EDITOR
' DougKouma
OPINION
EDITOR
Anne Hjersman
EDITORIAL
BOARD
Doug Peters
Matt Waite
Paula Lavigne
Mitch Sherman
Anthony Nguyen
Campaign^
endorsements”
No on 409
Election is limit enough
on Congressional terms
Terms have always been limited in de
mocracy — but not by arbitrary time con
, j straints set out in state constitutions or in the
U.S. Constitution. Politicians are limited to
the number of years in office they are allowed
by voters.
To “instruct Nebraska’s members of
Congress and state legislators to support pas
sage and ratification of an amendment to the
U.S. Constitution limiting U.S. representa
tives to three terms and senators to two
terms” is to say voters don’t know what is
good for them. There’s nothing democratic
about that.
If this measure passes, those candidates
who opposed term limits would be branded
on future ballots as having violated voter in
struction. Such “Scarlet Letter” scare tactics
should not be tolerated.
That’s why voters should let it be known
that what they mark on their ballots makes a
difference. They should vote no on ballot
initiative 409 and end the attempts by the
term-limit supporters to force the issue.
Say no to gambling
All bets are off for voting to allow the
Legislature to authorize off-track, pari
mutuel betting on horse races in Nebraska.
A vote for Amendment 1 would extend bet
ting outside of licensed racetracks. The weak
show of interest in horse-racing in Nebraska
is proof that such an amendment would not
be beneficial. And the amendment’s support
ers admit off-track betting is the first step
toward casino gambling, against which Ne
braska voters have already voiced their op
position. Don’t gamble with Amendment 1.
Vote no.
Say yes to benefits
Legislators deserve the same employee
benefits granted to other state officers. Mem
bers of the Nebraska Legislature now re
ceive $12,000 a year— less than represen
tatives in almost every other state. When it
becomes too expensive and time-consuming
for ordinary citizens to run for office, the
people who run will be wealthy, retired citi
zens — people who do not represent the
majority of Nebraska’s voters. Benefits are
a small step toward lessening this gap and
letting Joe Citizen make his way to the State
Capitol. Secure a representative government
in the Nebraska Legislature by voting yes on
Amendment 3.
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HNNDOUT.
Broyhill blues
I’m a former student of UNL and
native Nebraskan who has since
transferred to the great vast expanse
of land they call the University of
North Dakota.
I was reading Kasey Kerber’s
column on the impending down of
the Broyhill Fountain. I hadn’t heard
about the fate of the fountain until
reading this column and was a little
disturbed at hearing the news.
When I think of my experience at
UNL, that fountain is always one of
the first images that pops into my
mind. I always just assumed that it
would be around as long as the
campus was. I guess I was mistaken.
It is sad to know that when I visit
the campus in the future, the Broyhill
Fountain will be just what it is to me
now... a memory.
Dan Richardson
senior
aviation
University of North Dakota
‘Quality’ initiative
English Professor Frances W.
Kaye calls for us to “stick up for all
education” by supporting a ballot
initiative that would guarantee
“quality education” (Letters, Oct. 22
DN).
However, the initiative in question
has no definition of a quality
education, and if this ill-designed
initiative passes, competing defini
tions will find their way to the courts.
For example, a father in a small
school decides that his child needs to
learn Japanese in order to be
properly educated for a world in
which so much trading is done with
Japan. If the school doesn’t offer
Japanese, he sues, claiming that his
child’s right to a quality education
has been violated.
1-s--TTr-r-rr-™
Aaron Steckelberg/DN
Rest assured, this WILL happen
regardless of what happens with tax
revenues, and in our lawsuit
obsessed society, we WILL have
school districts where money that
should have gone to education is
spent instead on lawyers, as they
defend their definition of “quality” in
the courts.
The end result is that the courts
will determine the curriculum, the
courts will determine appropriate
budgets, and local control of educa
tion will cease to exist.
Nobody opposes quality educa
tion, and nobody wants to see
schools bear an undue burden in the
event that tax revenues decrease. But
this vaguely worded initiative is
NOT the answer.
Parents, unless you want
unelected and unaccountable judges
usurping the role of the school
boards and taking away your control
over the schools that educate your
kids, then vote NO on the quality
education initiative.
The kids deserve better.
Brad Pardee
Love Library
ON EXTREMES
I agreed with Nick Wiltgen in his
column, “Of extreme importance,”
that valuable politics should not be
compromised. I believe that politi
cians should have an “extreme”
belief in their ideologies. Well, I do
as long as they are also my ideolo
gies.
See, Nick, while you were busy
writing what politicians don’t do and
defend, you forgot one “extremely”
important thing—those are your
ideological beliefs, not mine, not
everyone else’s.
bee, that is where the idea ot
representative government comes
into play. The government represents
all of us, not just you and not just
me. That is why compromise is an
important role of the politician.
Ideally speaking, we, the people,
control the government. To say that
“they Compromise your right to keep
what is yours in order to pay for all
their government programs” is
completely ridiculous.
We are paying for our programs.
(Believe it or not, we do use them.)
This is the problem with Ameri
can society today. We don’t realize
we have a say in our government.
If you don’t like something, say
so. Politicians can’t read minds.
We are not compromising our
liberties with “arbitrary restrictions.”
To me, they help to further recognize
our liberties.
This is my opinion. Obviously,
yours is different. That is why
American is called the melting pot of
diverse and extreme ideas. Politi
cians must represent the mainstream
of ideas, because they represent all
of us and our “extremely” important
ideas.
Priya Nataraj
freshman
biochemistry
i^11 nW—P1 -1
PS. Write P>dck