Jana Pedersen, Editor, 472-1766
Alan Phelps, Opinion Page Editor
Kara Wells, Managing Editor
Roger Price, Wire Editor
Wendy Navratil, Copy Desk Chief
Brian Shellito, Cartoonist
Jeremy Fitzpatrick, Senior Reporter
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Opinion
Blind to differences
Fluency bill only encourages prejudice
Apparently seeing, or rather hearing, is far from be
lieving for one member of the NU Board of Re
gents.
After receiving complaints from constituents about the
fluency levels of some University of Nebraska-Lincoln
instructors, Regent Robert Allen of Hastings last week
attended nine UNL classes taught by instructors for whom
English is a second language.
Allen said he was able to understand all of the instruc
tors. Yet he still supports a Nebraska Legislature bill that
says university teachers should be fluent in English.
“Ideally our governing board should be able to handle
this, but if the Legislature can help, I’m all for it,“ Allen
said.
If a problem with teachers’ English fluency existed at
UNL, the Legislature might compel itself, wrongly, to
become involved in an internal university matter.
Instead of improving teaching at UNL, the passage of
such a bill would give UNL the perception of being
hostile to teachers whose first language is not English.
And UNL’s reputation for diversity is poor enough as it
is.
UNL already has a system to deal with teachers’ Eng
lish fluency. That system works. Involving the Legislature
in that system only would cause trouble.
Concerns about the English skills of foreign graduate
teaching assistants led UNL four years ago to begin re
quiring them to gain approval from a testing board before
being allowed to teach.
As should be obvious to Allen, UNL’s teachers no
longer have a fluency problem.
The real problem lies with ethnocentric students who
excuse their unwillingness to overcome cultural differ
ences by saying that their instructors lack English skills.
In the world of higher education, students must expect
to encounter individuals from different backgrounds. To
endorse legislation to the contrary only perpetuates stu
dents’ misconceptions about their own prejudices.
Not every UNL instructor can or should have a Mid
west-American accent. When accents do not impede the
learning process, as they do not at UNL, the efforts of
foreign instructors should be applauded, not questioned.
Green’s view of ‘Cops’ wrong
bean Orccn should try lo research
fads before he starts spewing forth
incorrect data regarding the televi
sion series “Cops” (“Smile! You’re
under arrest!” DN, Feb. 10). In fact,
Green’s statements make me wonder
if he actually even watched the show
at all. If he had, then he would realize
that no one is arbitrarily portrayed as
acrimmal, as he implies. IfGrccn has
the mental incapacity to watch a tele
vision program and automatically
assume someone is guilty of a crime
without knowing all (or even most) of
the facts, that is his problem. I do not
believe that Americans at large would
share his ignorance.
Also, “Cops” docs not just throw a
picture of someone being arrested to
a prime-time national TV audience
without first acquiring that individ
ual’s expressed consent. Without such
consent, the suspects’ facial features
arc always digitally distorted. No
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violation ol rights there.
Green, with little or no intclligcnl
reasoning, slates that he likes watch
ing “Cops” because it provides valu
able insight into the civil rights abuse?
of police officers on a national basis
He cites a traffic stop by police offi
cers that ultimately reveals many bag?
of what he calls “the good stuff.’
Fortunately, he fails to tell us whai
the civil rights abuse was. I suppose
he wouldn’t know, since there wasn’i
one. 1
It’s clear that Green has a problem
with police. But then who can blame
him? After all, he constantly has to be
on the watch for all of those terroristic
policemen looking to probe his bod
ily orifices. Yuk!
Thomas K. Eads
sophomore
computer science
Language orings understanding
I’d like to respond to the letter R.
Bruce Kitchen II wrote about foreign
language requirements. Now, being a
foreign language major, one might
expect me to be in favor of a foreign
language requirement — this would
be a correct assumption. Neverthe
less, please hear me out.
I realize that having to study a
foreign language can be difficult, even
a pain, if it’s just not your thing — I
certainly have had some trauma in the
classes I’ve had to take that involved
math, which just isn’t my cup of lea.
But I’m not complaining that a cer
tain amount of math is required. I
realize that math is relevant and
important, and it’s good to have a
taste of what you math people experi
ence.
This brings me to what I want to
get at. My interpretation of your ini
tial question is essentially that since
the “general population of the earth’
is learning English, then American
students shouldn’t have to learn Ian
guages beyond English. Perhaps this
is true, if we arc considering only
what is convenient for the average
American individual. However, if we
wish to understand what many around
the world have had to endure in ordci
to understand our culture and the
language we speak, then maybe a few
semesters of foreign language would
be good. Perhaps their requirement ol
learning English “is a travesty to grade
point average” for them.
Daniel Talkingion
fifth-year senior
French and Spanish
ALAN PHELPS
Jury’s finding lacks sanity
On Saturday, a jury found
Jeffrey Dahmer was sane
when he killed 15 people.
At first, it seemed almost like a
joke. Dahmer murdered and dismem
bered 15 men and boys. He drilled
holes into people’s heads, he tried to
make them into zombies, he prac
ticed necrophilia.
