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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 21, 1992)
Opinion Net>raskan Editorial Board University of Nebraska-Lincoln Chris Hopfensperger.Editor, 472-1766 Dionne Searcey.7.Opinion Page Editor Kris Karnopp.. ..Managing Editor Alan Phelps.-. . . ..Wire Editor Wendy Navralil. ... Writing Coach Stacey McKenzie . ... ... Senior Reporter Jeremy Fitzpatrick..Columnist French blessing? Mediocre support greets European union The French votes arc in and it secerns the “ouis” have beaten the “nons” by just a smidgen. . Early French TV reports say voters in France have narrowly approved a treaty, the goal ok which is to turn Western Europe into a political and economic superpower. Voters were asked: Do you approve the bill submitted to the French people by the president of the republic authorizing the ratification of the treaty on European union?” They answered with a shaky yes. “It’s a pseudo-success — a mediocre yes,” said far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, who opposed the treaty. The yeses have won the vote number-wise. But the lack of public support will weaken Europe’s ability to carry out goals * proposed by the European Community plan. The treaty would unile the economies, foreign and defense policies, and currencies of the 12-nalion EC by 1999. Support for the irealy could make the EC a healthy competitor with the United Stales and Japan. And a little competition never hurt anyone. France has pushed for European unity since World War II. Now' the late of Europe is in this country’s hands. A lack of public support for this plan could mean turmoil for the world’s financial markets that have already taken all the blows they can. At least Europe is actively trying to solve its economic woes. Americans arc still waiting to be bailed out of this country’s recession. French citizens should count their blessings. Spell it out Passage would forewarn ROTC students Some things deserve a warning label. Pregnant women who drink deserve to know alcohol V may hurt their pregnancy. People who smoke should be ' told the chemicals in their cigarettes could lead to their demise. And ROTC students who arc homosexual should be fore warned that their sexual preference may cost them an education. University officials and members of the Homophobia Aware ness Committee arc now making an attempt to spell out ROTC’s policy banning homosexuals in the Undergraduate Bulletin. The passage wpuld tell students in black and white about the potential costs of enlisting in the ROTC program. ROTC’s policy goes beyond discrimination. When students sign up for ROTC, they arc asked about their sexual preference in a series of personal questions. If a student lies or is unsure about sexual preference, an official said, legal actions could be taken against that student. If it is determined that a student lied about his or her sexual preference, the student will be asked to withdraw from the pro gram. Scholarship students who have finished two years of schooling will also have to refund the money spent on books and tuition. The penalty amounts to a fine for being homosexual. Students deserve a fair warning about the dangers of pursuing an education through ROTC as well as an honest declaration of the program’s discriminatory policy. StafLediionals represent ihc official policy of the Lai I 1992 Daily Nebraskan. Policy is set by the Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board. Editorials do not necessarily reflect the views of the university, its employees, the studentsorthc N'U Board of Regents. Editorial columns represent the opinion of the author. The regents publish the Daily Nebraskan. They establish the UNL Publications Board to supervise the daily production of the paper. According to policy set by the regents, responsibility for the editorial content of the newspaper lies solely in the hands of its students. Ihc Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief letters to the editor from all readers and interested others. Letters will be selected for publication on the basis of clarity, originality, timeliness and space available. The Daily Nebraskan retains the right to edit or reject all material submitted. Readers also arc welcome to submit material as guest opinions. The editor decides whether material should run as a guest opinion. Letters and guest opinions sent to the newspaper become the property of the Daily Nebraskan and cannot be relumed. Anonymous submissions will not be published. Letters should included the author's name, year in school, major and group all ilialion, if any. Requests to withhold names will not be granted Submit material to the Dally Nebraskan, 34 Nebraska l mon. MOOR St., Lincoln, Neb. 68588-0448. • /■ " SKFE... 1 CW_ L IAEM4 I TOUCHPOV/N! Cultural bias provokes reflection Here I am shouting the fury of my culture whose lone pur pose to ex isl loo often it seems is the eternal fight for social and eco nomic inclusion. “We demand more black profes sors!” “We demand more black executives!” “We demand more black politicians!” One day a Mcxican American friend said to me: “What about Mexi can-Amcrican profes sors? What about Mexi can-Amcrican execu tives? What about Mcxican-Amcri can politicians?” Amid my shouts, I didn’t even think of that. But to her, the idea was automatic. As I stood there, naked in my cul tural bias, I began reflecting. Am I a racist bigot for not consid ering Latin folk as strong as I do black folk in the quest for a larger share of this country’s