and Pale odia Palestinian woman in Jabaliya Camp, Gaza Strip. Her home was demolished by Israeli military, (p.16) (Photo: Neal Cassidy) nunTHE JOURNAL OF SUBSTANCE FOR PROGRESSIVE WOMEN VOL. XV SUMMER 1990 PUBLISHER/EDITOR IN CHIEF Merle Hoffman MANAGING EDITOR Beverly Lowy ASSOCIATE EDITOR Eleanor J. Bader ASSISTANT EDITOR Karen Aisenberg EDITOR AT LARGE Phyllis Chester CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Charlotte Bunch Vinie Burrows Naomi Feigelson Chase Irene Davall FEATURES Above: Goats on a porch at Toi Derricotte Mandala. All animals are treated with Roberta Kalechofsky BREAKING BARRIERS: affection and respect, even the skunks. Flo Kennedy WOMEN AND MINORITIES IN (p.10) (Photo: Helen M. Stummer) Fred Pelka THE SCIENCES Cover: A single mother and her Helen M. Stummer ON THE ISSUES interviews children find permanency in a H.O.M.E.- ART DIRECTORS Paul E. Gray, President of MIT, and built home. (Photo: Helen M. Stummer) Michael Dowdy Dean of Student Affairs, Shirley M. Julia Gran McBay, on sexism and racism in A SONG SO BRAVE — ADVERTISING AND SALES academia 7 PHOTO ESSAY DIRECTOR Text By Phyllis Chesler Carolyn Handel H.O.M.E. Photos By Joan Roth ONE WOMAN'S APPROACH Phyllis Chesler and an international ON THE ISSUES: A feminist, humanist TO SOCIETY'S PROBLEMS group of feminists present a Torah to publication dedicated to promoting By Helen M. Stummer political action through awareness and the women of Jerusalem 19 education; working toward a global Visual sociologist Helen M. Stummer political consciousness; fostering a spirit profiles a unique program to combat TO PEE OR NOT TO PEE of collective responsibility for positive homelessness, poverty and By Irene Davall social change; eradicating racism, disenfranchisement 10 A humorous recollection of the "pee- sexism, ageism, speciesism; and support- in" that forced Harvard to examine its ing the struggle of historically disenfran- FROM STONES TO sexism 20 chised groups to protect and defend STATEHOOD themselves. By Eleanor J. Bader A WISH FOR CAMBODIA The intifada through the eyes of By Esty Dinur UNSOLICITED MANUSCRIPTS All unsolicited material will be read by the editors. For American journalist Phyllis Bennis An interview with Diane Kaav, a return, enclose self-addressed, stamped envelope with and photographer Neal Cassidy 16 Cambodian refugee now working in proper postage. Articles should be not less than 10 and not more than 15 double spaced, typewritten pages on the U.S. to stop foreign aid to the women's health, social or political issues by people with WOMEN IN BLACK: WEEKLY Khmer Rouge 22 hands on experience in their fields. Professional papers VIGILS AGAINST THE ISRAELI are accepted. All editing decisions are at the discretion Df the editors. Feminist cartoons are also acceptable OCCUPATION WOMEN TRAVELERS under the same provisions. By Bill Strubbe By Willie Mae Kneupper ON THE ISSUES does not accept fiction or poetry. A chronicle of the tenacious Israeli Thirteen questions that test your Advertising is accepted at the discretion of the Jewish women who have opposed knowledge of unusual women publisher. Acceptance does not necessarily imply endorsement. their government's policies toward travelers 24 the Palestinians 18 PUBLISHER'S NOTE: The opinions expressed by contributors to our publication and by those we DEPARTMENi interview are not necessarily those of the editors. ANOTHER VIEW OF THE ON THE ISSUES is traditionally a forum for ideas MIDDLE EAST: PALESTINIAN and concepts and a place where women may have Merle Hoffman—Editorial 2 their voices heard without censure or censorship. ARABS, YES; PLO, NO Win Some*Lose Some 4 By Roberta Kalechofsky ON THE ISSUES is published as an informational A feminist Zionist argues against ne- Choice Books 25 and educational service of CHOICES Women's gotiations with the Palestine Libera- Film and Video 30 Medical Center, Inc. 97-77 Queens Boulevard Forest Hills, NY 11374-3317 ISSN 0895-6014 tion Organization 18 Feedback 37 were the children upon whose shoul- Nazi regime where the machinery, the MERLE HOFFMAN ders salvation and guilt lay. The chil- bureaucracy of the Third Reich and the ON THE ISSUES dren who had to make up to everyone final solution was played out. for everything, who lived in a particu- Behind the imposing buildings (there I am a child of the holocaust, a survi- lar paranoid reality that separated and were seven of them) white wooden vor of sorts, a kind of surrogate suf- branded them at the same time, who crosses were attached to a wire fence ferer. I have never smelled the burn- always seemed to be excusing them- with a name or the word "anonymous". ing flesh or felt the pain of my kidneys selves for having survivors for parents. These were the martyrs to German close to bursting — my legs turned to But I was not thinking of any of these separation, those who were killed trying leadened fatigue as I stood crushed things when I stood at the Wall. I had to cross over. The last death was in against others in the trains bound for arrived in Berlin on New Year's Day May, 1989, merely months before the Auschwitz or Treblinka or Dachau. I 1990. The night before there had been falling of the Wall. I remember a con- have never eaten out of the bowl I was a massive joyous celebration—400,000 versation with a West German student forced to shit in, nor had my children people dancing, drinking, awash with who told me how surreal this separa- torn out of my arms as I stood in an the heady joy of a newfound freedom tion had become. How he had been interminable line waiting for the se- and historical imperative. But that day eating in a cafe when he heard some- lection process. Nor have I cowered in there was only the routine of new tour- one had been shot trying to escape from some corner clutching what was im- ists who had come as ritual pilgrims to the East. "You get used to it," he said portant to me, my mouth dry with look, worship, laugh, touch and de- shrugging. terror as I listened for the sound of the spise. There is a special history here, one S.S. boots outside my door, wondering It was cold, gray and icy on the Kur- not often spoken of, of the martyrs of if it was me they had finally come for. fastendaam (the main thoroughfare), a this place — of the Ghandi follower Nor have I felt the mounting panic of kind of German Champs Elysee that who was given a 13-month jail sen- the bodies surrounding me as they separated both Berlins with two great tence for merely holding a sign that struggled helplessly for air, gasping monuments on either side, the Bran- read "Freedom for the Political Prison- and gagging, tearing desperately at denburg Gate on the east and the ers." Of the Indian, T.N. Zutshi, who each other as the gas slowly entered Goddess of Peace on the west. At first it travelled to East Berlin in March 1960 the chambers. was difficult to make out the strange wearing a placard which read: "The No, I have not been there, yet it is phallic structure with its gold forms, first step toward freedom: Get rid of always with me. I am a child of the thrusting itself into the sky. Upon your fear and speak the truth!" holocaust, a survivor who was not questioning my guide I was told this According to Zutshi, "At East Berlin's personally threatened, yet cannot for- was the "Goddess of Peace" and those Alexanderplatz Station, policemen get. gold domed cylinders were to symbol- tried to wrest my poster from me. There It comes to me at odd times. I remem- ize the weapons of the enemy taken in ensued a scuffle with the police, as ber once, a magnificent evening in the war. On top of the structure was the hundreds of spectators looked on. I Islands, warm, sensuous breezes, a Goddess, a winged victory, an idealized refused to be led away, clung to my sky full of light, a smell of flowers and woman granting her powers of fertility poster and shouted my slogan." Zut- expectation, and suddenly I smelled and nurture to the power and the glory shi's action caused a sensation; he was the fires. Or, often in the midst of self- of German militarism. released after five days of custody and doubt and deep despair, I have stopped A strange parade it was that marched interrogation. His courage, along with to step out of myself and wonder at my towards the Wall that day. Families, the tradition of creative non-violence absolute gall for daring depression youths, foreigners, children sliding on expressed by others, and the sacrifice when I had survived, had escaped by the icy city streets, laughingly falling of Pastor Oskar Bruesewitz who burned the mere arbitrary factor of time and to the ground as their parents playfully himself to death in front of the Church place of birth. scooped them up in their arms. Dogs at Zeist in protest, moved me to a Strangely, I can't remember a time too, pulling their owners towards the poignant rage. when I didn't know about the holo- Wall which stood like some great frac- The story is that upon reaching the caust — I can't recall when I heard tured totem imposing and ridiculous at square in front of the church, Bruese- about it for the first time, it was just the same time. A massive concrete witz unfolded the posters he brought there — always. I do remember my Rorschach test, changing definitions along in his car and then proceeded to teacher's arm. How, one summer, when by the minute. And the sound of the douse himself with gasoline. A group of I came early for my weekly piano les- chipping—the constant chipping away people rushed forward with out- son and caught him unexpectedly in at the Wall. The entrepreneurs selling stretched arms to extinguish the flames the garden without a shirt, I saw the graffitied pieces for $3, the students engulfing him. However, two police- numbers. Instinctively I knew I should ready to loan you a chisel for a few men lunged immediately for the post- not have looked, should not have seen, marks, the two East German soldiers ers and removed them on the spot. To but then I did. He caught my furtive, standing on the top with slightly be- this day it is not known what was surprised glance, murmured some- mused smiles, as if they knew they written on them, but they are rumored thing about being a part of the Resis- would be part of everyone's memory to have contained the phrase "DO tance during the war, and it was never bank. And I, too, was swept away by NOT CORRUPT THESE YOUNG mentioned again. the energy and the faces of joy and PEOPLE." And then there were my friends, expectation around me. As I walked They are all my comrades. They are children of the real survivors. The ones through the Brandenburg Gate, I was beyond nation, beyond nationalism. who had lost aunts, uncles, sisters, struck by the references to Gorbachev. Yet, they are German. "German unity brothers, mothers, friends. The survi- The graffiti that read "Long live Gorby"; is a German question," said Helmut vors whose children had now become "Viva Gorby". And the crosses — these Kohl in the NY Times. "There is a the one hope and the one light in the were near the Reichstag — the Reich- difference between understandable darkness of lost generations. These stag that was the centerpiece of the misgivings and fears and what is dis-

ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1990 guised as fear but is really economic Soviet Union, but I've also read that tempts to deny its existence is the most jealousy." there's anti-Semitism in the United insidious form of what Rosenthal would Disguised as fear? Repeated reports States." Speaking of his decision to call "killing the murdered twice." of the rise of anti-Semitism in Ger- emigrate to Israel, Eikel states that Yet look we must, hear the voices of many and, increasingly, in Russia, belie "now I want to live in a country with the survivors, read the accounts of the the minimization of appropriate and Jews." camps, look at the numbers burned understandable anxiety at the so-called Unfortunately, Eikel's appraisal of into flesh and remember, even if "German Question" — the issue of anti- Semitism in the United States is memory itself is an untrustworthy German reunification. A.M. Rosen- correct. According to the Anti-Defama- instrument. For it is just these memo- thai, writing in his weekly NY Times ries that give form to the mirror that column, "On My Mind", says "I search we must hold up to our souls. It is a through the endless newspaper col- reflection that should claim no owner- umns about the German wave rolling When analyzing ship in human consciousness, yet it toward unification, but I cannot find lives on in all hate-inspired violence any of the words I am looking for. and comparing and racial prejudice. "I cannot hear them in the drone of "That's the difficulty in these times. the experts mustered up for TV nor in the calculated evils Ideas, dreams and cherished hopes rise the Sunday talk shows.. .These are some within us, only to meet the horrible of the words: Auschwitz, Rotterdam, truth and be shattered. It's a wonder I Polish untermenschen, Leningrad, of state-initiated haven't dropped all my ideals, because slave labor, crematorium, Holocaust, they seem so absurd and impossible to Nazi." genocide, the carry out. Yet, I keep them because in A German question? Rosenthal ar- spite of everything I still believe that gues that "to keep the words hidden is people are really good at heart. to kill the murdered twice, this time Holocaust stands "I see the world gradually being with the forgetting mind." Rosenthal, turned into a wilderness. I hear the it seems, is also a survivor. unparalled in ever-approaching thunder, which will November 8, 1989 marked the 50th destroy us too. I can feel the sufferings anniversary of the Nazi pogrom known human history of millions and yet, if Hook up into the as Kristallnacht (the Night of the heavens I think it will come out all Broken Glass), a night when the white right and that peace and tranquility heat of fire mixed with the brilliance of tion League of B'nai B'rith, "anti- will return again." Anne Frank — The the shattered glass of Jewish homes Semitic incidents in the United States Diary. and shops to give prophetic form to the increased 12 percent in 1989, reaching The consistent arguments for a speedy coming of the "FINAL SOLUTION." the highest level since the organiza- reunification of Germany are based on Fifty years later these fires still burn. tion started keeping track 11 years an expressed belief that a strong, eco- Anti-Semitism, as Eli Weisel has said, ago. The greatest number of attacks nomically powerful, unified fatherland is a "light sleeper." East Germany, occurred in New Jersey and New York." (Germany), controlled by NATO and which until very recently has never (New York Observer) Oddly enough, the Soviet Union, will indeed bring a publicly accepted any responsibility for j Middlesex County, NJ seems to be a kind of peace and tranquility to post Nazi crimes, has spurned the growth of | hot bed for growing anti-Jewish hatred. World War II Germany. As the G.D.R. violent right-wing activity. According An anonymous advertisement ap- loses over 2,000 of its citizens daily to to an article in the NY Times "hun- peared in the student newspaper at the West, and the Eastern economy dreds of skinheads goose-stepped North Brunswick Township High crumbles, the political and economic through Leipzig shouting "Seig Heil" School which read "The ovens are in necessity of a United Germany is being as they smashed windows and dis- the kitchen. Rope them up. I'm hungry posited as both necessary and unstop- rupted a regular weekly demonstra- and need a lampshade." pable. tion for German unity. Like Hitler's It is not that the Nazi regime had a Max Lerner of the AT Post writes brownshirts, the skinheads fought with patent on anti-Semitism, not as if the that "If we could order history accord- bystanders shouting "To hell with the roots of this ancient prejudice and ing to our memories of trauma, I would Jews." scapegoating did not travel deep and continue to fight against any further And, as the world watches the cata- wide into the past of most European enhancement of the power of a Ger- clysmic changes in the Soviet Union nations, not as if the majority of the many that gave us Adolf Hitler. Noth- with bated breath and shouts of "Viva world's population looked away when ing can extirpate the fact of the Holo- Gorby" fill the international air-waves, the first reports of the unbelievable caust." Patrick J. Buchanan, also writ- thousands of Soviet Jews are attempt- parameters of the Holocaust began to ing for the NY Post, believes that "a ing to escape the personal results of leak into consciousness, not that the strong, united, free Germany in the Glasnost. Reporter Joel Brinkley writes concept of collective guilt does not heart of Europe will be as great a embrace all of us, but when analyzing triumph for America as a strong free of fleeing Russian Jews who tell of Japan in the Far East." "physical attacks against themselves, and comparing the calculated evils of relatives or friends. One man said his state-initiated genocide, the Holocaust Buchanan also compares the treat- brother had been murdered and thrown stands unparalled in human history. ment of the East Germans by the Allies An event so unbearably evil that its at the end of the war with the annihi- into the river, bound head and foot, remembrance is, in a sense, best left to lation of the Jews during the Holo- just because he was a Jew." the survivors, for even the best ana- caust. In this, Buchanan is a political Will they come to America? Accord- lytic, intellectual, philosophical or comrade of Heidegger's, who in re- ing to a Mr. Eikel of Kiev, interviewed political attempts to explain it will fall by the New York Observer in February, hollow and short. Indeed, recent at- continued on page 32 "I always felt anti-Semitism in the

ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1990 A Compiled Adaptation of News Items WIN SOME i LOSE SOME with Editorial Commentary by Beverly Lowy

ARE MALE are awarding less child INCOMES support. LOWERING? "Much of the reduced NY Newsday "Nation child-support award levels Briefs": A new study exam- in recent years can be attrib- ines why the average child- uted to a steady upward support award to women trend in female earnings 18 and over, after account- relative to male earnings," ing for inflation, fell said Robins. sharply between 1978 and Using government popula- 1985, and the average pay- tion and income data, Rob- ment received fell corre- ins studied awards and spondingly. concluded, "From 1978 to The government-funded 1985, the major factor re- study by University of sponsible for the decline in Miami Prof. Philip K. Rob- child-support award levels ins, working at the Univer- was rising relative to female sity of Wisconsin Institute earnings." for Research on Poverty, says this has occurred be- Women now earn about 71 cause women are earning cents for every male dollar. more money, and the courts Now that's affluence!

ABLACK 50 confidential case filesan d tion," said Marcia Robinson express preferences. AND WHITE ISSUE interviews with more than Lowry, the head of the "We do not condone this," From an article by Suzanne 20 city workers who find ACLU's Children's Rights said Adele Boudreaux, a Daley in the NY Times: homes for needy children. Project. Deputy Commissioner of In an effort to place hun- Lawyers for the ACLU said "This would indicate that the Child Welfare Admini- dreds of abused and ne- that considering whether a the problem is now in a more stration. "But you have to glected children into foster child has a light or dark subtle and even more re- ask: Is it right to force the care each week, New York complexion and straight or pugnant form." issue, to have a child al- City has resorted to distrib- kinky hair went far beyond City officials said they ready removed from his uting them to private fos- permissible racial distinc- could not comment on the home — already displaced ter-care agencies on the tions. report because they had not — face rejection when a basis of gradations of skin The practice apparently reviewed it. But they said foster parent opens the door color and hair texture, results in favored treatment that while the city had a and says, "You're too dark; charged a report by the for children who have more policy that skin shade should I don't want you'?" American Civil Liberties Caucasian features, workers have nothing to do with a Union. quoted in the report said. child's placement, it no Hopefully someone like that The report was based on a "The system has a long and doubt was a factor because would not be licensed as a court-authorized review of ugly history of discrimina- foster parents continued to foster parent.

ON THE ISSUES COMMENDS: JENNIFER CAPRIATI Jennifer Capriati, 13, lives and trains at the Henry Hopman tennis school at Saddlebrook, Wesley Chapel, FL. She has been voted most likely to take No. 1 away from Steffi Graf and has played successfully against men nearly three times her age. She unwinds by participating in speed- serving contests with a couple of male adolescent peers who, like Jennifer, live at the camp. At the camp, a clan of hump-backed racoons always assemble in the palm trees. The boys suggested a marksmanship contest with the racoons as targets, but the animal-loving Jennifer diverted them. Instead, she made it a power-and-accuracy serving spree that pitted the teenage boys against her. "Whipping the boys," she told NY Times reporter, Robin Finn, has become a necessary and favorite pastime. Congratulations, Jennifer, not only for proving that a 13- year-old female can beat males at their own game, but for raising their consciousness about animals.

ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1990 UNWARRANTED said the undercover opera- THE OTHER SIDE People. "It was degrading to ARRESTS tion was begun at the re- OF THE FENCE see." The organization and Featured in the NY Times: quest of the New Jersey An Associated Press dis- some individuals, who filed The New Jersey State Po- Turnpike after a number of patch: A fence separating a lawsuit over the gap in care lice, proud of its record of complaints from travelers poorly tended graves of seven years ago, say they arrests for illegal drug and about homosexual activity Blacks from neatly kept hope the order ending the gun running on the state's at the rest stop. graves of whites must come 125-year-old practice will put highways in recent years, is The ACLU and the New down, said a United States a disturbing remnant of seg- under pressure to submit to Jersey Chapter of the district judge in ordering a regation to rest. independent oversight of its NAACP have also collected private cemetery to provide Elizabeth Mendel, Ryder operations in the wake of more than 200 complaints equal care to all its sections. Cemetery Co.'s lawyer, said complaints that it is aiming in the last year accusing The back of Ryder Ceme- her client would decide at racial minorities and troopers of stopping cars tery in Lebanon, KY has whether to appeal after the homosexuals. by using a "drug profile" been known among Blacks judge, Charles Allen, speci- The State Public De- that focuses primarily on as "the jungle" because fies the work to be done. fender's Office in Middlesex young Black males driving weeds, trash and brambles The 30-acre cemetery, es- County, concerned at the late model cars or cars with have overrun the graves of tablished on land donated in number of Blacks from out-of-state plates. more than 200 Blacks bur- 1865, appears to have been other states arrested on the "If you fit that profile you ied there. On the other side segregated from the start. New Jersey Turnpike, has can be sure your trip of a rusty wire fence are the Although no records exist to begun an investigation to through the Garden State graves of whites with gleam- explain the arrangement, the determine whether troopers is going to take a few hours ing tombstones on well- cemetery company never are using racial profiles longer," said Edward Mar- tended grassy knolls. maintained the section in when deciding which cars tone, the ACLU's executive "It was wrong," said Nor- which Blacks are buried and to stop, a practice the civil director. man Moore, former presi- never sold plots in it. rights groups argue is dent of the Marion-Wash- widespread. We guess the boys in blue ington County chapter of the Apparently even death wasn't In addition, an under- were just trying to make National Association for the the great equalizer in this cover operation that re- their quotas, legally or not. Advancement of Colored case. sulted in more than 540 arrests for lewdness over 20 months at the Vince Lombardi rest area on the turnpike, is being challenged in court. Court papers have been filed in the lewdness case by a coalition that includes the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund and the New Jersey branch of the American Civil Liberties Union. They assert that plainclothes troopers en- courage men using the restrooms to make sexual advances. Evan Wolfson, a Lambda staff lawyer, said that between February 1988 and October 1989 troopers "spent hours standing at urinals, approaching men and engaging in flirtatious behavior." "The troopers routinely pretended to masturbate, soliciting physical and sex- ual contact with men at uri- THE BANE IN SPAIN closes that six out of 10 plained so vociferously about nals and in stalls," Wolfson Item from Lloyd Shearer's Spanish men do no domestic "the inequality of it all" that said. "At the least sign of "Intelligence Report", Pa- chores at all. Those males Felipe Gonzalez, the prime reciprocal interest, the troop- rade Magazine: who perform some household minister, went on TV for 25 ers made an arrest, flouting Spanish men have become tasks limit them to two hour s seconds urging Spain's ma- standard New Jersey re- such chauvinists that even and 45 minutes a week; their cho men to get off their butts quirements of procedural their government is embar- wives or mistresses spend and into the kitchen. fairness." rassed by their archaic be- more than six hours a week Capt. Thomas Gallagher, havior. A survey by Madrid's keeping things in order. Twenty-five seconds — Wow! a State Police spokesman, Institute for Women dis- The women have com- That ought to teach 'em.

ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1990 GETTING INN second yearly vote and con- WASN'T A PIECE firming vote by next year's OF CAKE graduate board. An Associated Press dis- "I'm really happy and sur- patch: prised," said Jen Weiner, a Tiger Inn, one of two all- junior who heads the Coali- male eating clubs at Prin- tion For Coeducated Eating ceton University, voted to Clubs. "I was concerned that take a first step towards there would be some back- admitting women. In order lash because of Ivy's deci- for the change to be- sion, in that the members come effective, the club's might want Tiger to remain members must approve the the last bastion of all-male- measure in two consecutive ness." years. Tiger Inn had maintained The vote was described as its position on the issue for close, but no tally was im- 11 years in the face of a sex mediately available. discrimination lawsuit filed It followed less than a by then-sophomore Sally week after Ivy Club, the Frank. other remaining all-male in- stitution, voted in favor of Imagine: We'll be able to sit coeducation by a margin of at the table instead of only 51-23. A final change at serve—or merely stand and Ivy would also require a wait.

HAIL THE MEDIA is permanently in the thrall they were communists," there was "a serious failure POLICE of the left. quipped Tebbit, a close col- to meet acceptable standards From an article inNYNews- "The word 'conservative' is league of Prime Minister of impartiality in 12 news day: Conservatives are now used by the BBC as a Margaret Thatcher. items." mounting a new attack on portmanteau word of abuse The argument about ter- The report, commissioned the BBC, including the for anyone whose political minology is at the center of a by the right-wing Daily Ex- charge that it is turning views differ from the insuf- larger Tory complaint about press newspaper, attracted conservatism into a dirty ferable, smug, sanctimoni- the BBC and its radio divi- widespread publicity — word. ous, naive, guilt-ridden, wet, sion's flagship current af- partly because of the impor- The British Broadcasting pink orthodoxy of...the fairs program, "Today", tance of the program. "To- Corp. denies the charges and 1960s," Tebbit declared, in which runs daily for two day" has a daily audience of says it won't be cowed. Nor- an address at Oxford Uni- hours. six million, not far behind man Tebbit, who, as govern- versity. A report by the Media the television evening news ing Conservative Party "To my astonishment, I Monitoring Unit, which is programs. Regular listeners chairman from 1985 to 1987, find from the BBC that funded by conservative include Thatcher. spearheaded battles with the Stalin and Brezhnev were businessmen, said that in a BBC, alleges the corporation 'conservatives'. I had thought two-week period of January Sounds like home, doesn't it?

RABBITS information in advertising Even so, 88 percent of con- REDUX and on packaging to influ- sumers surveyed say they From a piece by Adrienne ence consumers buying are unaware of any cosmet- Ward in Advertising Age: decisions. ics or toiletries marketers In anAdvertisingAge study As environmental con- that have stopped animal conducted by the Gallup cerns gain space in the testing in the past year. Organization, 60 percent of media and importance This suggests that while the 1,000 adults surveyed among consumers, animal consumers may oppose claim they oppose animal testing has become a mar- animal testing they are not testing on cosmetics and keting strategy with some I dedicated to following the toiletries, and 89 percent say cosmetics and toiletriesH issue. they would purchase prod- companies. In the past Women, the primary pur- ucts that are not tested on year, Revlon Inc., Avon Prod- chasers of cosmetics and animals. ucts and Unilever-U.S. sub- toiletries are more opposed But while the majority sidiaries Chesebrough- to animal testing on such oppose such testing proce- Pond's and Faberge Inc. products than men; 68 per- dures, nearly half the re- dropped animal testing cent of women oppose it vs. spondents do not know if while Mary Kay cosmetics 52 percent of men. the products they use are and Amway Corp. issued a tested on animals. This di- moratorium on the practice. Consciousness raising chotomy suggests marketers Most received extensive publicity for their actions. doesn't happen overnight; at are not providing enough least it is happening.

6 ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1990 BREAKING Women and Minorities in the Sciences Women and minorities are rare in the sciences. Why? And what can be done about it?

On the Issues Interviews Paul E. addressed the question. not made enough progress in the last Gray, President, Massachusetts OTI: As president of MIT, you have 10 years. On the 21-member Academic Institute of Technology (MIT) and made quite an effort to recruit women. Council, which is the governing aca- Shirley M. McBay, Dean for Stu- What influenced you in that decision? demic body at MIT, there are now five dent Affairs, MIT PEG: Our society does not educate women. enough young people of college age and OTI: What factors hold women back in On The Issues (OTI): What percent of the college ability for careers in science science and engineering? undergraduate population do women and engineering compared with other PEG: I think it begins with a set of make up at MIT? Has this increased industrialized societies, for example widely-shared public attitudes about during the time you've been president? West Germany or Japan. One way of what is acceptable or appropriate for Paul E. Gray (PEG): More than a third of attacking that problem is to make it women and men to do. For a long time, our undergraduates are women, with clear that these are careers which are the attitude has been that women don't the senior class at nearly 35 percent. possible, attractive and desirable for do science, or more narrowly, women That is a new high watermark for MIT. women as well as men. The tradi- don't do mathematics. I think that Ten years ago, when my term as presi- tional—meaning pre-1970s—exclusion prejudice begins very early, probably dent began, the range was 16-18 per- of women from these careers, particu- at junior high school or earlier. A girl cent. Twenty years ago it was less than larly engineering, does not serve the who seems to do well and be interested 10 percent and 40 years ago when I was nation very well. The Chinese say that in math encounters a fair amount of a student here, women were practi- women hold up half the sky. That ought discouragement from the culture. Fif- cally invisible. In my freshman class of to be true in these fields of endeavor as teen years ago I had a freshman ad- about 800 individuals, there were 13 well as in other areas. You can say, visee, a young woman who had come women. In those years the number of well, MIT is only one place, and you to MIT from Dorchester High School, women was set essentially by quota haven't increased the total size of the and she had decided in her junior year and the quota was whatever we could student body very much over 10 years, that she wanted to come here. Her house. There was one dormitory for so you haven't made enough of a differ- guidance counselor told her, "You can't women, a row house on Bay State ence in the total number of women and go there, it's men only." My advisee Road in Boston. Then in the early men now studying science or engineer- knew that that was not the case, and 1960s, an alumnus, Katherine Dexter ing. Given that we are something of a when she showed the counselor a cata- McCormick, gave us money for model for science and engineering log that proved there were women at McCormick Hall, the first women's education, and that MIT traditionally MIT, her counselor said, "Well, no self- dormitory. That raised the number of has played a disproportionate role in respecting girl would want to go there, women in the entering class. The big preparing people who go on to faculty it just isn't done." She came, she perse- increase came in the late '60s, when careers in these fields, a change of this vered, she got a bachelor's degree in the second McCormick Hall was built, kind in our student body has had great electrical engineering and she's now and a number of dormitories which leverage. employed as an engineer. had housed only men were opened to OTI: What about women on the faculty OTI: Do people see it as "unfeminine," women. at MIT? or do they think women can't do math OTI: You said that women were practi- PEG: Twenty-five years ago, out of a and science? cally invisible when you were an under- faculty of 800 there were about half a PEG: I don't know what the social roots graduate. What was the attitude of dozen women. Now with a faculty of are, but I think the expressed sense is your classmates toward women? about 950, there are about 95 to 100 not that women can't do it, but that PEG: There were so few women at MIT women. Much of that change occurred they shouldn't — it's not feminine. that most MIT undergraduates never prior to my presidency, and we have OTI: Do you think women have particu-

ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1990 lar difficulties in math and science? young men. We buy from the Educa- of who can even apply — not only here, PEG: Sheila Tobias, an educator, did a tional Testing Service lists of names of but to any program that's science or lot of research on math anxiety in individuals who have expressed an engineering based. women in both high school and college. interest in our kind of educational OTI: So we have to make the effort to get I don't believe there are any gender program and who have college board women involved in science and math differences. There's nothing intrinsic scores in a range which would make earlier. in the physiology of women that makes them sensible applicants. These are PEG: Yes. mathematics less accessible or more generally high school juniors. Then we OTI: Do you think we're going to see a difficult, but the social expectations send them information about MIT lot more women in science in the fu- which begin at a very early age proba- which generates preliminary applica- ture? bly do make a difference. tions. PEG: I think the trends that we've seen OTI: What happens when women OTI: Are the figures of women who now for 20 or 30 years are likely to graduate from places like MIT? Do graduate from MIT the same as for continue. The numbers at a place like they have the same troubles that men? MIT are not likely to grow until we can women experience in other fields or do address the questions of what happens they have more trouble advancing? in high school. PEG: It's probably a little early to as- For a long time, OTI: Is this different in industrialized sess any hard evidence because the societies in which scientists in general majority of female graduates of MIT are revered — in Japan, Korea, or who are out there now making their the attitude has Germany? careers are less than 40 years old, PEG: Women are certainly less repre- most of them are less than 35. And we sented in the professions in Germany haven't done any systematic surveys been that women or Japan than they are here, including that would indicate how their careers engineering and science. In Japan are progressing. Anecdotally, I look there's a very fixed set of culturally- around at women I've known here as don't do science... based ideas about what is appropriate students and have stayed in touch for women to do and not do. It borders with, and my sense is that they are PEG: Yes. About 10 years ago we took a on the impossible for a woman to make moving along in careers, encountering very close look at the numerical deter- a career in science or engineering there. the same kinds of difficulties as their minants that compared women's expe- In my travels to Japan, I've encoun- male counterparts, with the exception rience at MIT with men's experience, tered only one woman executive, an of the dilemma that arises with the because there was some concern at engineering manager in an electronics conflict between career and parenting. that time that women were not being company called Oki Electric in Tokyo. That represents a difficult problem for represented to the same degree in some She's the first one in 15 years of visits. women in any field, but it is more activities, such as the professional For all the flaws in American society, severe in science and engineering, honorary societies. The results showed which tends to make gender-based simply because these fields change so that on all the dimensions you could distinctions, they are enormously more rapidly. If you're disconnected for five think of — grades, graduation rates, powerful in Asian societies, and my years, you've got a significant amount participation in honorary societies, impression is in some European socie- of catch-up to do. extra-curricular activities—there were ties as well. OTI: Are many women who are gradu- no significant differences in participa- OTI: Do you think women feel good ating in science and engineering going tion and success rates for men and about their experience at MIT? into teaching? women. The only significant difference PEG: That's hard to answer because I PEG: Fewer women than you would that emerged was that women were think that most MIT students don't expect are continuing on through proportionately more involved than feel very good about their experience graduation to a doctoral degree and men in intercollegiate athletics. Our while they're at it or soon after they making a start on faculty careers. The admissions office indicates that SATs finish. Many MIT students will say same is true for minorities. If you look slightly underpredict the actual per- that the place was a grind, and they're at the graduate student population at formance of women and slightly over- not sure they would want to do it again. MIT, the numbers are smaller. predict that of men. Perhaps more im- Interestingly, if you talk to them when OTI: What are they? portantly, MIT studies show that even they're back home—even while they're PEG: For a woman it's around 20 per- though MIT women have slightly lower students — their attitude seems a little cent, for minorities it's a little more math scores, they perform as well as more tolerant and a little softer. I don't than two percent. In part, that's be- men in final exams and have a higher know whether women feel differently cause at the undergraduate level we graduation rate — around 90 percent. about it, but I'd be surprised if they have made a policy decision about OTI: What should we do to recruit more were more positive about their experi- recruiting women and minorities, and women in science and engineering to ence than men are. we can implement it because it's a schools like MIT? OTI: How do men feel about the women single coherent process overseen by PEG: Coming to a place like this re- students here? one office. At the graduate level, it's 24 quires three years of science and four PEG: I think that most of the men rec- separate processes with every depart- years of mathematics in high school. If ognize that participation of women in ment doing its own admissions, so it's you look at the junior high school and this setting and in the kinds of careers harder to influence. high school pipeline, I think you will that they're going to move into is the OTI: Do you do anything special to re- find that young women begin to drop way things are, and they accept that. cruit women at the undergraduate out of the stream earlier on and at a And I think many foreign students — level? greater rate than young men do. That not all, but many — bring their cul- PEG: We do basically the same kind of means there is some built-in difference tural attitudes about the place of women thing with women that we do to recruit among 11th and 12th graders in terms to MIT and that leads them to behave

