Ropes course teaches lessons in courage
ERIN REITZ it a ttnior
theater performance
major and a Daily
Nebraskan columnist.
Men. Women. Harnesses. What
do these three things have in com
mon? More than you know, my
friend. More than you know.
I am referring, of course, to the
always challenging ieam-buiiding
festivities known as the ropes course.
What did YOU think I was talking
about?
If you are not familiar with the
ropes course, I shall do you the honor
of an explanation. A ropes course, or
the Big R.C. as I shall refer to it from
this point on (because doesn’t that
just sound so cool?!), is a series of
mildly to hugely challenging activi
ties completed by your team or by you
and you alone.
Well, it’s not really just you - your
team is supposed to be a part of it. I
think I may have missed that in the
instruction section. Whoops.
Since the only way you could
truly know what goes on during one
of these things is to actually go
through one, I will try my best to
magically transport you through my
writing. Stop laughing!
The following is an average
sequence of a day on the Big R.C.
Your group is coerced into arising
in the wee hours of the morning and
meeting with smiles on your faces.
Since smiling is impossible at 10:00
a.m., you are allowed (by some cam
pus organizations) to come with a
crabby face.
The facilitators at whatever camp
you are going to will, however, threat
en to use a medieval torture device on
you if you don’t show up with a smile.
Some victims have informed me
of the unexpected fun involved, but
I’d strongly recommend siding with
“The Man” on this one.
Side note: Before you get there,
you’d also better coat your epidermis
with some form of bug repellent. If
you don’t, you’ll most likely lose a
limb within 23.7 seconds to rabid
mosquitoes. No one in any of my
groups has had to deal with the horror
of mosquito-induced amputation, but
you never know.
When you arrive at your camp
ground of choice, you will be led far
into the densest Nebraskan wilder
ness ever known to civilized life. You
may even begin to feel as if you’ve
wandered into some bizarre, alien
place such as Iowa.
Don’t break into a cold sweat at
inis point - you are not in Iowa! Just
keep reminding yourself of that, and
it will all be OK, at least for awhile.
Your way-cooler-than-you’ll
ever-be facilitators will first lead you
in some form of stretching exercises
to warm up those tired collegiate bod
ies. On one of the last courses I par
ticipated in, our facilitator told us to
pretend we were in a giant peanut but
ter jar to get our bods all nicely
stretched.
(I am still not quite sure what this
meant or what it had to do with warm
ing up my pulled gluteus maximus
muscle, but I am working on it. I must
admit that I was having too much fun
watching student leaders shake their
butts around in the air to really worry
about it, anyway.)
After the stretching, you will
commence a series of running, dodg
ing, diving, screaming and frolicking
ground-based games, which were
invented solely to make you sweat as
much as your body is able. This will
make you and the rest of your group
stink worse than most New York cabs.
There is no way around this.
Side note: The sweat will cause
your bug repellent to slide right off
your body, making you a virtual mag
net for every creature with the ability
to bite or sting within a 6,000-mile
radius. There is also no way around
this.
After the frolicking (which may
sometimes involve a stuffed lobster
and/or rubber chickens - don’t ask),
your group will start Low Ropes
activities. This is the part of the Big
R.C. that involves various climbing,
lifting, balancing and falling (on
other people, naturally) activities.
Side note: If your group has any
incompetent members (such as
myself), it is not advisable that you do
anything backwards and/or with your
eyes closed. Don’t ask. Just trust me.
These activities can be very fun
and rewarding. They can make you
feel like an important part of your
group, unless you drop someone, in
which case you’ll feel like crap for th§
rest of the day. There is no way around
this, either.
Once you’re feeling all pumped
up and ready to do the really exciting
stuff, you’ll sit down and eat lunch.
This will inevitably lead to much
more bug biting and gnawing (of your
food, that is). It also becomes very
easy at this time (if you happen to be
me) to lose whatever momentum you
had built up to attack the High Ropes.
The High Ropes is a series of
wires and ropes connected by trees or
poles suspended approximately
30 feet off the ground. r
This, as you are likely
aware, is really high.
You must put on
a helmet 2.
and are ^
sufficiently
strapped into a very
flattering harness so
you have (practically)
no chance of falling
to your doom.
If you have
any sort of fear
regarding, and
these are clini
cal terms,
“losing your
balance in
high places”
or “losing
your
lunch in
high
places,” or if you just happen to be a
“chicken” or a “weenie” (like me), you
may choose not to participate in this
segment of the Big R.C.
The problem with this is as fol
lows: Before you begin, the way
cooler-than-you’ll-ever-be facilita
tors will educate you about some
thing called “Challenge by Choice.”
This means that if you are a
“chicken” or a “weenie,” you do not
have to do anything. They will assure
you that no one will pressure you to
do any activity you don’t want to do.
Upon informing those around me
of my fear of heights during a recent
15ig R.C, I secluded myself to the
“weenie-chicken” picnic table and
was left alone - for the most part.
One of the facilitators, who hon
estly was an incredibly nice gal, kept
hinting that “we’d be completely har
nessed in” and “there’d only be a min
imal chance of biting it” in hopes that
we’d succumb and try it out.
Everyone
else
and I
left at
the “weenie-chicken” table to rot in
my own embarrassment.
Oy.
If you choose not to attempt the
high ropes (or another contraption
referred to as “the Power Pole” which
is a different story altogether), you
most likely will be kicking yourself
for many weeks (like me). But, like
others before us, and I know that
you’re out there, all we need is anoth
er chance, and we’ll do it. Maybe two
more chances. Okay, three. Forget it.
