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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 4, 1990)
Editorial ----- Edwards, Editor, 472-1766 Nelson, Editorial Page Editor Sleeves, Managing Editor ’fanner, Associate News Editor | u sa Donovan, Associate News Editor Editorial Board Brandon Loomis, Wire Editor University of Nebraska-Uncoln I Jana Pedersen, Night News Editor Lithuania must lead Five-year plan makes best compromise Mikhail Gorbachev finally has worked himself into an impossible situation. Time Magazine’s Man of the Decade now must choose between either allowing his country to unravel - from the inside or forgoing the outside support necessary to keep his country from unravelling. It Lithuania is allowed to leave the soviet Union, other provinces soon will follow. The Latvian parliament, j despite Soviet attempts to intimidate Lithuania, plans to f declare its country’s independence on May 3. Estonia already has taken the first steps toward independence. If | Gorbachev is soft on Lithuania, a precedent will have been set, and Estonia and Latvia will push hard for their own independence soon after. If Gorbachev cracks down on Lithuania, East-West re lations will be set back dramatically, and much of the West’s needed economic support will be lost. Perestroika, as well as Gorbachev’s legitimacy, will be gone. I The United States is in a similar situation. By not ada mantly protesting Soviet actions already taken in Lithu ania, this country has questioned its own Declaration of Independence. It also legitimizes Stalin’s illegal takeover of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania 50 years ago. If the United States promises force against the Soviets if Lithuania is crushed, any progress in warming the Cold War would be nullified, whether the move stopped Soviet aggression or not. It seems that only Lithuania can ensure the continuation of Perestroika and the warming of East-West relations. Only if Lithuania accepts compromise with Gorbachev, such as a five-year transition period for independence, can the peace and reconstruction period continue. A United States policy supporting such a transition period may compromise basic founding principles, but the ends certainly will justify any peaceful means. - Bob Nelson for lh4 Daily Ntbraslum Kerrey, coverups questioned I notice Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.) is blasting the NCUA officials for action and inaction in the Franklin Credit Union Case. I agree with him there is, and will continue to be, a coverup. On the other hand, who should be better in formed than Bob Kerrey regarding coverups, as it is an exact re-enact ment of the Common wealth and State Security covcrup which occurred during his tenure as Governor of Nebraska. It makes you wonder why coverups have suddenly become a crime in 1990, but were only used for political ammuniuon in 1983? Lester H. Christiansen Lincoln Court decided when life begins The pro-life/pro-choice debate has been shifted by circuit court findings in Tennessee -- the fight for custody of cryogcnically frozen embryos in a divorce case. It became important to establish whether the embryos were life or property - beings or ‘ ‘ things. ” Three of the experts testified that the dividing cells were entities pos sessing the potential for life rather than actual “beings.” When the one cell gamete is fertilized, becoming a zygote, up until the 14th day, they called it a “preembryo,” saying it is a group of undifferentiated cells with no separate organs or distinct features of its own. I The court, however, accepted the testimony of Dr. Lejeune, world famous human geneticist, based on new scientific research — a process of manipulation and reading of the DN A molecule which proves highly com plex differentiation in the zygote. The new. molecular genetics shows the fertilized cell is so complex that all the prerequisites for a unique human being exist - a being so special no other cell will ever have the same features. In the zygote - the fertilized cell - a liny human being exists. The court rejected the argument an em bryo is not a “self-sustaining per son,” noting that a baby is not a person by that criterion. Hence, concluded the court, there is no such thing as a “preembryo.” Life begins at conception. The tumultuous question has been answered. An abortion always and under all circumstances ends a le gally defined human life. From the time that court decision was filed in September 1989, the pro-“choice” position became pro-homicide. It is a self-damning tragedy that all the Democratic candidates for gover nor at Grand Island on March 24, except Eret, either waffled on the issue of abortion or became pro ‘‘choice” candidates. Kay Orr’s po sition is well known. Voters will have a clear choice at the polls: Are you for extinguishing tiny human beings, or are you pro-life? Ncls W. Fordc professor history *— """ " ■ ^ VJHW'OF'Tl'VA GOMUK WE IN casalegjsuwure. IT S AS GOOD A PLACE AS AW. ^_ j &. mwm. Mutant turtles spark thoughts Nostalgic remembrance of past brings realization of lost youth 1 spent Spring Break at my brother and sister-in-law’s in Jacksonville, Fla. While I was