Threshold called success, chance to reunite the student movement

"Threshold called success," Daily Tar Heel, 10/30/89

By SARAH CAGLE and STEPHANIE JOHNSTON, Staff Writers

This weekend's historic Threshold conference, sponsored by the Student Environmental Action Coalition (SEAC) of the Campus Y, closed Sunday as participants voted to work over the next months to protect forest lands in the United States. The three-day national student environmental conference, heralded by organizers as the first of its kind, drew more than 1,600 people from 43 states as well as from several foreign countries. Events included internationally renowned speakers, workshops and discussions on how to better organize and succeed in environmental action.

Participants spent about two hours discussing various short-term campaigns at Sunday's assembly at the Forest Theatre and decided that upcoming congressional action protecting the Tongass National Forest in Alaska should be their most pressing concern. "The forest is a representative issue of the fundamental concerns of everyone here," said Alec Guettel, one of three SEAC co-chairmen. Both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate have voted on a bill to protect the Tongass Forest, which developers are destroying. Threshold participants said the House bill would provide stronger protection. Participants will write letters to their Congress representatives to ensure passage of the House bill and organize a simultaneous march on their state capitals to raise environmental awareness. A date for the march has not been set. Other ideas considered in the vote included targeting for major campaigns multi-national corporations that are harming the environment.

Organizers of the conference said the Tongass campaign gives Threshold participants an opportunity to further develop the network the conference has helped create. "I hope it's just a start," said Blan Holman, co-chairman of SEAC. "I hope people will meet the challenge." Ericka Kurz, co-chairwoman of SEAC, said Threshold participants were eager to keep the momentum from the communication going. "The conference wasn't strictly environmental. There was a sense of strong desire to reunite the student movement as a whole. The most amazing thing is there's more to come."

Threshold organizers said they were pleased with how well the conference went. "Students came away with clear ideas," said James Langman, conference chairman. "They're ready to work together and start a unified student movement on a local and a national level." Guettel said the participants fulfilled the goals for the conference. "It was better than expected. One of our objectives was to educate people about the most effective methods of grassroots activism. We went over them here. Another objective was to build a new student movement and campaign. That was the greatest success of this."

SEAC member Sharon Wells said she had received a lot of compliments on the organization of the conference and the selection of the speakers. "I think it went very well. The discussion groups allowed everyone to really talk. Everyone will go back with a goal to work towards."

Students who attended Threshold said they learned a great deal at the conference. "The conference got a lot of environmentalists with different priorities together," said Dana Hollish, a sophomore at George Washington University. "We want to do something for all the concerns, but we have to choose one. The conference will have a lot of aftereffects. It will bring about more big conventions like this more often." Paul Haught, a sophomore at Georgetown University, said he was pleased to see people show they wanted to do something about the environment. "I like the fact that people want to do something specific, but there are a lot of conflicting views," Haught said. "I expected a low-key, moderate conference of maybe 300 people," said Heather Fuller, a sophomore at UNC. "It was enormous. To see all the passion from so many students was incredible. It was almost shocking."

If Dale McKinley goes, the class goes with him

"Sanction may bar McKinley from teaching position," Daily Tar Heel, 10/20/89

By WILL SPEARS, Assistant University Editor and JUSTIN McGUIRE, University Editor

Student activist Dale McKinley, who was convicted of two charges in Graduate Student Court Tuesday night and sentenced to definite probation through the end of next semester, may not be allowed to keep his job as a teaching assistant in the political science department, he learned Thursday. McKinley who is teaching Political Science 59 this semester said a letter from Jeffrey Cannon, assistant dean of students and judicial programs officer, informed him that the terms of his probation meant he couldn't continue teaching the class on contemporary Africa.

McKinley said he would appeal the decision by the 5 p.m. Monday deadline because his teaching salary represents 80 percent to 90 percent of his income. If prevented from teaching, McKinley would have to work full-time to pay for school, he said. "I wasn't going to appeal this (the honor court decision). It didn't concern me at all. But this is ridiculous. For me, it's basically expulsion." Should the appeals process fail, McKinley said he would take the case to a civil court.

McKinley, a graduate student from Zimbabwe and a member of the CIA Action Committee, was convicted of Campus Code violations stemming from an April 15, 1988, anti-CIA protest at Hanes Hall. No one else in the department would be able to teach the class because they would not have the necessary preparation. McKinley said. "Even if there was, the students would be totally disrupted. There are 50 students, and all of a sudden they're going to be out in the cold. The whole process has no respect for students."

Cannon confirmed Thursday that he had notified McKinley in writing of the terms of definite probation. Cannon said he could not comment further because the case is still pending. Richard Richardson, chairman of the political science department, said that as of Thursday he had received no word that McKinley wouldn't be allowed to teach. "We're proceeding with him teaching until I hear otherwise." The class will definitely continue, Richardson said, but the department will make a decision about a replacement instructor only if and when informed that McKinley is not allowed to teach.

