Notepad

Racism and Native Americans

Western North Carolina is certainly not the only area of the country to experience tension between American Indians and the Caucasian majority. But the recent controversy over an athletic-team name at Erwin High makes Charlene Teters’ Asheville visit particularly timely.

Teters, one of the Native American community’s most outspoken foes of racism, has been called “the Rosa Parks of American Indians.” The senior editor of Indian Artist Magazine, she helped found the National Coalition Against Racism in Sports and Media. Teters has also been featured in an award-winning PBS documentary, in the “Person of the Week” segment on ABC World News Tonight and on NPR.

On Thursday, Nov. 12, she will give a lecture at UNCA, titled “The Playing Field is the Classroom: Mascots and American Indian History Month.” The lecture will address the national and local implications of Native American imagery in mainstream culture, focusing particularly on school curricula and the day-to-day education of students. During her three days in Asheville, Teters will also visit schools and meet with local officials and Native American artists.

For more information, contact the Center for Diversity Education at 254-9044.

“The Healing Doctor” needs your help

For six months, WLOS-TV news has featured Dr. Alison Levitt‘s observations and assessments of alternative therapies and natural medicines on her show “The Healing Doctor.” But in order to continue airing the program, both the station and Earth Fare (the show’s sponsor) need to know it’s making a difference, warns a recent press release.

To make your comments heard, call WLOS News Director Tom Loebig at 255-4571, or Earth Fare’s Risa Callaway at 281-4800.

Cut college costs

Keeping a full-time student in college these days can cost anywhere from $10,000 to $30,000 a year, with some schools in the $40,000 range.

Sound daunting? That’s why the U.S. Commission for Scholastic Assistance — College Bound wants to remind you that help is available. Many private-sector scholarships remain unclaimed year after year — scholarships that could send you or your kids to college for next to nothing.

Some organizations have spent hundreds of hours compiling data about private scholarships, including names, addresses, application deadlines, information summaries and how much the scholarships will pay. The info is grouped in such categories as Handicapped Student Scholarships, Members of a Church Scholarships, Scholarships for “C” students, Veteran Children’s Scholarships and Scholarships for Minorities.

Many scholarships cover tuition; others can be applied toward tuition, living expenses and/or other fees. Most scholarships can be used at junior colleges, career and vocational schools, four-year colleges, grad schools, even medical and law schools.

For more information, send a business-size SASE to: The U.S. Commission for Scholastic Assistance, P.O. Box 669, O’Fallon, IL 62269.

Hey, that’s my money

It’s payday. Do you know where your tax dollars are going?

You provided almost $1 billion to cover money-losing timber sales made to logging companies by the U.S. Forest Service between 1992 and 1994, says the Southern Appalachian Biodiversity Project, quoting a study by the U.S. General Accounting Office.

Those losses have Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonprofit, public-interest group, fuming. The group will hold a conference in UNC-A’s Owen Conference Center on Nov. 11 at 7 p.m., to cast a critical eye on subsidized commercial logging in public forests. And while TCS’s Forest Campaign Director Sean Cosgrove will preside, the meeting is also sponsored by the Southern Appalachian Biodiversity Project, the UNCA Ecology Club, the Western NC Alliance, and Taxpayers for Accountable Government.

For more information, call Andrew George at 258-2667.

If you build it, you will save …

If you’ve ever moaned about your (or your company’s) high power bills, listen up: On Thursday and Friday, Nov. 12 and 13, the N.C. Solar Center will present a hands-on computer workshop covering all aspects of designing energy-efficient small commercial buildings. First developed for architects and consulting mechanical engineers, the workshop is designed around the Microsoft Windows-based “Energy-10” software package, which was developed to demonstrate the consequences of various design decisions on the bottom line.

The software evaluates and ranks 16 different energy-efficiency strategies, presenting the results in easy-to-understand color graphs. Designed to be used on commercial, institutional and even residential buildings up to about 10,000 square feet, the evaluations are comprehensive, hour-by-hour calculations based on average long-term conditions. Among the strategies to be covered in the workshop are shading techniques, air-leakage control, passive solar heating, energy-efficient lighting, natural ventilation and solar water heating.

The workshop will be held at the D.H. Hill Library, on the campus of NC State University, in Raleigh; the presenters will be: nationally known engineer and educator Bill Bobenhausen, architect Alicia Ravetto and solar-energy specialist Henry Rogers of the N.C. Solar Center. Registration is $300.

For more information, call (800) 33 NC SUN, or (919) 515-3480.

Record geeks unite!

Anyone who’s ever gone to a record- and CD-collectors show can attest to the laid-back atmosphere, and the pleasure of being around other folks who share a passion for music … not to mention the thrill of finding that elusive “Leonard Nimoy Sings Ray Charles” album … on CD … and for five bucks, no less!

On Sunday, Nov. 15, you can get your chance to fill those nagging holes in your collection: From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Show Logic Productions will host a record collectors show at the Comfort Suites, I-26 at Brevard Road (next to Biltmore Square Mall). Admission is free.

For more information, contact Mike Pottorff at (912) 923-3370.

— circumspectly compiled by Paul Schattel