T Editorial Nebraskan
I Daily
Nebraskan
Editorial Board
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Eric Pfanner, Editor, 472-1766
Victoria Ayotte, Managing Editor
Darcie Wicgcrt, Associate News Editor
Diane Brayton, Associate News Editor
Jana Pedersen, Wire Editor
Emily Rosenbaum, Copy Desk Chief
Lisa Donovan, Editorial Page Editor
Up in smoke?
members' ties may bias results
Anew Environmental Protection Agency panel is about to
begin studying the health risks of secondhand smoke,
but the group’s composition leads to questions about its
ability to study the issue objectively.
Seven of the 16 panel members have lies to the tobacco
industry.
Maybe “protection” should be taken out of the EPA’s name,
j The panel isn’t doing an honest job protecting the environment
if almost one-half its members arc potentially biased.
Six members of the panel have connections with the Center
for Indoor Air Research, which is financed by some of the
world’s biggest tobacco companies: Philip Morris, R.J. Rey
nolds Tobacco Co. and Lorillard Corp.
A seventh member was appointed with the recommendation
of the Philip Morris company.
That leaves nine members who arc actually impartial enough
to review the scientific accuracy and objectivity of two upcom
ing EPA reports on the health effects of passive smoke.
The other seven panel members may not have unethical in
tentions, but their tics to the tobacco industry' leave doubts
about their objectivity.
This way, the panel’s discussions could sound a lot like a
criminal standing trial with a jury lull of family members.
'x When it hits so close to home, it’s difficult to be fair.
What’s ironic is that just a month ago, the author of a report
on secondhand smoke w as dismissed from the panel because
the tobacco industry lobbied to get rid of him. industry leaders
thought Dr. David Bums might be biased because he was the
author of a U.S. Surgeon General’s report on passive smoking.
Bui there arc no cries of injustice from the tobacco industry
now.
The EPA should start from scratch and form a new panel.
The controversy surrounding the current group of panelists will
only hurt the credibility of secondhand smoke research.
While it is good to appoint qualified panelists with knowl
edge of their subject, the EPA Couid find researchers and
scientists who have no tics to the tobacco industry or even
those with no connections to anti-smoking efforts.
If the EPA truly wants to lcam about secondhand smoke, it
should ask the experts who have studied the effects of passive
smoke, not officials with tics to those who create the smoke.
— Lisa Donovan
for ihe Daily Nebraskan
Reader embarrassed
by fans’ rude behavior
My family has season tickets to
the women’s volleyball games. My
three young children really enjoy the
games. However, at the Colorado vs.
Nebraska game a group of inconsid
erate male students entered the NU
Coliseum about halfway through the
match. Rather than taking scats, they
look standing positions (of course) on
the floor, blocking the cast exit. Un
fortunately for us, our seals were on
the front row immediately adjacent to
them.
Besides creating a fire hazard by
blocking the exit, these students pro
ceeded to ruin the game for those
around them. They yelled insults at
the members of the Colorado team,
who where standing right in front of
them. They booed every call by the
officials, even though all the calls
were correct. They did not cheer for
the Nebraska team, they only cheered
for thctnsclves. Every lime one of
them did something immature, the
rest would all laugh and applaud. The
more outrageously stupid the act, the
more the person was rewarded by his
companions. It was downriuhl cm
barrassing. They even jeered ai the
pep band, who were cheering for the
learn My children were exposed lo
words ihey have never heard before,
but worse than that, they were ex
posed to disrespectful and disgrace
ful behavior by persons who should
have known better.
That evening, I gained an appre
ciation for the fans who sit near those
who have been ejected from recent
games. No one has an inalienable
“right" to ruin a game for someone
else. It is not a question of school
spirit, it is a question of respect for the
rights of others to enjoy the game.
Those who attempt to justify such
behavior in the name of “school spirit’
apparently have not sal near them at a
game. Such individuals have less
school spirit than anyone else in the
stands. They don’t care about the
game or the team, only about their
own diseased egos.
Irv Nelson
graduate student
accounting
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Arizona voters should apologize
Entire state will suffer because holiday referendum lacked support
Although Martin Luther King
Jr. was killed by an assassin’s
bullet 22 1/2 years ago, some
people arc still taking shots at him.
But these shots dig deeper than
bullets, and for many, they hurt even
more.
Arizona has been the target of
national criticism since Tuesday, when
the state’s Voters rejected by a 51 -49
margin a referendum that would have
created a paid slate holiday honoring
the late civil rights leader.
The referendum, Proposal 302,
would have allowed for a paid state
holiday known as Civil Rights Day,
and w ould not have affected any other
paid holidays.
Terry Trost, vice president and
chief economist of the Phoenix Cham
ber of Commerce, said the input he
received from state voters was that
the proposal was leading in the polls
— until the National Football League
issued a warning two days before
election day.
Paul Tagliabuc, commissioner of
the NFL, had said that if the legisla
tion was not passed this year— it had
failed several times before — he would
recommend that the league’s team
owners consider moving the 1993
Super Bowl, which is scheduled to be
played at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe,
The proposal was defeated, and
Tagliabue’s recommendation came
the next day.
