Western Washington University Western CEDAR
Klipsun Magazine Western Student Publications
4-1976
Klipsun Magazine, 1976, Volume 06, Issue 04 - April
Vincent Hagel Western Washington University
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Recommended Citation Hagel, Vincent, "Klipsun Magazine, 1976, Volume 06, Issue 04 - April" (1976). Klipsun Magazine. 33. https://cedar.wwu.edu/klipsun_magazine/33
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/»'*r tpa McCloskey Stephan Voliime 6, Number 4 Printed by Klipsun is a twice quarterly general purpose magazine, Josten’s American Yearbook written and produced by and for the students Visalia, California of Western Washington State College
Editor Vincent Hagel Art Director Gary Bertram Design Assistant Kristin W arner Story Editors Anne Tanner, Pete MacKenzie Photo Editor Kyung Sun Hong Photo Technician Tom Wilson Illustrations Phil Nibbelink, Mike Cloherty Staff Sherry Wickwire, Jim Biel, Marie McClanahan, Steve Tompson, Johnie Moceri, John Flinn, Catherine Lord, Roy Tanaka, Lynn Truckey, Mike Thompson Proofreader Louie Phillips Advisor Pete Steffens Title Photo Kyung Sun Hong On the Cover: Sculpture and photo by Michael Hovey Back Cover Gary Bertram © 1976 he old man’s only comfort was his home-made embodied a spectrum that illuminated all the socio-eco cigarettes. He sucked on them incessantly. He nomic sub-groups that inhabit Southeast Asia. We Tconstructed them with loving care. Exactly so much worked with the very rich and the very poor. We worked tobacco, just the right amount of saliva on the paper and with the proud and the humble, and we worked with a very carefully considered twist to each end. demigods and sincere republicans. We worked and He lit each one with loving deliberation, then held it wondered if our efforts were worthwhile. Could we between the thumb and index finger, closed his eyes and possibly meld this polyglot into a useful whole that sucked deeply on the fragile comfort. would benefit America? When the cigarette began to burn his lips, he would very delicately remove I joined the “Americans Teaching the fire, dismantle the cigarette and Vietnamese Survival English,’’ inci save each scrap of tobacco that was dentally. I had registered for all my left. Then he would roll another courses for the fall quarter 1975 and cigarette. classes were to commence the next He hurt my conscience. I wished day. A friend mentioned the pro they would move him to another gram. I speak a little Vietnamese, quonset, but they never did. During and what the hell, the sim shines and the entire three months I taught women wear bikinis in Southern English to the Vietnamese refugees at California, so I volunteered. Camp Pendleton, I saw the old man Camp Pendleton, a Marine base, is all day, six days a week. a few miles north of San Diego. It’s From the window of my classroom I one of the largest military bases in couldn’t miss him. Every day started the country, and the “Few Good the same way. My class started at 8 Men’’ I worked with there turned out a.m. and shortly after I started to be damn fine men. teaching, the old man would step from the door of his quonset and roll The base supported the Refugee his first smoke of the day. He was Training completely. We received more than old, he was ancient. His coffee-brown eyes only the finest in their support of our logistical and human receded far into the muddy stain of his face. He wore the needs. Marines, old and young, many of whom had black pajama miiform of the Vietnamese peasant and a horrific memories of Vietnam, spent countless hours pair of shower clogs that had been cast aside by some G.I. helping us make the program a success. And all day long he smoked and looked at nothing. Eight separate refugee camps were established at I wished they would move him. He hurts my conscience. Pendleton. Nestled in the sere brown hills of San Diego The refugees that came to us at Camp Pendleton County, the camps provided all the creature comforts for the confused refugees that the Marines could muster. Cooks learned Asian dishes, transportation people ran special taxi service, small Base Exchanges were estabhshed throughout the base, and Special Services provided nightly shows for each camp. Pendleton was only one part of San Diego that went all-out to support the program. People from the county — and surrounding counties — opened their hearts to the Asian arrivals. They came from the country, towns and cities bearing gifts, encouragement and invitations into their homes. On Monday mornings, classes were impossible. The refugees were too busy discussing the events of the imbelievable Sunday and exclaiming over the magic of Disneyland or the Cahfornia freeways. I experienced a revival of the tarnished plaque on our Statue of Liberty that ends, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest host, to me. I hft my lamp beside the golden door.” The residents were sweetly wonderful. The Marines were great, but the teachers were fantastic. They were teachers, students and people interested in people. They worked for a pittance that usually failed to pay their mileage and food, but they worked with a sincere dedication. Many drove the long miles along the Pacific or over the California mountains, each morning, worked all day and often into the night — and they persevered. They spent their lunch hour discussing ways to make the program better, and they spent their spare nickels and dimes to bring “Uttle treats” to their charges. They were splendid. It would, of course, be fatuous to assume that everyone in the program was totally cooperative and altruistic. As in any human endeavor, there were petty jealousies and (-•CO infighting. Administration slipped cogs, and people didn’t CO get paid. +-* CO
Prejudice often raised its slimy head. Student teachers railed at estabhshed teachers. Administrators often criticized the teaching force. Disgruntled citizens complained of taxpayers’ money spent on the program. Avarice was always present, but day by day, week by week, the program continued. The refugees learned English, how to shop in supermarkets, buy cars, get medical help and get along in the average American community. The gears were in motion and the program ground forward. The pace was grueling for the volunteer teacher. The day started at 8 a.m. with an in-service training period that ended in a discussion of teaching methods and results. After the in-service, the teachers fanned out to their assigned camps and started classes. In my case, I drove 15 miles to Camp San Onofere to begin teaching and uOi watching the old man roll his cigarettes. u c At 4 p.m. the day classes were over. Some of the CO u California-based teachers left the camps to drive home. Many came from as far as 100 miles from the camp and CO made the round trip six days a week. 0) CO A number of us taught night classes. For us, it was a o matter of rushing to a restaurant for a quick bite, trying
5 to complete a few personal chores and be back at evening One family typical of this group lives in Bellingham. in-service by 6 p.m. Night classes ended at 10. The night Hue Do was a career officer in the Vietnamese Army. He classes held one consolation for me. I couldn’t see the old and his family fled Saigon hours before the Commimists man. took the city. Hue talks of the discomforts and trials of the When the program was over — when we had done escape with stark simpHcity. what we could to prepare the uprooted people to assume It could not have been pleasant — crowded hke cattle a new life in an alien society we teachers would return on a troopship, living for days without normal creature to our homes. But what of the refugees? comforts and always the uncertainty of what to expect at Many would be sponsored by American families, the other end of the line. church or civic groups. For many others, there would be The Hue family anchored in Belhngham by way of Camp no sponsoring activity. I wondered about the old man. I Murray, the Washington relocation center, and two went finally with my interpreter to talk to him. Bellingham families that “wanted to do a little more.’’ He said he had been a farmer in the Phan Rang Dean and Bonita Wiebe and Raymond and Barbara province. He had left Vietnam, he said, because his son Peabody sponsored the Hues. The sponsorship, typical of what happened throughout the country, involved untold hours of personal effort and monetary expense to get the refugees settled. ... when we had done what we could Bonita Wiebe said she and her family talked to God to prepare the uprooted people before they made the decision. Now, seven months later, to assume a new life in an she thinks God gave them the correct answer. alien society . . . And maybe he did. The Hues are settled in a
had fought with the Americans, and he feared bloody The old man was one who could not, reprisals from the Communists. He had no sponsor, had or would not, take root in an attended no classes and had no idea where he would go alien soil when the camp closed. The old man was one of too many who could not, or would not, take root in an alien soil. These unsuccessful transplants will be homeless state charges as long as they comfortable home on Belhngham’s north side. Hue has a hve. They’ll die a half world away from their ancestral job with the state. His family seems typically American. homes, never understanding the forces that disrupted Nine year-old Cuong attends a BeUingham pubhc their lives. school. He likes to be called Joe. He wants to be a At the other end of the scale are the refugees who are fireman. One daughter goes to a beauty school, another to managing the transition. As a part of the follow-up Bellingham High and a third is taking classes at Eastern program. I’ve kept in touch with a dozen Southeast Asian Washington State CoUege. families. The Hues are assimilating into mainstream America. Three-fourths of this group are adjusting well to Evaluation of the massive refugee program, when American society. Family heads and, in most instances, weighed by the success of this family and others like other members of the family have jobs. They are buying them, would seem to be totaUy affirmative. cars and houses and are studying for their citizenship . . . But somewhere an old man roUs endless cigarettes tests. and stares back into the past. . .
