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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 8, 1998)
: Cmh The man who hel corruption ^ r : ADAM KLINKER is a sophomore English and history major and a Daily Nebraskan columnist Richard Nixon was a crook. Twenty-five years later, the American people know that much, however blurred the lines of crimi nality and intent are. This was a man who took the faith of a nation and smeared it black with sooty lies. This same man also was the pres ident of theXJnited States. In Nbton’s actions were what j America’s relationshin with its lead ers would become, and perhaps he knew it He knew it so well that it had to scare him. Conceivably, Nixon’s actions have influenced America as a whole and made it into what it is today - what some might say is the declining American republic. What he had done was debase the connection between honor and the highest office in the land. What he had done was lay ruin to the sacred ideals held for the leader of the free world. What he did, he did in contempt of the American public; because his own insecurities were worth far more TODD MUNSON is a senior broadcasting major and a Daily Nebraskan columnist. Today, the future of loitering for about a dozen people “who don’t blend in” could come to an abrupt end if Nebraska Unions Director Daryl “ain’t no bum gonna sip a latte in my new union” Swanson has his way. If you’re like many of thepeople I know, you probably didn’t officially start attending classes Until today. So, allow me to recap what’happien^.for you froin an exciting installment of last toeek^ Daily Nebraskan. i ; : A proposal was announced that could exclude non-students, i.e. tran sients, from the Nebraska Union. The main reason cited for the proposal was die safety of the students and some objections to the homeless pop ulation. In the proposal, Swanson noted the criteria for possible union expul sion wouldn’t be based on appear ance, but was later quoted as saying, “If you are blending in, you ape not likely to be asked [to leave].” That’s a pretty maligned state ment, considering that the average student here is a white kid in a flanne shirt and a ball cap that either says “Cocks” or Abercrombie and Fitch, depending on gender. If blending in means so much, then my dear friend Stump better get rid of Ids Bozo the Clown hair cut if hefe ever going to meet me for a game of pinball. Wait a second, where die hell did the pinball machines go? Oh, that’s it. I’m droppin’ some plates in this mutha. Editor s note: Fir the jhe-illiterate, that means than the confidence of his con stituents. His paranoia tempted him to extremes, causing him to ask his Committee to Re-Elect the President .friends if they could dig up any dirt on Democratic opponent George McGovern. A break-in at the Watergate Hotel in Washington would bring Nixon's worries to heightened exposure. It ftnmeled into a trail of lies and deceit and cover-ups. So when Judge Robert Bork, spe cial counsel to former President Nixon, came to Lincoln last Tuesday, one might wonder if he carried the same emotional baggage that his old boss did. Certainly Bork did not walk away with clean hands or heart alter his role in the infamous Saturday Night Massacre. Bork filled his capacity as one of fka man lonrlokkr otoft ping up to fire Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox when no one else would. What honor -to execute to the very last of die orders of a falling president Apparently, 25 years of judicial therapy, behind the bench and in front of it, has had the ability to change Judge Bork. More likely, Bork’s overtly con servative rhetoric has been able to infiltrate his processes, and he has been able to make enough excuses to himself that he acted justly in the name of his party, his country and his president when he fired Cox. Watergate launched the decline of American faith in politics. A quar ter of a decade later, die Monica Lewinsky ordeal has fanned the flames of public concern over moral ity in America. . Two different scandals. Two dif ferent themes. Two entirely detached public responses nonetheless brought together by conservative banter. With the Constitution and the courts added to the equation of restraining a degenerating America, it starts to sound like a radical right rally. In his speech on Tuesday, Boric, like many of his conservative allies, said a moral deterioration is at fault for the decline in government and judicial standards. , i;. Boric blamed the 1990s interpre tation of die Constitution. . . ine u.a. tonsiliuuon is me irun ofpoliticalgenius. It was written so ambiguously and openly that Boric was right when he said Americans are finding new rights continuously. He was wrong when he blamed the foundation, or opening, of new freedoms on the mythical ethical declivity of America. Boric said the principles of the courts have been considerably less ened by newly encountered free doms, thereby decreasing the morali ty of America as a whole. He said politics play a larger role than ever in many decisions. It was a conservative spouting about the lack of morality in politics and the consequent fall of power in court decisions. Politics is inherently devoid of morality. In this day, neither belong in a courtroom. Neither need lend itself to an interpretation of constitu tional law. Read the Constitution and dis cover that this is the freest nation in the world. Americans have every right to jaywalk, spit on the sidewalk and maybe even steal, supposing those are the things that satisfy our insatiable thirst for the pursuit of happiness. Of course, the government can subsequently take away our rights upon our conviction of committed crimes. What keeps a majority of Americans from making the decision to violate codes, even though they are not snecificallv stated in the