traffic controllers to strike. The
reasons for firing them was to uphold
the rule of law, not to bust unions.
Further, comparing this action to the
1920s is nonsense in as much as un
ions did not begin to gain wide public
acceptance until the 1930s.
• There is no correlation between
Prohibition and the current anti-drug
campaign. The former was an outright
I:: B H ■i. i 1111 c •: < J tft t< ■: / •• ti' ft i # i i t i»? h
ban on choice; the latter is promotion
of an informed choice.
• There is no comparison between
the “Red Scare” of the 1920s and the
“Evil Empire.” The former was a
widely held internal fear responding
to the Russian revolution and failed
communist revolts throughout Europe
following World War I. The “Evil
Empire” is a narrowly perceived ex
ternal threat.
• The slock market is not a good
economic indicator of great depres
sions. There has been only one great
depression in the 20th century. Build
ing a causc-and-cffcct relationship on
i single coincidence is questionable.
The connection between the stock
market crash of 1929 and the Great
Depression remains problematic.
• Anotncr oi Muxigrass ionium
analogies is his comparison ol
Coolidgc’s appointment of William
Humphrey to the Federal Trade
Commission with Reagan's alleged
attempts at dismantling the Depart
ment of Education. Space prohibits
miring ourselves in a further discus
sion of this particular irrelevancy
wrapped in inanity inside confusion.
Snodgrass closes his column with
an unattributed misquote. (The real
quote: “Those who cannot remember
the past arc condemned to repeal it.
George Santayana, “The Life of Rea
son, vol. 1, “Reason in Common
Sense.”) One wonders how many
more unattributed misunderstandings
he has perpetuated. Searching lor
superficial similarities between two
decades without attempting to under
stand the forces mat produced them
docs not constitute remembering the
past. To quote Snodgrass, “Scary,
isn’t it?” What is scary is that an
apparent senior economics major who
has cither never had a class on Ameri
can socio-political economic history,
or else has slept through it, is paid to
write uninformed gibberish in a col
umn for the Daily Nebraskan.
John Anderson
James Cox
Kenneth Rcmfry Jr.
graduate students
history
L'Kvi'mrm? 5h /TfH 1 Hi) ft?