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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 21, 1993)
Opinion Nebraskan Thursday, Octobar 21,1993 Nebraskan Editorial Board University of Nebraska-Lincoln Jeremy Fitzpatrick . . . Kcthy Steinauer. Wendy Mott. Todd Cooper. Chris Hopfensperger. Kim Spurlock. Kiley Timperley. I hi mm vl . Editor, 472-1766 Opinion Page Editor .., Managing Editor ...... Sports Editor ,. . .Copy Desk Chief .Sower Editor Senior Photographer In view U.S. needs more visible role in Russia The United States was right to stand behind the democratic government of Boris Yeltsin during the recent clash be tween Yeltsin and hard-line protestors in Russia. But now the United States needs to push Yeltsin to not forget his commit ment to democracy. Nicholas Daniloff, a former Moscow correspondent for United Press International, spoke at the Lied Center for Performing Arts Wednesday. Daniloff covered the conflict in Moscow, including the assault on the Russian White House to force opposition lawmakers to surrender. Daniloff said the United States needed to be a more visible force in the aftermath of the conflict. “Russia needs to be gently nudged, gently pushed into democ racy,” he said. “Because, as we’ve seen, they can backslide easily.” Yeltsin has been a critical ally in the new friendship between the United States and Russia. That friendship has allowed the United States to turn its focus inward to domestic challenges. But the friendship has been based on Yeltsin’s decision to embrace democracy. President Clinton was right to support Yeltsin during the recent strife in Moscow. But now Clinton needs to push him to return Russia to an open and democratic government. Wrong channel TV violence highlights real-life problems ■ Attorney General Janet Reno told senators Wednesday she opposed immediate legislation to curb violence on televi sion. The Associated Press reported that Reno said she instead favored action by the television industry to develop shows that repudiated violence. Reno said entertainment officials had told her they would not argue any more about whether television caused violence in society. She said the officials promised to change programming. But if they don’t act, the government will have to, Reno told the Senate Commerce Committee. Several anti-TV violence bills are being considered by the committee. They propose restrictions on the time violent pro gramming can be aired and warning labels on violent shows. The United States has become a violent society, and that reality is reflected in television programming. Undoubtedly, violent television has some impact on viewers. But the answer to the problem of violence in the United States is not to remove it from television and hope it will go away. While TV violence must be reduced, real violence must be reduced as well. And to do that, the United States will have to address real social issues much more complex than television. If Congress is truly interested in solving the problem of vio lence in the United States, it will consider legislation to address the economic problems that arc a breeding ground for violence and crime. Perhaps if the United States was a less violent society, its television would be less violent as well. I M MHO \l IN >1 l< \ Staff editorials represent the ofTiciml 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. 1,1 I 11 K l‘OM< \ 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 ofthe Daily Nebraskan and cannot be returned. Anonymous submissions will not be 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. nwBcKon wm£>9s to MOOT \vwwhx J KEPOW am - • “i , " I .1 » . . B l l | II Ks M* III! ClMinU v ‘Gay rights’ I think, as far as the term ‘gay rights’ is concerned, Mr. Bcinckc should be sick of hearing it (DN, Oct. 18). This is because we are talking about not specifically gay rights but human rights. Anyone who loses his job because of what he does in his personal life should be no concern to an employer, so long as it does not keep him from performing his con tractual duties as an employee. People who can’t get this through their thick skulls have not truly been discriminated against in their place of work because of race, creed, sex or sexual orientation. I challenge any white heterosexual male to come for ward and say he lost his job for being masculine. I not only applaud Sean Bolte for fighting back, on behalf of himself and the gay community, but for all of us who may have been turned away from work for unfair reasons. For that, Mr. Beineke, I think he is twice the man you will ever be. Pamela J. Hagman freshman fine arts Stickers Thank you, Mark Baldridge (DN, Oct. 20) for bringing some sense to this ongoing discussion of the pink triangles. But you have failed to see the underlying idiocy to all of this. Why hasn’t the Office of Affirma tive Action distributed “safe place” stickers to “care” more for our other minorities on campus — or others who may feel discriminated against? Perhaps we could have pink X’s for our African-American students, pink wheelchairs for our handicapped students and pink feathers