Editorial
Daily
Nebraskan
Editorial Board
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Amy Kdwards, Editor, 472-1766
Lee Rood, Editorial Page Editor
Jane Ilirt, Managing Editor
Brandon Loomis, Associate News Editor
Brian Svnboda, Columnist
Bob Nelson, Columnist
Jerry Guenther, Senior Reporter
Choose a soft stick
Diplomacy answer to Nicaraguan problem
t’s once again lime for George Bush to do what he
I does best
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has taken
desperate and drastic action to rescue his government
from the popular will in a country racked with economic
and social strife.
Ortega’s decision to end a truce with the U.S.-backed
Contra rebels appears to be a last ditch ploy to validate
denial of Nicaraguan free elections planned for February
25.
And at a time when Ortega is attempting to blame the
need to stop elections on the Contras, it is imperative that
Bush avoid any action that Ortega may use as a reason to
deny a popular vote.
Ortega said Monday he was suspending the 19-month
old cease-fire with the Contras, citing continued rebel
attacks. He also hinted that he might cancel the February
elections.
He said, “It will depend on the Yankee Congress and
the Yankee president that these elections take place on
Feb. 25.’’
White House press secretary Marlin Fitzwater has said
that Ortega’s announcement, “underscores the Sandinista
regime’s lack of commitment to the peace process and
democratization in Nicaragua.’’
Asked about prospects for renewing military aid for the
Contras, Fitzwater said, ‘ ‘We don’t want to go that route.
We want to get free elections.’’
This is certainly admirable, but along with not asking
Congress for more money, the White House must care
fully avoid any action or rhetoric which could be used by
Ortega to make a legitimate case in his country for repeal
ing elections.
George Bush has received a lot of heat for talking big
i and carrying a soft stick. This is not the time for him to
I change that image. The White House should continue its
push for a diplomatic solution in Nicaragua -- a policy
that hopefully will allow the people of that country to
' carry their own big stick.
- Bob Nelson
for the Daily Nebraskan
Vague law could lead to abuse
Editor’s note: This letter, which
was in Wednesday’s Daily Nebras
kan, is being printed again because
the author's name was not in
cluded.
Lest the DN ’ s readcrsh ip cone l ude
that those of the pro-life persuasion
have a bent desire to oppress poverty
stricken rape victims, Lee Rood’s
editorial “Abortion on Fine Line’’
(DN, Oct, 26) begs for a response.
The issue is whether to allow fed
eral financing (through Medicaid) of
abortion for victims of rape or incest.
Wednesday, Oct. 25, the House of
Representatives failed to override
President George Bush’s veto of such
a proposal.
In her editorial, Rood criticizes
anti-abortion activists and Bush for a
lack of compassion. After all, they,
unlike indigent women, will never
have to face the consequences of the
president’s veto.
Rood’s view of compassion is an
ironic one. After all, women (indi
gent or not), unlike aborted unborn
children, do not have to face the true
consequence of an abortion. I would
argue that true compassion values
life, regardless of how it is conceived.
However, the true drawback of
this bill is its potential for abuse. The
bill states that for indigent women to
qualify for a government-funded
abortion, they must report a sexual
assault promptly to a law-enforce
ment agency or public health service.
Supporters failed to define clearly
what is meant by a “public health
service,” or what frame is meant by a
requirement to “report (a sexual as
sault) promptly.”
Conceivably, an abortion clinic or
pro-abortion agency (such as Planned
Parenthood) could be construed as a
public health service. In addition, a
requirement for “promptness” in re
porting a rape is ambiguous. The last
time in which “prompt reporting’ ’ of
a rape was defined was during the
Carter administration; then, “prompt
reporting” meant within 60 days of
the rape. Lastly, the bill makes no
distinction between first degree and
statutory rape.
Obviously, evidence of a rape
rarely exists 60 days after the fact.
Women who have not been raped
could easily claim otherwise. A preg
nant minor could claim to be a victim
of statutory rape. If this bill were lobe
abused to its fullest potential, any
pregnant women receiving Medicaid
would be eligible for a government
funded abortion. All American tax
Es would have blood on their
The position of pro-life advocates,
then, reflects not a lack of compas
sion for indigent rape and incest vic
tims, but a strong opposition to gov
ernment-funded abortion-on-dc
mand. Ultimately, it reflects a respect
for the life of unborn children.
Joe Luby
sophomore
general studies
UNL Students For Life
P.S. By the way, keep “Jim’s Jour
nal.”
Spirit of cooperation needed
Campus groups should work together, solve specific problems
This week, the season’s first
snow fell on campus. Well, OK
-- it was only a few scattered
flurries.
But thank God it wasn’t anything
more. If the past few years are any
indication, hundreds of residence hall
and fraternity residents would have
poured onto campus streets -- firs*t
with snowballs and later, as things
began to escalate, with rocks and
pieces of ice.
