LETTERS

Dear Editors:

In 1871, when the Congress of the United States declared no more treaties with the Red Nations would be signed, three million square miles of land had already been stolen and thousands of Native American men, women and children had been brutally slaughtered.

So, who does Judy Chicago decide to honor? Sacajawea, the betrayer: the opener of the way. Had Sacajawea been any kind of woman, she would have led Lewis and Clark up a certain creek and stolen the paddles!

Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman, to name but a few, were born slaves in the land of the free! This important fact is completely ignored. A whitewash, perhaps?

If any attempt was made for the project to include a variety of the current social, economic, and racial groups, it was a feeble effort at best.

The Dinner Party is of, by, and for upper-class white women who had better realize that they cannot spit in our eyes and tell us it's raining.

Dear WSW:

-Deborah James

In late August or early September, Congress will consider the District of Columbia Appropriations Bill. An amendment will be considered which would prohibit the District from funding Medicaid abortions.

The DC Abortion Rights Coalition, which consists of over 40 organizations concerned about abortion rights and home rule in the District, played a major role in narrowly defeating a similar amendment last year. With the conservative tone of this year's Congress, we face an even tougher fight than before.

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At the present time, nine states have voluntarily chosen to fund Medicaid abortions. The Coalition

contends that the District is entitled to the same autonomy as any state (e.g., if states have the right to determine how to spend locally raised tax dollars, so should the District).

We feel it is vital that feminists across the nation be made aware of the grave injustice Medicaid recipients in the District face. We urge you to contact your Congressional representatives.

For more information, please call me at (703) 941-9012 or contact Leslie Harris, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of the National Capital Area, (202) 544-1076.

-Cheryl McKibbin Press Coordinator DC Abortion Rights Coalition

Dear What She Wants,

I want to comment on Judie Hinman's letter written to the paper about the May Radical-Feminist Conference in the June issue. The letter contains 'false information and a pretty slanted view of that conference.

The cost of the conference was $30 with preregistration. The information that women could not attend who did not eat or sleep at the camp was incorrect. There must have been some mis-communication and that was certainly too bad. I do not consider $30 too much money to pay for postage, printing, food (5 meals) and lodging (2 nights). Food and lodging cost money and these are excellent rates. The food was hardly "gourmet"-that's the way they advertise-it was just good and healthy.

It is true that arrangements were not formally

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made for women who could not pay, though one woman did contact us and made arrangements to pay on time. Scholarships were discussed and voted down. The reason behind this decision was not "racist, classist and other patriarchal values" but actually a rather simple issue of "no energy". The women who organized this conference are some of the same women who run Oven Productions, who did many of the workshops at the conference, who were working to bring the Dinner Party to Cleveland, who are in the Land Project, who run the coffeehouses and work on What She Wants. The reason for no scholarships was called "overload".

I would welcome women in the future who cannot afford events to contact the planners of these events. I would also welcome women who feel this issue is an important one, one not be shelved, to come forward before the event and give their energy/time to organize and facilitate scholarship programs. Often the reason things do not get done in the women's community is that there is no one to do them. You too can make things happen and should do so. The choice for me would have been between no

conference and one in which not all things were done well. But we did the best we could and I felt the conference's existence was more important than no conference at all.

Having been actively involved in the Cleveland women's community for the past 8 years-having been one of the staff women for CALFA for one year, with Oven Productions for 6 years, thrown innumerable community parties and gatherings in my home, helped found the Land Project, the Growth Cooperative, Syrensound, worked at the Three of Cups, organized 2 conferences, worked at Preterm 5 years and with no end in sight-I find it hard that my "feminist" vision is being questioned or that I "exclude and exploit women".

Jamie L. Hecker

P.S.-I'd also like to say that it's disappointing that the only coverage of the Radical-Feminist Conference has been these 2 letters. The conference was extremely informative as well as lots of fun. To my knowledge, three ongoing workshops/groups have come out of it also.

