Opinion
Net^raskan
Wednesday, January 19,1994
Jeremy Fitzpatrick
Rainbow RoweU. .
Adeana Left in .. .
Todd Cooper....
JeffZeleny.
Sarah Duey.
Staci McKee.
Nebraskan
Editorial Board
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
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Km ioki \i
Stop hazing
New legislation would make the guilty pay
If state legislators want to do one thing to help improve the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln this year, they should pass
LB 1129.
The bill, introduced Tuesday by Sen. Gerald Matzke of Sidney,
would make hazing a crime in Nebraska. Matzke introduced
LB 1129 after he was approached by the parents of Jeffrey Knoll, a
UNL student who was injured last November in a hazing-related
incident.
The penalty for the members of Phi Gamma Delta — Knoll’s
fraternity — was five years of university probation. No criminal
charges were filed in the incident.
If Matzke’s bill passed and UNL students were found guilty of
hazing, they could receive up to six months in jail and a SI,000
fine. A student organization, such as a fraternity or sorority, could
be fined up to $ 10,000.
LB 1129 should become law. Hazing is still a significant
problem at UNL, and it will not stop unless sufficient penalties
are put in place to stop it.
The bill would define hazing as “any activity which willfully or
recklessly endangers the physical or mental health or safety” of a
student. That clearly should be against the law, and LB 1129
should clearly be passed.
Uneasy riders
No-ride zone may force bicyclists to drive
An accident between a bicyclist and a pedestrian is unpleas
ant, and sometimes painful, for both individuals. The
Parking Advisory Committee’s proposal to reduce such
accidents on campus is admirable. But if this proposal discourag
es students from riding on campus, it will bring more harm than
benefit.
The proposal designates a no-ride zone throughout most of
City Campus. Keeping bicyclists on the periphery of the campus
may reduce collisions with pedestrians, but it will also inconve
nience bicyclists.
Accidents occur on campus not because there are too many
bicycles, but because people — pedestrians and bicyclists —
aren’t paying attention.
Most of these unfortunate collisions could be prevented with
out a no-ride zone, if people just paid more attention when
traveling on campus.
The proposal would also require bicyclists to register their
bikes with the university for $5. This registration could help
reduce the number of bikes stolen on campus, Committee Chair
man Dean Waddel said.
But Lincoln bicyclists are already required to register their
bikes with the city for $1. It is unnecessary to further burden
students with a $5 fee when a perfectly good registration system
already exists. If UNL police need to identify a stolen bike, they
can use the registration numbers issued by the city.
If riding a bike on this campus becomes a bigger hassle than
driving a car, the parking problem on campus will only grow.
Bicycling should be encouraged. It’s healthy, it’s clean and bikes
don’t take up parking spaces.
When ASUN considers the Parking Advisory Committee’s
proposal Wednesday, they must not approve a plan that hurts
more than it helps.
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Staff editorials represent the official policy of the Spring 1994 Daily Nebraskan Policy is set
by the Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board. Editorials do not necessarily reflect the views of the
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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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I EMBRYO IMPLANT*
FOR THE ELDERLY
Sam ki i*i ii i i)
Abortion seems racist, sexist
Jan. 22 is coming up, and we all
know what that means. The 21st
anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade
decision will be marked by marches
for life and countermarches for choice
in front of state capitols and abortion
clinics across the country.
The past year has not been kind to
the pro-life movement. The Clinton
administration slowly but surely lib
eralized abortion rules, putting Slick
Willie in the company of Hitler, Stalin
and Pol Pot for the sheer number of
l i ves ended. The pro-lifers were tarred
with the extremist brush. The murder
of an abortionist in Florida and an
attempt to kill another in Wichita
played into the hands of the NOW
gang and its media lap dogs.
Pro-lifers are going about this the
wrong way.
Forget the question of whether it’s
a person or a tissue mass. Forget
whether it’s murder or choice and the
other standard arguments.
Abortion is wrong because it vio
lates beliefs central to the choice
crowd. The feminist leadership, the
civil rights “leaders” who defend the
right to “choice” at every turn, can
usually be found among the ranks of
the politically correct. The holy trin
ity of the political correctness move
ment is racism, sexism and
homophobia. Abortion is guilty of
every one of these.
Racism. Blacks make up roughly
12 percent of our population, Hispan
ics somewhat less. It is racism when:
• they are overrepresented on death
row.
• they are underrepresented on
juries considering the fate of white
cops accused of beating a black ex
felon.
• they are underrepresented in the
front offices of major-league sports
teams.
