_
Cooper Park ruins
Construction site contract shown invalid
Last spring, protesters — including several University of
Nebraska-Lincoln students — planted themselves in the
trees of Lincoln’s Cooper Park to halt the unnecessary
and illegal destruction of the park.
For all their work, the protesters were maligned by the com
5 munity for being misguided hippies without a legitimate cause.
One of the arguments of the protesters and other concerned
| citizens was that the city had no legal right to flatten the park to
build a recreational area for a neighboring school.
Turns out the protesters were right. A county district judge
f ruled Monday that a contract for the construction of an athletic
field on the site was invalid.
Last year, that contract was upheld against a request for a
temporary restraining order. At a hearing in March 1990 in
Lancaster County District Court, Miles Johnston Jr., represent
1 ing the South Salt Creek Community Organization, said the de
? vclopment should be stopped because the property was state
i owned and there was no evidence that the state had transferred
ownership to Lincoln. The organization filed a petition for the
1 restraining order because the city contracted with the Lincoln
School Board wiihout owning the Drooertv.
Lancaster County District Court Judge Paul Merritt denied
1 the petition last year, saying he didn’t believe the group’s
1 ‘'application was successful.”
One year later, the trees are gone, the recreational area is
f built, and County District Judge Jeffre Cheuvront ruled that
1 Johnston and the Salt Creek organization were right all along
— the city didn’t own the land and had no right to turn it over
to Lincoln Public Schools.
Oops.
Merritt made a mistake in denying the temporary restraining
order last year. Johnston knew something was wrong and
| pursued the issue lor a year even after the damage was done.
■ For neighbors and friends of the now-plundered Cooper
| Park, this is one of those disturbingly hollow triumphs called
| “a moral victory.”
On Wednesday, Johnston suggested that the protesters who
were arrested and charged with trespassing last year be par
doned by Mayor Bill Harris.
Delayed justice would be better than no justice. Now, if
those vindicated protesters only had a park to show for their
I persistence.
— B.N.
- LETTERS tth°e EDITOR
KSC should pay equal costs
I would like to applaud the Kear
ney State students that got together
and spent their Spring Break protest
ing Gov. Nelson’seducational budget
cuts. It takes a lot to organize a pro
ductive protest, and it looks like they
were really able to get it together.
However, the Kearney State stu
dents must realize that they are not
the only students to “suffer” from the
cuts. Nelson’s budget will affect every
state-supported college or university
in Nebraska, UNL not excluded.
It seems each year tuition and
housing go up at UNL (Not to men
tion so-called “student fees” and park
ing). I will admit that I do not have
exact figures for what it costs a Kear
ney State student in tuition, housing
and fees; but I do know that they do
nol pay nearly as much as a UNL
student does.
Now that Kearney State College is
part of the university’s system, I feel
that the tuition and fees at Kearney
State should be equal or comparable
to UNL’s. If Kearney wants the
“benefits” of being a part of the uni
versity, then Kearney should have tc
pay for it like UNL and UNO do.
No, I am not picking on the Kear
ney State students; I have friends and
family that go to KSC. I just fee
Kearney should have to take the gooc
with the bad while being a “univer
sity.”
Amy Pappas
sophomore
undeclarec
ASUN’s ‘help’ struck down
Regarding “AS UN cops out”(DN,
March 7).
Damn right the subcommittees are
not “what the minorities wanted.”
The subcommittee on sexual orienta
tion is one of the stupidest ideas
ASUN’s pulled out of its ass.
“One gay man, one lesbian, one
bisexual, one heterosexual” — what
in hell could those four people possi
bly do to help us?
We are Queer Nation. We are not
a problem to be solved. Even if we
were, ASUN wouldn’t do us any good.
Our little senators have consistently
shown themselves incapable of get
ting anything done.
We don’t want them to “address
our issues.” We want nothing les
than the dismemberment of the rigid
hierarchical, patriarchy-sucking uni
versily system. And Martin Massen
gale’s head on a platter. When ASUf
does that for us, then maybe we’ll asl
for a little subcommittee.
We are dynamic, intelligent dyke
and faggots. We are the Tonga Git
Gang. We reject the “Killer Secret
and the idea that we need help.
Get out of our way.
Michele Daii
Lincoli
Donny Smitl
graduate studcn
Englisl
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THE LWEST IN POUCE PROTECTION EQUIPMENT.
WALTER GHOLSON
UNITY to sing same old song
The UNITY party’s platform read
like a wish listof leftover com
promises and unresolved is
sues, obviously written by an adver
tising major in dire need of an editor.
The damn thing read like the political
agenda for a new government of ideal
ism and action.
My first inclination was to seek
out the authors of the platform, meet
the party members, congratulate them
on their victory and talk to them about
that mix-up in a birth date. The plat
form calls for a Martin Luther King
Jr. holiday on Jan. 19. He was born
Jan. 15.
