WGBH Journal; Sp Audience Modules

🎵 Welcome to GBH Journal. I'm Bill Katniss. Today we'll hear contributions from other public radio stations in the country concerning an all-female climb of the Himalayan Mountains, Native American survival schools and a training center for seeing eye dogs. Our own Louis lands will close the show with his commentary. Six years ago while climbing in Afghanistan, American mountain

climber Arlene Blum decided to organize an all-women's expedition to climb one of the Himalayan mountains. This month was selected as the target date and as Blum was making final arrangements for a ten-woman climb of Mount Anaporna, she spoke with reporter Deborah Schwartz. Blum, a research biochemist at the University of California, is leaving her laboratory in Berkeley to climb a 26,000-foot mountain. Climbing high mountains like Annan Pern is one of the most enjoyable things that I do, where I think a lot of people could do. It's really a chance to get away from all the tensions and stresses of everyday life into an incredibly beautiful place. So beautiful,

high on a glaciated mountain. It's all ice and snow and wild women. Well, it turns out that for some reason women in the United States just haven't had much chance to do things like climb high mountains and I think it's a kind of thing that women are really good at and can get a lot of satisfaction from and they need that chance. You know, it's like marathon running. You know how until a few years ago I really thought women weren't strong enough to run a marathon? Despite what most people think, Blum says that climbing a mountain like Annaporna is not a dangerous activity full of adventure. It's mostly fairly routine. I mean you go day after day carrying very heavy loads from one camp to another. Base camps about 13 and a half thousand feet and then camp one is at about 16,000. So you establish camp one and then you do spend many days carrying loads between base camp and camp one and then you meanwhile are establishing camp two, which is perhaps at 19,000 feet and then spend many, many days going over the same terrain over and over again carrying equipment up to camp two and meanwhile camp three is being established and so

it's sort of a pyramid. The way an expedition goes is it likely that all 10 people get to the top? No. If, well in my mind, the expedition will be a success even if no one gets to the top if we come back friends and alive and make a reasonable attempt and we'd like to get just even two women to the top would really be good and you know we have different logistics plans. One to get two to the top and then if things go well we'll try for another group of two. But it's a real team effort where anyone getting to the top is a success for the whole group. All women's climbs are not new. In 1972, Blum and five other women successfully climbed Mount McKinley, the highest peak in the United States. Before we went people said you better take a man along in case anything goes wrong and it turned out something did go wrong. One of the people got very altitude sick and had to be carried down the mountain and we handled it was no problem and it was

funny though. Right before we left I got an ad from a trekking company that was organizing a trip to Mount McKinley and they said that women would not be allowed, women could come to base camp and help with the cooking but they would not be allowed on the climb. So I'd save that. And that was kind of the feeling before I'm McKinley expedition that women just weren't strong enough to carry the kind of loads necessary to climb Mount McKinley and of course they're perfectly strong enough you know it's the same thing it's the marathon thing. The all women's Himalayan expedition will also be employing women's shirponies or porters. Traditionally women are employed only at low altitudes, a low paying low status job. Blum's group plans to break that tradition by hiring some women for the prestigious positions of high altitude porters. When Blum is not preparing for this expedition she often spends her weekends at conferences and workshops encouraging women to go into science. Now I think women can climb mountains and can do well at science and I think young women really need encouragement to realize that. It's important for them to see women

who are doing these things and enjoying them and leading satisfying lives. This is Deborah Schwartz in Berkeley. The longest walk from the west coast all the way to Washington recently focused national attention on important Native American issues. One of these is a continuing need for sensitivity to Indian education needs. Reporter Wendy Blair spoke with several students from a Native American survival school. When I was little you know I went to a public school and every morning we got up and we had to see the Pledge of Allegiance with your hands on your hand on the heart. Justice for all and I was thinking justice for who? My people isn't getting justice.