6 By Deborah Marie Smith
C^orporate America and Madison Avenue are selling 1976 to get the American people to buy a Bicentennial celebration, complete with American flags on cocktail napkins, matchbook covers and placemats, Dolly madison 1976 birthday cakes and plastic red, white and blue liberty bells. But the celebration makers conveniently forgot to tell with the foimding principles of this nation — like life, Americans that this is the Bicentennial of a revolution — hberty, economic freedom and equal rights — and to a revolution that threw out an estabhshed, entrenched teach people how to apply these principles to their own government, overthrew tyranny and put the controls of personal economic lives. the economy in the hands of the people. A revolution that They see the giant corporations as modern-day Tories, gave the common man “certain inalienable rights.” At opponents to be fought so all Americans can own tJieir least for a time. jobs, and exercise some control over their economic If it weren’t for the words of our radical founding future. Environmental responsibility is an equally fathers having been preserved, much of this nation would important part of the PBC’s objectives. stumble blindly into the gaudy, spectacular year. And if it Roger-Dave Hardesty is a co-founder of Western’s PBC weren’t for organizations like the People’s Bicentennial branch. A direct descendant of Peyton Randolph, Commission which is devoted to reviving, publishing and president of the first Congressional Congress, Roger hails hving these words, the Bicentennial would be as devoid of from New Jersey. From offices in the Viking Union, the revolutionary as America’s tinseled, garish Christmas Western’s PBC coordinates activities like the free celebration is devoid of the spirit of Jesus Christ. showing of “The Selhng of the Pentagon” last month. The People’s Bicentennial Commission is a national Hardesty said the PBC is concerned with carrying out organization that prints material for local, grass-roots the right granted in Declaration of Independence: that PBC chapters. Its main purposes are to reacquaint people whenever any government becomes destructive to the
7 life, liberty and pursuit of happiness of the people it prosecution for any illegal action if he felt what he was governs, the people have the right to alter or abolish it, to doing was right at the time. institute a new government laying its foundation in such a The bill seems to indicate vague references to what way to affect their safety and happiness. constitutes conspiracy could endanger many innocent ‘The main thing we’re pushing is economic demo Americans. cracy,” Hardesty said. Roger said he would also like to see things like KUGS, But would such a major change have to come through the campus radio station, invite students to write violent revolution? intelligent letters to their Congressmen. The letters could ‘‘No. I’m non-violent,” Hardesty said. The second be read over the radio, then sent to the Congressmen. American Revolution can come through existing struc- KUCS officials have so far rejected this idea, he said. tm*es, he believes, like working with unions for control of Western’s PBC recommends that ‘‘Voices of the the jobs and through the ballot box. American Revolution,” a Bantam Book pubhshed by the But aren’t Americans too content to want to change National People’s PBC, be made the book of the quarter things? Wouldn’t they rather just let things go on like they for next quarter. The book contains quotes that coule be are? considered revolutionary like ‘‘The Young people are
Roger’s reply cited a public opinion poll conducted by right in fighting for their Cod-given native liberties,” and Hart Research Associates that found one of three ‘‘Let us disappoint the men who are raising themselves Ameicans believes that our capitalist system is on the upon the ruin of this country.” Both were spoken by Sam decline, and two out of three favor basic changes in our Adams in 1776. economic system. And 56 per cent of the pubhc say they The Whatcom County-Bellingham Bicentennial Commit would definitely support or probably support a presi tee, however, does not sanction either the Western or dential candidate who favored employee control of United Bellingham chapters of PBC. Page one of the BeUingham States companies. Herald Jan. 4 issue reported that the PBC, which is Since Western’s PBC is on a college campus, Roger said seeking a ‘‘Civic revival throughout the coimtry in 1976 in he is working for more college-community cooperation. order to develop more citizen power, is not a sanctioned ‘‘Term papers done by students can be relevant,” he said. activity as it is not supportive of our type of government.” ‘‘Research work done on campus could be used to benefit The quote is from the Whatcom official chairman Neil the community.” The People’s Research Organization of Lathrop. the Bicentennial Commission is a valuable resource, too, The Seattle Times of Nov. 17, 1975 quoted the United he said. They are now seeking to publicize Senate Bill 1 States Chamber of Commerce as calling the PBC which seems to excuse any government official from ‘‘dangerous,” and the American Legion calling it
8 'a4o L iA a 4^.^ii> “Frightening.” A member of the Bellingham PBC said the I am going to give it my best to see if there are any public blasting was “the best endorsement that we could other patriots. Like my ancestor Peyton Randolph, I am possibly get. King George III no doubt referred to the 1776 pledging my life, my fortune and my sacred honor.” revolutionaries as dangerous and frightening. There are Hardesty could echo the words of Sam Adams to a lot of Tories in the country today.” challenge his fellow Americans: “1/ you love wealth better But if some groups think publicizing the founding than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the principles is frightening, others find it very positive. animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. When Ralph Nader spoke to Western students last Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May you December, he said of the PBC, “If you ever need any chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that example of how a few people can make a very significant you were our countrymen. ” impact, look at what they’re doing. They have discredited Nationally, the PBC has been matching demonstrations the official Bicentennial effort, corporate style, in the fairly well with the spectaculars staged by the official country. They’ve stopped it in its tracks.” Bicentennial Commission. At a PBC-sponsored rally, Roger and others were influenced by Nader then to 45,000 patriots gathered at the Old North Bridge on the form Western’s chapter. Until then, Hardesty was not Concord River to keep vigil on the eve of 200th especially pohtical. But he was bewildered and disil anniversary of the “shot that was heard *round the lusioned by the justice system because of several legal world. The rally for economic democracy was staged **to hassles that had frustrated him. For two years, he had send a message to Wall Street." fought a sex discrimination case through New Jersey state Through the night, through 10 hours dotted with courts after he had been refused hiring for having long drizzling rain and low temperatures, the people listened hair. Roger saw this as blatantly sexist, but was to folk and protest songs and to speeches. Richard disappointed when nothing came of his struggle. Chavez, co-director