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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 24, 1993)
Opinion Nebraskan WtdnMday, February 23,1993 NeTbraskan Editorial Board University of Nebraska-Uncoln Chris Hopfensperger. Jeremy Fitzpatrick. . Alan Phelps. Brian Shellito. Susie Arth. Kim Spurlock. Sam Kepfield. Khimki m ... .Editor, 472-1766 Opinion Page Editor . .Managing Editor .Cartoonist .Senior Reporter ... Diversions Editor .Columnist Less than perfect PARTY steps in ring, delivers competition It has been nearly two weeks since VOICE sounded off on the non-issues in this year’s student elections. That means PARTY’S candidates had an extra 13 days to develop a stronger platform. Apparently they could have used a little more time to prepare. That is not to say that PARTY’S platform is devoid of worth. The candidates came up with some reasonable ideas regarding the budget, multiculturalism and tuition and fees. But some of their ideas were nothing more than vague. • A Moist Campus The party platform called for “an alcohol policy that doesn’t treat students like children.’’ It’s something that hasn’t been talked about in a couple of years, but PARTY really didn’t add anything new to the debate with the proposal. • Promote an environment receptive to safe sex Meaning what? rAK 11 wisely aeciaea 11s canaiaaies weren i going 10 uwen on the issue of parking, but they did find it necessary to draw attention to the fact that they weren’t going to address the matter. So what’s worse? Drawing too much attention to a dead issue or drawing attention to the fact that you consider it dead? Further on the downhill side, the PARTY party has some other suggestions: • ‘‘Concerts in Memorial Stadium — Iowa State does it. Why "can’t we?” . — - ;." — ~ The answer? Tom Osborne. • Work to alleviate this nation’s unemployment problem -Finding a new president is vital to the future of the University of Nebraska, but the last thing this university needs in time of budget crisis is George Bush as president. PARTY is a far cry from perfect, but right now it is just reassuring to know that there are actually two parties running in the election. Hopefully a little healthy competition will turn out some positive results. ( ) I IIKKV \ II W People all over Kansas can now sleep the sweet sleep of the just, thanks to the Kansas Legislature. A week and a half ago, the House approved a bill that would wipe out a 1923 state law that made it illegal to rip those forebod ing tags that come attached to your mattresses and pillows. The penalty for such a malicious deed was set at six months in the Big House. House members spent 20 minutes debating the lofty bill, introduced by Rep. Melvin Neufeld. Neufeld said his research failed to produce any instance of a miscreant tag-ripper ever being prosecuted. Well, that got the ball rolling. Soon, Rep. Richard Lahti suggested an amendment that would make manufacturers respon sible for putting handles on the ends of mattresses effective July 1,1996. The reason? Lahti had bad experiences with moving non handled, bulky mattresses. Eventually partisan politics took its place in the spotlight when Republicans, wary of additional government regulation, asked for a roll call vote. It failed. ‘‘Do we need this bill now?” Rep. Betty Jo Chariton asked. You bet we do. It is glaringly obvious that whenthe framers drafted our dear constitution, the right to rip off whatever tag, whenever we wanted, was a high priority, and we’re relieved the Legislature recognizes a crisis when it sees one. — Kansas State Collegian Kansas State University I .IH I OKI \l l'< *1 l< N Staff editorials represent the official policy of the Fail 1992 Daily Nebraskan. Policy is set by the Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board. Editorials do not necessarily reflect the viewy of the university, its employees, the students or the NU 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 regenu, responsibility for the editorial content of the newspaper lies solely in the hands of its students. I 1 I I I U l*< >| |< \ The 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 rejects!) material submitted. Readers also are 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 erf die Daily Nebraskan and cannot be returned. Anonymous submissions will not be published. Letters should included the author's name, year in school, major and group affiliation, if any. Requesu to withhold names will not be granted. Submit material to the Daily Nebraskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 R St., Lincoln. Neb. 68588-0448. -TW5TWuOf 5 LA. mx YiW\. GOAL TO OROtR ! Ill I iks in i m Km I ok --— Young ' Finally the mask of science has been tom away by your columnist Gary Young (DN, Feb. 22, 1993), revealing a phantom. Now it is time for us to embrace a religious science. Because the earth really is the center of the universe, two plus two equals nine and the rapid transmutation of uranium-233 produces bread. Young’s insinuation that there is some sort of inbred scientific con spiracy to produce “truths” is pure demagoguery. It is true that scientists, like anyone else, allow their personal beliefs to influence their waysof think ing, and it is true that “novice scien tists” are trained in basic scientific canons. Is it evil to teach people what others have learned? Are students in capable of deciding what they want to be taught? Scientists may believe anything they wish, but facts must support any theory; otherwise, it is scrapped. Re ligion requires no facts, only