Editorial
■ Daily
1 Nebraskan
■ Editorial Board
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Amy Edwards, Editor, 472-1766
Bob Nelson, Editorial Page Editor
Ryan Stccvcs, Managing Eddor
Eric Pfanner, Associate Mews Editor
Lisa Donovan, Associate Mews Editor
Brandon Loomis, Wire Eilitor
Jana Pedersen, Might Mews Editor
Jesse for mayor
Washington would he a testing ground
Washington Mayor Marion Barry is in trouble.
Barry, 53, a prominent figure in the black civil
rights movement, was arrested Thursday for alleg
edly buying and smoking crack cocaine at a Washington
1 D.C. hotel. He now faces a federal misdemeanor charge,
and some of his aides have said he will not seek reelection
| after three terms as mayor. Barry was scheduled to an
nounce his reelection campaign Sunday but called off the
event.
Barry has been in hot water before, and has always
| persevered to this point. If, however, his aides have accu
1 rately described his plans; America could be offered a
wonderful opportunity — not through Barry’s downfall,
1 but through Jesse Jackson’s possible success.
In 1989, when there already was some speculation that
Barry would not seek reelection, Jackson seemed to
express interest in the Washington job and even took up a
residence there.
When it became apparent that Barry would run, how
: ever, Jackson backed off, saying that he would run only if
I Barry did not. Now it appears that Jackson has his chance.
Jackson lost the Democratic presidential nomination in
1984 and 1988, partly because of his lack of experience in
| an elected position. Rightly or wrongly, the press and
S voters continuously questioned Jackson’s qualifications.
To many, he was a great speaker with little substance to
back up the demagoguery.
If any place could be a testing ground for Jackson’s
domestic policies, Washington is it.
With drugs and drug warfare on much of Washington’s
I streets, the capital is perhaps the biggest challenge avail
able to the proposals Jackson made so much a part of his
campaign rhetoric. True, much of the drug problems in
America’s major cities probably stem more from lack of
funding at the federal level than from local inaction, but
Jackson has demonstrated his ability to put pressure on
President Bush and other national politicians. Jackson
almost surely would be as much a lobbyist as a pure
politician.
Crime per se in Washington also is a huge problem, in
a city of 620,000 residents, 369 murders were committed
in 1988, along with 165 forcible rapes, 321 arsons and
12,295 burglaries.
There are homeless people sleeping on steam vents
| within a block of the White House.
Nebraskans have little or no influence over who will be
Washington’s next mayor. They will, however, be asked
to vote for a president in 1992. Short of endorsing
Jackson for the presidency, the Daily Nebraskan instead
urges its readers to watch Washington’s streets and crack
houses as closely as its White House.
If Jackson can wake hope from the dead in D.C., he
| certainly can keep it alive elsewhere.
s
- Brandon Loomis
for the Daily Nebraskan
Reader calls for acts of love
The only thing I dislike more than
an obnoxiously evangelical Christian
is a smug Christian.
A lot of people would agree with
Mark Budka when he said that self
less love is the greatest love of all,
rather than me-ism (DN, Jan. 19).
But, unlike Budka, most of us aren’t
actually looking forward to Arma
geddon.
The average mortal will not be
swept up by God’s heavenly rapture,
unlike Budka, who seems to see things
from a higher vantage point than most.
Why are you so an x ious to go, Budka?
Is it because you need to make
yourself feel spiritually superior to
others by drawing your own personal
divisions between the saved (you and
yours) and the damned (them)? Is it a
hidden death wish? Are you, like so
many others, resigning from life while
you pray and wait for the pie-in-the
sky?
Most importantly, have you “fought
the good fight” or are you throwing
in the towel before the first round?
You see, your c lai m s of piety don ’ t
impress me. They don’t mean any
thing unless you act on them. I’m
extremely curious to know if you
engage life with the love, trust and
tolerance of Jesus, or if you only
claim to be righteous so you can pa
thetically bemoan the state of the
world.
Why should you look forward to
Armageddon? What makes you so
sure that you’ll be going where you
want to? Just because you can refer to
the Bible and enjoy STYX and Air
Supply doesn’t mean you’ve got a
V.I.P. express ticket to heaven. And
if I were you, I’d hesitate to call for an
end to God’s creation, not to mention
all the vitality and goodness here and
now on earth, rather than hold my
breath and wait for the hereafter.
Joe Bowman
junior
anthropology
e> ^_
the sneeckes or European government
Democratic reforms good, bad
Yugoslavia's language differences could mean nightmarish ads
1y ve watched the democratic
reforms in Eastern Europe
with great interest because
I’ve been there.
Well, 1 wasn’t exactly in the heart
of the Eastern Bloc, but I went to
Yugoslavia once.
For those of you who know Yugo
slavia only as the home of oversized
go-carts, let me fill in some gaps.
First, Yugoslavia is stuck alongside
Austria, Hungary, Romania and Bul
garia with the Adriatic Sea slapped
up the other edge. The United States
considers it communist, but our tour
guide informed me that to the Sovi
ets, Yugoslavia is capitalist. “Where
East meets West,” our lour guide
said.
I mention all this because, from
my limited tourist viewpoint, I could
find little wrong with Yugoslavia.
