i
Opinion
Page 4 Daily Nebraskan Wednesday, February 28,2001
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ZM/vNebraskan
Since 1901
Editor Sarah Baker
Opinion Page Editor Jake Glazeski
Managing Editor Bradley Davis
No new tax cuts
Bush speech touts
fiscal irresponsibility
In his first address to Congress and to the
nation Tuesday, President George W. Bush
touted a list of his campaign promises.
He hit the same note he’d played over and
over during the campaign: lower taxes - a lot.
Unfortunately for Bush, the House floor
isn’t a campaign stump.
It’s time to get to specifics instead of detail
ing a bunch of empty - and impossible -
promises to the American people.
Most Republicans and Democrats agree it’s
time for a tax cut, but Bush’s $1.6 trillion tax ax
is simply irresponsible.
Bush detailed programs he
wants to bolster by injecting
as tng- them with federal funds.
name Education, defense and Social
companies, Security topped the list of Bush
like priorities.
Amazon It seems idealistic, though, to
and Union think the country has the
Pacific, money to pay for these pro
announce grams to be successful, while
vlans to also kav*n81*1e money to cut
tUoir taxes substantially.
5 asn inei jt's eSpecjapy fiscally irre
payrolls, sponsible to cut taxes so dra
and as , matically when some signs
economists’ point to a slowing economy.
eyes are (Bush’s incessant ramblings
increasingly about a faltering economy, inci
on the dentally, also seem irresponsi
Federal ble. The nation’s top executive
Reserve should play the role of an eco
Roard’s nomic cheerleader, rather than
naysayer. But that's another
willingness issue for another day.)
to tinker As big-name companies, like
with Amazon and Union Pacific,
interest announce plans to slash their
rates to payrolls, and as economists’
spur a eyes are increasingly on the
slipping Federal Reserve Board’s willing
economy ness t0 tinker with interest rates
talk of ’ t0 sPur a Upping economy, talk
j 1.. of dramatically cutting taxes is
dramatic- simplyoutof4e.
ally cutting What happens if Bush’s fore
tax^5 is out casts on which he based his tax
of line. ” cuts are wrong?
- Right now, the U.S. economy
is running in tne black - a tar
cry from the huge deficits run up during the
years of trickle-down Reaganomics.
It seems silly to squander most of the budg
et surplus on a tax cut. Instead, the money
could be used, as some suggest, to further pay
down the national debt, secure Social Security
and fully fund other government programs.
After taking care of fiscal necessities, law
makers could perhaps then look at giving tax
payers a modest tax cut.
Otherwise, if a good chunk of the surplus is
used to fund a massive tax cut and the econo
my actually does go down the tubes, we’ll have
to go back to the days of spending money we
don’t have to fund government programs.
Or, we’ll have to cut programs - something
that Bush has pledged, generally, not to do.
But he can’t have it both ways: Taxes pay for
government programs. Bush wants to lower
taxes; Bush wants to increase spending on
government programs.
Something tells us that economic dog
doesn’t hunt.
Editorial Board
Sarah Baker, Jeff Bloom, Bradley Davis, Jake Glazeski,
Matthew Hansen, Samuel McKewon, Kimberly Sweet
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Unsigned edtorials are the opinions of the Spring 2001 Daiy Nebraskan. They do not necessarily
reflect the views of the University of Nebraska-Uncoln, its employees, its student body or the
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Hurrah for the orankstor • Matzen is a clear alternative to the carbon
ic copy candidates that every year seem to decide
John Matzen is the best thing to happen to they need that extra line on their resumd.
ASUN in a lone time He may displease many mvolved students who
It seems time after time, we have the same Uve die by the workings of student govern
three or four candidates promising sweeping ment’ b“*1 b?beve m“‘ of the students of this
changes, oniy to leave us disappointed once they campus back him, or at least find Jlim entertain
r6cich office ^8*
Honestly, can you say that your campus life has , Unfortunately, we are those who don t normal
been even slightly affected by any of the elected Vbte ^or tbese elections, so his chances look
officials? blei£* , • u r u
The only thing I even remember student gov- However the sight of the upset candidates
ernment doing was changing Columbus Day to squirming whenever he does something stupid
American Indians’ Day (which was stupid, by the mi?bt just be enough to get some of the silent
majority to take the 15 seconds it takes to vote.
Finally, we have Matzen, an amazingly differ- .
ent candidate. How many others would pull such Mlke lntt ^et . '
stunts as imitating William Wallace? . sePior
biochemistry
Where perception begins
Have you ever seen a
palm tree? Picture one in
your mind.
Does it look like a palm
tree? Shaggy, with the dead
leaves hanging down? Or is it
more of a cartoon of a palm
tree, the kind that grows,
auaigiii aiiu duuiai^ uii itiui rv
desert islands so the cartoon Baldridge
castaways can eat coconuts?
Not that it matters to me.
My real question is: -
Where, exactly, is that mental picture of a palm
tree? Point to it.
If you pointed to your head, why, that's where
you're wrong.
What’s in your head is 4 pounds of meat, some
kind of gray matter, “neurons” - which is just
another way of saying “whoosits.”
There is definitely not a picture of a palm tree in
there, nor is there anything else you are used to
thinking of as being “in your head” - algebraic for
mulae, the memory of your eighth-grade birthday
party when you spewed root beer actually out
though your nose, yom idea of a good time... noth
ing like that.
So my question (my other question) is “Where
is all that stuff, really?” *
I’ve puzzled over that for some time and I’ve
decided, long answer short, that it’s actually
their own little dance on the paper, moving into
positions that traced the effect and even the shape
of the field.
But when you disconnected, the filings lay
down and you shook them into randomness again.
Hook it up again and, whoosh!
