The
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82nd Yeer Of Editorial Freedom
All unsigned editorials sre the cpL-Jca ofths editors. Letters ssd ccIjshs rspresrst ths cpL-Jcss cf
individuals.
System ignores Indians
Monday, September 23, 1974
Founded February 23, 1S93
;. Charges against Dennis Banks and
Russell Means, leaders of last year's 71
day occupation of Wounded Knee,
S.D., have been dropped and rightly
so.
But the main offender in connection
with the incident will never go to trial.
That party is the prosecution itself the
United States government.
": Newswriters and broadcasters have
reported only the surface details. After
an eight-month long, often disorderly
trial, U.S. District Judge Fred Nichol
dismissed the case last Monday, after
the prosecution refused to accept a
verdict from an 1 1-member jury.
One juror, whom the prosecution
considered "the most likely to convict,"
had suffered a stroke and was unable to
continue. Judge Nichol left open the
possibility that the case may still be
appealed. .
But as of now, the original charges of
three counts of assault, one of
conspiracy, and one of theft against
both of the American Indian Movement
(AIM) activists have not been upheld.
Such surface information is only
sufficient for the news reader or viewer
who just wants to be superficially aware
of what's going on. But the real crimes
those of the government have
disappeared from public view.
- One count against the government is
its: mismanagement of the situation at
"Wounded Knee. The Indians merely
pulled a publicity stunt to inform the
public and its politicians of their plight. ,
Symbolically, they chose the site of the
U.S. Cavalry's massacre in 1890 of 300
Sioux men, women and children.
Hostages in AIM's 1973 takeover
agreed with AIM's goals, went along
with coercion and were treated well.
One of the 300 original participants said
later, "We thought the whole thing
would only last a few days, and that we
would be able to come and go as we
pleased from the town."
However, the government sealed off
the town and focused on the within-the-system
crimes the Indians were
committing by taking over the town.
Negotiations failed again and again
because the government was neither
equipped nor willing to consider
conditions posed by the Indians. After
having been fired upon by marshals and
starved into submission, the militants
could only forget their demands and
begin to bargain for reduced charges.
The United States did not have to
consider the demands of the Indians at
Rerooirltninifi lacks
Never before had I seen a reporter at
a student meeting to wear such a large
"Press" card on his coat pocket. But
there CB Gaines sat in the Craige Green
Room for the Carolina Gay Association
meeting, with this shield on his chest and
another, a cassette tape recorder,
covering his lap. We remarked, perhaps
unkindly, that he was feeling, in an
ironic reversal, the insecurity that comes
from being surrounded by those of a
different sexual orientation. Perhaps
that could have provided him with some
insight into the paranoia that afflicts
gays who are starting to come out and
that never leaves some of them.
- But unfortunately his tape recorder
served as his shield not only against
sexual assault, but also against any
other involvement in the complex
contradiction of serious pursuit of
undefined goals that characterizes the
Carolina Gay Association, as well as
many other local and national gay
groups. Given the chance to be an
investigative reporter, an essayist on an
important perplexity of society, he
became an operator of a machine, and
he let his machine write his story for
him.
"Who you are is where you're at."
"That's euphonious." 1 assure you that
other people besides faggots are capable
of such vacuities. "Good luck getting
out of here." Evidently this is supposed
to- mean something significant, but I
cannot imagine what. If Gaines means
that there was a pervasive threat of
imminent abduction and rape, he may
have accurately summarized his own
feelings, but in the deadly businesslike
The Daily Tar Heel
Jim Cooper, Greg Turosak
Editors
Kevin McCarthy, Managing Editor
1 Barbara Holtzman, Associate Editor
Gary Fulton, Associate Editor
Joel Drinkley, News Editor
Harriet Sugar, Features Editor
Elliott Varnock, Sports Editor
Martha Stevens, Head Photographer
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Dennis Banks
Wounded Knee because its own code of
law provides no easily accessible avenue
for requests that its own policies be
changed. However, there certainly are
recognizable criminal offenses involved
in the seige of a town, and the
government was legally justified in
militarily stifling its opposition.
The Indians were asking that Sen.
Edward Kennedy lead a full-scale
Senate investigation into government
treatment of Indians in general and
South Dakota's Ogala Sioux in
particular. Not only would the Senator
obviously have more pressing duties,
but such an inquiry would make plain to'
the government the conditions under
which Indians live, and would suggest
that something be done about the
situation.
Studies have shown that American
Indians of the '70's are the poorest of the
poor. Their average annual income is
$1,500, their unemployment rate nearly
40 per cent. Fifty thousand Indian
families live in substandard houses.
