Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 4, 1989)
Editorial I Nebraskan University of Nebraska-Uncoln Curl Wagner, Editor, 472-1766 Amy Edwards, Editorial Page Editor Jane Hirt, Managing Editor Lee Rood, Associate News Editor Diana Johnson, Wire Page Editor Chuck Green, Copy Desk Chief Lisa Donovan, Columnist Quibbles and bits Hotline helps sly students speak safely • Tattlers at the University of Florida-Gainesville now have the chance to practice their an without worrying about getting caught The Student Honor Court recently installed a ratting hotline that students can call 24 hours a day. The students can leave anonymous tips about cheaters in classes on an answering machine in the court’s office. According to the Independent Florida Alligator, a few noble students with wandering eyes used the hotline before the answering machine was installed. Chris Sproles, chairman of the Honor Information Committee, said he expects the calls to pick up with the answering machine installed and with the increased hours. The university s student government approved more than $500 to pay for the machine, a new phone line and advertising of the hotline. Gee, what a worthwhile investment. Cheating will be stomped from the Gainesville campus, and the sly sleuths who share such silent secrets can get away without any problems. • The University Health Committee at Kent State re cently made a bold effort to help prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases on campus. The committee did what officials at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln have been afraid to do - install con dom machines in the restrooms of several residence halls. About 400 condoms have been bought since the first machines were installed a few weeks ago, the Daily Kent Stater leported. Jay Cranston, University Health Center director, said the sales were “fine” because condom buyers were being % exposed to educational material on sexually transmitted diseases posted on the machines. Educational and life-saving. Those positive aspects should be enough to get the machines in UNL residence halls, too. •• Curt Wagner for Ike Daily Nebraskan I KZUM has the most variety in nis leuer oi Apm 3 regarding alternative music on KRNU, Tim Washburn writes, “No one should have a right to sound off when they are ignorant to the facts.” Washburn clearly knows about the facts relating to KRNU, but he apparently doesn’t know much about other radio sta tions. First, he says KRNU relies on records donated by local music stores, and is “not in a position to ask for hundreds of alternative music albums from stores to change for mat.” That’s simply not the way radio stations operate today. Record companies, not record stores, service radio stations with promotional cop ies of albums, often weeks in advance of the “street dates” that records are available in stores. It would only take some phone calls to record labels, both major and independent, to have a deluge of vi nyl and compact discs coming to Avery Hall. Music artists survive on radio air play, so the companies are more than happy to ship their latest artist’s release. Secondly, Washburn states that “KRNU has the most variety of any station in Lincoln.” As evidence of this he cites the alternative music heard certain nights of the week, a sports talk show, news and sports broadcasting on NU home games. Anyone familiar with KZUM public radio here in Lincoln would scoff at that statement. KZUM offers folk, alternative rock, women’s mu sic, Mexican music, African music, urban contemporary, Malaysian music, world music, new age, con temporary jazz, reggae, comedy, radio theatre, public affairs, political commentary (left and right), news from around the globe, interviews with national and local artists and call-in shows. KZUM is also the only source in the area for traditional jazz, as well as being the area’s only source of the blues, and this in the city with the Zoo Bar, the longest continually operat ing blues bar in the country. KZUM even has a show called “Exploring Unexplained Phenom ena’ ’ which talks about thing such as UFOs and Bigfoot. KZUM was the only Lincoln station to air the Iran Contra trial last summer, and has now added the award winning Pacific News, weeknights at 6:30. KZUM broadcasts in 1500 watts stereo, and reaches all of Lancaster County, and then some. KZUM was voted second best local radio station (after KFMQ) in the annual Sunday Journal-Star readers’ poll. And it does it all as a non-commercial station. I am surprised that a broadcasting major like Washburn was unaware of all this. Thomas Irvin junior geography KZUM Volunteer U.S. energy policy is atrocious Oil spill, Three Mile Island are warnings of coming problems March 28 marked the 10th an niversary of the worst nu clear accident in American history at the Three Mile Island power plant in Pennsylvania. Last week, a few people demon strated, a few TV cameras rolled, but all in all it was a pretty uneventful nrilcstone, especially compared to the mushroom cloud of controversy that hung over the original incident a decade ago. But then again, we had other things to think about. The birthday of one energy fiasco was overshadowed by the current unfolding of another. Just four days before the anniver sary of the Three Mile Island inci dent, the drunk captain of an