Mt. Graham officials can't buy Apache beliefs

UA Mount Graham officials came to our reservation recently. They offered us $40,000 per year each from the UA, University of Minnesota and University of Virginia. It was a cash package of programs for us - if we would give up our religious beliefs. Our Tribal Council rejected those bribes.

We Apache went to Minnesota in 2002 and pled with UMN's president and regents not to participate in this harm to us. We explained that our Tribal Council had voted resolutions five times opposing this project over the past decade, saying the project represents "a display of profound disrespect for a cherished feature of our original homeland as well as a serious violation of our traditional religious beliefs."

UMN's president and regents' reply was to tell us they would (1) give us cash programs (for us to forget our beliefs) and (2) assure us that we would be allowed to pray on Mount Graham (the UA had already arrested an Apache for praying on Mount Graham).

Does the UA think that sacred places and beliefs can be bought like a chest of trinkets to Manhattan Indians?

Sandra Rambler
San Carlos Apache Reservation Bylas

Find another site to build UA telescopes

The domination and destruction of our Native Americans and their culture continues. Observe the years of struggles of Arizona's Apaches against the power and might of the UA and its partners, the University of Minnesota and University of Virginia.

These insensitive institutions continue construction of their telescope project atop the Apaches' sacred Mount Graham in Arizona. The San Carlos Apache Tribe passed its first resolution in July 1990 opposing the telescopes and has passed several more since. Most recently, on April 13, the Apaches rejected a shameless $120,000 sweetener from these three universities.

After 118 years since their great resister, Geronimo, was captured, and 118 years of being discriminated against and having their culture suppressed, it is amazing that the Apaches have continued their struggle to transmit their values from generation to generation.

For the telescopes, there were, and always are, alternative sites.

Are we only spectators? Why should we care? At the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Non-Violence, they teach that eight "blunders" cause all of the violence in the world. Participants in the Mount Graham telescope project are guilty of at least five: science without humanity, knowledge without character, politics without principles, commerce without morality and pleasure without conscience.

Carolina Butler
Scottsdale

Speaker feared reprisal for speaking negatively

While I deeply appreciate the front-page coverage you gave to my sister's speech ("War may seem 'old' but troops still fighting, soldier says"), I have some concerns about how the speech was portrayed.

The article mentioned twice that my sister participated in a "weapons of mass destruction" briefing in Saddam Hussein's conference room. However, the article left out my sister's main point: There was no threat from these weapons. Given that 40 percent of the American public still believes WMDs will be found, the article could have played an important role in educating UA students.

Also, while the article was accurate in stating that my sister refused to answer certain questions about the war, it failed to mention why: She feared reprisal from the military for speaking negatively about our commander in chief.

Daniel Brockert
Spanish linguistics junior member of the Alliance for Peace and Justice in the Middle East

Eller College should reconsider waiver policy

While I certainly understand the reasons the Eller College has given for denying fee waivers to those on merit-based scholarships, it is obvious that the college is forgetting those who are ineligible for need-based scholarships because they have already earned merit-based ones. I am one such individual, and I work very hard to maintain the GPA required to keep my scholarship because if I were to ever lose it, there is a chance I might not be able to continue school.

I have applied for additional scholarships based on need, but I was denied because I already receive two merit-based awards. Moreover, it is not true that every merit-based scholarship recipient profits from their scholarships, especially for those in Eller, where the cost of my textbooks alone exceeded $650 last fall. This is where my leftover scholarship money went - to pay for books and other things I needed for school.

While giving need-based scholarship recipients priority for fee waivers makes sense, the assumption by the Eller College that all merit-based scholarship recipients are from affluent families is extremely misguided. I strongly urge Eller College administrators and the Eller College Student Council to rethink their decision.

Karen Komrada
business economics junior

Human Israeli flag story was 'biased reporting'

So the Wildcat has failed us again. The biased reporting about the Israeli flag on the UA Mall was subtle and unacceptable. The picture is taken from an angle so that you can't see any of the anti-Zionist protestors, even though that was the topic of half of the article. It also fails to mention how many protestors attended the event (40-50, by my guess).

The article mentions that our string was cut by a Zionist once. This is wrong; the string was cut three times. This was an illegal act of vandalism that the police stood by and allowed to continue repeatedly. They then pulled the offender off to the side for a little chat. He was then set free as one of the officers left to shake hands with the pro-Israeli participants.

This bias of the law is illegal and inexcusable. We were breaking no laws while the police allowed the opposition to violate our rights. I also find it hard to believe that no one wrote a pro-Palestinian letter to the Wildcat in the two days following the event. In that time, however, they managed to print five pro-Israeli letters.

If the Wildcat is interested in presenting itself as a legitimate news source, it would do well to present a full picture of both sides of any issue.

Mike Sousa
art education senior