Susie Bellcourt, an Ojibwe Indian and Janice Banks at Chippewall both stopped going to public schools some time ago. They say because their experiences there were too traumatic. I attended a public school north side of Minneapolis, Minnesota. One day we all went down to auditorium and there's this big you know band drum in the back and all these non-Indian kids they went back there and they grabbed that drum and they come out and start you know pounding it you know like the white way. Not the way that we pawned a drum and there was only three Indian kids in my class and they hired at us. They said hey you Indians come dance first otherwise we're going to beat you up. These girls are not typical Indian teenagers because their families have been leaders in the American Indian movement and their lives imbued with a high degree of Indian pride. Nevertheless their experience with non-Indian schools is probably not so different from that of many Native

Americans. The Indian has to cope with the white system, white America and that's hard and it's hard being Indian and then trying to be coping with these white people. Why? Because the Indian is one with Mother Earth. The Indian is really strong inside but when he goes to a city or a public school he becomes two people. The split personality. They brainwash you you know just wash out your heads and take away all your culture and put in the white culture because large numbers of Native Americans have felt the same feelings of conflict and loss. Indian parents began to set up their own alternative schools. Heart of the Earth and the Red School House Survival Schools were both set up in the Minneapolis area early in 1972. After Wounded Knee came the We Will Remember Survival School in South Dakota. Survival schools they teach you about your culture, your language and they also

teach you your English and mathematics and health but our culture is slowly dying and our ancestors they want us to keep our culture going. Teach our children their culture and their language so that they can teach you know their children it goes on and on. Now there are seven survival schools in the United States that are totally controlled by Indian parents and another dozen or so Native American programs within public schools. Center School in Minneapolis has one of these where the students 80% of whom are Indian can take special courses in Indian history and culture. These programs are all eligible for federal funding under Title IV of the Indian Education Act of 1972. We learn the songs honoring songs, Aimsong, Flakesong, Thunderbird song. So their first song ceremony songs, Sundance songs. We learn all that. We learn how to make our t-pies, make our

sword lodges, our games and that. I never learned about Tip of Canoe until I went to this survival school. You know when uh was it to come she that brought all of some warriors together at Tip of Canoe and all of a sudden they were ambushed. I didn't know that. If you were in a public school hearing the story of Custer say what do you be able to put your hand up and say but there's another side to that story. I would like to tell the class and then you informed the class about the whole Indian side. Wouldn't the teacher allow this and wouldn't the kids respond with sympathy and interest? They might do it now that they wouldn't believe it. Our kids' books are different. Our other books for you to use. Yeah. Yeah. Find your lawyers books. Bear in my heart at wounded knee. Red cloud. Red shirt. There's a great man's America. Name deer secret visions.

It tells about culture, about the pipe. What about the pipe? The pipe it's the you know most sacred thing that we have what we respect and you know we just don't go like throw it in a drawer or throw it in a closet somewhere. We put it away in a safe place. Is there one in every family or is there just one? No there ain't just one it's doing all you have to earn it. Different medicine people and chiefs. Whenever they think that you have earned your pipe or your feather or anything they'll give it to you. The pipe is uh it's like your Jesus Christ you got. It's a sacred as your cross. It's powerful and has all your prayers in it. You know you're supposed to smoke the pipe normally outside because through that smoke off that tobacco that's taken your prayers up to the great spirit and if you smoke it in a room

you know and the smoke goes all over your prayers ain't leaving. You know it's staying there it's bouncing off of walls. When these two students graduate from their survival schools they both plan to be social work counselors. They want to help other Indian children in what they feel is an alien culture outside the reservation as they travel now across the states talking to whomever will listen to them. They say they don't get a very warm reception. We tell them all about the survival schools as we are doing now and it seems like they get it in a different way then they turn around and say well the survival schools you know they're hiding out machine guns guns. No I haven't said that to you yet and I wasn't that going you know but that's what mostly you know the people they think because we've had that said about the heart of the survival school they said that we were hiding out ammunition and machine guns for the American Indian movement there they you know they think of us at a different thing and then what we are trying to say why do you think

