editorial

Some argue that men and women have inherent differences - whether described as physical or genetic. However, a lot of the differences between men and women in general are taught to us by society, by all of the people and things that influence us daily.
When women are born, they are given pink dresses and bows in their hair. Little boys are given light blue jumpers. Even when they are infants, even if other adults can't tell what the sex of the child, this is done - precisely to insure that the rest of the world will know what the sex of the child is. As they are raised, they are given toys to play with - girls the infamous Barbie, and boys the popular G.I. Joe. Girls progress to baby dolls they can dress and feed and burp, with accessories such as baby bottles, strollers and blankets. Boys progress to model cars and trucks, then on to guns and weapons, then the prized bicycle, then sports equipment, then building and erector sets.
As they grow, parents decide what clothes the children will wear, and what their hair will look like, and what toys they will play with, and how they will go about playing. Girls are clothed in little dresses, fully equipped with tights and buckled shoes, and are given little bows to hold back their longer, more cumbersome hair. They are encouraged to have a best friend to stay in the house with, to play house with, to play quietly with, to put make-up on, and to maintain a one-on-one, more intimate relationship. They role-play, and even in their play define roles for themselves - or at least define that there are roles that exist in the world.
As boys grow they are encouraged to go outdoors, to be rowdy, to find new friends, explore boundaries, play sports where they learn cooperation and competition, and even learn to battle in play fights. They are dressed in comfortable pants and t-shirts and athletic sneakers. Their hair is short and manageable. They learn to get dirty. They learn to win. They learn to lead other boys in play - larger numbers of children than women are accustomed to dealing with.
Each sex interacts with other children of primarily the same sex, but these same-sex children have been taught like them to do the things their sex is supposed to do. They reinforce the behavior of other children - the behavior taught to them from their parents, their siblings, their toys, their television, their movies, their fairy tales. Each sex learns about interactions with others, but they learn entirely different things. The traits each sex take from these experiences are vastly different from the traits of the other sex.
Girls learn the importance of intimacy and trust, fostered by their female best friend. They learn not to be rowdy - they learn a more sedentary form of play. They learn the value of taking care of others. They learn to pretend and role-play the position of mother. They learn the value of their physical looks. They learn from their physical idol - the Barbie doll. If Barbie was a real woman, at 5' 10" her measurements would be 38, 18, 32, and she would weigh 110 pounds - an almost unattainable figure at best.
Boys learn the importance of working with other people toward a common goal. They learn to get along with a large number of people. They learn to win - they learn the American notion of competition, and they also learn the harder lesson of not trusting others, especially when other children are working toward the same goal as they are. They learn to explore new things and not be afraid. They learn to stretch themselves physically. They learn to work toward their goals. They learn about pain, about losing, and about winning. And although boys do not necessarily gain close relationships in the same way girls do, they gain a common bond between other boys - any and all boys that can jump in and join the game with them.
Some of the values both sexes take from their childhood are valuable - in fact, most of the traits taught to both sexes are admirable. However, it is important to remember three things:
1. Both sets of traits are particularly one-sided. One learns the value of competition, but doesn't learn how to interact on a personal level. The other learns deep trust, which can be detrimental when in a battle, such as a sport. One learns to build and create, but not interact. The other learns to imagine, but only on the level of interaction with a significant other.
2. These differences are taught to us, given to us, by our parents, commercials on television, by other friends we meet, by our siblings, by the colors that surround us, by the toys given to us, by our idols from out toys - from the likes of Barbie and G.I. Joe, by our cartoon role models, by our clothing purchased for us. Boys are expected to go outside to play and get dirty. Girls are expected to keep their pretty clothes clean, even if they were comfortable in their dress, tights and patent leather shoes to go outside and play.
There may by genetic or physical differences between the sexes, there may not be. I won't even address that point; it is irrelevant. The differences that are present in the values the sexes distinctively possess are not exclusive to any one sex. They are taught to us by male and female role models everywhere in our society. They are imposed on us from the day we are born to long after we are adults.
3. These two separate sets of traits, when placed with each other, one on one, face to face, are suddenly in great conflict.
First of all, boys are taught to hate girls, and girls are taught to hate boys. Girls are taught to trust and develop an intimate relationship, boys are taught not to get close, but to win, whatever the cost.
As they grow up, the woman looks for a long-term relationship, the man looks for sex. The woman is taught to keep sex from the man, and the man is taught to feign a relationship to gain sex. The woman is taught to trust, the man is taught to use that trust against her.
´´´
It is a power that society influences over each and every one of us. It is a power that each and every one of us as members of society play into and reinforce in each other, as well as teach to our children. It is taught, shown to us by ads in magazines, by commercials, by children's toys and clothes, by the way girls associate with their mommy and boys disassociate from their mommy and run to daddy. It is evident by the way women are taught to make themselves look beautiful while men are taught to look rugged. By the want women are calming and men are forceful.
It is taught to us and perpetuated in this society by everyone in it that accepts it - women as well as men. Our mothers teach us this as well as our fathers.
But it is taught to us.
And these separations of personalities are not specifically inherent (genetically) to one sex or another - they have been arbitrarily placed in these positions because they worked for so long in keeping the sexes separated. And although women are making changes toward being more equal in this society, they are fighting not only against a work place that may not react to her so kindly, but they are fighting against everything they have been taught, against all the forces that have influenced them in the past.
And when some women do succeed in making these changes, they are looked upon by some (male and female) as strange because they do not possess what this society considers "normal" traits for a woman.
The problem is not with the people in this society. They are doing only what is expected of them, what has always worked in the past. That is to be expected. The problem is with what the society as a whole accepts as normal. They are created roles which further drive the sexes apart.
Only when we notice these things can we understand why we have been raised to differently, why there is so much conflict between the sexes. And only when we notice these things can we learn to accept that there are other choices for how to raise our children, and how we ourselves should live.

Two Men Arrested in Murder of Student Burned Alive
NEW YORK, Sept 7 (Reuter) - Two men were arrested and charged with kidnapping and murder in the torching death of a college student, police and prosecutors said.
The body of Kimberly Antonakos was found gagged and bound to a chair inside an abandoned house in the New York City borough of Queens March 4.
The suspects allegedly poured gasoline over the 20-year-old woman and burned her alive after failing to contact her father to demand a ransom, police said.
Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said the murder was one of the most brutal and savage the county had ever seen.
Police identified the suspects as Joshua Torres, 22, and Nicholas Libretti, 19, both of Brooklyn.
Torres is also accused of killing a third suspect, Jose Negron, who he feared was about to tell authorities about the woman's murder, police said. Negron was shot with a bullet to the head with a 9mm pistol.
Both Libretti and Torres have prior criminal records.
According to the charges, Libretti and Negron allegedly abducted Antonakos from the driveway of her home, bound and gagged the young woman, threw her in the trunk of her car and took her to a vacant house where they tied her to a chair and left her for three days.
``They then attempted to contact Miss Antonakos' father by leaving a message on his answering machine demanding money for her release,'' Charles Reuther, New York City Police Department Chief of Detectives, said at a news conference. He said the woman's father is a successful computer executive.
Libretti faces 25 years to life in prison, if convicted. Torres faces 50 years to life if convicted of both murders.
``It was only for money that the kidnapping took place,'' Reuther said.

Tokyo to Charge Doctor in AIDS Scandal

TOKYO (Reuter) - Prosecutors are set to charge the former head of AIDS research in Japan with negligence for the deaths of hemophiliacs who were given HIV-contaminated blood products, Japanese media reported.
The reports said the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office plans criminal charges against Takeshi Abe, former head of the Health Ministry's AIDS team, for using blood products that had not been heat-treated on patients despite medical reports that they may be tainted with the HIV virus.
The Mainichi Shimbun said prosecutors may act before the end of the week.
A spokesman for the prosecutors office and Abe had no comment on the reports.
Abe has been under investigation since complaints filed against him by the family of a hemophiliac who received untreated blood products at the hospital where Abe worked. The patient died of AIDS in late 1991.
The 80-year-old professor and specialist in hemophilia served as head of a Health Ministry research team set up in 1983 to investigate the source of mushrooming AIDS cases in Japan.
Media reports have said Abe is believed to have influenced the team's conclusion in March of 1984 to favor use of untreated blood products, instead of a safer product, cryoprecipitate.
Investigators believe they have enough evidence to prove Abe was aware of the risks of using unheated blood products in 1985, when the patient whose family complained was infected with the HIV virus, the Yomiuri Shimbun, a mass-circulation daily, reported.
The expected action against Abe would be the latest development in the decade-long scandal in which over 2,000 hemophiliacs contracted HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus which can cause AIDS.
Osaka public prosecutors last week raided the offices of Green Cross Corp, a blood supply company, and questioned former company president Renzo Matsushita, who is accused of negligence in the death of a patient from AIDS.
The Health Ministry, after maintaining for years it could not find key documents, in February made public files from a 1983 study group which indicated health authorities were aware of the danger of HIV infection from untreated blood products.
In March, Japanese hemophiliacs accepted an out-of-court settlement in which the plaintiffs agreed to a one-time payment of $424,000 each, putting an end to a seven-year legal battle against the state and five pharmaceutical firms.
Recent health ministry figures show that there are 1,154 people with AIDS and 2,942 infected with the HIV virus in Japan, a nation of 123 million. About 400 hemophiliacs have already died from AIDS and AIDS-related complications, activists say.

Sex-Offender Notification Law to be Repealed

TRENTON, N.J., Oct 25 (Reuter) - A lawyer for a convicted sex offender said he was appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court a New Jersey law that lets authorities notify the public of molesters in their midst.
John Furlong, who represented an offender identified in court papers only as John Doe in an appeal of "Megan's Law'' to the state supreme court, said his papers were filed.
The state court ruled that the law would pass constitutional muster if its guidelines were rewritten to guarantee offenders due process. The law is named after Megan Kanka, a 7-year-old girl who was raped and murdered last year, allegedly by a released sex offender.
Meanwhile, in the trial of the man accused of the killing, the trial judge was considering a defence request to keep the jury from hearing the girl's name. The trial of Jesse Timmendequas has already been moved from Trenton to Camden because of pre-trial publicity.
The law was enacted in a wave of outrage after the Kanka family learned that their neighbour had twice been convicted of sex offences. It requires sex offenders to register and gives prosecutors the task of assessing the risk they pose and notifying the public of the most dangerous offenders.
Furlong said the law is constitutionally questionable because it imposes new punishments on offenders long after their trial and after completion of their sentence or parole.
"This appeal concerns 'ex post facto' punishment and double jeopardy issues only,'' Furlong said. "There are still due-process issues, but they are for another time.''
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge this week signed into law a version of the New Jersey measure. The Pennsylvania law differs in that it does not apply to anyone who has completed his contact with the justice system, Ridge noted.
The New Jersey Supreme Court held that society's need to protect its most vulnerable members outweighs the theoretical loss of an offender's rights. But it ruled that offenders had a right to be informed by prosecutors what the risk finding was and the right to appeal before a judge. The court also said offenders should have the right to a lawyer.
State rules have been changed to comply with that ruling, but no money has been raised to pay lawyers for representing indigent offenders. That has prompted lawyers' organisations to protest what they called an unfair burden. "The state has no idea how much this is going to cost,'' Furlong said.

Worried Britons Swamp Hotlines over HIV Test

LONDON (Reuter) - Worried Britons swamped AIDS helplines with calls after hearing that one test for the deadly HIV virus had been withdrawn after manufacturers said it had produced false negative results.
British health officials tried to justify their decision not to announce that the test had problems earlier and said many people had been unnecessarily worried.
The Department of Health said a "small proportion'' of people who are HIV positive were falsely given negative results in the test manufactured by Chicago-based drug company Abbott Laboratories Inc., and 20,000 would have to be re-tested.
Abbott stopped selling the test on March 25 after at least four cases were reported where the test showed negative results on patients known to have the HIV virus that causes AIDS.
About two million of the tests have been sold worldwide since July 1995. The company said it was investigating the cause of the discrepancies and that its other tests were not affected.
But British charities said they were angry that the news had leaked out just before the long Easter holiday weekend, when many hospitals and clinics would offer emergency services only.
"We have had several calls from people who are obviously quite worried,'' said Susie Parsons of London Lighthouse, one of several AIDS charities in the capital. "We have heard from other organizations providing helplines saying they are getting calls.''
Parsons said her organization needed more clear information about what to tell worried callers. ``We would certainly have appreciated knowing as soon as the worries about the test results came out,'' she told BBC radio.
"I think letting people know through the press in a panic over a bank holiday weekend is not the way to go about it.''
The health ministry defended its decision not to make the information public sooner.
"We were planning to make the situation public next week when more detailed arrangements, including the arrangements that each local clinic would need, could be put into place,'' Graham Winyard, the government's deputy chief medical officer, told BBC radio.
"This is a tiny, tiny problem. As I have said four cases in the entire world to our knowledge have produced this false negative result,'' Winyard said, adding that he "deeply regretted'' the situation.
"This is only one of a number of tests used to test for HIV. Many labs will not be affected at all and even when the test has been used there are only a small number of these false negative results.''
Jangu Banatvala of the clinical virology unit at St. Thomas's Hospital in London, estimated that 20,000 to 40,000 people had had the suspect test since September but said the problem was a relatively small one.
"It's only patients who have a particular antibody profile as a result of HIV infection,'' he told the BBC.
Nick Partridge, chief executive of the Aids charity the Terence Higgins Trust, said that anybody who was wrongly tested as negative might be able to sue Abbott Laboratories.
"The worst case that could happen is that a couple will have gone for testing, both of whom have been given a negative result but one of whom is actually positive. They could have cause for a legal case.''

Dorrance Publishing Co.,
Pittsburgh, PA
"Hope Chest in the Attic" captures the complexity of human nature and reveals startling yet profound discernments about the travesties that surge through the course of life. This collection of poetry, prose and artwork reflects sensitivity toward feminist issues concerning abuse, sexism and equality. It also probes the emotional torrent that people may experience as a reaction to the delicate topics of death, love and family.
"Chain Smoking" depicts the emotional distress that afflicted a friend while he struggled to clarify his sexual ambiguity. Not only does this thought-provoking profile address the plight that homosexuals face in a homophobic society, it also characterizes the essence of friendship. "The room of the rape" is a passionate representation of the suffering rape victims experience. Vivid descriptions, rich symbolism, and candid expressions paint a shocking portrait of victory over the gripping fear that consumes the soul after a painful exploitation.

Clinton Signs Megan's Law on Child Molestors

By Gene Gibbons
WASHINGTON, May 17 (Reuter) - President Bill Clinton on Friday signed "Megan's Law," which requires that local officials be warned when dangerous child molesters and rapists are freed from jail and move into their communities.
Clinton signed the law at a White House ceremony before leaving for St. Louis, Missouri, where he planned to spotlight his anti-crime policies again.
"We respect people's rights, but today America proclaims there is no greater right than a parent's right to raise a child in safety and love. Today, America warns - if you dare to prey on our children, the law will follow you wherever you go, state to state, town to town," he said.
"Today, America circles the wagon around our children."
The law honours 7-year-old Megan Kanka of New Jersey, who was raped and murdered two years ago. A twice-convicted child molester who lived on her block was charged with the crime. Megan's parents, Richard and Maureen Kanka, have fought hard for tougher notification laws since her death and were among those at the signing ceremony.
Also present were John Walsh, host of the popular TV show "America's Most Wanted," whose son was kidnapped and murdered in 1981; Marc Klaas, whose daughter was abducted and murdered in 1993, and Patty Wetterling, whose son was abducted in 1989 and has never been found.
"Each of you deserves the fullest measure of your country's thanks. Because of you, steps have already been taken to help families protect their children," Clinton said.
"Megan's Law" requires states to release relevant information about child molesters and sexually violent criminals who are out on parole or released from prison if officials believe they pose a threat.
Forty-nine states, including New Jersey, have laws requiring registration of convicted child molesters and 30 have programmes to warn communities when offenders move in.
Some of these laws are being challenged in court by civil rights groups that believe they are unconstitutional.
But Clinton said the government was prepared to fight to uphold the laws ``all the way to the Supreme Court."
"It is our job to get out there and defend this law. And we intend to do it if it's challenged. And in the meanwhile we intend to enforce it," he said.
In St. Louis, Clinton planned to visit a high school that is fighting to overcome a troubled, violence-plagued past. His visit capped a week-long series of events designed to show his concern about crime, a top issue in the presidential election campaign.
Afterwards, Clinton was due to speak at a fundraiser for House Democratic leader Richard Gephardt of Missouri.

Dusty Dog Reviews
These poems document a very complicated internal response to the feminine side of social existence.
And as the book proceeds the poems become increasingly psychologically complex and, ultimately, fascinating and genuinely rewarding.

C Ra McGuirt, Editor, The Penny Dreadful Review
cc&d is obviously a labor of love ... I just have to smile when I go through it. (Janet Kuypers) uses her space and her poets to best effect, and the illos attest to her skill as a graphic artist.

Dusty Dog Reviews
She opens with a poem of her own devising, which has that wintry atmosphere demonstrated in the movie version of Boris Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago. The atmosphere of wintry white and cold, gloriously murderous cold, stark raging cold, numbing and brutalizing cold, appears almost as a character who announces to his audience, "Wisdom occurs only after a laboriously magnificent disappointment." Alas, that our Dusty Dog for mat cannot do justice to Ms. Kuypers' very personal layering of her poem across the page.

House Republicans Proclaim Environmental Principles

By Vicki Allen
WASHINGTON (Reuter) - House Republicans Wednesday moved to clean up their environmental image with a statement outlining their vision for better laws to control pollution and protect public health.
At a news conference on a scenic Potomac River island, Georgia Republican and House Speaker Newt Gingrich and chairmen of a task force he appointed said environmental laws ``must move beyond the outdated approaches of the past'' and use more flexible and innovative policies.
"We will offer common sense, flexible and effective approaches that build on consensus, private property ownership, free enterprise, local control, sound scientific evidence and the latest technology," the task force's vision statement said.
This was the first formal statement issued by the task force, which Gingrich appointed earlier this spring to screen environmental legislation and avoid defeats of bills that critics said were written mainly to benefit polluting industries.
After Republicans were painted in public opinion polls as anti-environmentalists, Gingrich appointed the task force of moderate and conservative Republicans to reassess the party's position.
Gingrich called the task force's statement "the foundation of the new environmentalism, which will define the environmental agenda for the 21st Century."
But the Natural Resources Defense Council in a report released earlier Wednesday said Republican environmental legislation has changed little since the task force was formed and outlined legislation pending in the House and Senate that it said would weaken protections.
The report listed bills to turn the Tongass National Forest over to Alaska, relax limits on pesticides in foods, compensate property owners if government rules such as pollution controls limit their land values and give communities and industries more ways to waive federal environmental rules.
Rep. Wayne Gilchrest of Maryland, a moderate Republican, said he favored including Democrats on the task force to make it a stronger bi-partisan body.
Speaking at the briefing with the NRDC, he said he felt the task force was having a moderating effect.
Deb Callahan, president of the League of Conservation Voters which monitors Congress' environmental record, said she was disappointed in the task force's statement.
If this is the vision that this House has for the future of our environmental policy, then I think our nation's in deep trouble because there is no vision here," Callahan said.
"I don't see much change from the original perspective that the Speaker set out with in early 1995 when there were efforts to emphasize the rights of free enterprise and local control and private property rights," Callahan said.

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Lisbon, Ohio - The Court of Common Pleas in Columbiana County, Ohio, will be asked by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals to restrain Columbiana County from illegally and cruelly killing dogs at its pound by means of a cement chamber flooded with truck exhaust in violation of standards set by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA). The AVMA condemns the use of car or truck exhaust to kill animals.
PETA's attorney, Shawn Thomas, is representing two Columbiana County residents filing suit against Columbiana County and the county dog warden, charging violations of Ohio Revised Code Section 955.16, which prohibits any killing method that does not "immediately and painlessly render the dog initially unconscious and subsequently dead." The complaint asks for a Temporary Restraining Order to stop the gassing which takes place every Thursday.
Filed with the complaint is an affidavit from a PETA investigator who documented the killing of dogs at the Columbiana County pound on April 18, 1996. The PETA investigator videotaped 22 dogs crammed into the box, one on top of the other and gassed at one time. The dogs were then thrown into a dumpster without being checked for signs of life. A live dog was also thrown into the chamber containing already-gassed animals.
Also filed with the complaint is an affidavit from Ohio veterinarian Donald L. Burton, whose professional opinion is that Columbiana County fails to comply with Ohio law. "Elected officials in Columbiana County have ignored the cries of the animals and the appeals of citizens who demand a decent death for the county's strays. We hope the court will compel the county to stop illegally butchering animals and act humanely," says Mary Beth Sweetland, Director of PETA's Research, Investigations,& Rescue Department.
From People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

Nurses Quick to Assist Patient's Deaths - Survey

By Gene Emery
BOSTON, May 22 (Reuter) - One in five nurses who care for the terminally ill are helping their patients die, a survey published in the New England Journal of Medicine said.
Some are hastening the death of those in their care without a direct request from the patient, the doctor or a family member, it added.
The poll of 852 critical care nurses who subscribe to the journal Nursing shows that "as public debate continues about euthanasia and assisted suicide, some critical care nurses in the United States are engaging in such practices," said the survey's author, Dr. David Asch of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
But an official of the American Nurses Association Centre for Ethics and Human Rights in Washington attacked the survey, saying that problems with the questionnaire suggest "substantial concern about the validity of the findings."
The results are expected to add new - and possibly explosive - fuel to the controversy over whether a health professional should help speed the arrival of death when patients cannot communicate their wishes, or when they are directly asking to be put out of their misery.
In his survey, Asch found a high level of religious feeling and a strong willingness to fulfil requests for euthanasia or assisted suicide from patients or friends and family members in charge of making decisions about their care.
Asch's analysis of the nurses' statements also found:
- 17 percent said they have received requests to engage in assisted suicide or euthanasia; 19 percent have done it.
- The nurses say they complied with 8 percent of the requests made by patients and 12 percent of the requests made by family members or other surrogates.
- At least 7 percent of the nurses apparently hastened the death of at least one patient without any direct instructions from the patient, a family member or a doctor. Asch said that in such cases there may have been some type of tacit consent.
"Usually, the patient has either verbalized or written several requests to have his/her suffering ended," he quotes one nurse as writing. "It's like we never planned it, but, having developed a relationship with the patient, we both knew when it was time. In some instances, the patient was unconscious, on an opiate drip, which I increased or failed to decrease when vital signs dropped."
In all, 164 of the 852 nurses said they had done something in their careers to hasten a patient's death.
"It's important to recognise that although 19 percent of the nurses reported engaging in euthanasia at least once in their careers, these events are exceedingly rare," Asch said.
Of that 19 percent, those nurses "reported one or two instances over an average career of nine years, during which time they might have cared for thousands of patients," he said.

texas executes inmate
convicted of killing cop

HUNTSVILLE, Texas, Dec 6 (Reuter) - A man convicted of killing an off-duty Dallas police officer investigating an apartment robbery was executed in the Texas death chamber.
Bernard Amos, 33, died seven minutes after receiving a dose of lethal chemicals, Texas Department of Corrections spokesman Larry Fitzgerald said.
"The state of Texas is making a mistake tonight. It does not do any good to have lawyers. They hold you to procedural law," Amos said before the injection began.
"Fifty percent of the cases that go before the court of criminal appeals, they only hear the white ones. The state of Texas will take my life with eleven unanswered claims. May the grace of God have mercy on them," he said.
Amos spent his final day alone as family members continued eleventh-hour legal challenges to a death sentence handed down for his role in the January 1988 shooting.
According to Texas prosecutors, Amos and a cousin had just robbed a Dallas apartment when they were confronted by James Joe, a 34-year old off-duty Dallas policeman working as a security guard at the apartment complex.
Amos pulled a pistol and at point-blank range shot Joe, who was wearing a Dallas Police Department sweatshirt and had his badge on his waist. Amos, shot twice in an ensuing struggle with Joe, was later captured hiding under a truck in a nearby apartment complex.
Amos had an extensive criminal record, including seven felony convictions for burglary and car thefts, prosecutors said.
He became the 16th person executed in Texas this year, and the 101st executed since the state restored the death penalty in 1982. Texas prison officials expect to tie a state record with the 17th execution of the year Thursday, and eclipse the record next week when two more executions are scheduled.
Texas has executed more people than any other state since the U.S. Supreme Court restored capital punishment in 1976.

Giant "Rat" Attacks Oral-B

Arrests Expected at Laboratory Protest
Belmont, Calif. - Behind a banner that reads, "What Oral-B Does to Animals Makes Me Bristle," a
giant "rat" brandishing a huge "toothbrush" led members of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) in protest outside the Oral-B laboratory. Oral-B is a subsidiary of The Gillette Company, which tests products such as mouthwash, deodorant, dandruff shampoo, and Liquid Paper on animals.
Risking arrest, the "rat" will enter the Oral-B laboratory to distribute leaflets to employees detailing how Gillette drips substances into rabbits' eyes and pours products down rats' throats, killing thousands of animals every year.
Gillette is the number one company on PETA's "Stop Animal Tests" hit list. No law requires animal tests for any of the products manufactured by Gillette or Oral-B, and more than 550 companies, including Revlon, Tom's of Maine, and EstZÿe Lauder, now use modern, safe, and humane alternatives to animal tests.
From People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

Giant "Rat" Gives Gillette A Close Shave

Arrests Expected at Office Demonstration
Bolingbrook, Ill. - Behind a banner reading, "Gillette Tortures Animals," members of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and Illinois Animal Action protested outside the Gillette Company. Protesters are angry that Gillette continues to torture and kill animals in cruel product tests, when no federal law requires tests for any of the products that the company manufactures, such as deodorant, dandruff shampoo, and Liquid Paper.
Dressed as a "rat," a protester attempt to enter the office to distribute leaflets describing how Gillette drips substances into rabbits' eyes and pours products down rats' throats, killing thousands of animals every year.
Gillette is the number one company on PETA's "Stop Animal Tests" hit list. More than 550 other companies, including Revlon, Avon, and EstZÿe Lauder, have replaced animal tests with modern, humane, safe alternatives.
From People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

"Keep Your Paws Off My Claws!"

Protesting "Lobster" Stirs Debate at Seafood Show
Boston, MA - Carrying a banner that reads, "Stop Boiling Animals Alive," a giant "lobster," along with members of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), protested outside the International Boston Seafood Show.
Lobsters have sophisticated nervous systems and do not go into shock when severed or dismembered, so they experience excruciating pain and suffering as they die. A lobster who is being boiled alive will frantically scrape the sides of the pot, trying to escape the pain. In the ocean, lobsters are known to live more than 145 years and travel over 100 miles a year.
"There is no humane way to kill a lobster," says PETA's Tracy Reiman. "We wouldn't drop live pigs or chickens into scalding water-why should it be any different for lobsters?"
Animal activists across the country are snatching lobsters from small tanks and returning them to the ocean off the coast of Maine.
From People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

close cover before striking

you've been warned.

book from janet kuypers.
available through scars publications.
checks payable to janet kuypers, $10/book.

