Monday, 6.8.15 ON THE WEB: www.yankton.net views VIEWS PAGE: [email protected] PAGE 4 PRESS&DAKOTAN The Press Dakotan THE DAKOTAS’ OLDEST NEWSPAPER | FOUndED 1861 Yankton Media, Inc., 319 Walnut St., Yankton, SD 57078 CONTACT US OPINION OTHER VIEWS PHONE: (605) 665-7811 (800) 743-2968 Neb. On ‘The Right NEWS FAX: (605) 665-1721 ADVERTISING FAX: (605) 665-0288 Side Of History’ WEBSITE: www.yankton.net LINCOLN JOURNAL STAR (May 28): Nebraska’s lawmakers ––––– made history Wednesday, repealing the death penalty in a vote that SUBSCRIPTIONS/ will reverberate across the country. CIRCULATION The 30-19 vote on the motion by Sen. Ernie Chambers to over- Extension 104 ride a veto by Gov. Pete Ricketts made clear the issue is no longer CLASSIFIED ADS one with a clear partisan divide. Throughout three rounds of voting and on the override there Extension 108 Capitol Notebook [email protected] was a solid group of conservative Republicans who supported replacing the death penalty with a sentence of life in prison without NEWS DEPT. parole. Extension 114 In the end more Republican state senators voted for repeal than [email protected] the 13 Democrats in the nonpartisan Legislature. Summers Are Busy Time SPORTS DEPT. In the days leading up to the climactic vote, Chambers declared Extension 106 that “when something is of truly historic significance, it is not be- [email protected] cause of one individual or one act.” ADVERTISING DEPT. Chambers is right about that. But it’s also true that in Nebraska Extension 122 there is no single individual who has done more than Chambers to For High School Athletes [email protected] force Nebraskans in and out of the legislative chamber to examine BUSINESS OFFICE their conscience and rationale on the death penalty. BY BOB MERCER at their group’s meeting earlier this year. Extension 119 The veto override came on his 38th attempt to replace the death State Capitol Bureau The proposal contains one other important [email protected] penalty with a sentence of life in prison without parole, according to piece: Coaches couldn’t have any contact with NEW MEDIA: the legislative research office. PIERRE — The parents of high school athletes players during the week of July 1 through July 7 Extension 136 Chambers was quick to credit the group of conservative state in South Dakota know summers aren’t time off. each summer. [email protected] senators. They were vocal, articulate and unflinching. One of the Regular classes are out, and interscholastic ath- These changes would take effect for the 2016 COMPOSING DEPT. most active was Sen. Colby Coash of Lincoln, a one-time supporter letic events aren’t scheduled. Instead, summer. the months of June and July are time The changes would simplify life for Extension 129 of the death penalty. Among Coash’s efforts was a statement signed coaches. Some critics fear overload [email protected] for athletes to train for next season. by 13 Republican state senators supporting Sen. Mike Gloor after he In fact, the South Dakota High if players face a full summer of being was attacked politically for supporting repeal. School Activities Association has a set openly coached every day (other than * * * The growing conservative support for repealing the death pen- of specific out of season regulations the July 4 holiday week). alty was not lost on Nebraskans for Alternatives to the Death Pen- governing what coaches can do and This brings up a related issue: Time MANAGERS alty, which has advocated for repeal for decades. In 2012 it launched can’t do, during the period from com- conflicts with summer sports that Gary L. Wood Nebraska Conservatives Concerned About The Death Penalty, a pletion of the state track and field meet aren’t under the SDHSAA umbrella. Publisher chapter in a national movement. until midnight on July 31. Swimming is one. VFW and American Michele Schievelbein On that group’s website is a quote from Coash that summarizes Coaches are limited to four team Legion baseball activities are another. Advertising Director the conservative argument against the death penalty: “Conservatives camps or tournaments, or two team The baseball situation has become know that government is imperfect and makes mistakes. My desire to camps or tournaments and one league. Bob complicated with the creation of spring Tonya Schild protect innocent life leads me to worry about a fallible system that A team camp or tournament can run high school baseball as an independent Business Manager has the power to take a life . If this (the death penalty) were any other five consecutive days. A league can MERCER activity. government program, we would have got rid of it a long time ago.” play once per week. We now have high school-affiliated Tera Schmidt teams playing a spring schedule for a Classified Manager