Pafe Frlitnrinl NelSaskan
I 1 i %X X X XX X X CX. X Thursday, March 31,1988
Nebraskan
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
I
| Mike Rcillcy, Editor, 472-1766
Diana Johnson, Editorial Page Editor
I Jen Dcsclms, Managing Editor
Cun Wagner, Associate News Editor
Chris Anderson, Associate News Editor
Joan Rc/ac, Copy Desk Chief
Joel Carlson, Columnist
Dangerous drinks
Contamination of groundwater must stop
For far loo long, Nebras
kans have had to drink
water that could be
contaminated. The pesticides
and fertilizers used by farmers
to help their crops grow gradu
ally have seeped through the
soil and into Nebraska’s valu
able water resource.
The University of Nebraska
has responded to the problem
by lobbying for research
money. Next month officials
will go to Washington, DC., to
lobby the Senate Appropria
tions Subcommittee on Energy
and Water Development for
more than $2 million. Another
Si million grant has already
been supplied by the Burlington
Northern Foundation.
The proposed program
would include renovating a
building on East Campus for an
agricultural chemical leachate
research laboratory and two
satellite field labs at North
Platte and Clay Center. Accord
ing to the Sunday Lincoln Jour
nal-Star, the two towns have
different types of soil that
would allow researchers to de
termine for sure how the chemi
cals leach
Let’s just hope that senators
in Washington will be more
open to the idea than some of
the Nebraska state senators in
Lincoln who were concerned
about the lack of specific re
search proposals. This proposal
is more than specific.
It is also greatly needed.
Research has shown a defi
nite link between fertilizers and
nitrates. Nebraska has one of
the highest nitrale levels for
drinking water in the nation. In
some instances, it has been re
corded as much as two to six
times as high as the lowest
unsafe level. Nitrates are most
dangerous to infants six months
and younger. On top of this, 82
percent of all Nebraskans drink
groundwater.
Anything which will help
maintain the quality of ground
water in Nebraska needs to he
applauded. Nebraska is just one
of several states over the Ogal
lala aquifer, one of the largest
aquifers in the country. Wc
cannot allow a groundwater
system of such magnitude to be
contaminated. The health of not
only the state, but also the entire
nation, depends upon it
While the health of the popu
lation is most crucial, the health
of the agriculture industry also
should improve. The more we
know about agriculture, the
healthier the industry as a whole
will be. What with all the eco
nomic difficulties being sus
tained by farmers, they need all
the help they can get. It will be
one less thing for them to worry
about.
It is high time the trend to
ward blatant contamination is
brought to a halt.
But the plan for research
deserves more than just ap
plause. It deserves money.
Criticism of criticism is response to Wolff
As an alumnaof ihisoncc-great in
stitution who is back from the East
Coast after an absence of 30 years, I
have watched for some time with
dismay as the evidence accumulated
that my beloved university has fallen
on evil days. I have illusions that my
opinions will lead many of your read
ers to change their perception of the
matter about which I am concerned,
but I feel that it is time for me, as a
graduate of the University of Ne
braska, to stand up and be counted.
The school that once boasted men
of the stature of Oets Kolk Bousrna,
Thomas Raysor and Edgar Johnson,
to mention only a few has now be
come a station for the dissemination
of sociological claptrap. What “team
teaching,” the study of trigonometry
and the speaking of a foreign lan
guage have to do with the liberal arts
is beyond my comprehension While
all this may reduce the workload on
the academic specialist, l fail to see in
it any benefits for the student in the
pursuit ot humane studies.
Furthermore, in the same issue ot
the Daily Nebraskan in which the
above innovation was announced, a
story ran on a lecture by a Massachu
setts academian Professor Robert
Wolff. Wolff claims to “nip Bloom in
the bud.’ The report states that the
Teaching Council asked Wolff to
speak because of his review of the
best-selling book written by Allan
bloom, professor ot philosophy at the
University of Chicago It isclear from
the report that some teachers at UNI.
have been running scared since this
book appeared and brought Wolff
from the Berkeley of the East for the
sole purpose of discrediting this well
researched social history.
I have read Bloom’s book, and I
would wager that Wolff has not. He
may have skimmed over the pages,
but this is a book which needs to be
“chewed and digested.” The few
quotations from Wolff’s speech arc
full of errors. Bloom does not hale or
downgrade his students as his critic
claims. This is pure calumny. On the
contrary, the book is a scathing attack
on those professors, with whom
Wolff apparently identifies himself,
who have been short-changing their
students over the past two decades.
Wolff says, “Bloom doesn’t really
understand the ideas he is leaching.”
Which ideas? Plato’s notion of The
Ideal? Aristotle s Metaphysics?
Niet/.che’s concept of the Apollo
man-Dionysian dichotomy? Has
Wolff even heard of such ideas'’ If so,
one would never guess it.
