Qpinon
Friday, October 21,1994 Page 4
Daily
Nebraskan
Editorial Board
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Jeff Zeleny.. • Editor, 472-1766
Kara Morrison.T..Opinion Page Editor
Angie Brunkow.Managing Editor
Jeffrev Robb...Associate News Editor
Rainbow Rowel!..Columnist/Associate News Editor
Kiley Christian... • • Photography Director
Mike Lewis......Copy Desk Chiej
James Mehsling.Cartoonist
-■ 1
Open the doors
Media should he let hack in courtroom
If Thomas Jefferson was still around, he would have cringed
Thursday.
Superior Court Judge Lance Ito barred the media from part of
the jury selection in the O.J. Simpson case. Ito also ruled that
potential jurors be questioned secretly about how they had been
affected by the case's publicity.
Closed courtrooms are dangerous. The First Amendment was
adopted to protect such closure.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the
freedom of speech, or of the press ...”
In our opinion, Ito’s ruling strays from the law. Ito already has
limited press coverage of jury selection. Banning the electronic
media and all but four reporters from the courtroom was under
standable, but Thursday’s ruling was not.
At least four days of jury selection will go on behind closed
doors. It is important to remember that the people of the state of
California are prosecuting Simpson for the June deaths of his ex
wife and her friend. And they have a right to be informed of what
is happening inside the courtroom.
The press frenzy this case has generated has been crazy. Televi
sion coverage of the Simpson saga has reached as far away as
Tibet. But we guarantee that closing the doors of the courtroom to
the Fourth Estate will not ease the frenzy.
“We won’t spend a dime more than it will take to
effectively communicate to our voters in our dis
trict the issues facing the university.”
— NU Board of Regents candidate Keith Vrbicky of Norfolk,
discussing his $46,000 campaign spending bill.
“I don’t want to talk bad about them, because
they’re a great football team, but they do play dirty.
Once they tried poking my eyes out and tried to
gouge my eyes. They were grabbing me in places
I’m sure you don’t want to even hear about.”
— Kansas Stale (quarterback Chad May on Nebraska s style of play
after the Wildcats 17-6 loss to the Comhuskers last week.
“We look at how Mrs. Stoney has treated Kerrey In
the past 12 months. If she’s going to ask questions
about Kerrey’s record, we’ll ask about hers. We
don’t call this negative.”
— Steve Jarding, Sen. Bob Kerrey's camjtaign press secretary,
reacting to charges of negative campaigning in the Nebraska
senate race.
“It’s drive and preach, drive and preach. It’s hor
rible, and it’s glorious.”
— Rachel Woroniecki, who travels around the country> with her
husband and six children calling for students to believe in Jesus
Christ.
Staff editorials represent the official policy of the Fall 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 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. ' . ._t _ v
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. 68588-0448.
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-.- -
Fundamentalism
In (he weeks that have passed
since it came out. I expected to sec
somebody respond to Rev. Dave
Holmes’ letter, which
mischaracterized all fundamental
ists as dangerous and suffering
from psychological disorders. I am
prepared to give Rev. Holmes the
benefit of the doubt, assumin&he is
merely misinformed and not
willfully slanderous. His state
ments, however, need to be chal
lenged.
First, he attempts to portray the
man who murdered the abortion
doctor as being representative of
“the danger of fundamentalists."
The fact is that every movement
will have those individuals within it
who do not represent the majority
of adherents. How many feminists
believe that all sex is rape, even
consensual sex in marriage? Not
many, and those who do arc a
fringe clement. It would be wrong
to line these extremists with those
who simply want equal pay and
equal opportunity in the workplace,
just as it is wrong to line the
doctor's murderer with all those
who simply don’t want to sec
unborn children killed in the name
of “privacy” or “choice.”
Rev. Holmes has a problem with
fundamentalists who “know they
are right." Has Rev. Holmes
surrounded himself with people
who “know they arc wrong?”
