rates. The spirit of the people was so high; there was so much extra strength with all of us together.

"My feeling is we have to keep reaching out. We're having these energy hearings December 6 with a lot of groups coming to Columbus. A similar meeting in Minnesota had 60 towns send representatives. All types of organizations participated.

"I don't hear political leadership addressing any of these issues, and I know that these issues are going to affect every one of our cities and neighborhoods dramatically. There's no talk about what to do about high interest rates and how they affect small business loans, rehabilitation, and the neighborhood—all the things we fought for so long. They also aren't discussing alternate energy sources; how can we afford to heat our homes and still pay our food bills?

"You don't hear anyone talking about jobs. In Baltimore they posted 75 low entry jobs for HEW in the Social Security Building. Within three days, over 26,000 people were lined up out front. Welfare people, unemployed, those recently laid off-in one of our largest cities. If I'd been organizing in Baltimore I would have liked, to put those 26,000 people on buses, drive them to Washington, and say to our Congressmen, 'OK folks, while you're having all these meetings, what are you going to do about these people who need jobs?""

"I was out in Minnesota where neighborhoods were dealing with the high cost of energy. They found out how CSA [which funnels money to people with low incomes who need help paying their utility. bills] planned to deal with it, if there is any money. They plan to put out a brochure on how to wrap newspapers around your elderly and kids to keep them from freezing to death. That was their solution rather than to deal with the high costs of energy or other alternatives.

"Another plan the state has if you can't pay your bills is to evacuate you from your home into public buildings. Never mind that your home could get vandalized. Never mind that the water pipes would freeze. Never mind that your kids couldn't get to school or that your life gets broken up. When you see that kind of stuff, it makes you sick. But I'm willing to bet the next five years, the next ten years of my life that we can beat them and we can keep our wins and we can hang on and we can be the new leadership and guts in this country.

Since Reagan's election an air of frustration and downright panic prevails in the women's mocment. It's not hard to imagine all our progress fading away. The thought of the work that lies ahead of us often seems overwhelming.

National NOW has changed its moderate policies and is calling for civil disobedience. The large rallies and CR groups of the 1960's and the lobbying of the 1970's will not be sufficient for the 1980's. Gail Cincotta and the neighborhood movement can be an inspiration. They know how successfully to channel frustration and anger into action. The neighborhood movement provides an avenue for people who feel powerless to learn to be powerful and effective. It is a process for developing leaders and good public speakers. It shows people that they have a right to demand change and that working as a group will make change happen.

The parallels between the neighborhood movement and the women's movement are exciting. We certainly have more than enough anger and frustration and more than enough issues.

In the neighborhood movement they choose a common issue, be it gas prices or the lack of a stop sign on a corner. They identify an "enemy," such as East Ohio Gas Company or the city government. They find a specific person, someone who has the power to change or can influence others to make (continued on page 9)

BITS & PIECES

Fat Cats' Fat Cuts

(HerSay) The Reagan Administration's proposed plans to cut Social Security benefits could have a crippling effect on older women, an Older Women's League spokesperson warns.

Tish Sommers of the Older Women's League claims that Truman Campbell, a member of the California Republican Party, circulated a report dur-

NO MORE TAXES! NO RIGHTS FOR GAYS!

CUT OFF

WELFARE

WE NEED MORE POLICE POWER! MORE

DEATH

PENALTIES!

NO RIGHTS FOR

--AND TO HELL WITH ERA!

BLACKS.

EITHER!

AND LESS FREEDOM

FOR THE PRESS!

TO THE

WAY I WAS!

WE NEED TO GO BACK

Wright/Black Panthers/LNS

ing this year's campaign suggesting a return to the 1975 concept of Social Security. At that time there benefits established for widows or

were

dependents.

A cut in these benefits would reportedly affect everyone dependent on these funds, of which three out of four persons are women, Sommers says.

Reprogramming

(HerSay)-Workshop developer Nanci Newton teaches her students how to combat verbal harassment by men, such as comments about women's faces, legs, breasts or hips. Newton says a woman can walk up to a man who has made an offensive remark to her and, in a voice loud enough to be heard by bystanders, say something like this: "I don't like the remark you made. You are trying to degrade me. I want you to stop it."

Newton says that she advises her students on how to make eye contact, facial expressions and physical postures which will make the harasser understand that he has offended.

Newton predicts that street harassment will drop dramatically if women respond assertively and men can. longer count on women to react passively.

Anita Gets the Squeeze

(HerSay)-Anita Bryant, entertainer and former orange juice salesperson who led a much publicized campaign against homosexuals, said in a recent interview with Ladies Home Journal that she has now changed her mind about gays and believes in a "live and let live" policy.

That's not all she's changed her mind about. Bryant, who was divorced this year from her husband-manager Bob Green, reported her divorce has affected her feelings about feminism. As she told the Journal, "There are some valid reasons why mili' tant feminists are doing what they're doing." She added, "Having experienced a form of male chauvinism among Christians that was devastating, I can see how women are controlled in a very ungodly, unChrist-like way. The problem is that most men are insensitive to women's needs. We have been so conditioned and taught."'