The Lincoln Star from Lincoln, Nebraska • 6

Saturday, January 18, 1992 Page 6 Lincoln Journal-Star poKioora ht to I Lincoln Journal-Star What folks oug enow (402) 473-7336 926 Lincoln, Neb. 68508 To engage our readers in a broader discussion of ideas, we invite a panel of guest editorialists to write on Saturday. Their views are presented to the right. If you wish to be considered for the panel or to nominate someone else, please call 473-7335. Opinions of the guest editorialists do not reflect those of the newspaper.

Editorials below are the opinion of the Lincoln Journal-Star. 'Here were directions for living; a road map to surviving the turbulent, ill-mannered emotionally explosive teen Let's hear it for This week the Lincoln Journal-Star says let's hear it for. Earl Hatfield of Lincoln, named the 1991 Goodyear Tire Rubber Co. Spirit Award winner for the Lincoln plant and the company's Engineered By Nanci Sloan When I was in junior high, my oldest sister was a bridesmaid in a friend's wedding. One rare evening, while she fussed with her hair, she let me sit in her room and read out loud from The Complete Amy Vanderbilt Book of Etiquette." I quoted from the chapters on weddings; the bridesmaids' responsibilities and the structure of polite society around a bride's Big Day.

I was fascinated to discover that there were whole books devoted to precise instructions on How To Behave In Any Social Situation. I promptly read every word of Amy and Abby, Emily and Ana Here were directions for living; a road map to surviving the turbulent, ill-mannered, emotionally explosive teen years which, to my misfortune, fell during the socially sterile Vietnam years. Salvation! Sister purists! I had been a hard-core romantic since puberty, spending summers memorizing passages of Shakespeare for the pure thrill of reciting poetry of such beauty. (My loved ones will tell you that I never grew out of this stage, listen ye not unto the ungrateful wretches, for they know not of which they speak!) I learned things from all those books, not the least of which was a need for reading glasses, but also facts that I presumed any respectable adult would know. 4 THIS SOCIAL faux pas was brought to my attenton by my Honey-Bunny, a gentleman of earthy peerage but impeccable logic Forks, you see, are so called because they possess four tines.

The eating instrument which possesses only three tines is a threek. (Rhymes with freak, which it is.) Although they may be barely tolerable used as an instrument for consuming salads (made up of lettuce, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, et aL) a threek has no place on a respectable dinner table or even a common TV tray. 5. APPROPRIATE attire at a funeral (a somber ceremony attended by the person of honor), or a memorial service (equally somber, but without the benefit of the honoree's attendance) is Black. In lieu of Black, Dark will suffice, particularly the Dark Suit Bright bold patterns and colors, or flashy styles are never acceptable.

Period. The purpose of a funeral has nothing to do with your personal comfort or fashion preferences. There. I feel better already, knowing that thousands of Etiquette Drop-Outs have returned to wearing black, leaving substantial tips and dining with forks. Some time when space allows, I will share some thoughts about our local driving habits.

Sloan, an artist and Etiquette Junkie, can still recite Shakespeare upon request. There have been no requests since 1982. from the Nebraska Association of School Boards. Dr. Joan Sivers of Lincoln, elected president of the American Association of Women Dentists.

Leah K. Miller and L. Sean Buster, winners of the annual Nebraska District Metropolitan Opera Auditions, advancing to regional competition in Minneapolis in February. Keith Berns of Fairbury, winner of the National Young Farmer Spokesperson for Agriculture speaking contest, the contest held in conjunction with the National Young Farmer Institute. Belmont School first-grader Joy Boardman, winner of the grades K-4 division in a statewide poster contest sponsored by the Nebraska School Food Service Association.

