NETZARIM, Gaza Strip (AP) —
Israeli troops shot and killed two Pal
estinians and two others blew them
selves up in bungled suicide bombings
TUesday, one of the deadliest days yet
in a growing crisis in Middle East
peacemaking.
The bombers apparently had meant
to destroy Israeli school buses outside
Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip,
Israelis said. The attacks come dur
ing a deadlock in Israeli-Palestinian
peace talks, which broke down last
month over new Israeli construction
in disputed east Jerusalem, and trig
gered new accusations from both sides.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu insisted that the suicide
bombings showed that Palestinian
leader Yasser Arafat has sanctioned
attacks by Islamic militants.
“Today’s twin attacks (are) proof
that the terror campaign continues,”
Netanyahu said.
Arafat said it was Israel’s pro
longed security closure of Palestinian
areas that created a climate of vio
lence. “We are all doing our best... to
control the situation,” Arafat said.
Both sides refuse to resume peace
talks unless the other makes key com
promises.
Netanyahu later decided to make
a 12-hour visit to the United States to
talk with President Clinton about the
crisis, the prime minister’s spokesman
said.
Netanyahu also will address the
pro-Israeli lobby AIPAC and Christian
organizations that support Israel, and
will meet with U.S. Jewish leaders,
spokesman Shai Bazak said.
Israel’s Channel 2 television said
Clinton intended to propose a compro
mise to Netanyahu.
The Palestinians demand that Is
rael stop construction of a Jewish
neighborhood in east Jerusalem, the
sector they claim as a future capital.
Until the work stops, Palestinians say
they will refuse to help Israel on secu
rity, such as detecting Islamic mili
tants plotting attacks on Israelis.
Netanyahu insists that Arafat re
store order and peace before negotia
tions resume. He refuses to halt the
construction.
Two suicide
bombings in Gaza
AP
endei oMezcies
An exceptional boy meets an untimely end
Editor’* note: In yesterday’s in
stallment, we learned Tittle
Sammy Grahams’s body grew
differently from other children’s.
Despite an unusually mature faith
in God, he dreaded entering
middle school.
The entire story is available
online at <http://www.unl.edu/
DailyNeb/>.
By Nancy Shuuns
Associated Press
he Grahams spent the
better part of the summer
in Jamaica, where
Sammy Graham surprised every
one by launching an all-out cam
paign to lose weight. He lifted
weights and did push-ups. He di
eted and he jogged. He was devel
oping discipline. His parents were
proud.
By die time they came home in
August, Sammy’s hard work had
begun to pay off. His dad, Vincent,
was sure he could see a difference.
But it wasn’t enough, not to
Sammy. He had counted on com
ing back thin.
He got his first look at Parkway
the week before school darted. It
was big. At the orientation he at
tended with his parents, “they em
phasized that middle school is re
ally tough,” Vincent says. “Nobody
baby-sat you anymore.”
That Saturday, Vincent took the
boys skating. On Sunday, they all
went to chinch. Sammy wore his
navy blue jacket with white pants
and a pink shirt. “He looked so
sweet,” Vincent says. If only he’d
taken a picture.
The sermon was about God’s
protection. At the end, Vincent
asked the young people to come
forward for his blessing like al
ways, only this time Sammy stayed
in his seat.
The night before: ice
cream and a pillow fight
They had their usual Sunday
dinner: rice and peas with carrot
J
Wi
juice. There was ice cream for des
sert, a small helping for Sammy.
He was trying to lose some more
weight.
The boys watched TV, then put
on their pajamas and climbed into
their parents’ bed. A pillow fight
broke out. Naturally, Vincent
jumped right in. After awhile,
though, he turned himself back into
a grown-up and insisted they all go
to sleep. They had school in the
morning, after all.
He got in bed with them and
they cuddled. Sammy’s mom Jackie:
kissed them and left fbr work, re
minding Sammy she’d be home
early to take him. It was the first
day for brothers Josh and David,
too, but Sammy needed her more.
He was the one changing schools.
When Vincent opened his eyes
the next morning, it was 6:33.
Sammy wasn’t in bed, but Josh and
David were still sleeping, and their
school started earlier.
He woke than and hurried them
along. It dawned on him that he
hadn’t seen Sammy, but first things
first. He needed to get the little ones
ready. Otherwise, they’d miss their
bus.
Where was he, anyway?
Vincent checked the bathroom. He
knelt down and peered under the
bed. Sammy liked hide-and-seek,
but that was a night game. He
jogged, but never this early.
Vincent was more puzzled than
alarmed.
Back to the bathroom. He knew
Sammy wasn’t there, but he was
running out of places to look.
Something caught his eye. He
glanced out the window. What was
that, under the tree? Thai he saw.
A life has ended. It was Jackie’s
first thought as she turned onto her
street. She counted three ambu
lances, six police cars. A neighbor
stopped her. It’s Sammy, she said.
surreal days were a
blur of visitors and arrangements. .
Somehow Jadud'got through them, •
~ b&ifc how on earth would she get
through the days after that?
A counselor suggested she set
aside 20 minutes a day to think
about Sammy and cry. Oddly, it
helped. So did the fund set up in
his honor, at People’s Bank of
Commerce in Lauderdale Lakes.
Friends, even strangers, wanted to
do something, but what? Jackie
knew: a center for shy, overweight
children. Where they could swim
without shame.
For her family’s sake, she
needed to pull herself back to
gether. And little by little, she did.
Not long ago, she realized some
thing amazing: She’d gone a whole
day without tears.
Perfect strength
Of course, she’d had God’s
help. She couldn’t have managed
without him; in that way, her loss
only deepened her faith. “His
strength is made perfect in our
weakness. I know that now,” Jackie
says.
