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Nebraska: The bland life
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Latest tourist trap plan will waste money, natural resources r
Think Nebraska. "Vbu see what?
Com.
Football.
Telemarketing.
And other boring stuff.
But_you do not see tourism. We have no
mountains. No big cities. No real significant
culture. No professional sports teams. Hell, we
get the cool movies three weeks later than most
cities do. -
This is not Maui. And you’d think we’d
know that.
But Omaha’s historian, Jean Dunbar, and
Omaha Mayor Hal Daub have foigotten this.
Hence, the proposal of Dunbar’s vision of
“Lake Nebraska.”
Clearly, Dunbar didn’t think too hard for
the name. He should have never thought of the
idea in the first place.
“Oh, I’ve been thinking about it for years -
that we desperately need a big lake,” the 74
year-old said in an Omaha World-Herald article
Saturday.
Uh-huh.
Exactly where did this desperation come
from? The lake is intended to be near the
Mahoney State Park area, where, apparently,
developers would dam up the Platte River and
form a lake behind.
It would soften the flood plain. It would
damage wildlife in the area. At one time, in the
,1960s, a dam was to be built around the same
area. Had that been done, some small towns
that are here now would have sunk.
; Such a lake would be a complete waste of
money.Yet Hal Daub is considering it. Of
there 3snot a whole lot of people taking
pis as seriously as he is.
Still, what is this notion of making the state
something it’s not? Geologically, it’s farmland.
Our state doesn’t have huge above-ground
lakes; it has aquifers. Why? Because you’re
supposed to grow stuffhere, stupid.
- This state has a continual problem with its
tourism inferiority. Of the states that surround
its, most of them have^trong tourism indus
tries, especially Colorado. Only Kansas and
Iowa share Nebraska’s lack of sex appeal. And
of those three, the Comhusker state is the ugli
est of all.
> Which is fine, as all states aren’t topo
graphically created equal. But that doesn’t stop
otir state from building yucky tourist traps that
suck money from anyone foolish enough to try
them out. And most of the tourists are
Nebraskans.
Kearney seems to be a hot spot, with that
million-dollar arch that creates accidents and
its venerable Fort Kearny, which features glass
bottom boat rides for $ 1.75.
In Neligh, one can pay $ 1 to see flour made
(never mind the gallons of gas money needed
to actually get to Neligh).
This is called, creatively enough, Neligh
Mills.
I’d rather buy an Orange Slice.
Harold Warp’s Pioneer Village in Minden
presents itself as “Nebraska’s No. 1 Attraction.”
Yes, for $7 you have the opportunity to see old
time barber shops and old cars - among the
other things that one might find in a museum
that doesn’t take four separate highways to
access.
To the trap’s credit, it has a motel because it
is so out of the way that no one will have the
energy to spend four hours finding another one.
Nature-wise, Lake McConaughy is the
largest lake in the state and a haven for booze
and wild parties, hardly a good tourist spot.
Most of the lakes in this state offer little more
than decent fishing and the occasional small
boat ride.
There’s river rafting on the Niobrara River
near Valentine, a few beautiful-spots in the
Sandhills, other reasonably picturesque spots.
But, more or less, this state is devoid of tourist
goodness outside of a few fine museums in
Omaha and Lincoln.
Which is maybe why Dunbar thinks we
actually need a Lake Nebraska. I still say no.
Tourism, really profitable tourism anyway,
is for out-of-state folks. Why gouge your in
state people7 That’s like taking money we
already have and giving it back to the state pot.
And with only one interstate (we’re one of the
few in the continental United States that does
n’t have at least two), access to most of the state
is impossible. Things might be different if the
drive through Nebraska was a thrill ride of
nature and beauty.
It is not.
So what, really, are the chances of someone
from Chicago, outside of Clark W. Griswold,
getting up to Neligh Mills? Pretty low. Seems
pointless to build a giant lake that will destroy
towns and nature for the sake of dollars that our
state will just be giving back to itself. The
upshot is that most of the people who attended
Dunbar’s vision session on Friday left unim
pressed. It just wasn’t going to work.
Especially if you give it the name Lake
Nebraska.
Shawn Ballarin/DN
Samuel McKewon is a junior news-editorial and political science major and a Daily Nebraskan
columnist ajtd sports editor.
Heartland drive
a desolate experience
There’s a low thump-thump-thump as my
Oldsmobile passes over the seams in die con
crete of the highway, and the stereo belts out
David Lowery singing, “Eurotrash girl!”
Birds turn long before they see the faded
metallic-blue behemoth rushing across the gray
expanse of nothingness.
No one else hears, though, because the car’s
passing through the middle of the void, some
where out in the expanse of the Heartland where
blood doesn’t seem to pump.
Something about the music of Cracker cap
tures this drive exactiy: there are bursts of activi
ty and excitement, but much of the intermittent
time is filled with expanses of soothing calm
ness.
Deep Nebraska is a slowly played steel guitar
and a gravel-voiced songsmith.
Despite the whine of bending guitar strings
escaping my speakers at high levels, I can’t shake
that thump-thump-thump behind the music.
I shoot a few glances off either side of Route
50, looking for something that might indicate life
off in the distance, but for the most part, I am left
wanting.
for every tractor I see that merely waits for
its owner to return, I see five bams that look as
though they haven’t seen human hands in
decades.
