Opinion
Tuesday, November 7, 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
Wishing well
Union expansion should enclose fountain
The union’s going to redecorate.
So the fountain’s gotta go, right?
Heck, no!
Here is a simple solution to the problem, courtesy of the Daily
Nebraskan:
Expand the union around
the fountain.
That is, glass the sucker in,
don’t pave it over.
The actual diameter of the
fountain might be reduced by
as much as two-thirds, of
course — space consider
ations, you know.
i And it might be a nice time
] to replace some of the fixtures
( as well — green is not our
I color
But the indoor fountain
would occupy the same space
[ — and the exact same spot —
j as the current Broyhill Memo
| rial.
The memorial would con
tmuc, the union could expand and everyone s happy, right/
We can still put some hang-outable sculpture outside — as long
as there was a place to sit, kids would sit there.
But the beloved fountain would remain, a tamer, gentler reminder
of mortality.
Visiting alumni will be pleasantly surprised to find old faithful
in a new home.
Visiting dignitaries will be wowed with our decor—what other
university can boast a fountain in the student union?
And the cost of renovation can be met by instigating a custom of
tossing coins into the ripply blue waters of the altered pool — sure
it’ll take a while to pay for itself, but hey, who cares?
And the upcoming generation of mall rats would feel right at
home.
We already have a food court, right?
Why no one’s suggested this before is beyond us—but it’s never
too late!
Union planners, get out your grease pencils and unroll your blue
prints!
Sketch the fountain in — you know it’s the right thing to do.
And while we’re at it, why not pump in some Muzak, and maybe
install escalators on either side.
And maybe ... a shoe store?
Editorial policy
Staff editorials represent the official
policy of die 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 die
author. The regents publish the Daily
Nebraskan. They establish the UNL
Publications Board to supervise die
daily production of the paper. Accord
ing to policy set by the regents, respon
sibility for the editorial content of die
newspaper lies solely in the hands ofits
students.
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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,
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Nebraskan retains the right to edit or reject all material
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quests to withhold names will not be granted Submit
material to: Daily Nebraskan, 34 Nebraska Union,
1400 R St Lincoln, Neb. 68588-0448.
____AE
World issues affect our lives
9
A great man has died.
That statement rocked the world
about 30 years ago on Nov. 22,
1963, with the assassination of John
F. Kennedy.
It should have rocked the world
Saturday.
Unfortunately, for many Ameri
cans, the assassination of Yitzhak
Rabin was only a passing headline.
I was in our nation’s capital the
morning after the assassination. I
heard more concern over Notre
Dame’s injured quarterback than I
did over the death of Israel’s prime
minister.
Few cared. Few even knew who
Rabin was.
You would think that after the
fall of communism and the opening
of governments worldwide in moves
toward peace agreements, that the
United States would be more
interested in what goes on beyond
its borders.
But instead of opening up, its
walls are closing in.
Americans will wrap themselves
up in their Star Spangled Banners
and choke on their apple pie before
they’ll even think about what
happens in a foreign country.
This ignorance starts at the top.
As I walked through Washington
D.C., those great minds on Capitol
Hill had legislation drafted that
would further shrink our borders by
limiting the number of legal
immigrants.
borne want to make bnglish a
national language, which would
please those at this university who
hate foreign language classes and
shiver at the mention of
multicultural ism.
Some think the United Nations is
a waste of time. Some think we
should let the Balkans destroy itself
because it is of no concern to us.
Another sign of our ignorance is
when newspapers have to slash their
foreign bureaus in part because
people do not care what happens in
Israel, Algeria, South America,
Northern Ireland, China, Japan or
even England.
There are not enough people who
can identify Yassir Arafat, Nelson
Mandela, F.W. DeKlerk, Gerry
Adams, John Major or Ernesto
Zedillo.
It scares me to think that there
are graduates of this university who
Paula Lavigne
“We think we don’t need
to care. We think that
nothing beyond the 50
states affects us. We
should care. It does
affect us. It can hurt
us. ”
don’t have the vaguest clue where
Israel is.
I have no ties to Israel. I’m not
Jewish. I’ve never been to the
Middle East, but that doesn’t mean I
should have no interest in what
happens there.
We think we don’t need to care.
We think that nothing beyond the 50
states affects us. We should care. It
does affect us. It can hurt us.
When American soldiers were
sent into the Persian Gulf War to
liberate Kuwait, the nation cheered
in support and George Bush’s
approval rating shot sky high.
If enough Americans really
knew the backdrop to the Persian
Gulf War and the history of
America’s relationship with Iraq, I
don’t think they would have been
so supportive.
Before the war, America sup
ported Iraq with weapons and even
helped Saddam Hussein rise to
power, but Iraq didn’t bow to all of
our requests so we used Kuwait as a
scapegoat for showing off our
power.
I met two Iraqi soldiers this
summer. They had sought political
asylum in the United States.
They kept asking me over and
over again why Americans did not
realize that the United States was
acting purely in the interest of
money and power and not liberation.
They asked me why the American
public did not realize how many
times U.S. soldiers had the chance
to kill Saddam but refused to do so.
In their best English, they
searched for a word to describe
America, and I remember it well —
hypocritical.
We ignore human rights viola
tions in Bosnia, Rwanda, South
America, Latin America, China and
a score of other countries. We think
that because they’re not Americans,
they’re not fellow humans.
The issue is more than political.
We don’t realize how many of
our businesses profit from interna
tional agreements. This “root of all
evil” is branching out in the form of
foreign investment and worldwide
Happy Meals.
When the peso tell in Mexico, it
affected several U.S. businesses
who operated south of the border. It
also affected American investors
with stock in those businesses.
Our foreign policy is dictated by
the money we put into and take out
of foreign countries. When the
pound fluctuates in New York or the
yen wavers in Japan, we feel it in
New York.
Although it’s the superpower,
America is not alone on this planet.
There are people and cultures across
the globe that should be of interest to
us because we can learn from them.
We started as a nation of immi
grants and American Indians, but
somewhere along the line we gave
up our cultures for arrogance.
We do need to embrace our
country, but in order to do that we
have to know how our country fits
into the big picture. We can’t see
that if we’re tuned into only one
channel.
If you look at the world today,
you’ll still see plenty of suffering,
starvation, homelessness, torture
and killing, but you’ll also see
efforts toward peace.
Every political leader, including
Rabin, had moments of questionable
judgment and failure, but the desire
for peace should have been enough
to warrant attention.
I say again that a great man has
died. " •
And I pity those who do not
know what he died for.
Lavigae is a sealor aews-edltortal ma
jor aad a Dally Nebrasltaa sealor reporter
