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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 28, 1990)
Editorial (Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board University of Nebraska-Lincoln Eric Pfanner, Editor, 472-1766 Victoria Ayotte, Managing Editor Darcie Wiegert, Associate News Editor Diane Bray ton Awocw/e News Editor Jana Pedersen, Wire Editor Emily Rosenbaum, Copy Desk Chief Lisa Donovan, Editorial Page Editor Conservation time ; Looking for new oil isn't the answer The American people may have more of a picture-window view of the Kuwait crisis than they think. Since the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the Senate has | passed a bill that would allow oil exploration on sensitive | federal lands. That’s a panicked reaction to the Middle East crisis. Before the invasion, the United States received less than 10 percent of its oil from Iraq and Kuwait. The U.S. oil reserves and in | creased production from Organization of Petroleum Exporting 1 Countries could have compensated for that loss. But the Senate’s reaction to the Middle East crisis was rash. 1 Let’s hope the House will give such a ludicrous amendment | more thought. The Senate isn’t the only group panicking about the Gulf crisis. According to The Washington Post, the oil industry is en | couraging Congress to lift restrictions on oil drilling in the | Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; the Energy Department is | pressing California officials to grant the necessary permits for a S' massive new oil development off Santa Barbara; and industry | lobbyists arc hoping to ease proposed pollution controls in 1 pending clean-air legislation. Do immediate threats take the place of iong-term threats like global warming and deforestation? Granted, with the situation worsening in the Middle East, we can hardly afford to discard energy supplies. But instead of | lifting restrictions on protection of the environment, Americans should do their part to conserve. It’s one thing to write our senators and representatives. But while the post office is delivering our pleas for help, we can do some things at home. Simple things such as walking, biking and car-pooling are just a few. •• Lisa Donovan for the Daily Nebraskan In the open j Beer sales to point out UNL paradox It’s getting closer. The sale of beer continues to move toward the University of Ncbraska-Lincoln campus. Saturday morning, a bar, The Pub, will serve beer in a fenccd-off area in the parking lot of The Reunion. The Lincoln City Council approved the beer-sale proposal Monday. The plan limits the number of patrons in the enclosure to 250. The parking lot is not on UNL grounds. Nonetheless, the council's approval of the plan shows that the NU Board of Regents’ outdated policy banning alcohol on campus - except at selected events - needs to be updated. The Pub received approval to sell alcohol in January in The Reunion, a privately owned property surrounded by the univer sity. At that time, Don Blank, chairman of the board of regents, wrote a letter to the council, saying The Pub’s proximity to campus could cause problems. But now the permit has been extended further - at least for a temporary basis. As patrons of The Pub buy beer Saturday prior to the Ncbraska-Baylor football game at Memorial Stadium, they will visibly point out an incongruity that previ ously was hidden inside The Reunion: Beer will be consumed in the open on land surrounded by campus while in residence halls a stone’s throw- away students 21 and older can’t get away with it. Parents visiting their sons and daughters for the football game may want to think about the policy the regents continue to cling to. •• Erk Planner for the Daily Nebraskan Signed staff editorials represent the official policy of the Fall 1990 Daily Nebraskan. Policy is set by the Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board. Its members arc: Eric Pfanner, editor; Lisa Donovan., editorial page editor; Victoria Ayottc, managing editor; Diane Brayton, associate news editor; Darcic Wiegert, associate news edi tor; Emily Rosenbaum, copy desk chief; Jana Pedersen, wire editor. Editorials do not necessarily re flect the views of the university, its employees, the students or the NU Board of Regents. Editorial columns represent the opinion of the author. The Daily Ne braskan’s publishers are the regents, who established the UNL Publica tions Board to supervise the daily pro duction of the paper. According to policy set by the re gents, responsibility for the editorial content of the newspaper lies solely in the hands of its students. WToVIHEKE \ I m BEFORE WU 1 vJgPE MTTNMfcP m from eeser'Jes . 