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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 28, 1991)
Eric Planner, Editor, 472-1766 Bob Nelson, Editorial Page Editor Victoria Ayotte, Managing Editor Jana Pedersen, Associate News Editor Emily Rosenbaum, Associate News Editor jSj Diane Brayton, Copy Desk Chief Brian Shellito, Art Director What’s In a hill? Sponsors first should read legislation State Sen. Ron Withem angrily withdrew a higher educa tion bill from consideration by the Nebraska Legislature on Friday. He tried to sound as if he had been duped into sponsoring the bill in the first place. Withem balked at the bill because it included a provision to add a College of Fine and Performing Arts to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The problem with the bill is that the provision for the new college is buried on page 23 of a 30-page bill. In fact, there’s no actual proposal to add the college — just a list stating: “Colleges and institutes of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln shall be as follows ...’’ The arts college is listed alphabetically among the 11 colleges. The bill contains no explanation of the purpose and iole of the proposed college. The rest of the bill’s provisions deal mostly with the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. Granted, Withem should have noticed that the bill included the fine arts college proposal. He admitted that he doesn’t always read bills word for word. IruiMdiu vyuuu, i>u via picsiucm aiiu gcuciai cvjuiisci, saiu there had been a lack of communication between the Legisla ture and the university. He said “it was very obvious” that the new college was included in the bill. Perhaps it was obvious to Wood. Perhaps it should have been obvious to Withcm and to others with experience decod ing legislative terminology. But the senator has a point. A major policy change such as the addition of a new college should not be relegated to the back pages of a “housekeeping” bill. The proposal should be a bill in its own right, with the necessary public discussion on the issue. When UNL administrators introduced the proposal in fall, they said the costs of the new college would be minimal. Money is not the only issue, however. The proposal would move existing arts departments into the new college and jj affiliate it with other parts of the arts community such as the Lied Center for Performing Arts. That’s a policy change. It would have an impact on UNL students, faculty members and record-keeping officials. Even if they had had input into the original proposal, they, like Withem, should have been kept informed. During a legislative session when higher education bills will be viewed under a magnifying glass, university officials won’t gain anything by concealing their interests. And slate senators won’t be able to say, “My dog ate it,” when asked for their homework. — E.F.P. -LETTERS th°e EDITOR Public isn’t getting full picture Iraq — no big deal, piece of cake. We will just go and wipe them out in no time, and Kuwaitis will live their lives peacefully. Anyway, who cares about K uwaitis? The charm was gath - ering big bucks from them. That’s what Mr. President thought. But loo bad the dream never came true. Iraq has proven to be an indestruc tible rock so far. A Scud problem is diverting the force of allied power severely, i don’t understand why these officials exaggerate so much, plus give false statements. When the war started, the media marie it sound as though the attack by United States and allied forces wouldn't last more than 24 hours. But a week and-a-half has passed, and now we arc hearing that 15 or 16 planes have been gunned down. I am telling you that this is nothing, just wait and see what’s going to happen, you know. The only main destruction that has been done on Iraq is on its naval power. Their mine-laying ships are destroyed and the same is the case with 24 mines at sea. The other day, one of the Patriots (anti-missile missile) was fired by mistake, and it was told that it went in the sea somewhere. Who knows, it might have dropped in any resident ial area. But that can be covered by say ing that the damage was caused by Scud. I hope that American troops don’t fire at themselves and civilians like they did in Panama. The allied forces bombed an in fant formula factory, but according tc Gen. Powell, the United States had sufficient evidence to believe it was a biological warfare facility. They alsc had sufficient evidence when an oil refinery was destroyed, but that came out to be nothing. Then the U.S. offi cials say that they are not targeting the civilians. What I am trying to say is that t real picture of war has not reached u< so far, which is not good. And nou the government is afraid that if i shows what is happening in there, th< public is going to get mad. “This won’t be another Vietnam.’ That is what officials are saying. Than! God they agree that they were kickee out from there. I just hope that the least numbero * human lives are taken in the Middle East Always remember that you shouk never underestimate your opponent. It would have been a lot easier i Rambo or Commando were sent inte the gulf. Arshad Altai' Shaikf sophomore pre-pharmaq -LETTER POLICY Anonymous submissions will not be published. Letters should include the author’s name, address, phone number, year in school and group af filiation, if any. Submit material to the Daily Ne braskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 S St., Lincoln, Neb. 68588-0448. i hmBShSmmHBSRI \ mBSB^kmm^SmHSSSSSBm JANA PEDERSEN Gulf war equal to slaughter A few months ago, 1 listened to Washington Post columnist Colman McCarthy speak about the need to teach peace in American public schools. Now, while American troops drop bombs Iraq and Kuwait, McCarthy’s words come back to me, ringing in my ears: “The mainline press writes non sense. . . . Get the words right. Use ‘slaughter’ instead of ‘war.’” With minute-by-minute accounts of events in the Middle East pouring in on every television screen in America, I can’t help but wonder if news anchors soon will use McCarthy’s terminology. I picture Tom Brokaw pushing his eyebrows together with even more sincerity, saying, “We now take you to the Saudi Arabian desert for more coverage of the slaughter in the Per sian Gulf.” McCarthy also teaches peace stud ies classes at universities m Washing ton. He contends that our society would be much more peaceful if American elementary schools taught the works of peacemakers such as Martin Lu ther King, Jr. and Mahatma Ghandi instead of teaching about world wars. , io arive that point home, Mc ’ Carthy quoted former U.S.Rep.Jcan nette Rankin of Montana: “You can no more win a war than win an earthquake.” t Rankin was the lone senator to . vote against declaring war on Japan after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, . McCarthy said. While home for the holidays, I j tried McCarthy’s theory on my brother. “Why not teach peace in clemcn : tary schools?” , He answered my question with one j of his own: “How will that help in the 1 Middle East?” P “It’s too late to teach peace to > solve the Persian Gulf crisis. Thai’s like trying to put a Band-Aid on an open wound,” I said, mimicking McCarthy’s words. i My brother told me that answer : was a cop-out. He’s probably right. It’s pretty useless to talk about teaching peace in elementary schools when we’re in the middle of a war right now. Thai’s a similar argument to the ones used against anti-war protesters. It’s pretty useless to protest war when we’re in the middle of one right now. I picture Tom Brokaw pushine his eyebrows together with even more sin cerity. savinf. “We now take vou to the Saudi Arabian des ert for more, cover age of the slaueh ter in the Persian Gu&l To quote every newscast cliche: “We should all back the troops, pray everything comes out OK, take it one day at a time and just wait for our men and women to come home.” Only not all of the troops will be stepping off the homecoming planes; some will roll off them, in caskets, stretchers, wheelchairs, especially after the allied ground attack begins. That makes the war seem like something to object to, something to call a slaughter. And now that the war has opened up an ecological front with a mullim illion-gallon oil spill, the war clearly is a slaughter to the Persian Gulf environment Not to mention the people who will die on the other side of the front. Yet with all that slaughtering going on, a recent Gallup Poll reported that about 85 percent of American adults support President Bush’s actions in the Middle East. A full 45 percent would support using nuclear force against Iraq if it would prevent American casualties. To me that statistic has repulsive connotations of genocide, of siaugh ter. Butthose words aren’t used during i wartime. They’re only assigned to ( wars after the shooting stops. When peace activists use words like slaughter while the fighting is going on, society calls it anti-war propaganda. Some news sources even have suggested that anti-war protest ers should no longer be covered be cause they represent a small segment of the population and hurt troop morale. Meanwhile, Pentagon press con ferences reduce the fighting to sterile, unobjectionable terminology. We’re no longer fighting Iraqis; now we’re fighting The Enemy. The acronym for prisoners of war conveniently has been changed from POW to EPW, enemy prisoner of war. Wartime maneuvers are reduced to football terminology, and we’re still winning the game. We’ve even adopted the noble name of our parents’ warriors, the Allied Forces. Such press conferences have con vinced 85 percent of Americans that our soldiers are giving their lives to restore self-government to a country wrecked by its violent neighbor. But the truth is, Kuwait was a class-structured, sexist society, some thing tough to hold up against Ameri can democratic ideals. Apparently, 85 percent of us don’t think it’s strange that American serv ice women should risk their lives to restore a sexist society. I doubt such a majority would ask I black soldiers to risk their lives to I liberate Kuwait if it was structured I like South Africa. But it’s tough to change the major- R ity’s mind, so I guess I’ll have to get R used to the idea of war, though 1 never H imagined it would happen in my life- R time. a Still, that’s not a reason to stop* protesting, or a reason to stop report-® ing about protesters. Without dissent,® no matter how late in the football® ?;arne it comes, it’s easy to dismiss the® ighting without considering the® slaughter. And that reminds me of something® else McCarthy said: “I don’t have a conscience. j4® conscience has me.” Pedersen is a junior advertising major, Daily Nebraskan associate news editor and dBj columnist.