I
S'
EDITOR
Paula Lavigne
OPINION
EDITOR
Joshua Gillin
' •* i
EDITORIAL
BOARD
Brad Davis
Erin Gibson
Shannon Heffelfinger
Chad Lorenz
Jeff Randall
i --
Our
VIEW
v-: ’•.:
Please
plow
' , . ■ '.••1
Idle cleanup crews
leave commuters cold
Tuesday night, several inches of snow
blanketed the city of Lincoln while its
residents slept.
Apparently, the city’s snowplow and
sand truck operators were asleep, as well.
If this were any other city, even a city
as close as Omaha, snowplows and sand
trucks would have been working around
the clock the minute the first flake hit the
street early in the evening. Sand already
would have covered many of the arterial
roads anyway, since freezing rain had
been falling from the early morning into
the* late afternoon.
If this were any other city, the streets
would have been clear and relatively
clean, allowing for smooth and practical
ly trouble-free driving around most busi
nesses and many residential areas.
If this were any other city, plows
would not have sat idle through the night
as winter’s old ivory troublemaker piled
into drifts up to knee height.
But this is Lincoln.
The sight of an orange truck sanding
the street or a plow clearing an intersec
tion is new to its residents. To see a city
worker plowing a street before 9 a.m. is a
rarity.
Lincoln officials seem to think this
city has a traffic base large enough to
. .$«npl$mash down jfhd.melt the white ter
-t*>r in© a passable form, in effect clear
ing the streets so plows don’t have to.
Guess what: It doesn’t.
wnat nappens is the meager number
of cars that are capable of skimming over
the barely passable roads mash the snow
down enough to create a rather thick
layer of slick, icy road scum.
At 4 a.m., that’s OK, since a driver’s
likelihood of slamming into another car
are slim to none. But chaos ensues when
the rest of Lincoln’s drivers then attempt
a mad dash over the ice cap, which
obscures the white lines dividing the
lanes, crosswalks and turn lanes.
The citizens of this fair city are left to
fend for themselves in traffic, and quite
frankly, Lincoln drivers aren’t the most
courteous people. A 10-minute drive eas
ily turns into a half hour during nights
like this last one.
Since it’s now too late to do anything
about this minor blizzard, Lincoln offi
cials should give serious thought to call
ing out the trucks a little earlier next
time.
And if the trucks were out and myste
riously invisible at 4 a.m. Tuesday, maybe
some tax dollars should go into new
equipment and a class trainiug these peo
ple how to clear the streets a tad better.
Maybe then Lincoln residents would
n’t feel like they’ve been left out in the
cold.
EMmMMh
Unswned edrtorials are the opinions of
the Spring 1998 Daily Nebraskan. They
do not necessarily reflect the views of the
University of Nebraska-Uncoin, its
employees, its student body or the
Unwarsity of Nebraska Board of Regents.
A cokjmn is solely the opinion of its author.
The Board of Regents serves as pubfisher
of the Daily Nebraskan; policy is set by
the Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board. Tr»
UNL Publications Board, established by
the regents, supervises the production
of the paper. According to policy set by
the regents, responsibility for the editorial
content of the newspaper lies solely in
the hands of its student employees,
Letter Pel Icy
The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief
edit or reject any material submitted.
Submitted material becomes property of
the Daily Nebraskan and cannot be
returned. Anonymous submissions will
not be published. Those who submit
letters must identify themselves by name,
year in school, major and/or group
affiliation, if any.
Submit material to: Daily Nebraskan, 34
Nebraska Union, 1400 RSt Lincoln,
NE. 68568-0448. E-mail:
Ietters9unlinfb.unl.edu.
——--- , -
Haney’s
VIEW
i
DN
LETTERS
Cliff is wrong...
I’m writing this letter in response
to Cliff Hicks’ column (Seeing is
believing, Tuesday.) It would be nice
if you would get the facts right before
writing an article. The surveillance
law has only been passed by one
chamber of the government and the
bill has two more hurdles to clear
before coming to effect. The law is
intended only for capital crimes and
not for “spying on the people.” Your
. colunsmalso gives the indication that
any judge can authorize the surveil
lance. This is also incorrect because
there is only a small group who have
the power to approve surveillance
measures.
I’m sure that it sounded better in
your column to present Germany in
the way that you did, but it is wrong
and I find it irresponsible to submit
an article that is incorrect.
Gregory C. Byelick
junior
graphic design
... the Huskers are strong.«
I thought it was great that they
named Memorial Stadium’s field
Tom Osborne Field. And appropriate.
However, I don’t think the naming or
renaming should have stopped there.
