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EDITOR
Doug Kouma
OPINION
EDITOR
Anthony Nguyen
EDITORIAL
BOARD
Anne Hjersman
Paula Lavigne
Joshua Gillin
Jessica Kennedy
Jeff Randall
Our
VIEW
Call to action
Chntoris education priority
highlights address
“ ...my number one priorityfor the next
four years, is to ensure that all Americans
have the best education in the world.'
“Let s work together to meet these three
goals: every 8-year old must be able to read,
every 12-year-old must be able to log on to
the Internet, every 18-year-old must be able
to go to college, and every adult American
must be able to keep on learning for a life
time. ”
President Clinton’s State of the Union
address Tuesday before a joint session of
Congress, innumerable dignitaries and the
most important audience—we, the citizens
—commenced by referring to the beginnings
of the Cold War, as a call to arms for the
government and citizens to defend against
the “enemy of our time”— inaction.
Ana aitnougn ne spoke aoout crime,
welfare, a balanced budget and the role of
the United States on the world stage — it
was Clinton’s remarks on “education that
should leave the greatest impact on the pros
perity of America—now and in the future.
Clinton stressed education as “one of
the critical national security issues for our
future” and deemed it his No. 1 priority.
The budget he will be submitting to
Congress next Thursday will allot $51 bil
lion to education alone—commendable in
an era when the federal government is be
coming more and more stringent with tax
dollars and revenue.The highlights of his
plan would involve setting standards for both
students and teachers to meet, using volun
teers to help teach reading and writing and
developing character and citizenship in
school. - - ^
To ease the burden of higher education
on families, Clinton has vociferously advo
cated tax breaks worth up to $10,000 to
apply toward the cost of attending a univer
sity.
The President was not afraid to appeal
to the Republican leadership. Perhaps there
is hope in Washington.
But while all of these points are worthy
of recognition, the question is whether
Clinton—confronted by a Republican-con
trolled Congress—can actually make good
on his 10 points on education. '
Partisan politics will not work. It has
not worked in the past, and it cannot hope
io worx in me iurure.
Congressional leaders must come to
gether with Clinton and with each other fo
cused on their collective goal. They must
not lose sight of that goal throughout de
bate and discussion that, despite all this talk
ofbipartisanship, will likely be divided along
party lines.
If politicians want to secure places for
themselves in histoiy—in the minds of 21st
century Americans—that place will be de
termined by how well the 105th Congress
and President Clinton can work together.
Congress needs to shed its partisan at
titudes. Clinton needs to discharge his of
fice with dignity and integrity—exercising
leadership through actions, not mere words.
Good luck.
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Mehs ling’s
VIEW
g
j
—
I
Anne j
HJERSMAN i
.• . j
A fast for the main discourse
Shanks' stand for justice breaks university's silence
People who know Eric Shanks
know that he has always been one to
swim upstream.
When I met him almost five years
ago, he was fighting an undercurrent
of racial insensitivity at Nebraska
Scholars Institute. He was on staff. I
was a student.
I learned more from my one-on
one conversations with Shanks than
I did from any of the “scholarly”
activities the summer camp offered.
He inspired me.
I saw the spark in him then.
That’s why when I heard last
Thursday that Shanks, who is now a
38-year-old UNL graduate student,
had vowed to go on a hunger strike,
I wasn’t terribly surprised.
In his own impassioned way,
Shanks was giving us all some food
for thought.
Unfortunately, I think it is going
to take the people of this university a
long time to digest everything that
has gone down since members of
Sigma Chi fraternity decided to
“uphold tradition” and bum a cross
in the presence of Civil War para
phernalia.
Shanks was among those who
just couldn’t stomach such an
empty-headed act. So he offered
leaders of UNL’s student organiza
tions an ultimatum: Publicly
denounce racism or watch me starve.
It was an admittedly simple, yet
admirable, request — one that
shouldn’t have had to be made. It
seems some people at the University
of Nebraska-Lincoln are still stuck
on square one in the Civil Rights
movement. In fact, they may have
just gotten into the game.
It took four days for Shanks to get
what he felt was a satisfactory
response: phone calls from Vice
Chancellor for Student Affairs
James Griesen and ASUN President
Eric Marintzer promising that a
formal statement would be drafted
Monday evening denouncing racism
and proposing tuture campus-wide
discourse on the subject.
Shanks quickly washed down the
good news with a celebratory peanut
butter and jelly sandwich.
The statement was drafted. The
“discourse” has begun.
The Association of the Students
of the University of Nebraska is
demanding that student organiza
tions state in their constitutions that
they do not discriminate “on the
basis of a person’s age, race,
national origin, color, gender, sexual
orientation, creed, handicap or place
of residence.” And sane organiza
tions have already “reaffirmed” their
dedication to that end.
But it wasn’t until Tuesday, when
members of the Afrikan Peoples’
Union met with university adminis
trators and members of Sigma Chi
and the NAACP, that people on both
sides of the cross-burning issue were
able to sit across the table from one
another to seriously discuss the
implications of the incident.
Though nothing solid came out of j
. that meeting, it was said to be the
first step in paving the way to a
resolution.
That all sounds very nice (and
strangely familiar), but I’ve got a
gut feeling that Shanks and the rest
of us who were so disturbed by
Sigma Chi’s actions might be
getting a political pacifier shoved
aown our mroais.
If I’m wrong, I’d be more than
happy to eat my words.
I just hope all of us aren’t left
starving for justice.
Hjersman is a senior news
editorial and English major and
the night editor and a columnist
for the Daily Nebraskan.
Aaron Steckelberg/DN