Opinion
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Priming the pump
Bush's actions timed to win voter favor
Some states have been getting big breaks from the Bush
administration lately. And, by a strange coincidence,
these states will have their presidential primaries soon.
Since 1977, the automobile industry has been responsible for
installing devices in automobiles to reduce the amount of gas
fumes released into the atmosphere during car refueling. But
the Environmental Protection Agency is expected soon to
switch the responsibility to gas station owners, requiring them
to install gas pump nozzles that do the same thing.
It just so happens that
Michigan’s primary is
next Tuesday.
To help out the
struggling natural gas in
dustry in the Southwest,
Bush has announced
regulatory changes en
couraging the use of
natural gas in cars and
electric utilities. Texas
has its primary today.
To prepare lor Calilor
nia’s June primary, Bush
had the Interior Depart
ment reverse policy and
release billions of gallons
of federally controlled
water for farming in the
drought-stricken stale.
In an election year,
voters’ cars arc filled with
promise after promise by candidates with presidential aspira
tions. But Bush has the advantage of authority to give the
public what it wants. That becomes a useful tool to gain
support and hall the decline of Bush’s popularity in recent
presidential approval polls.
This ability to give voters what they desire is a distinct
advantage for incumbents.
Whereas challengers only can promise results, incumbents
like Bush can accomplish them with just a signature — and it
usually turns out that the signatures appear on legislation that
will satisfy a large number of voters in politically influential
states.
This raises the question: Is Bush the president of the United
States as a whole, or just the stales with a large number of
delegates up for grabs?
Can voters in Nebraska, Alaska and other stales with a
significantly smaller number of delegates count on special help
from the government?
Nothing is wrong with Bush using his power to help out
troubled industries. But when he wails for an election year to
finally act, one must wonder if he is motivated by a concern for
the general well-being of the voters, or by a concern that he
may be looking for a new line of work next year.
-LETTER jHE EDITOR
Baldwin shouldn’t get fees paid
I would like to know why the ath
letic department wants to pay for
Baldwin’s medical and legal costs?
Do they believe he set a l ine example
that athletes all over should try lo
emulate? Or do they just feel sorry for
him as the “victim” of all of this.
Sure. Call him the victim. While
you’re at it, call Mother Theresa a
Mafia boss and George Bush an under
privileged welfare recipient. I just
don’t understand why everyone for
gets that he was the attacker. He was
feeling a little nulso, so he grabbed
the nearest human being and tried to
squish his pain out of her head. He
almost killed her.
Almost killed a human being. Oh,
in that case, let’s let him out of jail,
but not here because people would
gel UK) upset. Let’s pul him in Omaha.
Let’s just hope that no dogs there
need to be walked. Oh, and let’s pay
lor all of his expenses, since p<K)r
Scoity doesn’t have the money to pay
for his little tirade. Her rehabilitation
was expensive? Who cares! That’s
her responsibility — she was the one
who was walking her dog! She was at
fault.
We need to take care of our poor
little Scoity, victim of the hard, cruel
world.
What a crock.
Yvonne A. Sabalka
freshman
news-editorial
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BRIAN ALLEN
‘Offensensitivity’ bars freedom
Screw You!
Not a very friendly little
phrase, but apparently innocu
ous. I often don’t find it forceful or
biting enough to convey my thoughts,
so I usually go with a related phrase
starting with that evil “f-word.”
Despite my low estimation of the
viicncss of this phrase, it, along with
some other choice phrases on a nov
elty key chain, were enough to gel a
University of Ncbraska-Lincoln cus
todian fired for “interfering with the
job performance of others” and “bring
ing sexually oriented items to the
work site.”
The fired custodian, Douglas W.
Geiger, has filed a lawsuit for rein
statement, back pay and lost pension
benefits after being fired last July for
bringing to work an electronic key
chain. At the push of a button, the key
chain displayed several phrases or
words, including “screw you.”
Two supervisors found the key chain
offensive and told Geiger not to bring
it back to work. Geiger was placed on
administrative leave the next day when
he told a supervisor he had placed the
key chain in his locker before work.