Fifty per cent of Indian schoolchildren
become drop outs and the suicide rate of
Indian teen-agers is 100 times that of
whites.
Although the government
appropriates $8,000 annually for each
Ogala family, overhead and
bureaucratic waste reduces it to about
$1,900. Less than 20 per cent of the
atmosphere of most of the meeting,
fending off attackers was much less of a
problem than fending off sleep.
This is the kind of "alternative" we are
provided to the Electric Company. This
is why we call the E.C. a"meat market,"
a "homosexual cafeteria" I have
personally never heard anybody say
anything good about any gay bar and
yet, come Saturday night, you can find
as many as a thousand of us there.
If the DTH intends to make Gaines
"our" reporter, he might do better to
turn off his tape recorder and talk with
us. to find out why this apparent
paradox exists; to find out why, even in
the company of men who presumably
threaten them less than any other men,
the women must gather into a small ,
group by themselves; to find out why it
supposedly is an act of courage to walk
across the Craige lobby into the Green
Room; to find out if the alternative
offered by the CGA can be a positive,
building and purposeful experience for '
gays or merely a meat market with a
better atmosphere.
Gaines could have begun this
investigation when we broke up into
small discussion groups, but at this
point I lost track of him, and 1 was told
he left. My own discussion group was
fairly interesting, but to me it would
have been even more interesting to
exchange observations with an
"outsider." Denied this, I could have
settled for such an analysis in the
newspaper. Instead, I read an article
written by a tape recorder.
Is the DTH so afraid of offending us
try
Ogala finish high school, and only 46
per cent have jobs. Alcoholism is a
significant problem on the reservation.
Many would argue at this point that
Indians should leave the reservation and
put out the energy to make a decent,
non-dependent life for themselves. But
those who can only sustain themselves
with some government aid, and amidst
their own non-prejudiced culture group,
would have a difficult time of it on the
outside. Besides, say the Indians, why
give up the last bit of territory they can
claim as a group.
The next demand posed by Wounded
Knee occupants was that Sen. J.
William Fulbright, chairman of the
Senate Foreign Relations . Committee,
investigated 37 1 treaties allegedly signed
with the Indians and broken by the U.S.
government Such a study could only
reveal the territorial illegitimacy of the
United States. The American Indians
might at least accept payment for their
lands. But the question has long been
closed for a group with no affiliate party
leaders, corporate bosses, or business
executives to pressure for its benefit.
The Nixon Administration made
some effort to aid. Indians, but
succeeded, for the most part, only in
raising expectations for help that never
came. Funding of the Bureau of Indian
Affairs (B1A) was" increased. There was
at least an attempt to end the policy of
termination, a law that allows well
meaning liberals in Congress to give any
deserving Indian group its
independence from all government
provided services and health care.
However, Nixon also promised an
Indian education program that never
came. He appointed a special task force
to deal with Indian grievances,, and
Congress appointed its own such
committee as well. Neither group ever
met. -
Because our system is constructed so
as to respond only to the pressures of the
powerful, there is no way to call
attention to the problems of out-groups
except by staging an incident such as
that at Wounded Knee. But because
only the surface details have been
reflected in the media and considered by
the government, nothing has been
gained. Our legal system is not defined
to accommodate such sweeping
injustices as those the government
commits against Indians every day. So
while the bureaucrats stuff their faces
and ride in limousines, Indians will
continue to live in destitution on small
sections of the land they once ruled.
iei
that it is going to offer us nothing in the
way of comment but the liberal
platitudes of its recent editorial?
Perhaps the CGA will prove to be
touchy about negative comments, but I
am tired of being handled with kid
gloves. If the DTH has the courage to
take on a candidate for the Senate of the
United States, surely it has nothing to
fear from a bunch of queers. I for one.
will answer you better than Bob Morgan
has. We will all certainly yell if you step
on our toes, but I and many of my
brothers and sisters are as tired of being
smothered by inchoate good-will and
useless pleasantries as we are of being
assaulted with brutish slanders and
uninformed hatred.
Ron Knight
BELOW OLYMPUS
gut
W&C
(vsocms)
I He J
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A Tl A
The word is out. Time magazine is now calling us the
"Self-Centered Generation. Because of the recent
economic downturn, tight job markets and the failure
of campus activism even to perpetuate itself, students
have become increasingly pragmatic. And Time has
breathlessly capitalized on the situation. .
