--- CHRIS HALLIGAN
Earth needs action — now
Never had I seen such squaller.
It was horrible!
The water was dark brown
with tires and garbage floating around.
The streets were clogged with blow
ing papers and abandoned Styrofoam
insulation. The air conditioners were
pumping out CFCs at an alarming
rate. The cars were belching carbon
monox idc out of their tailpipes, creat
ing adi/./ying stench and a gray misty
cloud over the city.
I guess what ama/ed me the most
was that when I moved to Seattle 10
years ago, it was sparkling clean. What
happened?
Well, Seattle isn’t the only town in
America that is showing tell-tale signs
of the gluttonous decades. Virtually
every metropolis in America has trans
formed dramatically in the last 20
years.
This poses to me a rather disturb
ing question: If this much damage
can be done in a minuscule 20 years,
what will the next 20 years bring?
As many of us know, Earth Day
will be April 26, and with it will come
the typical Ecology Now rhetoric of
how much the Earth has been de
stroyed — a tapestry of whining with
one major thread missing: effective
solutions.
Indeed, we will hear about the
74,(XX) acres of forest that are bull
dozed or burned off the Earth every*
day and the desecration of the rain
forests. We w ill be told of entire
ecosystems that arc destroyed daily
and how' the cure for cancer already
may have been lost.
Of course, global warming will be
mentioned. The evils of fossil fuels
will be addressed, along with the
chlorofluorocarbons that are blamed
for the huge ozone hole.
And we can’t forget the thousands
of tons of resources going upin smoke
with the ram forests. This very well
could be the healed topic for this
year’s Earth Day advocates.
We w ill hear the harrowing stories
of how w e are poisoned every day by
the DDT we export toother countries
and hidden radioactive waste that
causes cancer and makes large areas
While Earth Dav en
vironmentalists plan
parades and Nirvana
gkeLafree showM
Central Park, the.
pollution will con
tinue and attitude!
will remain un
changed,
of land uninhabitable.
We will be told of the 158 million
tons of municipal solid waste we create
a year. Pictures will be painted of
huge, slinking, stagnant, disease-in
fested mountains of solid wkstc that
soon will be spilling into our back
yards.
acki rain, a travesty at meting anoui
9,(XX) lakes ami 60,(XX) miles of streams
in 34 states, will be a focal point this
year. It will be mentioned that it is not
a wonder the salmon didn’t spawn
this year. They all probably were trip
ping on the acid rain.
These are simply a few of the
horrific examples of how our planet is
going down the lubes. While Earth
Day environmentalists plan parades
and Nirvana gives a free show in
Central Park, the pollution will con
tinue and altitudes will remain un
changed.
The reason is simple: You can’t
teach an old dog new tricks.
Earth Day began in 1970. Now, 20
years later, we lace pollution prob
lems that make the ones in 1970 look
like child's play. Society has labeled
Earth Day advocates as any other
liberal group out to save the world:
eccentric and unrealistic.
Unfortunately, as our bizarre
weather patterns suggest, this prob
lem has gotten to the point where we
actually are changing nature. The Earth
is reacting to our misuse, and what
has been done cannot be reversed. So
what next?
Earth Day certainly is not the an
swer, but it is a tool to help. Our
parents (ironically, the founders of
Earth Day) and grandparents arc lost
causes. They still will buy air condi
tioners and huge Chcvrolcts and throw
away resources as they have for years.
The solution lies not in “asking” them
to recycle and ride their bikes, but in
our generation and the push for radi
cal changes in industry.
Industry must produce alternatives
very, very soon. Fuels must be cleaner.
CFCs immediately must be banned.
Western nations must unite to stop
the blind desecration of Third World
resources that affect us all.
City, slate and federal policies must
be adopted to force people to recycle,
bum less fuel and change their habits
to provide a cleaner environment. The
only people who will initiate these
tactics are ourselves, the students —
the open-minded, unspoiled hope of
society that isn’t afraid of change.
