To subscribe or unsubscribe: irenestuber@delphi.com !^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^! ! Catt's Claws ... a feminist newsletter #27 ... March 30,1995 ! !^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^! This is a double issue since I missed 03-28-95... A UN commission has been set up to investigate rape ... one member says it is clear rape has "become an instrument, not a by- product, of war." Typical male thinking ... they just discovered rape although they've all been doing it. Romans and the rape of the Sabins. German and Russian soldiers raped and murdered hundreds of thousands of women in World War II. The overly rated and honored Alexander Solzhenitsyn was a captain in WWII and commented: "All of us knew very well that if the girls were German, they could be raped and then shot. That was almost a combat distinction." (Yeah, let's hear about Solzhenitsyn being a humanist when he is an unrepentant rapist.) Authorities say that in Nanking in 1937, the Japanese raped and sometimes murdered close to 50,000 women. Pakistani troops raped more than 250,000 Bengali women in 1974. What is happening today in the Serbian/Bosnian conflict is more about rape that war. Rape is traditionally part of the wages of soldiers according to the military. The number of rapes by Americans in France, in Germany, in Viet Nam, even Haiti, Panama, and Reagan's big war on the tiny island of Granada (where Oliver North got so many of his medals) can only be guessed at since the U.S. is one of the few civilized countries which turns its back on their soldiers' illegitimate children. Rape of Jewish women was endemic, but never discussed even today when other revelations of the Holocaust have been aired. The women of Kuwait were systematically raped by Iraqis so that most were thrown out of their homes to die or killed outright by their righteous Kuwaiti husbands and fathers who failed to protect them. Rape IS a war crime according to EVERY international accord ... yet the male-dominated U.N (and U.S.) continue to debate each international incident as if it were the first in HIStory. By not actively condemning rape, every government and armed forces official approves it ... and then goes to church on Sunday morning where rape may be condemned, but nothing, NOTHING, is ever done to prevent it or to condemn those who do it. When are the men in power going to start enforcing international law against rape ? When are WOMEN going to INSIST on it ? ....................... * ........................ * Mia Hamm was the first soccer player to win the Honda- Broderick Cup which recognizes the top NCAA Division I female athlete. She led North Carolina to their fourth consecutive NCAA championship and is the NCAA's all-time leading scorer.... * Nicole Brown Simpson married O.J. when she was 17. She suffered 62 claims of spousal abuse during the Simpson's 17-year relationship. Rita Smith of the National Coalition against Domestic Violence has said, "I think what initially happens with most families of women who are battered is that there is an enormous amount of denial. He may not act that way around them. (The Browns) went through the same kind of shock that the rest of America went through. It's not possible this man did it." Unfortunately, what the Simpson trial may be proving is that battered women can NOT get away except through death .... ....................... * ........................ Here are some addresses for activists: ABC Audience Information, 77 W. 66th St., NY 10019 CBS Audience Services, 524 W. 57th St., NY 10019 NBC Audience Services, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, NY 10112 Fox Publicity Department, PO Box 900, Beverly Hills, CA 90213 ....................... * ........................ The 30 male pilots who were ordered off the aircraft carrier USS Eisenhower for difficulty in landing jets at sea were not mentioned by name or given any publicity. However, Lt. Shannon Workman, the first female combat pilot on the carrier was. It hit all the news wires. She was one of ten female aviators on the carrier, six of them pilots. ....................... * ........................ Each school day, 1,333 needy youngsters received free meals; another 452 got reduced-price meals in Story County, Iowa, home of Iowa State University and the Iowa State Department of Transportation, a comparatively "rich" area in jobs, according to USA Today columnist Michael Gartner. The Republican Newts boil and bubble plan would take that food away from those children - How many poor children in YOUR county depend on federal dollars that the reps are trying to put in their Republican millionaire pockets? ....................... * ........................ DNA testing isn't only for murders - or well publicized freeing of "innocent" rapers. A DNA test identified a child taken from an El Salvador mother by the Salvadoran Army nearly 13 years before. Authorities are saying they will shortly test a girl who was probably seized in the same way. ....................... * ........................ Cardiovascular disease is the leading killer of American women - not breast cancer. But doctors are ignoring the epidemic that is both unrecognized and untreated. According to Dr. Arfan Al-Hani who studied 5,932 Chicago women ages 35 to 93 with a high percentage of women with college degrees and family incomes of over $30,000, 86% white, 9% black, 3% Hispanic: * 43.6% had high blood pressure, but 1 in 3 didn't know it. * 76% of those with high blood pressure were taking medication BUT IT WASN'T WORKING ! * Fat tummies, whether on heavy women or thin women, were more dangerous than overall weight (waist to hip ratios.) Needless to say the study showed that women taking the expensive and cancer-causing estrogen replacements had better cholesterol, lower body weight, and better waist to hip ratios.) According to Dr. Anna Day, chief of medicine at Women's College Hospital, Toronto, Canada, 40 per cent of women die from strokes and heart disease, compared with 26.1 per cent from all forms of cancer. ....................... * ........................ Following a speech in which Newt Gingrich said Barney Franks hates him for an incident involving a former employee, Franks said, "I didn't think Newt meant it. If he really thought I hated him, why would he do so much for my fund-raising?" ....................... * ........................ Those of you have a love of classical music are invited to send a few dollars to The Women's Philharmonic, 330 Townsend Street, San Francisco, CA 94107. It is a 65-women orchestra, all professional musicians, who often face the daunting task of bringing back to life music by women that has not been played for hundreds of years. JoAnn Falletta is the conductor and music director of this bold enterprise. She received her doctorate from Juillard and has conducted symphony orchestras all over the world. One of the members of the advisory board is composer Ellen Zwilich, the first woman to win a Pulitzer prize in music (1983). I have several of their recordings and treasure them. Please support this important work - Louise Farrenc's symphony revived after 140 years! Florence Price's remarkable symphony revived after 56 years! Marianne Martines' Sinfonia revived after 150 years! ....................... * ........................ GETTING TO WORK: CREATING AFFORDABLE, QUALITY CHILD CARE FOR LOW-INCOME FAMILIES will be devoted to an in-depth discussion of how communities can expand the availability, affordability, and quality of child care for poor children. Thirty-seven speakers will identify the major issues surrounding the expansion of child care services, share their creative solutions, and discuss the future of child care policy. The conference will be held on Saturday, April 8, from 9 am - 5:30 pm, at The Forum of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Free child care (ages 1-7) is available. Preregistration is required. Call or FAX the Harvard Women's Law Journal at: phone, 617/495-3726; FAX 617/495-1110. (Any chance of getting Newt there to explain the rights of dead- beat dads? By the way, child care limited to ages 1-7 implies that eight-year-olds can stay be themselves ... which, as a mother, I would question seriously. Maybe it should be "Physician heal thyself first" in discussions like this.) ....................... * ........................ Newt Gingrich's office released a letter written from memory 18 months after the occurrence and the speaker's private attorney Jan Baran contends it rebuts news stories that point out that when the Republican leader wrote the committee seeking approval to teach, he never mentioned the political organization -- GOPAC. GOPAC's director and staffers raised tax-deductible donations for the course and sent out materials describing its purpose as the recruitment of thousands of activists to end the welfare state. An ethics complaint contends that Gingrich was not engaged in a legitimate teaching activity, authorized under House rules, but a partisan effort. The Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, the ethics committee's formal name, is holding closed meetings, discussing how to handle the complaint. Then Chairman Jim McDermott, D-Wash., of the committee that approved Gingrich's teaching of the course said, "I would have done a lot more thinking" about approving the course in August 1993, if he had known about GOPAC's role... "If you get permission to go to Seattle, and you rob a bank, it doesn't mean you got permission to rob a bank," McDermott said. WRITE - FAX - TELEPHONE your congressional rep and DEMAND a full independent counsel investigation of Newt Gingrich's activities including the GOPAC as well as his financial dealings with TV and publishing mogul Rupert Murdock which may cost Americans their Public Broadcasting stations. Remember, the so-called "revolution" at last November's election came about because most liberals and straight-thinking people didn't bother to vote. There was no revolution. There was apathy and smugness on our parts. So if ANYONE suggests not voting in the next election because the candidates aren't ideal, just remember what trap THEY led you into last November. Those who say "Don't vote" are not - repeat NOT - your friends. ....................... * ........................ When the White House was resisting the setting up of a special counsel on Whitewater, Newtie said: "People are going to suspect that there is a reason they don't want an independent counsel. If they're innocent, why don't they go ahead and agree to an independent to clear their name?" Newtie is fighting desperately (and maneuvering in secret behind closed doors) to prevent an independent counsel from being set up to investigate the Gingrich trail of betrayal of the public trust. Keep those letters rolling into your Congressional Reps... they ARE beginning to feel the heat. ....................... * ......................... The Republicans voted down TERM LIMITS, the cornerstone of their Contract out on America? Surely not. What hypocrites. ....................... * ........................ From the Choice-Mail net: "There's a great article in the March 19 issue of the New York Times Magazine, written by Elizabeth Karlin, M.D., who is an abortion provider in Madison, Wisconsin. The article is entitled, "An Abortionist's Credo." Karlin writes wonderfully and says a mouthful in the process: "There is only one reason I've ever heard for having an abortion: the desire to be a good mother. Women know when we don't have the resources to be the mother we expect to be." ....................... * ........................ "Hi Irene - Just wanted to let you know that in response to your piece on Kinko's in Catt's Claws, I wrote to them and told them my company would no longer use their services until they ceased advertising on a certain ultra-right-wing hate monger's program (and we were a steady customer of theirs). I've since received letters of apology from both Kinko's and ABC Radio Networks through which Kinko's runs its advertising. It is Kinko's policy not to advertise on "any program presenting a one-sided viewpoint of controversial subject matter." Supposedly stations that take their commercials from ABC Radio Network's satellite feed are instructed to black-out Kinko's commercials that are scheduled to run during controversial programs, but "from time to time a Kinko's commercial will inadvertently slip by." "So, a little bit of good news amidst the daily spectrum of right-wing horrors." (signed dolphintlf@aol.com) -->> Wunnerful NEWS. If you should see (or hear) a Kinko ad on any of the hate-shows, please write them IMMEDIATELY. There might be local hanky-panky that should be exposed. ....................... * ........................ Be nice to your kids, they're the ones who will choose your nursing home. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- >>> Send your ideas, comments, and news to irenestuber@delphi.com for inclusion in the Catt's Claws feminist newsletter which will be emailed three times a week: Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. 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