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Nebraskan
Editorial Board
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Jeremy Fitzpatrick. . • • Editor, 472-1766
Kathy Steinauer..Opinion Page Editor
Wendy Mott..Managing Editor
Todd Cooper. t-Sports Editor
Chris Hopfensperger..Copy Desk ChieJ
Kim Spurlock...Sower Editor
Kiley Timperley. .Senior Photographer
No time limit
Welfare plan needs alternative focuses
A task force formed to study Nebraska’s welfare system has
developed some suggestions to get recipients off welfare
and make them self-sufficient employed citizens.
Families with one adult who is physically and mentally able to
work would be eligible for welfare for two years. They would
receive cash payments only if they signed contracts and followed
the state’s plan intended to help them become self-sufficient.
Welfare reform is a good idea. But whether or not this plan is
the answer is not clear.
A time limit on welfare benefits is a questionable idea. Time
limits could restrain recipients from getting into truly beneficial
job-training programs, especially those that last more than two
years. Those who receive welfare need it to survive. They should
be able to depend on these needed benefits, rather than wondering
when their time will run out.
This plan seems to exclude single-parent families and others
who need child care in order for the parent to consider working
outside the home. Some money and effort should be put in to
working out a child-care system for these parents so they can
either get a job that pays a living wage or get the education
needed for a job that pays well enough to survive on without
wcitarc assistance.
Welfare reform especially needs to focus on why these people
are on welfare and work to get rid of those problems, such as lack
of education or lack of needed child care. The task force should
concentrate on ways to help welfare recipients attain good jobs,
not how long these people can get benefits.
International action
America should ready itselffor intervention
The domestic unrest in Russia has reached the boiling point.
Now the United States and its NATO allies need to be
prepared to take extraordinary action to stabilize the
situation.
President Clinton has few options in dealing with Russia’s
internal problems. But he should take any steps possible to
support Boris Yeltsin and his democratic government.
Thousands of hard-line protestors broke the government’s siege
of the Russian parliament Sunday. The protestors also seized
other key installations in the worst political fighting in Moscow
since the Bolshevik Revolution.
The Associated Press reported that parts of Moscow were
turned into virtual battle zones as 10,000 protestors armed with
sticks, clubs and rocks broke through line after line of riot police.
The protestors waved red Soviet flags. Some of the protestors
yelled “Down with America.”
The domestic unrest in the former Soviet Union is critical to
the future security of the United States. In many ways, we cannot
separate the stability of Russia from the stability of our own
country.
Russia is still a nation with many nuclear weapons, it hard-line
protestors hostile to the United States gain control of the country,
the U.S. government will no longer be able to focus on domestic
challenges like health care. The Cold War could begin again.
President Clinton needs to take unprecedented and bold action
to support the Democratic government of Boris Yeltsin. If democ
racy fails in Russia, it will falter elsewhere in the world as well.
Stiff editorial* represent the official policy of the Fall 1993 Daily Nebraskan. Policy ia 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 Editorinl columns represent
the opinion of the author. The regents publish the Dnily 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
The Dnily Nebraskan welcomes brief letter, to the editor from all readers and interested other.
avStoWe'T^Etoily^Nk^aSan'^ai^IaUie^ghrtoedd^lrre^ncUHmateriaj'wibmittoif^sSw
should run as a guest opinion. Letters and guest opinions sent to the newspaper become the
published Letters should included the author's name yew ia school nudur and group
affiliation' if any Request, to withhold name, will not be granted Submit Merisi to the Daily
Nebipskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 R St, Lincoln, Neb 68388-0448
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Green space
I am writing in support of Graham
Spanicr and a car-frec campus. Our
new chancellor was chosen as a result
ofa truly open selection process. Since
then, he has done an unprecedented
amount to solicit input from thd uni
versity community on issues.
As a biker and pedestrian, 1 am
tired of my life being threatened by
cars barreling through the middle of
campus looking for that last parking
space! Cars are a threat to campus
safety, as they kill 40,000 people in
the United States annually.
1 am a former resident of Selleck
Hall, located next to the parking lot
proposed for elimination. While liv
ing there, I was awakened every morn
ing at 6 a.m. by the “car culture” as
hundreds of hydrocarbon chugging,
noisy vehicles would race into this lot
outside my residence hall window,
fighting for every last bit of cherished
pavement.
What good is convenience when
your sleep and safety arc compro
mised daily?
JelTRiggcrt
UNL graduate, employee and
commuter
Ecology Now!
