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PAGE 4
The Georgia Bulletin
March 8,1979
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Jimmy And
His Magic Patch
Once upon a time there was a little
boy named Jimmy and he found a
bright-colored patch of cloth. He begged
his busy mother to sew the beautiful
patch onto the seat of his pants. He
loved his unique and lovely badge.
But wait, it turned out to be magic.
Every time Jimmy made a wish or even
expressed a desire, all were totally
granted. He longed to see Ali Baba and
like a flash of lightning, he was there.
Each time he passed a McDonald’s, a Big
Mac would appear and by just dreaming
the dream he became a varsity soccer
player.
Jimmy went through life in euphoria.
Paradise was his until one day while
leading the troops at soccer, someone
stole his pants -- patch and all. It was
never returned and poor Jimmy went
back to the mortal existence we all
share. How sad.
Jimmy’s last name was not Carter. But
considering the President's troubles
discovering the key to Middle East
peace, we wish it had been. And we wish
the magic patch had never been stolen.
It will take magic to put the heads of
those two warriors, Begin and Sadat,
together once more. A pre-Christmas
agreement which sported such high
hopes is gone like the Arabian nights. In
place of peace we have been willed the
frustration of furious bickering. The
threat of sinister violence has returned to
haunt.
In the midst of the non-ending mix
ups, Mr. Carter has admirably persisted.
Down in the polls, one eye constantly on
the swagger of Sen. Kennedy, oil going
up, still he persuadingly pleads with both
belligerents. And because of his refusal
to accept defeat, hope brightly lives.
Maybe we won’t need the patch after
all. The magic of simple peanut power
may still be enough. The world of
impatient onlookers surely plead for
prayerful success.
- NCB
Working Women
By Sheila Mallon
The child walked across the room haltingly -
the braces she wore seemed clumsy but it was
obvious that without them her frail legs would
not support her. I have had to spend some time
occasionally during the past eight months at the
Scottish Rite Hospital for Children. The child I
describe above is one of many being helped at
this beautiful facility.
The little girl in braces had to use a cane to
keep her balance. In spite of both cane and
braces she fell - smiling she picked herself up
and continued the journey to her mother’s
arms.
This place is full of stories like this - full of
brave young parents and braver children;
dedicated doctors and nurses whose lives are
devoted to the relief and curing of pain and
illness.
Thank God we have so many people in this
country who care enough to build hospitals like
this one and many others throughout the
country and world to provide special care for
children. Bless the agencies and laws designed
to defend children and to educate their parents
in their proper care.
There are some countries - some emerging
nations which do not have these protective
measures built in. Unfortunately there are some
American companies who are taking advantage
of this lack of expertise.
According to a recent article in the Atlanta
Journal; “Several major American producers of
infant formula are facing a growing
stockholders rebellion against their sales
practices in the Third World - practices that
some critics say contribute to the death of
thousands of infants and the affliction of
millions of others.
When they meet this Spring, the stockholders
of giant firms like Bristol Myers Co., Carnation
Co. and American Home Products Corp. will
again hear charges that the companies have used
high pressure tactics to sell infant formula - a
substitute for mothers breast milk - in
developing countries.
Breast feeding is widely regarded by medical
experts to be the cleanest, most nutritional way
to feed babies. But the critics accuse the firms
of using unscrupulous marketing and
promotion techniques to foist their products on
illiterate, poverty stricken mothers by making
them believe that bottle feeding is best for their
newborn.
They charge that the companies have in
effect bribed hospital staffs in developing
countries to get them to promote their formula
products.
The danger in all this, they say, is that once
mothers begin to rely on infant formula
substitute, their own breast milk dries up and
they become incapable of feeding their
newborn. Then the mothers unable to afford
more formula or too uneducated to read
instructions for its proper preparation,
frequently try to stretch their limited supply by
over diluting it with polluted water.
The result, they say, is infection, diarrhea,
marasmus and in many cases death.”
The Sisters of the Most Precious Blood, an
order in Dayton Ohio, brought a suit against
Bristol Myers which was settled last year. The
Sisters charged that the company
“irresponsibly” marketed infant formula in
Latin America. Under terms of the settlement,
the company, (which denied the charge) agreed
to send a report to its stockholders on the
formula, its marketing and potential misuse.
“They also agreed not to pay off doctors and
to stop the free samples,” said Sister Marita
Beumer. “The company policy says they are
stopping it, but some of the employees out
there are not following it.”
“We are planning further action,” she said.
“It will be a stockholder resolution. ”
A group called INFACT has organized an
international boycott of all Nestle (a Swiss
based company) products for the past two
years. Boycott backers claim success. They
point to a recent series of meetings with
Nestle’s top Swiss based management as a sign
that they are being taken seriously. However,
Nestle still promotes its infant formula
through the medical profession in those Third
World countries.
