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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 1, 1993)
OPINION Net>raskan Nebraskan Editorial Board University of Nebraska-Lincoln Jeremy Fitzpatrick.. Kathy Steinauer_ Wendy Mott. Todd Cooper. Chris Hopfensperger Kim SpuHock. KUey Timperley.... ... Editor, 472-1766 Opinion Page Editor ... Managing Editor .Sports Editor ... .Copy Desk ChieJ .Sower Editor Senior Photographer I DIM >l< More than winning Academic should be more than fun, games Congratulations to Johnny Rodgers, the former Comhusker football star and Heisman Trophy winner. He deserves recognition not for his past football achieve ments, but instead for returning to college more than 20 years after becoming a Husker star. But the fact that Rodgers did not graduate when he was first enrolled here exemplifies how many student-athletes fall through the cracks at UNL. Too often these students’ main job while they are here is to play football — actually being a student is secondary^From here, many go on to play in the NFL. But a familiar ending to this story is that after a few years of pro football their bodies wear out, and their stay in the NFL is short-lived. Then they are stuck without a degree, and they have trouble finding a job. This phenomenon cannot be blamed on Nebraska athletes themselves because many have been Academic All-Americans. However, only around 81 percent of Husker scholarship athletes who are no longer eligible to play have graduated. The problem lies in the system. The focus is placed on the athletics and not on the academics. These players have access to some of the best athletic facilities in the country, but they need to have the same top-quality academic programs available. UNL offers help for all students through services such as the Academic Success Center and the writing assistance center, and football players should take advantage of these programs. Since the ar.a<lp.mir. assistance available is not emphasized, it appears that no one cares if these students graduate. They become viewed as athletes only, not students. The biggest goal of the football program should be a 100 percent graduation rate every year. There is no reason these student-athletes cannot graduate from UNL the first time they attend this university. Take it to the Bank Israeli/PLO agreement first step to peace Old hatreds die hard, but the Israeli government took a step toward breaking that rule Monday when it approved a historic agreement with the Palestine Liberation Organi zation. The agreement calls for Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and for Palestinian self-government on the West Bank. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin said the time had come to “take a risk for peace.” He predicted the agreement would pave the way for security in the Middle East into die next century. The Israelis and the PLO have been bitter enemies for decades. Monday’s agreement marks a historic turning point in relations between the two groups, which have been fighting since Israel’s creation in 1948. The agreement includes a statement on future negotiations and a pledge of economic cooperation. It is expected to be signed at the Arab-Israeli peace talks, which resumed yesterday in Wash ington. Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said the agreement could be “an opening to 100 years of interchange and good neighborli ness — each people beneath its own flag, each people with its own prayer book, all of the people of the region in economic cooperation.” Words are easier than deeds, and the results of the agreement have yet to be seen. But the fact that the Israelis and the PLO were able to come to any agreement is historic. And the plan, which addresses the real problem of the Palestinian’s right to self government, could be the first step toward peace. I HI l< iki \l l'< il l< \ Staff editorial* represeat the official policy of the Fall 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 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 regents, responsibility for the editorial content of the newspaper lies solely in the hands of its students. _ 11 l< Pt H l< \ The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief letters to the editor from all tenders and interested others. Letters will be selected for publication on the basis of clarity, originality, timeli ness and space available. The Daily Nebraskan retains the right to edit or reject all 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 of the Daily Nebraskan aad 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. Requests to withhold names will not be granted. Submit material to the Daily Nebraskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 R St., Lincoln, Neb. 68388-0448. S \\I Kl IM II I I) Gun-control lobby misses mark President G inton last week un veiled his crime bill. It calls for putting 50,000 more cops on the streets to salve Republican consciences. It also calls for enact mentof the Brady bill, causing squeals of delight from gun-control nuts ev erywhere. The gun-control lobby can trot out all the tired nostrums it wants, calling us the most violent society in the world. They ask why can’t we be like the Japanese and the JSngUsh, forget ting that the reasons for World War II, the American Revolution and the War of 1812 were that we didn’t want to be like them. Fine, I say. Give the gun control lobby every single law it wants. Give them the waiting periods—hell, dou ble the waiting periods. Give them