Paf Fditnrial Nel>raskan
** A-J VI A C v JL A Cl A Tuesday, February 23,1988
Nebraskan
Mike Reilley, Editor, 472-1766
Diana Johnson, Editorial Page Editor
Jen Deselms. Managing Editor
Curt Wagner, Associate News Editor
Scott Harrah, Night News Editor
Joan Rezac, Copy Desk Chief
Joel Carlson, Columnist
A $2 million bonus
Legislature should invest money in UNL
State senators learned last
week that they will have
$2 million more to appro
priate during the next 1 1/2 years,
and the money would be well
spent on University of Nebraska
Lincoln faculty salaries.
The money would comple
ment an effort by Gov. Kay Orr to
solve the faculty salary problem.
According to a UNL Faculty
Salary Study last fall, UNL, as a
whole, pays its teachers $ 10 mil
lion less than similar land-grant
universities.
The Economic Forecasting
Advisory Board revised the total
tax revenue dollars last week.
The board said most of the
money will come from individ
ual income taxes and fewer will
come from corporate income
taxes.
Last October, the board pro
vided a forecast by Orr in making
budget recommendations to the
j Legislature. That proposal in
| eludes additional money for
I UNL faculty salaries and for
additional state aid to local sub
divisions, according to a Lincoln
1 Star article.
In January, Orr proposed a $ 10
million for salary increases for
1 university and state college cm
ployees for the fiscal year 1989.
The proposal is currently under
review in the Legislature.
Because Orr’s proposed $10
million must be shared with the
state colleges, the extra $2 mil
lion would bring faculty salaries
up to par.
And something has to be done
soon. College deans and profes
sors worry that faculty turnover
rates could become a serious
problem if salaries aren’t im
proved. Tlie College of Arts and
Sciences has been the hardest hit
by the turnover rate. Faculty
Senate President Jim Lewis has
said that the college has had prob
lems filling positions vacated by
faculty who have left for higher
paying jobs.
But the money proposed by
Orr, coupled with the addition^
$2 million, would change all that.
The raise would boost morale,
encourage professors to stay at
UNL and possibly attract new
faculty members.
Legislators would be wise to
steer the extra money toward
UNL salaries. Education has
proven itself to be one of the best
investments the Legislature
could make.
Reader says people must understand
others’ lifestyles as well as rights
i ms letter is in response to Jon
Dewsbury (Letters, Feb. 16.) I would
like to let Dewsbury know just how
closed-minded and prejudiced he is.
I, too, am heterosexual, but to
condemn gays merely because their
lifestyles arc different from straights’
is right along the lines of the ideals of
the White Supremacists, the Ku Klux
Klan and other fear/hatc groups.
Homosexuals arc people. They
think and feel just like everyone else.
They have the right to live their lives
as they choose, and just because oth
ers don’t agree, they have no right to
inhibit that right.
Dewsbury said himself that he did
not understand why homosexuals do
the things they do. That is precisely
the problem.
Too many people like Dewsbury
don’t understand and don’t try.
Dewsbury needs to lake a closer look
at himself and his motivations — he
just might learn something. The prob
lem is not with the homosexuals, it’s
with people like Dewsbury who
won't take the time or the real effort to
understand and let people live the
lifestyle they choose.
Sheri Buckner
sophomore
undeclared
1 he Good Lite is much more than profit;
reader wants rural farming condemned
The Daily Nebraskan editorial
(Feb. 25) contained such an interest
ing point of view in opposition to Ini
tiative 300 that I felt I must respond.
If we are seeking maximum effi
ciency in farming with emphasis on
wealth for the state and its people, it
may be more appropriate to have the
governor condemn all the rural farm
land in the state. For the sake of the
good people of Nebraska, turn the
land over as an incentive to coax
agribusiness into the state and pro
vide jobs for all the people we’ve
taken off the land.
In fact, it might be more efficient
to turn it over to one huge agribusi
ness. Maybe they would be kind
enough to build a set of food centers
across the state and bring in their
“high-tech” equipment so that the
peasants in the rural areas could make
a Recent wage without worrying
about the ups and downs of farm
pricing.
I would also think that when we
give them the land, we could ask that
they provide each rural resident one
or two acres to raise enough food to
feed their families, since wages will
not support them all.
The problem with implementing
thisoulslandingly efficient, capitalis
tic system is that we live in a demo
cratic society where the emphasis is
placed on the people making up the
society. Their needs and wants and
the quality of life available to them
have value.
When you drive into Nebraska,
signs read “Nebraska — The Good
Life,” and that’s true because of the
people of the state. “The Good Life”
is measured in more than a single
dimension of profit and loss. The
quality of the environment, wise re
source use, family and community
life are all part of the equation that is
used as a measure by rural Nebras
kans in determining the efficiency of
their operation.
Mike Adelaine
doctoral candidate
community and human resources
\ mm,
" IT'S (JAP NBMS, AAR. HART... I'/vA AFRAID (Tls MOT CUPIO
THIS TIAAS ... ITS THg VOTERS / "J
Robertson anxious to go south (
Ex-Marine buddies unite, tell who fought in the Korean War I
Fat Robertson is eager to get
down South where he can
start scooping up those
delegates. He says that’s his territory
because Southerners believe in the
old-fashioned, hard-nosed, patriotic
virtues he likes to preach.