Students reacted with disappointment to word that McKinley may be removed from teaching the class. "A lot of us signed up for the class because we knew he was teaching it," said Ericka Kurz, a junior from Middleton. Wis. "Our class is planning to do something about this jointly. If he goes, the class goes with him." The class could not go on without McKinley, Kurz said. "There is no one else in the department qualified to teach the class."

McKinley's absence would have an adverse effect on the class, said another student taking the course. "They really didn't consider the students in the class," said Alyssa Wood, a sophomore from Midlothian, Va. "Switching instructors in the middle of; the semester is really going to disrupt the class." She said students liked McKinley's teaching style because he let students discuss issues freely. "I think most people will really be disappointed if he's not going to teach the class anymore." McKinley will also be unable to speak at Human Rights Week, Nov. 12-18, he said. He had planned to speak, and the Black Student Movement was going to sponsor him.

International spotlight on Threshold, SEAC's first environmental conference

"International spotlight on environmental conference," Daily Tar Heel, 10/17/89

By KENNY MONTEITH, Staff Writer

A national student environmental conference to be held at UNC Oct. 27 to 29 has received much national and international publicity over the past few weeks, including an article in the Russian newspaper Pravda. Threshold, sponsored by the Campus Y's Student Environmental Action Coalition (SEAC), has been mentioned in magazines such as Mother Jones and Greenpeace, and also on MTV. Michael Stipe, lead singer of R.E.M, has even recorded a public service announcement for the conference. Other newspapers such as The New York Times will attend, as well as the Associated Press. Some major news networks, including CBS, may also cover what is considered to be the biggest student environmental conference ever.

"The response is incredible," said James Langman, conference chairman of SEAC. "It's really weird because people in L.A. could hear about it from four or five different sources. "There are students coming from Seattle; Dallas; Lincoln, Neb.; and St. Paul, Minn. They want to join and be a part of something big." According to organizers, the conference is expected to bring more than 1,000 students from more than 200 universities in 43 states. Langman said most of the people attending would be college students, although he has heard from some high school students and even one sixth-grader. "I got a call from a girl in Mississippi who saw it advertised on TV, and she wanted to know more about it."

SEAC Co-Chairwoman Ericka Kurz said some local universities were planning to attend. "We have a good committee at Duke and two or three people at State." Alec Guettel, co-chairman of SEAC, said the group hoped to educate students from all over the country on how to have an impact on environmental issues. "We also want to consolidate SEAC and come up with some major campaigns. This is the beginning of a national student movement. There's never been a unified student voice." Threshold marks a major accomplishment for SEAC, allowing the group to bring environmental awareness not only to the campus, but also to the nation, members of the organization said. Although many students from other universities are attending, Kurz and Langman emphasized that these universities were not involved in the planning stages of Threshold, and that SEAC was the only environmental group organizing this conference.

Threshold will showcase speeches by environmental leaders from around the country. The topics will include the disappearing of tropical rain forests and global warming. The conference is holding workshops in recycling, governmental regulation, urban ecology and grassroots activism. The Indigo Girls will stage a benefit concert at 9 p.m. on Oct. 28 in Memorial Hall.

65 Books to Read on Politics, Culture and Sociology

(Editor's note: In 1988, after high school but before college, I spent a year living as an exchange student in Australia. That year was Australia's bicentennial, and I learned a lot about the country's history, from its harsh origins as a British penal colony to the Australian government's theft of the entire continent from the Aboriginal natives who were already living there, a racist land grab that parallels the U.S. experience of ripping off the Native Americans. This is a reading list I compiled of books I saw on various folks' bookshelves during my year there that I hadn't yet read but wanted to.)

The Jungle - Upton Sinclair

The First Circle; One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich; For The Good of The Cause - Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Future Shock; The Eco-Spasm Report - Alvin Toffler

If You Meet the Buddha on the Road, Kill Him! - Sheldon Kopp

They're a Weird Mob - Nino Culotta

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert Pirsig

Lost In The Funhouse - John Barth

The Conquest of Happiness; Authority and the Individual - Bertrand Russell

Siddhartha - Hermann Hesse

The Backroom Boys - Noam Chomsky

Celebration of Awareness; Tools for Conviviality; Toward a History of Needs; Energy And Equity - Ivan Illich

Word Play: What Happens When People Talk - Peter Farb

The Doors of Perception - Aldous Huxley

Instead of Education - John Holt

The Naked Ape; The Human Zoo - Desmond Morris

The Sociological Imagination; The Marxists - C. Wright Mills

On The Road - Jack Kerouac

The Crack Up - F. Scott Fitzgerald

School Is Dead - Everett Reimer

Grapefruit - Yoko Ono

Growth To Freedom - Jim Cairns

The Social Construction of Reality - Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann

Know Yourself - Dr. Eustace Chesser

Peoplemaking - Virginia Satir

Death of a Salesman - Arthur Miller

Loon Lake - E. L. Doctorow

The Australian Ugliness - Robin Boyd

The Diary of Che Guevara - Robert Scheer (editor)

Catch-22; They Bombed In New Haven; Good As Gold - Joseph Heller

The Boys From Brazil - Ira Levin

Damned Whores and God's Police - Anne Summers

The Women's Room - Marilyn French

The Dice Man - Luke Rhinehart

The Killing Fields - Christopher Hudson

Tropic of Cancer - Henry Miller

The Divided Self; The Politics of Experience and The Bird of Paradise; The Politics of the Family - R.D. Laing

Mind Games - Robert Masters and Jean Houston

The Australian American Alliance - H.G. Gelber

To America With Love: Letters From The Underground - Abbie Hoffman

The Supreme Court of the United States of America; The Politics of Ecstasy - Timothy Leary

The Whole World is Watching - Todd Gitlin

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - Robert A. Heinlein

Black Panther Leaders Speak/Revolution In the Congo - Eldridge Cleaver

Primal Scream - Arthur Janov

The Revolution on Trial - Regis Debray

Terror or Love? - Michael Baumann

I Write What I Like - Steve Biko

The Lucky Country - Donald Horne

Seize The Time; Lonely Rage - Bobby Seale

War Toys Are Revving Youngsters Up To Die

Over the past few years, increasing objections to the recent flood of children's toys which glorify aggression, violence, and war have been voiced by concerned parents and activist groups across the nation.

The sale of war toys has been steadily rising since the reintroduction of Hasbro's G.I. Joe in 1982 as "Real American Heroes," a product line of five-inch action figures and high-tech weaponry. The older G.I. Joe, originally manufactured as a foot high doll, had been removed from the market following the Vietnam War's end in 1975. A spokesperson for the War Resisters' League, the first national organization to take action against the current crop of war toys, explained last year that at that time, G.I. Joe "declined in popularity because the reality of war was very clear to people." In the age of Reagan it seems this reality has been once again whitewashed by an administration intent on revving youngsters up to die in Nicaragua, the Philippines, etc.

War toy sales amounted to a record $1.2 billion in 1985, a year during which Transformers, Gobots, G.I. Joe, Voltron and Masters of the Universe made up five of the top six selling toys in the United States. Continuing through 1986, war toys accounted for more than half of the twenty top selling toys.

Unquestionably, then, there is a huge demand for such war-oriented playthings. What irreparable harm do they cause boys and girls? The only child-development studies which have focused on the psychological effects of war toys show that children clearly exhibit more hostile and anti-social behaviors after playing with toy guns or militaristic toys than after playing with board games, stuffed animals or engaging in other "non-threatening" activities.

With the emergence of television shows which star many of today's most popular toys, including all five of the war toys listed above, the crucial creative element of a child's play is encouraged to take a back seat to imitative behavior. If children watch their favorite toy characters act out scenarios on television, it is likely that their play will comprise, to some extent, a re-enactment of such scenarios.

Blatantly false concepts are projected and reinforced by most war toy lines and promotional tv episodes, most notably G.I. Joe's half-hour television program. Here's a recent critique of this show, printed in an anti-war toys newsletter:

"Violence abounds, but none of the elite Joes ever die. Cobra Commander is the Joe's faceless enemy. His allies include the Baroness, who has a heavy Russian accent, and another sporting an eye patch. Most of the other enemies have foreign accents, are disabled or are dehumanized in some way. There are token Joes of different ethnic groups and colors, and a few are women, but most are white men, unlike the real military."

The program's basic premises thus feed children images which are disturbing, at best. It desensitizes war, as do all war toys, teaching that weapons do not cause good people to die and that one need not face the consequences acts of violence bring, as long as they are on the side of "the good guys". By presenting the enemy as foreign and disabled, and proselytizing that it is acceptable for the faceless enemy to die, this show follows in the tradition which during WWII portrayed the Japanese troops as "little brown monkeys" and the Vietcong in later decades as barbaric "gooks," in order to remove traditional taboos against killing from the psyches of our nation's own enlisted men. The program teaches children to unconsciously distrust people with disabilities, while idolizing those who are "perfect physical specimens." Female Joes are consistently portrayed in skin-tight clothing, sporting large breasts, and are delegated to using their feminine wiles and charms as weapons of deception...time and time again it is only the male Joe members who are "privileged enough" to experience combat.