8 ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1990 in ways which their women associates, sentation, I think people sense their Asian-American students more likely foreign or otherwise, regard as ex- precariousness and don't do well. All to take the harder courses? tremely sexist. That gets particularly we can do, through the academic lead- SMM: I think it has to do with the kind troublesome when the foreign student ership of the place, through the deans of emphasis placed at home. male is a teaching assistant and has and the department heads and lab OTI: You mean the culture encourages women in the class. I hear enough directors, is to keep making the point them. about that to believe that's a real issue. that this organization needs to behave SMM: Right. It does not encourage OTI: What can you do about that? in a way which is even-handed and fair women, white or Black, or Black men. PEG: We try to sensitize people, raise with respect to all here — minorities, There is also a distinction along socio- consciousness. Occasionally situations women, men. You have to keep putting economic lines; the students in reme- will come to a point where we can deal before them enough examples of the dial courses tend to be from a lower with it directly, that is, somebody will kind of behavior that's unacceptable so socioeconomic status. Those in ad- say, "look, I think this is intolerable that people realize that some of these vanced courses are in higher socioeco- and I want action." Then we try to deal things are quite subtle and may be nomic groups. Students who come from with it. There's a lot of concern at the unintentional, and have to be changed. lower income families are generally in moment about sexual harassment and schools that have the least resources. one of my dilemmas in trying to under- Interview with MIT Dean of Stu- Their teachers have less experience stand and deal with those issues is dent Affairs Shirley M. McBay and the facilities in which they are that very often the people who feel OTI: Are the problems in science today studying tend to be in very poor condi- harassed are not willing to carry it the same for women and minorities? tion. They don't have laboratories, for through to the point of acting on it. I Shirley M. McBay (SMM): There are some example. They have the bare mini- understand that it's difficult, it's pain- similarities, but there are distinct dif- mum. They don't have enriching after- ful, and requires an involvement in the ferences. The Committee on Equal school experiences — trips to muse- process which is confrontational and Opportunities in Science and Engineer- ums and things that more affluent contentious. But unless it gets to that ing, which I chaired at the National children are used to. Poor minorities point, there's often not a lot we can do Science Foundation, recently submit- are groups that have been considered about it. ted a report to Congress that lists the historically underserved: American OTI: A Harvard Law School professor factors that are most important in the Indians, Black-Americans, Mexican- says there wasn't much sexism there selection of science and engineering Americans and Puerto Ricans. until they had admitted a lot of women. majors. When you look at the prepara- OTI: Are there different factors that are When there was one woman there was tion of women and minority students, discouraging to Blacks, other under- no problem, when there were three in terms of which science and math represented minorities and women in women, there was no problem, when it courses they've taken, you can see the terms of going into science? got to 30 percent they had a real prob- similarities. SMM: That implies that women and lem. What do you think you can do to OTI: You mean women and minorities minorities are not overlapping. I want raise consciousness about things like don't take advanced courses? to emphasize that minority women, that? SMM: Right. They don't take the most especially minority women who are PEG: I want to pick up that comment advanced courses, because they often trying to study science and mathemat- about Harvard. Was there a problem are not encouraged to take them. ics, not only have the barriers of being at MIT when two percent of the stu- There is a difference along socioeco- female in a tough discipline, but they dents were women? I think there was a nomic and status lines. In courses are also minorities. Girls are not en- serious problem. In those years, when ranging all the way up from Algebra couraged to be as inquisitive and ex- there was a quota imposed by housing, I to calculus, there is no distinct ploratory as boys. women as a group were considerably difference in terms of men and women, OTI: What other barriers are there for better qualified than men, simply be- but there is a difference in race and minority students? cause the threshold — the cut level — ethnicity. For example, 15 percent of SMM: In some minority communities, was higher. Nevertheless, women did all Asian-American students have if the student wants to succeed aca- not thrive here in those years. Their taken calculus in comparison with six demically, often that student's peers graduation rate was lower, their grades percent of all male students and five discourage her or him and will try to on the whole were lower, they did not percent of all female students. make the student feel as if she or he have as successful an experience at OTI: In what population? is trying to be different and is accept- MIT as their male counterparts. I be- SMM: In high school graduates who ing standards and perspectives of non- lieve that was because there was no had taken college preparatory mathe- minorities. That is often phrased, community, there was no sense of matics courses. "acting white." And if you are from a support, there was no sense that what OTI: Did they distinguish between male lower-income family, generally there they were doing was a sensible, appro- and female Asian-American students? are not as many folks around to en- priate thing and it was all right for SMM: No, unfortunately not, but if you courage reading and studying every them to do well. If the case was that look at the science courses taken by night. You have situations where the when we had two percent women, they high school graduates, you see a differ- parents themselves had negative ex- did not achieve at the level you would ence between women and men. For periences at school. It may be difficult have expected, and when we got up to example, 15 percent of all male stu- to sit down and do subject xyz if your 10,20,30 percent women, these differ- dents had taken Physics I, but only parents cannot help because they've ences disappeared, that suggests a eight percent of female students had had negative experiences. Some par- manifestation of a kind of sexism in the studied it. However, if you look by race ents feel that somehow you have to be community. It may not be the overt and ethnicity, 27 percent of Asian- born with an innate ability to do math kind of a man putting a woman down American students had taken Physics and science. There is a lot of that in because he feels threatened by her, but compared to 11 percent of all students. that when you have just a small repre- OTI: What are the factors that make continued on pg 33

ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1990 9 H.O.M.E. One Woman's Approach to Society's Problems Photos and Text By Helen M. Stummer

orrying about my tires seems appropriate, con- sistent. No matter what I do, if it is important or meaningfulW, my car runs badly. So here I am again, bumping and creep- ing along that rocky, rutted road to Mandala, worrying about getting a flat tire. Realistically, once off the main road, it is only a little over a mile, but emotionally it seems endless. Man- dala, symbolizing the universe, total- ity, and wholeness, is the core founda- tion of H.O.M.E. (Homemakers Or- ganized for More Employment) where Sr. Lucy Poulin, president and founder, Ellen Moore and Sr. Marie Ahem live. Many others also live in the converted 200 others. At the Inn, mothers can barn, or in the adjoining buildings, cook for their children, have picnics, that were donated to Sr. Lucy 20 years watch TV — like a real family again. ago when H.O.M.E. began. On the road to Mandala, there are a Sr. Lucy at The H.O.M.E. Co-op is five miles away few signs that I am not lost. They are Mandala in Orland, ME. This is where the saw all humbly made. There is also a very (above) mill is located, where crafts are made unassuming post and gate that indi- and sold, where the learning and day cates the beginning of Mandala or, as (right) Ellen care centers are, and where the offices it is also called, the Sanctuary. Soon Moore, one of that coordinate the many programs to vegetable gardens come into view, as H.O.M.E.'s aid poor and low-income people are do chickens, dogs, cats and goats. mainstays, and found. Part of this organization also To me, it was the five or six goats on baby Jimmy in consists of "St. Francis Inn," situated the front porch that seemed the most the kitchen at on the road between H.O.M.E. and unusual. "They're terrible," Lucy said Mandala Mandala. The Inn serves as a shelter with love. "They're all over. They eat for battered women and children and everything. We need to shear them for is one of the only "in-house arrest" their wool in the spring, put them on prison programs for women in Maine. an island somewhere until the fall, Here, children do not have to visit when we need to shear them again." their mothers in jail, sitting for two This is not my first visit to the Sanc- hours at a small table in a room with tuary. I already feel comfortable see-

10 ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1990 ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1990 ing the solid wooden door and hearing Lucy became visibly uncomfortable. I just that they need constant help and Lucy's welcome as well as baby apologized as I photographed her, attention. I don't know where they'd be Jimmy's. He is now two and has been sharing with her my own anxiety over if they were not with us •— probably in living with Lucy since he was only a being in front of the camera. jail. We're glad to have them, but it's few months old. Focusing our attention back to the hard." Today Lucy is wearing her black be- room, Lucy said, "We might as well "So," said Lucy, "it's get up, take care ret. On other days she wears a blue and look at the quilt as leave it in the chest. of the baby, have prayer and breakfast. white bandana or a white painter's hat When I was growing up we always If one of the children gets keyed off it with "Maine" written on it. Lucy is covered the holes with quilts; or, if affects the household. Keeping that always in work clothes. She is always the walls weren't thick enough or the household constant and arranging working, mentally or physically, and cold was blowing in, we would take one transportation — maybe it's too much believes in Ghandi's philosophy, "Live of our quilts and put it up. We didn't to live in a shelter and to work all day simply, so others may simply live." have doors in our house. with the same problems at the There are two small windows "Sometimes when I speak to a group H.O.M.E. Co-op. 'Cause it's around the against the kitchen wall in the large they are so hostile about people being clock. That's why we're adding on to room. Simplicity is the dominant de- the house and making it better. We cor. A large table, many straight back need another responsible adult here to chairs, horse bridles hanging on a clean and cook and look after things." pole, a rocker and flowers are visible. H.O.M.E. grew Just then, two-year-old Jimmy comes As we stood in this large and peaceful into the room and Lucy is ecstatic. room, Lucy talked about the realities out of decisions Lucy has been trying to get legal guardi- of living and working with people in anship of him from his birth family. need. The parents didn't show up for the "There is so much we have to handle which directly re- hearing. But it seems the judge is because of all the children we care for. skeptical about life at H.O.M.E. At There are always so many problems. flected the needs their hearing, the judge wanted to At the H.O.M.E. Co-op there is an- know if this was "parenting by com- other set of constant crises and finan- mittee," and if it was "Boys Town cial problems. It is overwhelming. But of the people East." In spite of his unprofessional the animals take our minds off it. remarks, he gave Lucy six months There is a skunk that comes in every guardianship until the state has had a night and knows where the cat food is. on welfare. I let them finish, and then chance to come in and investigate I came out last night at 4 a.m. to give I tell them that my mother was on wel- Jimmy's surroundings. the baby a bottle and the skunk was fare. She had 11 children to bring up. I asked Lucy about her life as a reli- busy eating. It never sprays inside, We were so poor. We thought it was a gious woman, a nun. She said, "I was but it will spray outside if the dogs rest to go to school because we had to 26 when I went into the monastery. All bother it. We live together here. Even work so hard at home. We would often I ever did before that was work my the goats, chickens, dogs and cats seem stuff the openings in the wall with mother's farm. I worked in factories, to get along and hang out together." newspaper. Newspaper makes good mills and was a maid and a servant. I Lucy's new room is small but bright insulation. We used knives to stuff was in the monastery for 11 years. We and airy, with a deep sense of quiet rags in the cracks in our foundation did anything that got money and we about it. She was beginning to bring in and that would help keep the cold out." learned a lot of theology and philoso- some furniture and had just hammered Lucy's childhood training — to use phy. We made shoes because that was on the wall a beautiful quilt which I whatever was available and not waste what people came to us for. When the admired. As I took out my camera, — is reflected throughout the organi- shoe market collapsed, we went on to zation. "We live on very little," said make crafts because that's what we Recently, H.O.M.E.'$ insurance Lucy. "We use everything." knew. Then we began to have public company dropped them, charg- The saw mill is a good example. It meetings. We wanted an outlet for our ing thai a day care center and not only provides lumber for the crafts and at the same time we began a lumber mill on the premises houses that H.O.M.E. builds for low- to realize what was happening with made H.O.M.E. "high risk", income people, but the wood is also poor people, how they couldn't get though they had made no used for the many crafts that are sold health insurance and a host of other claims in 20 years. Other in the store. The by-products are sold injustices. Poor people lacked knowl- recent misfortunes: Their or given away to the poor as fire wood edge. Many couldn't read, so we started historic chapel was demolished or as sawdust which is used for mulch a literacy program." H.O.M.E. grew by a truck that crashed into it and animal bedding. out of decisions which directly reflected and, in a separate incident, all "Our household has a lot of strain," the needs of the people. of the handmade quilts were Lucy continued. "Just getting up is a "My Order didn't approve of my stolen. Undaunted, H.O.M.E. problem. Right now there is too much wanting to open a craft outlet, so, after plans to open a free preven- stress. We're trying to change it. The four years of working with the poor, I tive medical center. They baby is a full-time job. Any mother was asked to leave the monastery. I would be grateful for contribu- knows that, but in our household we always had a very deep attraction to tions of over-the-counter have three adults, and right now there spirituality and to our church. I can't medications, bandages, band- are six teenagers who are marginal, leave my faith — it's a gift, though I aids, vitamins, thermometers not able to take care of themselves. understand, as I have gotten older, the | etc. They also need an auditor They are wonderful." But, as Sr. Marie separation between the system of the willinilling tt«o donate services. said, "We have a wild selection of kids church as an institution and one's spiri- who live with us. They're good kids; it's tuality."

12 ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1990 Lucy settles into an old rocker and Jake and Arlene say thai things But H.O.M.E. is working in spite of continues. "H.O.M.E. is unique. It's are "pretty good now that we the great lack of adequate finances, more like a matriarchal society in the have jobs." She works in day and staff feel they could solve our sense that we're not specialized. This care, he upkeeps the grounds. social problems if they just had the is a woman's approach to society's money that our Defense Department problems. Does a mother ever sepa- tion. We know how smart the poor are, throws away. In an August, 1989 col- rate what she is doing in her family? even without a formal education. A umn, Jack Anderson quoted a 25-year Poor or farm women, especially, do not self-educated person doesn't get the Pentagon veteran, "...waste is a way of understand the need for specializa- deserved credit in our society. I barely life in the Defense Department. It's not tion. They are concerned with doing made it through high school and my real money to them. It's play money, what needs to be done. office staff are mostly high school funny money." "How can you sleep at night when dropouts but they understand the I am still pondering the lack of frills children are living on the street? How problems, the spirit of our problems. as I drive to the St. Francis Inn, the can you turn someone away who needs They are still connected to their roots. shelter that Sr. Barbara and Sr. help? We can't. They are not disconnected from their Lucille manage. As we sit on the "Even in the Yellow Pages they don't humanity. So I don't have to worry glassed-in porch, they talk about their know how to list us. We do more shel- that they will turn away anyone who concerns for H.O.M.E. ter than anyone else in the state. We comes here for help." "We struggle with people who are not do more food bank. We are the only As I leave the Sanctuary, I reflect on able to be hired in first-rate places. ones who have a thriving lower socio- what makes H.O.M.E. work. It is just They're marginal people. So we're economiccommunity.Webuildhouses. what makes government agencies fail. always paddling uphill. They're people Many people can't understand us be- Homemakers Organized for More ho one else will hire. Wonderful people, cause they come from the overspecial- Employment does not have an admin- and it's a terrible thing when you have ized, patriarchal, educated society. We istrative mind. They do not shuffle a hard time paying them. There are do whatever needs to be done for the papers, nor do they have a reverence people who come here and learn a skill human beings who are otherwise being for committees, reports or in-depth and go off, which is what we want. So neglected by our society. studies of social and financial prob- we're always starting over. But we "There is an assumption in our soci- lems. They know what the problems struggle terribly for overhead money, ety that if you have a college education are and how to solve them. In fact, to pay the bills, to pay the salaries. you know how to run things. At problem solving isn't their problem, "We owe all these people so much H.O.M.E. we don't have that assump- money is. money and then the foundations tell us

ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1990 13 flow of people, my first question to her is about government money. "We don't take government money," said Lucy, "because then we would have to fit into those guidelines that the government requires. And that means we would have to have someone be responsible for making sure those guidelines are kept. We don't want anyone to have to police anyone else. It would divide us. So we decided that government money would be very destructive for our com- munity. "We are working to be self-sufficient,

The judge wanted to know if this was "parenting by committee," and if it was "Boys Town East"

not bureaucratic. If we become bu- reaucratic we won't be H.O.M.E., so we must depend on donations in order to survive. We operate on very little, but we are close to self-sufficiency. It is getting better. But we must get out and explain to others what we are about. We have not been assertive enough in our fundraising. "We need people to put their money into our revolving loan fund or sponsor a house or land. We can build a house for $20,000 - $25,000. For those who would like to invest in our loan fund, we're not solvent. Well of course we're The battered women's shelter we ask a 30-day notice for withdrawal. not. That's why we need them. We provides love, food and counsel- There are also those who have put us take in people who have no money. We ing lo those in need. in their wills and, of course, those who struggle to take care of them, to feed make straight donations to us." them, to house them, and we want to. are lucky if they make four or five thou- The people at H.O.M.E. are proud of But right now H.O.M.E. is in very dif- sand a year. And the doctors and AMA their many accomplishments, but none ficult financial straits. We cannot af- are fighting a National Health Pro- as much as the 14 homes that they ford the $400 it costs to do a yearly gram. Something has got to be done." have already been able to build. The audit. We desperately need a retired A few days later, I visit Lucy in her houses are 2000 square feet, designed auditor, somebody to come and help us office at H.O.M.E. The rough, unfin- for the single parent — one parent do our books, to offer to do the audit for ished wood of Mandala also dominates with a child on one side and a parent us. We need that audit, that paper, so here. Again, there are no frills, no car- with three or four children on the other. we can present evidence that we are a peting, no anything that would take This is not a band-aid answer. It is a struggling corporation. money away from solving immediate permanent solution, a means of stabi- "Another huge problem is the Blue problems. The phones are ringing off lizing the family. "We are committed," Cross/Blue Shield coverage. It is dou- the wall. People are coming and going continued Lucy, "to helping feed, edu- bling. H.O.M.E. can hardly afford to into the two offices and a kitchen, cate and provide decent low-income pay for it now, but the people need where staff and volunteers cook and housing to those who would otherwise coverage. They can't afford to pay for eat. It is also a catchall for the continual be unable to provide themselves with it. In a couple of years, every person stream of people bringing donations, these basic necessities." will be paying many thousands yearly mostly clothes. I recalled the words of a young for medical coverage. H.O.M.E. people As I see Lucy, between the constant mother whom I had visited in one of

14 ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1990 these houses a few days earlier. Con- nie had said, "My four kids and I stayed with my mother and her husband for two months in a two-bedroom trailer. I wouldn't know where to go if H.O.M.E. didn't exist. I was on different waiting lists for a place to live. They are so long — years. People stay in bad situations because they have no place to go." She also talked about how her children keep asking when they are going to have to move again, and when is the hot water and electricity going to run out. They haven't been able to get used to this permanency yet. Being here and seeing how much is being done with hardly any money, my mind is constantly flashing back and forth between our society's waste of resources and those who are making a difference without any. Within a few minutes, while I was in her office, Lucy answered three phone calls and gave advice and thanks in a calm, even voice. The resident potter came into the office and told her, "We need more clay for the pottery shop." Lucy good-naturedly replied, "Are you making bricks and building adobes with it? Ask the bookkeeper if we have the money." Lucy then ran out of the office to catch a worker as he was going by. "Jack, Wally will have a load of cedar. Sr. Lucy Peulin and a friend take sell. The elderly are so happy when I He's coming in at two today." As Lucy a stroll down the road. bring them flowers. I have one elderly starts back to her office, the social lady who is very sick and I went and worker, Kathy, stops her. her fired. I let her finish and then I told decorated her mailbox with flowers. I politely move in and out of the office her that her statements about Kathy People need to know someone cares." attempting not to be in the way, while are racial slurs and I wish the state of Wiry, passionate and full of energy, trying to take "meaningful" pictures, Maine had 3000 Kathies." Kathy continues. "Housing is a terrible yet feeling like a frill, a decoration, When Kathy was finished talking problem for the poor — rents are so compared to the real life problems being with Lucy, I asked her about her work. expensive. If they buy a trailer, they played out around me. Sensing my "I take people shopping, to the doctors. don't have any land to put it on and uneasiness, Lucy tells a visitor that I work with battered women, I'm on 24- renting land is beyond their income. Helen "photographs history." As I hour call, seven days a week. I'm in It's hard all around, really. witness the reality of H.O.M.E., I get a charge of one shelter for the homeless "A young couple just bought an old sharp sense of how our society is be- elderly and I work with sexually abused trailer because their landlady sold the coming more and more callous toward children, the suicidal and alcoholic. house and they were evicted. That the needs of the poor and those of low We do a little bit of everything. I refer happens all the time here. An old man income; in many ways it has become a people to doctors or psychiatrists or allowed them to put the trailer on his boring subject. Even though the poor dentists because they don't know where land, so now they're trying to put a new population is increasing at an alarm- to go or what to do, and the poverty floor in the trailer and make it more ing rate, the will to release the re- here is from lack of education. You liveable." sources that are needed to help them is never see poverty like you do in the I think of all the stories I have gath- decreasing. But it is not a boring sub- state of Maine. It's the isolation — no ered from families who "love Kathy ject to H.O.M.E. — in fact, in many public transportation. People depend Tracy to death;" families who have ways our society's attitude has in- on us to go to the doctors, to go shop- contacted Kathy and either immedi- creased their job load. Many of the ping or to the laundromat — just the ately or in a day or two been given a people here also talk about how they bare necessities," she said. place to stay. As nine-year-old Danny have to deal with outright impatience Kathy loves her work and her uncon- told me, "When you're homeless you from those who resent them. ditional hugs and positive outlook are want to stay with your mother. You "Last night," Lucy said, "at 10:30, a powerful antidote for those whom no trust her, and Kathy helped us stay this woman called me on the telephone one else seems to care about. "I'm tak- together." and woke me up. She said, 'Why does ing these flowers to the elderly. At H.O.M.E. I learn about the wood H.O.M.E. have a Puerto Rican for a H.O.M.E. gets the flowers on consign- crew which decided to reject the use of social worker?' She went on and on and ment and sells them. I guess the grow- styrofoam cups. They talked about their said she'd even called various other ing season is over, because the man human rights agencies trying to get said to give away the ones we didn't continued on pg 34

ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1990 15 From STONES STATEHOOD

By Eleanor J. Bader

ne afternoon in October, in the after the intifada started in December, funct, progressive biweekly. Since her tiny village ofHawwara, off the 1987, that she witnessed, first-hand, beat was the Middle East, she agreed Nablus Road, American visi- the day-to-day situation in Israel and with the caller and hastily began to tors found two she-goats, two the occupied territories. plan a trip. "I wanted to go with some- kids and five chickens that had "I had just gotten back from a jour- one, but I was putting the trip together been shot by Israeli settlers only nalists' conference in Vietnam," Ben- very quickly," she says. "Then the head moments earlier. The youngest child nis recalls, "when a friend active in of the Frontline photography team in the family, about six years old, had Palestinian support work called and called me about something unrelated thrown a small stone at the settler's car said, "You have to go there now.'" and I half-jokingly said, 'Why don't you as it passed the family's house. In re- At that time, Bennis was a reporter come with me?' He said he couldn't, but sponse, the carload of six settlers en- for Frontline newspaper, a now-de- that he'd raise it with other photogra- tered the back of the house phers in the group. Two days and fired 20-30 shots at the later Neal Cassidy called me sheep and goats.'The next up and the rest," she laughs, time I'll come back and kill "is history." you and the sheep, 'one of the Bennis and Cassidy's col- settlers shouted. Two car- laboration involved three loads of soldiers arrived dur- separate trips to the Middle ing the settler attack, and East in 1988 and 1989, and waited outside until they left. resulted in the sometimes "The father of the family, shocking and always carrying the bodies of the heartrending, From Stones dead goats outside, said, 'if to Statehood, a book of pho- there was a horse or cow tographs and prose describ- there, it would have been ing the first two years of the killed too. To work in Israel intifada. It is a partisan book is bad, so we thought we'd — clearly favoring a two- raise animals instead—but state solution—and unwav- now the settlers come and ering in support of the Pal- kill them. It's like prison estinian quest for a home- here, like jail.'" land. From From Stones to But their's is no dogmatic Statehood: The Palestin- treatise. Instead, Bennis ian Uprising, by Phyllis provides a forum for dozens Bennis, with photographs of Palestinians to speak. We by Neal Cassidy, Inter- hear from women, organized link Publishing Group, for the first time to provide Brooklyn, NY. alternative social services, Although activist and jour- childcare and healthcare, nalist Phyllis Bennis had who are running kindergar- worked for peace in the tens, literacy and skills Middle East since the early A young boy who was clubbed by Israeli soldiers is nestled by classes. And we hear from 1970s, it wasn't until shortly his father in the Khan Yunis refugee camp youth, the majority of whom

16 PHOTOS BY NEAL CASSIDY ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1990 were born during the 20-plus years of Israeli occupation, flames when opened" which who have become world produce scores of injuries famous for resisting the Is- day-in and day-out. In 1988 raelis armed only with alone, says Bennis, the MRC stones and a fierce sense of treated 80,000 people, justice. Men, too, speak largely possible because of proudly and candidly as they a stepped-up campaign to describe how they put aside train lay health workers. In ideological and class differ- the first year of the inti- ences for the common good. fada, 35,000 people —most From them, we hear about of them young women — planned strikes and eco- took an intensive 20-session nomic boycotts, strategies course and learned to deal aimed at forcing the Israelis with "fractures, gas inhala- to the negotiating table. tion, cardiac arrest and other serious, but all-too- We hear the voices of Medi- common intifada emergen- cal Relief Committee (MRC) cies." In addition, Bennis workers, women and men describes the effort to regis- forced to treat the wounded ter blood donors all over the with inadequate supplies and West Bank. According to Dr. short-staffed creativity. Barghouti of the MRC, "We Bennis describes "the mas- now have 24,000 people and sive use of toxic, often lethal, their blood types listed at American-made CS tear-gas; neighborhood, regional and the development of disin- central levels, although we genously labelled 'plastic' still have a problem getting bullets made up largely of the names onto a computer. metal; new, rubber-wrapped But now we can meet virtu- steel spheres the size and ally every blood need in the weight of a large marble; Palestinian youths parade in the West Bank town of Sa'ir West Bank or Gaza."Hero- shiny, foil-wrapped packets in recognition of the declaration by the Palestine National engineered to explode in Council of an independent Palestinian State continued on pg 35

FROM STONES TO STATEHOOD off the Palestinians' kind. Mine was the more about U.S. foreign policy and Thirty-nine year old Phyllis Bennis, a Zionism of ignorance. I knew there were about Vietnamese history. I was study- Los Angeles native who now lives in people on the land, but they never played ing about the people's resistance for Brooklyn, NY, has not always been con- a part in my understanding of what Zi- the first time. Suddenly, I started to cerned with peace in the Middle East. onism was alt about," she says. understand about a people who were "When I first went to college in 1968," But going to college at the University tied to the land, and what it meant to she says, "I was still very tied to Zionist of California - Santa Barbara (UCSB) fight against a foreign occupation." organizations. I was a Sunday School made her begin to question a host of When the war ended, Bennis got in- teacher responsible for teaching political assumptions, including her volved in a number of other movements. courses on the history of modern Israel belief in the necessity of a Jewish state. For one year, she staffed the office of and on ethics." After one semester of teaching Sunday the New York City-based National However, even then, Bennis was some- School at a local Temple, Bennis de- Lawyers Guild. Then, in 1975, she went what left-of-center politically. "I taught cided to focus her energies on stopping to South Dakota to work on the about the kibbutz as a model of social- the Vietnam War. "I had started moving Wounded Knee Legal Defense Com- ism. In the ethics course I talked about with a grouping of progressive students, mittee. The lessons of Vietnam seemed draft resistance as the ethical conflict a loose coalition between the Black to be reinforced: Once again, the rights that the students would face in three or Student Union, the Chicano student of an indigenous people to resist occu- four years. I had worked in the Mc- organization and Students for a Demo- pation were being defended. Carthy campaign. I was against the war cratic Society (SDS). We took over the Upon returning to Los Angeles, Ben- in Vietnam, but when I talked about the student government. By my sophomore nis recalls "thinking about the Middle kibbutz movement I ignored the fact year, I was head of the Associated Stu- East and about U.S. foreign policy and that it never encompassed more than dents Lecture Committee and brought which countries the U.S. supported. I three percent of the Israeli population Angela Davis, Tom Hayden and William began to acknowledge that Israel was and was built on the expropriation of Kunstler to the campus...The issue of one of the repressive regimes the U.S. Palestinian land. Legally, I knew that the war was so compelling to me. I helped bolster — that the mythology of most of the land on which the kibbutzim started to study about it — trying to Israeli democracy was just that. It's real stood could not be owned by non-Jews. understand why the U.S. was there — for the Jews, but a democracy limited In the abstract, we were building a but I didn't quite understand it. Then, by religion is a theocracy and that was Jewish state so that made perfect sense after finishing school in 1972,1 got a job something I did not want to support." to me. What I did not understand was in Los Angeles as co-coordinator of the Nonetheless, Bennis admits that she the discrimination inherent in that. California chapter of the Indochina Peace Campaign. Here, I learned a lot "My brand Of Zionism was not the 'kill continued on pg 35

ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1990 17 in which a Palestinian man grabbed second thought." But this young man Women in Black: the steering wheel of a public bus caus- is a rarity. Weekly Vigils Against the ing it to plunge off the road, many of the The two clashing groups, with such Israeli Occupation Women in Black were frightened to vehemently opposing beliefs, stand stand at the weekly vigil because of within close proximity of each other. By and large they exchange few dis- By Bill Strubbe possible reprisals from right-wing Jews. As was feared, dozens of members of paraging comments. Nonetheless, most Every Friday afternoon at 1:00, while the extremist Kahane group converged Women in Black wish that Women in most Jerusalem residents are caught on the vigil, throwing bottles, eggs and White had created their own forum of in the throes of their preparations for tomatoes. They also kicked and hit the expression. the onset of Shabbat (Sabbath), scores women. "It got awfully scary because Still, the women's peace movement of Jewish women dressed in black stand there were not a lot of women that inside Israel is growing. in silent vigil. Each woman holds a week. The Kahane people were defi- Leslie's native home is Washington, sign written in either Hebrew, Eng- nitely violent and wanted to hurt us. DC. She is presently living in Israel lish, or Arabic reading: "No More Oc- The police came and had to disperse and studying research psychology at cupation." the mob with tear gas. Since then we the Hebrew University. For the past As busy traffic careens around the have tried to bolster our numbers and nine months, rain or shine, she has women standing in the heat of the have about 100 women each week," donned her black clothing and joined midday sun, many drivers honk their said one participant. the group. horns and hurl obscenities: "Go home, Standing in front of the Women in "Someone has to send a message to sluts!" "You traitor bitches!" The Black are a dozen or so women and men the world that not all Israeli Jews women, trained not to react, absorb dressed in white. They hold a large are supportive of the suppression of the painful verbal blows, determined, banner which reads "A Unified Israel," the Palestinians. I don't know if in their own small way, to be a continu- a demand of right-wing Israelis who our presence here week after week ing reminder to their fellow citizens believe in a Biblically pre-ordained changes the situation much, but and the world that not all Jewish Is- Jewish state. Their ideology claims title the very fact that it has continued raelis condone the suppression of the to the disputed West Bank and Gaza is meaningful." Palestinian intifada by their govern- strip. The vigil is expected to continue ment. One young man tries to provoke a indefinitely, until the two adversaries Wearing a wide-brimmed black hat Woman in Black into an argument. sit face-to-face at the negotiating to shade her face from the sun, Aviva, "You know what the Arabs would do to table and begin the process of discuss- aged 67, has taken her place among you if they were in charge of this land? ing how best to formulate a two-state the Women in Black. She has been They would slit our throats without a solution. • attending the vigils since they began at the onset of the intifada in Decem- Palestinian Arabs after their war ber, 1987. Born in Transylvania, she Another View of the against Israel in 1948. The bedeviling immigrated to Israel in 1928. Middle East: Palestinian complexity which has evolved since then "I stand here each week as a symbol Arabs, Yes; PLO, No is that the Palestine Liberation Or- of what is going on in the heart of many ganization (PLO), invented by Egyp- Israelis who are unable to influence, in By Roberta Kalechofsky tian President Nasser in 1964 as an a practical way, what is happening in instrument of Pan Arabism strategy, our country and the West Bank. I stand Contrary to popular conception, the acquired the leadership of the Pales- here for myself, for my country and for identity of the Palestinian Arabs as a tinian Arabs, overriding Jordan's King all the other women who agree with nationality is a recent phenomenon. Hussein's declaration that the Pales- me," says Aviva. As has often been observed, it was tinian Arab people formed a natural She explains that the Women in Black ironically the creation of the state of cultural unity with Jordan. are not only confined to Jerusalem. In Israel which created Palestinian Arab The idea of a PLO-led state on the the past several years, separate vigils nationalism. As recently as 1967, West Bank, in distinction to a Palestin- have sprung up in Tel Aviv, Haifa, United Nations article 242, pertaining ian Arab-led state, should cause con- Afula and a half dozen other sites to the disposition of borders in Israel, sternation to everyone concerned with around the country. did not refer to a Palestinian Arab peace in the Middle East. The PLO has One of the main organizers and prime people. The view of the problem be- endangered and corrupted every com- movers behind the vigils is Hagar, who tween Israel and the Palestinian Ar- munity it has been part of, including moves up and down the line of women, abs as "a Greek tragedy of two equal the United Nations. Jordan was forced stopping to encourage them and an- nations locked in mortal combat over to expel the PLO in 1970 in order to swer questions. She cajoles young girls the same territory," caters to a modern protect itself. Lebanon was subject to a who are sitting down, urging them to intellectual appetite for spurious par- reign of terror from 1976 -1982 during stand up. Camera crews and reporters allels in reasoning: As A is to B, so C is the PLO's stay there. Jillian Becker's press lenses and microphones into her toD. book, The PLO: The Rise and Fall of the face for interviews in Hebrew, French The prospects of a Palestinian Arab Palestine Liberation Organization, (St. and English. state was not a problem for Israel, Martin's Press, 1984) records public In the past year, several acts of vio- which accepted the idea in its forma- executions at traffic crossings, rapes, lence have been perpetrated against tion; nor was it Israel's fault that such kidnappings, and the indiscriminate the Women in Black by other Jews. a state which did, in fact, exist for 24 murder of citizens, including children, The car of one of the leaders was burned hours, was never implemented. It was leaving a trail of "desaparecidos" that and threatening letters have been destroyed by Syria, Jordan and Egypt received. which grabbed the land assigned to the continued on pg 32 The Friday after a July 1989 incident

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III,,.I...ILL..II..I..II.I..I..I...II.I..1.11...I A Song So Brave Text By Phyllis Chesler Photos By Joan Roth On December 1,1988 I was one of the women who prayed aloud with a Torah at the Western Wall for the first time in history. (On thelssues, VolumeXI-1989). OnNovember 25, 1989 I returned to Jerusalem as part of a mission to present a Torah to the women of Jerusalem from the women in the Diaspora.

3. We carry the Torah through the streets, wrapped in a tallis, under a chuppah (marriage canopy), supported by four flower- garlanded poles, and accompanied by more than 150 people. 1.1 heard a "new song" coming from Jacob's tent, the place of my childhood, the place of my 4. Shulamit Magnus reads from the Torah heart, a song so brave and so sweet that it for us. As we each finish speaking, we enfolded me, like a tallis (prayer shawl), like a hold the Torah and pass it slowly from mother, in glory and in grace, and now, a year woman to woman. Then, we hand it over to has passed. the Jerusalem women. Israeli Bonna Haberman says: "The first time we received the Torah it was from Chutz La'Aretz' (outside the land) at Mt. Sinai, and now as women, we again receive our Torah from outside the land." Bonna and Anat Hoffman have brought their young and wide-eyed children along. They help them hold the Torah. Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach has come to serenade "you noble ladies whom all of Israel should be here to greet."

5. The weather forecast said rain, 2. The flight is utterly uneventful — that is, terrible rain and it rains all night, until we get up to pray as a group (of until a little after dawn, when it women). Then, and literally only then, does suddenly stops. We can go! Rabbi the plane begin to shudder and yes, plunge Leah Novick leads the service; through the skies. Afterwards, someone Rabbi Helene Ferris interprets the jokes and says that maybe God really isn't on Torah reading for us; we celebrate our side. "No," I say, "It's a fine opportunity, Ann Lewis' marriage of a few days a rehearsal really, for learning how to focus, ago. Then, the rain begins again — intensely, when you're afraid and think you but not until we complete our might die." Torah reading.

