Americans owe much to fallen
I 1 omorrow is Veterans Day.
M Time to relied on the men and
women who served and died
lor their country.
Who were they?
People a lot like us. Many of those
who*served and died in our nation’s
wars were our age.
The mighty American
armies we read about in
grade school were made
up of people just like the
ones you would find on
a college campus. If you
want to imagine what
these soldiers w ere like,
take a look at your
lricnds — or in the mir
ror.
What did they serve and die for?
For us. For you and me.
We often lake them for granted
today, but our basic freedoms — to
speak and write freely, to have our
human rights protected — did not
come cheaply. The veterans we honor
tomorrow paid for them with their
service and often their lives.
We would not be a able to enjoy
our freedoms today if pas^genera
tions hadn’t been brave enough to
stand up lor them when they were
threatened.
Now, with the Cold War over, it
seems unlikely that our generation
will have to sacrifice in the way so
many bclorc us have. It seems un
likely we will have to die in large
numbers to protect our freedoms.
So people our ageespccially should
take time tomorrow to remember those
people who died so we could be free
and so we would not have to light.
We owe something to those veter
ans who had their lives cut short de
fending America. We owe it to them
to make sure the country they died to
protect in war doesn’t come apart in
peace times.
Even though our generation may
not have to go to war and many of us
die to protect our freedoms, we can
sti 11 serve in other ways to honor those
who sacrificed before us.
On Veteran’s £)ay, we should think
about past generations of Americans
who gave their lives so we could live
in freedom today.
They died for America and for us.
They d icd to protect people they didn T
even know.
They gave their lives for this coun
try. What will we give? •:*
Because if we let this country de
cline, if we let our domestic problems
continue to worsen, then we will be
saying that the sacrifice of those who
died to let us have a free life meant
little.
Past generations of Americans have
faced great challenges and adversar
ies and defeated them so we could live
bur lives safely.
Now our generation has its chal
lenges and adversaries as well.
Our challenge is not from without,
but from within. Can we improve this
country that has been given to us?Can
we make it work?
Our new cnem ics arc not overseas,
but on our street corners. Our new
adversaries arc homelessness and hun
ger, unemployment and poverty, ig
norance and AIDS.
We can start doing something about
these domestic problems right away.
Our new president will lead us. We
elected him because he said he wanted
change.
But Bill Clinton can’t do it all. The
real test is what we arc willing to do.
Presidents can make the speeches
and push us forward, but we must do
the work. Or refuse to do it.
We will decide whether we have
real change in America. Ourcountry’s
severe domestic challenges will only
improve if you and I arc willing to
work and sacrifice to solve them.
I lived in Washington, D.C., two
summers ago, and the thing I rcmcm.
ber most about the city, even more
than the While House or the Con
gress, was Arlington National Cem
etery.
A garden of stone, it has been
called.
There arc just rows and rows of
tombstones — each representing a
person who fought for America. The
rows seem to go on forever, blending
in with the green grass and tall trees.
The graves of John and Robert
Kennedy are there, tributes to a lime
when sacrifice and service were val
ued and rewarded.
An honor guard paces before the
tomb of the unknown soldier with
machine-like precision.
Arlington is a monument of sacri
fice, representing what people were
willing to give up to protect their
freedom and their country.
I hope the monument of our gen
eration will be a country where people
do not have to live in our streets,
whcrcevcry American has the ability
to fulfill his or her potential, where all
our citizens arc treated equally and
fairly.
That might seem like a dream, but
it can be a reality if we arc willing to.
work and sacrifice for it.
All generations before us have been
up to the challenges they faced. Will
we be up to ours?
Free of a real threat of war, we arc
the first generation in many years that
hasthcabilily to focus its energies and
talents on its domestic problems.
We have the ability and opportu
nity to make our country truly great.
We have the ability to make America
a great country for all our citizens.
Past generations of Americans
served and sometimes died so we
could have the America we have to
day. What we do with our country
now will be the legacy of our genera
tion.
We could offer no higher tribute to
the men and women we honor on
Veterans Day than to make that legacy
a great one.
Fitzpatrick is a junior political science
major, a news and sports reporter and a
Daily Nebraskan Columnist.
Election offers change of pace
While I was pleased with the
election results Nov. 3 —
surprise — and am actually
glad to be done with the whole thing,
I cannot help myself from reviewing
one last time 1992’s election.