By Christina Pantin
OKLAHOMA CITY, (Reuter) - Prison officials ordered the revival of a codemned killer who apparently overdosed on drugs and then executed him by lethal injection several hours later, officials said.
Robert Brecheen, 40, was put to death at 1:55 a.m. (2:55 a.m. EDT) at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, about 120 miles southeast of Oklahoma City, for killing a woman in a 1983 robbery attempt, officials said.
Brecheen, whose last appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court was turned down, was found unconscious about three hours before the scheduled execution, apparently from an overdose of an unidentified drug, a spokesman for the Oklahoma Department of Corrections said.
He was rushed to hospital after being found during a routine check, revived and returned to prison for execution.
Prison official Ken Klinger said Brecheen had made a brief final statement before he was executed, speaking in a normal tone and manner. State law requires that condemned prisoners be coherent to face execution.
``He didn't stutter, his speech wasn't slurred,'' said Klinger, who was present at the execution. He said Brecheen said he loved his family and thanked the state's Department of Corrections ``for treating him humanely.'' None of Brecheen's family witnessed the execution.
But one of Brecheen's lawyers said an investigator sent to the prison to check whether the condemned man was lucid said ''he (Brecheen) was still disoriented'' before being killed.
Steve Presson, a lawyer with the state agency that defends indigent clients, said prison officials allowed the investigator to ask Brecheen only two or three questions before proceeding with the execution.
``We are very, very disappointed that we were not allowed to investigate that potential claim (that Brecheen was not coherent) further,'' Presson said.
Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson told the Daily Oklahoman newspaper that hospital officials told him Brecheen had overdosed on tranquilizers, either diazepam or Valium.
But Presson, who has defended Brecheen for two years and described him as a model prisoner, said he did not believe he was taking any medication and was not suicidal.
``He did not want to die, he wanted to live,'' he said.
He said Brecheen, who was trusted with the job of running errands on death row, was so well liked among prisoners and prison employees that a prison supervisor last week urged the Pardon and Parole Board to spare his life.
Brecheen, who did not request a final meal and did not eat the food offered to him, had been watched constantly by two guards, Klinger said.
A spokeswoman for the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation said officials are investigating events surrounding the execution.
Brecheen was convicted of shooting Marie Stubbs, 59, during an attempted burglary at her Ardmore home in May 1983.
He was the sixth man to die in Oklahoma since the reinstatement of the death penalty in the 1970s, and the third to be executed this year.

Debra Purdy Kong, writer, British Columbia, Canada
I like the magazine a lot. I like the spacious lay-out and the different coloured pages and the variety of writer's styles. Too many literary magazines read as if everyone graduated from the same course. We need to collect more voices like these and send them everywhere.

Dusty Dog Reviews
The whole project is hip, anti-academic, the poetry of reluctant grown-ups, picking noses in church. An enjoyable romp! Though also serious.

PETA Kicks Off National "Save Our Schools" Campaign
Washington, D.C. - Carrying a banner reading, "Fund Books, Not Hooks," PETA's 7-foot-tall "fish"
mascot, Gill, and members of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) kicked off its national pro-fish, anti-fishing campaign at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's National Fishing Week promotion at Constitution Gardens on the National Mall, on Monday, June 3, at 10:30 a.m. National Fishing Week is a federally sponsored attempt to promote fishing to inner-city kids.
Fish have a neurochemical system like humans, the brain capacity to experience fear and pain, and sensitive nerve endings in their lips and mouths. They begin to die of suffocation the moment they are pulled out of the water. Fish also can accumulate extremely high levels of chemical residues-as much as 9 million times that of the water they live in-and their flesh stores PCBs, which have been linked to cancer and nervous system disorders in humans.
"Teaching urban kids how to maim and kill animals does nothing to increase understanding or appreciation of marine life and aquatic ecosystems," says PETA's Davey Shephard. "The Fish and Wildlife Service should teach kids respect and compassion for wildlife, not violence." PETA is encouraging kids to learn about nature by getting hooked on hiking, canoeing, bird-watching, mountain-biking, snorkeling, camping, and rock-climbing.
From People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

Giant "Pig" Urges: "Vote For Babe!"

PETA Encourages Vegetarianism at Academy Awards
Los Angeles, CA - Carrying a sign reading, "Vote for Babe-Go Veg," PETA's pink, vegetarian mascot, Petunia the "pig," greeted Oscar attendees at the Academy Awards.
Unlike Babe, real-life pigs raised for food suffer greatly. Pigs are confined to factory farms and crowded 50 together in such small spaces that they often mutilate themselves from stress. In addition, pigs are fed massive doses of hormones, pesticides, and antibiotics to keep disease down and profits up. Each year in the United States, 92 million pigs are castrated and have their tails cut off without anesthesia before being slaughtered for human consumption.
"A vote for Babe is a vote for life," says PETA's Vegetarian Campaign coordinator, Tracy Reiman. "Let's save animal and human lives by kicking the meat habit." Consumers can obtain delicious, healthy, and free vegetarian recipes by calling the PETA hotline, 1-800-355-VEGE.
From People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

Three Grizzly Cases Focus Child Abuse

By Deborah Zabarenko
WASHINGTON (Reuter) - Three American children named Elisa, Elijah and Tazar have crystallized debate about an alarming increase in child abuse in the United States, especially the violent abuse that ends in death.
The three recent cases, in New York, Detroit and Chicago, caught the nation's attention with their depravity, prompting collective soul-searching.
"It's hard to attribute one reason why these horrific cases are happening,'' said Michael Kharfen, a spokesman for the federal government's division on children and families. "It comes down to what kind of country we're going to be.''
In the most notorious incident, Elisa Izquierdo, a 6-year-old New Yorker, was fatally beaten after weeks of torture that reportedly included being forced to eat her own excrement. Her drug-addicted mother is charged with her death. Outcry has focused on a system that gave the mother custody.
Elijah Evans was literally cut from his murdered mother's womb last month during a triple homicide in suburban Chicago, allegedly by a woman who was unable to have a child of her own by Elijah's father.
Tazar "Cash'' Carter, 15, was recalled as a friendly boy who always needed money, a trait that apparently ran in the family. His mother reportedly gave Tazar to drug dealers as a runner and sexual slave to retire a $1,000 crack cocaine debt in Detroit.
Legislators and family advocates variously blame the child welfare system, the popular media, steep cost-cutting policies brought in by the year-old Republican Congress and a decay in American family life.
House Speaker Newt Gingrich, an architect of the Republican plan, drew barbs from baby Elijah's family when he blamed the suburban Chicago incident on ``a welfare system which subsidized people for doing nothing.'' He also blamed a lax criminal justice system and poor schools.
Joyce Johnson, a spokeswoman for the Child Welfare League of America, worried about "this whole conservative movement that people need to get out there and help themselves.'' She agreed that self-reliance was the best course for many but that "some people are going to need a push.''
But while debate has intensified, the facts are not in dispute: 2.9 million cases of child abuse and neglect were reported in 1993, the most recent year for which statistics are available.
This is a four-fold increase in child abuse cases since 1976, when the Department of Health and Human Services began keeping count.
Child abuse now eclipses accidents such as falls, drowning and fires as the number one cause of death for children under four years old, Kharfen said, adding that 90 percent of child abuse cases involve parents or other caregivers.
Kharfen and others worry that the statistics will get more alarming if cuts in federal aid programs for children and families are approved by Congress.
In a full-page ad in Friday's New York Times, the National Association of Social Workers sent a message to President Clinton: "Congress wants the federal government to abandon its commitment to children who are poor, hungry, abused, neglected and disabled ... don't sign any welfare bill that abandons the nation's children.''
The current congressional proposal calls for a $4.6 billion cut in child aid programs over seven years, meaning a decrease from $22.3 billion to $17.7 billion.
Kharfen and Johnson acknowledged in telephone interviews that a weakening of American families may be a root cause of the increase in the worst child abuse cases, but maintained that cutting federal money would hurt troubled families.
However, Kristi Hamrick, a spokeswoman for the conservative Family Research Council think tank, rejected this notion, saying government handouts had created the problem.
"Our welfare system sets up a system where you are paid to fail,'' Hamrick said in a telephone interview. "... These three very gruesome cases speak to a culture that's losing its moral foundation. The only thing good about this is that we are horrified by it ... that's a tremendous wakeup call.''

Health, Humane Concerns May Stop People From Fishing
Fishing Poll Shows 34-46 Percent of Those Who Fish Might Quit

Washington, DC - Nearly half of people who fish would consider not fishing after learning about the cruelty involved in the sport and the health risks associated with eating fish, reveals a national fishing poll of over 1,000 Americans, commissioned by PETA and conducted by the Opinion Research Corporation of Princeton, New Jersey.
The survey found that:
´ 34% of those who fish say they would consider not fishing based on the fact that fish often suffer potentially fatal injuries when they are hooked and released.
´ 28% of those who fish would consider not fishing based on the fact that fish have sensitive nerve endings in their lips and mouths, as well as the brain capacity to experience fear and pain. Also, fish begin to slowly die of suffocation the moment they are pulled out of the water.
´ 46% of those who fish would consider not fishing based on the fact that fish are high in saturated fat and cholesterol and contain PCBs, which are linked to cancer.
"Fish are misunderstood animals," says PETA's Vegetarian Campaign Coordinator Tracy Reiman, herself a former fisher. "Many people, even those who live with cats and dogs, haven't considered that fish have nervous systems and pain receptors and suffer tremendously when caught. Our survey shows that when people start thinking about it, they may never bait a line again."
"Gill" the fish, one of PETA's 6-foot-tall mascots, begins a national "bait and switch" tour this spring, visiting lakes and piers to ask fishers to scale back on cruelty and get hooked on compassion.
Following are more detailed results of the fishing poll.
Here are the answers from 1,008 respondents polled from January 4 to 7, 1996, for PETA by the Opinion Research Corporation of Princeton, New Jersy. A 4% margin of error is accepted:
1.Do you now, or have you ever, fished?
75% - Yes
24% - No
Those respondents who said they now fish or have fished were further polled as follows:
2.Fish have the brain capacity to experience fear and pain, have sensitive nerve endings in their lips and mouths, and begin to slowly die of suffocation, much like humans would, the minute they are pulled out of water. Would you consider not fishing based on these facts?
28% - Yes
70% - No
3.Fish released after being hooked suffer potentially fatal internal injuries and loss of their protective outer coating. And since fish use their mouths and tongues as humans might use their hands-for gathering food, building nests, and hiding their young-a hook could prove to greatly decrease their chances for survival. Would you consider not fishing based on these facts?
34% - Yes
64% - No
4.Fish are high in saturated fat and cholesterol and contain PCBs, which accumulate in your body and are linked to cancer. And according to the Centers for Disease Control, 80,000 people get sick and many die every year from eating tainted fish. Would you consider not fishing based on these facts?
46% - Yes
52% - No

From People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

funny stuff

In case you were wondering...

If you toss a penny 10000 times, it will not be heads 5000 times, but more like 4950. The heads picture weighs more, so it ends up on the bottom. * The glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher. * The longest word in the English language, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. The only other word with the same amount of letters is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconioses, its plural. * Hydroxydesoxycorticosterone and hydroxydeoxycorticosterones are the largest anagrams. * Los Angeles's full name is "El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula." * Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older. * An ostrich's eye is bigger than it's brain. * Ben and Jerry's send the waste from making ice cream to local pig farmers to use as feed. Pigs love the stuff, except for one flavor: Mint Oreo. * Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer. * The longest recorded flight of a chicken is thirteen seconds. * Wilma Flintstone's maiden name was Wilma Slaghoopal, and Betty Rubble's Maiden name was Betty Jean Mcbricker. * A pregnant goldfish is called a twit. * 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321. * The Ramses brand condom is named after the great pharaoh Ramses II who fathered over 160 children. * If NASA sent birds into space they would soon die; they need gravity to swallow. * Dueling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors. * A pig's orgasm lasts for 30 minutes. * The characters Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra's "Its A Wonderful Life." * It was discovered on a space mission that a frog can throw up. The frog throws up it's stomach first, so the stomach is dangling out of it's mouth. Then the frog uses it's forearms to dig out all of the stomach's contents and then swallows the stomach back down again. * Armored knights raised their visors to identify themselves when they rode past their king. This custom has become the modern military salute. * Sylvia Miles had the shortest performance ever nominated for an Oscar with "Midnight Cowboy." Her entire role lasted only six minutes. * Charles Lindbergh took only four sandwiches with him on his famous transatlantic flight. * Goethe couldn't stand the sound of barking dogs and could only write if he had an apple rotting in the drawer of his desk. * If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle; if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes. * The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb. * 101 Dalmatians and Peter Pan (Wendy) are the only two Disney cartoon features with both parents that are present and don't die throughout the movie. * 'Stewardesses' is the longest word that is typed with only the left hand. * The Baby Ruth candy bar was actually named after Grover Cleveland's baby daughter, Ruth. * A whale's penis is called a dork. * Armadillos have four babies at a time and they are always all the same sex. * Armadillos are the only animal besides humans that can get leprosy. * To escape the grip of a crocodile's jaws, push your thumbs into its eyeballs - it will let you go instantly. * Reindeer like to eat bananas. * A group of unicorns is called a blessing. * Twelve or more cows are known as a "flink." * A group of frogs is called an army.* A group of rhinos is called a crash. * A group of kangaroos is called a mob. * A group of whales is called a pod. * A group of geese is called a gaggle. * A group of ravens is called a murder. * A group of officers is called a mess. * A group of larks is called an exaltation. * A group of owls is called a parliament. * Physicist Murray Gell-Mann named the sub-atomic particles known as quarks for a random line in James Joyce, "Three quarks for Muster Mark!" * Every time you lick a stamp, you're consuming 1/10 of a calorie. * The phrase "sleep tight" derives from the fact that early mattresses were filled with straw and held up with rope stretched across the bedframe. A tight sleep was a comfortable sleep. * "Three dog night" (attributed to Australian Aborigines) came about because on especially cold nights these nomadic people needed three dogs (dingos, actually) to keep from freezing. * Gilligan of Gilligan's Island had a first name that was only used once, on the never-aired pilot show. His first name was Willy. The skipper's real name on Gilligan's Island is Jonas Grumby. It was mentioned once in the first episode on their radio's newscast about the wreck. * In England, the Speaker of the House is not allowed to speak. * Playing cards were issued to British pilots in WWII. If captured, they could be soaked in water and unfolded to reveal a map for escape. * Ivory bar soap floating was a mistake. They had been overmixing the soap formula causing excess air bubbles that made it float. Customers wrote and told how much they loved that it floated, and it has floated ever since. * Studies show that if a cat falls off the seventh floor of a building it has about thirty percent less chance of surviving than a cat that falls off the twentieth floor. It supposedly takes about eight floors for the cat to realize what is occurring, relax and correct itself. * The saying "it's so cold out there it could freeze the balls off a brass monkey" came from when they had old cannons like ones used in the Civil War. The cannonballs were stacked in a pyramid formation, called a brass monkey. When it got extremely cold outside they would crack and break off... Thus the saying. * Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks otherwise it will digest itself. * The Sanskrit word for "war" means "desire for more cows."

office humor

FOUR MEN WERE DISCUSSING HOW SMART THEIR DOGS WERE. THE FIRST MAN WAS AN ENGINEER, WHO SAID HIS DOG COULD DO MATH. HIS DOG WAS NAMED T-SQUARE, AND HE TOLD HIM TO GET SOME PAPER AND DRAW A SQUARE, A CIRCLE AND A TRIANGLE, WHICH THE DOG DID WITH NO SWEAT. THE ACCOUNTANT SAID HE THOUGHT HIS DOG WAS BETTER. HIS DOG, SLIDE RULE, WAS TOLD TO FETCH A DOZEN COOKIES, BRING THEM BACK AND DIVIDE THEM INTO PILES OF THREE, WHICH SLIDE RULE DID WITH NO PROBLEM. THE CHEMIST SAID THAT WAS GOOD, BUT HE FELT HIS DOG WAS BETTER. HIS DOG, NAMED MEASURE, WAS TOLD TO GET A QUART OF MILK AND POUR SEVEN OUNCES OF IT INTO A TEN OUNCE GLASS. THE DOG DID THIS WITH NO PROBLEM AT ALL. ALL THREE MEN AGREED THIS WAS VERY GOOD AND THEIR DOGS WERE EQUALLY SMART.
THEN THEY TURNED TO THE UNION MEMBER AND SAID, "WHAT CAN YOUR DOG DO?" THE UNION MEMBER CALLED HIS DOG, WHO WAS NAMED COFFEE BREAK, AND SAID, "SHOW THE FELLOWS WHAT YOU CAN DO.' COFFEE BREAK WENT OVER AND ATE THE COOKIES, DRANK THT MILK, SHIT ON THE PAPER, HAD SEX WITH THE THREE OTHER DOGS AND CLAIMED HE INJURED HIS BACK WHILE DOING SO, FILED A GRIEVANCE REPORT FOR UNSAFE WORKING CONDITIONS, PUT IN FOR WORKMANS COMPENSATION AND LEFT FOR HOME ON SICK LEAVE.
--
MEMORANDUM
TO: ALL EMPLOYEES
FROM: PAYROLL
DATE: AUGUST 8, 1996
RE: TIMECARDS
It has come to our attention recently that many of you have been turning in timecards that specify large amounts of "Miscellaneous Unproductive Time" (code 5309). To our department, unproductive time isn't a problem.
What is a problem, however, is not knowing exactly what you are doing during your unproductive time. Attached below is a sheet specifying a tentative extended job code list based on our observations of employee activities. The list will allow you to specify with a fair amount of precision what you are doing during your unproductive time. Please begin using this job code list immediately and let us know about any difficulties you encounter.
Attached: Extended Job Code List
Code number, Explanation
--
5316 Meeting
5317 Obstructing Communications at Meeting
5318 Trying to Sound Knowledgeable While in Meeting
5319 Waiting for Break
5320 Waiting for Lunch
5321 Waiting for End of Day
5322 Vicious Verbal Attacks Directed at Coworker
5323 Vicious Verbal Attacks Directed at Coworker While Coworker is not Present
5393 Covering for Incompetence of Coworker Friend
5400 Trying to Explain Concept to Coworker Who is not interested in Learning
5401 Trying to Explain Concept to Coworker Who is Stupid
5402 Trying to Explain Concept to Coworker Who Hates You
5481 Buying Snack
5482 Eating Snack
5500 Filling Out Timesheet
5501 Inventing Timesheet Entries
5502 Waiting for Something to Happen
5503 Scratching Yourself
5504 Sleeping
5510 Feeling Bored
5511 Feeling Horny
5600 Bitching About Lousy Job
5601 Bitching About Low Pay
5602 Bitching About Long Hours
5603 Bitching About Coworker (see codes #5322, #5323)
5604 Bitching About Boss
5605 Bitching About Personal Problems
5640 Miscellaneous Unproductive Bitching
5701 Not Actually Present At Job
5702 Suffering From Eight-Hour Flu
6102 Ordering Out
6103 Waiting for Food Delivery to Arrive
6104 Taking it Easy While Digesting Food
6200 Using Company Resources for Personal Profit
6201 Stealing Company Goods
6202 Making Excuses after Accidentally Destroying Company Goods
6203 Using Company Phone to Make Long-Distance Personal Calls
6204 Using Company Phone to Make Long-Distance Personal Calls in Order to Sell Stolen Company Goods
6206 Gossip
6207 Planning a Social Event (e.g., vacation, wedding...)
6210 Feeling Sorry For Yourself
6221 Pretending to Work While Boss Is Watching
6222 Pretending to Enjoy Your Job
6223 Pretending You Like Coworker
6224 Pretending You Like Important People When in Reality They are Jerks
6238 Miscellaneous Unproductive Fantasizing
6350 Playing Pranks on the New Guy/Girl
6601 Running your own Business on Company Time (see code #6603)
6602 Complaining
6603 Writing a Book on Company Time
6611 Staring Into Space
6612 Staring At Computer Screen
6615 Transcendental Meditation
7281 Extended Visit to the Bathroom (at least 10 minutes)
7400 Talking With Divorce Lawyer on Phone
7401 Talking With Plumber on Phone
7402 Talking With Dentist on Phone
7403 Talking With Doctor on Phone
7404 Talking With Masseuse on Phone
7405 Talking With House Painter on Phone
7406 Talking With Personal Therapist on Phone
7419 Talking With Miscellaneous Paid Professional on Phone
7425 Talking With Mistress/Boy-Toy on Phone
7931 Asking Coworker to Aid You in an Illicit Activity
8000 Recreational Drug Use

Rollerblade Barbie

As executive director of the Bureau of Consumer Alarm, I am always on the alert for news stories that involve two key elements:
1. Fire
2. Barbie
So I was very interested when alert reader Michael Robinson sent me a column titled "Ask Jack Sunn" from the Dec. 13, 1993, issue of the Jackson, Mississippi Clarion-Ledger. Here's an excerpt from a consumer's letter to this column, which I am not making up:
"Last year, my two daughters received presents of two Rollerblade Barbie dolls by Mattel. On March 8, my 8-year-old daughter was playing beauty shop with her 4-year-old brother. After spraying him with hair spray, the children began to play with the boot to Rollerblade Barbie. My little girl innocently ran the skate across her brother's bottom, which immediately ignited his clothes."
The letter adds that "There are no warnings concerning fire on these toys ... I feel the need to warn potential buyers of their danger."
In his response, Jack Sunn says, cryptically, that "Mattel does not manufacture Rollerblade Barbie any more." He does not address the critical question that the consumer's letter raised in my mind, as I'm sure it did yours, namely: Huh?
I realized that the only way to answer this question was to conduct a scientific experiment. As you may recall, last year, in response to a news item concerning a kitchen fire in Ohio, I did an experiment proving that if you put a Kellogg's strawberry Pop-Tart in a toaster and hold the toaster lever down for five minutes and 50 seconds, the Pop-Tart will turn into a snack-pastry blowtorch, shooting flames up to 30 inches high. Also, your toaster will be ruined.
The problem was that I did not have a Rollerblade Barbie. My son happens to be a boy, and we never went through the Barbie phase. We went through the Masters of the Universe phase. For two years our household was the scene of a fierce, unceasing battle between armies of good and evil action figures. They were everywhere. You'd open up the salad crisper, and there would be He-Man and Skeletor, striking each other with carrots.
So at the end of a recent column, I printed a note appealing for a Rollerblade Barbie. I got two immediately; one from Renee Simmons of Clinton, Iowa, and one from Randy Langhenry of Gainesville, Ga., who said it belonged to his 6-year-old daughter, Greta. ("It would help me if you could get Barbie back to north Georgia before Greta notices she's gone," Randy wrote.)
Rollerblade Barbie is basically a standard Barbie, which is to say, she represents the feminine beauty ideal, if your concept of a beautiful female is one who is six feet, nine inches tall and weighs 52 pounds (37 of which are in the bust area) and has a rigidly perky smile and eyeballs the size of beer coasters and a one-molecule nose and enough hair to clog the Lincoln Tunnel.
But what makes this Barbie special is that she's wearing two little yellow Rollerblade booties, each of which has a wheel similar to the kind found in cigarette lighters, so that when you roll Barbie along, her booties shoot out sparks. This seems like an alarming thing for Rollerblades to do, but Barbie, staring perkily ahead, does not seem to notice.
To ensure high standards of scientific accuracy, I conducted the experiment in my driveway. Aside from Rollerblade Barbie, my materials consisted of several brands of hair spray and - this was a painful sacrifice - a set of my veteran underwear (estimated year of purchase: 1968).
I spread the underwear on the driveway, then sprayed it with hair spray, then made Rollerblade Barbie skate across it, sparking her booties. I found that if you use the right brand of hair spray - I got excellent results with Rave - Rollerblade Barbie does indeed cause the underwear to burst dramatically into flame.
(While I was doing this, a neighbor walked up, and I just want to say that if you think it's easy to explain why you're squatting in your driveway, in front of a set of burning underwear, surrounded by hair spray bottles, holding a Barbie doll in your hand, then you are mistaken.)
At this point, the only remaining scientific question - I'm sure this has occurred to you - was: Could Rollerblade Barbie set fire to a Kellogg's strawberry Pop-Tart? The answer turns out to be yes, but you have to be in the act of hair-spraying the Pop-Tart when Barbie Rollerblades over it, so you get a blowtorch effect that could very easily set fire to Barbie's hair, not to mention your own personal self. Plus you get tart filling in the booties.
So we can see why Mattel ceased manufacturing Rollerblade Barbie.
I imagine that whichever toy designer dreamed up this exciting concept has been transferred to Mattel's coveted Bosnia plant. But what should be done about all the Rollerblade Barbies that are already in circulation? I believe that the only solution is for all concerned consumers to demand that our congress-humans pass a federal law requiring that all underwear, snack pastries and other household objects carry a prominent label stating:
"WARNING! DO NOT SPRAY HAIR SPRAY ON THIS OBJECT AND SKATE ROLLERBLADE BARBIE OVER IT!"
But that is not enough. We also need to appropriate millions of dollars for a massive federal effort to undo the damage that has been done so far. I'm talking about scraping this crud off my driveway.
Also, the taxpayers owe Greta a new Barbie.

prose

...from
autumn reason

by Sydney Anderson

8-27-82
Hi there. I'm very depressed. When I left work yesterday, I cried as I drove all the way home. You start classes today. I wish I was going back to school. I really do. Three people like my dad to deal with is just too many. Three too many. I got photos back yesterday, from our road trip in Tennessee. I have copies for you. I brought a photo of you and Betty to work today. My mom bought me a mug for coffee at work. That's about all that's new. Oh, fuck. I just took a sip of my coffee and it's cold. I should be doing some work anyway, so I'll go.

2:00 p.m.
Hi, honey. I've been typing in addresses for mailing lists all morning. Ooh, that's a fun job. Anyway, they had me go to the printer today. I'm starting to make more connections, and it's getting a bit more interesting. Mind you, it's just a bit more interesting. I think I need a small rolodex. and business cards, so that when I meet people, they don't think I'm a flake.
I keep looking at that photo of you and Betty. It's leaning against my keyboard. It's such a great photo because (okay, I'm going to get sappy now), it just looks like you're loving playing with this kid in this photo. It just makes me think about what a great father you'll be one day. The kind of person that cares about his children, that would never want to hurt them, who would talk to them, smile with them, play with them, try to be a part of their lives. It's a nice thought.
I don't know if I should be happy thinking about you like that, or sad thinking about me like that.
I've been drinking from my new (spankin' new) coffee mug all day. I've officially declared today as caffeine day. I'm going to shake until tomorrow, I just know it.
William was pleased with the work I did on the labels this morning. They've been having trouble with other computers and mailing lists lately. Hmmm. Maybe I scored a few points. He even said, "Hi, honey" when he first gave me the work, and he gave me a little side-to-side hug. A little refreshing.
Now I'm frightened that I'm pleased that he called me "honey." What an awful name! I suppose it is better than his usual grunt, but it's still degrading.
I was so aggravated when I left here yesterday. As I said, I cried half the way home in the car. It's just that this isn't what I want, not at all. I don't want to be a secretary for some pig and live with a woman that sucks and have my parents meddle in my life all the time and drive through a shitty part of town every day and basically be a very "type A" person. I don't want that for my life. I used to have this little dream float around in the back of my mind, I thought about it again this morning: being a history teacher at my old university, teaching classes. I don't think it will ever work for me, though.
Oh, shit, I don't know anymore. It gets so depressing here. I face a wall in a room by myself every day (unless, of course, Jared, dad #3, is sitting at his desk next to me, oh happiness) wishing I was with you. Get a job up here, would you? Or win a huge lottery or something, just so we'd have enough to be able to be together and not be living on Saltines and chunky peanut butter the rest of our lives. Oh well, I can dream...
God, it's scary that I'm thinking about winning the lottery instead of doing something that I actually want to with my life. I wish that there weren't so many blockades up in my way when I'm just trying to live my life and make myself happy.
But I should probably go again, just to do some more work before I go. Maybe I'll write again before I leave today.. I'm thinking of you -

2:58 p.m.
I'm bored. I've decided to give you a copy of one of the pages I've been working on, when they don't have me running to the printer or dealing with advertisements, or typing addresses into the computer... It's really exciting stuff. I love it.

