The Scarlet dr Black, Oct, 13Y IS78—page 5

 

More letters to the ed1tor

Survival and dignity of native Americans in our hands

To the editor: The other night we
all had a rollicking good time
cheering for the human beings in
Little Big Man, It was mighty
iunny watching those stupid, but
unfortunately Omnipotent, white
men make fools of themselves.
The problem is that the
descendants of the human beings
are still around, and the latter day
Custeis wear hard hats or do battle
in our Congressional halls. Instead
of stealing the land. they obtain the
mineral rights This gives them the

right to build access roads, rape
the land, and leave it useless all for
a “strong America.” I won't give
you the details; they are in Burling
ior anyone who cares to look,

Several tribes have recently sold
muchoi the states of Maine and
Florida at a bargain basement
price to get the money they need to
survive as a people.

It is also interesting to note that
many of the Indian tribes east of
the Mississippi are not American
citizens. thus exempting them

Off-campus living can beia pleasure

To the editor: While informing the
inexperienced campus population
of the hazards oi off-campus living.
Ben Templin, in his article about
off-campus residences; casts a dim
light onto the possibilities that
renting in town may afford.
Undoubtedly there are bad
landlords who take their tenants
for granted. We, however, would
like to draw attention to our friend
and landlord, Dean Douglas. of
Grinnell. Dean is concerned With
getting his check on time. but he is
also concerned with usvas living
human beings rather than as a
subspecies, i,e., students, ,
Happily. Dean does not exhibit
any ot the irritating traits usuallv
associated with students' lands
lords. Should an occasion arise
where he has to enter our house he
always phones to arrange a
mutually convenient time.
Common courtesy (which is
contagious) might be expected of
any landlord; Dean, however, goes
beyond the Call of duty! He saw fit
to provide us with luxuries that are
only pipe dreams in the minds oi
students. Dean was not Satisfied
until the interior of the housewas
cleaned and painted [or us. Fur
thermore, in the interest of color»

 

coordination he purchased new
curtains to match the freshly
painted living room. A brand new
vacuum cleaner. a shower curtain
with a reproduction of “The Birth
of Venus.“ a handrail for the front
steps. and new storm windows
were all supplied before we moved
in this fall. An extensive “search"
for a frost-free refrigerator is in
progress

Off»campus living is not just
leaky taucets and Gestapoesque
landlords. It can mean escape
from claustrophobic dorms and
gastrophobic food.

Prospective off-campus
students: don’t despair—not all
Grinnell apartmenm are eyesoresl
Steve Brull. Sei Takeguchi, "er-
man Farrer,

Correction made

To the editor: Correction, please.

Regarding your publication of
my letter in your September 29
issue:‘ The local planing mill
is Bob’s woodworking shop on
Broad Street. It is not a “planning
mill,” The spelling in my original
communication was correct, Grant
0. Gale.

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Patrons must be 18yrs. old beforeJulyl,1978

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from such things as college
scholarships. In order to become
citizens, they must deny their
allegiance to their Indian nation.

It’s very easy to point a finger at
a bureaucrat or executive, but
we're the ones who use the
minerals; they are our
representatives and, ultimately,
we describe much of what happens
to Native Americans.

If Indians are only movie
wisemen or an historical em-
barrassment for us. then they can
be dismissed as a quaint, trivial
fantasy by us.

Whether this is our design by
choice or ignorance makes no
differenceithe survival and
dignity of the native American is in
our hands. If all we can do is shake
our heads in resignation, all that
may be lett oi our dignity will be in
old movies. Bob Van Nostrand

David Blatt

Grinnell is what you make it

To the editor: Long ago, there was
an old man sitting on his front
porch when a Conestoga wagon
rolled by. “What sort of folk live
out here?” asked the traveler,
“Well,” responded the old man,
“What're the folks like back where
you come from?" “They’re a
mean. low-down. nasty lot," said
the traveler. “That's mostly what
you'll find here.” answered the old
man. The traveler decided to move
on,

Soon. another wagon came
through, and the traveler within
asked the same question. When the
old man queried about the folks
back home, the second traveler
replied. “They’re a clean, fine,
upstanding lot." ”Well,” said the
old man, “That’s mostly the sort of
folk you'll find here."

I grow so weary of encountering
derogatory remarks about Grin»
nell, I do not find Grinnell to be a
“mundane midwestern college,"

(3&8, Sept. 8), nor do I think it is a
“sterile, artificial environment."
nor do l consider it a “$5,600 babyr
Sittlng service” (Letter to the
editor, Sept. 22).

