Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 20, 1999)
EDITOR Josh Funk OPINION EDITOR Mark Baldridge EDITORIAL BOARD Lindsay Young Jessica Fargen Samuel McKewon Cliff Hicks Kimberly Sweet Our VIEW The right to protest Case of free speech supersedes disagreement Protesters should be allowed to protest - regardless of their good sense. Our country was founded on ideals of free expression, free choice and freedom . from a government deciding for its citi zens. ✓ ✓- That means ** 11 we must allow We must allow the messages the mewa&es we ^on * ^e’ me messages don>t agree we don't like, with and may f even be dis don’t agree gusted by. in 1 Lincoln, that with and may meanswemust even be allow abortion protesters out disgusted by. Side our ■ ■ ■ churches. That is the price we pay for the freedom to express our own views. Last fall our City Council passed an ordinance limiting protests and placards on church grounds throughout the city. The council sought to stifle one pro-life group that vigilantly picketed outside ' Westminster Presbyterian Church for almost two years. The protesters from Rescue the Heartland carried poster-sized pictures of aborted fetuses they used to thrust in the faces of the churchgoers each Sunday. It could have been your church. The protesters were there because one of the church elders was performing abor tions, and Rescue the Heartland wanted to draw attention to that. The protesters’ antics got plenty of attention, very little of it positive, and their message was mostly lost in the outrage over their tactics. When the council was considering the ordinance, the city attorney said the rule would be deemed unconstitutional. The council passed it anyway. So the protesters appealed. Both the U.S. District Court and 8th Circuit Court of Appeals have declared the • rule unconstitutional. Yet the city is planning to appeal this latest ruling to the full Appeals Court in search of more guidance on how to write a more constitutional ordinance. Maybe they should have listened to their city attorney in the first place. These abortion protesters have the same right to express ^heir views that Nazis and the Ku Klux Klaii enjoy. They, and the ACLU, can all hold marches (though we shouldn’t schedule them on the same day). Governments must find a way to ensure that one group’s views do not infringe upon another’s rights, but silencing that group is never the solution. Editorial Policy Unsigned editorials are the opinions of the Fall 1999 Daily Nebraskan. They do not 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 employees. Letter Ptllcy The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief letters to the editor and guestpolumns, 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 VIEW ■at me WfstPi/wsrgR pRCsey-rTRiAN church...! __ >i. . .itu.UUi DN LETTERS The Gay Agenda Ms. Flanagain is correct in assert ing that there is a homosexual “agen da.” As a 33-year-old gay male and non-apologist for the community and what we have achieved, I am here to stand up and proclaim to all the world the gay community’s radical agenda (you may need to sit down for this): We are pursuing full, productive lives with good jobs, loved ones and nice homes. We are caring for our aging parents, paying our bills and taxes and keeping our cars in good shape. We are supporting our churches, making beautiful music, writing inspiring and meaningful literature and laughing a lot with our friends. All this, and we are gay, too! Scott Biehle Information Services Reading Matter Jessica Flanagain would do well to research what she writes about. She feels that the study done by the APA on pedophilia gives a green light to it. Further, she blames gay people for this, claiming that accepting gay people is just a hop, skip and jump away from accepting pedophiles. She is wrong on both counts. If she would go and either read the study or read the press release that the APA put out on this study, she would know that it in no way sanctioned pedophilic behavior (thank God). It simply said that some boys aren’t completely dev astated by the assault (which implies that some are). As for the expansion of morals, there is one huge distinction between gays and pedophiles — gays can give consent, where children cannot. Case closed. Gary Rimar Shelby Township, Mich. The Two Jessicas Kudos to you, Jessica Flanagain! I thought your column was right on tar get. Thanks for standing up for The Truth. And to Jessica Eckstein, GREAT column the other day! (DN, Oct. 13) PRAISE GOD that a column viewing Christianity as a positive thing finally hit the opinion page. Keep writing Godly articles. I and other Christians in my campus min istry have been praying for the DN for several months. Keep being bold! Betsy Severin sophomore broadcasting Bitching and Moenning I would like to respond to Josh Moenning’s column regarding hate crime laws. (DN Oct. 12) When a person commits a crime, his or her intentions play a large part in deciding what the charges and the appropriate punishment will be. This is obvious; it is why there is a difference between manslaughter and first-degree murder and the accompa nying punishment if the defendant is convicted. In a way, this means that a crimi nal’s “thought processes” are on trial, but it does not require “psychologists acting as lawyers” to examine the intentions of a criminal - it is simply the prosecution’s burden to prove this to the jury. The [hate crimes] law is not specif ic to minority groups whatsoever. In fact, one of the first hate crime cases involved a group of black men who, after seeing a movie, went out and assaulted a white man because they had the intention of singling out a white person (you can learn more about this case from the ACLU). I understand why some may see hate crimes as simply vehicles for political correctness, but they simply are not. Corey J. Maley senior computer science, math, philosophy, psychology More on hate crimes I believe that Mr. Moenning and many other opponents of bias crimes sentencing guidelines — for that is what we are actually speaking of - have an honest concern. But it is wrong to assume that the premise behind the laws is “silly,” to use Mr. Moenning’s word. If history - including recent history - had not shown that perpetrators of bias crimes are among die most under punished (often successfully deploying such sickening defenses as “gay panic” and “racial fear”), you may be sure that very few people would be spending the time and money to lobby for these laws. Meaningful punishment with atten dant publicity represents society’s deci sion not to look die other way. Tom Crisp New York, NY Another Masterpiece I always look for KB Masterpiece (DN, Tuesdays) to see what nugget of wisdom I can get for the week. As someone who attended the same high school as Karen Brown, I can only imagine how much courage it took for her not only to come out to her family, but to write about coming out in gener al. ° We all should applaud her for hav ing the type of courage that most of us don’t have. Way to go, Brownie!!! Sean Lewis graduate student sociology Wetter is Better In response to Trevor Johnson’s “Wet and Powerful” (DN, Oct. 6), I would just like to thank him for writing a very thorough article about the subject of alcohol on campus. I think he has a very valid point and that the issue should be brought before the board or at least taken to AS UN. Rich Cappel general studies freshman