4:45 p.m.
Hi again. I just thought I'd say goodbye before I left. I got a lot of work done,and I don't have to work at my second job, which means I can go out with Susan and Jessica and Ned for longer. Now I'm just trying to get Friday night off...
I love you to death. I'll write tomorrow.

8-28-82
It's lunch. They all go out and buy food for one another and eat lunch together, and I sit here in this little room on the side, bringing my own fucking cheese sandwiches because I never talk to anyone. Like I could think of anything to say to these people. Half of them have posters of naked women in their work areas. Like I even have enough money to buy my own lunch.
It's bearable here, I was in a better mood this morning because I was thinking of you, but William had me typing more fucking mailing labels today, and trying to keep your head straight while you're typing all these stupid addresses is hard, so my good mood is shot. Maybe when I go to the printer I'll get into a better mood again. I can't wait it see you. I'm going to eat now.

3:33 p.m.
Hi there. I just finished one of the jobs . William and Jared are gone, so there isn't much for me to do. You should have left to come visit me by now. I hope so. I've got a lot to do tonight: take photos of a couple of kids for freelance work, get Ellen's shower present from the art store (they're framing it), possibly work... Wait. I'm going to call my second job now to see if they need me. It's probably too early to call, but I'll beg them to let me go. Hold on.
YAAAH-HOOOO!!!!! I don't have to work. So I'll go there to pick up me check, I'll go to the store to get Ellen's present, then I'll go to do the photography work. Then we'll hang out for a bit, then we'll go to the movies. oh, this is nice. then Saturday morning I take photos of mom - I'll explain that one in a minute, then we take photos, then I wrap Ellen's present and make a pasta salad and we go and drink all afternoon. cool.
They want me to work at my second job Sunday from 11 to 1. It's only 2 hours because a girl there just quit and they can't find someone who can come in that early. will you still be in town? oh, I'll figure it out . Oh, I'm so happy now. I get to spend the evening with you. I don't have cash, though. piss. I'll get some somehow. I just got my check from working here 4 days. It's something horrendously small, like $150 or something.
Ooh... I think I hear a boss' voice. Let me check. Love you -

3:45 p.m.
No, no one that resembles a boss is here. I think William is playing cards with his friends anyway. Ah... About an hour to go, then I'll drive home. And then I'll see you. Jessica and Susan and I were out last night and Jessica and I were just babbling about how happy we are being tied down and everything. Susan was kind of sad, but we couldn't hold it in. It's just so nice to care about someone so much. Susan is going to see a country concert tonight. Not sure who is playing - like I'd know the artist anyway. She was asking people if anyone had a cowboy hat she could borrow. I thought that was just gross.
Wow. I'm almost done with my first week of full time work. We've got copy machines here (red and black ink), a laser printer, a computer and a scanner for me to abuse. That part of the job I love.
Well, I'm out of paper. I'm really going this time - I love you -

8-31-82 1:20 p.m.
Hey there, baby doll. I'm not going to write much now, but I just wanted to say that I am so glad that I got to see you this weekend. I hope you had fun. I did. I can't wait to see you this Sunday , go to the show... I figure we'll go to the lake front again afterward. There's a jazz festival at the music shell Sunday starting at 3 p.m., maybe we can see that.
I don't know when the next time I can visit is. the weekend after Labor day is the bachelorette party, the next weekend is the wedding, and you'll be coming up here. Maybe the weekend after that, after my parents leave for Mexico, maybe then I'll be able to make it. But you know I want to be there. I hope things are going well for you. I'm going to get back to work. I love you.

2:10 p.m.
Hi there, honey. People are talking in the other room about the new health plan we're getting. It seems like it pays 100% of most everything, which is a damn good deal, if I can believe it. This is an interesting job. The secretary is on vacation, so I took a letter for William and faxed it. Ah, the many tasks I have to do. Jared just walked by. I'll work on my catalog. I miss you already-

4:50 p.m.
I've decided that I hate him. William, that is. I've decided that I don't want to be a secretary, too. This man is a jerk. I hope the secretary is sick and not on vacation, because if she's gone for 5 weeks (that's how much vacation time she gets), I sure as hell don't want to be doing her job for that long. Get a temp, you cheapskate. Anyway... I'm still thinking of you-

9-1-82
Hello there, my baby doll. I just wanted you to know that I love you. Eek, I'm getting to say that vulgar phrase far to often. You tell me not to swear, well, love is a four letter word...
I talked to you earlier today, I wonder how much those calls cost on my calling card. But I'm glad I heard your voice. You're going to be exhausted Sunday morning. You're going to be a dud all day, I can just tell. You really should rest more.
Rose and Jen at work told me they approved of you. They said that anybody who would bring the flowers to work to try to surprise must be okay. I assured them that you were.
I've been working on this catalog ever since I've been here, and Gwen (the woman telling me what to do on it), just told me to scratch 1/4 of it, they forgot they needed a bulk mailer page. I love intelligence.
Why can't people figure out what the need done ahead of time, so everyone can be more efficient? It seems like half the work I do here is not actual work, but corrections on the work I did - and it's not because I did something wrong, but it's because someone else forgot something and needs to rearrange the whole project. A lot more could be accomplished if people knew what they needed ahead of time.
But then I guess we'd all have to fill up more of our time by faking looking busy, wouldn't we?
But the thing is, they give me changes because they forgot stuff, but the give me all these changes late when we had a deadline for getting the project done. So ninety percent of the time I'm bored doing nothing, five percent of the time I'm working, and five percent of the time I'm running around frantically trying to get their corrections done in time for the deadline because they were late in giving me corrections that should never have existed in the first place. We could at least spread that work out so I'm not bored here as much as I am.
Does that make any sense? It just seems like people are so inefficient.
Oh, poop. Someone just walked straight into this room, leaned over my shoulder and said, "What are you doing?", but I think I managed to close the screen before they actually saw anything. Oops. Well, like I have much else to do.
Actually, I could be doing a few other things. But I don't want to do them.
William asked me if I had enough stuff to keep me busy today, and since I told him yes, he has completely left me alone. And I have been pretty busy - even though I'm writing you now.
While I was working at my second job last night, I started talking to Rose, and we started in on religion (she's religious, I'm not), and then we started talking about how our lives have been so different. Her father was a minister. You know my story. Well, I told her about my family, my dad, even about Alan ( and I'll tell you about all of that later), and we started talking about all these things. It was really cool. We even started talking about that whole racial thing with me at the women's rally (the black women not wanting me to walk with them...) All in all it was a very interesting evening.
Wait - did I ever tell you about that? The time when I was walking to the women's rally? It was right around when I met you, so I might not have. Well, I was walking to this rally, to photograph it, it was a huge march for women's rights and women's safety, and I'm walking down the street and I see this other group of women (an organization of their own, not just a group of friends) walking to the rally too. Their group was some black women's organization group, and they were going to march in the rally as a group. They had signs, and they were saying chants, and stuff.
So, I thought I'd show my support for their organization, so I walked across the street (originally we were walking parallel to each other), and walked with some of them (there were about 25 black women walking in this group). We were going to the same place anyway, so I figured I was just being supportive... I even started saying one of the chants that they were all saying.
Now, I know I'm white, and yes, I was the only white women walking with them. But the group was to support the progress of black women, and I supported it enough to walk with them, even if it was only because we were going to the same place. Seems innocent enough to me.
So then a women from the group starts walking next to me, she was obviously the leader of the group, and she asked me, "Do you know what group this is?"
And I said yes.
Then she asked, "Then you know we're a group for black women's rights?"
And I said yes.
And then she said, "Well, some women in this group are uncomfortable with you walking with us."
I was stunned. I was just trying to be supportive, right? So I said, "I was just trying to help -"
When she said, "I know, but some people here feel uncomfortable."
And I didn't know what else to do. We were going to the same place... Was I supposed to look for an alternative route?
So, I walked to the other side of the street again, and turned a corner so we didn't have to look at each other the rest of the trip to the meeting place.
And for the rest of the time, that incident just sat there, in the pit of my stomach, and stewed there, apparently with all the acids and bile and stuff in my stomach, because it just started making me feel more and more uncomfortable, more and more tense. If they didn't want help and support from all people, what did they want?
I guess it still bothers me, and I still don't know what to make out of it all.
Susan just called me - if I don't have to work tonight, maybe we'll do something. I think I have so many other things to do, though, that I'll just never get them done with the amount of free time that I have at home.
I'm saving copies of all the old copies of flyers and catalogs to give to my nephew. He'll probably have more interest in them than I do.
I'm going to tell William sometime that we should invest in some floppy disks - we have room to store everything on the hard drive, but if anything happens to the hard drive, all my work is gone. Not my letters to you, of course, because I keep them all on one of my own floppies, but all of their work. All of the scanned images, the saws, the blades, the logos, and all the page layouts for their flyers and brochures. Tee hee hee. They wouldn't want that to happen, now, would they? It is a smart idea, though, and then I can probably get a lot of money for buying a bunch of disks and a case for them. Then I could even get copies of all the work I do on disks for myself, in case I ever need them to show the work I did for another job prospect.
You know, I'm sitting here working on the computers, pretty much baffling most of the people here, and I can't even figure out how to add on the adding machine. It's like the buttons don't work or something. I figured out how to multiply, divide tell it to print or not to print, but getting the damn thing to add or subtract is a huge mystery.
Yes, I'm bored. But I want to be bored for a minute. I don't want to think about brochures, or what bills I have, or how I have to get home at lightning speed in order to eat before I go to the next job. I can feel myself getting aggravated already.
I don't want to look at all the crap that's around me, all the things that I don't want to be doing with my life, but it's all right in front of me.

9-2-82 11:00 a.m.
Hello. I'm tired. I worked last night, and I think I"m coming down with what my mother has, she's had a cold since the weekend. I don't want to be as sick as she's been. I can't afford to do that. I'm trying not to talk much, and I brought soup for lunch. Yes, I"m taking my vitamins, and drugs, although I don't want to take much of those. I want to look for a more holistic means of recovery. I'll try to take a bath tonight, maybe meditate or something.
I can't do all the work they want me to do on this computer, because the screen quality is so poor I can't tell what I'm doing. I'm going to ask William if I can work at my house for part of the afternoon. I wonder if he'll go for it, or just think I'm trying to get off work. Honestly, though, I can't adjust gray-scale photos here when the monitor doesn't print gray.
I bought another pair of pants last night. Black. It's hard to find my size, so I jumped on them when I saw that they came in. I'll never save any money at the rate I'm going.
And I don't know how much money I'm going to get for taking pictures for that freelance job. I hope she pays me well- most photographers are paid well for their services, especially when they're freelance. We'll see.
Well I'm going to go now, I told the guy here in charge of the petty cash that it's a good idea to back up the work I do on floppy disks. He agreed, so I'm making a trip to Radio Shack now.
I've been screwing around all morning. I hope things get faster here.
I had the stress of getting a new job this month...PMS and a cold... It's my lucky day. And you're not with me. What else could go wrong?

1:40 p.m.
I've been writing you a letter on paper because I was doing computer work. I'm taking a break from that now. I'm going to see you in a few hours. I'm so relieved. I want to spend my time with you. It's that simple. If all the money I make goes toward finding ways for me to spend small amounts of time with you, then it's all worth it. I just want to feel you holding me. I just want to know that you're there for me, that you'll be there for me, that you want to spend your time with me.
It's so good to know that you exist. That someone as pure as you exists. And that you think that I'm good, too. Oh, now I'm being sappy and stupid, but everything I see and hear and think of makes me think of you and makes me feel good. You just make me so happy.
I don't know what more to add to that. It's that simple. You truly make me happy. Even though we argue half the time we're together, you make me happy. Really happy. I love you.
Well, I'm going to go, because I'm once again running out of time (but this also saves me from being even sappier - oops - more sappy - on paper). I love you so much that I can't tell if this is joy or pain I feel. I think it's joy. I love you.

9-22-82
I just heard about your fender-bender. You really should be more careful, young man. I don't appreciate you getting into accidents - especially when I can't be there to nurse you back to health. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you said you weren't hurt, but I wouldn't be surprised if you're in a little pain tomorrow, you know, soreness and all.
Okay, enough joking. DAMNIT, BE CAREFUL!!!! I know it wasn't your fault, but I still don't want anything happening to you. Christ, I care about you so incredibly much that if anything at all happened to you I don't know what I would do. Collapse and die, I suppose. I swear, I was on the verge of crying for about two hours after you talked to me on the phone at work and told me what happened. I knew you were okay, but I still worried, and I still couldn't help but think about you getting hurt, or something terrible happening to you.
I think I did cry for a while at work, and for the most part I was really unpleasant to be around for a good while. Please be careful. I don't want to lose you. I know you're accident-prone. But I don't want to take any chances with you. I don't want to risk that. I love you so much it hurts. Geesh, I'm mushy, but hell, we've got a whole future ahead of us - one that's going to be absolutely wonderful - as long as you're around long enough to let it happen. Please be around long enough to let it happen.
I had a bad dream last night - one where my mother died. I normally don't have dreams that are that violent, that vivid, that scary, or that hit so close to home. I woke up a 4 in the morning shaking. I had to wake Catherine up. I talked to her, she told me to think of something nice, to get my mind off it. I went to bed, and I imagined that you were there, and you were consoling me, letting me know that it was just a bad dream, that you were there. And I imagined you kissing me, curling up next to me. And I felt better, and I was able to go back to sleep.
I want you to be there in the future, curled up with me, making me feel better. And I want to do the same for you. I want you to be there when we pick out furniture together. I want to have stupid arguments with you over nothing, and then I want to make up with you. I want to have all those dances with you. I want to go to bed every night and know you'll be there, too. I want all those little times in my life, the good times, the bad ones, I want to have all those times with you. But you have to be around long enough to let that happen. Please be around long enough. I love you.

captain's log, September 22, 1982, a little after 10 o'clock p.m. You're at work, and you said you were going to call me at 7 or 8. I understand that you couldn't call, but I still wish you did. I still worry about you. I'm sure you're sore.
I want to see you. I don't think I can make it this weekend, but I'll sure as hell try. I'm almost tempted to quit the my second job job just so I can see you on a more regular basis. My job is almost not worth it, with all the hassle it brings me.
I've been thinking about you a lot today. I've just been thinking about the future, spending it with you. I wish we had more time with each other, I wish we had those boring between days to spend with one another. Not just our time off.
I hope you're feeling okay. I'd hate to think that you weren't.
I'm so tired, but I've barely been home and I don't want my own time to be cut so short. I work two shifts tomorrow, have to go in to work early so I can leave early so I can make my second job on time. Thursday I work then go to a dinner Jenny is holding for Nicole's birthday. Friday I work, then it's Nicole's birthday. Saturday I work. I think I'm supposed to work Sunday, but I'll sure as hell try to get out of it.
I still can't believe there are big scratches in my car. I just found these gouges taken out of the front corner, right above my bumper. Someone must have nicked me while parking. I almost cried when I saw them.
I should tell the my second job people that I can only work on week nights, not on the weekends. If they don't like it, they can fire me. I don't want to lose the job, I suppose, but I hate waiting until a few days beforehand to find out my schedule. I can't make any plans that way.
I was so angry when I heard that I was probably scheduled for Sunday. I worked my ass off and managed to get the first half of Monday off of work at my full-time job just so I could spend more time with you. Now it seems there was no point in doing it.
Oh, well. I should probably go. My eyes are really tired.

9-23-82
I think I'm going to tell Kathy that I'll quit today if she doesn't give me Sunday off.
I'm so aggravated, and if I don't get any time to relax, I'll go nuts. I've driven myself crazy before by giving myself too many things to do. It's happening again. I've run myself ragged trying to do too many things at once, I've driven myself to the hospital because if it. I don't want to do that to myself again. And I sure as Hell don't want my second job to do it to me.
I know people who gave themselves ulcers from stress, and they were in high school. God, I don't want to be like that. The more stress I feel, the more my joints hurt, the more aches and pains I have. To literally feel pain from stress manifesting itself in soreness, in an inability to move, that's horrific. Not lethargy, but pain. When you feel stress, you know you have to get a ton of things done, and then it hurts to do it. It just makes everything going ion in life that much worse, until all you can think about is th pain, and how you have to overcome the pain to get everything done in your life.
And I can feel myself going down that road again, and I don't know if I have to hit rock bottom before I can get any better.
If I had all the money in the world, I'd get you out of debt. I'd pay off the credit card bills, the University bills.
And then I'd spend the rest of my money on myself, I suppose. But at least I was thinking of you.
I'm almost liking how bored I can be here. At least I can have the time to do other things, to write you letters, to print labels, to make stationery, or whatever. And I'm learning about different printing processes and costs. Today I got paper samples.
See, these things, even things that sound as stupid as paper samples, these things mean more to me than selling clothes, or doing some other stupid retail job that has no real value whatsoever. A discount is nice at the stores, I suppose, but I usually buy things on sale anyway. And while Nancy still works there, I can get an even better discount than the one I get now.
I'm going to call Kathy (my manager) in a hour if she doesn't call me by then. I don't want to give ultimatums, but I'm not going to work Sunday. I won't do it.
It's nice to have a photograph of the two of us in a frame on my desk. It's just a nice thing to look at.
When I come in Saturday night, let's just spend the time together. Let's dance a little, and I mean slow dance. In your living room. Oh, wait - your exciting roommates will probably stay home, won't they?... hmmm... well, we'll just have to dance in your bedroom then. Or go outside and bring a music box and dance by... oh, I don't know, we can go to a park or something.We'll kill that remaining bottle of champagne. And just curl up with each other. I want that.
I miss spending time with you like that.
Catherine's birthday is Friday, and I bought her a sweater, a pair of earrings and two necklaces. On the box I put four potpourri sachets and decorated it in a really neat way. It looks cool. And with money I had from free gift certificates, returns, etc., from my second job, I actually got about $8.00 cash back for buying her her present. Now that's what I call a good deal.
Have you listened to the tape I made you yet?
Wow. It's actually quiet around here. I think I might try to bring in a tape player, and play Big Band music in the background while I work. I think would maker the time go faster, too. Granted, I'd have to turn the music off probably about every time Jared or Jeff (the salesman that's in the same office) walked in the room, but there are a lot of times when I'm in here all by myself for a long time.
It's nice that I can get things done quickly on this computer, otherwise I probably wouldn't have the time to write you letters. But I want you to know that I do think about you, close to all the time. Remember that.
Sometimes I like being bored.
The rest of my life always seems so hectic that I shouldn't mind being bored.
Why is it that I don't know how to relax?
I just went into the other room with our portrait studio picture and put it face down on Barb's desk, then I left. She should be coming in as soon as she gets off the phone to bring the picture back and say, oh, you guys look so cute, blah, blah, blah...
I like showing that picture to people. I like having it on my desk.
I'm going to have a pretty big portfolio of catalogs and brochures and flyers from this place by the time I leave. That's probably a good thing.
Susan wanted me to go out last night, and I wanted to go to go sulk in my beer about having to work Sunday, but then she told me Jessica was going, and I didn't want to listen to her say, "Well, I don't see why you're complaining, my life is so much harder..." You know how Jessica gets. It's like, I know that when we go out, all the girls I mean, it's often a big bitch session. But at least Susan and I have the understanding that we are each allowed to bitch about stuff, and not tell the other one that their problems aren't important.
It wouldn't be so bad if Jessica didn't have such a condescending tone about her. I hear she's got a job now, which is cool. She might be calling me soon to ask if she can go on a road trip with me. Sure, Jessica, but I don't know if or when I'm going.
It's lunchtime in about a half hour. I'll call my second job again in about 15 minutes. I've really done nothing of any value today. Days like this are fun. William isn't around, and Jared has been using the outside office (and not the desk next to me) all day. The stuff he gave me to do takes about 15 minutes, so I'm stretching it out a bit.
I still don't know what day I started working here. I'm going to look in my checking book to try to figure it out (according to when I got my first check)... hold on...
I think it was August twenty-fourth, but I'm not sure. If it was, then that means that tomorrow will be the one month anniversary of me starting to work here. Oh, joy. Well, it has it's down points, but it's better than my second job. It has regular hours. It has more hours. It has better pay. It has health and dental benefits. I can say I work in a major city, instead of a stupid suburb with no culture. (even though it's a dangerous neighborhood... oh, wait, I was mentioning good points, not bad ones.) I have a lunch break that I'm paid for. I can sit most of the time instead of running around. Sometimes there are free donuts. Okay, I'm getting carried away with that one. But I do have access to a printer, a computer, a xerox machine, enough paper and supplies... and it's something related to what I want to do with my life (as opposed to the enchanting career of fashion merchandising - what a joke).
It wouldn't be so bad if I quit that second job.
Well, we'll see what happens. I'm going to go, I'm running out of room on this paper. I love to to death (but not your OWN, so please be careful behind the wheel). Be careful period. I love you-
p.s. - I just called, and I didn't even have to threaten them. I'm off Sunday. I'll see you Saturday night -

Thousands of Russian Girls Under 15 Having Abortions
Abortion Watch

Keeping readers informed of upcoming events, debates, protests and issues in the Abortion Debate
andmark Court Rulings and convictions concerning a woman's constitutional right to choose

Banning Late-Term Abortions: Bad Medicine, Bad Policy

H.R. 1833/S. 939, the Canady/Smith bill to ban certain abortion procedures, is an attack on the medical profession and on women and families desperately in need of access to abortion services. The bill is a direct assault on Roe v. Wade - and an attack on women's lives and health.
The Canady/Smith bill and late term abortions
The Canady/Smith bill makes it a criminal offense for a doctor to perform a certain type of abortion procedure, known as a dilation and evacuation (D&X), on any woman in the third trimester of pregnancy.
Third trimester abortions are extremely rare. Only four one-hundredths of one percent of all abortions - four out of every ten thousand - are performed after the 26th week of pregnancy. Very few doctors even perform third-trimester abortions. Most of these rare procedures are performed in the most severe of circumstances: because the woman's life or health is endangered, or because the fetus suffers from severe abnormalities.
The Canady/Smith bill takes none of this into consideration. Under this bill, a doctor is subject to prosecution for performing a third-trimester abortion, no matter what the circumstances. There are no exceptions. A doctor may escape conviction - but not trial - only by proving that the woman's life was in danger.
The Canady/Smith ban endangers women's health
The bill shows a shocking indifference to women's health. It contains no exception for abortions that medical professionals may consider necessary to prevent damage to a woman's health by continuing a pregnancy. Diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, high blood pressure, kidney disease and immunity disorders can all threaten a pregnant woman's health, and can all occur or worsen late in pregnancy, causing a late term health risk. The bill takes no notice of these medical facts. Moreover, the bill bans the late-term abortion method that is safest in terms of preserving a woman's ability to bear future children. Equally shocking is the bill's lack of compassion for those families who make the agonizing choice to seek an abortion late in pregnancy after learning of severe defects that may doom their baby to live a short, painful life and die a certain, early death. Medical professionals have spoken in vain on the trauma and anguish, the dissolution of marriage and family that can follow such an event. Women and couples who faced this terrible situation testified in vain to their pain and the soul-searching that led to their decision.
The bill's purpose: an attack on Roe v. Wade
This bill would do what the law of the land currently explicitly forbids. Under Roe v. Wade, the government may prohibit third-trimester abortions unless the woman's life would be endangered by continuing the pregnancy.
In addition, the law as set out by the U.S. Supreme Court emphasizes that the government's interest in prohibiting abortion is based on fetal viability - the likelihood that the fetus, if born, would survive. The government may not place "a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion of a nonviable fetus." The Canady/Smith bill criminalizes late term abortions even if the fetus could not survive.
The bill undermines Roe v. Wade in another important way: by threatening and punishing doctors, who are already targets of anti-choice activism. The bill's supporters have apparently decided that since they can't entirely deprive American women of their right to choose abortion - though they would like to - they will deprive them of the supply of doctors willing and able to make sure that abortions are safe and available.
From CARAL California Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League-North

Charges Dropped Over City Prosecutor's Objections

Over the City of St. Paul's objections, Judge James Campbell on October 23 dismissed trespassing charges against ARC president Heidi Greger and board member Charlotte Cozzetto. Greger and Cozzetto were arrested for trespassing on July 5 after they blocked a University of Minnesota truck from entering the St. Paul Animal Control Center to buy unclaimed dogs and cats for experimentation. Attorney Mark S. Wernick made a motion to dismiss the charges "in the interests of justice." Although the court technically has the authority to exercise this power, it is a fairly rare occurrence. However, in an unusual disposition over the city prosecutor's objections, the judge accepted the motion. Judge Campbell cited the St. Paul City Council's recent passage of a resolution to violate the state pound seizure law by asking the pound to discontinue releasing abandoned pets for experimentation and the support of politicians such as St. Paul Mayor Norm Coleman for efforts to repeal the pound seizure law at the next session of the Legislature. The judge stated that the issue of the University's purchase of pound animals "leading to the untimely deaths of these animals" should be resolved in the Legislature.
Reprinted courtesy of the Animal Rights Coalition, Inc.

