EDITOR
Doug Kouma
OPINION
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’ -
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.
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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<r f - si
Jason Gildow/DN
have been easy coming out to them,
as well as to his friends.
It is also great to hear a successful
coming out story. Consider yourself
lucky, Nick. There are others out
there who have been less fortunate
than you.
And as for those ignorant people
out there who “flaunt their homopho
bic lifestyles,” remember: what goes
around, comes around.
Stacy L. Johnson-Solomon
freshman
UNMC College of Dentistry
Intelligence
agency?
Along with noted author and
political analyst Michael Parenti, I
think a more appropriate term for the
Central Intelligence Agency is
Capitalism’s International Army or
Cocaine Import Agency.
Tis a pity
The Daily Nebraskan ran a story
recently regarding an administrator at
the University of Nebraska at
Kearney censoring nudity in the play
‘Tis a Pity She’s a Whore.” The man
was quoted as saying nudity seldom
happened at UNL.
I’d like to point out that Tice
Miller, head of our theatre depart
ment, directed at least two play with
nudity: the thoroughly wonderful
“Equis” and “Otherwise Engaged.”
Furthermore, ‘Tis a Pity She’s a
Whore” is one of the oldest plays in
the theatre canon. It is frequently
taught in theatre history.
We are lucky here in Lincoln to
have freedom of artistic expression.
‘Tis a pity about this small
minded administrator in Kearney.
Liz Chadwick
f senior
journalism
Phobia flaunting
In response to Nick Wiltgen’s
column, “Seeing Straight,” I have
only this to say to Nick: BRAVO,
BRAVO, BRAVO!!!! I know Nick’s
family (being from the same home
town) and 1 know that it could not
