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Don't Jump, Mom

Continued from Page 104

She can't cook like me. He'll
starve and live in a dirty
house."
"But Mother, if you kill
yourself, who'll buy him
clothes? Who'll match his
shirts to his pants and coor-
dinate his wardrobe?"
This got her attention and
she stopped to think for a mo-
ment. "But I can't get in to
bring the clothes."
"He'll let you bring the
clothes, I'll talk to him. Dad
will talk to him. He'll even let
you buy his shoes."
"Shoes, too?"
This prospect excited her
since my brother made it a
habit never to buy shoes un-
til there were holes in both
soles. "He won't let me buy
him shoes. No way."
"Mom, I promise. Come
down off the building and I'll
see to it he lets you buy his
shoes. Think how much fun
you'll have walking through
the shoe department and ask-
ing everyone, 'are those com-
fortable? My son the doctor
is on his feet all day.' "
She brightened and a smile
crossed her lips. She sighed
loudly. "You think he'll go
along with shoes?"
"It's a piece of cake, Mom.

Just get down and forget this
nonsense. I'll handle every-
thing."
She allowed the police to
help her off the roof while I
sighed with relief. Another
crisis averted. I thought.
This time we came close.
A policeman took the bull-
horn from me and asked
quietly, "Does she do this
kind of thing often?"
"No, not too often. Actu-
ally not since my brother
threatened to take flying
lessons."
"Oh, I see," he said. But I
knew he really didn't.
Another cop told him they
had to leave. It seems there
was another mother threaten-
ing to throw herself off a
bridge. Something about her
son wanting to move out of
town. They smiled as they
walked away.
"Must be an epidemic," I
heard one say. Third time
this week."
"Yeh, whatever happened
to sticking their heads in the
oven and turning on the gas?"
"Electricity," I said
quietly. Even a Jewish Mo-
ther must bow to progress.

Congress Debates Bill
Covering 'Hate Crimes'

Washington (JTA) — The
House Judiciary Committee
began subcommittee-level hear-
ings last week on a bill that would
require the Federal Bureau of In-
vestigation to maintain separate
data on "hate crimes."
The Hate Crimes Statistics Act
would require that "racially, reli-
giously or ethnicially motivated
crimes" be reported separately in
the annual Uniform Crime Re-
ports prepared by the FBI.
Its consideration in the House
coincided with the introduction of
a number of other bills that would
require the imposition of stiff
penalties for crimes motivated by
religious hatred, such as van-
dalism against synagogues.
Last week's hearings came just
a few weeks after the release of a
report by the Anti-Defamation
League of B'nai B'rith (ADL) on
anti-Semitic incidents in the U.S.
in 1984.
The report indicated a 6.7 per-
cent increase in the frequency of
anti-Semitic vandalism and of
other attacks against Jewish in-
stitutions, businesses and homes,
as compared to the previous year.
A total of 715 of these incidents,
including 23 bombings, arson and
cemetery desecrations were re-
ported.
Testifying at the House hear-
ings, Rep. Barbara Kennely (D-
Conn.) co-sponsor of the bill, said
that a lack of sufficient data had
prevented any comprehensive
and reliable assessment of the
scope of the problem and thus de-
layed any adequate response. She
cited reports by organizations
such as the ADL and the Klan

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Watch of the Southern Law Cen-
ter indicating that the incidence
of such crimes has been increas-
ing.
Subcommittee chairman Rep.
John Conyers (D-Mich.) said the
bill was the first step toward the
eventual control and eradication
of these kinds of crimes. Rep.
Conyers disputed the testimony of
representatives of the Bureau of
Justice Statistics and the FBI who
maintained that requiring law
enforcement officials to categorize
crime on the basis of "motivation"
would undermine the credibility
of the FBI's data.
"These Constitutional viola-
tions, as troublesome as you may
describe them, have got to be
fought," Rep. Conyers said. "I re-
fuse to be deterred by the fact it
may be a little complicated to
classify."
Jerome Bakst, the ADL's direc-
tor of research and evaluation,
also maintained that the problem
of defining motivation was one
that could be overcome by adopt-
ing the approach taken by the
ADL in maintaining its data. The
ADL, he pointed out, only records
an incident as anti-Semitic when
there is "clear evidence of hate,
such as swastika smearing or
anti Jewish epithets."
In addition to the bill consid-
ered last week, Congress will be
considering two separate bills in-
troduced by Reps. Mario Biaggi
(D-NY) and Dan Glickman (D-
Kan) that would provide penalties
of up to 15 years imprisonment as
well as heavy fines for acts of van-
dalism motivated by religious
hatred.

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