monday, april 13, 1981
daily nebraskan
page 7
Psychologist: Chicano
veterans don 'tseek aid
By Betsy Miller
Adjusting to civilian life after the trau
mas of the Vietnam War is difficult for
many war veterans. Some try to seek
special counseling for their problems.
This is one option that seems to help,
according to Eva Moya, a staff psychologist
at Veterans Outreach Program in Denver
Colo.
But Chicano veterans may not feel
capable of seeking treatment because they
are considered weak if they do, said Marty
Ramirez, a moderator at a discussion of
Vietnam veterans' adjustment problems.
Moya and Ramirez spoke Friday in the
Nebraska Union Rostrum as part of
Chicano Awareness Days. They discussed
a Chicano's perspective of readjustment
problems.
"They say if you have a problem, you're
weak, and if you're weak, you're not a
man," Moya said about Chicano attitudes.
Obligated to fight
Chicanos felt a sense of pride to serve
in the war and thought they were obliga
ted to go, Ramirez said. They don't use
veterans' programs because they don't
think they deserve them after doing a job
they were expected to do in the first
place, he said.
Chicanos, as well as all veterans, were
unsettled by the homecoming they re
ceived when they ended their tours of
duty, Moya said.
"He (the veteran) came home to people
saying 'How could you go over there?
You're a killer. A baby killer and a
rapist,' " Moya said.
Some veterans have told Moya that they
were spit upon when they returned to their
home towns.
Veterans have had to handle some un
welcome receptions along with the psycho
logical after effects of the war.
Moya terms the psychological problem
a "delayed stress reaction." This reaction
consists of several symptoms, she said.
One is re-experiencing the event. This
occurs in nightmares, or flashbacks. For
example, the smell of diesel can bring some
veterans back to the battleground, Moya
said. Cars backfiring also scare some veter
ans, because the sound resembles gunfire,
she said.
Emotional numbing
Another reaction is an emotional numb
ing. Moya said a veteran may feel detached
from others, constrict his feelings or lose
interest in significant activities. Families of
veterans have a hard time coping with this,
according to Moya.
Figures show that 38 percent of the
veterans who married before going to Viet
nam were divorced within six months of
returning home. Bad nightmares also can
disrupt the veterans' family life, she said.
Some veterans have hypertension.
"I've seen vets who won't sit un
less they've got their backs to the wall,"
she said.
Fits of anger and survival guilt also
plague the former soldiers, Moya said.
Survival guilt
Survival guilt takes place when veterans
who escaped death and serious injury feel
a sense of guilt because others were
stricken, according to Moya.
Moya said her outreach program works
for two results from the Chicano veterans.
The first is to break down the isolation
veterans feel and to get them to come in
for counseling.
"Once they find out they can trust you,
then they'll come in," she said.
The second objective Moya tries to
accomplish is to get the veterans to grieve
openly and let their feelings show.
"We push and push for the feeling" she
said.
Ultimately, Moya said she hopes to ex
pand her program, both in terms of num
bers served and in programs offered. She
said she would like to get not only the vet
eran, but his family involved.
She said the program is making progress
and helps the veterans who use it.
"We are doing something about it, even
though we haven't been able to reach
everybody yet," she said.
RH A votes to loosen rule
governing visitation hours
By Patty Pry or
The Resilience Hall Association voted in
support of two issues concerning floor
regulations in resilience halls Thursday
ni;jlit .
The first of these, presented by Abel
Hall student assistant Tom Rolfes, propos
ed a change in the visitation hours for
specified areas of co-educational floors.
Abel Hall has seven such floors and Ray
mong Hall in Ncihardt Residence Center
has one.
The plan, originated on Abel 7, allows
24-hour access to "common usage" areas
on the floor, such as lounges or hallways,
but does not change the policy on access to
individual rooms.
The proposal includes three different
methods for implementation.
One method would simply enforce the
change on all co-cducational floors be
ginning in the fall of 1981 .
The second method would allow each
floor the option of voting on the change at
the beginning of every school year, with
either a simple majority or (C percent
affirmative vote necessary for passage.
Waverly claims
top FFA honors
Waverly High School students beat stu
dents from about 140 other schools when
it won the sweepstakes award in the annual
Future Farmers of America vocational agri
culture judging con! sts this weekend on
Fast Campus.
The 13 contests were designed to allow
students to show what they have learned in
FFA. according to contest coordinator and
UNL acricultural faculty member Uoyd
Bell.
Bell said the results of past contests
indicate a yearly improvement in the stu
dents' performances.
The final method would implement the
proposed next fall on two Abel floors
selected by the Housing Office. An evalua
tion of the program would then be
conducted during the school year.
Rolfes said the proposal has already
been taken through the Housing Office, to
Dr. Richard Armstrong, vice chancellor for
student affairs, and finally, to the NU
Board of Regents. At that point, however.
Abel 7 residents sponsoring the proposal
were told that more student involvement
was needed to support it.
With RHA's official support, the pro
posal now goes back before the regents
May 16.
The second issue concerns the establish
ment of special study floors in Cather and
Pound Halls.
Both Cather and Pound chose to let
housing officials decide which floors would
become study floors, since no general con
sensus could be reached in the hall govern
ment. The floors chosen by Housing are
Cather 4 and Pound 10.
RHA passed a motion to look into these
choices, and to examine criteria used by
the Housing Office, making sure that major
renovations, and the number of returning
floor members were taken into account.
In other business. Mike Kratville spoke
to the council about establishing a six
mciuber committee to draft a position
paper on the proposed State Student
Association.
The council turned down the proposal,
however, and voted instead to bring in
both pro and a con speaker on the issue,
and then draft a stand on the issue to
gether. Finally. RHA allocated S700 to cover
expenses for movie night during FINK
Week in the fall.
Last year's allocation was $450. but the
council decided that this year RHA should
be responsible for a larger share of the ex
pense than the individual hall governments.
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