faith. If you have lost your faith, look within for thine enemy. John Settimi graduate student modem languages Abortion Thank you, Thomas K. Eads (DN, Feb. 22,1993). You covered much of what I have to say in response to Paul Koester’s letter (DN, Feb. 17,1993). But there is more. nro-liters oon t necessarily want to bring more children into the world. Most of them believe that since most abortions occur because of irrespon sible sex, these pregnancies should not be occurring in the first place. They believe, however, that even when a pregnancy does result from irre sponsible sex, the pregnancy should be faced responsibly. Reality is not that there often is no choice but to have an abortion. Hav ing a baby and placing it up for adop tion doesn't cost a penny. Help is readily available for such situations. Pro-lifers don’t want to “control the morality of half the population” or “push sexual morals onto people through legislation.” Abortion isn’t about sexual morals. It’s about life and death and how much we, as a society, value human life. Pro-lifers want to do what those protesting sla very did— take a situation that is very wrong (and even advocated by many Christians) — and do what is right. Rebecca Fitzmaurice graduate student wildlife Taxes Let me dispel the myths before the revisionist historians baffle all of the students on this campus. George Bush did not raise taxes. While this flies in the face of what you have been told, it is true. Bush’s mistake was allowing the Congress to raise taxes with the assurance that there would be caps on mandatory spending, the deficit would be reduced to $9 billion and the con cession would not be used as a cam paign issue. Why am I drudging up such old news? Our new fearless leader has again proposed tax increases, spend ing increases and last and least some budget cuts. What happened to the assurances of 1990? Where did all that money from increased taxes go? We are being led down the path of destruction again by the spendthrift. Congress and our future is in peril. Don’t take my word for it. Ask your parents if they are paying their fair share. Ask your grandparents if they can afford a cut in their monthly stipend. The point is, you should ask those who pay taxes and not those who spend them. Our future is in question. Mark A. Larson graduate student UNO David Badderit/DN Ignorance In response to Dallas Beshaler’s letter (DN, Feb. 22,1993), I’d like to take the opportunity to discuss and clarify your ignorance about homo sexuality and the military. As far as I’m concerned, you have made a choice if you are a hetero sexual. I didn’t make you do the act— no one did. Using your words, 1 hope to illustrate that you cannot tell me and other people what is natural to us, as opposed to what is natural to you. Regarding your statement that ho mosexuals want special treatment, I don’t know what you mean. Pertiaps you mean that there should be special stipulations, such as Tuesday after noons off from work or school, so that we can get our hair and nails done and still find time to go shopping for fish net stockings. But if your idea of special treatment involves society respecting al 1 people for what they are capable of, I’d have to leave the coun try because I’d be forced to respect your bigotry and intolerance. As for AIDS in the military, if you are half as brilliant as you want people to think you are, you would have realized that there are physical ex aminations and blood tests that check for the HIV virus, as well as other diseases. People who test HIV posi tive, regardless of sexual orientation, are not accepted into the military. Furthermore, you have neglected to learn that homosexuals are not the highest-risk group for the HIV virus. In fact, lesbians have the lowest risk of contracting HIV. Perhaps you should research this topic before you further incriminate yourself. Kenneth Martin junior music performance In response to Dallas Beshaler’s letter (DN, Feb. 22, 1993), I realize that many of our citizens are ignorant on the subject of homosexuality. Al though I pity him for his lack of knowledge, perhaps clarification is in order. First, gays are subject to violence and harassment simply based on their perceived status, rather than on their actions. The stereotypes that homo sexuals carry with them contain de struction of the home and civilization itself. Sense can be obtained of this inco herence if the nature of stereotypes is clarified. We must realize that these stereotypes are social constructions that perform the function of maintain - ing society's conception of itself. This results in trying to reinforce our gen der role in society. What is needed to eitner praise or condemn behavior is the definition of morality—which can be prescriptive or normative. Using the Nazi example shows us that something that is de scriptively moral is nowhere near enough to make it normatively nor mal. Another example is our disown ment of the long history of socially approved, and may I add, stale-ap proved slavery. So to be fair, we must abandon the notion that gays are immoral just be cause people disapprove of them. Now, whether it is a choice — if you knew that you were to be perse cuted, harassed, threatened with jail terms and shattered careers, would you choose to be gay ? Thus this proves that even though they face persecu tion, they show that being gay is not a choice. One never sees anyone set out to be homosexual as one sets out to be a doctor or computer programmer. Jennifer foskolka junior political science
