Editorial
-Daily
e&raskai
Jana Pwfcncn, Edito*. 472 1766
Matt Hcrek, NewsKduor
Btartdon LoOftm, Coiumm'
John Payne, Entertainment Edir.or
Damn* Fowlei, Sports Editor
Brian Shdlito, Art Director
MidieUs Paul man. Photo Chief
Quibbles ‘n’ bits
High percentage ranking is deceptive
Figures don’t lie. Or do they?
A report published by the National Association of State
Universities and Land Grant Colleges shows Nebraska near
I the top of the list for increases in state aid to higher education
dver the past three years. But the figures are based on percent
ages, which means in Nebraska, ranked 32nd of the 50 states in
actual dollars given to higher education, even a small increase
yields a big percentage.
Tlic more important rankings are the ones that sliow Nebraska
at or near the bottom of UNL’s eight peer institutions in state
funding for items such as operating finances and faculty salaries.
Granted, improvements have been made over the across-the
board cuts of tne past decade, but until state financing for higher
education brings Nebraska out of the basement, the percentages
don’t mean much.
for the Daily Nebraska*
1.-—_-_iI_____I,.....I
KKK column disturbs reader
Brandon Loomis, a senior news
editorial major and Summer Daily
Nebraskan editorial columnist, has
written an article (DN, June 14) that
disturbs me and should disturb any
University of Nebraska student, fac
ulty or employer regardless of ethnic
ity. To suggest that the Ku Klux Klan
should be able toconunuc to “gener
ate fear" and “cut its own throat”
with bad publicity is absurd. About as
absurd as the origin of such an organi
zation as the Ku Klux Klan in Amer
ica.
The idea was one of Cameron, an
officer in the military, from a late
19th Century play where several little
black youngsters were frightened by
two white youngsters who held a white
sheet over their heads. Later, one of
America’s most embarrassing organi
zations, the Ku Klux Klan, was bom.
Inc Ku Klux Klan has never made
any positive contributions to the de
cency of American society. The fear
is in the individuals who belong to the
group, and they generate fear. The
members of the group want to remain
behind their masks and don’t want
anyone to know their true identities.
When the group, which historically
consisted of prominent businessmen,
was exposed, they had to leave the
group and only support the Ku Klux
Klan "under the table” or ‘‘behind
closed doors.”
As early as 100 years ago, a black
Baptist church in central Illinois was
threatened, and fear must have gone
through every nerve and through every
bone of the little prayer group that
met on a Wednesday night in about
1898. That is, until one black woman
discovered the familiar-looking shoes
of one of the white men and cleverly
asked, ‘‘Joe, is that you? What arc
you doing here?’’ The group of Klans
mcn who had tried to upset an A frican
American group in a prayer meeting
fled the premises in fear and never
returned. The “bottom line:” expo
sure and the unveiling of any mystery
is the beginning of fear which is the
beginning of knowledge.
As for Spike Lee’s successful movie
“Do the Right Thing,’’ let’s get it
straight, Mr. Loomis. More of us saw
the movie than just you alone. It was
not the movie that brought the riots. It
was the truth that America yet faces
and faced in the movie that brought
the riots. Just as some truths in Amer
ica have led angry United States citi
zens to desecrate the flag through flag
burning. When we continue to allow
violence and hatred and evil and all of
the things that separate men and w'omcn
and boys and girls from each other to
exist, we will have a once passive
people behave as a “cat in a corner, ’ ’
fight back, and sometimes the fight
mg is not as passive in nature.
The First Amendment to the
Constitution is just what is says, the
First Amendment. There arc other
amendments. This amendment docs
not stand alone but in harmony with
the others, including the 13lh, 14th
and 15th, which were necessary be
cause this country had forgotten a
major resource of persons--African
Americans. It seems some views of
yours arc similar to those of many,
who when it is convenient scream,
“The First Amendment!” I hear so
plainly what the Rev. Dr. Matin Luther
King, Jr. so loudly proclaims, yet
from his grave he says, “Violence
and evil w ill eventually self-destruct”
(paraphrased). But before it docs, it
takes educated people like you and
myself and the constituents of this
major university to stand tall and not
tolerate and never accept the evil of
such a group as the Ku Klux Klan.
