<^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> ........Catt's Claws # 152 ... April 5,1997......... ........ A Feminist Newsletter by Irene Stuber......... istuber@direclynx.net is solely responsible for its content Archives are found at http://www.imageworld.com/istuber.html <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> We received a message from a reader who has the financial means to buy a new set of prothesis for the California woman whose forearms were cut off by her rapist - that sadistic rapist who promised his mutilated victim that he would be back to finish the job. She went into hiding when that sadistic rapist was allowed to serve just a short period in prison. He then lived on the California prison grounds as he pleased until his actual short sentence was up because no state and no California community would have him. Then he was free to move to Florida and murdered a woman. The young victim, according to news articles, is very poor, very isolated, etc., and can't even afford to repair the now borken prosthesis which were replacing her severed wrists and hands. Would any of you knowledgeable Clawers out there know how to trace her so this donation can be made? We don't need her exact location; we just want to get her the help she deserves - and needs - and is waiting for her. . . . . . . . ^c^l^a^w^s^ . . . . . . . This is the exact message I received from a longtime NOW member. IF you think for an instant that I enjoy writing bad things about National NOW, you are very, very wrong. VERY WRONG! I gave many years of my life to NOW and love the organization dearly, so dearly that I rant and rave and carry one like a fool trying to change the incompetent leadership that is destroying it. I am working hard for reform when any sensible person would simply turn her back and look for another rainbow. Thousands, hundreds of thousands have. Obviously, I just don't have any good sense when it comes to fighting for women's rights. I believe sincerely and deeply that the destruction of NOW, hand-in-hand with the attacks on women so rampant in our media today headed by the Republican religious right, would seriously delay efforts of devoted individual women fighting for their social, economic, and religious freedom. It certainly has cut off many of the younger generations: the future of feminism, the future of our world. The letter below points directly into the heart of the failure of today's leadership of National NOW. Not only are they deceptive, but they absolutely REFUSE to answer any criticism. Ms. Patricia Ireland, this was A CERTIFIED letter sent directly to YOU. You have a wonderful secretary. National NOW has a very good staff, albeit very low paid. WHY don't you consider answering some of the messages sent to you? Why do you consider yourself too good to deal with the peons? But frankly, the writer of the below message writer shouldn't object to being ignored because the one constant cry of the leaders of local and state chapters of NOW has been the REFUSAL of *National* NOW to return phone calls, letters, or communications of any kind. It's a standing joke. Yet National gets the $ at about a 3/1 rate for full memberships, less for less pay. Unless you head the biggies of California, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, or Michigan, you will almost NEVER get a call back - and even some of those leaders have been unable to reach Mizz Ireland because she and the other officers are out of the office so much. So many private businesses and so little time to take care of women's business. So much for preliminaries. Here is the letter from a woman in Florida: "On February 19th I received a call from NOW. I was given a spiel about the terrorist attacks on women's health clinics, "In fact, did you know that just today there was another one?" No, I didn't. Well, it was in Virginia. She didn't have all the details as the news was just coming in, but apparently it burned to the ground. Would I contribute $250. Well, I wouldn't give my VISA out over the phone (she hadn't asked me for it, by the way), and I would perhaps consider $25 if they sent it by mail. They were just calling tonight to try to get a budget up, and were seeing if they could get some idea of how much they could generate. "While I was talking to her I was watching CNN Headline News. I thought it strange that I hadn't seen anything on the news. I kept watching. I read the paper the next morning. I finally searched the Internet several days later. "I could find no mention of any abortion clinic in Virginia (or anywhere else) being attacked on February 19th. In fact, that was the day the Supreme Court handed down the ruling on how close protesters could get to a clinic--so I had been tuned in to what was going on with abortion clinics on that particular day. "It crossed my mind that perhaps I was dealing with someone saying they were NOW and trying to con people into giving their VISA numbers out with a sob story. However, several days later