Rape Crisis Center Gets Funds

By Pia Calabretta

On July 22, 1981, the Cuyahoga County Mental Health Board (CMHB) voted to fund the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center $21,250. This was 85 percent of what the CMHB allocated to the Center last year.

At their meeting of June 24, the CMHB members present had voted to allocate to the Rape Crisis Center only $5,828, this funding to end October 31, 1981. The June vote was contrary to the CMHB Finance. Committee and Executive Committee's unanimous decision to maintain the Rape Crisis Center allocation at the maximum figure allowed.

The June CMHB minutes indicate that a board member, in calling for the reduction of funds to the Center, stated that "victims of rape should be treated at Mental Health Centers just the same as CMHB assumes that suicide prevention is a Mental Health Center function". However, another board member stated at the same meeting that "other agencies are not as dependent on CMHB funding as Rape Crisis Center" and added that because the Center has many volunteers, CMHB receives a better financial return dollar for dollar. This logic persuaded the Finance Committee's decision to authorize full funding to the Rape Crisis Center.

Janice E. Rench, Rape Crisis Director, credits the, revised allocation vote to the tremendous amount of community support in calls and letters directed to the CMHB and its board members. Even with this funding battle won, however, the financial future of the Center is not assured. Besides the CMHB, the Rape Crisis Center also applied for funding from Title XX money administered by the Community Information Services. Of the $37,000 requested by the Center, only $9,300 for a three-month period has been ap-

proved. This too is being appealed by the Center board. A public hearing will be held August 7 at which all interested agencies and people can testify. The Rape Crisis Center is hopeful that once again community support will be a deciding factor in their funding problems. Call the Center, 391-3912, for time and location of the meeting.

ERA Walk-A-Thon

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"NOW's last Walk-A-Thon for ERA" will be held on Saturday, August 22. The goal is to raise the $10 million plus needed to finance NOW's media campaign to bring ERA to the American public. Help, either by running, walking, advertising in the adbook, or sponsoring someone else in your place. Show this nation that women can unite to work for equality in bringing about this misunderstood and much-needed legislation. A lot of our sisters have sat back thinking that tomorrow they would help-today is that tomorrow!

The Walk-A-Thon will start at 9:00 a.m. sharp at Shaker Square following an opening rally. The walkers will begin at Shaker Square, proceed to Cedar Center, then to Severance Center, up Coventry Road and return to Shaker Square. Participants are úrged to wear white and ERA green. Walk-A-Thon buttons as well as ERA buttons will be available for sale.

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For further information call Kay Frano, President of Cleveland NOW, after 5:00 p.m. at 761-8971, c attend the August 5 meeting of the Cleveland Chapter of NOW at 7:00 p.m. at Trinity Cathedral. This meeting will be devoted entirely to the Walk-AThon.

Editorial (continued from page 1)

Supreme Court may have on this trend. While it is delightful to see the Moral Majority and Right-toLife writhing in the impotent rage feminists have felt for so long, O'Connor's record is a conservative one. Further, as a state trial and appellate judge, she has had little experience with the constitutional issues raised in the high court. However, it has often happened that once on the Supreme Court and away from political pressures, a justice has voted his conscience and convictions, to the dismay of the president who appointed him. If this proves true of O'Connor, who has shown some feminist sympathies in the past, women may indeed have a friend on the Court. On the other hand, with five of the current justices over 70, Reagan will probably have several

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opportunities to move the Court even further right. In one small ray of hope, the Supreme Court decided, 5-4, that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 can be used by women to challenge low pay scales even if no men are doing "equal work" at higher pay (see article on page 4 of this issue). However, the grounds on which this case was decided are narrow, and it will not be a far-reaching precedent on the coming issue of equal pay for comparable work.

Thus it will probably be useless to rely on the courts' to enlarge or enforce women's rights in the near future. There are legislative avenues open, however, even if the ERA is not ratified, and women's rights advocates must learn to use whatever channels of change are and become available.