Opinion
TM/yNebraskan
i. Since 1901
Editor Sarah Baker
Opinion Page Editor Samuel McKewon
Managing Editor Bradley Davis
Columbus daze
Wording of ASUN bill
doesn't make sense
It seems the Association of Students at the
University of Nebraska wants to have its
Christopher Columbus and roast him, too.
At its last meeting on Oct. 4, ASUN unani
mously passed a bill renaming the official obser
vance of Christopher Columbus Day - Oct. 9 -
American Indian Day at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln.
The action was requested to help recognize
the pain of American Indian students, many of
whom believe the recognition of Columbus in
the form of a holiday ignores the numerous
human rights violations recent history has
revealed him to have corhmitted against the
indigenous population already present when
Columbus originally landed on Oct. 12,1492.
Generally, we’d frown upon taking a histori
cally recognized holiday and changing it because
we can. Such an action opens up questions of
whether or not, for example, Presidents’ Day
should be recognized because
Who is the George Washington owned
student slaves. Or Veterans’ Day because
Government t^e U.S. dropped the atomic
Jp bomb in World War n. Or Martin
, . Luther King Day because some
dztermme he was a plagiarist
which Who is the student govern
holidays ment to determine which holi
deserve to days deserve to be renamed?
be Under what circumstances - and
renamed? under what amount of oppres
sion - does a group have to suffer
before their claim is viable enough to rename the
holiday they oppose?
But wait a minute.
Apparently, rename is the wrong term for
ASUN’s action last Wednesday. Rather, as the bill
states and as a letter from the sponsoring ASUN
senator, Nathan Fuerst, implies, the real nature
of the bill is to simply recognize American Indian
Day along with Columbus Day, not disgrace
Columbus or the holiday.
The bill is worded in such a manner: “Oct. 9
has also been protested by the American Indian
movement” *
Notice the word Columbus isn t broached. We
see this as an attempt to please all parties
involved, including those who may be critical of
a renaming by saying the holiday wasn't
renamed. It just gained a co-sponsor of sorts.
But when these co-sponsors are on exact
opposite poles of the spectrum - indeed, the cel
ebration of American Indian Day is in direct refu
tation of Columbus Day - it seems a bit wishy
washy, as if ASUN understood the criticism
forthcoming from non-liberal students and
could combat it with a game of semantics.
But if the symbol of American Indian Day is of
critical importance, then contradicting it with a
simultaneous celebration of what American
Indians view as the very epitome of evil seems
like no change at all. It seems like a slap in the
face.
If supporters of Columbus aren’t supposed to
be offended, then how can’t his detractors be?
The bill should have, one way or another, taken a
definitive stand. Based on the comments of sen
ators, it would seem the resolution was adopted
to assuage disgruntled American Indians at
UNL
It seems quite unlikely that any individual will
celebrate the oppressor and the oppressed in the
same breath. So what is ASUN’s resolution sup
posed to prove? That we can have our own opin
ion on the matter?
Thanks, but the First Amendment took care of
that for us.
Editorial Board
Sarah Baker, Bradley Davis, Josh Funk, Matthew Hansen,
Samuel McKewon, Dane Stickney, Kimberly Sweet
-#
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Neal Obermeyer/DN
i
Seat155
I am happy to see that DN columnist Emily Moran
had enough confidence in herself that she is able to
criticize and judge people she doesn't know. I am one
of those people.
I must say, she seems to know a lot about me. I
think of class as a place to hang out, I have a need to be
popular and I seem to - or as I have been told - share a
brain with my peers. She knows me inside and out
How did Emily Moran ever manage to pay atten
tion during the lecture and learn so much about me? I
am unable to understand why Ms. Moran believes she
is better than I am If anyone should be embarrassed
by her actions, it should be her. Why waste space in
the DN for her petty and immature complaints?
I am the one who paid just enough attention to
mock the music and, oddly enough, I was still able to
take notes. Maybe Ms. Moran should take this defini
tion into account before judging people:
Ignorant (ignerent) adj. 1 .Lacking in training and
knowledge: unlearned 2. Lacking special knowledge
or information 3. Uninformed 4. Showing lack of
training or knowledge
* Megan Auld-Wright
junior
advertising
Seat159
While I was looking for the crossword puzzle on
Thursday, I came across Emily Moran’s column. I
started reading it and began to empathize with her
because I also have a Monday night lecture class.
When I got to the seventh or eighth paragraph, I real
ized that she was referring to my Mends and 1 as the
mde students who share one brain.
