OPINION
-£
Netjraskan
Monday, October 11,1993
Nebraskan
Editorial Board
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Jeremy Fitzpatrick . .
Kathy Steinauer....
Wendy Matt.......
Todd Cooper.
Chris Hopfensperger
Kim Spurlock.
Kilev Timperley....
.Editor. 472-1766
. . Opinion Page Editor
.Managing Editor
........ Sports Editor
.Copy Desk ChieJ
........ Sower Editor
. Senior Photographer
Km mm w
Sad day for some
Columbus Day a symbol of wrongdoing
Today thousands of state and federal employees get the day
off to celebrate Columbus Day. Schools likely will teach
children that today is the day that Christopher Columbus
discovered America.
Today and Tuesday, many will demonstrate against this
holiday, which they likely will say celebrates a symbol of the
oppression many Native Americans and indigenous people
experienced after whites settled on this continent.
Columbus himself did not cause this oppression. We know
now that he simply wandered upon a land that had not been
discovered by Europeans yet. It was years later that thousands
became slaves and had their land taken away from them by white
settlers.
Native Americans and others have every right to protest
observing this day in honor of Columbus, who has come to
symbolize this oppression and slavery. They had something —
the, land — taken away from them by people who thought they
earned the right to it by finding it.
The United States has outgrown recognizing Columbus Day as
a holiday. Instead, we should consider acknowledging the wrong
doings that happened after white settlers came to America and
forced Native Americans off the land.
We should recognize Columbus Day as a day acknowledging
America’s history as it truly is: a history combining Nativc
Amcrican, African-American and European history.
As a country, we need to evolve and realize that what we’re
celebrating today is not necessary a happy holiday for all Ameri
cans.
Who needs him?
NU must decide if president is necessary
The NU presidential search committee has taken several steps
to reduce the cost of selecting a new president for the
University of Nebraska.
The committee has hired an advertising firm for $25,000. The
last selection committee, which eventually hired then-UNL
Chancellor Martin Masscngalc, spent $39,000.
Committee members also arc trying to organize their schedules
to cut down on the amount of traveling they will have to do to
interview finalists.
NU Corporation Secretary J.B. Millikcn said the result of these
steps could be a search process that costs less than the $65,000
search used to hire Masscngalc in 1989-1990.
“We could very well spend less than the last search,” Millikcn
said.
The committee should be congratulated for spending less than
the $65,000 the last committee used to hire someone already at
UNL. But the amount of time and money they arc spending to
hire a president could probably be put to better use elsewhere.
It is not clear that NU needs a president. The university system
is already governed by the NU Board of Regents and the Nebras
ka Coordinating Commission for Higher Education. In addition,
each campus is run by a chancellor.
Before rushing ahead and spending the money to hire a presi
dent, the regents and the people of Nebraska should decide if one
is needed. The regents should be capable of governing the univer
sity system and working with the university chancellors. If they
aren’t, then perhaps the whole NU system needs to be reformed.
I III IOUI \l Pol l( \
SUIT editorials represent the olTicial 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 ofthe paper According to policy set by
the regents, responsibility for the editorial content ofthe newspaper lies solely in the hands of
its students
I I I II It I’ni l< \
The Daily Nebraskan welcomes briefletters to the editor from all readers and interested others.
Letters will be selected for publication on the hasis 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 ofthe 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. 6H58X-0448
KKR0USEKDN W\JRNM>93
vet another dangerous sect to be disarmed
Guest Opinion
Come out against hatred today
In my role as director of the uni
versity’s Office for Affirmative
Action and Diversity, I am rou
tinely called upon by the press and
many public organizations to address
the issues and trials faced by women,
people of color and people with dis
abilities within our community. The
stories associated with such struggles
make for good copy and provide a
forum for many to display publicly
their passion for justice, equality and
desire for human harmony.
However, 1 am not routinely called
upon to address similar struggles faced
by the gay and lesbian members of our
community. Silence and inaction can
be a powerful ally of oppression. So
rather than wait for a reporter to de
velop a curiosity on these topics, I
thought 1 would use this brief column
and the timeliness of National Com
ing-Out Day to report on a few of
these issues.
In rude humor or in callous re
marks, there arc members ofourcom
munity who are willing to contribute
to an atmosphere of hate, misunder
standing and injustice. They don’t
ofTcr educated opinion—only a high
ly personalized denigration. The Gay
and Lesbian Student Association is a
frequent target for obscene and threat
ening phone calls. My office received
venomous, often unpublishable, let
ters attacking the university policy of
nondiscrimination based upon sexual
orientation, and complains of harass
ment due to sexual orientation arc on
the rise.
