Tuesday, November 20, 1C34
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.a L L l ti-' C
ruce Springsteen didn't even men
tion the Cornhusker3.
When he spoke to the audience
packed into the Bob Devaney Sports
Center Sunday night, he spoke of Central
America, the hungry End our responsi
bility for others.
Springsteen tried to turn hb audience's
attention to some of the social issues of
which many of hb songs are filed.
"If I was you, I'd watch out what's
happening down in Central America,"
Springsteen said. "Last time it was my
generation. Thb time itll be your genera
tion." It could very well be curs if the United
States invades Nicaragua. The signs that
invasion b imminent are there, and yet it
seems the American public dcesnt take it
seriously.
The public b leaving the government to
pby with our lives as it wbhes.
As Spring-teen said, "Blind faith b a
dangerous thing."
And blind faith b exactly what the
American public has in its government.
We blindly believed government officials
when the said they had no, plan for
invading Nicaragua, when in fact reliable
sources have said the government did
have a plan which they decided not to
implement before the election.
We blindly allowed our government to
ignore the plight of drought-stricken Ethi
opia for the duration of the four-year
drought in Africa. Government officiate
denied Ethiopia aid because of its Marxist
government and its Communist tics.
Did we give our government the right to
use food as a bargaining unit with starving
people? We are only in this country and
away from war and starvation by benefit
of birth not by some God-given su
periority. Only now b the United States
giving food to Ethiopia.
We can no longer allow our government
to ignore the wbhes of its people. Do we
want to invade Nicaragua? Do we want to
let Ethiopians starve? Or do we even
care?
Must we wait until we are thrown into
war to become concerned? Must innocent
people who happened to have been born
in the wrong country starve to death
before we care?
Springsteen shows hb concern by
example. During hb concert Sunday niht,
he urged the audience several times to
support the Lincoln and Omaha Food
Bank and to live up to its responsibility
for others.
He followed up hb plea by donating
$10,000.
As Springsteen said, "Nobody wins un
less everybody wins."
Dally Ncbinstea Btzlsr Editor
November
r traoMion
I mm m 77
eserves oeuer tsfian
&,c.
WV JcbTina q
Tjowi
jHhb is the season when all
Americans begin talking
turkey. I have no problem
with that. What I have a problem
with is eating turkey.
With due apologies to the 44
million birds who have given up
the gobble for thb year's feast, I
believe that the turkey's only
reason for living b as a repository
for stuffing.
The turkey b the single ugliest
creature ever eaten by a human
being with the sole exception of
the monkfish. It b inconceivable
that millions of Americans would
Ellen
Goodman
long to bite the neck of thb foul
thing if they confronted a live
one. The standing turkey is about
as delicious a culinary idea as a
genetically engorged iguana.
Mind you, I do not hate the
turkey once it come3 out of the
oven. You can only hate some
thing which has character. It b
possible, for example, to hate
liver or squid, or snaib (although
it would be mistake). Turkey,
however, b the Muzak of foods,
the farina of fowl It b worthy of
supreme dbinterest.
My family, long aware and
tolerant of my dbdain for the
Tnanksgiving centerpiece, attri
bute this flaw to years mbspent
in an effete Eastern college. There,
the common and dismissive
phrase about a fellow human
being was, "What a turkey!" An
anthropomorphized turkey was
combination of jerk and loser
with a little airhead thrown in. To
thb day, you can identify the
alumni of thb and similar cam
puses by the way they upbraid
themselves on various playing
fields, exclaiming "You turkey!"
But I didn't take a dislike to
turkey because of the people. Quite
the contrary. The reality is that I
am not alone in heaping scorn on
thb bird. If everyone loved turkey,
we never would have invented
gravy. If everyone loved turkey,
there wouldn't be so many left
overs. Indeed, leftovers are the strong
est argument for my case. In the
days following Thanksgiving, the
average American turkey con
tinues to grow, rather like zuc
chini The culinary history of
America b colored by imagina
tive attempts to disguise and there
fore dbperse leftover turkey to
the unsuspecting. My own family
has made turkey into everything
short of a lamp. It takes, on aver
age, three days before the remains
of the creature are mercifully
lowered into a pot of water to
become soup. I have been told on
good authority that the 75-pound
turkey that broke the Guinness
Book of Records in 1973 b still
being shared by a very large and
unhappy Englbh family.
