Opinion
Nebraskan
Thursday, July 8,1883
Nebraskan
-v Editorial Board
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Jeff Singer.
Jeremy Fitzpatrick...
Jeff Zeleny.....
Sam Kepfield..
Anne Sleyer.•..,,. ‘.
Editoki \l
Enough press
Editor, 472-1766
. Features Editor
.Copy Desk Chief
.Columnist
... Staff Reporter
Media attention too high for Bjorklund
Last week’s decision to bring in a jury outside of Lincoln
for the Roger Bjorklund trial could have and should have
been avoided.
Judge Donald Endacott ruled that due to circumstances
surrounding the Bjorklund case, a jury from Sidney would be
chosen to decide on the innocence or guilt of Bjorklund for the
murder of University of Ncbraska-Lincoln Candice Harms last
year.
But what was the main reasoning for having to send 344
miles away for Bjorklund to get a “fair” trial?
The majority of the blame can be placed on the media’s
shoulders, as more often than not, freedom of the press has
been used too generously in the seven months since
Bjorklund's arrest.
It was the court’s belief that Bjorklund could not receive an
impartial trial from a Lancaster County jury, thus the residents
of a small town in western Nebraska now have to be bused to
Lincoln for Bjorklund’s trial.
But had the local media not feasted on every little move that
Bjorklund made, maybe he could have had a trial by his peers,
as the U.S. Constitution stales, which is supposed to mean by
those in the community that the crime occurred.
So did being bombarded with information on a daily basis
about him defending himself need as much attention as it did?
Or when he changed his mind and decided he wanted
appointed counsel to help him in his ease — did he deserve this
maneuver to receive the media hype that transpired?
The best way to show how the press has gone overboard in
deciding what is vital for the citizens of Lincoln to know, was
when Bjorklund decided to go on a brief hunger strike, and
again he had the media in the palm of his hand over an issue
that did not deserve a place in the classified ads.
It has almost gone to the point where defendant Bjorklund
has a media caravan following his every move.
Being given the right to a fair trial is a right in the Constitu
tion that needs to be upheld, so Endacolt’s decision was just, /
but it is too bad that the media had to play such an influence
upon the judicial system.
F.DITOKI\i Pouo
Staff editorial* represent the official policy of the Summer 1993 Daily Nebraskan. Policy it tel
by the Daily Nebraskan Lditorial Hoard, Hditorials do not necessarily reflect the views of the
university, its employees, the students or the NU Board of Regents. Ldilorial 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.
I t 111« Policy
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Nebraskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 R St., Lincoln, Neb. 68588-0448.
COULD YOU GIVE
ME A SPOT-? /
Sam Kkimiku)
Racial disparity lingers in U.S.
On its last day for the 1992
1993 term, the U.S. Supreme
Court held the 12th Congres
sional district in North Carolina was
gerrymandered in such a way as to be
possibly violative of while voters’
rights. The district, 160 miles long,
snakes through the stale, at times no
wider than an interstate highway.
The thinking was that if you put
blacks in a majority, they will elect a
black to Congress. If you’re Lani
Guinicr, this Congressman will be a
“true” black leader, unsullied by sell
ing his soul to the wh i tc man to achieve
power. Such is the state of the civil
rights movement today.
Now, under the leadership of Ben
jamin Chavis, the NAACP wants to
redefine its focus and intensify
fundraising. How to revive the mori
bund body? Chavis coined the term
“environmental racism” to describe
putting toxic waste in minority com
munities, combining two politically
correct hot buttons. He also signed an
agreement with the parent company
of Denny’s for $1 billion in job oppor
tunities over the next seven years.
Ai the same time, paradoxically,
the Ku Klux Klan is trying to reestab
lish itself in my home state of Kansas.
Thrown out of Kansas in the 1920s,
the Klan is aiming for a January rally
at the capitol building to protest the
Martin Luther King holiday. As if
Kansas didn’t have enough problems
with image, it’s now going to be put in
the same light with Arizona.
The Klan leadership today is a
concoction, of vicious Nazi kooks,
hell-bent on exterminating blacks,
Catholics, and Jews from the face of
the Earth. And yet, the KKK leader
ship is emboldened enough to resur
rect itself in the Sunflower State. A
former Klansman can run for Gover
nor of Lousiana, and attract a respect
able percentage of the vote. How docs
this fringe clement attract thousands
of new members, and uncounted si
lent sympathizers?
When David Duke ran for Senate,
The old spirit of self
reliance is gone, re
placed by the federal
dollar. With this
comes the sad fact
that Martin Luther
King is a holiday that
the Kansas KKK will
protest, and Malcom X
is nothing more than a
slick marketing ploy to
sell ball caps and
Jerseys.
then for Governor, then for President,
he was often criticized as the inevita
ble result of— yes, you guessed it—
“12 years of Rcagan-Bush ” It was
now OK for people to be racist, to be
bigoted, to be justplain uncaring about
the plight of the less fortunate in our
society. That’s the easy, feel-good
explanation.
The truth is that David Duke struck
a note with the American people. It
was not one of racism, but one of
protest against good intentions run
amok.
The civil rights movement, in its
early days, strove for political equal
ity under the law, but it also fought for
economic equality. The early leaders
knew that economic freedom was the
source of all liberty, that without it
life is meaningless. Black leaders from
Booker T. Washington to Marlin
Luther King and even Malcom X
preached economic self-sufficiency
as a key to freedom. They voted Re
publican up until 1960.
After the great battles were won,
the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the
Voting Rights Act of 1965, after King
and Malcom X were dead, the focus
somehow shifted. Equality of oppor
tunity gradually became equality of
result. It wasn’t enough that blacks
were given a level playing field, be
cause the centuries of white oppres
sion made fair play impossible. Affir
mative action and quotas were needed
to make it “fair.”
All this time, the Great Society
began shackling more people than
ever to poverty; $1.7 trillion dollars
later, the ghettos arc worse than ever
before. The solution from the
NAACP? More money.
The result is predictable. The I irc
man in Philly, the construction work
er in Chicago, saw people getting
ahead just because they were black,
not because of talent. The blue-collar
guy believed he had to work and
sweat to gel ahead, while blacks got
into college or jobs because of their
skin color, or lived on welfare and had
the nerve to say that the federal gov
ernment wasn’t throwing enough of
its tax dollars at them, or that the
American people didn’t care because
they were racists.
By focusing on special rights, by
ignoring economic equality and by
becoming slavish adherents to the
liberal plantation mentality of the
Democratic Party, the NAACP has
de-lcgitimixcd itself in the public eye,
creating a backlash. Exclusively harp
ing on past injustice obscures a future
controlled by economic freedom.
The old spirit of self-reliance is
gone, replaced by the federal dollar.
With this comes the sad fact that
Martin Luther King is a holiday that
the Kansas KKK will protest, and
Malcom X is nothing more than a
slick marketing ploy to sell ball caps
and jerseys.
Kcpfldd is a graduate student in history,
an alumnus of the L'NL College of Law and a
Summer Daily Nebraskan columnist.
