December 2007

By Maxine Moul

Caring for those less fortunate has been a hallmark for Nebraska from its earliest days. Raising barns and harvesting crops for neighbors in need are traditions that have been passed down through the generations, and we still read of farm families who gather for spring plantings or urban folks who open their wallets and their hearts to those less fortunate.

January 26, 1989
“Small Rural Communities Will Survive”

What has been concerning us lately is the viability of small, rural communities in these days of increasingly industrialized agriculture that eliminates farms and farm families. This decline in farming population is reflected in decreasing commercial activity in villages the size of Polk and larger. Where once were numerous Main Street businesses, few survive.

By Connie Spellman

Malcolm X. The Reuben sandwich. An innovative approach to city making that may well set a standard for the future.

The common denominator for this seemingly disparate trio is Omaha, Neb. Malcolm X was born as Malcolm Little in Omaha. The Reuben sandwich, or so the story goes, was invented by Reuben Kulakofsky, a wholesale grocer who made the culinary sensation for his buddies during a late-night poker game at Omaha’s Blackstone Hotel in the 1920s. The third item is noted urban planner Alexander Garvin’s characterization of Omaha’s Urban Design Element, a tool that has positioned Omaha to become the first city of its size to develop and implement a comprehensive urban design plan.

By Robert Bixby, J. Robert Kerrey, Peter G. Peterson, Warren B. Rudman

Medicare is a much bigger problem than Social Security, not just fiscally but also politically and ethically. Its costs are projected to grow faster than the economy and faster than can be reasonably supported by the federal budget. Health-care prices have outpaced overall economic growth since 1960. This phe­­nom­­enon greatly compounds the growing fiscal problems associated with the rising number of aged Americans. Unless health costs slow, by 2050, the share of the Gross Domestic Product consumed by Medicare and Medicaid will be nearly five times what it is today. Most of that increase would come from the rising cost of health care rather than the larger number of elderly Americans.

Prairie Fire continues the discussion of our region’s great rivers. As a follow-up to Bob Kerrey’s Missouri River essay in the September issue, this letter presenting the South Dakota governor’s perspective is a great addition. We print it, in its entirety, for the following reasons:

Review by Kelly Helm Smith

The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl
Timothy Egan
Houghton Mifflin Company

Review by Don Hanway

Hippes of the Religious Right
Preston Shires
Baylor University Press

By A. J. Jacobs

At the beginning of the year, I wrote down every rule, every guideline, every suggestion, every nugget of advice I could find in the Bible. It’s a very long list. It runs 72 pages. More than 700 rules.

By Jesse Starita

It’s no secret: Adaptation and evolution are essential for human beings to survive. But these qualities also extend to artists and record companies. Without it, they struggle to maintain viability and vitality. With it, creative frontiers are opened, new markets appear and, more often than not, both parties reap the rewards. Yet, making these transformations on paper is one thing. Converting them to full-length musical statements is another.

By Jesse Starita

In jazz, artists usually craft their finest work 20, 30 and even 40 years into a musical career. Indeed, it’s an art form that rewards patience and stamina and rarely reflects frivolous fads. Be that as it may, anomalies still persist. Enter Dayna Stephens.

By Pete Letheby

It was a sobering introduction: For the first time in history, the young generation living today is at risk of a shorter lifespan than their parents.

By Ashley Pritchard The Lied Center for Performing Arts had a challenge. Local artists wanted to perform in a major performing arts center where they could showcase talents and build reputations.

New cocaine guidelines are an improvement

For decades now, federal judges have been forced to hand down tougher sentences for offenses involving crack cocaine than for those involving powder cocaine.

Now it seems likely that the unequal punishment will be lessened. The change is appropriate and overdue.

By Sheri Fritz

The major droughts of the 20th century, such as those of the Dust Bowl period and 1950s, had profound environmental, economic and social impacts in the Great Plains and are viewed by many as extreme events. Yet the 20th century provides a relatively short-term view of climate variability, and it is useful to extend our perspective to include longer periods of time. A longer-term perspective gives us a better understanding of both the natural recurrence of drought for planning purposes and of whether recent trends may be a product of human impact on climate or are simply a manifestation of long-term natural variation.

By Chad Smith

In 1997, the states of Colorado, Wyoming and Nebraska and the Department of Interior came together in a unique partnership to develop a shared approach to managing the Platte River. Brought together by concerns over endangered species, water use and other management challenges, the states and the federal government chose collaboration and stakeholder involvement as a way to seek solutions to what had become a contentious policy debate over the future of the Platte. Water users from the three states and conservation groups joined the effort. The parties traded litigation for a meeting table and began the process of negotiating a new way of using science to deal with endangered species issues. The result was an innovative process utilizing adaptive management, stakeholder input and science to better manage the Platte for the health of the ecosystem and the people that depend on it - the Platte River Recovery Implementation Program.

By Pat McGrane

Controlling invasive noxious weeds is required by Nebraska weed laws, but what if one weed species is so obnoxious it just won’t go away! What can a person do? Send in a herd of goats to chew them off is one solution.

By John Richardson

Klara Tammany’s mother didn’t want a typical American funeral. No embalming, no metal casket, not even a funeral home.

When she died after a long illness a couple of years ago, family members and friends washed and dressed her body and put it in a homemade wooden casket, which was laid across two sawhorses in the dining room of her condo in Brunswick, Maine.