—
Trace family tree at dinner table
Do you know where you come
from?
I don’t mean that you arc
from Omaha or Ainsworth or New
York City or something like that. I
know your ancestors?
Keeping track of your
family tree is known as
genealogy—defined as
the science or study of
family descent.
However much sci
ence there is to it, I like
to practice genealogy at
Thanksgiving and
Christmas and family gatherings. I
simply ask my grandmother and other
relatives about the people I am related
to who arc now long gone.
I can’t say I am related to George
Washington like a kid I went to grade
school always did, but I’ve learned
some pretty interesting things.
One of my ancestors — my
grandmother’s grandfather —was
killed by his partner in the California
gold rush shortly after they discov
ered gold.
I don’t know how much gold was
discovered, but if it was a lot and my
great-great grandfather had lived and
invested it well, I might be rich today,
spending the last of a family fortune.
Such is genealogy. Somewhere in
the United States there is probably
someone who, by researching family
trees, will find their great-greatgrand
father was a very rich gold miner.
If any of the gold money is left, I
hope it’s enjoyed.
In any event, it is awfully interest
ing to think someone I am thatclosc to
by relation, if not by time, was in
volved in the California gold rush.
Thai’s what drives a lot of geneal
ogy, I suppose. Knowing where you
come from gives you a better sense of
who you are.
It is more than a curiosity in some
countries.
In England, Prince Charles and his
family get to live in castles and be
catered to all their lives simply be
cause of who their ancestors were. Or
in India, not so long ago, the life you
would lead was determined by what
glass you were bom into. Luckily,
we don’t have that kind of system in
the United States.
Although it doesn’t happen as of
ten as we’d like to think, you can be
from the very humblest background
and still become president, or a great
writer or whatever you might want.
But we haven’t lost our interest in
keeping track of where wecome from,
even if we don’t take it as seriously as
some people do. We practice geneal
ogy innocently, hoping we might find
we are descended from somebody
pretty special, but not worried about it
if we aren’t.
Almost everybody, really, is inter
ested in genealogy. When someone
tells you that they arc one-half En
glish, two-thirds Yiddish and one
third Mcsopatamian, that’s geneal
ogy, science and all. The details may
not be filled in, but the framework is
there.
And we, as amateur scientists, use
the information. I am mostly Irish, so
I have a temper. An Italian friend likes
spaghetti. English people like tea.
My grade school classmate
who descended from George /
Washington must be a pretty j
important person. A
What could be easier than \
that? >
This Christmas, I will gel an
other chance to be a genealogist,
questioning my grandmother
about great aunts and grandfa
thers and the like.
The day will be important in
another way as well. My
grandfather’s grandparents left
Ireland for America
✓>
on Christmas day in 1872.
If heredity is everything, like some
scientists think, then I am probably a
lot like them. I have their genes and
characteristics, at least. If my an
cestors had been horse thieves or bank
robbers, I probably wouldn’t have
written this column. Deep down, I
think many of us suspect who we
come from says quite a bit about who
we are.
That would certainly explain the
people that take so much pride in
being in the family tree of a famous
person. Do you know who your an
cestors are? Do you know where you
come from?
By practicing the innocent and in
exact science of genealogy at holi
days and during time at the dinner
table, you can find out a good deal.
You don’t even need to be good at
science, as I am desperately not.
You might even find you arc re
lated to George Washington.
Fitzpatrick is a junior political science
major, a sports and news reporter and a
Daily Nebraskan columnist.
i—Tf/mm-rrjrz.-* -.m
David Badders/DN
Columnist examines many issues
don’t have any one single issue
to discuss this week.
— Instead I will present a veritable
cornucopia of issues examined.
•First and foremost— Elvis is alive
and well. He is working part time at a
small wedding chapel in Las Vegas.
He looks good and is doing fine.
John Lennon was mur
I dcred Dec. 8, 1980. On
jP ^1 this, the 12th anniver
f I sary of his death, a few
I & IB things strike me.
j| I remain appalled, and
iK 1 m surc hc would as
K well, that people per
[3UH verted his anthem,“Give
Peace a Chance” during
the Persian Gulf war. Echoes of “give
war a chance” still resound. This is
exactly the mentality that embroiled
us in the Vietnam conflict in the first
place.