Other signs and coincidences: two of our participants, Ruth women holding a Torah at the Jerusalem Gates. Per- Laibson and Naomi Seigel are identical twins. The Torah read- haps they're angels, I think, because our chance meeting ing — which itself is about the twins, Jacob and Esau — is also illuminates our souls. exactly what our twins read on their joint Bat Mitzvah more More than a thousand people contributed to the Torah than 35 years ago. As we are about to leave the Old City, a group purchase; however the Mission would not have been of about 20 elderly North African Jews, men and women, enter possible without the generosity of Linda Bronfman, through the gates, take one look at us, come right over, and one Jonathan Jacoby, Francine Klagsbrun, Harriet Kurlan- by one, kiss the Torah. Here is our missing Sephardic contingent der, Michelle Landsberg, Lynda Levinson, Belda and — and they act like it was an everyday event to meet a group of Marcel Lindenbaum and Virginia Snitow. •

ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1990 19 he grabbed the ringing phone thedral to demand they stop illegally dents' plan to hold a Pee-In Protest on and said brusquely "Flo Ken- using tax-free money to lobby against the Harvard Yard. nedy here." The caller, who women's rights to abortion. We might Flo headed the walk through Cam- spoke with a soft southern have been planning the Miss America bridge streets, followed by chanting drawl, identified herself as a protest at Atlantic City, although that women carrying signs reading: third -year divinity student at event was nearly a year down the road. TO PEE OR NOT TO PEE, THAT IS Cambridge. "I'm calling to tell A friend once wrote about Flo: "When THE QUESTION. Syou about a problem at Harvard and to she decides to picket some deserving WILL THE DEAN LET WOMEN ask for your advice and help." governmental agency or movie studio, USE HIS PERSONAL TOILET? The year was 1973. After three cen- she doesn't wait to find out who, if IF GOD HAD MEANT WOMEN TO turies of being an all-male bastion, anyone, is going with her. She would, if USE PAYTOILETS WOMEN WOULD Harvard had reluctantly agreed that a need be, picket all alone, calling a side- BE BORN WITH EXACT CHANGE. limited number of women could sit for walk press conference at the same time. We took a few turns around the Yard. entrance exams. According to the She herself is a one-woman demon- Flo mounted Lowell Hall steps and caller, Annie Mae (not her real name), stration, and the rest of us, if we hap- began to speak to a sizeable crowd of the women sat exams at Lowell Hall, pen to be there, are incidental." curious students and a few local lumi- an old building with only one bath- Sure enough, Flo had decided to help naries who seemed titillated at the room which the administration refused Annie Mae and the women at Harvard mere mention that anyone would pee to let the women use. They offered by holding a demonstration she dubbed on the Yard at Harvard. Flo began by separate facilities across the street, A Protest Pee-In On The Harvard Yard. presenting figures on the dispropor- but a trip to the toilet there could Years of calling press conferences, tionate number of men's to women's consume 15 minutes—time the women picket lines and protests had taught us rooms. In what to the uninitiated could ill-afford to lose when facing male that male-dominated media was not seemed an effort to be reasonable and competition for a Harvard education. exactly enthusiastic about reporting fair, Flo explained that institu- "I can't talk to you now," Flo said. "I our activities unless, of course, we were tions such as Harvard were . am in a meeting. Tell me the date of totally outrageous, carried signs, wore designed by men for men,; the next exam." Annie Mae said that costumes or masks and created photo but today women outnum-1 would be a month later. "Call me back opportunities for the 6 o'clock TV news. ber men if one counts all next week, Annie Mae. I'll think of A few months earlier we got some great the secretaries who, something." coverage when a half dozen women got faceless and name- Flo Kennedy, an African-American arrested for blocking pedestrian traf- less as they may be, woman, had been active in civil rights fic. That day the women were wearing still are born with and women's liberation for over a dec- masks, long white shrouds and picket- bladders. '' ade. After being one of the first women ing Tricky Dick Nixon's campaign to be graduated from Columbia Uni- headquarters. Myjournal says I rushed versity Law School, she had recently to the Democratic party headquarters relinquished the practice of law. Her still wearing a long red witch's costume new "hustle" was speaking on college and reported how our women had been campuses. As an adjunct, she had arrested. The Demo Press people put developed considerable expertise in the story out on the AP wire immedi- organizing and executing demonstra- ately. That day we made both the New tions. Furthermore, word was getting York Times and the Daily News. around that Flo was willing to help For the Boston trip we made large students, especially females and stu- roll-up signs and banners, developed dents of color, who were fighting school suitable slogans and carried glass jars administrations for rights and justice. full of bright yellow liquid. A sizeable The evening Annie Mae called, sev- group of women met us at the Boston eral women were meeting in Flo's of- station gleefully displaying a fresh copy fice, probably planning to picket an ad of The Harvard Crimson front-paging, agency or march at St. Patrick's Ca- without so much as a blush, the stu- To Pee or Not to Pee... Celebrating Women's History By Irene Davall 20 Flo explained how bathrooms were issue was equality for women and men thought you-all were going to pee. I'll always an easy way to make people feel stood around, hands in pockets, insen- pee. I'll pee right on the steps of old niggerized (a word she uses to describe sitive and uncaring about equal toilet Lowell Hall." For a few moments it all oppressed people, no matter their facilities for females. looked as though a third-year divinity color). That, she says, was the way it The next scheduled event was the student was going to have the final was in the South not too long ago when reading of a poem written for the occa- word. Then, as though on cue, Flo there was a different one for colored sion by Marge Piercy. raised her clenched fist and shouted and whites, and that things are not To The Pay Toilet "Let the Dean of Harvard be warned. very different for women now. A man You strop my anger, especially when I Unless Lowell Hall gets a room for can urinate in urinals even when the find you in a restaurant or bar women so that women taking exams stalls require change, or he can go off to And pay for the same liquid coming don't have to hold it in, run across the some corner and inconspicuously pee. and going. street or waste time deciding whether Whereas a woman always has to pay in Sometimes a woman in a uniform's to pee or not to pee, next year we will public places unless she chooses to on duty. be back doing the real thing." use the sink or that one free toilet that Black or whatever the prevailing bot- Late that evening, Flo summed up either has no door or no paper or tom is the day for us. "First: It was more fun a puddle or something just to remind Getting 30 cents an hour to make sure than most of us ever expected to have you you're a nigger. no woman sneaks her full bladder under on any single day of our lives. Second: Flo questioned why so few men, espe- a door We have helped some smart women to cially so few While a row of weary women carrying cross the Harvard gender line. Third: male students, packages and babies On this day, in this place, women have had joined the Wait and wait and wait to do what taught the Harvard power structure protest. She re- only the dead find unnecessary. their first lesson about Women's Lib- minded them that At a signal from Flo, women stepped eration." • a few years before, slowly forward one by one, grasped the the Boston Com- glass jars and symbolically spilled some Flo and I are appalled to remember mons had been filled of the bright yellow liquid onto the that a whole generation of young femi- with howling Har- hallowed steps of Lowell Hall. Sud- nists grew up since we demonstrated vard males protest- denly an anguished cry rose from the for women's rights in Boston, Atlantic ing the war in Vi- crowd and a Southern female com- City, on the steps of St. Patrick's Cathe- etnam. Now the plained "You ain't going to pee? I dral and a lot of other places. We were talking about it recently and decided we should try to teach these young women some of the tricks we developed 15 years ago. If they can learn from our hard knocks and expe- rience, they will not need to rein- vent the wheel every time they face a problem. A Wish for Cambodia The Khmer Rouge takeover of Cambodia spelled an end to the good life and the beginning of what is now known as (

By Esty Dinur

s Diane Kaav watches events children. She owned a pawn shop and for three days under a tree without in Cambodia, she laments the her husband was also employed. Life medication or medical attention and failure of the August 1989 Paris was good, she says. was then forced to walk. There was conference about the fate of Around that time, rumors started very little rice and no rest. Women lay that country. arriving about the Khmer Rouge. An in ditches to give birth and died. Those Formerly known as Young uncle in the military told Diane about who could not endure the walk dropped AKha, Kaav was hoping that the confer- the small group, which was kidnapping down and were killed. "The rivers ence would resolve the ongoing con- and killing civilians. In a few years, turned brown with blood. The water flict in Cambodia and spell a new stage Khmer Rouge takeover of the country was so full of bodies, we couldn't drink of recovery for its long-suffering people. spelled an end to the good life, and the it any more," she says. The talks failed due to Chinese and beginning of what is now known as "the After 10 days, the Khmer Rouge told western insistence that the Khmer Cambodian holocaust." those who survived the march to stay Rouge be included in an interim In late 1975, on the second day of the in an area marked by tall grass and Cambodian government. Like other Cambodian New Year, the Khmer trees. They were told that their task expatriates, Kaav is angered by the Rouge took over Boipet, the town in was to grow rice for the soldiers. Seeds attempt to impose on Cambodia the which Kaav and her family lived. The were distributed but tools were not and regime under which an estimated three next day, her family ("My baby was two the people had to work with their bare million people, including members of months and 10 days old," she recalls) hands. They constructed huts for them- her family, were killed. Like her bet- was taken away by the Khmer Rouge selves from grass and tree branches, ter known compatriot, Dith Pran, star with many other families. They were drank rain water and ate grass. They of "The Killing Fields", she asks the accused of a variety of things: Being were made to work from 4 a.m. to 2 world to stop aiding the Khmer Rouge intellectuals, students, government a.m.; mothers withbabies were allowed and start helping the Cambodian workers, medical or business people. to stop working at 1 a.m. Women had to people recover from their terrible past. "They killed me first," she says, point- carry sacks with 100 pounds of rice. "When I was growingup," says Kaav, ing out a big scar on the top of her head. Those who could not were publicly "everything was nice. There were many She explains that the Khmer Rouge executed; whole families were forced to fruit trees everywhere, plenty of rice would first kill a mother or a child, watch as the Khmer Rouge killed them, and vegetables. My family was free, forcing the rest of the family to watch. telling the survivors, "Don't be like we could go anywhere. I never worried Usually, other family members would this lazy person who does not obey the about food or money or anything else." be killed in ensuing days. Khmer Rouge law." Those who cried or Her mother was a farmer, raising But Kaav did not die. She woke up to tried to plead with the soldiers were rice and farm animals. Diane lived in find her family walking in a long col- murdered too. "You had to keep smil- the city with her physician uncle, who umn of people under Khmer Rouge ing and say Tou are good people,'" says trained her as a nurse. In 1968 she guard. Her husband was too scared to Kaav. married and subsequently had two tell her what had happened. She rested Kaav's son was placed in a special

22 ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1990 area where children over the age of five were taught to Despite the horrors of her work and "obey the law." life, Kaav is actually one of Of the 2500 families who the luckier Cambodians. A arrived in 1975, only 270 recent visitor to her home- survived after a year, Kaav land found Kaav's mother recalls. Starvation, disease, alive and doing relatively exhaustion and executions well. She has also heard killed the rest. that her husband may be alive and in Paris, that he Kaav tells of other atroci- escaped from the burning ties she witnessed: Babies hut and was rescued by the thrown in the air and caught Red Cross. She hopes to on soldiers' bayonets. Old verify this. people beaten, their hands Despite the victory of Hun tied and plastic bags placed Sen and the Vietnamese over their heads, suffocating over the Khmer Rouge, them. Women thrown over a many Cambodians are still cliff to their death, men tied suffering. Of the 300,000 to chairs and cut open, their people still in refugee internal organs pulled from camps in Thailand, 100,000 their bodies by the Khmer are estimated to live in Rouge. camps run by the Khmer In 1978, she and her hus- Rouge, and these camps are band heard that Hun Sen, not open to United Nations now Cambodia's Prime Min- inspection. As a result, ru- ister, entered the country mors abound and some say with the Vietnamese, and that food and other re- that together they were fight- sources, which are distrib- ing the Khmer Rouge. Al- uted to the camps by inter- though they tried to escape national relief organiza- the camp, their first attempt Diane Kaav, Cambodian survivor, speaks out tions, do not reach their failed. In the second attempt, against the Khmer Rouge. inhabitants but are given Kaav succeeded. She and her — instead to Khmer Rouge son escaped but her husband was cap- back to Cambodia to look for their soldiers or traded for military equip- tured and she never saw him again. family and was subsequently killed by ment. Aid workers say they have re- Later, an eyewitness told her that the the Khmer Rouge. Her surviving ceived reports of widespread malaria soldiers took him, along with a number daughter, weakened and emaciated, and respiratory diseases in the camps. of other men, to a hut where they got sick. "She couldn't open her eyes or Individuals who fled tell of forced la- poured gasoline and burned them to eat or drink," says Kaav, "and I bor, torture and public executions. The death. suddenly lost my mind. I couldn't hear men are made to fight and, if they es- Kaav took her emaciated children, people talking to me, I didn't know cape, their families are tortured and including a baby who was born in the what was happening. Then I woke up executed. camp, on a days-long trek to what used and realized I had to save my daugh- The Khmer Rouge is estimated to have to be her mother's farm. People in the ter." She then went to the camp, where an army of 40,000 troops, and is the countryside gave them a little rice, but her daughter got better. strongest partner in the Cambodian there were many people like her and After a year in the refugee camp resistance alliance. Other members of insufficient food to go around. "Every- and another nine months in the Phil- the alliance include a faction headed by body was poor and hungry and looking ippines, Kaav arrived in the United Prince Norodom Sihanouk, who ruled for their relatives," she says. States as a refugee. She has been in Cambodia until he was deposed in 1970, She and her children stayed with her Madison, WI since 1984 and has been and the faction of Son Sann, who helped mother for a while, hoping against hope working for United Refugee Services depose the Prince and who, in turn, was that her husband would join them. The since 1987. deposed by the Khmer Rouge. Siha- Khmer Rouge kept attacking and Kaav now counsels and helps other nouk, who was later kept under house bombing the region. In one of these Cambodian refugees, and says that arrest by the Khmer Rouge for a year- attacks, Kaav's mother, sister and uncle the atrocities witnessed by practically and-a-half, serves as the figurehead disappeared. She waited several days every Cambodian during those years leader of the coalition. for them to return, then decided to have left psychological and emotional This places the Khmer Rouge in an leave for Thailand with her brother. scars beyond comprehension for the influential position regarding the fu- Both hoped to find food for her children average American. On top of dealing ture of Cambodia. It also causes the — to say nothing of safety. with their recent past, Kaav's clients, refugees to be classified by the UN as The little rice they had did not last for who were mostly rice farmers, have to Displaced Persons, limiting the aid to the eight-day walk and their tattered- adapt to living in an unfamiliar city which they are entitled. In addition, UN clothes did not defend them against and learning a new language. This is aid is stopped from reaching Cambodia, the cold. Kaav's breast milk dried up not easy, she says. "Most refugees suffer slowing down its recovery process. As and her baby died. from emotional problems, nightmares, one aid worker said, 200 of every 1000 When the first refugee camp was loss of memory and depression. Many Cambodians die before their first birth- opened in Thailand, Kaav's brother are mentally retarded or have learning urged her to go there. He then went disabilities." continued on pg 32

ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1990 23 A Victorian traveler, Marianne North, imposed on her- self the task of painting all the world's tropical flora. In 1882, over 800 of her paintings were put on display. A man who accidentally saw her paintings became very interested and told her, "...it is lucky for you that you did not live 200 years ago, or you could have been burnt for a witch." Famous women travelers of the Victorian age and of ours have had to contend with such attitudes and many physical dangers in their travels. How much do you WOMEN know about famous women travelers? 4. Rather than stay home alone, Annie TRAVELERS! Holmes Ricketson left New Bedford, MA on May 2,1871, with her whaling By Willie Mae Kneupper captain husband on an expedition to the Indian Ocean and the South Atlan- tic. How long did her journey last? 1. When world traveler, Isabella Bird Bishop, was described in The Times as riding the Rockies in "male habili- [vments," she told her publisher, John Murray, that as she had neither father 10. Isabelle Eberhardt, on a journey to nor brother to defend her reputation, North Africa, became a fervent Mus- she expected him personally to horse- lim and traveled the Sahara on horse- whip the Times correspondent. True or back. What precaution did she take to False? travel safely in the desert?

2. Mary Kingsley, on her travels in 5. When an American, accompanied by West Africa, would rather have her father, took long canoe trips down "mounted a public scaffold" than have the Penobscot River in New England, clothed her "earthward extremities" in she was likely the first white woman to trousers. Was Mary Kingsley's advice travel in this region. Her interests — to the British government on ruling developed on these trips — in the log- West Africa equally conservative? ging industry, Indians, local history and folk songs led to her books on these topics. Who was she?

6. Edith Durham, like many Victorian travelers, began her travels in the Balkans late in life. The reason Dur- ham started traveling was similar to 11. In 1927, at the age of 36, Juanita that of many Victorian travelers. What Harrison, a Black woman with little was it? education, traveled around the world alone saying, "I have to cut my life out 7. What was feminist Fanny Bullock for myself and it won't be like anyone Workman photographed holding on a else." How did she earn the money for Himalayan pass? her travels?

8. The Gobi Desert tells how Mildred 12. A 1980s traveler is Mary Morris, Cable and two English women in 1926 author of Nothing to Declare, Memoirs passed through the Gate of Sighs at of a Woman Traveling Alone. Where the end of the Great Wall of China and did Mary Morris travel? 3. In the 1890s, a medical missionary, became the first Western women to Kate Marsden, traveled by sledge and cross the desolate Gobi Desert. What 13. The author of West with the Night horseback from Moscow to Siberia. was the reason for Cable's journey? wasn't, as so many others, a traveler Three muscular policemen had to lift to Africa but grew up there. Who was Marsden into the sled because of all the 9. When Eslanda Goode Robeson, this author, who was also the first solo clothes she wore against the cold. Her anthropologist and wife of Paul Robe- pilot to fly west from England to Nova main food on this trip was English son, visited Africa in 1936, of what Scotia? plum pudding — 40 pounds of it. Why place in America was she constantly did Kate Marsden travel to Siberia? reminded as she traveled? ANSWERS ON PAGE 32

24 ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1990 CHOICE BOOKS life's meaning in the face of overwhelm- 1890 and ending in 1950, when Black ing death. Perhaps Miriam, in her bold nurses voted to dissolve the National quest for her people and herself, finds Association of Colored Graduate BODMIN, 1349: AN EPIC NOVEL OF the best answers. But that's what you'd Nurses (NACGN) that was founded to CHRISTIANS AND JEWS IN THE PLAGUE expect from the kind of woman who promote their advancement in 1908. YEARS by Roberta Kalechofsky (Micah talks to God like this: The reasons for disbanding that pro- Publications, Marblehead, MA; $14.95 pa- "What!" I said, "can you speak my fessional group are truly laudable: The perback) tongue?" leadership, embued with then general How do you make sense of life in the "Surely," He said, "and why do you post-World War II euphoric promise of face of a disease so deadly that a person weep?" cooperation, and feeling the goal of in- can die within a few hours of its first "If you can speak my tongue, you tegration, with the help of many white symptoms — fever and a huge, black, know why I weep." nurses, philanthropists and the larger fuzzy tongue? inBodmin, 1349 Roberta One final point. Some readers may Black community had been achieved, Kalechofsky describes the separate object to the fact that Miriam's hus- voted the NACGN out of business in paths that Will and Miriam, husband band hits her (she hits him back), or 1950. and wife, Christian and Jew, take to that she refers to God as "He." But, However, one can't help but specu- try to bring some personal order to this more likely than not, these elements late that its continued existence might chaos. Will, an earthy, life-loving man, reflect what a medieval European have been a force to lobby for improved is worried about his soul's salvation, woman's life was really like. And, in healthcare delivery in Black commu- and leaves his wife to join a monastery. the end, Miriam's strength, integrity nities across the country. Certainly, There he finds all of humanity's frail- and courage are unquenchable and the association could have provided ties in excruciating proximity, but feels shine through. early warning of the conditions that further from God than in his married Bodmin, 1349 is a fascinating novel. have brought Black health to its cur- days. Miriam, who suspects that she is Don't pass it by. rent dismal state. a granddaughter of Jews who were —Tracy Scott Initially, says Hine, she intended to expelled from England in 1290, goes to Tracy Scott is an activist who lives, study the history of Black healthcare Europe to search for her relatives. works and parents in New York City. professionals, focusing on physicians. Miriam's story is a chilling account of But as she sought to understand the anti-Semitism. She describes how mobs connection between healthcare deliv- of Christians, called Brethren of the BLACK WOMEN IN WHITE: Racial Con- ery and Black morbidity and mortal- Cross, accused Jews of spreading the flict and Cooperation in the Nursing Pro- ity, her attention shifted to the nurses. plague by poisoning wells. "They took fession, 1890-1950 by Darlene Clark Hine Doctors, she explains, were trained to together the Jews and the lepers.. .Some (Indiana University Press, IN; $35.00 focus on the individual, treating spe- they pulled by the hair and some by hardcover, $12.95 paperback) cific ailments. Nurses, however, from their legs and some they tore the chil- Despite its popular portrayal as a male- the very beginning, were expected to dren from their mothers' arms and dominated war, the Negro revolution, deal with the patient as part of a these screamed the worst of all...all or the struggle for African-American broader social system. night and all day for three days and rights in the face of spirit-killing ra- Black nurses were intimately in- three nights they burned the Jews and cism, has always had women through- volved in the lives of the communities the lepers. The bells of the church out its ranks and in the vanguard. they served and their influence cut melted in the heat..." Survivors were Darlene Clark Hine in Black Women across class lines. They joined local placed in wine kegs and thrown in the in White, recounts a slice of that overall women's clubs, attended local churches river; Miriam rescues a man and a struggle by highlighting the strengths and lectured in local schools; they vis- woman from one of them. Their his- of Black women in the nursing profes- ited the homes of the poor and middle tory recounts the Jews' precarious ex- sion: Women deeply dedicated to the class "with equal grace." istence in the 100 years before the betterment of the race. The relationship was symbiotic. Black Black Death. Working with a wide range of sources nurses, says Hine, expected and re- Part of this book's power is that you — oral histories, government docu- ceived support and cooperation from care about the lives of people 650 years ments, philanthropic foundation manu- the community, whether it was to save ago, facing a disease whose breadth script collections and annual reports of endangered institutions, equip new and violence are unknown today. Its Black hospitals — Hine tells a twofold hospitals, pay for a new nurses' home effects seem more like an earthquake tale of Black women ministering to the or to send thousands of telegrams to than an epidemic. Kalechofsky de- needs of their communities while bat- the president and War Department scribes medieval religion, church tling racism to win integration into the protesting quotas and discrimination administration, feudal economy, class mainstream of the nursing profession. in the Armed Forces Nurses Corps, conflict, city planning and much more This is a story of success in the face of during World War II. with skill, detail and warmth. For long odds. In a society where men's Black Women in White uncovers some example, in her discussion of usury (a work has always been viewed as more shamefully racist episodes of nursing common Christianjustification for anti- important and interesting than history and examines the nature and Semitism), she quotes a range of me- women's, and certainly that of subordi- extent of racial conflict and coopera- dieval scholars from St. Thomas Aqui- nate Black women as least important tion in the profession. Providing little- nas to Rabbi Meir, who argued that, of all, Black nurses prevailed. The known but much needed history, Hine since Jews were prohibited from own- respect they received from the people tells of the misguided strategy used by ing land, lending money was one of the they served and the connections they an embattled white nursing leader- only ways they had to make a living. forged, furnished the self-esteem and ship that adopted exclusionary poli- There is no simplistic dualism in this sense of sisterhood needed to wage the cies and practices toward Black nurses, novel between good and evil, Jew and war for professional recognition. And it thinking it would enhance their fight Christian. The characters grapple with was a long war, beginning formally in for greater autonomy, status and free-

