Letters, 7/1: Clever cover story

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The group Nebraskans United has a problem. Their problem is this: Most Nebraskans are never deliberately discriminatory. Nebraskans United has as its basic premise affirmative action (i.e., preference), a position discriminatory at its core. So members end up opposing an initiative whose language is clearly nondiscriminatory as discriminatory. The offending language is:

“The state shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting.”

Their protestations notwithstanding, the logic underlying Nebraskans United’s position is inherently racist. If nonwhite non-Asian Americans actually require preferential treatment to compete successfully, they would have to be inferior. If these groups are not inferior, they do not need preference, making the preference discriminatory.

A rather clever cover story for the racism inherently underlying the support of racial preference is worth refuting. This argument is that preference for one group now is needed to offset preference earlier given another group.

But how would preferential treatment of one group in 2008 compensate for the preferential treatment of another group in 1958? The black woman prohibited admission to a college in 1958 to give preference to a white woman is not the black woman given preference for admission to college in 2008. And the white woman prohibited admission to college in 2008 to make way for her black sister is not the white woman who benefited from preference in 1958.

For my part, I opposed preference based on race in 1958, and I remain opposed to preference based on race in 2008.

William Stone, Lincoln

Hardly a citizens initiative

Once again, we are being approached by folks in parking lots with a familiar question, “Are you a registered voter in Nebraska?” I usually respond, “Yes, are you?” One man responded that he is from Missouri. So I asked him if he is a registered voter in Missouri. Realizing that attempting to get a dollar by signing me up was a waste of his time, he moved on to a new person.

Last week, I heard former Attorney General Don Stenberg on the radio telling people they should not be afraid of having their identity stolen by exercising their constitutional right to sign a citizen initiative petition because he did not prosecute one such case during his tenure as attorney general. It left me wondering … how many cases of identify theft did he prosecute, and how would he know how the person got the other person’s identity. But that’s beside the point. When we sign such petitions, we are trusting that our names will not end up on some other list.

Then I did some research on the current citizen initiative, which is billed as intending to end race- and gender-based affirmative action. I even visited the Web site of the group promoting the petition, the Nebraska Civil Rights Initiative. At the bottom of one page, there’s is a little blurb that tells us who is involved in NCRI. Two names are listed — just two names. One is Ward Connerly, a California businessman, and the other is a professor from the University of Nebraska.

Let’s see, a California businessman, a university professor and a bevy of paid circulators from who knows where with who knows what intentions — does that really sound like a “citizens initiative” to you? It sure doesn’t to me.

The Rev. Chuck Bentjen, Beatrice

Account for fair funds

After reading "Lincoln raising questions about fair contributions", I felt a response was needed. This article deals with the money Lincoln has been putting into the State Fair since 2005.

If the figures are correct, Lincoln has given upward of $300,000 per year to the fair. State Fair Executive Director Barney Cosner’s cavalier remark, “I don’t think Lincoln got shortchanged at all,” should be backed up with a detailed accounting of how this money was used.

While we are at it, how was and will the lottery money (about $3 million a year) be used?

It seems to me that the residents of Nebraska should see an accounting of these funds. After all, we did raid the Educational and Environmental Trust Funds to finance this boondoggle we call the Nebraska State Fair. A better name would be the Nebraska State Advertising Venue.

Leland L. Stege, Lincoln