Maurice Talc, Sr.
instructor
Teachers College
MOW LISTEN NELSON. ¥00 MUST END THIS TALK OF AN ARMED STRUGGLE
AGAINST THE WHITES ...HUH,OH,ILL BE RIGHT WITH ¥00... NOW, MR. MANDELA,.,
Colorado student inspires ballad
New legal pressure makes life tough on rugged Americans
Americans just ain’t willing to
make room for the rugged in
dividual no more.
It seems like there’s a new wave of
legal pressure on those who would
forsake suburbia and live off the land,
shooting things and drinking home
made com whiskey.
Subsistence hunting and fishing is
increasingly under the gun these days,
and I’m just glad James Fcnnimorc
Cooper isn’t around to see il
The Alaska Supreme Court recently
ruled unconstitutional that state’s law
giving rural residents preferential
subsistence hunting and fishing righLs,
because recreational hunters from the
cities think they’re being discrimi
nated against.
Now the federal government wants
to step in and manage the fish and
game on the two-thirds of the state
that it owns, which could severely
restrict the caloric intake of natives
who still respect and survive on the
balance of nature.
This is not a debate restricted to
Alaska. Anti-huntersand recreational
hunters alike warn to push subsis
tence hunters out the door throughout
the country, especially in the upper
Midwest. I just can't believe it
Yes, some animals which we hunted
are shrinking in population. But it’s
development, not hunting, which brings
about this problem. Besides, recrea
tional hunters as a whole take many
more animals than do subsistence
hunters, so it makes sense that if there
are to be bag limits, theirs should be
smaller. You can pretend hunters arc
raping the land, but in reality, that job
is left to cities and industries.
Outlawing or cutting back on sub
sistence hunting and fishing won’t
save animal populations, but it will
kill a way of life.
This country’ was founded on at
least the myth of the rugged individ
ual. When things got a bit congested
in the East, we moved west. We cre
ated a lot of hell along the way that
we’re paying for now, but that spirit
has always been what every Ameri
can identified with in one way or
another. To outlaw what we’ve re
vered for ceniurics makes no sense.
To outlaw the practice Native Ameri
cans have employed for centuries
longer makes even less.
Brandon
Loomis
Americans used to read and watch
westerns. That may seem like just a
trivial trend in entertainment, but it
really was the result of conquering
the frontier. When there was nowhere
left to go, Americans sat in their cities
reading about the gcxxl old days and
wishing they could get off the free
way and back to nature. Most have
given up by now, thinking there’s no
nature to get back 10. If there is a
parcel of land out there somewhere,
they think, certainly no one should be
able to enjoy it. What they don’t
realize is that the people enjoying it
aren’t abusing it.
Hopefully I’ve learned a lot of
things in college, one of which is that
for every smart person 1 know, there’s
a dumb one. Some of the dumb ones
periodically make me long for Griz
zly Adams reruns, or to go oui and be
Grizzly Adams myself.
When I was a freshman, I read
about a University of Colorado stu
dent who was missing for about a
month. When he finally showed up, it
turned out that he had just packed up
his all-terrain vehicle and roughed it
out in the wild of Wyoming. He was
sick of society, so he made his own. I
support his right to do that.
I’m not sure why he came back,
but I assume he got lonely or had
some debts. Anyway, I’ve always had
this image of a guy foraging around
for grubs, maybe shooting a few jack
rabbits, and sleeping in a lean-to.
The summer after that episode, I
wrote a little ballad for the mountain
guy and decided that some day I’d
head into the woods or the desert and
just shoot things until I died.
Here’s my story:
Living in a iean-10 nui. m
Sauteed larvae in my gut, i
/ am the mountain man
and I eat good food. f:
L*t me tell you what I eat.
I eat beans from a can,
kill critters whenever I can,
I generally wind up eating Spam
I'm a mountain man
Stubby Raccoon and myself do fine,
living betwixt the willows and the
pine,
makin' headcheese and dandelion
wine.
We’re a mountain clan.
Let me tell you what we eat
(etc., etc.)
I jusi want to say that when 1 ’m 65,
and finally out of debt, I want to be
able to kill critters and make head
cheese while tobacco spittle clings to
my beard. I’m an American, and by
God, if I can’t pretend I’m a rugged
individual, I don t know what this
country’s coming to.
t/oomis is a senior news-editorial major
and the Summer Daily Nebraskan editorial
columnist.