of United Farm Workers, Florence But he saw the PBC as a way to get involved in making a Luscomb, a 92-year old suffragist. Dr. George Wald, a non-violent and effective change. Like the early Nobel prize-winning scientist and environmentalist Dr. Americans, Roger feels important economic change can Barry Commoner were among the speakers. Arlo Guthrie, be brought about through trade boycotts, by refusing to Pete Seeger and a host of other musicians entertained buy any more shiny new products. “General Motors the troops with songs like “This Land is Your Land,” subverted mass transit in the 1920s,” Hardesty said. especially significant in the hght of the location and time. At 9:30 a.m.. President Ford arrived at Concord Bridge to kick off the “official” Bicentennial campaign. Ford spoke just a hundred yards from the demonstrators. Among the crowd of PBC patriots could be seen large green and yellow “Don’t Tread on Me” flags and posters that said, “Democracy for the Economy” and “Lay off profits, not people.” Chanting “Live free or die!” and “Jobs, not speeches,” OMi ix> do oM. some flag-bearing demonstrators began wading across the Concord River toward the President. Ford quickly Id cU>. finished his speech and left. The Boston Herald-Examiner headline read “Radicals Mar Patriots’ Day Fete.” Obviously, they expected only a tea party. I r bruce shuman by Christopher Buck I n a paucity of garages, legend has it, mice still, indeed, do exiit. This must not be so, according to my father. Swathed in the hollow of his musty garage, amidst sawhorses fleshed with a tangle of rags, rags of the past, of obsolescence, resurrected on occasion for some dirty sort of work, among Dutch Boy paint cans toppled by imbalance7 oFneglect, my struggling father was taming a plank of screeching redwood with one quite discreet saw. The strung up and hung carcass of a buck in a corner, flinched with shadows of my father’s dark frame, instructing the redwood of my mother’s concept of time and space, twittering that he mistook for an indictment of th^ saw, a twittering, a twittering. I A saw paused, to listen. Silence. Again, the charcoal of a shadow flamed across ribs of slaughtered buck swinging slowly in the corner, the saw twittering again, as if sick, or neurotic, twittering. My father knew, then, it could not be the saw. Only the breathing, now, of 200 pounds of flesh, the huge lungs of my father, sawing oxygen in the pause. Outside, a car fills an instant, rushes a clock. The alert shadow of my father’s head, poised in the abscission of noise, echpses a photograph framing a moment on the wall. Captain George H. Buck, United States Marine Corps, promoted to the office of Major, awarded a brace of maple leaves, pinned to the dextra and sinistra of his throat . . . Casters ! Piano castersl “BOYS!” shook the nexus of kitchen, living room, hall, to the walls of our room. “BOYS!” “Dad wants us!” my brother shuddered, interrupting our mythology of wooden building blocks. Knocking down our castle of salvation. Carter and I, in our bare and holey socks, rushed from our room, skated on mementum down the hardwood floor of the hall, zoomed through the hving room and kitchen, burst thrpugh the door to the garage. “SHSH!” We petrified atSthe command. “Boys,” whispered father, creating a panic of suspense. “Be as quiet as you can. rthink there’s a mouse in here, but I can’t tell where. Lis ^ “A mouse?” interrupted Carter. “Yes!” retorted father, as if his son had challenged the obvious. “Npw listen closely so we can tell where it’s coming from!” The next few minutes were hours, as the carcass of the gutted buck swung in our eyes, Carter beginning to fidget, my foot being stuck with pins for loss of blood. Casters. Squickleleequeak-tpht,tffft. Piano casters! A voracious pause tossed our eyes into a corner, below fly-scabbed cobwebs and the pendent neck of the buck, its head already mounted on the wall, circumspecting the garage with an impartial stare. i Squickleleequeak,tpht,tfft. j “There it is again!” affirmed my father.“ Hear it?” A hazy nod from Carter mirrored back the suspicion, our father zeroing tympanic membranes toward the corner with a twist of the neck, stern face cocked for incrimination, hammer of the middle ear poised as a gavel over his sentient anvil, with an accusing finger. I cried, “It’s in the corner. Dad, it’s coming from the corner!” Dad’s military hand motioned an order, as if it were war, Major George H. Buck and his company of two on special mission, pressing forward through rank jungles of the Phihppines, through a confusion of webs and snarled rags, cold, oily linoleum fat with the slap of soles, lusting for a terse verdict, the squickhng leakage of anguish, squirming beneath the feet of an immediate dream, “The tools, move out the tools!” as Carter grabbed a rake and a pick, and I a fishing rod clutching its gut. “Clear out those paint cans now!” The brush of the Dutch Boy flying across night, dubiously stacked cans shoved to an epiphany of convincing dimts, Dutch Boy roUing from side to side, convulsing over a broken back, spades of light from the fanged tungsten filament of the overlord bulb, uncovering a sawdust nest and droppings of a mouse, fleeing the spear and net of hght, the Day of Judgment too punctual, the mouse crashing madly against the wall, under the hulking, pendulum, tower of a deer, — the panicking mouse, infected with dread, racing against destiny — stabbing our ears with shrieks, squickleleequeak, squickleequeak. Frantic paino casters, oh. Stop it! Stop! A simprised silence. Dad’s booted foot, sliding on the pulpy nest of sawdust and newsprint, shredded to an accessible guess. It was evident. The mouse had hidden behind a dead battery, long forgotten, inert, yet acid to the touch. Black throwback of another year. My father’s forecast of a shadow pointed to me. “Tlie oven pipe, Christ. Get the oven pipe.” A few days back, we had mismantled an old stove from one of dad’s duplexes “dumps,” he would call them. It was the first time I had seen cockroaches. The tunnel of tin limped through the dark, invaded by the feeble bulb that kept champing from the ceiling, destiny marching toward its conclusion, a king and two pawns advancing on the checkerboard floor of the garage, the king wielding his sceptre of tin. We inched round the battery. The mouse, surroimded by a mountain range of toes, and pur father’s boots, its possibihties hocked by our feet. | \ Silence. Dad’s right hand lowering to a grip oil the battery, deus ex machine, his left hand armored with tin, snapping back at the viper of light, the right hand ready, impervious to black acid, ready, ready. AAAAH CLANG! The battery tugged out with a shout, the barrel of tin slammed to the floor, father collapsing to his knees with glee, robbing the mouse of escape, whirring in the cylinder, the mouse bolting in our stomachs to the flang of cinched tin, bitten at last into tile, lobs of its peewee skull pranging against a reaUty metaphysicists deny — thumping squeaks piss-wet tail scurrying against time, its tinny voice pitting its wind against the sniggering Fates, its pleas and shrieks quivering our lips, oh, God, make less a monster of our father. “Get a can. Carter, the peaches, hurry!” \ Carter whimpering to the shelves of canned goods, over towards a pretense of order, igrabbed a four-pound tin of peaches with his quaking fingers, presented that mercenary metal to Dad, fighting tears. Carter and I, sucking hot globs