Opinion
Netwaskan
Thursday, Oetobar 2d, 19N
Nebraskan
Editorial Board
University of Nebraska-Uncoln
Jeremy Fitzpatrick . .
Kalh v Steinauer....
Wendy Mott.
Todd Cooper.
Chris Hop/ensperger
Kim Spurlock.
Kiley Tim per ley ....
. . . Editor, 472-1766
Opinion Page Editor
.. . Managing Editor
.Sports Editor
.... Copy Desk Chief
.Sower Editor
Senior Photographer
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No pain
Event intended to educate people
Critics are coming out against the Great Plains Winter
Sleepout, an event to raise money for Lincoln’s homeless.
The Rev. Andy Hird of All Souls Non-denominational
Church and Street Missionary and a group called Humanity Plus
plan to protest at the sleepout because it distorts the problem of
homelessness and exploits homeless people, Hird said.
He said he thought those participating in the sleepout would be
too comfortable to identify honestly with the homeless. They will
be dressed warm enough to endure the weather and would not
truly experience what being homeless entails.
The protesters forget the point of the sleepout: to raise money
for the homeless. The event is meant to be a day for the public to
think about homelessness, to offer a glimpse of what it might be
like and to raise money to fight it. The issue should not be how
comfortable or uncomfortable the participants arc.
Those sleeping out will not be allowed to sleep in tents or bring
cook stoves, but will depend on their clothes and sleeping bags to
protect them from the weather. While the participants will not
leave the sleepout with a full understanding of the plight of the
homeless, they will have focused on the problem for at least a
moment.
Sleeping out shows the participants are willing to give up their
cozy beds for one night for a worthy cause. They could easily
choose not to donate money to help the homeless, or could do so
without any idea of what it means or feels like to be homeless.
Hopefully many people will participate in the sleepout, and the
event will raise the organizers’ goal of $30,000. Hopeftilly the
participants will continue to work to end the problem of
homelessness long after their sleeping bags have been abandoned
for down comforters.
Keep military open
Justice shouldn't limit gays ’ right to serve
The Clinton administration is asking Supreme Court Justice
Sandra Day O’Connor for an emergency order that would
let the Pentagon implement the “don’t ask, don’t tell”
policy on gays in the military.
This order would limit the enforcement of a lower court’s ban
on discrimination against gays in the military. The “don’t ask,
don’t tell” policy cannot be enforced while the lower court’s
ruling stands, and this ruling is scheduled to be heard in a court of
appeals in December.
Justice O’Connor handles emergency matters from the Circuit
Court that handled the lower court’s case. She has the power to
limit the court’s ruling so it only affects this case, or she can refer
the matter to the full Supreme Court. She should let the lower
court’s ruling stand as it is.
President Clinton promised when running for president that if
he were elected, he would lift the ban on gays in the military.
Since then, he has continually backpedaled on this promise, and
this eventually led to the compromised “don’t ask, don’t tell”
policy. If the lower court’s ruling is allowed to stand, Clinton
would finally have fulfilled his campaign promise.
But the appeals court could overturn the lower court’s ruling
and the Pentagon’s desired policy on gays in the military would
then be enforced. The Clinton administration should wait to see if
this happens, rather than pushing for an emergency order to get
the Pentagon’s policy passed.
I HI H >KI \l IN il l< \
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 regents, responsibility for the editorial content of the newspaper lies solely in the hands of
its students.
i i 111 u I'm i< \
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. 68388-0448.
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Anniversary
Nov. 1 marks the 1 Oth year since
Commonwealth Savings was closed
by former Gov. Bob Kerrey because
of insolvency.
Although Commonwealth deposi
tors had a guarantee for $30,000 passed
into law by the Nebraska Unicameral,
this guarantee was never honored.
Seven states, Rhode Island, Ohio,
Maryland, Colorado, California, Utah
and Hawaii, have made their deposi
tors whole by giving the full guaran
tee. The federal government has hon
ored not only its FSLIC and FDIC
guarantees to depositors, but many
times exceeded the $ 100,000 guaran
tee. But Nebraska has betrayed its
depositors, leaving us still wanting
after 10 years.
The irony is, federal income tax
dollars of Nebraska depositors go to
pay for the huge savings and loan
bailout for the nation. It will cost $ 158
billion. Congressmen Bill Barrett,
Doug Bereuter and Peter Hoagland
just voted for an additional $26.3
billion. None of these latest funds will
be used in Nebraska for Nebraskans.
Why are Nebraska depositors the
only ones who have not been paid
their guarantee?
