EDITOR
Doug Kouma
OPINION
EDITOR
Anne Hjersman
EDITORIAL
BOARD
Doug Peters
Matt Waite
Paula Lavigne
Mitch Sherman
Anthony Nguyen
Dishonorable
Don't punish women
for men's sex crimes
From The San Diego Union-Tribune.
Reports of rapes and other sexual as
saults against female personnel at a number
of Army installations have revived a long
running debate about the proper role of
women in the military.
Advocates on both sides of the issue —
those who believe women should fill only
support positions, and those who believe
women should serve alongside men in com
bat— agree on one point: Anyone guilty of
committing sex crimes or sexual harassment
against female officers or enlisted personnel
should be punished severely.
But the Army’s widening sex scandal
also has led to calls by some lawmakers for
greater separatum Deiweeii men anu women
in military missions, units and, especially,
basic training. Allegations of sexual miscon
duct by male drill sergeants and officers at
the Army’s Aberdeen Proving Ground in
Maryland stemmed from contact with female
subordinates during advanced training. .
Four drill instructors and a captain at
Aberdeen have been charged with raping,
sexually harassing or fraternizing with a
dozen women recruits. An Army-wide hot
line established in response to the scandal
has logged more than 4,000 calls, with more
than 500 considered to be potential grounds
for disciplinary actions.
“We have to be realistic,” says Rep. Bob
Livingston, R-La., chairman of the House
Appropriations Committee. “We have to un
derstand that young people between 18 and
25 are young people, and they’re going to do
what comes naturally if given the opportu
r nity. And we shouldn’t put them in thatposi
tion.” . ...... . .. ..... . • . ..
I he Army, N avy and Air Force mix men
and women together in basic training, while
the Marine Corps continues to separate them
in all-male and all-female training units.
Officially, women still are excluded from
most combat positions in the Army. But the
reality is that in any conflict, women are close
enough to the action to suffer casualties and
be taken prisoner, as occurred during the
Persian Gulf War. Women also fly combat
aircraft in the Navy and Air Force, and serve
aboard aircraft carriers and other ships sub
ject to hostile action.
Livingston argues for resegregating some
military units by gender, with female offic
ers supervising female enlisted personnel,
particularly during basic training. His idea
is for a “women’s corps” headed by women
drill seigeants and commanders.
The problem with Livingston’s approach
is that it inevitably would relegate women to
a second-class role, with reduced opportuni
ties for career advancement—all in the name
of cuibing the illegal excesses of a handful
of men. The unspoken premise is that be
cause some men can’t control their sexual
impulses, women should be assigned to seg
regated units for their own protection.
That amounts to punishing the victim,
when die blame really should rest exclusively
with anyone who engages in sexual miscon
duct.
Editorial Policy
Unsigned editorials are the opinions of the
Fall 1996 Daily Nebraskan. They do not nec
essarily reflect the views of die University
of Nebraska-Lincoln, its employees, its stu
dent body or die University of Nebraska
Board of Regents. A column is soley die
opinion of its author. The Board of Regents
serves as publisher of die Daily Nebraskan;
policy is set by the Daily Nebraskan Edito
rial Board. The UNL Publications Board, es
tablished by the regents, supervises die pro
duction of the newspaper. According to
policy set by the regents, responsibility for
die editorial content of die newspaper lies
solely in thehandsofits student employees.
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The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief let
ters to die editor and guest columns, but
does not guarantee their publication. The
Daily Nebraskan retains the right to edit
or reject any material submitted. Submit
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Spirit of St Louis found in Husker fans
Editor’s note: This column,
written by University of Texas at
Austin student Brian Davis,
.appeared in the Daily Texan on
Monday and is reprinted here
courtesy of U-Wire.
While walking up to the entrance
of the Trans World Dome in St.
Louis, I saw a sight that mere words
couldn’t describe.
Standing on the comer of Fifth
Street and Missouri, just a block
away from the stadium, one could
look out and witness.something
nonexistent in Austin. People
streamed through the streets of St.
Louis, and because of their shirts,
jackets and suits, it was a literal “Red
Sea.”
Now, this crowd wasn’t like the
ones that Longhorn fans are accus
tomed to seeing in College Station
and Lubbock. There were no
tortillas, nor fears of having ‘Homs
stickers defaced on the back wind
shields of fans’ cars.
No, these fans had to be the
classiest group of college football
fans that Texas has seen in a long
time.
Make no mistake about it: the
Trans World Dome was Lincoln
South.
When the Huskers took the field,
the crowd rose to its feet as if Tom
Osborne, Nebraska’s head coach,
was raising his hand to the crowd and
casting a spell that electrically
charged the field.
“Every time I ran out onto the
field at Memorial Stadium
(Nebraska’s home stadium in
Lincoln), it was like I was walking on
air,” former Husker Trev Alberts
once said. “It’s the most incredible
feeling.”
The feeling inside the Dome was
definitely incredible. Many Husker
fans discovered that the same feeling
ii
These fans had to
be the classiest
group of college
football fans that
Texas has seen in
a long time.”
they generate at every home game is
also easily transferable to another
place, another city, another state or
even to another world.
Instead of renting cars to travel to
the Trans World Dome, fans packed
the Metrolink rail system hours
before kickoff. Since there were
hardly any Texas fans in sight, the
rail cars were packed like sardines
with people mostly wearing red
sweatshirts with Nebraska logos.
At one particular stop along the
route, four people who were clad in
regular street clothes tried to force
their way onto the car, but there was
simply no room. The Nebraska fans
on board cried out, “Sorry, no room
here.”
As the four shuffled to another
car, three fans wearing Husker
apparel approached the same door.
“Yea, come on. There’s plenty of
room,” the same three said as they
pushed their way into the car. And
the other Nebraska fans were more
than happy to oblige.
One thing’s for sure, the most
amazing thing that came out of the
Nebraska tunnel on Saturday wasn’t
the Comhusker football team.
“LiT Red,” a mascot that re
sembles an overgrown Pillsbury *
dough boy, took the field to a roar of
thunderous approval. The mascot,
which is a person inside a suit filled
with helium, parades around the field
by moving with a bouncing motion
and apparently suffers from com
puter-like twitches.
Lil’ Red took to the stands, where
the 40,000-plus Nebraska fans were
happy to have their pictures taken.
Fans lined the aisles adorned with
NU construction helmets, gallons of
face paint, hundreds of tattoo
stickers, thousands of printed “Go
Big Red” signs, team jerseys, bikini
tops that read “N” followed by a
“U,” and leather jackets that
chronicled the school’s four national j
titles.
But after watching Texas down
the Huskers, the once jubilant Trans
World Dome turned into the world’s
largest mausoleum. Nebraska fans
found solace in giving Texas fans the
“Hook ‘em Homs” gesture while
Texas fans were mostly stunned with
amazement.
Now about those Texas fans who
were few and far between ....
It will probably be easy to forgive
the fans who didn’t make the trip,
After all, a plane ticket, a hotel room,
a rental car, food and spirits and any
other wanted mementos Could have
cost an average person upwards of
$600-700 each.
Prior to kickoff, there was one
section on the upper level of the
stadium that was next'to empty. That
section was in the Texas seating area
that featured a comer view.
“We figured out who the true fans
were at this game,” Texas kicker Phil
Dawson said. “It was basically a road
game. These people had to come
spend a lot of money to come watch
us play, and a lot of people probably
stayed in Austin because they
thought that we didn’t have a chance.
“But I couldn’t be prouder of our
fans—the ones that were here.”
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