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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 5, 1996)
Lackadaisical Laziness plagues everyone, even a president 1 almost didn’t write this column. You see, I have a 10 a.m. Monday deadline, and that requires a little thought and planning over the weekend and hey, I had important stuff to do. Things like the National Broomball Championships on ESPN or attempting to knit a sweater out of discarded lint wads from the dorm dryers. My weekends are full of essential things (like figuring out exactly what those “Slushee” points were redeemable for), and writing a column just didn’t fit into my schedule. OK, so maybe I almost didn’t write this column because I was busy reorganizing my sock drawer by cottons, polyesters and cotton/ polyester blends. Maybe I almost didn’t do it because I was lazy. Yet I m not the only one. We re living in a society of people who are aimless, uncaring, shiftless and a whole bunch of other “lazy” adjectives I’m too lazy to type out. Take for example a true-life incident in Cadiz, Kentucky, in which a robber made off with $170 from a grocery store — only to discover that he had locked the keys in the getaway car. This forced him to kick in the back window and inflict enough damage that $170 probably wouldn’t pay for it. He managed to drive only 21 miles before he was apprehended. This is laziness to the utmost degree. Here we have a guy who in all likeliness carefully planned how he was going to do the robbery and paid attention to such things as the proximity of the nearest highway and whether the supermarket had any surveillance cameras. He probably made out a list of things to bring for the robbery, you know, gun, pantyhose (for his head you sickos!!!), a road map and a bogus driver ’s, license. I’m also sure that “car keys” were somewhere on this detailed list. He was probably too lazy to pay any attention to the list before getting out of the car. Kasey Kerber “We’re living in a society of people that are aimless, uncaring, shiftless and a whole hunch of other lazy’ adjectives I’m too lazy to type out. ” Or maybe he was too lazy to make a list, and that bought him a trip to Kentucky’s finest jailhouse. Regardless, this is just one example of how laziness can play a part in small matters such as writing a column or trying to get into your car before Rosco P. Coltrane and the entire police squad from the “Dukes of Hazzard” come to get you. Maybe you think that this laziness thing only happens to white trash robbers and weekendless columnists. Well, it also happens to cross-dressers disguised as leaders of the FBI. Yes, there is a vivid, true-life, but little known incident of laziness that dealt with Herbert Hoover. One day Hoover looked over a letter typed by his secretary and noticed that she had typed fairly far into the right-hand margin. He wrote the words “watch the borders” on JfegL,letter in red ink and told her bluntly, the words: “Correct and send.” Hoover’s secretary thought he had meant that the letter was “correct” and went ahead and “sent” it. Within two days, FBI agents were heavily patrolling the Canadian and Mexican “borders.” Now in this instance, who’s to say who was lazy. Maybe it was Hoover for not being more descrip tive in the way he told his secretary that the letter needed to be cor rected. Maybe it was the secretary for wondering if that was a part of a dress sticking out from the closet door instead of paying attention to what her boss was saying. Or maybe the secretary was too lazy to stay within the margins, Hoover was too lazy to tell her how to correct the letter and she was too lazy to make the corrections anyway The point is, we’re lazy too. This might not seem as if it’s dll that bad, but often, laziness can be our downfall. How? Well, let’s just look at the examples mentioned earlier. What if the cops had gotten to the robber before he had a chance to break the back window and take off? What if there had been a shoot-out, and he had been the guy shot? All because he was lazy enough not to remember L his keys... Or, what if the FBI agents closely roaming the borders had acciden tally begun an international incident (as I’m sure many of our “secret” branches of service have almost done) all because Hoover and his secretary were too lazy to communi cate. Or closer to home — what if you’re too lazy to study for your exams, fail them, fail your courses and end up robbing a grocery store of $ 170, only to lock your keys in the getaway car? One can only wonder how I could make such an intricate analysis of a robbery-gone-wrong and link it to our college lives. It certainly wasn’t because I was inspired, determined and tireless to be creative ... After all — I’ve got the Miniature Golf Championships to watch. Kerber is a freshman news-editorial major and a Daily Nebraskan columnist Public ignorance Voters confused about who’s who in politics Almost 60 percent of Americans believe that poverty is on the rise among the elderly, and half of those believe the federal government has contributed to the problem. Fifty eight percent think we spend more on foreign aid than on Medicare, and the same number said “no” when asked whether the House of Representatives had passed a plan to balance the budget. These are some of the findings of a Washington Post, Harvard Univer sity, Kaiser Family Foundation