Opinon
Wednesday, February 15,1995 Page 4
.Nebraskan
,, . Editorial Board
University of Nebraska-Uncoln
Jeff Zeleny.
Jeff Robb. ..Editor, 472-1766
Matt Woody. .Managing Editor
DeDra Janssen. .• •... Opinion Page Editor
Rainbow Rowell. . .Associate News Editor
James Mehsling. . ' ^rts & Entertainment Editor
Chris Hain. .*.Cartoonist
.... .. .Senior Reporter
No dice
Legal gambling detrimental to Nebraska
Comhusker state ^ °U LaS Vegas strip have „o place in the
LegiSre-^uld’S^rtmcnmrf0^ proposals h^ore the
kans. detrimental for Nebraska and for Nebras
rachtand die state tottery.e"0U8h temptatio" throuSh «*"<». home
machines atv™eo"otriesincim0re.ifaneS ofchance- such as slot
of concern. Causes the Dai|y Nebraskan a good bit
soc^pfortrw-^oawMSeal Dmb’S alSerti0n ,hatcrime aod
away with the pull of a lever Th“nS‘hr°W Jheir coll<»tive dollam
increasing fast enough in Nebtika. tyPC'S of problems already are
on ihedownfth Ifst ilty'And noPr°P0Sal arent giving a sermonette
The increased aSpec‘ gambling isn't bad.
programs greatly re^he't'e8 ^ SCh°°'S 38 wel1 •* ofter
gambhng0profits' thev att P° o'!™ thingS « trough
consequent Y ayS Wl11 be “Weighed by the negative
ga^bittrelrtgtpttdtar:afTordtospendthcmo"‘;yo''
Job opportunity
Omaha a prospect for new plant site
It could be a big deal.
Micron T echnology Inc. announced on Monday that Omaha was
one of three finalist locations for the company’s new $ 1.3 billion
computer-chip manufacturing plant. Along with it would come
3,500 jobs.
Also being considered for the plant are Oklahoma City and a site
near Provo, Utah. Micron will announce its decision by the end of
February.
Omaha Mayor Hal Daub and Nebraska Gov. Ben Nelson were
among the public officials excited by the prospect ofmany new jobs
in Omaha. Nelson urged the Legislature to quickly pass legislative
bills 828, 829 and 830, which comprise a business-incentive
package that would create at least 500 jobs and invest $50 million
in the state.
Regardless, Micron said that Omaha was a finalist for the plant
because it met site criteria, which were 400 to 600 acres available
and an engineering school within an hour’s drive.
An engineering school within an hour’s drive. That would be the
College of Engineering and Technology at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln, die only engineering school in the state.
When many business and education leaders pushed for an
unnecessary separate engineering school in Omaha, they claimed
that the lack of said school might cause businesses to look elsewhere
for a place to set up shop.
But now we see that business America does not think that way.
Editorial policy
Staff editorials represent the official
policy of the Spiing 1995. Daily
Nebraskan. Policy is set by the Daily
Nebraskan Editorial Board Edited
alsdonotnecessarilyreflectthe views
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studentsortbe NUBoardofRegents.
Editorial columns representlhe opin
ion of the author. The rcgentspubiish
the Daily Nebraskan. They establish
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Health Center
I would like to make University
Health Center Director Kunle
Ojikutu aware of a possible use for
the money allocated to the health
center from the Committees for
Fees Allocation.
On Friday, Feb. 10,1 went into
the health center after having an
asthma attack. As I entered, I
noticed a young woman standing
by the elevator coughing continu
ously. I quickly realized she was
suffering from an asthma attack.
When I went to the Urgency Care
window, no one was there. I was
stunned. Was everyone busy or on
a lunch break?
A few minutes later a nurse
appeared and asked if she could
help me. After establishing that
both of us were having problems
from asthma attacks, the nurse
proceeded to sit us down and hand
us charts to fill out and walked off.
Perhaps paper work seems pressing,
but when you can’t breathe, it isn’t.
Realizing the woman beside me
needed immediate care, I sought to
find the nurse who had left us.
Suddenly, the reality of the
situation seemed to engulf the staff.
They finally led the woman into a
room and, hopefully, started
treating her immediately.
Although I was given good care
a little while later, this incident
scared me, as it no doubt scared the
woman having the attack. Can I
trust the reliability of the health
center in emergencies?
If Director Kunle Ojikutu wants
to reinstate the respectability of the
health center, he should focus on
the lack of speed, efficiency and
staffing that is debilitating the
health center now.
Cristina Skinner
junior
theatre arts
‘Strip Poor
It is unfortunate that three UNL
students could only muster such a
sophomoric response to people who
had written letters concerning the
“Strip Pool” ad. Bre,Gottschall/DN
Funkhouser, Ripley and Grady
aim to portray in their letter (Feb.
10) the concerned individuals as
unable to “tolerate being of
fended.” The upshot of their letter
appears to be that those offended
by the ad are nothing more than
whiners who used the veihof
political correctness to forward
their personal causes.
First, the ad could have been
defended on the basis of freedom of
speech. Second (and especially
ironic considering these three
students are philosophy and art
majors), they could have made an
argument grounded in aesthetics.
Did these three students base
their (non-)argument on the First
Amendment or artistic interpreta
tion?
No, they alternatively resort to
saying “the women consented to
the ad, and others are willing to
buy the product.” One need only
think of how this logic would
sound if applied to heroin addicts.
I wish to close by asking
Funkhouser, Ripley and Grady a
question: Did you three split the
cost of a video or did you each
purchase your own?
Jonathan R. Strand
graduate student
political science
Fetus defined
In the spirit of intelligent debate
and civility we would accept Karen
Benes’ invitation to dialogue
(Fetus, Feb. 10), and try to answer
her question as to how we pro
choice advocates view fetuses.
First of all, we need to make
some distinctions. It is perfectly
obvious that a fetus is both a living
and human organism. These are
biological facts and no one disputes
them. What we are debating is
whether fetuses are persons,
morally and constitutionally, in the
sense that they are bearers of
rights, the most basic of which is
the right to life.
The flood of letters over the last
few weeks from the anti-choice
crowd hinge on the claim that it is
self-evident that a fertilized human
egg is a full-blown metaphysical
person. As an argument for legally
coercing a woman into giving birth
this assumption is arbitrary,
incoherent, unhistorical, ultimately
theological and therefore inadmis
sible, in a religiously plural and
secular democracy.
Unfortunately, it is very difficult
to get anti-choice people to give
non-religious arguments for
treating fetuses as persons from the
moment of conception. At times we
are told that because a fetus is
genetically complete and distinct
from its host that this is sufficient
reason for calling it a person.
This argument is weak since any
parasite in the body can claim
uniqueness, and every cell in a
human body is genetically com
plete.
All killing is not murder. It is
not self-evident that abortion is
murder: In our view it isn’t even a
credible belief. Sorry, but “the
Bible says so” is not an argument.
Jo DilaUo
senior
English
Dennis M* McGucken
Lineoln