every ban on weapons and ammuni tion. Then sit back for five years, and I am willing to bet that you won’t find any appreciable decrease in the crime rate. Why? Because the problem is not the hardware; it’s the people packing it. Take away guns,people would use knives. Take away knives and they’d throw rocks. After Dion Terres walked into a McDonald’s and began bl asting away at customers, police found a tape re cording he made earlier. On it, Terres said, “Society screwed me and it’s payback time.” It’s a perfect and con cise illustration of the cultural break down confronting us. As San Jose State criminologist Michael Rustigan pointed out in a Los Angeles Times editorial, the Ameri can culture of victimization and the constant search for “rights” have re sulted in a failure to take responsibil ity for one’s actions. Racism, pover ty, dysfunctional families and genet ics all cause aberrant behavior, not a moral failing in the person himself. In and of itself, this is not fatal. Cross it with the American “gunfight People are simply in the way, mere Impediments to our societally sanctioned culture of instant gratification, another by product of the ’60s. er mentalitybeen of our experience in nation-building that required it, and a warped form of vengeance re sults. We’ve had crime waves in the past, in the 1860s and 1920s, but something different is driving this one. Part of the difference is in the mind-numbing quantity of violence portrayed in the media. Turn on TV news and carnage from war or car accidents leads. Hollywood glories in body counts. In older films, maybe a half-dozen people bought it. Today, for a film to qualify as “action,” at least a couple dozen have to die. And die they do, horribly and in Technicolor, in ever more bizarre ways. Jimmy Cagney, Edward G. Robinson or John W ayne would shoot a man who would clutch his chest and fall. No blood. Today, we see brains splattered across the screen, huge pools of blood as ice picks are driven into chests, etc., etc. And when the Duke gunned (town a black hat, it was for a purpose. The villain deserved it for — well, for being a villain. Violence on the screen today is far more ambiguous. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s kindo* and gentler Terminator only kneecapped cops, instead ofk ill ing them, and he was the are there and in the way. People are simply in the way, mere impediments to our societalW sanc tioned culture of instant gratification, another by-product of His *<tii (9mb members are constantly in search of “juice,” and anyone in the way is dead. When two thugs in South Caro lina saw James Jordan’s red Lexus and thought it would be neat to drive it, they simply killed Jordan and dumped his body in a river. No Brady Bill would have saved him. And after the crime is committed, we have a justice system that allows child rapists and murderers to be pa roled after eight years for “good be havior.” We have defense attorneys who can’t understand why people would be upset about having such a pervert live in their neighborhood and criticize them for having narrow minds. The problem is cultural, one not easily legislated, which is why gun control is the easy, gutless solution. Culture is something the government can’t directly decree, but there are indirect means to achieve it. It means abandonment of the val ue-free society bom of the 1960s. It means a return to teaching standards, it means forcing people to take re sponsibility for their actions. It means a reaffirmation of the principle that human life isprecious, not to be taken on a whim, on pain of swift and sure punishment. KtpAald U ■ graduate stedrat la Watery, aluMHSi of the UNL CoBegc ef Law aid a Dally Nebraska* celaasabt Rally I am writing regarding the front page photo and short article on the rally celebrating women's suffrage (DN, Aug. 23). The caption for the photograph, which begins “A small crowd ofwom en attended. ..." suggests that only women attended the rally. This it unfortunate since this perpetuates the misconception that women’s rights are only for women. In fact, men also work for wom en’s rights and several were present al this rally. It is also unfortunate that the cap tion began with “A small crowd.” While this may be an adequate de scription of the approximately 13C participants, the statement itself sug II I I I Us | () | III I |>| I OK gests the event was somehow insig nificant or unimportant. But, as sug gested by the brief article on page 7, the issues covered at the rally are central social issues which affect all members of society. Brian J. Huschle graduate student philosophy NOW member Recycling The Daily Nebraskan is read by many on this campus, but what hap pens to the papers alter that? From personal experience, I think that al most 95 to 99 percent of all the news papers are either thrown away in trash Bins or are just discarded on floors and I—r—-— chairs. This is just plain carelessness and very typical of the disposable society that we live in today. This campus, especially the stu dents, needs to step into the green revolution. Newspapers are not trash, they are recyclable and reusable. So I propose to anyone who picks up a copy of the Daily Nebrasum, or any other newspaper, to put it back when you’re done reading it so someone else can continue the cycle, or just recycle it yourself. The Daily Nebras kan newspaper stands should be full at the end of the day, and the trash bins shouldn’t contain discarded newspa pers. Doug Pleskac sophomore international affairs