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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 21, 1994)
Weekend Preview ■ Boo! Halloween haunts Lincoln, Page 6 Sports Weekend ■ NU takes on Missouri Tigers, Page 8 PAGE 2: Gas pipelines burst beneath Texas river covering the university of Nebraska since 1901 Witchcraft - Travis Heyinf/DN Linda Harris Holds up a challco during a ritual In hor homo Wednesday evening. Harris Is part of a group of pagan witches who practice Wlcca, a form of witchcraft. About six people attended the ritual that Included songs and offerings to nature. Not all bats, hats, brooms By Patty W«w«l Staff Reporter The Rev. Linda Harris takes Halloween seriously. Harris, a witch, considers the day a holy one. An honorary doctor of divinity, Harris is the reverend of the Chal ice Circle, a church that practices a witchcraft called Wicca. But don't expect to see Harris and the members of the circle riding around on broomsticks and turning people into toads “Every minority has had some sort of reputation," Harris said. “Most haven’t lasted as long as ours.” Wicca, which has existed since the neolithic or paleolithic eras, is a pagan earth religion that strives for harmony and a natural living relationship with the earth and its elements. Just as Christianity has several different denominations, Wicca groups have many different types and traditions. Harris practices Moriah Wicca, which is not a typical Wicca group. The group is a highly spiritual teaching coven that studies and accepts several different beliefs, including astrology, Egyptian re ligions and the teachings of Christ. Halloween, or Samnain, is the high holy day that celebrates the death time of year and also com memorates the witches’ ancestry. Harris said the witches believed that during harvest time, God is sacrificed in the form of crops or animals. “The Feast of The Dead,’’ as the holiday is called, also is a time to honor loved ones, she said. Around Halloween, psychic en ergy runs high, she said. The veil between the physical and spiritual world is thin and can be parted by strong emotion. “The dead showed themselves in visions and in dreams, or in voices and omens or signs.’’ Harris said society’s way of cel ebrating Halloween — with cos tumcs and candy — was fun. But she said the holiday put witches in bad light. That bad reputation was created by the church and medical profes sionals, she said. During the in quisition, nine million people, mostly women and girls, were sen tenced to death for witchcraft, she said. Harris said people blamed witchcraft for every wrong, from a neighbor's cow drying up to a woman having a miscarriage. Physicians, who were mostly male, also led to the bad reputa tion of witchcraft, she said. Harris said the women healers, or witches, competed with the early physicians. The demise of witches benefitted the medical profession, she said. Witch hunting also was a prof itable business, Harris said. The church would confiscate all of the lands and assets belonging to the accused witches. UNL police deal with shortage By PtPra Jaw—n Senior Reporter The University Police Department may be temporarily understaffed, but that doesn’t mean the campus isn’t safe. University of Nebraska-Lincoln Police Chief Ken Cauble said the de partment was operating with two fewer officers but was still getting the job done. “The people on this campus and those working under the department are understanding and willing to get things covered,” Cauble said. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy, he said. Cauble said the department had to change some officers’ schedules to cover vacant shifts. He also said the department had to increase overtime. The department will have to in crease overtime significantly next weekend for homecoming, when the Cornhuskers play Colorado, he said. During the weekend of the UCLA game, Cauble said University Police paid out more than 560 hours of over time. At that time, the department was short only one officer, he said. The department also has denied some requests from officers for time off, he said. Officer Robert Soflin has been on paid leave since Sept. 12, when he was shot in the line of duty. Soflin has several weeks of rehabilitation left before he returns to limited duty, Cauble said. He said he did not know when Soflin would be able to return to active duty. Officer Charlotte Veskrna has been on paid administrative leave since Oct. 1. Veskrna was involved in a police scuffle with Francisco Renteria, who later died in police custody. See POLICE on 3 Chambers to protest running-mate opinion By W»lt» Senior Reporter Ernie Chambers said he would go to court about whether he must have a running mate in his write-in can didacy for governor. An opinion approved Thursday by Attorney General Don Stenberg and written by Deputy Attorney General Steve Grasz said Chambers would have to choose a running mate from his same party for lieutenant gover nor. Chambers said he had no plans to choose a running mate. “Under no circumstances will I name a running mate for lieutenant governor,” he said. Chambers, 56, entered the race Sept. 21 to give Nebraskans who op posed the death penalty a choice. Chambers’ opponents for gover nor, Republican Gene Spence and Gov. Ben Nelson, a Democrat, both support the death penalty. Chambers, whose candidacy is supported by a coalition of groups opposing the death penalty, does not. The opinion, requested by Secre tary of State Allen Beermann, said two lines for write-in candidates were placed on the ballot under the spaces marked for the Democratic, Repub lican and petition candidates. Those lines are reserved for the write-in governor and lieutenant governor. ”... in the case of the omission of a name for governor or for lieuten ant governor under this provision, the counting board shall reject that por tion of the ballot pertaining to the offices of governor and lieutenant governor,” the opinion states. Chambers said he would file a pe tition in court that would require the state to count write-in votes cast for him, whether or not a voter wrote in a candidate for lieutenant governor. After reviewing legal options. Chambers said he would file the pe tition either in Lancaster County Dis trict Court or with the Nebraska Su preme Court. Chambers said the Stenberg opin ion did not apply to him because he was an independent. “It explicitly applies to a partisan situation,” he said Independents aren’t associated with any party, so Chambers said it would be impossible for him to pick running mate of his party. Manager says union Subway will be well worth wait By Matttfw Tru—d«ll Staff Reporter They may be about two months behind schedule, but the Nebraska Union’s new Sub way franchise hopes to be on track soon. Denise Korinek, general manager for Lin coln Subway restaurants, said she hoped to open the Subway in the Nebraska Union in time for the Colorado football game. “We’re going to keep our fingers crossed for October 28,” Korinek said. Previously, Korinek had set Oct. 17 as the second sched uled opening date. Korinek said the new restaurant, originally scheduled to open in September, had been de layed by a shortage of equipment. But Subway headquarters has given the union store prior ity for all equipment shipments. Freezers and refrigeration equipment ar rived Thursday at the union, Korinek said. Daryl Swanson, director of Nebraska Unions, said the store could not have opened by the Oct. 17 date. “Corporate Subway won’t let their fran chises order equipment until a lease is signed." he said. The lease was signed Oct. 4. he said, and he knew it would take at least three weeks to get the custom food service equipment deliv ered and installed. Swanson said the union was losing $2,(XX) a month in lease money while it waited for Subway to open. If he had his way, Swanson said he would have liked Subway to open before the school year started. “The store should have opened August 15,” he said. But the Nebraska Union had a contractual agreement with Little King to allow them to stay until July 31, he said. In that amount of time, Swanson said, “It would have required magic to open the store with a new operator.” Korinek and Swanson said they appreciated the patience of university students. “We know that our customers are being in convenienced in a number of ways,” Swanson said. “One, we need a fourth operator to handle the crowds, and two, our menu is limited. We’re very sorry about that.” A number of students are awaiting Subway's arrival because they want a healthy alterna tive to fast food. Across from the boarded up Subway, Brian Larmon sat Thursday, facing his half-eaten cashew chicken from Imperial Palace. Larmon, a sophomore accounting major, said he would have gone to Subway if he had the option. “It's healthier than this stuff,” he said, pointing to his tray. “There’s batter all over this chicken and that’s cool, but it’s not very healthy.” See DELAY on 3