It all sure sounds like the work of
a sane man. After all, most every one
of us supposedly sane people docs
those things on a regular basis.
Because Dahmer was sane, he
must’ve had a good reason for doing
what he did. Sane people who kill and
slice up 15 people usually have a
purpose in mind. Such a motive is
difficult to think of offhand, but the
jury members obviously know what
they’re talking about. They must have
sal around listing really good logical
rationales for pouring acid into people’s
brains and eating their body parts.
Or maybe these average Ameri
cans were simply like most other
average Americans. Although they
see that Dahmer isn’t exactly sane,
they don’t want to deal with him.
blind with revenge, they would like
to see Dahmer put away forever, out
of sight or even killed.
They didn’t want to see evil Jef- «
frey “get off’ on an insanity plea. <
“Please, please don T let this mur
derous killer fool you with this spe- ■
cial defense,” E. Michael McCann,
prosecuting attorney, told the jury. i
Dahmer probably thought he was
being pretty clever when he carved
up those bodies so he would look
insane. Hum-drum, run-of-the-mill
murders aren’t enough to appear in- ;
sane in Wisconsin — you have to
really go for it. It’s a lot of extra work, 1
but if you’re gunning for an insanity j
plea, it’s worth it. ;
In most states, for criminals to win ;
on an insanity defense, their lawyers ,
must prove that at the time of the (
crime, the perpetrator did not know ,
right from wrong. If the prosecuting
attorney can prove that the criminal ,
knew killing was wrong as he or she ,
was doing it, then that person was not .
insane. ]
So.whcncveracasclike Dahmer’s i
comes up, the jury must sit through a <
parade of psychiatrists, all disagree- i
ing with one another as to the sanity i
of a murderer. The study of what :
makes the mind lick is not an absolute
science. These experts all have dif- i
fering opinions, and the jury is forced I
Umoum. Dahmer
was sane, he
musllve. had, a goad
reason for doing
whaL bus. did. Sane
people wha kill and
slice up 15 people
usually have, a
purpose in mind,
o decide which one is the most bc
icvablc, the most expert expert.
What we arc forced to conclude
rom this fiasco is that some people
ire actually sane when they kill oth
ers for no reason. Apparently, people
x/ho can murder fellow human beings
tre absolutely normal. They had noth
ng wrong with them psychologically,
ind their environments were perfectly
.table. They just made a logical dcci
.ion that someone should die.
In fact, some chocolate factory
workers who lure boys into their homes
ind boil their skulls arc perfectly sane.
\ sane person mightcasily believe he
;ould create zombies in his living
oom using industrial-strength acid
ind a little know-how.
Wail a moment. The prosecuting
itlorncys in the Dahmer trial, while
naintaining that Dahmer was sane,
;onccdcd that he was “sick” and in
he “grip of evil.”
The difference between sick and
nsanc doesn’t seem like much of a
iiffcrencc. But that’s what can hap
ten when the law collides with psy
hology in our strange, so-called crimi
lal “reform” system, where Ameri
;ans, who don’t want to spend the
noncy to actually try to help crimi
lals become productive members of
iocicty, lock them away or kill them.
Instead of receiving rehabilitation
hat may or may not remove Dahmer
rom the “grip of evil,” society will
make him an example lo others by
taking revenge against him for all the
people he killed. How very civilized
it all is.
But that’s the sympathy of the
American pockctbook. The simple
fact is that we don’t care about crimi
nals. We ostracize them, put them
away, stuff them where we don’t have
to look at them. And we think that
makes things better.
Psychology has come a long way
in the century or so that serious study
about human behavior has been con
ducted, and there arc many hurdles to
leap.
It would be difficult to find a group
of experts to agree on why Dahmer
did what he did. It probably would be
much more difficult, with our present
level of technology, to help him lead
a normal life. If the jury had found
him insane, he might have sal in some
mental institution for the rest of his
life, draining the taxpayers’ money
while doctors hypothesized and stud
ied, but made little progress.
Yes, that might have happened. Of
course,“might” is theoperative word.
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if wc assume that would be the ease,
it doesn’t paint a much prettier pic
ture of America.
In a perfect society, wc would be
able to help all criminals. Wc would
turn them back into “gtxxl” people
and set them free. In a slightly less
perfect society, wc would be able to
help many criminals.
In our society, wc don’t want to
help them. Wedon’teven wanttoiry.
And those who want to see our reform
system actually reform people arc
denounced as being soft on crime.
Wc vainly arc trying to rid society
of symptoms instead of diseases. Jef
frey Dahmer is insane, and his insan
ity caused him to kill 15 people. Our
reaction isn’t to wonder what could’ve
driven him to do this horrible act or to
study him in the hope lhal wc can
prevent someone else like him from
doing the same thing. Our reaction is
revenge.
Of course, maybe such base hu
man instincts all arc right here in the
country the rest of the world sees as a
nation of cowboys, where everyone
has their own guns, where “justice” is
sure and swift.
But maybe wc could do better.
Phelps is a sophomore news-editorial ma
jor, the Daily Nebraskan opinion page editor
and a columnist.
