The Michigan Daily - Monday, March 14, 1994 - 3
.Women of
color unite at
symposium
By SHARI SITRON
DAILY STAFF REPORTER
% The harsh reality of surviving in a
*rnulticultural world as a minority based
on both gender and skin color brought
90 women together Saturday afternoon.
r The first Women of Color Sympo-
sium worked to create an atmosphere
for women to share their experiences
and build coalitions among them-
selves. The participants in the sympo-
sium also had a chance to hear about
Issues of concern to them, including
sexuality and leadership on campus.
- One workshop addressed women
of color in the environmental justice
mnovement. Jesse DeerinWater,
founder of Native Americans for a
Clean Environment and a panelist at
'the symposium, conveyed a message
ofhope for the future and urgedwomen
to work together to eliminate danger
from the environment.
"I feel there's hope if we can get
*the people who are poisoning the earth
to leave it alone," she said, but added
that it must be a multicultural effort if
it is to succeed.
1 Grace Lee Boggs, a community
activist from Detroit, agreed with
DeerinWater. "I am not a prophet,"
Boggs said, "but I think the environ-
nentalist movement has the potential
to transform our society."
In addition, Boggs said it is espe-
cially important for women to get
involved to clean up our environment.
They are the ones who care for the
sick and the ill," she said drawing the
analogy between women nursing the
sick and nursing the environment.
The reaction to the symposium
was quite positive and many partici-
pants expressed their desires to attend
similar conferences in the future.
0. Charlene Allen, a first-year gradu-
ate student, said, "I think it's increas-
Clintons are prepared to pay back
taxes over Whitewater investment
FROM DAILY WIRE SERVICES
WASHINGTON - First lady
Hillary Rodham Clinton said she and
the president are prepared to pay back
taxes if it turns out that they under-
paid on their Whitewater real estate
investment, according to reports pub-
lished yesterday, as newly named
White House Counsel Lloyd N. Cut-
ler predicted that the controversy "will
turn out to be nothing at all."
Breaking her silence on the
Whitewater affair, the first lady
granted short interviews over the
weekend to Time and Newsweek
magazines as she prepared to resume
her public campaign for health care
reform in Denver today.
U.S. News and World Report also
quoted White House "insiders" as
saying that David E. Kendall, the
Clintons' personal attorney, has told
the couple that all he has uncovered
are "tax errors and improper deduc-
tions" relating to the Whitewater af-
fair.
The magazine said Kendall "has
assured the first couple that as far as
he can tell they have not seriously
violated the law." Reached at his law
office yesterday afternoon, Kendall
declined to comment.
Meanwhile, the.Whitewater con-
troversy dominated the television talk
shows, with Cutler appearing on two
major networks to defend the admin-
istration while refusing to be drawn
into detailed commentary on the mat-
ter.
Asked on NBC's "Meet the Press"
if he agreed with Kendall that the
Clintons may owe back taxes and
penalties, Cutler replied, "All I can
tell you is that Mr. Kendall is a very
good private lawyer. ... What the
Clintons did in this investment some
10 or 12 years ago is a private affairof
theirs in which they're represented by
private counsel. This is not really a
White House matter."
Cutler described his role as help-
ing to deal with the impact of the case
on the presidency and with making
certain, "as President Clinton said
when he asked me to take this job, that
everything we do within the White
House justifies public confidence in
the openness and integrity of his ad-
ministration."
Despite his acknowledgment that
he did not yet know all the details,
Cutler defended the White House on
several controversial issues, includ-
ing the meetings
of White House '
aides with offi- 'We can de
cials of the Trea- stonewall,I
sury Department
and Resolution or later the
Trust Corp. about to be hearn
their investiga-
tion into the sav- - L
ings and loan White Ho
company in-
volved in the case.
Those meetings are being investigated
by Special Counsel Robert Fiske Jr.
Fiske, a former New York
prosecuter, has followed a standard
technique in white-collar criminal
cases: interviewing low-level func-
tionaries before taking depositions
from top players. It is widely assumed
that he will wait to talk to Clinton and
the first lady.
While Fiske has declined to dis-
cuss his strategy, lawyers both inside
and outside his inner circle said his
decision to interview White House
aides and Rose Law firm couriers was
an important first step intended to
make it clear that any efforts to cover
up possible crimes will be treated as
seriously as the crimes themselves.