CONTRARY TO ANTI-CHOICE CLAIMS,
ABORTION NOT PROVEN TO CAUSE BREAST CANCER

Anti-choice forces throughout the country have been mounting a scare campaign implying that abortion causes breast cancer. Legislation has been introduced in several states requiring that women seeking abortions be told that the procedure could increase their risk of cancer; some of these bills would require women to delay their abortions by up to 10 days after being counseled on this issue.
Disinterested medical authorities and the latest medical research state that no such link has been proven.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, District IX issued its "Statement on Induced Abortion and Breast Cancer":
"After review of the medical literature the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, District IX, has reached the following position.
"Evidence is insufficient to support a relationship, either harmful or protective, of induced abortion on later development of breast cancer."The January 24/31, 1996 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association contains a study on the subject, "Pregnancy Termination in Relation to Risk of Breast Cancer" by Newcomb et al., which finds that any increase in the occurence of breast cancer among women who report having had abortions is small and "not statistically significant than the slight risk for spontaneous terminations [i.e., miscarriages]." The study also notes that any association between abortion and breast cancer "may be due to reporting bias" and may not, in fact, be a true link. "Prospective studies - which are not susceptible to recall bias - have generally not found an increse in risk of breast cancer among women reporting induced or spontaneous abortion." The study's authors found that their data "do not support a major role of induced abortion in breast cancer incidence."
An editorial in the same issue, "Abortion and the Risk of Breast Cancer - is there a Believable Association?" discusses (as does the Newcomb study) the inconsistent conclusions reached in various studies, and concludes that the current state of research does not justify stating with certainty that any link, either positive or negative, exists between abortion and breast cancer. The editorial specifically warns that "legislative efforts appear premature, in light of the information currently available" and that "the consequences of misinterpreting this limited information are already clear."
© 1996 California Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League

Criminalizing Late-Term Abortions: Bad Medicine, Bad Policy

Now making its way through Congress, H.R. 1833/S. 939, the Canady/Smith bill to eliminate late-term abortions, is a direct assault on Roe v. Wade - and an attack on women's lives and health. The Canady/Smith bill makes it a criminal offense for a doctor to perform a certain type of abortion procedure, known as a dilation and evacuation (D&X), on any woman in the third trimester of pregnancy. Only four out of every ten thousand abortions are performed after the 26th week of pregnancy. Most of these rare procedures are performed because the woman's life or health is endangered, or because the fetus suffers from severe abnormalities.
* The Canady/Smith bill makes no exceptions for women whose lives or health are endangered. Under Roe v. Wade, the government may not prohibit third-trimester abortions if the woman's life would be endangered by continuing the pregnancy. The bill criminalizes such abortions; a doctor can only excape conviction by proving that nothing but a D&X procedure could have saved the woman.
* The Canady/Smith bill makes no exceptions for severely deformed fetuses, or for fetuses that would not survive outside the womb. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the government may not place "a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion of a nonviable fetus." The Canady/Smith bill criminalizes late term abortions even if the fetus could not survive.
Banning this procedure also does a terrible disservice to families who must make the agonizing decision to terminate a pregnancy when birth would doom the baby to live a short, painful life and die a certain, early death. Moreover, this bill threatens and punishes doctors, who are already targets of anti-choice activism. It is a dangerous and cynical attempt to deprive American women of the supply of doctors willing and able to make sure that abortions are safe and available. Several California Congressmen - including, most recently, Frank Riggs - have signed on as cosponsors of this heartless legislation.
Copyright 1995 California Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League

On Friday, July 29th, Dr. John Britton and Mr. James Barratt were gunned down in front of the Ladies Clinic in Pensacola, Florida. The Reverend Paul Hill, Director of Defensive Action, an organization that advocates the use of violence against Doctors who provide abortions, was arrested and charged with murder. These brutal murders are the latest of numerous violent attacks, orchestrated and perpetuated by opponents of a woman's right to choose, against medical professionals who provide abortion services.
´ Since 1977, opponents of choice have directed more than one thousand reported acts of violence at abortion providers, including bombings, arson, death threats, kidnappings, assaults, shootings and clinic invasions. Since that time, they have also committed over five thousand acts of disruption, including clinic blockades, bomb threats, hate mail, harassing phone calls and demonstrations.1
´ Cases of arson have tripled, and incidents of reported vandalism have more than tripled from 1990 to 1992.2
´ In December 1991, a man in a ski mask opened fire with a sawed-off shotgun at a clinic in Springfield, Missouri, wounding two clinic workers, including the clinic's office manager who is paralyzed as a result of the shooting.3 In 1984, a part-time abortion counselor in Alabama found her cat decapitated.4 Most recently, clinics across the country have been sprayed with butyric acid,5 and in February 1992, a Texas clinic and three nearby buildings were leveled by arsonists.6 The inflammatory rhetoric and tactics of anti-choice extremists created a climate of intolerance, tension and violence that escalated to these latest murders.
´ Operation Rescue leader, Randall Terry, has described their objective as forcing physicians to stop providing abortion services: "We're going to shame them, humiliate them, embarrass them, disgrace them and expose them."7 Mr. Terry predicted that a January 1992 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in favor of Operation Rescue "will open up the floodgates for activists to join [in blockades] without any fear. . . . We'll continue to be the child-killing industry's worst nightmare."8
´ Operation Rescue's executive director, Keith Tucci, said of doctors who perform abortions: "They are killers and murderers."9
´ Dr. David Gunn, who also performed abortions in Pensacola, Florida, was murdered March 10, 1993, after heroically enduring years of harassment, threats and clinic blockades. During the summer of 1992, "wanted" posters targeting Dr. Gunn and containing his photograph, home address telephone number and daily schedule were distributed at a rally sponsored by Operation Rescue in Montgomery, Alabama.10
´ Melbourne, Florida is the site of a 12-week training camp organized by Operation Rescue, where opponents of a woman's right to choose are learning tactics for blockades. The recruits are being trained in tracing license numbers of clinic employees and patients, jamming clinic phone lines, picketing and videotaping doctors at their homes.11 The reaction of some anti-choice leaders to Dr. Gunn's slaying in 1993 reveals the extremism and callousness of some elements of the anti-choice movement.
´ Michael Bray, a Project Rescue leader stated, "From the standpoint of preventing further murders at the hands of Dr. Gunn, the actions of Mr. Griffin could be looked at as a good thing. [Mr. Griffin] should be acquitted of any charges, because his actions were done in defense of people who were scheduled to die: the unborn."12
´ Rescue America leader, Don Treshman, stated, "While Gunn's death is unfortunate, it's also true that quite a number of babies lives will be saved."13 The group is collecting donations to help the family of the man who shot and killed Dr. Gunn.14
´ Debbie Dykes, a member of the American Family Association, said, "I think the man that was killed . . . should be glad he was not killed the same way that he has killed other people, which is limb by limb."15
´ Randall Terry, leader of Operation Rescue, attacked Dr. Gunn as a murderer and went on to say "we must grieve for the thousands of children that he has murdered."16
´ John Burt, the organizer of the protests at the Pensacola clinic and former member of the Ku Klux Klan, promised to continue blockading the Pensacola clinic after the murder: "More babies are going to die, so we are going to try to stop that from happening. . . . If it causes trouble, so be it."17
´ A press release from the Missionaries to the Pre-born stated, "We will not be outraged over the one death and not the other 4,000."18
´ Workers at the Aware Women's Center in Melbourne, Florida said of the protestors outside of their clinic, "They cheered and danced on the sidewalk when they heard the news [of Dr. Gunn's shooting]."19 The clinic also received a death threat in which the caller stated, "One down. How many more do we have to go?"20 Anti-choice groups have also reacted by placing the blame for Dr. Gunn's death on the pro-choice federal government.
´ Rev. Joseph Foreman said that the shooting "could be the tip of the iceberg if the government silences abortion protestors . . . if the government insists on suppressing normal and time-honored dissent through injunctions, it turns the field over to the rock-throwers, the bombers and the assassins.21
´ Operation Rescue's Rev. Pat Mahoney said, "It is President Clinton, who by signing those administrative orders his first week of office, is pushing people to extreme actions."22 The slaying of Dr. Gunn prompted more physicians to go public with their own reports of death threats and harassment. The personal accounts of these physicians illustrate the widespread violence and harassment abortion providers must endure in order to provide basic health care to their patients.
´ In Boulder, Colorado, abortion providers have installed bullet-proof windows and doctors are purchasing bullet-proof vests.23
´ The day after Dr. Gunn's murder, a clinic in Kansas City, Missouri hired armed guards.24
´ The anti-choice group, Lambs of Christ, broke into a doctor's home in Minnesota, followed her teenage daughter to school, and passed out leaflets at the school saying "Dr. Wicklund is a baby killer."25
´ Dr. Warren Hern, medical director of an abortion clinic in Colorado, said that "death threats are so common they are not remarkable." While recently attending a pro-choice meeting in Denver, a protestor told Dr. Hern, `You should die.'"26
´ Dr. Buck Williams, the only doctor who provides abortions in South Dakota, got a licensed revolver after he was confronted several years ago by a man who threatened to cut off his fingers.27 In Melbourne, Florida, a staff member's 13-year-old son was asked out on a date and harassed by an Operation Rescue trainee. The boy was driven to a Burger King where a girl and a woman in her 30's requested the names of patients at his mother's clinic, and told him that he and his mother were going to burn in hell.28 More and more women are at risk of losing access to safe abortion because of the escalating shortage of physicians who are trained, qualified and willing to perform the procedure. The violence and terrorism of anti-choice extremists is discouraging many medical residents from even learning how to perform abortions.29
´ Currently, 83% of the counties in the United States have no abortion providers.30
´ In 34 states, the number of physicians who performed abortions declined between 1985 and 1988.31 North Dakota and South Dakota each are left with only one abortion provider.32
´ Many residency programs in obstetrics and gynecology have eliminated abortion instruction from their routine course work and many offer abortion training as an elective, or not at all. A recent study found that the number of programs that offer first trimester abortion training as a normal part of studies declined to 12% in 1992 from 23% in 1985. For second-trimester abortion training, the number of residency programs fell to 7% from 23%.33
´ At a rally in Melbourne, Florida, Randall Terry stated, "we've found that the weak link is the doctor."34 Terry has also noted "that fewer schools now train residents to perform abortions. . . . We hope that in 10 years, there'll be none."35
´In 1992, after six months of searching for a physician to provide abortions, a clinic in York, Pennsylvania decided to fly in a physician from Nebraska once a week.36
These terrorist attacks against clinics and clinic personnel also impose considerable financial costs to the communities in which they occur.
´ In Wichita, Kansas, in 1991, blockades that disrupted the operation of clinics for six weeks produced more than 2,600 arrests of anti-choice protestors and cost more than $650,000 in police time and court expenses.37
´ In Buffalo, New York, in 1992, anti-choice protests left the city with a bill exceeding $250,000 for police overtime.38 Recent escalations of violence and blockades at reproductive health care clinics highlight the urgent need for the enactment of federal legislation that will protect access to reproductive health care services, as well as for the vigorous enforcement of existing laws that protect against assault, arson, trespass, and harassment. The United States Congress recently passed the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act ("FACE"), which President Clinton signed into law. This law makes it a federal crime to blockade health care clinics, while respecting the right of anti-choice protestors to demonstrate peacefully as protected under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. FACE protects the ability of medical professionals to provide, and women to receive critical health care without risking physical harm.
Notes
1. National Abortion Federation, Incidents of Violence& Disruption Against Abortion Providers, (Washington, D.C.: National Abortion Federation) 1993.
2. Ibid.
3. Richard Lacayo, "One Doctor Down, How Many More?" Time, 22 March 1993, 46.
4 .Ellen Goodman, "Portrait of Fanaticism," Boston Globe, 29 November 1984, 23.
5. Frank Fisher, "Acid Attacks," Associated Press, 3 March 1993.
6 "The Death of Dr. Gunn," New York Times (editorial), 12 March 1993, A28.
7. Mimi Hall, "Abortion Foes Target Doctors," USA Today, 5 February 1992, 3A.
8. Joyce Price, "Operation Rescue Chief Expects Increase in Pro-Life Protesters," Washington Times, 14 January 1993, A10.
9 .Deborah Sharp, "`Boot Camp' Takes Abortion Battle to Florida City," USA Today, 1 February 1993, 5A.
10. Larry Rohter, "Fathoming the Abortion Clinic Gunman," New York Times, 12 March 1993, A17.
11. Sara Rimer, "Abortion Foes' Boot Camp Ponder Doctor's Death," New York Times, 19 March 1993, A12.
12. Amy Goldstein, "Area Feels Shockwave of Fla. Killing," Washington Post, 13 March 1993, B1.
13. "The Death of Dr. Gunn," New York Times (editorial), 12 March 1993, A28.
14. Rescue America, Press Release, 10 March 1993.
15. Felicity Barringer, "Slaying is a Call to Arms for Abortion Clinics," New York Times, 12 March 1993, A1.
16. Garry Mitchell, "Abortion Shooting," Associated Press, 11 March 1993.
17. "Volunteer Doctors Step in for Gunn," Washington Times, 14 March 1993, A3.
18. Missionaries to the Pre-born, Press Release, 10 March 1993.
19. Lynne Bumpus-Hooper, Orlando Sentinel, 10 March 1993.
20. Richard Lacayo, "One Doctor Down, How Many More?" Time, 22 March 1993, 47.
21. Garry Mitchell, "Abortion Shooting," Associated Press, 11 March 1993.
22. Lynne Bumpus-Hooper, Orlando Sentinel, 10 March 1993.
23. Felicity Barringer, "Slaying Is a Call to Arms for Abortion Clinics," New York Times, 12 March 1993, A1.
24. Ibid.
25. CBS, "60 Minutes," 2 February 1992, 5-6 (transcript).
26. Felicity Barringer, "Slaying is a Call To Arms for Abortion Clinics," New York Times, 12 March 1993, A1.
27. Richard Lacayo, "One Doctor Down, How Many More?" Time, 22 March 1993, 47.
28. Ibid.
29. Helene Cooper, "Medical Schools, Students Shun Abortion Study," Wall Street Journal, 12 March 1993, B1.
30. Stanley K. Henshaw and Jennifer Van Vort, "Abortion Services in the United States, 1987 and 1988," Family Planning Perspectives 22, no. 3 (May/June 1990), 106.
31. Stanley K. Henshaw and Jennifer Van Vort, eds., Abortion Factbook, 1992 Edition: Readings, Trends, and State and Local Data to 1988 (New York: Alan Guttmacher Institute, 1992), 190-95.
32. Henshaw and Van Vort, "Abortion Services in the United States," 104.
33. Helene Cooper, "Medical Schools, Students Shun Abortion Study," Wall Street Journal, 12 March 1993, B1.
34. Larry Rohter, "Doctor is Slain During Protest Over Abortions," New York Times, 11 March 1993, A1.
35. Helene Cooper, "Medical Schools, Students Shun Abortion Study," Wall Street Journal, 12 March 1993, B1.
36. "Clinic Works to Find Doctor for Abortions," Associated Press, 27 November 1992.
37. Mimi Hall, "Abortion Foes Target Five Cities," USA Today, 3 September 1991, 4A.
38. "Operation Rescue to Leave Buffalo," Richmond Times-Dispatch, 3 May 1992, A2.
From CARAL California Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League-NorthCLINIC VIOLENCE, INTIMIDATION AND TERRORISM

The California Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League-North (CARAL) has joined other women's health advocates in filing suit today in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York to prevent enforcement of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 passed on February 1 by Congress and expected to be signed by President Clinton on February 8.
The communications law criminalizes taking or receiving, via interactive computer service, "any drug, medicine, article, or thing designed, adapted, or intended for producing abortion ... or any written or printed card, letter, circular, book, pamphlet, advertisement, or a notice of any kind giving information, directly or indirectly, where, how, or of whom, or by what means any of such mentioned articles, matters, or things may be obtained or made." This ban is broad enough to encompass a wide range of activities, including posting information on the World Wide Web or using a computer email system to tell women where or how they can obtain legal abortions - activities in which CARAL engages.
"Our right of free speech, and the rights of women everywhere, are infringed by this law," said Ann G. Daniels, Executive Director of CARAL.
"The fundamental right to abortion is threatened if women and doctors cannot send or receive information that furthers women's health and well-being."
The Telecommunications Act does not itself mention abortion, but rather adds computer services to the prohibited means of transport listed in the Comstock Act - an 1873 federal obscenity statute that originally prohibited sending material on contraceptives or abortion through the mail. Although Congress in 1971 removed the Comstock Act's provisions concerning contraceptives, which had been used to prosecute Margaret Sanger and other pioneers in the birth control movement, the provisions concerning abortion remain despite the procedure's legality throughout the United States. The Act provides for substantial fines and/or prison terms.
In addition to CARAL, plaintiffs in Sanger v. Reno are Alexander Sanger, President of Planned Parenthood of New York City (PPNYC); PPNYC; the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL); the Feminist Majority Foundation; Medical Students for Choice; the National Abortion Federation; Rhonda Copelon, Professor of law at the City University of New York; and Adam Guasch-Melendez, an individual who maintains a site on the World Wide Web. Plaintiffs are represented by the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy and by NARAL.

Montana Abortion Law Struck Down

BILLINGS, Montana (Reuter) - A federal judge overturned a Montana law that would have required a girl aged 18 or under to have the consent of her parents or guardian before seeking an abortion, the judge's clerk said.
U.S. District Court Judge James Battin signed the order to quash the law, which was on the books but had not yet become effective.
A spokeswoman in Battin's office said the law was passed by Montana legislators in their last session and would have gone into effect on Oct. 1, 1995.
She said the constitutionality of the new law was challenged by a number of Montana physicians, acting as individuals.

Lawsuit to Try to Halt
Ohio Abortion Law

CINCINNATI, Oct 27 (Reuter) - Two women's health care providers and an Ohio woman filed suit in U.S. District Court seeking to halt an Ohio abortion law, an abortion rights centre said.
The new law would forbid doctors from performing dilation and extraction (D&X) abortions and forbid most types of abortions when a pregnancy is past 22 weeks, the Centre for Reproductive Law and Policy said in a news release.
A spokesman for the state confirmed the gist of the new law and that Ohio is the only state to have banned the D&X procedure. He declined to comment further.
Jerome Luebbers, the Democratic state legislator who introduced the measure, could not immediately be reached.
Legislation pending in the U.S. House and Senate would also target this method, the centre said, adding a Christian organisation has called for a ban on D&X abortions, "making it likely that bills similar to (the Ohio measure) will be proposed in other states.''
The law is unlikely to affect most abortions, which are performed in the first trimester.
The centre said the law is unconstitutional because it places undue burden on a woman seeking an abortion. It also poses a threat to women who for health reasons need abortions late in pregnancy, the centre said, adding that the language of the law is vague and confusing.
"In their zeal to ban abortion, the Ohio legislature has adopted a law that jeopardises women's lives and health and violates the bedrock principles established in (the) Roe versus Wade'' landmark U.S. Supreme Court case, said Kathryn Kolbert, a centre vice president and lawyer who represents the plaintiffs in the suit.
"The highest court in the land has made clear that states cannot impose restrictions on abortion that force physicians to compromise the health of their patients,'' she said.
The lawsuit seeks a preliminary injunction to stop the law from going into effect, the center's statement said.
The Centre for Reproductive Law& Policy said its lawyers represent the plaintiffs, Women's Medical Professional Corp. of Ohio and Dr. Martin Haskell. The centre did not name the other plaintiff in its statement. The defendants are the state of Ohio and county officials.

Planned Parenthood Sues Anti-Abortion Group

PORTLAND, Ore, Oct 26 (Reuter) - Planned Parenthood filed a class-action suit against anti-abortion activists for allegedly conducting "a campaign of terror'' that has led to violent attacks on doctors and clinics.
In a suit filed in U.S. District Court in Portland, Planned Parenthood charged the American Coalition of Life Activists and Advocates for Life Ministries with advocating "justifiable homicide'' of abortion providers, several of whom were subsequently killed or wounded.
"The threats of violence made by defendants go far beyond the realm of political rhetoric and constitute threats not protected by the First Amendment,'' said Theresa Russo of the Portland area chapter of Planned Parenthood.
The suit seeks damages of $150 million and a permanent injunction preventing the anti-abortion group from issuing "hit lists'' of abortion providers and making other threats.
In several cases death threats issued by the coalition have been carried out, including the 1993 murders of Dr. David Gunn in Pensacola, Florida, and Dr. George Patterson in Mobile, Alabama, Planned Parenthood officials said.
Overall there were five murders, nine attempted murders, five bombings and 30 cases of arson at abortion clinics from 1992 to 1994, officials said.
"These violent acts are not the isolated work of a lone gunman or lunatic,'' said Jude Hanzo, executive director of a group that operates clinics in Portland and Eugene. "They are premeditated, organised and determined acts to stop abortion.''
The lawsuit charges the anti-abortion activists with violating federal racketeering laws and the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act passed after Gunn's murder.
Andrew Burnett, a co-founder of the ACLA, defended the coalition against the charges, although he acknowledged that the group's members believe homicide is justifiable to prevent abortion.
"We've never made any threats against any abortionist,'' Burnett said.
"Our purpose is to tell the truth about abortion and to expose the abortion industry for what it really is,'' he said. "They're murderers.''
The Oregon lawsuit comes one day after a federal jury in Dallas, Texas, ordered three anti-abortion groups and their leaders to pay a doctor who performed abortions $8.6 million in damages for invading his privacy and inflicting emotional distress.
The groups - Operation Rescue, Missionaries to the Pre-Born and the Dallas Pro-Life Action Network - had demonstrated outside the hospital and home of Dallas obstetrician Norman Tompkins in 1992 to try to force him to stop performing abortions as part of his medical practice.
Radical Right: The Political, Social, and Terrorist Agenda
by Bernadette Castor
Radical Right politicians and groups are attempting to limit access to reproductive health services and information through various legislative, social, and terrorist agendas.
Anti-choice politicians gained tremendous power in Washington, Sacramento, and local communities in the 1994 elections. Led by the Christian Coalition, the Radical Right organized furiously and exploited pro-choice complacency.
Behind anti-choice candidates in California is the Allied Business PAC (ABPAC). This is no ordinary PAC. ABPAC was formed ostensibly to support pro-business candidates, but it heavily funds candidates with a radical ideological makeup. One of the PACs founders, H.F. Ahmanson, has said, "My purpose is the total integration of biblical law into our lives. In 1994 ABPAC jumped from #2 to #1 with legislative contributions of more than $2.3 million. This is the first time an "ideologically-based" PAC has ever made the top PAC list in California.

Violence
While Radical Right politicians are working legislatively, anti-choice extremist groups have traded democracy for terrorism. These groups have developed strategies from bombings to threatening doctors and medical students. As a result of this increasing violence, many clinics have reported that their insurance carriers have canceled property and liability coverage.
This fall, clinics across California were targeted by arson fires. Operation Rescue denies any responsibility, though we know these clinics were all targeted in its 1994 summer campaign. Anti-choice State Attorney General Dan Lungren continues to ignore requests to investigate these terrorist acts and to enforce The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE).

Sex Education
In 1993-94 eighty-six percent of school board members nationally reported Radical Right activists present in their schools. These activists are organizing to promote harmful "abstinence only" curricula in sexuality education.
CARAL supports the teaching of abstinence in sexuality education, however, it cannot be the only component. Radical Right programs link sex with guilt, fear, and shame but offer virtually no information about preventing pregnancy, thus alienating sexually active teens. These programs are ineffective and, in fact, harmful because they contain medically inaccurate information, and offer only abstinence as a prevention against pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.
Radical Right organization Focus on the Family has produced a slick video "Sex Lies& the Truth," for use in public schools, which has been shown on KTVU(Fox). In 1994, at the request of professionals and concerned citizens, the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services in Florida was asked to review this video. They responded that they found it ...to be medically inaccurate and informationally biased."We can not allow the political, social, and terrorist agenda of the Radical Right to prevail. It can succeed only if we do nothing. All that is required to defeat the Radical Right agenda is the simple exercise of Democracy - public disclosure, debate, and participation in the political process.
Copyright 1995 California Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League

Man Indicted in Plot to Kill Abortion Doctors
MILWAUKEE, Sept 19 (Reuter) - A federal grand jury indicted a man who allegedly stole more than a quarter of a milion dollars to finance what was to have been a string of deadly attacks on abortion clinics.
Robert Cook, 33, Caledonia, Wis., was arrested in August 1995 when police found an assault rifle, cash, a supply of food and two ninja-type hoods in his car.
The indictment charged that he stole $260,000 in bank funds from an armoured transport company where he once worked; that he laundered some of the money through a Cayman Islands bank account; and that he solicited another man "to join him in killing doctors who performed abortions and burned down (abortion) clinics.''
No such attacks were actually carried out.
Thomas Schneider, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, said, "It is significant that evidence in this case was provided by individuals and organizations who profoundly disagree on the issue of abortion, but were united in wanting nothing to do with violence.''

RU 486 (Mifepristone) - An abortion drug that prevents the need for abortion?
by David A. Grimes, M.D.
The demonstration in 1992 that RU 486 (Mifepristone) is an effective emergency contraceptive put an ironic spin on the debate swirling around this drug. Best known as a means of inducing medical abortion, Mifepristone suddenly became a means of preventing the need for abortion. Now those who oppose the licensing of Mifepristone in the U.S. find themselves in the awkward position of opposing an effective strategy to prevent abortion. Stated alternatively, opposition to Mifepristone may increase the number of abortions performed.
Emergency contraception is one of the best-kept secrets in the U.S. Many women - and many clinicians - are unaware of its availability and efficacy. The most commonly used method in the U.S. is two oral contraceptive tablets taken within 72 hours of unprotected intercourse, followed in 12 hours by another two tablets. When used this way, four birth control pills are highly effective in preventing pregnancy from starting. James Trussell, Ph.D., a distinguished demographer at Princeton, has estimated that we could reduce by 50% the number of abortions each year in the U.S. if women had easy access to effective emergency contraception.
Some critics with little understanding of biology claim that emergency contraception is an euphemism for early abortion. This is not the case. Pregnancy begins when a fertilized egg successfully implants in the lining of the uterus. This process begins about a week after fertilization and is complete about two weeks after fertilization. Emergency contraceptives work before this occurs, and, since pregnancy has not started, an abortion does not take place.
Two randomized controlled trials sponsored by the World Health Organization, published in the fall of 1992, showed that a single 600 mg. dose of taken within 72 hours of unprotected coitus was highly effective. Indeed, in the two trials, a total of about 600 women received this regimen, and none became pregnant. Importantly, the risk of vomiting with was significantly less than that with the oral contraceptive regimen.
Encouraged by this discovery, the World Health Organization began another trial last year to expand on these results. This trial is now underway at 12 sites around the world, with San Francisco General Hospital the only North American site. The study is testing the effectiveness of three different doses of for emergency contraception. The trial should conclude by the end of 1995.
Women in the Bay Area who would like to take part in the trial should call 415-502-0299. There is no cost, but several visits to the clinic are required.
The discovery of the contraceptive effect of changed forever the debate surrounding this drug. is not an abortion pill; it is the first of a new class of compounds called antiprogestins. These drugs have a wide array of potential uses in medicine, and contraception appears to be yet another one. This revelation will force opponents of to show this true colors on the issue of abortion.

Copyright 1995 California Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League

Top Court Denies Anti-Abortion Appeal

By James Vicini

WASHINGTON, Dec 4 (Reuter) - The Supreme Court on Monday upheld a ruling striking down an anti-abortion law in Colorado.
The high court left intact a lower court ruling that invalidated Colorado's ban on the use of state funds for abortions involving rape or incest. The action does not create a nationwide precedent but it could deter other states from adopting similar measures.
A federal appeals court in Colorado ruled in June that the state could not deny coverage to low-income women who became pregnant as a result of rape or incest as long as it accepted federal Medicaid funding. Four other U.S. appeals courts had already ruled that states taking part in Medicaid must cover all abortions for which federal matching funds were available.
The federal programme provides funds for abortions in cases of rape or incest and when the life of the mother may be in danger. Colorado had asked the Supreme Court to hear the case, but the justices turned down the appeal without comment.
"We are pleased the justices took the expected action and rejected this case. State Medicaid programmes must fund all abortions for which federal reimbursement is available," said Eve Gartner, an attorney for an abortion rights group that had challenged the state ban.

