Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 28, 1988)
T Editorial bS&ssl . Mike Rei I ley, Editor, 472-1766 -Daily Diana Johnson, Editorial Page Editor XTi-J Jen Dcselms, Managing Editor | \PI || nS |\<rll 1 Curt Wagner, Associate News Editor Chris Anderson, Associate News Editor University of Nebrsska-Lincoln Joc, Carlson. Columnist Racial harassment Employees should be able to prosecute he Supreme Court is pos sibly in clanger of violat ing the trust of minority The court said Monday that it will consider overturning a key | civil rights precedent allowing people to sue private citizens accused of racial discrimina tion, according to The Associ ated Press. It said it will use a North Carolina case involving a charge of on-thc-job racial har assment to consider throwing out the 12-year-old decision. The decision stems from an appeal by Brenda Patterson, a black woman who wants to use a post-Civil War law to force her emplc er, McClean Credit Union, t< pay actual and puni tive dar ages for alleged harass ment. The 4th U.S. District Court of Appeals, in 1986, upheld a ruling by a federal judge in Winston-Salem, N.C., that threw out her suit. The appeals court said Pat terson could not use the Civil War-era law to charge racial harassment. The appeals court said the law is designed only to ban racial discrimination in hir ing, firing and promotion. The law was also enacted in the a/fermathofthcCivi] War to ensure that recently freed slaves would enjoy all the rights of Citizenship. It seems that Patterson’s idea is a bit out dated. It’s confusing that the law would still be available for consideration by any suing citi zen. So Patterson will be allowed to charge her case under a 1964 civil rights law. It provides that those who win their cases in court only may collect back pay, not potentially heavy damages awarded as compensa tion for emotional and mental suffering. Gvil rights groups say the more limited 1964 law may not be a sufficient deterrent to harassment Patterson, who worked as a teller and file coordinator at McLean Credit Union for 10 years until she was laid off in 1982, charges that her boss repeatedly harassed her because she is black. The point is, if Patterson’s cries hold out to be true, she should be able to prosecute her employer for whatever damage he caused her, be it emotional, occupational, mental or physi cal. Discrimination and harass ment in any case justly deserves punishment. It is the responsi bility of the highest court-of justice to uphold the rights of citizens of the United States and especially those of minorities. Students should challenge ‘book mongers’ So the managers of the bookstore monopolies don’t think the book exchange proposed by the Associa tion of Students of the University of Nebraska will work (Daily Nebras kan, April 26). 1 am sick and tired of students being ripped off by the book stores. If all students would take advan tage of the book exchange, they would benefit financially while gam ing the satisfacuon that they may be forcing the book monopolies to re examine their despicable treatment of students. The only use for the book mongers would be for new issues of books. How healthy is it for the consumer when a business doesn’t even worry about any form of competition? I think the overconfident attitude shown by the money-hungry book mongers in the recent article success fully answers the question. It is high time that students lake a stand against these despicable book hoarders. The worst aspect of this situation is that one of the book palaces is owned and operated by the University of Ne braska-Lincoln. What a crock! Charles W. Vascy senior finance uinl boxing coach commends bigma Chi I would like to recognize the Sigma Chi fraternity — Jeff Johnson, Pat Pensick and Mike Montanez in particular—for an outstanding job of organizing and running the 1988 Greek Fight Night. As former coach of the Texas A&M University Boxing Club and now a coach with the Uni versity of Nebraska-Lincoln Boxing Club, I am quite familiar with all the time and effort required to present a boxing event. I also would like to commend them for using this event to raise money for such a worthy cause as the Wallace Village for Children. Finally, I alsocommend all the boxers who participated for their tremendous effort. Cliff Walton UNL Boxing Club faculty adviser and coach • - - IF I JUST MARK. V00 0AS UNPEODEP gee George, THAT'S AMtaws, HOW DO VOU DO THAT WHEN/WE'5 Doming ? _ __I Imbecile awards announced Reagan, Democrats, among ‘One Born Every Minute’ honorees Well, they tell me seven is the perfect number. If that’s true, then you are in for a treat in this column, because I am proud to present the seventh semi annual “There’s One Bom Every Minute” Awards. Since the spring semester of 1985, politicians, school officials, average citizens and newsmakers around tne globe have waited anxiously for the revealing of each semester’s winners. Now, once again, their anticipation is about to be rewarded. These awards are among the most prestigious in the news media. Only a handful are offered each time, and they are reserved for the cream of the crop — those who have gone out of their way to make our lives unbeara bly trivial, pedantic and otherwise inconceivably insidious. These arc the people who have made us wonder if there is any meaning to the phrase “civilized country”; w ho have chosen as their goal in life the eradication of OAm m on ennen onrl /I n cency; who have sworn not 10 rest until intelligent dialogue is toppled and stultification reigns supreme. The envelope, please. The “Piece of the Action at Any Price” Award for heroic hindrance of effective negotiation goes to President Reagan, who decided that it was time to send the National Guard to Honduras just as the possibility of peace talks for Central America was looking the best it ever had. There are those who will say that this action was the catalyst that finally drove the Sandinistas to the bargaining table, but something has always bothered me about peace at gunpoint. I think they used to call that “surrender.” At any rate, from the halls of Managua to the shores of Tehran, Reagan has once again demonstrated his paranoid fear that, if we are not extremely cautious, peace could break out at any moment The “It’s Easy to be Color Blind When Your Eyes are Tightly Closed” Award goes to the National Democratic Party for its under-the* table Anybody but Jackson cam paign. It’s good to know that the op portunities for blacks are completely unlimited among Democrats — as long as they know and keep their place. Jackson has done what no black has ever dared to do before — taken these bureaucrat fat cats in bleeding heart clothing at their word. He has made an impact and threatens to expose many of the dreams of minor ity equality as simply nightmares they thought would never come true. I began supporting Jesse because 1 liked the vision he embodied. I sup port him now because he has become a line of demarcation for just who arc really serious about equal opportu nity, and who are simply appeasing the masses to gel ahead. Nebraska State Sen. Roger Wehrbein receives the coveted “Now I Are One” Award for his totally incomprehensible letter to the Daily Nebraskan, published April 14. Wehrbein wrote in protest of the DN’s April 1 spoof issue, the Daily Half Asskin. However, with sentences such as “Although it may not be ‘news’ to pre-college students, it is certainly not raising up any ideal and values of a college education,” it was really hard to tell just what he was trying to say. I agree with Wehrbein that the April 1 issue hit new highs in low humor, that it was crude, lewd and probably tatooed. However, I did notice that the sentences were all in English. Speaking of letters to the DN, the “Don't Make Me Laugh” Award for misplaced senses of humor goes to the myriads of students and faculty who wrote in response to Scott Wilhite’s stunningly satirical letter concerning prejuuicc un campus. Wilhite presented a study in irony that should have sent A1 Franken and Andy Rooney to their respective phones to offer him jobs. Yct there are apparently many people on this cam pus who are just aching tohearaword that sounds anything like bigotry. So many made total fools of themselves by writing to condemn Wilhite tor his alleged obscenely blatant suprema cist attitude. He finally had to respond with a “Read My Lips — It’s a Joke, People” letter in order to stem the tide. Real smooth, people. We will never tear down the walls that separate us as long as there are those who love to be hated so much that they refuse to recogni/.c parody press at its best. Keep up the good work, Scott. Television Evangelist Jimmy Swaggart rounds out this semester’s lucky few as he brings home the “Once Is Not Enough" Award for evangelical copycatling „f.l.» i: ViMini' ui uiiu i uiiimj * w cried louder than the Parson Pianist when the Bakker bungles were an nounced last year. Now we Iwd that Swaggart has been copping a tew snuggle bunnies of his own. The re ally juicy news is that sell-proclaimed media-minister watchdog Jerry Fal wcll recently announced that the sins of yet a third well-known preacher ^ would soon go public. 1 can hardly wait. Who needs the National Enquirer when you’ve got Sunday morning television? Well, there they are. I know that some of your favorites were left out — some of mine were, too. But deci sions of the judges arc final, and there are always those for whom the word must be ‘Try harder next lime.” This is not an easy slate to make. With the total imbecility that we have come to deem important, there will never be any lack of fuel for these purifying fires. See you in the fall. Sennett Is a graduate student In philoso phy and a Campus Minister with College Career Christian Fellowship. The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief letters to the editor from all readers and interested others. Letters will be selected for publi cation on the basis of clarity, origi nality, timeliness and space avail able. The Daily Nebraskan retains the right to edit all material submit ted. Readers also are welcome lo sub mit material as guest opinions. Whether material should run as a let ter or guest opinion, or not run, is left to the editor’s discretion. Letters and guest opinions sent to the newspaper become properly of the Daily Nebraskan and cannot be relumed. Anonymous submissions will no be considered for publication. Lelte should include the author’s name, year in school, major and gro^P filiation, if any. Requests to w uhhoia names will not be granted. Submit material to the Daily Ne braskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 14W11 St., Lincoln, Neb. 68588-0448.