It is obvious to me that Wolff is
deliberately misrepresenting
Bloom s book in the most blatant
fashion. I hope those students who
consider that they are scholars in the
great tradition will go out and buy a
copy of it when it comes out in paper
back in May. If they do, they will have
no trouble seeing for themselves the
manifest untruth of Wolff’s asser
tions and the motives of those who
brought him to this campus.
do hope those faculty members
who agree with Bloom s thesis— but
have been holding their peace so as
not to make waves — will encourage
their students to examine the book
rather than allow others to do their
thinking for them.
Althea Ware Lawrence
. alumna
_J
Jackson best bet for Democrats
Royko says Democratic convention will test racial equality in U.S.
1i s possimc mai wncn me
primaries are over and the
Democratic National Con
vention begins, Jesse Jackson will
have the most delegates. Not enough
to automatically win the nomination,
but more than any of the other bum
blers.
If that happens, whauio the Demo
crats do?
From what they're now saying,
they’ll look at the other candidates,
decide which one is the least feeble,
then try to convince the voters that
they have found someone of heroic
stature.
Then this person will run and
almost certainly lose to George Bush,
who will be propped up by Ronald
Reagan, and all these tens of millions
of dollars in paid TV political propa
ganda will have been wasted.
Since they’re almost certain to
lose anyway, why don’t the Demo
crats show some imagination and do
something different, make a little
history, put some pizzazz into the
whole thing.
What they should do is this: If
Jesse Jackson has the most delegates
going into the convention, they
should nominate him and make him
the Democratic candidate for presi
Hon!
That would be the fairest thing to
do. After all, the Democrats have
gone to great pains to get away from
the old-time backroom dealing, the
delegate swapping, the brokering.
When George McGovern came in
with the most delegates, he was
nominated. When Walter Mondale
was the leader, they threw the con
vention to him.
So why not do the same if Jackson
is the leader?
What’s that you say9 Jackson will
be a cinch to lose? That’s probably
true, but so what? George McGovern
wasacinch to lose,but that didn’tstop
the Democrats. Walter Mondale was
a cincn 10 lose, ana mey weni rigm
ahead and lei him do it.
Not only did they lose, but they left
no legacy that would benefit the
Democratic Party in future cam
paigns. Just the opposite: McGovern
put in motion the alleged reforms that
look Democratic politics away from
the professional and led it to the pres
ent marathon primary system and the
pandering to every goofy special-in
terest group.
Bui by nominating Jackson, the
Democratic Party would create a
legacy by putting the national con
science to a true lest. We would be
having a referendum on racial dis
crimination, which is the most de
structive and persistent of all our
domestic problems.
Name any of our urban miseries—
poverty, crime, unemployment, edu
cation , housing—and it boils down to
race. Add up the costs, not only in
dollars, but in fear and distrust, and
the bottom line is race.
So why should the country waste
time listening to some white neo
liberal, psuedo-liberal, old-time lib
eral or whatever the rest of these
Democrats are, talking about all these
social problems, when we can have
the genuine article — someone who
has lived the social problems. In fact,
some might even say that he is a
living,- breathing social problem
himself.
And what a perfect match-up it
would be — Jackson vs. Bush. The
Southern-born black man from the
miiniMLM wi uncivilu^um.'u un
while Eastern aristocrat.
II Jackson got up and talked about
what it was like to ride in the back of
the bus, to be told he couldn t eat at a
greasy-spoon lunch counter, to have
the job doors slammed in his lace, to
sip from a separate drinking fountain,
how would Bush respond — by de
scribing the difficulty finding reliable
domestic help these days?
Compare that confrontation w ith,
say, a debate between Bush and Mi
chael Dukakis. Even the ladies from
the League of Women Voters might
doze off.
It’s said that despite our glorious
Constitution, our state of commit
ment toequality, we arc really a racist
nation. Even our allies say it. The
British scolded us all during the 1960s
black demonstrations. After all, it’s
one thing to shoot a few troublesome
Irishmen, but what we did in Selma
was absolutely unsporting. The
French chided us for our bigotry,
between bouts of mistreating their
Algerians.
So this will be our opportunity to
demonstrate that maybe we aren’t as
bad as they, and many ol us think we
are. Or maybe we will find that we arc
as bad. Either way, we’d learn some
thing. Remember, knowledge sets
men free. We might have a lew braw Is
while gaining the knowledge, but that
would just make for livelier Ted
Koppcl shows.
Finally, by running Jackson, a
black man, for president, we would
bring thiscountry closer to that magic
moment that some cynics say will
never come.
Surely, his candidacy would mean
that at long last a black man would
become a professional football
coach.
© 1988 Chicago Tribune
Royko is a Pulitzer Prize-winning colum
nist with the Chicago Tribune. <j
Unsigned editorials represent of
ficial policy of the spring 1988 Daily
Nebraskan. Policy is set by the Daily
Nebraskan Editorial Board. Its mem
bers are Mike Rcilley, editor; Diana
Johnson, editorial page editor; Joan
Rezac, copy desk editor; Jen Dc
selms, managing editor; Curt Wag
ner, associate news editor; Christine
Anderson, associate news editor and
Joel Carlson, columnist.
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