Build solutions, not orisons
Americans generally don’t agree
on much. Pro-life or pro-choice?
Universal health care or the current
private system? Death penalty or no
death penalty?
But there is one thing we all
agree upon: crime. It is the prime
concern of this citizenship, bar
none. Here in Nebraska, a Gallup
poll revealed crime was the most
important issue facing the state.
Taxes were a distant second.
Violent crimes (assaults,
robberies and sexual attacks),
totaled 10.9 million in 1993,
according to the National Crime
Victimization Survey conducted by
the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
(The total number of personal and
household crimes, including violent
crimes, totaled 43.6 million.)
However, this survey does not
include homicides. Why? Because
the victims cannot be interviewed.
Granted these numbers can be
deceiving, because most instances
occur in large metropolitan areas.
But do not try to fool yourself by
clinging to the thought that
Nebraska could not be affected. If
you do, you may well become what
eight out of 10 Americans fear
becoming: a victim.
If you haven’t noticed, Omaha
has a gang problem, and it is
growing. What’s worse is that it is
fairly new and unstable, unlike
those in Chicago and L.A., where
the violence is specifically targeted
to rival gangs. Omaha is frighten
in andom.
t is what scares me the most
about the budding gangs in Lin
coln. With a population of just less
than 200,000, Lincoln has joined
the fraternity of cities with the most
regrettable of all entrance require
ments. A gang problem.
Fortunately, the local police arc
aware of the situation and have
started attempts to quell the
potential chaos.
But this crime problem tran
scends gang warfare and inner-city
* JBL
How many more times do we have
to hear about all the families who
have been devastated by criminal
acts, only to then be equally crushed 11
by the action, or lack thereof taken I
by the legal system?
anarchy. It reaches beyond the
murders and robberies.
It begins with a system that is
entirely, unequivocally and unques
tionably broken.
A look at statistics from “Com
paring Federal and State Prison
Inmates" shows that the average
sentence for murder is 31 years and
nine months. The average actual
time served is 14 years and 11
months. Sexual assault is similar in
that less than half the ordered time
is actually served: 17 years and
seven months handed down and
only seven years and 11 months
spent behind bars.
All the stats look like this. No
wonder criminals don’t fear the
system. Why should they? It’s
practically a cake walk. Actually, it
is.
Inmates get three square meals a
day, a roof over their heads, cable
television, recreational facilities,
access to library materials and
enrollment in high school and
college courses. They even can get
a college degree. All for free.
Let’s be honest here. The
system, and the way we judge and
govern criminals, has failed us.
How many more times do we have
to hear about all the families who
have been devastated by criminal
acts, only to then be equally
crushed by the action, or lack
thereof, taken by the legal system?
Terry Teevin was out of prison
for less than six weeks when he
attacked a woman with a knife in a
video^torc parking lot in rural
Mundelein, 111. He had been
convicted of attempted rape and
served less than half of his 10-year
sentence before being paroled. He
reportedly threatened to rape the
woman, but she was able to break
free and get help. She was fortu
nate.
A (rather stupid) Kansas state
law requires that convicted juve
niles be released on their 21st
birthday, regardless of the crime.
Elbert Hurd Jr. and Corey Carlisle
are benefactors of this law, even
though they shot and killed four
members of Hurd’s family when
they were IS years old. Six years in
a youth center in exchange for four
lives.
So the government has decided
to cure our criminal ills by doing
what it always does: throw money
at it and hope it goes away. That
won’t work. It never has.
We could build prisons like they
were condos and put a million more
cops on the street, and we still
wouldn’t get anything accom
plished.
Crime and criminal acts are
merely weeds growing from a seed
that is not as simple as we would
like to think. Family values, work
ethic, pride in oneself and one’s
community, open-mindedness,
respect, equality, love. These are
the things we should be building,
not prisons.
we already have enough of
those.
Justice b a new* editorial and broadcast
Inf major and a Daily Nebraskan columnist
Put down those cancer sticks
i nc omcr aay, i was rcaaing a
magazine and thinking to myself.
