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Peace Is Not Just About
Nuclear Weapons
Ten people out of the 180,000-member
peace organization SANE/FREEZE pushed
the fight for gay/lesbian civil rights one
notch higher when they convinced the
organization to form a Task Force on
Gay/Lesbian Issues during their annual
convention December 9-11. (See story
Page 1.)
Their success is exciting on its own
merit But it is especially important because
those ten people reached out and enlisted the
support of yet another mainstream
organization in our struggle for equality.
Gaining our civil rights will require that
every organization dedicated to freedom
stand up in solidarity with the gay/lesbian
community and demand that our rights be
granted to us.
Think about it - 10 people out of 180,000
began the process of change within a well-
respected multi-national organization. The
people they touched in the process of getting
the Task Force approved will undoubtedly
remember their dialogue the next time they
see homophobia. They might even step in
and stop if
Beginning in a workshop entitled
"Coming Out & Coming Together for
Peace," the group of ten didn't carp or
complain about their lack of representation
and visibility within SANE/FREEZE.
Instead, they decided to act
In the space of 24 hours, they (1) formed
a Gay/Lesbian Caucus within
SANE/FREEZE, (2) wrote the resolution to
form the Task Force, and (3) gathered the
necessary signatures to place the Task Force
resolution on the agenda Watching their
success was exciting and invigorating.
Workshop facilitator Carlie Steen
deserves special credit for the work she did
in forming and nursing the nascent group to
such large and immediate success. Although
the exact future is unsure, she expects that
the Task Force might recommend that
SANE/FREEZE include homophobia in its
target list of prejudices, add sexual
orientation to its non-discrimination
statement and elect a gay/lesbian
representative to the national board of
directors.
The work ahead of Steen and the
Gay/Lesbian Caucus will be hard, but they
passed the hardest part when they stood up
and said, "We are gays and lesbians. We
need your help to combat violence against
us, and your support in the fight for our civil
rights."
The coalition they formed speaks well
for SANE/FREEZE and the future.
SOUTHERN
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All That's Left Are
Malleus Maleficarium ring a bell? It was
the textbook for witch hunters, written by
Dominican priests in 1486. "With the printing
of Malleus Maleficarium it (the witchcraze)
not only spread down the Rhine but through
Italy, Spain, France, and countries in Northern
Europe... this colossal spread was fostered by
the invention of the printing press."
(GynJEcobgy, p. 190) Thus this culture's first
example of the effects of Mass Media: 9
million women and men, murdered for their
ties to the past - the world before the Catholic
church. This genocide lasted for 300 years -
years commonly referred to as the
Renaissance.
The Malleus Maleficarium was a hard act to
follow, but those running the network airwaves
have created our current Mass Media
phenomenon, that of withholding vital
information until after the electioa Somehow,
fm not surprised. Withholding information is
not new (did the 9 million surprise you?) As I
see it, the only true surprises left in the media
are the pleasant ones.
Like I was surprised when Toyota's front
man made it known during the Obie Awards
that the advertiser's biggest nemesis is the Lv.'s
remote control. This sent me to the store for
fresh batteries, and ever since I've been waving
my control like a magic wand - my Malleus
Maleficarium (hammer of witches)- over the
Lv. airwaves, zapping sexism, racism,
heterosexism, anti-consumerism and just plane
inanity in my search for the only kind of
surprises that are left.
Does my zapper ever stop? Yes, on that
shadow of the former Sofia - Oprah Winfrey.
Unlike Alice Walker's Sofia, Oprah has had to
make sacrifices, and I sit poised for my cue,
"... and we'll be right back." But even with the
most politically incorrect topics, (such as the
woes of shopaholics) Oprah will find a way to
work her own political conscience (Did you
know there are more shopping malls than there
are school districts, libraries and hospitals)? The
topic of a recent show was the buying up of
Pleasant Surprises
America by foreign investors. The Japanese as
bad guys became the focus by the first
commercial break. Consensus was clear when I
returned, but then came a voice of conscience...
"Caller, you're on the air..." The caller, a
woman, clearly stated that the anti-Japanese
sentiment was blatant racism. Oprah came alive
and directed her questions to illicit the facts that
the British and Dutch are the largest foreign
investors. The Japanese are number three.
Thank you caller.
I lay my weapon to rest when The
MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour comes on at 6pm.
on Channel 8, Monday through Friday. Sure,
no commercials, but there's more to be said
for this alternative to Tom, Peter and Dan,
namely Judy Woodruff and Charlene Hunter-
Gault (an Atlanta native). It's refreshing to
watch intelligent women on the boob' tube
(this derogatory term begs question as to sex,
LQ. or both) giving important information and
leading active debate on vital topics. The care
with which Jim MacNeil and Robert Lehrer
take with their pronouns is heartening. But the
best part of the News Hour comes in the latter
half of the show saved for in depth dialogue
on a particular subject among a panel of
experts. Some conscientious decision maker
has made it a point to invite female experts,
and it is truly entertaining to witness the ebb
and flow of the gender gap between experts
debating topics ranging from Apartheid to
abortion, and political pay raises to poverty in
America.
Back in my zapping mode, my mind
wanders to Malleus Maleficarium, its source,
and I know it is here still. I must keep diligent.
As a matter of fact, if you're without a New
Year's resolution, make it domestic
disobedience. Grab that t.v. channel changer
and zap out the bad, hold out for the good, and
stand poised for pleasant surprises.
-Jessi McVay