they expect us to say it in their words but we don't know it in their words we know it in our words and they don't know but we try to explain what our words mean and it still goes right through the head so this suggests to me that one of the things you may be concentrating on is how to tell your story so that people can listen have you have you actually talked about this yeah we have talked about it but there's very seldom non-Indian people that want to listen to us how do you make people listen when they don't want to listen they don't want to listen you know they don't have to listen you know leave when we're talking what they say is you know Indians go around scalping people you know and all this a stereotype do you think people still think that now yeah yeah most people we go to different schools and the students ask us do you still scalp Indians are you going to

scalp me yeah they give us the war hope man yeah they're kidding you don't you think they're kidding you not some of them they were serious so what are you going to do about that stereotype we're trying to let them know that it is a stereotype how are you doing that going around speaking time about you know about our people that we are solving people we are peaceful people Suzy Bell Court of Minneapolis Minnesota and Janice Banks of Davis California talking about native american survival schools expert in the field of visual impairment believe that less than 5% of blind people use seeing

eye dogs the reason the problems of caring for these helpful animals carry Anderson in San Rafael California gives this report at a center called guide dogs for the blind in the rolling green hills of center fell California any blind person who is willing to go through the monthly training and pass can get a guide dog for free the center is supported entirely by private contributions and manages to train and match 185 dogs and people each year at a cost of $5,000 per dog four guide dogs has spent their lives at 58 year old Betty Rowland when she came back for fifth she explained why she used them it makes a tremendous amount of difference i know that i can get out and go places and do things anytime i want to it gives me a feeling of independence it gives me a feeling of freedom i can get up and walk with my dog i pick up the harness handle and i feel free in walking i know when i come to a street crossing that i don't have to worry about how how high or how low the curb is or how the traffic is running i know that i will be safe as i'm

crossing that street i know that my guide dog will guide me very very safely and and well through crowded streets that i'm not bumping into pedestrians and i know that she will if there's an open manhole or some obstacle in the way i know that she's going to guide me around it safely and so when i walk i can relax and step out and strive along and just feel free and absolutely carefree and safe the center's director of training rest post describes how a person directs the dog the combination of hand and or body and foot signals there is some specific footwork that we teach to coordinate a four-footed animal with a two-footed human to get them both facing in the same direction and ready to go in that direction is a little bit of a dance step but it's nothing that Arthur Murray hasn't his book that i'm aware of but it is a little bit clumsy at first and

it's something that smooth out with time but eventually the dog gets to understand very simply just by the way you face which way you want to go and when you're ready to go Mr. Post says many guide dogs offer more than safety and companionship we have had many people say well i've made so many friends since i've had a guide dog for the simple reason that people who didn't talk to them neighbors and so forth who never felt compelled to come out and say gi see you've got a new cane today we'll come out and say what a lovely dog you have however Mr. Post warns that there can be some drawbacks there is still some resistance to the dog being allowed in public places even though legislation guarantees that right there are people who are ignorant of the law afraid of dogs dislike dogs think they're dirty or whatever there aren't many centers which train guide dogs two other large ones are the senai and morris town or jersey and leader dogs and

Rochester michigan to complete today's gbh journal commentary on the news with luélans the sudden death of Pope Paul six dominates world news at 80 he had completed 15 years of what Catholic authorities describe as a benignly conservative term the college of cardinals will assemble by Vatican rules in 15 to 18 days to elect a successor as always speculation is rife as to their choice and what it will mean among the questions that arise will the president of electing an Italian cardinal whole as it has for more than 400 years there are now 27 Italian cardinals among the 116 total a much less proportion than when Pope Paul was elected

Italians then numbered 29 of a total of 80 but their influence has historically proved greater than their numbers through their occupation of the inner sanctums of the Vatican American cardinals now number ten which would be an effective block in the election if they voted as a block but they're as divided between traditional and modern as others the question always raised of the possibility of an American cardinal is evidently as unrealistic as ever but the college of cardinals now represents 40 countries to the 29 when Pope Paul was chosen cardinal right formally bishop in Worcester is called intellectually outstanding among American cardinals he's now in Boston recuperating from illness his health is believed to eliminate him from consideration 14 cardinals over 80 are beyond the age limit for eligibility this includes some of the strategically placed Italians the larger question in the Catholic world is whether the election will accommodate