Emily, I agree with you. Some of the rudest stu
dents are in this class, but I think they’re the ones who
spend their time criticizing what others are doing
when they should be minding their own business.
So maybe I was reading Cosmo and maybe my
Mend and I did pass crossword puzzles to each other
- why do you care? I still took notes on Nellie Ely's 72
day Mp around the world. I didn’t miss that part Ned
time you insult me about how I spend my class time,
think about what you are on. Obviously, it wasn’t the
antebellum press law lecture.
I have perfect attendance to our Monday night
class, so I know I'll be there next week. Ifyou decide to
skip, Kelly, Donna and I will understand. You can meet
us at the Peach Pit after class and borrow my notes.
Laura Rifkin
senior
broadcasting
Celebrate... everything!
As the sponsor of the ASUN Resolution that
named Oct 9 as “American Indian Day,” I feel respon
sible to dear up and apologize for any confusion sur
rounding the resolution.
If you read it, not once does it denounce
Columbus Day or any other holiday recognized on
Oct. 9. Obviously, for European-Americans,
Christopher Columbus was a very important man in
terms of European-American history on this conti
nent
The resolution was simply intended to recognize
American Indians and their rich history and culture
that was established on this continent prior to the
arrival of Columbus.
The recognition of American Indian Day is just
that. Celebrate it as Columbus Day and American
Indian Day as well as any other holiday you would
normally celebrate on Oct. 9. It was never the inten
tion of ASUN to take any holiday off the calendar and
send disgrace to Columbus Day.
Nathan Fuerst
junior
communications
ASUN Arts and Sdences Senator
c.^1
LVII/CVII VIIIU
In response to the letters, comments and cartoons
opposing ASUN’s renaming of Columbus Day, there
seems to be some issues that need to be addressed
Jason Klindt’s letter (“Big Decision Makers”) is
indicative of the ignorance that persists regarding
Columbus. Considering Mr. Klindt thought
Columbus lived in the year 1600,1would assume he is
equally ignorant of other important details of the nav
igator's life.
Among other things, Columbus ordered his sol
diers to cut off the hands of Taino Indians if they
weren’t paying him enough gold. After a short and
sadistic career as the Viceroy of Hispaniola, he was
forcibly removed from the island for general incom
petence.
He went to his grave believing the world was not
round, but rather shaped like a woman’s breast. He
also believed Haiti was somewhere very Close to
Japan.
Columbus was a very important person. That
doesn't mean we should celebrate his life with a holi
day.
Hal Hansen
senior
history
Holiday a travesty to some
This Daily Nebraskan guest column is written by
Daniel Justice, a Ph.D. student in English, an enrolled
member of the Cherokee nation and a secretary of
UNITE.
It’s an annual event, an annual conflict.
“In fourteen hundred and ninety two ..."
America - that is, White America - once again
celebrates “Columbus Day.” There's very little cele
bration in most parts of the country. It’s not a day
that most people really think much about.
Until the Indians speak.
For us, and for other marginalized corAmunities
in this country, Columbus is not a great hero who
proved the world was round (this was well known to
intellectuals across the world at this time), discov
ered this hemisphere (it was already populated by
thousands of societies), or brought civilization to
the “Indians” - his word - or showed them the way
to Christian piety and cultural sophistication.
"... Columbus sailed the ocean blue.”
Instead, Columbus is the most damning exam
ple of the many men and women who participated
in the wholesale slaughter of our people through
European weapons, diseases and ideologies.
He enslaved and tortured Native people, rav
aged indigenous civilizations and territories, stole
or destroyed vast material and cultural resources
and advocated the supremacy of European domi
nation in the Americas.
Whatever his service to Spain and Europe may
have been, Columbus is only a bitter reminder of
the more than 500 years of colonization, exploita
tion, appropriation and genocide our people have
endured.
Few Americans seem to care about Columbus
until we and our allies bring these facts to light.
Then the backlash begins. We are said to be hyper
sensitive, too “politically correct,” concerned about
trivialities when there are “real” issues to worry
about.
As if the decimation of tens of millions of people
is unimportant.
And we are accused of being ahistorical, of
imposing 21st century politics and mores on earlier
centuries.
We are told that we cannot judge Columbus by
today’s standards, that what he, his cronies and suc
cessors did in the name of God, nationalism and
white supremacy must be looked at in their own his
torical context.
What is overlooked in these claims is the fact
that we are looking at this in historical context: from
the view of those who were butchered and brutal
ized by this man and those who followed and shared
his world views.
