Kid at heart
Youthful fun adds enjoyment to adult life
—
ERIN REITZ is a senior
theater performance
major and a Daily
Nebraskan columnist
One of my friends seems to be
having major issues with the concept
of aging. He’s actually developed a
sort of complex about it.
It always begins with the same
scenario: We’re playing the computer
trivia game “You Don’t Know Jack,”
and a biology question will come up.
He will proceed to answer incorrectly
and immediately scream the follow
ing:
“It’s been nine years since I’ve
taken biology. Do you realize that?
NINE YEARS! GOD, I’M SO
OLD!”
I’ve been trying to get him some
help, but he claims he’s too young to
be having a midlife crisis. Poor fel
low.
Watching my friend wig out on a
biweekly basis got me thinking. I’m
starting to feel old, too.
I first noticed it when I was a
sophomore at this fme institution. I
had borrowed a “Seventeen” maga
zine from a friend (only for the pur
pose of cutting it up, mind you).
Upon opening it, I immediately aged
by about 20 years.
I saw girls who looked like they
were 13 wearing more sparkly blue
makeup than I donned in my last play.
I saw obnoxious clothing I wouldn’t
be caught dead wearing on Halloween
being showcased on these little
nymphs. I saw advice columns on
how to French kiss someone.
I saw what I used to read reli
giously every month, and it made me
slap myliand to the side of my head
in disbelief.
I felt diat I had jumped into me
realm of an entirely different culture
within me last few years. Is that what
getting old is supposed to feel like?
Since I couldn’t be totally sure, I
decided I needed an expert opinion.
I called my mom.
In an attempt not to be entirely
rude, I didn’t say, “So Ma, at what
point in your long, long life did you
finally own up to me fact that you’re
almost as old as Methuselah?” No,
no, no, I am a sweet child, every par
ent’s dream. I said, “So Mom, how
did you know that you were getting
old?”
She, in her infinite wisdom,
responded with me following: I never
did.
You never did? That’s not accept
able. I need more. You’re not exactly a
spring chicken anymore, you know.
(OK, so I didn’t really say me
“spring chicken” bit, but it is my phi-,
losophy that you should never, never
waste an opportunity to use me cliche
“spring chicken.”)
UK, let me think about this.
Hmmm. Oh man, there are like, three
different signs.
Such as....?
One: You stgrtfalling asleep in
front of the TV on a regular basis.
Two: Your joints start hurting when
you do things you ’re used to, like
dancingor walking: (Insert mom-ish
chuckle here.) Three: you can’t
remember things you were just about
to say. You start calling your kids by
the dog’s name and, uh, give me a
minute. I wanted to say something
else.
What?
(This is the kicker, folks.) I don’t
know. Ask me later.
I was quite grateful for some
words of wisdom from Mom, but
those things don’t really apply to
those of us who are spring chickens.
For me, one genuine sign of aging
is that your life seems to become a
series of circles. Patterns, you know,
like those funky crop circles in
England.
Things you considered crazy cool
when you were 8 suddenly become
cool again when you’re 20. Stuff like
collecting action figures, having
slumber parties and going trick-or
treating are wildly fhn again.
I can’t name die number of guys I
know who would throw themselves
into a pit of fire before they allowed
their Star Wars toys to be subjected to
the flames. “Girly” sleep-overs are
something we wish for more often.
Granted, the slumber parties have
evolved (usually, if you’re lucky) to
include booze and Kevin Smith
flicks, and the Halloween costumes
have gotten a lot more suggestive, but
the point is that the principles remain
the same.
Getting older causes you to revert
back into things you enjoyed when
you were younger.
In my youthful wisdom, I have
stumbled upon a theory that can (sort
of) explain this mystery. It is as fol
lows:
When you get past the whole I m
too smolderingly cool for the rest of
the world” phase in junior high, high
school and the first year of college,
something inside of you is awak
ened.
It’s that tiling that you’d
been missing for 10 years that
helped you not take life all too
seriously, that let you live
every day for itself and not
constantly worry about what
would happen in five, 10 or 50
years.
It’s that thing that allowed
you to just let go.
I don’t know if it has a
name or what started it I’m
just hoping it won’t end when
I leave college. I really don’t
want it to.
For the first time ip a fohg \
time, lean truly say that life is
fun. I love the people I’m lucky a
enough to be friends with, and I ^
love tiie dorky things we do. We *
act like idiots on a regular basis
because we can. .$
As I get older, will I lose that “fun
vibe” that it took me so long to get
back?
If I continue on the cycle that I’ve
been on, I can expect it to fade out
when I’mabout 30. Bummer.
I’m not too worried, though. My
parents still have it. My older sister
still has it I’m ODing on it. It’s not
leaving anytime soon.
Yeah, I do feel like a grandma
sometimes when I see
tiny little freshmen
walking around
campus,
but I have my “You Don’t Know
Jack” support group and others my
age to help me through those tough
times. We feel each other’s pain, but
we revel in our rediscovered youthful
frivolity!
(My high school creative writing
teacher would have been so proud of
that one.)'
So for now, my fresh, young,
vibrant readers, live out loud. Make
the most of every day, and most
importantly ... uh ... hang on. What
was I saying?
I don’t
know. Ask
me later.