Although the struggles of every
disaffected group arc unique, the tools
ofopprcssion seem strikingly similar.
They rob the individual of dignity and
opportunity and select targets without
reason or cause. These arc the same
struggles being faced by the gay and
lesbian community at UNL and across
this slatc.it is a struggle for justice, a
struggle that should concern us all.
We will not be able to take pride in our
achievements as a pluralistic society
so long as we accept the cultivation of
hatred, denigrating or threatening
behavior within our community. We
should recognize the damage that such
bigotry and injustice brings to our
community and stand against it in any
form it takes.
Eric Jolty it assistant to the chancellor
and Director for Affirmative Action and Di
versity.
Apollo 009
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speculation in letters to the editor that
the Apollo 009 spacecraft is rapidly
rusting away in storage. One recent
example of the confusion about the
makeup of the vehicle is a letter by
Ron Synowicki (DN, Sept. 22). I can
understand why Ron might think that
the Apollo command module outer
shell is constructed of titanium since
titanium is used in some very high
speed aircraft, but the metal was not
used in the Apollo command vehicle.
The outer shell of Apollo 009 is
constructed of stainless steel honey
comb between stainless steel sheets.
This structure is covered by an abla
tive phenolic resin heat shield, which
carried away the heat of reentry. Stain
less steel, by itself, does not rust away
under prolonged exposure to mois
ture. The ablative heat shield also will
not corrode and would not be dam
aged by anything in the environment
except long-term exposure to ultravi
olet radiation from the sun. Protected
inside, it should last indefinitely.
Many individuals and organiza
tions today beautifully restore neglect
ed or abandoned aluminum aircraft
manufactured as far back as the 1930s
to living condition. The Apollo space
craft should not pose any special res
toration problems and much more is
known about its construction and de
sign than many restored aircraft.
It is interesting that some Nebras
kans believe that we do not have the
resources to restore and display this
valuable piece of history, and there
fore, the solution is to give it to some
one in Kansas. 1 applaud the regents
who had the foresight to hold onto this
wonderful artifact from man’s first
exploration of space, and I hope that
in the future Nebraskans will have the
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opportunity to appreciate it firsthand.
Jerry Schmidt
department of
agricultural meteorology
Santera rwt7liDlnty/UiN
Bikes
1 am writing in response to the
article on stolen bikes (DN, Oct. 5).
Don’t you think that you could have
just reported about the number of
bikes being stolen and some ideas on
how to prevent it from happening,
instead of giving people ideas to take
just the accessories, “if thieves can’t
steal the whole bike.” 1 realize that
this is not something new, but when
you tell people where and what to
steal, 1 have a problem.
Maybe you could have said some
thing about getting more security in
those areas of high risk, but nothing
was said or done about the problem.
On Oct. 7, two scats were stolen be
fore 11:30 a.m. in the areas that were
mentioned in your article. Maybe you
did mean to make people aware of the
high-risk areas, but what you also did
was inform thieves of areas that arc
easy. Maybe you should continue this
article with some information that
people want to hear, such as what is
going to be done about the problem?
Joshlyn R. White
freshman
architecture
Somalia
wny arc wc in aomana: 10 pro
tect huge, American-based, multina
tional petroleum investments as well
as strategic military positions in the
region. Why don’t we mount an Op
eration Restore Hope in Sudan, Ethi
opia or Mozambique? No oil, no
money, no immediate strategic mili
tary value.
Why is Sam Kcpiicld (DN. Oct. 6)
allowed to suggest such "modest pro
posals” for Somalia as “lcvcl(ing)
their cities, scattering) the inhabit
ants to the winds ... and coat(ing) the
whole area with Agent Orange or
plutonium” in the DN? Because un
der the guise of “balance” the DN
publishes two kinds of opinions—far
right and center. Furthermore, and
this is the real answer to the question,
it is because not enough readers and
advertisers are sufficiently incensed
by the bad taste that the DN editorial
staff exhibits when it publishes such
garbage to threaten it with an imme
diate boycott fot allowing such ethi
cally irresponsible and morally repre
hensible opinions to be published. If,
as a joke, Kepficld proposes the elim
ination of all Jews, blacks or indige
nous Americans, will the DN publish
it as a valid opinion? Why then when
it concerns Somalians?
Tim Janda
lecturer
English department