in our throats, the oven pipe squeaking like casters, dad’s tarknular hand suspending the can, craning over to the mouth of the pipe, the mouse, that dumbstruck runt of flesh, paused in its tracks, rose up on its haunches, peered at the tombstone of tin rolling overhead, eclipsing the monster eye, an eye that could gobble its head, dad, why are you waiting, do it now or don’t make us go through it, the mouse now spinning in tin, cringing at the ceiling of peaches, recounting all of its hours in a blur, paced by the arc of a carcass, holding its final Sabbath with black, baptising our foreheads with an' imbearable sweat. The mouse pummelhng its own shadow, which is now the shadow of the world — the shadow its fresh effigy, all tasks too treacherous for the asking, demanding an epic of a guess, the peaches shrink to a ratching screak, a tatching metal squist that rips our gristle to an erupted flood, vomit the crumpled pulp sliding from under itself, the cancellation of all doubt, the death waijrant affixed by the squishing sound, the globules of hammered fat crawhng in our brains, oh, how can we escape that god-awful sound that bolts in our veins, yes, yes. Mother was glad it was done. Hickory-dickory dock. Our hearts limp. I ■ ■ ■ ■ I tv^ 9-fe^ <=,6 -nA > o ^ „ ■D©®'’^ KS>°^ > , s®" . \,oo ^ 't’c^® -i d° T:^® 0-3:© e-^®^ ^ ® \ e S Je,5?® '^t^^r •£®®^ pe3^® ^ p V5°^^^\,1J'^®*a go3:S^ -^63^' 0-3vlf°’^^cV-* ® , 1 s @33®® ,\,\V©'^ 033 i-S©® ^,■3^© c O < l e , ^ - ■>fi> V©® Q-yc)© ^o^3 T \? 0 > ® 'v v 3SV i3:ol;,0,^e ' K i «"^W<4e=; ^?3v>eS3- f 33'«3.»» ^ a.3v& X e.3v av3-6^ tvS a 1 as3©®^\^6 sO vMS •\jO AS© co^ ,,-V63-©& -"-©3,e©. V-wV^S^ -V.-Ov" c©©' '^A ■5®^ a,tv ®3^ ^o 6©^® ®-;;„ \> U e ,^4 t . ^G*“ p .- s©'-^® A ^3:°^ V, ^ ffC©'^ './. ?A' ■«*' t3v3' ;^Yve 3 14 w f C 4^9’"’^ N by Lynn Truckey Lublic recognition of male/male neither, simply a victim, would have rape is growing. This increased an equally difficult time convincing awareness is due, partly, to the the police. An overwhelming sense of efforts of a nationwide organization shame might, instead, force him into called Men Against Rape. Formed a quiet corner to recover from a first in America’s prisons, the group wound whose scars are likely to run spread its resources into the cities very deep. and towns because of the increasing Community awareness, fostered by brutality of men by other men within Bellingham Men Against Rape, will the society at large. As I write this, a hopefully ease some of the social chapter of Men Against Rape is stigma that might drive a victim into organizing in Bellingham. As an hiding. The presence of the new auxiliary to the already existing Rape organization will allow a victim to Relief center, the group will effect talk either to men or women. Their two functions. help will hopefully encourage victims The first is to counsel men who to seek them out and report more have been raped. Rape of a man or a rapes, adding another dimension of woman is only secondarily a sexual awareness to authorities. crime. Susan Brownmiller, author of The second function of Men Against Our Will, wrote: Prison rape Against Rape is for the husbands, is usually seen today for what it is: an fathers and friends of women who acting out of power roles within an all have been raped. The impact of rape male, authoritarian environment in on the men closest to women victims which the younger and weaker is often deep and unpredictable. inmate, usually a first offender, is Blaming the girl, according to O’ forced to play the role that in the Neill, is one of the biggest aftereffect outside world is assigned to women. problems. They, the men, start It seems likely that the perverted doubting: did she ask for it? what did mind of any rapist operates within she do to make him rape her? It is similar concepts. hard for them to accept that she was Homosexual rape is, in my opinion, just a victim, in the wrong place at even more terrifying to the victim the wrong time. Obviously larger because he is completely unprepar issues are important here, but rape ed. In the trauma that follows he has coimseling is a beginning. no one to turn to for help who is going The male advocates of Rape Relief to understand. Only one male rape hope to achieve a certain under victim has asked for help from the standing with the victims male part local Rape Relief center, and he had ner. It is essential that the men to talk to a woman, because no one understand that it is a time for else was available. Lori O’Neill, support of their wives or girlfriends Whatcom Coimty Rape Relief Co-or- or daughters. dinator, is certain that many more Rape Relief maintains a 24 hour homosexual rapes happen in this crisis line, backed by female counsel area, but go unreported. ors. Because the Men Against Rape Susan Brownmiller suggests a counselors are, at this stage, only reasonable answer: I have listened beginning, they will not be at the 24 more than once to the Story of the hour number. If, however, a male homosexual youth who tried without victim calls, or there is a problem success to convince his local precinct with a male relative of a woman who that he was beaten and raped by has been raped, the male counselors some strangers he met in a bar . . . To can be reached. the cops, the raped youth was Their organization is embryonic, nothing more than a faggot who "'was requiring training and time, but Men asking for it.'' It might be assumed Against Rape in Bellingham have that homosexual rapists do attack started something to stop something, homosexuals or bi-sexuals, but the or at least to help. What more can slightly built, non-violent man who is they do? Chronicle of Diversification Native Americanation. Generation in isolation. Exploration. Americanation revelation. Caucasion invasion. Fascination. Insinuation, (education, irritation) Miscegenation, (adulteration) Exploitation, (aggravation) De-forestation, (“abomination!” Agriculturation. (lamentation) Protestation. ‘ ‘Manifestation D estination. * * damnation!” “Civilization.” “fornication!” Alienation. Frustration. Protestation. Argumentation. Reciprocation. Recalicitration. Domination., Subjugation. “Appropriation.” ‘ ‘misappropriation! ’ ‘ Caucasion articulation: “Misrepresentation codifocation. Equivocation; re-negotiation. Abrogation.” Origi-nation: “Discrimination translation! Misinterpretation. Equivocation! Rationalization! V indication—reclamation, reparation!” “Damnation! Misappropriation! 