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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 22, 1988)
PT FHlfor• a 1 Nebraskan 4 a i VI. X X V# X X d X Tuesday, November 22,1988 | Nebraskan University of Nebraska-Lincoln Curt Wagner, Editor, 472-1766 Mike Reillcy, Editorial Page Editor Diana Johnson, Managing Editor Lee Rood, Associate News Editor Bob Nelson, Wire Page Editor Andy Pollock, Columnist Micki Haller, Entertainment Editor Keep Kearney out Adding KSC to NU system is a mistake • The annual hullabaloo over placing Kearney State College in the university system has resurfaced. In a Sunday Journal-Star article, state Sens. Lorraine Langford of Kearney and Jerome Warner of Waverly discussed a bill being drafted by Warner that would rename Kearney State the University of Nebraska at Kearney and put it under the control of the NU Board of Regents. Don't do it. The university system already is too troubled. Year after year the university system must fight to stop budget cuts and gain appropriations from the Nebraska Legisla ture. By adding Kearney to the system, that threat looms even larger. If Kearney State were added to the university system, the overall budget pool for the system would increase. This may sound good, but it will only make the system’s . budget more attractive to cut. With a larger pool of money, legislators may be tempted to cut more from that pool. (Also with the enlarged pool of money, trying to get increases would become more difficult. This year the system hopes for the second phase of increased faculty salaries, and UNL needs money to improve the Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid. The plan will do nothing but hurt the system and UNL, this year or any other. • The parking situation at UNL may not be as good as some people would like, but the costs may outweigh the gains. UNL is considering parking garages downtown and on East Campus, at costs between $3 million and $4 million each. A permit to use the garage, according to a story in the Sunday Journal-Star, would cost around $250 a year. Those costs are pretty high, and unnecessary. Parking has improved at the university with the addi tion of 670 spaces near the Cather-Pound residence halls. % And according to Ron Fuller, UNL parking office super " intendent, 600 stalls go unused every day. These stalls are not conveniently located, he said. But, students might consider walking the distance instead of paying the $250 and possibly losing money from the budgets of other campus services. — Curl Wagner for the Daily Nebraskan ODipi^ READER I New Horizons work is worthy I am writing in response to Mike Reillcy’s editorial (Daily Nebraskan. Nov. 15). The lax issue is indeed an important one, but I also believe the work of New Horizons to be as well. Reillcy has unfairly trivialized its work in preparing Nebraska to meet the demands of the future. In May 1987, speaker William Barrett initialed an unprecedented effort to establish an ongoing process for building and acting upon a posi tive vision for the slate’s future. The New Horizons project is the only one of its kind in the United States and if successful, it could prove to be the model for other such vision-oriented projects. For the last year, the New Horizons project has talked to citizens across the slate in attempting to develop both long- and short-term strategies for the future. These strategies recognize the emergence of a global economy in which Nebraska must compete; the growth of telecommunications and information as the infra structure and raw material of the future; and that change is nearly constant in today’s world. New Horizons is now nearing the end of its first cycle. Beginning in January, the process itself will be evaluated and any necessary adjust menis made Citi/ens w ill once again have the chance to discuss and ana lyzc what we know about condition' and trends in Nebraska, what infor (nation says and how the entire state must respond to change in order tc realize our vision for the future. New Horizons for Nebraska offers the opportunity for all Nebraska citizen' to participate in taking charge of theii own destiny. Now, this all sounds patriotic am soul moving, but the process iscxcit ing and docs deserve a second look, urge UNL students to get involvee and keep abreast of the themes tha New Horizons will present to th< Legislature. The “Brain Drain,’ higher education and economic de vclopment are all issues that concert us as college students and New Hori zons is preparing Nebraska for du future, our future. Chris Strearr senioi Tough-guy Hyde becomes soft Law-and-order senator wants pardons for North, Poindexter 'W'W That a pleasant surprise. All these years, I’ve thought of T T Henry Hyde as a law-and order kind of guy. A real hardnose when itcomcs to punishing those w ho break the law. I thought that was one of the rea sons Hyde has kept getting re-elected to Congress time after lime — be cause he reflected the conservative values of his west and northwest suburban constituents. But now it turnsout that way down deep, Hyde is a softy. Just the other day, Hyde made headlines when he pleaded for a presi dential pardon for two men who stand accused of a number of serious crimes. These men arc John Poindexter, the former admiral, and Oliver North, the former Marine