Opinion
Netmiskan
Wednesday, February 2,1094
Jeremy Fitzpatrick
Rainbow Rowell . .
Adeana Left in. . , .
Todd Cooper.
Jeff Zeleny......
Sarah Duey.
Stacie McKee . . . .
Nebraskan
Editorial Board
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
.Editor, 472-1766
.Opinion Page Editor
..Managing Editor
..Sports Editor
.Associate News Editor
.Arts & Entertainment Editor
.Photo Chief
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Follow through
UN must cany out economic sanctions
Up to 10,000 Croatian troops may have crossed into neigh
boring Bosnia. This is the latest move in the three-way
conflict involving the Croats, Bosnian Serbs and Muslims
for control of the former Yugoslav republic.
It was a move made despite U.S. warnings that further Croatian
involvement in the war could lead to economic sanctions. U.S.
ambassador to the United Nations, Madeleine Albright, delivered
this message to Croatian President Franjo Tudjiman during a
January visit.
If it is true that the Croats have ignored her words of caution,
the United States should encourage the United Nations to deliver
the economic sanctions with haste.
The United States and its allies have been seeking ways to end
the 21-month ethnic conflict. In addition to warning the Croats,
Secretary of State Warren Christopher announced Monday U.S.
backing for a U.N. report that threatens air strikes against Bosnian
Serbs if they strike against peacekeepers in two key towns.
In the past 21 months, more than 200,000 lives have been lost.
Certainly, the United States should put forth an effort to help end
the blood bath. But this effort should not include sending Ameri
can troops.
More armed soldiers would only add to the horror.
By seeking economic sanctions, the Clinton administration
could discourage further fighting without adding American lives
to the list of casualties.
Time to quit
More evidence that smoking is dangerous
If you like colon cancer, smoke a pack of cigarettes.
Two studies to be released today provide the strongest
evidence yet that smoking cigarettes can lead to cancer. The
studies of more than 150,000 people show that people who smoke
in their early years acquire a risk of colon-rectal cancer that
remains even if they stop smoking.
The studies were conducted by the Harvard School of Public
Health and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
A direct link was also found between the amount of smoking
and the development of cancer. The studies measured smoking in
“pack years,” a unit equivalent to smoking one pack of cigarettes
a day for one year.
Males who had smoked 35 to 39 pack years were almost 1 1/2
times as likely to develop cancer of the colon or rectum as those
who never smoked. Risks doubled for women who had smoked
45 pack years or more.
These studies are more evidence to support the move to com
pletely ban smoking from public facilities. Although there is not
much argument about it anymore, smoking kills people. It leads
to cancer and other health-related problems.
The argument that smoking is a personal choice must also be
examined. In a public place, people can’t avoid cigarette smoke.
And in a time we are debating health care and its costs, it is valid
to ask who should pay for the health care for people who willing
ly put themselves at significant risk of cancer by smoking.
Smoking may still be a popular habit for some, but it is also
suicidal. It should be eliminated from public places so its dangers
don’t affect innocent bystanders.
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Stall 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
university, its employees, the students or the NU Board of Regent s. 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 I I IK i't >1 M \
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Nebraskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 R St., Lincoln, Neb. 68588-0448.
4
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Judgments make revenge legal
Imagine a rape trial. There is no
question of guilt — the evidence sup
ports it, she’s got a dozen witnesses,
and the man himself admits it.
However, the rapist uses a novel
defense. He claims that because of a
psychological problem from his child
hood, being rejected by girls time and
time again, he lost control when he
saw the provocatively clad woman
and raped her. The judge allows this
defense and the jury acquits the defen
dant. “She asked for it,” the foreman
explains.
Is there any doubt as to the reac
tion? The National Organization for
Women gang-descends on the court
room 1 ike a horde of shrieking locusts.
They demand that the judge be re
called and that the jury undergo sen
sitivity training.
Preposterous, you say? The same
situation has occurred three times in
the past six months. Henry Watson
and Damion Williams were not re
sponsible for their actions, because
they were caught up in a riot. Lorena
Bobbitt used temporary insanity, and
the Menendez brothers cried sexual
abuse as children.
What is happening here holds por
tents for the future of the American
criminal justice system. The victims
are now put on trial, dead or al ive, and
the defendants make themselves out
as victims. In an America clamoring
for officials to “get tough on crime,”
the willingness to let murderersoff the
hook on such patently ridiculous de
fenses turns our criminal justice sys
tem on its head.
