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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 17, 1996)
rVjjUx WEDNESDAY ^|k nr | 1; . , WEATHER: I /^V I 7^TodaV “ Partly sunny and I I ^ W Jk kj£ Jk ■ ■ mild. Southwest wind 15 \H I Mm S\ I \ to 20 mph. kM Tonight -A 20 percent COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA SINCE 1901 VOL. 95 NO. 145 chance of showers. -- -j April 17, 1996 Travis Heying/DN Eva Sartori lights a candle in honor of Holocaust victims Tuesday night at the State Capitol. The annual Nebraska Holocaust Commemoration was attended by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Elie Wiesel. Shedding light Holocaust ceremony remembers victims; liberators By Todd Anderson Staff Reporter A solemn crowd of400 contemplated the atrocities of the Holocaust, remembering its survivors and their liberators, during the Nebraska Holocaust Commemoration cer emony Tuesday night. The ceremony in the Nebraska State Capi tol rotunda brought together representatives from government and the community to speak about the importance of remembering the Holocaust and preventing hate and aggres sion. Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Elie Wiescl, a Holocaust survivor, was on hand for the ceremony. Wiesel spoke Tuesday afternoon at UNL. Several public officials and community leaders including Lincoln Mayor Mike Johanns, Lt. Gov. Kim Robak, Rabbi Stanley Rosenbaum, and state Sen. La Von Crosby of Lincoln, delivered messages about the im portance of fighting tyranny and intolerance to prevent the atrocities of the Holocaust from ever happening again. Several survivors and children of Holo caust survivors lit candles in remembrance of victims. Candles were also lit in remembrance of the liberators and rescuers of concentration camp prisoners. Following a performance by the Irving Middle School Choir, Sybil Milton, senior historian for the U.S. Holo caust Research Institute in Washington, D.C., delivered the commemoration address. Milton said the victims of concentration camps left behind “ideas inscribed in words and pictures” to help future generations re member the Holocaust. “The human spirit could and did survive the ultimate evil.... They believed the world would indeed someday be a better place.” But, she said, “old racial hatreds seem to re-appear throughout Europe.” She cited evidence of genocide in the former Yugoslavia and warned of those who try to prove that the Holocaust never hap pened. “The record of the (Nuremberg) trials will forever disprove those who attempt to deny Nazi crimes,” she said. The ceremony was sponsored by the Lin coln Interfaith Council, the Office of the Governor of Nebraska, the Office of the Mayor of Lincoln, the Jewish Federation of Lincoln, and Community Relations Com mittee of the Anti-Defamation League. Marcia Kushner, chairwoman of the co ordinating committee, said it was important that the supporters were a diverse group. She also said it was important that the ceremony was held in the Capitol. “It says that we as a state consider this an important commemoration,” she said. She said it was important for parents to teach their children about the Holocaust be cause members of the generation who expe rienced the atrocities will not be around much longer. “They are our real link,” she said. She said it was important for individuals to be alert to acts of hatred within their own groups and to speak out when incidents oc cur. Fanaticism can kill, Nobel winner says By Julie Sobczyk Senior Reporter The thought process behind fanaticism can turn humans into killers, Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel told an overflow ing crowd at UNL on Tuesday afternoon. In his speech, “The Seduction and Dan ger of Fanaticism,” Wiesel said when reli gious people went beyond a certain point, they could become fanatics. “What is that limit?” he said. “When he believes ‘Only I can hear God, have spoken to God and nobody else can,’ he talks a lot of arrogance.” Wiesel’s speech drew the largest crowd in the eight-year history of the E.N. Thomp son Forum on World Issues, filling the Lied Center for Performing Arts to capacity. Many people were turned away at the door and bused to East Campus to see the speech televised. “Fanatics believe they have received or ders to speak in God’s name,” Wiesel said. “Who gave them that right? How many were killed in the name of God? How many hu mans were shamed and tortured in the name of the love of God?” Fanatics believe they are superior, Wiesel said, and with the superiority comes knowl edge. “That knowledge — even though it is distorted — gives them power. Given the power, they are dangerous.” Power is what drives fanatics, Wiesel said, and leads to dangerous consequences. “Genocide is a result of fanaticism. For me, it is an insolvable problem,” he said. Wiesel saw the actions of fanatics first hand. When he was 15 years old, he was deported to a Nazi concentration camp with his family. His mother and sister died there. Wiesel later wrote about his experiences in die concentration camps in “Night” and subsequent'writings. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. “‘Hate’ is the key word in genocide in our century. The idea is to analyze hatred. What is it that makes humans hate one another?” Wiesel said he had struggled with many See WIESEL on 3 Nelson signs property tax relief bills By Ted Taylor Senior Reporter Nebraskans now have a “valid option” to the citizen petitions on the November ballot, Gov. Ben Nelson said as he signed the Nebraska Legislature Legislature s property tax relief package Tuesday. Nelson was joined at the ceremony by Revenue Com mittee Chairman Sen. Jerome Warner of Waverly. The bills in the package include: • LB1114, which limits property tax levies on local governments, starting in 1QQQ • LB299, which limits local government spending for the two years before the levies, • LB 1177, which reallocates state aid to low revenue cities, • LB 1085, which provides lor and encour ages local governments to merge or consolidate to become more cost-efficient. Many said there was pressure on the Legis lature to pass the package to head off voter anger. Three citizen petitions, ranging in ac tions from abandoning the property tax system to capping levy limits. — With Warner’s leadership, Nelson said, the Legislature was able to pass a package of bills that he believed would start the state on the road to real property tax relief. But Nelson said the package’s two-year implementation gap should case the public’s perception that the proposal would harm schools. “Education and other services do not have to be hurt in this process,” he said. “Phasing in this plan will allow counties, cities and school dis tricts to look at better ways of doing business.” Nelson said the property tax debate in the state over the last two years had led to a more informed public. “People today, better than at any other time, are understanding the underlying factors to prop erty taxes, spending.” Nelson said the passage of the package also lessened the concern he had that the public may choose the citizen petitions. “I’m not as concerned as I would have been had the Legislature not passed the property tax package,” he said. “I don’t think the petitions are necessary now.” MTV bus to get out vote at UNL today By Ted Taylor Senior Reporter A long, loudly painted bus will park itsel f on Broyhill plaza today. But instead of picking up people, it will be dropping off a message — vote. The bus, the MTV “Choose or Lose” bus, has been traveling across the country since mid January trying to get college students to vote. And the University of Nebraska-Lincoln is the 44th stop along the way. Shannon Jacobs, a 1994 UNL graduate and part of the “Choose or Lose” bus management team, said turnout in the 1992 presidential elec tion was a sign of things to come. “In ’ 92, young people really showed up at the polls, and we are hoping they do it again,” she said. “I hope they realize that young people have a strong voice.” In that election, 43 percent of the 18- to 24 year-olds registered to vote went to the polls. Jacobs said she hoped the presence of the See BUS on 3