Constitution?, It certainly isn’t the courts. - Morals given diem by government? By the courts? Not hardly. How degrading to think that Americans cannot, of their own accord, establish an agreeable moral code for themselves. We’ve heard it before: With free dom goes responsibility. How dare Robert Bork insinuate that the downfall in America is due to a discovery of new freedoms. How dare he suggest Americans no longer have the moral capacity to know right and wrong in this era of total liberation. How dare he speculate that America is in a downfall at all; this coming from a man who aided directly in constructing the fabrica tions and cover-up of a cataclysmic crisis in American government How can Boric argue morality in the Clinton administration and 1998 America, when he did the dirty work for die man who arguably started it all? Boric said culture is corrupting the Constitution. Culture is the peo ple and the people, in turn, are die Constitution. An interpretation of the Constitution by the rational-emotive human being gains us freedoms. One by unemotional robots gamers us nothing. Besides deriding the legal sys tem, Boric insulted die intelligence of the American people and turned his back on the right to find freedom in the Constitution. iv . : • leu anu never rcviseu, never cuet*.cu and never expanded, this nation would never have emerged from die shambles of democracy that lay around it. Furthermore, if revisions should ever stop, only then would the great est threat to America be realized. America is far from being in decline. On the contrary -how can a nation growing free be in a down fall? It is too sweet to lose, this free dom. And if it influences the courts, if it influences the government, if it influences the citizen, if it influences morality, so be it. That’s what it was designed to do in the first place. A union of souls 3 £ itftithtm l sraaw litatuitfJW’;; »b . • ^ A. .. * - . • . .......^ • Todd s getting upset or angry, Now. why would somebody like me care to defend a few bums? Perhaps it’s because I spent a couple of weeks under the classification of a transient Even though I didn’t pan handle or start smoking cigarette butts, I was a transient nonetheless. 1 had a summer internship out in Colorado and, in typical Todd logic, I neglected to arrange housing, so for two weeks I camped out in the forest. On day four, I had an interview for a part-time job. Everything was going great until the interviewer asked for my address. “That’s kind of funny you ask. You see I’m kinda living in my tent until I find a place,” I said with a three-doll ar smile. “I’m sorry, but die interview is over. Why don’t you come back when you find a place” replied the inter viewer. ,i- • . Do you think this could be the sit uation for any of the folks who can.; the union home? - If you said yes, you get the gold star for the day. What Swanson and the like fail to realize is that the transients on this campus are an integral part of cam puo, U1UVU UA.V Uiat 1VU DVUipUUW amongst the natural buffalo grass and those funny urinals in Architecture HaU. I say it’s time we put some univer sity funds to good use and give our transients jobs. They’re here all day, so why the hell not? Don’t worry, 100-level professors, they won’t be , replacing you just yet In my eyes, I see our bums as being as versatile as the revolutionary garden weasel; their uses are next to endless. You may find the following terri bly offensive and politically incor rect. Keep in mind that this is a land grant institution and that our bums probably won’t be reading this any way. But if any of them are, they’ll be pleased to know that all the jobs take place in and around the union. The first task I envision for our residentially disadvantaged is to help complete the construction of the hal lowed union before the end of the millennium. Wasn’t the union sup posed to be completed years ago? The answer to the delay can be found in the bakery. At any time of the day, no fewer than 38 construction workers can be found there loading up on free refills and putting the mack down on (Editor’s note: i.e. hitting on) Bouffant Betty and her crew. Our newly hired bums wouldn’t be found in the bakery instead of working. If you’ve had one smile at you, you’ll know why. Don’t worry, there’s still plenty of specialized employment to go around when the union is finished. The new design of the union is adequate, but a building this big entrance. To maximize scariness, they can wear sandwich boards with such catchy slogans as “See what happens when you party more than you study?” and “Don’t let this happen to you; go to class.” I guarantee within one semester, the dropout rate will be virtually nil. The next job takes us to the inside of the union. Imagine you’ve got five minutes to grab your Whopper before class and wouldn’t you know it, a class field trip has seized Burger King. No worry, just call for one of the bums to £ ^ come over and work ^ L his magic. A few ' \ short seconds of him walking through the line mutter ing to himself about how long it’s been since his last shower will elimi nate the half-hour wait. The final task for the transient task force will require special people skills. Only the most eloquent need apply. Their job will be to roam the union to educate the ignorant and teach lessons in tolerance. This will be a godsend to the small-town stu dents. Under the guidance of the bums, they will learn how to cope with real world situations and hopefully become tolerant to the fact that everyone just doesn’t “blend in.” After all, it’s the union on City Campus, and in the city there are o problems. Just ask * ^ Stevie Wonder. needs to have a set of gargoyles, and our biims ate right foftiiejob:: Instead of being mounted near the top of ; the building, : they’ll be closer to ground level at every
