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Letters to the Editor
By Our Readers
It’s more than just mascots and casinos
I hesitated to respond to the article written by Robb Manning about American Indian mascots.
But after reading this article, I can say that it is evident that Manning is one of hundred of thousands living in the Milwaukee area that lack the brain capacity to understand the issue of the use of American Indian mascots.
I know it would absolutely useless to provide Manning with a litany of abuses and ignorance he and others of his ilk refuse to even consider. However, I will tell you this: there is obviously a difference between buildings, cities, rivers and human beings. I see no city or river feeling insulted when a student stands beside it, and cupping his or her hands and yelling, "Wisconsin River, you suck!"
Rivers hardly babble at the thought, and a city on the receiving end of such a slur might belch only a little pollution. The Milwaukee River could care less if you dip your toe into her waters and call her filthy and dirty.
I'll take this a step further. There are countless buildings on both Marquette's campus as well as UWM's campus that are named after people. These buildings memorialize these men; that is respect. Clearly, according to Manning's theory, that would be whoring those names out.
I agree with the fact that many casinos have tribal names associated with them; we can clearly acknowledge that these buildings are named out of respect or to identify who "owns" that particular casino — not to whore their name for the sake of a casino.
Naming a team after the indigenous people of this nation is not memorializing those that welcomed the lost and dirty "pilgrims" into our homes and communities. And what about memorializing your people as they once were?
How about the Washington Whitedevils for preserving history? Or better yet, I want to honor your people and your religion! So, I suggest in learning your wisdom — the missing link because this isn't about your identity or anyone else like you.
The sad reality is that in fact, schools and professional sports teams who use Native American names and mascots provide the breeding ground for "acceptable" racism.
Consider being at an Atlanta Braves game and the opposition screaming, "kill the Braves!" That is what our children see at school and on television. That is what these team logos and mascots of Native Americans teach them, that it is "acceptable" to demean a race or a group of people. That is what they grow up thinking about American Indian people.
Darren Thompson Lac du Flambeau Ojibway
Katrina shows us need for higher education
The Katrina disaster was a huge blow to this country.
Hundreds are dead. Families lost everything, their jobs, their homes, and their social network. The sick and the elderly in the region were victimized.
Entire industries crumbled; the economic base in the area disappeared with ramifications throughout the United States.
But in the weeks after Labor Day, the country is responding and rebuilding. The pumps are pumping out the floodwaters. The streets have been reclaimed. Donations are pouring in, citizens are opening up their homes and hearts.
Feisty community leaders and business owners are re-emerging. Despite the enormous challenge of rebuilding economic infrastructure, job opportunities, education and housing that face the region, there is hope, there is heart.
The tradition of aid in America toward one another in a time of need has triumphed over the vulnerability and abandonment that the storm exposed.
However, Hurricane Katrina left us with a bigger question. How did our communities become so vulnerable?
These families had no insurance, no access to quality health care, not enough money to get out quickly when an emergency strikes, no savings account, no social network beyond the immediate region to assist them in the face of such incredible loss.
In fact, the disaster has exposed to the country the plight of our middle- and lower-income families all across the country before the hurricane hit and just how precarious their situation is. Lacking opportunity, millions of families live without cash savings, insurance, the skills of a well-trained work force, access to civic networks that serve communities.
It is clear that in the same spirit of aid that has enabled our country to address the needs of the victims after Katrina, we need to strengthen our social fabric with the same compassion and common vision.
Only one quarter of this country has a college degree. We know that a college degree creates a skilled work force, a higher salary upon graduation and a stronger likelihood that civic structures can flourish to buttress communities from blows over time.
Without the opportunity of a college degree, millions of people live with the odds stacked against them. Now is the time to strengthen this country’s programs that are available for lower- and middle-income families and students to beat the odds, access affordable education and be better situated to weathering storms of all kinds.
Rather than making college more affordable, Congress is planning a raid on student aid! This fall, both the House and the Senate are planning to divert billions of dollars away from the students who need them.