US Abortion Doctor Killer Must Keep Lawyers

TALLAHASSEE, Fla., (Reuter) - The Florida Supreme Court has ruled that Paul Hill, convicted of the 1994 murders of a doctor and his escort outside an abortion clinic, may not drop his court-appointed attorneys, court officials said.
Hill had asked that his attorneys be dismissed for not properly representing him during post-conviction proceedings. His handwritten motion was denied late Thursday without comment by Florida's high court.
Hill is on death row facing execution in Florida's electric chair for the shooting deaths of Dr. John Britton, 69, and his escort, James Barrett, 74, outside a Pensacola clinic.
The former preacher, who represented himself during his trial, has repeatedly requested that he be allowed to continue as his own counsel, with a court-appointed attorney acting as a friend of the court.
In the most recent motion filed March 15, Hill complained that his attorneys did not follow his instructions and made numerous errors in briefs filed with the court.
Hill has said the July 1994 slayings of Britton and Barrett were necessary to prevent fetuses from being killed at the Pensacola, Florida, clinic where Britton worked.

poetry

Molly Conway

To separate, detach
oneself from one's feelings
is a skill
and makes perfect sense

so how COULD one feel anything
like hate or revenge?
and you say I want to make him suffer
No, I don't

Someday, maybe
those words you use to label feelings
I'll understand
Right now I can only guess

I've only been me
so I can't really know
if the words I use and you use for feelings
have any coming together point at all

maybe we're just using words
that we're both supposed to know
but what if we're wrong?
and my spoken words pass by you
as your's miss me

and we think we're talking to each other?

So I told you the gory stuff
because the thought of it shocked me
sharing it was easy
but now I'm frightened
about the vanilla pudding, especially

but it's probably normal
considering everything

TUESDAY, AUGUST 12th
Stephen W. Brodie
SWBrodie@aol.com

did you hear that?

could it be a wild dog
or a lost child?
could it be your mother,
your sister,
or maybe one of the others?

what will you say when
they come to take you away?
when they lead you down
that long corridor and through
the great steel doors to your final
destination,

how will it feel?
knowing your time is
almost up,

and soon you'll be nothing
but a memory,
as they are,

memories shining on
and on through the silence
that has become their tomb,

their hopes and dreams have
been summed up in some small
corner of a newspaper somewhere
for people to line their pets' cages with,
tear drops and flowers on smooth
granite slabs,
and patches of broken earth

how will your last meal taste?

dull and earthy I bet

WELL, SPEAKING OF FLAVORS

Alice Olds-Ellingson

It's good. That tastes good. I'm telling you
about taste when for a few days i was in bad
taste. I reeked of bad taste like making
my aunt and uncle smut of their face
like making with the word vagina and quick
trick self like hurting with the sting flavor
like hurting everybody up to their faces
reeling in cunt words and prick slime
tedious daddy pritche and they were so
sacrosanct these uncle/aunt pair and how i just
reeked of slime and put it all in their innocent
hybrid faces such weird flavors of trick-self
stopped-up by rage really it was rage and how
i could put a flavor of sex out of joint and shove
those foul things of sex all blocked up
of sex in a sling-shot not sex but how
i was a slime because i believed dad was satan
& how i didn't want to pay for my cunt
being it was only a cunt i didn't have to take up
the slack of what i was as a person must not be a sling-
shot of a real pernicious cunt and not to pay
daddy for my being a cunt he is not at fault for
having an easy-trespass bank account oh no
i am getting off scot free i don't owe daddy
daddy for these foldable magic i am schizo feared
i don't have to shit at all my shit is magic no one
need collect on the new little trick wardrobe
i am supposed to have the clean quim but who cares
about daddy and who cares that he can't afford dry-clean and his assurance
that i am not just a prick of a needle girl that
i am able to see how i owe money as never before
how much i owe somebody and i've never been
a good credit risk i am not affordable magic
i am a soul out of work with no free-stipends
& how the double-bind of a girl now damaged
not only by my magical use of dad's wardrobe
money but now the world is coming to the man's rescue
and i get appropriately assassination from a mis-guided
but probably i make myself deserving of assassination
by the South Korean vindicative and insane dentist
who doesn't like herself either and who jest
pops my ugly face full of a whole hole
in the improper place for teeth crimes
and how i deserve this
and how i should pay
and pay and i'm not laing the R.D. laing
and how i have been not only
not grecian and deserving
of the flavors of trick joy
but am deserving as i penetrate
like a prick the tenor of the vagina
which is the soul of my vagina
and how it is a flavor
of going to the private room

Washday

joan papalia eisert

its hot
its hot
its monday on her head
again

her melting
chocolate baby
sits in the corner
of the folding table
his eyes
lit
with the shiniest duskiness
i've ever seen

his cry is thin
she scolds him
as if the warriors of the world
have come to claim
the territory between
her skin and her bones

a sister mother comes by
with a tiny red ball
"catch the ball
can't you catch the ball?"

mmhmmm
mmm hmmm

catch the ball
can't you catch the ball

Orange and Brown
(or: strange being here in this pumpkin field)

michael estabrook

30 years ago Tony
M. helped me after Dad died to find
myself, though
he's too polite to acknowledge that now.
Now Marine Captain 6th Dan Karate Black Belt
Tony M. and I find ourselves walking
(of all the places in the world) through
a field of ripened pumpkins, orange and brown,
reminiscing about the old
days and he's telling me the story
of him beating up
the star quarterback of the East Brunswick
High School football team Dan
Something-or-Other because he was
stupid enough to drop a pumpkin
on his head and even after Tony warned
him not to and I'm laughing at
the pumpkin coincidence and from amazement
too about how life goes on and on
dragging us along changing us
or trying to.

progress is computers and crab Legs

michael estabrook

Another computer training session
learning to do tasks better, faster,
more efficiently, than I
could do them before, tasks,
actually, that I never did
before, never even thought
of doing before, or knew
I could do or wanted to do before.
And everybody's sitting around
the conference room table staring
through their thick
lensed glasses at
their little laptop computer
screens, fingers clicking
frantically across tiny keypads
sounding like
an army of crabs scurrying, their
tiny little crab legs skittering
across a bare wooden floor.

~ illusions ~

(C)1995 By Paul L. Glaze

I ask that you pardon
this personal intrusion.
But the world you
live in is only an illusion..!

Be not emotional,
rant rave, or curse...
As this is only
a fictional universe.

This world is here,
we are learn and play.
Do not show fear
or yearn to stay.

Our essence is not
of this time or space..
Our existence began
in a superior place..

We have lived before
and will live again.
We all have passed
thru creations door.

So go live your life ,
even have some fun.
Forget the strife,
there is work to be done.

Helping others is the
most important plan
To advance ourselves,
we must assist fellow man.

You must gain knowledge
and increase your worth
.Or be doomed forever
in Endless Rebirth!

anal sex
Ray Heinrich
ray@vais.net

and you can clean your ass
with warm enemas filled
with fragrance and alcohol
so you get
too drunk to fuck
but it doesn't matter
it's fun
and the closest to a girl that i can be
when us boys are together
and somehow
aren't happy
as we should be
being
just boys

THE SECRET OF LIFE
(TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT)

mark hartenbach

saint ishmael told me in what appeared
to be shattered& splintered
abstract expressionist version
of a gnostic hophead
diamond sutra (but the pure
beauty of the language
was enough to deem it
gospel truth) that the path
to happiness
or maybe it was the line
of least resistance,
anyway i know it led somewhere
& sometimes that's enough.
the soul needs to be submerged
in 80 proof& incidental contact
& some things that are illegal
is this country
to help it keep
its luster.

REMEMBERING AN EDEN TIME

Richard Fein
bardbyte@chelsea.ios.com

The meek must make do;
however, they can inherit the earth
or a piece of it.
Even the hares, mice, and voles have their moment.
But not the obvious moment.
The teeming, bountiful summer is no age of Eden,
the specters of talons, claws, and fangs
whip their hearts into endless frenzies.
Spring and fall offer
only a blanket of wet leaves
and death by fever in chilly winds.
But in desolate winter
their hunters flee in droves
and white drifts hide them,
while the heat shedding earth
sublimates the snow gouging
cool, dry, safe passages.
Scampering there, they dine
on dead grass, dried scallions, rotten nuts.
They need no furtive glances, up, down, and sideways.
Save for the owl and weasel,
sudden death no longer lurks
above their white crystalline heaven.
In darkness, they press close to earth,
and their racing hearts can finally slow.

Cowering during the equinoxes or midsummer sun,
do they perhaps drop their snouts to the ground
and sniff longingly for a whiff of winter?

SICK IN BED
Taylor Graham
jalapep@spider.lloyd.com

She'd draw the blind
so sunlight came in creamy
and diminished, sweet as phlegm.
I coughed and flipped through books
with colored filigree. If only
I could kiss the frog
he'd be a prince, and I
as pale as sheets.
My dreams were fever lilypads
afloat on sweat.
And when they broke,
she snapped that windowshade
quicker than a toad's tongue,
and I was back to school in plaid
and nothing changed.

at the beach
Ray Heinrich
ray@vais.net

red

pink

our position in the sun is everything

stops hurting

only

when we cum

By Paul L. Glaze

One Could Say That It Comes Into Play
So Many Ways In Our Games Each Day.

Interludes Are Moments Of Recreation
A Remote Island, An Intimate Vacation

A Romantic Interlude Where Lovers Meet.
A Chance Meeting, On Some Busy Street

Prisoners Have An Interlude With Bars
As Astronauts Dream Of Walking On Mars.

And At The Risk Of Being Rude.
A Person Could State, Being A Prude,
Reading This Poem
Was A Brief Interlude.

"Refugee Tear"
Eric Leake
Carmagnole@aol.com

A sly tear does descend my face
Another quickly takes its place
It trickles down my sunkissed cheek
An escape from pain is what it seeks.

Taylor's Kid
mike lazarchuk

homebodies
pete lee

some of the trees
wash their hair
in the river

while others
dangfle a limb
in the current

just to feel
that sense of
motion

lyn lifshin

wanting the
good close
dark but we
never had that
the marriage
a ridiculous
glove with
fingers sewed
up tight, it
couldn't work
What difference
does it make
who did what
first. both
of us desperate
for a place
to put our hands

gestapo sentimentality
CHIVALRY

c ra mcguirt

bud said he liked to go the Glass Onion
& pick up 14-year-old girls& fuck them.
he said they were naive,& it was easy,
then looked to me& phillip for approval.

i asked if it could be that his equipment
was insufficient for the satisfaction
of real women. i was so sarcastic
(with the help, admittedly, of phillip)
that bud became enraged& left the party.
he said he bet we thought that we were funny.
but truly, me& phillip find no humor
in stupid, selfish, predatory assholes.

we see ourselves as shining knights, protecting
every sacred virgin in the valley.
galahad himself could hold no candle
to the pure& holy flame
which burns in both of us.

we'll guard the Grail,
& honor it forever...

by the way, HOW old
did you say your
sister was?

Just Saw a Girl
mark senkus

practicing so I don't
fall down
upon myself when
it happens
practicing for that
just-right
adult
mature
reaction

I'm practicing now
very
very
damn hard but
I think I have a ways
to go because
this time
I could only pretend th'guy accompanying
my pseudo-x-gal was
her cousin& not
her new lover

chicago, west side
janet kuypers

she knew who they were coming for

she crouched in front of the window
straddling her chair she moved from the corner
her coffee sat in the window sill
the condensation rising, beading

on the window right about at her eye level.
she took the side of her index finger
periodically and smeared some of the
water away to look into the streets.

the snow was no longer falling on the
west side of Chicago; it just packed
itself darker and deeper into the ground
with every car that drove over it.

she gunshot was ringing in her ear
still. it was so loud. the earth cried
when she pulled that trigger. let out
a loud, violent scream. she could still

hear it. for these few moments, she had to
just stare out the window and wait. she
didn't know if she should bother running,
if it mattered or not. she couldn't think.

all she knew was that this time, when
she heard the sirens coming from the
streets, she'd know why they were coming.
she'd know who they were coming for.

Julie Schillinger
julie@onrampbbs.com

I beg them to be nice
but they wink, nudge each other
with boney elbows
conspiratorially
laughing, hands over mouths
and pointing their skinny fingers
like they know some secret
jokes on me

they won't go until I choose one
as my lover, seducing him
stroking caressing massaging him
until he quietly
whispers to me from another room
calling my name in a sleepy loving voice

the others soon leave
slamming the door cursing under their breath
but I know they'll be back
laying in wait and in disguise
like this one

CLUASTROPHOBIA
Cheryl Townsend
IMPETUS@aol.com

Sometimes
you walk into a room
that you don't really
want to enter
But you're there
You don't want to be
but you're there
You look at the windows
and the door you came
in through You look
for any way out and
you panic You worry
that when you do
finally get out that
not everything will
be as it was when
you walked in
Into that room
Into that space
Into his arms

DETACHED

paul weinman

Tide-time brought dead monkeys
rolling piles of hairy tails flopping
slapping at the frothy sand.
My parents wedding photo
was among that debris. Eyes
searching from within darkening wet.
I got naked and writhed
grabbed a monkey with my teeth
tried to thrash it, bash it
but choked on clutches of hair
that ripped from decaying flesh.
My screams were clogged by prophylactics
a glut of sloppy condoms, that later
had to be peeled from my dried skin.

morning

helena wolfe

I'm alone
no one interrupts my senses

The food is bad.
It is loud in here

silverware clashing
into the washbin
by the conveyor belt

chaos
disarray

something is doing
something wrong

unsettling

You can hear it pour
rain falling
A light rain
marbles falling

mumblings of a crowd

cracking
lighter, and quieter

The metal
clanging
loud echo

ECONOMICS OF LOVE

paul weinman

Slipping her hand under my shirt
she talks waxy-fast, lisping a little.
Asks me if itsy-bitsy mice
nibble at my bank account
as her fingernails ease into my skin.
"Remember those meaningful moments
of those chocolate covered cherries you bit.
Had me sip from their brown hollow
as you rolled red with tongue.
I licked your chin for dribble
even other places where CDs hid."
She says as she sways from room
my ATM card waving, fanning her heat.
Adding..."Easy exchange
for lack of sensibilities
this subtracting."

Moving Apart

GREY/GRAY
Cheryl Townsend
IMPETUS@aol.com

There was a mist
this morning
as I drove to this poem
Drove into melancholy
just a tad over the
speed limit
I was in no hurry
Just habit
Driving fast
The hurry up& wait
as I do
Still
Wait
A lot can hide in the fog
Police with radar
Crossing animals
Memories
All are potentially
dangerous
My reflexes are quick
I can avoid
tickets and death
But this humid condition
clouds my vision
Hinders my getting
where I need to go
and I slow slightly
to wipe the dampness
from my cheek

LIVING LIFE WITHOUT THE LETTER C:
FROM CONVICTIONS TO COOKOUTS

Christopher Stolle
cstolle@indiana.edu

If C didn't exist, we'd not have any creativity,
no challenges to overcome and no cities to live in.

No more cassette or CD players, no civil wars,
no chlorophyll, no Chopin and no chopsticks.

Nothing could run in chronological order, or be civil
and there'd be no more concerts or concessions.

Without C, we'd have no calcium, no shirt collars,
no chipmunks, no cylinders, no ceremonies and no clocks.

Maybe we'd still have criminals and cold snow,
but we'd lose all the calendars and computers.

Maybe the cynics will disappear and Congress would fold,
but how could we eat still chocolate chip cookies?

There would be no cellars, no closets and no cops.

The ruins in Rome couldn't crumble without columns
for they could only tumble to the ground without the letter C.

Nothing could be correct or be able to cascade
nor would we have calligraphy or cash or compatibility.

We could rid the world of cystic fibrosis and the curses
as well as cyclones, crucifixions and contusions.

But we would be miserable without culture, carrots,
cabbage, chauffeurs, chaplains, cereal or chalkboards.

Yet, we could destroy cerebral palsy, creeds, cryptics,
crack cocaine, idiotic college courses and costs.

But where would our courage and character go?

What about chastisement and celibacy,
and what about Christmas and Chanukah?

There would be no chapbooks or Chaucer to read,
and depending on who you are, that might be chivalrous.

The letter C must prevail for the sake of cherries,
candles, crayons, crescent moons and Charlie Chaplin.

We need the constellations, cheese, creation, cauliflower,
crystals, collections and Indiana's own cream and crimson.

With no letter C, we'd have no Christophers, Chads, Cindys,
Carlas, Charles', Carols, Camilles and no Claude Cookmans.

But in the grand scheme of things, the letter C remains
a vital part of the English language for the sake of
all the things that our dreams and goals burden
as they end in the culmination of change for all
creamy cows, cremated curators, charismatic choices
and for the consolation of all curious and courteous children.

And in the end, the letter C survived with the need for comfort,
corralled peace, calm arguments and cool compositions like this.

Ciao!

murder down the shore

mark sonnenfeld

full uniforms hunt + snarl
bits of asphyxiation

as a street sunpour simply watched
so much surf slid UNOFFICIALLY

DISAPPEARED PARTY BLANKET
amidst
high tide
bikini girls

see the hours of twice the traffic twerps
+ asinine lollapalooza mainstays
by dog-wags off-curbing yelps

eventually
being the 6 o'clock topnews-story backdrop

Helpless
By Peter Scott

Last night I saw
The sad passage of time
A toll we all take
Cloaked though in view
We think efficiency lost
But as it grew dark
Moonlight bathing our silhouettes
I knew she was in
Certain danger
A fate worse than lost status
A new car
Or that shiny black TV
Once what could sprint with grace
Now sorrowful with neglect
Watching I could see it
Feel it
But do nothing to prevent
Gazing at her among us
A different light shone
Her intellect negated
Dedication, hard work and
Compassion
Let her down
How could she do this to herself?
In that moment the crack bore large
Looked upon at times like a god
Weakness gives weight
My measure of perfection
Smashed and maimed
For all the knowledge
A cancer was born
Ripping, tearing, spreading
Obliterating the chance
The future running fast
Giving her all
She forgot just one thing
Herself
So with the generosity
Pain besets her loved ones
You can not give
Until helping yourself
Trying so hard
To please those that are dear
Planting the seed
That riddles me with fear
Her bones now ache
Activity too much
My gut now worse
Much worse than her ache
The sky is clear
A distance seems near
The music plays
My tear
Ever so soft
Touches the flower
In front...
Her love for me is eternal
I am bound by it
Every single day
Yet why is she not resisting?
Giving the old man
With a suit and a tie
The key to her body
Posting that sign
The one that says
That she will die
Somber now cold
I see with a stare
Early she craved
For which they answer her call
Born with a gift
Then taken for granted
Still the look of the young
She gives it away
Not half done yet
The bottle almost empty
One last sip
The final drip
Chances for redemption
Mixing the soil
Drip by drip
Drip for drip
Drip in drip
For when she is gone
Salt and pain
Will pelt the earth
Not from me
But from the affected
I feel the pain too
How crushingly mean
Not to her
But from the machine
A run I begat
Slow and steady
The cancer won't get me
I won't let it
For she may have died
Put me through hell
By no means
Shall they see
My early dead shell.

in italy moths don't murder their babies.
mothers are a million people
and look like Sophia Loren.
I look that good.
I am an american.
I murder fathers.
children are precious.
fathers don't give a shit.
they don't like me, in fact.
they wish me to come down with measles
or measly dates - which are the fruit.
fathers are so horrible in america
they don't even tell you you are beautiful
and why they have to put you on permanent hold.

fathers in america are now SS men
and keep you, if you are blonde,
on social security until they die.
when the american fathers die
they leave you with the credit card bills.

while living, you, the blonde,
are forced to believe you are ugly
because you weigh over 121.
Tell me, Sophia, how can I regain
a beautiful disposition while living
with a father who calls me a Mack Truck.
and who makes me think i've always been ugly
except when taken over in 1985 by the goddess
Hera. Tell me, Sophia, he seems to like
17-year-old boys better than me.
when it comes to women, he is all out
of proportion. He thinks the cleaning woman
is the perfect fit and why? because she thinks
not even one minute about Beauty. How can she?
I ask this knowing that if she asked god
for beauty he would supply her with SSI checks.
that's what i get. God, I want to mail you a recent
snapshot. I don't look 53 and I know, by all I know,
that I am beautiful. why don't I have any dates?
fast answer? Because what you know in your dark
corners is the truth about your "dad." he is the devil,
he hates you, he hates me, he hated his wife, he hates
and works with that emotion to screw up every life he
is in care of. Look how his twin sister grovels
in front of him and how out of meager side-splitting
monies dies to give the brother, the Monger, her
last pennies. why would he not do the same with
his daughter? if you can and this is God would
you do a favor for mankind? would you murder him?
you may have to serve time, but hand-clapping
would be the approval.

Half-Moon in the Sky

By Peter Scott

The whole world crashes down
While I add one plus one
The winds rage at my window's edge
Subtly shifting halos in the dormant surroundings
While the soap suds drip from my fingertips
King's guard prepares his soldiers
And I sit
War is planned by the strategists
As I gaze
Listening to my comrade's reiteration
In tune with Carnegie's cannons
Billowing smoke and flame
A fire in the stove
Bread in the oven
Men of misery
Warring and bonding in the night
I watch it all from my window
Situated in a seedy outgrowth none dare enter
I practice a speech I
Lust to give
As the ceremonies conduct themselves
Taking my test
Watching them move onward
Dying or striving
Blissful, this window sees all fate
From one side
Someday I'll walk the sidewalk
Quench my fear
Observing there is nothing behind
My simple painted portrait.

FOR BETTER OR WORSE

Kurt Nimmo
knimmo@mail.ic.net

Another time
I took the marriage license
off the wall
and smashed it.
She had it framed
after we did the justice
of the peace thing and hung
it on the bedroom wall.
There's no justice,
certainly no peace, and I smashed
it. She began to cry
and that's when I wanted
to kill her. I nearly yanked the door
off its hinges instead. I was
a one man destruction crew.
She cowered, marked with fear.
I had poured out
all of the booze. I had an idea-
splash booze all over the house,
bar the doors, and light
the place ablaze.
I kicked a hole in the wall instead.
It was a nice round hole
filled with darkness,
too small for me to crawl inside
of and hide. She cowered,
sobbed. For better or worse,
the magistrate had said.
I do, I had answered-
even with the bottles of gin
and the chronic unemployment
and unpaid bills and taxes due
and credit cards jacked sky-high
and three dollars and ten cents
in the checking account.
I do, I answered.
I now pronounce you,
said the magistrate.
He had green eyes, closely
spaced, and a wax-
skinned skull.
I do, forever. And then
I smashed the marriage license.
It sat there, worthless and broken,
and it did not ask
for my forgiveness.

How many times can I sit idely by
As my hopes and dreams and wishes die
How many times can an honest man lie
Before his life becomes just emptiness
A void deviod of tenderness

Devoted men have lost their way
To join the ranks for whom we pray
But hope's not gone for have we must
Hope and love and in God our trust.

the rain does not know

greg kosmicki

all the way home spalooshes of rain
slosh and galoosh and splinch around the car
while Briana tickles me
and I tickle her

she thinks we
are just having fun but I
am helping her learn
how to say "Stop"
her 3-year old fingers
barely a presence in my arm pit,
I laugh uproariously
as we drown along in the car
toward home
and when she
says "Stop" I stop
and when I say "Stop"
she stops
but the rain
does not know when to stop

angels

layer upon layer
the crisp ashes float
in the wind
carrying us off
where we will never see
the wind
like some believe in gods
like some give up
and turn to the earth
but in the middle of the sky
between blue and blue
there are angels
belonging to neither
gods nor earth
angels
of our fantasies
and of our fantasies
made real
or as real
as we'll ever be

angels
to carry us
wherever we hoped
in movies
or in
the illusion of life
we made for ourselves
angels
to carry us
out
out where we wished
ever since babes
wherever we wished
angels
of our fantasies
made real

Ray Heinrich ray@vais.net

By Paul L. Glaze

I Am A Funny Jester Clown
I'll Find A Person With A Frown.
My Jokes Turns Him Upside Down.
Because I Am A Funny Jester Clown.

People Come To Laugh At Me.
They Know I Am A Funny Guy.
I Once Found A Laughing Hyena
And Was Able To Make Him Cry.

See My Jester Shoes And Pants
I'll Fill Them Full Of Ants.
Then Make Up Funny Chants.
The Chants Of Ants In My Pants.

Come Into Our Carnival Show
There Is Laughter All Around.
If I Can't Make A Laugh Or So.
My Face Will Shrink And Frown

I Will Lie Here On The Ground.
And No Longer Be Your Clown.
But Don't Bet This With Money.
Because I Am Darn Right Funny.

