EDITOR
Josh Funk
OPINION
EDITOR
Mark Baldridge
EDITORIAL
BOARD
Lindsay Young
Jessica Fargen
Samuel McKewon
Cliff Hicks
-t- Our
VIEW
Policy
problems
Clemency move looks
like hypocrisy
Once again, President Clinton did not
think his actions through.
Th mid-August, Clinton offered clemen
cy to 16 members of a Puerto Rican nation
alist group called FALN, which is a Spanish
acronym for Armed Forces of National
Liberation.
Law enforcement officials blame FALN
for at l,east 130 bombings in the United
States and Puerto Rico between 1974 and
1983.
As part of the clemency offer, Clinton
gave the 11 men and five women until
Friday to renounce political violence and
pledge to disassociate with FALN.
The separatists have already served
between 14 * ,_
and 19 years ••
for crimes , r
such as Now we are
ingandcon- 8°ing t0 PUrdon
spiring to these terrorists
commit
armed rob- simply because
h e n they hail from a
criticized, U.S. territory?
the White J
House was
quiCK to
point out that the clemency offer was
extended to only those “not associated with
the more violent acts that led to injuries.”
With this offer, Clinton has made an
abrupt about-face from the terrorism policy
he espoused following the embassy bomb
ings in Kenya and Tanzania last year.
Following those incidents, the United
States bombed terrorist training headquar
ters and launched a manhunt for alleged
mastermind Osama bin Laden while
Clinton vowed that we would not bow to ter
rorists.
Now we are going to pardon these terror
ists simply because they hail from a U.S. ter- -
ritory?
That is wrong.
Even President Clinton’s wife now
thinks so.
Speculation abounds that the president
offered clemency to this group to help his
wife’s chances in next year’s New York
Senate race.
Initially, Hillary Clinton supported
clemency, but with a mqve out of her hus
band’s play book she reversed her position
last weekend.
Regardless of the motives, this is simply
a bad idea.
The United States should not condone
terrorism in any form.
Clemency only reinforces terrorists’
actions, and any pledge to denounce vio
lence on their part would hardly be worth the
paper it was printed on.
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From the Regent
I am writing in response to your
(Sept. 1) editorial, “Bargain
Spending: Athletic Department needs
to cut its costs.”
You misrepresented my position
on UNL athletics in writing that “NU
Regent Drew Miller ... said the
Athletic Department should only
focus on ‘strong programs.’”
The correct description is, we
should spend moderately on most
sports, and spend large sums to be
No. 1 only in sports that are key to
UNL and Nebraska, such as football.
We should not .engage in what UNL
•Chancellor Moeser characterized as
an “arms race” level of spending on
every sport.
I am opposed, for example, to
spending $3 million for the hydrauli
cally-banked, “world class” indoor
track facility at UNL.
We should field track teams, but
we should not do what Bill Byrne and
Chancellor Moeser advocated at the
last meeting: spend what it takes to be
No, 1 in every sport we participate in.
(Don’t take my word for this-listen to
the tape from the Aug. 27 regent’s
committee meeting bn UNL athlet
ics).
We cannot afford to spend to be
No. 1 on every intercollegiate sports
team! We have much more important
spending priorities at UNL - academ
ic program improvements, for exam
ple.
We should spend to be No. 1 in
sports like football that have high
importance to the university and the
state and generate large profits to
subsidize other sports. And this
money can and SHOULD be used to
pay for non-sports items? it should
not be restricted to athletics.
At the last meeting the chancellor
announced a limit on Athletic
Department support to academic pro
grams. I would prefer seeing a limit
on athletic spending, at or below last
year’s budget, with the surplus going
into academic programs.
Another regent questioned
whether we have more teams than
necessary, but I don’t think he or any
one on the board wants to see the
number of programs cut.
DN
LETTERS
But we can field a track or soccer
team and provide the “normal” col
lege level of support, with a modest
salary for a coach and average facili
ties, p
Based on UNL’s presentation to
the Board of Regents, this is not UNL
policy. The goal clearly articulated
was to be No. 1 in every sport we par
ticipate in and spend as needed to
achieve this goal.
It is a horrible policy proposal for
UNL and Nebraska. And advocating
this the day before we formally
launched a program prioritization
review process was unwise, as a UNL
professor recently wrote in the
Lincoln Journal-Star. ^
There are substantial benefits to
students from participating in sports.
I support having a large number of
teams, and believe the “minor sports”
are every bit as valuable as football to
students. But we cannot afford to pay
top coaches salaries and build “world
class” facilities for all-and this
spending is not vital for great student
experiences in sports.
The leadership, camaraderie,
physical benefit and other benefits of
sports participation can be obtained
regardless of spending or national
ranking.
Intramural sports also qualify as a
great experience.
Drew Miller
University of Nebraska regent
Papillion
Abraham and Isaac
To the individual who mentioned
“straw men” (Letters, Sept. 1) with
regards to my argument that religion
has nothing to do with morality, I
offer this: Let me show you your own
straw man.
Let us look at a system where
something is moral only because God
says it is.
It will go something like this:
1. God is infallible
2. Actions are moral because
God says they are moral
3. Therefore all actions that
God says are moral are moral.
Now, this seems fairly elementary
and straightforward until we consider
this case: Would it be moral under
these conditions if God told you to
kill your mother?
Now, if you ask any thinking
Christian the answer to this question,
you will hear them say: “No, God
wouldn’t say that because it isn’t
right.”
So, obviously, there is some judge
of morality higher than what God
says. V
The simplest system to justify
morality is ethical egoism, which is
the theory that people always do what
is in their best interest, but this sys
tem has problems of its own to deal
with.
Truly morality has no simple
solution, such as “If you’re a good
Christian, you’ll necessarily be
moral,” and it stretches FAR beyond
any religion’s capacity to handle such
questions.
Morality is a very basic concern
to a living being, because if you look
at wolves, they are no more or less
moral than we are.
Eric Rost
junior
mechanical engineering
Sing Along
Here’s the new NU fight song...
There is no place to park at
Nebraska, - '
Good old Nebraska U!
It’s time that you learn it,
If you buy a permit,
You can kiss your money adieu!
There’s no place to park at
Nebraska,
And prices are rising too.
And most of the protesters,
Are irate professors,
Who make tons more money than
you.
There’s no place to park at
Nebraska,
That’s why there’s such a fuss.
But if you don’t like it,
Why don’t you bike it,
Or walk it, or take the bus!
Curtis Bright
class of 1990
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