Other war-oriented toy lines also manage to portray women in this predictably sexist sense. The advertised description of Katherine Taylor, the romantic interest of Coleco's Rambo figure, reads as follows: "She wants to be treated just like one of the boys, but she sure doesn't look like one!". So not only do war toys legitimize aggression and desensitize children to the dangers and harm of violent actions, they foster racist and sexist attitudes as well. It's the same old nationalistic, militaristic slop being shoved down our throats once again. War toys are profitable pieces of plastic propaganda that the military-industrial ruling class would love to see in the hands of every young and impressionable American.

Sources:

Donnelly, Kate. "Stop War Toys Campaign Targets G.I. Joe". Peacework, Nov 1987, p. 7.

Field, Jana. "The War Toy Debate". People's Daily World, 24 Dec. 1986, p. 16-A.

Rodriguez, Johnette. "War Toys". The Newpaper, Mar 25-31 1987, p. 3.

Why the Children of the 80s Will Make The 90s Look Like the 60s

(Editor's note from 2013: this analysis got the demographics wrong, because in 1987 I didn't realize I was smack dab in the middle of Gen X, the children of the baby bust, and smallest generational cohort of modern times. The millennials were the kids I was unwittingly referring to, and their influence wouldn't be felt until the year 2000. I got the name of Reagan's successor wrong, but not the fact that it would be another conservative Republican. I predicted military involvement in Panama two years ahead of our 1989 invasion, and intervention in the Middle East, although George H.W. Bush plunged us into war with Iraq, not Iran. Also, AIDS never became a health crisis that threatened the hetrosexual majority in the U.S., but I based that prediction on information available at the time. But for all the mass media stereotypes about our generation being a slacker nation, the early to mid 90s saw more student activism flower than at any time since the 60s, so in that respect I called it right.)

Born to the most populous generation our country has ever known, the sons and daughters of most "baby boomers" are only now amidst their stormy adolescence. I feel that a definite parallel can be drawn between American social conditions of the 1950s and 1980s, and therefore see no reason why large numbers of this "boomlet" might not soon participate in another wide ranging and significant counterculture explosion. Hey, the signs are there....and in the wake of eight long years of Reaganism a double-barreled blast of radicalism may be just what is needed to rid this country of irrationalism and injustice.

For the youth of this country, the 1950s were smothered by an atmosphere of overwhelming conformity, apathy and boredom. Many Americans of this period viewed themselves as living in an affluent, stable society, in which success was guaranteed to those who ingrained themselves within the system. This attitude stifled both creativity and dissent, in addition to fostering a society founded on materialistic ideals. A look at our own time reveals that recently, these conditions have reappeared within our nation. Young people of the 1980s are passive observers, uninformed about matters of concern. Like their predecessors of the 1950s, they are pre-beatnik, pre-radical, pre-hippie youngsters who within ten years, assuming all goes as predicted here, will play an active role in this country's next wave of mass rebellion/resistance.

The youthful idealism of many baby boomers was shattered during the 1960s by several key events, not the least of which were the massive and continuous U.S. involvement in Vietnam and the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963. I do not think that the turbulent 1990s will explode in reaction to either a catalyzing event the likes of JFK's untimely death, nor a common cause such as a straightforward desire to end a specific war. Rather, children of the 1980s will rebel when the tide of irrationality is simply too much to bear....or rather, in response to a combination of unfortunate conditions. I foresee the conservative policies and measures which will be implemented by the Dole administration following the Senator's ascension to our presidency in 1988 as one of these conditions; the crisis which will arise as the AIDS virus completely infiltrates our nation's heterosexual population (and deaths multiply tenfold, into the hundreds of thousands) as another; and direct military involvement in many global areas (including the Phillipines, Iran, and Panama) as still more developments which might radicalize the youth of our time.

So, will (among other things) a backlash against the realization that we have elected another leader in pursuit of ill-minded policies spark this next rebellious wave of which I speak? Obviously the American Left is currently but a shriveled ghost of its past, and certainly in no position to pose a serious threat to any misguided champion of conservatism in 1988. Returning to our 1950s-1980s parallel, I would place the state of our nation in A.D. 1987 as corresponding approximately with that of 1960. Only recently has the renewed voice of youthful (and not-so-youthful) protest begun to be heard, and as the next few years unfold, other conditions which fostered the spirit of rebellion may duplicate themselves as well. Already there are other student revolutions taking place in far-flung nations for American radicals of tomorrow to emulate....witness South Korea, for one. Young, bearded visionaries make good, liberate homelands....sound familiar? Is Nicaragua another Cuba in its salad days, before Fidel lost his mind....in other words, a working socialist society which may inspire countless numbers of disaffected youth? Born and raised in the 1980s, American youth of today will come of age in the 1990s amidst an explosion the likes of which has been absent from our society for far too long.