EDITOR Doug Kouma OPINION EDITOR Anne Hjersman EDITORIAL BOARD Doug Peters Matt White Paula Lavigne Mitch Sherman Anthony Nguyen l - ■ Editorial Policy i Unsigned editorials are the opinions of the $$ 1996 Daily Nebraskan. They donetaec - «0®arily reflect the views of the University Nebraska-Lincoln, its employees, its stu Belt body or the University of Nebraska Boland of Regents. A column is soley the opinion of its author. The Board of Regents serves as publisher of the Daily Nebraskan; policy is set by the Daily Nebraskan Edito rial Board. The UNL Publications Board, es tablished by the regents, supervises the pro dectioa of the newspaper. According to policy set by the regents, responsibilityfor the editorial content of the newspaper lies >r - .."-it ■iS-A’at ’ - Congressional compromise Bad things avoided; good things undone From The Sacramento Bee. Sacramento, Calif. The 104th Congress, which came in roaring like a lion for radical change, is leaving looking rather more like a lamb. Its taming is another sign that die fear of an approaching re-election campaign trumps doctrine and ideology almost every time. The same, of course, goes for the president, who can compromise with the best of them. In the end, all concerned decided that a record of partial achievement was preferable to principled gridlock. Ml That’s not necessarily bad. Indeed, given the gap between what happened and what might have happened in Washington in the past two years, it’s reassuring. The Gingrich Republi cans* whojiad been prepared — in some cases eager—toShufdown the government, did not dismantle federal programswholesale as they had been more or less determined to do; they did not succeed in gutting federal environmen tal laws; they did not succeed in enacting an immigration law that would have allowed the states to kick illegal alien children out of school or permitted expulsion of legal aliens who had availed themselves of certain federal benefits. Their most sweeping legislative victory was the welfare reform bill they forced on President Clinton, which does far too little to help welfare recipients get jobs and too much to punish children if they do not. Perhaps their most fundamental impact was in setting a seven-year deadline for achieving a balanced budget and getting a reluctant Clinton to agree to it. To what extent either of those changes will be celebrated once they become fully effective is still a very open question. What is certain is that Bob Dole, until recently one of the nation’s most devoted deficit hawks and now running for president, has already changed his priorities with his promise of a 15-percent tax cut. What the nation will almost surely come to regret is the xenophobic drift of federal policy — the cuts in already shrunken foreign aid and the - attempts to punish allies and trading partners that don’t slavishly follow U.S. preferences with respect to Cuba and Iran. On the margins, the tamer Congress passed bills that were both proper and popular: an increase in the federal minimum wage, restoring the purchasing power it guaranteed a decade ago; the expansion of some health insurance protections; minor internal reforms in congres sional procedures. Conversely, the failures of the fire-eaters to impose their excessive remedies, on matters such as reform of environ mental laws left a number of urgent issues entirely unaddressed. They will need attention next year. But if this year’s lessons of moderation were really learned, and if the shrunken coalitions of moderate Democrats and pragmatic Republi cans grow, chances of action on that agenda should improve as well. A lot of bad things were avoided this year; a lot of important things — including further health care reform—have been left undone. Letter Policy TheDaify Nebraskan welcomes brief let ters to theoditor and .guest columns, but doesaot guarantee their publication. The Daify Nebraskan retains the right to edit or reject any material submitted. Submit ted material becomes the property of the Daily Nebraskan and cannot be returned. Anonymous submissions will not be published. Those who submit letters must identify themselves by name, year in school, major and/or group affilia tion, if any. Submit material to: Daily Ne braskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400R St Lincoln, Neb. 68588-0448. E-mail: r~ ■ Straight answers I was pleasantly surprised when I read Nick Wiltgen’s column, “Seeing Straight” on Oct. 11. First, I would like to commend Nick for having the courage to publish his column in a campus newspaper read by a good portion of students who are homophobic themselves. Why is it that society still thinks it to be acceptable to aim jokes and harassment at issues of sexual orientation? At least in my awareness, it has The CIA has been very successful at keeping the poor of other countries in line with death squads, torture and proxy armies and the poor of the United States under control with drugs. The main purpose of the CIA is not intelligence but protecting and enhancing corporate power and global capitalism. When the CIA receives adverse publicity for its crimes, it is por trayed in the media as either a rogue agency or a bumbling agency making all sorts of stupid mistakes. It is neither! It is an extremely successful agency for its mission, which is to keep the poor powerless and disorga nized and as a source of very cheap labor for the multinational corpora tions. Gary Sudborough Bellflower, Calif. oecome unaccepiaoie 10 ten raciauy demeaning jokes or make racial slurs, but yet is remains part of American culture to torture and depreciate those who are not straight. Perhaps this attitude is merely reflective of our insecurity about our own sexual orientation. We are so afraid that “people” might think we are gay or lesbian if we do speak out and make others aware that then jokes and insults are not tolerable, that we remain silent. Even when articles do appear that support gay/lesbian rights, the author always seems to so eloquently and subtly slip in the fact that they most definitely are straight. But, I ask, should it really matter? Susie Kiene freshman English and philosophy ' MsxBmm^samrnm wm