colonel, who have been indicted for what they did in the Iran-contra scandal. Basically, what they did was to decide that Congress is made up of a bunch of dumb palookas, so they didn’t have to follow Congress* lawv They could sell weapons lo ihe cra/y Ayatollah, bus and illegally ship arms lo ihe contras, lie to Con gress and, in effect, set up their ow n shadow government. But Hyde doesn’t think this is reason enough for them to stand trial and, if convicted, go to prison. He’s aghast at the thought. “North is an authentic hero,” Hyde says. “... For God ’ s sake, I don ’t want to sec him go to jail. I don’t want his name tarnished.” So Hyde says he and other conser vatives are going to make a pitch to President Reagan about pardoning both North and Poindexter. Hyde isn’t denying that the two men broke the law. To him, that isn’t the issue. He considers them well meaning, if bumbling, patriots. And the way he secs it, even if they . are guilty, a pardon is simply a way of saying: . “All things considered, and look ing at the totality of events,41 forgive you.” Hyde figures that if he and other conservatives sell Reagan on this act | of compassion, Reagan might do it ; sometime in January before he leaves office. M • A • v _ And that makes political sense. Once George Bush is sworn in, he can’t do it because it would create political heat. But Reagan has noth ing to lose. In fact, if someone wrote him a zippy flag-waving pardoning speech, he could turn it into a patriotic holiday. Or he could play it low key and, while getting on a helicopter, snap off a salute and shout to the press: “By the way, I pardon North and Poindexter.” In a way, I can sec Hyde’s point. If North and Poindexter thought they were standing up for what they thought was noble and right, may be compassion would be appropriate. On the other hand, I’ve been wad ing through the Congressional Rec ord, old news clippings and other sources. And 1 can’t find one word by Henry Hyde expressing any compassion for Ronald V1ay. I-1 You’ve never heard of Ronald May? Of course >ou haven't. He never became a household name as Nqrth did. In all likelihood, May’s name means nothing to Hyde. These days May. 41, works as a dispatcher and customer’s rep lor a security alarm company in Texas. It’s not bad work. It pa> s the bills for May and his family. But just barely. He used to have a better job. It paid considerably more, and it gave him greater challenge and satisfaction. He was an air traffic controller in Texas. He started in 1970and w orked in a control lower until 1981. Then hiscareer fell apart. May was president of the Fort Worth local of PATCO, the controllers’ union. And he was one of 77 PATCO leaders who were nailed by the Justicc Department for committing the crime of going on strike against the govern ment. That, you surely recall, was when Reagan look the hard line against the strikers. He fired them ail and brought in replacements. He let tnc nation know how tough he was. (Lucky for the crazy Ayatollah that he wasn’t an air traffic controller.) May was sentenced to a year and a day in prison, but the judge later cut it to 90 days in the slammer, plus 18 months of probation. This made May a convicted (elon. And under Texas law, he no longer has the right to vote or own a firearm. Actually, May could have avoided prison. He could have cut a deal and pleaded guilty and got off with a line. “But for that,” he now recalls, “I would have had to stand up and say that 1 was guilty.” So he refused and went to prison. "That’s the price you have to pay for standing up for what you believe,” he says. As you might also recall, the big issue to the strikers wasn’t money. What they wanted were changes in work conditions that would reduce stress, make the job less of a pressure cooker, reduce the chance of lile-or death decisions turning out U> be death. You can make an argument, as many did, that the controllers were striking as much for the salely ol passengers on planes stacked over Chieagoor New York as they w ere lor themselves. Alter he left prison, May drove a hack until his electronic skills got him a better job. His w ife worked although their kids were small. But, as May says w ithout sell-pit)' “that’s the price you have to pay lor standing up for what you believe. In a way, North and May have something in common Both stood up for something they believed was right. But there are obvious differences. May didn’t get to appear on network TV, with medals all over his chest, explaining why he thought he was r'ghl. And May didn’t have an influen tial congressman like Henry Hyde going in and clouting for him with the president. But I’m glad to see that Hyde does have a compassionate side to his na ture. ' Too bad it didn’t surface in 1981. © 198* By The Chicago Tribune •SmmfetffrVi- - Signed suit editorials represent the official policy of the fall 198a Daily Ne braskan. Policy is set by the Daily Ne i braskan Editorial Board. Its members are ’ Curt Wagner, ediior. Mike Rollcy.cdiio nai page editor; Duma Johnson, manag ing editor, Lee Rood, associate news editor; Andy Pollock, columnist; Bob Nelson, wire page editor, and Micki Haller, entertainment editor. According to policy set by the regents, responsibility for the editorial content of the newspaper lies solely in the hands of its student editors.