The defense, though, is not univer
sal. It is limited to those historically
oppressed groups who are favored in
today’s sensitive culture. These groups
include women, historically the vic
tims of rape; minorities, historically
under the boot heel of white exploita
tion; and children, long abused phys
ically and sexually—by men. If you
fit into one of these categories, then
you can literally get away with mur
Responsibility — it is a forgotten
concept in today’s society, with
everyone so immersed in being a
“survivor” of this and a “victim”
of that.
der.
Responsibility is a forgotten con
cept in today’s society, with everyone
so immersed in being a “survivor” of
this and a “victim” of that. Encour
aged by the trash peddled on daytime
TV talk shows, we are starting to view
the abnormal (transvestite, Nazi hook
ers) as normal or somehow not aber
rant, because it’s not really their fault.
It’s their toxic parents, their
codependent relationships that stem
from their parents, etc., etc. Thus,
people end up deriving their identity
from their victim status. Daniel Patrick
Moynihan called this “defining devi
ancy down.”
The normal, two-parent nuclear
family is viewed as the breeding ground
forcvery dysfunctional formofbehav
ior imaginable. Child abuse, spouse
abuse, homophobia — lay it all at
Ozzie and Harriet’s door. Charles
Krauthammer calls this “defming de
viancy up.”
Inevitably, this gets carried into
the courtroom. All it takes is a sob
story and a few tears for one to be
acquitted because he or she is not
responsible. Forgiveness of sins and
absolution,powers once reserved solely
to God in his heavenly Kingdom, arc
now given to mental health profes
sionals and juries.
The best way to cure this mess is to
once again institute in the law the
concept of taking responsibility for
one’s actions. To begin with, abolish
the battered-woman syndrome and
battered-child syndrome as defenses
to crimes.
However, evidence of abuse might
be used at the sentencing hearing,
after the de termi nat ion of guil t is made.
Such evidence should be corroborated
by medical reports or eyewitness tes
timony and not merely alleged with
out any proof, as in the Menendez
case.
Insensitive, you say? Unrealistic
and unfair to women, minorities and
abused children? Possibly, but the
value of a human life, no matter how
bad we might believe the person to be,
is beyond human calculation. It is
precious. To give one person the pow
er of judge jury and executioner cheap
ens life.
Making revenge legal — and you
can’t call 16shotgun blasts, slicing off
a penis or throwing a brick at some
one’s head anything other than re
venge, motivated by a depraved indif
ference to human life—goes against
the underpinnings of our entire sys
tem of criminal justice.
A final word to all those moronic
women slipping the Menendez broth
ers love notes and those applauding
Lorena Bobbitt’s fern inist vigilantism:
If you are willing to excuse these
crimes based on some feel-good
psychobabble, then you deserve to walk
in fear on streets at night. You deserve
to cower behind locked doors. You
deserve to despair if you are ever the
victim of a crime and bring charges,
only to see the criminal let off on the
advice of therapists. You, at least, can
be responsible for the consequences of
your actions.
Kepfleld It a graduate itudeat la history
aad a Daily Nebraskaa colunaiit.
DN challenge
1 recently read two issues of the
University of Nebraska at Omaha’s
student newspaper, the Gateway. In
both papers, there were factual arti
cles about AIDS, possible cures and
the latest figures. I was happy to see
the Gateway doing its job, informing
the UNO student community about
issues concerning the epidemic.
The Daily Nebraskan is one of the
most available resources of informa
tion for a sexually active age group.
Not everyone reads the pamphlets in
the University Health Center. Possi
bly students think AIDS is only a gay
disease.
According to the Gateway, AIDS
cases in Nebraska have tripled over
the past year. The percentage of peo
ple in their 20s diagnosed with AIDS
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in Nebraska rose from 22 percent in
1992 to 32 percent in 1993. How many
of these people in their 20s are stu
dents at the University of Nebraska
Lincoln. How many were uneducat
ed?
This is my challenge to you — to
become aware of the foremost educa
tion/information guides on the AIDS
issue. Help the UNL community be
aware.
Scott Roewer
junior
music education
Bike questions
1 have some questions and com
ments for the Parking Advisory Com
mittee regarding the Bicycle dismount
zone ana registration proposals:
• What will the bike patrol be?
Enforcement personnel riding bikes?
I’m sure they’re not going to walk
around checking for bicycle registra
tion.
• Will the proposed exterior bike
parking areas be secure and well
maintained?
• How will registration reduce the
number of bicycle thefts? Will a regis
tration sticker say, “Don’t steal this
bike” to a thief? A stolen bike is a
stolen bike, registered or not.
I have ridden to class every day for
the past two years. My bicycle is my
main source of local transportation, as
it is for many other students. A ban on
bikes will hurt more than help.
Christian Davenport
sophomore
civil engineering