25 ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1990 dom from white male physicians and them in their homes. Banks and Adah Belle Samuels Tho- hospital administrators. But perhaps most important of all in mas, Hine does us all a great service. Indicative of the structural schizo- this era of short memories and popular Black Women in White is. an impor- phrenia that defines race relations in distortions, Black Women in White tant addition to the growing body of this country, Hine reminds us that details one aspect of the tremendous scholarship documenting the often Black private-duty nurses have always self-reliance at the core of the unappreciated and little-known, but attended patients of both races, espe- beleagured Black community after invaluable, contribution of Black cially in the South. She highlights the emancipation. By tracing the estab- women to the struggle for equal rights irony inherent in a system where lishment and evolution of Black hospi- in America. whites who denied Black women tals and training schools in cities in the —Barbara Day admission to the major white training North and South, and by noting the Barbara Day is a journalist and teacher schools had few reservations about early accomplishments of such women whose work often appears in The employing Black women to care for as Alice Mable Bacon, Anna De Costa Guardian Newsweekly.

LIVES OF COURAGE: WOMEN FOR A NEW SOUTH AFRICA by Diana E. H. Russell INVESTMENTS WITH A CONSCIENCE (Basic Books, Inc., NY; $22.95 hardcover) In a society as drawn to the cult of the I Invest in Companies that contribute to Women's Advancement, individual as ours, a volume such as Animal Rights, Environmental Issues, Agriculture, and other social issues. this is a much needed counter-balance to the usual focus on the heroine/hero M Tax-Free Municipal Bonds used for health, education, etc. who's publicized, ignoring the masses and little-known organizations which • Environmental Mutual Funds and Unit Trusts create the conditions for social change. 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But Russell astutely selected women so THE WISE WOMAN, a national quarterly journal, focuses on feminist different in background and in their issues, Goddess lore, feminist spirituality, and Feminist Witchcraft. particular experience that they do not Includes: women's history/herstory, news, analysis, critical reviews, seem to be responding in lock-step art, poetry, cartoons by Biilbul, exclusive interviews, and original fashion. The range is broad: Women in research about witch-hunts, women's heritage, and women today. their 20s and others over 50; white, Subscription: $15 a year/$27 for 2 years, $38 for 3 years (U.S. funds) colored, Black and Indian women, some Sample copy or back issue: $4 (U.S. funds only). of whom came of political age 20 years Published quarterly since 1980 by Ann Forfreedom. ago, as part of the Black Consciousness Movement, are presented alongside A FREE 1-year subscription to each Women's Studies teacher that others who talk of work with today's sends in a copy of this ad. United Democratic Front. THE WISE WOMAN, 2441 Cordova St., Oakland. CA 94602. 26 ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1990 Russell, white, South African born, call sister. Although I have singled these stories and currently teaching at Mills Col- Paula Martinac has done an incred- out, I could have as easily selected any lege (CA), has previously written on ible job in selecting these 15 stories, of the other 12, including Martinac's feminist issues. In Lives of Courage, each of them a gem. To her credit is the own, "Kay, Grown Up." This is a collec- she takes pains to show how feminist diversity of sister kinships, as well as tion replete with winners, which, con- and class issues intersect with anti- the multiracial, multiethnic balance sidering the variety, is amazing. apartheid concerns. How, for example, she has managed to achieve, creating a My sole criticism is minor. I found it do Black women, who are generally broad palette of emotional color. irritating that the authors' bios are in less well-off materially, deal with being "Diamonds" by Edith Chevat explores the back of the book and don't identify unable to attend meetings long dis- the roots of the anger and resentment their stories. I found myself flipping tances away, at the same time that felt by two middle-aged sisters after back and forth to ascertain who had they are unable to host them because their mother has been placed in a written what after reading their back- their homes are too small? Or, since nursing home; anger and resentment grounds. To me it would be far prefer- the United Democratic Front contin- that had begun in childhood and had able to have the biographical data at ues to advance the leadership of men, never been resolved. In the ensuing the end of each story. However, in a how do prospective women members conversation, for the first time they book where even the juxtaposition of begin to form their own groups? reach an honesty with each other, but, material is perfect, this is a very small This is a book to be read for many as one sister gently says, "It's too late flaw. reasons. First, it provides portraits of now. We are what we are." Whether or not you have a sister, courage which are inspiring. In addi- "Funny Women" by Shay Youngblood don't pass up The One You Call Sister tion, it provides a multi-faceted pic- is an exceptionally moving story with a (the title from a poem by Adrienne ture of how life is currently lived in most unusual theme: Incestuous les- Rich) or you'll miss a most remarkable South Africa. Its history of South Afri- bian love with a devotion so deep it book. can oppression is also valuable, as is its transcends the grave. It is impossible — Beverly Lowy bibliography, detailed map of the coun- to describe the tenderness and raw try (including homelands) and glos- emotion contained in this extraordi- NEW STORIES BY SOUTHERN WOMEN sary which explains such terms as Af- nary narrative; suffice it to say it left edited by Mary Ellis Gibson (University of rikaner and frontline states. this reader with a lump in her throat. South Carolina Press; $14.95 paperback) Russell conducted the interviews on Then there is the wonderfully eccen- "Sugar and spice and everything nice, which Lives of Courage is based in tric family in Barbara Selfridge's that's what girls are made of." The 1987 and 1988. Some of the women "Death of a Dillon Girl", a piece that composer of this jingle forgot one in- were in hiding or "on the run," which manages to be touching and funny at gredient — steel. New Stories by serves to "personalize apartheid," the same time. Southern Women, edited by Mary Ellis engaging both our minds and our emotions. She has succeeded! Spirit- ing us from one coast to the other, her vivid depictions of daily harassment, Because we curse the darkness, harrowing prison experiences and the terror of never knowing when or we're lighting a candle! whether you will suddenly join the Yes, we too are revolted by the abuses detainees swept from homes, have the perpetrated upon laboratory animals (we effect of dwarfing our everyday preoc- have been since 1883), but we're doing cupations and throwing the relatively safe political work most North Ameri- something about it. cans do into fresh perspective. The AA-VS* has launched a research funding —Ernece B. Kelly program that is aimed at finding alternative Ernece B. Kelly is a freelance writer, testing methods that do not require the use film critic and teacher living in of animals. Brooklyn, NY. Become a member for only $10. per year. Any additional amount you contribute, will go entirely toward bringing new light on ways to THE ONE YOU CALL SISTER edited by Paula Martinac (Cleis Press, Pittsburgh, eliminate the dark-age methods presently used in research laboratories. PA; $24.95 hardcover, $9.95 paperback) In her introduction, Paula Martinac writes: "Sisters, perhaps more than Here are my membership mothers, are the prototypes for our dues $10. relationships with other women as friends and lovers, because they are Here's my additional contribution (to buy Address our first female peers." To any woman more candles):... $ who has had one or more sisters, these words undeniably ring true. Our rela- TOTAL $_ tionships with our sisters are carried City, State, Zip with us through our lives; we find Mail to: *The American Anti-Vivisection Society With your membership you ourselves falling into certain behav- 801 Old York Rd., Suite 204 will receive The AVMagazine ioral and emotional patterns with other Jenkintown, PA 19046 11 times a year. women, often without realizing that these patterns were shaped long ago Dues and contributions to The AA-VS are not deductible in computing income tax deductions because o( our efforts to influence legislation. by our interactions with the one(s) we

ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1990 27 Gibson, is an anthology of sugar, spice hoped to be." she steered it...." and steel. The stories are not about the usual —from "Kindred Spirits" by Alice There is no wasted detail, no wander- power forays, sexual exploitation or Walker ing from the story, from the thought victimization of women. Instead, the "She had located it by its first furled being explored. Every line, every word reader is treated to poignant descrip- shoots, like green straws, sticking up counts. Some count more than once. tions of love: through the oak-leaf duff on one of her There are 21 stories in this collection. "Paul loved my hair and my name and walks; had marked the place, going Twenty-one, the traditional, magical whatever I said to him, any odd old home for a bucket and pail, digging age that signals to all the world the memory, or half-formed ambition; he deep, replanting so it faced the same coming-of-age of an individual. Is Gib- took all my perceptions seriously. He way to the sun. It had not dried out. It son signalling the coming of age of laughed at all my jokes, although his had good soil. But already it was dying. southern women writers, southern were much funnier. He was even inter- There was some little trick to it. Tou'd women, or women in general? ested in my dreams..." think I could learn,' she said. But she These stories challenge our defini- —from "Return Trips" by Alice Adams never did." tions of strength, of excitement, of The reader is also regaled with good- —from "Solomon's Seal" by Mary sensuality and things sexual. They natured, oftentimes tough humor: Hood legitimize our everydayness, and in- "Sure, Father. God between the lines." This collection leaves you feeling bet- still a sense of accomplishment in our —from "An Intermediate Stop" by Gail ter about your everyday self. It leaves simple ability to make it through a day Godwin you questioning, yet with a sense that and still be able to say, "Vail come on "That's what this religion is, an illus- some answers are within reach. It in- and eat." trated guide to monsters. When you stills a want for more — not just more As Gibson says in her introduction, are already dead, then there is no dif- stories —but the stuff of which stories resolution comes from within the char- ference between them and you." are made. acters, but little is firmly resolved. She —from "Recovery" by Moira Crone Finally, this collection leaves you with picked these stories because of their "Insemination without obligation is hope. Naomi Shihab Nye's "Pablo emphasis on dailiness. She picked them tyranny." Tamayo" is about to become homeless, because they present growing up not —from "Christinas Eve at Johnson's yet he remains upbeat, optimistic. as one culminating act, but rather "as Drugs N Goods" by Toni Cade Bam- Why? asks Nye. Because he is not a continuing and unresolved process. ..a bara homeless in his heart and spirit, and process infinitely uneven and circular and thought-provoking folk that, in the end, is what counts. of coming to terms with all we had commentary: "He drove the car, but — Junior Bridge Junior Bridge is a freelance writer from Alexandria, VA.