Vatican traditionalism with the forces of change that have challenged church policy particularly in sexual issues in Pope Paul's period can the election produce another Pope John those who study church politics will be discussing these questions and so provide an instructive seminar as once every generation in the politics of the most enduring ecclesiastical organization American politics has posed its role in Senator Kennedy's break with President Carter it now appears to be more than a casual one-shot affair for Kennedy resumed it in television appearances both yesterday and Saturday he said he will carry his case to the country in hearings of his health committee this fall to raise consciousness in his words on national health insurance the issue which is most associated with Kennedy which he has most identified with and the issue on

which he has split with the president even before last week's open split over the health insurance issue there were the polls these are reinforced the view of those who have always persisted in seeing Kennedy as an eventual candidate for president despite his denials some find it impossible to read the polls of sagging support for the president without noticing that more Democrats would prefer Kennedy as their presidential candidate in 1980 and that the gap between them widens in April 40 percent Carter to 53 percent Kennedy by June only 32 percent Carter to 54 percent Kennedy the rest undecided suppose the polls convince the senator that Jimmy Carter is a one-term president and that Kennedy is preferred to supplant him in this first public break with the president Kennedy scoffed at Carter's health insurance proposal as if he he put up overnight a coalition with labor to fight for his own plan in an interview next day with Martin Nolan in the globe

Kennedy questioned for the first time the leadership of the president leadership is the ultimate political Chevrolet the acid test we thought we were going to have presidential leadership on this Kennedy said the presidency is the institution for leadership in this and other areas he asked to see me to see if there was any common ground and there wasn't if leadership is the key word is it even more than that with Kennedy it echoed in my memory two months before he announced a president Jack Kennedy told him off the record meeting of Neiman fellows that he was going to I asked why why give up a safe Senate seat for a gamble on the presidential nomination only the president he said can summon the leadership to get things done to Ted Kennedy then in his 20s such emphasis on leadership must have impressed itself this isn't a prediction only a recollection the cross country hearings that Kennedy plans will give him some measure of the concern with the costs

of health insurance which the president is raised he'll need to judge his own political problem to avoid the charge of ignoring inflation for with inflation now at its peak and sharply rising the president's cautious words about cost of a new program find ready response indeed the issue afforded the administration a timely opportunity to add at least a gesture of concern to its failing policy against inflation Kennedy's argument is that government health insurance is essential to control the most inflated area of medical costs but the nation's preoccupation with inflation would seem to present a higher hurdle to Kennedy than even to a deflated president kata as a practical politician and student of political history Kennedy would weigh the fact that there is no history of a party winning an election after dumping its incumbent president he might rationalize that history it has no precedent for the present situation in that kata did not have to summon the strength to defeat an elected president in beating forward but he

must know that it would be running against the current political climate he'd be pushing against a strong conservative tide in espousing the most comprehensive social program he is identified himself so completely with national health insurance that opposition to one involves the other the AMA defeated the medical costs control bill that he supported promising voluntary action he's the number one enemy of both the AMA and the gun lobby he bracketed the two issues on insanity night television appearance eighty percent of the people of a gun control he said but not more than twenty senators would vote for it because the gun lobby never forgets his explanation of the AMA's effective veto of health legislation was that they make their contributions to the members of the committees that control the financing of social programs a demonstration of his realism only forty six now Kennedy could finesse nineteen eighty avoid spreading his party

and still be well within the presidential age when the political pendulum has had four more years to change and his health insurance plan four more years to gather support and impatient advisor might of course insist that such patients could be frustrated if some other democrat replaced Carter in nineteen eighty and one then nineteen eighty four would present Kennedy the same problem of supplanting a democratic president after one term such hypotheses reminders that such stalwarts as Daniel Webster and Henry Clay waited in vain through the terms of presidents whose names we cannot remember for monday august seven nineteen seventy eight that's gbh journal regional news magazine

heard monday through friday at four thirty masha hertz his producer editor for the journal today's engineer parry Carter and i build catmas views on melons and mushrooms maybe some margarine this monday you