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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 10, 1999)
Obermever’s VIEW A EDITOR Josh Funk OPINION EDITOR Mark Baldridge EDITORIAL BOARD Lindsay Young Jessica Fargen SamuehMcKewon Cliff Hicks i--— Editorial Policy Unsigned editorials are the opinions of the Fall 1999 Daily Nebraskan. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, its employees, its student body or the University of Nebraska Board of Regents. A column is solely the opinion of its author. » The Board of Regents serves as publisher of the Daily Nebraskan; policy is set by the Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board. The UNL Publications Board, established by the regents, supervises the 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 student employees. Quotes OFTHEWEEK As I told you before, I’m ready to sit up in that chair if you’re ready to push that switch. Convicted murderer David K. Dunster, who is seeking the death penalty I found absolutely no spot where Mr. Dunster was not in touch with real ity Dr. Scott Moore, Lincoln Regional Center clinical director It was a new feeling. I have heard of satellite classes, but this is new stuff. It is exciting to be.part of history. Zarir, part of the first-ever, three-way Internet class The guns are silent. We believe this should be the end of the war in the Congo. Bazima Karaha, chief negotiator of the Rally for Democracy I have no idea what’s going on. I’ve been trying to find out myself. Ruth Buckhalter, mother of Correll Buckhalter, missing I-back There was never a time when I went up to Coach Solich or gave him a call or a message or left any type of notifica tion with anyone that I was leaving this' team. Eric Croucht Husker quarterback, on rumors that he, too, was goingAWOL I’m a homeboy. Joseph White, professor emeritus'of the University of California and Lincoln native Typically, a cult-type realm of peo ple will be active in these activities, or carry out whatever they do here in cemeteries. Todd TerMaat, Wyuka cemetery spokesman on speculation of 9-9-99 related activities> ) The U.S. can stop this in a minute if they applied serious pressure on Indonesia. Every hour they wait is more people killed. East Timorese election observer For me, I’m not worried. But I’m staying for the little ones. Nelly Avila Abarca, preparing to face Hurricane Greg from an emergency shel ter You do not turn into tacos, and you WERE NEVER THE SAME! MegaHAL, a computer program, try ing to make sense of it all AND IN THIS ISSUE: It could go both ways. A lot of stu dents probably see it as horrible, and a lot probably say ‘Hey, he’s human.’ ASUN President Andy Schuerman on how(UNO students may react to UNO Student President Jon Shradar’s arrest for disorderly conduct at Saturday’s Maverick game in Omaha Letter Policy The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief letters to tie editor and guest columns, but does not guarantee their publication. The Daily Nebraskan retains the right to edit or reject any material submitted. Submitted material becomes property of the Daily Nebraskan and cannot be returned. Anonymous submissions will • not be published. Those who submit letters must identify themselves by name, year in school, major and/or group affiliation, if any. Submit material to: Daily Nebraskan, 20 Nebraska Union, 1400 R St. Lincoln, NE. 68588-0448. E-mail: letters@unlinfo.unl.edu. NEBRASKA’S CAPITAL Global matters Environmentally conscious solutions at our fingertips Did You Know Your food travels more than 1,300 miles from farm gate to dinner plate. Better hope that all 1,300 miles are Y2K com pliant, or there will be food shortages. ^ ducing massive amounts of com to feed the world. Feed the world?! He knows damn well that all of that com is for livestock feed. It isn’t suitable r to be ingested by humans. Anyway, what would you rather eat? A vegetable grown organically, from a local region, one that strengthens not only the mind, body and soul but also the local economy and is simply a far superior product? Or, some genetically altered, fer tilized, pesticide-ridden, tasteless piece of Filth from a massive, face less chemical company? Local Food Locally And what do they feed us here? Where is the UNL cafeteria that serves food from local farmers? We must demand that UNL sup port food businesses that produce sustainable and organic foodstuffs, which include free range, organic diet, non-hormone treated animals for meat and non-chemically treated J fruits and vegetables. It’s our money and our health. Hey, did you hear that a liberal, Kansas dairy company, Double Dutch dairy, wants to build an enclosed mega-farm for 4600 milk ing cows in Shelby, Neb.? The Lincoln Journal Star quoted a local farmer as saying that if the dairy industry in Nebraska doesn’t work for big operators, it won’t work for smaller farmers, either. Has this farmer been brain washed by th^ promise of corporate money-making schemes? Has he for gotten the methods of his ancestors? Has he been educated on the theory and practice of Associative Economics and how he will fit into a restructured, sustainable U.S. food system? Have you? What do you think is better for Nebraska? A diversified and vibrant econo my with many small farmers, treat ing the eartn and its animals ethical ly and all cooperating to produce. fresh, healthy foods? Or, a mega-corporation from Kansas that is the epitome of every thing wrong with farming today, will destroy local economies (as has hap pened with grain) and produce milk containing cancerous and birth defect-causing agents? Remember the small^qrganic farmers (like Lincoln’s own Equinox Community Supported Agriculture). They are the epitome of everything that is right with farming today! The bottom line is, government wants food production in as few hands as possible, because that would be easier to manage. It’s easier to pour on fertilizers and pesticides and radiatecrops. All for the almighty dollar. It’s funny how much people spend on the surface of the body and how little they care about its insides. You are what you eat, right? An Open Invitation As co-director of the University of Nebraska Environmental Resource Center, let me invite you to a forum today at 12:30 p.m. by the Broyhill Fountain and a bike ride at 4:30 p.m. around downtown (on the streets, of course). The discussion will center on public transportation and pedestrian and bicycling issues. Hopefully, we can find a better solution than simply sending our officers in blue to police the side walks for aggressive bicyclists. Portland, Ore., has far narrower streets than Lincoln and the same ^ type of one-way system in its down town and other busy areas, and it still has bike lanes. Can Lincoln be as progressive? Come and find out. The New York Times reported on Aug. 29, 1999, that an irate group of French farmers marked their territo ry against U.S. cultural imperialism. The group, the Union of French Farmworkers, has repeatedly unloaded dump trucks full of rotten food and manure on McDonald’s restaurants across France. Said the Union of French Farmworkers: “Globalization is cre ating absurd economic conflicts.” The aim of their protest is to “allow farmers and others to feed them selves as they think best.” Sounds logical. Guillaume Parmentier of the French Center on the United States said: “There is a growing fear of being taken over by new types of technology and a general ambiva lence toward globalization, of which McDonald’s has become a symbol.” It’s a brave new world, all right: mass-produced and mass-consumed, genetically identical global food sup ply from science fiction. From the same Times story, one of our “esteemed” (or full of hot air) representatives (Senator Richard G. Lugar, R-Indiana) seems to think that the Europeans are caught in “a kind of collective madness,” and “we don’t want that to spread to the rest of the world.” Because if it does, then the grain farmers will be in even worse condi tion than the U.S. government has already put them in. Lugar had the audacity to state, “The Europeans think they are pro tecting humanity, but we think they want to starve the rest of the world.” Be frightened of Lugar; he makes us look like a bunch of unsophisti cated ignorants. Lugar actually said that the United States has to continue pro (jrKAHAM JOHNSON is a graduate student m German, environmental and social studies and is a Daily Nebraskan columnist