16 Argumentation. Exhortation. Arbitration Legislation. De Codification. Annunciation: “Reservation. Americanation preservation, perpetuation.” Manipulation, degradation! Expropriation!” Americanation transplantation. Segregation. Exhortation: “Repatriation ...” Non-communication. Frustration. Tribulation gestation. Maturation. Aggregation nation. Acculturation —diver sific ation. Adaptation Maladaptation. Capitalization. Resource exploitation. Population. Overpopulation. Frustration, agitation. Arbitration. Adjudication explication: “Non-equivocation. Administration observation. Co-operation participation.” Aggregation articulation: “Danmation! Misrepresentation! Frustration. Alienation. (Self-realization?) Bud Rechterman by Bud Rechterman 17 Someday I want a house of my own. In my travels I learned about the Farmers Home Administration, fund ed by the U.S. Department of food was free. The Lighthouse Mis Agriculture. They have low interest sion has housing for single men in loans to individuals and companies their dorm and meals are also for the construction, purchase or provided. Later I learned that the repair of homes in the rural areas of YWCA and YMCA will also find Whatcom County. The eligible are permanent housing. those who are unable to obtain I have been poor for a long time, four Interest led me to other agencies. sufficient credit at reasonable rates or five years. It’s something I’m used Had I been a family looking for a and terms. They are required to to. Living in LaConner, I found out house, I might have qualified for repay the loans at sometime. where the best deals on just about government housing programs. The If I owned a house, and it was in anything were, but when I moved to Bellingham Housing Authority on need of repair or winterization, the Bellingham, I didn’t have a clue York Street defines a family as (1) Whatcom Comity Opportunity Coun where anything was, even if I could two or more persons tied by blood, cil and the Department of Social and afford to buy. So, I started checking marriage or adoption (2) a disabled/ Health Services each offer grants around. handicapped single person or (3) an between $350-500. Priority would be I needed a place to live, and was elderly couple or individual 62 or given to the most needy. The Senior lucky. A friend told me about the older. The B H A expects the family Activity Center and Project Hope will Co-ops at Fairhaven. I apphed just to be able to pay 25®/o of their give the same kind of help to the when a vacancy opened and got in income for rent. They pay the elderly and handicapped. under the wire, though I lived for a landlord the difference. I also discov After I had moved into the co-op, 1 short while at the Salvation Army’s ered a place called Good Housing for noticed a bulletin board ad which temporary housing for women and Low Income Citizens. Their number is sought a student to hve with an children. There were no fees and 734-4539. elderly lady. All that was required 18 tice clinic on Ellis. Four doctors on duty handle whoever comes in. They also accept medical coupons. Plan ned Parenthood offers examinations, prescriptions, counseling, tests and vitamins and minerals, and a dryer is referrals. easy to build. Simply suspend two Bellingham Vo-Tech Institute spon large (2’ x 3’) racks made like window sors a free dental cUnic one night a screens above a heater stove to week. They offer emergency and was light housekeeping and cooking. provide a source of flowing warm air. temporary dental care. If other parts A small salary was included. Such The finished products can be stored of your head get sick, you can find ads often appear. in clear glass containers or crockery. help at the Whatcom Counseling and Even the poor can stay healthy Freezing is another good way to Psychiatric Clinic. without much money. There is no preserve winter foods. I made a I had a few household bills left over preparation time involved in eating freezer out of an old refrigerator by from living in LaConnor, and I an apple or an orange. They’re installing a new thermostat. It works learned that the Salvation Army will cheaper and more nutritious just fine. More care, however, needs give a person up to $100 to pay such than a greasy hamburger. But fruits to be taken to preserve some foods for bills. Problem solved. They also give are still not enough. Looking for a freezing. money for purchasing food stamps. better way, I discovered a free food I’m a nut about clothes, but most of Project Concern and Project Hope in store called the Bellingham Foodbank the time I can’t afford to buy new Lynden offer similar aid. on Gladstone. It’s open Monday, ones, so I stop in second-hand stores Most of my schooling is paid by Wednesday and Thursday from 12 or at garage and rummage sales. The grants. Because I meet the qualifica until 3. The food there is donated or Good Earth building in the Fairhaven tions there are few hassles. It’s a from government surplus. Project district gives free clothes as do the simple matter of filling out the proper Concern operates a similar store in Salvation Army and Project Hope in forms, going through interviews and Ferndale. Ferndale. The Salvation Army will waiting for the checks. As soon as I have time I’m gladly accept clothing from you also. Well, by this time I know a lot going to apply for food stamps. I can At the low price you pay, you can about Bellingham. I am fed, clothed, earn up to $215 a month and still afford to wear something imtil you housed, and my old bills are paid. I quahfy. At the co-op we buy our food get tired of it, then take it back for don’t have to get into the scheme that wholesale from the food Co-Op on someone else. some single women do, conniving a Harris. We get our staples, flour, I had been going to a health clinic man to take them out for a meal or wheat germ and the like, from there. in Mount Vernon, but since I have no gifts. It’s just not fair to the man. Go Last year I dried a lot of fruit and transportation now (I have a remedy out not to get a meal, but because you vegetables. Most of them were sur for that also) I looked into the clinic hke the guy. Besides, he may be just plus from fields, left after farmers possibilities here. The nurses at the as poor as you are. You may even be had harvested. Many times I was campus clinic in Edens Hall were able to suggest some of the possibil allowed to pick up the surplus, just by very helpful when I told them I was ities I’ve learned. I beheve above all, asking. I was told no only once. just checking out the situation just in that we must work together. Then Drying foods is the best preservative case I got sick. They also pointed me someday we won’t be poor anymore. method. The food retains all the toward the Bellingham Family Prac At least I won’t. 19 john me cartney In Search of the Stereotype by Scott Johnson Kirhaven always get treated with I knew I could paint a bad picture kid gloves. In the last five years I of Fairhaven with what I was getting, must have read twenty stories about but I worried about appearing fair. I Fairhaven and it usually sounds like a needed someone who was there all wonderful place — utopian. The the time. The janitor. He would know. people of Fairhaven are wonderful, He had worked there when Fair considerate people. But I, for one, haven first opened. He recently was knew different. transferred back after working sev Fm not jumping to conclusions eral years in other areas of the when I say Fairhaven is a crummy college. place. There was a time I beheved in “Tradesmen refused to come here the dream, but it was a long time ago. without a gas mask, if they came at Its ideas are very appealing and all. You figure out why. When I was people still fall for them. transferred back — I thougnt I was being punished. But things are differ I knew eight or ten Fairhaven ent now. Now there’s mostly Western students well at one time or another, students living here. It’s changed. It’s and they were all good people. I don’t a lot better now. Much better.’’ say that everyone there is bad. It’s orange peels, junk mail in the mud, a the rest. If you’ve been here very long half-gallon carton of Jersey milk, you know what I mean. Fairhaven — piles of odd lumber and broken cars, the refuge for the way-out fringes of a farm out of Appalachia. Nor would the radical ehte, a pretty good I ignore the cynism of the graffitti: As cross-section of weird people, the I slide down the bannister of life, I bastion of self-indulgence and aca will remember Western as the sliver demic laxity. The typical Fairhaven in my ass. Nor the naive ideahsm of student is a goof-off. Everyone knows the foot-high words scrawled on an that, right? Then why don’t stories outside wall. We are here to liberate about Fairhaven find him? Why is it ourselves & other persons. always “Peaches and Cream’’ at I needed to talk to as many people Fairhaven? Would an interview with as possible. I wouldn’t be misled by only Honors students give a true talking to one or two un-typical pictime of the typical Western stu Fairhaven students. I picked up an dent? Give me the bad side of off-campus phone Hst of Fairhaven Fairhaven. students. I smiled to myself over the line about gas masks. I knew why the What were they like? All were 20 or place smelled bad. But things had older, most were upper division. Not changed he said. I’d heard that. ONE fit my long-held opinion of Fairhaven’s dorms were mostly Fairhaven students. They were all Western students. I wanted to meet excited about Fairhaven and what the rejects of academia, people with they were doing. These are their college degrees in witch-doctoring words — with as little comment as and organic eating. I wanted the possible. Form your own opinion. typical Fairhaven student. How could What were you looking for at I find him? Fairhaven? Walking down the service road I knew I wasn't going to take behind Fairhaven I took note. I would classes people wanted me to. I would not close my eyes to the garbage in take what I wanted. Fairhaven is the flower beds, a Gordon’s gin bottle what you make of it. We're not and a see-thru meat tray, a plastic following a set path. A Math/Science jug and the hd from a dumpster, student. 22 Fairhaven is different for every It's the first place I've found that Wait a minute. body. A Music student. applies the idea of whatever you put I spent an entire evening calling into something isi what you get out of it. people at random and I hadn’t talked I wanted to shape my education. It's been excellent for me. I wanted to to one typical Fairhaven student. Vve been disillusioned at times but search for what interested me. Not This woman tells me nine of ten don’t Fm glad I came to Fairhaven. It's without structure. You need struc work hard and everyone I talk to right for me, but maybe not for ture. In ways, Fairhaven needs more works hard. Where are the goof-offs? everyone. A student of American structure. I started asking — Have I, in my History and Women’s Studies. I was looking for a more articulate attempt to find out about Fairhaven, I dropped out after my first year. and helpful faculty and I didn't find been talking to a typical Fairhaven When I came back I was more into it. But the community was there and student? academics. I found what I wanted to it's still there. I do what I wanted to do. A student of Social Theory and do. In that way I've found what I was History. looking for at Fairhaven. I just wrote my high school a letter Are you typical? saying what a great place it is .. . There are more diverse people especially if you're not sure what you than I’ve seen anywhere. But I’m not want to do. I got a lot of encourage typical. I care more. Maybe ten ment and came in contact with many percent of Fairhaven really works ideas. But you have to be able to hard scholastically; said a woman handle the freedom of Fairhaven. At who helped start the Co-op dorm. first I took too many electives. There's a challenge if you want it. I lived in a co-op dorm for two quarters. I was glad to move to a quieter place, but I'm glad I went there first. Most people did their share, but it was obvious who wasn’t working. They moved out before too long. We had problems. There were 8 or 9 vegetarians and the rest were meat-eaters. When they butchered a pig the meat-eaters wanted to hang it in the refrigerator. It went back and forth. The vegies didn't want a dead pig in their refrigerator and the meat-eaters said the vegies were squeamish. Anyway, little problems like that get worked out. I haven’t met many people who are Are you typical? just hanging on. Most I’ve met are No I’m not. The typical Fairhaven oriented to some goal. A transfer student leans more towards philo from Evergreen. sophy, more towards . . . towards taking an orchard class . . . you know A 23-year-old Accounting major: I .. . Outback . . . learning to take care don’t associate too much because of yourself. From taking care of most people don’t like business. But yourself to feeding goats. They're we get along pretty well. I’m using heavy into philosophic literature. I'm Fairhaven to further myself. It’s a not into that. A 21 year old dance far-out place and I’m getting my student. degree. Most people are sincere, but they’re fooling themselves. They’re satisfied with less than they can do. The teachers don’t challenge them because it would mean more work for the teachers. They pat their heads and say nice things. People spend too much time talking about what they’re going to do — not doing them. A Fairhaven senior. You can get by with goofing-off your first year or two. But goof-offs What happened? don’t get far as Fairhaven students. According to a Fairhaven senior, That’s interesting. All night and 90®/o of the 500 students fit the mold not one “typical” Fairhaven student. of the “typical” student, the goof-off If s/he exists, s/he doesn’t answer who doesn’t do much and is into the telephone on weekday evenings. weird trips. I can reach only one The typical student comes here not conclusion. It is the typical student knowing what he’s looking for, they who is the exception and the excep mess around and dabble. Those who tional student who is typical. Maybe stay find what they're looking for and it was a myth all along. The funny are still Fairhaven students. They put thing is that so many Fairhaven their efforts into studying. What people believe it, too. You’d think the people see is people sitting around people I interviewed were ignorant of fucking off. The people who are the other’s existence. working are off somewhere else. A “I’m not typical. If I were, Fair woman who has been at Fairhaven haven would surge with its collective four years. energy,” said one student who obvi ously believed in the myth. But he said something earher that might explain it. “There is no communica tion between people at Fairhaven. It’s not too big, but each person has things he’s doing and it leaves no time to share. My goal would be to see Fairhaven share with itself the work that has been done. There’s not communication between people at Fairhaven.” And, if I may add, between Fairhaven and Western. 