Grinnell is a unique. thriving,
active institution that is every bit
as “real" as any other reality 1
have encountered. Granted, we are
spared here many of the pressures
we will confront later on, but
Gn'nnell also provides an ideal
environment tor an exciting now of
ideas and opportunity for growth
that will rarely be found “out
there," however one wants to
define the phrase.

of all the ways I have heard
Grinnell maligned. I find the ad-
jective “sterile" the most inaps
propriate. Perhaps those who think
of Grinnell in these and other
negative terms would be doing
everyonea favor if they decided to
move on. Karla Goodman,

Clarifies the energy situation

By the time this issue of the 5&3
comes out the Congress may have
finally passed some version of
President Carter‘s energy bill,
although the final product is
certainly a very different creature
from the one first proposed two
years ago.

The President certainly has had
more than his share of troubles
with the energy bill. It took all of
his Camp David-inspired prestige
just to shake the measure loostk
but it is hard to see how any
President in this situation could
have done much better.

CHEAP, PLENTIFUL energy
has beena partof our economy and
lifestyle ever since America
became an industrial power. Just
as we embrace the benefits of the
consumer society that in-
dustrialism created so do we cling
tenaciously to the concept of
almost free energy mat made
industrialism possible. Yet once
we take the basic first step of
realizing that oil and gas are
running out. two basic and fun
damental issues present theme
selves. One was resolved in-
conclusively in Congress and the
other didn't even make it onto the
public agenda,

THE FIRST ISSUE, the one on
which debate over energy policy
usually centers, is the emphasis on
production versus conservation
and development or alternative
energy sources. But if one accepts
the fact that energy supplies are
becoming scarce, this shouldn’t be
an issue at all; production of more
energy would only exacerbate the
problem and conservation plus
research into alternatives would
seem to be the reasonable policy
direction.

The business community and the
growth ethic, however, have never
been any respecters of reason. The
oil companies have a decided stake
in prolonging our dependence on oil
and gas, no matter how high the

prices rise, because that is their
market (and a very lucrative one).

MOREOVER. ONE need not see
any sinister or even self-interested
motive in emphasizing production,
ior production is the easy way out,
the American way. Many people,
even otherwise-learned
economists. persist in the naive but
comforting belief that energy is

Just another factor of production,
that if we start to run low the
miracles of science and technology
can always come up with more.

Increased production of gas and
oil is not only irresponsible when
compared to development of
alternate energy sources. but it is
downright obscene when pursued
to the exclusion of conservation,
We could cut our energy use
considerably without even feeling
it, and we could slice it sub-
stantially with only minor flesh
wounds.

THE AMOUNT OF energy this
country uses and wastes is a totally
unnecessary international
disgrace. Germany. Japan and
other advanced industrialized
countries manage to get by on far
less energy per capita than we do.
and still are able to surpass us in
foreign land some domestic!
markeLs. It is an old truism that
the American people never
recognize a crisis untilthey're in it.
but hopefully we won‘t wait until

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the last few painful drops of the oil

spigot are exhausted before turv
ning wholeheartedly to con
servation and development of
other energy sources.

Even assuming that the nation
does embark on a course of full-
scale conservation and research
and development, we still must
face the second fundamental issue
of growth in energy demand.
The question of growth has been
buried amidst all the other con~
troversies over energY. with
statistics supporting both con
servation and production citing
“projected future levels of
demand" which are based on
present rates of growth.

ALMOST EVERYONE assumes
that we‘ll need more energy in the
long run than we use now, even
allowing for conservation, and this
is a correct assumption given the
present basis of our economic
system, But growth in longrterm
energy demand, even under the
best of conditions, will certainly
lead to a profound crisis. As we are
beginning to see now. moreover.
the business of obtaining energy
will require more and more capital
and other resources no matter
what source we use. The scramble
for scarce energy tends to shunt
aside Considerations of en,
vironmental damage. safety, and
individual rights.

Oil, coal. solar energy, nuclear
power, and every other con-
ceivable energy source entails
great cosB in money, effort,
resources and the quality oi human
life. Even if the highlyrtouted
hydrogen fusion process were to
surpass our greatest expectations
and provide totally free and
available energy, we would still
face the problems of pollution,
depletion of chemicals and omer
natural resources, the population
explosion, the rising material
expectations of poor nations and
individuals, political conﬂict, and
all the other byproducts of in.
dustrialized economic growth.

PERHAPS THE most awesome
issue confronting our society tas
patient readers of the 5&8 will
recall) ls the dilemma of economic
zrowth,a dilemma which no one—
certainly no one in the Oval Office
or Congress—seems ready to deal
with.

President Carter‘s original
energy proposal was a good first
step toward grappling with the
problem and about the best that
could be expected under the cir-
cumstances. The present energy
bill is arguably better (politically.
at least) than no bill at all, but we
will require more imaginative
leadership and more foresight
among ourselves before we come
to fully realize the ﬁniteness of. our ~
earui and its resources. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘

 

