[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 12]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 17968-17969]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



         VERMONT HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT CONGRESSIONAL TOWN MEETING

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. BERNARD SANDERS

                               of vermont

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 25, 2001

  Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Speaker, today I recognize the outstanding work done 
by participants in my Student Congressional Town Meeting held this 
summer. These participants were part of a group of high school students 
from around Vermont who testified about the concerns they have as 
teenagers, and about what they would like to see government do 
regarding these concerns.
  I am asking that these statements be printed in the Congressional 
Record, as I believe that the views of these young persons will benefit 
my colleagues.

                           Regarding Napster

                          (By Hydie Buchanan)

       I am here today to talk about whether it is right to shut 
     down Napster over the record companies' feeling it infringes 
     on the copyrights of artists.
       This case first started in April 1999 when the recording 
     industry brought a lawsuit against Napster, saying that 
     Napster violated copyrighted material. Since then, just 
     recently, district courts ruled that Napster has to put 
     blocks on copyrighted material, which Napster has complied 
     with.
       However, although it is against Napster's file-sharing 
     rules to change file names to get around the copyrighted 
     blocks, people change a song, they add letters or numbers to 
     the file name, and therefore it can pass the block. And 
     although Napster says that they will warn people and then 
     kick them off the Napster community, there is over 500,000 
     users, so it is kind of hard to keep track of them all.
       It's not that many artists are intimated by Napster. Many 
     artists actually support Napster. It is the recording 
     industry that thinks they are losing profits, when, in all 
     reality, profits were up in 1999 because of Napster.
       I have a few quotes to share about artists who support 
     Napster. Dave Matthews Band, in July 2000, said: ``There are 
     a lot of bigger problems in the world than whether Napster 
     succeeds or fails. I don't think there is a malice coming out 
     of Napster. We allowed people to tape our concerts from the 
     beginning, and the record company questioned us about 
     allowing that.
       My thinking was that it only makes people want to buy more, 
     and increases the devotion of people who are really going to 
     listen to us.'' Which, in this case, shows that he supports 
     Napster because it promotes the music, not takes away 
     profits, but actually increases them.
       Another quote: ``We're not afraid of the Internet. We think 
     it is a very cool way to reach our fans. If a band sells 12 
     million albums, what are we supposed to say? `Oh, maybe we 
     could have sold 13 million if we had just been Internet 
     Nazis.'
       At a certain point you have to say, Let the people have the 
     music.''
       Dexter Holland, from Offspring: ``Many of the bands that 
     support Napster are maybe not the manufactured bands created 
     as boy bands, the popular music of today.'' A lot of people 
     think that Napster doesn't infringe on copyrights. And it 
     really doesn't. Napster does not copy the MP3s. The people 
     that are on Napster, they're the ones that create the MP3s, 
     either from the program that they downloaded off the Internet 
     or burning the--ripping the CD onto their hard drive. So, 
     really, it's not Napster. They just created a community where 
     people can swap everything, and that is not necessarily so 
     wrong.
       A lot of people that use Napster use it as a way to find 
     out more about an artist. Like, say they hear one song on the 
     radio and they want to hear more about the band before they 
     go out and buy the CD. So that's actually helping the 
     profits, So, really, the recording industry, they shouldn't 
     stop people from doing that, because it is promoting the 
     music.
       Also, Napster is not the only company of its sort. There 
     are many other file-sharing companies out there, such as 
     Scour or Livewire, that also have the same sort of system 
     with filesharing. It is also the same thing as, say, burning 
     a CD for your friend, or recording a tape of songs off the 
     radio. It is all the same thing. And, sure, they said that 
     recording CDs and tapes is illegal, but never really did 
     anything about it.
       In order to shut Napster down, I think you would have to 
     stop selling the recordable CDs and recordable tapes, because 
     it is all the same thing. And you would also have to go out 
     onto the Internet and search for every site like Napster in 
     order to shut them all down, because shutting one down out of 
     thousands isn't really fair.