I decided against talking to them,
knowing how politicians can be right
after a victory — just a little groggy
from too many interviews, handshakes
and telephone calls.
But I was interested in some of the
platform planks because many of them
arc still hotly contested items from
last year’s agenda, including the age
old problem of equal representation
on the Association of Students of the
University of Nebraska.
1 never paid much attention to
student government politics. Like a
majority of UNL students, I did not
vote.nordid I carcwho won. Asfaras
I was concerned the senators were
just a bunch of political science ma
jors trying to pad their resumes.
During the summer of 1990,1 had
met a real-live member of AS UN.
Yolanda Scott had just been elected
second vice president; she was sur
prised and elated by her victory and
expressed a sincere desire to work for
her constituency.
She wanted to help change the
image of student government. She
had the energy to do it.
1 remember her as one of the most
idealistic, optimistic people I’d met
all semester. Scott was confident, that
her intelligence and fortitude would
stand the test of time and that she
could accomplish her goals with hard
work.
She was so serious about her new
s position that even a cynic like me was
, forced to believe in her.
But sometime between that sum
- mer and last week, Scott transformed
1 into a political being. She is no longer
t idealistic about how long it may take
before needed changes can be insti
s tuted at UNL.
1 I asked her about UNITY’S plat
form, which contained several issues
Scott and her supporters had been
fighting for all year. I tried to bail her
by saying UNITY’S position was the
1 same kind of idealism she used to
1 spout.
, Scott said her experiences with
l AS UN made her aware of another
i level of struggle and left her less
OnAjzriLlt 1991s
ASUN will be con
trolled bv members
of the UNHY party.
a {’roup (hot has.
promised to work.
iMahlhhs dimL
note, ensure* pur
sue. prioritize.
amend, locate and
unite_everybody
behind emything
optimistic than she was last year. She
said that although her tenure with
ASUN gave her a chance to push foi
legislation geared toward changes
students wanted, it was difficult get
ting those issues hear or believed b>
other executives.
She said it was as if they were
afraid to share their decision-making
power with people who were not like
them. Scott said she seldom receivec
support for the needs of her constitu
ents. She no longer believes that people
only need information in order foi
them to change their position on ra
cial issues.
Scott said students should knou
they are being racist when they con
tinue to play around with minority
issues that need to be dealt with.
“This stalling tactic has been going
on for years,” she said.
She showed me a copy of a UNL
yearbook with a picture of severa
black students demonstrating foi
minority rights and black studies
courses back in 1969.
It’s the same old song, she said
just like the slow process of disman
tling apartheid in South Africa.
Many students refuse to accept th<
truth that their behavior toward th<
needs of people unlike them is sexist
racist and backward. They do no
want to face the reality that some o
their values and standards arc institu
tionally racist.
Scott said that until students begin
to deal with why they are so reluctant
to accept a committee that represents
cultures and concepts that are differ
ent from theirs, getting equality will
continue to be an uphill battle.
Scott said she was not surprised by
the low turnout for the elections but
was more concerned about the lax
attitude of minorities and women on
campus when it came to lobbying for
changes to ensure their safety.
She said she became used to being
ignored when she mentioned unpleas
ant issues. After a few months she
realized many of her colleagues were
not going to do anything for anyone
who did not fit their social/sexual/
racial mind-set.
When the issue of a racial minority
committee first came up, Scott said
she was swamped with the usual crude
phone calls. The campus rumor mill
produced a steady stream of she-said
hc-said propaganda.
But what hurt her the most, she
said, was the response she got from
professional staff people and some
administration members. They either
went out of their way to ignore her or
tried to patronize her by saying, “all
of us aren’t like that.”
Then there were the responses she
got from the people she represented,
who felt she didn ’ t work hard enough.
Getting it from both sides, she said,
put her in a difficult position, espe
cially in a struggle against such odds.
But even against such odds Scott
accomplished much of what she set
out to do. The only thing she’s had to
part with has been her effervescent
idealism.
On April 3, 1991, ASUN will be
controlled by membersof the UNITY
party, a group that has promised to
work, establish, eliminate, ensure,
pursue, prioritize, amend, locate and
unite everybody behind everything.
Students have been told they can
accomplish great things because Andy
and company have proposed a united
house determined to “aggressively
work for the betterment ot our cam
pus.”
The dress rehearsal is over and the
play will start immediately after spring
break.
This will be the 22nd production
of the play “ASUN: All Things to All
People.” This year it is a Massey,
Thurber, Vaughn production. It is
supported by a cast of 2,381 student
voters, playing to an audience of 19,930
full-time, apathetic bookworms and
party dudes who watched ASUN on
Gianncl 5, thought the show was boring
and turned to another station.
*
Gholson is a senior news-editorial major
and a Daily Nebraskan columnist.