• they are denied one additional
NCAA basketball scholarship per
year.
• the Nebraska Legislature con
siders a rule allowing 33 of 49 sena
tors to shut off obstructionist debate
‘Polar bear’
In my opinion, the proposal for a
bicycle dismount zone is unneeded
and unwarranted. UNL police said
accidents involving bicycles are on
the increase. That statement is vague
and ambiguous.
Case in point — let’s say last se
mester I dian’t see any polar bears on
campus, but this semester I saw one
wreaking havoc, mauling innocent
students as they walked to class.
Would you then say that the phenom
enon is increasing?
An article in the Daily Nebraskan
quoted a student biker who said that
90 to 99 percent of all accidents were
at the fault of the pedestrian, so why
The holy trinity of the political
correctness movement is racism,
sexism and homophobia. Abortion
is guilty of every one of these.
tactics.
However, it is NOT racism when
the rate of abortion for nonwhite wom
en is twice the rate for white women.
According to the Alan Guttmacher
Institute — the research arm of
Planned Parenthood, the largest pro
vider of abortion services in the coun
try—the nonwhite abortion rate is 57
per 1,000, while for whites it is 21.
H ispanic women alone are 60 percent
more likely to have abortions than
non-Hispanic women. This results in
a 1.3 percent loss of the black popula
tion annually through abortion. Yet
this is not considered racist.
I he Dred Scott decision in 183/
declared blacks to be property, not
persons, and lighted the fuse of the
Civil War. A decision which declares
black fetuses to be not persons but
tissue mass, allowing them to be killed
and not sold, is accepted by the black
community as a constitutional right.
Lower-class women also have
abortions at three times the rate of
higher-class women. Yet, this is not
even mentioned by the people who
reflexively blame Ronald Reagan for
punishing the poor in the 1980s.
Sexism. Consider this, from USA
TODAY, Dec. 20,1993. Genetic sex
testing is being used by certain ethnic
groups as a basis for abortions. Clin
ics on the Canadian border offer sex
testing to Indian and Asian communi
ties, which prize male offspring.
Women’s activists have formed
groups to fight sex-selection abor
tions. The Canadian Royal Commis
sion of Reproductive Technologies
recommended a ban on such abor
tions.
I t i i i ns m i hi Km mu
punish the bikers?
I would suggest to any pedestrians
who have been victims of bike acci
dents to make better use of their sens
es. I think if bikers are careful and
intelligent about the path they choose
and pedestrians remain aware, there
will be no problems in the future.
Jeremy Baumfalk
freshman
general studies
Bike ban
I am a commuter student. I have
ridden my bicycle on campus daily
for five years, since I developed shin
problems that prevent me from walk
ing long distances. When I moved off
campus, I started using my bike as a
Yet abortion is not considered sex
ist.
Homophobia. With the discovery
of the “gay gene” last summer, find
ing a means of testing fetuses for
homosexuality as easily as for diseas
es and birth defects came a step clos
er. Inevitably, some began asking
whether some parents might abort,
given the knowledge that their child
would grow up to be homosexual. It’s
not a reality yet, but given the ad
vance of medical technology, it’s not
beyond the realm of possibility.
Yet abortion is not considered
homophobic.
wnat an tnis comes aown 10 is a
flat contradiction of the political cor
rectness ideology. Even if it’s only a
potential life, you are taking away a
future member of the human race who
is nonwhite, female or practicing an
alternative lifestyle. This, of course,
leaves more white, male heterosexu
als to wreak oppression on those
groups. It sounds a lot like eugenics
and its most avid practitioners, Nazis
in Germany—whose Supreme Court
defined Jews as not being persons.
And yet those who suffer dispro
portionately from abortion defend it.
It’s as if blacks had demanded to be
kept in slavery, as if Jews fell over
themselves to be first into the gas
chambers.
Fine and well. If the feminists,
civil rights leaders and gay rights
militants want to abort themsel vesout
of existence, so be it. But let it also be
said that more than a few conservative
white males tried to stop it.
Kepfleld U a graduate student la history
aad a Daily Nebraskaa columnist.
means of transportation to and from
school as well.
Banning bikes from campus would
be as detrimental to me as banning
wheelchairs would be to some other
students.
I have paid the Lincoln registra
tion fee. I follow all traffic laws while
on the street. I follow all pedestrian
laws while on the sidewalks. I have
been in two acc idents because of care
less drivers. I have had numerous near
misses because of rude pedestrians.
Please penalize those who are break
ing laws, not those who follow them.
Wendy Freeman
senior
computer engineering