The goal of infant formula critics is to reduce
Third World sales and since that means that
profits go down that’s going to be difficult for
the companies to accept. It will in the long run
depend on the strength of stockholder rejection
of these practices and their concurrent abuses.
Let us watch carefully this Spring and see
what new rules if any come out of these
stockholder meetings - let us remember and
let’s let these decisions be reflected in our own
purchasing power.
(USPS) 574 880)
The
\ Geiotyia
flC^
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Most Rev. Thomas A. Donnellan - Publisher
Rev. Monsignor Noel C. Burtenshaw - Editor
Michael Motes - Associate Editor
Member of the Catholic Press Association
Telephone 881-9732
Business Office
756 West Peachtree, N.W.
Atlanta, Georgia 30308
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The Ethnic American Woman
Teresa Gernazian
Take one dedicated professional woman
brimming with vitality and imagination;
measure one marvelous idea whose time has
come; mix in an enormous amount of support
and personal involvement from family, friends
and colleagues; combine all ingredients
thoroughly and top off with a dash of luck and
you come up with a rich and varied anthology -
“The American-Ethnic Woman: Problems,
Protests and Lifestyles.”
Charming Edith Blicksilver, English Professor
at Georgia Tech, is seeing a two-year dream
come true as she enters the interview circuit
with her currently released 400 page collection.
“This is not a women’s lib book,” Edith is
quick to explain, “but rather a vehicle for
written works by and about ethnic women who
in some way accept or reject their ethnicity.”
Celestine Sibley, Atlanta Constitution
columnist, wrote about Edith in 1977 and
provided this definition which helped to
determine which works would be chosen for
the anthology: Heterogenous population as
distinguished by customs, characteristics,
languages, common history, and so forth.
A diversified range of topics and themes is
covered in the book and one touching essay
comes from a native American Indian woman
who as a child of seven travelled with her
parents. When she came to a wash room, she
realized for the first time, that her race was
discriminated against. The rooms were marked
“Men,” “Women,” and “Indians.” Her father
wisely talked to her, explaining that through
education, love and patience, those who
discriminated against them would begin to
appreciate their culture and gradually
understand them as a people. This girl grew up
to become an educator, holding on to her
ethnicity with a great amount of pride.
Another submission, “Growing Up as a
Polish American,” is written by a nun and the
accompanying photograph has a “homey”
background. The Blicksilver family live one
block from the Immaculate Heart of Mary
Church and Edith, desiring a suitable picture
snapped a side view of the Blessed Virgin
statue, which is on the lawn in front of the
rectory. Sister M. Florence Tumasz, CSFN,
from Philadelphia, had written her delightful
“memoir” for the Polish Star Newspaper in
1976 and in it she warmly describes how her
family lived out the Polish rituals and traditions
tied in with the celebrations of the Catholic
Faith.
Enid Mescon, wife of Mike Mescon who is
very active at Georgia State, contributed a story
describing her family coming over from Eastern
Europe. Though headed for America, the
family stopped in Ireland because, of all things,
they had run out of Kosher food.
There is also a contribution of a
Japanese-American woman who lived through
the relocation camp experience. At the age of
twelve, two days after Pearl Harbor, she found
her home (in California) invaded by
well-meaning FBI agents.
Evangeline Papageorge, popular personality
in the Atlanta Greek community, has an
interesting feature about her growing up years
in the South. Other local names appearing in
the book are Doras Reed Benbow and Eve
Silver.
The tremendous array of biographical
sketches, letters, short stories and poetry
representing over twenty ethnic origins is
artistically enhanced by numerous photographs,
drawings and paintings. Martha E. Clayton,
Harriett Warshaw and Maria de Noronha
Gallman are the talented artists for the
anthology, local women who contributed their
work au gratis.
In an ecumenical tie-in, Edith extends sincere
appreciation to a former neighbor, Father Paul
Langsfeld, now in Laurel, Maryland, who used
to baby-sit for her many years ago, and who
assisted her in putting this work together.
A native of New York, Edith grew up on
Long Island where she received her
undergraduate degree at Queens College and
completed graduate work at Smith College. She
is a founder and charter member of MELUS
(Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic
Literature of the United States) she is on the
book review staff of the Sunday paper; at Tech
she has initiated three courses: Ethnic
Literature, The Immigrant Experience and
Soviet Literature. She has visited Russia several
times and I covered that interesting aspect of
her career several years ago. Now she wears
another star in her crown: The
Ethnic-American Woman, published by
Kendall/Hunt of Dubuque, Iowa ($12.95)
avaiable at the Georgia Tech Book Shop and
Aspen Book Store in Stone Mountain.