Products Division, the award employees with exemplary lifestyles both on and off cuse for presumptuous behavior, and if Ben, Mike or Colleen wish to be called by their given names, they will invite you to do so. Perhaps I am the only person who cares about this mannerism, but if you ever happen to move to a Snob State, youH need to know. 3. A LADY, a woman of culture and good taste, or any combination of these must always leave a tip for the services of a waitperson in any dining or drinking establishment, presuming the service was deserving of a tipAlthough I have known men (certainly no gentlemen) who tip poorly or not at all it is generally women who are tight Fifteen percent is not excessive and we must all learn to include this cost into our entertainment budgets. If you disagree, please go get a job waiting tables.

If, after sue months of work, you still don't care about tipping, you have Official Permission to be Cheap. This and 55 cents will buy a can of soda from a vending machine. Imagine my surprise to discover most folks not only don't know these basic rules of behavior, but dont even care! So here is my partial list of What Folks Ought To Know; subtitled: Being Ladies and Gentlemen. You may perceive these to be pet peeves. You may be right 1.

PEOPLE WHO are seated in a restaurant, which is doing business under the guise of Good Service, ought to be referred to by their waitperson as Ladies, Gentlemen, Sir, Ma'am, or even Folks. No one is ever called "Honey," as in "Another beer. Honey?" Women, either singularly or in a group, are never called "guys," as in "Whatll you guys have tonight?" 2. THE PROPER form of address of an elected public servant involves usage of their title of office, such as Governor, Mr. Mayor, or Madam Council Woman.

Living hundreds of miles away from either coast is no ex the job. Larry Vontz, Nebraska's deputy commissioner of education, recipient of the David W. Hutcheson Award It's not enough that Bush is sorry Jeff Greenfield rugs symptom of sick society Universal Press 'We can do all that is possible to stop drugs on the supply end, but we'll never stop the cycle if something isn't done on the demand President Bush, who once said that he saw his life in terms of missions, certainly knew what his mission was on his journey to New Hampshire. It was his assignment to assert that he cared about the suffering that his first-primary voters were undergoing. And so he said it, again and again.

Sometimes he didn't bother elaborating on his instructions, seeming to read right off the memo his advisers had given him. I care," he said.) Sometimes he asserted that Barbara cared, too, evoking images of the Bushes sitting in the Lincoln Room of the White House, exchanging words of sympathy for what is happening in New Hampshire. Well, it probably makes sense politically. Voters say they want to know what a candidate intends to do about major public policy issues, but the evidence is they want to see a candidate who is publicly demonstrating that he cares. (One citizen lining the route of the Bush motorcade said that he had voted for Bush in 1988, that he was utterly fed up with the president's performance, that the New Hampshire economy had gone to hell in a hand-basket, but that if the president stopped and shook his hand, he'd vote for Bush again.) GEORGE BUSH is hardly the first incumbent to seek re-election based on his sentiments rather than his record.

And he's hardly the first to prove his good intentions by performing acts of contrition. In an era when citizens believe that politicians are aloof, arrogant and disconnected from their concerns, a simple expression of concern, a heartfelt expression of regret, can work something of a miracle. When a powerful officeholder openly acknowledges that he screwed up, it drains much of the poison out of the electorate. The question, of course, is whether this is a healthy way to judge the per- By Matthew Landkamer A couple of years ago, I was cleaning my junk out of a chest of drawers at my parents' house and came across an interesting bit of history in the newspaper that was lining the drawer. The newspaper was from 1973, I believe, but it was the headline that I remember perfectly.

It read, "Nixon Declares War on Drugs." So here we are, almost 20 years later, saying the same thing. The problem then was heroin. Now it's crack. Same villain, different disguise. Some things never change.

I OFTEN wonder if progress is ever made on this "problem." I say "problem" because I don't see drug use (or abuse) as the problem. It is merely one of many symptoms. The war on drugs has succeeded in putting a Band-Aid on a gaping wound. What has been forgotten in this "war" is what the actual causes are. We're complaining about the casualties, but we never stop to think why they're killing themselves.

There are many diagnoses as to what the cause is, and many SORRY. THERE'S no scapegoat for this one but ourselves. Each and every one of us. Well at least most of us. None of us have done anything intentionally, but we've slipped as a country.

