Editorial
|r Daily
I Nebraskan
Editorial Board
Ur iversity of Nebraska-Lincoln
Sign up to vote
I Officials try to make registration easy
Whether in textbooks, on television or in newspapers and
magazines, officials and the electorate will be the first
to tell you there is something seriously wrong with the
political process.
The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that there are 1,187.000
| eligible voters in Nebraska. Statistics show that 865,726
1 registered for the June primary, and 392,273, or 45 percent, of
Nebraska’s registered voters cast their ballots in the June
j primary.
With the Oct. 26 voter registration deadline imminent, it s
time to get out and sign up to vote in the Nov. 6 election.
According to an article in the Omaha World-Herald, Secre
tary of State Allen Becrmann said state officials are taking
measures to increase registration and ultimately voter turnout.
Such measures include easing restrictions on the use of absen
tee ballots, publishing application forms in newspapers and
setting up registration booths at local grocery stores, banks and
various other locations.
IUn tnc national level, tne senate ianeu last wcck iu uiu a
filibuster against legislation aimed at increasing voter registra
tion.
Debate will continue on the bill, which would encourage
states to allow people to register automatically when they
obtain a driver’s license.
Since the bill probably will be debated into oblivion, it
looks as though it, along with many registration forms, will be
shelved until next year.
And that’s too bad. If carefully monitored, an automatic reg
istration law would facilitate the voting process.
In the meantime, the electorate must pick up the slack of an
inefficient election process.
Whether casting a ballot is a chore or not, it’s our duty to
vote.
— Lisa Donovan
I for the Daily Mcbraskan
Art answer lies in awareness
A few words, if I may, about sub
sidized art.
The conflict seems to involve two
rights implicit in the nation’s
Constitution, the right to self-expres
sion and the right not to have to pay
for bad art. The lines of debate on this
issue arc being drawn between those
who feel art should be paid for with
taxpayers’ money and those who don’t.
The people in favor of art subsidy
are seeking protection of artists from
the demands of a harsh consumer
world and a guarantee that art in every
form be made available for apprecia
tion by all people, regardless of cul
tural and economic background.
Unfortunately, inadequate funding (and
there can never be enough money to
support all artists), the whims of those
faceless drones invested with the power
to distribute grants and the nature of
bureaucracy itself insure a differen
tial allocation of funding. This differ
ential freedom is no freedom at all. In
the interests of efficiency and job
security it leads inevitably to a pre
ponderance of such art as can only be
described as flaccid. After all, what
right-minded technocrat would lay
his job on the line for a picture of Bob
Mapplethorpe sodomizing himself with
a whip? The greatest threat to “fringe”
art is subsidization itself.
The response of many to this prob
lem is to eliminate funding all to
gether. This would leave art to the
workings of the free market and, if
people didn ’t want to pay for art, they
wouldn’t. Anyone actually wanting
to sec Mapplethorpe and his trusty
whip could do so, for a price. This,
however, denies exposure of the eco
nomically disadvantaged to art and
leaves little room for the so-called
‘‘starving artists.” Art becomes a
commercial scheme, a business ploy
for those w ho can afford it. Here, loo,
art flounders. Individualism is hardly
considered good business. Again, why
take chances? Why design extraordi
naryclothing when everyone is happy
wearing T-shirts that say “JUST DO
IT” and “RADICAL DUDE”? Why
spend hours locked in your room with
a guitar, a tape deck and a burning in
your soul when people would rather
hear the rehashed music of a Moun
tain Dew commercial?
So, tom between big government
and big business (as though there were
much difference anymore), what can
an aspiring artisi/art lover do? How
does one wrest freedom of expression
from the instincts of that murky p<x>l
of conformity Mencken so appropri
ately called the “booboisie”?
I don’t know. The answer seems to
lie in an awareness of the extent to
which individuals arc formed, ma
nipulated and exploited outright by
this Juggernaut society we live in.
This awareness is hard-won and even
relies on a certain amount of luck,
because so much “programming” has
been done on us by the time we’re
capable of looking at it at all objec
tively (and when is that? age 16? 24?
40? 80?). We hardly know where to
start. Just as the poorest minorities in
the worst ghettos arc damned to a
certain fate, so are we with our eight
hours of work, four hours of televi
sion (brainwashing), a little time for
mowing the lawn and a grx>d night's
sleep. We arc scarcely worthy of our
luxury and convenience if we lack the
strength and perspicacity to fully
comprehend their costs and whose
ends we really serve.
J.S. Clement
biological sciences
n
SO ARE. VOG GlWS READS To KEGOTINTE VET ?
Things not always black, white
Race doesn't affect all decisions; some based on fact, memory
There are few college students
w ho haven ’ t been to a party that
was abruptly ended by police
officers answering a noise complaint.
