", Editorial Netfrakkan
’ A ^ A -*- Monday, April 23, 1990
_
| Daily
I Nebraskan
Editorial Board
t University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Amy Fdwards, Editor, 472-1766
Bob Nelson, Editorial Page Editor
Ryan Steeves Managing Editor
Fric Pfanner, Associate News Editor
Fisa Donovan, Associate News Editor
Brandon Loomis, Wire Editor
Jana Pedersen, Night News Editor
Designation needed
Niobrara should get protective status
An article in Rolling Stone magazine called the Nebraska
Sand Hills one of the 12 places on the planet where
“mankind has created hell on Earth.”
The article claims that fanning has turned the area into a
“bleak desert,” an area where damage from erosion will take
years to control.
For years, canoe trips on the Niobrara River have been a
, favorite excursion for UNL student groups. To anyone in
i volved in these trips or the arc9 in general, it is obvious that
s neither the river nor the region has been substantially altered by
| farming and ranching.
According to a study done by the UNL Conservation and
Survey Division, only about 3 percent of the area is used for
farming.
I But this doesn’t mean that this unique river and region can’t
be damaged. With this in mind, the Niobrara River may soon
be protected under the 1968 Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.
As a National Scenic River, the Niobrara would be pre
served in free-flowing condition, and the immediate environ
ment would be protected for the benefit and enjoyment of
present and future generations.
in testimony given to the House national parks and public
| lands subcommittee, James K. Cole, a UNL psychology
f professor and co-chairman of the Niobrara Awareness Commit
Z tee» gave some interesting insight into opposition to the bill.
In excerpts of his testimony printed in the Saturday Omaha
World-Herald, Cole said, “The Niobrara Basin Preservation
Association is an ironic misnomer. What these folks want to
preserve is their right to build a dam. This is why they hired a
professional agitator from California to delude and divide the
people of the Niobrara area.”
Cole said there are also those in the area “who simply fear
\ that big government will come in and take away their rights
and property. It is important that these folks be told that the
scenic river designation protects and preserves their land and
property and that it prescives the free-flowing quality of the
river as it currently exists.”
Cole is absolutely right. The provisions of the Scenic River
Act are fair to the landowners along the river. The only people
who suffer arc those who would profit from a project damaging
to the river.
The designation of the Niobrara River as a National Scenic
, River is necessary to ensure that Rolling Sterne’s inaccuracies
aren’t prophecy. The Niobrara River and the Sand Hills are still
beautiful. It is federal legislation like The Wild and Scenic
; Rivers Act that promise that beauty for future generations.
•• Bob Nelson
for the Daily Nebraskan
Thompson talk frustrates student
If the Hunter S. Thompson talk on
Friday in the Centennial Ballroom at
7:30 p.m., or should I say about 9:15
p.m., is indicative of the type of pro
gramming we can expect for $10 a
pop, I have some real problem with
the show’s sponsors CHic Great Red
Shark, Cosmic Comics and Duffy’s).
The guest speaker arrived on stage
at approximately 9:15 p.m., bul not
before his “editorial assistant’’ read
a heart-rendering passage from his
newest book of columns. Thompson
was obviously disoriented; we were
told by his chaperone that he spent 45
minutes in the stall at the airport.
Good preparation for a speech he was
probably paid in the area of $2,000.
He mumbled a few incoherences before
he opened the floor to questions. This
is what I paid $10 for?
The few questions that he fielded
from the floor were handled poorly,
in almost a state of babble. His side
kick «for this evening on the stage
(who will remain anonymous for her
own good) edited the pre-written
questions and had the uncanny knack
of calling out only the most banal and
witless ones to pose to Thompson.
His responses matched the banality
of the questions. At this point, his
sidekick abruptly ended the supposed
two-hour show at about 10:20 p.m.
This was no doubt the most ill-run
event I have ever been witness to and
encourage all who attended to seek a
refund. Hunter’s ramblings about
Gorbachev and a Bcntscn/Jackson
democratic ticket in ’92 should be
enough to merit a refund alone.
Go home, Hunter, and return to
Nebraska when you have something
to say and the state of mind to say it.
To quote “Fear and Loathing ’72,”
you looked like a “potato with
mange.” And this from a man whose
books and columns I have read and
once respected as a political journal
ist and writer!
Oh, by the way, if the $10 or $8
you spent on your ticket was not enough
of a charitable donation, Hunter and
his “editorial assistant” made pleas
for contributing to the “Save Hunter”
legal fund. Can we first deduct our
ticket price before we send in our
contribution? Fair is fair.
