Letters, 2/13: Caucus night was powerful

 26 comment(s)  
 E-mail Story
 Print Story
  Share

 digg it!
 Facebook
 del.icio.us
Seed Newsvine
Fark It
Reddit

Text Size: 

Tools Sponsor

It’s been a long time since I’ve really cared about American politics.

But Saturday night, I felt something different, something new and alive.

I attended the first-ever Nebraska Democratic caucus.

There I met neighbors, friends, strangers, talking in real-life terms about why they really believed in this candidate or that, talking about issues that impacted their lives and talking about an election they really thought mattered and upon which they thought they could have some sort of impact.

No person there that I met had any illusions of power or grandeur. We were mucking about in the smallest sty of the unwashed political process: the local caucus. But we Nebraskans had never had the chance at that. Whatever forces aligned to build the system we have, we had been excluded from that shoulder-to-shoulder tumult.

We, the people, overwhelmed the system Saturday night. No one in the local party, no one in government, no one anywhere predicted how we would turn out when it seemed we might actually be heard.

And we turned out. The caucus for my Near South neighborhood was at the Lincoln High School cafeteria. People kept coming, streaming in the old school doors, changing party affiliation just to be part of the process, part of something they could believe in.           

For me, it was magic. 

Roger German, Lincoln

Behaved like unruly toddlers

I went to our local caucus Saturday as an undecided voter and left as a disgruntled undecided voter.

I’ve done a lot of research regarding the two Democratic candidates. I like Hillary Clinton’s stand on some issues and Barack Obama’s stand on other issues. I was looking forward to spirited debates between the two camps to help swing my vote for one candidate or another.

Instead, I heard one man proclaim Obama was the better candidate because he wrote an excellent book. I think Edgar Allen Poe is a literary genius, but do I think he would’ve made a great president?  To quote the raven, “Nevermore.”

I heard one lady state that because of her wealth of experience, Clinton was the candidate that could beat John McCain. Seattle Slew had several years of experience in winning horse races. Do I think he’d make a great president? To quote Mr. Ed, “Nooo waaaaay, Wilbur.”

As I stated before, I was looking forward to a spirited debate of the issues from both sides. Instead, I felt like I’d stumbled upon a small, unruly day care where the caregivers had snuck out the back door. I witnessed name-calling, people trying to outshout each other and others heckling the speakers.

Did any of these behaviors help me resolve my concerns on the issues and pick a candidate? No, but I did have to stifle an urge to assign timeouts to the unruly tots and to think fondly back to the days when a Nebraska primary chose the candidates.

Cindy Wieger, Beatrice

Slanted against democracy

The Democratic caucuses held in Nebraska disenfranchised a majority of party members, produced a distorted result and alienated many registered Democrats. Instead of a regular primary election, where all party members could vote, people were forced to physically attend one meeting at a specific time and place, which many voters were unable to do. The results do not represent the true voting choices of the party members.

In almost every state that has held a caucus, Barack Obama has won. Most states with a primary election have gone to Hillary Clinton or been within a small margin, not the 2-1 margin of the Nebraska caucuses. The fewer Republican caucuses also have produced radically different results from primary elections.

This system is slanted to the extreme wings of each party, at the expense of true democracy.

Ed Forde, Lincoln

I-80 needs median barriers

 The death of beloved University of Nebraska-Lincoln Vice Chancellor Kent Hendrickson is the third recent fatal accident on Interstate 80 resulting from vehicles crossing the median and slamming into oncoming traffic.

It leads me to a repeated request for the state Roads Department to seriously consider installing barriers. We should follow the lead of Oklahoma and Texas, which have been putting up steel post and cable barriers along I-35 and I-45 on alternating left shoulders or down the middle of the median so there is continual protection. 

 As I-80 becomes three lanes each way, which guarantees more and faster traffic, the concrete barriers west out of Omaha for a few miles should be extended or post and cable barriers installed.

When you consider all the potential dangers speeding toward you involving drugs, alcohol, blowouts, heart attacks, icy roads, drivers falling sleep or distracted, or overcorrecting to miss an animal, it would be comforting — make that life-saving — to have some protection from oncoming traffic.

 Don Gill, Lincoln

An ineffective solution

As a fellow environmental historian, I feel compelled to respond to Francis Moul’s Local View (LJS, Feb. 2) that advocates outlawing internal combustion engines in Lincoln’s downtown. I find his proposal misguided and dangerous. His closing reference to Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” — an iconic utopian vision of a future society “perfected” by government intervention at great, albeit unintended, expense — is apt.

Contrary to Moul’s assertions, horse-drawn carriages, as well as vinyl records, are still manufactured. While denying the existence of certain products, he has no problem basing his solution on as- yet-elusive technology. I am less optimistic for the chances of pollution-free sources of transportation. After all, even horses create emissions.

Furthermore, I do not understand why these devices, whatever their origin, need to be restricted to governmental buses and, presumably, state-sponsored taxi and delivery systems.

Convinced of the certainty of his opinions and willing to impose them through state power, Moul effectively recasts the impulses against which Huxley reacted into a “green, new world.”

I am sure that only the best intentions motivated Moul’s column. Regardless, the past is riddled with disasters instigated by noble yet ill-conceived remedies. Outlawing problems offers simple solutions but rarely results in effective change.

David Nesheim, Lincoln