oil tanker left an unqualified third mate in charge to run the boat agrofind outside “Port Valdez, Alaska. The wrecked tanker dumped 11 million gallons of crude oil into Prince Wil liam Sound — one of the most envi ronmentally sensitive sea animal habitats in the world. These two incidents have more in common than temporal proximity. In the crucial first days following both incidents, private industry and gov ernment officials displayed an ex traordinary ignorance of proper pro cedure. Further investigation has revealed that in both cases there wasn’t any thing that could agreeably be called “proper procedure.” Area residents in both locations have been given the run-around, with no straight answers as the special of the day. In the case of Three Mile Island, it has taken longer to clean up the mess than the lessons learned. This is because it has been remembered by the public as a whole. Sadly, I predict that the Alaskan oil spill will suffer a similar fate. Already the spill has been re placed in the headlines by Gorbachev in Havana and Seton Hall in Seattle. Long before the water fowl and sea otters have stopped choking to death on unrefined petroleum, we will have moved on to new concerns, having spent our allocation of pity on this crisis. The indication is that the worst case scenario will not play itself out in the Port of Valdez. Prevailing winds have blown the oil away from some of the most sensitive wildlife and fishing areas. This is both good news and bad news. It is good news because the envi ronmental impact, though severe and devastating, will not be as bad as it could have been. It is bad news because everyone from Exxon’s chief executive officer to Paul Harvey will use this dodged bullet as still more “evidence” that this country’s haphazard, shoot from-thc-hip energy policies are on target. Listen to what proponents of nu clear power say about the Three Mile Island incident. When opponents try to tell them how bad things were and how bad the incident could have been, all we hear is, “What do you mean? No one was killed. Life in the area is pretty much business as usual. S ure it was scary for a while, but good old Yankee ingenuity prevailed, and we have everything under control.” Somehow we are supposed to feel grateful for the accident we had. It is supposed to be reassuring to us that the Three Mile Island accident did not kill half the Eastern seaboard or poison the area’s agriculture for the next 500,000 years. American energy policy is, where existent, atrocious. We continue i slavish dependence on non-renew able resources, mined and trans ported in environmentally threaten ing ways. We insist on playing with atomic fission, oblivious to the inevi- i table prospects of major disaster. We i do it all in the name of capitalistic progress and the ideal of unlimited, unrestrained consumption. I have long been opposed to the use of nuclear power for any reason. Call me a ‘fraidy cat, but I have always been intimidated by things that could annihilate a civilization. I looked on Three Mile Island and the more frightening Soviet counter part at Chernobyl as warning shots, fired across our metaphysical bows by a benevolent deity concerned about a suicide path we have set for ourselves. Ironically, those blindly devoted to this apocalyptic avenue have turned the demonic incidents into reasons for rejoicing. It is as if these were the worst we could expect, rather than simply previews of com ing atrocities. They point to a genera tion of nuclear Dower without devas tation and expect that to com tort us. I suppose that, if my daughter plays with matches several times without burning the house down, I should continue to let her play, confi dent that the future will always re semble the past. The stakes we gamble in the en ergy game are too high for the penny ante strategies we have employed. If we mess up at oil production and transportation, we destroy ecosys tems. If we make a mistake in nuclear power production, we could destroy human lives by the thousands and millions. I know of little in the way of consumer lust worth that kind of price. They tell us we have no choice. I say the god-like intelligence that learned to split the atom could also discover energy sources that do not ihreaten an entire planet. One weeps to think what could have been accomplished in solar energy research using the money that has already been spent to clean up the luclear nightmare at Three Mile is land. Scnnetl to s graduate student In philosophy ind a Dolly Nebraskan editorial columnist. I I he 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, original ity, timeliness and space available. The Daily Nebraskan retains the right to edit all material submitted. Readers also are welcome to sub in it material as guest opinions. Whether material should run as a let ter or guest opinion, or not to run, is left to the editor’s discretion. Letters and guest opinions sent to the newspaper become the property of the Daily Nebraskan and cannot be returned. Anonymous submissions will not be considered for publication. Letters should include the author’s name, year in school, major and groupai i'H' ation, if any. Requests to withhold names will not be granted. Submit material to the Daily Ne braskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 k Sl, Lincoln, Neb. 68588-0448.