Editorial
Nebraskan
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Mike Reilley, Editor, 472-1766
Jeanne Bourne, Editorial Page Editor
Jen Deselms, Managing Editor
Mike Hooper, Associate News Editor
Scott Harrah, Night News Editor
Joan Rezac, Copy Desk Chief
Linda Hartmann, Wire Editor
Chronic traffic violators
Suspension Solution
Instead of chasing recur
ring traffic violators with
arrest warrants, Nebraska
law officials found a much more
logical answer to the problem —
suspending driver’s licenses.
In the past, courts issued arrest
warrants for people who failed to
appear in court to either pay or
contest a ticket. According to an
Omaha World-Herald article, the
new law allows the State Depart
ment of Motor Vehicles to suspend
the licenses of people who fail to
pay their tickets.
So far, the system has been
successful. During a period from
Nov. 1, 1986 to Oct. 31,1987, the
state suspended 22,845 licenses—
9,603 of which came under the
provisions of the new law.
There arc several advantages to
this system. First of all, it gives the
traffic violators a chance to pay
their tickets before law officials
take harsh action. Violators are
sent a notice telling them to pay
their fine or their license will be
suspended.
According to Douglas County
statistics, 67 percent of those noti
fied during a six-month period
paid the fine after receiving the
warning.
In order to have their license
reinstated, violators must pay an
additional $50 on top of fines and
court costs.
Law enforcement officials pre
dict that the new system will save
money in the long run. Admini
stering the new system costs about
$6,000 a month, according to the
World-Herald article, butofficials
have said the reinstatement fees
have picked up and should at least
offset the administration costs.
The new system also saves
police a lot of time hunting down
traffic violators. Traffic warrants
are generally the lowest priority
for police because officers con
centrated on more serious crimes,
the article stated.
Psychologists dissuade
rearing ’superbabies’
At the annual convention
of the National Asso
ciation for the Educa
tion of Young Children, psy
chologists chastised parents
who arc trying to rear “superba
| bies.”
While encouraging young
children to leam is great, push
ing them to overachieve can
result in burnout, the child psy
chologists say.
Twenty-six states have bills
pending in their legislatures to
allow children to enter public
schools at age 4.
In Scandinavian countries
children don’t begin forced
education until age 7. Illiteracy
is rare.
The trend of early achieve
ment is especially evident in the
yuppie generation. The motto
“early ripe, early rich” is back
firing, said David Elkind, presi
dent of the education associa
tion.
“We have to recognize that
education is not a race, child
rearing is not a race,” Elkind
said.
In this time, some early
preparation is necessary to gain
an “edge” over the competition
for some universities and cer
tainly out in the “real world.”
But pushing 3- and 4-year-old
kids with flash cards, music
lessons and other early training
methods is too much.
The early stages of a person’s
life are the most impression
able. Kids need time to be kids.
They need time to play sports
and watch TV. There’s plenty
of time later to worry about
studies.
Some children react to paren
tal ‘‘encouragement” by doing
exactly what they don’t want
them to do. They rebel and
eventually reject learning. This,
in turn, defeats the entire pur
pose of education. And when
kids start the formal education
process, they could be already
turned off to learning.
Editorial Policy
Unsigned editorials represent
official policy of the fall 1987 Daily
Nebraskan. Policy is set by the Daily
Nebraskan Editorial Board.
Editorials do not necessarily re
fleet the views of the university, its
employees, the students or the NU
Board of Regents.
The Daily Nebraskan’s publishers
L_- .1 —— -
are the regents, who established the
UNL Publications Board to super
vise the daily production of the
paper.
According to policy set by the
regents, responsibility for the edi
torial content of the newspaper lies
solely in the hands of its student
editors.
Bragging about bestiality
While officials condemned for adultery, public admits furry fetish
A month ago, my mother, Ann
Landers, ran a column de
voted to pooh-poohing the
whole idea that children can be bom
from the unholy sexual union of
humans and beasts of the field,
meadow and pond.
She talked to scientists, social
workers, experts on the subject of
sodium and people who, strangely,
just seem to know a lot about such
things. In Mom’s humble opinion,
there have been no drool bunnies
produced by creature coitus. Good
going, Mom.
Charles
Lieurance
-A_
You’d pretty much think that
would be the end of that issue, but it
wasn’t to be so. No, the next week
Mom was deluged with people who
knew of children bom of such, uh,
relationships. Mom sat on the floor
and opened envelope after envelope,
each relating a more grisly tale of
psychotic hillbilly perversion than
the last.
“My grandmother had a child with
a beagle’s head and dog paws but a
human body. It lived two hours and
my great grandmother took it into the
woods and buried it in a secret place
“My grandmother gave birth to a
baby with fur like a sheep. My grand
father killed it and buried the body in
a secret place ...”
“My uncle was bom with feathers
like a chicken. He clucked off to live
in a secret place .. .**
I knew Mom’s readers were occa
sionally a few peas short of a pod, but
I suddenly became concerned for her
safety.
