Flex/AS3 casting question

programming flash
1

I am having a hard time coming from another programming mentality here. I am trying to reference an object using a variable passed to a handler. the string as it seems (datatype) is correct, but I cant figure out how to define it as an object reference.

The problem here is, event.item.@data when outputed as a string is “networkPanel” which i want. But I need to somehow, and i dont know the command to do so… but if it existed

thisIsaObject(event.item.@data).visible = whatever;

private var menubarXML:XMLList =
                <>
                    <menuitem label="Applications" data="top">
                        <menuitem label="Network Status" data="networkPanel"/>
                    </menuitem>
                </>;
            // Event handler to initialize the MenuBar control.
            private function initCollections():void {
                menuBarCollection = new XMLListCollection(menubarXML);
            }
            // Event handler for the MenuBar control's itemClick event.
             private function menuHandler(event:MenuEvent):void{
                //If i change event.item.@data to networkPanel - this works.
                 if (event.item.@data == true)
                 {
                  event.item.@data.visible = false;
                 }
                 else
                 {
                  event.item.@data.visible = true;                  
                 }            
            }