T Editorial_
Nebraskan
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Mike Reillcy, Editor, 472-1766
Diana Johnson, Editorial Page Editor
Jen Desclms, Managing Editor
Curl Wagner, Associate News Editor
Scotl Harrah, Night News Editor
Joan Rezac, Copy Desk Chief
Joel Carlson, Columnist
Quibbles and bits
Elections are Greek popularity contests
• ASUN presidential candi
date Christopher Stream put the
upcoming student government
elections in proper perspective
Saturday. Stream, a VOICE
Party candidate, compared the
elections to belonging to a coun
try club.
“You have to be Greek, the
right Greek and know the right
people to be involved in ASUN,”
Stream said.
Stream, a member of Kappa
Sigma fraternity, said it is “ri
diculous and embarrassing” that
no non-Greek parties are running
for ASUN this year.
Stream’s aniysis of the elec
tions is candid and honest. His
opinion has been shared by many
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
students throughout the last few
years. The ASUN campaigns
have turned into nothing more
than a popularity contest among
the Greek houses. Non-Greek
candidates are usually written off
as “joke parties” and stand little
chance of winning without sup
port from an apathetic non-Greek
student body.
• ft was ail in the name of God.
The Rev. Everett Sileven is at
it again. An unsuccessful Repub
lican candidate for Nebraska
governor in 1986, Sileven told an
anti-tax group Saturday in Louis
ville that not paying certain taxes
could be justified if the taxes
violate the laws of God.
Worse yet, Sileven said the
“ungodly” taxes included health
and welfare programs. He said he
objects to paying taxes that redis
tribute wealth.
“We must not adopt the idea
that if we say no to the govern
ment we arc un-American, un
loyal or unfaithful,” Sileven said
in a Sunday Journal-Star article.
"That is a lie. Before you say we
must obey all the laws of the land,
you first must determine if the
laws are godly or ungodly.”
Since when has helping others
been ungodly? Welfare pro
grams arc designed to help the
needy, and Sileven can’t rea
sonably question those inten
tions.
The Rev. Keith Simmons,
pastor of the Freedom Faith
Church in Missoula, asked the
group, “Should the government
that has taken on the character of
Sodom and Gomorrah be alig ied
with the church? The ansv x is
no. (The government) only lias in
their possession what we give
them voluntarily or what they
take through oppression or plun
der”
In this case, it’s Sileven and
Simmons who are assuming the
Sodom and Gomorrah roles. To
let the hungry go unfed and the
sick go unaided is a sin in itself.
• An article in National On
Campus Report said drug use —
particularly of cocaine —
among U.S. high school seniors,
college students and young
adults has declined for the first
time in eight years. A study by
the University of Michigan also
reported that the United States
still has one of the highest rates in
the world. One in every six or
seven high school seniors last
year had tned cocaine, and one in
18 tried cocaine in the form of j
crack.
Daily Nebraskan ‘distorts’ reader’s letter
1 am writing in regard to the Daily
Nebraskan’s distortion of Jon
Dewsbury’s letter (Feb. 16). I read
Dewsbury’s letter before it was sub
mitted, and it made very good points.
However, the DN chose to cut out all
the main points and arguments. Thus,
it destroyed a positive and intelligent
argument that the DN staff did not
want heard.
The argument of space limitations
doesn’t wash. Rodney A. Bell’s letter,
which provoked the letter in question,
was twice as long as Dewsbury’s. The
episode is an example of the worst
form of censorship. When “journal
ists” suppress any opinions that they
do not like, it is worse than anything
a government could uo, because they
are betraying a trust and can ’t be held
accountable. I challenge the DN to
print Dewsbury’s letter in its entirety
if they still want to call themselves
journalists, or merely left-wing
propagandists.
Jon Swanson
freshman
news-editorial
Editor’s note: Two lines were cut
from Dewsbury’s letter because
they contained false information
regarding the allocation of funds to
a gay student organization. Three
other lines were cut in paste-up to
make the letter fit.
rat KoDertson is not a joke candidate
Is Pat Robertson a joke (Daily Ne
braskan editorial, Feb. 16)? Hardly.
He is a Yale Law School graduate,
former Marine Corps officer, founder
of a large family-entertainment cable
TV network and a former minister.
Robertson has a brilliant mind. He
also knows how to pray. Our two
greatest presidents, George Washing
ton and Abraham Lincoln, admitted
they often relied upon prayer while
serving this nation.
Robertson doesn’t deal with the
issues? He is probably the most spe
cific candidate in either party, includ
ing the issues the DN mentioned.
The DN should investigate beyond
its prejudices before writing off an
important candidate as a joke.
Gordon Anderson
Lincoln
DN should inform students of job openings
I would like to see more space in
the Daily Nebraskan devoted to ca
reer information. My primary reason
for attending college is to get a good
jobafter graduating. I would likctobe
informed about employer visits to the
University of Ncbraska-Lincoln, ca
reer workshops and other important
career issues. 1 have seen relatively
few articles devoted to this subject. I
think a small column once a week
addressing this topic would be en
lightening.