Everybody who takes an advocacy
position does so believing they are
right. Have you ever been to a pro
choice, gay rights or anti-death
penalty rally? Are these people less
convinced that they are right or any
less committed to seeing their view
of what is right enshrined in the
law? Yet it is only fundamentalists
who somehow pose a threat when
they do the same things.
Finally, he sees fundamentalists
as being “against more things than
he or she is for,” or as living “in
fear more than hope.” Nothing
could be further from the truth.
Most fundamentalists simply
believe that the Bible is God's
word, and the Bible is true. Conse
quently, if we believe the Bible says
something is wrong, we will oppose
it. Lest you rush to claim “separa
tion of church and state,” let me
remind you that many of the
abolitionists opposed slavery on the
, grounds that it was wrong in the
eyes of God.
Should they have remained quiet
and permitted slavery to go on in
order to avoid imposing their
religion on others? Of course not,
and the same faith in the God of the
Bible that moves us to oppose
abortion, as it moved them to
oppose slavery, also provides us
with a hope that Rev. Holmes does
not seem to recognize.
If everything else in my world
crashes down on my head and I
have nothing left, I know that I
have a God who loved me enough
'to die for me and will one day call
me to stand in his presence for all
eternity. It is that hope that has
gotten me through when nothing
else could, it is a hope greater than
any fear I have ever had. and it is a
hope I didn't have until I became a
fundamentalist.
Let me ask this of those who
believe Rev. Holmes to be right:
given a choice between a world in
which people acknowledge God and
serve Him, and a world which
denies any absolute truth and thus
each man is a law unto himself,
which would you prefer?
Brad Pardee
Love Library staff
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Amy Schmidt/ON
Legalizing Hemp
UNL NORML/HEMP ap
proaches legalization from three
perspectives, none of which is so
we can smoke marijuana. (The drug
war has stopped very few people
who want to consume marijuana
from doing so.)
First and most important is
access to medical marijuana by
prescription when it is deemed to be
the best medicine for a specific
ailment. Patients are being referred
to the black market for their supply
because the Drug Enforcement
Agency remses 10 lei marijuana dc
reassigned as a schedule 2 drug
allowing it to be prescribed by a
doctor for legitimate medical use.
Using patients as pawn in a failing
drug is disgusting.
Second, keeping marijuana
illegal has not stopped its recre
ational use, but has effectively
prevented farmers from growing it
and the United States from using
hemp for all the products being
produced in many other countries.
From seed for food or oil. to the
fiber for textiles, paper and build
ing materials. Cannabis Saliva has
been grown and adapted by humans
since before recorded history. Hemp
grows all over Nebraska, but we arc
not allowed to use it for commercial
industrial uses.
Last, but not least, is the
recreational aspect. Marijuana
prohibition has actually sensation
alized this use and created a very
lucrative black market that largely
escapes taxation and drains billions
of dollars from the legitimate
economy. As more and more
professional people find marijuana
a pleasing alternative to other
consciousness altering substances,
the prices have steadily escalated
It is overdue to stop the persecu
tion of marijuana consumers who
violate no other law. Either make
alcohol, coffee, and cigarettes
illegal also, or let marijuana join
the group. Bring this substance
back into the legitimate economy
Tax us! The revenue would be
staggering.
The existing drug tax in Ne
braska is not a revenue measure,
but a confiscatory and forfeiture
measure. It is a means for our state
to take everything already owned or
yet to be earned (frequently legiti
mate income) without any burden
of proof or right to a trial. This is
applied to less than I percent of
consumers or dealers.
We have a man in Nebraska
serving 20 to 50 years in prison for
sales of less than 5 grams of
marijuana. This is less than five
dollars worth. At the same time,
killers can be released in one to
three years. Why burden our
criminal justice system with these
victimless crimes and tum violent
criminals loose?
It is foolishness that we should
have to address the first two issues
as they should both be legal. As for
the third, do we still have the right
to life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness?
David Splichal
coordinator
UNL NORML/HEMP