MattHaney/DN WW* %
Political perversion
Undemocratic ways were founded in our heritage
GRAHAM EVAN JOHNSON
is a graduate student in
German and environmental
social studies and a Daily
Nebraskan columnist
Pid you vote Tuesday?
I don’t really know if voting mat
ters. I mean, obviously it’s important
to voice your opinion, but your opin
ion often is muffled by the sound of
casH registers.
Because when the real voices of
the public come to speak at forums
like the Lincoln/Lancaster City
Council, the voices often are offered
as a token response, and this doesn’t
mask the deal-making behind closed
doors.
Think this is all made up? Think
again.
These hasty deals between the
politicians and private developers
often are made before the concerns
of affected individuals are heard,
before the results of objective
experts are considered and before -
delicate situations are thoroughly
reviewed.
This needs to stop immediately,
or we will face the consequences of
an unmanageable city that is rife
with environmental, economic and
social problems.
What do all of these things have
in common? It’s called the perver
sion of democracy, in which power
ful players directly or indirectly
guide political activity, which, in
turn, greatly affects the public’s well
being.
This perversion of democracy
has been around since the time of
George Washington.
Washington and his elitist
Federalists set forth to deconstruct
and discredit the opposing group, the
Federal Republicans.
The Federal Republicans were
made up of small-farm owners,
shopkeepers and laborers: the com
mon people.
The Federal Republicans
believed in the decency of the com
mon man and in a participatory
democracy. They also strove for the
greater protection of individual
rights and viewed the elites as cor
rupt.
Washington and his elitist
cronies were rich property owners
and merchants of the Northeast and
Atlantic states. They saw themselves
and other elites as the ruling class
and the best fit to govem.Others
were simply to be governed.
.Washington pursued his attacks
with mud-slinging propaganda and
chastised this opposing pluralist
group, calling diem “Anti
Federalists.”
Then these self-serving capital
ists strangled the opposing Federal
Republicans into submission with
physical and economic coercion.
Finally, the small-farm owners,
shopkeepers and laborers gave into
the heavy-handed elites and were
lucky to even have the Bill of Rights
considered.
Washington and these elite capi
talists had no thought of considering
human rights and freedoms as inte
gral to the Constitution. It was the
Federal Republicans who pleaded for
this addition.
I got all of the above-mentioned
facts from my U.S. Political Science
textbook “American Government,”
by O’Connor and Sabato.
Unfortunately, not much has
changed over the past 200 years. The
economic elites still ravage the land
and our political system with a self
serving economic purpose and per
petuate this plutocratic rule.
inis country is not run oy me
public, nor guided by the public
interest ns the capitalists and politi
cians would like you to think.
It is run by these economic elites
who use the United States’ political
system as an instrument for their
benefit and as a structure for individ
ual economic pursuit
And even in ouj nice, small town
of Lincoln, where everything seems
peachy, the capitalist elites dominate
the political arena with self-serving
interests. They disregard the long
term well-being of the public and its
land.
My example is Wilderness Park.
Are the concerns of the public
interest really being heard? If they
were, would our representatives
allow developmental planning to
occur before numerous environmen
tal impact studies could be assessed?
No.
And that’s just my point They
haven’t considered those public con
cerns. If they had, they would have
put a moratorium on all developmen
tal planning until thorough, objective
studies could be completed.
Only after zoning changes, pur
sued by capitalist developers, were
already set did the City Council
decide to develop a token process.
However, the Lincoln/Lancaster
Mediation Service is eliciting the
same concerns voiced almost one
year ago in the City Council cham
bers.
So now, after the damage is about
to be done, the City Council is pur
suing an environmental impact
study. But who is in charge of this
study?
Fortunately, the community
study is being pursued by our own
Allan Williams, chair of the sociolo
gy department and professor of
Environmental Sociology.
But the rest of the studies are bla
tantly biased.
All of the information you are
about to read is taken from the
Lincoln/Lancaster County
Mediation Service’s information
packet about this Wilderness Park.
Sub-Area Study or from the Friends
of Wilderness Park.
The transportation study is being
pursued by The Lincoln/Lancaster
Chamber of Commerce, whose
members are selected by Mayor
Mike Johanns. The Chamber of
, Commerce hiis vested interests in
developing an elevated-highway that
will connect to the underused West
Bypass.
The study also is being directed
by Olsson Associates, a private
developing firm.
How do I know this? Because a
member from the Chamber of
Commerce came and spoke at a
Friends of Wilderness Park meeting
Oct. 14 about this proposal.
The ecosystem study also is
being pursued fairly ignorantly.
There is not an objective EPA
regional specialist to assist in the
study, and mammals aren’t consid
ered integral component of the
park’s dynamics. Mammals, for
God’s sake!
1 his is a dangerous way to
approach city development.
The people directing these
important studies have conflicting
interests, which hinders objectivity.
How could this be done better?
All of the studies must consist of
objective and experienced specialists
in the areas of concern.
I hope the working group that
will meet over the next nine months
will come to this conclusion and pur
sue working with these types of indi
viduals.
' Otherwise, guess who pays die
millions of dollars in repairs when
imminent floods destroy neighbor
hoods after careless development
proceeds as planned?
The taxpayers.
Us.