The article in this week's "Education" section is
careful to note that students have by no means come
full circle to the normalcy of the 50s. It points out that
"more liberal sexual mores and widespread
skepticism for political authority thankfully
differentiate us . from the era of milkshakes and
bobbysocks. After this analysis of the situation, Time
titled this year's crop of college students the "Self
Centered Generation" as if that were a new
development, or as if something had changed.
The basic question is what Time is describing.
Presumably, the term announces the new fundamental
nature of college students across the nation. But the
"Self-Centered Generation" is neither new nor
fundamental criticism of .today's youth.
Students have been, are, and are expected to be
concerned primarily with their own education. The
depth of campus activism was overrated during the
past decade when radical leaders captured the national
spotlight. The truth is that the vast majority of students
(and the majority of their contemporaries, non
students) did not strike or protest. Students self
centeredness hasn't changed.
Frats transcend stereotype
To the editors:
An article in Tuesday's paper, "Checking
out stereotypes on Fraternity Row" is yet
another successful attempt by our esteemed
campus newspaper to present a three
column, Eric Severeid analysis promising an
insight into fraternity life without saying
anything at all. The article was intended to
provide these insights for prospective
rushees during rush week. Naturally, one
would think that the article (based on several
weeks research, the authors maintain) would
try to do more than skim the surface of
fraternity life. Yet the whole article is mere
repetition of the age-old stereotypes
obviously written by two young staff writers
whose in-depth reporting is as deep as a
saucer.
The article capitalizes and focuses on the
most sensationalistic quotes and stories
imaginable " (a black house-boy in every
house and a beer in every hand). The article
summarizes fraternity life as "concerts,
mixers, intramurals, beer and other liquor."
That is certainly a part of fraternity life an
important part to many members. But
fraternity life goes much deeper than that; it
has to or else the whole concept would have
died long ago.
The single and most important aspect and
distinguishing characteristic of fraternity life
from other lifestyles is that it provides the
opportunity for a person to live in intimate
contact with other individuals who share a
common bond; Now I suppose this is
commonly known as brotherhood. In this
respect most fraternities are typical each
professes a strong sense of unity and
fellowship.
It is commonly taken for granted that a
united brotherhood demands subjugation of
the individual and homogeneity, and an
individual to acquiesce to the rule of the
majority. But the strongest and most
By Interiandi
V ? I HeJ
UurtrMtftei
1
Practical generation
Letters to the editors
successful fraternities on campus put an
emphasis on diversity and on what an
individual can contribute to the house.
What kind of people pledge fraternities?
In all honesty many of them are insecure
students from small-town backgrounds who
feel lost in a large university. Yet the
majority of fraternity members are simply
men attracted by the idea of involving
themselves with others in an organization
which promotes social activity and group
interaction. Many guys choose fraternity life
because it gives them a chance to form a close
association with individuals who represent a
whole spectrum of different interests and
involvements.
In this respect, fraternity life is unique:
scholars, athletes, men involved in student
activities and yes, those who are there just
for a good time make up most of Carolina's
fraternities. There is diversity within every
fraternity house, and that diversity cannot
help but to broaden each member's
experience; each member contributes and
learns from each other.
The Greek system is far from perfect; to a
large degree it suffers from its past and its
present. It is not the right life for every male
at Carolina, but my point is this: a person
interested in fraternities should see how they
operate first-hand and draw his own
conclusions. Don't be guided or prejudiced
by the 77f s articles or even the viewpoint
expressed in this letter.
For all its faults and shortcomings it is a
viable alternative to dorm or apartment life.
I think you will find a number of guys who
are individuals and who are concerned about
more things than just the date of the next
party.
Bill Sitton
Chi Phi House
300 S. Columbia St.
Autos endanger
town's cyclists
To the editors:
; I would like to reply to John Zinn's
column in the September 20 DTH. Though
myself a bicyclist, 1 will readily admit that
bicyclists do not always ride responsibly and
considerately. Nor would I disagree that an
unsafely operated bicycle is a hazard to
pedestrians, bicyclists and even motorists. In
fact, at the end of the last century, many saw
the two-wheelers speeding past pedestrians
and horse-drawn carriages as a public
menace. The campus and downtown
sidewalks particularly should maintain the
primacy of the pedestrian bicycles should
observe a five or eight m.p.h. speed limit on
walkways, and perhaps no bicycling should
be permitted on crowded walkways during
change of classes.
But there is another side to the matter.
