Pa.8e Th A1 f ri-rt -i 1 Nebraskan
4 B i AA A A AA A A d A Monday, September 24,1990
(Daily
Nebraskan
Editorial Board
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Eric Pfanner, Editor, 472-1766
Victoria Ayotte, Managing Editor
Darcie Wiegert, Associate News Editor
Diane Bray ton, Associate News Editor
Jana Pedersen, Wire Editor
Emily Rosenbaum, Copy Desk Chief
Lisa Donovan, Editorial Page Editor
Small victory
NU Foundation makes symbolic move
Anti-apartheid protesters have won a symbolic victory.
The NU Foundation, in a welcome move, has an
nounced that it will partially divest of companies doing
business in South Africa.
Although the divestment is only partial, following principles
used for a state law on divestment, it shows that the private
fund-raising arm of the University of Nebraska has acknowl
edged its quasi-public status.
The move also shows that the foundation was responsive to
demonstrations in favor of divestment in the UNL community.
But the move means more symbolically than it docs in sub
stance.
Foundation President Terry Fairfield said the new policy
would affect only one investment, worth $1 million. And that
investment probably no longer will be on the state’s forbidden
list of investments by Oct. 1, when the foundation plans to
divest.
In effect, the foundation will be able to adopt its new policy
without making anything but a symbolic move.
Even if Abbott Laboratories — the company on the state list
-- remains on the list, the foundation wouldn’t directly do much
to change apartheid in South Africa by nulling out its invest
ment. Nor would the foundation lose much of its fund-raising
total.
But the foundation apparently listened to the message of
those who demonstrated for divestment. Now that message will
be sent to corporations and to the South African government.
Protesters probably will continue their efforts toward
complete divestment. But in asking for such a policy, the
foundation can no longer be singled out, because it has stepped
into line with state law.
State law, not foundation policy, is where any push for
further divestment should originate.
A new system of classifying investments should be part of
discussion on any new state law. The current principles allow
for too much fluctuation.
Currently, firms that deal in South Africa arc placed in four
categories. Investments in companies considered to be making
progress toward equality arc exempt from the investment ban.
| Abbott Laboratories apparently will fall through that loop
hole by October.
Another loophole lawmakers may want to consider is the
foundation’s private status.
Those seeking to verify divestment will have to take the
foundation’s word for it because of the organization’s private
status. Fairfield said the foundation would not disclose invest
ments in its portfolio.
I But as long as good faith is the only way to monitor invest
ments, divestment will have more symbolic value than sub
stance.
And the bottom line will continue to be apartheid.
-• Eric Pfanncr
for the Daily Nebraskan
Americans should support
programs that benefit all
Although I know litUe about you
Andrew Meyer, because I am not a
daily DN reader, your letter (DN,
Sept. 18) prompted me to write. I just
wondered if you are taking into con
sideration the fact that supporting
something you might find personally
offensive is part of being a U.S. citi
zen?
I, as a taxpayer, fund such things
as the U.S. military involvement in
the Iraqi invasion (which may lead to
war), which I may not personally agree
with because of my religious beliefs.
My parents “supported” through taxes
the Vietnam War, although they were
personally against it. That is just a
part of our representational govern
ment. Just because you do not di
rectly benefit from the National En
dowment for the Arts does not mean
that some other tax-paying citizen
would not.
As far as art standing on its own in
the free market, should education and
health be there too? Being a pre-med
major, I am sure you realize what a
big business health care has become.
Do you then agree with the rationality
that the person who can pay for the
operation gets it? Is that the type of
“free marketplace’’ you want?
I, as a human being, have compas
sion for people in general, and de
mand my freedom (even though it
costs) as a U.S. citizen, whether that
be through an endowment for the arts,
or healthcare agencies for the needy
(neither of which I may directly bene
fit from.)
It seems as though you are either
very selfish, or you want to change
our style of government or you see
the world more materialistic than
humanistic — all of which I do not
agree with. I say abolish the “if I
don’t directly benefit from the serv
ice, why should I have to pay for it”
attitude!
Nina Neubcrt
senior
arts and sciences
pR“t-t>E&M'E P?EPKRKTI0M
Imagination yields to information
Someone somewhere told us we couldn't dance, act, sing, write poetry
My roommate used to be a
poet. She was pretty damn
good, too, although I’ve only
read two of her poems. They ’re hang
ing on the wall in our kitchen.
