EDITOR
Paula Lavigne
OPINION
EDITOR
Joshua Gillin
EDITORIAL
BOARD
Brad Davis
Erin Gibson
Shannon Heffelfinger
Chad Lorenz
Jeff Randall
Our
VIEW
Execution
decision
Proposed death penalty
change more humane
A bill proposed in the Nebraska
Legislature would change the manner in
which the state executes citizens it has deemed
most dangerous.
LB 1308, a bill proposed by Omaha Sen.
Kermit Brashear, would allow people on death
row to choose to be executed either by lethal
injection or by electrocution.
✓/- While the bill is
** certain to spark
LB1308 may debate on the very
t , necessity of the
be a Way to death penalty in
make this Nebraska, the sim
pie fact remains that
practice as a lethal injection is
. , much more humane
painless as than the electric
rtnvvihlo ” chair ever could be.
PVSSIUIK. Eyen the National
Humane Society has
banned electrocution as a method for killing
animals.
But Nebraska, in the company of such
esteemed states as Alabama, Georgia,
Kentucky and Tennessee, continues this back
ward manner of killing. LB 1308 may be a way
to make this practice as painless as possible.
The option to have a fatal, virtually pain
less substance injected into your body certain
ly would be more humane than thousands of
volts of electric current burning your insides.
And because it seems the Legislature will
not eliminate state-supported capital punish
ment, it should at least carry out the deaths in
the most humane way.
Still, even though using lethal injections is
more “civilized” than electrocution, this
option should not make executions more fre
quent or acceptable.
Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers warned this
bill would “sanitize” the execution process,
making it easier for the state to kill its own cit
izens, however undesirable they may be. The
Nebraskans for Peace, Nebraskans Against
the Death Penalty and Amnesty International
also have denounced the bill, saying it is an
attempt to paint a pretty picture of death.
Ultimately, many of these groups fear this
calmer, quieter method of execution would
lead to more executions. For example, Texas,
which currently uses the injection method, by
June 1997 had executed 127 inmates since
1976.
That’s a far cry from the three executed in
Nebraska in the last two decades.
LB 1308 should pass, but it should not be
an excuse for the zealous supporters of the
death penalty - those that party outside the
Nebraska state penitentiary on execution days
- to kill more people.
Death is the ultimate penalty anyone can
receive, and though many argue whether it
should be administered by the state, with the
laws as they stand, lethal injection is the best
option.
Editorial Pallcy
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the $xing 1998 Daily Nebraskan. They
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University of Nebraska-Unooin, its
employees, its student body or the
Unfirereity of Nebraska Board of Regents.
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Haney’s
VIEW
i"
fey -
Jumping the gun
The rush for fighting in Iraq should be reconsidered
i—
JOSHUA GHUN is a senior
news-editorial major and
the Daily Nebraskan opin
ion editor.
As I sit, safe in ray office, safe from
the cruelty of the world, a friend of
mine may be preparing to die.
He is a private fust class in the
Marine Corps. He is soon to be pro
moted to lance corporal. He is a tank
commander for an armored division.
He is stationed at Camp Lejeune, N.C.,
as I write this, receiving secondary
armored training.
And he may be sent to fight in Iraq,
unless Saddam Hussein backs off and
allows die United States to have its
way.
Tuesday morning, when Bill
Clinton announced that “Iraq must
agree, and soon, to free, full and unfet
tered access to (weapons) sites any
where in the country,” my immediate
reaction was, “Why?”
Why must the leader of a sovereign
nation turn over access of his country
to every and any industrial power on
the block?
Why does Iraq feel the need to
allow U.N. Secretary-General Kofi
Annan in “with an open mind and free
will,” while barring all U.S. inspectors?
Why do the would-be warlords of
the U.S. armed forces want to mobilize
thousands of troops and billions of dol
lars in equipment to flex their political
muscles and military might for the rest
of the world?
Why should we, as citizens, sup
port any of these actions?
And why should my friend be sent
to his possible death?
This isn’t Desert Storm we’re talk
ing about, now. We aren’t going to play
with our toys in the sand in an attempt
to keep gas prices dewn. This would
potentially turn into a drag-out fight
against a barely industrialized Third
World nation that has the confidence
inspiring factor of being the underdog.
