Editorial
Nebraskan
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Mike Reilley, Editor, 472-1766
Diana Johnson, Editorial Page Editor
Jen Deselms, Managing Editor
Curt Wagner, Associate News Editor
Chris Anderson, Associate News Editor
Joan Rezac, Copy Desk Chief
Joel Carlson, Columnist
---________
Unnecessary aid
Contra ‘relief results in extravagance
Perhaps President Reagan
was on a guilt trip.
Last Friday, Reagan
signed a $47.9 million aid bill to
speed food, medicine, clothing
and other supplies to the Nicara
guan Contras. Earlier in the
week, the House of Representa
tives approved the bill by a 345
70 vote. Maybe representatives
were on a guilt trip, too.
Wait a minute, wasn’t this the
same U.S. government that
shipped millions of dollars to
Nicaragua to slaughter thousands
of Sandinista troops? Gee, the
next time we send the money
down there, we better make sure
they get the job done once and for
all, so the United States doesn’t
have to back it up with a relief
mna.
But better yet, why not just
end the aid altogether?
The U.S. government already
has shown poor judgment in allo
cating money and goods to the
Contras. According to an Associ
ated Press story, American tax
payers also footed the bill for
“non-military” supplies to the
Contras. Harper’s magazine re
cently published a list of items
and money approved by the U.S.
government to be sent to the
Contras. The list included:
• $5,760.53 for deodorant.
• $1,071 for volleyball equip
ment.
• Two living-room sets worth
$1,283.63, a dining-room set
worth $654.94 and a $477.75
sofa.
• 12 domino sets worth
$132.18.
Gee, nothing like a quick
game of volleyball before torch
ing a few Sandinista troops, huh?
Maybe a game of dominoes when
we get back? Don’t forget your
deodorant, it’s going to be a long
trip.
But the U.S. government, in
all its wisdom, did show some
sense of judgment by cutting a
few items from the aid packages,
including:
• 16 bottles of whiskey worth
$120.
• 32 pounds, or $8 worth, of
meat for dogs.
• $369.82 in Christmas deco
rations.
• zd pounds oi jumro snnmp
worth $235.
• $226 in guitar strings.
According to the article, the
State Department’s Nicaraguan
Humanitarian Assistance Office
approved three 19-inch color
televisions worth about $1,000
each, but nixed two other sets.
Tough call, guys. It also ap
proved 620 boxes of candy worth
$6,570, but rejected 14 boxes of
chocolate and two boxes of
candy worth $381.35, the article
said.
The Contras and Sandinistas
took a big step toward settling
their differences last Friday,
when a 60-day cease-fire went
into effect. Now it’s time for the
United States to let the govern
ments settle their differences on
theirown, without the help of any
more “aid packages.”
Stopping slang promotes intelligent speech
Let’s stamp out “you know.” As
college students, let’s eliminate “you
know” from our conversation. Let’s
encourage athletes to become more
aware of their excessive use of “you
know” during interviews. “You
know” adds nothing to speech. Stop
/ v v m
“you know,” you know.
Cara K. Smith
Lincoln
Editor’s note: You know, that’s not
a bad idea.
Herstory may separate, not unite History
I don’t know if women are dis
criminated against in the presentation
of history (Daily Nebraskan editorial,
April 1). I imagine that they are. On
this, I will accept the word of any non
sexist historian. Undoubtedly,
' women have been discriminated
against through history itself, and this
continues up to the present day. This
is clearly inappropriate and ought to
be remedied. However, in drafting
and implementing any corrective
plan, we must be careful not to trivi
alize the issue, defeat our own pur
poses or overstep the bounds of ap
propriateness ourselves. It’s with this
in mind that I raise a number of con
cerns about Women’s History Month
and like phenomena.
First, why is use of phrases like
“women’s history” and “herstory”
advocated while the use of “lady
doctor” and “women writers” is con
demned? The phrase “woman
writer,” when used as a purely de
scriptive one, applies perfectly to
Virginia Woolf (unless a fraud has
been perpetuated and she was really a
male). Dr. Ruth is a lady doctor, isn’t
she?
Of course, the problem is that such
phrases carry unflattering evaluative
connotations. “Women’s basketball”
is taken to mean “the closest thing to
basketball one could expect to und
with these inferior creatures trying to
do what only men can do properly’*—
not real basketball. Surely, this sense
of such phrases is worthy of con
demnation, but the attachment of the
objectionable connotations is the re
sult of underlying sexist attitudes and
will be attached as readily to phrases
like “women’s history.” Why advo
cate use of this phrase at all? “Her
story” is another matter. To preserve
integrity and seriousness, we should
refrain from playing games with the
language, especially when “history”
begins with H-I-S, not “his.” There’s
a difference.
Secondly, and more importantly,
we must be wary of the separation of
the two goals of introducing women’s
programs into the immediate one of
“raising people’s awareness of the
treatment of women” and the “more
idealistic” one of making history an
integrated, non-sexist discipline. It’s
not clear how furthering the former is
supposed to further the latter, and
devoting too much energy to the for
mer will only serve to pcipetuate the
separation of women’s history from
history proper.