Like skeletons of wood still standing on
rolling hills, the boards have swollen and burst,
hay falling through cracks and gaps.
I slow down the Olds at one point to get a
better look at a house that rests only a few dozen
yards from the side of the road. The insides have
been gutted, and instead of bustling with life, it’s
nothing but empty frames - door frames, win
dow frames, a frame in a frame in a frame. '
Someone once lived here, I think to myself.
With a lean of my foot, the Olds swallows
down the gas and thrusts forward energetically,
almost as though it feared that it, too, might suf
fer the same fate.
With an exhaled breath bordering on a sigh,,
the sun begins its long walk over the horizon and
starts to give those life-giving rays to other parts
of the world.
I flick my fingers against the switch, and the
eyes of the car snap open, twin beams of light
casting paths in the darkness rapidly overtaking
us.
ror a moment, as the compact disc player is
between tracks, there’s silence - everything is
gone, from the purr of the engine to that thump
thump-thump I thought would never disappear -
and I understand what it’s like to be the only per
son for miles around.
Somewhere around Syracuse, though,
Cracker kicks back in, the feral roar of the engine
winds back up, and everything’s in motion again.
I carry a piece of solitary Nebraska with me
to this day, deep beneath my heartland, and that
voyage - the trip of endless, lifeless cornfields - -
never seems to end.
Behind my eyes, on those nights when there’s
nothing else to think of, I imagine a spiraling
black hole of maize and wonder what lies on the
other side.
I can only hope it’s not just another Conoco
fill-up joint.
— CliffHicks
Evaluaciones en la mitad del semestre
La idea deASUN mejoraria la calidad de la ensehanza
La posibilidad de que los estudi
antes evaluen a sus instructores en la
mitad del semestre, deberia ser enten
dida como un buen comienzo para
mejorar la calidad academica de
fcualquier universidad.
Mientras un estudiante toma un
promedio de quince examenes por
periodo academico, un profesor es
examinado solamente una vez al
final izar el semestre. Hay una
desproporcion injusta, pues el proce
so educativo incluye tanto al que
aprende como al que ensenq^ y en
este sentido ambos deben ser evalua
dos permanentemente para optimizar
los logros.
Indudablemente, el profesor es
parte vital en el aula de clase. Por ello
desconfio mucho de las nuevas ten
dency ias educativas que asignan al
docente un mero rol de mediador o
de simple guia. Hasta se ha llegado a
pensar en que un profesor podria
facilmente ser remplazado por un
computador o por un libro. Falso! El
estudiante necesita la presencia de
alguien que le hable, explique, ori
ente y lo lleve a la fuente del _
conocimiento; ese alguien es el pro
fesor.
Sin embargo, en la actualidad son
muy pocos los que asumen con
responsabilidad su labor de maestros;
algunos de ellos han llegado a donde
estan por simple casualidad: no
tenian mas que hacer. Son personas
con formacion en otras disciplinas,
pero no en la de ensenar. Piensan
ellos que el tener alguna experiencia
en ciertas areas del conocimiento los
faculta para enfrentar una clase con
25 6 30 estudiantes. Creen ellos que
el proceso de ensenanza se reduce a
la tiza, el borrador, la pizarra y un
libro. Se lamentan ellos de la medioc
ridad de sus estudiantes. Suponen
ellos que tienen la autoridad moral
para examinar constantemente a sus
alumnos, pero se niegan ellos a que
sus pupilos los evaluen, critiquen o
les hagan sugerencias.
Obviamente no se puede gener
alizar. Existen profesores entregados
de lleno a su ftmcion de maestros. Se
actualizan en sus conocimientos, leen
sobre pedagogia, asisten a seminarios
o conferencias sobre education, com
prenden el modo de ser y de pensar
de sus estudiantes, estan concientes
de que el proceso de ensenanza y
aprendizaje es mas complejo de lo
pensado. Estos profesores con
vocation de Maestros son exitosos en
sus aulas de clase, motivan la partici
pation activa, aceptan criticas y
siempre estan dispuestos a aprender
algo nuevo de sus propios alumnos.
Este tipo de instructores todavia exis
ten, por ellos muchos estudiantes per
manecen en la universidad.
Es verdad, nuestro sistema educa
tivo tiene multiples fallas, y una de
ellas radica en los docentes y sus
m&todos de ensenanza. Tambien es
cierto que no se puede pedir exclusi
vamente instructores con Ph.D., en
educacion, dispuestos a gastar sus
afios de vida en una aula de clase;
pero al menos, el estudiante deberia
tener el derecho a expresar lo que
piensa sobre la forma como su profe
sor imparte conocimietos y actua en
la clase.
Estoy totalmente de acuerdo con
ASUN en evaluar a los profesores en
la mitad y al final del semestre; sin
embargo, propongo que estas evalua
ciones se hagan cada mes y que los
docentes pongan en practica las
recomendaciones dadas por sus pupi
los. Con absolute seguridad, tanto
estudiantes como profesores saldran
ganando, y quiza la calidad de la edu
cacion tienda a mejorar.
Horacio Perez-Henao is a graduate student in modern languages and literature and a guest columnist for the Daily Nebraskan.