COMMENT
Comment Cuban Whipping Boy 'The U.S. must recognize its own complicity in creating a climate of aggression toward Cuba. Until U.S.-Cuba relations are normalized, tragedies such as this will...
...Then Clinton ratcheted up the tensions by dispatching warships into the straits of Florida and bombers into the air above...
...The deep-toned voice of the farmer/actor says, "Last year I fed 128 people who will never thank me...
...policy toward Cuba...
...interests section in Havana from 1979 to 1982...
...Quick to appease the anti-Castro crowd, Clinton quickly reached an agreement with Congress on tightening the economic embargo, going along with punitive legislation sponsored by two troglodytes...
...Until U.S.-Cuba relations are normalized, tragedies such as this will continue to fuel hatred and intolerance.' —Pastors for Peace Just days before the Cuban government shot down two private American Cessna planes flown by an anti-Castro group, the United States was tidying up a much larger catastrophe in the air...
...The Justice Department was prosecuting Pastors for Peace, a religious group that wanted to send computers to Cuba's hospitals (see "On the Line...
...This steady erosion of abortion rights has been the pro-life movement's strategy for years...
...But Washington failed to stop the flights, and the group continued its provocations...
...The Brothers knew what they were getting into...
...I'm an active environmentalist, not an environmental activist...
...Help...
...Cuba is not a threat to the United States, and its human-rights record, while not perfect, is eons ahead of China's or Indonesia's or Guatemala's...
...You might think that's hyperbole, but consider the recent action by the Tennessee Senate, which approved a resolution endorsing the observance of the Ten Commandments...
...One favorite is for "Easy Omelettes," from Nabisco...
...Vincennes shot down a civilian Iran Air Airbus jet over the Persian Gulf...
...says Leonard Weinglass, the Pastors' lawyer...
...But it was a dav for mockeries...
...Even before the downing of the Cessnas, the Clinton Administration was already getting tough on Cuba...
...The backlash is already stinging...
...Counseling, moralizing, waiting periods, and parental and spousal consent all sound reasonable to many people...
...Not to worry, says the voice-over...
...Pundits and politicians who describe themselves as pro-choice have been strangely complicit in the effort to chip away at abortion rights...
...government has been trying to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro instead of respecting its right to self-determination...
...As a result of the threatened suit, most Americans won't hear the message at the end of the ad: "It is estimated that 30 percent of teen-age suicide victims are gay or lesbian...
...All 290 people aboard were killed...
...But the economic embargo, the Bay of Pigs invasion, exploding cigars, fluttering leaflets, and Radio Marti have not succeeded in bringing down Castro...
...Try Nabisco's "Easy Omelettes"—cheese omelettes in a can...
...This isn't the first time the state of Utah has set a national precedent in its treatment of gay and lesbian citizens...
...Nothing could be more crucial to our freedom...
...In a report entitled The Road to the Back Alley, the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) points out that the 104th Congress has racked up the most anti-choice voting record in historv...
...But the real question, which Wolf and Fox-Genovese refuse to address, is who should decide whether an abortion will be allowed...
...The two things seem to go together...
...Tht New York Times reported that last summer the group's founder had warned one of his pilots that if the Cubans tried to force their plane to land, the Brothers would not obey the warnings...
...government is dragging people involved in humanitarian aid before grand juries...
...The Backlash Stings The Salt Lake City school board isn't discriminating against lesbian and gay teens...
...Clinton also lunged for millions of dollars of frozen Cuban assets to compensate the victims...
...So the school board eliminated extracurricular organizations altogether...
...This brings the total number of states considering such preemptive legislation to eighteen...
...Also big here in the Midwest, especially this time of year, are pesticide ads...
...look for an amendment to the Tennessee bill, one that would make Charlton Heston required viewing in the public schools...
...All Republican candidates but Richard Lugar endorsed the event...
...On the day of the march, the Utah Senate passed a bill prohibiting teachers from condoning "illegal conduct"—a ploy to discourage teacher supervision of gay and lesbian clubs...
...the Cessnas had been warned by Cuban air-traffic controllers...
...Other students have started a group called SAFE: Students Against Faggots at East...
...Frantic, he says something like, "Let's see, I'll need eggs, a frying pan, butter, cheese...
...The attorney general of Tennessee wisely advised that the bill was a blatant violation of the establishment clause of the First Amendment...
...Nabisco says it's test-marketing this product in several Midwestern cities, so if its appeal to the lazy and inept succeeds, you'll soon be able to find Easy Omelettes on your supermarket shelves—right next to the Spaghetti O's...
...Will women have the right to choose what happens to their own bodies, or will they have to throw themselves on the mercy of husbands, parents, and judges...
...government had really taken very little in the way of appropriate action to prevent them from repeating this kind of thing...
...It tried to, but couldn't get around the Federal Equal Access Act, which obliges schools to treat all non-academic student clubs equally...
...This active environmentalist is so responsible he's spraying insecticides all over his farm...