Even fewer of those same students
have left a broken-up party not hating
the cops for what they did and how
much fun they ruined.
Last Saturday night, though, I was
fortunate enough to get a glimpse
from the other side of the fence. I rode
along with a friend who is a Lincoln
police officer. I got clearance to ride
along for a story I was working on in
a depth-reporting class.
It was an eye-opener, to say the
least.
Law enforcement is known to be a
stressful field, especially for a police
officer, but just how stressful is some
thing only the officers on the streets
know for sure.
Lincoln police officers ride one to
a car, except during field training,
when they ride with an experienced
field-training officer. But they are
never alone -- stress, frustration and
fear are their constant companions.
John, the officer I tagged along
with, has been a friend of mine since
high school. I know him pretty well,
but I could tell that once inside the
cruiser, he is a changed person -- to an
extent.
It’s not a change for the worse,
necessarily. John just wasn’t his nor
mal lighthearted self on the job.
It didn’t lake long to learn why.
After a few routine calls that in
cluded serving a warrant for arrest, a
possible burglary in progress and
various other things, we returned to a
party because of a noise complaint.
Normally, the police policy on a
second visit is that the party is over.
This lime, it was the second visit in
less than an hour. While people were
shuffling out the back door, arguing
with the police the whole time, an
other officer on the scene recognized
one of the guests. He was allegedly a
suspect the officer had chased on foot
two weeks earlier. The suspect alleg
edly had spit in the officer’s face and
given false personal information.
As the man walked out onto the
porch, the officer grabbed his arm
and pulled him aside to ask him some
questions.
The suspect happened to be black.
The action was immediately met
by drunken accusations of racism from
Chuck
Green
disgruntled party-goers who were
standing around outside the door.
A woman, who obv iously had made
one trip lo the keg too many, kicked
off the festivities.
“Did you sec what that cop did?”
she said. “They’re picking on that
guy just because he’s black.”
A few people standing around sh<x>k
their head.
“Thai’s true,” some other person
said. “They just pick out someone at
these parlies to pick on and make an
example out of.”
Other officers there heard the
comments, but didn’t react. They just
repealed their orders to the crowd to
leave. What else could they have done?
It was sad, but not because people
were making blind accusations about
something they knew nothing about.
The most discouraging part was that
statements like that are so common
nobody thinks tw ice about them any
more.
If a white police officer arrests a
black man, the cop is labeled “rac
ist.” If the black man lies to the
police, spits in an officer’s face be
fore he runs away and spouts obsceni
ties about the cop’s mother, he’s “a
victim of our white-oriented socictv.”
Unfortunately, in some places, that
is the case. In this instance, however,
it wasn’t.
Another officer involved in the
foot pursuit two weeks ago was called
to the scene to identify the suspect.
He wasn’t sure it was their man.
The suspect, who identified him
self as “Chris,” was taken to the city
jail at 9th and J streets to be compared
to a photo of the man the officers
were looking for. Eventually, it was
discovered that “Chris” was indeed
the man w ho fled two weeks ago, and
that he had been lying about his name
and other information.
“It happens all the time,” John
told me afterward of the charges of
racism. “Not a night goes by that
someone doesn’t accuse us of some
thing like that. You have to Icam to
live with it.”
Maybe so, if you wear a badge.
But those of us who don’t -- whether
we’re white or black -- shouldn ’t have
to Icam to live with it. We should
learn to be more educated, and reali/.c
that race doesn’t necessarily affect all
of the decisions in our society.
The point is not that police are our
best friends, and that whatever they
do is right, justified and otherwise
just peachy. Rather, that their deci
sions are not customarily made on
racial, sexual or age bias; they’re
made on fact, memory and knowl
edge of the law.
“Chris” was arrested because he
allegedly broke the law. He also
happened to be black, which had
nothing to do with his arrest.
Things are not always as they
appear. And you don’t need a badge
to figure it out.
(irern is it senior news-editorial major, a
Daily Nebraskan night news editor, a sports
writer and aioiumnist.
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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 edi
tor; Darcie Wiegcrt, associate news
editor; Emily Rosenbaum, copy desk
chief; Jana Pedersen, wire euitor.
hditorial columns represent the
opinion of the author. The Daily
Nebraskan’s publishers are the re
gents, who established the UNL Pub
lications feoard to supervise the daily
production of the paper.
Eric Pfanner, Editor, 472-1766
Victoria Ayotte, Managing Editor
Darcie Wiegert, Associate News Editor
Diane Braylon, Associate News Editor
Jana Pedersen, Wire Editor
Emily Rosenbaum, Copy Desk Chief
Lisa Donovan, Editorial Page Editor