TAPESTRIES OF LIFE: WOMEN'S WORK, WOMEN'S CONSCIOUSNESS, AND THE MEANING OF DAILY EXPERIENCE by Bettina Aptheker (The University of Mas- MEDICAL sachusetts Press; $13.95 paperback) Bettina Aptheker's Tapestries of Life: SUPPLIES Women's Work, Women's Conscious- CORPORATION ness, and the Meaning of Daily Experi- ence is an incredibly moving tribute to women. As a communist, lesbian, Jew, and longtime women's rights activist, I have surely experienced frustrations with a male-dominated left. Thus, I savored the emphasis of this work although I did not share its conclu- "Suppliers sions. Bettina Aptheker is an historian who was "born into a Jewish, communist, middle-class intellectual family..." She to the Trade" works in the women's studies depart- ment at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Her first book, Woman's Legacy, was an extremely useful Marxist interpretation of the role of race, sex and class in American his- tory. Tapestries of Life rejects the theo- 228 Sherwood Ave. retical categories, though not the prem- Farmingdale, N.Y. 11735 ises and conclusions, of Women's Leg- acy. Her jumping-off point is that ex- (516)420-1700 isting theory, whether Marxism, psy- choanalysis or structuralism, renders work on women's lives inaccessible because they were "constructed from 28 ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1990 categories of analysis that had no ing" recounts women's resistance to events in Eastern Europe, the experts immediate (and sometimes no even "restrictions imposed upon them by in print and over the air waves are remote) reference to women's actual misogynist, homophobic, racist, reli- almost universally male. These are experiences... Ultimately it seemed to gious and class boundaries." Aptheker questions of vital interest to women me that a preoccupation with fitting also remains true to her anti-racist and, like anything else, our input is women into theories that subordinated roots, and is careful not to overgeneral- urgently needed. This cannot become a them at their core was crippling." She ize about women's experiences. "Each time of political backsliding. begins with the premise that "women woman's culture, of course, is signifi- —Linda Roman have a consciousness of social reality cantly informed by its racial, ethnic Linda Roman is a freelance writer and that is distinct from that put forth from and religious context. There is not one activist. men" and that is based on the sexual women's culture; there are many. There division of labor and their subordinate are also connecting patterns among FEMINISM: FREEDOM FROM WIFISM by status. them....There are times when those Mia Albright (Nationalist Feminist Studies Nowhere in the world, certainly not meanings are accessible across the Institute, P.O. Box 1348 Madison Square under capitalism or in existing social- racial and/or class divide, and times Station, NY 10159; $17 checks payable to ist countries, have women emerged when they can be shared only among the author) from second class status. Without bit- women of the same ethnic, class, or It is no accident that Mia Albright, the terness, Aptheker eloquently expresses religious group," she says. author of Feminism: Freedom from some of our frustrations about the Tapestries is a labor of love. At the Wifism is a Civil War military history sexism we face and stitches together a same time, the reader is left wondering buff. It is no accident that she had to portrait of women's thoughts and lives. what to do with this beautifully crafted create a new vocabulary. Not a check- For her authorities, she draws heavily depiction of women's lives. I found the thumbing demagogue or a rabble-rous- on U.S. artists, poets, novelists, story- last chapter, "Toward a Gathering of ing orator, this author goes into battle tellers: Paula Gunn Allen, Gloria Women," to be too Utopian. It draws on armed with a dense prose style. Some- Anzaldua, Gwendolyn Brooks, Maxine feminist science fiction and indigenous times, in reading this book, you think Hong Kingston, Audre Lorde, Paule peoples' traditional ways of knowing. you are drowning, yearning for the Marshall, Tillie Olsen, Adrienne Rich, She concludes, "The point is to inte- conventional. Then you come to one of Kitty Tsui and Alice Walker. Oral his- grate ideas about love and growing, the author's blockbuster analyses or tories of rural women and working into our everyday ways of being. We eyeopening proposals that are so start- women — women of many colors and have to believe in the value of our own ling that you just stop, take a deep beliefs — round out the book. experiences and in the value of our breath, and ponder. The titles of her chapters give a flavor ways of knowing, our ways of doing One example illustrates this intellec- of the richness ofTapestries. In "Condi- things." tions for Work," Aptheker thoughtfully I would have preferred more empha- elaborates her approach to the book sis on how women's ways of knowing and rejoices in her lesbian relationship have actually been concretized in the ECO-CH@ICE which she calls its "emotional bedrock." hundreds of women's institutions built for the In "The Dailiness of Women's Lives," in the 1970s and '80s. Much of what we she enumerates the ways in which know and experience has been ex- environmentally concerned women are primarily responsible for pressed in shelters, clinics, support emotional work, for maintaining rela- groups, substance abuse centers, health tionships and networks, for keeping projects, and by cultural groups such the family and home functioning. "The as Sweet Honey in the Rock, Olivia need for beauty, for art, is everywhere Records and the Urban Bush Women in the dailiness of women's lives: In dance troupe. These endeavors encour- plants and gardens, in the textile arts, age the knowing that comes from expe- in the linen tablecloths and ritual rience, transform women from victims dinners prepared with elaborate care..." to survivors and fighters, and encour- The "Lesbian Connection" credits the age activism, self-confidence and self- growth of a visible and vocal lesbian help. It is no accident that most are community with the flowering of an scaffolded by lesbians. $39-95 unabashedly woman-centered vision I'm also more than a little worried 20 products for an ecology-wise lifestyle in a of the world. "Lesbians of color," she about the narrowing of women's vision eucalyptus and berry decorated basket. writes,"have been among those femi- to forging better interpersonal rela- Personal care and kousekold items, recycled nists who have most consistently pur- tionships and living lives in balance paper products and more. $39.95 + $3.15 s&k. sued the deepest analysis of the inter- and harmony. Whether she intends to VISA/MC accepted. connections between class exploitation, or not, it narrows our vision and limits For CATALOG SEND $2.00. racial oppression and homophobia, and our activism. CALL TOLL FREE: 1-800-535-6304 have demonstrated the greatest need Clearly it's time for women to have a for solidarity among peoples of differ- say in world affairs. We need to em- ing cultures within the women's move- power ourselves to have opinions about perestroika, economics, indeed the ment." AdJrio Apt.* "In the Mind's Eye: Imagination and restructuring of the world — using all we have learned from our secondary Survival," speaks of the damage done &ty State Zip status as well as appropriating the by sexism and celebrates our many D I would like a color catalog ($2.00) triumphs over women's oppression. skills that have traditionally been denied us. Recently I have been struck ECO-CHOICE Dept. 2101 Similarly, "Get Over This Hurdle P.O. Box 281, Montvale, NJ 07645 (201) 930-9046 Because There's Another One Com- by the fact that in public discussions of 29 ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1990 tual explosion: "Malist propaganda lutionary with a capital R; her militant hold weekly vigils throughout Israel, traps the wifist population in one con- feminist strategy; and for simply attacked by angry right-wingers; the tradiction after another," ("malism" making us stop and THINK, even if we camera catches an irate woman and "wifism," which are pronounced don't rush out and join the NFAF screaming, "Send them all [the Pales- as their root word, "male" and "wife", (Nationalist Feminist Armed Forces), tinians] to the gas chambers." are at the center of Mia Albright's new to free ourselves from wifism and the —An Israeli peace delegation headed analysis, as "Nationalist Feminism" is malist state based on wifist exploita- by Ran Cohen and Mordechai Bar On, the term at the center of her strategic tion. This woman, the mother discov- two members of Knesset and long- discoveries); the author continues, erer of Nationalist Feminism, is in- time peace activists, meet with Pales- "man promotes defeatism in the wifist deed handing us a PLAN. tinians in Bet Sahur on the West Bank population by propagandizing that — Margaret Maxwell and declare the right of each people, every wife must be superior before the Margaret Maxwell is a retired New Israeli and Palestinian, to self-deter- wifist population can begin the De- York University professor of history. mination and security. Wifization Revolution against man, or — A demonstration of Palestinian man contradicts and accuses the youth chant, "With our blood and spirit Feminist Revolution of supremacism, FILM AND VIDEO we shall redeem our martyrs," while even though Nationalist Feminist pol- A STATE OF DANGER Israeli troops charge the demonstra- icy is revolutionary policy and perse- A State Of Danger, produced by Haim tors with tear gas and rubber bullets. cution policy against the men, malist Bresheet and directed by Jenny Mor- — Women from Shani, the Israeli society, because Nationalist Feminism gan, was filmed during a period that Women's Alliance Against the Occu- is based not on supremacism but on seemed to many who ride the roller pation, on the West Bank, collect infor- rights, the right of the population of coaster of Mid-East politics to be a rare mation about children held prisoners womyn to have a Feminist Govern- window of opportunity for peace. This by the Israeli military; Palestinian ment, Feminist Economy, and Femi- was the period following the Palestin- mothers gather outside an Israeli nist Armed Forces to govern, employ, ian Liberation Organization's declara- prison, seeking the whereabouts of and defend herself." tion of willingness to accept a two- these children. WOW!! You can see from one excerpt state solution and its rejection of ter- — An interview with a 13-year-old alone that culture shock awaits you. rorism. girl, jailed for three months, during Don't get discouraged if at the first, Only a month later, the first anniver- which she spent two days in solitary second, or even third picking up of this sary of the intifada, the uprising, was confinement. volume you despair of getting past celebrated. Moderates and peace ac- —Yael Oren of the Israeli Women for page one. On the fifth or sixth try (I tivists on both sides were in a rare Women Political Prisoners at the bed- describe my own personal reaction) state of optimism. From that perspec- side of a women whose six sons and one you experience elation. This is it! As tive, this film is dated. Now, more than daughter are all in prison, she herself you struggle to understand this Femi- a year later, the peace process is drag- injured by Israeli soldiers when they nist intellectual you will begin to feel ging on and threatening to become came to arrest the last of her children. you know the author personally; Mia extinct. But the courage and the en- — Mariam Samail of the Bethlehem is a genius. This is a revolutionary durance of peace activists on both sides, Women's Committee advocating two book. This book amazes, startles, frus- qualities that this film movingly rec- states, one for each people. trates, exhilarates, but above all, it is ords, give us grounds to continue hop- — Hadas Lahav and Michael impossible to come away from the ing that the conflict will one day be Warshavsky, two of the editors of experience of reading Feminism: settled with justice and security for Derech Hanitzotz, a left-wing Israeli Freedom From Wifism without both Israelis and Palestinians. newspaper, subsequently charged and changed, expanded views; without For those who are still unfamiliar convicted of treason and still in jail. recognizing that "wifism" and "mal- with, or disbelieving of, the true face of — Itmad Matar of the Gaza Women's ism" are right-on-target words. the occupation, it is an important film. Committee urges the Israeli peace It is impossible not to get intellectu- It is not a "balanced" film, but it is not movement to do more, to somehow ally emotional about Feminism: Free- supposed to be. Sponsored by The convince the Jews of the justness of the dom From Wifism as a hurricane of Committee for Freedom of Expression Palestinian cause. fresh air that clears the board of the of Palestinians and Israelis, it aims to What is particularly interesting suffocating "diversity" of issues. How reveal the courageous stance of Pales- about this film is that, although it generous of Mia Albright to have fig- tinians— women and children in par- doesn't intend to be a film about women ured out a system of perception that ticular— in the face of constant har- in the Israeli and Palestinian peace frees the populations of womyn, assment and the random brutality of movements, it reveals the important ("womon" is the singular for "woman" the Israeli occupation, as well as the fact that women have emerged as lead- used in the book, and "womyn" the moral outrage and commitment to ers. These women, organized for the plural, in order to remove "man/men" coexistence of the women and men of most part independently, are the driv- from these words that are, after all, the Israeli peace movement. ing force towards collaboration be- our name), from the killing ignorance The images are many and moving: tween Israelis and Palestinians who of wifism. — Rayna Moss, an Israeli and mem- support a two-state solution. As such, 1989 was the bicentennial of the ber of the Democratic Front for Peace they are the pioneers of peaceful coex- French revolution. A malist revolu- (formerly The Israeli Communist istence between two peoples that his- tion, as Mia Albright would explain, is Party, Rakach), patiently explains that tory and geography have turned into as malist as the malist state. But I feel it is a myth that the Palestinian people enemies. it is historically appropriate to declare are a threat to Israel and expressing A State Of Danger does not hide the — long live Mia Albright and her in- her belief that "the intifida has caused ugly truths of Israeli excesses in credible vocabulary; her arsenal of a great movement towards peace." "managing" the occupation. Yet it has revolutionary ideas, and I mean revo- — The Israeli Women in Black who more credibility than "Days of Rage,"

30 ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1990 aired recently by PBS, probably be- the good ole U.S. of A. for fundamental opposition to its op- cause it is not a film about anger but Through The Wire, the latest produc- pressive status quo, even as it pays about courage, courage on both sides tion from Daedalus Productions (read: ample patriotic lip service to Differ- of the Green Line (the border that Nina Rosenblum and Alexandra ence and Democracy. When, as this separates the West Bank and Gaza White), unflinchingly documents the film documents, men who bomb abor- from Israel proper). Both are impor- United States Federal Bureau of tion clinics get seven years (with a tant films, but neither can compare to Prison's abuse of women political pris- good deal of that time spent on proba- Mira Hamermesh's Talking to the En- oners. The plight of Silvia Baraldini, tion), and women get 58 years for pos- emy, a film that uniquely captures the Susan Rosenberg and Alejandrina sessing, not using, weapons and explo- depth of feeling and the ambivalence Torres, the three prisoners featured in sives, it becomes morally impossible to of Palestinians and Israelis divided by the film, is both shocking and engross- espouse that the underlying political conflicting interests but united by com- ing. Whatever the exact sequence of philosophy of this country is "freedom mon moral and human values. images that produces the effect, one and justice for all." A State Of Danger is distributed by leaves this feature-length documen- Through The Wire is an important Women Make Movies, 225 Lafayette tary with the last of one's illusions film which brings to light many of the Street, Suite 212, New York, NY about political freedom in this country contradictions, misleading rhetoric and 10012; (212) 925-0606. profoundly shaken, and absolutely just plain lies of our government's — Marcia Freedman none of one's complacency left intact. censorship, media manipulation and Marcia Freedman is a former member On one level, Through The Wire is a political intolerance. If you ever thought of the Israeli Knesset now living in harrowing document of the abuses (or, — or still think—that torture of politi- Berkeley, CA. A founder of the Israeli more correctly stated, tortures) en- cal prisoners is an activity reserved for feminist movement, she remains ac- dured by Baraldini, Rosenberg and dictators of non-Western countries, tive in women's Middle East peace Torres — three lifelong activists who then you owe it to yourself and your work. Her book, Exile in the Prom- each took a personal and political stance extant belief in a democratic system to ised Land, will be published this against specific policies of the U.S. gov- see the atrocities committed by the spring by Firebrand Books. ernment (e.g. the invasion of Grenada, United States Federal Bureau of Pris- racist attacks by the police in cities ons — all in the name of "justice." THROUGH THE WIRE across the country, and the coloniza- — Penny Perkins Imagine a control unit in a prison tion of Puerto Rico). From this Penny Perkins is an activist and writer specifically designed to break the will perspective, the film is an unflinching from New York City. of female prisoners in hopes that they portrait of the tragedy befalling three will renounce their political ideas. This individuals because of their ideo- For information regarding upcoming High Security Unit (HSU) is designed logical convictions. screenings or rental of THROUGH THE by a government that considers the On a broader level, though, Through WIRE, contact Daedalus Productions, women dangerous to its foreign and The Wire provides a haunting picture WNET/Thirteen, 356 West 58th Street, domestic policies. It achieves its mis- of the consequences meted out by the Room 1017, New York, NY 10019. sion with psychological and physical government which has little tolerance torture, including extreme sensory deprivation, sexual abuse, constant video surveillance, and small group isolation. 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31 ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1990 CAMBODIA from pg 23 numbers of refugees are returning to you to ask: Who saved the Cambodian Cambodia from camps in Thailand. people? How can you say that Hun Sen day because of conditions such as con- An aid official in one camp said that didn't do the right thing? How can you taminated water. UN development aid an average of 100 people leave every go on helping those who killed the could clean the water, but it doesn't. night to return to their country. The people and their supporters?" • In addition, in July, 1989, the U.S. government is giving land and other Senate approved military aid to the incentives to returning refugees. Esty Dinur is the coordinator of the other two resistance factions. Observ- The Vietnamese, who entered Cam- Madison, WI based People's News ers fear that this funding will provide bodia 10 years ago, withdrew from the Service and a free-lance writer. She weapons which will find their way to country in September, 1989. "The has written extensively for local and Khmer Rouge camps. It was also re- Cambodian people have a long his- national publications. vealed in the Thai press in 1988 that story with Vietnam," says Kaav, refer- $3.5 million of the $12 million in U.S. ring to a history of racial tensions and ANOTHER VIEW from pg 18 foreign aid to Thailand was channelled strife, "but the Cambodians are grate- to the Khmer Rouge. ful to the Vietnamese who saved them has not yet registered on the mind of "Pol Pot and other Khmer Rouge lead- from the Khmer Rouge which butch- the western world. One incident speaks ers should be tried in the International ered people, raped little girls and ru- for many: In Damour, during a mas- Court of Justice for genocide," says ined the country." sacre of Lebanese by PLO, "In a frenzy Kaav. "Instead, they are given more Vietnam's withdrawal, the changes to destroy their enemies utterly, as if weapons. The United States should in the country and the relaxing inter- even the absolute limits of nature could stop sending arms to Sihanouk be- national climate, brought about the not stop them, the invaders broke open cause he cooperates with the Khmer August, 1989 Paris conference in which tombs and flung the bones of the dead Rouge." 19 countries participated. Despite the into the streets." The situation in Cambodia under Hun failure of every previous Indo-Chinese The PLO also has commitments to Sen has improved in recent years de- conference since 1954, hopes were high international terrorism besides its spite the lack of western and UN aid. for a peaceful settlement. These proved nationalistic identity with the Pales- Peasants have been encouraged to buy baseless as China, the United States tinian Arabs, or commitment to their land and return to the traditional style and Sihanouk demanded that the welfare; and their ranks are filled of private farming. The agricultural Khmer Rouge take part in an interim with international extremists. It is incentives brought about a good na- government. Sihanouk also demanded the tragic fate of the Palestinian Arabs tional rice crop. In the cities, housing that references to genocide and exter- to have had their national movement construction is going full scale. The mination be deleted from the confer- identified with this organization. Nor government is conducting a national ence's final resolution. Both Khmer can they, for reasons of personal safety, literacy campaign which is said to be Rouge and Sihanouk factions warned attempt to dissolve this identification. going well. In April, 1989, economic that they are preparing for battle and Only a responsible world leadership, policy changes were made, aimed at that they are well armed. determined to penetrate beneath the boosting the private sector by encour- Actions followed words and fierce artificial liaison between the PLO aging small business development. fighting erupted between resistance and the Palestinian Arabs, can Kaav's friend observed during her visit and government troops along the Thai- help dissolve this dangerous Gordian to Cambodia that the markets had Cambodian border. Reports from nu- Knot. • enough food and clothing as well as merous sources point to the presence other consumer goods. Businesses were of American and British military advi- HOFFMAN from pg 3 springing up, but the countryside still sors in resistance camps, some train- lacked machinery and health care. ing elite anti-government commandos. sponse to a letter demanding that he Encouraged by the changing political Despite doubts that the resistance is be accountable for his support and climate in the country, increasing strong enough to fight an all-out war, reinforcement of Nazi ideology, wrote: fears for the future exist. In an appeal "I can only add that instead of the to the world, Dith Pran, who portrayed "Jews" one should put "East Germans", ANSWERS TO WOMEN TRAV- some of the horrors of the Cambodian with the difference that everything that ELERS FROM PG. 24 holocaust in the movie "The Killing happened since 1945 is known to all 1. True 2. No. She fought the impo- Fields", said "Please don't force back the world, while the bloody terror of sition of European law and religion on the Cambodian people the organi- the Nazi reality was kept secret from on Africans whom she believed had zation, army and leader responsible the German people." valid laws and religions of their own for the genocide of millions during the Going even further in apologia for a 3. To help Siberia's lepers 4. Three- reign of terror...The world should try new unified Germany, Henry Ashby and-a-half years 5. Fannie Hardy to respect the freedom of choice of the Turner (NYTimes, February 11,1990) Eckstorm 6. Travel recommended Cambodian people to decide where they believes that fears of an economically by her doctor as a remedy for ill want to go." powerful and militaristic Germany are health 7. A placard demanding Diane Kaav echoes his words. Most for the most part unfounded. "Votes for Women" 8. To do mission- Cambodians, she maintains, appreci- "Some people think the Germans bear ary work 9. The Deep South 10. ate Hun Sen for saving the country and a hereditary taint that predisposes Disguised herself as a man 11. for getting it back on its feet. Cambodi- them to aggressive, even criminal, Worked as a lady's maid, staying ans want peace and deserve long-with- behaviors as a nation. Surely no one with employers only long enough held help from the West. Hun Sen's conversant with the record of human- to get money to continue traveling government — not the Khmer Rouge ity can seriously entertain the hack- 12. Mexico and Central America — should hold the Cambodian seat in neyed notion of indelible national char- 13. Beryl Markham the United Nations and receive its aid. acter." "Write this down" she says, "I want Perhaps not. Perhaps not an indel-

32 ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1990 ible national character, but if history ruin, afflicted by deaths, misery and did you and the Carnegie Foundation teaches us anything it is the indelibil- remorse and rehabilitated a few years decide to do this study? ity and undeniability of anti-Semitism, later as the result of an unprincipled SMM: There have been a lot of reports a trait which goes beyond nation and political game." about the quality and status of educa- national character, yet is, at the same There is, of course, always the danger tion and the need for restructuring. time, ultimately expressed through that by defining ultimate evil as Ger- The Carnegie Corporation felt that both. man, we allow ourselves to pale in American minorities ought to have the It also teaches us that each genera- terms of our own individual responsi- opportunity to voice their views. So tion must struggle anew, and ofttimes bility. If the heart and head of the virus they gave us support to go around and start the process of remembrance again, of anti-Semitism rests on the talk to people about the status of edu- if liberty and freedom are to be main- Kurfurstendaam, then the trunk and cation for minorities and what factors tained. Indeed, since World War II our the limbs spread worldwide. they thought ought to be taken into own country has witnessed great To posit that the German youth of consideration before any major policy achievements in civil and human today bear no direct responsibility for changes were made. rights, while the last nine years under the Second World War and the Holo- OTI: Where did you go and what were Reagan and Bush have shown us a caust is true, but to then deny them you looking for? precipitous slide backwards. Aided by any moral responsibility for dealing SMM: There were nine regional meet- a conservatively loaded Supreme with its residual effects is moral cow- ings. We went to large minority popu- Court, we have witnessed the roll back ardice. lations centers: Albuquerque, Anchor- of both civil liberties and reproductive Anti-Semitism may "sleep lightly" age, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los freedom. around the world, but it was in Ger- Angeles, New York, San Antonio, San Losing constitutional rights and privi- many that it awakened most fully. The Juan — all migratory hubs for minori- leges that we once thought to be sacro- children of the holocaust are ties. We wanted the widest possible sanct has taught a new generation of everywhere. • representation and we found very Americans that there are no safe po- successful projects in all of those places. litical harbors. Turner asks his read- MIT from pg 9 One of the messages of this report is ers, "How can Germans born since 1945 that all is not hopeless. Something you be held culpable for what happened American culture and it has nothing to might conclude if you look at all the before them?" Those in our own coun- do with race. There's a general percep- data: Performance on standardized try who fight against any type of af- tion that you're either born with it or tests, representation of minorities in firmative action program use just those you're not, and that hard work has science and engineering, and the re- types of arguments. Why, indeed, nothing to do with it — which is abso- cent drop, particularly among Blacks, should I have to bear the burden of my lutely absurd. So you have minority going on to and graduating from col- ancestors 100 years ago who held children who tend to come dispropor- leges. One thing these projects had in Blacks as slaves? tionately from lower-income families, common was that they were all under- Although each generation is, in a not always having the kind of support funded. On the up side, you had very sense, a new beginning, we do not begin from the environment that encourages dedicated people in charge of the proj- in a vacuum. We are all our parents the kinds of values and disciplines ects, people who were really willing to children and have with us all the indi- that you need to be successful. The put in the hours necessary to do this vidual and collective societal baggage other factor that minority children with little money available. that attends it. Just as Americans must face — and it isn't just children — is OTI: So successful, quality education bear the burdens of a history that was the sense of lower expectations. With demands people who are committed to based on the inhumanity of slavery, so all these factors, it is almost a miracle making that happen. must this generation of Germans deal that anybody survives and excels, es- SMM: It demands people who want to with the reality of their past. pecially hungry children from lower- make a difference in the lives of chil- "Children of killers are not killers. income families. It requires an awful dren and have high expectations of the They are children," according to Eli lot of commitment and encouragement children. They have to believe that Weisel. I would only add that they for them to be successful. these children, given opportunities, can have the responsibility of not forget- OTI: Why should we be particularly perform. ting that many of their parents, grand- concerned about this now? OTI: You're saying, if somebody ex- parents or other relatives were killers. SMM: First of all, it is the right thing to pects you to do well, you are more Likewise, they must be sure not to fall do. I think it is immoral to ignore the likely to do well; if they act as if you are victim to that seductive, pervasive needs of people who have helped to stupid, you are more likely to under- disease of spiritual and historical build this country. We are at a point in perform. amnesia that seems to afflict so much history where significant demographic SMM: You have to be very strong to of the German population. changes are occurring in gender, race overcome a lot of negative signals from Primo Levi in The Drowned and the and ethnicity. By the year 2015, a third your environment. Some people as- Saved speaks eloquently to the issue of the population is going to be minor- sume that MIT uses different stan- of German responsibility: "Let it be ity. Between now and 2000,90 percent dards for admitting minority students clear that to a greater or lesser degree of the incoming workforce will be and women. That's not true. all were responsible, but it must be just women and minorities. There is no OTI: What are the standards? as clear that behind their responsibil- way that we can have the kind of work SMM: First of all, MIT would not admit ity stands that great majority of Ger- force we need if we ignore a third of the any student whom we didn't feel had mans who accepted in the beginning population. the ability to do the work and to be out of mental laziness, myopic calcula- OTI: We know that you have been a successful here. It would be cruel to do tion, stupidity and national pride the major player in a new report called that. But it's not only on the basis of 'beautiful words' of Corporal Hitler, "Education That Works: An Action Plan scores. Personal ratings and academic followed him, were swept away by his for the Education of Minorities." Why ratings are determined for each appli-

