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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 29, 1991)
JAMES ZANK Waste plan shows potential Sitting in the comer of my apart ment’s kitchen is a weary, greasy, foul-smelling traveler, waiting to make the journey. Like so many before, filled with food wrappers, discarded phone messages and exiled leftovers from two weeks ago, this one-time house guest from the local grocery will soon be on its final voyage. Like the thou sands before it, I will carry it out on my way to class and deposit it without thought into the garbage dumpster behind the building. For me, this is the end. My trash is gone, a new bag replaces the old one and the cycle begins again. Or so it would appear. In reality, the story doesn’t end here. The bag finds its way through a series of compressions and dumpings until, finally, it finds a resting place somewhere in the landfill north of Lincoln. This is how we dispose of waste. Landfilling isn’t the greatest way to do so, but it isn’t the worst, either. Waste is a fact of our existence. We must learn to live with it. Last week, I watched on television a meeting held in Lincoln concerning the development of the state’s solid waste plan. It was the final session in the second round of public meetings. The plan, based largely on pre existing facilities and current solid waste management plans, shows a lot of potential. Some goals of the plan, being developed for Nebraska by SCS Engineers, are the closing of unsound and filled landfills, development of markets for recyclables, and making use of existing solid waste manage ment programs. Behind some of these goals arc new Environmental Protection Agency regulations on sanitary conditions and safety of landfills and dumps. Waste is a tael o/ our existence. We must leant to. live mlh iL Both are potential hazards to groundwater. Failure to meet the regulations would close many sites and penalize the communities respon sible for them. Last week’s meeting focused on the plan for southeastern Nebraska. It suggests merging York, Fillmore, Thayer, Seward, Saline, Jefferson, Saunders, Lancaster, Gage, Otoe, Pawnee, Nemaha and Richardson counties into one region that would share solid-waste disposal. Suggested arc moves to close some nearly-full landfills or those that will not meet federal regulations when they go into effect in a few years. The plans also suggest centralizing opera tions in order to reduce the number of landfills. The plan targets Lincoln as a potential spot for another landfill. That didn’t please Lincoln Mayor Mike Johanns. He argued against the plan based on the difficulty Lincoln had in siting the current landfill. Johanns has a valid concern. But he and others who share his reluc tance over the proposal need to take a closer look at its possible benefits. Granted, choosing the spot for the next landfill will not be easy. The NIMBY — Not In My Back Yard — syndrome, as it is called by environ mentalists and politicians, is what makes locating unpopular but neces sary construction projects near large populations difficult. It happens with everything from landfills to street lights. Johanns referred to a Lincoln ordi nance that prohibits the dumping of trash from outside Lancaster County in the Lincoln landfill. The ordinance is designed to keep Lincoln taxpayers from paying for other people’s trash. Johanns evidently didn’t think about the suggestion that regions outlined in the plan could pass multiple-city bonds to help finance it. One possible benefit of the pro posal is the location of a materials recovery center in conjunction with the landfill in Lincoln. Because the statewide plan em phasizes the importance of develop ing markets for rccyclablcs, a materi als recovery center, whether run by the local government or by a busi ness, could mean more jobs, business growth, potentially increased reve nue for local government, and in .1 _ i •__r : UICaMllg Ul^ Uiv^idiUJ ui muuju; available locally. Currently the plan is in its early stages. It still must go through the writing of another draft and more public meetings, as well as potential battles in the Legislature and local governments. Still, it has a lot to offer. Its em phasis on protecting groundwater, one of Nebraska’s most important natural resources, makes it well worth inves tigating. Dragging our feet on it this early in the process would be a griev ous mistake. 7>ank is a junior Knglish and art major and a Daily Nebraskan columnist. LINDA KAY MORGAN Apathy allows spread of violence This summer, I heard about a shooting that left an Omaha youth grasping in vain for his life — a life that was snatched away from him for apologizing, for using the manners that his parents instilled in him. When he was shot, Darin Sherrod was a goal-oriented 20-year-old seek ing a future in higher education at Iowa Western Community College. Now, he rests in Forest Lawns cemetery. What happened? Why was his life taken away for no apparent reason? These and other questions still wan der in the minds of many people, especially his parents and family. It was shortly after midnight. Sh errod was driving home, with his girl friend trailing closely. He came upon several other young men who were just hanging around. A few of them were blocking traffic, but Sherrod tried to ease by without stir ring things up. Unfortunately, as he passed one of the cars, he grazed it with his. The young men who were just hanging around got upset. inerroa got out oi ms car 10 apolo gize, and he was attacked. When he finally got away, he ran toward his Girlfriend’s car and was shot in the ack. Within seconds, his life was gone. Not long after Sherrod’s death, a young man was badly beaten after he parked his car in his driveway near Omaha's Miller Park. That week, a woman was dragged for more than a mile after she left a grocery store. All these people had nothing in common except that they were vic tims of violence. The media made the dragging of the woman and the beating of the young man out to be the most violent crimes of the summer. In fact, these people were able to sec their alleged assailants put in jail. Although a sus pect in Sherrod’s shooting also has been arrested, all that Darin saw was Color and race are not the, issues. The. issue is that it’s time to help one another. We are not prone to helping each other at an\ fiven time, but why should, m. he. sa inclined to shut our eyes la reality until it hhs us in. the CaeeZ his life taken without fair warning. Sherrod was black. The other vic tims were white. But, to borrow a phrase from the movie “New Jack City,” “It’s not a black thing or white thing, it’s a death thing.” Color and race arc not the issues. The issue is that it’s time to help one another. We arc not prone to helping each other at any given lime, but why should we be so inclined to shut our eyes to reality until it hits us in the face? It’s senseless to just wait until someone destroys your community when you have ample amount of lime to do something about it first. It’s your neighborhood. Why should you let individuals you grew up with and the children you bore run it? We have all heard the saying "not my child.” But what happens when it becomes your child? What happens when things start to go wrong in your backyard? Shouldn’t you have taken the initiative to do something about it long before the problem reached your hedges? I question the judgment of those who don’t seem to care what happens to someone clse’s neighborhood until it spills over into their own. I don’t believe it is everyone’s responsibility to combat other people’s problems, but I do think that each additional hand could aid in the de struction or saving of a community. Over the past few years I have watched reluctantly as some Omaha youths destroyed people’s homes and lives. But it wasn’t until the disease spread into the lives of people outside low-income housing that someone wanted to see the problem resolved. What people fail to realize is that once the disease spreads, it is hard to cure. It has been said that once a state sneezes, its cold is contagious and the other stales tend to catch it. Omaha’s problems came from a different state, but we must now deal with them in Nebraska. Many young people have lallcn victim to drugs and gangs. Whether it was by choice or by demand, they have destroyed thcircnvironmcnland the disease continues to spread. Don’t wait until you become the victim before you want to see justice prevail. The longer you wait to sec that something is taken care of, the longer it has the opportunity to spread. Everyone wants to rant and rave about the freedom of choice we have in America, but no one chooses to speak out until there is no other choice. We must speak now or forever hold our peace, because if we hold it for ever, we will find ourselves, as well as our loved ones, resting in peace. Linda Kay Morgan is a sophomore broadcasting and advertising m^jor and a Daily Nebraskan columnist. ENJOY A NIGHT 1 ON THE- TOWN WITHOUT ALL THE H | RUmriG AROOfiD! 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