Arguing with strangers

Several people have questioned my whereabouts for the last few weeks in terms of my position at the Gazette.

In the words of the late-Samuel Clemens, "Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated."

Two weeks ago I was in the process of compiling the Gazette's annual Progress edition.

The Progress edition is the paper's largest project of the year and -- to put things into perspective -- we all enjoy it so much that no one in the newspaper is allowed to use the word "progress" between December 1 and March 1.

It's not that we don't enjoy the work involved in the edition, it's just that we don't enjoy the time the work takes. It is a collaborative effort that takes hundreds of hours to complete. I took on the task of putting it all together when everyone had submitted their assignments.

Everything was moving along pretty smoothly until the 28th when I received a message from the Federal District Court in North Platte calling me to jury duty.

I kicked everything into high gear to get the edition done to the best of my ability and then took off for North Platte on Monday morning-- fully expecting to be released from jury duty if for no other reason than my position.

After all, one of the first things they tell you is that you can't discuss the case with anyone. I'm a reporter for pete's sake!

Evidently the attorneys involved in the case looked at it in a different way. The case involved an alleged First Amendment violation. Who better to defend the first amendment than someone who makes a living by it? (Actually they didn't discuss their reasons, but that's the only reason I can imagine they would want me.)

The case was expected to last two or three days. The jury deadlocked on a seven to three vote in favor of the defendant on Friday -- five days later. (Two people were undecided.)

People have asked me how I liked serving and the only description I can come up with is this: It wasn't as bad as a root canal, but it certainly wasn't as much fun as a back massage.

The process was interesting. And I have to admit it's the first time I've ever had the nerve to argue with a group of complete strangers without the threat of a brawl. But on the down side, I kept thinking of the thousands of things I could be doing instead of sitting through the sometimes painfully boring testimony.

Let's just say I won't be giving up my position at the Gazette to become a full-time juror.

The Nebraska Legislature has had another $104 million deducted from its already depleted budget projections and officials are again looking at how best to address the deficit.

Some senators are debating whether to ignore the $104 million figure and go ahead as planned. I believe in being optimistic, but stupidity should not figure into the equation. If the projected deficit is too high, that means the state will have a little bit of cash stuffed away in a mattress somewhere. Where's the harm in that?

Unfortunately we've cut about everything we can cut from the budget without losing important services. Realistically, we're going to have to look at raising taxes.

Before you start screaming, let me defend myself. I don't like paying taxes any more than the next guy. But how can we continue to cut funding to K-12 education, the university system, the corrections department, the Nebraska State Patrol and the Department of Roads -- just to name a few?

We have to have those services. I've said it before and I'll say it again, if we don't educate our children, more of them will end up in the corrections department and the one's that don't will need the highways to get out of the state as quickly as they can and that's where the state patrol comes in.

There's simply no way around it -- we have to begin looking at ways to generate new money. Ignoring the problem is the least likely way to solve it.