<^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> ........Catt's Claws # 108 ... June 11, 1996......... ........ A Feminist Newsletter by Irene Stuber......... <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> More than one-third of all America's poor children, or about 5.6 million kids, live in working-poor families, according to a state-by-state survey of children's well-being released by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Of those poor only 14% are born to teenage mothers (and statistically teenage mothers include 18 and 19 year old women). The Republican leadership of Dole-Gingrich-Armey-DiAmato-Hyde-Hatch- Helms are attacking teenage mothers on welfare with lies that directly contradict studies. Since these awful lies are meant to stir up more hatred of women, is it any wonder they never mention the non-supporting, deserting adulterers, or deadbeat FATHERS - whose rolls used to include such names as Newt Gingrich and Bob Dole. How about starting to point fingers at the MEN who breed children when they don't have the financial or emotional resources necessary to be decent and caring fathers? Start writing letters to the editor of your favorite newspaper and start questioning why women are the only ones blamed. (If you want a copy of the one I sent recently, email me and ask for it.) One would think that every welfare mother is a reincarnation of the Virgin Mary. Also, and this is VERY important: Why are city and country prosecutors NOT prosecuting or putting grown men in jail for statutory rape when they impregnate young girls? The latest study indicates up to 80% of all births to underage girls are fathered by ADULT MALES. The end product, that of pregnancy is proof of intercourse, the girl's birth certificate proof of her underage, and DNA proof of the father. And don't give me any s--t about the girl consenting. What chance does a 12-year-old have against a grown man? And how come these guyz say that she is mature enough to consent to sex and then say she is not mature enough to decide on whether she wants to bear the child caused by the statutory rape. You can't have it both ways, you Republican, religious right haters of women. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Doonesbury has got a real problem on his hands. He has been depicting Clinton as a waffler and used a waffle to represent him (Quayle was a feather). Now there's Dole who is not only waffling but being covered with grease so he is able to take BOTH sides of a question at the SAME TIME and doing it with a straight face (what a face) ! He says he backs the Republican platform against abortion and is pushing for a constitutional amendment that would forbid abortions and then he turns around and says that he wants the GOP platform to include a "declaration of tolerance" welcoming those who *favor* abortion rights. How do you do that? Waffler? This guy should be portrayed as a snake eating his own tail. To refresh your memory: "We believe the unborn child has a fundamental right to life that cannot be infringed," is the beginning of the Republican Party's platform plank on abortion which says NOTHING about a woman's right to her own body. "We believe this language has no place in the party's resume of ideas," counters Susan Cullman in her argument to drop the language from the platform altogether. Cullman, the head of the Republican Coalition for Choice is also a board member of the National Jewish Coalition, Cullman is one of many Republican Jews engaged in a self-described battle for the future of the Republican party according to an article by Matthew Dorf in the most recent _Hebrew Watchman_. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Violence against female domestic workers, a problem of escalating proportions is beginning to get attention from the U.N. U.N. consultant Nasrah Shah said the violence committed against women migrant workers, particularly maids, is being ignored because the sending countries do not want to harm relationships with the receiving country (usually a big ticket trading partner). In other words, countries are hiding the fact of violence against foreign women so as not to hurt rich men's pocketbooks. Guessy who isn't affected by ignoring women's murders, rapes, and beatings? Who controls the finances of third world countries. Take a bow, gentleMEN. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . When her children told her they were being shocked with an electrically-powered dog collar when they disobeyed him she immediately went to the authorities. Jeffrey Hoveland, 50, of St. Paul faces up to two years in prison after pleading guilty Tuesday to two counts of malicious punishment of a child. The boys were 9 and 11. Hoveland remains in jail after his bail was revoked. News reports didn't say why, but threatened violence against his family is the probable reason. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bet you never learned about this in Sunday School or catechism classes: There is a sect in Germany called the "Old Catholics" who broke from the Roman Catholic Church in 1870 when the church declared the doctrine of the Pope's infallibility on dogma. (Surprised that it was so recent? Things DO change.) Last month the sect which is alive and well and still maintains the "laying on of the hands" ordained Angela Beris, 33, and Regina Pickel-Bossau, 49, in sacred ceremonies conducted by Bishop Joachim Vobbe before 1,000 worshipers in Konstanz, Germany. The women ARE priests in the unbroken tradition from the Apostles. (I wonder if they would be more acceptable if they had sex-change transplants?) The Vicar-General of the Old Catholics said in a statement to Reuters news, "For us the ordination of women is something that is right and natural, and 95 percent of our synod voted in favor." Recently Pope John-Paul II emphasized that a ban on the ordination of women was an infallible part of the Catholic doctrine but failed to go that essential one step further and declare it dogma. Pope John-Paul (I) was said to be leaning towards liberalizing the views on women's role in the church when he suddenly and mysteriously died and the ultra-conservative John-Paul II succeeded him. We have been trying to find the source for the quote "As long as God is male, males shall think themselves god," or something like that. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . In the latest issue of the Journal of Child Sexual Abuse an article by Kathleen Coulborn Faller and Ellen DeVoe shows conclusively that few mothers or children lie about sex abuse and that more than 70% of the allegations were substantiated with a certain percentage uncertain because the children were too young to communicate with certainty. However, according to Joan Zorza who reviewed the article, "they found a phenomena whereby courts imposed sanctions against the reporting parent (almost always the mother) in almost a fifth of cases, and that not only was there no correlation with likely or knowingly false reports and judicial sanctions, but that the sanctions corresponded to cases where the medical and other evidence of sexual abuse was highest." Ms. Zorza said "Feel free to share this with everyone else if you think they will want to read this." . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Republican governor George Voinovich who ordered his state plane into the air against Federal Aviation Administration and National Security regulations when the President of the United States' plane was at the Columbus, Ohio, airport is refusing to pay his $1,500 fine and expects Ohio taxpayers to pay $20,000 to appeal the fine. Voinovich refused to welcome Clinton and radioed the tower, "Shoot us down," as he ordered the plane to take off. The thing that the author of Catt's Claws doesn't like MOST about these Republicans is their complete lack of decency, morals, and manners. Plus making the taxpayers pay for their pleasures while slashing benefits for the poorest and most downtrodden among us. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Linda R. Hirshman writes: "I would remind everyone that last year an ACLU lobbyist in Washington testified against Title III of the Violence Against Women Act (the civil rights action for women) on the grounds that the statute gave women too many civil rights. The ACLU couldn't say that it was gender violence, their lobbyist told the Congress, when "a man comes home and beats up his wife because she crashed [sic] the car." . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Never say Catt's Claws isn't an equal opportunity provider: Father's Rights and Men's Rights groups are passing around some stuff that makes Richard Nixon's dirty tricks notebook look like Sunday School lessons: This is what attorney Ronald L. Isaacs J.D. advocates in his euphemism-filled diatribe: PREPARING FOR A DIVORCE ...If you anticipate your wife is going to file against you should take the protective measures below. You can always give something back, at least you have control of the assets. 1. Cancel all credit cards. 2. Clean out all bank and investment accounts. 3. Collect all bank statements, utility bills, deeds, canceled checks, insurance policies and anything in the house that bears a dollar sign and deliver them to your attorney. 4. Pack a bag and keep it elsewhere. 5. Contact an attorney experienced in custody cases who has a reputation as a fighter. 6. Become or remain deeply involved in your children's school activities. Meet with teachers, attend PTA meetings, ball games etc. CC-->>Obviously the above is meant to deprive the mother and her children of the basic money to eat so the mother has to obey the man, and also meant to hide as many assets as possible. What hypocrites. Wouldn't it be nice if some of the women's movement leaders would give the same kind of advice to women? Oh, but that's asking them to defend women. Ladies, better keep a good eye on the financial end of things and demand BOTH of your names on things. Love ain't always forever.