for those of Native American descent. If the Office of Affirmative Action is serious about “caring,” it shouldn’t put the interests of one group over and above others. Mark Voss junior business administration Green space Chancel lor Spanier states (DN, Oct. 18) the $198,000 budgeted for the North Plaza Park would come from funds left over from last year’s bud get. He alleged, “It will not take away from any other program.” If this mon ey wasn’t to be spend on the green space, what would it be spent on? Does money that remains unspent from last year’s budget simply disappear? Of course it is being taken away from other programs. There are numbers of programs that could use an extra few thousand dollars, not to mention pro grams that have been slashed for bud getary reasons. Spanier also erroneously states that it would not displace student parking “whatsoever." I do seem to remember parking in that very lot more than a few times after 4 p.m. I believe that is why 1 bought a night permit. Despite my best efforts, I am still a student here and I suspect that I’m not the only student who uses that lot at night. Spanier conveniently fails to ad dress the fact that there are a number of faculty and staff who have pur chased permits for that lot through August 1994.1 can only assume that since construction commences in April, there is a plan to reimburse those people who will not be allowed access to central parking for which they paid hundreds of dollars. . Michael Bergstrom junior music theater Brian Shetttto/DN Assault After reading the article about a number of African Americans brutal ly assaulting an innocent man (DN, Oct. 19), it made me think about the level of ignorance, hatred and stupid ity on this campus. As a black female, it made me ashamed to have a number of my black brothers credited on the front page with assaulting somebody worse than the police officers did Rodney King. It seems like the only time that most black men get public ity for doing something is if they’ve done something violent or they’ve scored a touchdown on this campus, and it’s mostly their fault! The sad thing is that most of these people don’t have enough true pride for the rest of the positive black race to care about the message they are sending out to (he public. Why do some of you have to go and try to make the stereo types true! It’s unfair that the rest of the black student population has to Day the con sequences for a group or people that are just here to make it to the pros in whatever sport they’re in because they could care less about uplifting the race. We’re not here to pick up our fists, we’re here to pick up a book, and some of you seem to be greatly con fused. I’m really tired of having to fight a losing battle with the university sys tem for funding, against discrimina tion and for racial equality and repre sentation. If we can't get it together, we don’t deserve extra funding. We deserve to be discriminated against because of our action and we do not deserve to be represented as a student body because we arc making a joke out of the black race. I would like to make a formal apology to the international and Asian students from the rest of the African American student body, who encour aged me to write this letter, because we are truly embarrassed by the ac tionsofourpeoplc. Ido know that this entire campus would have been turned into a serious race riot if five or 10 white or Asian students would have victimized one of the brothers or sis ters on this campus, Jf we can come together for violence, we ought to be able to come together for peace. April Patrick junior broadcasting/international business ‘Baywatch’ I found Anne Steyer’s article, “TV beach conquers the world” (DN, Oct. 7), to be funny but mostly irritating. You seem worried that our pre cious American image will be tar nished by the seemingly tameless tele vision show “Baywatch.” Your gen eral concern is admirable for our na tion's image, but 1 do believe that if I was in a country other than the United States and having never been there, I would want to maybe get to know more about the United States after seeing tanned people running around the beach looking as though they’re having a good time, rather than seeing Capt. Kirk fight some alien. I found the article amusing up until the remarks about the importance of the lifeguards. Steyer said, “Our big gest entertainment and cultural ex port is bodacious lifeguards frolick ing on the beach pretending to save lives.” By this statement you have clearly expressed your unfortunate isolation in this landlocked state. 1 spent five years as an ocean lifeguard at Huntington Beach, Calif., 20 miles from where “Baywatch” takes place. These bodacious lifeguards really do work out there. We don’t just sit around. “Baywatch” can be a bit farfetched in the stories portrayed, but I do feel the show does have some redeeming qualities. It is simply doing for beach lifeguards what “Adam 12” did for police and “Emergency 911 ” did for paramedics. It’s letting people know what it is like to work in that environ ment. j- .* _ Patrick S. Ryan senior teachers college