News digest
bole, Nunn urge slow action on military ban of gays
WAS HINGTON—Congressional
leaders urged Presidcnt-eleci Clinton
Sunday to go slow on overturning the
military’s ban on homosexuals,argu
ing that sudden action would create a
furor in Congress and could endanger
lives in the armed forces.
“He ought to put it on the back
burner,” Senate Republican leader
Bob Dole of Kansas said on NBC
TV’s “Meet the Press.”
“I can’t give him any advice ex
cept to go slow,” Dole said. “There
are other things you can do by execu
tive order that wouldn’t blow the lid
off the Capitol. I think this one might
come close.”
Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., chairman
of the Senate Armed Services Com
mittee,appearing onCBS-TV’s“Facc
the Nation,” said, ”1 think weeughtte
proceed very cautiously.”
“If you did ilovemight, I’d fear for
the lives of people in the military
themselves,” Nunn said. UI think there
could be some ver\emotional feel
ings. So I would prefer that it be
stretched out over a period of time.”
N unn, Dole and Senate Democratic
leader George Mitchell of Maine, who
appeared with Dole on the NBC panel
show, said congressional action would
be required to amend the Uniform
Codeof Military JusticcevenifClinton
did issue an executive order changing
the policy.
“I’d be surprised if he won that
vote,” said Dole. Mitchell said, how
ever, “I think the governor will be
supported in that because I think he
-will do n uv a sensible and prudent
way.”
The Arkansas governor said
Wednesday in Little Rock that he
intends to consult with military lead
ers about “the mechanics” of a change
in policy. He did not say when this
would occur.
“I don’t think (homosexual) status
alone, in the absence of some destruc
tive behavior, should disqualify
people” from serving in the military,
the president-elect said.
A federal judge in Los Angeles
reaffirmed on Tuesday his order that
the Navy reinstate a homosexual sailor,
but did not rule on whether the mili
tary ban is constitutional.
The sailor, Petty Officer 1st Class
Keith Meinhold, who has returned to
duiyr said tbe c£feci ofachangeiiL
policy on the behavior of gays in the
military would be “a big fat nothing.”
“The only difference would be that
we would no longer have to look over
our shoulder,” Meinhold said on ABC
TV’s “This Week With David
Brinkley.”
Former Army National Guard Col.
Margarcthc Cammcrmeyer, who ac
knowledged being a lesbian when
questionedduring a security check to
attend the war College, said, “I don’t
think it’s like suddenly the military is
going to disintegrate.”
Adm. Thomas Moorer, former
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
dissented, saying, “Sooner or later
you’re going to have men kissing
each other and hugging and whatever
_,imdlhe other sailors or soldiers or
Marines or airmen would see it, and
they would begin to give them names.
Then, the first thing you know, there
would be a fight.”
“I defy you to find a military man
who has had the responsibility of train
ing a unit and participating in combat
that does not agree with me,” Moorer
said.
Former Secretary of the Navy John
Lehman said that “homosexual activ
ity is absolutely incompatible with
life aboard ship and life in the mili
tary” but “a person’s orientation and
. . . and what he does on his own
private time shouldn’t be the purview
of Big Brother and of the govern
ment.”
French race to save Somali ship
SAN‘A, Yemen — A French vessel loaded
with emergency supplies of food and water
raced Sunday to aid about 3,000 starving Soma
lis aboard a ship in the Arabian Sea.
But the rescue ship was not expected to link
up with the refugee-laden cargo vessel, headed
to Yemen, until Monday.
Sources in Yemen who spoke on condition
of anonymity said they feared as many as 100
children may already have died of starvation or
thirst.
Meanwhile, in the Somali capital,
Mogadishu, a clan leader continued to demand
that U.N. troops withdraw from the interna
tional airport, which they began guarding on
Tuesday to protect planes carrying relief food
and medicine.
About 1,000 supporters of Gen. Mohammed
Farah Aidid, the clan warlord whose forces
control much of southern Mogadishu, marched
through the city shouting slogans such as “We
don’t want foreign troops.”
Unidentified gunmen from another clan
opened fire on the demonstration near the air
port but no injuries were reported.
I
Thousands of Somalis have fled clan fight
ing and a famine in their country that has killed
at least 300,000 people since January. Two
million more are said to be on the verge of
starvation.
A steady flow of refugees in small boats has
headed north to Yemen, where United Nations
officials have fed and sheltered them.
In Geneva, a spokeswoman for the U.N.
High Commissioner for Refugees said the cap
tain of the ship carrying the latest group of
Somalis made a desperate appeal for water in a
radio conversation with a French plane.
Spokeswoman Sylvana Foa said the 1,600
lon M.V. Sumaal was “crammed” with people
and was running out of fuel. "
“There is a serious sanitation problem,’’she
said. “The ship is overloaded and it’s going real
slow.”