If you get the opportunity to uo
tbs Big R.C, my advice is this: Do it,
and have faith in those harnesses. 1
know I missed out, but I’m trying to
remember that I am no less of a per
son because I am a “chicken-weenie.”
Just like any Dther struggle in life,
it’s important to remember the words
of H.I. in the movie “Raising
Arizona” - “I’m okay, you’re okay,
and that there’s what it is.”
H.I., you’re damn skippy.
GRAHAM EVAN JOHNSON
is a graduate student in
German and environmen
tal social studies.
Today, I was going to talk about
automobile fatalities, but a more
pressing issue came up, namely, the
debate for governor, and our govern
ment structure as a whole in the
USA
I’m sure everybody watched the
debate on Friday night that was
broadcast from Grand Island, because
I know foe deep interest foe Nebraska
community has in how their money is
spent statewide and by what laws they
must abide.
It was evident how important this
debate was to the Lincoln Journal
Star; because in Saturday’s paper foe
debate coverage received a minimal
side-column on the front page, under
foe leading story, which was a conver
sation about Corahusker football.
Anyway, foe first thing I continue
to have a problem with is foe winner
take-all dualist structure of foe U.S.
government.
I don t like Mike
Voting for Johanns in gubernatorial race is an ignorant decision
No matter who tells you different,
the government in the United States is
not a democracy. It is a plutocracy
that is funded by big business lobbies
(“plutocracy” means “government by
the wealthy”).
Because of the winner-take-all,
dualist system, the members elected
to our government’s legislative and
executive branch are insufficient in
number and issue concern to ade
quately represent and benefit the
extreme variations of income levels,
ethnicities and situations of people in
the United States.
How fair is it to give only the per
son or party who receives the most
votes a representative seat at the deci
sion making table? This is not a board
game! The winners and losers in
these matters also affect the liveli
hood of the many people they are rep
resenting.
Until the United States adopts a
democratic procedure that models
proportional representation, the
country will continue to be run by
those that have the money and make
the deals, rather than the people resid
ing here.
With a winner-take-all system, if
a candidate loses, then the public they
represent also loses.
This is very undemocratic.
We do need less government to
obtain a form of bureaucratic effi
ciency. But we need more delegates to
better represent the concerns of a
large, diverse population, who can
work towards maximizing the stan
dard of health, safety and living for
everyone.
Isn’t that what a democracy is? A
government of the people, by die people
and for the people? A democracy is not a
government run by corporate conglom
erates and developers that do not proper
ly heed the concerns of die public.
An example of this type of gov
ernment is the German federal parlia
ment. The Bundestag has about 660
members from six or seven parties
representing the needs of only 60 mil
lion people.
However, the U.S. federal parlia
ment contains only 535 members
from only two parties who attempt to
represent the needs of a very diverse
250-million-person population.
It is clear what is fairer and what
better represents the concerns of the
people.
In a proportionally representative
government, members are selected by
the percentage their party receives
alter a vote. Candidates run individu
ally on a party platform in the order of
their influence and position within '
the party ranks.
When the votes are counted, the
candidates are sent according to their
parties’ vote percentage.
For example, let’s say there are six
parties and each party has 10 dele
gates.
After the vote, the Greens receive
30 percent and send three delegates,
the Social Democrats and the
Libertarians both receive 20 percent
and send two delegates each, and the
Democrats, Republicans and Ross
Perot’s group receive 10 percent and
send one delegate.
In the United States’ winner-take
all system, the Greens would send all
10 delegates and eliminate the inter
ests of the other parties which repre
sent 70 percent of the people.
See how undemocratic this is?
One may ask how this affects
issue gridlock and voter turnout, two
very important questions.
First of all, a legislative body that
has more interests represented is
bound to find that those interests con
flict more often.
But one advantage is that big
business lobbies would have less
influence and the public would have
more, thus facilitating fairer and
healthier policy-making.
Furthermore, this type of propor
tional election and government increas
es voter turnout, because the voters
know their vote really does matter and
counts toward fair representation.
This would seem to be pertinent
considering only 60 percent of
Nebraska voted in the 1996 general
election, compared to Germany’s 81
percent voter turnout last Sunday.
The Nebraska unicameral would
be perfect to pursue this type of gov
ernment.
So I find it a bit silly that there are
only two parties, and only two candi
dates running for governor. But that is
how executive branch campaigns
work in the United States.
Bill Hoppner definitely proves he
is worthy for office through his
diverse interests for the people. He
has been focusing on the importance
of young adults in the voting process,
whether they vote for him or not.
Johanns, on the other hand, would
rather support the building of an ele
vated highway over Wilderness Park
and industrializing the area around
that park than worry about the exis
tence of that park, the deep concerns
of its neighbors and the impending
100 year flood plain they inhabit.
Johanns seems to prefer a govern
ment in which the only players are
himself, the Chamber of Commerce
and the developers that fund the City
Council members’ elections.
Johanns also supports legalizing
concealed weapons that would usher in
an American Revolutionary style vigi
lantism. States with this kind of law
have seen increases in murder rates.
So if Johanns supports the igno
rant urbanizing in flood plain and
wildlife areas, sees more value in
concrete than agricultural land and
would rather have people arm them
selves than work toward improving
the roots of criminal activity, then
what is he going to do to the entire
state?
Vote for Bill Hoppner, because if
we only have two candidates, then
Hoppner is certainly the better choice
in November.
