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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 16, 1990)
ditorial (Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board University of Nebraska-Lincoln Eric Pfanner, Editor, 472-1766 Victoria Ayotte, Managing Editor Darcie Wiegert, Associate News Editor Diane Brayton, Associate News Editor Jana Pedersen, Wire Editor Emily Rosenbaum, Copy Desk Chief Lisa Donovan, Editorial Page Editor ---—— I Down to one Search was a waste of time, money And then there was one. One University of Nebraska presidential candidate, that is. Unfortunately, he’s the same candidate who was | already in place before a $65,000 search. So just what did that | money buy? Martin Massengale, NU interim president and chancellor of | the University of Ncbraska-Lincoln. It took a week, but the four outside candidates the 20 member NU Presidential Search Committee selected have - withdrawn from consideration. After one candidate withdrew | Tuesday, the final three contenders pulled out Thursday, jj; That left Massengale — and a host of questions. - Questions about how the 15-month on-again, off-again | search failed to produce a single candidate willing to take the job; about the effectiveness of the committee’s investigation of ■ the finalists’ backgrounds; and about the role of internal politicking, which should have no place in the NU system. i lie mini pnase ui me lung aiiu nuw meaningless seaien f began to sink in a quagmire of politics on Monday. The search committee announced then that while it had omitted Massen gale from its list of recommended presidential candidates, the NU Board of Regents could add internal candidates to the list. ■ In other words, the committee handed the regents the re | sponsibility of nominating Masscngalc, because it couldn’t | handle the political repercussions. But things got worse. j; On Tuesday, one of the four finalists, Gene Budig, withdrew | his nomination because he said he could not leave his post at the University of Kansas. On Wednesday, Regent John Payne of Kearney said Mas | sengalc was the front-runner for the position. The same day, Regent Robert Allen of Hastings said he wouldn’t be surprised if the candidates named by the search committee dropped out after Payne’s statement. That was quite a prediction. On Thursday, the three remaining candidates withdrew, j I So it’s back to square one. Allen even suggested Thursday that Masscngalc withdraw his nomination because of the political mess the selection process has turned into. Perhaps he would be wise to do just that By now. it would 1 be appropriate if NU remained without a permanent leader. — Lisa Donovan S and Eric Planner *, for the Daily Nebraskan Minorities should keep skeletons in the closet Homosexuals: “We are normal and demand recognition!” Heterosexuals: “Your are perverts, and belong in jail!" Psychiatrists: “Homosexuals are sick people, and belong in treatment.” These were the words spoken on behalf of the “homosexual issue” during the 1950s. Back then, accord ing to the Kinsey Report on sexual research, it was a curable disease, and not a way of life. Today, the Kinsey report of sexual research addresses the situation as a behavior problem, where some of the blame for the unusual behavior is the parent’s fault. “If I can’t have it, you can’t have it cither” is what the per son is saying. The love between homosexuals is a pseudo-love, more often than not simply a reaction for mation against hatred. The altitude toward the opposite sex is one of extreme hostility. Homosexual men, frustrated in their sex lives early in life, turn against women with a venge ance. Similarly, lesbian women ex press an intense haired of men. The following explanation is from “Male and Female Homosexuality, Psychological Approaches”: “The biological-evolutionary argument that Darwinian fitness resides in the ca pacity to reproduce the species, which in turn makes heterosexuality an overpowering drive, cannot be re futed. Indeed, as time goes on, it makes more and more sense. Further, our clinical experience is unanimous: homosexuality is a curable deviation from the analytic ideal.” With this in mind, homosexuals and lesbians cannot be considered other than disturbed. UNL’s resource center should be helping these indi viduals on the road to recovery, not insisting on minority rights to protect such madness. With homosexuals as the main thesis, I would like to address the minority who is trying to let homo sexuals in the ROTC battalion. This minority’s only issue of retaliation against the ROTC is that “it is against UNL’s policy to discriminate.” To this minority, you are fighting a futile war, for it isn ’ t the policies of ROTC, but that of the armed forces as a whole. And as a member of such a force, I support sdch policies. I’ve noticed that people who are against such policies have never been part of the armed forces, had they been, they would know something about how a unit or platoon works, and the internal disruption that a homosexual could cause. In closing, 1 would advise such a minority to keep your skeletons in the closet! David Bent/, freshman physics OW’"JBuS» SO sum 00 VOU TH\NK ^H'3 'S k N50UT THESE D\EE GOOD SFEED ECOhiOA'C STRNT5 <sj VMEKE ENTERING 7 { L Wi *7/** 'S VT fcNOTHER / II V CMCtt. 