Dolores Schiebinger
Lincoln
Discrimination
Tim Hcdegaard (DN, Oct. 22), i
believe you missed the entire point of
my correspondence.
If you, like Mr. Beineke, feel that
people with innate differences have
no place in the work environment or
anywhere else, then I do not sympa
thize with your plight. You would
then be getting a piece of your own
medicine.
But if you do not follow the bigot
ideals that caused me to write my
letter, then I empathize with your
situation. In that one solitary instance,
you were being treated in a manner
that has been recurrent to other minor
ities since the beginning of time. Didn’t
feel all that good, did it? Hopefully
you can now understand why there are
so many angry individuals, repeated
victims to this type of injustice.
Jacqueline Ann Baez-Thompson
sophomore
communication studies/pre-law
‘Happy alternative’
The Daily Nebraskan has once
more used its well-known, deter
mined, chaotic and destructive point
of view on moral issues to emphasize
that the recent Lutherans’ message of
tolerance is a “happy alternative” to
what the pope said last summer (DN,
Oct. 27).
If the Catholic Church was a hu
man organization with goals only for
this stage of life, and if its reference
point was only a human group or part
of a certain society, issues like mas
turbation, abortion, birth control and
others could well be accepted. But
this is not the case. Rather, the Cath
olic Church tries to be faithful to what
is commanded by its founder, who
constitutes himself the reference for
any decision to be made.
Furthermore, since the time He
was first living among us, this very
same founder did not accept what was
done by the pharisees and other groups
of that society; rather, He preached a
different way of living that would
endure forever.
Ivan Guerrini
post-doctorate
soil physics
I T
David Badders/DN
Denny trial
Henry Watson is walki ng the streets
of Los Angeles right now. Watson
and Damian Williams were clearly
seen savagely beating an innocent
man, and yet they get away with
nothing more than a slap on the wrist.
The reason behind these verdicts is
that the jurors were afraid for their
lives, as it had been promised that
there would be more rioting if these
men were found guilty.
The verdicts in the Reginald Denny
beating trial arc another example of
how people arc no longer being held
accountable for their actions. Under
the Clinton administration, anything
that feels good is now permissible.
The liberals are trying to create a
perfect society in which people can do
anything they want without conse
quences. They use abortion to elimi
nate the consequences of pregnancy.
They oppose capital punishment to
eliminate the consequences of mur
der. They give out free condoms to
eliminate the consequences of teen
age sex. They give welfare to elimi
nate the consequences of unemploy
ment, and so on.
When I was young, I was taught
responsibility for my actions. If I did
something wrong, I was spanked for
it, and I think I learned the error of my
ways. But now, we are supposed to
make people feel good and under
stand why they do wrong instead of
opposing what they did.
I’m sorry, but when people do
wrong, they need to be pun ished for it.
If we eliminate the consequences of
our actions,eventually we would have
an anarchist society, where people
would do whatever they wanted. As
suming most people do not want this
to happen, we need to do something
about it. We need to re-establish the
fact that in America, each person is
responsible for his or her own actions.
If you do the crime, you do the time,
whether it’s in a riot or not.
Chad W. Pekron
freshman
business administration/pre-law
Racism
I remember last year during the
Candice Harms murder investigation,
the police got a lead that she was seen
sitting next to and talking to a black
man in one of her classes the week she
disappeared. As 1 remember, the po
lice Stained confidential informa
tion on race of students with the per
mission of James Griesen, vice chan
cellor for student affairs. All black
students in the class were then taken
to the police station for questioning
— not just the one who was seen
talking to her. All five of these men
were treated as suspects, as they were
all strongly encouraged to be photo
graphed. Can racism be more blatant
that this? This wasn’t racism accord
ing to Griesen, who in my opinion was
just as much part of this as the police.
Last year Flore ncio Palomo, a
Mexican-American student, came
forth complaining that Andrew
Sieerson, former ASUN president, had
called him a racial slur at an ASUN
meeting. Palomo was upset because
Griesen basically ignored him and
dropped the issue, just as the issue of
the racist treatment of black students
at UNL had been.
Last week a group of black men
assaulted a Malaysian student at
Broyhill Fountain. Once again,
Griesen sees no indication of racism.
Personally I can’t say with certainty it
was racism, but anybody with any
sense can see there are some strong
indicators of it being a possibility.
I’m truly amazed that with the
university’s anti-racism policy, a man
who refuses to deal with or acknowl
edge racism when it occurs, and par
ticipates in it as well, should be given
such a high position. Racism will
never stop if we pretend it doesn’t
exist.
____ Paul Koester
senior
soil science
