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 -
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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
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lished. Letters should include the author’s name, year
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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
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