Opinion Thursday, March 18, 1883
Neljraskan
Editorial Board
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Chris Hopfensperger.Editor, 472-1766
Jeremy Fitzpatrick.Opinion Page Editor
Alan Phelps.Managing Editor
Brian Shellito...Cartoonist
Susie Arth.Senior Reporter
Kim Spurlock.Diversions Editor
Sam Kepfield.Columnist
Red tape
Bureaucracy blocks new fine arts college
Only one thing stands in the way of the formation of the
College of Fine and Performing Arts at UNL: the univer
sity bureaucracy. This time, however, the enemy of
education is not the administration or even the regents. It is the
Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education.
The new college would be created by combining the different
art departments within the College of Arts and Sciences. It would
add no new programs, employees or salaries. In fact, the money
used by the college would come from departments and schools
that already exist at the university. But the plan has been slowed
because the commission misunderstood how the college would be
set up.
Members of the commission somehow got it into their heads
that the new college was going to cost the university around
$140,000. Maybe if the university had a few million dollars to
throw around, it would be considering such an expensive project.
But it isn’t, and the plan is virtually free. That means there was no
legitimate reason for the commission to stand in the way of the
college — even for another month until the members could
understand what was going on.
Last fall, Regents Chairman John Payne complained that the
commission added “a layer of bureaucracy’’ between the regents
and the Legislature. That came after the commission submitted a
list of priorities for capital construction that ran counter to another
list made by the regents, and several people complained about the
workload created by the commission’s demands for detailed
information about the university’s operations.
The commission argues that it is trying to do its job of direct
ing the state colleges and the University of Nebraska. But it is
actually doing nothing more than trying to micro-manage the
university.
In this case, Spanier knows how the university would best be
run. He has been working with a 23-member committee that has
been examining the plan to create the college for some time.
Those ideas have already met with approval at the university and
gone through the NU Board of Regents. That is more than enough
bureaucracy for one university.
Stick around
U.N. should share Somalian involvement
Just two weeks after U.S. forces began a pullout from the
Somalian city of Kismayu, 500 soldiers are headed back.
The troops headed back to the Southern port Wednesday
to try to mend a scattered truce that has jeopardized nationwide
peace talks.
The U.S. military was preparing to leave Somalia. Most areas
of control in the country have been given to other nations’ forces
in preparation for the turning of all operations over to the United
Nations in May.
But now U.S. forces are headed back into Kismayu to try to
keep the delicate peace that has emerged there. The U.S. commit
ment is being enlarged, not reduced.
The military predicted that the new commitment would not
delay the withdrawal of U.S. forces. S ^ I „
We hope they are right. The United States should not become
bogged down in the complex and explosive political situation in
Somalia.
We should not abandon the people of that troubled country.
But it would not be abandoning them to share responsibility for
operations there with other members of the United Nations.
SufT editorials represent the official policy of the Spring 1993 Daily Nebraskan. Policy is set
by the Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board. Editorials do not necessarily reflect the views of the
university, its employees, the students orthe NU Board of Regents. Editorial columns represent
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Police deserve respect for job
Police have power. It is up to
us to decide at what point we
will respect their power.
When a police officer wants to stop
or even detain you, then you better
stop and meekly obey.
My last “serious” brush with the
law was a little more than a month
ago. It was late, and I had just finished
delivering a pizza to a house near 28th
and Q streets. Walking back — or for
the amusement of my boss, running
back — to my car, I noticed I did not
have much change left.
So when I got back to my car, I
reached under the floor mat to round
up some stray coins to prepare myself
for the ongoing mission of customer
service.
I guess I was vulnerable to what
was about to happen because it was
night, my car was parked on an ill-lit
street, and I was taking too much time
to find my coins. Also, my car door
was open, and I had a foot on the
pavement.
I had the eerie feeling of a car
pulling up. Then I heard footsteps
creeping up from behind me. Mutter
ing to myself that I was now in a bind,
I straightened up and prepared to de
fend myself. At least I had already
delivered the damned pizza.
Someone jerked the car door out
further, and a flashlight showed its
beam on my face.
It was a Lincoln policeman, not a
desperate robber preying on a poor
sap of a delivery man. Still, I had no
need for a policeman. I was doing fine
on my own.