I realize that by disparaging
the turkey I am attacking an
American tradition. The turkey b
a native. When it was exported to
Europe, no less a gourmet than
France's BriHat-Savarin proclaim
ed in the 18th century that, "The
face of the turkey...b clearly that
of a foreigner. No wbe man cou ld
be mistaken about it." Our own
Benjamin Franklin once made a
bid for the turkey to become the
national bird on the theory that
the bald eagle had a "bad morai
r7
i ii
1 .
( .W. )
character." He had never eaten
an eagle.
I know I know: At Thanksgiving
we are not only eating food but
devouring tradition. There b an
atavistic desire on the part of a
family to break the same bread
together or, more accurately, to
share the same MIL
But to be perfectly frank about
it, the traditional claim b a bit
weak The domestic Thanksgiv
ing turkey is only a. distant cousin
to the mild turkey, a distant Mex
ican cousin. The majority of table
turkeys have been inbred to such
a degree that they can no longer
breed on their own. It b an artifi
cially inseminated tradition, which
isn't quite the all-American way.
More importantly, those of us
who live within rough proximity
to the first Thanksgiving site must
report that there.b no evidence
to prove that the Pilgrims and the
Indians actually ate turkey dur
ing their three-day feast Mustwe
cravenly follow an event of our
own creations like a collection of.
you-know-whats?
From what we do know, the
Pilgrims and their Indian guests
had the following items on the
first Thanksgiving menu: venbon,
duck, goose, seafood, white bread,
corn bread, leeks, watercress and
eels.
Ilmmm the Thanksgiving eel?
Now there's an idea I could sink
my teeth into.
151, Tfct Eesten Gist Umsism Cota
FanyWtshlnston Post Wsf Of-mp
oun
erica
supports' Eeaganomics
1 - T i 1
ii or &t nnrn nrn er q n n
fin he prevailing myth of the past elec-
tion year was that the phenomenal
JL popularity of Reagan among Ameri
ca's youth was because of the growing
hedonbm of thb age-group. Young voters,
so the myth went (and still goes), were
voting selfishly rather than for the "com
mon good."
Jim
In fact some surprising evidence exists
that, contrary to pepuLT sentiment, the
R-sEjan youth vote can be better seen as
young America's rejection of the pervad
ing narcissism of the seventies. The evi
dence was contained in a Journal-Star
poll published a little over a week ago.
One of the fundamental propositions
ostensibly demonstrating "Reagan's
hedonic youth vote" argument was that
while young people supported Resgan's
economic pcUcy, they were by-and-Jarge
opposed to the social agenda which he
had set. A key bsue on thb agenda, b a
constitutional amendment overturning
'the Supreme Court's 1973 Eoe va Wade
decbion,'which essentially legalized abor
- tlon on demand. "
The Jourad-S
indicates, that
this proposition, at least among Nebraska
youth, b false. ..
While people between the arts of 26
and 64 according to thb poll were
evenly split on the question "would you
support or oppose a constitutional amend
ment further restricting abortions" (about
45 percent for each group), youth between
the eges cf 18 and 25 supported further
restrictions on" abortions by almost 20
percentage points more (about 63 per
cent). At the same time opposition drop- '"
ped to a scant 33 percent. (The figures
add up to 101 percent because cf round-'
ing.)"
These figures 'are very cncourarir.g
respecting the political future and bear
. witness to the fact that perhaps Amori
ca's youth are concerned Tilth msre than
desire to protect the unborn and more or
less unseen human from the obscene vio
lence of abortion b indicative of a remar
kable liepth cf caring on the part of
America's youth. Indeed, the most diffi
cult person to love and protect b almost
prototypicaOy the unseen person who
will never express thanks.
" Host of the time the basis for the allevi
ation, cf suffering in cur world b based
upon observing the suffering. Witness, for
example, the massive cid going to Ethio
pia, which bcsn only after the Ethiopian
government allowed the BEC to Cm and
show the starvation extant m the country.
The k
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