We apologize in advance if we're a bit distracted this week. We're excited that our friend and Paul's fellow cartoonist, Gustavo Rodriguez, is going to be our guest for a few days.
As the current staff cartoonist for El Nuevo Herald, the Spanish-language version of The Miami Herald, and as a naturalized American citizen, who emigrated from Cuba, Gustavo has had more than his fair share of dealing with bureaucracy and strange government rules under both so-called capitalism and so-called socialism. We're sure Mr. Rodriguez will be willing to discuss many of those differences with the journalism and other students he'll meet at Peru State College this week. You can even join him at the recital hall tonight at 7, local time, or in the Student Center, Wednesday morning, starting at 11.
The likelihood is that many of the individuals Gustavo addresses will listen intently, and some may even learn to think about a few subjects in a different way.
We're not so confident that the members of Nebraska's Unicameral will follow the lead of those young college students.
Today marks the beginning of the special session for that body of lawmakers, and they have only one topic to consider: the Keystone XL pipeline.
As we've mentioned previously and extensively, even allowing the existence of a new Keystone pipeline over the Ogallala Aquifer endangers the water supply for the entire middle section of the United States - where large portions of the world's food are grown.
Not surprisingly, TransCanada, the massive oil company desperate to build this pipeline, hired lawyers - not scientists or pipeline engineers - to release a statement on Monday to attempt to tie the hands of the Nebraska Legislature, and limit the scope and vision of the task that lies before them.
Like our welcome guest, Gustavo, and the students at Peru State, we hope our suggestions here to members of the Nebraska Legislature will help widen that scope back to where it should be.
In short, we're aware the pipeline is likely to ultimately go through Nebraska, regardless of what its opponents do or say.
That doesn't mean TransCanada should be able to bully and push the citizens of Nebraska around, in a similar way to the unwelcome and unethical influence exerted by Wall Street banks on the American political landscape.
The Nebraska Legislature MUST seriously consider not only its legal obligation to its own citizens, but also the fact that, should the pipeline leak oil or other contaminants into the aquifer, virtually every other state in the central portion of the country may sue Nebraska for destroying their water supplies as well.
Furthermore, while there are already Federal standards for safety along the pipeline, Nebraska currently has almost no significant binding legislation regarding the cleanup of a natural disaster, like a massive oil spill.
Finally, one of Nebraska's extended neighbors has already dealt with the bullies of Big Oil over a similar nature - and won. Nebraska's senators and governor should warmly welcome advice from Montana's Governor Brian Schweitzer and Montana's legislators, on the problems they experienced - and how they could have handled their own pipeline re-routing challenge better.
There are ways in life to make some interactions with even unwelcome guests more successful.
Many times, those methods for success can be learned from the guests we'd rather interact with.