As far as I can tell, it's an attitude problem. I know I've got one We live in a country that has lost its appreciation for life, and we're starting to show it That's all We need an attitude adjustment But will it happen? Probably not But if it does, 111 tell you where it will begin. In the schools. "Just say no" won't work any more. We need to "Just ask why." We need to find the problems that start the whole thing: the problems in the homes, in the schools, and in the minds of the young.

We need to solve those problems, and the drug crisis will solve itself. As any firefighter will tell you, "Aim at the base of the fire." So far, we've only been hitting the tips of the flames. Landkamer is a student at Nebraska Wesleyan University. formance of candidates. For instance: If George Bush the candidate promised, in the most explicit, uncompromising way possible, not to raise taxes, and then did it, is it appropriate for voters to accept his explanations? Or is it healthier for our political system for voters to punish him for breaking that kind of commitment, as a way of reminding future candidates not to make flat, uncompromising pledges to the electorate unless they make the keeping of that promise their first priority? IF AN incumbent member of Congress stands for re-election, should voters accept his assertions that he feels dreadful about the huge deficits and the failure of the government to improve the economy? Or should they hold the incumbent to what the lawyers call a standard of "strict liability" punishing the people who were in power when conditions worsened? I must confess to a growing sense of skepticism about political expressions of sympathy or regret If we want public displays of empathy, then maybe we should vote for an Oprah-Donahue ticket, with Sally Jessy as Secretary of Self-Actualization.

Personally, I'd rather have a cold, heartless, unfeeling leader who, without a trace of genuine emotion, can figure out how to find jobs for the thousands who stand in line in the freezing cold, waiting for the chance to work. because there's a supply. I also dont think it's anything so specific that one could put a finger on it It's a group of problems that have befallen our country; for instance, the problems of the urban poor. To many in the cities, drugs are the only escape, or the only source of income. But poverty can't be the only problem.

Rich kids do drugs, too. Is it television? I dont think so. If anything, television usually deglamorizes drugs, or glamorizes the police officers who fight against drugs. Music? Maybe it influences to some degree, but I don't think prescribed cures, but the symptoms are recurrent None of the quick-fix solutions ever has any lasting impact Taking dealers off the streets and prosecuting them harder only leaves openings for new dealers. Or the street prices rise, so addicts turn to crime to feed their habit Trying to intercept drugs at the borders has about the same effect We can do all that is possible to stop drugs on the supply end, but well never stop the cycle if something isn't done on the demand end.

And why is there a demand? I think it's safe to say that it's not Blatant bigots better than Buchanan Doonesbury by garry trudeau HEY, YOU WANT TO 6ET MARRIED, WE'LL 6ET MARRIED. NO PROBLEM. PONE DEAL UieLLrAIJDIKl B.D., I'MSORMIDIPNT TELL YOU EARLIER, BUT THINGS WERE SO LP IN THE AIR. 1 PIDNT KNOW HOW YOUP TAKE IT. MEAN, HAVING A BABY'S FAMILIES ANPPO WERZMAFWEP! Cory Vlikuple (e) Ntwdav Another clue: he has a proposal known as the "Buchanan fence" a wide trench along the Mexican border to keep out illegal immigrants.

