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Show THE HERALD, Provo, Utah, Page D2 off Hazing Editor's Note: George ', ar ld n. upper-classme- ar 22, 1990 system, according fourth-cla- ss to Col. H. Steven Hammond, whose commandant's office oversees military training for the cadets. "You would read (the rules) and say, 'Well this sounds OK.' But In terms of how it was practiced, there was much opportunity and great potential for abuse by the upper-clas- s cadets," Hammond says. The abuses differed from the mistreatments piled on unlucky civilian college fraternity pledges. West Point hazing was supposedly instituted to improve the character of neophyte officer candidates. In the name of leadership, plebes were mandated to learn not only military history, but pages of other trivia and gibberish that in effect equaled an extra academic course. But what really rankled Hammond and others was that upperclassmen were so busy trying to lead plebes, they didn't spend enough time working on their own character. "Too many people in the past here saw the seniors' role as placing stress on the subordinate," he says. "But the leaders' role is to remove stress." So this semester, with little ado, the Cadet leadership Development System was unveiled. At the heart of this new system are 15 rules defining the proper way for a military leader to act toward subordinates. This fall's plebes now just have to read the Times, cat memorize the front page. However, many who passed through hazing voice regret. "You can tell by looking in their eyes that the plebes wish it was the same," Manninen says. "It's not the same," says Robin Schuck, a female senior from Davenport, Iowa. "When I was a plebe, anybody could tell you your brass buckle needed a shine. Now only someone in your chain of command can make a correc- tion." "I wouldn't say it's easier," says John Shugena, a plebe. "A lot of the things we have to do, the upperclassmen had to do. We still have to be familiar with world events." Some cadets have taken to calling the freshman class "getov-ers- " as in those who "get over" by doing as little work as possible. Hammond though, emphatically rejects the idea that plebes have it any easier than their forebears or that West Point is becoming "a Harvard on the Hudson." "Every single class that has ever come here has been told during their freshman year that 'you got it easier," Hammond says. Maybe they do. "Deviling" was such an arduous pastime early in the 19th century, that an academy superintendent advised plebes standing guard duty to use their bayonets against relentless upperclassmen tormentors. At the turn of the century, the death of a former cadet linked to hazing provoked a national scandal. Oscar L Booz died of tubercular laryngitis 18 months after he dropped out of the academy. But his family blamed his death on daily dosages of Tabasco sauce his older schoolmates forced him to drink. A Congressional committee uncovered other abuses, such as forcing plebes to sit on bayonets or slide naked down splintered boards. One young first-yea- r cadet called to testify before Congress, Douglas MacArthur, was forced to recall his own humiliations. MacArthur biographer William Manchester recounts In "American Caesar" that the future general in command of U.S. forces in the Far East was once laid unconscious and sent Into convulsions after three separate groups of upperclassmen forced him to perform deep knee bends over broken glass. Hazing was modified in the wake of scandal, but the almost sacred rite of passage could not be eradicated. George Patton, class of 1909, mentioned in personal letters how But once again, while the physical brutality lessened, the ritual remained. Join us for the biggest shopping days at: I Season's twoTHE HOLIDAY Hammond says previous attempts at reform failed because they attacked the symptoms of abuse, not the cause. For example, bracing was abolished (in the 1960s) only to give rise to pinging, around the g "FIESTA CRAFT FAIR" November 23rd November 24th bar- racks, squaring the corners. (1 For Information. Carrie r" best-inform- SEW AND SAVE person to do that. I hope you will have the energy for many years to come to travel around the country and make speecltes. I heard you speak in San Francisco and I'll never forget it. No one who sees you in person can doubt that you are for real. Have a Happy Thanksgiving, Ann True-Blu- e Ann Fan Landers. Dear Ann Landers: I am a girl with a problem. A guy asks for a date. He says, "I'll pick you up at 7:00 and we'll go to dinner." He doesn't get here until 7:20, He says he overslept. Another guy says, "I'll pick you up at 8:00 and we'll go see a movie." He shows up at 8:30. He then insists that he said 8:30. We made the movie on time, but I hated being kept waiting for half an hour. My problem is that I don't know what to say to guys when they are late. 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AND STRIPES 1 All For 25 OFfI REG. 2.49 TO 29.98 45' TO 60' WIDE 1 V 6 Admission 25c Proceeds to support the Landmark High School mn4 Olh p 798-307- Strollers Welcome SYNDICATE ; Janeli 374-870- 0nic7dm ity, masturbation, obscssf pulsive behavior, abortion, kit My sex, transvestism, "funny uncles," medical problems, emotional problems and sibling rivalry. You have made it possible for me to get along with my relatives, neighbors and friends. Thank you, Ann lenders, for your terrific sense of humor. There have been days when your column was the only laugh I had. You have a way of being funny without being flippant, insulting or hurtful. I have my sides at some of the gs you've written. I've shed a few tears, too. You've made me and millions of others feel that we aren't stupid just because we have to ask someone for advice. Thank you for taking the time to track down the busiest and authorities in medicine, law, psychiatry and religion to get answers. Very few of us could reach these experts and we certainly couldn't afford to pay them. Thank you for the help you've given people who are depressed, suicidal, strung out on drugs, alienated from parents, lonely and frightened. You have been a rock of strength to people who are secretly worried about