There’s little doubt that there is momentum in favor of abolishing But coaches aren’t limited on the death penalty. Six states have now eliminated the death penalty individual contacts with a player, and they are state championship. We also have the traditional Kelly Hertz since 2007, and the number of executions and death penalty sentenc- allowed to provide private lessons to players American Legion teams playing a summer sched- Editor es is at a 20-year low. where specific techniques and fundamentals are ule for a state championship. In fact there has been majority support in the Legislature for taught. Some communities have baseball teams that James D. Cimburek The private lessons can be given in small play both. Sports Editor years, but opponents have been able to dead-end the effort with filibusters. The Legislature’s rules now will work against senators groups that are limited in size, depending on the But there are situations where American Beth Rye who want to reinstate the death penalty, especially with Chambers, sport. Coaches are allowed to play in the same Legion players are prohibited or discouraged by Digital Media Director dean of the Legislature and master of the rules, there to thwart such league as a player, but they aren’t allowed to their team’s rules or coaches from playing on the efforts. play on the same team with a player. local high school team. Kathy Larson Now the SDHSAA board of directors is con- And there are players who compete on the Composing Manager Supporters of the death penalty say they will collect signatures put the issue on the ballot. The task of reversing the Legislature’s sidering a major change in the out-of-season rule. high school baseball team in the spring but don’t Sarah Lynde vote may prove more difficult than they imagine. Support for the The directors will decide at their next play on the local American Legion team in the Circulation District Manager death penalty is not as deep and committed as zealots would like to meeting June 9 whether to eliminate all of the summer. That allows them to train in June and regulations regarding individual contacts and July for their other high school sports. believe, and the arguments for abolishment are strong. Setting summer high school seasons covering As Chambers put it, repeal of the death penalty “puts Nebraska private lessons. The change would basically erase everything but the restriction on numbers June and July for baseball and for boys and girls on the right side of history.” of team contacts. golf, whose state tournaments at times run into * * * Nearly all of the athletic directors at the high difficult weather whether spring or fall, might be DAILY STAFF schools in the state association favored the a practical next step. Reilly Biel IN HISTORY change when the athletic directors discussed it Cassandra Brockmoller Brandi Bue By The Associated Press the nomination for California governor while Rob Buckingham Today is Monday, June 8, the 159th day Carly Fiorina got the nod to oppose three- of 2015. There are 206 days left in the year. term Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer; in Caryn Chappelear Today’s Highlight in History: On June Nevada, Sharron Angle won the right to op- Randy Dockendorf 8, 1915, U.S. Secretary of State William Jen- pose Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. (All Jeannine Economy nings Bryan resigned over what he viewed three ended up losing their respective con- Limbaugh Finds Out He’s Not as President Woodrow Wilson’s overly belli- tests.) In South Carolina, political unknown Jeremy Hoeck cose attitude toward Germany following the Alvin Greene won the Democratic primary to Sarah Lynde sinking of the RMS Lusitania. challenge U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint (Greene lost Nicole Myers On this date: In A.D. 632, the prophet in November). Robert Nielsen Muhammad died in Medina. One year ago: Gunmen stormed an Normal, And It Scares Him In 1845, Andrew Jackson, seventh presi- airport terminal in Karachi, Pakistan, in an BY LEONARD PITTS JR. and Republicans are the new weirdos, the new Diana Smallwood dent of the United States, died in Nashville, attack that left at least 29 people dead, in- David Stephenson Tennessee. cluding the assailants (the Pakistani Taliban Tribune Content Agency kooks, and that is part of the political objective Cathy Sudbeck In 1864, Abraham Lincoln was nominat- claimed responsibility). A married couple here, in normalizing all of this really marginal ed for another term as president during the shot and killed two Las Vegas police offic- behavior. I mean, if less than 1 percent of the JoAnn Wiebelhaus National Union (Republican) Party’s conven- ers and an armed bystander who attempted I am not normal. Brenda Willcuts tion in Baltimore.