Opinion
Nebraskan
Editorial Board
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Chris Hopfensperger.Editor, 472-1766
Jeremy Fitzpatrick.Opinion Page Editor
Alan Phelps.. .Managing Editor
Brian Shellito ... .. Cartoonist
Susie Arth. .Senior Reporter
Kim Spurlock. Diversions Editor
Sam Kepfield.,.Columnist
Domestic truth
Sacrifices necessary to make changes
UT et us begin with energy and hope, with faith and
| j discipline, and let us work until our work is done,”
President Clinton said in his inaugural address Wednes
day.
They arc good words. But whether they will be more than mere
words is up to the people of the United States as well as their new
president.
America, which has been
asleep on domestic issues
during the last 12 years of
Republican administrations,
now has the opportunity to
wake up to its severe domestic
challenges and do something
about them.
v^iimuii ciccicu uu
the theme of change, and his
inauguration represents a
significant shift in American
leadership. He is the first
member of his generation
elected president and the first
- Scott Maurer/DN modem president whose life
was not shaped by World War 11.
His strengths lie in domestic, not foreign, policy. He is as
much of a Washington outsider as George Bush was part of the
establishment.
In that, Ginton’s presidency could represent a fundamental
change in American society. It could, as Clinton has so often said,
mean change.
But as Clinton acknowledged in his address, that change cannot
be brought about by the president and Congress alone. The
American people must be willing to make the sacrifices necessary
to move the United Slates forward.
“We know we have to face hard truths and lake strong steps,”
Clinton said. “But we have not done so. Instead we have drifted.”
With a new leader and without divided government for the first
time in 12 years, Americans have the chance to stop drifting. The
United States can move on the domestic challenges it has ignored
for loo long.
tmangc obviously is not going to be an easy road. Already,
Clinton has come under fire for failing to meet and waffling on
his many campaign promises. But America chose a path, and the
voters chose Clinton to lead them away from another Republican
administration and the problems that have cropped up in the last
12 years.
Those problems cannot be solved effortlessly by Clinton or
anyone else. Everyone must be willing to work harder and be
prepared to sacrifice if we arc going to really achieve change.
The ceremony of Clinton’s installation as president was
impressive, but the real decisions of whether America will move
forward will be made in the homes of American citizens, not in
the White House or the Congress.
When the inauguration speech and ceremony arc but a memory,
hard work will remain. If Americans really want change, they
must be willing to accept that work and see it through to the end.
As Clinton said, “We have heard the trumpets. We have
changed the guard. And now — each in our own way, and with
God’s help — we must answer the call.”
Staff editorials represent the official policy of the Fall 1992 Daily Nebraskan. Policy is set by
the Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board. Editorials do not necessarily reflect the views of the
university, its employees, the students or the NU Board of Regents. Editorial columns represent
the opinion of the author. The regents publish the Daily Nebraskan. They establish the UNL
Publications Board to supervise the daily production of the paper. According to policy set by
the regents, responsibility for the editorial content of the newspaper lies solely in the hands of
its students.
The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief letters to the editor from all readei s and interested others.
Letters will be sekxxed for publication on the basis of clarity, originality, timeliness and space
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Nebraskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 R St., Lincoln, Neb. 68588-0448.
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A _ TWS UTTLE TALK,
School painter does real work
Watching performance artist
Denny Dent in action Tucs
day in the Nebraska Union,
willfully splaueringand throwing paint
in a showy attempt to produce art, I
was reminded of another painter, Bob
Beahr, by sheer contrast.
Bob does not paint canvases; he
paints within the realm of reality;
I worked alongside him this sum
mer in my role as a temporary worker/
participant in his scene.
Bob paints the interiors and exteri
ors of Lincoln Public School build
ings for a living. His unsigned work is
now on exhibit in — actually on —
many Lincoln schools.
Bob’s last name, Beahr, as in griz
zly bear, comes close to capturing his
essence. He is as solid, earthy, self
reliant and practical as a grizzly bear
might be.
His physical presence is also solid
and confident, w ith his brown, slightly
graying, hair and mustache,and strong
arms that jut out from his stout frame.
Bob seems slow to anger, but I
would not want to be the one to rile
him up.
As Bob says, he is not an “artiste.”
He docs not aim for the highfalutin
self-expression, but the more practi
cal, though no less important, self
satisfaction of a job well done.
