LETTERS
1 must applaud you for your courageous editorial concerning the LERN March and those divisive forces in the Women's Movement who chose not to support it and their reasons for the stand they took.
This shows an unfortunate inability on their part to see the issues clearly and to realize that unless we all stand together, we will most surely fall beaten by the wayside.
Certainly the ERA should be important enough that a strong United Front of all the liberal forces available would be most desirable.
Keep up the good work!
-Ruth Brdar
Congratulations to What She Wants for the editorial on why the women's movement in general and NOW chapters in particular should welcome allies like LERN (Labor for Equal Rights Now) in the fight for ratification of ERA.
: It should be reprinted far and wide. It is an example of objective, principled thinking worthy of discussion in feminist consciousness-raising circles inside as well as outside the labor movement. It also represents the thinking of those in NOW, in the former Cleveland Council of Union Women, and other organizations, working in coalition, who succeeded in winning ratification of ERA in Ohio.
-Jean Tussey
New WomenSpace Head
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What She Wants congratulates Linda Batway on her recent appointment as Director of WomenSpace. Linda has played an active role in the Cleveland women's community for several years, including her involvement with the Cleveland Feminist Self-Help Collective and the Women's Health Advocacy Program. She also helped to establish a shelter for battered women and a displaced homemaker's program in Geauga County. She succeeds Jane Campbell, who left WomenSpace to join ERAmerica in Washington, D.C.
The "Dinner Party":
A New Sense of Freedom
By Marion Epstein
If you are younger than sixty years, what can I tell you about my life or my findings that would be interesting or of any value? I am struck by the fact that the world remains so constant. Problems that concerned us deeply forty years ago are still with us. All our anxieties about war, people's inhumanity to one another, prejudices, those who hold or strive for power over others, have never disappeared. Only names, places, and dates have changed. I was once naive to believe that enough "good" people could turn things around; that we could work to improve society. Now I am impressed with the slowness of change, so slow it is imperceptible. In spite of that but with added cynicism, I continually find myself compelled to rejoin the forces of decency, peace and compassion.
The greatest change has occurred in my own set of values. I am so much the product of a rigid, conventional up-bringing. My conditioning taught me that a woman's greatest fulfillment is in the home; that she
TA Melson
is the sole link to future generations and responsible for continuing social mores and attitudes as passed on to her from her mother. The men she encounters in her family, in school, or on the job are generally to be considered exceptional and to receive the proper
A First Anniversary Celebration
By Sally Tatnall
What we celebrate, and how, determine the symbols and rituals that bind a culture. It is important to realize how far-reaching and thorough this binding influence is. Seemingly disparate groups of people come together easily under the umbrella of ritual, and these same people will band together against any threat to those symbols. War is an outcome of this phenomenon. The rituals themselves can become clubs of obedience. A present example may be the Olympic Games.
What gets chosen to celebrate has great political impact. Celebration, symbols, and ritual become forces to achieve the cooperation of the larger group with the smaller but emerging power. They also serve to mask the functioning of that power. What emerges after some time is a transition of power that seemed painless. And with that, what people believe, what they support, and how they act are all affected. The dominant power reigns.
If that functioning of power is to be challenged, it becomes important to maintain our own symbols and
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rituals. There has been much evidence of how religious rituals have sustained people through untold horrors. Power can also be challenged by developing our own symbols with `meaning outside the dominant culture. And in the case of female culture, it is essential for us to augment our subculture through celebration. From it we can derive a sense of power and unity that will be hard to undo. This March we celebrate the first anniversary of Judy Chicago's powerful and magnificent project entitled "The Dinner Party". Hers is a project to bring to women a symbol of our heritage with its rich and nourishing forms. How appropriate it is for women to gather together at a time when the earth herself is giving forth life and freshness, newness and beginnings. Celebrating the female principle of life enriches our culture.
On Sunday, March 16th, there will be a dinner party to do just that. Woman-born women are invited to bring something to nourish our minds and something nourish our bodies to 2953 Berkshire Road at 4:00 p.m. We will create our celebrations so that we are empowered.
Any questions feel free to call 932-0977;
deference from women and children. It has taken some time and experience to realize the fallacy of that concept, which has made the possibility of independence very difficult.
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Another discovery that contributed to my awareness was that most people of both sexes, any age, and, all classes have similar insecurities, anxieties, frailties, and weaknesses. This seems true regardless of a person's age, wisdom, wealth or beauty. With this revelation I gained a new sense of freedom, a freedom to be less than perfect. If I'm not perfect, neither is anyone else. Knowing that gives me a better sense of myself.
A corollary to the theory of imperfection: Anticipated events are rarely as great as expected. Disappointment with people or situations could make for daily irritations. Although it sounds trite, I find it very therapeutic to step back and evaluate important concerns as opposed to petty annoyances. The result is a better sedative than two aspirins.
Regardless of my value system, I am aware of the importance of the myriad choices confronting me. These choices are usually based upon the best information and most sensitive intuition available. It is my belief that choosing a job, marriage, children, a new home or even a vacation, all rather momentous decisions, are less important than how one lives and works with the option chosen. I'm a printmaker and the process of working with a zinc plate makes a good analogy. When I am faced with a new plate, the infinite number of possibilities are staggering but it is necessary to choose one approach. The first move may suggest the second and so on; but each time the choices are many and any one way can be made to work. If, at any point, a decision seems wrong, it can always be scraped off. However, the plate will never be back to its original state but, most important, it is always reworkable until the artist decides it is completed. Knowing that takes some of the anxiety out of the act of choosing and gives one courage to proceed. Daily living is a lot like facing a zinc plate.
What about the sum total of all the daily experiences of one life? I have an inexplicable sense that the whole of life is greater than the sum of its days. There seems to be some design and direction, Plans are sometimes short-circuited by unexpected events which may reshape the future. But we do have the ability to capitalize on each given opportunity. It is often difficult to see any order at a given moment but I think a retrospective view will reveal a rational overall plan. I feel strongly that living is not absurd even if some lives appear to be.
One of the reasons 1 believe there is something more to our being here than just the process of birth, life and death is the special experience 1 have had with other people. Periodically, I find myself in such complete rapport with another person that we can talk, listen, understand, and contribute to one another. These moments of shared intimacy are very special and have occurred with members of my own family, close friends and some whom I hardly knew. There is no pattern of age, sex, race or class involved. The impetus for these experiences remains a mystery but I hope to heighten my awareness and receptivity to anyone who wishes to find me.
The work I do is very important to me, no longer because I seek fame or recognition but rather because I love doing it. If I satisfy myself, which doesn't happen very often, the reaction is exhilarating but the discipline of continuous creative production is its own reward.
Finally, it is a wonderful feeling to assess my thirty-seven-year relationship with my husband as one of continuous improvement. Part of it is sharing the satisfaction which comes with watching our children become responsible adults solving their own problems. It is also a special kind of delight to share the joy of a first grandchild. I had no idea that one little girl could be so much fun.