Robert Revock
graduate
philosophy
y>tyysk*
" Hey, M0M,gRlN6 THE CAMERA - IM& think THIS P(Q£ IS mickey/ "
Racism touchy topic in race
Being black could be the best thing Jackson has going for him
The Democratic Party is quiv
ering with fright over what
to do about Jesse Jackson.
And I can understand how they feel.
They can’t afford to have Mrs.
Thelma Lloyd mad at them.
Who is Mrs. Lloyd? She is a nice
lady who lives on 99th Street on the
South Side of Chicago.
What makes Mrs. Lloyd politi
cally significant is that she is black.
No Democrat can hope to be elected
president next November if he
doesn’t get the voles of the Thelma
Lloyds of America.
Mrs. Lloyd tells me that she has
been reading my column for many
years, going back to when I wrote for
another Chicago newspaper.
And she says that in those days she
used to like me.
“You were bright and funny,’’ she
says.
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she pul it:
“You have changed for the worst.
You sound so mean and racist when
you write about black people, espe
cially the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
“ You can’t help but let your racism
come out plain as day as though you
are proud of yourself.”
An interesting, if inaccurate, ob
servation.
The fact is, I’ve been writing about
Jesse Jackson since he first burst into
prominence in Chicago about the late
1960s.
There were times when I wrote
favorably about him and times when
I made it clear that I thought he was a
double-talking hot dog.
And I haven’t said anything about
Jackson since he became a presiden
tial candidate that I didn’t say when
Mrs. Lloyd was reading my column
years ago. I still think he has his good
points and I still think there arc limes
when he is a double-talking hot dog.
But now, in Mrs. Lloyd^s view, if
I write unfavorably about Jackson it
means that I have become “mean and
racist.”
Thai’s not merely my problem. It
is the problem of the Democratic
Party and the other candidates.
If any of them dare say anything
disparaging about Jackson, they run
the risk of having the Mrs. Lloyds of
America — and there arc millions of
them — consider them racists and
hold a grudge next November.
Robert Dole could take pokes at
George Bush, and Bush could poke
back. Paul Simon could take smacks
at Richard Gephardt. Albert Gore can
snipe at Michael Dukakis. Dukakis
can take a verbal shot or two at Gore.
But everybody must be nice to
Jackson, because if they aren’t, Mrs.
Lloyd is going to think they are rac
ists.
This puts the other candidates at a
considerable disadvantage.
For example, when Albert Gore
pointed out the obvious — that
Jackson lacks governmental experi
ence— it was promptly interpreted as
a grab for right-wing support. And
that, to some, translates into racism.
Some of the other candidates
would like to point out that Jackson’s
economic proposals might be whacky
and that his foreign policy ideas are
out in dream world.
They might like to challenge him
to explain who is going to foot the bill
for some of his pie-in-the-sky social
problems.
But they can’t. If they do, Mrs.
Lloyd might say that they are racists
and withhold her vote.
They might want to ask him about
some of the outrageous statements he
has made in the past. Not when he was
a teen-ager, but when he was a grown
man with a national reputation.
They might want to poke around
the financial records of Operation
Breadbasket, which he once ran, and
Operation PUSH, which still exists.
But they can’t do that, either. Mrs.
Lloyd wouldn’t like it
So there is one set of rules for every
other candidate and another set of
rules for Jackson. They can say, “Hey,
you once said this,” or “You once
supported that.” But only to each
other. Not to Jackson.
And this applies to the press and
broadcast news. We can poke into
Gary Hart’s private life or catch Joe
Bidcn lifting someone elsc’s words
and tell the world about it. We can
poke fun at Bush for being an elitist or
ponder the dark side of Dole’s person
al ity. We can chortle about how Presi
dent Reagan’s aides write cue cards
that tell him how to say “Good morn
ing, how arc you” to distinguished
guests.
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fications, we’re racists.
For years, I wrote unfavorably
about the late Mayor Richard J. Daley
and his Machine. His admirers fre
quently told me I was an S.O.B., but
they didn’t accuse me of being anti
Irish.
When Bernard Epton ran against
Harold Washington for mayor of
Chicago, I had some unkind words for
Epton’s campaign. But I didn’t even
get one letter accusing me of being
anti-Semite.
It’s part of this nation’s tradition
that the records of politicians have
always been fair game, both for their
opponents and the press.
But that doesn’t apply to Jackson.
And Mrs. Lloyd has told us why.
It’s an odd turnabout. For years,
Jackson has told us how tough it is to
have been black.
Now that he’s a politician, it turns
out that being black is the best thing
he has going for him.
1988 The Chicago Tribune.
Royko is a Pulitzer Prize-winning
columnist with The Chicago Tribune.
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Nebraskan Editorial Board. Its mem
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Rezac, copy desk editor; Jen De
selms, managing editor; Curt Wag
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