The House of Representatives has proposed cutting $9 billion of aid to students by raising interest rates and eliminating borrower benefits. These cuts could cost the average student borrower up to $5,800 in extra interest payments.
The Senate will raise interest rates for family loans and divert $7 billion away from the students who need them. All in the name of a deficit reduction package, which actually adds to the deficit once the numbers are calculated!
The fact is that millions of students and families come up short of what the federal government estimates they need to pay for college, even after adding up all available federal and state aid, expected family contributions and student work. The typical low-income student falls $3,800 short a year at a four-year school, while the typical middle-class student falls $2,300 short.
The way to lead students out of this hole is right in front of Congress; both chambers could increase Pell Grant funding by $17 billion just by removing inefficiencies in the student loan program.
This would raise the Pell Grant scholarship by as much at $1,000. If the additional cuts proposed above were also recycled back into the aid programs, then Congress would gain the ability to markedly increase grant aid further and provide lower interest rates on loans.
This is a golden opportunity to get middle- and lower-income families and students out of the hole and for the American people to maintain our tradition of aid and community that has gotten us through the aftermath so far. Let’s hope Congress responds to this spirit.
Luke Swarthout State PIRGs’ Higher Education Project Washington, D.C.
Not all who use steroids are cheaters
After reading the column about steroids (Sept. 7), I felt I had to put in my two cents.
I happen to be an undergrad student at UWM majoring in exercise and fitness. The topic of illegal steroids in sports is of great concern to me.
I want to note my active participation in the sport of natural bodybuilding through the International Natural Bodybuilding Federation (INBF). Steroids affect this sport more so then any other sport I know of, although this gap is fading very quickly. I share the same views on the morality, honesty and fairness of steroids in sport.
I see such actions as cheating in its purist form. Making oneself stronger, faster or bigger than physiologically possible through normal means of training, diet and sport specific practice is unethical and immoral and wrong.
While men and women train year round the right way by eating well, training consistently week after week and month after month, they still find themselves taking bench seats or taking losses to those few who undermine the principle of fair play by using steroids. This practice tarnishes the world of sport and athletics, the particular sport at hand and the athlete him or herself as well. The use of steroids has placed a limit on my potential to progress as a natural bodybuilder given the oath I made to myself to never use anything banned by the International Olympic Committee, NCAA or INBF. This choice will restrain my achievements to the amateur ranks at best and far from that of professional or even semi-professional bodybuilding.
I do want to make note of the point made about “shooting up once, shooting up a million times.” This holds true in almost all cases, but I want to clarify this statement. Those who voluntarily choose to take steroids know what they are doing and should be aware of all consequences.
But in many cases athletes who did not have any intension of taking steroids still find themselves failing urine, polygraph and other tests. How does this happen? It’s easy really.
A handful of supplement companies (legal sports supplements, not anabolic steroids) do not have independent testing facilities or laboratories to test the quality, purity and safety of their products.
This leads to products that have a few extra ingredients in them that are not listed on the product. Athletes take these products and unknowingly end up victims of failed steroid test. This has been proven when a few ticked-off athletes had their supplements sent to a lab for testing only to find that there were extra ingredients in the pills, drinks, powders.
Some of these companies even add some trace amounts of extra stuff (illegal steroids or banned substances) to their product because they are aware of the fact that their product alone has minimal to no effect on athletic performance. These poor athletes looking for a simple edge by taking a simple protein powder, weight gainer or amino acid tablet find themselves failing tests and being labeled as a “cheater or user.”
To clump the one-timers and the regular shooters together and call them all cheaters is not fair. This false labeling has happened in situations from professional levels to high school all over the country every month in almost every sport. Simple acts of drinking too much coffee before runs has caused athletes to fail tests.
Eating too many poppy seed muffins or having to much sex the night before certain power events in track and field has lead to failed tests for blood serum caffeine and testosterone levels being to high.
Better testing and screening policies/methods are needed to assure that fair play, morality and sport ethics are maintained at the youth, collegiate and professional levels. Currently the World Anti-Doping Agency and IOC are hard at work fixing this problem.
Josh Hockett
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