Buchanan is seen by some as dangerous because he gives affirmation on a national stage to some of the mean sentiments uttered privately in a lot of barrooms and kitchens and penthouses, and sometimes White Houses, in this land of ours. But I tend not to become too worried about him. The garbage landfill is always with us, and I prefer the undisguised dumper to the secret one, for how do you challenge someone who is undercover? ABOUT A MONTH ago, George Will wrote a column that was critical of Buchanan's flamethrower tactics "but reasonably gentle about his ideology. For example, he said that the subject of immigration "brings out Buchanan's strength his eagerness to talk about whatever is troubling people and his weakness: Do not expect from nun nuances of thought or delicacy of expression." And then Will adds about Buchanan's immigration stance: "He correctly warns that there can come a point when indiscriminate diversity in a population produces national incoherence by blurring identity and diluting community feelings." There are some nice attempts at delicacy of expression in that paragraph but somehow it still gives off a disturbing odor. What kind of code phrase is "indiscriminate diversity?" Is Will saying we should start keeping out certain kinds of immigrants? Which ones? Does he endorse the "Buchanan fence" except that he would phrase it more delicately? Haven't we always prized our diversity, even as we acknowledged and accepted that it required of us a greater effort to make the mix work? Is Will suggesting we should make America more white and European? The following is not very delicately put yet I think it not unfair to ask, for argument's sake, just how much distance exists between Will's sentiments and the bilge that David Duke used to spew about how Jews, blacks and Latinos are "mongre-lizing" our society.

I am much more troubled by deftly huanced paragraphs of prejudice than by garbage shouted through a bullhorn. Schanbtrg Is a newspaper columnist. NEW YORK Prejudice is like a garbage landfill You can cover it over or spray it with chemical deodorants, but it will still stink. The best you can do is keep the offal pile from growing any larger by not throwing more garbage on it We often like to pretend that we've made inroads against prejudice, that we have become more tolerant more open to different life styles, more liberated from the landfills in our minds. Maybe so.

But frankly I don't see much evidence of this new tolerance. In the city where I live, New York, a recent rush of racial assaults has seized headlines again as happens every few months. But non-dramatic prejudice, the kind that "nice" people let into their living rooms when they laugh about fat people or make stereotyping remarks about the Irish or the Italians or the Jews, is rarely discussed in the newspapers and yet is as everyday as the sunrise. We are strangely comforted when a David Duke appears because his hate-peddling comes with neon signs and blaring horns and is brazen and outrageous, and thus we can say that he is foul and we are not like him at all The open bigot makes us feel superior when we have little reason for such self-congratulation. LEE IACOCCA, who is at the same time a titan of American industry and a blowhard, likes to talk to the big boys in locker-room language.

In 1971, Ia-cocca paid a visit to Richard Nixon in the White House to lobby against the mandating of air bags, arguing that the auto industry was already in trouble and couldn't afford the cost We learned of this visit from the Watergate tapes. Iacocca told Nixon: "And the Japs are in the wings, ready to eat us up alive." Ah yes, "the Japs." Har-de-har. Was this a show of prejudice or merely a lapse into what Iacocca calls his favorite pastime, Japan-bashing? I dont know, but we have now seen Iacocca cavort in public in bis Japan-bashing costume on the recent Asia trip with the president so he has established openly that he is a crude and arrogant man. If he is also an exponent of prejudice, then perhaps we have less to fear because we know him. I feel much the same way about Pat Buchanan, whose friends say he is a decent man given to pugnacity and rhetorical excesses.

He has said and written some harsh things that have an anti-Se- Sydney H. Schanberg OF COURSE, THERE'LL BE THE INEVITABLE COMPARISONS TO AND IF YOU PONT WANT 70 GET MARRJEP, THAT'S OKAY, TOO. JF YOU WANT 70 PO ONE OF THOSE OUT-OF-WEDLOCK DEALS, WARREN TMENTHATS YOU CAN WHAT WE'LL HANPLETHhi, DO! THOUGH, R16HT? mitic ring and some other harsh things about homosexuals and blacks. He denies prejudice, but he continues to inflame. In announcing his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination, he said: "When we say we will put America first, we mean also that our Judeo-Christian Values are going to be preserved, and our western heritage is going to be handed down to future generations not dumped onto some landfill called multiculturalism." What does he mean by multiculturalism? Well, on a recent Sunday morning ABC-TV show with David Brinkley, Buchanan said: "I think God made all people good.

But if we had to take a million immigrants in, say, Zulus next year, or Englishmen, and put them up in Virginia, what group would be easier to assimilate and would cause less problems for the people of Virginia?" (Oi.