<-cc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes, things is achangin'... Nuns in a convent in Madras, India are learning and TEACHING karate after a nun was murdered, others were beaten, robbed, and raped. Some in the congregation object and think the women ought to remain docile and victims-in-the-waiting. In an AP story, one sister replied, "We will forgive and we are not violent. But these days if I am attacked, I cannot turn the other cheek. I am ready to defend myself, although I will still pray for my attackers." Perhaps not to be ignored in the attacks on unarmed and unprotected nuns and the growing willingness of the women to defend themselves is the fact that Madras in the state of Kerala has the unusual (and under GREAT attack) law of property inheritance passing through the female line, and consequently the schools are the best in India and the killing of female babies is not accepted. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Former Mormon the Rev. Carolyn Tanner Irish will become the nation's sixth female Episcopal bishop when she takes office June 29 and will succeed the Rev. George E. Bates who retired because of poor health. Presiding U.S. Bishop Browning said the presence of women bishops is changing the way the House of Bishops deals with issues. Rev. Tanner has been an Episcopalian for 20 years and was formerly staff associate for spiritual development at the National Cathedral in Washington. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A 5'2", 110-pound woman was brutally beaten in broad daylight recently in New York City's Central Park just a few steps away from a busy children's playground. She was found without identification and the papers published sketches that were instantly recognized by a woman who had already gone to the police about her missing friend. A remarkable show of cocern for a sister human being. So often in our society we become so isolated and not caring. Tragically the woman is still in a coma but authorities are distributing drawings of the one or two black men suspected in the beating. BROAD DAYLIGHT! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . In Miami, the suspected murderer of four homeless women who were doused with gasoline and burned is in custody. He was arrested while carrying gasoline and matches. He reenacted the murders for police. Francisco Del Junco, 38, was charged with four counts of first degree murder and may face the death penalty. Del Junco emigrated to Miami in the infamous 1980 Mariel boatlift, when 125,000 Cubans - many from Cuban prisons and insane asylums were sent to Florida as refugees by Castro. All of the women victims were black. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A Muslim, American woman soldier is being court-martialed for refusing to stop wearing traditional Islamic attire while on duty. CC-->> This one has me a bit baffled. Why be an American soldier when she couldn't be a soldier - with or without the scarf - in any nation controlled by Muslims? <-cc. Anyway, she was given special food allowances (as were other Muslims) and special religious days off, but then she also demanded the Muslim custom of a woman being completely covered except for her hands. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . In keeping with Catt's Claws mission to break the ridiculous law passed at the behest of Henry Hyde of Illinois (what a nasty piece of prejudice and testosterone gone bonkers he is!), we are continuing to post abortion information. Hyde's law bans all discussion of abortion on Internet. CC passes along the following information: == If you think your birth control failed or whatever, ASAP take four of the second row of Try-phasil birth control pills one at a time. The next day, same time, take the next three in the line. The surge in hormones will probably do the trick. Planned Parenthood can give you information about the procedure and any other brand of The Pill that does the job. Check on the procedure BEFORE you need it. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Catt's Claws salutes volunteers Jennifer Gagliardi for posting Catt's Claws through her listserv and welcomes a gentleman of good virtues who wishes to stay anonymous as our new proofreader. And of course, our bows to Sam MacMillan who set up and takes care of our web page and to our computer guru, the turtle himself. One thing that confuses us, if we're so damned anti-men, why are there so many men helping with Catt's Claws? Obviously there are many, many men out there who are sure of themselves, confidence in their personalities, and in their lives that they aren't afraid of women being confident and equal. Says a lot about the men's righters and the father's righters and the far right wingers who want to *take* away women's rights because they are so afraid and insecure. Feminism doesn't want to take anything *away* (as the fearful men want). Feminism wants equality for both men and women. And that is the difference. ....................... * ........................ 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@cswnet.com 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. Copyright 1996, Irene Stuber. PO Box 6185, Hot Springs, AR 71902.<<<<