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.
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