I am writing in response to the
letter to the editor by James Zank
(DN, Sept. 30). As the instigator of the
petition supporting the green space
and an active member of Ecology
Now! I would like to urge James to
check his facts. The petition was start
ed independent from Ecology Now!
by myself and Mark Petersen, who
happens to be the president of Ecolo
gy Now! Although Ecology Now! did
vote to support the petition, it was
never advertised as an Ecology Now!
project. When speaking to ASUN,
RHA, the DN and the chancellor, we
spoke as students and not as represen
tatives of Ecology Now!
In defense of Ecology Now! 1 know
vou have not attended a meeting in at
least two years, so you don’t know all
the good things we have accomplished
and all that we arc working toward.
Ecology Now! is responsible for the
current recycling programs on cam
pus, and we are working closely with
the new university recycling consult
ant to develop a comprehensive plan
for the whole campus. In addition, the
club is responsible for theGreen Lights
Rrogram being implemented in the
lebraska Union, the new daily Ride
Share program, and the annual Earth
Day EcoFair geared to educating the
public.
Ecology Now! also arranged edu
cational speakers, and last semester
these speakers were broadcasted on
educational television. We are also
currently working with local high
schools to get new environmental clubs
started.
Ecology Now! is an environmen
tal activist organization dedicated to
“promoting ecological awareness” and
James, we invite you to attend our
meetings any Thursday night at 7:30
in the union to reacquaint yourself
with our true goals.
Kimberly Haskett
senior
computer science
Drugs
It seems strange that we spend
billions of dollars each year fighting
drugs in this country and accomplish
i i
James Mehsling/DN
nothing but the creation of an ex
tremely violent black market, yet the
four most dangerous drugs arc readily
available. Not only are these drugs
available, but three of these drugs arc
legally pushed through false advertis
ing.
Tobacco, alcohol, meat and televi
sion, what a pity! No doubt tobacco,
alcohol and meat each kill more peo
Ele than all the illegal drugs com
incd; we’ve all heard the statistics.
TV, on the other hand, in the manner
it is used in this country, kills mental
ly. It works indirectly by slowly suck
ing away the life and creativity of
those addicted.
Nicotine is the No. 1 drug when it
comes to difficulty in giving up, and
alcohol addiction is stronger than her
oin addiction with more severe with
drawals. Then there’s meat, which 1
can say from my firsthand knowledge
is addictive.
Don’t believe it’s addictive? Try
to give it up. TV is addictive too. Look
at all the millions of Americans who
spend most of their waking hours
glued to a TV set, never growing as
individuals or doing anything for this
society that is in deep trouble because
of our apathy. This drug is very dan
gerous because of the images it gives
people. Images of violence, sexism
and materialism rule the TV.
It would be so much easier to take
the old-fashioned conservative ap
proach and pretend these drugs aren’t
problems, but it bothers me that the
United States is No. 1 in bad health
and violence. We are also No. 1 in
meat consumption and TV watching,
as well as heavy users of alcohol and
•
tobacco. Anybody else see the con
nections?
Paul Koester
senior
soil science
Gun control
In regard to Nicholas Taylor and
the ongoing debate regarding fire
arms: Mr. Taylor failed to see the
connection between the IRA's cam
paign of terror and the nearly unilat
eral disarmament of the ordinary cit
izens of the United Kingdom. I’m not
clear on the connection that P.G.
Szczepanski was trying to make, but
it may be that thugs will always have
access to weapons regardless of law.
I’m also confused about a connec
tion that Mr. Taylor was making when
he stated his preference to “face a
mugger with a knife than a handgun."
Does Mr. Taylor mean that he would
rather be so armed? Does he presume
that further legislation will convince
a mugger — who by definition is
already engaged in criminal activity
— to use a knife rather than a gun on
the people he will attack?
In any event, connections to the
United Kingdom arc immaterial; the
issue is the U.S. Constitution and
whether further infringement upon
the I iberties of the people of this coun
try in the name of crime control are to
be desired. Whether the United States
or the United Kingdom has or will
become a totalitarian state is less im
portant than whether or not the gov
ernment has the means to impose
totalitarian rule upon the people.
Like Mr. Taylor, I have been a
member of my country’s armed forc
es and I am still committed to support
ing and defending the liberties that
my ancestors won from their ances
tors. Thanks to the Daily Nebraskan
for providing a forum for the exercise
of the First Amendment, but we should
remember that the Second Amend
ment is the true guarantor of the First.
Robert N. Gale
graduate student
Triplets
I’m a bit baffled why the DN chose
to put the story of the three identical
brothers on the front cover ofWednes
day’s issue (DN, Sept. 29). If they
were all geniuses studying at UNL at
the age of IS, I could understand. If
they nave some supernatural powers
no one knows about, I could under
stand. But the reality of this is that
they’re just as human as I am. So what
if they all look alike? It still doesn’t
change the fact that each one of them
is unique in his own right.
Mahmoud Al-Alawy
senior
agronomy