Those wishing complete texts of Hillary Rodham Clinton's speeches at the U.N. Women's Conference as well as others such as Donna Shalala's, WEB over to Laurie Mann's Web Page: http://worcester.lm.com/lmann/feminist/achievement.html http://worcester.lm.com/lmann/feminist/cattsclaws.html We're forwarding them to her as we get them in. These are not texts that have been "interpreted" by right-wing stealth editors in some parts of our news services, but the REAL ones. !.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.! ! ! ! Catt's Claws ... A Feminist Newsletter #63 ... September 12, 1995 ! ! ! !.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.! Marge Piercy commented recently: "I would offer an analysis of the present so-called welfare reform as aimed at the problem, probably especially pressing for Congressmen and Senators, that there are not enough young whores available to them. Obviously if you take a teenaged mother and deny her any way to feed her children and herself, do not train her, do not help her in any way, then she has only one recourse, to go on the streets. This must be the real aim of such legislation, since it can have no other end product. I cannot imagine what else these young mothers can possibly do to survive." ....................... * ........................ Three members of a TV crew were arrested and released in China when they began to film ten women who were carrying posters of a woman with her mouth gagged and a petition signed by more than 1 million calling for the implementation of the 1993 Vienna Declaration on human rights. The women were told they could display their posters INSIDE the pavilion, but not outside in public. ....................... * ........................ On the other side, the Chinese were busy filming all the women who appeared at the Lesbian tent - which prompted lots of non-lesbian women to appear there and get photographed in order "to make the numbers meaningless." It amazes us that most women not under the control of the male- conservative religious movements are not bothered by lesbianism but take a "to each her own," attitude while the men always seem so uptight ... ....................... * ........................ Well, I think we have a pretty good census of the selfish, the me firsters, those who believe their opinions are the only credible ones: those who believe rights and wrongs and have anointed themselves as the judges. The Christian Coalition under the leadership of sweetie-pie-face Pat Robertson and under the direction of baby-face Ralph Reed is now claiming a membership of 1.7 million, which either controls or plays a leading role in the state GOP affairs in 30 states. Robertson says the CC hopes to have 10 trained workers in each of 175,000 precincts nationwide. At the same time, the group hopes to add some 300 local chapters, for a total of 2,000. The survey showed the group is overwhelmingly Republican and decidedly middle class: 25 percent reported annual incomes between $15,000 and $35,000, another 25 percent put their families in the $35,000-to-$55,000 range, and 27 percent make more than $55,000 a year. Eighty percent said the nation is off track and 95 percent want someone else in the White House. Sixty-two percent said the biggest problem facing the country is moral decline, while another 10 percent listed abortion. ......................... * ...................... Plans called for the prayer vigil outside Clarence Thomas' Virginia home today to protest his ultra-right conservative Supreme Court voting record (which always agrees with Anton Scalia) especially regarding his votes against affirmative action. Protest organizers said Thomas owes his success to the programs he now seems intent on outlawing. "In the heat of Mr. Thomas's Senate hearings, he pulled the 'race card' by accusing the Senate of a high-tech lynching," the Rev. Al Sharpton said at a news conference. "When it was convenient to use race, he used it." Yes, and wasn't it too bad that Sharpton and company didn't see what women saw was happening at the Senate confirmation hearings, at a time when we could have stopped Thomas. We've said it before and we'll say it again: it is our opinion that Thomas will be the first Supreme Court justice to be removed or be forced to resign under pressure. The dramatic presentation by Senator Orin Hatch about the "pubic hair" et al was aimed at Anita Hill's veracity, but we think that if there had been a woman on the committee, she would have turned the remarks and pointed out that it was JUST as possible that THOMAS READ THAT BOOK AND WAS USING THE MATERIAL AS HIS COME-ON, SEDUCTION SCRIPT. Did anyone ask Thomas if HE had read the book??? Plus no one on the Thomas hearing followed up on previous charges against Thomas regarding his "fondness" for porno, a point that had been raised in one of his previous confirmation hearings. But, of course, there were no women on THAT senate committee the way there were for the Packwood hearings. And that, we are certain, spelled the difference. ....................... * ........................ Retired Scotland Yard Detective Superintendent Alec Edwards is quoted as saying there were "influential people who would rather he wasn't found," which is probably true since Lord Lucan has been the very low key object of the first murder warrant ever issued for a British peer. Lucan is believed to be living in Africa and police believe he has been visited regularly by his two adult children for the past 21 years. Edwards opposes the police chasing Lucan: "If you had detectives following people from one country to another in the hope of finding one guy alleged to have murdered his nanny 20-odd years ago, you could imagine the counterpublicity that could generate." WHAAAT!! The Lucan nanny, Sandra Rivett, was battered to death in a dark basement in Lucan's London home Nov. 7, 1974. Police suspect Lucan mistook the nanny for his estranged wife, Veronica, whom he then attacked and seriously injured. He escaped and disappeared. If Edwards' position today is any indication, Lucan's disappearance was all but aided by Scotland Yard. ....................... * ........................ It is possible that a hugely wonderful breakthrough will come out of the U.N. Conference if it adopts the following paragrah in the Platform for Action (leaked from a very private committee conference): "The human rights of women include their right to have control over and decide freely and responsibly on matters related to their sexuality, including sexual and reproductive health, free of coercion, discrimination and violence. Equal relationships between women and men in matters of sexual relations and reproduction, including full respect for the integrity of the person, require mutual respect, consent, and shared responsibility for sexual behavior and its consequences." This will mark the first time the sexual freedom of women has been reported out of a world-wide conference. Such statements have been opposed in the past by some Islamic and Roman Catholic nations who, when you dig away the rhetoric, don't want their sex-slaves freed. The abortion issue has also been in the somewhat secret committee and is just about ready to go to the floor for almost certain passage (as the human rights of women statement above) since almost all of the 189 nations represented at the conference were part of the committee. Perfect it ain't, but it is progress, dramatic progress in those areas which have never recognized any protection for women. The committee will urge a review towards abolishment of all laws that punish women for having abortions. Sounds mild? But it is really a slap in the face to a lot of patriarchal countries and religions who wish to punish women for getting pregnant but never the men for being at least half of the fault for the pregnancy. In the double-take euphemisms of diplomacy, the "free from coercion, discrimination and violence" means trafficking in women who are forced into sexual slavery or prostitution, as well as referring to female genital mutilation. The term "sexual rights" was replaced by "human rights" because some nations are not familiar with the term "sexual rights" and also because some countries did not want sexual rights as another human right. {Material for this report obtained from AP, Refuters, and ITN releases, as well as direct word from Beijing and U.S. sources. We are getting TONS of email daily from Beijing. There's no way to keep it current in Catt's Claws, but we'll be including reflections from the conference for a long time in the future.} ....................... * ........................ A recent University of Washington study of 535 young women who became pregnant as adolescents found that 66 percent had been sexually abused as children. An Illinois study by Ounce of Prevention, a social service group, found that 61 percent of 445 teen mothers reported sexual abuse. Yet authorities fail to prosecute the male criminals or relatives for statutory rape or power rape. These men who abused these children got away with it. But what is even worse, the Republican Congress, which is voting lock- step with the Christian Coalition, is trying to punish these girls for the sins of their brothers, fathers, uncles, etc., who regard young girls as their sex toys. The Reps want to cut government help for these children (welfare) instead of making an effort to find solutions to the problem. Where the hell do they think a 14-year-old girl living in the projects, in the barrio, or in suburban U.S.A. is going to find protection from the men of her family who have been raping her? So she gets pregnant again. Who pays? The raped girl and the baby. Not the guys who are, as usal, being protected under the Republican-Christian Coalition legislative plans. The Republicans are pandering to those who feel that there are simple answers to complex problems and that by closing your eyes (in prayer), the problems will go away. There are thousands upon thousands of girls tonight, last night, and tomorrow night who are screaming with their eyes closed as their childhood is raped and shattered while the good men close their eyes to the horrors. Shame, shame on all of you. --- Email this section of Catt's Claws to your Republican congressional reps if you can't think of anything else to say to those vile, uncaring, hypocrites. The latest email address list of the U.S. Senators is available by emailing irenestuber@delphi.com, or beginning tomorrow (or so) on the WEB with Laurie Mann (see above). Many otherwise good programs set up to help teenagers have been ignoring the problem of sexual abuse. Now that it is beginning to come out into the open, workers are shocked to find out most girls in trouble have been or are being sexually abused in the home and family. However, most girls are afraid to mention it for fear of being ridiculed by their schoolmates or are ashamed thinking it is their fault because no one has shown them that it is the rapist's fault, not the victim's. Another reason the Robertson-Reed- Dole-Gramm-Dornan-Wilson-Gingrich gang don't want sex education in the schools? ....................... * ........................ The Charleston, S. C., newspaper _The Post and Courier_ reported the Board of the Citadel rejected a proposal to go private and allow it to stay all male because it would force them to give up the $17 million in tax dollars they get every year from women as well as men taxpayers. The dear boys didn't want the budding Citadel graduates to have to pay more in tuition, which giving up the $17 mill per would have done. Investigations of the Citadel have shown that very few of the graduates of this "military" school go into the military but use it to network into the social, business, and political life of South Carolina. Shannon Faulkner was only one of more than 100 cadets who dropped out in the first month of classes this fall. ....................... * ........................ What would Rachelle "Shelley" Shannon have done if she ACTUALLY wanted to kill someone? Seems like she and her religious supremacists buddies are claiming that she did not intend to kill Dr. Tiller when she fired at him five times at close range and are seeking a new trial. Sentenced to 10 years and eight months in prison, she is appealing saying that all she wanted to do was prevent abortions. Justice Donald Allegrucci commented, "If someone aims a gun and stands two or three feet away and shoots five times with it, and hits a person twice, what is the unintentional act?" Last Friday, Shannon was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to firebombing six West Coast clinics in 1992. She will serve the federal sentence after her Kansas sentence. ....................... * ........................ Only two Republicans crossed over into the group that cares about what happens to children rather than lock-stepping with the ultra-right and they still lost 50 to 48. Republican Sens. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (a recent Republican turncoat) of Colorado and Jim Jeffords of Vermont voted with Democrats to spend $11 billion on child care over the next five years, $6 billion more than under current law. After the losing vote, Senator Ted Kennedy said Republicans have "voted to leave children home alone." He and Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., vowed to try again to persuade the Senate to put more money into child care. By the way, those glib Republican statements about turning the responsibility over to the states should ring lots of bells in people's minds ... we needed federal intervention to integrate schools, we needed federal intervention to get women's vote guaranteed, we need federal intervention to force southern states to obey the U.S. Constitution regarding black votes ... we are seeking federal intervention to force a tax payer supported institution to open its gates to ALL taxpayers, including women ... we needed federal intervention to give the elderly a secure future (social security), we needed federal intervention to give GIs their jobs following World War II and medical care afterwards ... the same for unemployment compensation, loans to buy houses... ETC. Any student of American history knows better than to trust the states with their welfare. ....................... * ........................ Hey, man, if you can't stand the heat, get your chubby little cheeks out of the kitchen. Newt Gingrich is screaming his head off over revelations that he had a number of affairs with women who told their stories to Gail Sheehy for an article in _Vanity Fair_. Gingrich called Sheehy a "vicious liberal" on one of the Sunday talk shows that he always uses to attack other people's morality. My, my - first attacking Connie Chung, who just did what Mike Wallace did and said "just between you and me" to Gingrich's mommy. Yes, poor Mrs. Gingrich was led astray as she was staring into several TV cameras and drenched in hot lights. (As if she didn't know she was being taped!) Guess there was more than coffee in those cups. Who did she think Connie Chung was? By the way, notice how CBS has evidentally pandered to Gingrich and Chung isn't around on the news much anymore ???? Now Gingrich is saying Sheehy " systematically manipulated and was so totally dishonest in the article.... "My advice to anybody in the future who is a rational person, who is a conservative or a moderate, is just don't allow Gail Sheehy to interview you, because you will be savaged," Gingrich said. In a statement released to the press, Sheehy said "My piece covers every phase of the speaker's life to show how he became who he is," she said. "I interviewed 70 people for this article. I have not received a single complaint from any quoted source." Yep, Mr. Speaker, everyone is wrong except thee. Hey, Ken Pope. Is that a mark of paranoia? Or one preparing to be a dictator? ....................... * ....................... Catt's Claws salutes volunteers Jennifer Gagliardi for posting Catt's Claws through her listserv and Paula Levine for her proofreading. ................................................. 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 irenestuber@delphi.com for inclusion in the Catt's Claws feminist newsletter which will be emailed three times a week: Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. DO NOT SEND TO THE LISTSERV. Catt's Claws is NOT an interactive discussion net but an exchange of information and 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. Irene Stuber. PO Box 6185, Hot Springs, AR 71902.<<<<