LETTERS
LETTERS Why NOW? The article published in the March 1988 Washington Monthly entitled "The Best and Worst of Public Interest Groups," [Rita McWilliams] as it relates to the National Organization...
...They needed appropriate laws in New York to protect them, as children whose parents wanted them placed for adoption...
...Steinberg also received another child, this time from an attorney who does a lot of adoption work, who was "only" neglected and abused while in his home, not killed...
...At this point they are lucky— best or worst—to be thought of at all...
...The game in the 1970s was to generate a positive legend about your group and manipulate publicity to pressure legislators...
...They enrich themselves at their members' expense...
...I enjoyed your article on public interest groups...
...At least partly, it appears, under the pressure of Michael's fierce competition, Stelian (Michael's older brother) collapsed in suicidal depression during college and never fully recovered ." The psychology is at best dubious...
...they think that, because of the notorious reputations of the defendants they charge, they should be entitled to do sloppy work...
...JON B. GETTMAN Washington, D.C...
...This is an organization I know to be fiscally responsible, spending money only on those organizational priorities which will lead to the elimination of gender bias in the United States...
...Your proposal would offer them the hope of recouping those costs if they win, but it would also greatly increase their risk if they lose...
...The profile of NOW is similarly error-ridden...
...Their Joanny-one-note screeching, howling, and persistent pursuit of tangential women's issues has left scores of onceardent feminists disenchanted and increasingly disinterested— including me...
...I have seen firsthand NOW's ability to organize grass-roots support for economic justice issues...
...to donate 120,000 acres of forest and wetlands to the federal government: "Nature Conservancy accountants and lawyers helped Prudential outline the tax advantages that encouraged the donations" [emphasis added...
...JUDITH L. LICHTMAN Washington, D.C...
...In addition, millions of people face job dismissal on account of urine tests for off-the-job drug use...
...You praise Citizens for Tax Justice and mention as one of its achievements a report which found that "some of the nation's largest corporations paid no taxes" You also commend the Nature Conservancy, which arranged for the Prudential Insurance Company (a large corporation...
...Contrary to the impression presented by your article, lots of people get arrested for marijuanarelated offenses—over 365,000 in 1986 alone...
...very few know that only one of them was born to my parents...
...They use deceptive tactics that exploit the public's fears or hide their true intent...
...With moral credibility the industry's most precious capital, the work of the worst public interest groups threatens all those who share the public interest label" This description is utterly untrue of NOW, yet it purports to characterize the "worst" groups of which NOW is said to be one...
...Steinberg and his companion, Ms...
...The women's movement is not just one group with one emphasis...
...My parents were not saints...
...Most of the people fired had been with 21 for many years...
...Gettman is national director of NORML...
...They were just parents— good parents, generous parents, loving parents...
...For two years I wrote for a small newspaper owned by the Thomson chain (best known for its low pay, poor management, and general mediocrity...
...Yard is president of the National Organization for Women...
...Nussbaum...
...At present, shallow-pockets litigants are often scared away from even well-merited legal actions by the threat of incurring substantial legal costs...
...If this leaves us vulnerable to criticism such as yours, so be it...
...285 a week...
...I support your suggestion but would suggest that its effects would be more complex...
...The Jerry Mitchell case you mentioned as representing NORML's better days is a case we're still proud of...
...BERNARD ADELMAN Winthrop, Massachusetts Can't find good help Your article in the May issue on the absence of waitresses in "power restaurants" in Washington ["Which of the Following Can't Be Found in Fancy Restaurants?," Marianne Szegedy-Maszak] praised New York's 21 Club for hiring waitresses...
...CHAR MOLLISON Washington, D.C...
...Your complaints about our legal program, particularly our seminars, echo those of the Justice Department...
...MOLLY YARD Washington, D.C...
...The editors and the author reply: The words quoted, while true of some of the other organizations mentioned in our article, were not intended to apply to NOW...
...Hope we will see more of Rita McWilliams's work...
...We wish to apologize and express our regret for any harm NOW may have suffered as a result...
...WILLIAM A. DOBROVIR Washington, D.C...
...PATRICK J. FLAHERTY Coventry, Connecticut Shallow pockets In "Tilting at Windmills" [May] you suggest that requiring the losing side to pay all legal costs for both sides in all civil suits will sharply reduce or eliminate suits that are without merit...
...Pierce is president of the National Committee for Adoption...
...Is that bad...
...Nonetheless, NORML actually defended very few people in those days...
...I have a few comments on your magazine's recent rating of NORML as one of the worst public interest organizations in Washington...
...The Best and Worst of Public Interest Groups" was certainly informative...
...We believe the trenchwork begins at the grass-roots level so NOW uses a variety of tactics, riot only legislative lobbying, but also litigation, demonstrations, picketing, consciousness-raising and public education...
...NOW's membership has not declined in the last ten years...
...While WEAL was pleased to be noted for its "hard work on economic issues," we were sorry it was at the expense of the National Organization for Women...
...More to the point, NOW does perform the "trenchwork" necessary to do its job...