One of them is about flying, and
the other is about growing up. At the
bottom of the poems it says, “by
Kelly, July 6, ’80.”
She wrote both of them when she
was 12 years old.
Kelly doesn t write much poetry
anymore. She reads a lot of it for her
English classes, and she writes about
what she reads, but she doesn’t write
the poems themselves. And we have
n’t put anything new on the kitchen
wall lately.
That’s not unusual for a college
student. Unless someone keeps tell
ing us that our poems arc good, that
we can make a living from them, we
don’t tend to post them on the kitchen
wall.
Robert Fulghum wrote an article
for Newsweek about that, as part of a
special edition on how to teach our
kids.
Fulghum, the man who wrote, "All
I Really Need to Know I Learned in
Kindergarten,” and “It Was on Fire
When I Lay Down on it,” says in the
article that “society puls its best fool
forward in kindergarten and first
grade.”
Flc goes through a series of ques
tions asked of children in kindergar
ten — how many can draw, sing, dance,
act and write poetry.
The vote is unanimous each time.
No one has yet told the children that
they can’t do these things, so they are
more than willing to try them, and
ready to show off their skills.
Fulghum then says to ask those
same questions of a college audience.
Any positive responses, he says, proba
bly will be qualified with answers
like “I only draw horses. I only dance
to rock ‘n’ roll. I only sing in the
shower.”
Somewhere along the line, some
one told us we couldn’t draw, sing,
dance, act or write poetry. Or at least
told us we couldn’t make a living at it.
So we stopped trying.
Fulghum goes on to talk about
how we are sent to school to learn the
rules arid regulations of society,
“because we believe that knowledge
is better than ignorance.”
Children run up and down the street.
They skip and dance and play furi
ously every day. Grown people don’t
Amy
Edwards
do that. Somewhere along the line,
someone told us that it is not “nor
mal” behavior for adults to sing and
dance in the street (unless it’s raining
out and they’re barefoot).
So we send our children to school
to learn the things that are important
in life, the things that “everyone should
know” — things like reading, writing
and multiplying fractions.
But by teaching children the same
set of facts, and giving them the same
requirements, we teach them that it is
OK — in fact that it’s good - to be like
everyone else. We lake away their
originality and sap their imagination.
We tip the scales toward necessary
tools for success and away from elec
tives like dance, choir and art classes.
Those things are nice, but we don’t
really need them to get along in soci
ety.
I don’t know about you, but I proba
bly will never have to multiply frac
tions to get along in life. But if some
body were to ask me “do you know
how to multiply fractions?” my an
swer would be yes.
If the same person were to ask me
if I could sing, or draw or dance, my
answer would be a little less positive.
I can sing, but you’d probably cover
your ears. I can draw, but my drawing
would probably be good enough only
to line the bottom of the bird cage.
And I can dance, but I’ll probably
never be asked to perform on “Star
Search.”
Fulghum ends his article w ith a list
of things that he learned during all his
years of leaching. One of them is that
“imagination is more important than
information.”
But beyond kindergarten and lirst
grade, with a few exceptions, the
opposite is true. Very few teachers
arc more concerned with helping
students push the limits of their imagi
nation than with leaching them a se
lect group of facts.
And very few students are as con
cerned w ith thinking as they are about
memorizing the material for their next
test.
Maybe that’s the wrong way to go
a»x>ut things. How many people would
be dancing in the streets if they hadn’t
been told that it was unacceptable
behavior?
And how many people would be
writing poetry if they hadn’t been
told that writing poetry was not a very
serious career move?
My roommate will probably never
be asked to give a poetry reading,
although I have no doubts that she
could do it well. Kelly’s given up
poetry-writing for more “serious
studies. She’s going to be an optome
trist
And that’s not necessarily a bad
thing. The world needs eye doctors,
and Kelly has wanted to be an op
tometrist for a long time.
She’s worked hard at it too -- a lot
harder than she ever worked at being
a poet.
But until she starts practicing as an
optometrist the things she has U) show
for her work are not as tangible as the
poems she wrote when she was 1*
After all, Kelly doesn’t frame her
chemistry exams for the kitchen wall
Edwards is a senior news-editorial ma
jor, the Daily Nebraskan Diversions editor,
the writing coach and a columnist.
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