                                  ____
                                  

              Regarding Abenaki and Native American Issues

                          (By Fellicia Gagne)

       I am here today to talk about the lack of academic success 
     among minorities, specifically Abenakis. Basically what I'm 
     going to be talking about is from last year's Vermont 
     Framework of Standards, which all schools are supposed to 
     take, show that 19 percent of tenth grade Native Americans 
     met the reading and knowledge interpretation. This means that 
     81 percent can't read a one- to two-paragraph passage and 
     understand and interpret what they have read.
       In mathematical skills, the test shows that American 
     Indians fall 52 percent below standards. Only 14 percent meet 
     the standards, which is really low. The difficulty is with 
     fractions, multiplying, et cetera. What that means is they 
     have difficulty with basics, rather than what normal students 
     would be able to do.
       Continuing, I would like to talk about why this is 
     happening. Abenakis are a majority of my school, and like 
     over 50 percent fall below standards. And I don't see why 
     that should be happening. If Abenakis aren't meeting 
     standards now, then how do they expect to go to college, get 
     a degree, and have a good life? That means that my people, 
     Abenakis, would be lower in poverty, wouldn't be able to 
     support their families, and it is just going to keep 
     happening over and over and over again.
       This has been happening for years and years, and I feel 
     that it should have been changed long ago. What are the 
     reasons that this is happening? Racism, maybe. It has been in 
     society and schools for years, and probably never will leave. 
     Also, Eugenic Survey. This could also prove what had happened 
     during the 1920s through the '40s.
       A professor at UVM thought that he would improve Vermont. 
     He thought that he could cleanse or change genetically 
     inferior people. Because we were different, we had to go 
     through a phase where you had to feel uncomfortable, you 
     couldn't be proud of who you are or what you have been as an 
     individual, and you lost a lot of your dignity, your pride.
       And, in 1931, Vermont had a sterilization law, and it 
     remained until 1973. The effects of the survey were loss of 
     pride, dignity, and loss of heritage. Many students today 
     that are Abenaki either don't know it or they don't know 
     about their heritage, because it has been lost, because of 
     the Eugenics Survey. If someone can't be proud of who they 
     are or who they come from, then how do they expect to show 
     proudness in everything that they do?
       Another reason why Abenakis lack the academics is because 
     of courses in teaching at my school, students feel separated 
     and intimidated at school. People are put in certain classes 
     and special groups where they feel that they're not 
     intermingled enough. They don't have the right people to be 
     around them, where they will feel that they fit in with all 
     these topics.
       I would like to talk about how we can make things better. 
     There will be core-plus classes next year, which means that 
     our

[[Page 17969]]

     school is trying core-plus classes. Whether you are an honor 
     student or an applied student, you are going to be in the 
     same class. That could start issues with honor students being 
     bored or people being rushed into things.
       Mr. Barnett, a teacher at my school, he tries to teach 
     reading and writing in all of his classes. He tries to help 
     students improving the skills that they need in everyday 
     life. And he is one of the many at my school that are trying 
     to change. But I think you need the whole school to help make 
     a difference, or it's not going to--it's not going to have an 
     effect.
       Another way that you could make things better is through 
     volunteer work. My family and I help out at a learning 
     center. It is the Abenaki Learning Center in Swanton. Four 
     days a week, we help kids with homework, and we try and help 
     them understand the basics of what they need for when they 
     get into high school. We open kids to Native American arts 
     and crafts, and we do cooking with them.
       And I feel that, if you are Abenaki or if you are not, you 
     should know a little about the background of the Abenakis, 
     and try and pass it on to more people. Because, as the years 
     go by, more and more people are forgetting, and they're 
     losing everything.
       I feel that these things will help the Abenakis, and even 
     other races of our school. Like I said, you need everybody to 
     work together, not just a few here and there.
       I want to thank you for inviting me here to speak on a 
     topic that concerns me greatly. And I think that one day the 
     Abenakis will earn their pride back.

     

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