I Come To Your Carnival Towne
To Clown It Upside Down
And Spread My Laughter Around !

philosophy monthly

COMMON SENSE
BY THOMAS PAINE

Mr. Paine's footnotes are contained within brackets [ ] within the text.
INTRODUCTION
Perhaps the sentiments contained in the following pages, are not YET sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favour; a long habit of not thinking a thing WRONG, gives it a superficial appearance of being RIGHT, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason.
As a long and violent abuse of power, is generally the Means of calling the right of it in question (and in Matters too which might never have been thought of, had not the Sufferers been aggravated into the inquiry) and as the King of England hath undertaken in his OWN RIGHT, to support the Parliament in what he calls THEIRS, and as the good people of this country are grievously oppressed by the combination, they have an undoubted privilege to inquire into the pretensions of both, and equally to reject the usurpation of either.
In the following sheets, the author hath studiously avoided every thing which is personal among ourselves. Compliments as well as censure to individuals make no part thereof. The wise, and the worthy, need not the triumph of a pamphlet; and those whose sentiments are injudicious, or unfriendly, will cease of themselves unless too much pains are bestowed upon their conversion.
The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind. Many circumstances hath, and will arise, which are not local, but universal, and through which the principles of all Lovers of Mankind are affected, and in the Event of which, their Affections are interested. The laying a Country desolate with Fire and Sword, declaring War against the natural rights of all Mankind, and extirpating the Defenders thereof from the Face of the Earth, is the Concern of every Man to whom Nature hath given the Power of feeling; of which Class, regardless of Party Censure, is the AUTHOR.
P.S. The Publication of this new Edition hath been delayed, with a View of taking notice (had it been necessary) of any Attempt to refute the Doctrine of Independance: As no Answer hath yet appeared, it is now presumed that none will, the Time needful for getting such a Performance ready for the Public being considerably past.
Who the Author of this Production is, is wholly unnecessary to the Public, as the Object for Attention is the DOCTRINE ITSELF, not the MAN. Yet it may not be unnecessary to say, That he is unconnected with any Party, and under no sort of Influence public or private, but the influence of reason and principle.
Philadelphia, February 14, 1776
OF THE ORIGIN AND DESIGN OF GOVERNMENT IN GENERAL. WITH CONCISE REMARKS ON THE ENGLISH CONSTITUTION
Some writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our POSITIVELY by uniting our affections, the latter NEGATIVELY by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first a patron, the last a punisher.
Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries BY A GOVERNMENT, which we might expect in a country WITHOUT GOVERNMENT, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer. Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built on the ruins of the bowers of paradise. For were the impulses of conscience clear, uniform, and irresistibly obeyed, man would need no other lawgiver; but that not being the case, he finds it necessary to surrender up a part of his property to furnish means for the protection of the rest; and this he is induced to do by the same prudence which in every other case advises him out of two evils to choose the least. WHEREFORE, security being the true design and end of government, it unanswerably follows, that whatever FORM thereof appears most likely to ensure it to us, with the least expense and greatest benefit, is preferable to all others.
In order to gain a clear and just idea of the design and end of government, let us suppose a small number of persons settled in some sequestered part of the earth, unconnected with the rest, they will then represent the first peopling of any country, or of the world. In this state of natural liberty, society will be their first thought. A thousand motives will excite them thereto, the strength of one man is so unequal to his wants, and his mind so unfitted for perpetual solitude, that he is soon obliged to seek assistance and relief of another, who in his turn requires the same. Four or five united would be able to raise a tolerable dwelling in the midst of a wilderness, but one man might labour out of the common period of life without accomplishing any thing; when he had felled his timber he could not remove it, nor erect it after it was removed; hunger in the mean time would urge him from his work, and every different want call him a different way. Disease, nay even misfortune would be death, for though neither might be mortal, yet either would disable him from living, and reduce him to a state in which he might rather be said to perish than to die.
Thus necessity, like a gravitating power, would soon form our newly arrived emigrants into society, the reciprocal blessings of which, would supersede, and render the obligations of law and government unnecessary while they remained perfectly just to each other; but as nothing but heaven is impregnable to vice, it will unavoidably happen, that in proportion as they surmount the first difficulties of emigration, which bound them together in a common cause, they will begin to relax in their duty and attachment to each other; and this remissness will point out the necessity of establishing some form of government to supply the defect of moral virtue.
Some convenient tree will afford them a State-House, under the branches of which, the whole colony may assemble to deliberate on public matters. It is more than probable that their first laws will have the title only of REGULATIONS, and be enforced by no other penalty than public disesteem. In this first parliament every man, by natural right, will have a seat.
But as the colony increases, the public concerns will increase likewise, and the distance at which the members may be separated, will render it too inconvenient for all of them to meet on every occasion as at first, when their number was small, their habitations near, and the public concerns few and trifling. This will point out the convenience of their consenting to leave the legislative part to be managed by a select number chosen from the whole body, who are supposed to have the same concerns at stake which those who appointed them, and who will act in the same manner as the whole body would act, were they present. If the colony continues increasing, it will become necessary to augment the number of the representatives, and that the interest of every part of the colony may be attended to, it will be found best to divide the whole into convenient parts, each part sending its proper number; and that the ELECTED might never form to themselves an interest separate from the ELECTORS, prudence will point out the propriety of having elections often; because as the ELECTED might by that means return and mix again with the general body of the ELECTORS in a few months, their fidelity to the public will be secured by the prudent reflection of not making a rod for themselves. And as this frequent interchange will establish a common interest with every part of the community, they will mutually and naturally support each other, and on this (not on the unmeaning name of king) depends the STRENGTH OF GOVERNMENT, AND THE HAPPINESS OF THE GOVERNED.
Here then is the origin and rise of government; namely, a mode rendered necessary by the inability of moral virtue to govern the world; here too is the design and end of government, viz. freedom and security. And however our eyes may be dazzled with show, or our ears deceived by sound; however prejudice may warp our wills, or interest darken our understanding, the simple voice of nature and of reason will say, it is right.
I draw my idea of the form of government from a principle in nature, which no art can overturn, viz. that the more simple any thing is, the less liable it is to be disordered; and the easier repaired when disordered; and with this maxim in view, I offer a few remarks on the so much boasted constitution of England. That it was noble for the dark and slavish times in which it was erected, is granted. When the world was overrun with tyranny the least remove therefrom was a glorious rescue. But that it is imperfect, subject to convulsions, and incapable of producing what it seems to promise, is easily demonstrated.
Absolute governments (tho' the disgrace of human nature) have this advantage with them, that they are simple; if the people suffer, they know the head from which their suffering springs, know likewise the remedy, and are not bewildered by a variety of causes and cures. But the constitution of England is so exceedingly complex, that the nation may suffer for years together without being able to discover in which part the fault lies; some will say in one and some in another, and every political physician will advise a different medicine.
I know it is difficult to get over local or long standing prejudices, yet if we will suffer ourselves to examine the component parts of the English constitution, we shall find them to be the base remains of two ancient tyrannies, compounded with some new republican materials.
FIRST - The remains of monarchial tyranny in the person of the king. SECONDLY - The remains of aristocratical tyranny in the persons of the peers. THIRDLY - The new republican materials in the persons of the commons, on whose virtue depends the freedom of England.
The two first, by being hereditary, are independent of the people; wherefore in a CONSTITUTIONAL SENSE they contribute nothing towards the freedom of the state.
To say that the constitution of England is a UNION of three powers reciprocally CHECKING each other, is farcical, either the words have no meaning, or they are flat contradictions.
To say that the commons is a check upon the king, presupposes two things:
FIRST - That the king is not to be trusted without being looked after, or in other words, that a thirst for absolute power is the natural disease of monarchy.
SECONDLY - That the commons, by being appointed for that purpose, are either wiser or more worthy of confidence than the crown.
But as the same constitution which gives the commons a power to check the king by withholding the supplies, gives afterwards the king a power to check the commons, by empowering him to reject their other bills; it again supposes that the king is wiser than those whom it has already supposed to be wiser than him. A mere absurdity!
There is something exceedingly ridiculous in the composition of monarchy; it first excludes a man from the means of information, yet empowers him to act in cases where the highest judgment is required. The state of a king shuts him from the world, yet the business of a king requires him to know it thoroughly; wherefore the different parts, by unnaturally opposing and destroying each other, prove the whole character to be absurd and useless.
Some writers have explained the English constitution thus: The king, say they, is one, the people another; the peers are a house in behalf of the king, the commons in behalf of the people; but this hath all the distinctions of a house divided against itself; and though the expressions be pleasantly arranged, yet when examined, they appear idle and ambiguous; and it will always happen, that the nicest construction that words are capable of, when applied to the description of some thing which either cannot exist, or is too incomprehensible to be within the compass of description, will be words of sound only, and though they may amuse the ear, they cannot inform the mind, for this explanation includes a previous question, viz. HOW CAME THE KING BY A POWER WHICH THE PEOPLE ARE AFRAID TO TRUST, AND ALWAYS OBLIGED TO CHECK? Such a power could not be the gift of a wise people, neither can any power, WHICH NEEDS CHECKING, be from God; yet the provision, which the constitution makes, supposes such a power to exist.
But the provision is unequal to the task; the means either cannot or will not accomplish the end, and the whole affair is a felo de se; for as the greater weight will always carry up the less, and as all the wheels of a machine are put in motion by one, it only remains to know which power in the constitution has the most weight, for that will govern; and though the others, or a part of them, may clog, or, as the phrase is, check the rapidity of its motion, yet so long as they cannot stop it, their endeavours will be ineffectual; the first moving power will at last have its way, and what it wants in speed, is supplied by time.
That the crown is this overbearing part in the English constitution, needs not be mentioned, and that it derives its whole consequence merely from being the giver of places and pensions, is self-evident, wherefore, though we have been wise enough to shut and lock a door against absolute monarchy, we at the same time have been foolish enough to put the crown in possession of the key.
The prejudice of Englishmen in favour of their own government by king, lords, and commons, arises as much or more from national pride than reason. Individuals are undoubtedly safer in England than in some other countries, but the WILL of the king is as much the LAW of the land in Britain as in France, with this difference, that instead of proceeding directly from his mouth, it is handed to the people under the more formidable shape of an act of parliament. For the fate of Charles the First hath only made kings more subtle - not more just.
Wherefore, laying aside all national pride and prejudice in favour of modes and forms, the plain truth is, that IT IS WHOLLY OWING TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE PEOPLE, AND NOT TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE GOVERNMENT, that the crown is not as oppressive in England as in Turkey.
An inquiry into the CONSTITUTIONAL ERRORS in the English form of government is at this time highly necessary; for as we are never in a proper condition of doing justice to others, while we continue under the influence of some leading partiality, so neither are we capable of doing it to ourselves while we remain fettered by any obstinate prejudice. And as a man. who is attached to a prostitute, is unfitted to choose or judge a wife, so any prepossession in favour of a rotten constitution of government will disable us from discerning a good one.
OF MONARCHY AND HEREDITARY SUCCESSION
Mankind being originally equals in the order of creation, the equality could only be destroyed by some subsequent circumstance; the distinctions of rich, and poor, may in a great measure be accounted for, and that without having recourse to the harsh, ill-sounding names of oppression and avarice. Oppression is often the CONSEQUENCE, but seldom or never the MEANS of riches; and though avarice will preserve a man from being necessitously poor, it generally makes him too timorous to be wealthy.
But there is another and greater distinction, for which no truly natural or religious reason can be assigned, and that is, the distinction of men into KINGS and SUBJECTS. Male and female are the distinctions of nature, good and bad the distinctions of heaven; but how a race of men came into the world so exalted above the rest, and distinguished like some new species, is worth inquiring into, and whether they are the means of happiness or of misery to mankind.
In the early ages of the world, according to the scripture chronology, there were no kings; the consequence of which was, there were no wars; it is the pride of kings which throw mankind into confusion. Holland without a king hath enjoyed more peace for this last century than any of the monarchial governments in Europe. Antiquity favours the same remark; for the quiet and rural lives of the first patriarchs hath a happy something in them, which vanishes away when we come to the history of Jewish royalty.
Government by kings was first introduced into the world by the Heathens, from whom the children of Israel copied the custom. It was the most prosperous invention the Devil ever set on foot for the promotion of idolatry. The Heathens paid divine honours to their deceased kings, and the Christian world hath improved on the plan, by doing the same to their living ones. How impious is the title of sacred majesty applied to a worm, who in the midst of his splendor is crumbling into dust!
As the exalting one man so greatly above the rest cannot be justified on the equal rights of nature, so neither can it be defended on the authority of scripture; for the will of the Almighty, as declared by Gideon and the prophet Samuel, expressly disapproves of government by kings. All anti-monarchical parts of scripture have been very smoothly glossed over in monarchical governments, but they undoubtedly merit the attention of countries which have their governments yet to form. RENDER UNTO CAESAR THE THINGS WHICH ARE CAESAR'S is the scripture doctrine of courts, yet it is no support of monarchical government, for the Jews at that time were without a king, and in a state of vassalage to the Romans.
Now three thousand years passed away from the Mosaic account of the creation, till the Jews under a national delusion requested a king. Till then their form of government (except in extraordinary cases, where the Almighty interposed) was a kind of republic administered by a judge and the elders of the tribes. Kings they had none, and it was held sinful to acknowledge any being under that title but the Lord of Hosts. And when a man seriously reflects on the idolatrous homage which is paid to the persons of kings, he need not wonder that the Almighty, ever jealous of his honour, should disapprove of a form of government which so impiously invades the prerogative of heaven.
Monarchy is ranked in scripture as one of the sins of the Jews, for which a curse in reserve is denounced against them. The history of that transaction is worth attending to.
The children of Israel being oppressed by the Midianites, Gideon marched against them with a small army, and victory, through the divine interposition, decided in his favour. The Jews, elate with success, and attributing it to the generalship of Gideon, proposed making him a king, saying, RULE THOU OVER US, THOU AND THY SON AND THY SON'S SON. Here was temptation in its fullest extent; not a kingdom only, but an hereditary one, but Gideon in the piety of his soul replied, I WILL NOT RULE OVER YOU, NEITHER SHALL MY SON RULE OVER YOU _THE LORD SHALL RULE OVER YOU._ Words need not be more explicit; Gideon doth not decline the honour, but denieth their right to give it; neither doth he compliment them with invented declarations of his thanks, but in the positive style of a prophet charges them with disaffection to their proper Sovereign, the King of heaven.
About one hundred and thirty years after this, they fell again into the same error. The hankering which the Jews had for the idolatrous customs of the Heathens, is something exceedingly unaccountable; but so it was, that laying hold of the misconduct of Samuel's two sons, who were entrusted with some secular concerns, they came in an abrupt and clamorous manner to Samuel, saying, BEHOLD THOU ART OLD, AND THY SONS WALK NOT IN THY WAYS, NOW MAKE US A KING TO JUDGE US, LIKE ALL OTHER NATIONS. And here we cannot but observe that their motives were bad, viz. that they might be LIKE unto other nations, i.e. the Heathens, whereas their true glory laid in being as much UNLIKE them as possible. BUT THE THING DISPLEASED SAMUEL WHEN THEY SAID, GIVE US A KING TO JUDGE US; AND SAMUEL PRAYED UNTO THE LORD, AND THE LORD SAID UNTO SAMUEL, HEARKEN UNTO THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE IN ALL THAT THEY SAY UNTO THEE, FOR THEY HAVE NOT REJECTED THEE, BUT THEY HAVE REJECTED ME, _THAT I SHOULD NOT REIGN OVER THEM._ ACCORDING TO ALL THE WORKS WHICH THEY HAVE SINCE THE DAY THAT I BROUGHT THEM UP OUT OF EGYPT, EVEN UNTO THIS DAY; WHEREWITH THEY HAVE FORSAKEN ME AND SERVED OTHER GODS; SO DO THEY ALSO UNTO THEE. NOW THEREFORE HEARKEN UNTO THEIR VOICE, HOWBEIT, PROTEST SOLEMNLY UNTO THEM AND SHEW THEM THE MANNER OF THE KING THAT SHALL REIGN OVER THEM, I.E. not of any particular king, but the general manner of the kings of the earth, whom Israel was so eagerly copying after. And notwithstanding the great distance of time and difference of manners, the character is still in fashion. AND SAMUEL TOLD ALL THE WORDS OF THE LORD UNTO THE PEOPLE, THAT ASKED OF HIM A KING. AND HE SAID, THIS SHALL BE THE MANNER OF THE KING THAT SHALL REIGN OVER YOU; HE WILL TAKE YOUR SONS AND APPOINT THEM FOR HIMSELF, FOR HIS CHARIOTS, AND TO BE HIS HORSEMAN, AND SOME SHALL RUN BEFORE HIS CHARIOTS (this description agrees with the present mode of impressing men) AND HE WILL APPOINT HIM CAPTAINS OVER THOUSANDS AND CAPTAINS OVER FIFTIES, AND WILL SET THEM TO EAR HIS GROUND AND REAP HIS HARVEST, AND TO MAKE HIS INSTRUMENTS OF WAR, AND INSTRUMENTS OF HIS CHARIOTS; AND HE WILL TAKE YOUR DAUGHTERS TO BE CONFECTIONARIES, AND TO BE COOKS AND TO BE BAKERS (this describes the expense and luxury as well as the oppression of kings) AND HE WILL TAKE YOUR FIELDS AND YOUR OLIVE YARDS, EVEN THE BEST OF THEM, AND GIVE THEM TO HIS SERVANTS; AND HE WILL TAKE THE TENTH OF YOUR SEED, AND OF YOUR VINEYARDS, AND GIVE THEM TO HIS OFFICERS AND TO HIS SERVANTS (by which we see that bribery, corruption, and favouritism are the standing vices of kings) AND HE WILL TAKE THE TENTH OF YOUR MEN SERVANTS, AND YOUR MAID SERVANTS, AND YOUR GOODLIEST YOUNG MEN AND YOUR ASSES, AND PUT THEM TO HIS WORK; AND HE WILL TAKE THE TENTH OF YOUR SHEEP, AND YE SHALL BE HIS SERVANTS, AND YE SHALL CRY OUT IN THAT DAY BECAUSE OF YOUR KING WHICH YE SHALL HAVE CHOSEN, _AND THE LORD WILL NOT HEAR YOU IN THAT DAY._ This accounts for the continuation of monarchy; neither do the characters of the few good kings which have lived since, either sanctify the title, or blot out the sinfulness of the origin; the high encomium given of David takes no notice of him OFFICIALLY AS A KING, but only as a MAN after God's own heart. NEVERTHELESS THE PEOPLE REFUSED TO OBEY THE VOICE OF SAMUEL, AND THEY SAID, NAY, BUT WE WILL HAVE A KING OVER US, THAT WE MAY BE LIKE ALL THE NATIONS, AND THAT OUR KING MAY JUDGE US, AND GO OUT BEFORE US, AND FIGHT OUR BATTLES. Samuel continued to reason with them, but to no purpose; he set before them their ingratitude, but all would not avail; and seeing them fully bent on their folly, he cried out, I WILL CALL UNTO THE LORD, AND HE SHALL SEND THUNDER AND RAIN (which then was a punishment, being in the time of wheat harvest) THAT YE MAY PERCEIVE AND SEE THAT YOUR WICKEDNESS IS GREAT WHICH YE HAVE DONE IN THE SIGHT OF THE LORD, AND THE LORD SENT THUNDER AND RAIN THAT DAY, AND ALL THE PEOPLE GREATLY FEARED THE LORD AND SAMUEL. AND ALL THE PEOPLE SAID UNTO SAMUEL, PRAY FOR THY SERVANTS UNTO THE LORD THY GOD THAT WE DIE NOT, FOR _WE HAVE ADDED UNTO OUR SINS THIS EVIL, TO ASK A KING._ These portions of scripture are direct and positive. They admit of no equivocal construction. That the Almighty hath here entered his protest against monarchical government, is true, or the scripture is false. And a man hath good reason to believe that there is as much of kingcraft, as priestcraft, in withholding the scripture from the public in Popish countries. For monarchy in every instance is the Popery of government.
To the evil of monarchy we have added that of hereditary succession; and as the first is a degradation and lessening of ourselves, so the second, claimed as a matter of right, is an insult and an imposition on posterity. For all men being originally equals, no ONE by BIRTH could have a right to set up his own family in perpetual preference to all others for ever, and though himself might deserve SOME decent degree of honours of his contemporaries, yet his descendants might be far too unworthy to inherit them. One of the strongest NATURAL proofs of the folly of hereditary right in kings, is, that nature disapproves it, otherwise she would not so frequently turn it into ridicule by giving mankind an ASS FOR A LION.
Secondly, as no man at first could possess any other public honours than were bestowed upon him, so the givers of those honours could have no power to give away the right of posterity. And though they might say, "We chooses you for OUR head," they could not, without manifest injustice to their children, say, "that your children and your children's children shall reign over OURS for ever." Because such an unwise, unjust, unnatural compact might (perhaps) in the next succession put them under the government of a rogue or a fool. Most wise men, in their private sentiments, have ever treated hereditary right with contempt; yet it is one of those evils, which when once established is not easily removed; many submit from fear, others from superstition, and the more powerful part shares with the king the plunder of the rest.
This is supposing the present race of kings in the world to have had an honourable origin; whereas it is more than probable, that could we take off the dark covering of antiquities, and trace them to their first rise, that we should find the first of them nothing better than the principal ruffian of some restless gang, whose savage manners or preeminence in subtlety obtained the title of chief among plunderers; and who by increasing in power, and extending his depredations, overawed the quiet and defenseless to purchase their safety by frequent contributions. Yet his electors could have no idea of giving hereditary right to his descendants, because such a perpetual exclusion of themselves was incompatible with the free and unrestrained principles they professed to live by. Wherefore, hereditary succession in the early ages of monarchy could not take place as a matter of claim, but as something casual or complemental; but as few or no records were extant in those days, and traditional history stuffed with fables, it was very easy, after the lapse of a few generations, to trump up some superstitious tale, conveniently timed, Mahomet like, to cram hereditary right down the throats of the vulgar. Perhaps the disorders which threatened, or seemed to threaten, on the decease of a leader and the choice of a new one (for elections among ruffians could not be very orderly) induced many at first to favour hereditary pretensions; by which means it happened, as it hath happened since, that what at first was submitted to as a convenience, was afterwards claimed as a right.
England, since the conquest, hath known some few good monarchs, but groaned beneath a much larger number of bad ones; yet no man in his senses can say that their claim under William the Conqueror is a very honourable one. A French bastard landing with an armed banditti, and establishing himself king of England against the consent of the natives, is in plain terms a very paltry rascally original. It certainly hath no divinity in it. However, it is needless to spend much time in exposing the folly of hereditary right; if there are any so weak as to believe it, let them promiscuously worship the ass and lion, and welcome. I shall neither copy their humility, nor disturb their devotion.
Yet I should be glad to ask how they suppose kings came at first? The question admits but of three answers, viz. either by lot, by election, or by usurpation. If the first king was taken by lot, it establishes a precedent for the next, which excludes hereditary succession. Saul was by lot, yet the succession was not hereditary, neither does it appear from that transaction there was any intention it ever should be. If the first king of any country was by election, that likewise establishes a precedent for the next; for to say, that the RIGHT of all future generations is taken away, by the act of the first electors, in their choice not only of a king, but of a family of kings for ever, hath no parallel in or out of scripture but the doctrine of original sin, which supposes the free will of all men lost in Adam; and from such comparison, and it will admit of no other, hereditary succession can derive no glory. For as in Adam all sinned, and as in the first electors all men obeyed; as in the one all mankind we re subjected to Satan, and in the other to Sovereignty; as our innocence was lost in the first, and our authority in the last; and as both disable us from reassuming some former state and privilege, it unanswerably follows that original sin and hereditary succession are parallels. Dishonourable rank! Inglorious connection! Yet the most subtle sophist cannot produce a juster simile.
As to usurpation, no man will be so hardy as to defend it; and that William the Conqueror was an usurper is a fact not to be contradicted. The plain truth is, that the antiquity of English monarchy will not bear looking into.
But it is not so much the absurdity as the evil of hereditary succession which concerns mankind. Did it ensure a race of good and wise men it would have the seal of divine authority, but as it opens a door to the FOOLISH, the WICKED, and the IMPROPER, it hath in it the nature of oppression. Men who look upon themselves born to reign, and others to obey, soon grow insolent; selected from the rest of mankind their minds are early poisoned by importance; and the world they act in differs so materially from the world at large, that they have but little opportunity of knowing its true interests, and when they succeed to the government are frequently the most ignorant and unfit of any throughout the dominions.
Another evil which attends hereditary succession is, that the throne is subject to be possessed by a minor at any age; all which time the regency, acting under the cover a king, have every opportunity and inducement to betray their trust. The same national misfortune happens, when a king, worn out with age and infirmity , enters the last stage of human weakness. In both these cases the public becomes a prey to every miscreant, who can tamper successfully with the follies either of age or infancy.
The most plausible plea, which hath ever been offered in favour of hereditary succession, is, that it preserves a nation from civil wars; and were this true, it would be weighty; whereas, it is the most barefaced falsity ever imposed upon mankind. The whole history of England disowns the fact. Thirty kings and two minors have reigned in that distracted kingdom since the conquest, in which time there have been (including the Revolution) no less than eight civil wars and nineteen rebellions. Wherefore instead of making for peace, it makes against it, and destroys the very foundation it seems to stand on.
The contest for monarchy and succession, between the houses of York and Lancaster, laid England in a scene of blood for many years. Twelve pitched battles, besides skirmishes and sieges, were fought between Henry and Edward. Twice was Henry prisoner to Edward, who in his turn was prisoner to Henry. And so uncertain is the fate of war and the temper of a nation, when nothing but personal matters are the ground of a quarrel, that Henry was taken in triumph from a prison to a palace, and Edward obliged to fly from a palace to a foreign land; yet, as sudden transitions of temper are seldom lasting, Henry in his turn was driven from the throne, and Edward recalled to succeed him. The parliament always following the strongest side.
This contest began in the reign of Henry the Sixth, and was not entirely extinguished till Henry the Seventh, in whom the families were united. Including a period of 67 years, viz. from 1422 to 1489.
In short, monarchy and succession have laid (not this or that kingdom only) but the world in blood and ashes. Tis a form of government which the word of God bears testimony against, and blood will attend it.
If we inquire into the business of a king, we shall find that in some countries they have none; and after sauntering away their lives without pleasure to themselves or advantage to the nation, withdraw from the scene, and leave their successors to tread the same idle ground. In absolute monarchies the whole weight of business, civil and military, lies on the king; the children of Israel in their request for a king, urged this plea "that he may judge us, and go out before us and fight our battles." But in countries where he is neither a judge nor a general, as in England, a man would be puzzled to know what IS his business.
The nearer any government approaches to a republic the less business there is for a king. It is somewhat difficult to find a proper name for the government of England. Sir William Meredith calls it a republic; but in its present state it is unworthy of the name, because the corrupt influence of the crown, by having all the places in its disposal, hath so effectually swallowed up the power, and eaten out the virtue of the house of commons (the republican part in the constitution) that the government of England is nearly as monarchical as that of France or Spain. Men fall out with names without understanding them. For it is the republican and not the monarchical part of the constitution of England which Englishmen glory in, viz. the liberty of choosing an house of commons from out of their own body - and it is easy to see that when republican virtue fails, slavery ensues. Why is the constitution of England sickly, but because monarchy hath poisoned the republic, the crown hath engrossed the commons?
In England a king hath little more to do than to make war and give away places; which in plain terms, is to impoverish the nation and set it together by the ears. A pretty business indeed for a man to be allowed eight hundred thousand sterling a year for, and worshipped into the bargain! Of more worth is one honest man to society and in the sight of God, than all the crowned ruffians that ever lived.
THOUGHTS ON THE PRESENT STATE OF AMERICAN AFFAIRS
In the following pages I offer nothing more than simple facts, plain arguments, and common sense; and have no other Preliminaries to settle with the reader, than that he will divest himself of prejudice and prepossession, and suffer his reason and his feelings to determine for themselves; that he will put ON, or rather that he will not put OFF the true character of a man, and generously enlarge his views beyond the present day.
Volumes have been written on the subject of the struggle between England and America. Men of all ranks have embarked in the controversy, from different motives, and with various designs; but all have been ineffectual, and the period of debate is closed. Arms, as the last resource, decide this contest; the appeal was the choice of the king, and the continent hath accepted the challenge.
It hath been reported of the late Mr. Pelham (who tho' an able minister was not without his faults) that on his being attacked in the house of commons, on the score, that his measures were only of a temporary kind, replied "THEY WILL LAST MY TIME." Should a thought so fatal and unmanly possess the colonies in the present contest, the name of ancestors will be remembered by future generations with detestation.
The sun never shined on a cause of greater worth. 'Tis not the affair of a city, a county, a province, or a kingdom, but of a continent - of at least one eighth part of the habitable globe. 'Tis not the concern of a day, a year, or an age; posterity are virtually involved in the contest, and will be more or less affected, even to the end of time, by the proceedings now. Now is the seed-time of continental union, faith and honour. The least fracture now will be like a name engraved with the point of a pin on the tender rind of a young oak; the wound will enlarge with the tree, and posterity read it in full grown characters.
By referring the matter from argument to arms, a new aera for politics is struck; a new method of thinking hath arisen. All plans, proposals, &c. prior to the nineteenth of April, i. e. to the commencement of hostilities, are like the almanacs of the last year; which, though proper then are superseded and useless now. Whatever was advanced by the advocates on either side of the question then, terminated in one and the same point. viz. a union with Great-Britain: the only difference between the parties was the method of effecting it; the one proposing force, the other friendship; but it hath so far happened that the first hath failed, and the second hath withdrawn her influence.
As much hath been said of the advantages of reconciliation which, like an agreeable dream, hath passed away and left us as we were, it is but right, that we should examine the contrary side of the argument, and inquire into some of the many material injuries which these colonies sustain, and always will sustain, by being connected with, and dependent on Great Britain: To examine that connection and dependence, on the principles of nature and common sense, to see what we have to trust to, if separated, and what we are to expect, if dependant.
I have heard it asserted by some, that as America hath flourished under her former connection with Great Britain that the same connection is necessary towards her future happiness, and will always have the same effect. Nothing can be more fallacious than this kind of argument. We may as well assert that because a child has thrived upon milk that it is never to have meat, or that the first twenty years of our lives is to become a precedent for the next twenty. But even this is admitting more than is true, for I answer roundly, that America would have flourished as much, and probably much more, had no European power had any thing to do with her. The commerce, by which she hath enriched herself, are the necessaries of life, and will always have a market while eating is the custom of Europe.
But she has protected us, say some. That she has engrossed us is true, and defended the continent at our expense as well as her own is admitted, and she would have defended Turkey from the same motive, viz. the sake of trade and dominion.
Alas, we have been long led away by ancient prejudices, and made large sacrifices to superstition. We have boasted the protection of Great Britain, without considering, that her motive was INTEREST not ATTACHMENT; that she did not protect us from OUR ENEMIES on OUR ACCOUNT, but from HER ENEMIES on HER OWN ACCOUNT, from those who had no quarrel with us on any OTHER ACCOUNT, and who will always be our enemies on the SAME ACCOUNT. Let Britain wave her pretensions to the continent, or the continent throw off the dependence, and we should be at peace with France and Spain were they at war with Britain. The miseries of Hanover last war ought to warn us against connections.
It has lately been asserted in parliament, that the colonies have no relation to each other but through the parent country, i. e. that Pennsylvania and the Jerseys, and so on for the rest, are sister colonies by the way of England; this is certainly a very round-about way of proving relationship, but it is the nearest and only true way of proving enemyship, if I may so call it. France and Spain never were. nor perhaps ever will be our enemies as AMERICANS, but as our being the subjects of GREAT BRITAIN.
But Britain is the parent country, say some. Then the more shame upon her conduct. Even brutes do not devour their young, nor savages make war upon their families; wherefore the assertion, if true, turns to her reproach; but it happens not to be true, or only partly so and the phrase PARENT or MOTHER COUNTRY hath been jesuitically adopted by the king and his parasites, with a low papistical design of gaining an unfair bias on the credulous weakness of our minds. Europe, and not England, is the parent country of America. This new world hath been the asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from EVERY PART of Europe. Hither have they fled, not from the tender embraces of the mother, but from the cruelty of the monster; and it is so far true of England, that the same tyranny which drove the first emigrants from home, pursues their descendants still.
In this extensive quarter of the globe, we forget the narrow limits of three hundred and sixty miles (the extent of England) and carry our friendship on a larger scale; we claim brotherhood with every European Christian, and triumph in the generosity of the sentiment.
It is pleasant to observe by what regular gradations we surmount the force of local prejudice, as we enlarge our acquaintance with the world. A man born in any town in England divided into parishes, will naturally associate most with his fellow-parishioners (because their interests in many cases will be common) and distinguish him by the name of NEIGHBOUR; if he meet him but a few miles from home, he drops the narrow idea of a street, and salutes him by the name of TOWNSMAN; if he travel out of the county, and meet him in any other, he forgets the minor divisions of street and town, and calls him COUNTRYMAN, i. e. COUNTRYMAN; but if in their foreign excursions they should associate in France or any other part of EUROPE, their local remembrance would be enlarged into that of ENGLISHMEN. And by a just parity of reasoning, all Europeans meeting in America, or any other quarter of the globe, are COUNTRYMEN; for England, Holland, Germany, or Sweden, when compared with the whole, stand in the same places on the larger scale, which the divisions of street, town, and county do on the smaller ones; distinctions too limited for continental minds. Not one third of the inhabitants, even of this province, are of English descent. Wherefore I reprobate the phrase of parent or mother country applied to England only, as being false, selfish, narrow and ungenerous.
But admitting, that we were all of English descent, what does it amount to? Nothing. Britain, being now an open enemy, extinguishes every other name and title: And to say that reconciliation is our duty, is truly farcical. The first king of England, of the present line (William the Conqueror) was a Frenchman, and half the Peers of England are descendants from the same country; therefore, by the same method of reasoning, England ought to be governed by France.
Much hath been said of the united strength of Britain and the colonies, that in conjunction they might bid defiance to the world. But this is mere presumption; the fate of war is uncertain, neither do the expressions mean any thing; for this continent would never suffer itself to be drained of inhabitants, to support the British arms in either Asia, Africa, or Europe.
Besides what have we to do with setting the world at defiance? Our plan is commerce, and that, well attended to, will secure us the peace and friendship of all Europe; because, it is the interest of all Europe to have America a FREE PORT. Her trade will always be a protection, and her barrenness of gold and silver secure her from invaders.
I challenge the warmest advocate for reconciliation, to shew, a single advantage that this continent can reap, by being connected with Great Britain. I repeat the challenge, not a single advantage is derived. Our corn will fetch its price in any market in Europe, and our imported goods must be paid for, buy them where we will.
But the injuries and disadvantages we sustain by that connection, are without number; and our duty to mankind at large, as well as to ourselves, instruct us to renounce the alliance: Because, any submission to, or dependence on Great Britain, tends directly to involve this continent in European wars and quarrels; and sets us at variance with nations, who would otherwise seek our friendship, and against whom, we have neither anger nor complaint. As Europe is our market for trade, we ought to form no partial connection with any part of it. It is the true interest of America to steer clear of European contentions, which she never can do, while by her dependence on Britain, she is made the make-weight in the scale of British politics.
Europe is too thickly planted with kingdoms to be long at peace, and whenever a war breaks out between England and any foreign power, the trade of America goes to ruin, BECAUSE OF HER CONNECTION WITH ENGLAND. The next war may not turn out like the last, and should it not, the advocates for reconciliation now, will be wishing for separation then, because, neutrality in that case, would be a safer convoy than a man of war. Every thing that is right or natural pleads for separation. The blood of the slain, the weeping voice of nature cries, 'TIS TIME TO PART. Even the distance at which the Almighty hath placed England and America, is a strong and natural proof, that the authority of the one, over the other, was never the design of Heaven. The time likewise at which the continent was discovered, adds weight to the argument, and the manner in which it was peopled increases the force of it. The reformation was preceded by the discovery of America, as if the Almighty graciously meant to open a sanctuary to the Persecuted in future years, when home should afford neither friendship nor safety.