But then again, I am a citizen, and
at that moment a dubious one in the
flashlight beam ofapoliceman. I didn’t
have the luxury of deciding the time
and place of meeting with an other
wise friendly neighborhood police
officer.
Seeing my official
pizza man’s uniform
and hearing my
ingratiating,
plaintive attempt at
explaining myself,
the policeman must
have been
somewhat relieved.
Itseemed the policeman had pulled
up and stepped quickly out of his car,
suspicious dial I was some kind of car
thief.
Seeing my official pizza man’s
uniform and hearing my ingratiating,
plaintive attempt at explaining my
self, the policeman must have been
somewhat relieved. Still, he couldn’t
be too careful.
His job is to serve and protect and
to see if suspicious activities are, in
fact, illegal.
From his now close-up vantage
point, he saw that I had keys in my
hand and that it didn’t look like I was
hot-wiring the car.
He said dryly, “Humor me, will
you, and start the car with those keys.’’
Shocked, yet grateful at the oppor
tunity to vindicate myself, I started
the car quickly, and off I went. I was
thankful that I wasn’t apprehended
for stealing—or at least perceived as
stealing — my own car.
My co-worker, Kevin, observed
that had I been an actual bona fide car
thief, I could have worked the wires in
maybe five seconds.
Instead, I was looking for my loose
change, therefore, I was “digging” in
the cop’s lingo, for a minute or so.
Kind of ironic that I had been caught
“stealing,” because that is what I
wasn’t doing. If I had been stealing, 1
would probably have been devious
and skilled enough to have evaded
detection.
Looking back on the incident, I
concede tin: policeman doesn’t have
an easy task. He was just doing his job
and checking out hi s suspicions, which
surely were illuminated by the hard
light of his experience.
As citizens, we must realize that
we have vested police with the power
to carry and use a gun, a baton and a
flashlight to shine in our faces. It is the
police that have the power and we
who have no choice but to respect it.
We should respect it sooner rather
than later for our own sake.
If we all compliantly accept this
fact, no one else will have to end up
like Rodney King, who rebelled
against the power and was then over
whelmed by it— first in the street and
now in the courtroom.
When a policeman wants to detain
you, question you, pull you over, or
what have you, then simply and hum
bly follow the power directive and
obey.
Police have power on the streets
and more credibility — its own kind
of power — in the courts.
We shouldn’t have to get beat up to
accept this fact.
Burger Is a Junior philosophy major and
a Daily NebraAan columnist
‘Rights’
According to the Second Amend
ment, “The right to keep and bear
arms shall not be infringed.” In the
article “Waco proves gun control
needed” (DN, March 16,1993), Jer
emy Fitzpatrick seems to believe that
anyone can go down to his or her local
gun store and purchase automatic
weapons and explosives.
This is an extreme case. Millions
of Americans own guns and use them
in law-abiding ways. Fitzpatrick seems
to believe that everyone should be
examined before being able to pur
chase a gun. Is he serious? This would
be very time-consuming and some
would always slip through the cracks.
Finally, which guns go and which
stay? Every gun I own has its purpose,
but all of them are capable of taking a
life. Do shotguns goY Only semi-au
tomatic guns? Handguns? Rifles?
Every time a tragedy like this happens
people like Fitzpatrick scream for gun
control. Can we allow them to take
away our rights as Americans?
Dan Meagher
freshman
pre-veterinary
Culture
I was pleased to see the article
focusing on issues faced by interna
tional students in the March 17 issue
of the DN.
There is, however, one minor point
— with major implications — in the
article which 1 would like to address.
Oilmans states that,“the more Ameri
canized international students’ native
countries are, the less problem they
seem to have with this cycle of sepa
ration.” I don’t feel it is appropriate to
use the term “Americanized'’ in de
scribing other cultures. This is a very
ethnocentric point of view, implying
that a culture has changed to be'‘more
like us.” Although many countries
have adopted some of the superficial
trappings of American culture, their
cultures — those systems of values,
beliefs, traditions, world views, rela
tionships, etc., that define them —*
remain unchanged.
Gordon Homann
International Affairs