there, “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’’ opened at a theater near their house. The ticket-line in front of the thea ter was a terrifying scene -- mile upon mile of prcpubescent boys and girls, kicking and chopping at the kidneys of their sun-baked and weary parents. My brother, who is nine years older than me, recently became a parent. He has a six-month-old daughter who will one day force him and his wife to pay large amounts of their paychecks to watch inane movies about strange animals. My brother and 1 arc enough alike that I use his life as a sort of fortune teller for my own. 1 watch him move through time and expect a similar fate. He is only a few years from being a part of the terrifying Ninja Turtle theater scene. Add nine years and I am also there. We both grim aced at the thought. So this was all somewhat frighten ing. Playing the role of father and mother means investing a lot of time and hope in someone other than one self. The biological clock begins to feel linear. jviiiv iiiiiv iuv.ct|n an 11115 and relax. I guess my brother and I are too old for this Ninja turtle stuff. I think that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are so popular because this generation of kids has reverted back to romantic forms of combat, particu larly those of the Orient. Kids love Ninjas because Ninjas tip-toe, wear black, throw things and kick people. If they’re young and messed-up-Ninjas, they’re even bet ter. . Believe me, I’ve seen this genera tion of kids play. They go outside and engage in what appears to be hide and-seek except that every so often, they jump from behind a tree, screams “Hiiiiiieeeccc YAH!” and kick their friends in the head. Usually they miss, hurt themselves and run crying to their Nintendos. They do, however, return. I grew up with G.l. Joe and the end of the Vietnam War. Unlike the kids of today, my friends and I were real Bob Nelson l ists. We fought with toy M-16s. In my day, if someone had jumped from behind a tree and screamed “Hiiiiiiceecec YAH!”, my friends and I would have laughed hysteri cally, casually lifted our plastic M 16s and shredded the little Ninja freak like moz/arella cheese. Don’t get me wrong. We believed that martial arts and ancient weap onry were sometimes necessary. G.I. Joe spent many a sunny weekend afternoon kicking ihp hp^H nff mv sister’s Ken doll. Joe even had a spear -- a number two yellow pencil that he frequently threw across my bedroom into Ken’s plastic abdomen. But, if Ken was armed, Joe — unhampered by delusions of gran deur — would arm himself with an M 16 and shred the little preppic geek like cheddar cheese. In the good ole days, we knew when somebody had to be shot. Nin jas don’t use guns. They arc ham pered by delusions of grandeur. And my generation was a bunch of weenies compared to that of my fa ther’s. My dad grew up during World War II. He told me that he and his friends fought with sling-shots, air rifles and M-80s. If someone had jumped from behind a tree and screamed “Hiiiiiiceecce YAH!” at my dad and his friends, they would have laughed hysterically and show ered the idiot with very real lead pellets and quarter slicks of dyna mite. And this is nothing compared to how my grandfather played war. So the kids of today are weenies when it comes to war games. They are unrealistic and too soft for their own good. But I couldn’t care less about this. My problem is that for the first time, I have waxed nostalgic. I’ve started saying things like, “When I was a kid.” I’m no longer the youngest person in my family. It seems that a youth, especially an American youth, feels above nature and death until they watch their place in time pass. My best times as a child were spent rid dling my friends with imaginary bul lets. They would pretend to die, get up, and I ’d pretend to kill them again. Killing and dying wasn't final or real. What’s this all mean? For me, it invalid uiai iui uic him mm; m m; life, I realize 1 want to be a father someday. The truth that I thought manifest with parenthood already is here; the heirloom already has been passed. Having children now seems like a kind of rebirth — hope and naivety passed down and kept alive, another round of war games without the war. Procreation as consolation. It’s kind ofcatchy,butkindof sad. My brother said he felt more than this. He said I would have to be there to understand. Extrapolation doesn’t work, he said, and from the way he acts around his daughter, I have to believe him. Maybe I still am a kid. Nelson is a senior news-editorial major, the Daily Nebraskan editorial page editor and a columnist. 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, original ity, timeliness and space available, rhe Daily Nebraskan retains the right o edit all material submitted. Readers also arc welcome to sub mil 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 relumed. Letters should be typewrit ten. Anonymous submissions will not be considered for publication. Letters shoujd include the author’s name, year in school, major and group affili ation, if any. Requests to withhold names will not be granted. Submit material to the Daily Ne braskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 R St, Lincoln, Neb. 68588-0448.