rEMEMBERING ENGLISH PROFESSOR GERRY SHAPIRO
Huskers not looking past 1-5 minnesota
Teacher, writer leaves legacy of commitment to great writing, mentorship in Andrews Hall. PAGE 5
Pelini discusses the upcoming road game and the keys for the team. VIDEO ONLINE
wednesday, october 19, 2011
volume 111, issue 040
DAILY NEBRASKAN
LONG TAKES
AS
dailynebraskan.com
AS IT
dan holtmeyer | daily nebraskan
From left, Matthew White, Mikey Prewett and Dylan Bacon sort and organize Occupy Lincoln’s food tent, housing produce, bread and other food donated by supportive Lincoln residents. The camp, numbering about 40 tents Tuesday, gets three free meals a day as it keeps the protest going through the week. “It’s been flowing really well,” White said.
Occupy Lincoln creates committees to organize protests and to support followers in the fight against the 1 percent Dan Holtmeyer Daily Nebraskan
Three men, all in their early 20s and in coats and hats, stooped and crawled in the large, crowded brown tent, organizing piles, boxes and bags of produce and cans onto several small shelves. “We’ve got lots of food,” said Matthew White with a laugh. He and his friends Dylan Bacon and Mikey Prewett are part of Occupy Lincoln’s food committee and, at this moment, faced the onslaught of food donations from supportive city residents. Gifts have included a fresh-baked cherry pie, more bread than they know what to do with, and “bags and bags and bags of groceries,” White said. The trio is just one part of a cooperative system that is the heartbeat of this group of more than 40 tents, all camped on the Centennial Mall in front of the Capitol Building. Lincoln residents of all ages, including many students of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, are in
kyle bruggeman | daily nebraskan
Luther Owens (with megaphone) leads a parade of protestors down 13th Street during Occupy Lincoln on Oct. 14. Owens told a crowd of more than 500 he was a welder looking for a job.
The Occupy Wall Street movement inspired worldwide protests this weekend and made its way onto the streets of Lincoln, bringing residents together for a common cause Dan Holtmeyer Daily nebraskan
A month ago, thousands of New Yorkers launched Occupy Wall Street, an amorphous protest against historic income inequality and the perceived power of wealth over politics that is now entering its fifth week. Saturday afternoon, Lincoln joined New York, London, Tokyo, Rome, Los Angeles, Chicago and reportedly hundreds of other cities across the country and around the world by hosting its own offshoot of the movement. Occupy Lincoln drew hundreds of participants,
some with drums, others with signs, American flags with corporate logos as the stars and voices calling out slogans like “We are the 99 percent” – a jab at the top 1 percent of the country that controls a huge share of its wealth and income. Students from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and other local colleges made a strong showing, including Forrest Teske, a freshman broadcasting major who started a Facebook page to involve members of UNL’s campus in the movement. But the protesters, with a variety of connected complaints, came from all ages, from toddlers in strollers to
elderly in wheelchairs. Many of them charged that corporations use their profits to buy the support of politicians. Some protested simultaneous budget cuts and stagnant unemployment. Others called for the end of the government’s central bank, the Federal Reserve. The common theme: frustration. “I feel that politics is no longer about people,” said Ilonka Zlatar, who recently began working on a Ph.D. in biology at UNL. “It’s about how deep in a politician’s pockets do you need to get.” Sarah Shaw, another
protester who brought her young son along, said the top income bracket and politicians friendly to them are disconnected from everyone else in the recession’s aftermath. “People like us have to make decisions like, ‘Do I pay this bill or feed my family?’” she said. A UNL alumna, Shaw said such necessities have left her two months behind on her student loan payments. “To me, this is a matter of life or death.” Shaw said she has a job locally but asked for her
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Lincoln’s version of Occupy Wall Street for the long haul. “I just want to support the movement as far as it can go,” said Jordan Dudley, a senior Spanish and Latin American studies major. “The opportunity for it to happen in the place that I grew up is something special.” Occupy Lincoln began Oct. 15 with a march around downtown and the Capitol, and coincided with similar Occupy Wall Street-inspired marches in dozens, if not hundreds, of cities around the world. The movement, sparked in Manhattan more than a month ago and buoyed by people of every age and most backgrounds, is to fight a variety of issues, from income inequality to the power corporations exercise over politics. Here, general assembly meetings are at 6 p.m. each day, after participants return from jobs or school, to update on problems, ideas and
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UNL English professor dies during weekend Riley Johnson Daily Nebraskan
Gerald Shapiro, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln English professor and acclaimed author, died unexpectedly in Lincoln on Oct. 15. Gerald “Gerry” Shapiro, 61, taught fiction writing, 20th century fiction and Jewish-American fiction after coming to UNL in 1987. Shapiro’s unexpected death shocked many of his colleagues and former students, who remember his generosity, intellect and comedic sense of humor. “No one is irreplaceable, but Gerry is just about as close as it gets,” said Susan Belasco, chair of the UNL English department. Belasco said she heard
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the news of Shapiro’s death while at meetings in New York City and cut her trip short to be with Judith Slater, Shapiro’s wife. Slater, also a UNL professor of English, took Shapiro to the hospital Oct. 14 after he had trouble breathing, Belasco said. News of Shapiro’s death from cardiac arrest brought back Belasco’s first memories of the Kansas City native. Shapiro helped recruit Belasco to come to UNL in 2000. Shapiro loved the university and pushed hard to bring the best and brightest to the English department, Belasco said. Shapiro’s own work shined brightly across the
country. In his career, Shapiro received many awards for his work including the Ohio State University Prize in Short Fiction for “Little Men,” the Edward Lewis Wallant Award for “From Hunger” and was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award for Fiction “Bad Jews.” His stories also appeared on the big screen and through the airwaves. In 2004, he co-wrote the screenplay for “King of the Corner,” adapted from a collection of his short stories, focusing on the place of secular Jews in contemporary American Society, according to a press release. In 2008, Shapiro wrote a
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story about Hanukkah for National Public Radio, airing on the network’s “Hanukkah Lights” program. Even with all of his fame and notoriety, Shapiro treated everyone he met with kindness, Belasco said. From the chancellor to the office staff, everyone received his generosity, she said. Leann Messing, the English department office manager, said she had to delete her lunch appointment Tuesday. Shapiro and Slater planned to treat the entire office to lunch, which Messing said they did multiple times each year. The couple would bring in their two dogs and plenty of food, she said. Messing
said she and her coworkers always looked forward to the lunches. “It took you out of the workplace and into a family environment,” Messing said. On Oct. 14, Shapiro called Elaine Dvorak, an English department secretary, to schedule the lunch, Messing said. Messing remembered hearing nothing but laughter coming from Dvorak during the call. The group did not schedule any luncheon or get-together for Tuesday, Messing said. Lunch with Shapiro couldn’t be replaced, she said. Dvorak said even when the group didn’t meet for lunch, Shapiro would drop
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music festival shows off local talent over long weekend
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off his cooking for the staff – be it pesto, meats, cheeses or matzo balls. Shapiro was a “sweetheart,” she said. “He would say, ‘Oh I had some leftovers and I thought of you guys,’” Dvorak said. Grace Bauer, a professor of English and longtime friend of Shapiro, said he always brought a smile to her face with his quirky sense of humor. While attending graduate school at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst with Shapiro and Slater, Bauer noticed Shapiro’s strange baseball cap. Instead of a sports team’s logo, the cap bore the name
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