“Gee, I could really use a registered
quarter horse.”
Then lo and behold, in the
middle of the magazine was a little
insert for the Marlboro Country
Store Best of the West Sweepstakes,
offering 21 coveted prizes like a log
cabin, a mechanical bull or a five
day trip to glamorous Cheyenne,
Wyo.
And prize No. 12 was a regis
tered quarter horse.
All I had to do to fulfill my
grandest dream was send in the
entry blank and be the first entrant
drawn who picked the registered
quarter horse.
Alas, my dream was dashed into
tiny pieces by one rule: “By
entering this sweepstakes, you
certify that you are a smoker
My heart quailed. My lips
trembled. My hair fell out in large
clumps. Deep down, I knew I had
to admit the awful truth: 1 am not a
smoker — anymore.
Oh, I used to be. Some days I
would smoke a whole pack.
Sometimes 1 still sneak one,
especially affer a few beers.
A lot of college students must
have this problem, judging from the
sales of single cigarettes at the bars.
We are smart enough to know
that smoking is directly related to
lung cancer, heart disease, emphy
sema, wheezing, hacking, bad
breath, yellow teeth, stinky clothes
and empty wallets.
But get some drinks in us, and
our perception of reality just flies
out the window.
In fact, I’m drunk right now,
and these smoking statistics I got
from the American Cancer Society,
the Surgeon General and other
sources aren't nearly so scary as
they seemed when I was sober.
For instance, this year alone,
72,000 women and 100,000 men
will be diagnosed with lung cancer.
We are smart enough to know that
smoking is directly related to lung
cancer, heart disease, emphysema,
wheezing, hacking, bad breath, yellow
teeth, stinky clothes and empty wallets.
Of these, 82 percent of the women
and 94 percent of the men will die.
And since 1987 lung cancer has
killed more women than breast
cancer, and the number continues
to grow.
Ah, so what? (Hiccup!) What
about themother 18 percent who
don’t die?They’re probably the
picture of health. They're probably
the people the tobacco companies
use in their ads. You know — that
Marlboro man is a pretty sharp
looking fellow.
On a hunch. I’ll bet the reason
that the tobacco companies spent
$4.65 billion dollars on advertising
in 1991 was to pay that guy the
money he deserved to look sexy and
rugged on the back of all them
magazines.
Why. the Marlboro man is more
famous than the pope. After all,
cigarettes are second only to
automobiles as the most promoted
consumer product in the United
States.
Now that cartoon character, Joe
— he’s famous, too. In fact, kids
arc more likely to recognize that
dorky camel than Mickey (Hiccup!)
Mouse. Not too bad for a guy whose
face — if you cover up his eyeballs
— resembles the private parts of
the male anatomy.
But poor, popular Joe probably
has nothing to do with the fact that
almost all smokers start before the
age of 20, or that bans on cigarette
ads cut the number of kids who
start smoking by 50 percent.
Sure, kids are more naive than
us mature (Hiccup!) adult-type
folks. But could they really be so
gullible as to believe that smoking
is fun, cool, hip and happening?
Even when we’re tipsy, the
statistics clearly show that we’re
killing ourselves. But those statis
tics don’t show up on billboards or
in magazine ads.
Instead, we get warnings telling
us that cigarettes may be hazardous
to pregnant women’s fetuses,
plastered on an ad depicting the
ruggedly handsome Marlboro man
who will never in his life be a
pre nt woman.
tobacco companies would
have adults and kids alike believe
that smoking can make us rich,
svelte, beautiful and magnetically
appealing to the opposite sex. As if
that weren’t enough, they’re giving
away prizes, too.
It’s high time we all sobered up
to what the tobacco giants are
pushing on us — death on a stick.
We need to show them they can’t
put a price on our health.
That’s what the Great American
Smokeout is for. I’m asking
smokers to wake up to what’s
happening. You’re being used by
cigarettes, not the other way
around. Put ‘em away, at least for a
day.
If 1 can give up my quarter
horse, surely you can give smoking.
Paulman la a senior news editorial and
history major md a Dally Nebraskan
columnist.
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