Opinion NelJraskan Editorial Board University of Nebraska-Lincoln Chris llopfensperger..Editor, 472-1766 Dionne Searcey... . Opinion Page Editor Kris Karnopp. . .Managing Editor Alan Phelps...Wire Editor Wendy Navralil. . . ... ... . ..Writing Coach Stacey McKenzie.Senior Reporter Jeremy Fitzpatrick...Columnist __ __J Dual careers UNL steps in to help partners find jobs The University of Nebraska-Lincoln has reached the level of modem society by implementing a program that allows for the best of both worlds. UNL’s dual career program helps partners of prospective faculty find a job at UNL or in Lincoln. The program became official UNL policy July 14. But it came years after it was needed. — One can only wonder how many top-notch employees, namely women, were lost to other universities more in touch with the modem working world. More than half of the women in the United States arc in the labor force. Many professionals arc married to other professionals. uuai career iamincs aren i a new irenu. auen iamincs nav9£.N • Books tell truth about Columbus n °w> r°w y°ur B°at< §W Gently Down the Stream; Merrily, Merrily, Merrily, Merrily, Life is but a Dream. I wonder if this song could have been brought over by those coura geous voyagers of the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria; those brave and timid souls, who under the great Chris topher Columbus, set sail across the deep, dark ocean to set foot on vast new undiscovered lands. Christopher Columbus is a true hero without whom America would be an entirely different place. 1 used to love Christo pher Columbus Day in grade school. Actually, one of my favorite epi sodes of “The Brady Bunch” centered on Greg filming his family in a rendition of the first Thanksgiving for his history project. All that great TV sitcom fodder about how the Indians and Pilgrims sat down and ate huge turkeys to gether. I used to take such pride in my grade school art class projects: my pilgrim hats, my Pintas, my “hand” made Turkeys and especially mycof fcc-can Indian drums. History and I grew together quite nicely through the ages just like a faded pair of Levis fits snuggly around your thighs. My first A in college was in my freshman honors history course. It wasn’t until my junior and senior years in modem fiction classes that I finally came to know the truth about a voyage 500 years ago. There is a very brilliant §gid talented author who was highlighted by the professor who taught these two English courses. The author was Jamaica Kincaid who penned such novels and stories as “Annie John,” “Girl” and “Lucy.” Kincaid is a native of Antigua, an island in the West Indies, as are her main characters. # She writes coming-of-agc stories. In “Lucy," the main character of the story writes a particularly powerful passage about defacing the picture of Christopher Columbus in her history book. Part of Lucy’s growing up in cludes the refutation of the standards and ideals imposed on indigenous people by the white majority. It was in our discussion of Lucy that I realized the horrible truth about Christopher Columbus and what hap pened in 1492. The childhood hero became part of an ugly, skewed pic ture of power, rac i sm and dec i mation. So, as I reflect on our upcoming celebration of Columbus Day on Monday, it is with disdain and dis gust. I think the celebration of Colum bus Day is paradigmatic of air the subtle “isms” we have running ram pant through our society — racism, sexism, antisemitism, etc. Of course, many people will tell you how far we’ve come as a society, that we no longer discriminate or deny access to opportunity to minorities. How blind and ignorant they arc! Sometimes I wish I had a lime capsule to go back to the 1960s or even to the 1860s to see just how bad it was for minorities. Some days I really think I would rather have been the totally repressed housewife of the 1900s than thesemi rcpressed-but-cvcryone-thinks-I have-the-same-opportunity-pre-med student of 1992. I just can’t help but feel that overt sexism would have been better than trying to fight covert sexism that is almost impossible to directly, empiri cally quantify, much less justify to members of the majority. Wc, as Americans, pretend wc are so progressive in our attempts at muliiculluralism and the inclusion of minorities in our education process. Do you think a country trying to im bue multicultural education would purposely, systematically and overtly attempt to promote minority aware ness by presenting Christopher Co lumbus as a hero? Our cducatorsfWcn’t staling the facts, namely in the form of shocking statistics such as: In 1620,10 million to 20 million Indians inhabited the United States. In 1900,250,000 Indi ans inhabited the United States, most of whom were confined to reserva tions. Do you think the vocabulary word for next week in elementary schools could be “genocide” instead of “pil grim?” This is not an education sys tem wc are so anxiously willing to put upon our young students; instead, it is system ol perpetuation and prolifera tion of ignorance and racism. And it is these little things, like Columbus Day, that matter. As if this brainwashing of our chil dren is not enough, adults are just as willing a participant in these subtle dynamics of racism. What government allows this “tra dition” of racism to continue in lieu of the hard facts after 500 years? Do wc need a holiday that badly? Why is it that Philip Glass’ dance piece, “The Voyage,” a tribute to Christopher Columbus and exploration, is appear ing in 20() U.S. cities and stars such bankable artists as Twyla Tharp and Mikhail Barishnakov? You know, there is a reason why Indians arc also referred to as Native Americans. Perhaps it is because THEY LIVED HERE FIRST! And how did our majority-status ancestors treat them? We hunted the Indians like animals,and if thatdidn’l work, we pushed them onto their own self-contained barren lands to live amidst the extremities of Mother Na ture and the cruellies of human na ture. I realize this is not easy to stomach. I realize I am presenting counter intuitive ideas to the basic, patriotic, non-biased themes most Americans have been raised on. But this is the only way to confront and stymie rac ism by re-evaluation. Don’t take it for granted that terms like freshman or non-traditional stu dent are the best descriptions for people in such groups, that just be cause you don’t yell out hateful ob scenities to persons of a different race that you, therefore, are not racist, and please don’t let history’s ability to mix perception with reality deter you from finding out the real truth about the holidays you celebrate. Do something different Monday. Don’t celebrate Columbus Day be cause someone said you had to. If you’ve thought about it and still want to celebrate Columbus Day, be my guest. But what I hope is that you take an alternate route to celebration. .... ■ . 1 Write your congrcsspcrson a letter saying how our stale should follow South Dakota’s precedent by not cel ebrating Columbus Day. Read “The Red Convertible” by Louise Erdrich, or, better yet, struggle through N. Scott Momaday’s brilliant “The Ancient Child.” Rent “Dances with Wolves” one more time. Gain insight into Native American living. Educate yourself. Read and absorb a different culture. Denounce the hatred and perpetuation of racism for us all today, for our children to morrow and for our country. With re-evaluation and education, Monday and every day ensuing, we can be better Americans who accept our sometimes sordid past to con struct a more harmonious and proud future. Krnisse is a senior pre-mod major and a Daily Nebraskan columnist.