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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 5, 1995)
Opinion Thursday, October 5, 1995 Page 4 Daily i Nebraskan Editorial Board University of Nebraska-Lincoln J. Christopher Haiti......Editor, 472-1766 Rainbow Rowell..Managing Editor Mark Baldridge...Opinion Page Editor DeDra Janssen.Associate News Editor Doug Kouma..Arts & Entertainment Editor JeffZeleny.:.Senior Reporter Matt Woody.Senior Reporter James Mehsling...Cartoonist Go metric Global village needs unified measures Our educational system has betrayed an entire generation of elementary school students. Or maybe it was Congress that did it it’s hard to tell. Someone did, that’s for sure. Because we were supposed to go metric by now, weren’t we? That’s what they told us. So we spent weeks and even years learning how many killawhuzzits in a millasomething — and for what? Nothing. Our highway signs and speed limits and speedometers and what-not are still posted in miles and mph. Our wrenches are still in inches, our yardsticks in yards —only sodapop comes in two liter bottles. Way back in the 1970s when Congress decided the whole country would be better off metric, opponents said what the heck, who needs it? We’re Bret Gottschall/DN over here and the rest ot tne world is over there. And never the twain shall meet—mark our words. But they were wrong. You can talk to an Aussie or a Canuck or a British bloke online— any hour of the day or night on the World Wide Web. And what are they going to make of your crude, backwater inches and ounces and pounds? They ’ 11 sigh (like this: *sigh*—it’s a netism) and try to remember how to convert it for you, since you’ve obviously forgotten. Just one more way in which the rest of the world makes allowances for their simple country cousins from the United States and Texas. But the point is it’s not too late. We can still join the rest of the world in a system of measurement that makes sense, is easy to learn and can be understood across increasingly obsolete national borders. We can dust off those troublesome equations for the old folks and join the civilized world. ' They do still teach this stuff to kids in school, don’t they? So let’s put it to good use. And why wait for some pokey old Congress to get started? Consider this your call, those who have been waiting for one, to take up arms to do away with feet. Stand up proud and say it loud: I’m 1.8 meters tall and I don’t care who knows it! Metriphiles of America, awake! Take to the streets with your calculators and conversion tables. Refuse to take an inch when you’re offered a yard. GO METRIC! * 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, die students or the NU Board of Regents. Editorial columns represent the opinion of die 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. Latter 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 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 mate rial 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 re turned. Anonymous submissions will not be pub lished. Letters should include the author’s name, year in school major and group affiliation, if any. Re quests to withhold names will not be granted. Submit materia] to: Daily Nebraskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 R St Lincoln, Neb. 685884)448. . jou mi ztme f Innocent man O.J. Simpson-is innocent. He has been judged and proven not guilty by his peers. There are many people who be lieve that he is guilty because they have closed minds and are not aware of the problems that exist between people of different colors. It is asinine to say that Mark Fuhrman’s views had nothing to do with the case, or that he was not on trial. He showed more motive to plant evidence than O.J. had to murder his ex-wife and Ronald Goldman. We must go by what the jury says. We were not exposed to the same things the jury saw. Mitchell Strong Senior Marketing Bitter Juke Tonight, I watched the comments from the black community and the white community concerning the O.J. Simpson verdict. I was APPALLED by BOTH groups! The white community seemed aghast at the not guilty verdict. Many had simply assumed he would be found guilty and, when he wasn’t, concluded that money buys freedom. The majority of the black commu nity, on the other hand, were thrilled to see O.J. go free, and none even discussed the thought that he might, in fact, have been guilty. One man even stated that the trial was “not about O.J.” but instead about the Mark Fuhrmans of the world and about the LAPD. The jury needed to put aside per sonal feelings and go by the facts of the case: Did the prosecution prove its case, or was there reasonable doubt? We should not convict people of crimes on the basis of race, but nei ther should we let the guilty go free for the same reason. Belinda Galvin Lincoln I James Mehsiing/DN Christian Reich Jamie Karl’s column in the Oct. 4 Daily Nebraskan declares his ap proval of the recent merge of the GOP with the Christian conservative movement. I feel uncomfortable when con sidering the possibility of Christian politics becoming American politics. Nebraska GOP phairman Chuck Sigerson describes Christian politi cians as providers of “leadership and “moral direction” and would like “100 percent” of his party to think this way. „ , _ __ . . That’s a fine goal for the GOP, but what Mr. Sigerson is describing is 100 percent control of our nation, and I have a problem with that. No single political, religious, sci entific or philosophical organization is welcome to “lead” my country. Jason Racey Biological Sciences English spoken here Jamie Karl is using language as a scapegoat when he says that English is our only social adhesive.” It is not! What he means to say is that, after physical appearance (especially the color of one’s skin), language is per haps the most notable source of dis tinction between the groups of people we tend to organize as “ethnic groups” in U.S. society. And language becomes an easily identified source of discomfort when it enunciates the differences between those groups. For Karl, the level of discomfort caused by the diversity of languages in the United States is exceptionally high, because to him it is an indica tion of the sheer, growing number of minorities making a claim to a piece of the American pie — over which flat-topped, middle-class,/white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant males like him presently enjoy considerable control. No reasonable law will effect the inertia of the “43 million Americans” by 2050 “who cannot speak English!” Fred Skretta and the class of Curriculum & Instruction 321j, Section 113 Foreign Language Methods Send your brief letters to: . Daily Nebraskan, 34 I/O TnO Nebraska Union, 1400 R St., • V «I | _ Lincoln, Neb. 68588, or Fax to (402) 472-1761, or email cletters @ unlinfo.unl.edu.> -1- Letters, must be signed and • l\I P ^ kC| n include a phone number tor ajAaAAverification.