Asked if Cutler had yet sat down
with the Clintons and asked them to
tell him everything they know about
Whitewater, Cutler replied, "No, I
b
r"
in
b)
9U
have not. I have had an opportunity
to meet with the president at some
length ... but I have not been into the
details of Whitewater. ... I think in
the end it will turn out, at least as far
even a breath of criminal activity by
either the president and the first lady,
it will turn out to be nothing at all."
Asked on CBS' "Face the Na-
tion" if the president has told him
whether he was innocent of any
wrongdoing in the matter, Cutler re-
sponded: "Of course, he said that to
me. And I believe him."
Cutler also
told CBS that he
ay, we can was certain the
ut sooner Clintons and
.rg their staffs
e are going would cooper-
gs.' ate fully with
any congres-
yd N. Cutler sional hearing
ise counsel just the way
they are now
cooperating
with the special counsel's office.
Calls for hearings continued to
come from the Republican Party,
with Democrats just as adamant that
they should be delayed. On ABC's
"This Week with David Brinkley,"
Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole
(R-Kan.) reiterated his desire to have
congressional hearings on the con-
troversy soon.
"I think the sooner we have that,
the better it's going to be for .
President and Mrs. Clinton," he said.
"We can delay, we can stonewall,
but sooner or later there are going to
be hearings."
But House Speaker Thomas S.
Foley (D-Wash.) said Congress
should respect Fiske's request that
there be no hearings until his inves-
tigations of the White House meet-
ings with RTC and Treasury offi-
cials are concluded.
JUDITH PERKINS/Daily
Grace Lee Boggs, the keynote speaker for the Women of Color Symposium,
addressed the audience on striking a balance in women's lives.
ingly important for communities of
color to work together because they
share some of the same goals."
The symposium also worked to
build the confidences of women of
color. "When you learn about the
struggles of others, you realize you're
not alone," said LSA first-year stu-
dent Leia Chen.
She added that it was beneficial to
have the opportunity to hear the voices
of minority women because many
times they go unnoticed.
The coordinators of the sympo-
sium also said they were thrilled with
its success. Melissa Lopez, from the
Office of Academic Multicultural Ini-
tiatives and the symposium commit-
tee, said, "I hope participants will
share some of the information they've
learned here and I hope they will
become active in their communities."
I
Israel votes to
ban 2 Jewish
aCtivist groups
THE WASHINGTON POST
JERUSALEM - Israel banned two Jew-
.ish extremist groups yesterday, calling them
; terrorist" and saying it will use military and
police powers to arrest their members and shut
down their operations in the wake of the Hebron
imassacre.
I One group, Kach, was founded by the
,rlilitant Rabbi Meir Kahane, who advocated
the expulsion of Arabs from the Israeli-occu-
pied West Bank and sanctioned the use of
violence.
Kahane was assassinated in New York in
1990, and the second group banned, Kahane
Lives, was later established by his son, Ben-
jamin.
Baruch Goldstein, the Jewish settler who
nned down 29 Muslims in a Hebron mosque
.Feb. 25, was a follower of Kahane and had
been elected on the Kach slate to the council of
his West Bank settlement, Kiryat Arba.
The cabinet, by a unanimous vote, de-
+clared Kach and Kahane Lives terrorist groups
and banned them under a 1948 law that was
used against Jewish extremists in the early
years of Israel's independence, but since 1960
has been directed entirely at Palestinians.
FwUnder the law, members, supporters and
Aancial backers of extremist groups can be
prosecuted and imprisoned. The government
,cn confiscate the group's property, seize its
bank accounts and close its offices.
Ann Arbor mom fights for
playground-safe clothing
fF
Members of the Jewish extremist group Kach realize the phones in their Jerusalem office no
longer work after they were disconnected by Israeli authorities yesterday.
ANN ARBOR (AP) - Thelma Sibley
is collecting thousands of drawstrings cut
off children's clothing along with signa-
tures to match on a petition seeking to
regulate children's clothing and play-
grounds.
"I used to read the safety boards at the
doctor's office," Sibley said. "I knew about
car seats and safety belts, but no one ever
told me about drawstrings.
"Now I have the information. I'm not
going to stand before God and say I had the
information and did not get it out."