And how does husband Jack, an economist
at Georgia State, feel about the whole thing?
Since the Blicksilvers have three children, his
comment is the nicest compliment Edith could
have hoped for. “This is your fourth best
production.”
The cartoon reminds us that there are in fact
two ways of amending the U.S. Constitution.
As you probably know, every single one of the
26 amendments which have been passed, since
the document was written at the Constitutional
Convention in 1787, has begun by 2/3 of both
houses of Congress approving it and then
sending it to the states where 3/4 of them
ratified it. The ERA, currently stalled three
states shy of the 38 required, also began in this
way. Its ratification has been further clouded
by four states rescinding their approval and by
Congress granting an unusual time extension for
its passage.
As ERA has slowed, another amendment has
recently been accelerating along the other path.
The wise men who drafted the Constitution
nearly 200 years ago must have foreseen that
there might come a day when a creaky,
lobby-controlled bunch of legislators might
have far too many axes to grind to listen to the
people. So, they made it possible for 2/3 of the
states to petition Congress to call a
Constitutional Convention whereupon it HAS
TO do so for the purpose of proposing to the
states an amendment to the Constitution.
Traveling this route, 27 of the required 34
states have done just that on the issue of the
balanced budget. If it succeeds, it will for sure
be written in black ink.
In the past, Congress has resisted the calling
of a Convention. If a drive got close (as with
the popular vote election of Senators, No. 17),
then Congress went ahead and proposed the
amendment itself, for reasons including (a) it
didn’t want anything passed “over its head;”
(b) its fear of what changes might be wrought
at such a gathering; (c) it got the message of
what the people wanted and decided it had
better hop on the bandwagon and grab some
credit.
I for one am not in the least afraid of a
Constitutional Convention. You and I have to
balance OUR budgets; why can’t Uncle Sam
balance HIS? Surely all that red ink contributes
to the inflation monster and to waste and graft;
if we had to count every dollar, then every
dollar would count. I’m no economist, but I’d
like to give the Convention a try. There’s no
way in Sheol that the Congress left to its own
vices, is going to write such an amendment.
On the Pro-Life issue, there is disagreement
on how to get a amendment proposed to the
states. Some favor pressuring Congress until it
acts; others wish to call a Convention on the
issue (with some 13 states already having issued
a call). Here again, maybe the Convention path
is the way to go. As the cartoon suggests, at
least 1.2 million babies a year would vote for it
if they could.
' -to-. ' * ' ' - . •' - to - _ 'f"”
Prayerfully Yours
Rev. David E. Rosage
MOUNT TABOR AND THE MASS
Luke 9: 28-36
Jesus and his prayer-team Peter, John and
James “went up onto a mountain to Pray.” A
tremendous transformation took place while
they were at prayer. “While he was praying his
face changed in appearance and his clothes
became dazzling white.”
Moses and Elijah, representing the Law
and Prophets “appeared in glory and spoke of
his passage, which he was about to fulfill in
Jerusalem.” Moses and Elijah appeared to
confirm, that which was about to happen in his
suffering and death and which would fulfill the
prophecies and replace the Law.
There are many parallels in the Mass.
a) Jesus invites us to come with him to the
mountain to the altar of Tabor. He invites us,
like he did Peter, John and James, to come
aside to pray with him.
b) In the Liturgy of the Word the plan of
God is reconfirmed for our salvation. Just as
Moses and Elijah gave meaning to what was
about to happen according to God’s plan, so
the Word of the Lord in Mass each day gives
meaning to all the happenings in our life.
c) On Mount Tabor Jesus was transfigured
and becomes resplendent. For a brief moment
his divinity broke the shell of his humanity and
the apostles witnessed his glory. In the
Eucharist Jesus remains hidden under the
appearances of bread and wine. Occasionally he
may gift us with an experiential awareness of
his presence to bolster our faith, to reassure us
of his loving presence.
d) The faith of Peter, John and James was
strengthened to such an extent that they could
partially understand the tragedy of his passion
and death which was to occur in the not too
distant future and that they might also be a
pillar of support to the other apostles. Each day
in Mass we are nourished, strengthened,
renewed, so that we can accompany Jesus
wherever he may lead us that day.
Listen to the Father say to us at Mass:
“This is my Son, my Chosen One. Listen to
him.”
With Peter, let your heart rejoice:
“Master, how good it is for us to be here.”
Additional suggestions for prayer: II Peter
1: 12-19 “ . . . we were eyewitnesses of his
sovereign majesty . . .”
- Matthew 3: 13-17 “This is my beloved
son. My favor rests on him.”