24 of winter. Temperatures occasionally problem by building thick gravel pads reach 60° in the few months of over the tundra. This provides constant dayhght. Twilight at mid enough insulation to prevent melting night casts warm orange hues over of the permafrost, but it also destroys the tundra, as the sun dips down caribou grazing ground and nesting towards the horizon. A new day sites for many species of birds. Filled begins though the old one never niches in the arctic limit the move ended. Yet the long hours of daylight ment of animals to new areas. When and the occasional warmth deceives a habitat is destroyed, the life it the uninitiated, for freezing tempera- supports is also lost. Because permafrost prevents drainage of surface waters, rivers in the arctic are shallow and broad, spreading out in many branched and intertwining channels. River beds, primarily gravel, provide arctic char and grayling with spawning grounds. When ^sturbed, silt muddies the he arctic is technically a desert. river water, and can fall on spawning TOnly four to six inches of precipita areas, suffocating the developing tion fall there annually. And like the eggs. Oil developers have permanent desert regions of Oklahoma and ly displaced 83 million cubic yards of Texas, large quantities of oil are gravel and other natural construction found beneath the ground. materials. State and federal scien The Eskimos have known of the oil tists advise construction crews in for thousands of years. They found it M As. selecting gravel removal sites to seeping from under the tundra and burned it for fuel, a precious com modity in a land where no trees grow, and winter winds plunge the temper ature to -75® F. Early arctic explor ers learned of the seepage and their reports resulted in the designation of 37,000 square miles of the Alaskan arctic as Naval Petroleum Reserve. No. 4 in 1923. By the late sixties, increasing tures can occur on any day of the demands for petroleum prompted year. Atlantic Richfield to determine the During the short summer, the extent of arctic oil deposits. Original upper layer of soil, or active layer, estimates, now considered low, were thaws to a depth of about 24 inches. put at 10 billion barrels, enough to The ground beneath is permanently meet the United States’ energy needs frozen. Permafrost allows no drain for seven years. Since then, oil age of the few inches of precipitation developers have spent billions of that fall on the tundra. Moisture dollars and millions of man hours in stands in ponds and marshes. Lichen an effort to move the oil from Alaska and mosses thrive on the moist to consumers in the lower 48. The tundra and provide a major food State of Alaska, and the federal source for the large herds of arctic government are also sending money caribou. and men to the arctic. Their efforts Vehicles driven across the soft alone are not likely to prevent the summer ground leave tracks, be destruction of the largest remaining neath which the permafrost melts. minimize the disruption of spawning. wilderness area in the United States. Water collects in these furrows But that is all. Oil producers and oil consumers may enlarge to the size of a ditch. In Far removed from the arctic, in share this responsibihty. the Naval Petroleum Reserve, scars Washington, D.C., Congress is decid The arctic wilderness exists in a made several decades ago appear as ing the fate of Naval Petroleum fragile balance. The cold winters though they were made yesterday. Reserve No. 4. Debate centers freeze the tundra and the ocean soHd Modern engineering, used at the around who will administer the for ten months each year. Summer Prudhoe Bay oil field, and on the reserve, the Department of Interior brings a brief respite from the rigors pipeline access road, eliminates the or the Navy, and what portion of the 25 The Navy thinks at least 2Qo/o should appeared in Prince William Sound as Canadian oil companies and looking be saved for national strategic re a result of recent glacier activity. to the Arctic Ocean for oil. The serve, leaving the rest available for Ships bringing gas to West Coast crushing force of ice, moved by wind civilian use. ports would face possible navigation and current remains the greatest The House version of the bill calls al problems. problem. In the Canadian arctic, the for a careful study of the value of the Alaskan Arctic Gas Co. has pro oil consortium has developed tech area, considering wildlife as well as posed a pipeline across the North nology for drilling in ice laden mineral resources. Within Pet. 4 is a Slope to Canada and down the waters. Artificial islands are con caribou calving grounds on the MacKenzie River. This line would structed to support drilling rigs. They Utikok River, and waterfowl nesting cross the Arctic National Wildlife are made of gravel dredged from the habitat in the Teshukpuk Lake region Refuge in northeastern Alaska. The MacKenzie River delta, and used for near the arctic coast. refuge is the only large area on the drilling in waters up to 40 feet deep. Of the six islands built in the Senator Henry Jackson, proponent Slope that hasn’t been disturbed by MacKenzie, less than half have oil exploration. Facilities needed of the Senate bill, opposes the produced oil. surface value study and urges a within the Wildlife Refuge would For drilling in deeper water, ice rapid development program. While include six helicopter landing pads, three compressor stations, a 2,400 strengthened drill ships are being debate continues, the Navy moves constructed. Also planned are ice ahead with an exploratory program. foot airstrip, two wharves, and islands, made by pumping sea water Legislators are also discussing the materials stockpiles. Gravel, dredged onto an ice floe until it is frozen to a location of a natural gas pipeline. from rivers within the Refuge, would thickness of sixteen feet. The islands Two routes are proposed. El Paso support these structures. accommodate the weight of a drilling Alaskan Gas Co. suggests a pipeline rig and are built for $2 million — a parallel to the Trans Alaska oil pipe- .^4ore pipelines will snake across mere pittance by arctic standards. hne, terminating in the Prince William the Arctic as the search for more oil But risks exist. In case of a Sound. The chief virtue of this route continues. Presently, 56 wells have blow-out, several months might would be to confine environmental been drilled and completed in the elapse before a relief well could be impact to the existing pipeline corri Prudhoe Bay area. Most wells are drilled. In case of such a disaster dor. An economic saving would be drilled on shore or on nearshore driller would set the oil and gas on accrued in using Alyeska’s construc barrier islands using technology de fire. The trade-off for water pollution tion camps, storage depots and veloped for onshore drilling in other would be air pollution. access roads. However, more ice areas. However American oil en bergs, hazardous to shipping, have gineers are following the lead of A, present, no technology exists for recovery of an oil spill under the ice. The cold temperature cause oil to solidify into an easily contained gel, but no methods exist for removing the oil. The intense cold inhibits natural processes of oil evaporation and biodegradation that ease the clean up in warmer waters. Fish and smaller creatures are highly suscept ible of oil’s toxicity. Marine mammals such as seals, whales, and polar bear, would probably escape damage as they are highly mobile, but contamination could reach them via the food chain. Extracting oil from the arctic poses great threats to the northern environ ment, but development will continue. The chances of a major oil spill are high. And who will be responsible? The oil industry, for a mechanical or perhaps human error? The govern ment, for loose regulations or inade quate surveillance? The consumer, who drives his car when he could walk? Ultimately we are all in this together. Only the frozen arctic land and the life it supports remains innocent, . . And vulnerable. 