themselves, thinking that they are the only ones who have such "crazy" problems. It gives them a great lift to know that they aren't alone. And thank for admitting when you are wrong. It takes a big pm pm am-- 5 The Landmark High School Block North of Fairgrounds) UVrn 7984834 CREATORS I FAST SERVICE am-- 6 Delicious baked goodie and unique hand crafted treasures from Utah's finest Artisans 753 Landers 2-8- x1 0 9 3? Ann self-servi- 1 320 S. Main, Spanish Fork But the new reform is fundamentally different, he says. This time, cadets both past and present worked with faculty and staff for years to make reports and suggest changes. Flower Arrangemontt For Your WeoJing A (AP) se chin into his gullets. Dwight D. Eisenhower once recalled his own plebe year in 1911 all the way." as "double-tim- e Perhaps remembering his own humiliation, MacArthur curtailed abuses of the fourth-clas-s system upon his appointment in 1919 as superintendent of West Point. double-timin- ; bad ytheir children's grades," Mainor said. Zena Rudo, executive director of the Child Abuse Prevention Center of Maryland, said Tuesday that can mean a severe beating. Children in Baltimore will take stress can lead to child abuse. "Stress is a real indicator of report cards home Friday along with a leaflet containing advice for when abuse occurs. Report card time can be a very stressful time parents on what to do if they're dissatisfied with the grades. because of expectations," Rudo said. The leaflet was prepared by the Baltimore Commission for Children "Any type of parent can abuse a child at report card time. It can be and Youth after an appeal from situation, an ongoing a first-tim- e Peggy Mainor, a commission member who has spent four years prosituation in the home, Just an added stress, or the straw that cases in the secuting child-abubroke the camel's back," Rudo city. She remembers seeing eight to 10 said. "There have never been concrete bleeding belt wounds on a child's statistics that I'm aware of that we back and reading the police report: The parents were disappointed with can relate to an increased percenttheir son's grades. age, but we have known it is a "With the first few cases I got, I stressful time because we do see started noticing that a number of more reports during report card abuses occurred around report time," Rudo said. The leaflet doesn't refer specificard time or when notes went home from school," Mainor said. cally to child abuse, said spokeswoman Sara Mandell, because "We came up with the idea of an insert mat would catch a parent's many parents who don't consider eye at the time of greatest stress, themselves abusers would Ignore when they are disappointed with anything described that way. BALTIMORE report card means more to some' children at home than extra homework and loss of privileges it upperclassmen made sure he would always "brace," that is eat and walk so erect as to push his Fan asks Ann to repeat column Dear Ana Landers: Some readers get mad when you run a column a second time, even though they may not remember it. In my opinion, most of your stuff is good enough to be seen again, and you shouldn't feel the need to apologize, especially if it's a holiday. I don't know of anyone who works harder than you, Ann, so go ahead and take the day off and run the column I arn enclosing. It appeared in the Memphis Commercial Appeal in 1983, Kemmons Wilson, the man who founded Holiday Inns, called it to my attention. Have a Happy Thanksgiving, honA Fan Since 1955. ey. Dear Pan: The column you seat far so I'm embarrassed to think I ran it the first time. But your offer of the day off is irresistible so 1 accept. Excuse me while I reach for a second piece of my friend Louise's sweet potato pie. Meanwhile, say hello to Kemmons and Dorothy. What a great couple! Here's the column: Dear Ann Landers: Today is Thanksgiving. What better time to let you know how much we appreciate you? A whole generation has grown up and learned about life from reading your column. It would be impossible to calculate the impact you have had on milnot only teenlions of people agers, but individuals of every age. Thank you for patching up family fights, settling bets and making communication between children and adults easier. You have sent people to physicians, lawyers, clergymen, dentists, counselors, Alcoholics Anonymous, Recovery, Inc., and dozens of organizations they would never have known about if it weren't for you. Thank you for discussing human problems most people would be too timid to approach. You have helped me understand homosexual- - Abuse after report card generates tips for parents plebes abolished at West Point the Pat-to-n endured it. So did Douglas MacArthur, Dwlght Eisenhower and even Ulysses Grant. But beginning with this school year, hazing of plebes has been outlawed at the U.S. Military Academy. West Point is drawing the line between discipline and humiliation, leadership and sadism. By MICHAEL HILL Associated Press Writer WEST POINT, N.Y. (API -The new class of cadets at the U.S. Military Academy this year has been spared a disciplinary ritual as old as West Point itself. cadets, or Hazing of first-yeplebes, has been abolished. But at this school, hazing is a tradition that has survived reform before. Pieties of old had to do such things as memorize how many ice cubes go in the drinks of around Or double-tim- e the barracks at 120 steps a minute, squaring corners like robots. Or study New York Times articles, ready to repeat them verbatim at the whim of older cadets. "It's a rite of passage that we aren't doing anymore," says Todd student Manninen, a third-yea- r from Unionville, Mich. "It's a tradition that they've been doing forever." It was intended to teach discipline. Upperclassmen had the right to stucome up to any first-yedents wearing a crooked cap or dingy belt buckle and literally shout in their face the proper rules for conduct. But what upset many here were the "unwritten but nonetheless tolerated practices" of the upperclassmen under what was called Thursday, November 1 YOUR LOCALLY OWNED FABRIC STORE SALE LIMITED TO STOCK ON HAND 2 SPOWTS UNIVERSITY HALL MALL SOUTH TOWHE MALL BOUNTIFUL ORCU SANDY 22A';'.Vi mm |