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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 27, 1993)
Opinion .safes --—————————— Nebraskan Editorial Board University of Nebraska-Lincoln Jeremy Fitzpatrick.. .Editor, 472-1766 Kathy Steinauer....Opinion Page Editor Wendy Mott... ..Managing Editor Todd Cooper.. ... Sports Editor Chris Hop/ensperger... .Copy Desk ChieJ Kim Spurlock......«.... .Sower Editor Kiley Timperley...... . Senior Photographer Pull out U.S. presence not helping troops, Somalis The Clinton administration is pursuing a flawed policy in Somalia that should be halted before it costs any more American lives. Three American soldiers were killed in Somalia on Saturday when their helicopter was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. The attack brings to 11 the number of U.S. servicemen killed in action in Somalia. A crowd of cheering Somalis surrounded the downed helicop ter, holding up pieces of the wreckage. The Somalis then report edly recovered pieces of charred flesh from the wreckage and paraded them around a marketplace. The Clinton administration responded to the attack with a statement of continuing support for the use of U.S. troops in Somalia. “Somalia is on the road to recovery,” White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers said. “We must not let this substantial yet fragile progress to be threatened by the brutality of warlords who would profit from the suffering of others and thwart the will of the overwhelming majority of Somalis who seek peace and reconciliation.” President Clinton’s decision to leave U.S. forces in Somalia is wrong. The country is not on the road to recovery. And the presence of U.S. soldiers will not force the Somalis to stop the violence in their country. U.S. troops should be withdrawn from Somalia or a clear date for their departure should be set. If the Somalis wanted U.S. forces in their country it would be different. But they do not and as long as that is true there can be no U.S. solution to the problem in Somalia. When Uwc-Wilhclm Rakcbrand was gunned down in his Florida rental car several weeks ago. newspapers blared indignant headlines: Eight European tourists slain in Florida in less than one year. The European press denounced America. The American press was astounded. A couple weeks later, Florida natives killed another foreign tourist. That makes nine. The headlines were smaller, but the outrage was not. Florida’s governor suspended all tourist advertis ing—at home and abroad. The state’s $31 billion industry was endangered. The killing was out of control. But then again, the killing has been out of control for years. The only difference is that it’s been fellow Americans — not Europeans — biting the bullet. Last year, Florida reported nearly 2,000 murders — yet just 22 of them were non-residents, and less than a third of those were non-Americans. What all this leads to is a rather morbid conclusion: America is at war with itself. What’s even more disturbing is that it takes the deaths of a handful of foreigners, and the threatened loss of money, before we even begin to take notice, much less call a cease-fire. The Chicago Tribune has taken a dead-aim approach to try to curb the war: It’s publishing a front-page story for every child killed in Chicago this year. But the message has yet to hit home. The murder measure stands at SO, and it’s not slowing down. Perhaps the war with murder already is over. Perhaps we’ve lost. — The Maneater University of Missouri-Columbia Staff editorials represent 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 repents, responsibility for the editorial content of the newspaper lies solely in the hands of its students. 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 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 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. Requests to withhold names will not be granted Submit material to the Daily Nebraskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 R St, Lincoln, Neb. 68588-0448. POHT 'MMS S\VKE WfiN'frTCHML HWSXNR. STBKEtfVsWp "*V ^eh4... cwtCiORvze ^ofcHoia. Generation X If Sideshow drummer Paul Tisdale is a spokesman for Generation X, we’ve got some serious rethinking to do (DN, Sept. 22). Tisdale is wrong in thinking there is no hope for our gen eration, and he places the blame for his lack of hope on the wrongpeoplc. First, Tisdale says, “I don’t think there is any hope for this generation.” It’s hard to know what he means by this. He himself hopes tQ achieve creative success. He nopes new peo ple will be exposed to his music. And I think he hopes to sell some albums. But 1 assume from the context of the article that he means Generation X has no hope to achieve the American Dream, meaning financial success as it is traditionally understood. We look at a band like Nirvana, which has profited from a society it says it despises, and we scratch our heads in bewilderment. Here isa wildly successful band — and not just in the creative sense—telling us there’s no hope. The hypocrisy and naivete of it is mind-boggling. Second, Tisdale blames the wrong people for his hopelessness: our par ents and“former political administra tions,” presumably those of Presi dents Reagan and Bush. If anything, both of these groups give him