26 jim biel “One day I received a letter informing me I was married,” . . . I was very happy." “They were puzzled and confused because I did not look like ‘an African’ . . . I looked like them." by Amy Nelson Bristow Taawona Mtshiya is very careful in describing her thoughts and feelings had independence to celebrate. The about er homeland, Zimbabwe. “It is minority government does not allow a very compHcated thing,” she the African majority a say in how the explains. country will be run. It is the custom in ______Tawona, now in Zimbabwe to invite < her late 20s, was I born and raised in a person who / ■r!> knocks at your door \ ZAIRe the city of Bulawayo to enter, even be lO O ji'' and worked for a fore you know who -a } time in SaUsbury, the visitor is. You lupnn'j \ r ' Af^GOLA ^ I i ^ ' the capital. She left assume anyone fP o t'r) 2^mbabwe because knocking at your ^ y Soar//' “opportunities are door has come in not that available to / co^'‘>Y-r' \ good faith. Behind r' ' < / Africans (in Zim babwe). The only the custom is the ! \ idea that the visitor - c l . /' way I could further may have been sent my education was by the gods. to come abroad.” Tawona’s 103-year-old grandfath She is at Western preparing to er told her that when white men first teach when she returns home. To came to the country, Africans called Tawona, the benefits of a person’s them “men from the gods, without education go far beyond the individu knees” — their trousers hid their al: knees. But httle did the Africans “Education is important. Those know, he said, that when they who have had the opportunity appre accepted the white men, they were ciate that it is not just for the self, but inviting trouble. for the benefit of the community. It is Zimbabwe, or Rhodesia, is border something I can offer to bring a ed by Zambia, Mozambique, Bots change.” wana and the Republic of South And change is something she hopes Africa. Until 11 years ago, it was prt for deeply. “I think we can make this of the British Commonwealth. Last a better world if we want to.” year the government, which is con Part of Tawona’s education comes trolled by the white or “European” from hving in two very different minority of 250,000 people, celebrat worlds. She can choose the best from ed the 10th anniversary of its both. When she returns, she says, independence from British domin she must “realize most people ance. haven’t had some of the experiences I But the country’s five-and-a-half have . . . I shouldn’t feel better off milhon “African” citizens did not because I’ve seen a different take part. They did not believe they culture.” 28 She does not like the attitude that remain in the circle. If I go to the stood in for her during the first part one does not need to be concerned village, I will go to the river to do my of the ceremony. about what happens in other parts of laundry. For if I take it to the city, to “One day I received a letter the world. “What happens in one the laundromat. What am I saying? informing me I was married,” she part of the world affects the whole. If “There are cases of girls who have remembers. “I was very happy.” the person next to you catches fire, it been abroad who, when they go She flew home to complete the is boimd to affect you. If we are back, find it hard to find partners. ceremony. Relatives from both her aware, we can do something.” Men cannot stand to be challenged. own and her husband’s families were Tawona behaves people must com The girls can get jobs and do all at the airport to greet her. But when municate. It seems especially neces right,” she explains, but society still she stepped off the plane her aunt sary, she says, in a country like hers expects them to marry. covered her with a cloth. Custom did where a person must share what he Tawona has been in this coimtry not favor the husband’s family seeing or she has with others. for foiu* years, but she sometimes her for the first time in the street. The She teUs of a man who chose to forgets where she is and follows first meeting should occur inside, have nothing to do with the people Zimbabwe customs. She finds it hard after the proper rituals. “People must hving around him. His neighbors decided to teach him a lesson. When one of his children died, none of his neighbors helped the family dig a grave and bury the child. It was a hard thing to do, but it worked. The man learned he needed his neigh bors, just as they needed him sometimes. Commimication also helps destroy false and dehumanizing stereotypes, Tawona asserts, and recalls some thing that happened soon after she arrived in Tacoma from Africa. Some children knocked at the door of the house where she was staying: Ta wona answered the door. The child ren — all about 10 or 12 years old — said they had heard an African student was living in the house and asked to see the student. Tawona told them she was that student — but their response surprised her. “They looked puzzled and confused because I didn’t look like ‘an African’ .. . they were disappointed because I looked like them.” Dan Lament For educated women and men in to call persons older than she by their have thought I was being kidnap Zimbabwe there is some freedom to first names, and her reflex is to bow ped,” she laughs. Rituals dictated question sex-based stereotypes and when she meets them. that Tawona and her husband could roles. A woman with training can Tawona does not even know her not stay with each other for 20 days, support herself, and does not need mother-in-law's first name. She oncei even though Tawona had to return to marriage for that. But without educa asked her husband, but he could only the United States in 23 days. “We tion, one who questions traditional laugh. “He was too shy to tell me,” didn’t regret,” she says. “We wanted roles risks social isolation. she says. “I think I will write him and it done the traditional way.” Some educated men still favor ask. Of course I will never call her by Tawona’s husband has left Zim polygamy, contending that having her first name, but I want to know.” babwe, too, for political reasons. He more than one wife is good because it Tawona has confused some of her was involved in the struggle for raves more women from becoming friends by handing them a glass of African rights there and now finds it prostitutes. Most of Zimbabwe’s water when they come to see her. In safer to live in a neighboring country. people reject polygamy for the one-to- Zimbabwe, it is customary to hand “It was very bad for a while,” one relationship of monogamy, says visitors a drink of water before you Tawona says. “Anyone who would Tawona. But there still are those who greet them. A visitor may have just say anything against the country must “regretfully,” as they tell it, finished a long journey and might would be put in jail indefinitely.” take only one wife because they drop from exhaustion without im She has heard that things are cannot afford more. mediate refreshment. changing, that the minority govern The ways educated and uneducat Tawona (who is a Methodist) was ment is trying to compromise with the ed women perceive themselves are married according to their customs, majority of the population. She hopes different, Tawona says, but she she says, because she and her then things in Zimbabwe will be improved believes they must keep track of the husband-to-be decided a traditional by the time she returns next year. things that tie them together. “I wedding would mean most to them. “The whites should reahze they are cannot stand isolation. It is not They decided to marry when Tawona part of the whole, as all people are ingrained in me, so I have to adjust to was in the United States, so her sister part of the whole.’' 29 kyung sun hong itw’ ■'^ ’ \' V . ^