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Dear Sisters in NOW,
I am looking forward to an exciting year of activism for Tidewater NOW. I also look forward to working with our co-President, M. J.. Mello and I just returned from a very exciting, stimulating national NOW conference in Memphis, Tn. A very talented team has just been re-elected to lead NOW for another 4 year term: Patricia Ireland, President; Karen Johnson, V.P.-Membership; Kim Gandy, Executive V.P.; and Elizabeth Toledo, V.P-Action. We were also very inspired by the keynote speakers: Carol Moseley-Braun, African-American Senator from Illinois; Cynthia McKinney, African American Congresswoman from Georgia; and Tammy Baldwin, the first openly lesbian state legislator from Wisconsin. When listening to these three women speak, it really struck me that these three women each speak of the support that NOW PAC had given them, that if it were not for NOW's financial support, they may not have won their respective races. It struck me how important all our efforts are, whether giving time to activist causes or financial support.
All of the officers and board members in Tidewater NOW need your support for the coming year. If you do not attend meetings on a regular basis, come out and GET INVOLVED! If you enjoy receiving and reading the monthly newsletter, consider sending in a contribution so that we can continue to publish and mail the newsletter for the coming year. Our resources are limited; your support is essential in order for us to carry on a concerted activist effort on behalf of all women. Thank you for your support!
M. R., Co-President, Tidewater NOW
Tidewater NOW formed a task force, headed by M. S., to write a history of Tidewater NOW. We are soliciting information from YOU to make this project a success. If you have old newsletters or appropriate anecdotes to share with us, please contact us.
Virginia State NOW is sponsoring a booth at the Greater Richmond Pride Festival on September 14, 1-6 pm in the Carillon in Byrd Park . Volunteers are needed to staff the booth.
Delegates to the National NOW conference passed a resolution denouncing the Promise Keepers organization for their repeated pronouncements that men should "take back" total control over their wives and families. E. B. is leading a task force to counter this dangerous movement.
One of our annual show the flag efforts is at the Suffolk Peanut Festival. This year the festival will be held on October 10 to October 13. Volunteers are needed to staff the booth. We are usually located right next to the Virginia Right to Life booth. Here is a great opportunity to help us get our message out.
In a controversial move reminiscent of the American South a generation ago, the Israeli government has announced that seating for at least two bus lines in the town of Bnei Brak will be segregated. The buses will have separate entrances for men (the front) and women (the back). Women will be permitted to sit only in the back of the bus.
According to a religious legislator, Rabbi Avraham Ravitz, the segregation is for the women's own good. Ravitz explained, "It protects them from being disturbed by men who want to take advantage (of a crowded bus) to push women."
This publicly subsidized bus line provides transportation for the ultra-Orthodox Jews in the town. According to the ultra-Orthodox who compromise about 10% of the Israeli population, men and women should be strictly segregated.
Virginian Pilot, Sunday July 13, 1997, submitted by M. R.
Once again, Congress is proposing to "privatize" Social Security. In return for giving away a guaranteed retirement or disability income which is protected from the ravages of inflation, privatizers are offering the potential of higher returns for money invested in the stock market.
This get rich easily scheme will indeed enable some people, stock brokers, futures traders, investment counselors, and the like, to get rich quick. [ newsletter editor's note: Take it from someone who has been in the market for 10 years- it ain't easy to get rich quick in the market. If it was, I wouldn't have to work for a living.]
Privatizers believe that the money returned to the tax payers by reducing or eliminating the Social Security tax will be saved or invested. More likely, the people most dependent on Social Security, those with low or moderate incomes, will spend the money to meet today's needs.
Social Security is not in the dire straits touted by some. Scare talk of Social Security being in crisis is just that: scare talk. By crediting the Social Security trust fund with about 1.5% of the money we currently pay in income tax, the trust fund should remain in the black for at least another 75 years.
Another option for infusing money into the Social Security trust fund is to remove the cap on wages that are subject to Social Security tax. Currently, wages in excess of $62,000 are not subject to Social Security tax: the rich pay Social Security tax on only a (small) portion of their income and pay no Social Security tax at all on capital gains. Hence, although the income tax rate on high wage earners is higher than the income tax rate for moderate and low wage earners, the tax rate which results from combining the income tax rate and Social Security tax rate for high wage earners is often lower than that of moderate and low wage earners. Again, well-heeled tax payers benefit from the fact that the income tax rate for capital gains is smaller than the income tax rate for earned income and no Social Security tax at all is paid on capital gains.
from Keep Social Security Out of Private Hands by Robert Eisner, submitted by A. M.
Once again, Virginia's Family Life Education programs are under attack. Eleven years ago, the General Assembly established a committee to study the problem of teen pregnancy. Because of strong, vocal opposition to state action to reduce teen pregnancy, the only tangible action which resulted from the committee was the establishment of Family Life Education programs for the schools despite several good suggestions for a comprehensive, multi-faceted approach to the problem.
The Family Life Education program was envisioned as just one part of a strong community-based program to help at-risk young people improve self-esteem, understand the full consequences of sexual activity and early pregnancy, and re-enforce skills learned in Family Life Education for good family relationships and dealing with peer pressure.
Teen pregnancy is a serious societal problem which usually affects only the pregnant woman. Her future, and possibly her health, is sacrificed while the young man (often an adult man) who impregnated her remains unaffected. The Commonwealth of Virginia must not turn its back on these young women. This program should be strengthened, not gutted.
While revising the state educational programs, the State Board of Education empowered local school districts to determine the contents of its Family Life Education Program with significant public (parental) involvement. Parents may review course materials and choose to keep their children out of the program or out of selected portions of the program: only about 2% of Virginia's parents avail themselves of this opportunity. Never has there been so much flexibility in a curriculum or so much community input.