The authority of Great Britain over this continent, is a form of government, which sooner or later must have an end: And a serious mind can draw no true pleasure by looking forward under the painful and positive conviction, that what he calls "the present constitution" is merely temporary. As parents, we can have no joy, knowing that THIS GOVERNMENT is not sufficiently lasting to ensure any thing which we may bequeath to posterity: And by a plain method of argument, as we are running the next generation into debt, we ought to do the work of it, otherwise we use them meanly and pitifully. In order to discover the line of our duty rightly, we should take our children in our hand, and fix our station a few years farther into life; that eminence will present a prospect, which a few present fears and prejudices conceal from our sight.
Though I would carefully avoid giving unnecessary offense, yet I am inclined to believe, that all those who espouse the doctrine of reconciliation, may be included within the following descriptions. Interested men, who are not to be trusted; weak men, who CANNOT see; prejudiced men, who WILL NOT see; and a certain set of moderate men, who think better of the European world than it deserves; and this last class, by an ill-judged deliberation, will be the cause of more calamities to this continent, than all the other three.
It is the good fortune of many to live distant from the scene of sorrow; the evil is not sufficient brought to their doors to make THEM feel the precariousness with which all American property is possessed. But let our imaginations transport us far a few moments to Boston, that seat of wretchedness will teach us wisdom, and instruct us for ever to renounce a power in whom we can have no trust. The inhabitants of that unfortunate city, who but a few months ago were in ease and affluence, have now, no other alternative than to stay and starve, or turn and beg. Endangered by the fire of their friends if they continue within the city, and plundered by the soldiery if they leave it. In their present condition they are prisoners without the hope of redemption, and in a general attack for their relief, they would be exposed to the fury of both armies.
Men of passive tempers look somewhat lightly over the offenses of Britain, and, still hoping for the best, are apt to call out, "COME, COME, WE SHALL BE FRIENDS AGAIN, FOR ALL THIS." But examine the passions and feelings of mankind, Bring the doctrine of reconciliation to the touchstone of nature, and then tell me, whether you can hereafter love, honor, and faithfully serve the power that hath carried fire and sword into your land? If yon cannot do all these, then are you only deceiving yourselves, and by your delay bringing ruin upon posterity. Your future connection with Britain, whom you can neither love nor honor will be forced and unnatural, and being formed only on the plan of present convenience, will in a little time fall into a relapse more wretched than the first. But if you say, you can still pass the violations over, then I ask, Hath your house been burnt? Hath your property been destroyed before your face! Are your wife and children destitute of a bed to lie on, or bread to live on? Have you lost a parent or a child by their hands, and yourself the ruined and wretched survivor! If you have not, then are you not a judge of those who have. But if you have, and still can shake hands with the murderers, then are you unworthy the name of husband, father, friend, or lover, and whatever may be your rank or title in life, you have the heart of a coward, and the spirit of a sycophant.
This is not inflaming or exaggerating matters, but trying them by those feelings and affections which nature justifies, and without which, we should be incapable of discharging the social duties of life, or enjoying the felicities of it. I mean not to exhibit horror for the purpose of provoking revenge, but to awaken us from fatal and unmanly slumbers, that we may pursue determinately some fixed object. It is not in the power of Britain or of Europe to conquer America, if she do not conquer herself by DELAY and TIMIDITY. The present winter is worth an age if rightly employed, but if lost or neglected, the whole continent will partake of the misfortune; and there is no punishment which that man will not deserve, be he who, or what, or where he will, that may be the means of sacrificing a season so precious and useful.
It is repugnant to reason, to the universal order of things, to all examples from former ages, to suppose, that this continent can longer remain subject to any external power. The most sanguine in Britain does not think so. The utmost stretch of human wisdom cannot, at this time, compass a plan short of separation, which can promise the continent even a year's security. Reconciliation is NOW a fallacious dream. Nature hath deserted the connection, and Art cannot supply her place. For, as Milton wisely expresses, "never can true reconcilement grow, where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so deep."
Every quiet method for peace hath been ineffectual. Our prayers have been rejected with disdain; and only tended to convince us, that nothing Batters vanity, or confirms obstinacy in Kings more than repeated petitioning-and nothing hath contributed more than that very measure to make the Kings of Europe absolute: Witness Denmark and Sweden. Wherefore, since nothing but blows will do, for God's sake, let us come to a final separation, and not leave the next generation to be cutting throats, under the violated unmeaning names of parent and child.
To say, they will never attempt it again is idle and visionary, we thought so at the repeal of the stamp-act, yet a year or two undeceived us; as well may we suppose that nations, which have been once defeated, will never renew the quarrel.
As to government matters, it is not in the power of Britain to do this continent justice: The business of it will soon be too weighty, and intricate, to be managed with any tolerable degree of convenience, by a power so distant from us, and so very ignorant of us; for if they cannot conquer us, they cannot govern us. To be always running three or four thousand miles with a tale or a petition, waiting four or five months for an answer, which when obtained requires five or six more to explain it in, will in a few years be looked upon as folly and childishness-There was a time when it was proper, and there is a proper time for it to cease.
Small islands not capable of protecting themselves, are the proper objects for kingdoms to take under their care; but there is something very absurd, in supposing a continent to be perpetually governed by an island. In no instance hath nature made the satellite larger than its primary planet, and as England and America, with respect to each other, reverses the common order of nature, it is evident they belong to different systems; England to Europe, America to itself.
I am not induced by motives of pride, party, or resentment to espouse the doctrine of separation and independance; I am clearly, positively, and conscientiously persuaded that it is the true interest of this continent to be so; that every thing short of THAT is mere patchwork, that it can afford no lasting felicity, -that it is leaving the sword to our children, and shrinking back at a time, when, a little more, a little farther, would have rendered this continent the glory of the earth.
As Britain hath not manifested the least inclination towards a compromise, we may be assured that no terms can be obtained worthy the acceptance of the continent, or any ways equal to the expense of blood and treasure we have been already put to.
The object, contended for, ought always to bear some just proportion to the expense. The removal of North, or the whole detestable junto, is a matter unworthy the millions we have expended. A temporary stoppage of trade, was an inconvenience, which would have sufficiently balanced the repeal of all the acts complained of, had such repeals been obtained; hut if the whole continent must take up arms, if every man must be a soldier, it is scarcely worth our while to fight against a contemptible ministry only. Dearly, dearly, do we pay for the repeal of the acts, if that is all we fight for; for in a just estimation, it is as great a folly to pay a Bunker-hill price for law, as for land. As I have always considered the independancy of this continent, as an event, which sooner or later must arrive, so from the late rapid progress of the continent to maturity, the event could not be far off. Wherefore, on the breaking out of hostilities, it was not worth while to have disputed a matter, which time would have finally redressed, unless we meant to be in earnest; otherwise, it is like wasting an estate on a suit at law, to regulate the trespasses of a tenant, whose lease is just expiring. No man was a warmer wisher for reconciliation than myself, before the fatal nineteenth of April 1775, but the moment the event of that day was made known, I rejected the hardened, sullen tempered Pharaoh of England for ever; and disdain the wretch, that with the pretended title of FATHER OF HIS PEOPLE can unfeelingly hear of their slaughter, and composedly sleep with their blood upon his soul.
But admitting that matters were now made up, what would be the event? I answer, the ruin of the continent. And that for several reasons.
FIRST. The powers of governing still remaining in the hands of the king, he will have a negative over the whole legislation of this continent. And as he hath shewn himself such an inveterate enemy to liberty. and discovered such a thirst for arbitrary power; is he, or is he not, a proper man to say to these colonies, "YOU SHALL MAKE NO LAWS BUT WHAT I PLEASE.' And is there any inhabitant in America so ignorant as not to know, that according to what is called the PRESENT CONSTITUTION, that this continent can make no laws but what the king gives leave to; and is there any man so unwise, as not to see, that (considering what has happened) he will suffer no law to be made here, but such as suit HIS purpose. We may be as effectually enslaved by the want of laws in America, as by submitting to laws made for us in England. After matters are made up (as it is called) can there be any doubt, but the whole power of the crown will be exerted, to keep this continent as low and humble as possible? Instead of going forward we shall go backward, or be perpetually quarrelling or ridiculously petitioning. -WE are already greater than the king wishes us to be, and will he not hereafter endeavour to make us less? To bring the matter to one point. Is the power who is jealous of our prosperity, a proper power to govern us? Whoever says No to this question, is an INDEPENDANT, for independancy means no more, than, whether we shall make our own laws, or whether the king, the greatest enemy this continent hath, or can have, shall tell us "THERE SHALL BE NO LAWS BUT SUCH AS I LIKE."
But the king you will say has a negative in England; the people there can make no laws without his consent. In point of right and good order, there is something very ridiculous, that a youth of twenty-one (which hath often happened) shall say to several millions of people, older and wiser than himself, I forbid this or that act of yours to be law. But in this place I decline this sort of reply, though I will never cease to expose the absurdity of it, and only answer, that England being the King's residence, and America not so, makes quite another case. The king's negative HERE is ten times more dangerous and fatal than it can be in England, for THERE he will scarcely refuse his consent to a bill for putting England into as strong a state of defense as possible, and in America he would never suffer such a bill to be passed.
America is only a secondary object in the system of British politics, England consults the good of THIS country, no farther than it answers her OWN purpose. Wherefore, her own interest leads her to suppress the growth of OURS in every case which doth not promote her advantage, or in the least interferes with it. A pretty state we should soon be in under such a secondhand government, considering what has happened! Men do not change from enemies to friends by the alteration of a name: And in order to shew that reconciliation now is a dangerous doctrine, I affirm, THAT IT WOULD BE POLICY IN THE KING AT THIS TIME, TO REPEAL THE ACTS FOR THE SAKE OF REINSTATING HIMSELF IN THE GOVERNMENT OF THE PROVINCES; in order, that HE MAY ACCOMPLISH BY CRAFT AND SUBTLETY, IN THE LONG RUN, WHAT HE CANNOT DO BY FORCE AND VIOLENCE IN THE SHORT ONE. Reconciliation and ruin are nearly related.
SECONDLY. That as even the best terms, which we can expect to obtain, can amount to no more than a temporary expedient, or a kind of government by guardianship, which can last no longer than till the colonies come of age, so the general face and state of things, in the interim, will be unsettled and unpromising. Emigrants of property will not choose to come to a country whose form of government hangs but by a thread, and who is every day tottering on the brink of commotion and disturbance; and numbers of the present inhabitants would lay hold of the interval, to dispense of their effects, and quit the continent.
But the most powerful of all arguments, is, that nothing but independence, i.e. a continental form of government, can keep the peace of the continent and preserve it inviolate from civil wars. I dread the event of a reconciliation with Britain now, as it is more than probable, that it will be followed by a revolt somewhere or other, the consequences of which may be far more fatal than all the malice of Britain.
Thousands are already ruined by British barbarity; (thousands more will probably suffer the same fate) Those men have other feelings than us who have nothing suffered. All they NOW possess is liberty, what they before enjoyed is sacrificed to its service, and having nothing more to lose, they disdain submission. Besides, the general temper of the colonies, towards a British government, will be like that of a youth, who is nearly out of his time; they will care very little about her. And a government which cannot preserve the peace, is no government at all, and in that case we pay our money for nothing; and pray what is it that Britain can do, whose power will he wholly on paper. should a civil tumult break out the very day after reconciliation! I have heard some men say, many of whom I believe spoke without thinking, that they dreaded an independence, fearing that it would produce civil wars. It is but seldom that our first thoughts are truly correct, and that is the case here; for there are ten times more to dread from a patched up connection than from independence. I make the sufferers case my own, and I protest, that were I driven from house and home, my property destroyed, and my circumstances ruined, that as man, sensible of injuries, I could never relish the doctrine of reconciliation, or consider myself bound thereby.
The colonies have manifested such a spirit of good order and obedience to continental government, as is sufficient to make every reasonable person easy and happy on that head. No man can assign the least pretence for his fears, on any other grounds, than such as are truly childish and ridiculous, viz. that one colony will be striving for superiority over another.
Where there are no distinctions there can be no superiority, perfect equality affords no temptation. The republics of Europe are all (and we may say always) in peace. Holland and Switzerland are without wars, foreign or domestic: Monarchical governments, it is true, are never long at rest; the crown itself is a temptation to enterprising ruffians at HOME; and that degree of pride and insolence ever attendant on regal authority, swells into a rupture with foreign powers, in instances, where a republican government, by being formed on more natural principles, would negotiate the mistake.
If there is any true cause of fear respecting independence, it is because no plan is yet laid down. Men do not see their way out- Wherefore, as an opening into that business, I offer the following hints; at the same time modestly affirming, that I have no other opinion of them myself, than that they may be the means of giving rise to something better. Could the straggling thoughts of individuals be collected, they would frequently form materials for wise and able men to improve into useful matter.
LET the assemblies be annual, with a President only. The representation more equal. Their business wholly domestic, and subject to the authority of a Continental Congress.
Let each colony be divided into six, eight, or ten, convenient districts, each district to send a proper number of delegates to Congress, so that each colony send at least thirty. The whole number in Congress will be at least 390. Each Congress to sit and to choose a president by the following method. When the delegates are met, let a colony be taken from the whole thirteen colonies by lot, after which, let the whole Congress choose (by ballot) a president from out of the delegates of that province. In the next Congress, let a colony be taken by lot from twelve only, omitting that colony from which the president was taken in the former Congress, and so proceeding on till the whole thirteen shall have had their proper rotation. And in order that nothing may pass into a law but what is satisfactorily just not less than three fifths of the Congress to be called a majority- He that will promote discord, under a government so equally formed as this, would have joined Lucifer in his revolt.
But as there is a peculiar delicacy, from whom, or in what manner, this business must first arise, and as it seems most agreeable and consistent, that it should come from some intermediate body between the governed and the governors, that is, between the Congress and the people. let a CONTINENTAL CONFERENCE be held, in the following manner, and for the following purpose.
A committee of twenty-six members of Congress, viz. two for each colony. Two Members from each House of Assembly, or Provincial Convention; and five representatives of the people at large, to be chosen in the capital city or town of each province, for and in behalf of the whole province, by as many qualified voters as shall think proper to attend from all parts of the province for that purpose; or, if more convenient, the representatives may be chosen in two or three of the most populous parts thereof. In this conference, thus assembled, will be united, the two grand principles of business KNOWLEDGE and POWER. The members of Congress, Assemblies, or Conventions, by having had experience in national concerns, will be able and useful counsellors, and the whole, being empowered by the people, will have a truly legal authority.
The conferring members being met, let their business be to frame a CONTINENTAL CHARTER, Or Charter of the United Colonies; (answering to what is called the Magna Carta of England) fixing the number and manner of choosing members of Congress, members of Assembly, with their date of sitting, and drawing the line of business and jurisdiction between them: (Always remembering, that our strength is continental, not provincial:) Securing freedom and property to all men, and above all things, the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience; with such other matter as is necessary for a charter to contain. Immediately after which, the said Conference to dissolve, and the bodies which shall be chosen comformable to the said charter, to be the legislators and governors of this continent for the time being: Whose peace and happiness may God preserve, Amen.
Should any body of men be hereafter delegated for this or some similar purpose, I offer them the following extracts or that wise observer on governments DRAGONETTI. "The science" says he "of the politician consists in fixing the true point of happiness and freedom. Those men would deserve the gratitude of ages, who should discover a mode of government that contained the greatest sum of individual happiness, with the least national expense. [Dragonetti on virtue and rewards]
But where, says some, is the King of America? I'll tell you. Friend, he reigns above, and doth not make havoc of mankind like the Royal Brute of Britain. Yet that we may not appear to be defective even in earthly honors, let a day be solemnly set apart for proclaiming the charter; let it be brought forth placed on the divine law, the word of God; let a crown be placed thereon, by which the world may know, that so far we approve of monarchy, that in America THE LAW IS KING. For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law OUGHT to be King; and there ought to be no other. But lest any ill use should afterwards arise, let the crown at the conclusion of the ceremony, be demolished, and scattered among the people whose right it is.
A government of our own is our natural right: And when a man seriously reacts on the precariousness of human affairs, he will become convinced, that it is infinitely wiser and safer, to form a constitution of our own in a cool deliberate manner, while we have it in our power, than to trust such an interesting event to time and chance. If we omit it now, some [Thomas Anello otherwise Massanello a fisherman of Naples, who after spiriting up his countrymen in the public marketplace, against the oppressions of the Spaniards, to whom the place was then subject prompted them to revolt, and in the space of a day became king.] Massanello may hereafter arise, who laying hold of popular disquietudes, may collect together the desperate and the discontented, and by assuming to themselves the powers of government, may sweep away the liberties of the continent like a deluge. Should the government of America return again into the hands of Britain, the tottering situation of things will be a temptation for some desperate adventurer to try his fortune; and in such a case, that relief can Britain give? Ere she could hear the news, the fatal business might be done; and ourselves suffering like the wretched Britons under the oppression of the Conqueror. Ye that oppose independence now, ye know not what ye do; ye are opening a door to eternal tyranny, by keeping vacant the seat of government. There are thousands, and tens of thousands, who would think it glorious to expel from the continent that barbarous and hellish power, which hath stirred up the Indians and Negroes to destroy us; the cruelty hath a double guilt, it is dealing brutally by us, and treacherously by them.
To talk of friendship with those in whom our reason forbids us to have faith, and our affections wounded through a thousand pores instruct us to detest, is madness and folly. Every day wears out the little remains of kindred between us and them, and can there be any reason to hope, that as the relationship expires, the affection will increase, or that we shall agree better, when we have ten times more and greater concerns to quarrel over than ever?
Ye that tell us of harmony and reconciliation, can ye restore to us the time that is past? Can ye give to prostitution its former innocence? Neither can ye reconcile Britain and America. The last cord now is broken, the people of England are presenting addresses against us. There are injuries which nature cannot forgive; she would cease to be nature if she did. As well can the lover forgive the ravisher of his mistress, as the continent forgive the murders of Britain. The Almighty hath implanted in us these unextinguishable feelings for good and wise purposes. They are the guardians of his image in our hearts. They distinguish us from the herd of common animals. The social compact would dissolve, and justice be extirpated the earth, or have only a casual existence were we callous to the touches of affection. The robber, and the murderer, would often escape unpunished, did not the injuries which our tempers sustain, provoke us into justice.
O ye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose, not only the tyranny, but the tyrant, stand forth! Every spot of the old world is overrun with oppression. Freedom hath been hunted round the globe. Asia, and Africa, have long expelled her-Europe regards her like a stranger, and England hath given her warning to depart. O! receive the fugitive, and prepare in time an asylum for mankind.
OF THE PRESENT _ABILITY_ OF _AMERICA_, WITH SOME MISCELLANEOUS _REFLECTIONS_
I have never met with a man, either in England or America, who hath not confessed his opinion that a separation between the countries, would take place one time or other: And there is no instance, in which we have shewn less judgement, than in endeavouring to describe, what we call the ripeness or fitness of the Continent for independence.
As all men allow the measure, and vary only in their opinion of the time, let us, in order to remove mistakes, take a general survey of things, and endeavour, if possible, to find out the VERY time. But we need not go far, the inquiry ceases at once, for, the TIME HATH FOUND US. The general concurrence, the glorious union of all things prove the fact.
It is not in numbers, but in unity, that our great strength lies; yet our present numbers are sufficient to repel the force of all the world. The Continent hath, at this time, the largest body of armed and disciplined men of any power under Heaven; and is just arrived at that pitch of strength, in which no single colony is able to support itself, and the whole, when united, can accomplish the matter, and either more, or, less than this, might be fatal in its effects. Our land force is already sufficient, and as to naval affairs, we cannot be insensible, that Britain would never suffer an American man of war to be built, while the continent remained in her hands. Wherefore, we should be no forwarder an hundred years hence in that branch, than we are now; but the truth is, we should be less so, because the timber of the country is every day diminishing, and that, which will remain at last, will be far off and difficult to procure.
Were the continent crowded with inhabitants, her sufferings under the present circumstances would be intolerable. The more seaport towns we had, the more should we have both to defend and to lose. Our present numbers are so happily proportioned to our wants, that no man need be idle. The diminution of trade affords an army, and the necessities of an army create a new trade.
Debts we have none; and whatever we may contract on this account will serve as a glorious memento of our virtue. Can we but leave posterity with a settled form of government, an independent constitution of its own, the purchase at any price will be cheap. But to expend millions for the sake of getting a few vile acts repealed, and routing the present ministry only, is unworthy the charge, and is using posterity with the utmost cruelty; because it is leaving them the great work to do, and a debt upon their backs, from which they derive no advantage. Such a thought is unworthy of a man of honor, and is the true characteristic of a narrow heart and a peddling politician.
The debt we may contract doth not deserve our regard, if the work be but accomplished. No nation ought to be without a debt. A national debt is a national bond; and when it bears no interest, is in no case a grievance. Britain is oppressed with a debt of upwards of one hundred and forty millions sterling, for which she pays upwards of four millions interest. And as a compensation for her debt, she has a large navy; America is without a debt, and without a navy; yet for the twentieth part of the English national debt, could have a navy as large again. The navy of England is not worth, at this time, more than three millions and an half sterling.
The first and second editions of this pamphlet were published without the following calculations, which are now given as a proof that the above estimation of the navy is just. [See Entic's naval history, intro. page 56.]
The charge of building a ship of each rate, and furnishing her with masts, yards, sails and rigging, together with a proportion of eight months boatswain's and carpenter's seastores, as calculated by Mr. Burchett, Secretary to the navy.
And from hence it is easy to sum up the value, or cost rather, of the whole British navy: 3,500,000
No country on the globe is so happily situated, or so internally capable of raising a fleet as America. Tar, timber, iron, and cordage are her natural produce. We need go abroad for nothing. Whereas the Dutch, who make large profits by hiring out their ships of war to the Spaniards and Portuguese, are obliged to import most of their materials they use. We ought to view the building a fleet as an article of commerce, it being the natural manufactory of this country. It is the best money we can lay out. A navy when finished is worth more than it cost. And is that nice point in national policy, in which commerce and protection are united. Let us build; if we want them not, we can sell; and by that means replace our paper currency with ready gold and silver.
In point of manning a fleet, people in general run into great errors; it is not necessary that one fourth part should he sailors. The Terrible privateer, Captain Death, stood the hottest engagement of any ship last war, yet had not twenty sailors on board, though her complement of men was upwards of two hundred. A few able and social sailors will soon instruct a sufficient number of active landmen in the common work of a ship. Wherefore, we never can be more capable to begin on maritime matters than now, while our timber is standing, our fisheries blocked up, and our sailors and shipwrights out of employ. Men of war of seventy and eighty guns were built forty years ago in New-England, and why not the same now? Ship-building is America's greatest pride, and in which she will in time excel the whole world. The great empires of the east are mostly inland, and consequently excluded from the possibility of rivalling her. Africa is in a state of barbarism; and no power in Europe hath either such an extent of coast, or such an internal supply of materials. Where nature hath given the one, she has withheld the other; to America only hath she been liberal of both. The vast empire of Russia is almost shut out from the sea: wherefore, her boundless forests, her tar, iron, and cordage are only articles of commerce.
In point of safety, ought we to be without a fleet? We are not the little people now, which we were sixty years ago; at that time we might have trusted our property in the streets, or fields rather; and slept securely without locks or bolts to our doors or windows. The case now is altered, and our methods of defense ought to improve with our increase of property. A common pirate, twelve months ago, might have come up the Delaware, and laid the city of Philadelphia under instant contribution, for what sum he pleased; and the same might have happened to other places. Nay, any daring fellow, in a brig of fourteen or sixteen guns might have robbed the whole continent, and carried off half a million of money. These are circumstances which demand our attention, and point out the necessity of naval protection.
Some, perhaps, will say, that after we have made it up Britain, she will protect us. Can we be so unwise as to mean, that she shall keep a navy in our harbours for that purpose? Common sense will tell us, that the power which hath endeavoured to subdue us, is of all others the most improper to defend us. Conquest may be effected under the pretence of friendship; and ourselves after a long and brave resistance, be at last cheated into slavery. And if her ships are not to be admitted into our harbours, I would ask, how is she to protect us? A navy three or four thousand miles off can be of little use, and on sudden emergencies, none at all. Wherefore, if we must hereafter protect ourselves, why not do it for ourselves?
The English list of ships of war, is long and formidable, but not a tenth part of them are at any one time fit for service, numbers of them not in being; yet their names are pompously continued in the list, f only a plank be left of the ship: and not a fifth part of such as are fit for service, can be spared on any one station at one time. The East and West Indies, Mediterranean, Africa, and other parts over which Britain extends her claim, make large demands upon her navy. From a mixture of prejudice and inattention, we have contracted a false notion respecting the navy of England, and have talked as if we should have the whole of it to encounter at once, and for that reason, supposed, that we must have one as large; which not being instantly practicable, have been made use of by a set of disguised Tories to discourage our beginning thereon. Nothing can be farther from truth than this; for if America had only a twentieth part of the naval force of Britain, she would be by far an overmatch for her; because, as we neither have, nor claim any foreign dominion, our whole force would be employed on our own coast, where we should, in the long run, have two to one the advantage of those who had three or four thousand miles to sail over, before they could attack us, and the same distance to return in order to refit and recruit. And although Britain, by her fleet, hath a check over our trade to Europe, we have as large a one over her trade to the West Indies, which, by laying in the neighbourhood of the continent, is entirely at its mercy.
Some method might be fallen on to keep up a naval force in time of peace, if we should not judge it necessary to support a constant navy. If premiums were to be given to merchants, to build and employ in their service ships mounted with twenty, thirty, forty or fifty guns, (the premiums to be in proportion to the loss of bulk to the merchants) fifty or sixty of those ships, with a few guardships on constant duty, would keep up a sufficient navy, and that without burdening ourselves with the evil so loudly complained of in England, of suffering their fleet, in time of peace to lie rotting in the docks. To unite the sinews of commerce and defense is sound policy; for when our strength and our riches play into each other's hand, we need fear no external enemy.
In almost every article of defense we abound. Hemp flourishes even to rankness, so that we need not want cordage. Our iron is superior to that of other countries. Our small arms equal to any in the world. Cannon we can cast at pleasure. Saltpetre and gunpowder we are every day producing. Our knowledge is hourly improving. Resolution is our inherent character, and courage hath never yet forsaken us. Wherefore, what is it that we want? Why is it that we hesitate? From Britain we can expect nothing but ruin. If she is once admitted to the government of America again, this Continent will not be worth living in. Jealousies will be always arising; insurrections will be constantly happening; and who will go forth to quell them? Who will venture his life to reduce his own countrymen to a foreign obedience? The difference between Pennsylvania and Connecticut, respecting some unlocated lands, shews the insignificance of a British government, and fully proves, that nothing but Continental authority can regulate Continental matters.
Another reason why the present time is preferable to all others, is, that the fewer our numbers are, the more land there is yet unoccupied, which instead of being lavished by the king on his worthless dependants, may be hereafter applied, not only to the discharge of the present debt, but to the constant support of government. No nation under heaven hath such an advantage at this.
The infant state of the Colonies, as it is called, so far from being against, is an argument in favour of independance. We are sufficiently numerous, and were we more so, we might be less united. It is a matter worthy of observation, that the mare a country is peopled, the smaller their armies are. In military numbers, the ancients far exceeded the modems: and the reason is evident. for trade being the consequence of population, men become too much absorbed thereby to attend to anything else. Commerce diminishes the spirit, both of patriotism and military defence. And history sufficiently informs us, that the bravest achievements were always accomplished in the non-age of a nation. With the increase of commerce, England hath lost its spirit. The city of London, notwithstanding its numbers, submits to continued insults with the patience of a coward. The more men have to lose, the less willing are they to venture. The rich are in general slaves to fear, and submit to courtly power with the trembling duplicity of a Spaniel.
Youth is the seed time of good habits, as well in nations as in individuals. It might be difficult, if not impossible, to form the Continent into one government half a century hence. The vast variety of interests, occasioned by an increase of trade and population, would create confusion. Colony would be against colony. Each being able might scorn each other's assistance: and while the proud and foolish gloried in their little distinctions, the wise would lament, that the union had not been formed before. Wherefore, the PRESENT TIME is the TRUE TIME for establishing it. The intimacy which is contracted in infancy, and the friendship which is formed in misfortune, are, of all others, the most lasting and unalterable. Our present union is marked with both these characters: we are young and we have been distressed; but our concord hath withstood our troubles, and fixes a memorable are for posterity to glory in.
The present time, likewise, is that peculiar time, which never happens to a nation but once, viz. the time of forming itself into a government. Most nations have let slip the opportunity, and by that means have been compelled to receive laws from their conquerors, instead of making laws for themselves. First, they had a king, and then a form of government; whereas, the articles or charter of government, should be formed first, and men delegated to execute them afterward but from the errors of other nations, let us learn wisdom, and lay hold of the present opportunity -TO BEGIN GOVERNMENT AT THE RIGHT END.
When William the Conqueror subdued England, he gave them law at the point of the sword; and until we consent, that the seat of government, in America, be legally and authoritatively occupied, we shall be in danger of having it filled by some fortunate ruffian, who may treat us in the same manner, and then, where will be our freedom? where our property? As to religion, I hold it to be the indispensable duty of all government, to protect all conscientious professors thereof, and I know of no other business which government hath to do therewith, Let a man throw aside that narrowness of soul, that selfishness of principle, which the niggards of all professions are willing to part with, and he will be at delivered of his fears on that head. Suspicion is the companion of mean souls, and the bane of all good society. For myself, I fully and conscientiously believe, that it is the will of the Almighty, that there should be diversity of religious opinions among us: It affords a larger field for our Christian kindness. Were we all of one way of thinking, our religious dispositions would want matter for probation; and on this liberal principle, I look on the various denominations among us, to be like children of the same family, differing only, in what is called, their Christian names.
In page forty, I threw out a few thoughts on the propriety of a Continental Charter, (for I only presume to offer hints, not plans) and in this place, I take the liberty of rementioning the subject, by observing, that a charter is to be understood as a bond of solemn obligation, which the whole enters into, to support the right of every separate part, whether of religion, personal freedom, or property. A firm bargain and a right reckoning make long friends.
In a former page I likewise mentioned the necessity of a large and equal representation; and there is no political matter which more deserves our attention. A small number of electors, or a small number of representatives, are equally dangerous. But if the number of the representatives be not only small, but unequal, the danger is increased. As an instance of this, I mention the following; when the Associators petition was before the House of Assembly of Pennsylvania; twenty-eight members only were present, all the Bucks county members, being eight, voted against it, and had seven of the Chester members done the same, this whole province had been governed by two counties only, and this danger it is always exposed to. The unwarrantable stretch likewise, which that house made in their last sitting, to gain an undue authority over the delegates of that province, ought to warn the people at large, how they trust power out of their own hands. A set of instructions for the Delegates were put together, which in point of sense and business would have dishonoured a schoolboy, and after being approved by a FEW, a VERY FEW without doors, were carried into the House, and there passed IN BEHALF OF THE WHOLE COLONY; whereas, did the whole colony know, with what ill-will that House hath entered on some necessary public measures, they would not hesitate a moment to think them unworthy of such a trust.
Immediate necessity makes many things convenient, which if continued would grow into oppressions. Expedience and right are different things. When the calamities of America required a consultation, there was no method so ready, or at that time so proper, as to appoint persons from the several Houses of Assembly for that purpose; and the wisdom with which they have proceeded hath preserved this continent from ruin. But as it is more than probable that we shall never be without a CONGRESS, every well wisher to good order, must own, that the mode for choosing members of that body, deserves consideration. And I put it as a question to those, who make a study of mankind, whether representation and election is not too great a power for one and the same body of men to possess? When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember, that virtue is not hereditary.
It is from our enemies that we often gain excellent maxims, and are frequently surprised into reason by their mistakes, Mr. Cornwall (one of the Lords of the Treasury) treated the petition of the New-York Assembly with contempt, because THAT House, he said, consisted but of twenty-six members, which trifling number, he argued, could not with decency be put for the whole. We thank him for his involuntary honesty. [Those who would fully understand of what great consequence a large and equal representation is to a state, should read Burgh's political disquisitions.]
TO CONCLUDE, however strange it may appear to some, or however unwilling they may be to think so, matters not, but many strong and striking reasons may be given, to shew, that nothing can settle our affairs so expeditiously as an open and determined declaration for independance. Some of which are,
FIRST. - It is the custom of nations, when any two are at war, for some other powers, not engaged in the quarrel, to step in as mediators, and bring about the preliminaries of a peace: hut while America calls herself the Subject of Great Britain, no power, however well disposed she may be, can offer her mediation. Wherefore, in our present state we may quarrel on for ever.
SECONDLY. - It is unreasonable to suppose, that France or Spain will give us any kind of assistance, if we mean only, to make use of that assistance for the purpose of repairing the breach, and strengthening the connection between Britain and America; because, those powers would be sufferers by the consequences.
THIRDLY. - While we profess ourselves the subjects of Britain, we must, in the eye of foreign nations. be considered as rebels. The precedent is somewhat dangerous to THEIR PEACE, for men to be in arms under the name of subjects; we, on the spot, can solve the paradox: but to unite resistance and subjection, requires an idea much too refined for common understanding.
FOURTHLY. - Were a manifesto to be published, and despatched to foreign courts, setting forth the miseries we have endured, and the peaceable methods we have ineffectually used for redress; declaring, at the same time, that not being able, any longer, to live happily or safely under the cruel disposition of the British court, we had been driven to the necessity of breaking off all connections with her; at the same time, assuring all such courts of our peaceable disposition towards them, and of our desire of entering into trade with them: Such a memorial would produce more good effects to this Continent, than if a ship were freighted with petitions to Britain.
Under our present denomination of British subjects, we can neither be received nor heard abroad: The custom of all courts is against us, and will be so, until, by an independance, we take rank with other nations.
These proceedings may at first appear strange and difficult; but, like all other steps which we have already passed over, will in a little time become familiar and agreeable; and, until an independance is declared, the Continent will feel itself like a man who continues putting off some unpleasant business from day to day, yet knows it must be done, hates to set about it, wishes it over, and is continually haunted with the thoughts of its necessity. from the old (original) version of the web site:

in italy moths don't murder their babies.
mothers are a million people
and look like Sophia Loren.
I look that good.
I am an american.
I murder fathers.
children are precious.
fathers don't give a shit.
they don't like me, in fact.
they wish me to come down with measles
or measly dates - which are the fruit.
fathers are so horrible in america
they don't even tell you you are beautiful
and why they have to put you on permanent hold.

Nick DiSpoldo, Small Press Review (on "Children, Churches and Daddies," April 1997) Kuypers is the widely-published poet of particular perspectives and not a little existential rage, but she does not impose her personal or artistic agenda on her magazine. CC+D is a provocative potpourri of news stories, poetry, humor, art and the "dirty underwear" of politics. One piece in this issue is "Crazy," an interview Kuypers conducted with "Madeline," a murderess who was found insane, and is confined to West Virginia's Arronsville Correctional Center. Madeline, whose elevator definitely doesn't go to the top, killed her boyfriend during sex with an ice pick and a chef's knife, far surpassing the butchery of Elena Bobbitt. Madeline, herself covered with blood, sat beside her lover's remains for three days, talking to herself, and that is how the police found her. For effect, Kuypers publishes Madeline's monologue in different-sized type, and the result is something between a sense of Dali's surrealism and Kafka-like craziness.

Debra Purdy Kong, writer, British Columbia, Canada
I like the magazine a lot. I like the spacious lay-out and the different coloured pages and the variety of writer's styles. Too many literary magazines read as if everyone graduated from the same course. We need to collect more voices like these and send them everywhere.

Ed Hamilton, writer #85 (of children, churches and daddies) turned out well. I really enjoyed the humor section, especially the test score answers. And, the cup-holder story is hilarious. I'm not a big fan of poetry - since much of it is so hard to decipher - but I was impressed by the work here, which tends toward the straightforward and unpretentious. As for the fiction, the piece by Anderson is quite perceptive: I liked the way the self-deluding situation of the character is gradually, subtly revealed. (Kuypers') story is good too: the way it switches narrative perspective via the letter device is a nice touch.

Children, Churches and Daddies.
It speaks for itself.
Write to Scars Publications to submit poetry, prose and artwork to Children, Churches and Daddies literary magazine, or to inquire about having your own chapbook, and maybe a few reviews like these.

Jim Maddocks, GLASGOW, via the Internet I'll be totally honest, of the material in Issue (either 83 or 86 of Children, Churches and Daddies) the only ones I really took to were Kuypers'. TRYING was so simple but most truths are, aren't they?

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what is veganism?
A vegan (VEE-gun) is someone who does not consume any animal products. While vegetarians avoid flesh foods, vegans don't consume dairy or egg products, as well as animal products in clothing and other sources.

why veganism?
This cruelty-free lifestyle provides many benefits, to animals, the environment and to ourselves. The meat and dairy industry abuses billions of animals. Animal agriculture takes an enormous toll on the land. Consumtion of animal products has been linked to heart disease, colon and breast cancer, osteoporosis, diabetes and a host of other conditions.

so what is vegan action?
We can succeed in shifting agriculture away from factory farming, saving millions, or even billions of chickens, cows, pigs, sheep turkeys and other animals from cruelty.
We can free up land to restore to wilderness, pollute less water and air, reduce topsoil reosion, and prevent desertification.
We can improve the health and happiness of millions by preventing numerous occurrences od breast and prostate cancer, osteoporosis, and heart attacks, among other major health problems.

A vegan, cruelty-free lifestyle may be the most important step a person can take towards creatin a more just and compassionate society. Contact us for membership information, t-shirt sales or donations.

vegan action
po box 4353, berkeley, ca 94707-0353
510/704-4444

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C Ra McGuirt, Editor, The Penny Dreadful Review (on Children, Churches and Daddies) cc&d is obviously a labor of love ... I just have to smile when I go through it. (Janet Kuypers) uses her space and her poets to best effect, and the illos attest to her skill as a graphic artist. "I really like ("Writing Your Name"). It's one of those kind of things where your eye isn't exactly pulled along, but falls effortlessly down the poem. I liked "knowledge" for its mix of disgust and acceptance. Janet Kuypers does good little movies, by which I mean her stuff provokes moving imagery for me. Color, no dialogue; the voice of the poem is the narrator over the film.

Children, Churches and Daddies no longer distributes free contributor's copies of issues. In order to receive issues of Children, Churches and Daddies, contact Janet Kuypers at the cc&d e-mail addres. Free electronic subscriptions are available via email. All you need to do is email ccandd@aol.com... and ask to be added to the free cc+d electronic subscription mailing list. And you can still see issues every month at the Children, Churches and Daddies website, located at http://scars.tv

Also, visit our new web sites: the Art Gallery and the Poetry Page.

Mark Blickley, writer The precursor to the magazine title (Children, Churches and Daddies) is very moving. "Scars" is also an excellent prose poem. I never really thought about scars as being a form of nostalgia. But in the poem it also represents courage and warmth. I look forward to finishing her book.

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MIT Vegetarian Support Group (VSG)

functions:
* To show the MIT Food Service that there is a large community of vegetarians at MIT (and other health-conscious people) whom they are alienating with current menus, and to give positive suggestions for change.
* To exchange recipes and names of Boston area veg restaurants
* To provide a resource to people seeking communal vegetarian cooking
* To provide an option for vegetarian freshmen

We also have a discussion group for all issues related to vegetarianism, which currently has about 150 members, many of whom are outside the Boston area. The group is focusing more toward outreach and evolving from what it has been in years past. We welcome new members, as well as the opportunity to inform people about the benefits of vegetarianism, to our health, the environment, animal welfare, and a variety of other issues.

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Gary, Editor, The Road Out of Town (on the Children, Churches and Daddies Web Site) I just checked out the site. It looks great.

Dusty Dog Reviews: These poems document a very complicated internal response to the feminine side of social existence. And as the book proceeds the poems become increasingly psychologically complex and, ultimately, fascinating and genuinely rewarding.

John Sweet, writer (on chapbook designs) Visuals were awesome. They've got a nice enigmatic quality to them. Front cover reminds me of the Roman sculptures of angels from way back when. Loved the staggered tire lettering, too. Way cool. (on "Hope Chest in the Attic") Some excellent writing in "Hope Chest in the Attic." I thought "Children, Churches and Daddies" and "The Room of the Rape" were particularly powerful pieces.

C Ra McGuirt, Editor, The Penny Dreadful Review: cc&d is obviously a labor of love ... I just have to smile when I go through it. (Janet Kuypers) uses her space and her poets to best effect, and the illos attest to her skill as a graphic artist.

Cheryl Townsend, Editor, Impetus (on Children, Churches and Daddies) The new cc&d looks absolutely amazing. It's a wonderful lay-out, looks really professional - all you need is the glossy pages. Truly impressive AND the calendar, too. Can't wait to actually start reading all the stuff inside.. Wanted to just say, it looks good so far!!!

Dusty Dog Reviews: She opens with a poem of her own devising, which has that wintry atmosphere demonstrated in the movie version of Boris Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago. The atmosphere of wintry white and cold, gloriously murderous cold, stark raging cold, numbing and brutalizing cold, appears almost as a character who announces to his audience, "Wisdom occurs only after a laboriously magnificent disappointment." Alas, that our Dusty Dog for mat cannot do justice to Ms. Kuypers' very personal layering of her poem across the page.

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Fithian Press, Santa Barbara, CA
Indeed, there's a healthy balance here between wit and dark vision, romance and reality, just as there's a good balance between words and graphics. The work shows brave self-exploration, and serves as a reminder of mortality and the fragile beauty of friendship.

Mark Blickley, writer
The precursor to the magazine title (Children, Churches and Daddies) is very moving. "Scars" is also an excellent prose poem. I never really thought about scars as being a form of nostalgia. But in the poem it also represents courage and warmth. I look forward to finishing her book.

You Have to be Published to be Appreciated.

Do you want to be heard? Contact Children, Churches and Daddies about book or chapbook publishing. These reviews can be yours. Scars Publications, attention J. Kuypers. We're only an e-mail away. Write to us.

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Brian B. Braddock, Writer (on 1996 Children, Churches and Daddies) I passed on a copy to my brother who is the director of the St. Camillus AIDS programs. We found (Children, Churches and Daddies') obvious dedication along this line admirable.

The Center for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technology
The Solar Energy Research& Education Foundation (SEREF), a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C., established on Earth Day 1993 the Center for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technology (CREST) as its central project. CREST's three principal projects are to provide:
* on-site training and education workshops on the sustainable development interconnections of energy, economics and environment;
* on-line distance learning/training resources on CREST's SOLSTICE computer, available from 144 countries through email and the Internet;
* on-disc training and educational resources through the use of interactive multimedia applications on CD-ROM computer discs - showcasing current achievements and future opportunities in sustainable energy development.
The CREST staff also does "on the road" presentations, demonstrations, and workshops showcasing its activities and available resources.
For More Information Please Contact: Deborah Anderson
dja@crest.org or (202) 289-0061

Brian B. Braddock, Writer (on 1996 Children, Churches and Daddies) I passed on a copy to my brother who is the director of the St. Camillus AIDS programs. We found (Children, Churches and Daddies') obvious dedication along this line admirable.

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Dorrance Publishing Co., Pittsburgh, PA
"Hope Chest in the Attic" captures the complexity of human nature and reveals startling yet profound discernments about the travesties that surge through the course of life. This collection of poetry, prose and artwork reflects sensitivity toward feminist issues concerning abuse, sexism and equality. It also probes the emotional torrent that people may experience as a reaction to the delicate topics of death, love and family.
"Chain Smoking" depicts the emotional distress that afflicted a friend while he struggled to clarify his sexual ambiguity. Not only does this thought-provoking profile address the plight that homosexuals face in a homophobic society, it also characterizes the essence of friendship. "The room of the rape" is a passionate representation of the suffering rape victims experience. Vivid descriptions, rich symbolism, and candid expressions paint a shocking portrait of victory over the gripping fear that consumes the soul after a painful exploitation.

want a review like this? contact scars about getting your own book published.

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Paul Weinman, Writer (on 1996 Children, Churches and Daddies) Wonderful new direction (Children, Churches and Daddies has) taken - great articles, etc. (especially those on AIDS). Great stories - all sorts of hot info!

The magazine Children Churches and Daddies is Copyright © through Scars Publications and Design. The rights of the individual pieces remain with the authors. No material may be reprinted without express permission from the author.

Okay, nilla wafer. Listen up and listen good. How to save your life. Submit, or I'll have to kill you.
Okay, it's this simple: send me published or unpublished poetry, prose or art work (do not send originals), along with a bio, to us - then sit around and wait... Pretty soon you'll hear from the happy people at cc&d that says (a) Your work sucks, or (b) This is fancy crap, and we're gonna print it. It's that simple!

Okay, butt-munch. Tough guy. This is how to win the editors over.
Hope Chest in the Attic is a 200 page, perfect-bound book of 13 years of poetry, prose and art by Janet Kuypers. It's a really classy thing, if you know what I mean. We also have a few extra sopies of the book "Rinse and Repeat", which has all the 1999 issues of cc&d crammed into one book. And you can have either one of these things at just five bucks a pop if you just contact us. It's an offer you can't refuse...

Carlton Press, New York, NY: HOPE CHEST IN THE ATTIC is a collection of well-fashioned, often elegant poems and short prose that deals in many instances, with the most mysterious and awesome of human experiences: love... Janet Kuypers draws from a vast range of experiences and transforms thoughts into lyrical and succinct verse... Recommended as poetic fare that will titillate the palate in its imagery and imaginative creations.
Mark Blickley, writer: The precursor to the magazine title (Children, Churches and Daddies) is very moving. "Scars" is also an excellent prose poem. I never really thought about scars as being a form of nostalgia. But in the poem it also represents courage and warmth. I look forward to finishing the book.

You Have to be Published to be Appreciated.
Do you want to be heard? Contact Children, Churches and Daddies about book and chapbook publishing. These reviews can be yours. Scars Publications, attention J. Kuypers - you can write for yourself or you can write for an audience. It's your call...

Dorrance Publishing Co., Pittsburgh, PA: "Hope Chest in the Attic" captures the complexity of human nature and reveals startling yet profound discernments about the travesties that surge through the course of life. This collection of poetry, prose and artwork reflects sensitivity toward feminist issues concerning abuse, sexism and equality. It also probes the emotional torrent that people may experience as a reaction to the delicate topics of death, love and family. "Chain Smoking" depicts the emotional distress that afflicted a friend while he struggled to clarify his sexual ambiguity. Not only does this thought-provoking profile address the plight that homosexuals face in a homophobic society, it also characterizes the essence of friendship. "The room of the rape" is a passionate representation of the suffering rape victims experience. Vivid descriptions, rich symbolism, and candid expressions paint a shocking portrait of victory over the gripping fear that consumes the soul after a painful exploitation.

Dusty Dog Reviews, CA (on knife): These poems document a very complicated internal response to the feminine side of social existence. And as the book proceeds the poems become increasingly psychologically complex and, ultimately, fascinating and genuinely rewarding. Children, Churches and Daddies. It speaks for itself.

Dusty Dog Reviews (on Without You): She open with a poem of her own devising, which has that wintry atmosphere demonstrated in the movie version of Boris Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago. The atmosphere of wintry white and cold, gloriously murderous cold, stark raging cold, numbing and brutalizing cold, appears almost as a character who announces to his audience, "Wisdom occurs only after a laboriously magnificent disappointment." Alas, that our Dusty Dog for mat cannot do justice to Ms. Kuypers' very personal layering of her poem across the page.
Children, Churches and Daddies. It speaks for itself.

Debra Purdy Kong, writer, British Columbia, Canada (on Children, Churches and Daddies): I like the magazine a lot. I like the spacious lay-out and the different coloured pages and the variety of writer's styles. Too many literary magazines read as if everyone graduated from the same course. We need to collect more voices like these and send them everywhere.
Fithian Press, Santa Barbara, CA: Indeed, there's a healthy balance here between wit and dark vision, romance and reality, just as there's a good balance between words and graphics. The work shows brave self-exploration, and serves as a reminder of mortality and the fragile beauty of friendship.

Published since 1993 No racist, sexist or homophobic material is appreciated; we do accept work of almost any genre of poetry, prose or artwork, though we shy away from concrete poetry and rhyme for rhyme's sake. Do not send originals. Any work sent to Scars Publications on Macintosh disks, text format, will be given special attention over smail-mail submissions. There is no limit to how much you may submit at a time; previously published work accepted.