James A. Roberts
graduate student
.. AND THEN THE TV1C
TRIBE S , \NHO HAD
PREVIOUS LV BEEN
ENEMIES COOKED/
THE TRADITIONAL /
SACRIFICIAL LAMB
BEFORE CONTINUING L/
THEIR PEACE TALKS...!!
Hitler’s bunker must be saved
Commemorating evil doesn't necessarily involve supporting evil
I guess the Germanys arc having
a tough lime deciding whether
to restore and dedicate an Ad
olph Hitler shrine. Hitler’s bunker,
where he and his generals planned
their last efforts of World W'ar II, is
just on the eastern side of the Berlin
Wall.
Some Germans want to make it a
museum, others want to immediately
fill it in and build apartments over it.
This seems like an eternal point of
friction, the war between those who
want to remember and those who
want to hold grand ceremonies de
nouncing and then destroying things
so we can forget about them.
Last year, a yacht belonging to
Hitler joyously was sunken off the
Florida coast. Apparently, the former
symbol of death would become a new
symbol of life, acting as a sort of reef
on the ocean floor for aquatic life to
call home. Ah, what wonderful irony.
Whatever the ease, the terrible thing
would be out of sight.
It just doesn't make sense to me.
Maybe 10 years from now. National
Geographic will do an underwater
special showing us Hitler’s aquarium
and telling us we need to remember.
Maybe Gcraldo Rivera will do a spe
cial in Berlin and crack the seal of
Hitler’s bunker. But in the mean tune,
we won’t have to think about it. I
think we ought to think about it. I
think the bunker should be preserved.
There is some room lor debate.
There is fear that sonic people may
begin to see the bunker as just a really
neat piece of history, or that they
actually might have fun there.
Think of our own national play
pens. What do people really see when
they gaze over the rolling lulls at the
Little Bighorn? I’m sure most see
Custer’s last heroic stand. Others might
see it as Custer's dumbest stand. But
who really sees it as the last heroic
stand of the Sioux?
There arc countless Civil War
battlegrounds throughout the South
o
Brandon
Loomis
and East. After looking at these his
toric sites, you can go to the gift shop
and buy little soldiers and think how
courageous and wonderful these men
were. Undoubtedly, they were coura
geous and wonderful, but in such a
setting, it's easy to forget all that w as
at stake on these battlegrounds and
the troublesome circumstances that
led up to the war.
But the mere chance that someone
might misconstrue what a monument
is all about is not enough to just give
up on building monuments. There
w ill be those who recogni/c the evil
that certain monuments represent, and
the fact that know ledge of such past
evil permeates their minds cannot
help but keep future evils from occur
ring. The evil surrounding Hitler’s
bunker is sure to be clear to almost all
who enter it.
Take the Vietnam War as an ex
ample. As time passes, more and more
people believe that the war was wrong,
or at least wish that it had not been
fought. A great many people think the
war was evil, and yet there is a monu
ment to its soldiers in Washington.
The wall, with the names of those
killed in the war, easily is the most
awe-inspiring sight in the capital cits.
Even the most vehement opponents
of the war will feel choked when they
see it. But this feeling, oddly, does
not come from any sort of national
pride. It comes from a feeling ol grief
for our own actions, undone feels like
apologizing to both American and
Vietnamese families.
The monument commemorates
something that many view as evil, but
it docs not by its existence lend popu
lar support to that evil.
The same is true at the Little Big
horn. One might marvel at the late ol
ptx>r George Custcr, but to do so is not
to condone the slaughter of American
Indians. Driving through Montana, it
is readily apparent who really won
that battle. When listening to the tale
of Custer’s last stand, it is impossible
to avoid the tale of the slaughters that
led up to it.
When entering Hitler’s bunker and
hearing ol how' he came U) kill him
self, it would be impossible to ignore
the tales of those he killed before that
It's not fair to assume that Ameri
can’s arc smart enough to cry at the
Victnam Memorial, but that Germans
w ill take pride at Hiller’s bunker. III
had any money, I’d pull Hitler’s yacht
out of the water and pul it on display.
I think I ’d move it far away from
Florida and Disney World, though.
I.uomh Is a senior news-editorial major
and the Daily Nebraskan wire editor and
columnist.
Signed staff editorials represent
the official policy of the spring 1990
Daily Nebraskan. Policy is set by the
Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board. Its
members arc Amy Edwards, editor;
Bob Nelson, editorial page editor;
Ryan Sleeves, managing cditor;Eric
Pfanricr, associate news cditor;Lisa
Donovan, associate news editor;
Brandon Loomis, wire editor; Jana
Pedersen, night news editor.
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