Images coursed through my mind
of drooling, syphilitic, inbred, barely
bipedal monsters roaming through
the Appalachians in Oshkosh B’Gosh
overalls six sizes too small and
stained with chicken blood, waiting
behind bushes for a passing herd of
milk cows or a possum stunned and
wounded by an automobile.
Do these people realize what
they’re bragging about?
If Mom wrote that there was no
one alive whose diet consisted solely
of blister skin chewed off the soles of
basketball players’ feet, would all
these people write in to say their
friends, relatives and loved ones not
only lived off this skin but made
clothes out of it as well?
It’s a bleak time for liars when
people feel compelled to drag
wretched skeletons like this out of the
attic or some other “secret place” into
the harsh, conspicuous light of day.
Anonymity or no anonymity.
This new age of self-actualization,
stimulated by the inhCrentego-dcprc
cation of Woody Allen films, has
brought us to the point where people
will tell the most horrific things about
themselves in public and people will
consider it charming. I understand
this yuppie glasnost is all part of the
dawning of a new age when we can all
be ourselves and where people who
like and admire barnyard animals in
that special way can say so without
fear of moral reproach.
But while we plebeians are free to
comer household pets at cocktail
parties for a cheap thrill, poor lying
political candidates still have to keep
good, wholesome American adultery
and prcsidentially condoned recrea
tional drug use under their wide
brimmed hats. How Gary Hart must
hate it when he picks up the paper and
reads some letter to Ann Landers
where a rube openly admits to bestial
bed-hopping, or stable-hopping,
whichever the ease may be. (My
place or yours? Wink, wink).
Although 1 really wouldn’t want it
to be public knowledge that my
grandmother’s lone morning horse
rides were actually excuses to roll in
the animal’s dinner for a few blissful
hours, I have to admire someone who
feels that piece of genealogical triv ia
is essential to the rest of the world
Of course, I trust Mom’s judgment
on this thing and, although I admit to
going out in the country and picking
around with a stick for some “secret
place,” I assume claims of furry fe
tuses are in the realm of American
low-brow folklore.
For someone who likes to exagger
ate — OK, lie — it’s disorienting to
live in a world where people are
making such fascinating claims in the
interests of honesty. Liars and politi
cians have it bad in such times.
Whereas it used to get you attention to
say your father was the head of a
major corporation, now it’s popular
to have known someone who’s had a
carnal interchange with a quadruped.
Here yon are lying about how much
money you make and some joker
steals the limelight by saying his
uncle had to be bur ied in a secret place
because he bleated when the midwile
slapped his behind.
And I don’t feel particularly com
fortable lying about things like that.
It’s just one of those things you have
to believe or people will suspect you
right away. There’s a certain unmis
takable look a liar gets on his face
when he’s trying to lie about what a
slime he is. The liar can go on forever
straight-faced when playing himself
up, but things get shaky when he tries
to refer to himself as an ex-heroin user
or a master pederast.
Perhaps if Gary Hart had just conic
out and told Mom in print that he and
his wife had given birth to a lovely 9
pound foa ind buried it in a secret
place, he wouldn’t be in the political
trouble he’s in now. The press would
be jut poking desolate ground in the
hills of Colorado instead of tracking
him to secret love nests.
I.leurance Is an English, phlhtsophy and art
mqjor, and Dally Nebraskan assistant arts
and entertainment editor.
Letter
In response to Tuesday’s Daily
Nebraskan editorial, I would like to
explain why rejoining the Nebraska
State Student Association would be a
good idea.
First of all, as a senator of the
Association of Students of the Univer
sity of Nebraska and the vice chair of
the Government Liaison Committee
last year, I was a staunch supporter of
*
the NSSA withdrawal. I truly felt the
organization was not working well.
However, what we propose to join
is not the old NSSA. It is a new and
completely different organization.
We have completely rewritten the
Constitution and even changed the
name to emphasize this fact.
The Nebraska Student Interest
Coalition is a completely new and
different organization. NSIC’s pri
mary purpose is to give Nebraska’s
universities and state colleges an
opportunity to communicate new
ideas and opinions. In addition, the
executive commission provides an
opportunity for all Nebraska students
to work together and show common
support for higher education.
The structure of NSIC docs not al
low it to act as a full-force advocacy
lobbying group. There would be no
hired staff and no paid lobbyist. Con
sequently, the cost of NSIC would be
simply enough money to pay for let
terhead, postage and traveling ex
penses for NSIC conferences.
NSIC simply provides Nebraska’s
universities and colleges with a struc
tured means of helping each other
strengthen our own lobbying Pr0
grams through the sharing of id^as.
And, when applicable, to take a stand
and have a unified voice for all Ne
braska students supporting higher
education in general.
Jeff Petersen
chairman
AS UN Government
Liaison Committee
