EDITOR Erin Gibson OPINION EDITOR Cliff Hicks EDITORIAL BOARD Nancy Christensen Brad Davis Sam McKewon Jeff Randall Bret Schulte Quotes OF THE WEEK “I was just plain not prepared for what happened Friday.” Randy Thomas, American Indian rights representative, on the recent dis covery of more remains in Bessey Hall “I can confirm bones were found in the room overlooked in previous clear ances.” Karl Reinhard, anthropology profes sor, on the bones finding “Nothing’s surprising anymore. I’m becoming immune to the disrespect.” Collette Mast, Northern Cheyenne tribe member, on the Bessey Hall discov ery _ “There’s a real culture of not being confrontational (in the Midwest).” Jeff Raz, artist-in-residence, in reac tion to some of the work he s done in diver sity workshops at UNL “We looked like we look on the road sometimes.” 1 Paul Sanderford, NU women s basket ball coach, on the team s loss to Baylor “Typically, a person will look at something hanging on the waU for 10 or 20 seconds. I try to force them into stay ing longer, keeping them as a prisoner of sorts.” Artist Tad Lauritzen-Wright “Right now, you’re talking to a coach that’s pretty ticked off.” Roy Williams, Kansas men’s basketball coach, on NU s upset defeat of Kansas “Our kids never quit. We didn’t win pretty, but we found a way to win.” Danny Nee, NU men’s basketball coach, on the Huskers ’defeat of KU “We know the female athlete is not fragile, and will not buckle under pres sure.” Christy Johnson, a two-time Nebraska volleyball All-American “It’s normally a pretty safe sport - unless planes come crashing in.” Dan Williams, golf professional at Highlands Golf Course, on golfing and the crash of a Bonanza plane “We need to teach children more than reading, writing and arithmetic. We need to teach them how to be healthy.” Jocelyn Elders, former U.S. surgeon general, during a speech in Omaha “We’re trying to go back, pick up the pieces and make amends as soon as pos sible.” Michael Consbruck, Interfraternity Council president, in reaction to Kara Bliven’s fall from a Chi Phi Fraternity window “Even the sky is crying.” Jordanian television announcer on the death of King Hussein from lymphatic cancer Letter Policy ■'<3*"“-' - ..IX ,i . * opinions of The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief ' the Spring 1999 Daily Nebraskan. They letters to the editor and guest columns, do not necessarily reflect the views of the but does not guarantee their publication. University of Nebraska-Lincoln, its The Daily Nebraskan retains the right to employees, its student body or the edit or reject any material submitted. University of Nebraska Board of Regents. Submitted material becomes property of A column is solely the opinion of its author, the Daily Nebraskan and cannot be The Board of Regents serves as publisher returned. Anonymous submissions will of the Daily Nebraskan; policy is set by not be published. Those who submit the Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board. The letters must identify themselves by name, UNL Publications Board, established by year in school, major and/or group the regents, supervises the production affiliation, if any. of the paper. According to policy set by Submit material to: Daily Nebraskan, 34 the regents, responsibility for the editorial Nebraska Union, 1400 R St. Lincoln, content of the newspaper lies solely in NE. 68588-0448. E-mail: the hands of its student employees. letters@unlinfo.unl.edu. Duffys VIEW DN LETTERS Tag it all So Mr. Harder,... why are you so afraid of the truth? What makes you so uneasy about knowing what really goes on around you? In your column, “Tagging Along” (Wed., Feb. 10), you attacked a group of people who are attempting to make consumers more aware of what it is they may be pur chasing. By being educated on the history of a product, people can then make a more intelligent and conscious deci sion about what to purchase and what not to. I thought choice was what you were all about. Using terms like “wackos” and “liberal hooligans” to describe indi viduals who are advocating responsi ble use of one’s choice contradicts many of your past columns. It scares me how disconnected we as humans have become from the big ger picture of things, how out of touch we are with those things that sustain us. Is this what you’re advocating? Ignorance? I hope not, because the dangers related to this are too great to ignore. In the case of furs and meat, why shouldn’t people be made more aware of where they come from, and how the animals were treated? I think your idea about tagging all “meat” with “not only how it was killed, but every detail associated with the process” is a wonderful idea. What is so wrong with knowing exactly how your food came to be on your plate? Don’t you want to know what was put into your food, and what you may be putting into your body? As citizens of the United States, we probably suffer from this discon nectedness more than most other peo ple in the world. I mean, what do you think the majority of the responses would be if you asked the average urban resident where her or his food comes from. I bet you most people would sim ply answer “the supermarket.” k With a hint or two you could prob- V ably goad them into saying “a 1 famj^a fcctorjO’,^ “ar^ch.” f If you pressed mem for even ^ more details though, it would probably be a . if waste of your ^ I fS time, because most people don’t real ly know. Do they care? It’s hard to say. In this day and age of rural crisis and hardships, the gap between urban and rural folks has resulted in misun derstanding and a lack of empathy about what people in the country are going through. , You may read about it in the paper and wonder why all the fuss, but until you meet the farmers who provide us with the bulk of our food you will probably never understand. That is why something like Lincoln’s sum mer Farmer’s Market is so important. I also believe that we should adopt your idea to label every consumer good with its history. I for one think you should know the name of the young woman who sewed your Nike tennis shoes togeth er and under what conditions she did so. I think you should know what effects the extraction of fossil fuels from your automobile have on the sur rounding ecosystem. And finally, I think you should know what some person in a white lab coat did to the corn that is in your morning bowl of Cornflakes. Or are you just afraid of what an educated public might do! So J.J., what are you going to choose? To live ignorantly, not know ing where things come from or what impacts they have had on other people or the world around you? Or, to take control of your life by making conscious,x intelligent deci sions that mini mize ne"a t i v e impacts? Remember it all comes down to connections. Everything is interconnected. As for your excuse about how “the Bible tells us we have dominion over the animals of the Earth,” I thought we had all matured beyond that attitude. Tony White junior environmental sociology Animal kindness I am responding to J.J. Harder’s column titled “Tagging along.” It seems that in Mr. Harder’s world, cru elty to animals is an acceptable prac tice, and those who do not find such cruelty acceptable are flaming “wack _ _ os. He cites the Bible and infers that humans have dominion over animals. Hence in his small mind, that means that those who do what they want with animals are right, and the cheesy ani mal lovers are wrong. I challenge Mr. Harder to study the issue in greater depth to learn what is really happening out there. To satisfy the materialistic greed preva lent in our society, humans are going way beyond what biblical writers envisioned when they made the infer ence of our superiority. Listen, watch and learn Mr. Harder, for there are many lessons in life and sometimes those lessons are taught by our animal friends. Ron Kriha Lincoln resident Matt Haney/DN