Letter: Don’t destroy the Fighting Sioux spirit

“When the legends die, the dreams end. When the dreams end, there is no more greatness,” T.S. Eliot.

We need our heroes. The University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux logo is the favorite logo of all hockey teams in “North” America. We all need to be inspired to keep fighting the good fight, to get up when you fall down, to fight to win and to never give up or in.

A fifth-grader in Dickinson from Colorado wearing a sweatshirt featuring the Sioux warrior said that when he wore it, the bullies left him alone.

I myself have been greatly inspired by the Sioux logo, and even more by the tremendous fight the Sioux petition drive leaders from Spirit Lake and Standing Rock Reservations are putting up to save it.

I had a victim mentality imposed on me by the mental health and addiction treatment system. I was told I was a victim of chemical imbalance, brain disease and circumstances. None of these things were supposed to have been my fault; but I could never recover. There was nothing I could do.

After 10 years in the system, I did start fighting back, however. After another 15 years, I was delivered from that victim mentality and found my identity in Christ. I gained victory over that victim mentality, and now believe that with the help of God and caring people, I can achieve my goals and realize my dreams. I am now invictus (unconquerable), and a victim no more.

Rather than trying to destroy the Fighting Sioux spirit, wouldn’t it be better to help that small handful of disgruntled Sioux with victim mentalities (maybe only 10 percent or less), liberal professors and the NCAA driven by political correctness to become victors following the superb example of the Fighting Sioux Warrior?

Marilyn Schoenberg, Hebron

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