33 ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1990 cant; then decisions about the first- your committee studied that are exem- fore, sometimes the damage is done for year class are made after looking at all plary? a lifetime. There are studies that show of the reviews. SMM: The Baltimore public schools have that when you have mixed ability OTI: What are the minimum standards an approach that may have the great- groupings, students who are more MIT students have to meet? est potential of attacking racism. Stu- advanced actually—through teaching SMM: A student with less than a 650 dents form interracial learning teams and sharing with other people — end score on the math SAT would have a in the early grades. This is a small up understanding the material and hard time here. That's my personal group, similar to XL except it is inter- gaining a lot too. It also reflects reality. view, but tomorrow I might see a pro- racial by design. The idea is that this When you go into the workforce, you file of a student with a 550. learning team has a common goal. have to work with other people. The OTI: What implications does this have There is some project that the group sooner people learn how to do that, the for affirmative action programs? has to complete together. Every mem- better. SMM: If we were to prepare students ber has an assignment. No one can OTI: One of the messages of the report fully the first time around, we wouldn't complete the assignment until every- is that cooperation is a positive experi- have to have this discussion. There are one has contributed. That says to each ence. many people who believe that our child, "you have something to contrib- SMM: And by starting it early, it helps public school system has been inten- ute." It also tells the student who might to address a lot of the other problems. tionally structured so that minorities normally be able to work faster that Quality education for minorities will do not do well. It certainly has not been others have something to contribute as lead to quality education for everyone. encouraging of minority students. The well. It is exactly what happens in If we prepare minority students who end product speaks for itself. Given athletics. And there's nothing more are in the worst circumstances, we free that we need to make this major re- American than athletics. It's having a up the need for remedial programs. structuring in the pre-college level, common goal. , What we are doing now is trying to fix and that is going to take time, then, OTI: In other words, you could be a up the defective product. If you take all during the transition, you obviously terrific quarterback, but just try... that money that's now spent on reme- have to have some programs that at- SMM: Try being those 13 players by dial programs and put it back into tempt to remedy poor preparation. So, yourself. In the Baltimore program, enriching the curriculum, everyone one of the things that colleges and uni- when the students on one team finish a benefits. • versities need to do is expand their project, the group may break up and definition of affirmative action. A defi- form a new interracial learning team nition I'd like to use includes forming around some other project. They don't HOME frompg 15 partnerships with local or regional want to have a situation in which the school systems and helping them to do one or two minorities or the one or two concerns for the environment and the a better job, both with curriculum and girls in the group are viewed as the effect of these cups on the atmosphere. giving students experiences that would exception. That way they get to see It was not an easy decision because better prepare them for success. Insti- students from different races and dif- they work in the mill, in the forest, in tutional accreditation ought to be built ferent genders perform and contribute. the cold, and there aren't any sinks in on how responsive and able an institu- I think in the long run that has more which to wash their cups. "We talk a tion is to get minority students to potential, not only in terms of address- lot about the meaning of what we're achieve. Obviously that's not some- ing the problems usually accompany- doing," they said, "like how we treat thing where students just sit passively ing racism, but also in terms of devel- the forest. We want it to be there for by. They have to contribute to this as oping confidence. our children. We just don't want to well. But, you have to have the kind of OTI: It also points to the failures of the exploit these resources. So we try to do environment that supports achieve- tracking system, which was put in when our part." ment by minority students and builds the schools were first integrated to As I reflect on uniqueness, I think confidence. We try to do that here at separate out kids of lesser ability. about H.O.M.E.'s Board of Directors. MIT through Project XL, an experi- SMM: One of the major recommenda- They range from rich to poor, female mental program for about 45 first-year tions we make is to eliminate tracking and male. Then I recall the write-up in students. This is our first term and so and replace it with cooperative learn- the August 21,1989 issue of Time dis- far the core has been study groups in ing. Tracking sometimes occurs as early cussing Bush's advisors. All rich men. physics and calculus which are facili- as pre-kindergarten. If students have H.O.M.E. is about balance, the abil- tated by an advanced undergraduate not had Headstart when they come to ity to function on many levels at the or graduate student. The study groups school, or some opportunity for intel- same time, to cross over into many give students an opportunity to review lectual stimulation before they get problem areas and to solve them and understand the concepts that have there, they aren't able to bring very quickly, a place where everyone is been discussed in physics and calculus much from home. People then inter- working for the same thing. There is classes. They go to the board and work pret that fact, that they have little to no competition. It may sound Utopian on problems based on those concepts. bring, with being mentally retarded or in our society, but it is real and deeply They have to explain in detail to their not smart. Instead of finding a way to impresses anyone who comes here. peers in the study group the principles determine what the student's poten- As I leave H.O.M.E., I look back at that are being conveyed in the prob- tial is, what is measured is how much lem. They learn how to ask questions, the various buildings and at the people is known already. So, lower-income who are busy working on them, trying to be confident about those questions students often get put into slower and to understand that everybody to improve the place. I read their news- tracks. Many teachers actually prefer paper which does a wonderful job of doesn't always know the answer. That having students in these homogeneous is a real misperception among minor- describing what they are doing, but groupings because it's easier, but it nothing comes close to the feeling that ity students. isn't to the advantage of the students. OTI: Could you describe other programs I get when walking through this place, You can't get off those tracks; there- witnessing their miraculous efforts,

34 ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1990 listening to the people talk about how absolutely society-wide. The way people From Stones to Statehood is avail- happy they are thatH.O.M.E. has hired participate varies a lot, but virtually no able from the Interlink Publishing them. How they now have a skill. How Palestinian is indifferent." Group, 99 Seventh Avenue, Brooklyn, desperate they were before they came Despite the unflagging commitment NY 11215 (718) 797-4292; cost is here. How they are contributing to- of the Palestinians to continuing the $16.95. • ward making a better world. The sum resistance, Bennis is not optimistic of the place leaves me with a kind of about the prompt resolution of the BOX FOR STATEHOOD from pg 17 awe. I feel that maybe humanity is not conflict. "Israel has conceded nothing," lost — maybe there is hope. Hope in a she says, "and the Palestinians have had a lot of internalized anti-Arab preju- future without 30 million people living conceded a lot. It's a very dangerous dice to undo. "At best I thought of the below the poverty line in America, time. The peace movement in Israel is Palestinians as scattered nomads; at while George Bush spends 30 million growing incrementally, but it repre- worst, they were the reincarnation of dollars on his presidential inaugura- sents a tiny fraction of Israeli society. Hitler." tion, giving promises, but doing The right-wing is growing much faster By the late 1970s, a battle over Zion- nothing. • than the left, and the center is losing ism erupted in the National Lawyers out. The Likud and Labour parties — Guild and for the first time Bennis was Helen M. Stummer is a photographer center right and center left — are los- forced to publicly articulate her posi- whose work is part of the historical ing to the ends. Likud is losing to the tion. Since that time, she has worked tradition of Jacob Riis and Dorothea far right, to the parties that advocate within the Guild's international commit- Lange who spent their lives document- the forced transfer of Palestinians. The tee, in the U.S.-Vietnam Friendship ing human misery and societal injus- left and the peace groups are marginal- Committee, in the Palestine Solidarity tice. Stummer's work is in the perma- ized." Committee and as a journalist specializ- nent collections of the Brooklyn Mu- Bennis attributes these political ing in international affairs. seum, the Museum of the City of New trends to the fact that Israeli society York and the Newark Museum, among lacks a separation between civilian and others. She has a masters degree in military life. "The Israeli army is a CLASSIFIEDS visual sociology. civilian army," she says. "The majority of the people working to suppress the UPCOMING EVENTS For further information about the intifada are civilians who put in two other programs at H.O.M.E., or the 30-day stints a year. Women are in the FEMINISTS FOR ANIMAL RIGHTS will Homestead/Land Trust Act which army for two years starting at age 18; march behind our own banner at the is H.O.M.E.'s solution to homeless- men join at age 18 and serve for three historic "March for the Animals", June 10 ness, or to make a donation, please years. Then, when they are between 21 in Washington, DC. Join us! We are contact: Lucy Poulin, H.O.M.E., and 55, they are eligible to be called up chartering a bus leaving NYC early that Inc., P.O. Box 10, Orland, ME 04472 for 30 days twice a year. When you're morning and returning that night. For info inside the green line, it doesn't seem call 212-866-6422 like you're at war. People live their STATEHOOD from pg 17 lives. But that blurs the fact that their SERVICES husbands, sons, teachers, workers, ism, the stuff of daily survival in the bosses, uncles, neighbors, students — Bouquets to On the Issues for its excellence and to face of oppression, is chronicled with every male who doesn't have a reli- CHOICES Women's Medical Center, Inc. tor publishing little sentiment, for From Stones to gious exemption—goes to fight twice a it. Statehood is eloquent, straightforward year." Royal Garden Florist Corp. journalism. Details are presented mat- What will it take to end the war and 99-15 Queens Blvd. ensure peace in the region? "Economic Forest Hills, NY 11374 ter-of-factly, even in instances that 718-459-6333 might have tolerated histrionics. The and political pressure from the U.S.," fact, for example, that Cassidy was Bennis quickly replies. "The U.S. pro- shot in the leg by Israeli soldiers while vides $3.7 billion a year to Israel. Stop- taking photos in Nablus, becoming the pingU.S. aid to the occupation will end l/Oamen u^j first foreign journalist to be wounded it. We each need to bombard the Israeli For a change in your life, we invite you to try: THE WISHING WfcLL Features cur- during the intifada, is mentioned but Embassy with protest letters and put rent members self-descriptions (listed by not dwelled upon, for this is the story of pressure on Congress to cut the aid to code), letters, photos, resources, reviews, and more. Introductory copy $5.00 ppd. the Palestinians, seen through the eyes Israel. Congress has to hear from people (discreet first class). A beautiful, tender, of U.S. progressives. who don't believe that Israel is a bas- loving alternative to The Well of Loneli- ness." Confidential, sensitive, supportive, "On a visual or visceral level," says tion of democracy in a sea of heathen dignified. Very personal. Reliable reputa- behavior." Bennis urges people inter- tion, established 1974. 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36 ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1990 FEEDBACK morning and we already know we want kept intruding into the text: "They to subscribe. have been able to continue to associate K.A. Taylor IC.A. Lytle with the young and to think young." Is KUDOS Marion, NC that some kind of acceptance? The I was absolutely delighted to find the young are the chosen elite and to con- "new" On the Issues (Vol. XIV) in my I commend you on your publication, On tinue to associate with them is a privi- mailbox Saturday. This is what Ms. the Issues. I find it riveting, disquiet- lege? And what does thinking "young" should have been, but wasn't. ing, encouraging and wise. We receive imply? Do I believe that the world Merle Hoffman's editorial said some it at work and read it cover to cover. began with me and that there were no things that I've been thinking for a Enclosed is my subscription for my liberated women or liberation move- long time. And I wish she would write sister. Thanks. ments before I joined NOW in 1980? about the relationship between the J. Lynn James These are all specific beliefs that I Bush/Reagan administrations, the Planned Parenthood meet every day in my young college growth of the abortion-is-wrong cli- Indianapolis, IN students. Thank the Goddess I no mate, and the skyrocketing number of longer think young. I am proud to think children living in poverty. When I heard EARTH FIRST OLD, with a sense of history and a an NPR series on children in poverty Re: your "Paper or Plastic — You Can't wealth of experience and more wisdom last spring, and heard mothers talk Win" comments. Even a once-a-week every day. about their three children under eight, large family shopper can reuse the Mary M. Morgan the connection was clear to me. Too grocery store bags. I carry two or three Millfield, OH bad it isn't clearer to others. double brown-paper bags in my canvas Because I have gotten On the Issues save-a-tree bag. I reuse them until they REVIEW MISSES POINT only occasionally, I missed "America's are battered (10-12 times). Then I I have enjoyed On the Issues for its Secret African War" by Carlos Wilson separate the bags and use them to hold informative and thought-provoking in Vol. XL I am interested in the newspapers for recycling and the bat- articles, but I can't say I think much of Saharan problem and would like a tered bag goes in with the cardboard your standards for record reviews. A copy of the article if reprints are avail- recycling. There are many ways to case in point is the discussion in Vol. able. reduce waste. XIV of Holly Near's "Sky Dances." Congratulations on being in the same Marilyn Galatis A reviewer is perfectly entitled to league as The Nation. Piedmont, CA dislike a record, but she ought to be Ellen Roger able to state her opinion intelligently, Bloomington, IN FATHERS RIGHT? informatively and with respect for work In response to "The Chilling of Repro- that represents months of many Yours is the most exciting magazine ductive Choice" by Janice Raymond, people's talent and labor, as records I've seen in the last decade. I felt as if Vol. XIV: Dr. Raymond, you're right. do. "I get bored easily," is hardly a I were seeing one of the early issues of We men are trying to reclaim the rights qualification for judging anyone's work. Ms. or the better copies of Mother Jones! of fatherhood and the rights of unborn "I long ago tired of..." is irrelevant; Katherine Law children, which have been eroded, if statements that advertise the writer New York, NY not erased, by women's assertions of give no real information about the their right to reproductive freedom. At material under review. I just want to tell you how glad I am least some of us men are stressing "Sky Dances" is a unified work built that you sent a sample issue to my these rights for the sake of our own around the idea of how the spirit car- friend at work. posterity (we can't bear children our- ries on despite death and loss (not only As I read your magazine, I thought, selves) and the future of American from AIDS) and it pays tribute to sev- "Where has this magazine been? This society, for if women continue to use eral great songwriters who have writ- is great!" I am a fairly active feminist, their reproductive freedom to avoid ten on that theme. Having missed the yet I had never heard of On the Issues. their unique biological role, there will point, Jill Benderly dismissed the rec- I have now, and I will be subscribing to be a very feeble American society in- ord with an ill-defined outcry about your magazine for a long time. I am deed. "rhythm" and a pointless complaint glad your magazine exists, and I hope Philip M. Cheney, that the performances aren't like you continue with your current hon- Public Librarian someone else's. Truly, Benderly ought esty and non-commercialism. Lavonia, GA to overcome her ennui and develop some patience and discernment for Audrey Jean Shaw material that requires effort. That's San Jose, CA FIGHT AGEISM It has taken me several months to the least "a feminist forum for ideas cool off and calm down enough to re- and concepts" should expect of a re- I received my first copy of On the Issues viewer. today. Yours is an excellent magazine spond to your article, "The Hidden which reflects my own viewpoint. The Sorority — Lesbians Over 60" (Vol. Ronnie Gilbert articles are cogent, intelligent and XII, 1989) which drips with ageism Berkeley, CA thought-provoking. I doubt I'll find and is so patronizing I am driven to FREE TO PRISONERS another publication which gives left- screams. Got a free intro from you, all the way ist, radical feminism a clear and open Here was an author who knew about here at the NJ prison for women. I like forum. the invisible older woman and had discovered that we existed and that your style, but don't have much bucks. Joyce Williams Am sending you $10 for as many Paterson, NJ many of us have a sisterhood going. (Please, not sorority, not in the last half issues as you deem. of the 20th century!) Ania Polulich We found On the Issues in our mailbox Clinton, NJ last night at about 11:00. It's 7:30 this But it is the bold print spacers that 37 ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1990 Conscious Femininity Original writing by best-selling authors and TO BE A psychologists on the next ANIMALS stage in the development WOMAN If you have ever loved a com- of women's self-awareness. 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WH1TMONT and more chosen and that contains the benefits of their compassion to demand basic hard-won independence as well. justice for all animals. To Be a Woman sheds new light on social trends, such as female-initiated Call or write now on how YOU divorce, the return to motherhood, and the search for a female-centered can make a difference. spirituality. And it offers answers to women everywhere who seek the fulfilment of their basic female nature, and who long to feel strong yet fully feminine. MARCH FOR THE ANIMALS $12.95 Tradepaper EO. Box 2978, Washington, D.C. Available in your local bookstore or from Jeremy P. Tardier, Inc., 20013-2978 5858 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles ,CA 90036. (703) 684-0688 A NEW Or call 1-800-333-3969 Ext. PK (Visa and MC accepted). Please add For travel information call CONSCIOUSNESS $1.75 for Shipping. California residents add 6.75% sales tax. READER 1-800-321-9690

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