The possibility of little U.N. sup
port coupled with the threat of involve
ment by other major nations, such as a
huge, near-viable economic power just
to the north (this time formerly com
munist), a lack of popularity among
U.S. citizens, an obscure set of goals
and a fighting force not motivated to
really accomplish anything is a sure
recipe for disaster.
Ask Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard
Nixon, a Vietnam vet or anyone alive
between 1965 and 1975 about that one.
I’m not knocking the military, and
I’m surely not taking anything away
from the accomplishments of those
who fought while I was in junior high
or before, but this is not yet a situation
to go to war over. The stem words and
harsh threats by die presidential admin
istration, the conservative military and a
public whose opinions are clouded by
societal propaganda and a warlike his
torical account are not enough to justify
a full-scale assault on the Middle East
I know this has been said before,
but people die in wars. People like Pfc.
Juan Alvarez of the United States
Marine Corns. Like Lt Adam
Lineicum of the U.S. Army. Like Lt
Judith Gillin of tire U.S. Air Force - my
mother. Like Seaman Kevin Gillin of
the U.S. Navy - my brother.
None of these people are dead. All
of my relatives are now retired from die
service, but they could have been in a
war, as my father was. Tire other two
are friends of mine, and by tire end of
the day, they could be in another wan
But now, since our society has
become so enraptured in its own myth
of superiority, now that we see military
involvement as the end-all, be-all of
diplomatic relations, now that our
nation’s soldiers are simply numbers in
a war machine’s calculator; it is OK to
send our brothers and sisters to fight
and die on foreign soil for... for what?
Peace?
Solidarity?
The security of the world commu
nity?
Or is it something more sinister?
Perhaps tire Department of Defense
wants to justify its budget to a nation
with crumbling schools and overbur
dened welfare doles. Or we have a
president attempting to draw fire away
from personal controversies. Or we
have a Congress tiring of its failed and
futile attempts to discard a president
with a high approval rating and a “D”
behind his name on the ballot.
Our country’s standing armed
forces are arguably the most highly
trained and well-equipped the world
has ever seen. Our soldiers and officers
are more educated, more skilled and
more prepared for emergencies titan at
any other time in our country’s short
history.
But I hear nary a word of a soldier
chomping at the bit to lay waste to the
cradle of civilization.
Maybe that should be telling us
something. It’s been more than 50 years
since the country was united in a war
against a common foe. Hitler’s
Germany and Hirohito’s Japan provid
ed unmistakable enemies for our hate
to be directed at Both falloi empires
were the epitome of evil, the very sour
bile that our nation spit out of its collec
tive soul.
Or so we thought
The wars - skirmishes, really, in the
grand scheme ofthings-that followed
proved a sorrowful legacy to the fight
ing men and women who died in
Europe and tiie Pacific. Places like
Pusan, Khe San, Hue and Kuwait City
replaced Thrawa, Peleliu, Verdun and
Berlin. There is no Pearl Harbor, only
the Persian Gulf. There is no real threat
here.
Except, perhaps, from ourselves.
If more than just one-third of our
leaders had military experience, if more
than just 6 percent of our nation^ youth
joined the service, if more than petty
tyrants and political dealings forced us
to throw down die gauntlet, our country
would remember what it is like to have
friends and relatives fight and die.
I can only speak for myself. I plan
to give up three or so years of my life to
the military, to relinquish my individu
ality and become a fart of something
much larger than myself. I plan to sub
scribe to the myth of American ingenu
ity and excellence, if only to find out
formysetfthatitisnotongertrLie.No
one can truly teach me otherwise.
And when I hear of these attempts
at nobility, I do get frightened. I don’t
want to (he thousandsof miles from
home for a cause I don’t believe in.
However, as tong as our leaders don’t
know any better it will continue to hap
pen. ! ' :
But I hope not today.
P ^ \/d r\+& 34 Nebraska Unkm, 1400 It* St., Lincoln,
1 YV rn* 1761, or e-mail <letters@unlmfo.unt.edti.
elude a phone number for verification
_ _ . _ . .. . .