I think they should rename Lincoln to
Osborne. What would it hurt? What’s
die first thing you see when you come
off the interstate into Lincoln?
Memorial Stadium, three large bill
. boards dedicated to the Huskers and
the Big Red Shop. I think we’re only
kidding ourselves by calling this city
Lincoln when clearly it should be
renamed to Osborne.
On Husker Saturdays in the fall,
Memorial Stadium becomes the third
largest city in Nebraska. Why?
Obviously it s because we re No. 1.
The football players at Nebraska run
the ball the best, kick the ball the best,
and lode at the Comhuskers record...
that’s because of the great hustle.
I’m not really sure who you talk to
about changing the name of a city, but
I think there are plenty of Husker fans
to get the job done. I can’t think of
another city where you can get as
much college football stuff as you can
in Lincoln, Neb. I’m wearing my.
national championship sweatshirt
right now, in fact. Why? Because it
rules!
Jim Mehsling
UNL alumnus
... abortion arguments
are wrong...
My mother told me that she had
two illegal abortions in the 1950s,
before I was bom. She also told me
that she probably wouldn’t have given
birth to my sister or myself if she had
kept those two earlier pregnancies.
Those two aborted births were
replaced by two later births.
We see anti-choice activists bawl
ing crocodile tears ova* aborted fetus
es, but who among than cries for the
wanted child who would later have
existed, but won’t, because an abor
tion was forcibly prevented?
If we deny women the chance to
give birth on a timetable that fits their
readiness, then the children we
impose upon them can force them
down less opportune roads in life, and
frequently perpetuate cycles of
poverty.
Life does NOT begin at concep
tion. Life has been continuous since
humanity began. All sperm and eggs
are alive and contain genetic codes
unique to mankind. Conception is
simply a mechanical combining of
these, moving the process closer to
the birth of a baby than before, which
these days can be accomplished in a
test tube.
It is BIRTH that counts in this dis
cussion, and not anything that comes
beforehand. Trying to save embryos
or fetuses makes no more sense than
trying to save the quintillion or more
sperm and eggs that happen to exist at
any given moment, worldwide.
Before Roe vs. Wade, abortions
were performed in numbers compa
rable to today’s, so die real issue is do
we want them performed safely or
under dangerous, clandestine condi
tions?
Charles Godwin
Davenport, Iowa
the chancellor is too far
gone...
While there have been plenty of
candidates and potential candidates
for being UNDs Sissy of die Year for
1997, the award this year goes to
Chancellor James Moeser, for failing
to create a campus community that
embraces its queer members.
The chancellor failed to act to
deal with the tensions and fears creat
ed by the hate chalkings back in
September of 1997. He continues to
fail to address issues of homophobia
and heterosexism on this campus. For
example, those responsible for the
hate chalkings have never been iden
tified nor punished for their actions.
The chancellor claims he is com
mitted to recruiting the best and the
brightest students and faculty for
UNL. However, UNL’s policies and
climate regarding queer students, fac
ulty and staff make it a very chilly
environment to work within.
Furthermore, UNL’s climate with
regard to lesbian, bisexual, transgen
dered and gay persons is well-known,
especially when incidents like
September’s chalkings get national
press, >
There are issues that queer mem
bers of the campus community have,
and have had for a long time, that
continue to go unaddressed. The
upwelling of hatred, as evidenced in
the chalkings, was merely one exam
ple. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans
gendered persons still are not allowed
to take part in ROTC programs.
Same-sex couples are still not
allowed to reside in married housing
on campus. And the university is still
dragging its feet on the issue of same
sex partner benefits. Any queer per
son considering becoming a student
or a faculty member at UNL would
look at other, more-welcoming
options. And many bisexuals, trans
gendered persons, gay men and les
bians will seek more-welcoming
campuses once they discover how
UNL treats us.
As long as the chancellor allows
UNL’s climate to remain unwelcom
ing towards bisexual, lesbian, gay and
transgendered persons, his commit
ment to recruiting quality faculty and
students rings hollow in the queer
academic community.
Robert W. Anderson
graduate student
■X, English
m and cloning’s the bomb.
Like most of die critics of human
cloning, Josh Moenning (Two
wrongs, Wednesday) fails to make
any coherent arguments against the
idea. It seems most Americans have
had a gut reaction to cloning without
really thinking about die science. Yes,
a clone would be genetically identical
to the parent, but it would have a dif
ferent life, different experiences and
its own soul. He says we are attempt
ing to play God, but we already do
that every day with infertile couples. I
object to Dr. Seed’s plan because (of)
the number of offspring lost before a
live one is bom, but if the tec
is developed to clone safely,
have no problem With it.
Laura Ortmann