What Sibley knows about drawstrings
is that they can kill. They killed her 5-year-
old daughter.
Nancy Sibley, an energetic kindergart-
ner at Ann Arbor's Pittsfield Elementary
School, died Jan. 5 after a drawstring on her
parka caught on the school's spiral slide
and strangled her.
"I will go to my grave with a broken
heart," she said. "But I don't want another
family to go through this."
Nancy would have been 6 years old last
Saturday. Students, friends and supporters
gathered Friday on the playground where
Nancy died and released helium balloons
in celebration of her birthday.
Though Thelma Sibley's grieving is far
from over, dedicating her time to changing
clothing regulations is helping her deal
with the loss.
She is heading the campaign to get
parents to cut drawstrings off their
children's clothing and send them and pe-
tition signatures to Hillary Rodham Clinton
on March 25.
The petitions ask the president's wife
to, among other things:
® Require children's clothing manu-
facturers to avoid drawstrings and other
strangulation hazards.
Distribute warnings about the dan-
gers of drawstrings and playground equip-
ment.
Sibley is also supporting an effort to get
the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Com-
mission to push for safer design of play-
ground equipment.
The commission has begun an investi-
gation of strangulations on slides as a result
of recent incidents, including Nancy's
death. And, as a result, it may establish
mandatory safety regulations for manufac-
turers of the playground equipment.
On Saturday, Ann Arbor began tearing
down 38 spiral and tubular slides at 21
schools after two other elementary school
children became entangled on slides in late
February, said Joyce Willis, district spokes-
woman.
Since the three incidents, hundreds of
parents have voiced concerns about the
slides' safety. They want the equipment
replaced with safer alternatives, said Nathan
Hodson, co-president of the Ann Arbor
Schools PTO Council, which represents
PTOs at 29 Ann Arbor schools.
"Nancy's death and the other two acci-
dents sent a shock wave through the dis-
trict," said Hodson.
Attorney General Michael Ben-Yair said
yesterday's decision was based on his finding
that "clear, conspicuous and continuing pat-
terns of violence, or threats of violence, have
been identified within the activities of these
organizations and that they are liable to cause
death or injury to individuals."
In the past, Israeli officials have said the
two organizations had only several hundred
followers in Israel, and only several dozen
hard-core activists. Both groups are believed
to have financial backers in the United States.
Two weeks ago, the cabinet authorized
detention without trial for five Kach leaders,
four of whom are now in custody, and order
restrictions on the movement and weapons of 18
others.
"We are appalled by the fascist decision of
the government,which is typical for totalitarian
regimes of long past," Kach spokesperson Elad
Epstein told Israel Radio. He said Kach will
appeal the decision to the courts.
The decision came as Prime Minister Yitzhak
Rabin is trying to persuade the PLO to return to
the negotiations on Palestinian self-rule. Rabin
told reporters today that while the Hebron mas-
sacre was carried out by "one Jewish murderer,"
the "backing that was given him lit all the red
lights, and that is what brought us to makethis
decision."
Correction
,Fhe 24-hour Holocaust vigil will be on the Diag tomorrow at 11 a.m. This was incorrectly reported in Friday's Daily.
I
Group Meetings
Q Comedy Company Writers'
Meeting, University Activities
Center, Michigan Union, 7p.m.
Q Golden Key National Honor
Society, Information tables,
Michigan Union, Basement, 10
a.m. - 3 p.m.
Q Ninjutsu Club, IM Building,
Room G21, 7:30-9 p.m.
J Rugby Practice, Coliseum, 8:30
n.m
Room 2553, noon
U Isis and Osins Week, Proud to
be African: Spiritual and Cul-
tural Origins of Ancient Egypt,
sponsored by the Black Student
Union, Business School, Hale
Auditorium, 7 p.m.
U Moving and Shipping Work-
shop, International Center,
Room 7, 4 p.m.
U Recovering Emar, Gary
Beckman. Adiunct Associate
RCIA, 7 p.m.; 331 Thompson
St.
Student services
Q 76-GUIDE, peer counseling
phone line, call 76-GUIDE, 7
p.m.-8 a.m.
Q Campus Information Center,
Michigan Union, 763-INFO;
events info., 76-EVENT; film
info.. 763-FILM
I