Editorial
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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
*—
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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.
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