EDITOR
Doug Kouma
OPINION
EDITOR
Anthony Nguyen
EDITORIAL
BOARD
Paula Lavigne
Joshua Gillin
Jessica Kennedy
Jeff Randall
Erin Gibson
Guest
VIEW
Magic Car-bag
Dangers of air bags
need more awareness
From The San Diego Union-Tribune
Although the potential dangers of air bags
are old news, it is clear that many motorists
still are ignoring the warnings from
automakers and the media.
Airbags already are standard equipment
on most new cars.
The federal government has mandated
that 90 percent of 1997 model cars have these
safety devices, while all new cars must be
equipped with them by next year.
In theory, the air bag is a marvelous tech
nology designed to prevent drivers and pas
sengers from being killed or maimed in an
accident.
The bags inflate within a fraction of a
second during a crash, providing a buffer
between the person and the hard interior sur
faces of vehicles.
Although most air bags activate upon
impact with a solid object at 10 to 12 mph,
Mercedes and BMW use different inflation
thresholds, depending on whether people are
wearing their seat belts.
In practice, air bags explode at a force of
up to 200 mph and can kill or maim little chil
dren or small adults. They have claimed the
lives of about 20 adults and 38 children, most
of whom were decapitated.
Most of these fatalities could have been
prevented had the children been placed in rear
facing car seats and placed in the vehicle’s
back seat. That’s precisely what safety ex
perts, car seat manufacturers and automotive
engineers have been recommending for years.
Small children, especially infants, should
never ride in the front seat, where they are
vulnerable to the tremendous force of an ex
ploding air bag.
If children and small adults ride in the
front, their seats should be adjusted all the
way back to reduce the risk of being killed or
severely injured when the air bag inflates.
Newspapers have carried various stories
and editorials citing the dangers of air bags.
Automakers also have been cautioning people
who own newer cars of the potential perils.
Still, a majority of Americans believe air
bags help more children then they hurt, ac
cording to a survey from the Center for Risk
Analysis at the Harvard Center for Public
Health. In fact, there are no documented cases
of air bags saving kids.
To be sure, air bags have saved lives,
about 1,500 so far.
But it should be remembered that these
safety devices were designed for adults and
that special care is needed to protect vulner
able youngsters and small adults from their
potentially lethal impact.
Editorial Policy
Unsigned editorials are the opinions of the
Fall 1996 Daily Nebraskan. They do not nec
essarily reflect the views of die University
ofNebraska-Lincoin, its employees, its stu
dent body or die University of Nebraska
Board 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
duction of the newspaper: According to
policy set by die regents, responsibility for
die editorial content of the newspaper lies
solely in the hands of its student employees.
Letter Policy
The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief let
ten to the editor and guest columns, but
does not guarantee their publication. The
Daily Nebraskan retains the right to edit
or reject any rimerial submitted. Submit
ted material becomes the property of the
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braskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 R St
Lincoln, Neb. 68588-0448. E-mail:
leOers@unlinfo.unl.edu.
J
Mehsling’s
VIEW
Just a Thought
Several articles and columns were
written in the March 19 paper
(“Panel Discussion Turns to Argu
ments About Racism,” “Debate
heard on gay unions” and J.J.
Harder’s column,” No more Babel,
please”), and I would like to give
everyone food for thought by
quoting Robert Kennedy from The
Pursuit of Justice: “What is objec
tionable, what is dangerous, about
extremists is not that they are
extreme, but that they are intolerant.
The evil is not what they say about
their cause, but what they say about
their opponents ... Ultimately,
America’s answer to the intolerant
man is diversity, the very diversity
which our heritage of religious
freedom has inspired.”
We can all use the advice from
Jessica Kennedy’s column “Out on a
‘lamb’” (DN, March 19).
“Let go of your prejudices, release
your grudges, forgive the unforgiv
able.”
Here is another suggestion, try to
see the world from everyone else’s
eyes.
Erik Sather
freshman
psychology
Responsible
Ownership
UNL’s Second Amendment
Students’ Association. (SASA) does
not find it surprising that some law
enforcement officials oppose a
concealed carry law in Nebraska
(DN, March 18). Other states like
Florida, South Carolina and Texas
experienced similar skepticism when
they enacted comparable laws.
However, many of these same
officials have since realized that
mentally competent and law-abiding
citizens are perfectly capable of
DN
LETTERS
Jason Gildow/DN
responsible firearms carrying and
ownership.
According to Florida’s Division
of Licensing, for example, as of May
31,1996 only .019 percent of
347,213 concealed-carry license
holders had their licenses revoked
for committing a crime. That's a
pretty fair trade off since Florida’s
overall crime rate has declined
approximately 10 percent since
carrying concealed weapons went on
the bodes, according to FBI Uniform
Crime Reports.
And as far as this being an
“unfunded mandate” issue, let’s
remember one thing — so is the
Brady Act! If these law enforcement
officers want to be consistent, they
have to oppose that, too. SASA will
not hold its breath waiting for that
to happen.
The members of SASA support a
responsible concealed carry law for
Nebraska. It is past time that we
give law-abiding Nebraska women
and men the same self defense
measures as do the majority of the
other United States.
Thomas K. Eads
president
UNL Second Amendment
Students* Association
Convzzzziit Memory
As our nation goes into a cult
panic over the mass suicides in
California, let’s remember a couple
of things.
First, that this kind of mind
control isn’t limited to tiny,
marginalized groups.
It can be found in the shadow of
every religion and spiritual system
in the world, including mainstream
Christianity.
Some of today’s biggest cult
leaders are TV evangelists whose
financial, political and “healing”
practices are very questionable,
proving that mind controllers don’t
need the Internet to find people who
want to be told what to think.
Second, the truth is that “cults”
have always been a part of the
American scene.
Little groups of believers who
emigrated here — Quakers, Jews,
Congregationalists, Masons,
Pilgrims — were persecuted in
Europe as “scary cults.”
That’s why they fled to America.
Later came the Mormons, Menno
nites, Christian Scientists, etc. — all
considered very dangerous by the
followers of the larger, more
established, mainstream cults.
i
When Catholics emigrated to
America in the 1800s, Protestants
considered them dangerous and
cultish.
Ironically, some of the right wing
religious leaders who are today
speaking out loudly against the evil
of “cults” were themselves consid
ered cultish “Jesus Freaks” in the
1970s.
Their memory about cults is
conveniently short.
Charles Godwin
Davenport, Iowa
_?_ ■