...There's been a dramatic rise in targeting classrooms," says Denny Lee, spokesperson for the American Civil Liberties Union's Lesbian and Gay Rights Project...
...By the way...
...It's been on their agenda to put gays and lesbians back in the closet...
...That vote was 8 to 1. Children, can you say Scopes trial...
...air space...
...Rather than helping women, these laws are designed to confuse, delay, and coerce women into bearing unwanted children," NARAL president Kate Michelman points out...
...Even as curtailing abortion rights becomes a major campaign issue in the Republican primary...
...If the woman is pregnant, and both she and her fetus die...
...That may be enough for the Volunteer State, but it makes a mockery of our nation's belief in the separation of church and state...
...The attack, said Clinton, "was an appalling reminder of the nature of the Cuban regime—repressive, violent, scornful of international law...
...That's life," the voice-over says, adding something about how New York Life somehow makes the suffering easier...
...The Iranian jet was not invading U.S...
...The aim is to establish a legal precedent for punishing "fetal homicide...
...On July 3, 1988, the U.S.S...
...the Cessna planes had previously dropped leaflets urging Cubans to "fight for your rights...
...Many states do not have gendered language in their marriage statutes," Wisconsin State Representative Tammy Baldwin points out...
...it has nothing to do with concerns about the pregnant woman," says Severa Austin, president of Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin...
...Can't wait for that one...
...Senator Jesse Helms...
...Last year, the state enacted a law that nullifies same-sex marriage—just in case it were ever legalized...
...The sneakiness of the pro-life strategy is currently on display in Wisconsin, where domestic-violence legislation known as the "feticide bill" sets strict penalties for batterers who assault and kill women...
...The right to choose means the right to follow one's own conscience, without government interference...
...Oh, please, not that...
...policy toward Havana since the revolution, the very rightwing Cuban Americans who were behind the group called Brothers to the Rescue, which made the Cessna flights...
...This is an attempt by pro-lifers to woo liberals by exploiting the issue of domestic violence...
...Many school boards and local governments across the country are considering similar bans...
...The most popular ad this year is for an insecticide...
...Women's rights, and the value of our lives, must not change in the eyes of the law depending on whether or not we are pregnant...
...The intent primarily is to use the bills electorally, rather than making them a part of their substantive platform...
...After the Brothers repeatedly violated Cuban air space, the Cuban government protested to Washington, and put it on notice that Cuba would take "all necessary steps" to halt the planes, including shooting them down...
...politicians who pander to a rightwing cabal of Cuban exiles centered in Miami, and who create enemies to gain votes...
...You don't see the United States imposing an economic embargo on those countries...
...The New York Times reported...
...There'd probably be only a single dissenting vote on that one, too...
...In November, Cable News Network and many other cable stations rejected two ads sponsored by Parents, Friends, and Family of Lesbians and Gays when the Christian Broadcasting Network threatened to sue...
...See Bill in mirror Hexing muscle...
...Abortion Under Fire A woman's right to choose abortion is in serious jeopardy throughout the United States...
...Mmmmm, mmmm good...
...A Tennessee Senate 'Anti-choice laws are not written by social workers, family counselors, or others who care about women's lives or families' health...
...Planting time's a-coming, so every big chemical company has hired out actors in plaid shirts and placed them athwart tractors, usually with a sunrise in the background and a young boy in the foreground...
...one that our own armed forces had created...
...One of the ads sets film clips of Pat Robertson saying "Homosexuality is an abomination," and Jerry Falwell announcing, "God hates homosexuals," side by side with footage of a young girl searching frantically for a gun...
...For thirty-seven years, the U.S...
...Our policy toward Cuba is a Cold War relic...
...That pilot was one of the four who died when the Cubans shot down the Cessnas in February...
...Cuba's function is solelv as a whipping boy for U.S...
...Nor could the continuing foolishness of U.S...
...He is catering to the rightwing Cuban Americans who have dominated U.S...
...It certainly doesn't serve us well now...
...Lord Have Mercy Noam Chomsky contends that the United States is a more fundamentalist society than either Iran or Iraq...
...The only thing the U.S...
...The vote in the Senate was 27 to 1. The Ten Commandments bill urges "everv citizen of Tennessee to observe them, teach them to their children, and display them in their homes, businesses, schools, and places of work...
...Indeed, the bills piled up until the Iowa Caucuses...
...The final ad that's made us ill is for New York Life-It states that last year, hundreds of thousands of Americans were laid off...
...The least the most timid among us can do is not to be taken in by the pro-life strategy to impose more and more restrictions on abortion...
...It seems that the U.S...
...At the same time, the United States continues to defend to this day the shooting down of the Iranian Airbus, claiming that the Vincennes was taking "appropriate defensive measures...
...the Cessna planes were invading Cuba's...
...The pressure from the right is having an effect...
...Today, gays and lesbians around the country have fewer safe spaces in which to shelter themselves against groups like the Christian Coalition and its offspring, Students Against Faggots at East...