Maybe. But it could also mean
that Robertson might have problems
precisely because many Southerners
believe his pitch.
More than any other part of this
country, the South believes that when
the bugle sounds, a true American
marches off to fight the enemy.
That’s Robertson’s problem.
There arc a number of middle-aged
ex-Martncs scattered across this
country who say there was a time
when Robertson didn’t have that
flag-waving /cal to fight.
One is Pete McCloskey, a former
congressman from California, who
was a highly decorated combat Ma
rine officer in Korea, where he was
badly wounded.
McL loskcy has more than a little
contempt for Robertson, the tough
talking patriot.
That’s because McCloskcy knew
Robertson in 1951, when both were
young Marine lieutenants on a troop
ship bound for the Korean War.
What McCloskcy says he remem
bers is that Robertson used political
clout — his father was a U.S. senator
— to stay in Japan while others went
to Korea, many to die or be maimed.
About 18 months ago, McCIoskey
shared his memories with a current
congressman. The troop-ship story
got to the press, and Robertson was
furious.
He said it was a political smear,
that his powerful daddy did nothing
in his behalf and that he had indeed
gone to Korea to face danger.
If Robertson had let it go at that,
the dispute would have been forgot
ten. But Robertson made what ap
pears to be a political error. He filed
a $35 million libel suit against
McCIoskey.
Because of the suit, McCloskcy’s
allegations haven’t faded away. And
McCloskcy is no longer alone in
having memories.
McCIoskey tracked down others
who were Marine officers on that
troop ship, others who knew
Robertson and remembered his get
ting off in Japan.
These ex-Marincs have given
sworn depositions to be used when
the ease comes to trial. If they’re to be
believed, Robertson isn’t exactly a
John Wayne character.
And to Robertson’s discomfort,
the trial is scheduled to begin March
8, Super Tuesday, when Robertson
intends to harvest those patriotic
Southern votes.
If the trial is held, what will the
testimony be?
From McCloskcy, we’ll probably
hear what he said 18 months ago
about the troop ship voyage: “Pal
was affable, garrulous and candid.
He spoke frankly of his desire to
avoid combat and to have his father.
Sen. Willis Robertson of Virginia,
intervene on his behalf.”
—- <-- t
There will also be an old letter
written by the late senator to a friend,
who also had a son, named Edwin, on
that troop ship. In the letter the sena
tor said:
‘On yesterday, I received a letter
from General Shepherd, staling that
Pat and Edwin were going to an inter
esting and historical part of Japan,
where they would be given some
valuable training before proceeding
to Korea.”
The general he referred to was
Lemuel Shepherd, who was a family
friend and commander of the Pacific
licet.
Later, the senator wrote another
letter, saying he hoped that “before
that (training) is completed the issue
in Korea will cither have been settled
or the united line so stabilized that
there will be no excessive casual
ties.”
As it turned out, there were “ex
cessive casualties.” Not for Pat, who
was in Japan, but for many of the
Marines whocouldn T get off the ship
with him.
One who went on to Korea is now
a New York businessman. In his
deposition, he says it was “common
knowledge” on the ship that
Robertson had asked his father to use
political clout.
I here s also a letter written to his g:
w ife by a now-dcad Marine officer, R
who is believed to have transmitted I
telegrams from Robertson to his I
senator-father. i
In the letter to his wife, the Marine I
said a colonel had boarded the ship in i
Japan and picked several young offi- it
ccrs to remain in Japan. I
“It’s interesting,” he wrote to his I|
wife “that two of them had said they I|
wouldn’t have to go to Korea. One i|
was Robertson ... I’m sure that his K;
father being the senator from Vir- ■
ginia had nothing to do with it... It I
is interesting, though, isn’t it. Sec, g:
that’s w hat you gel w hen you choose I
the wrong parents.” £
There's also a deposition from a I
former Marine captain who remem- |
bered a conversation with l
Robertson’s pal, the other young p
lieutenant, before the ship reached ||
Japan. H
“(He) sat down beside me in the b
wardroom and said that he and I;
Robertson were not going to go to |
Korea but were going to gel oil the k
ship in Japan. There were other effi
eers at the table and we all laughed I
and thought it was just a fantasy.” T
It turned out to be no fantasy, b
Robertson stayed in Japan four
months, while the others went into I
fierce combat. When Robertson fi
nally went to Korea, he had a job far |
behind the lines. 1
In an interview this week, ff
McCloskcy sounded confident that fe
he'd win any court battle with m
Robertson, |
“We’ve had more than 20 Marine u
ol I it ers come forward to eon firm one hv
or more parts of what I said. The I
incredible thing about Robertson is |
the hypocrisy, his saying dial he was f
in combat. How fraudulent it is.” #
McCloskcy says that during the $
four months Robertson was in Japan,
about 90 percent of the men from that
troop ship were killed or wounded in
Korea.
“Now he talks about strong moral
leadership to fight the communists in
Nicaragua. The humor of it is that
when he had his chance, he didn’t
want any part of it.”
Super Tuesday could be the start
of a super trial.
© 1988 Chicago Tribune
r' >yko Ls a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist
for the Chicago Tribune.
■ nun urn — _mb i
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