I did in fact receive the pledge sheet from NOW which specifically stated they had called me on February 19th. "At that time, I say down and wrote a letter to Patricia Ireland, Certified Mail, Return Receipt Requested. I enclosed the pledge sheet and my NOW card torn in two pieces. That was on March 3rd. I received my return receipt back on March 6th, signed by an individual by the name of F. Dunmore. Since that date, I have not heard another thing, except a follow-up dun notice for the $25 pledge which I have no intention of honoring. "Text of letter to Ireland dated March 3: "RE: NOW's tactics for extracting money from supporters. "Patricia Ireland: I am writing to you rather than the local media, because I feel you deserve to know what NOW telephone solicitors are doing and to have a chance to correct the situation. "As you can see from the attached, I received a call from NOW on February 19th. The young woman told me that there had been that very day, February 19th, yet another attack on an abortion clinic in Virginia. The news was just coming in and she did not have all of the details but it appeared that this clinic had been burned to the ground. "I had been watching the evening news when she called, and I was very puzzled with the information she gave me. I was asked for a $250 pledge. I told her I would not give my VISA number out over the telephone, and told her I would consider $25. "There was no mention on any news broadcast on February 19th of any action taken against any abortion clinic in Virginia. Furthermore there was no mention in the press during the following week. I have searched the news sources on the Internet and can find no mention of any bombing of any abortion clinic in Virginia on February 19th. "I consider these tactics scurrilous. As a result you will no longer have my support. I am herewith resigning as a member of NOW. May I remind you, that like Caesar's wife, NOW should be above suspicion in its fund-raising tactics if it wishes to take on the government." . . . . . . . ^c^l^a^w^s^ . . . . . . . I've held up publicizing the above to be fair. to be nice. waiting. hoping. Yes HOPING that there were be a reply, an explanation. Sometimes I want to cry. Where are the giants of the women's movement when we really need them? NOW membership which at one time was aiming for a million is now down to under 200,000. No wonder their fund-raising is getting desperate. In 1920, the women's suffrage movement had 3.5 MILLION active members. . . . . . . . ^c^l^a^w^s^ . . . . . . . When Claws forwarded the above post to the writer for accuracy checking, she wrote back: "All I have received from them was a dun-notice saying I hadn't sent the pledge made on Feb. 19. You would think that someone in that office had enough sense to at least write a letter, saying, wow, I'm sorry, please let us investigate, we'll get back in touch--even a damned computerized form would have been something. Either they are totally stupid (which is what I think) or they are brazen hussies! Apparently in today's world ethics is how much money you can get and it really doesn't matter how, since the end justifies the means!" . . . . . . . ^c^l^a^w^s^ . . . . . . . A few Mizz Ireland loyalists have criticized my efforts to unmask the hypocrisy of today's NATIONAL NOW leadership. They claim we should not wash our dirty linen in public. No, ladies, what you are actually saying is let the wrongs continue. You ARE calling for - and enforcing - censorship. Remember, there is no place for any of this SHIT to be aired internally. Can you see ANY of these questions being aired in the NOW Times? Or on the NOW Web pages? Or even in the National Board meetings when so many of the National board members are so full of themselves - "Look at me, I'm a LEADER" - that they are NOT looking at what is actually happening in the organization. They also have active lives that don't leave room for much critical examination of what's REALLY going on. They are from different parts of the country with limited ways of contacting each other. How many times have you National Board members looked the other way when you should have said, "Hey, wait a minute..." We're all guilty of it. ME INCLUDED although I did it as the chair of the National NOW nominating committee, not as a board member. Isn't it strange that the ONE thing National NOW doesn't have is a treasurer? That there are no controls over an elected officer's time - which bill out to $60 an hour for a 40-hour week, plus expenses. . . . . . . . ^c^l^a^w^s^ . . . . . . . Oh, as to the rumors that are being spread that I am trying to promote myself for NOW office - sorry. Y'all should know better. I'm too old, my health isn't good enough - and I do know my limitations. I look for a young Ms. Lochinvar to come riding out of the mist ... The first, MAJOR change that has to be accomplished is an OPEN election. As it is now, an entire slate of officers is elected as a whole. This change to groupie control was instituted by Ellie