Only after I returned to the good ol’
U.S.A. did 1 learn about Yugoslavia’s
internal ethnic problems.
As far as I was concerned, the
biggest problems in Yugoslavia were
chairless, Turkish toilets. The men in
the party didn’t mind, but_
Anyway, I’ve watched the demo
cratic reforms in Eastern Europe with
great interest because I’ve been to a
part of it at a lime when that part was
already reforming.
One of the most fascinating as
pects of my visit to this foreign land
was the television. A few of the posh,
metropolitan hotels we stayed in were
equipped with beautiful TV sets with
which I tried to decipher the news,
soap operas and, yes, even' ‘The Love
Boat.”
I never figured out which language
the shows were broadcast in, but it
probably didn’t matter much to the
Yugoslavians. Our tour guide informed
me that Yugoslavia is the land of six
states, five nationalities, four lan
guages, three religions, two alpha
bets and one wish: “Live a good life
and don’t work too hard.”
Our tour guide himself spoke seven
languages fluently and “a small de
gree” of Italian, too. From his ex
ample, I got the feeling that each TV
station in Yugoslavia could have
broadcast in a different language, and
the people wouldn’t even care.
As an advertising major, the whole
situation baffles me. If Yugoslavia
continues to progress toward capital
ism and commercialism, advertising
will have to take on new dimensions
there. Yugoslavian ads will have to
transfer into Croatian, Slovanian,
Serbian and Turkish, yet still retain
Jana
Pedersen
the same, basic message.
And where will Yugoslavians turn
to accomplish this goal? Where else
but to the most wonderful word-turn
ers in the world -- American advertis
ing agencies.
American ad women and men will
be the ambassadors of consumerism,
dropping fabulous and market-wor
thy phrases throughout the land. Give
American ad agencies Five years in
that country, and they will turn Yugo
slavian television into a consumer’s
dream.
On the other hand, maybe it would
be a nightmare.
When I was in Yugoslavia, I learned
that Slovanian, Croatian, Serbian and
Turkish don’t translate perfectly into
American English.
Our multi lingual tour guide talked
of “nature’s beautiful creatures, the
stalactites and stalagmites;” of Lake
Bled, where they allow no motor
boats “in order to prevent nature;” of
the ‘ ‘extremely experience of sailing
on the Adriatic;” and of a Dubrovnik
party that promised to be “an eve
ning of gorgeous enjoyment, lasting
until the small hours of Sunday.”
Yes, I got the message, and I re
spect the guy for kind of knowing so
many languages. But the flowery trans
lations lost a little along the way.
And likewise, I’m sure English
translates no better into the many
languages of Yugoslavia.
It makes me wonder how well
American slogans will work in the
land of two alphabets.
Maybe if I returned to Yugoslavia
after letting American ad agencies
take over for a few years, I’d find a
very different place.
A place where “Tastes great --
less filling” is an ad for Crest Tooth
paste.
Where “Have you driven a Yugo
lately?’’ fills the airways.
Where the Y ugoslavian water polo
team shows us their Jockeys.
And where “Justdo it’ ’ is an ad for
Trojans.
Now that I think about it, maybe I
won’t return. After five years of
American ad agencies and mutated
translations, Yugoslavia could be a
really bad trip.
I’m afraid the world’s greatest word
wonder-workers would leave the land
of four languages more confused than
I was while staring at a roast tuna
rotisseric during the small hours of a
Sunday in Dubrovnik.
But that’s another story.
Instead, I think I’d rather leave the
fate of advertising in Yugoslavia up
to a native son who knows of all of the
four languages — my old tour guide.
After all, who else but a native son
would know how to sell an extremely
experience of gorgeous enjoyment?
Pedersen is a sophomore advertising ma
jor, a Daily Nebraskan night news editor and
editorial columnist.
Misrepresentation key to pro-life strategy
Jerry Paul Kreps’ argument against
abortion (DN, Jan. 18) was just the
latest in a series of pathetic attempts
to misrepresent the pro-choice view.
It seems, however, that misrepresen
tation is the only hope the pro-life
minority has in its attempt to enforce
its will over the pro-choice majority.
Unfortunately, insulting our intelli
gence isn’t helping their cause one
bit.
It is not a scientific fact that human
life begins at conception. The next
lime you hear a pro-life advocate
claim it is a fact, just consider the
source. These are the same people
who claim “abortion is not a reli
gious issue,” and in the next breath,
suggest we “just apply the Golden
Rule.’’ These are the people who
fight to give rights to a few cells and
completely ignore the rights of women
who live, breathe, have feelings and
play an important role in society.
On Kreps’ suggestion, let us check
the 14th Amendment. “All persons
bom or naturalized in the United States
... are citizens ...” It doesn’t say all
persons “conceived” in the United
States are citizens. Just a suggestion
to the pro-life advocates: the
Constitution only recognizes people
who have been “bom,” so invoking
it to support your argument may not
be such a good idea.
The issue of abortion is a very
emotional one. However, it is not the
only issue facing today's society. I
want everyone to keep that in mind
for the upcoming elections. Please
vote, but voting on the basis of a
single issue will do more harm than
good.
Keith Richter
sophomore
anthropology
