April 14, 2000
Photos and Interviews by Lindi Lagman
OPINION
Campus Voice:
How would you define your self-esteem?
Average self-esteem.
Seiko Yoshimoto
I define my self-esteem as low at
times, but I have friends to bring
it up.
Jason Hensley
At this point in my life, my
self-esteem is very high. I
have learned, over time, to
value who I am and who I
am becoming.
Dee Dasburg
I define my self-esteem, for my
age, as being average.
Amy Hembrough
I react to the people around
me. If they are happy, then I
am happy. If they are sad, I try
to cheer them up.
Anne Ridge
I define or see my self-esteem as
being ok.
Dr. Llewellyn
Middle of the road.
Sean Muq^hy
Citizens’ bane? Calm your census fears
COLUMN
BY SARA O’NEIL
THE DAILY CARDINAL
(U-WIRE) MADISON, WI —People really
like to cornplain. Okay, I’m one of those
people. But 1 like to complain about things
that make no sense, like people acting like
complete slobs and not cleaning, or DNA
replication or people refusing to wear de
odorant. But why complain about things
that make sense?
Wearing a seatbelt, good idea. Turn
ing on your headlights at night, good idea.
Chewing with your mouth closed, good
idea. This is why when the government
decides to do something that is worthwhile
and actually a good excuse for them to
spend millions of taxpayer dollars, I find no
reason to complain.
This is the case with the U.S. Census.
Think of how many worthless things the
government spends money on. Just this
weeV I saw a Supreme Court case that was ^
deciding wKetHer'feiriafe*strippers who wear
Q_strings and pasties wouldn t lure as many
drunks to strip clubs as those clubs where
dancers go nude. People complain endlessly
about how much money the government
wastes which is true about 99 percent of the
time. But the one time out of a billion, when
the government isn’t doing worthless
things like testing the effects of weightless
ness on inch worms or deciding if strippers
should wear plastic adhesives, people still
find the need to complain.
Haven’t you seen the commercials? The
one where the waitress has to take her kids
to work at the diner because there isn t
enough daycare in her town?
Or how about the one where the teacher
is teaching in a janitor’s closet because of
school overcrowding? Do you want your
waitress’s kid’s snot running in your food?
Do you really want to have your kids learn
ing the ABCs with mop handles up their
butts?
Another cdmplaint I have heard in the
' news is ftiat {hose'peopte w1i6“feceived the
long form of the Census, about one in eight
homes, think it’s too long. Okay, there are
53 questions on the long form of the Cen
sus. But if it takes you more than 10 sec
onds to find the answers to any of these
questions, you’re a complete moron and
shouldn’t be included in the Census data
anyway.
How long does it take you to get to
work? Have you served in the military? What
do you do for a living? If you can’t remem
ber the answers to these questions within a
matter of seconds. I’m going to be awfully
scared if you are serving in the military or
you’re an air traffic controller not remem
bering what you do for a living. But prob
ably the biggest complaint people have
about the Census is that the government is
asking too many private questions.
I have two answers to this. One, people
will tell a) a talkshow host who they’re sleep
ing with and in what position and b) when
thev're drunk, they wiH tell the sarne thing
' 'to anyone wlTo witrlTSteiT/
I think you can tell the government
whether you live in an apartment or a house.
And, number two, the government already
knows everything about you anyway,
they’re just lazy and need it compiled for
them. Did you file your income taxes lately?
Then doesn’t the government probably
know how much money you earn anyway?
Embarrassed to admit things you have
no control over, like race and gender? Then
you’ve probably got issues way beyond
filling out a Census.
Don’t want the government knowing
when you leave for work? Quit being para
noid, you really think they care enough to
stalk you?
So for once, because the government
is trying to do something worthwhile, don t
you think you should fill out your Census
and get your tax dollars at work for some
thing useful.
Then again, maybe it’s just the huge
federal taxrefund l ^ot inthe rnail