i Honor King
His cause must continue
A poster distributed last week on the University of Ne
braska-Lincoln campus urged students to celebrate the
birthday of a real American hero — Robert E. Lee.
In many aspects, Lee deserves such admiration. He led his
country with dignity and honor. He was the best of the antebel
lum South.
But in the soul of Lee and his Confederacy is the specter of
slavery — inseparable and intolerable — committing both f ee
and his nation righteously to the trashheap of history.
Case in point is the poster distributed last week. The poster
= did not ask only for the celebration of Lee’s birthday, but
called for good Americans to honor Lee instead of Martin
Luther King Jr.
Or, as the poster called him: “Martin Lucifer Coon.’
The poster was published on stationery of the Invisible
Empire Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
I To be sure, the KKK is easy editorial fodder — like shoot
ing hicks in a barrel.
But the few members of the Kian only manifest sentiment
that, in various degrees, festers deep in the psyche of white
America.
And for that reason, King’s birthday is celebrated today —
not only to honor him, but as a tool to root out the disease of
hatred and intolerance he battled with love.
Lee and the Confederacy can be committed to the history
books only if King and his cause continue to live on in this and
every day of the year. Happy birthday, M.L.K., and may the
Civil War South never rise again.
[Inequality
Regents have chance to right wrongs
"W" n June, the Chancellor’s Commission on the Siatus of
1 Women released a report criticizing the lack of opportuni
ties for women faculty members at the University of
Ncbraska-Lincoln.
In November, one of UNL’s top professors, Susan Welch,
announced she would leave the university lo seek professional
advancement elsewhere, as dean of Penn State University’s
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
Now, finally, it appears University of Nebraska leaders are
planning to do something about the problem. Members of the
NU Board of Regents agreed to meet within the next three
months to take action.
When they meet, the regents will have to deal with a slew of
inequities between men and women faculty at UNL, according
to the commission report:
• Only 16 percent of faculty members are women.
• Women’s average salaries are $600 lower than their male
counterparts’ wages.
• Only two UNL colleges are hiring women at a rate propor
tional to the available pool.
Welch said she would leave because of the lack of advance
ment for women. Before additional professors leave — or
others decide not to apply to UNL in the first place — the
university needs to take action to correct the discrepancies.
At their special meeting, the regents have the opportunity to
right some of the w rongs. If they take positive action, making
specific changes, the university is headed in the right direction.
Already in September, NU President Martin Massengale,
j then UNL chancellor, began exit interviews because of the high
turnover rate to lcam why women faculty members were
leaving.
Now the university needs to start listening to women before
they decide lo leave.
— E.F.P.
U.S. position questionable
Hello, everyone, and welcome back
to classes. Whether you realize it or
not, you arc some of the lucky ones.
Many college students at UNL and all
over this country and the world can
only look forward to classes on how
to survive chemical warfare and
dodging bullets in the sand. Chemis
try and French don’t seem so bad
now, do they?
They use slogans like: “It’s not
just a job, it’s an adventure! ” Yes, and
what an adventure my brother and
many of my friends arc having. I’m
sure scorpions, scorching heat (and
freezing nights) and care packages
from a family thousands of miles away
are everyone s idea of a time full of
adventure. And for what? There seem
to be many answers to this question.
Greed for cheap oil. Restoring Ku
wait’s ruling family. And the best one
of all, teaching Saddam Hussein a
lesson. Yes, Saddam is wrong in in
vading Kuwait and yes, he should be
made accountable for his actions, but
should the United States be the one to
do it and is that the reason President
Bush has sent our loved ones to Saudi
Arabia?
Since my biother departed from
his base in Germany a week before
Christmas, we haven’t been in con
tact with him. I don’t know his thoughts
on this future war, except for his fear
of the unknown. And mine.
Ask yourself why the U.S. is in this
position. Question the authority fig
ures in our country and their actions.
Don’t let the death of a loved one or
any more soldiers, for that matter,
start the thinking process. It starts
with you. Don’t let it end there.
Jodi Hoatson
senior
broadcasting
7 '
GOSH ...
WWW A DARN
GOOD WAR SO
FAR...
ERIC PFANNER
--—
Flag blankets reasons for war
tt'vr o flag-burners here,” reads
a banner at the National
^ Hockey League All-Star
Game in Chicago.
“This is what it’s all about,” says a
U.S. soldier in the Saudi Arabian desert,
pointing to the American flag.
In San Francisco, anti-war protest
ers display flags with peace signs in
place of the stars.