Smeal when she disagreed with a woman who was elected at the same time she was. Ellie then got the rules changed so she (or any other president) would have COMPLETE control WITHOUT complete accountability. QUESTION to members of National NOW board: Do you have any controls over how much time the officers spend in the office or on NOW business? Strangely, enough, I'm going to excuse Kim Gandy from that question. Kim is probably the officer I like least and is the one I respect most. I think she is by far the hardest working, and although I disagree with her some (A LOT) of the times, she is a devoted feminist who is a credit to the organization. I hope she never becomes president, however. . . . . . . . ^c^l^a^w^s^ . . . . . . . I've written and talked to a number of NOW members whom I think would make excellent national leaders but they all demure as if afraid. Sisters ... let's not make the mistake the Reps did and run a Bob Dole. Also, don't be surprised if in the NEXT election, a man isn't elected ... The Father's Rights groups in Wisconsin and other areas have gained control of some of the NOW chapters ... It's just a matter of time. . . . . . . . ^c^l^a^w^s . . . . . . . Oh the cuteness ... the federal agency investigating the air bags situation is the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The figures I have used regarding the dangers of air bags are usually based on their information. However, there is a guy who keeps posting messages that I'm making these figures up and/or won't tell him where they come from. Bull crappola, buddy. Air bags have killed at LEAST 62 women and children, although the NHTSA and the news media seem to go gender blind when writing the facts. They say children and smaller "people," not 62 women, children, and one man. Almost EVERY person man, woman, or child who has had an AMERICAN air bag explode has suffered some kind of injury, according to the NHTSA, albeit most of them are relatively minor if you are a big strapping six foot fullback male. Those injuries involving smaller women and children vary in intensity according to their size and how close to the air bags they are. The smaller the driver, the closer they are to the air bags when they explode, and thus get the full blast. They are injured more severely. Older people - again especially women - whose bones are brittle and whose musculature is past their prime - are to stay far, far - FAR AWAY as possible from the AMERICAN air bags which explode with a much larger charge than European air bags. The injuries sustained by older women is terrible. Also, federal safety regulators are checking into reports that some Mazda 626 sedans and Chevrolet Camaro coupes have air bags that will explode when the car hits a pot hole - or as the techies love to write, "non-collision airbag deployments." The NHTSA will allow automakers to install airbags that deploy with LESS FORCE on their NEW cars later on this year but it STILL forbids anyone from altering the killer air bags already installed without *their* permission. . . . . . . . ^c^l^a^w^s^ . . . . . . . Oh, I love it. Chrysler is fighting a recall of integrated child seats in the 1995-97 minivans because some children have been choked by the seat buckle that continuing to retract while others won't unbuckle and the child has to be cut out of the restraints. Seems like Chrysler is blaming the child for crumbs and stuff falling into the mechanism. Don't you just LOVE safety engineers? Such delicate machinery where the kids can slobber over it. Who do they engineer for. Their reflections in a mirror? Do they EVER consider someone not wearing a steel jock cup? . . . . . . . ^c^l^a^w^s^ . . . . . . . Ever notice the conveniences set up for the male driver with not a place in sight for tissue? Or the smallness of the glove compartment? Or how seat belt harnesses always cut into the soft breast flesh of women or their necks? . . . . . . . ^c^l^a^w^s^ . . . . . . . The San Francisco Chronicle recently carried a story on what is being taught at these "Christian academies" popping up throughout the country. These are the private schools that will benefit from the voucher scheme. And what will your child be taught to help her in the 21st century at these schools: "For the Christian, the proper study of history begins with a firm belief in the Bible as the authoritative Word of God. While artifacts, traditions, and written records are excellent resources, the Bible is the primary source of truth and certainty. It is historically accurate." Which creation story is historically accurate? God made man and woman together or the later macho Garden of Eden story? . . . . . . . ^c^l^a^w^s^ . . . . . . . OK! That remark about slicing white bread was a non sequitar and I wasn't really asking for an answer. It was simply that when I read about all the things that are going wrong for women because of technology, and I think about the efficiency of slicing puff bread, it's frustrating. . . . . . . . ^c^l^a^w^s^ . . . . . . . One