...last year, in state-houses around the nation, legislative assaults on women's reproductive rights reached record levels...
...For the tirst time since the Nixon years, the U.S...
...Minutes before the plane was shot down, the Cuban air tower warned the pilots...
...Page 15...
...Republican of North Carolina, and Representative Dan Burton, Republican of Indiana...
...The Iranian jet was not dropping leaflets on the United States, urging American citizens to overthrow the government...
...Wolf claimed, absurdly, in The New Republic, that the pro-choice movement would win more people to its side, and advance the cause of abortion rights, if it publicly declared that abortion is immoral...
...I'm sure the Brothers tried to provoke some kind of incident to impede any further improvement in U.S.-Cuban relations," said Wayne Smith, who ran the U.S...
...The United States has condemned Cuba in the strongest terms for shooting down the Cessnas...
...Federal employees and women in the military no longer have health insurance that covers abortion, and Clinton has yielded to rightwing pressure to cut funds for international family planning...
...It did not serve us well then, nearly bringing on nuclear Armageddon...
...Ultimately, I'm responsible to the land...
...Now it is paying off...
...By refusing to acknowledge men's roles, she writes in her recent book, the Court "implicitly labeled reproduction as solely the responsibility of women...
...Everyone suffers because of the gays," Brett Shields, a red-blooded member of the school's Beef Club, told The New York Times...
...It is a pathology...
...the penalties are even more strict...
...Now students at Salt Lake City's East High School are blaming the kids who belonged to a group called the Gay-Straight Alliance...
...Many of those people involved with Hitler were Satan ists...
...Just before the vote, a blaring anti-gay rally was held at the First Federated Church of Des Moines...
...said that the bill is OK because '"it's voluntary...
...This is exactly the kind of thinking that got us where we are today, with access to abortion serioush threatened in all fifty states...
...Next comes the off-green pitch...
...President Clinton has been signing away access to abortion bit by bit...
...These were private taunting missions at best, and CIA destabilizing missions at worst, as a former member of the Brothers, who defected to Cuba, now alleges with some justification...
...Hundreds of marchers joined a February 23 protest at the Utah State Capitol to object to the ban...
...To get the matter settled, however, the United States agreed to pay off the families of the Iranian victims...
...But now it's all Castro's fault...
...By and large, the efforts have been aimed at bolstering the membership and coffers of the religious right," she says...
...The head of the Brothers, after all, was a veteran of the CIA's Bay of Pigs operation...
...But layoffs aren't an inevitable part of life, neither are insecticides, nor cheese omelettes in a can—no matter how much Madison Avenue would like them to be...
...This year, I'm trying for 132...
...They realized that in some classrooms students are being taught that being gay is not the most horrible thing in the world, and they were horrified by that...
...But Tennessee's Senate Majority Leader...
...The ad starts out with a beleaguered, befuddled father desperately asking his kids how to make an omelette for their mom...
...That's the macho productivity pitch, nicely hurled with just a hint of xenophobia about those ungrateful foreigners who buy our food...
...Naomi Wolf and Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, two writers who present themselves as supporters of women's equality, have both argued recently that feminists ought to take a softer line on abortion...
...Ayalollah Ben Atchley...
...Baldwin says targeting gay marriage is a move to garner electoral support...
...We are aware of the danger [of continuing toward Cuban air space], but we're going to do it as free Cubans," the pilots answered back...
...Break a Few Eggs They must be working overtime on Madison Avenue, thinking up sales pitches for new products we don't need...
...Early this year, ten states introduced legislation to outlaw gay marriage before any state declares it legal...
...The double standard couldn't be more obvious...
...That's right...
...Now Clinton wants to make it even more miserable...
...The legislation is aimed at strangling Cuba's sugar industry, 8 / April 1996 and at preventing the country from obtaining international loans and much-needed hard currency...
...it is a sickness.' —Pat Robertson committee, in the full flush of religious fervor, went ahead and approved a measure granting school boards the right to dismiss teachers who say evolution is a scientific fact...
...But it seems a gay-straight alliance is happening among Salt Lake City high-school students whether the school board wants it or not...
...Fox-Genovese bemoans the Supreme Court's decision, in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, not to require a married woman to obtain her husband's permission before getting an abortion...
...So now they are attempting to add this sort of language to existing law...
...Clarence Darrow, where are you when we need you...
...They ore written by lawmakers whose goal is to ultimately criminalize all abortions,' —Koie Michelman of NARAL 'The practices of those people are appalling...
...government has accomplished is to make life miserable for the people of Cuba...
...It has coincided with the rise of the radical right...
...many of them were homosexuals...
...The Iranian jet had not been warned by American air-traffic controllers to change course...
...As part of the anti-abortion strategy, reasonable-sounding laws limiting access to abortion are growing more onerous every day...
...What they are doing is attempting to give a fetus a legal status that does not now exist...
Vol. 60 • April 1996 • No. 4