Debra McGuire
sophomore
chemical engineering
IN M8Z, PR€^IDENt|i£ ApotD BlLUONS ^Uouf*)
REA^VVANTEO I FROM ED
Caucuses prove to be useless
Present method of picking candidates is biased and futile
The American public is being
inundated by events on tele
vision these days. If it is not
the WinterOlympicsevery night, it is
the primary and caucus results from
the still all-too-young presidential
campaign.
Tbe Winter Olympics I can take.
The campaign I can leave.
Selecting a new president is far
too important to be left to such an
asinine process. It is not a game. The
winner here gets a much different
prize than a gold medal.
The other night I discovered that
the Iowa caucuses were not the first
of the season — but rather the third.
The public heard very little, if any
thing, about the Michigan and Ha
waii caucuses. What makes Iowa, of
all places, so much more important
than Michigan and Hawaii? This
Hrv*cn’• cat/ muz'll fnr
Do they really want to spend all their
winter months campaigning in icy
Iowa, instead of the warm tropical
climate of Hawaii with those lovelies
sunbathing on a tropical beach? Gary
Hart would be right at home.
But no. The candidates all had to
invade Iowa, w ilh the press scurrying
right behind them like a security
blanket. Forget Hawaii in the winter.
And then Iowa has a mighty
strange and twisted way to select
whom its delegates will support in
their respective conventions. About
two weeks ago Newsweek reported
that Democrats in Iowa have to go
through a number of steps just to
select the delegates who select their
party’s presidential candidate.
After all the hoopla of the cau
cuses dies down, and the media
moves on to New Hampshire and
Super Tuesday down South, there are
still 99 county conventions that se
lect delegates to six congressional
district conventions. From this, 34
delegates will be chosen to go to the
Democratic National Convention.
And sometime later — who knows
when — 18 more will be chosen. It is
only then that Iowans will really have
their votescast for whom they want to
be president.
In other words, the Iowa caucuses
that the whole country just endured
really meant very little at all. They
were just the first of many steps, but
the last one that people outside the
Hawkeye state will hear about.
Nebraskans won’t have a chance
to vote until May 16. It is as if some
one has declared that those other
states are more elite than Nebraska.
I—T-1
All the states coming before Ne
braska will have all the decision
making power in the country, while
Nebraska won’t. Who knows how
many candidates will remain by the
time the primaries roll into Nebraska.
Those who have dropped out by then
will have been forced out by Iowa,
New Hampshire and the rest, but not
by Nebraska. If, for example, I really
wanted to vote for Bruce Babbitt, I
wouldn’t haveachancc. I really don’t
have much of a voice.
Horror stories have even emerged
from some caucuses. Four years ago,
a friend of mine went to the Minne
sota Democratic caucus. But the
meeting went so far into the early
morning hours that he had to leave
before he had a chance to let his own
preference be known.
Oh, to be in New Hampshire in
February.
It is also about this time that the
candidates start dropping out. Alex
ander Haig and Pete du Pont have
already exited along with Babbitt
alter abysmal showings in Iowa and
New Hampshire.
While these results are important,
what is most likely the case is that
they all ran out of money. This is an
easy concept for college students to
understand. The results and the
money seem to go hand in hand. If
they get more votes, they will get
more money. If they get more money,
they will get more votes.
This sounds all too much like the
Gordon Gckko character played by
Michael Douglas in the movie “Wall
Street,” who says, “This isn’t a
democracy, this is free enterprise. ’
But I’m just a poor student. If I
were wealthy, or at least had a com
fortable income, I could contribute
some of my earnings to my favorite
candidate. But I have enough trouble
just paying my bills.
The fact is dial even with this
democratic process, most people
have little choice in the matter. For
the length of time it takes to select the
next president and the incredible
amounts oi money trial are pumpcu ■
into it, this is a shame.
One thing that could be done is to I
shorten the whole process. Elections |
in Great Britain are quicker, with the I
new prime minister moving into 10 I
Downing St. only days after winning I
the election. Unfortunately, this I
would probably exclude people like I
Jimmy Carter from rising from the I
grass roots to the Oval Office and I
would create its own elitism of viable |
candidates. And that’s not right ci
ther.
Presidents in America are not
elected just on the first Tuesday ot
November. The process starts long
before that. Despite this, we still do
not have an adequate voice in that
process.
The Olympics are on only two
weeks and then all of the gold-medal
winners arc quickly forgotten. But
presidents aren’t forgotten.
Fry Ls a news-editorial graduate student
and Is editor of The Sower, the Daily
Nebraskan’s depth magazine.
The Daily Nebraskan welcomes
brief letters to the editor from all
readers and interested others.
Letters will be selected for publi
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