...KATHRYN KAVANAGH BARAN Alexandria, Virginia THE WASHINGTON MONTHLY/JULY/AUGUST 1988 I take strong exception to your characterization of the National Organization for Women...
...Foster parenting could be an attractive alternative for those who now pay surrogate mothers or take fertility drugs...
...this in turn could be exploited with successful fundraising...
...While WEAL's hard work in the trenches is necessary, it is not sufficient for advancing the women's rights agenda...
...The policies aimed at "keeping families together" described by Judge Forer refuse to firmly remove the claims of the biological parents even when those claims have been tortured and abused...
...WILLIAM PIERCE Washington, D.C...
...I read with great interest Lois Forer's article...
...My foster sister came to live with us the summer between her sixth and seventh grades...
...Unfortunately, 21's decision (in 1987, for the first time) to hire waitresses was accomplished by the firing of over 50 waiters, captains, bartenders, and kitchen staff, nearly all Hispanic or of other non-native U.S...
...ARTES Indian Head, Maryland Kudos to The Washington Monthly and Rita McWilliams for having the nerve to write a bird's-eye view of public interest groups...
...Though the legal program, incidently, takes up less than 10 percent of our office time, I'm pleased that it makes Ed Meese take his job more professionally...
...My ending pay rate...
...Norwood, Massachusetts Typin' slaves I must disagree with your comment ("Tilting at Windmills," March] that journalists no longer identify with the working class...
...Her biological mother placed her with Mr...
...More power to them...
...She lived as a member of my family until she graduated from high school...
...The waiters and kitchen staff who were fired have filed a civil rights suit (age and national origin discrimination) against 21 that is presently in the discovery stage (I am co-counsel for the plaintiffs...
...In the introduction to the profiles which comprise the body of the article, the "worst" groups are generally described as follows: "The worst public interest groups alienate the public rather than rally it to their cause...
...Elizabeth and the little boy who were victimized by Steinberg did not need the orphanage option...
...Steinberg, an attorney, with the understanding that he would place her for adoption...
...One of the reasons that foster care is failing is that many social service agencies make the long-term placement my sister experienced impossible...
...it has doubled...
...Some version of your proposal would make sense, but I don't think we should kid ourselves that we have in sight a way of removing the pernicious influence of wealth from legal proceedings...
...A regular feature dealing with the "best and worst" would be welcome on a regular basis (one issue at a time...
...D.B...
...Judith L. Lichtman is executive director of the Women's Legal Defense Fund...
...There is another group of potential foster parents—those who want children...
...Policies and the law should make it easier for generous and loving people to open their homes...
...MARION BLACKBURN Rocky Mount, North Carolina The brothers Dukakis I enjoyed Christopher Lydon's piece on Michael Dukakis ["The Iceman Cometh," May], and have a simple question to raise...
...national origins, most of them over 50 years old, to make room for younger, attractive people who did not speak English with an accent...
...Char Mollison is executive director of Women's Equity Action League...
...During that time I covered several beats, won a state award, and advanced to Lifestyles editor...
...The judge missed the point, however, when she discussed the beating death of Elizabeth, the little girl who lived for several years with Mr...
...However, I noted a paradox...
...It is nothing short of outrageous to suggest otherwise...
...NOW's willingness to express moral outrage (and sometimes to be outrageous) is also essential...
...The article published in the March 1988 Washington Monthly entitled "The Best and Worst of Public Interest Groups," [Rita McWilliams] as it relates to the National Organization for Women, is riddled with false statements, libelous allegations, and malicious innuendo...
...NORML is "hungry for cash" because we spend most of our working day answering requests and providing assistance to these people...
...we don't even know ourselves that well, do we...
...We've dedicated ourselves to working with individual members of the public...
...JOHN R. HALL JR...
...Although I do not dispute the claim that we need more children's homes (orphanages, if you will), I cannot agree with her complete disparagement of foster care...
...Elizabeth was the victim of unregulated private adoption...
...Perhaps we're naive, but we don't operate that way anymore...
...The style of our work is not as grandiose as people expect...
...PEGGY HARRISON Alexandria, Virginia Forer's foster fuss Judge Forer is on track with her plea to consider alternatives other than foster care for kids in trouble ["Bring Back the Orphanage," April...
...It is not attractive because there is no guarantee that a placement will be permanent...
...Particularly interesting was NOW's...
...none of us can ever know what terrors, from whatever cause, another person has to fight or put up with...
...Of these, 85 percent were for simple possession...
...No doubt Prudential paid little or no federal taxes that year...
...Like the Robertson/McCloskey case you cite, many civil suits involve two litigants with vast differences in financial resources...
...Most of my friends know I have two sisters...
...She went off to college, came home on vacations, went on to a successful career, and now visits with our family at holidays, weddings, funerals, etc...
...If only one side has the resources to handle the combined legal costs of a suit, then that side will have an incentive to run up those costs in order to chase away the other side, because there has never been a case so cut and dried that one side could be certain of winning...
...we're a public interest group, not a photo opportunity...
Vol. 20 • July 1988 • No. 6