If 21 of the 28 owners vote af
firmative on such action, the Grand
Canyon State can say bye-bye to Super
Bowl XXVII.
Trost said the reason the proposal
tailed was that voters took offense at
the warning.
“Nobody likes to be threatened,“
Trost said. “Especially when the threats
come from the outside."
Thai’s true. But if Arizona voters
arc swayed in their political thinking
that much by a second-grade threat,
their hearts weren’t in it anyway.
If the Super Bowl is moved out of
Arizona, a lot of revenue will be lost.
The state might as well bid farewell
to much of the respect the rest of the
country has given them in the past,
loo — it’s gone already.
This past weekend, the criticism
took a new turn.
On Sunday, the NCAA Postseason
Football Committee authorized Fi
esta Bowl officials to move the game
to a site outside Arizona, where it has
been played since its conception in
1971.
The likely site would have been
San Diego, but Fiesta Bowl president
Larry Gunning announced Monday
that the game would be played in
Tcmpc, Ariz.
Arizona dodeed a financ ial bullet.
Earlier last week, the Fiesta Bow l
committee made it known that Vir
ginia, the former top-ranked team in
the nation, would be the lop candi
date for the Fiesta Bowl, with an
opponent to be named later. Although
formal bowl invitations cannot be
extended or accepted until Nov. 24,
the deal was all but set.
But after the King referendum w as
voted down, Virginia athletic direc
Chuck
Green
lor Jim Copeland told The Associated
Press he wasn’t sure if the Cavaliers
would accept an invitation.
“It (the Fiesta Bowl) has been an
option we’ve considered all along,
but it’s a leal difficulty working through
that (the vote), and I’m not sure we’ve
resolved it yet,’’Copeland said.
That statement carries a lot of
weight, especially considering that
Virginia’s team roster is loaded with
the sons of some of the nation’s best
known people, including Ron Pete,
son of pro golfer Calvin Pete, Scott
Griese, whose lather was lormcr Miami
all-pro quarterback Bob Griese, and
Derek Dooley, son of University of
Georgia athletic director Vince LXxiley.
Another is Yuscf Jackson, the son
of civil rights leader and perennial
presidential candidate Jesse Jackson.
He and another player, defensive
back Tony Covington, said they would
rather stay home from the bow l trip
than play in a state that dishonored
King.
It’s now become clear that the
Cavaliers are not at all interested in
spending their winter break in Tcmpe.
Virginia is now rumored lobe headed
for the Sugar Bowl to face the South
eastern Conference champion, which
probably will be Tennessee.
Don Meyers, a Fiesta Bowl offi
cial, said he thought the problem was
damaging to college football.
“It is time for someone in Arizona
to step forward and say, ‘Were going
to resolve this issue, and we’re going
to resolve it now,”’ he told AP.
Amen.
What’s beyond a lot of people,
though, is why there’s a problem at
all.
Someone would be hard-pressed
to explain why residents of Arizona
wouldn t want to honor the greatest
civil rights activist this country has
ever known, li w ould be even harder
lo unravel the mystery behind not
wanting another paid holiday.
But the whole stale of Arizona
can’t be chastised for the ignorance
of some of its voters. Alter all, 49
perccntof registered voters supported
the holiday.
Unfortunately, the entire state w ill
suffer socially, economically and
go vernmen tally.
Although the state will keep its
Fiesta Bowl this year, the ’93 Super
Bow l still is up in the air, and proba
bly will be for a long time.
But the choice should be clear
Move the Super Bowl lo another site.
There obviously arc people in
Arizona who don’t respect King, for
whatever reason. That’s their choice.
But in 1990, it’s a poor choice. And
the reasoning is unfathomable.
While most of the world’s popula
tion — not the least of w hich, man\
Americans — clamor for sanctions
and other actions against South Af
rica for its apartheid policy, the same
behavior is taking place right in our
backyard.
What’s g<x>d for South Africa is
gtxxl for Arizona. Stupidity and unfa
miliarity has to be dealt with every
where.
Although! vc never neen a nig lan
of mixing politics vc ith sports, this is
one case in which it should. Human
dignity is at stake.
There is already debate about where
to play the ’93 Super Bowl if it is
moved from Sun Devil Stadium. I
have a suggestion: Play the game at
Legion Field in Birmingham, Ala.
the city in which King became fa
mous.
Playing the game there would send
a message across the world, and the
black players who make up the ma
jority of the NFL rosters probably
wouldn’t hesitate to vote to move the
game there.
Arizona voters owe black Amer
ica an apology. They also owe their
fellow stale citizens an apology for
lost revenue. They owe the whole
world an apology for their ignorance.
Most of all, they owe Dr. King the
honor he deserves.
The world continues to be trapped
in a chokehold of bigotry, whether it
is realized or not. If the problems
can’t be solved in Arizona, they sure
can’t be solved in South Africa, or
anywhere else.
Only when such problems are rec
ognized and solved will the world be
free — at last.
tlreen is it news-editorial major and is a
l)N night new*; editor, sportswrlter and col
umnist.