'OON TO 300WX f IT/_ 6KK INTO HT “OHIN^CE.1 I ... OR ^ST MORON\C SHORT- SIGHTED MONE^ GRUBS\NG. 33 » wmw&MEVf sc* Wa \NWTmso« UNL progress may be long way off ROTC needs to adopt university policy, end military hypocrisy In October, the U.S. Supreme Court took the country a small step forward for civil rights. But there is much more to do. The court al lowed a gay man to re enlist in the Army. He had been kept from re-enlisting after the military decided to act on his confessions of homosexuality. Unfortunately, it may be years before progress like this reaches the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus. ROTC still blatantly vio lates university policy by excluding gays, lesbians and bisexuals. A university policy enacted in the spring of 1990 by the NU Board of Regents includes gays, lesbians and bisexuals under the protection of the uni» v» 3iijr a iimruixiimukiuuii UdUM/. •The amendment to the bylaw was worded to include “personal charac teristics” — more specifically, sex ual orientation. ROTC’s policy is not its own. If follows the orders of the Pentagon, which has had a long-standing policy of excluding those who engage in homosexual activity or even claim the desire to engage in such activity. Defense Department policy says the presence of homosexual members adversely affects discipline, good order and morale and says it causes breaches of security. Even so, in 1988 and 1989, the department published reports that argued against its own policy exclud ing gays, lesbians and bisexuals. In the report, the department compares the integration of blacks into the military to the integration of non-heterosexuals into the armed forces. The same arguments concem ■ • a • ■_ ing morale and public acceptability used to be given to exclude blacks from the military. But when the mili tary changed its policy, these argu ments were silenced. The structure of the armed forces was changed to help integrate people of color. Soldiers who resisted the integration faced military discipline for their actions. The defense report says, .. there is no reason that military structure could not deal with soldiers, sailors and air force personnel unable to take orders from or work with their les bian, gay or bisexual colleagues.” But societal homophobia keeps the military from following its own rea soning. And until the Defense De partment reviews its own reports and changes its policies, ROTC will re main the same. If the military decided that it was not going to tolerate anti-gay or anti lesbian behavior it could stop or, at the very least, reduce it. The military argues that homo sexuals aad bisexuals arc security and psychological risks because of their preference. They also arc assumed to be risks because they can be black mailed. But the Defense Department re port slates that gays, lesbians and bisexuals arc not only as fit psycho logically, but sometimes more fit, than heterosexuals for military serv ice. And if homosexuals and bisexuals were not forced to keep their sexual ity a secret, they would not be open to blackmail. If they were allowed to be open with their sexuality, they would not have a secret. UNL’s ROTC program must fol low the orders of the Defense Depart ment. UNL also has no choice but to enforce its own policy. There woulJ be complications in enforcing this policy, because the ROTC program is included in the university bylaws. Thus there must be a bylaw change to remove ROTC. il one pari ol the university is violat ing a universilywidc policy it must either change its behaviors or leave. If that takes changing the bylaws to eliminate any mention of ROTC — so be it. One argument against removing ROTC is that land grant colleges or universities are required to include courses in military tactics. Many people assume that military tactics courses must be taught in an ROTC program. That’s not the case. The university does not have to have a ROTC program to offer courses in military tactics. It already offers courses in tactics through the history department And the Morrill Act supu lates that the courses are to be offered “in such manner as the legislatures ol the states may respectively prescribe.” To eliminate hypocrisy, the re gents need to make a tough decision: remove ROTC from campus. Aspengren Is a freshman philosophy and aesthetics major and a Daily Nebraskan col umnist Signed staff editorials represent the official policy of the Fall 1990 Daily Nebraskan. Policy is set by the Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board. Its members are: Eric Pfanncr, editor; Lisa Donovan, editorial page editor; Victoria Ayotle, managing editor; Diane Bray ton, associate news editor; Darcic Wiegcrt, associate news edi tor; Emily Rosenbaum, copy desk chief; Jana Pedersen, wire editor. Editorials do not necessarily re fleet the views of the university, its employees, the students or the NU Board of Regents. According to policy set by the re gents, responsibility for the editorial i——I- '3= The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief letters to the editor from all readers and interested others. Letters will be selected for publi cation on the basis of clarity, original ity, timeliness and space available. The Daily Nebraskan retains the right to edit all material submitted. Readers also are welcome to sub mit material as guest opinions. Whether material should run as a let ter or guest opinion, or not to run, is left to the editor’s discretion. Letters and guest opinions sent to the newspaper become the property of 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 affili ation, if any. Requests to withhold names will not be granted. Submit material to the Daily Ne braskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 R St., Lincoln, Neb. 68588-0448.