Yemeni authorities have agreed to accept
the thousands of refugees who have fled across
the sea, prov ided the U .N. refugee agency lakes
care of them. There are now an estimated
62,000 Somali refugees in Yemen.
-1
The Public is Invited to Attend
the
Karl H. Nelson Lecture Series
presentation
Successful Transition
or Revolution?
First hand reports on current economic
conditions and changes in Russia and
selected Eastern bloc countries
by
Dean Gary Schwendiman
and faculty members of the
College of Business Administration
Universtiy of Nebraska-Lincoln
who have recently returned from
U.S. Agencies for International Development missions
Please make breakfast reservations by Tuesday noon, November 17
__ Call Pam Erikson (402) 472-6809 <
Congressional Democrats meet
meet for dinner with Clinton
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — President-elect
Clinton hosted his first sit-down with Demo
cratic congressional leaders Sunday, hoping
to forge agreement on how to break Wash
ington gridlock and push through a quick
action agenda.
“We’ve got a big job to do and we’ve got
to do it together,” Clinton said as Senate
Majority Leader George Mitchell, House
Speaker Tom Foley and House Majority
Leader Richard Gephardt headed to Little
Rock for a dinner with Clinton.
It was their first meeting since Clinton’s
victory; the opportunities were big, since
this marks the first lime Democrats will have
control over both the White House and
Congress in 12 years.
Clinton, out for his morning jog, declined
to outline specific priorities he planned to
map out with Democratic congressional lead
ers, instead promising a full report at a
Monday news conference with them.
Clinton and his aides have talked of a
100-day agenda for economic and social
matters they felt went neglected over the
past decade, but even before Sunday night’s
dinner, Mitchell downplayed expectations
for how quickly Congress might move.
“I am not one to subscribe to this 100-day
deadline business,” Mitchell said on NBC
TV’s “Meet the Press.”
“I think it’s an artificial deadline estab
lished for no purpose other than giving
definition ... to a sense of urgency about
action,” Mitchell said. “And so I don’t use
any particular time framc for when we should
or should not act.”
Still, Mitchell said he would tell Clinton
he’s “right on track” by making economic
revival his lop priority.
Clinton plans to make a short-term eco
nomic stimulus package his No. 1 objective,
including expanded investment tax'eredits
hoped to spark job crcation. Other parts of i t
Clinton can do alone by executive order,
such as speeding up federal dollars for high
way projects that would create jobs.
The bulk of Clinton’s long-term eco
nomic plan — a S20 billion annual invest
ment in infrastructure, technology and com
munications — relics on defense cuts and
tax hikes on the wealthy that would require
congressional action.
During his campaign, Clinton also
pledged to seek quick action on family leave
legislation that President Bush twice vetoed.
Some legislation — such as complicated
and controversial health care reform —
Clinton has merely talked of getting to Con
gress within 1 (X) days.
Professor focuses on tension
* *
Sociology chairwoman says
large classes create strain,
communication problems
By Keri Brabec
Staff Reporter
Students must establish stronger links to the
university community, the chairwoman of the
sociology department said Friday.
Helen Moore spoke as part of the Theology
for Lunch series, which focuses on critical
value issues at the University of Nebraska
Lincoln.
The university community is not a group of
people who arc similar, Moore said.
“Some students think it is a huge impersonal
group of 25,(X)G,” she said.
While some students, faculty and staff have
similar abilities and goals, Moore said, their
ideas are diverse. They struggle over their
differences, which produces tension on cam
pus, she said.
Classroom communication compounds the
problem for many students, Moore said.
“When there isn’t a full array of voices,
distortion occurs,” she said. “In the classroom,
many students arc intimidated by asking ques
tions, so then they only get one-way informa
tion from the teacher.”
Classroom lectures are a disadvantage to
students, Moore said.
“I want to get students talking to teachers,”
she said. “We need a revolutionary approach.”
It would be ideal if students could attend
seminars with 15 to 20 other students instead of
lectures with 200 to 300 students, Moore said,
but that is impossible.
“We need to bring the principles and values
of an active education to the students,” she said.
“This will cause the students to rethink their
values and why they arc here as students.”
The honors program and integrated studies
arc two programs in which students are encour
aged to work with a faculty member and think
about why they arc at the university, Moore
said. More such programs arc needed, she said.
The new admissions policy, which aims to
reduce the number of UNL students who drop
out after their first year, is a cause for concern,
Moore said. While some students don’t have
the skills to succeed at UNL, she said, others
simply don T feel a$ though they arc a part of the
university community. Others don’t want to be
responsible for their learning, she said.
“1 am concerned about omitting any student
from higher education,” Moore said.
The final session of Food for Thought this
semester will be Nov. 20 on East Campus with
UNL Chancellor Graham Spanicr speaking.
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