wealth and power? Before I corftinuc. I’m well aware that I could sulktitutc, in the place of Latinos, members of any culture — from Native Americans to gays to religious fundamentalists to frater nity members. But I’ll save that dis cussion for a later col urn non the myth of mulliculturalism. After all, we arc the dubbed “mi nority,” or people of color, referred to constantly by the conventional wis dom makers. We’re always grouped together for statistical purposes in the broader scope. But individually or even culturally it seems we arc human antonyms. For example, I’ve watched selec tion committees in corporate and aca demic America divide across black and brown lines when ilcamctochoos ing employees and faculty. Several candidates of color pos sessed sterling qualifications. But af ter careful deliberation, the decision sti 11 came down to a c hoicc of black or brown to fill one or two set-aside positions. Did both sides succumb to the old \ saying that wc arc slill fighting each other for such small pieces of the imaginary pic of prosperity? Who gets the slice? What docs it depend on? It’s a very complex and real ques tion. Here’s another example of our dif ferences. Several Mexican-Amcrican friends and co-workers have told me they check the “while” race box on drivers license applications and their license actually would read “white.” I wonder what would happen if I did that? Think anyone would notice? Perhaps, in part, because of in stances like these and some others, I’ve been prone to look straight past their Mcxicanncss and slice the soci ety I live in into two halves — black and white. But considering my friend’s com ment, when I now hear myself or any other person of color call a white person a bigot, I do a scl f-chcck on my own cultural cues. Slicking to the literal meaning of the word, then I too am a bigot—and so arc vou and you and you ... no matter how we try to deny it. That’s kind of hard to admit, but that’s my first utterance in overcom ing such individual beliefsaboutolher people who arc not like me. It’s all a humbl ing paradox of sorts, considering that I am a person of color and that I study different cultures as the foundation of my graduate pro gram. But learning about people from different cultures through passive methods like reading and listening to lectures — as ways to peer into and analyze their behavior and beliefs — from the sanctuary of the university is far removed from talking, working or shouting it out with people from dif ferent cultures. In thcclassroom, 1 ’m always doing deep mental dives into the murky theory of cultural concepts such as sociobiological evolution, for ex ample,or pondering thccullural mean ing of teeth marks on prehistoric bones. I’m steeped in all of this world culture to my eyebrows and 1 had no idea that this is Hispanic Heritage Month — I bet many of you didn’t either. I went to the Hispanic Heritage Festival two weekends ago. While I danced and laughed with the happiest of them, in the middle of it all I stopped mentally and looked around me into the facesofhundrcdsof brown folk. Many of them dressed slightly dif ferently than people ii> my culture. They wore heavy cowpoke bools and black 10-gallon hats. Little girls, with dark hair and dark brown eyes, pranced around in red and white dresses adorned with intricate lace. Most of the people there spoke a different language. Their music and their dance steps were unfamiliar and awkward to me. * In that selling, I was the unusual “minority among minorities.” I felt lost for a moment, insecure because I didn’t know what many of them were saying in their mother longues. I didn’t know the culture. In that same moment, however, I fell warm and alive to be among their rich culture celebrating with them. 1 wonder if they welcomed me as warmly? That nighl.couplcd with my Mcxi can-Amcrican friend’s comment, I accepted the fact that we arc cultur ally separate, black folk and brown folk. Yet our commonality is that we fight for similar basic wants. A little respect. A fair shake. Inclu sion. Of late, I’m realizing that people must look beyond skin color and cul ture to the one universal that links us all — we’re human. We all have to cat, sleep, die — and here in the United Slates, unfortu nately, listen to the empty drone of presidential candidates. Outside of that is where culture comes in. Through it all, we just develop differ ent ways of doing these three funda mentals. Moss Is a graduate student studying cul tural anthropology and a Dally Nebraskan columnist. — Lincoln Christian I am writing to explain why I felt the need to write the full-page ad warning the public about the Lincoln Christian Church (DN, Sept. 14). I did not write it br > ausc of a “bad altitude” toward the church. I wrote about what I experienced when I at tended the group. I wanted students to be aware and be informed. Not one of the warnings I made in the ad is false. Ask them personally. They cannot deny it. Lincoln Chris tian members do not force anyone to attend their activities but will do any thing and everything to persuade you to come. They do this because they believe that we arc all “lost” and they arc the only ones “saved.” The members be lieve in what they arc doing and can’t understand what they arc doing wrong. They don’t know belter because they are under mind control. The Cull Awareness Network of Chicago deemed this movement a cult. Keep your independence and free dom. Guard your life. Slay away from the Lincoln Christian Church. Mark Larson _;__ sophomore political science