When people feel they are unfairly dealt with
and not accorded reasonable privileges, they
are less motivated to act responsibly and
considerately. A bicyclist speeding down a
sidewalk does no one a favor. But everyone
who adopts a bicycle instead of an
automobile is doing all of us a big favor she
or he is avoiding pollution, saving energy,
reducing traffic, and keeping Chapel Hill a
cleaner, quieter, and more pleasant place to
live. Yet neither the Town of Chapel Hill nor
the University has done much to protect,
assist or appreciate bicyclists.
.The danger that bicycles constitute to
pedestrians is vastly outweighed by the,
Sanger from motor vehicles to bicyclists
(BL
What has changed are various underlying attitudes
which were permanently altered by the unrest of the
60s. Time noted a number of these changes (like
distrust of authority and sexual liberation) but
subordinated them to superficial indications of student
life like the number of hours spent in the library or the
number of job interviews attended.
The reason for Time's confusion is the widespread
change in the form of student beliefs, not their
substance. Students are more practical today, but this
is a more efficient application of their beliefs, not a
resurgence of their egotism. At Carolina fewer classes
are being cut and extra-curriculars are far less popular.
Students are finally being concerned with what David
Riesman saw as the "discrepancy between the America
students make for themselves as students, and the
America they will move into when they leave the
campus. The gap is closing between the university and
the real world as students better learn to translate their
objectives into the established social structure.
Time was moving in the right direction but it labeled
the wrong qualities. Society will be profoundly altered
when . the current generation of college students
matures with different ideas on premarital sex and
marijuana. We should v be called the "Practical
Generation" if a term must be used to separate us and
our techniques from those of the 60s. Our newfound
pragmatism is applied both to the underlying social
mores which have changed, and to our egotism, which
has not.
(1,150 died last year) and pedestrians ( 1 0,000
were killed). Oddly enough the bicyclist's
vulnerability in a conflict with an
automobile can inspire irritation rather than
sympathy, as a bicyclist friend of mine found
out when she sought treatment at the
emergency room.
John Zinn has noticed that bicyclist's eyes
protrude, which he ascribes to
psychosociophysiologicalhypoxygenation.
Protruding eyes are more likely an
evolutionary response to the ever-present
danger of being cut in front of or pushed
aside by automobiles, and the more
mundane hazards of sewer grates and
parking lot gravel runoff.
Psychosociophysiologicalhypoxygen-
ation, on the other hand, is more widespread
- than Mr. Zinn is apparently aware. A study
reported in the Journal of the American
Medical Association several weeks ago
found levels of carbon monoxide (CO)
higher than the EPA safe maximums in over
40 per cent of a nationwide sample of blood
donors. The biggest source are the
automobiles into which so many pedestrians
'retreat after their stroll through the Mall
parking lot.
Since bicyclists are more directly exposed
to automobile exhaust than either
pedestrians or motorists, and since they
breathe at a greater rate? we can expect them -to
have much higher CO concentrations. For
the same reasons, they also get more than
their fair share of lead, sulfur-dioxide and
'other pollutants. How ironic that the driver
who pollutes the least must breathe the most.
How ironic also that a society that consumes
such a great amount of deodorants and
perfumes thinks so little about the odor
caused by its transportation. .
As an example of the apparent official
attitude, Chapel Hill Town Manager Chet .
Kcndzior was reported in Thursday's Chapel
Hill Newspaper, as considering removing
onstreet parking from downtown Franklin
Street to improve the flow of traffic. Was he
thinking about bicycle lanes? According to
the report, bicycles weren't even mentioned.
Five months ago a group of residents of
my apartment complex sent a proposal to
Mayor Howard Lee (with copies to Chet
Kendziqr and each of the alderpersons) for
bicycle lanes on downtown Chapel Hill
streets and on the route from Carrboro.
Neither the Mayor nor the Town Manager
nor any of the alderpersons (with the
exception of Alice Welsh) responded.
Perhaps some day all the bicyclists will drive
into downtown in automobiles so that town
officials can see that the only reason there is
any traffic flow is that so many students and
other residents ride bicycles.
Mr: Zinn deserves his safety and comfort
on the sidewalks. We deserve ours on the
streets and bikeways.
Vic Schoenbach
P.O. Box 488
Carrboro
Cheerleaders
offensive, vulgar
To the editors:
Our head cheerleaders proved themselves
to be obnoxious, disorganized, repulsive,
rasping, corny, offensive, vulgar, ridiculous,
trite and nauseating. Most important,
through their uncanny combination of these
traits, they stifled the fans' potential
enthusiasm.
The Heels need the fans and their
enthusiastic support.
The fans need two new head cheerleaders.
. Bill Fairbanks
307 Morrison