The indigenous people who were enslaved and
murdered by Columbus are certainly worthy of
being honored as well.
To ignore their experiences, and the continued
resistance of native communities across the world
to colonialism and exploitation by European and
American political and industrial interests, is to fully
ignore the complexities and the realities of history.
In celebrating Columbus Day, Americans are
not celebrating the nautical achievements of a man
driven to find new lands and resources for the glory
«of his country and his ego.
They are celebrating the continued refusal of the
United States and its people to take responsibility
for not only our varied histories - good and bad -
but also for the present inequities: racism, misogy
ny and homophobia that are some of the devastat
ing legacies of Christopher Columbus and his suc
cessors.
I applaud Vernon Miller, Joel Shafer and the
other conscientious and enlightened students of
ASUN who risk the wrath of white entitlement to try,
if in a small, symbolic way, to bring these issues to
light by changing Columbus Day to American
Indian Day If die backlash is any sign, this resolu
tion came none too soon.
Beauty's
maker and
his atrocities
look ai mar,
Jeremy!" my
Mom says while
pointing outside
•the car window.
“How can there
nofbeaGod?”
This innocu
ous comment is
one in a long line
of continuing
tneoiogical remarks between my parents
andl.
These debates are nice-we talk more
now that I've become atheist than we
ever did before. And I must admit, die sky
is beautiful.
As we drive along the Colorado inter
state, the sun is just beginning to set
behind the mountains. The sky is purple,
orange, red, other colors I cannot even
describe - the kind of view at the end of
an epic novel as the hero walks away to
seek his destiny. The kind of sunset when
the beautiful woman and handsome
man embrace at the end of a Romantic
movie.
But I think back
iwny, i in noi sure;
to one day during
summer classes at
Chadron. The cam
pus was mostly
deserted, and I had
lunch alone every
day, reading the
newspaper and eat
ing a mini cheese
pizza- the only veg
etarian meal avail
able.
I didn’t read
much of the inter
national news
because I knew the
same headlines
would be running
five years from then:
Israeli-Palestinian
peace talks, conflict
in Northern Ireland,
sanctions in Iraq.
But my eye
caught a little article
(a blurb, really),
about a civil war in
Rwanda. It stated
that thousands and
thousands of mem
bers of one group
were “hacked and
bludgeoned to
death” with
machetes and clubs
by members of
another group.
Hacked and bludg-,
eoned!
Summarized in
the space of a para
graph and bare for
the world to see. I
knew no one would
care; more people
would read and
think deeply about
their daily horo
scope than this. *
But it was my
wake-up call, my lit
tle existential intro
duction into how
absurd our world
really is. I was
My body is
cruising
along in my
parents'
new Dodge
Intrepid,
but my
mind is
seeing
migrant
farm
workers in
California,
killing
themselves
for $5.15
an hour.
Queer
people
walking
nervously
with their
partners...
A 1,000
times a
1,000
“ young men
rotting
away in 10
by-12
concrete
cages for
having
ucommitted"
nonviolent
drug
offenses.
stunned, i am strn stunned.
I remember, also, news reports of the
rape camps in Bosnia. Girls as young as
12 violated by an entire platoon of sol
diers. Atrocities committed by both
sides. Even if one army was better than
the other, neither could be considered
justified by any stretch of the imagina
tion.
My body is cruising along in my par
ents’ new Dodge Intrepid, butmymindis
seeing migrant farm workers in
California, killing themselves for $5.15 an
hour. Queer people walking nervously
with their partners because they don’t
want to become the next Matthew
Sheppard. A 1,000 times a 1,000 young
men rotting away in 10-by-12 concrete
cages for having "committed” nonviolent
drug offenses.
If I am bitter, it is not from personal
experience. I do not know what these
people really feel like. The problem is I
can guess. I guess they’re not as happy as
my mother is right now, secure in her
white, middle-class, $60,000-a-year job
with a husband, three kids and one black
Labrador retriever.
I guess they would trade the beautiful
sunsets for relief from their pain.
I know any God responsible for sun
sets, rainbows and warm puppy dogs is
also responsible for holocausts, poverty,
prejudice and the myriad other cruel
ways one portion of humanity has subju
gated another portion.
If God exists, he is perfectly benefi
cent and malevolent at the same time.
The ultimate incarnation of schizophre
nia.
“Whatever,” I say as I flash a not
quite-real smile. I let her have this
moment - there will be others, and per
haps then I’ll tell her why I don’t enjoy the
sunset as much as she does.
* *