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.
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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
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