"Of course, the customer has to be
satisfied with it, too,” he says.
If one wants to see Bob the painter
in action, you have to go to the work
site. Bob and his painting crew arc
currently at East High, painting the
interiors. “Just about got ‘er done.”
Hey Bob, have you ever tried art?
“Can’t say as I ever have.”
Just as Denny Dent is an artist and
only an observer to the real world of
work, Bob is a worker and only an
observer to the art scene. “Some paint
ings I like. Other paintings... 1 could
!_Tl
Just as Denny
Dent is an artist
and only an ob
server to the real
world of work, Bob
is a worker and
only an observer
to the art scene.
stand there all day and not figure it
out.”
Bob stands as an underappreciated
painter in comparison to his more
glorified, more egoistic brother with a
brush — the artist, or “artiste.”
While the artist Denny Dent freely
slops all ovdr the place searching for
elusive existential meaning and giv
ing a new emphasis to the utility of
drop cloths, Bob and his white-panted
fellow workers arc remarkably neat
and clean for working — truly work
ing — with the medium of paint.
I was amazed this summer at Bob’s
understated facility with paint. At least
initially, I as a temporary worker
looked closer in appearance to the
free-flowing performance artist than
the astute professional painter.
Denny Dent is a self-proclaimed,
self-advertised “two-fisted” painter
with up to three brushes in each hand
at a time. Or he may decide, “what the
hell,” and dip both his hands in the
paint bucket.
By contrast. Bob Bcahr goes along
his workaday productive life just fine
with one brush at a time: Purdy is his
brand.
The working man is naturally fa
tigued after a day of working his craft,
but he is nonetheless satisfied and at
peace with himself and his paint. He
does a good job, if you will take care
to notice.
He appreciates the occasional com
pliment that comes his way.
And he’ll go at it day in and day
out. He has a routine, and the routine
has him.
As for plain philosophy for living
a life, Bob tells me about the business
card he got from an old-timer in the
trade when he was first starting out,
after he got through with his duty in
Vietnam. Painting is a craft that is
passed from generation to generation
of painters. “Unless they liked you,
they wouldn’t show you the tricks, the
shortcuts.”
He carries the minialurc document
in his wallet to this day, which seems
to reflect for him the frustration as
well as the transcendence of the work
ing man:
"To my critics,
“When I am in a sober mood, I
worry, work and think.
“When I am in a drunken mood, 1
gamble, screw and drink.
“And when my moods arc over,
and my lime has come to pass, 1 hope
they bury me face up, so the world can
kiss my ...”
And so goes the working man.
You’ve got to at least respect him lor
what he is.
“As long as you do your best.
It’s been good talking with you,
Bob.
“No problem."
Burgei’js a Junior philosophy major and
a Dally Nebraskan columnist.
4Right On’
Regarding Wendy Mou’s article,
“Music stores staffed by snobs” (DN,
Jan. 18,1993):
Right On!
Finally someone willing to tackle
this burning issue. The music-store
snobs in their Butihole Surfers T
shirts that make character judgments
about anyone buying anything main
stream need a kick in the butt. Many
is the time that I — a long-haired,
“alternative” looking kind of guy —
have bought something like Madonna
or Guns n’ Roses and been asked,
“You’re actually buying that?” by
someone so caught up in their politi
cally correct musical genre that they
haven’t the foggiest what anything
else even sounds like.
Want your own personal revenge
on these people? Pick any artist in the
Top 10 and ask how his or her new
album compares with his or her previ
ous work. That is the Achilles’ heel of
these people — They’ve never heard
the stuff and will usually admit it. I
tried this technique when I was buy
ing Motley Cruc’s “Doctor Feelgood”
album and the guy looked confused,
then admitted that he had never heard
the album even though it had been the
No. 1 album in America for weeks.
And as for lhal "slender prairie
flower” Wendy Moil: Damn fine
writer! She can lake solace in the I act
that Del Amitri’s vocalist/songwritcr
Justin Currie — while he may be no
Paul Westcrburg — is generally re
garded by critics as one of the best
lyricists working the pop field today.
I must differ with Mott, however, on
one small point: I find the Twisters
staff to be the least judgmental of
Lincoln’s record stores.
Thomas Irvin
former UNL student
Lincoln