Obviously the most
visible result was the Bill
| I Clinton-AI Gore vic
lory. Now the Demo
I pjl crats have the opportu
S|mJ| nity to pul their money
where their mouths arc.
tj It should prove intercsl
K9IHH ing lo see ihc results we
gel from Washington,
D.C.
No longer can governmeni inac
tivity be blamed on gridlock. And no
longer can government blame grid lock
for not gelling anything done.
Although I am optimistic, a wait
and-see attitude may be wise. Clinton
proved himself adept at creating and
holding together an election coali
tion. The real lest will be if he can now
remove himself from the numerous
special interest groups and lead the
United States.
Vice President-elect Gore has the
opportunity to influcnccsomc much
needed environmental direction. Say
what you will, and interpret the data
however you please, but the bottom
line is that humanity is ruining the
earth. We are ruining the earth only in
respect to our continued existence
upon this planet. The Earth will sur
vive with or without humanity.
What we need are intelligent, far
sighted, economically sound environ
mental programs. These are whatGorc
proposes, and I hope they will be
implemented.
The Year of the Woman.
While women made definite in
roads this year, the overall results
were disappointing.
Carol Moscly Brown from Illinois
will be the first African-American
woman in the Senate. She will be
3
joined by Dianne Fcinsicin and Bar
bara Boxer from California and Patty
Murray, the self-styled “mom in ten
nis shoes” from Washington, D.C.
This brings the total number of
women in the Senate to six. With
women casting 54 percent of the vote
this year, this number seems woefully
inadequate.
Other women were not so success
ful. The man perhaps most respon
sible for thefyear of the woman, Arlcn
Specter, defeated Lynn Ycakcl. Spec
ter was heavily criticized — properly
so — for his treatment of Anita Hill
during the Clarence Thomas confir
mation hearings.
Although the voters of Pennsylva
nia were convinced Specter’s trcal
mentof Hill was an anomaly, I remain
unconvinced. Of course, I am also
keenly disappointed in our own Sen.
James Exon who was among the first
Democrats to support Thomas after
the hearings ended.
Women in general were not so
fortunate next door in Iowa. I’m not
really sure why the voters were so
fearful of giving women ex pi ic it equal
ity in the Iowa stale constitution by
adding the word “women” after “men”
in the phrase “all men arc created
equal.’’
To those who argue that women
already do have equality, I would like
to point out the 70 cents on every
dollar that women earn compared U)
men, not to mention the glass ceiling
keeping women out of the lop man
agement positions.
An extensive and grossly inaccu
rate anti-ER A movement centered on
Pal Robertson and Phyllis Schally.
For those of you not familiar with
Schafly, she is a major player in the
national anti-choice movement and
now has increased her scope to in
clude being anti-women. What busi
ness her and Robertson had in Iowa is
unclear.
That movement targeted elderly
voters in a scare campaign that in
cluded Robertson’s now infamous
lesbian and witchcraft quote. The ir
rationality of these anti-choice, anti
women, just plain anti-people never
ceases to ama/c and frighten.
On a brighter note, the voters of
Oregon soundly defeated an initiative
that would have called homosexual
ity perverse and required th is view be
taught in public schools. The ridicu
lous elosed-mindedness of this initia
tive guaranteed its defeat— this time.
Even so, Colorado passed a mea
sure that reversed the progress made
thus far by nullifying anti-gay bias
laws already on the books.
Individual rights did not fair well
in the Midwest.
All 14 stales with term limits on
their ballots passed them. I still main
tain that Nebraska made a mistake. It
is wishful thinking that there will be a
national movement for term limits.
As more states pass term limits,
those remaining states will have more
and more to gain by not having them.
Their senators and rcprcscnlativcswill
rapidly gain control of the powerful
positions with catastrophic results for
term-limited slates.
Now Exon is in the running to be
the powerful committee chairman of
the Senate Armed Services Commit
tee if current chairman Sam Nunn
lakes a position in the Clinton admin
istration. That fact highlights the mis
take we made.
A curious aspect of this is that
although 70 percent of Nebraskans
voted in favor of term limits, we re
elected all three representatives. This
is like the serial killer turning himself
in, saying, “Stop me before I kill
again.”
The next four years should prove
interesting. Although I lament the
passing of excellent column material
as supplied by Bush ct al, I look
forward to being a partof these chang
ing times. So should you.
Heckman is a graduate student in politi
cal science and a Daily Nebraska editorial
columnist.
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