Come on. Lei she reasonable here
— he was told not to bring the key
chain to work again and, in my view,
he didn’t.
Sure, he brought it to campus again,
but he put it in his locker before work,
before he clocked in. He couldn’t
possibly have been interfering with
anyone’s job performance on the
second day, when he didn’t bring the
key chain “to work.” He only brought
it to his locker before work.
And as for “sexually oriented
items,” that’s kind of a judgment call.
While I don’t know what the other
phrases on the key chain were, If
“screw you" is any indication, it sounds
to me as though the key chain was
more insulting than “sexually ori
ented.”
If this precedent of dismissal for
sexually oriented materials holds, I
suppose any U NL employee could be
fired for having condoms in his or her
wallet or purse, or birth control pills,
or a lingerie catalog, or any of about
a million other items that could be in
any way construed as having some
relation with sexuality.
“Work site” is another judgment
call. Evidently, an employee’s per
If we try to eet rid of
everything that any
one finds offensive,
we mil he lift wjlh a
very bland, drab and
unstimulating cam
pus. not to mention
one totally devoid of
anv type of freedom
of speech or expres
sion.
sonal locker is considered pari of ihe
work site.
I wonder how far this “site” ex
tends. Are the grounds and parking
lots included? If so, I suppose if I
were a university employee, I could
be fired for having the “Girls of the
Big Eight" issue of Playboy maga
zine under the scat of my truck.
It sounds as though we have a few
supervisors, administrators and, in
deed, a large portion of the campus
suffering from what Opus, in Berke
Breathed’s cartoon strip “Bloom
County,” termed as “Offensensitiv
ity.”
I’m sorry, but it is not possible to
protect everyone from being offended
at all times. I’m sure someone proba
bly was offended by Geiger’s key
chain. So what.
As I am writing this, someone is
walking near me with what 1 would
consider a “sexually oriented” phrase
on a T-shirt. If I had the same hyper
sensitive and easily offended altitude
that is being displayed by some uni
versity officials, I would jump up and
demand she be fired instantly on the
same grounds as Geiger.
The sexually oriented phrase I’m
referring lo happens to be a man^
bashing type of phrase that I find
somewhat offensive. But I ’m sure not
everyone docs, and to expect to be
protected from everything I find of
fensive would not only be a ridicu
lous expectation but would severely
limit my awareness, not to mention
the rights of others.
Arc we going to ban everything
anyone linds offensive? I’m often much
more offended by vocal liberals, radi
cal feminists and professors who as
sign too much homework than I ever
have been by any key chain. But to
ban them all from campus, while
resulting in a much belter environ
ment for me personally, would not
benefit the campus as a whole.
Offensivcncss, like beauty, is in
the eye of the beholder. What I find
offensive is not what many other stu
dents find offensive. Everyone secs
things a little differently.
That’s the diversity UNL officials
arc continuously trying to obtain. No
matter what the subject, someone will
find it offensive, but as long as it
doesn’t encroach on the rights of others,
we just have to live with it.
It does people good to be offended
once in a while. It gets them thinking
and often presents to them new ideas
and thoughts.
n wc try 10 gci rm oi cvcryming
thal anyone finds offensive, we will
be left with a very bland, drab and
unsiimulaling campus, not to men
tion one totally devoid of any type ol
freedom of speech or expression.
While I have no doubt thal the
custodial supervisors had the best ol
intentions in the firing of Geiger, they
would do well to remember the words
of Court Justice Louis Brandcis:
‘‘The greatest dangers to liberty
lurk in insidious encroachment by
men of zeal, well-meaning but with
out understanding.”
University officials, in their zeal
to get rid of Geiger and his offensive
key chain, may well have created a
belter working environment for a few
employees. But by setting a prece
dent against anything offensive, they
have shown their lack of understand
ing by undermining their own goals
of diversity and toleration.
Allen Is a senior mechanical engineering
major and a Daily Nebraskan columnist.
-EDITORIAL POLICY-—
Staff editorials represent the offi
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