survey of the American electorate. In fact, poverty has been falling among the elderly for many years, in part a result of federal programs like Medicare and Social Security. We spend between 12 and 13 times as much on Medicare as we do on foreign aid — and the trajectory of future spending for foreign aid is flat whereas that for Medicare is so steep that it threatens to bankrupt all of us. As for the balanced budget — after the government shutdown and weeks and weeks of the standoff with President Clinton. But then, 40 percent do not even know that Republicans now control Congress, and fully half think the Democrats are the more conserva tive of the two parties or aren’t sure. Only 24 percent could correctly name both U.S. senators from their states, and only a third could name their member of Congress. There is simply no way to put a cheerful face on these results. For a self-governing nation, this level of ignorance and misinformation is . chilling. Ignorant people are vulnerable people — vulnerable to manipulation and demagoguery. And ignorant people are superstitious people, easily persuaded to seek scapegoats for their troubles. Mona Charon “Ignorant people are vulnerable people — vulnerable to manipulation and demagoguery. And ignorant people are superstitious people, easily persuaded to seek scapegoats for their troubles. ” Ignorance has led to a kind of false sophistication among voters. Misunderstanding the nature of debates between Democrats and Republicans, they dismiss genuine policy differences as “just politics” or as “childish bickering.” The recently completed Oregon Senate race pitted a strong conservative against a true-blue liberal, yet a voter interviewed by The Washing ton Post dismissed the race as “confusing nonsense, like two little kids on a school yard.” The survey found that Americans are skeptical to the point of mistrust about their government — but that they expect great things of it at the same time. In 1964,75 percent of Americans trusted the government to do the right thing all or most of the time. Today, only 25 percent feel that way. Eighty percent say the government spends tax dollars on the wrong things, and 55 percent think taxes are too high. Yet a majority also blames government for failing to create more jobs and for permitting jobs to be “exported” overseas. The mixed message of those data are: The government can’t be trusted, but why doesn’t it provide me with a job? Republicans as well as Demo crats are guilty of stimulating unrealistic expectations about the capacities of government. Demo crats have consistently promised generous programs paid for by the “rich,” and Republicans have sometimes taken too much credit for economic growth that was merely the result of getting government out of the way. But wnat lurks beneath the statistics of mistrust goes far beyond government. Americans don’t trust one another anymore either. They think people will cheat them or steal from them if given an opportunity. They are even afraid of their neighbors. It is that fear, spurred by the crime rate, that lies at the heart of the discontent, the survey discovered. Americans, after more than 40 years of overpromising by government, are practically pro grammed to blame their discontent on government. But what they are really concerned about is the breakdown of civil society — of close-knit families, stable communi ties and safe streets. (C) 1996 Creator* Syndicate, lac. fDOGBERT, DO YOU WANT TO READ THE COLICS [section? UHY SHOULD I ? I CAM LAUGH AT YOU AMY TIME <§g§\ I WAMT.. \£§r\\ See what everyone is reading. Catch Dilbert® every day in the comics. Become a UNL Spirit Squad Member! Informational Meetings at the Nebraska Union (room will be posted) Wednesday, March 6 at 7:30 pm Tuesday, March 12 at 7:30 pm Wednesday, March 27 at 7:30 pm md Cheer Demonstration and Informational Meeting (at the Schulte Fieldhouse at Memorial Stadium) Wednesday, March 13 at 6:30 pm Tuesday, March 26 at 6:30 pm Tryouts for Yell Squad and Scarlets on Saturday, April 13 GW2K INFO SESSION That’s right. Gateway 2000 is coming to the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, and we request the honor of your presence. Our company was created with the belief that honesty and teamwork could accomplish just about anything. Apparently, we were right. Because in just 10 years, we’ve become the leading PC direct marketer in the nation with S3.7 billion in annual sales. And even though we’re a high-tech company, we’re not just looking for computer people. We have openings for everyone from Engineers to Market Researchers, and from Sales to Human Resources. So, if you share our attitude, maybe you can share in our success. A representative will be available to tell you about our GW2K Internship Program and answer any questions you may have regarding Gateway 2000. Such as, why a cow for a high-tech computer company? Come to the Info Session and find out. Tuesday, March 5th Setting the pece at a slightly different pace. NebraskaUnion V—Ton'** for a fnend m tkt btuinns "• (check calendar for room location) Gateway 2000 will also be attending the MINORITY FAIR, MARCH 27th, 5-7:30 pm, NEBRASKA UNION, (check calendar for room location) For more information on Gateway 2000 job opportunities, see The Monster Board on the Internet at http://www.monster.com Gateway 2000 is an equal opportunity employer.