It helps to remember that
Sammy’s gone home. He’s with
Jesus now. That was what he most
wanted, and God allowed it. They
must accept it and go on; what
other choice do they have?
And yet, there remain many un
answered questions. “It’s such a
mystery,” Vincent says.
He can only imagine how it
must have happened, how God
must have watched Sammy steal
into the yard with a flashlight, a
rope and a step stool, having pieced
together his final puzzle: The body
he hated. The school he feared. The
perfect place that awaited his soul.
He could go there. He would go
there. It would be easy, like swim
ming. Just position the stool and
climb up, toward heaven. Then step
into God’s waiting arms.
/
■ T
Daub ahead of Council in Omaha mayoral race
OMAHA—Mayor Hal Daub will face Brenda Council in a repeat '
of the 1994 mayor’s race during the general election May 13.
Challenger Lou Lamberty conceded Tuesday after gamering only
20.27 percent of the vote in the primary race. Lamberty threw his sup
port into the Council campaign after conceding. Council attracted 39.66
percent of the vote with all of the precincts reporting.
Daub finished with 40.04 percent, four months after receiving the
lowest job approval rating for an Omaha mayor since 1987.
“It’s the attitude that the devil you know is better than the devil you
don’t know,” said James B. Johnson, chairman of the political science
department at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
Weapons discovered in Heaven's Gate storage sheds
SAN DIEGO — Five handguns, three rifles and ammunition be
longing to the Heaven’s Gate suicide cult were discovered in two rented
storage sheds Tuesday. A handgun had been found earlier among cult
members’ baggage.
Thirty-nine cult members carried out a suicide ritual last week in
their exclusive suburban hideaway in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. Lt. Jerry
Lipscomb, the sherifFs lead homicide detective, said weapons were not ;
used in the deaths and said there was no evidence the cult used weap
ons “either for hunting a- criminal activity.”
Ray didn’t kill Martin Luther King, King's son says
ATLANTA — Echoing the words of his younger brother, Martin
Luther King IH said Tuesday he does not believe that James Earl Ray
was involved in their father’s assassination 29 years ago.
“We are relatively convinced that James Earl Ray had nothing to do
with the assassination,” the 39-year-old King said. “Mr. Ray has just
been used as a patsy.”
Ray, 69, is serving a 99-year prison sentence and is said to be suf
fering from terminal liver disease. The King family has called for a
new trial for Ray, saying it is the only way to learn the truth about the
assassination.
-
Racial groups targeted
PHOENIX (AP) — In the early
1960s, the tobacco industry knew of
nicotine’s “severe toxicity,” targeted
potential smokers as young as 16 and
marketed brands especially for black,
Hispanic and Jewish smokers, docu
ments released Tuesday show.
Made public by Arizona’s attorney
general, the documents represent only
a fraction of die thousands of papers
Liggett is turning over to Arizona and
21 other states as part of a landmark
settlement.
On March 20, Liggett admitted
smoking was addictive, something the
tobacco industry has long denied, and
agreed to pay one-quarter of its pre
tax profits over the next 25 years to
. offset the costs ofsmoking-related ill
nesses.
The records show that Liggett con
sidered using synthetic ingredients to
increase the impact of cigarettes on
smokers “without the severe toxicity
of nicotine itself.”
They also show that the tobacco
industry devised special marketing
tools to take into account “ethnic fac
tors” and marketing differences
among black, Hispanic and Jewish
smokers.
The report said that “Spanish and
Negro groups like to purchase only the
best of everything—they are not look
ing for bargains. They can be reached
successfully by promotion that they
understand, i.e., Negro salesmen and
media (but not exclusively).”
The report went on to say that
“there must be a racial slant in the
marketing efforts” directed toward
Hispanics and blacks, while “promo
tion must be smart and sophisticated”
for die Jewish market.
A 1963 report by Arthur D. Little
Inc., a Massachusetts consulting firm,
identified potential smokers ages 16
to 21 as those in “the formative years
(when) smoking starts and brand pref
erences are developed. v ]
“At age 16-21, there is much bum
ming of cigarettes.”
' i
Another document recommended
a new, improved packaging concept
for the cigarette “so as to have more
appeal to youth.”
n r Question*? Comments? Ask for the
Nebraskan 4 MSaasBSX.
Editor. DougKouma A&EEditor JeffRandal
Managing Editor Paula Lavigne Photo Director Scott Bruhn
Assoc. News Editors: Joshua GHHn Art Director Aaron Steckeberg
Chad Lorenz Web Editor Michelle Collins
Nigra canon • Anno i ijorsmon NiQnt nows
Opinion Editor Anthony Nguyen Editors: Bryce Glenn
APWIre Etffior John Fulwkler Leenne Sorensen
Copy Desk Chief: Julie Sobczyk Rebecca Stone
SportsEdMor TrevorParks Amy Taylor
General Manager Dan Shat® Publications Tiavis Brandt
Advertising Manager AmyStnithers Board Chairman: 436*7915
AssL Ad Manager Cheryl Renner Professional Don Walton
Classified Ad Manager Tiffiny Clifton Adviser 473-7301
FAX NUMBER:472-1761
The Daily Nebraskan (USPS144-060) te pubttshedby the UNL Pubttcations Board,
Nebraska Union 34,1400 R St. Lincoln, NE 68588-0448, Monday through Friday during
the academic ysar; weekly during summer sessions.
Readers are encouraged to submit story ideas and comments to the Dafly Nebras
kan by catting 472-2588. The public has access to the Pubttcations Board.
Fodfrnasten lend address changes to the Daily Nebraskan, Nebraska Union 34,
1400 R St, Lincoln, NE 68588-0448. Second-class postage paid at Lincoln, Neb.
_ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 1997 DAILY NEBRASKAN ■ ■ - ;.
