EDITOR
Erin Gibson
OPINION
EDITOR
Cliff Hicks
EDITORIAL
BOARD
Nancy Christensen
Brad Davis
Sam McKewon
Jeff Randall
Bret Schulte
** • ~
Out
VIEW
Enough
already
Replace Clinton’s trial
with important matters
Knock it off.
Today, the impeachment trial begins for
William Jefferson Clinton, despite the protests
of the American people. The debates between
the Republicans and Democrats have yet to
cease, but the American public has, at least,
made its point abundantly clear.
While most voters claimed that the
Monica Lewinsky scandal had no impact on
their vote, the fact still remains - in the parti
san issue that the impeachment trial has
become, the public said “Nay, Republican
way” on Nov. 3.
The politicians tried to ignore it.
Then, not much farther down the road,
Speaker Newt Gingrich removed himself
from the running to return as speaker of the
House, and, in fact, Congress entirely. Some
reports stated that the Republican Party no
longer agreed Gingrich was the best choice for
the party’s leadership. As many as 30
Republicans were said to be planning not to
support his return to the speaker position.
They still don’t get it.
Many people on Capitol Hill are theoriz
ing that Ken Starr will attempt to move into
things beyond the Lewinsky affair in his
planned two- v .
hour presenta
tion. As of last
night, Starr had
not even sub
mitted his testi
mony to the
.judiciary Com
mittee, though
House rules
state that it has
to be in the
committee’s
possession 48
hours before it
is given.
That leads us to believe someone up there
thinks the game isn’t over yet, but we feel it is.
Even though the voice hasn’t been unani
mous, die American people, as they have been
in polls for many months now, have spoken.
Decisively.
Like many politicians in Washington, they
j ust want the scandal to go away and our politi
cians to get back to business. They want the
budget to be an issue. They want Iraq to be an
issue. They want issues to be the important
thing again.
The way out is easy - close up shop and
take the ball home.
Not much energy is left in the hearings,
and the fact that they’re still continuing is
more formality than actual process.
Regardless of what the politicians think, the
majority of America has given its opinion.
No matter how short the hearings, no mat
ter how little the time before someone turns off
the cameras, it’s still been far too long for the
American people.
M
Regardless of
what the
politicians think{
the majority of
America has
given its opinion
on the scandal
EUtvHhHey
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DN
LETTERS
Let me waste not
I read Mr. Johnson’s column
(“Wasting away: Consumptive habits
call for appropriate remedies”) in
Wednesday’s paper and I couldn’t help
but notice a recurring theme in the
paper: the government must regulate,
demand, require, “cooperate” and oth
erwise be heavily involved if we are to
solve the environmental problems of
global warming, ozone depletion, filled
landfills, wasteful energy expenditures,
etc. This reasoning strikes me as invalid
Why should government tell us what the
best environmental policies to pursue
are? Aren’t we the people die ones who
tell government what we want it to do? It
seems to me that if we are to truly make
a difference in solving these environ
mental problems, it is we, die individual
citizens, who must take the initiative
and do what we believe to be environ
mentally sound. It doesn’t take an envi
ronmental engineer to figure out simple
things we can do, some of which Mr.
Johnson mentioned. And if the people
are determined to act in a wasteful man
ner, nothing short ofbaiming Styrofoam
will cause than to act differently. Sure,
it doesn’t hurt if government recom
mends that everybody do environmen
tally sound things, but I really question
the need for a government to demand
and require them. After all, outside of
the realm of illegal behavior, a govern
ment telling its citizens what to do con
trary to the citizens’ wishes is anathema
to the spirit of democracy.
JeffWoodford
graduate student
chemistry
Diversify yourself
Your editorial on recruiting minori
ties (“Moral minority: Improving
recruiting means search for ideas”)
struck me as very short-sighted, com
pletely missing the point that you
appeared to be trying to prove.
Proposing a center for a single demo
graphic group may help increase enroll
ment for that group, but does nothing
for other groups such as Hispanic or
Asian groins. Furthermore, dhs serves
to isolate that group from foe rest of the
community rather than to bring it in as a
welcome part of the community. Look
for ways to encourage DIVERSITY!
Instead of focusing on demograph
ics, you should be focusing on EDU
CATION! Give students a wide range of
electives to supplement their core cours
es. Choose ones that are valuable to
their future in industry, not just fon
courses that have no application in the
real world. Have ALL students graded
by the same scale in a given course,
regardless of demographics. Coddling
special-interest groups only sets them
up for failure when they graduate and
have to compete in a work environment
As a St. Louis-area resident, I am
involved in programs that are designed
to generate interest in technical classes.
These programs strive to show WHY
the tough classes are worth taking, and
are conducted in classes from fourth
through eighth grade. If you want to
increase enrollment of a demographic
group, generate the interest in college
level courses early so they can be pre
pared for the task that lies ahead of
them. If you don’t, you are setting those
students up to fail.
Don’t create an unrealistic cocoon
to make college easy for a special
group! Prepare that group (and ALL
groups) for life’s challenges by giving
them the tools to succeed
Paul Heumphreus
UNL alumnus, 1981
Iraq: another perspective
A critical analysis of die situation
with Iraq has been long overdue.
Unfortunately, we have yet to see one
from the mass media, or our own DN in
Monday's paper (“Time for action:
America must take a stand against
Iraq''). Supporting popular views that
have no logical backing is neither good
journalism nor critical think
ing, and only serves to rein
force stereotypes and mis
conceptions about the situa
tion, which in this case, has
led to the perpetual, steady
death of millions of power
less Iraqis.
Why do we believe
that the Iraqi people’s
request is so extreme?
Do we believe that
Muslims are ext
reme and radical
by their very nat
nr#»9 (1 oiipcc flip
recent movie “The
Siege” answers that
question.) After seven
years, the Iraqi government
has canceled cooperation with
UNSCOM for a very good, legitimate
reason. The truth is that the Iraqi gov
ernment is fully aware &at UNSCOM is
a puppet operation of the U.S., whose
purpose is to legitimize the imperial
interest of die United States (as in secur
ing a cheap {Mice for oil). This is pre
cise^ in seven years, the econom
ic sanctions on Iraq ham mt been lifted,
allowing only very little food and med
ical equipment to be imported, which
has slowly but surely killed hundreds of
thousands of powerless peasants and
not affected Saddam in the slightest.
Therefore, it is a completely rational
position to rebel against UNSCOM, as
no amount of cooperation will ever lift
these devastating sanctions.
Secondly, on Friday, when die Iraqi
government released its report allowing
UNSCOM to return, they had only one
condition. This condition was that the
sanctions be hilly reviewed by the U.N.
in seven days. This seems to be, again, a
reasonable request. In seven years, all
they wanted was a fair review of the
sanctions that have devastated millions
of lives and have been reported by a
U.S.-biased “research” team of what
appeared to be lazy bureaucrats wearing
T-shirts and drinking beer at the inspec
tions (as seen on “Dateline”). Are we
truly this pig-headed and dogmatic, that
we cannot even grant a single, honest
review of the sanctions within seven
days? Again, not a lifting, but only a
review.
I’m fully aware that all of this is out
side of unthinkable for most of the
country. However, I’m convinced that
the things I’ve said here are quite true
and reasonable. I’m notpro-Saddam, or
anti-United States - I’m simply trying
to involve thought in a major event that
is killing thousands of people half a
world away, but yet we continually
If ’
ignore our apathy. Can we finally do the
right thing by first accepting that our
country is responsible for these atroci
ties, and then go about correcting it by
criticizing it as much as possible, until it
reaches the top and a change is made for
the better? ;
David Baker
sociology/African studies
