Opinion
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 Hopfensperger.C°Py Desk Chief
Kim Spurlock.Sower Editor
Kiley Timperley.Senior Photographer
Move along
NU presidential search takes too long
Outgoing NU president Martin Massengalc has been named
one of 10 finalists for the presidential position at Florida
State University. His candidacy was announced in Octo
ber. He will probably know by early 1994 if he has been chosen
for the job.
The University of Nebraska presidential search committee
began looking for Massengale’s replacement last April, three
months after his announcement that he would not seek a contract
extension. The committee is expected to announce a list of four or
five finalists Monday.
The selection of NU’s next president is supposed to move
quickly after the finalists have been selected. But it has taken
nearly seyen months for the search committee to prepare that list
of candidates.
NU would be better served by a more rapid search process. The
university has spent far too much time and money looking for a
replacement for Massengalc.
There are serious questions about whether NU even needs a
president. The NU system has become top heavy and when a new
president is selected his or her responsibilities will not be clear.
But if NU is going to have a president, the selection process
should be reformed. Taking a year to select a president only
distracts the university from significant issues like budget cuts.
The regents could help the situation by not delaying in choos
ing a new president when they get the list of finalists from the
search committee. They should announce the new president as
soon as possible so NU can move forward.
Let’s wait
Iraq doesn't deserve world's trust yet
U .N. inspectors found no hidden Scud missiles or other
weapons during a month-long search for possible storage
sites in Iraq, The Associated Press reported Sunday.
U.S. and other intelligence reports claimed Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein had hidden more than 200 Scud missiles and
other weapons from U.N. inspectors. But no evidence of them
was found during the search by 50 to 100 inspectors that was
described by the team leader as thorough.
The failure to find any weapons could help Iraq. Iraqi Deputy
Premier Tariq Aziz will go to New York next month to push for
the lifting of the oil embargo imposed on Iraq after its August
1990 invasion of Kuwait, and the apparent lack of hidden weap
ons could bolster his position.
But the U.N. Special Commission said by its count some of the
800 long-range missiles provided to Iraq by the former Soviet
Union are still unaccounted for. Iraq contends all the missiles
have been destroyed.
The United States and the United Nations should wait before
removing sanctions and embargoes against Iraq. If the U.N.
Special Commission still feels there are weapons unaccounted for,
despite the recent weapons search, the searches should continue.
The United States and United Nations should remember Iraq’s
hostile takeover of Kuwait before considering lifting any embar
goes or sanctions of Iraq. Iraq should not be trusted until we can
be sure they have learned their lessons from the Persian Gulf War.
x , i ■ ■ ■ ——————— ' ■■ ■■
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
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Nebraskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 R St., Lincoln, Neb. 68588-0448
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‘Tolerance’
The Daily Nebraskan recently
printed an editorial from the Minne
sota Daily (DN, Oct. 27) in which the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America supposedly “championed”
an acceptance of the homosexual
lifestyle and masturbation in the name
of “tolerance.”
Thomas Eads (DN, Oct. 29) react
ed negatively to such “acceptance”
and criticized the Lutheran Church
for not recognizing the importance of
traditional ancestral family values. I
would like to affirm to Mr. Eads and
others that the ELCA has not aban
doned family values and it has not
championed the homosexual lifestyle.
What has happened is that the
ELCA is studying the issue and a
small committee within the ELCA
has issued a draft statement on the
matter. However, the ELCA has not
yet acted upon the study and most
ELCA churches have not even seen
the study. The ELCA will not act on
the study for quite some time, at least
until the matter has been thoroughly
debated.
Based upon comments I have read
concerning the ELCA bishops’ reac
tions, 1 seriously doubt the ELCA will
support the study in its present form.
Paul Carlson
president
First Lutheran Church ELCA
Lutheranism
I would like to make a clarification
about the Others’ View from the Min
nesota Daily (DN, Oct. 26). The edi
torial stated that the Lutheran Church
was making changes in its views on
masturbation, homosexuality, birth
control, etc. Unfortunately, the edito
rial failed to mention that this was the
Evangelical Lutheran Church ol
America, just one sect of Lutheranism.
1, personally, belong to the Missouri
Synod Lutheran Church, which is not
associated with the ELCA. The views
of the ELCA are the ELCA’sonly and
do not reflect the views of all
Lutherans or of the Missouri Synod.