in eight women in our country will develop breast cancer during her lifetime, compared to one in 20 a generation ago. And 46,000 American women will die of breast cancer this year. Time for your monthly breast exam - remember, the breast you examine is the one you want to keep. . . . . . . . ^c^l^a^w^s^ . . . . . . . The President of the United States issued a statement saying that women in their 40s should begin mammography. Imagine Ronald Reagan or George Bush doing that? You don't think the woman's vote meant anything in the last election? Why the hell do you think the boyz of the media are so down on President Clinton? They HAVE to discredit him to discredit the women who put him into office: "Let's show those dumb broads that they ain't got no good sense." And the boyz are SCREAMING about how Clinton's ratings remain high when they are throwing all that hot air at him. . . . . . . . ^c^l^a^w^s^ . . . . . . . For those who don't read Women of Achievement and Herstory, I am still DESPERATELY trying to get information about the plant Flos Pavonis which grows in Surinam. B. 02-02-1647, Maria Sibylla Merian, German entomologist and botanical illustrator of extraordinary accomplishments... She actually traveled to Surinam to study insects in their natural settings instead of using dead samples collected by others, she added commentaries to her work ... even including the native women's habit of chewing the seed kernels of a plant called Flos Pavonis (plate 45) which prevented conception and resulted in spontaneous abortions. Note the dates of her life. Have you heard anything about Flos Pavonis???? ....................... * ........................ For some reason (sic!) the ancient methods of human fertility control has been suppressed, in fact so suppressed that women don't even use logic to combat the absence of such knowledge. We know, for example, that the basic break in woman-to-woman information (oral tradition) occurred during the burning of the witches, i.e., the murdering of women who held knowledge and power (the herbalists, women physicians, and midwives) during the 14th and into the 16th centuries. But the information was recorded in manuscripts and books that were not destroyed - that have always been there and have only been RECENTLY unearthed by MEN scholars. What we don't understand is why feminist scholars of today don't attempt to further unearth the old knowledge and disseminate it to modern women. We'll let their past inability to find such knowledge pass by. As John Riddle wrote in an article in Archaeology magazine in 1994, "In ancient times, contrary to what historians have been telling us for the past several centuries, many women practiced birth-control with little interference from religious or political authorities. The knowledge of the plants that allowed them to do so and the lapse of that knowledge by the time of the Renaissance is a story that is only now emerging with clarity." For example, Soranus in the 2nd century A.D. suggested avoiding intercourse during a woman's fertile period, inducing sneezing to expel sperm, wiping out the vagina and drinking something cold. He also suggested smearing the cervix with a mixture of olive oil, astringents, and gums of certain trees such as juniper, cedar or balsam, to close the cervix before intercourse. Many of the things suggested by Soranus for use as vaginal suppositories have been found to have spermicidal use by modern chemists. To read more about ancient anti-fertility methods, read John M. Riddle's _Contraception and Abortion from the Ancient World to Renaissance_, and _The Control of Late Ancient and Medieval Population_ by Josiah C. Russell. We recommend women buying copies of the books to put away for the just-in-case future. The religious right is aiming at the presidency in the year 2000. Why aren't women being informed today about birth control and abortion methods that were used 2000 years ago - and worked??? Do you still think that we don't have CENSORSHIP in this country? . . . . . . . ^c^c^ . . . . . . . Women's rights are young and tender and we must protect them from the plagues of holy hypocrisy and newts. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- >>> Send your ideas, comments, and news to istuber@direclynx.net for inclusion in the Catt's Claws feminist newsletter which will be emailed up to three times a week. This is NOT an interactive discussion net but an exchange of information. Catt's Claws is NOT sponsored by any organization. We are accepting *limited* donations (only what can be spared) to help offset the online costs of posting Catt's Claws and archiving them. Copyright 1997, Irene Stuber. PO Box 6185, Hot Springs, AR 71902, email istuber@direclynx.net<<<< To receive Catt's Claws by email, write and in the body of the note We thank Jennifer Gagliardi for handling the madding subscription list through her listserv. And a BIG thanks to Sam McMillan for doing our Web site: http://www.imageworld.com/istuber.html -- End --