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Paula Lavigne
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Joshua Gillin
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Guest
VIEW
Time
to strike
‘Town meeting’proves
time for talk at an end
The Post
Ohio University
ATHENS, Ohio (U-Wire) - A storm is
getting stronger in the Middle East and the
United States.
Secretary of Defense William Cohen,
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and
National Security Adviser Sandy Berger
visited Columbus, Ohio, to conduct an
“international town meeting” Thursday.
The possible war with Iraq has brought
out strong emotions throughout the country.
According to CNN, support for military
action against Iraq has fallen since Feb. 1,
and now the country’s approval is split
almost evenly on possible military strikes.
The time has come for military action
against Iraq if these last attempts at peace
fail. Showing our resolve is important. We
cannot let Iraq fail to live up to the peace
agreement that ended the Persian Gulf War.
If we do, no country will take us seriously.
It is also important to destroy the chem
ical-weapons capabilities of Iraq before
Saddam Hussein is able to cause even more
serious problems. We cannot allow Iraq to
be a significant military threat to the coun
tries of the Middle East. Chemical
weapons can cause significant, long-last
ing damage.
If Iraq is allowed to grow militarily, it
could start a large-scale war in the Middle
East. If we can inhibit its military abilities
now, this could be the smaller war to pre
vent a bigger war.
These are the sort of opinions Berger,
Cohen and Albright should hear. But, the
town meeting wasn’t fealty a town meeting.
To us, a town meeting is a place where
everyone can come and be heard. The gov
ernment officials listen and take the opin
ions of the people back with them to be
considered when a decision is made.
We saw officials avoiding questions and
giving cryptic responses. This leads us to
believe that the opinions of the people will
have little effect on their final decision.
we are giaarne u.s. government wanted
to discuss this with the people. It is always a
good idea to educate citizens, but (the meet
ing shouldn’t have been presented) as a
forum where each person would have the
chance to have his questions answered and
his opinions heard. Many of the questions
were preselected. Most of the tickets were
allocated and not available to the public. So
many questions were avoided that it should
have been titled a press conference.
Many of the people who attended the
town meeting probably gained a lot from it.
The more important question is: What did
the panelists take away from the experi
ence? Because, in the end, it is apparent
these leaders will make the decision
whether or not to strike Iraq.
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DN
LETTERS
I’m right and you’re not
John Harris’ letter in Friday’s
Daily Nebraskan (“Dammit, Jim”) is
an ad hominem: arguing by personal
attack rather than reason.
First of all, since I wasn’t educat
ed in the United States, his state
ments about my “education in this
country” are nonsensical. I informed
Harris of this by e-mail on
Wednesday, and he had ample oppor
tunity to correct his statement
between Wednesday and Friday. He
evidently chose not to do so.
On Wednesday I provided both
him and the DN staffer who original
ly wrote the piece on Elijah McCoy a
detailed set of references showing
that the phrase “the Real Mackay”
was in use in Scotland at least since
the 1880s, and probably well before
that, and that its first documented use
in the United States was in a San
Francisco newspaper in 1899 in ref
erence to Kid McCoy. I’ve chal
lenged them both to find an earlier
case, or indeed any case, of “The
Real McCoy” in popular usage in ref
erence to Elijah McCoy. They have
failed to do so.
I have conducted my own search,
and in no biography of Elijah McCoy
have I been able to find any genuine
citation to any use of the phrase in
popular culture in reference to Elijah
McCoy or his inventions. The earliest
biographical account of Elijah
McCoy (in 1913) doesn’t mention the
phrase “The Real McCoy” at all.
More modem accounts simply repeat
the story without question from pre
vious accounts, with no skepticism,
no citation of a primary source and
rarely even any mention that their
explanation of the phrase is contro
versial.
I am upset that Harris would use a
scurrilous personal attack to com
pensate for his inability or unwilling
ness to argue on the basis of fact. And
I am very upset that the DN would
print such a personal attack.