'i1: ' "" 1 L I ~1 \0S /■ m f A this end I IIJS. ARMY f J 1 L n Discrimination hits white male Affirmative Action is unjust payback, not job equality for all This summer was a boring one for me -- which was both good and bad. Good for my mental health, bad for my temper. And I have a distinctly American institution to thank for it: Affirmative Action. Last April, I learned that someone else had been awarded a sports writing internship I had applied for at a major newspaper in the southeastern United States. Oh, well . . . you win some, you lose some. A couple weeks later, though, I discovered why 1 didn’t get the job: Because I had the misfortune of being bom a white male. A sports columnist at the paper informed me against his editor's wishes that I was the paper’s top choice for the internship, having beaten out 200 other applicants from across the coun try. The columnist said the sports edi tor wanted me there, as did the assis tant sports editor and almost every one else who had seen my resume and clips. Unfortunately, the newspaper deemed it necessary that the sports department hire another woman, “because it didn’t have enough,” the columnist said. So in the end, they hired their No. 5 choice, a woman from anEastCoast university. I later found out that at least two other newspapers pulled the same stunt on me and other men trying for their respective jobs. It’s a curious position for an em ployer to lake. Never mind who has the better credentials. Never mind who is belter at the job, or who has more experience. If you as an em ployer have more men than women, and even if they happen to be better qualified for their positions, you have to hire some women anyway. And hurry! I can’t help but wonder how the woman who was given the internship would react if she knew the real scoop. If she has any pride and common sense, she would be furious, knowing she got the job over four better-quali fied applicants because of her sex, not because of her talent. That kind of “equality” is more ■ A A --- demeaning than sexism itself. What woman would like to hear this?: “Because you’re a woman, I guess we’ll have to hire you ... sure hope you can write.” Discrimination is as old as life on this planet, but it shouldn’t be toler ated at any level in any society. It's easy for me to complain about it, now that it finally has caught up Chuck Green with me. Being a while male, I can’t say that I’ve been discriminated against much. Until now. Some people support Affirmative Action as a viable means of equaliz ing the male-to-femalc ratio in the work force. Naturally, most who support it are those who would bene fit from it. In their own little demented, non sensical way, they see it as payback for all the years ol suffering and shoul dering the effects of discrimination against minorities. But it’s this atti tude that makes Affirmative Action all the more unjust. Common sense dictates that if your feelings arc hurt in some way, you don’t try to inflict that same pain on others. Why people should pay for the mistakes and narrow-mindedness of our forefathers is a mystery. People who take a stand against employment prejudice and then de fend discrimination against other groups in the name of fairness should seek psychiatric help. At the very least, they should enroll in a human relations course. Sadly, though, there are women who have told me, to rny face, why Affirmative Action is so important, and why it was just peachy that I got screwed out of a $450-a week sum mer job. “There just aren’t as many female sportswriters out there as there arc male ones, ’ ’ one woman said.1' Don’t you think it should be evened up?’’ Well, OK ... here’s a scenario for you: There arc a lot more female nurses in this country than male ones, both registered and in training. It’s not right or wrong, it’s just reality. Maybe administrators at hospitals and clinics should just throw up their arms and hire nothing but men, regardless of talent and knowledge. Thai’s enough to keep you from getting sick forever. The law of averages is very clear. If there arc more men applying than women, or vice-versa, an employer obviously is trashing good prospects by eliminating one sex, or one color or another. There should be no “minorities’’ in the job market. If a person can do the job, hire him or her, regardless of race, color, religion, nationality or shoe size. Getting a job to fill a quota or to close the gapon a ratio is not equality. It’s not satisfying or fair. It’s dcgrad ing. It’s like saying, “Ladies, we re sorry you and women before you have been treated like second-class citi zens for so long. To make up for it, we’ll just punish this generation of men.” What’s really scary, though, is a lot of women find nothing wrong with that statement. I’m sure I’ll be read ing letters from several of them in the next few days. But most women want jobs on their own merits, just like men. They don’t want jobs because they are supposedly members of a minority who deserve a break. Those arc the women who will make it through life just fine, and deservedly so. Some women, though, will be content forever to blame their problems on the “male-dominated society,” which is supposedly be yond their control. It’s much easier that way. When women arc content with this type of “equality,” 1 wish them lots of luck. They’ll need it. Shifting the problem from one side of the fence to the other only confirms the fact that there is a problem. And as long as discrimination is a problem for anyone, it’s a problem for everyone. Green Is a senior news-editorial major, a Daily Nebraskan night news editor, sports writer and columnist. I£II£F The Daily Ncbra:>kan welcomes brief leuers to the cdiior from all readers and interested others. Letters and guest opinions sent to the newspaper become the property °( the Daily Nebraskan and cannot be* relumed. Letters should be typewrit ten. Anonymous submissions will not be considered for publication. Letters should include the author s name, year in school, major and group a< I ill ation , if any. Requests to withhold names will not be granted. Submit material to the Daily Ne braskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 14(X)R St, Lincoln, Neb. 68588-0448.