The annual campus snowball fight
is little more than a glorified riot. It
generally pits fraternity versus resi
dence hall in a primal, vicious fight.
Property is destroyed and people are
hurt. And the student body is embar
rassed in the eyes of the community
and the state.
There is, however, one small
measure of good that has come from
this so-called tradition. The snowball
fight has come to provide a model of
cooperation between fraternity, so
rority, residence hall and student
government leaders.
Presidents of the Interfratemity
Council, Panhellenic, the Association
of Students of the University of Ne
braska and the Residence Hall Asso
ciauon typically have sat down to
gether to figure out how to stop the
fights, and how to combat the causes
which lie beneath the surface. And,
with the help of the police and univer
sity administrators, they’ve been
somewhat successful.
And so a course of action suggests
itself: what would happen if the four
major campus organizations --
ASUN, RHA, 1FC and Panhellenic —
were to make the same intense, coop
erative effort on other issues?
This isn’t to say that cooperation
between these groups is non-existent.
RHA, 1FC and Panhellenic have
started Strategic Planning Regarding
Intcr-Living-unit Activities
(SPRILA), an attempt to build rela
tionships between gicck and resi
dence hall constituencies. ASUN
currently is trying to revamp its Resi
dence Liaison Committee, which ex
ists for much the same purpose.
But because these initiatives arc
oriented toward such broad, nebulous
objectives, their success is fated to be
limited. Inter-residence cooperation
is most successful when geared to
ward specific, immediate problems
like the snowball fights.
Such problems aren’t hard to find
on today’s campus, either. Imagine
what a coordinated ASUN-IFC
Panhellcnic-RFIA effort could ac
complish with the following:
• Parking Safety. The lots still
need lighting, folks, and all it would
take to bring students rioting into the
streets is one reported rape or assault.
The safety of residential (i.c. blue
tag) parking lots is crucial to both the
residence halls and the greck system.
Yet little has been done.
• Visitation. The current univer
sity policy forbidding visits to frater
nities, sororities and residence hall
floors by members of the opposite sex
after 2 a.m. is ridiculous. It’s widely
disobeyed in both fraternities and the
residence halls, and it serves little
useful purpose save to reassure con
cerned parents that NU Board of
Regents arc making their children
live moral, upstanding lives.
• Alcohol. Like the visitation
policy, the state laws and regents’
policies regarding consumption of
alcohol on campus arc widely dis
obeyed in the residence halls and
Iraternilics. And they long since have
failed to satisfy any instrumental
policy objective. If student safety is
the issue, why are students then tac
itly encouraged to drive off-campus
for parties, and drive back drunk? If
alcohol abuse is the issue, then how
are adult students expected to deal
responsibly with alcohol when in
their own home, they must drink
secretly?
These issues and many others -
racism, student control of student
fees, quality faculty -- present oppor
tunities to transform the campus into
a more vibrant and fulfilling place to
live and go to school.
And more than anyone else,
ASUN, 1FC, Panhcllenic and RHA
have the resources to get the job done.
The new student recreation tenter
was built largely because of support
from these groups, who sent their
members en masse to the state capitol
to show their support at legislative
hearings.
What would happen, for instance,
if ASUN, IFC, Panhcllenic and RHA
were to start a letter-writing cam
paign, in which parents of these
groups’ members would write the
regents calling for better lighting in
the parking lots, or changes in the
visitation and alcohol policies?
Now, the road to such cooperation
undoubtedly is a rocky one. There is,
as we all know, a certain tension
between greek and non-greck stu
dents. Many non-greeks have the
sense that, as F. Scott Fitzgerald may
have pul it, the very greek arc differ
ent from you and me.
But all too often such differences
arc imagined and not real. And they
cause groups such as ASUN, IFU,
Panhcllenic and RHA to go it alone
on issues when only teamwork will
do.
No one is expecting these groups
to cooperate out of the goodness ol
their hearts. As with the snowball
fights, such cooperation mainly
would come from a sense ol sd*'
interest. The time has come lor Irl,
Panhcllenic and RHA to recognize
that self-interest, and work together
to change our campus. United wc
shall stand, but divided we shall tan.
Brian
Russia
nist.
editorial ~
Editorial columns represent the
opinion of the author.
The Daily Nebraskan’s publishers
, arc the regents, who established the
IJNL Publications Board to supervise
the daily production of the paper.
According to policy set by the re
gents, responsibility for the editorial
contentof the newspaper lies solely in
the hands of its student editors.
letter V
The Daily Nebraskan welcomes
brief letters to the editor from all
readers and interested others.
Submit material to the Daily Ne
braskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 R
Sl„ Lincoln, Neb. 68588-0448.
