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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 9, 2000)
1 Opinion And the winner is... New government holds promise of change forASUN Wow. One of the most intriguing elections we’ve seen has ended. Two parties started the process last semester. Two others jumped in this spring. The four of them took us on a ride we’d never imagined in December. We predicted it would be the same ol’-same ol’ come March 1. Now we can look forward to change. The A-Team and Duff threw the two parties who were called traditional for a loop with their aggressive advertising tactics and strong remarks. And those efforts swayed enough students to get A-Team into the run-off election - something most, including A-Team, thought was going to involve Impact and Empower. And the A-Team reallv. reallv threw With the A- Empower for a loop. f _ With the A-Team’s win Wednesday TeCOTl S wifi night, things will change in student JJ/ si si government. Wednesday Fresh ideas will be taken into nicrht thincrv account. New people will grace the rl Lgrll, LrlL rig,> floor of the ASUN office. will change The Impact and Empower senators & will be working with a president with in Student no P^or loyalties. Even if there are bad feelings, senators must learn to work government. with Joel Schafer and Riley Peterson. It’ll be a learning experience for everyone. That’s what college is all about, after all. The voters picked the A-Team - a pair of men with no expe rience. As we’ve said before, this will be an asset to the Association of Students of the University of Nebraska. But even more, this election, with each party boasting a dif ferent face, sparked a fire on this campus. It gave people some thing to talk about. The A-Team contributed with its out-of-the-ordinary adver tising. Duff added its push for a wet campus - something that most parties wouldn’t even start to tackle. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say we’ve heard more, and even talked more, about student government this spring than since we started college. What’s more, the presence of two underdog parties and the fact one of them actually won, may encourage more students to run next year. We need more than two parties running for ASUN, and we need new ideas in ASUN. The A-Team proved that the non-traditional parties served more purpose than to be a sounding box for those who challenge the establishment. Editorial Board Josh Funk (editor) • J.J. Harder • Cliff Hicks • Samuel McKewon • Dane Stickney • Kimberly Sweet • Lindsay Young Letter Policy The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief letters to the editor and guest columns, but docs not guarantee their publication. The Daily Nebraskan retains the right to edit or reject any submis sions.Submitted material becomes property of the Daily Nebraskan and cannot be returned. Anonymous material will not be published. Those who submit letters must identify them selves by name, year in school, major and/or group affiliation, if any. Submit material to: Daily Nebraskan, 20 Nebraska Union, 1400 R St., Lincoln. Neb. 68588-0448 or e-mail to: letters^unl.cdu Editorial Policy Unsigned editorials are the opinions of the spring 2000 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 col umn is solely the opinion of its author. The Board of Regents acts as publisher of the Daily Nebraskan; policy is set by the Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board. The7UNL Publications Board, established by the regents, supervises the publication 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. The Daily Nebraskan strives to print fair and accurate coverage; any corrections or clarifica tions will be printed on page three. Obermeyer’s VIEW i-_-1 Quat'Zooo Letters to the EDITOR Ethics, not pessimism David Baker, your pessimism annoys me. I am offended by your generalizations about CBA students (March 7, DN). You say we are not concerned about “humanity or human rights.” Granted, big business often creates<headlines by making immoral investments, but there are people working to change that. Instead of studying international finance, why don’t you take some philosophy and ethics classes instead of something you apparently despise. Maybe those classes will teach you to consider how ethical it is to make false accusations. Brett Otte senior finance Toxic turmoil The opinion written about LB 1234 misses several important points, most obviously the environ mental rationale behind the bill. The displacement of toxic gasoline com pounds with ethanol generates both air quality and water quality benefits. Gasoline typically contains approxi mately 280 chemicals that range from benign to harm- ' ful when combusted, leaked into groundwater or absorbed during exposure as we fuel our automobiles. [11 Benzene for example, a I known carcinogen, is a typ- YM ical component in gasoline. U ^ Benzene is easily absorbed fB through the skin and lungs. Ink In many areas ofjhe coun try, benzene content is ^BE^^ strictly regulated, but not in An April lyyy news release by the Environmental Defense Fund noted the con sequences of using toxic compounds like benzene in gasoline. The report stated, “Government estimates toxic chemical concentrations in local air indicate that 197,710 residents of Lancaster County live in neigh borhoods _ where the « addition al can cer risk from toxic chemicals in out door air was more than 100 times higher than the goal set by Congress a decade ago ...” The news release noted that near ly half of the toxic inventory resulted from vehicle exhaust emissions in Lancaster County. LB1234 would result in reduced toxic compounds in gasoline via dilution with 10 percent ethanol. Ethanol, like other oxygenat ed fuel components, also reduces car bon monoxide emissions from vehi cles while reducing the toxicity of gasoline. A iinal point related to the envi ronmental rationale that has generat ed support for LB 1234 is the recent detection of MTBE in groundwater. MTBE is used by petroleum refiners to increase the octane content of gasoline. MTBE is a good gasoline additive from an air quality perspec tive. However, it migrates very quick ly in groundwater supplies. Recent investigations by the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality have con firmed the fears of all who are inter ested in water quality - MTBE has leaked into under ground water in at least seven Nebraska communities. Water clean up costs and threats to drinking water supplies are an unnecessary conse quence of MTBE use. Enactment of LB 1234 will discourage the use of MTBE because ethanol is an excel lent octane additive that precludes the use of MTBE. LB 1234 represents an important public policy opportunity to improve the air we breathe, protect our valu able water supplies, produce a value added renewable fuel from Nebraska grain and retain energy dollars in the state’s economy. Todd Sneller Nebraska Ethanol Board Cardinal complaints After reading the “SSC Success Might Come With a Price” article (March 7, DN), I was left speechless. Sioux City is hardly a “financial empire.” We do not consider North Sioux City our “bastard cousin” Our water is not muddy. Our children are not trashy and the town is not obsessed with basketball. I have called Siouxland (as the locals call the Sioux City area) home since 1986. I’ll admit that there’s not a great deal of entertainment for the youth, but you’ll find the same situa tion in most cities in the United States. Lincoln is a prime example, which leads me to my next point. 1 have seen more obsession over a sports team (mainly football) on this campus than I ever saw in South Sioux. The article was probably formed with the notion that the girl’s basket ball program came out of nowhere. This in itself is an insult to those young ladies who work hard for their success. ! Deidre Martin freshman architecture t