Disconnect and, whump!
You know the field is “there.” You can see its
effects, measure its changes.
But where does it go when the current is cut?
And let me ask you, as you asked your Mum and
Dad when your hamster or your grandmother was
laid to rest:
What happens to you when you die?
That’s right.
All our species’ dreams of a just reward or a ter
rible punishment waiting for us after death are all
moot. There is no “where” for “you” to “go” after
“death.”
Like the palm tree.
OK, you can stop thinking of it now.
(Oops! Where did it go?)
All right, start thinking of it again. But wait, is
that the same one? Or a different one?
Hook up the battery and the electromagnetic
field springs back into life.
Start the music and the dancer dances.
But is it the same field, the same dance?
Do you see how these questions fail to address
the true nature of the events they are supposed to
be interrogating?
nuu/ncnz.
Nowhere you can point to with your little fin
ger, at any rate. ^
But don't let that throw you. The
whole world, or rather more of it than
you might expect, is exactly the same. ^k
What you call yourself is the same. fl
It's not an object or even an image.
It's an event, something happening. fe“r
To paraphrase Bucky Fuller: You w
seem to be a verb. Hi
That is, you are an activity. As long
as that activity continues to unfold, |
you live. \
The day a truck, out of control on \ m
the icy streets, careens into your right I
of way, the activity that is you stops, ft J
and another one we don’t like to think \ i
about begins. 1 *
But there are advantages to JL
being a verb and not a noun.
You did so well at the palm / Jf
tree exercise; I feel bold N, '■ f gap
enough to try another. f &JT
So riddle me this: What N&S [ jJ!r
happens to the dance when
the dancer stops dancing? # 1 /
I mean, while she’s danc- % €
ing, you know you are seeing
a dance - though you’d be hard \
pressed to point to it any more
than to the palm tree. k
But when she stops dancing, what
then? Where does it, the dancing, go? §1
Well, we already know the answer to that, nj
don’t we? %
The dance doesn't go anywhere, it was
never anywhere to begin with. Like all activity, it
just lapses into potential.
(Potential, where's that?)
Or, for the more math and science oriented,
imagine your ninth-grade experiment in electro
magnetism.
You wrapped that big old nail in wire, hooked
up your nine-volt battery and all the iron filings did
A life of
unbridled j
love
I just got
word that my
friend’s sister
was killed in a
car accident.
She was 18.
She was in the
middle seat of
her family’s van
coming home
Josh
Knaub
rrom a recruiting
visit to the University of Wyoming
when a drunk driver ran a stop sign
and hit them.
I heard she had gotten an offer to ;
play soccer.
I won’t pretend to know everything I
about Megan. I saw her when I was
working at camp or when I’d visit her j
family or when we’d run into each ]
other.
Two summers ago, I saw her almost
every week when I hung out at her
cousins’ ranch.
Really, I saw her life in snapshots. A
week here. A few hours there. Megan
was the girl who teenage girls were
always jealous of.
She was very pretty, very musically
talented and
very athletic.
Instantly popu- ™
lar and well- She didn’t
liked almost think nf
everywhere, I ' * U'
saw her. (love) CIS
Meg was anything
soft-spoken and ■ i m
a little shy, espe- Special. She
daily in groups didn ’t Stop
She wafsome- tO ask Why
times embar- she should
rassed and j h(
sometimes ' rr,Ifc€C
annoyed by the she COUld
boys who were ga[n how
inevitably smit- v
ten with her. anyone
No matter would
her reaction,
though, her react.
would-be _
boyfriends only
wanted her more.
She was the kind of kid, really, more I
recently, the kind of person I like to be .
around. Because she put herself into |
everything she did. Games, songs, !|
chores, conversations, whatever the 1
moment brought, she was fully invest- I
ed.
Most of all, Megan loved.
Meg's love showed in small ways,
like how she tried her best to make
sure everyone felt at ease, how she
made a point to talk to anyone who
might look left out.
Once, when I hadn’t known Meg for
very long, her older sister and cousin,
whom I’d known for quite a while, were
teasing me, saying they were going to
throw the apples we were picking at ■
my head and then run away and hide
while I was unconscious.
Megan, barely half my size, would
have none of it. “I won't let them do *
that,” she told me.
But Meg’s love showed in bigger
ways, too. like the week I watched her
refuse to snub or speak badly about or
seek revenge on a group of girls who
had singled her out as an object to
tease, insult and gossip about during
summer camp.
I’ll never know if their abuse drove
Megan to tears. Or what advice her sis
ter gave her in private moments. But I
do know that Meg’s love drove one of
her tormentors to tears. The girl could
n’t believe that anyone could repay
such unbridled cruelty with heartfelt
compassion. ; j
What impressed me ana toucned
me most about Meg’s love was that she
didn’t think of it as anything special.
She didn't stop to ask why she should
love, what she could gain, how anyone
would react.
She just loved.
Megan would say, at least to me,
that there was one reason she loved the
way she did: Jesus.
It was natural for her: Jesus loves
me, so I love Him. And, like everything
else I saw in Meg, her answer was more
than a pat response drilled into her by
her parents or an overzealous Sunday
School teacher somewhere along the
line.
She understood and acted out
Paul’s words from Ephesians 5:1-2: “Be
imitators of God, therefore, as dearly
loved children and live a life of love,
just as Christ loved us and gave himself
up for us ...” (New International
Version)
Meg didn’t repeat the verse like a
mantra or instantly justify her every
action with the idea. She didn't shout it
or preach it or wear it on her shirt like a
Nike logo.
She quietly lived it.
Because it was not a creed nor a
philosophy she tried to apply to her
life. It was her life.
And on Saturday night, Megan
Thurow got to see the object of her
love, the reason for her life, face to face.