In 12 years it might have been
reasonable to expect the attitudes of
Americans would have changed. Af
ter all, we went from the 1950s and its
Cold-War hysteria to the optimism of
the Kennedy ’60s to the paranoia of
the Nixon ’70s.
Wcchanged, but it was to the greed
of the Reagan ’80s. We can hope the
’90s will be better — I once might
have said it could hardly be worse, but
I’ve ltcamcd.
Many members of our generation
remember exactly where they were
when they heard Lennon was dead,
much like the generation before re
membered the deaths of the Kennedys.
Our loss is infinite — we will never
know.
To totally change topics, the deci
sion by the Commencement Commit
tee to remove the invocation and bene
diction from graduation was wise.
No person should have lo be sub
jected to another’s religion, even
though any rational person should
welcome the opportunity for the ex
posure.
By having a Christian prayer, you
arc forcing a significant number of
people with non-Christian back
grounds to listen to a ceremony that
may counter their beliefs. That is to
say nothing of the agnostics in the
crowd.
The expected movement by cer
tain students to circulate a petition to
include prayer is misguided at best
and not representative of the student
population at worst. 1 have to wonder
how many international students, the
students most likely to be of other
religious backgrounds, will be given
the opportunity lo sign, or not sign,
the petition.
The University of Nebraska is a
state institution. We accept state
money and should abide by the rules,
both explicit and unwritten, of the
state and the nation.
The SuprcmcCourl has ruled prayer
at public high school graduations un
constitutional. The reasonable argu
ment was made by the committee that
this would apply to stale-funded uni
versities as well. Nebraska was one of
the few to still follow the practice in
this area: Iowa State, Kansas and
Kansas State have already made the
change.
It is probably more noble to wel
come the opportunity lo experience a
new religion. However, religions have
tended lo be the least accepting of
new and outside ideas. You doubt
that? Look at the number of wars
foughtover religion. It is simply stun
ning.
We cannot really expect people to
show religious tolerance when, for
the most part, there has been little
shown in the past.
In a closely related issue: our neigh
bor to the east. Iowa Coach Hayden
Fry was recently elected president of
the College Football Coaches. He has
already indicated he will fight to the
death horrible college presidents and
their horrible ideas.
It seems college presidents want
athletic scholarships based on need,
not on the ability to throw a football
— or not to, in Nebraska’s case. This
would, Fry said, be the beginning of
the end of college athletics.
I don’t know about you, but I just
don’t follow that. Imagine the all
world-high-school quarterback with
a 32 ACT score and lawyer parents
who takes a football scholarship away
from the inner-city kid with less,
though still impressive, athletic skills.
Under the proposed plan, the poorer
student would get the scholarship,
and the rich one would still go to
school. Now the poor one has no
options other than to stay on the streets.
Seems fair.
It would be the end to dominating
athletic programs. No more Miami
football being a power every year. At
least this is now a possibility. As
college presidents pointed out, this
may actually return the amateur to
college athletics.
Anyway, enough of my wander
ing. The bottom line is that there is no
lack of issues facing us today. Take
your pick, right or left, they’re out
there. Good luck.
Heckman is a graduate student in politi
cal science and a Daily Nebraskan columnist.
ATTENTION
mJ JC/1 ▼ Jit
o a Fit t a nri? c
vJ" JHL/tuLJ U i JE/o
The DEADLINE for the return of the yellow I
%% Commencement Attendance Form is:
December 8,1992
Return it to
SERVICE COUNTER B
i 107 Administration BuildingM
Work at the Daily Nebraskan.
Learn the Forbidden
Dance!*
The Daily Nebraskan is now accepting appli
cations for artists, copy editors, photogra
phers and reporters for the news, sports and
arts & entertainment sections for the spring
staff. Pick up an application and sign up for
an interview at the DN office, 34 Nebraska
Union.
* Not everyone will be allowed to officially perform the forbidden dance. But if
you want to try on your own time, go ahead. UNL does not discriminate in its
academic, admissions or employment programs and abides by all Federal
regulations pertaining to the same. * _
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