It is sad to see a church cave in to
pressure and make these kind of al
lowances to groups and ideas that
have not been viewed as acceptable
for centuries. The release by Pope
John Paul II is a very good standard
for moral and traditional living and
should be looked at more closely by
the Minnesota Daily, the Daily Ne
braskan and Christians in general.
The Bible does not support homosex
uality. When Adam asked for a com
panion, God gave Adam the woman
Eve, not another man. This alone
stands as proof of God’s disapproval
of homosexuality, as well as many
other passages in the Bible.
Jason A. Beineke
junior
English
Hat
There is a hat on this campus that
has on it two breasts in a bikini top and
under that bikini, the breasts have
nipples.
Why is the person wearing this hat
allowed to continue doing so? Doesn’t
he wonder or care, if he’s offending
the people he passes?
You might say it’s free speech and
he has a right to, but his rights end
where someone else’s begin. We all
have the right to walk around without
having to see a pair of breasts on
someone’s cap.
I am a man. Under normal circum
stances, I find women’s breasts at
tractive. But to see them on the head
of another man is ridiculous.
Some of my female friends have
seen it and they are offended as well.
They don’t walk around with a penis
on their caps. Would this man with the
hat be insulted if they did?
Christopher Woemcr
sophomore
integrated studies
James Mohsllng/ON
Barney bashing
If you saw the first “Saturday Night
Live” of the year, Charles Barkley
played basketball against Barney.
Charles crushed him, and Bamey
didn’t bleed, he oozed stuffing. That’s
right, stuffing, because Barney’s not
real, he’s a stuffed animal. And Charles
and Barney left the game as friends.
I happen to like Snoopy. That little
bird is always pushing him around,
telling him what to do and kicking
him off his dog house. But that’s OK,
Snoopy won’t die, and he’ll still be
friends with Woodstock.
My point is compromise. Have a
Barney Bash. Let Bamey have a bad
day like the rest of us, but make
amends. Don’t leave Bamey lying in
Broyhil! Fountain. Let Bamey go away
from the bash knowing life will con
tinue as normal for him. Let him know
that he’s “Good enough, smart enough,
and by golly, people still like him.”
The kids, that is, because after all,
Barney’s not real.
Jeff Bomberger
junior
actuarial science
NAFTA
The North American Free Trade
Agreement would be a bonanza for
multinational corporations and rich
investors, but a disaster for working
people throughout North America.
Even NAFTA’s supporters admit
U.S. workers would face short-term
job loss, but the cost to American
communities and to U.S. taxpayers
has hardly been computed. As Con
gress grapples with various tax pro
posals to pay for NAFTA, it is becom
ing increasingly clear that this agree
ment is a major loser for this country.
The overwhelming majority of
Americans realize they would see their
standard of living eroded as the Unit
ed States and Canada sought to inte
grate their economies with Mexico’s.
How could they expect anything else I
if the U.S. average manufacturing
compensation of $16.17 an hour sud
denly was pitted against Mexico’s
$2.35 an hour/
Faced with less disparity than that,
the European Community carefully
mapped out a 20-year plan to create a
common market that helped to equal
ize standardsofliving with adevelop
ment fund and to protect workers’
rights with a social charter. Thus were
Spain, Portugal and Greece able to
join the EC in a constructive union.
NAFTA is loaded with trade-en
forced protections for the property,
patents and profits of multinational
corporations, but without such pro
tections for human beings. Under this
agreement, workers are at the mercy
of the profiteers in the unregulated
marketplace.
The multinational beneficiaries of
this agreement gain a plentiful and
growing supply of badly paid labor in
Mexico, where the one-party govern
ment keeps wages low as an incentive
for foreign investment. Workers there
do not have the right to freely associ
ate, to bargain for higher wages and
benefits, or to grieve unjust condi
tions of work.
For those who think U.S. employ
ers would help raise the Mexican stan
dard high enough to purchase U.S.
goods, consider this: Mexicans who
work in the high-productivity, Amer
ican-dominated maquiladora sector
along the border are paid, on average,
$1.64 an hour — 30 percent lower
than Mexico’s average overall manu
facturing wage.
The labor movement believes ex
panded trade will provide more jobs
for our communities, as well as eco
nomic and social progress for all. But
this agreement is the wrong way to go
about it. Let’s scrap the whole thing,
start over and do it right.
Gordon L. McDonald
president
Nebraska State AFL-CIO