Now is the time to implement more comprehensive measures, such as school based health clinics with a special mission of reducing teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. A model program, implemented in Baltimore in the 1980s, reduced teen pregnancy by 40% and delayed first sexual activity by seven months in comparison to a similar school during the same time frame.
The clinic provided confidential one-on-one counseling. While a full range of information was available and birth control information and methods were dispensed, the clinic staff ran very successful "Say No" [to sexual activity] campaigns. Because the clinic provided all health services, including physicals for sports, confidentiality was maintained: only about 15% of clinic visits dealt with sexuality.
Further, all male students should have hands-on child care training and experience which could be provided through a community or school-based child care facility. While sensitizing them to the care-giving tasks that fall mostly to women, our young men will become enlightened about the demands of parenting and family responsibility, helping them to value both care-giving and care-givers.
Although teen pregnancy is declining, even a small amount is too much. Family Life Education must be continued and strengthened in the Commonwealth.
Write the State Board of Education: Michelle Easton, State Board of Education President, 112 Elden St., Suite P, Herndon, VA 20170 or phone them at 703-318-0730. Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper.
from a longer article submitted by Connie Hannah, State Coordinator
Congress recently defeated an attempt by a pro-choice legislator to repeal current law which prohibits military personnel and their dependents from obtaining abortions at overseas military hospitals except in cases of rape or incest, even IF THEY PAY FOR IT WITH THEIR OWN MONEY.
It's time to thank those who voted with us, and scold those who did not. Calling our legislators after a vote like this shows that we are watching them each step of the way.
Talking Points:
How they voted:
Below is list of Virginia's members of Congress, their e-mail address, phone number, and how they voted on the Prohibiting Abortion for Women in Military Issue. (+: pro-choice or -: anti-choice). The number corresponds to the congressional district.
| (1) | Herb Bateman | no e-mail address | 202/225-4261 | - |
| (2) | Owen Pickett | opickett@hr.house.gov | 202/225-4215 | + |
| (3) | Robert Scott | no e-mail address | 202/225-8351 | + |
| (4) | Norman Sisisky | no e-mail address | 202/225-6365 | + |
Said by South Carolina Board of Education Member Henry Jordan while apologizing for his statement, "Screw the Buddhists and kill the Muslims - and put that in the minutes.": "What they are doing is setting me up. I was expressing my frustration. We can't teach basic Christianity even from a historical standpoint, but they can teach about Muslims and Buddhists. They can teach any kind of cult. Buddhism is a cult. So is Islam. I'm getting a little tired of it. . . .We might as well get it out there and do battle over it. What I want to do is promote Christianity as the one true religion. This nation was founded to worship, honor, and glorify Jesus Christ, not Mohammed, not Buddha."
from Americans United publication Church & State, Aug. 1997, p. 9
Pat Robertson sold his International Family Channel, Inc,, a for-profit corporation spun off from the tax-exempt non-profit Christian Broadcasting Network, to Rupert Murdoch for $1.9 billion. Robertson claimed he will donate about $136.1 million to CBN's WorldReach evangelism program and about $147.5 million to his Regent University endowment fund. I wonder how much money the government gets out of the deal. After all, the venture capital needed to found the enterprise came from tax deductible contributions of ordinary Americans. Do you still wonder why Robertson and friends want to eliminate the tax on capital gains?
information from Church & State, Aug 1997, p. 6
Violence against women manifests itself in many ways. Legal Violence Against Women uses the law and the criminal justice system to perpetuate violence or discrimination against women. Some of the legal violence against women which has been perpetrated upon women throughout the ages include:
In 1777 New York became the first state to disen-franchise women voters by inserting the word male into its constitution, and most of the remaining original states soon followed suit. New Jersey, the last of the remaining original 13 colonies to permit women's suffrage, rescinded it in 1807.
The Feminist Chronicles, 1953 - 1993, Toni Carabillo, Judith Meuli, and June Bundy Csida, Women's Graphics, 1993
Compiled by the majority staff of the Senate
Judiciary Committee (July 31, 1990)
The most serious crimes against women are rising at a significantly faster rate than total crimes: during the past 10 years, rape rates have risen nearly four times as fast as the total crime rate.
Taken from the inforM website. Questions or comments should be directed to inform-editor@umail.umd.edu.
Some people believe cultural feminism gradually superseded radical feminism. Frustrated by their inability to transform society at large, 1960s radicals came to concentrate on transforming their little piece of the world. In this sense, cultural feminism is a mellowed-out version of radical feminism. Indeed, many radical feminist gradually became cultural feminists. To others, cultural feminism and radical feminism are two quite different things.
While radical feminism was a movement to transform society, cultural feminism worked to build a women's culture. Some cultural feminists focused on art, music, religion and other forms of culture targeted at, created by, and about women. Others had more down-to-earth goals, such as the creation of rape crisis centers and child-care co-opts. Yet others tried to increase the status for what is traditionally considered feminine or woman's work.
Extreme cultural feminists can sometimes sound disturbingly Victorian and non-progressive. For example, to them women are inherently (biologically) "kinder and gentler" than men. Hence if all leaders were women, we wouldn't have wars.
On August 26, 1920, after 72 years of campaigning, the 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote. Men would not have fought so hard for so long to deny women the right to vote if it wasn't a means of empowering women. Always remember to voice your opinion by exercising your right to the ballot.
sunshine@pinn.net
Sunshine for Women encourages you to support our feminist sisters by purchasing their books, reading them, disseminating the ideas they contain, but most especially, by making their book available to our sisters, our daughters, and the community at large by requesting your school library, your public library, and area bookstores to carry their books. Remember it is not enough to write literature, history, and theology, we must pass these works on to future generations. Help us to preserve these works for a new generation by putting them on library bookshelves.
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