I guess that we all must evaluate
our priorities a bit more. We must ask
ourselves what is more important.
While the world whines about things
that really represent nothing more
than selfish whims, the Earth is going
to hell in a handbasket.
It once was said that people would
not react until it came to a crisis
situation. Well, the hole in the o/one
is bigger than we thought. People arc
dying from pollutant-caused cancers
at alarming rates. Spring buds arc
dead on their branches because of the
inconsistent weather patterns.
What else docs the world need to
see?
Halligan is a junior political science ma
jor and a Daily Nebraskan columnist.
Campus Advance issue ‘scary’
I am writing this letter in response
to the “Campus Advance” article I
read in the DN on March 16 (“Pos
sible cult group resum ing activities”).
Early last semester, I started to get
involved with the group, but let me
stress that I was never a member.
When I first started attending some of
their things, I was totally unaware of
the group’s intentions. They seemed
very friendly, and I enjoyed that. I
thought I might possibly have found a
group I liked.
At the first Bible study, I started to
get doubtful. The church feels that in
order to be saved, you have to be
baptized into their church. I was
brought up in a Christian home, and
felt a little leery of what they were
saying. But they were so friendly and
convincing 1 started to accept what
they said.
From then on, things started get
ting more confusing. I learned that
the church didn’t recognize any other
churches as being "saved.” and they
even remarked that all the other church
groups on campus were “false and
hypocritical.” They believed that they
were the only true “disciples” of Christ,
because nobody else lived by the Bible
as they did.
One night, a member of the group
told me to take 24 hours, fast, and
decide if I wanted to give my life to
Christ. I was to meet her the next day
at the Union. When I saw her the next
day, I told her that I have a great love
and a heart for God, but that I wasn’t
ready to join a church. She told me
that I was being selfish, prideful and
that the devil was working with me.
She told me that in order to be a true
Christian, I had to be baptized into
their church. Once members are bap
tized, they are part of the church.
Once you are a part of the r church,
you are dominated by thci and arc
expected to live by their i les. You
are not to date anyone but > c people
in the church, because th are the
only true Christians. You e to ad
here to your discipler’s a> ice, and
they even tell you that if you have to
hate your family in order to be with
them, then do so. .
Since that night, I have stayed far
away from that group. I have become
involved with a church in Lincoln,
and am over that horrible experience.
1 stress this: Be very careful if you
are approached by a member of the
Campus Advance group. With them
you have no independence. It’scither
their way or no way, and as I stated,
every other church or group to them is
considered to be “false prophets” by
their standards. Last year, the group
was not allowed to be an established
group on campus. That should say
something. Members of that group
will tell you that they “arc only suf
fering from persecution, just like Jesus
did.” But that is not the ease. Yes, all
Christians have to suffer from perse
cutions on Earth at one lime or an
other, but this is just their excuse to
gel people to believe them. If the only
people who get to heaven arc going to
be the people in the Campus Advance
group, heaven must be a very small
place!
Inc group also expects you to make
life-long commitments in a two-week
span, and that is not right. In my
opinion, it is very easy to gel involved
in a cult, but very hard to gel out. That
final night when I knew in my heart
that group was wrong, I fell much
better about myself. I was suffering
from confusion, feelings of guilt, and
fear. God doesn’t create all that in a
person if something is right. I realize
now, looking back, how scary the
whole thing was. The reason why I
am writing this letter is not to argue
with the Campus Advance group, or
to start trouble in any way. I just want
to share my experiences with others,
so maybe I can help people who m ighl
be getting involved to really think
things over. It’s a very scary issue.
Karen B. Kuchar
junior
special education and elementary
education
Marijuana research ignored
While Sean Green, without
obvious research, has pointed out
that the Public Health Service be
lieves that pot smoke hurts your
lungs (“111 cruelly denied mari
juana,” DN, March 16), he also
forgot to say that UCLA has given
pot a clean bill of health.
That means no brain damage.
Sean, check it out. Try some re
search.
Blake Chance
senior
horticulture science
. v !
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