Never mind that this war has noth
ing to do with the fiag. Depending on
whom you believe, it’s about “naked
aggression” or oil. Either way, it’s
not about the hallowed Stars and
Stripes. Americans aren’t fighting for
their homes, their families or the lib
erties and freedoms that the Ameri
can flag represents. Whether the war
is right or wrong, it should be fought
under the Kuwaiti and Saudi flags.
Saddam Hussein wants to carry
the flag of Islam. He wants to make
this a holy war. Iraqis will kill Ameri
cans in the name of religion.
We, on the other hand, have reli
gious plurality. But on the home front
and-tn the trenches, we have our own
holy war. We worship the flag.
War, like religion, is black and
white. There are no gray areas be
tween believing fervently and not
believing. To kill someone, you have
to be 100 percent sure you arc doing
the right thing.
When the purposes for war arc
clouded, as they are in this case, those
who support the killing need some
thing to rally behind. When the flag is
waving everywhere, it’s not hard to
find that cause.
The flag, of course, goes hand-in
hand with patriotism. Not peacetime
patriotism, the healthy pride in a na
tion’s accomplishments in science,
art or sports, but wartime patriotism.
Nationalism.
A nation needs single-minded re
solve to go to war and win. In a
democracy like ours, that unanimity
of purpose is difficult to come by,
except when our existence as a de
mocracy is threatened. The United
Like fresh armx crew
cuts. war breeds homo
geneous ideas. Once
fighting breaks out.
until the horrors hit
home, most people
think alike.
Slates learned that lesson in Vietnam.
But, like fresh army crew cuts, war
breeds homogeneous ideas. Once
fighting breaks out, until the horrors
hit home, most people think alike.
They stand up and cheer at a hockey
game. They cheer a little louder than
usual because the home team is a
little bigger and more powerful than
usual.
Senators, as they did after the U.S.
attack, pass unanimous resolutions in
support of our troops — a wishy
washy way of saying they support the
war.
Until the war started, some of the
most outspoken opponents of attack
ing Iraq were senators such as George
Mitchell and Bob Kerrey. When the
United States went to war, they joined
the crowd at the hockey rink.
Now everyone — except for a few
throwbacks to the ’60s — is getting
behind the war. Opinion polls show
that about 80 percent support Presi
dent Bush’s actions.
The heretics, those who protest
this holy war, don’t really have a
cause yet. Many look and act like
they are reliving Vietnam. Their re
sponse has been as predictable and
homogeneous as the flag wavers’
reaction.
But to avoid the counterculture
image of Vietnam-era protesters, the
new opposition is using a mainstream
message: We support the troops, we
just don’t support the war.
That watered-down message will
weaken the peace movement. It’s
impossible to oppose the war and
support those who do the killing. Love
beads don’t go with army fatigues.
Activists say they support the troops
because they want them to come home
alive. The only way for them to corne
home alive is if there is no war.
If there is no war, there is no need for
soldiers. But that’s too idealistic.
Clearly, we can’t just get rid of all the
soldiers and rhrow away their weap
ons. In our world, there still is naked
aggression and oil. There arc dicta
tors, terrorism and imperialism.Once
in a while, there’s even a war that’s
justified.
And unfortunately, when there are
so many possible reasons for war, or
when we can’t find a reason, we still
have patriotism. And we use the flag
as cover.
Hiding behind it, we avoid real
discussion of the w;ar. And that’s
unfortunate; discussion, after all, is
the reason we live in a pluralist soci
ety. If we can’t allow a diversity of
opinions on the war, we refuse to
admit that we arc fighting for many
complex reasons.
As Samuel Johnson said, “Patriot
ism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.
By simplifying the w/ar into a spree
of flag waving, we all become
Johnson’s scoundrels, or their 20th
century equivalents — simpletons.
We must not let that happen. We must
not make this a holy war.
Pfanner is a senior news-editorial major
and editor of the Daily Nebraskan.
—-_ .-LETTER POLICY-—
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Submit material to the Daily Ne
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-EDITORIAL POLICY
Initialed editorials represent offi
cial policy of the spring 1991 Daily
Nebraskan. Policy is set by the edito
rial board.
The Daily Nebraskan’s publishers
are the NI.J Board of Regents, who
established the University of Ne
braska-Lincoln Publications Board to
supervise daily production of the
paper. According to the regents' pol
icy, responsibility for the editorial
content lies solely in the hands of the
newspaper's student editors.