Daily
Nebraskan
Editorial Board
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
JeffZeleny...Editor, 472-1766
Jeff Robb.Managing Editor
Matt Woody... Opinion Page Editor
DeDra Janssen....Associate News Editor
Rainbow Rowell.Arts & Entertainment Editor
James Mehsling...Cartoonist
Chris Haiti.Senior Reporter
Pricey highway
Internet hookup serves few, costs all
Improved access to the Internet — it’s every student’s wish and
every administrator’s dream.
As early as nextyear, residence hall students could be on-line from
their rooms.
University of Nebraska-Lincoln Housing officials have proposed
to wire all of these students’ rooms, as well as faculty offices, to access
HuskerNet and the Internet.
Sounds like a great idea. .
But there’s one tiny drawback: the $6.5 million price tag for the
work. That’s a considerable amount of money to have to be paid by
anyone.
The most logical suggestions have been to increase rates for
residence-hall living. But those rates are already increasing.
Perhaps we should look at the issue of need. Do we really need to
have all residence-hall rooms hooked up to the Internet?
Sure, student interest in on-line services is constantly increasing,
but it is unlikely that even a majority of residence-hall students even
have HuskerNet accounts, let alone use them.
Maybe all residence hall students should be allowed to vote on the
issue to see if they really want the service and are willing to pay for it.
If not, a smaller amount of money could be used to expand existing
computer labs and build new ones. That would be a service that all
UNL students, not just those living in residence halls, could utilize.
Last call
Lawmakers should extend alcohol sales
The perennial proposal in the Legislature that would extend alcohol
sales in Nebraska an additional hour deserves more consideration this
year.
Sen. Tim Hall of Omaha has continually argued that Nebraska’s 1
a.m. cutoff for alcohol sales hurts the state economically. He has said
residents of his Omaha district can easily cross the Missouri River and
enter Iowa for an extra hour of drinking.
That might be true this year, but next year Nebraskans probably
won’t be driving into Iowa. They will already be there. The two casino
riverboats that will be open by next year in Council Bluffs will attract
many from the Comhusker state.
Extending alcohol sales is one way that members of the Nebraska
Legislature can help the state economically without crossing the
controversial gambling line.
“There is acompetition issue,” Hall said during aMonday commit
tee hearing.
Under the current law, after 1 a.m. marty students drive to after
hours parties that are held in uncontrolled environments.
If drinking establishments were to stay open an additional hour,
patrons would be supervised by bar employees, and the patrons’
drinking would be controlled.
Extending the sale of alcohol by one hour will not save lives nor
prevent drunken driving. The issue should be looked at as an economic
one.
The Daily Nebraskan encourages the General Affairs Committee to
send LB217 to the full Legislature.
Editorial policy
Staff editorials represent the official
policy of the Spring 1995. Daily
Nebraskan. Policy is set by the Daily
Nebraskan Editorial Board Editori
als do notnecessarily reflectthe views
of the university, its employees, the
students or the NU BoardofRegents.
Editorial columns represent the opin
ion of the author. The regents publish
die Daily Nebraskan. "Dtey establish
the UNL Publications Board to su
pervise the daily production of the
paper. According to policy set by the
regents, responsibility for the edito
rial content of the newspaper lies
solely in the hands of its students.
Letter policy
The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief letters to the
editor from all readers and interested others. Letters
will be selected for publication on the basis ofclarity,
originality, timeliness and space available. The Daily
Nebraskan retains the right to edit or reject all material
submitted. Readers also are welcome to submit ma
terial 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 pub
lished. Letters should included the author’s name,
year in school, major and group affiliation, if any.
Requests to withhold names will not be granted.
Submitmaterial to the Daily Nebraskan, 34 Nebraska
Union, 1400 R St., Lincoln, Neb. 68588-0448.
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Send your brief letters to:
Daily Nebraskan, 34
Nebraska Union, 1400 R St,
Lincoln, Neb. 08588. Or fax
to: (402) 472-1761. Letters
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■^verification.
