Wednesday, August 30, 1995 Page 4
Daily
Nebraskan
Editorial Board
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
J. Christopher Hain. Editor, 472-1766
Rainbow Rowell.Managing Editor
Mark Baldridge..*.Opinion Page Editor
DeDra Janssen..Associate News Editor
Doug Kouma....,.Arts & Entertainment Editor
Jeff Zeleny. .Senior Reporter
Matt Woody. Senior Reporter
James Mehsling.'..Cartoonist
Closer commuters
UNL parking deserves pat on the back
Hats off to University of Nebraska-Lincoln Parking Services.
For the first six days of classes, commuter students faced a park
ing nightmare. But Tuesday, the barrier that made many off-campus
students late to class was lifted.
After the parking folks paved lots this summer, and made a dust
free shelter for our cars, they turned one of the closest commuter
lots to City Campus to faculty and staff parking.
About 9:10 a.m. Tuesday, the gateway to closer student parking
was opened as university blue-collar workers installed a Lot 20 sign
just west of 19th and R streets.
For the first week of school, commuters were forced to park in
lots occupied by cars of residence hall students. A Daily Nebraskan
investigation Friday morning discovered that only 17 percent of the
more than 800 cars in the lot east of Cather and Pound Residence
Halls belonged to commuters.
As morning class time approached, students frantically circled
the lot to no avail.
The lot —- in its glorious gravel days — once was shared by
faculty, staff and students. The parking department should be pat
ted on the back for acknowledging its error so early in the semester
and reopening the lot to students.
But there is one pertinent question that remains: Will the parking
tickets that were issued last week to students be dropped? We cer
tainly hope so. •
Poor thinking
Students to suffer if House cuts loans
From the Daily Illini, August 23.
Just when you thought it was hard enough to be a student, you’ve
got one more factor working against you: the U.S. House of Repre
sentatives.
That’s right. The Republican-controlled House has taken action
to kill the direct-loan program, only in its second year of existence.
It’s not that the program hasn’t worked. In 1993, before creation
of the direct-loan program, bank loans made up all of the $19.2
billion in student loans. In the next fiscal year, which starts six weeks
from now, the direct-loan program will provide $13.8 billion in stu
dent loans, in addition to the $15.3 billion in Loans from banks..
That represents an increase of nearly $10 billion.
And besides that increase, the direct-loan program also saves
students the hassles of waiting longer periods of time for loans to
come through.
So why in the world would the Republicans want to kill off the
program? The answer is ironic: Because it has been too successful
Banks have been complaining that the programs are just too dam
competitive. And the Republicans, who generally seem to believe
that competition is a good thing, have heard the bankers’ cries and
are moving to undermine the program.
But who will these cuts hurt the most?
The answer is those students who are just trying to break out of
the cycle of poverty by getting a college education.
Loss of the additional loans represented by the direct-loan pro
gram either will cause low income students to take on a lot more
debt, or drop out of college entirely.
Editorial policy
Staff editorials represent the official
policy of the Fall 1995 Daily Nebras
kan. Policy is set by the Daily Nebras
kan 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. Accord
ing to policy set by the regents, respon
sibility for the editorial content of the
newspaper lies solely in the hands of its
students.
Letter policy
The Daily Nebnskan welcomes brief letters to the
editor firm all-readers and interested others. Letters
will be selected for publication on the basis of clarity,
originality, timeliness and space available. The Dajly
Nebraskan retains the right to edit or reject all material
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rial as guest opinions. The editor decides whether
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Come home, Hillary
Women’s conference damages U.S. image
Hillary Clinton should come
home.
Not necessarily to the White
House. Just anywhere not in China.
. She’s in Beijing, China, as
chairwoman of the American
delegation to the Fourth U.N.
Conference on Women. The
conference started today and will go
until Sept. 15.
I’m sure she’s wiping sweat from
her forehead and breathing a sigh of
relief, now that pesky Harry Wu
isn’t getting in the way anymore.
You remember Harry. He’s the
American citizen who was impris
oned in China on June 19 for the
horrendous crime of trying to enter
the country of his birth.
A little background on Mr. Wu.
He is an internationally known and
respected human rights campaigner.
In 1960, while still a Chinese
citizen, he was arrested in China and
spent 19 years in a labor camp for
speaking out against the horrors
brought upon the Chinese people by
the Communist dictatorship.
He was recently nominated for a
Nobel Peace Prize.
The first lady must have been
sweating it while he was still
imprisoned.
“It would look bad for me,” she
must have thought, “to lead an
American delegation to a country
that is holding, and probably
torturing, an American citizen.”
And not just an average Ameri
can citizen, like those stupid blokes
who got caught in Iraq and hung out
to dry. This guy is famous.
Luckily for her, Wu was released
Thursday. So she’s free to partici
pate in a conference that is already
being hailed by Dr. James Dobson
of Focus on the Family as the most
dangerous attack on the traditional
family (you know, mom, pop, 2:3
kids and a dog) in history.
If Mrs. Clinton had any respect
whatsoever for the reputation of.the
United States, she would have
boycotted the conference anyway to
protest what China did to Wu.
- But she is attending, along with a
horde of American gender feminists
such as Congresswoman Bella
Abzug.
Back when Wu still was being
John Fulwider
“I have no problem at
all with the average
feminist; I think women
should have the right to
vote and to advance as
far as they want in the
occupation of their
choice. IPs the men
haters who get under my
skin.,>
held, Abzug made her feelings clear
about the matter: “This conference
has a whole section dealing with
human rights, and therefore to
thwart it because of one case is
simply a diversion.”
A diversion would have been far
preferable to what is going to go on
at the conference. But before we get
to that, we have to ask another
question: Why is the conference
being held in China in the first
place?
The mere mention of China
should send chills down the spine of
every woman (primarily) and man
on the planet.
China’s human rights record is s
appalling. Forced abortions (and ‘
when I say “forced abortions,” I
don’t mean required by law, and
you’ll get fined if you don’t comply;
I mean heavily armed soldiers »
beating down your door and
dragging you to the nearest hospital
or clinic or alley or whatever) and
drownings of female babies are the
rule.
But back to the conference itself.
My biggest quarrel is with the
gender feminists, (not the “regular”
feminists.)
I have no problem at all with the
average feminist; I think women
should have the right to vote and to
advance as far asjhey want in the
occupation of their choice. It’s the
men-haters who get under my skin.
The gender feminists believe that
sexual identification as male or
female is imposed on children by
society (most likely male members).
As one gender feminist writer put
it, “Although many people think that
men and women are the natural
expression of a genetic blueprint,
gender is a product of human
thought and culture, a social
construction that creates the ‘true
nature' of all individuals.”
These people are a few tacos
short of a combination platter. At
the core of the gender feminist
platform is a concept they call “the
devolution of gender.” This means
adding three new genders besides
male and female to choose from:
homosexual, lesbian, and bisexual (I
• fail to see how sexual orientation
has anything to do with gender, but I
digress.)
Now normally, no one with their
head screwed on anywhere near
straight even listens to these
(mustn’t resort to name-calling)
women with alternative viewpoints.
The real danger here is that, with
good reason, the rest of the world
respects'the United States. Seeing a
delegation representing the most
powerful nation on the planet
promoting these radical viewpoints
will tend to sway other countries’
opinions.
So once again, Hillary should
come home. Her absence from the
conference would send a message to
the other nations represented that
the United States indeed does have
all its oars in the water.
And, she would at the same time
restore a bit of our country’s honor.
It’s a win-win situation. Roll out
the red carpet.
Fulwlder Is a sophomore news-editorial
malor and a Daliv Nphraskan staff rpnnrtur