!§?ace can't be used ;
as a prejudice
During all the discussions con
cerning ‘race’ relations and ‘ra
cial* unrest preceding and fol
lowing die civil unrest in Los
I Angeles the cause and therefore
iithe solution to racism has re
trained unidentified. While read
ing about civil unrest in the USA
Today (May 4th 1992) I came
H across a story in which a young
man who was arrested for looting
node a statement In which he
unknowingly and implicitly iden
ii| tif*ed the crux of the issue. He
said dial he regretted the damage
done to MS people. The context
of the story made it clear that he
Was usmg the term HIS to refer to
members of his own race. I sub
mit that it would beimpossible to
make a more racist statement and
I..
v
I
MSalt. It’s responsible
for a lot more than
seasoning your food. It can
also contribute to high blood .
pressure, a risk factor for
stroke and heart attack. It’s a
habit you can’t afford not to
shake.
American Heart
Association
WERE FIGHTING FOR
VOURUFE
Human potential is a significant resource
-
We Americans can’t buy enough books telling us
that it’s okay to be what we are.
-99 -
Where I grew up, we swam in
the irrigation canal that ran
through our fields, acouple
of hundred feet from the house. My
father raised and killed the animals, as
needed. We wore sneakers from the
grocery store and cut out the toes
when they started getting too small.
My mother fried chicken every Sun
day for dinner, the noon meal. We
smothered bread with gravy and called
it a cowboy sandwich. When were
five or six, my brother and I helped
water the com.
I am ultimately grateful for having
grown up where I carried tubes down
the com rows, dyed myself with ripe
mulberries before a swim and went to
a one-room schoolhouse. Romanti
cism is but a dimension of reality for
any life, and it has shared the colors of
my canvas with hues of denial, limi
tation and fear. My background gave
me as many obstacles to overcome as
it provided tools to revive a beaten
spirit or repair a fractured heart.
While I gained priceless insight
and unique experiences from my rela
tively isolated early life, I also learned
to deny my dreams. I learned to be
lieve that I would never be bright
enough to pursue them. I learned that
my value as a woman depended on a
husband and sons. I then learned that
I would remain unhappy as long as I
believed so much of what I had ini
tially learned.
Partially as a result of the some
times arbitrary combinations of per
sonalities which comprise families,
I’ve had to relearn many things in
order to become a happy person.
Relearning begins with some rela
tively indepth self-recognition. When
we realize that we may be responsible
for our own unhappiness, an inner
investigation begins which appears to
go on forever. We must discard those
elements of our rationale that impede
our personal growth and development;
as difficult as it sounds simple.
The personal growth gauntlet
seems to be the rule, not the excep
tion. Individuals and corporations in
vest big bucks into workshops and
seminars dealing with empowerment,
motivation, self-esteem, self-accep
tance and toleration. We Americans
can ’l buy enough books telling us that
it’s okay to be what we arc. The
common bonds of humanity include
fear and pain, as well as a desire to live
a bit beyond their perimeters. For all
of the faddish bygones and excesses
of the self-help movement, the under
lying motivation is a genuine effort to
make our lives more tolerable, even
pleasurable by learning not to ma
nipulate the world, but to control our
reactions to it
Extraordinary human potential lies
within each one of us. The fulfillment
of this potential is subject to infinite
obstacles with endless degrees of in
tensity. Where the obstacles and lim
its of human potential are extreme,
the resulting behavior is often, even
tually negative. This was evident re
cently in East Los Angeles. Despair
replaces hope for individuals who
cannot envision or believe in their
own potential. Some of them die by
their own hands.
Human potential is probably our
most violated natural resource. The
scope of human potential abuse
reaches from nationalized oppression
to the degradation of children in fami
lies. These destructive behaviors have
infested civilization throughout his
tory into the present. We now face the
management of a technologically ul
tra-advanced world with an emotional
capacity evolved to the point of wip
ing sleep from it’s eyes. Still, as we
blink and look about us, we object to
seeing human potential abused on the
basis of skin tone, or by the occur
rence of one’s place within a family.
The foundations of human poten
tial are dignity, self-respect, self-vali
dation, compassion and tolerance.
Dignity comes through trying to do
what is right, and by acknowledging
and learning from what we’ve done
wrong. Self-respect happens over
time, as we choose to do what is right
when it is the most difficult of our
choices. Self-validation means that
we may stand alone in some of our
beliefs. Compassion puts us in some
one else’s shoes and enlightens us a
bit to universal pain. Tolerance is the
mortar of these building blocks, re
straining insinuations and accusing
tongues.
Racism, sexism and violence are
definitive offenses of human poten
tial. Less obvious butcompletely com
mon are the idiosyncrasies within
families that injure us as children.
Unchecked, such injuries are taken
into relationships at all levels, per
sonal and professional. These injuries
are perpetuated by our resultant de
fensive interpretation of the world.
The cycle is broken by dealing with
the injuries, instead of reacting to
them.
The preservation of any natural
resource rests in individual responsi
bility.
When I recognized my unhappi
ness, it became clear that I was re
sponsible for the fulfillment of my
own potential. I would have to re
structure my belief system, and re
examine my interpretations. This re
quired a wildly scary departure from
the familiar into the unknown.
Fortunately, that unknown has been
populated by angels.
People have believed in me for
absolutely no apparent reason, what
soever. I have been encouraged by
people who barely know me, but do
know the value of encouragement.
People have stood by me when I’ve
been hard-pressed to leave the dark
ness of my apartment. I understand
the empowerment which accompa
nies encouragement and support.
While the responsibility for my de
velopment rests with me, peer em
powerment has been a substantial
motivational force.
Most of us carry from our back
ground the very obstacles that prevent
the fulfillment of our human poten
tial. We may also possess the tools
with which to overcome those ob
stacles. It is a necessary time in our
evolvement to regard human poten
tial as the resource that it is. We may
act by taking steps to fulfill our own
potential, as well as offer support and
encouragement to those around us
who struggle with those very same
steps. Through such positive interac
tion, we can teach ourselves what is
possible. We can affect the type of
change that allows people to over
come the socially imposed constraints
of poverty, race and gender by plant
ing the seeds of empowerment that
enable individuals to believe in their
own possibility.
M McAdams is a Don-traditional sopho
more general agriculture major and a Daily
Nebraskan columnist
/i Appearing Live ,
at Barry's Outback!
4 (235 N. 9th St) ^
3^On Relativity Records I
Opening Band:
Sideshow
— Must be 18 or over/Valid ID. Required! —
• Saturday, June 13 • Doors open at 9:00 P.M.*$3.00 Cover*
According to the critics, "Overwhelming Colorfast"
is San Francisco's hottest alternative band.
Produced by Butch Vig, "Overwhelming Colorfast"
stirs the flower of Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins
with the egg and water of Sonic Youth and L7
to create a fresh batch of tunes sure to rise.
'
