School groups urge passage of drug bill
ay lammaniner
Senior Reporter
The Judiciary Committee hearing
room could have been a pep rally
Friday as two Hastings school groups
performed be
fore the commit
tee and adults
voiced their
concerns about
the dangers of
drugs.
Wearing red
T-shirts that read
“Longfellow S.T.O.P. Team,” nine
Longfellow Elementary School
members of Students Together Offer
Prevention presented a skit and one
mcmocr later urged the committee to
pass LB217.
The bill, introduced by Sen. Carol
Pirsch of Omaha, would increase
sentences to the next higher penalty
classification for anyone convicted
of possessing or distributing narcot
ics or other illegal drugs in areas
frequented by children. LB217 w'as
combined with LB451 and LB742 in
the hearing.
A Hastings Junior High School
group performed a rap song they cre
ated to urge the passing of LB217 in
front of about 125 onlookers.
Karen Wilson of Parent Resources
Information Drug Education Omaha
supported all three bills, but suggested
w'ays in which they could be strength
encd.
As she displayed a jar filled with a
green substance, Wilson said it repre
sented one ounce of marijuana — the
amount that a person would have to
possess with an intent to distribute in
order to be convicted under LB217.
Wilson argued that the jar, which
represented about 100 joints, was
“offensive,” but the fine for it, a cita
tion and SI00 for the first offense,
was “the equivalence of a traffic fine.”
Sen. Jerry Chizek of Omaha said
drugs created a “three-headed prob
lem.”
While the enforcement aspect of
drug possession and distribution was
being discussed, Chizek said, educa
tion and treatment also needed to be
addressed.
Wilson said she liked the implica
tions of LB742, a bill introduced by
Pirsch and Sen. Lowell Johnson of
North Bend that would prohibit the
delivery of a controlled substance to
minors, but wanted to strengthen it to
include provisions to help prevent all
minors under the age of 21 from using
“gateway” drugs, which arc substances
that lead to the use of other drugs.
LB451, which was introduced by
Pirsch and would change the penal
ties for marijuana possession, is “still
fairly wimpy”compared to other state
and federal laws, Wilson said, but it is
a step in the right direction.
The bill would make persons guilty
of a second offense of possessing
marijuana weighing up to one ounce
attend a course that would tell of the
effects of the misuse of drugs.
Although one Lincolnite, Kirk
Hemphill, opposed LB217 because
he said it was already illegal to sell
drugs to minors, the other opponents
focused on LB451.
Matthew Miller, a member of the
University of Ncbraska-Lincoln
NORML/Hemp chapter, cited stud
ies to back his claims that marijuana
doesn’t cause harm to a person using
the drug. Studies have found no link
between marijuana use and lower
response levels, he said.
The committee look no action on
the bills.
1 ract or lab to close if business continues to lag
By Todd Neeley
Staff Reporter
Unless business picks up at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln’s Tractor Testing Lab by
September 1992 when its contract expires, it
will be closed, a UNL official said.
Louis Leviticus, supervisor of the lab, said
the five-year contract signed in 1987 with
Equipment Manufacturer Institute in Chicago
provided that as long as the lab remained
efficient it could stay open.
Last year, the lab, which is the only inde
pendent tractor tester in the nation, tested only
five tractors, he said.
Unless the lab tests 10 tractors a year, it isn’t
possible for the lab to “make a profit or stay
open,” he said.
A recently formed task force including two
UNL professors will search for financial alter
natives to keep the lab open, Leviticus said.
The lab, which opened in 1920, used to test
up to 40 tractors a year just a few years ago, he
said.
But there may be hope, he said, because this
year the lab is scheduled to test 11 tractors.
w w
Leviticus said that for UNL’s lab to stay
open, it is required by law to make a profit.
Funding comes from the money made by the
lab from testing, he said.
It takes one or two weeks to test a tractor
depending on its size. Companies pay lab fees
that average about $ 11,000, Lev iticus said, and
the fees have gone up over the years to match
the cost of living.
Leviticus said the lab has explored the pos
sibility of raising fees to break even, but “it
isn’t enough.”
Profit has gone down in recent years, Lev
iticus said, because many American tractor
manufacturers are building their tractors over
seas to save expense.
“Labor costs in this country are still very
high,” he said. “Companies are going where it
is cheaper to market and manufacture, and
where they can get more incentives.”
The lab has never received UNL or federal
funds, Leviticus said.
“Financially there are far more important
things at the university than maintaining this
place,” Leviticus said, but “it docs serve a very
good purpose.”
-§i
Labor costs in this country are still very high. Companies are
going where it is cheaper to market and manufacture, and where
they can get more incentives.