reason 10 nope. America has never been about “sharing the wealth.” It has been about individual achievement. America’s status as a beacon ofhopc to the world came, for the most part, from an eco nomic system that rewarded elTort and encouraged people to stand on their own two feet. And America is great today because of self-reliant individuals — including our parents — who didn’t wait for somebody to “distribute the wealth.” And to say that the Reagan and Bush administrations made Genera tion X “directionless and shiftless” is ridiculous. Let’s think for ourselves, rather than listen to our president on this one. The much-maligncd ’80s were a time of increased opportunity for all Americans — including the minorities Tisdale accuses our par ents of neglecting — as economic statistics from that decade plainly show. v Our generation needs to abandon the sort of sloppy thinking Tisdale articulates. There are plenty of us in Generation X who believe that “the age-old American dream” is alive and well. I hope our viewpoint will be represented in future articles. Todd Van Campen Lincoln Censorship If Sam Kcpficld is trying for the all-time complaint mail record for a DN columnist, his latest lunacy will certainly help his cause. Now he’s — - proposing we help relieve the univer sity’s financial ills by chucking the Affirmative Action Office (DN, Sept. 22). Sam, some of us see a double stan dard in this “censorship’’ issue con cerning the conservative backlash to such things as affirmative action and diversity on campus. Hey, if people on campus want to publ ish an altema » —■ . • —i David Badders/£>N five newspaper or make a mock tax return form, that’s fine. All of us with our heads on straight don’t advocate the censorship of any expression as long as it isn’t violent or seditious. Where was this outcry for free speech from the conservative right when Omaha for Decency, a group of moralists, were trying to ban an ad mittedly inappropriate but perfectly legal 2 Live Crew album that wasn’t even selling that well? Where was it when a bunch of egotistical far-rights in our Congress were trying to pass a constitutional amendment to ban peo ple from burning the flag? I now see your conservative point. Be it printed or spoken, when the controversial speech comes from the liberal left, it is obscenity and any right-wing movement to crush it is considered a crusade for these so called “traditional” values. When the situation is reversed, the speech is justifiable and anything that tries to challenge it is nothing more than a fascist PC tirade. For the most part, Sam, you’ve rehashed nothing more than that pa thetic plea to return to the good old days before those God-awful ’60s. I say let’s bring them back. Most of us arc too young to remember the time when a woman’s place was assumed to be in the home, when anyone who didn't kiss Joe McCarthy’s butt was labeled a communist, or when Jim Crow laws were in effect. Maybe if we all saw firsthand that the aood old days were only good to a few rich, t privileged, Caucasian males, we might understand why we have things like affirmative action today. Scott Carpenter junior English Safety The DN has appropriately remind ed us of the anniversary of Candice Harms’ abduction. It is indeed a good time for all of us to think about pre ventative measures we can take against assault, rape and other violent mmes. The recent mugging of a friend of mine is a fresh reminder that these assaults continue to occur. However, the assumption that to solve this issue, we need merely to be careful and not walk alone is asimplistic and ignorant response. Instead, I challenge the DN to deal with the complicated. Yes, each indi vidual must take precautions, but let us also make an assertive effort to improve and expand the entire com munity’s response to these crimes. The wonderful emergency telephones around campus arc an excellent bc ![inning. But most importantly for our uture, we must begin to improve the foundations of our society, to learn why these acts of violence toward women continue, to develop better educational and communityprogram.s. build self-esteem and rethink many of our societal attitudes. The DN can be an important tool for educating our community rather than giving lip ser vice to this issue. Carol Dicks department of geology Hooters Obviously MattZimmerman is tret living in the same world as the rest of us (DN, Sept. 23). Feminists like myself can sec through all of the hidden and not-so-hidden male dom inance that controls all women in our society in some way or another. Men who get turned on by women “dressed up in sophomoric, restrictive, reveal ing outfits" are the same men who make our laws and sit on our juries, who, consequently, make serious de cisions that effect us all. Suppose one of lire waitresses at Hooters were to walk home after work without changing out of her work clothes. If that women were raped, she would have been “asking for it” because of how she was dressed. In previous sexual assault and harass ment cases, women either weren’t believed or were told it was their fault due to their “promiscuity” and cloth ing. Zimmerman should rethink what he says about half of the world’s population. Women are not sex ob jects and should be treated with re spect. Tina Lyles senior broadcasting