Cindy Lange-Kubick
I am writing in response to
Cindy Lange-Kubick’s column
“Abortion can saveiives, too” (Jan.
26). As I read her article, my mind
continued to drift back to another
story I read in the paper.
It was about another woman who
was trying to find an end to her
depression. Feeling she could not
cope with her children or her life,
she tried to commit suicide but
changed her mind. Instead, Susan
Smith chose to end the lives of her
two children.
Lange-Kubick and Smith chose
the same solution: murder. Each
woman used her depression as an
excuse to end the life of another
person who was completely
innocent. The only difference is
that Lange-Kubick never gave her
child a chance to be bom.
The nation "was shocked and
horrified by the selfish choice
Smith made, one that was not hers
to make. Lange-Kubick made the
same choice, yet we’re supposed to
support her.
Lange-Kubick made her choice
because she felt it was best for
herself. So did Smith. These
women ignored the children’s right
to live, the fathers’ right to his
children and the siblings’ right to
know their brother or sister.
Lange-Kubick may believe
abortion saved her life. We know
abortion killed her child. Counsel
ing could have saved her life and
her child, but Lange-Kubick will
never know, and neither will her
child.
Kerry Hanigan
senior
English
Lange-Kubick’s column stated
her pro-abortion rights
beliefs, and not whether she
had an abortion. Lange
Kubick says she has not had
an abortion. — Editor
Bret Gottshall/DN
Allen Fans
JeffZeleny’s column “Allen fans
defeat Spanier fans 5-3” (Jan. 27),
about the callers who talked to
Regent Robert Allen on KLIN’s
“Coffey Talk of Lincoln,” typifies
modern journalism’s intellectual
cowardice in its approach to
covering both sides of a controver
sial issue — Step one: Identify the
conservative. Step two: Belittle his
intelligence. Step three: Justify step
two by quoting him inaccurately
and out of context.
I know this because I am Jerry,
one of the Allen fans (conserva
tives) who Zeleny set up as a straw
man to be consumed in the inferno
of his own white-hot intellect.
In his opening sentence, Zeleny
belittled the participants in the
show by equating the conversation
to sniper fire at a basketball game:
“The shots rang out from the cheap
seats,” he lamented.
C’mon, Jeff! Words are not
bullets, and my opinions are not the
result of cheap, detached
spectatorship. My degree in
mathematics from this university
represents an expensive victory in
an arduous academic sport. And
I’ve seen more playing time than
Zeleny.
Nevertheless, having quickly
accomplished Steps one and two,
Zeleny tried to make an example of
me in Step three. He quoted me as
saying: “Chancellor Spanier is one
of those ex-campus radicals who
once rallied for freedom. Regent
Allen is right about Spanier. I
applaud you, sir, keep up the good
work.”
This was not a direct quote of
my words, but an insidious cut-and
paste paraphrase of them designed
to portray me as some tyrannical
Neanderthal.
UNL has mistaken indoctrina
tion for education, and Chancellor
Spanier has only deepened the
confusion. Regent Allen IS right
about Spanier.
Jerry Paul Kreps
Lincoln
NEA funding
Liberals are often quick to make
a point sympathetic to their causes,
but usually they are careful enough
not to contradict themselves.
The editorial “Culture Shock”
(Jan. 30), dealing with National
Endowment for the Arts funding,
does exactly this.
On one hand, the editorial says,
“$167 million is not a price tag the
private sector can pick up.” On the
other hand, it says, “Americans
spend $.64 per capita to preserve its
heritage. That’s about the price of a
cup of coffee.”
Sure, it’s a small percentage of •
the federal budget as a whole, but
we only need to cut 3 to 5 percent
annually to have a balanced budget.
Cutting these types of expenses can
make a big difference in the budget
deficit if you make enough of them.
So is $167 million a lot of
money or not? If NEA funding were
cut and only one out of every 10
people chose to make up the
difference and contribute more to
the arts, that would be $6.40 a
person.
That’s about 100 cups of coffee
at an inexpensive place or only a
few cups at a coffee shop.
Robert Nickeson
senior
physics and astronomy
