I EDITORIAL

When One Lonely Voice
Can Make A Difference

There are people in and from our com-
munity who get, as one of them recently
said, a feeling that "something in my
kishkes won't let things go."
We come across these folk so rarely in our
lives. When we look at what they are do-
ing, we see that their actions are do-able by
all of us. The cause they further, the
results they seek aren't, however, going to
produce gratification anytime soon.
So why bother?
Mary Fisher and David Loeffler don't feel
this way.
Mary Fisher's father, Max, is a world
Jewish leader. He's a confidant in present
and past GOP administrations. His philan-
thropic record stands by itself. Yet for all of
his power and wealth, Mr. Fisher's
daughter lives with the HIV virus.
The heiress could have thrown the cover
on her situation. Instead, she has brought
her condition to the public, to the media
and on Wednesday, to the Republican con-
vention. While issues of abortion, AIDS
and family values swirl in and out of the
Houston Astrodome, Ms. Fisher, a believer
in these same family values, and a believer
in her party, faced the conservative and the
moderate and told them that AIDS wasn't
exclusive to anyone. But if you contracted
the disease, it was exclusive to you —
straight, gay, professional, blue collar,
housewife, man or woman.
She is a voice alone facing a crowd who
would rather stand on their chairs and
scream "Four More Years." Knowing that
four more years might not even figure for

her, she tells them and us what we might
not want to hear, what affects "others," not
us. Yet as Mary Fisher knows, AIDS is now
part of our world, whether we listen or not.
In last week's Jewish News, we reported
on Dr. David Loeffler, a Sinai Hospital
researcher, who stood outside the Holo-
caust Memorial Center on Tisha B'Av with
his daughter, Deena, and a sign condemn-
ing the genocide in Yugoslavia.
What would most of us do with two vaca-
tion days during the summer? We'd be at
the beach, at the amusement park; we'd
sleep late. Dr. Loeffler, his wife Sandy and
Deena drove 10 hours to Washington, D.C.
There, the Southfield resident stood out-
side the White House with his sign.

How many people walked by the Holo-
caust Memorial Center or the White House
thinking, "Who is this guy?" or something
more derogatory? But "this guy" is just a
private citizen who is worried that he's
seen similar photographs of emaciated
prisoners, that the stories of starving and
wounded orphans ring too familiar.
Dr. Loeffler doesn't expect his actions to
end the killing. But he knows, just like
Mary Fisher knows, that he could not live
with himself unless he tried to awaken our
sensitivities.
Sometimes those sensitivities are too
attuned to the trivial. Sometimes it hurts
to hear what others have to say. But
sometimes change can happen for the
positive in a gradual, healing way.
Sometimes all it takes is one lonely voice.

Credibility Gap
In The White House

Anthony Lewis and William Safire both
write for the Op-Ed page of the New York
Times. At first glance, they appear to have
little else in common. Mr. Lewis is a die-
hard liberal and Mr. Safire, a former
speech writer for Spiro Agnew and Richard
M. Nixon, is a self-described right-winger.
Yet there they were this week both
writing about not trusting President
George Bush — in general, and specifically
in regard to the reports that the president
would like to stick it to Saddam Hussein
now to "hype his ratings," as Mr. Safire
put it.
President Bush angrily denied he would
do such a thing, and maybe he wouldn't.
But his denials hardly matter. The point is
that people across the American political
spectrum do not trust the president's
motivation regarding Iraq. Clearly that
spells additional reelection problems for
Mr. Bush, despite his attempt at resuscita-
tion in Houston this week.
But it could also mean additional prob-
lems for all those who live under the threat

FRInAY Al IPA 1ST 91 1999

of a mad-dog attack by Saddam. If, in fact,
the president's overriding concern is to win
reelection, then it could well be that he and
his handlers will decide that they cannot
now go after Saddam militarily — even if
warranted — out of fear that such an act
would appear politically motivated and
could cost the president votes in November.
The great danger in this is that it would
leave Saddam free to cause further havoc
at least until election day — the great
irony of this is that his tenure might
outlast George Bush's. As with his broken
tax pledge and his 1980 flip-flop on abor-
tion, the president is in another political
corner of his own making.
Unfortunately, President Bush's latest
loss of presidential credibility hurts
America's prestige overseas, further
undermines the already shaken faith of
Americans in their government, and places
in jeopardy the lives of innocent people in
Israel, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Iraq who
one day may have to pay dearly for his
credibility gap.

LETTERS 1-1.

Honigman Foes
Should Be Ashamed

The shrill feminist cabal
that sucked Alice Gilbert in-
to the Republican primary for
Congress in the 11th District
ought to be congratulated for
their accomplishments.
The feminist hit squad
determined that state Sen.
Dave Honigman's position on
abortion is not sufficiently
radical because, while affirm-
ing that abortion should re-
main legal, he supports cer-
tain restrictions. Thus, they
recruited Alice Gilbert, of
questionable Republican
credentials, to run against
him in the Republican
primary.
Gilbert then unleashed a
barrage of personal attacks
on Senator Honigman, at-
tacks ranging from the
hypocritical (an example: that
he dares to run for Congress
while collecting his salary as
state senator, this from so-
meone who twice ran for the
Michigan Supreme Court
while serving as a lower court
judge!) to the absurd (that
Dave Honigman doesn't pay
his taxes).
Honigman then responded
with eight days' worth of
advertisements calling atten-
tion to Gilbert's lazy work
habits.
The result: Due to a pro-
choice split between the two
candidates and a backlash
against negative campaign-
ing, a third candidate, Joe
Knollenberg, scored an unex-
pected victory. Ironically,
Knollenberg is not only the
darling of the anti-choice
movement, but his support for
Israel is at best, ques-
tionable.
I hope that the feminists
who lost this election for Dave
Honigman enjoy their
celebration. In the process,

they have done the causes of
reproductive freedom and
Israel's security a major
disservice.

Joe Fel dmaii
Southfield,

More Modesty
On Front Page

I always look forward to
reading The Jewish News
each week to find out what ;_
happening in our Jewish com-
munity and to Jewry -
worldwide. Your paper's con-
tent and format is constantly
improving and I appreciat
the efforts.
But, I was astonished and
dismayed when I picked up
the Aug. 7 edition and saw th-,?,
illustration of a woman in a
bathing suit on your front
page. Aren't we surrounded
by enough immodesty
without it infiltrating our
homes in this manner?
Tznius — modest dress and
behavior — has been
hallmark of our nation
through the ages. Let's keep
it that way!

Name withheld

Intermarriage,
Lack of Faith

Yasher koach (congratula-
tions) to Phil Jacobs for so
skillfully putting the case
against intermarriage (Opi-
nion, Aug. 14). It is unfor
tunate that such a column
even has to appear in The
Jewish News, but such is the
tenor of the times in which we
live.
Now that the interman-igt
rate has risen to 50 percent,
American Jews must come to
terms with the fact that they
truly have become victims of
their own success. Over th
past 30 years, most of the old

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