EDITOR Josh Funk OPINION EDITOR Mark Baldridge EDITORIAL BOARD Lindsay Young Jessica Fargen Samuel McKewon Cliff Hicks Our VIEW Hands off Cell phone law not right accident solution Right idea. Wrong approach. Talking on your cellular phone while dri ving through Brooklyn, Ohio, could land you a $3 fine. Not a lot for a first offense. Subsequent offenses can go as high as $100. Maybe it’s just another small-town solu tion and has no ramifications outside of that small town. But maybe it’s bigger than that. The law, believed to be one of the first in the nation, prohibits using a cell phone while driving unless both hands are on the steering wheel. ^ .. o , „ exceptions are maue iui emergency cans, using a phone in a parked car or using a speakerphone. Maybe it’s your right to jabber on the phone while you drive - after all, you can switch radio stations or check out your mug in the rearview mirror, and it won’t cost you a dinie.' . a U n 1 e ss you get in a The law, believed wreck And dri- to be one of the vers talldng ^ ^ phones are nation, prohibits more likely to get in a using your cell wreck * ^ A 1997 phone while study m the driving unless New England ° Journal of both hands are Medicine . found that on the steering Ski, : whee! driving quadrupled the risk of an accident and was almost as dangerous as being drunk behind the wheel. And according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, cell phones were a contributing factor in 57 fatal crashes in 1997. Senous numbers. It’s a serious problem. We like the idea of keeping the roads safe. But there’s a better way to do it. Trying to solve the problem by making it a crime won’t work. It may only make people resent law enforcement for infringing on what they may see as a private right. So steer away from enforcement and pun ishment and head toward the private sector. Look to the car manufacturers. Give them tax breaks, whatever it will take, to get them to install hands-free cell phone technologies in new cars. Market the hands-free cell phones like they are Ricky Martin and the Backstreet Boys. Make people love them. It’s a technology issue, not an issue for the police. Editorial Policy Unsigned editorials are the opinions of the Fall 1999 Daily Nebraskan. They do npt necessarily reflect the views of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, its employees, its student body or the University of Nebraska Board of Regents. A column is solely the opinion of its author. > The Board of Regents serves as publisher of the Daily Nebraskan; policy is set by the Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board. The UNL Publications Board, established by the regents, supervises the production of the paper. According to policy set by - the regents, responsibility for the editorial content of the newspaper lies solely in the hands of its student employe^. I letter Policy The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief letters to the editor and guest columns, but does not guarantee their publication. The Daily Nebraskan retains the right to edit or reject any material submitted.' Submitted material becomes property of the Daily Nebraskan and cannot be returned. Anonymous submissions will not be published. Those who submit letters must identify themselves by name, year in school, major and/or group affiliation, if any. Submit material to: Daily Nebraskan, 20 Nebraska Union, 1400 R St. Lincoln, NE. 68588-0448. E-mail: letters@unlinfo.unl.edu. Obermeyer’s a VIEW "ANOTHER SELLOUT AT MEMORIAL STADIUM...*' Bugs in His System Graham Johnson never ceases to amaze me. After reading his Friday opinion article, I must ask where he gets this stuff! Does he have any evidence to back up his inane, epithet-dependent drivel? Even the part about McDonald’s in France is misrepresentative: the “protests” (I call them defacement and vandalism) are directed against Americanization, not just globaliza tion. Furthermore, has Mr. Johnson proof that pesticides approved by the same FDA that won’t approve thou sands of potentially life-saving drugs are hazardous? Is he just an ideologue, or is there actually a poison threat in biotechnol ogy? He mentions associative econom * ics. Obviously, he is no economist if he believes food ridden with bugs at low quantities is better than safe, larger, juicier, higher-quality (and quantity) food. Bryan Gordon visiting student German, economics and math DN LETTERS pus, neither should the alumni or other adults. Jana Bartels senior business education Driving It Home In reference to Lane Phillips’ let ter on Thursday: I think you are missing the point of students’ complaints about the parking problem here at UNL. The point being made is that we students have paid around^ 100 of our hard-earned mondy in order for the university to provide us with a place to park our “poison-gas” producing cars. For many of us, that money is going to waste. All that my parking permit has given me these past few weeks is a sign in my car to show to the people of Lincoln that I am a student at the uni versity. Joel T. Peck senior criminal justice Another Straw Man Dear Mr. Rost, dog with a fork, would it be moral? No? Then obviously, there is some judge of morality higher than God. Or maybe this question, like your question about being told to kill your mother (letters, Wednesday) is the product of a sophistry that doesn’t deserve to be taken seriously. Mark Buhrdorf senior ■ classics Turkey in the Straw “Would it be moral under the con dition God told you to kill your moth er?” (letters, Wednesday) Read Genesis, chapter 22. Ask yourself the question: Was it moral under the condition that God told Abraham to sacrifice his son? I think you’ll find the answer to be yes. If God told someone to “kill his mother,” the “thinking Christian” would be justified to do so and the action would be considered moral. Matt Boettger senior computer science wet Bar, Dry Campus I just read in the Friday DN thatUNL President Smith and j UNL Chancellor Moeser will § be appearing in newspa- <4r per ads across the coun- 5 * try to promote the awareness of binge drinking on campuses. N That is great, but Friday morn ing my husband read me part of an article in the Lincoln Journal Star about the pregame party at the Wick Alumni -s .xW Center (on campus) ^ that had a cash bar. I think if alcohol is * permitted at one function, it should be available at all functions. Isn’t ;" :. that fair? §§11 Personally, I don’t have a problem with UNL being a dry.campus, but if the stu- ’fT* dents can’t drink on cam It God told you to sodomize your ( XA/r l+o csto: Baity Nebraskan, 34 Nebraska Ijnion, 1400 "R" St., ^ ” V I * ® , Or fax to (402) 472-1761, qr e-mail