Gerard S. Harbison
chemistry professor
You’re just plain wrong
I debated today whether respond
ing to Mr. Long’s letter (“The price is
wrong,” Thursday) was even worth
taking the time to defend such ridicu
lous allegations. However, 1 feel I
owe it to the student season ticket
holders to set die record straight and
■ ■ ..
point out how terribly off base Mr.
Long was with his careless letter.
Mr. Long said I blatantly lied to
the student ticket holders. Perhaps he
is the one who either is blatantly
lying about his so-called facts or
maybe his memory just needs
refreshing. My money is on the latter.
Please allow me to remind you,
Mr. Long, by pointing out the follow
ing:
1. Mr. Long stated that in 1994
(five years ago next fall), he paid
$67.50 for his student football season
ticket. Actually, Mr. Long paid
$73.00 for the six home-game tick
ets.
2. Mr. Longelaimed that in 1995,
the ticket “price went up to the $70
$80 range.” However, the ticket price
increased to $87.50, the same exact
ticket price for the 1996 and 1997
seasons, respectively.
3. Mr. Long insisted that the
“observant student noticed” that the
1996 football season consisted of
seven games. Mr. Long, (an) obser
vant student would have noticed that
it was the 1995 season when the
Huskers last played seven home
games. In fact, the 1994, 1996 and
1997 season tickets only offered six
home games each, respectively.
4. Finally, Mr. Long made refer
ence to the ticket prices increasing
“EVERY year since 1994 for a total
of $40 in five years.” Simple math
tells us that the 1998 price of $107.50
minus the 1994 price of $73.00 is a
difference of only $34.50, and as I
hope you can now plainly see Mr.
Long, ticket prices have not gone up
every year since 1994.
The one statement that Mr. Long
made that I will not dispute is that he
is a “loyal fan.” This is where we
share a common ground. Mr. Long,
please stop by to say hello during this
year’s student ticket lottery. Perhaps
we may find other subjects that we
can agree on.
John Anderson
director of ticket operations
Your opinion is wrong ...
Mr. GilUn, I totally disagree with
your article (“Jumping the gun,”
Wednesday). Are you naive or just
that ignorant? When anyone joins the
service they should expect, at some
point in their lives, to go to some kind
of hostile conflict. The reason we
have a military is to deal with these
kinds of situations, not to give people
a free ride through life. If you don’t
want to deal with the consequences
then don’t join in the first place!
This brings me to my second
point. You stated that you don’t know
why Iraq should open their doors to
industrial powers. Well, I don’t know
if you remember our last war, but it
was against Iraq and we did win. In
the cease-fire agreement they did
agree not to manufacture weapons of
mass destruction. To make sure they
comply, we need to inspect certain
sites.
We are not just protecting our
self-interest in their oil importation,
we are protecting the world from a
man who will use any kind of killing
agent he can just to gain political
power. We are doing this to make sure
that we don’t have another Hitler try
ing to take over the world. If we idly
stand by while some madman stock
piles weapons we will have World
War III on our hands.
James W. Beins
sophomore
finance
...AND your facts are suspect
Could you please make sure that
your facts are straight before printing
them about the military (“Jumping
the gun”)? You said that your buddy, a
private first class, is a TANK COM
MANDER! My husband is a sergeant
in the Marine Corps stationed at
Camp Lejeune, N.C. He is a tank
commander, and I can assure you that
a private first class (excuse me ...
almost a lance corporal) with that lit
tle of experience is NOT a tank com
mander. I would re-check what your
friend told you. Was he trying to
impress someone?
I also find it hard to believe that
someone who practices the right to
freedom of speech has a hard time
believing in our country. These men
and women of the military need our
support in times like this, not our crit
icism of how messed up the country
is.
I don’t want to see my husband go
to war. If we do go to war, I believe
that these men and women
DESERVE our respect and support.
Bambi Reynolds
junior
chemistry
....-1