Leviticus
supervisor of UNL s Tractor Testing Lab
-----—- —
Islamic course to fill ‘weak spot’
By Bill Stratbucker
Staff Reporter
A “weak spot” in the UNL history
department curriculum will be strength
ened with a new course in Middle
Eastern and Islamic history, said Jes
sica Coope, an assistant professor.
The new course, called History of
Islam, will cover an area of the world
that is sometimes neglected, Coope
said.
The course is in the beginning stages
of development and probably will be
offered in the fall of 1992, Coope
said.
“I think the way things are in the
world, people really want it,” she
said.
“Cultural Islam is not a big spe
cially here; when I came it was one of
the areas I felt I could offer.”
Lloyd Arnbrosius, acting chair of
the University of Nebraska-Lincoln
history department, agreed that the
class would'be beneficial.
“The whole area of the modem
Middle East is a weak spot at the
University of Nebraska generally, not
just history,” he said.
In the past, he said, there has been
a lack of expertise in the area of
Islamic history.
Dane Kennedy, chief undergradu
ate history adviser, agreed.
“It’s a glaring gap in the univer
sity; it’s an embarrassment that we
have so few (courses) that are on
modem Middle East,” he said.
He said the area is not given enough
attention by many universities.
Coope said the course will cover
the birth of Mohammed, 590 A.D., to
the present. History of the Islamic
religion, social and political systems
and the science and philosophy of the
area before the year 1500 A.D. will be
touched on. After 1500 A.D., the course
will focus on the Islam confrontation
with western Europe and then on the
problems of modem-day fundamen
talism.
Coope said the course is intended
to be introductory. She said the mate
rial will be no different than studying
any other history.
“I wouldn’t expect a huge enroll
ment,” Ambrosius said, “although it
is certainly a course the students could
benefit from.”
But Kennedy said, “I’m sure there
will be (a large enrollment). I hope
there will; there certainly belter.”
Racism
Reagan’s policies blamed for rising inequality
By Tabitha Hiner
Senior Reporter
Although racial equality has im
proved overall in the last 30 years, the
past 10 years have brought increased
inequality, said Susan Welch, author
of the new book, “Black Americans’
Views of Racial Inequality: A Dream
Deferred.”
Welch, a University of Nebraska
Lincoln political science professor,
said former President Reagan’s poli
cies for the “underclass” pushed equal
ity for blacks backward.
Policies like ones that would help
the underclass find employment are
needed to put the races on a more
equal fooling, she said.
While the legal racism that existed
in the 1950s and '60s gave blacks
something tangible to fight against,
Welch said, current institutional ra
cism is tougher to combat.
She said it is more difficult to fight
“mass movement types of political
strategies.”
If problems like institutional ra
cism are not confronted, Welch said,
“we’re going to pay the price,” which
could mean having cities that aren’t
safe for living.
She said another consequence could
be the reduction of United States’
competitiveness in world markets. If
the United States doesn’t take care of
internal problems like racism, she
said, it will fall behind its world
competitors.
Welch said she and co-author Lee
Sigelman, dean of the College of Social
and Behavioral Sciences at the Uni
versity of Arizona, used surveys in
the book to examine the ways in which
racial inequality is perceived and who
people blame for the inequality.
Blacks and whites perceive ine
quality differently, she said.
“Most whiles deny that racial dis
crimination occurs, whereas most
blacks have experienced it,” Welch
said.
Another discovery, she said, was
that blacks are more likely to blame
discrimination on whites, while whites
are more likely to blame blacks for
not being motivated.
The one thing both blacks and
whites seemed to agree on, Welch
said, is that blacks haven’t had the
same opportunity for education as
whites have had.
Welch said she and Sigclman started
looking at surveys for their book in
1988. The book was released this
month.__
Object
Continued from Page 1
even though it has already begun.
“People are so afraid to say
anything (against the war) now,” he
said. ‘They don’t want to look
wrong.” . .
Nell Eckersley, a UNL junior
world studies major and a member
of Early Warning!, said President
Bush does not support the New
World Order because he denies
linkage of Palestinian issues to
Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait.
Bush has refused all offers for
peace because he wants to establish
a permanent U.S. military base in
Saudi Arabia, she said.
Eckersley also said many troops
are economic recruits because
racism, sexism and oppression leave
few alternatives to joining the
military.
Because of war involvement, the
United States has lost world moral
and economic leadership, she said,
and is now “the biggest bully on the
world block.”
Rev. Daniel Gangler of the
United Methodist Church, 2641 N.
49th St, said that “w hatever one
does in a war takes away from a lot
of domestic issues at home.”
Instead of war, the United Slates
should focus on alternatives to oil,
eliminating inner-city poverty and
violence and improving health care,
he said.
“It is time to stop the insanity of
war,” he said, “for war is a barbaric,
antiquated way of ending disputes.”
Gangler also said the United
States should show restraint toward
all Arabs to ensure they are not dis
criminated against.
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